text:
The operation was finally complete. As the anesthesia gradually started to wear off, I opened my eyes. My body was tired. My mind was slow. I did not much care for the surroundings.

It didn't even cross my mind that I’d just spent all the money I’d saved since my fifteenth birthday and that people in long and white coats had just implanted a tiny neurotransmitter inside my brain. There was only one thing that I thought about and longed for at that moment. To fade back into the oblivion of sleep one last time.

That night, I sat alone and tired in the library. Even though the library was open 24/7, I was the only student who seemed to take advantage of this. The night before every exam, I preferred to come here and study. I simply had no other choice. It was the only way I could pull an all-nighter for the tests. Back at my room, with the queen size bed next to my study table, I barely ever made it past 2 without dozing off. I would try hard to think and study but no matter what, all my mind would hear was the bed calling out to me. Inviting me to lie in her comfortable and motherly embrace, there was no way I could refuse. In the library, there was no bed to tempt me. I was still haunted by a raging desire to lie down and sleep but there were still times where I could resist. Even with heavy eyes and a fatigued brain, I’d somehow manage to make it through the night without sleeping.

I hated being a slave to my biological urge to sleep. There was so much I wanted to achieve in life. But there never seemed to be enough time. The fact that humans spend a third of their life doing nothing but sleep always irked me. It was such an inefficient use of time. And in my case, more than ten hours a day were spent sleeping. Every night, I would hope to get up early in the morning and work towards my grades and hobbies. But every single time, I was an entirely different person in the morning, prioritizing an hour’s worth of sleep over my future.

And don’t even get me started on that damn snooze button. People laugh when I say this but I truly believe it is the worst invention mankind ever created. A few extra minutes of sleep almost always turn into an hour which inevitably turns into multiple hours. Remove that stupid button from every alarm clock in the world, and you’ll have doubled the world’s productivity overnight.

I sat looking at my watch. As always, my brain was soaked dry and could no longer maintain focus. It wandered off to explore memories and thoughts and when it finally returned, it was well past midnight. I was failing to keep my eyes open. The chemical equations I’d been trying to shove inside my head were unable to get in. The effects of the day’s operation had still not kicked in and before I could realize, sleep found me and I dropped dead onto my books.

An hour or so later, I was abruptly pulled back from the dark void. I looked around. The library seemed much brighter. My lips curled into a smile as I realized that the effects of the procedure had finally kicked in. My senses felt razor sharp. My brain was racing, my heart was pumping blood fast to every corner of my body and I felt ecstatic. I opened the app I’d been told to install after my operation. The app was linked to the neurotransmitter inside my head. It let me have full control of my sleep. I tweaked around the settings ensuring that I would not fall asleep for another six hours.

By seven in the morning, I’d memorized every chemical equation, gone through the chapter multiple times and solved every possible numerical I could find. When I sat for the test, I easily knocked it out of the park. There honestly was no way I would have screwed it up.

When I returned to my room, I was as awake as I’d been the previous six hours. The app dashboard showed me that I’d been awake for sixteen hours and twenty minutes. I lay down on my bed and decided it was finally time to rest even though I wasn't sleepy. I pressed the “Fall asleep” icon in the app. A prompt asked me the number of hours I wanted to sleep for. I adjusted it to nine hours. It was the amount the app recommended after scanning my brain activity. The neurotransmitter inside my head facilitated the release of chemicals which had me fall asleep within moments. I woke up exactly nine hours later, without any of the usual fatigue and tiredness.

My father had once told me that Ambition was the true measure of a man and ambition was something I certainly did not lack. Now that I could ensure that no more than six hours of a day were wasted sleeping, my productivity soared. I aced every test the college threw at me that year and even started to pursue hobbies that I’d always leaned towards. Within a semester, I was part of the university orchestra and some of my paintings were even displayed at local art exhibitions. Along with this, I finally had time to have a social life without hurting my grades. I would party for hours and study while everybody else slept.

As my ambitions grew, I slowly decreased my amount of sleep to four hours per day. I tried to distribute my sleeping hours across the day, often utilizing ideal time on the bus and train.

Sometimes, when I felt that class was getting boring, I would go at the back of the class and go to sleep. I would set the timer to make my sleep last for the duration of the class. The app occasionally sent me warning prompts about the duration of my sleep and eventually, I had to turn off the warnings.

In the last semester of college, our professors encouraged us to publish research papers. I saw it as the perfect platform to get the recognization I deserved. Time was less and for the last week, I decided that I could push my sleep to just three hours a day. I’d balance it out later once my paper was complete. As the week progressed, I worked harder than I ever had.

Two days before my estimated submission date, as I lay on the bed thinking about certain hiccups in my paper, a major breakthrough dawned on me. As I began to get up, my vision suddenly went blank and I collapsed onto the bed. After many attempts, I finally got up. I heard the voice assistant on the app speak,

“User condition critical, deactivating device and contacting nearest hospital”

Consumed by my work, I had failed to notice all the signs my body had been screaming towards me. Without understanding, I’d hugely overworked myself and my body could not take it any longer. It had been going on and on for months without catching a break. The moment the neurotransmitter in mind had turned off, all the piled up exhaustion and fatigue came bouncing back to knock me down. A vaguely familiar feeling of tiredness engulfed my body. I couldn't move and every fiber hurt. When I lost consciousness, the only thing I could think of was

“Goddamn, this is the best feeling in the world”

title: [SF] Beauty Sleep

question: Why is the Narrator having a neurotransmitter placed in their brain?

answer: The narrator wants to control the amount of time they sleep. They believe that it is a total waste of time especially because they so often get tired and need ten hours of sleep a day. The narrator believes that they will get som more done if they sleep less.

question: Summarize the outcome of the insertion of the neurotransmitter.

answer: The narrator has complete control over the amount of sleep they take. At first, they choose to sleep for nine hours. They ace their tests and they're much more wide awake. The narrator starts to reduce the time asleep over a period so they can get more done. Eventually, the narrator is sleeping just two hours a day. The end result is that they collapse and the neurotransmitter switches off. as they fall into unconscuiousness, they realize what they have missed.

question: What does the narrator's mother think about his decision to have a neurotransmitter inserted into his brain?


split: test

text:
JOSHUA HURLBURT-YU (born 28 December 1994) is a Canadian badminton player.[1][2] Joshua was a gold medalist in the mixed doubles event at the 2019 Lima Pan American Games.[3]

Achievements

Pan American Games

_Mixed doubles_

+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Year      | Venue     | Partner   | Opponent  | Score     | Result    |
+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+
| 2019      | Polidepor | Josephine | Nyl       | 18–21,    | [Gold]    |
|           | tivo      | Wu        | Yakura    | 21–12,    | GOLD      |
|           | 3,        |           |  Kristen  | 21–15     |           |
|           | Lima,     |           | Tsai      |           |           |
|           | Peru      |           |           |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

Pan Am Championships

_Mixed doubles_

+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Year      | Venue     | Partner   | Opponent  | Score     | Result    |
+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+
| 2019      | Gimnasio  | Josephine | Fabricio  | 21–14,    | [Gold]    |
|           | Olímpico, | Wu        | Farias    | 21–19     | GOLD      |
|           | Aguascali |           |           |           |           |
|           | entes,    |           | Jaqueline |           |           |
|           | Mexico    |           | Lima      |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

Pan Am Junior Championships

_Mixed doubles_

+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Year      | Venue     | Partner   | Opponent  | Score     | Result    |
+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+
| 2012      | Edmonton, | Brittney  | Phillip   | 24–22,    | [Silver]  |
|           | Canada    | Tam       | Chew      | 17–21,    | SILVER    |
|           |           |           |  Iris     | 22–24     |           |
|           |           |           | Wang      |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

BWF International Challenge/Series (8 titles, 1 runner-up)

_Men's doubles_

+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Year      | Venue     | Partner   | Opponent  | Score     | Result    |
+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+
| 2019      | Hungarian | Peter     | Kim       | 12–21,    | RUNNER-UP |
|           | Internati | Briggs    | Duk-young | 17–21     |           |
|           | onal      |           |  Kim      |           |           |
|           |           |           | Sa-rang   |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 2018      | Santo     | Duncan    | Jonathan  | 21–19,    | WINNER    |
|           | Domingo   | Yao       | Solís     | 16–21,    |           |
|           | Open      |           |  Rodolfo  | 21–17     |           |
|           |           |           | Ramírez   |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 2018      | Yonex /   | Duncan    | Sattawat  | 18–21,    | WINNER    |
|           | K&D       | Yao       | Pongnaira | 21–16,    |           |
|           | Graphics  |           | t         | 21–18     |           |
|           | Internati |           |           |           |           |
|           | onal      |           | Ferdinand |           |           |
|           |           |           | Sinarta   |           |           |
|           |           |           | Surbakti  |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

_Mixed doubles_

+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Year      | Venue     | Partner   | Opponent  | Score     | Result    |
+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+===========+
| 2019      | Yonex /   | Josephine | Lu        | 21–18,    | WINNER    |
|           | K&D       | Wu        | Chia-pin  | 21–18     |           |
|           | Graphics  |           |  Lin      |           |           |
|           | Internati |           | Wan-ching |           |           |
|           | onal      |           |           |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|  |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 2019      | South     | Josephine | Dejan     | 21–19,    | WINNER    |
|           | Australia | Wu        | Ferdinans | 25–27,    |           |
|           | Internati |           | yah       | 21–16     |           |
|           | onal      |           |  Serena   |           |           |
|           |           |           | Kani      |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|  |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 2019      | Bulgarian | Josephine | Matthew   | 21–16,    | WINNER    |
|           | Open      | Wu        | Clare     | 21–16     |           |
|           |           |           |  Lizzie   |           |           |
|           |           |           | Tolman    |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|  |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 2018      | Santo     | Josephine | Fabricio  | 21–17,    | WINNER    |
|           | Domingo   | Wu        | Farias    | 16–21,    |           |
|           | Open      |           |           | 22–20     |           |
|           |           |           | Jaqueline |           |           |
|           |           |           | Lima      |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|  |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 2018      | Guatemala | Josephine | Leodannis | 21–12,    | WINNER    |
|           | Internati | Wu        | Martínez  | 21–18     |           |
|           | onal      |           |  Tahimara |           |           |
|           |           |           | Oropeza   |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|  |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 2018      | Yonex /   | Josephine | Sattawat  | 21–16,    | WINNER    |
|           | K&D       | Wu        | Pongnaira | 21–13     |           |
|           | Graphics  |           | t         |           |           |
|           | Internati |           |  Kerry Xu |           |           |
|           | onal      |           |           |           |           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

    BWF International Challenge tournament

    BWF International Series tournament

[1]

[2]

[3]

title: Joshua Hurlburt-Yu

question: According to these tables, how many wins does Yu have in these games?

answer: Eleven


text:
Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably already heard about Ansible and how it can make your job of maintaining company infrastructure easier. But have you ever asked yourself what exactly Ansible is and how it works? We have and this is what we discovered.

Ansible components

When we install Ansible, we get two rather different sets of things:

1.  an ever expanding collection of plugins that implement the actual Ansible functionality (modules, connection plugins, etc.) and
2.  a few command line tools like ansible-playbook and ansible that herd aforementioned plugins.

It may feel a bit underwhelming at first, but as we will quickly learn, the way those pieces fit together is quite intricate.

Most of the time, when we think about Ansible, we should think about playbooks and ansible-playbook command. But not today. Today, we will break all the rules and use ansible command (you know, like real ~~hackers~~ steampunks ;).

Stripping Ansible down to its core

We will start by running this command:

    $ ansible -m ping localhost

This command instructs Ansible to use the ping module to test if we have python available on our computer. And yes, we know doing this is a bit silly, since Ansible itself is written in python, but we can still learn a thing or two about Ansible while doing silly things.

If nothing went awry, executed command printed something similar to this:

     [WARNING]: Unable to parse /etc/ansible/hosts as an inventory source
     [WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
     [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available.
                Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all'

    localhost | SUCCESS => {
        "changed": false,
        "ping": "pong"
    }

We will ignore the warnings for now, since we are steampunks and we know what we are doing ;) Also, those warnings will be gone by the time we get to the end of this post, so just keep calm and hack on.

This all seems quite straightforward and simple, until you start to question yourself: WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED WHEN WE RAN THE PREVIOUS COMMAND?

What using an Ansible module means

To see what actually happens when we run the ansible command, we will open a verbose valve on Ansible by adding a -vvv to the command line. This will allow Ansible to vent off some steam and tell us exactly what it is doing.

    $ ansible -vvv -m ping localhost

Somewhere in the middle of the previous command’s output, we will find some lines, similar to this (we added a few newlines and shortened some file names in order to make this listing a bit neater):

    <127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '(
         umask 77
      && mkdir -p "`echo /home/tadej/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-154`"
      && echo ansible-tmp-154="`echo /home/tadej/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-154`"
    ) && sleep 0'
    Using module file /usr/lib/python/site-packages/ansible/modules/system/ping.py
    <127.0.0.1> PUT /home/tadej/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-186/tmpiqdxnirz
                 TO /home/tadej/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-154/AnsiballZ_ping.py
    <127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '
         chmod u+x /home/tadej/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-154/
                   /home/tadej/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-154/AnsiballZ_ping.py
      && sleep 0'
    <127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '
         /usr/bin/python /home/tadej/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-154/AnsiballZ_ping.py
      && sleep 0'
    <127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '
         rm -f -r /home/tadej/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-154/ > /dev/null 2>&1
      && sleep 0'

First EXEC line indicates that Ansible created a workspace on remote host for storing temporary files during the task execution. Next, Ansible transferred something that sounds like a less popular cousin of Dragon Ball Z to the remote host and executed it. And just like any other well-behaved program, Ansible cleaned after itself. Good boy Ansible ;)

But what is that ball and what process created it? What thing is generating all those shell commands? And what is responsible for copying those balls around? It seems that making Ansible more verbose only complicated the matters, so we better start explaining things ;)

Start the ball rolling

Whenever we use any Ansible module to bring our remote host into desired state, we are actually using a bundle of Ansible plugins that together make sure requested actions are executed on the remote host: a strategy plugin, an action plugin, a connection plugin, a shell plugin and a module (which is also Ansible plugin under the hood) for performing our task at hand.

Strategy plugin is responsible for scheduling the task execution on the host from the inventory. By default, ansible-playbook executes first task from the playbook on all hosts before starting the second one. But since we are only executing a single task today, strategy plugin has no real work to do.

Action plugin could actually be considered a part of the module that is executed on the control node (the computer running the ansible program). There are three main tasks that action plugin performs:

1.  Substituting the variables in the module arguments.
2.  Packaging the module sources into standalone ball of source code that will be executed on the remote host.
3.  Coordinating the transfer and execution of the code on the remote host.

Connection plugin is responsible for transferring the files to and from the remote host and executing commands on the remote host. Probably the most well-known connection plugin is the ssh plugin that is used by default if we do not do anything funky in our playbooks and/or inventory files. But there are other connection plugins available that know how to connect to other kinds of remote hosts like oc for running tasks in OpenShift pods.

It should come as no surprise that shell plugin is responsible for composing the commands. These commands are then passed to the connection plugin that executes them on the remote host.

[This is how Ansible actually looks like ;)]
This is how Ansible actually looks like ;)

In our example Ansible run, the actual plugins that were used are:

1.  linear strategy plugin that orchestrated the task execution,
2.  normal action plugin that is used by default if there is no action plugin with the same name as the module being used,
3.  local connection plugin because our remote host is localhost and
4.  sh shell plugin because our remote host is a GNU/Linux machine.

Normal plugin first instructed the shell plugin to generate commands for creating temporary folders on the remote host and then used the local plugin to execute them. Next, normal plugin took the ping module source code with all of its dependencies and wrapped the whole thing into a standalone executable. That executable was then transferred to the remote host and executed by the local plugin.

Hopefully things make more sense now. All this being out of the way, we are ready now to tackle those warnings from the first command execution.

Making remote host remote

When we first run ansible command, we were kindly reminded that if we would like to run things on remote hosts, we would need to provide an inventory file. So let us create one that contains the following entries:

    host_a ansible_host=10.10.43.151 ansible_user=centos
    host_b ansible_host=10.10.43.152 ansible_user=ubuntu

We have declared two hosts here: a CentOS host at 10.10.43.151 and an Ubuntu host at 10.10.43.152. Assuming that we stored this into file named inventory, we can now check for python interpreter on those two hosts by running

    $ ansible -m ping -i inventory all
    host_b | SUCCESS => {
        "changed": false,
        "ping": "pong"
    }
    host_a | SUCCESS => {
        "changed": false,
        "ping": "pong"
    }

Steps that Ansible took while executing the above command are exactly the same as before. The only thing that changed is the connection plugin, since now we are connecting to remote hosts via ssh.

We can verify this by again adding a -vvv to the command. Somewhere in the output of the comand, we should be able to find a (loooong) line similar to this next one:

    <10.10.43.151> SSH: EXEC ssh -C -o ControlMaster=auto ... \
      '/bin/sh -c '"'"'/usr/bin/python /.../AnsiballZ_ping.py && sleep 0'"'"''

Bonus points for all of you who find the lines responsible for copying the data over to remote host.

Let us get the hell out of here

This has been one long post in which we briefly familiarized ourselves with the Ansible internals that are most commonly used. So we better stop before we make this even longer ;)

If this post tickled your fancy, you can reach us via Twitter and Reddit. And do not forget to join us next time, when we will … well … do something … probably ;)

Cheers!

question: Make a list of Ansible plugins and what they do.

answer:
Ansible has many plugins that serve different purposes. There is the strategy plugin that schedules task executions according to their order on the playbook. There is the action plugin which is responsible for substituting variables in module arguments, packaging module sources into source codes, and executing the code on the remote host.
There is also the connection plugin (e.g. ssh plugin) used for transferring files from the remote host and executing commands on the remote host. And there is the normal plugin responsible for creating temporary folders on the remotes host.

question: What is the alternative software to Ansible?


text:
The EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA IN ABUJA () is the diplomatic mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The embassy is concurrently accredited to seven other surrounding countries:

-   Republic of Benin
-   Burkina Faso
-   Republic of Ghana
-   Republic of Liberia
-   Republic of the Niger
-   Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
-   Togolese Republic

In addition to the these countries, the embassy also represents Indonesia in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).[1]

The chancery is located at 10 Katsina Ala Crescent, in the suburbs of Abuja called Maitama.[2] Prior to this location, the embassy was located at 4 Salt Lake Street.[3] The current Indonesian ambassador to Nigeria, Usra Hendra Harahap, was appointed by President Joko Widodo on 21 March 2019.[4]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

title: Embassy of Indonesia, Abuja

question: Who does the Embassy of Indonesia, Abuja, represent?

answer:
- Republic of Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Republic of Ghana
- Republic of Liberia
- Republic of the Niger
- Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
- Togolese Republic

question: What else does the embassy also represent?

answer: Indonesia in the Economic Community of West African States.

question: What is the acronym for the Economic Community of West African States?

answer: ECOWAS.

question: What is the street address of the embassy?

answer: 10 Katsina Ala Crescent.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Abuja is the diplomatic mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It also serves several surrounding African countries.


text:
ANDY CHIODO (born April 25, 1983) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. Chiodo played eight games in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2003–04 NHL season, for whom he is presently a Goaltending Development Coach.

Playing career

Chiodo was originally selected by the New York Islanders in the sixth round (166th overall) of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. The Islanders were unable to sign him, and he was made draft-eligible again after the 2002–03 NHL season. The Pittsburgh Penguins chose him in 2003 NHL Entry Draft in the seventh round with the 199th overall pick.

Prior to playing in the Ontario Hockey League, Chiodo played with the Wexford Raiders of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League. After playing three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Toronto St. Michael's Majors, Chiodo made his professional debut with Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, in the 2003–04 season. He also appeared in eight NHL games with Pittsburgh that season.

Chiodo has spent most of his professional career with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and with Pittsburgh's ECHL affiliate, the Wheeling Nailers. He signed with Kärpät in the Finnish SM-liiga for the 2006–07 season, but was sidelined with an injury for most of the autumn. Kärpät released Chiodo from his contract in November, and he signed with Jokerit for a one-month tryout, making his SM-liiga debut on November 16 against HIFK. After only two games, he was injured again. At the SM-liiga trade deadline in January, he signed with HPK.

On August 20, 2009, he was signed by the Ottawa Senators to a one-year, two-way contract. He split time between Ottawa's AHL affiliate in Binghamton and their ECHL affiliate in Elmira. After the completion of the 2009–10 NHL season, Chiodo was not offered a new contract and became an unrestricted free agent.

Chiodo returned to Europe in signing with EC KAC for the 2010–11 EBEL season. He played in 30 games with the team and had a league-best 2.60 GAA. Chiodo led EC KAC to the 2010–11 EBHL Finals before losing to Red Bull Salzburg four games to three. On April 14, 2011 Chiodo re-signed on a two-year contract extension with Klagenfurt.

On November 7, 2013, the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL signed Chiodo for the 2013–14 season.[1] After just four games with the Condors, Chiodo opted to terminate his contract and returned to the Finnish Liiga with Tappara.

On August 14, 2014, Chiodo returned to the Austrian EBEL, in signing a one-year contract with Slovenian club, HDD Olimpija Ljubljana. In the 2014–15 season, Chiodo appeared in 39 games as Ljulbjana's starting goaltender, for 14 wins. With the club out of playoff contention, on January 28, 2015, Chiodo left to play for the remainder of the season in the Finnish Liiga with KalPa.

On April 5, 2015, Chiodo as a free agent, signed with his third EBEL club, on a one-year deal with HC TWK Innsbruck.[2]

Coaching career

Chiodo began a post-playing career as a goaltending coach by joining the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League in 2017.[3] He then made a return to the Pittsburgh Penguins organization when he was hired to serve as Goaltending Development Coach on June 20, 2018.[4]

Career statistics

Regular season

  --------- --------- ---------- ---- --- --- --- ----- ---- ---- ------ ------------------------------------------ ------------ --------------------- ----- --- --- ----- ---- ----- ------ ------ ------ ------
  Season    Team
  2006–07   Jokerit

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

title: Andy Chiodo

question: What does the article say about Andy Chiodo's professional playing career?

answer: Chiodo made his professional debut with Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, in the 2003–04 season. Chiodo has spent most of his professional career with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and with Pittsburgh's ECHL affiliate, the Wheeling Nailers. On August 20, 2009, he was signed by the Ottawa Senators to a one-year, two-way contract. Chiodo returned to Europe to sign with EC KAC for the 2010–11 EBEL season. On April 14, 2011, Chiodo re-signed on a two-year contract extension with Klagenfurt. On November 7, 2013, the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL signed Chiodo for the 2013–14 season. On August 14, 2014, Chiodo returned to the Austrian EBEL, in signing a one-year contract with HDD Olimpija Ljubljana. On April 5, 2015, Chiodo as a free agent, signed with his third EBEL club, on a one-year deal with HC TWK Innsbruck.

question: What does the article say about Chiodo's personal life?


text:
Sharon didn't want his death the be too painful, even though that bastard deserved it. Cheating on her with that bitch at the office. Not his office even, her office. Her husband Mike would often visit her at work during lunch. It was always a surprise to see him there, right when Sharon got back from lunch, sitting in her desk chair.
	“Hey Sharon!” He would say with that toothless smile she had grown to hate. “Just got finished with all my work for the day so I thought I’d drop by and see you.” He would chirp, or something along those lines. But this particular day something different happened. Mike was there, but he wasn't waiting in Sharon’s chair. No, Mike was coming out of her coworker’s office. Sharon saw her giggle at him as he left and make a sly shhhh sign with her finger. They both nervously laughed as Mike walked away with a prideful grin on his face. He would almost always have with him chocolate cheesecake- Sharon’s favorite food. Then they would eat together and Mike would give her a short peck on the lips and leave. That’s how she knew he was cheating on her. She tasted something on Mike’s lips that day, something sweet. It wasn't the chocolate cheesecake though. No, this was a sweet strawberry flavor upon his this lips that she tasted.
	Mike made a lot of money. He was a writer for a popular newspaper company in New York. Sharon hardly made any money. She didn't even have to work actually, Mike made more than enough to keep them both more than alive and happy. Mike was kinda famous too. He wrote the political cartoons for the paper. Sometimes people would recognize him in resturaunts or places like that. They would come up to him with a big smile and shake his hand or ask for a picture. They wouldn’t even acknowledge Sharon. And that made her mad.
	Melissa. That’s the bitch that was doing her husband at her workplace. Sharon wasn’t completely sure it was Melissa, but it was most likely her. Melissa wasn't even that pretty, at least not in Sharon’s eyes. Melissa had to have been at least forty with her brown hair that was starting to show strands of grey. Sharon’s hair had more grey in her blonde hair, she used products to keep it from showing, but it never seemed to work for her. Melissa was also kinda plump. Not fat by any means, but not close to skinny either. Sharon was skinny. Too skinny. She had lost a lot of weight lately and she didn't know why. Maybe Mike didn't like her being skinny, maybe he wanted something more plump like Melissa. That’s what Sharon figured at least.
	Poison. That’s how Mike was going to die. Sharon got the poison from a guy in the city. She knew from some of the ladies in her office that he could get anybody anything that they want, drugs, guns it didn't matter. “I’ve actually never done drugs before, not even in high school or college.” Sharon overheard Melissa saying one day. That bitch.
	“You’ve outdone yourself this time sweetie.” Mike said as he finished the potato soup that Sharon made him. Mike loved potato soup. He was always pestering Sharon to buy it for him. Sharon put the poison in the potato soup, the dealer said it was tasteless and the affects of the poison would kick in in about 6 hours. After dinner they cuddled on the couch. She actually liked being with him like this. It was a shame he had to die. Oh well, he shouldn't have cheated on her. They were in love for 15 years. Their anniversary was just last week and Mike took her ballroom dancing, something they both found out they were getting too old for.
	“I love you so much.” Michael whispered into her ear. His breath smelled like potato soup.
	Sharon smiled at him and stared back into his dark brown eyes. “I love you too babe.” And they started kissing like they were teenagers again, sitting in the back of Mike’s chevy truck.
	Sharon tasted something horrible in her mouth while they were kissing. It tasted like potato soup but something wet and metallic. “The hell, Mike?” Sharon asked as she pushed him away.
	Mike was bleeding. Everywhere. There was blood streaming out of his mouth, but that’s not the only place it was pouring out of. His eyes, ears and nose were all spewing out dark red blood. Sharon screamed. And so did Michael. The look of terror and pain in his eyes suddenly made Sharon forget that he was a dirty cheater. Mike was crying too. She could see the tears over the blood that was now all over his face. Michael was still on top of Sharon while all of this was going on. His blood was all over her body and white blouse.
	“Sharon.” Mike garbled as blood came spitting out if his mouth and onto Sharon and her opened mouth. “Help. 911.” He spewed quickly. But Sharon didn't move. She didn't know what to do. Mike was on top of her and wouldn't move. Couldn't move, so it seemed. This wasn't supposed to happen this way. It wasn't supposed to end like this. The dealer told Sharon that Mike would just die in his sleep. No pain. No blood spewing out of every orrfice in the man’s body. Mike’s torture went on for about forty-five minutes. And then he finally died, laying on top of his wife. Sharon carefully pushed him off of her and onto the floor. She took her blood-soaked clothes off and got in the shower. She was just getting out of the shower when the doorbell rang. “One minute!” she cried out. Sharon wasn’t thinking about her dead husband’s tortured body laying in the living room floor. Sharon wasn’t really thinking about anything at all. She opened the door. And there was Melissa.
	“Happy birthday, Sharon!” Melissa happily shouted. Behind here were probably twenty people. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of Mike for an hour now, this was supposed to be a surprise birthday party. Mike and I planned it ourselves. We were scared that you caught us when you saw him leaving my office a couple weeks ago after you got back from lunch. We even picked out a perfect flavor of cake for you, of course we had to sample some cake ourselves” she giggled. “We finally decided on strawberry.”

title: [MF] A Good Wife

question: Who are the major characters in the story?

answer: Mike, Sharon, Melissa

question: Why does Sharon suspect Mike is cheating on her?

answer: She tastes a sweet strawberry flavor on his lips when she kisses him after seeing him emerge from her coworker's office, laughing.

question: Why does Mike start bleeding?

answer: Sharon poisons the potato soup she feeds him.

question: What is the twist at the end of the story?

answer: Mike wasn't actually cheating on Sharon; he and Melissa were simply planning a surprise birthday party for her.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Sharon suspects that her husband Mike is cheating on her when she sees him meeting with her coworker Melissa and then tastes strawberry on his lips. She decides to poison his potato soup. Mike eats the poison and starts bleeding from his eyes, ears, and nose, and eventually dies. Melissa then shows up at Sharon's house and explains that she and Mike were planning a surprise birthday party for Sharon.


text:
The September After
Or,
Starting Point

	I can hear Eliza crying again. She’s started to hide it from us – especially after we tried to get her to see a counselor – but I can still tell from the way her bed rocks in the room above us, and the quiet sniffles echo down the stairs. She’s been this way for a few weeks now, ever since the 28th of August. That is, ever since Jacob died.

	I still remember how she took the news. The doctors came out of the operating room and we were all so hopeful, after all 80% sounds like such a good chance when they tell you it’s potentially life-saving. What you never think of is the 20%, the chance that things don’t go so well and that your eight-year old son will be rolled out on a gurney, the doctor softly whispering the declaration of death to the orderly behind you as you stare at his face. None of us were expecting that 20%, Eliza the least since she was only eleven. I still remember her screaming as she ripped herself from my arm and went to grab Jacob’s hand, lifting the pale little thing up to her face and crying. We were both in shock – her mother and I, that is – as we watched our little girl, raised seeing House and his crew always succeeding, always curing forever the patient, cry into her brother’s lukewarm palm. We stood there for at least ten minutes before I made a move towards her, putting my hand on her shoulder and wiping the smooth scalp of my son. It had been such a hard two years on him, and it showed. He was as thin as a bone, and barely had any energy thanks to the therapy. I can only remember him smiling a handful of times, our little baby boy becoming more and more melancholy until the chemicals made him unable to even be depressed. On the cart, though, he was smiling. I guess he was finally at peace.

	None of us could keep from crying when we returned home. Eliza took a week off school, my boss gave me a week off from work when he heard the news. My wife had to return to her job after three days. She still wasn’t ready, not at all, but she kept it together at her factory and only fell apart when she came back home, sometimes staying up all hours of the night crying. She was fired four days later, falling asleep on her machine. We tried to not let Eliza find out, but we knew that she understood. I found her passed out over a drawing of her mother’s boss being stabbed by the Devil. I knew that was a bad sign, but honestly, I just put it away and laughed.

	Dinners were silent for some time, with Eliza pushing food around her plate with a fork, rolling beans back and forth with a fork while her mother and I attempted conversation. We stopped paying attention to what we made and what we ate, switching meals from cans with the homemade dinners we had been carefully making to exact specifications. Instead of the lively debate we had had in the past our meals were marked by the low-hanging depression and spirits of the topics we skirted around during the rare occasions we did speak.

	Eliza’s birthday was the Tuesday after her mother had been let go, the event normally marked by her jubilation but instead was a quiet, somber affair. We had balloons and cake, the usual decorations looked over and ignored by our daughter quickly before she went back to her room. It was about then that we tried to get her help; of course we weren’t expecting her to be over the death of her brother, but she showed no signs of rehabilitation either. It had been two weeks, and while her mother and I had begun to recover, she still cried every time she saw someone who reminded her of her brother, be it another child with a similar appearance or her art teacher who was notably bald, who’s class she had to be moved from because of her inability to control herself when she saw him. She refused to speak with any of the therapists we brought her to, curling up with her knees against her face when asked any question. No one could help us since she couldn’t speak to them, so we stopped sending her to doctors after a hard week.

	She has started to recover now, I can see. She’s able, at least, to control herself for long enough so that she can hide her crying from us. She can force a smile when she needs to, and can make herself speak to us while we eat, over our recent attempts at home-cooking again. But then she still cries in her room daily, and whenever someone hears this they ask me how I can think that she’s getting any better. I always tell them that I know she’s not getting over her brother. I know she’s depressed and I know she needs help. However, I know that she’s beginning to open up to us helping her again. As they say, you have to start somewhere.

title: The September After

question: What events happen to the narrator's wife after the death of his son and how does it impact the family?

answer: His wife had to return to work three days after her son's death. She was not ready, and kept falling asleep at the factory because she stayed up all night crying over the death of her son. Thus she was fired. They tried to keep this from their daughter but she found out, and the narrator found a picture she had drawn of her mother's boss being stabbed by the devil.


text:
Before time existed, there was a forest. No animals lived in the forest, & one ever entered the forest. It remained silent & still for eons.
That is of course, until one rainy night. A raindrop, just like any other raindrop, hit the ground. More & more raindrops fell, and a puddle appeared. From the puddle, a small, chubby hand reached out. It grabbed the dirt & pulled itself out. The small hand was attracted to a young girl.
She blinked.
In front of her stood thin, spindly trees. They were golden, like the harp strings whom’s music echos faintly in her mind.
Silence & rain.
No more rain.
Silence.
A flash of white fur struck the corner of her eye.
Suddenly there in front of her stood a stag.

“Hello?” The little girl trembled.
The stag stood watching. Then, it lowered it’s head. It’s eyes were as black as obsidian.
It placed it’s head in her arms. “I made you, & I will keep you safe.” The stag said, “I love you very much.”

“What is your name?” She asked.

“I am who I am,” the stag bellowed, “I will call you Lucy.”

“I like the name Lucy. You are very beautiful Mr. Stag.”

The rain, which had stopped briefly, returned.

“Walk with me, Lucy.” The Stag stomped the ground, & an umbrella emerged.

Lucy grabbed it, & winced slightly at the sudden pause of rain.

She got up, & neared the Stag. She held his on to him to keep herself steady.

They walked for a minutes, or hours, or seconds. No one could really be sure. “I wish to be like you, Mr Stag. You are so lovely with your white fur.”

“You don’t know what you ask.”

However long they were walking, the trees were now as large as the pillars from the heaven Lucy came from, but no longer recalls.

The Stag laid down to rest, & beckoned Lucy to come rest with him.

As he laid down to rest, Lucy took a piece of his horn, and used it to cut off his flesh, which she wrapped over herself. Lucy was now covered in rich, soft white fur.
When the Stag awoke, he noticed his fur was gone, and he was naked. He knew what had happened.
This cursed Lucy to be a doe of mere flesh and bone, condemned to die.
Time was set into motion. Death was the first clock.
Lucy hid from the stag till her death.

The Stag found Lucy three hundred & sixty five days later while he was rounding the forest. He was crushed.

He decided to call her demise a year.
He was so moved, he decided to lay down by her one last time. He fell into a deep sleep.
The trees, saw the Stag’s mourning. They were crushed, because they felt the pure love the Stag had for his creation.
The trees mourned as well. They rid themselves of their leaves, turning them into a blood red, before they fell off. This was the first time they had done anything so risky. The Stag would later call this Fall.

When the Stag woke up, the sky was sunny & blue. The trees were full of leaves & heavy with a bright red fruit. He walked up to one & tasted it. The fruit was sweet. he called it an apple.
That’s when the Stag saw him.

The boy jumped. He had just opened his eyes. In front of him was the corpse of a deer, long dead and rotting.
A few paces behind the rotting deer, stood a stag.
The Stag looked at the boy. His empty skull showing no expression.

“A-are you Death? Did you kill that deer?” The boy asked.

“No I am not death,” the stag answered.

“Who are you?”

“I am a friend. May I sit with you?”

The boy glanced warily at the Stag for several moments before nodding.
“You May call me Ternate,” said the Stag,” for I am the sky, the forest’s trees, & this stag.”

“You’re the sky? I came from the sky, I think,” the boy pointed upward,” can I have an apple?” Ternate nodded.

“Ternate, are you sure you aren’t death? You seem very scary.”

The Stag, realizing that he was currently nothing but bones, shook the trees down, and dressed himself in leaves.
They sat together, until the sun set.
The boy eyed Lucy.

“Am I going to die like that deer, Ternate?”
The stag looked over at Lucy’s body, seeing himself in her fur.

“I don’t know. Only time will tell.”

“Oh.”

“Can we go somewhere else? It’s getting dark.”

The stag nodded, lifting its heavy frame up from where it sat.
The Stag walked up to Lucy one last time and pressed his forehead to hers. The ground opened up and took her in.
The leaves the stag wore turned back to white fur.
Without hesitating, the boy’s eyes lit up “You’re beautiful, Mr. Stag.”

title: [MF] The Stag

question: Discuss the setting of the story.

answer: The story is set before time. Before time there is a forest. No animals live in the forest, and no one ever enters it. One day it rains in the forest and a young girl emerges. The young girl then sees a stag.

question: What happens between Lucy and the Stag?

answer: Lucy removed some the stags fur with a piece of his horn while he is asleep. She wraps it over herself. This condemns her to become a doe for a year until she must die. After a year he finds her again, and he lies with her one last time.

question: What happens after the stag finds Lucy again?

answer: A little boy shows up, and the stag says that he can call him Ternate. The boy asks the stag if he is death and whether he killed Lucy. The stag says that he did not kill Lucy. The boy sat with the stag as the sun set, and said he was beautiful.


text:
SERINE DEHYDRATASE or _' L-serine ammonia lyase (SDH)_' is in the β-family of pyridoxal phosphate-dependent (PLP) enzymes. SDH is found widely in nature, but its structural and chemical properties vary greatly among species. SDH is found in yeast, bacteria, and the cytoplasm of mammalian hepatocytes. The reaction it catalyzes is the deamination of L-serine to yield pyruvate, with the release of ammonia.[1]

This enzyme has 1 substrate, L-serine, and two products, pyruvate and NH₃, and uses 1 cofactor, pyridoxal phosphate (PLP). The enzyme's main role is in gluconeogenesis in the liver's cytoplasm. By orienting the substrates and utilizing the PLP coenzyme, SDH lowers the activation energy to convert L-Serine into pyruvate, which can then be converted into glucose.

Nomenclature

Serine Dehydratase is also known as:[2]

-   L-serine ammonia-lyase
-   Serine deaminase
-   L-hydroxyaminoacid dehydratase
-   L-serine deaminase
-   L-serine dehydratase
-   L-serine hydro-lyase

Enzyme structure

HOLOENZYME: The holoenzyme SDH contains 319 residues, 1 PLP cofactor molecule, and 131 water molecules.[3] The overall fold of the monomer is very similar to that of other PLP-dependent enzymes of the Beta-family. The enzyme contains a large domain (catalytic domain or PLP- binding domain) and a small domain. The domains are joined by two peptide linkers (residues 32-35 and 138-146), with the internal gap created being the space for the active site[4] (Figure 1).

[]

_FIGURE 1 shows the large catalytic domain in purple and cyan and the small regulatory domain in green in a monomer of Serine Dehydratase. Two monomers(left and right) are shown and the coenzyme PLP is placed in the crevice between the two domains._ [5]

TWO DIMERS: Two monomers of hSDS (human SDH) come together to make a dimer. The interface between the two monomers is formed through hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. The monomer–monomer contacts involve six pairs of hydrogen bonds formed between 10 residues (Arg98-Asn260, Leu310-Asn260, and Leu265-Lys263). Additional interactions include a number of hydrophobic contacts between the residues Met17, Lys21, Asn101, Glu102, Ser306, Ile308, Ser309, and Ile264 in each monomer.[6] (Figure 2).

[]

_FIGURE 2 shows the PLP coenzyme situated in the active site of SDH. The purple dashes are the hydrogen bonds involved. Top view of the enzyme._

COFACTOR BINDING SITE: The PLP cofactor is positioned in between the Beta-strands 7 and 10 of the large domain and lies on the large internal gap made between small and large domain. The cofactor is covalently bonded through a Schiff base linkage to Lys41. The cofactor is sandwiched between the side chain of Phe40 and the main chain of Ala222. Each of the polar substituents of PLP is coordinated by functional groups: the pyridinium nitrogen of PLP is hydrogen-bonded to the side chain of Cys303, the C3-hydroxyl group of PLP is hydrogen-bonded to the side chain of Asn67, and the phosphate group of PLP is coordinated by main chain amides from the tetraglycine loop.[7][8] (Figure 3 and Figure 4).

[]

_FIGURE 3 shows the hydrogen bonding in the active site of SDH. Hydrogen bonds are (red) between protein, water (blue balls) and the cofactor PLP (purple)._[9]

[]

_FIGURE 4 shows the alpha helices (pink) and beta sheets (yellow) involved in the secondary structure of SDH._

Enzyme mechanism

The degradation of serine to pyruvate is an example of a pyridoxal phosphate-dependent (PLP) catalyzed Beta-elimination reaction. Beta-eliminations[10] mediated by PLP yields products that have undergone a two-electron oxidation at C-alpha. In general, beta-eliminations involve the removal of a halide and a proton from the adjacent beta-carbon to give a double bond; thus, the origin of the double bond pi electrons are from the C-H bond on the beta carbon of the substrate.

Beta eliminations occur with no net oxidation or reduction of PLP. In overall terms, the reaction catalyzed by serine dehydratase involves two steps: catalytic elimination and a nonenzymatic hydrolysis reaction. The main role of SDH is to lower the activation energy of this reaction by binding the coenzyme and substrate in a particular conformational geometry.

MECHANISTIC STEPS:[11]

_(In panel 1 of Figure 5)_ In the SDH enzyme's active site, Lys41 is located above the PLP molecule with its R group NH₂ connected to C4 of PLP by a Schiff base linkage. The phosphate group of PLP is located in a pocket of G residues. Serine enters the active site and its positively charged amino group attracts the negatively charged phosphate group of PLP. The intermediate PLP-Ser aldimine is created. SDH's role is to orient the serine molecule's Calpha-H parallel to the overlapping 2p orbitals of the PLP pi system; in other words, SDH holds serine perpendicular to the plane of the PLP ring.[12] ( See Figure 6 for orientation of substrate with PLP).

_(In panel 2 of Figure 5)_ The PLP phosphate deprotonate the amino group of serine. The deprotonated amino group of serine is now a good nucleophile that attacks the Lys-PLP Schiff base at the C4 carbon (shown in panel 1). The Lys41 is released from PLP.[13]

_(In panel 3 of Figure 5)_ The COOH group of serine is positioned tightly in the SDH enzyme so that the serine molecule is perpendicular to the PLP pi system. The R group OH group participates in two hydrogen bonds with SDH's Ala222 and the protonated phosphate of PLP. The protonated phosphate of PLP then acts as an acid and donates its proton to hydroxyl of serine. In a concerted fashion, the R group hydrogen of serine is removed by Lys41 and water is released. The intermediate created is PLP-aminoacrylate.[14]

In the reaction as the water leaves from the Beta-carbon of the substrate, the SDH orients the newly created double bond perpendicular to the PLP plane (Figure 6). This allows the new pi bonds between Calpha and Cbeta to form resonance with the PLP pi system.[15] (Figure 6)

_(In panel 4 of Figure 5)_ Lys41 from SDH's active site attacks C4 of PLP, forming a tetrahedral intermediate.[16]

_(In panel 5 of Figure 5)_ A Schiff base linkage is then made and the aminoacrylate group is released which undergoes non-enzymatic hydrolytic deamination to pyruvate.[17]

_(In panel 6 of Figure 5)_ The aminoacrylate released from PLP is unstable in aqueous solution and rapidly tautomerizes to the preferred imine form; this is spontaneously hydrolyzed to yield alpha-keto acid product of pyruvate. The enzyme-PLP Schiff base linkage is reformed.[18]

[]

_FIGURE 5 shows the mechanism of converting L-serine into aminoacrylate, which is deaminated to pyruvate by non-enzymatic hydrolysis. The Figure displays the SDH active site, PLP coenzyme and substrate.[19]_

[role of SDH in orienting the PLP molecule perpendicular to the substrate Serine]

Inhibitors

According to the series of assays performed by Cleland (1967), the linear rate of pyruvate formation at various concentrations of inhibitors demonstrated that L-cysteine and D-serine competitively inhibit the enzyme SDH.[20] The reason that SDH activity is inhibited by L-cysteine is because an inorganic sulfur is created from L-Cysteine via Cystine Desulfrase and sulfur-containing groups are known to promote inhibition.[21] L-threonine competitively inhibits Serine Dehydratase as well.

Moreover, insulin is known to accelerate glycolysis and repress induction of liver serine dehydratase in adult diabetic rats.[22] Studies have been conducted to show insulin causes a 40-50% inhibition of the induction serine dehydratase by glucagon in hepatocytes of rats.[23] Studies have also shown that insulin and epinephrine inhibit Serine Dehydratase activity by inhibiting transcription of the SDH gene in the hepatocytes.[24] Similarly, increasing levels of glucagon, increase the activity of SDH because this hormone up-regulates the SDH enzyme. This makes sense in the context of gluconeogenesis. The main role of SDH is to create pyruvate that can be converted into free glucose. And glucagon gives the signal to repress gluconeogenesis and increase the amount of free glucose in the blood by releasing glycogen stores from the liver.

Homocysteine, a compound that SDH combines with Serine to create cystathionine, also noncompetitively inhibits the action of SDH. Studies have shown that homocysteine reacts with SDH's PLP coenzyme to create a complex. This complex is devoid of coenzyme activity and SDH is not able to function (See Enzyme Mechanism Section).[25] In general, homocysteine is an amino acid and metabolite of methionine; increased levels of homocysteine can lead to homocystinuria(see section Disease Relevance).[26]

Biological function

In general, SDH levels decrease with increasing mammalian size.[27]

Studies show that the SDH enzyme from rat hepatocytes plays an important role in gluconeogenesis; its activity is augmented by high-protein diets and starvation. During periods of low carbohydrates, serine is converted into pyruvate via SDH. This pyruvate enters the mitochondria where it can be converted into oxaloacetate, and, thus, glucose.[28]

_FIGURE 7 shows the possible routes of L-Serine conversion into glucose during gluconeogenesis._

However, little is known about the properties and the function of human SDH because human liver has low SDH activity. In a study done by Yoshida and Kikuchi, routes of glycine breakdown were measured. Glycine can be converted into serine and either become pyruvate via serine dehydratase or undergo oxidative cleavage into methylene-THF, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. Results showed the secondary importance of the SDH pathway.[29][30]

Disease relevance

Although there is much controversy over the role of SDH in human hepatocytes, studies have shown that nonketotic hyperglycemia is due to the deficiency of threonine dehydratase, a close corollary to serine dehydratase. Serine dehydratase has also been found to be absent in human colon carcinoma and rat sarcoma. The observed enzyme imbalance in these tumors shows that an increased capacity for the synthesis of serine is coupled to its utilization for nucleotide biosynthesis as a part of the biochemical commitment to cellular replication in cancer cells. This pattern is found in sarcomas and carcinomas, and in tumors of human and rodent origin Thus, SDH is significant in the development of hyperglycemia and tumors.[31]

In addition, homocystinuria is a hereditary disease caused by the deficiency of L-serine dehydratase. Its symptoms include mental retardation, death, atherosclerosis, and coronary thrombosis as well as dislocation of the eye lens. Homocystinuria is a disease characterized by high urine and plasma levels of homocysteine. L-Serine dehydratase condenses homocysteine with serine to form cystathionine.[32] The foregoing paragraph is however mistaken as the paragraph equates SDS with CBS which was once thought to be the case but which is now known not to be the case.

Evolution

Comparing human and rat serine dehydratase using a cDNA library was identical except for a 36 amino acid residue stretch. The overall homology between rat SDH and human SDH is 81% in the nucleotide sequence and 84% in the amino acid sequence. Similarities have also been shown between yeast and _E. coli_ threonine dehydratase and human serine dehydratase. Human SDH shows sequence homology of 27% with the yeast enzyme and 27% with the E. coli enzyme.[33]

Additionally, the primary structures are shown to be similar between mammalian SDH and microbial threonine dehydratase, especially in the sequences surrounding the PLP cofactor and the G-residues surrounding the PLP's phosphate group. Thus, in PLP enzymes, there is high conservation of the active site residues during evolution. With active site sequence conservation, it is suggested that dehydratase enzymes originated from a common ancestor.[34]

[]

''FIGURE 8 shows the sequence similarities of the amino acid sequence of human SDH with those of rat SDH, and yeast and _E. coli_ threonine dehydratases. Asterisks and crosses represent sequence similarity to human SDH.[35]''

In an analysis done by Mehta and Christen from the Center for Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, the pyridoxal-5-phosphate (vitamin B6)-dependent enzymes that act on amino acid substrates have multiple evolutionary origins. The overall B6 enzymes diverged into four independent evolutionary lines: α family (i.e. aspartate aminotransferase), β family (serine dehydratase),D-alanine aminotransferase family and the alanine racemase family. An example of the evolutionary similarity in the Beta family is seen in the mechanism. The β enzymes are all lyases and catalyze reactions where Cα and Cβ participate. Overall, in the PLP-dependent enzymes, the PLP in every case is covalently attached via an imine bond to the amino group in the active site.[36]

[]

_FIGURE 9 displays the evolutionary lineage of enzymes from PLP-dependent enzyme to the Beta family to SDH._

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title: Serine dehydratase

question: What are the alternate names for serine dehydratase?

answer: Serine Dehydratase is also known as L-serine ammonia-lyase, serine deaminase, L-hydroxyaminoacid dehydratase, L-serine deaminase, L-serine dehydratase, and L-serine hydro-lyase.

question: What does the text say about the cardiovascular system?

question: What does the text say about glucose?

answer: The enzyme serine dehydratase is involved in gluconeogenesis. It lowers the activation energy to convert L-Serine into pyruvate, which can then be converted into free glucose.


text:
**Beware this is my beginning of a long story a plan to write about a hypothetical serial killer, and this passage is morbid.** Also this is a very rough draft so excuse spelling mistakes or the overuse of contractions.

 There were always rumors of a serial killer so evil, so demented, so monstrous, so gruesome, and so evil that he was looked at as more of the hypothetical monster under humanities bed than a real psychopath that needs to be hunted down and exposed. In this short story I am going to describe the infamous and horrible tale of what can be only called as “the monstrosity.”

The monstrosity was born in 1945, his exact date of birth is unknown, he was born in Midwestern America; most likely Kansas. His father was a hulk of a man who conceived him when he brutally raped his own daughter, the violence in the monster’s life began before he was even born. His mother lets call her Lesly was only seventeen years old when she gave birth to the monstrosity, who was born about three weeks premature. Lesly almost died in childbirth because the monster’s father (lets call him Larry) continued to beat her during the pregnancy which led to the premature and extremely painful birth. The doctors predicted the monstrosity would not live through the night...oh how wrong they were; looking back if the doctors knew of the evil they allowed to enter the world, they may have had no problem suffocating that small innocent child right there and then.
The monstrosity had no serious health problems from the violent birth, except for the fact that he would never grow taller than 5'5 even as a grown man; this monster’s height comes into play later and can be looked at as a curse or a blessing depending on how you read this evil’s story.

The monster’s father Larry remarried shortly after he was born, he lied to all about the real mother of the monster. Being a minor still Lesly was forced to continue to live with Larry and his new wife Marie even after all the abuse and pain he had caused her, she wouldn't run away because she felt her son deserved a real mother not a life of lies. So, for the next three-years she worked hard at her job as a waitress to save enough money to move out of the abusive home with her son and get her own place. The abuse of Lesly continued throughout these years but Larry didn’t touch his son the monster because he respected the fact that his son had a keen likeness to himself, and resented the fact that his own daughter Lesly wanted to turn his own child against him. Larry wasn't a sociopath but he was a monster by his own merit, he didn't understand why his daughter hated him and thought he was a useless excuse for a men let alone a father; even though he sexually and physically abused her after her mother passed away from cancer when Lesly was about nine-years old. Larry tried to turn the monster who was about four years old by this point against his true mother Lesly and make him love his wife Marie and him as parents.

Now, for a moment let us observe what know about Larry’s second wife Marie...she was about twenty-six years old married to Larry a much older man and little is known about her background or early-life. What we do know however straight from the words of our little monster is that she was an extremely beautiful woman; about 5’9, luscious blond hair, long legs, a nice curvy midsection, and most of all her skin according to the monster was softer than any other woman he ever met. But that all comes in to play later in this story of true evil.
I will set the scene for the beginnings of our little monster’s first look at death and real cruelty. Of course the monster was exposed to the beatings of his real mother Lesly from time to time, but Marie did her best to keep the monster away from such things. You may be thinking why would a woman as beautiful as I described Marie as be with a violent man like Larry and allow him to abuse his adult daughter? Well, since little is known about Marie’s personality (at this point in time) I guess we can just say love works in mysterious ways and in this case ends up intertwined with death and unknowingly creating pure evil. Anyway, back to the story...Lesly finally saved up enough money to take the monster away from this hateful environment and get her own nice place. But Larry and Marie didn’t like that idea, they didn’t believe that Lesly really worked for that money and accused her of prostituting herself to make the money. They called her all sorts of names, not knowing that our little monster was hiding under the bed in his mother’s room just taking all this in. Like I said he had witnessed violence before, but never had he witnessed such abuse in a verbal sense they broke his mother down. Lesly wasn't the most emotionally sound woman due to her father’s abuse and it didn't take much to break her, and by the end of the verbal abuse from Marie and Larry which went on for almost an hour she just sat in the corner wet with her own tears and ashamed that she allowed them to do that to her.

Then something happened to Lesly as she set there wallowing in her own pain and self-hate...she snapped. This young woman who received awful abuse by her own father her whole life finally snapped. She hated him with such passion, who was he to abuse her and then coddle her son like he was a decent human being when he was the one who raped her and almost killed her from beatings during her pregnancy! Lesly was not a small woman, her father Larry was about 6’6 and 250-pounds and he passed those genes onto his daughter; she was 6’3 but her weight was unknown. She grabbed Larry’s baseball bat that he used to occasionally use to beat her when he wasn't playing on the local softball team with it, and she waited in the room until she heard Marie go into her room and fall asleep. She left her room, and shortly after the monster (without her knowledge) followed her into the hallway and watched her.

She saw that Larry was passed out on the couch and she snuck up behind him, only his head was exposed from under the covers. Lesly raised the bat above her head and slammed it back down with all the might and power she had within her body. The sound of Larry’s skull cracking was sickening to the soul of a normal person...you could hear the skull break apart into small fragments and slice through the brain matter. You could taste the blood in the air and feel the lack of Larry’s existence within it. Even though our monster was only four or five years old, he describes the event with such vivid remembrance as if it was his first memory. And maybe it was, because in my opinion this moment and what happened next is what creates our little monster as he really is or will be for the rest of his so called life.

Larry was near dead after the first blow, but Lesly didn't know that and probably felt more powerful and in control than she ever had before in her entire life. She kept hitting him over and over, she destroyed his face so completely that it would take a ton of work for the cops to identify his body without just assuming. The monster describes hearing the life leave Larry’s body but instead of like it is in film he described it as just a silence within the room as if Larry’s soul or whatever made him alive had just been removed from the area. The silence as he described it was quieter than anything he would experience for a long time after.

Than the silence was broken by Lesly yelling at the monster “go to your room, you shouldn't see this baby.” Her voice wasn't the same though it sounded different than the mother the monster though he knew, it sounded emptier as if the love Lesly held for him had exited her. And even at five years old the monster says that he felt the difference.

title: The monstrosity

question: Why does the writer refer to the monster as one, and how did he become a monster?

answer: According to the plot, the titular character's transformation into a monster was caused by his upbringing in an unstable household. In the beginning, his father raped his mother, who was 17 at the time. Due to her father's beatings, she nearly miscarried during her pregnancy. The monster also saw his father physically and verbally assault his mother when he was a child. Finally, he saw his mother cruelly murder their father. These unintentional exposures may have shaped the monster's distorted view of life, possibly resulting in a lack of respect for human life.

question: Lesly was a minor when her father raped her. Why didn't she report his abuses to the police or Child Protection Services?

answer: Fear of the unknown was possibly a big element in Lesly's reluctance to take action against her abusive father. However, even though the story doesn't explicitly mention it, it may be indicated that Lesly was terrified of her father for years due to his assaults. If her father found out about her plans to go to the police, he could do far more harm to her than he already had. To avert her father's fury, Lesly may have decided to accept her fate.

question: Summarize the story's plot twist ending.

answer: Lesly had endured a lifetime of maltreatment from her father. Since her mother's death from cancer when she was nine years old, her father had become her worst nightmare. Lesly's father raped her when she was seventeen, culminating in a traumatic pregnancy and painful birth. Despite this, her father continued to abuse her. Hoping to escape the horrors of her home with her little boy, Lesly worked hard to save enough money, but when she was ready to go, her father and his new wife ridiculed her and accused her of prostitution. Lesly grew irrationally irascible and battered her father's head with a baseball bat till he died of his wounds. Unknown to her, her young son watched the horror unfold.


text:
They were friends once, these two. A twenty-something man and a slightly younger twenty-something woman. As many friends do, they met at work. That first morning she walked in wearing formal office attire and carrying a bag full of paperwork, he thought her beautiful. Incredibly so, in fact.

She was married, of course. How could she not be? A woman like her, smart and beautiful? He was married as well, but his situation was more complicated. So while she might have thought of him as attractive, she thought of herself as off limits. But this was not to stop a friendship that blossomed as quickly as the spring flowers.

They did everything together at work. They would sit for hours chatting, sometimes even about work. They attended meetings together and she would make silly faces at him. They went to training classes together, and would sit in the back of the room and banter back and forth via little notes on handouts. They were virtually inseparable. And as he got to know her, he began to wish that she were his wife, rather than that woman who ran off to live with her college boyfriend. If she though the same, he didn’t know. But he thought sometimes that she did. Just by the way she occasionally looked at him. By the way she often dressed and by the perfume she wore.

Socially, they didn’t do nearly as much, but occasionally. Sometimes he would go with her and her husband and see movies or go to dinner. Sometimes, they’d be at a co-worker’s house sampling wines.

She knew him almost better than she knew her husband, and he certainly thought he knew her better than he thought he knew his wife. For six months, they thought themselves as best friends. It is sad to say that the deep bond they developed over work was not deep enough. The friendship, inexplicably, withered and died in but an instant; a terrible instant they both wish had never happened. But it did, and there was no turning back.

And it happened; over something silly no less. He offered her a suggestion, and she reacted as a child. He simply turned around and said no more of it. She later apologized, but their relationship seemed to be dead to her. They rarely talked after that, and though he wanted to speak to her, he didn’t know how she’d take it. So he didn’t. He didn’t say anything. Nor did she. He never knew what she was thinking, and she didn’t help him with it at all.

Later, his wife came back. She swore she’d never do it again, but she did a few years later. But that’s for another time. He and his wife attended a party, and she was there with her husband. It was in the dead of winter, and the host had a hot tub. They all took part in some alcohol and spent the night relaxing in the warm water. He was hesitant at first, but the women, including his wife but perhaps more importantly including his old friend, his old, beautiful friend, convinced him to join them. So he did. She was drunk, and was happy and smiling at him. She was flirty and took pleasure in his presence. He took pleasure in hers as well, and greatly enjoyed watching her lithe form exit and enter the water in her white bikini so as to get more drinks. His wife didn’t approve, because he had confessed to her that he had a bit of a thing for her when she was gone. But he had a great time with his old friend. And his wife didn’t say much, because she knew she had given up the moral high ground. She lived with another man, after all, so she really couldn’t disapprove of his amorous feelings for another woman while she was away.

He went back to work the following Monday feeling invigorated. But he was disappointed to find that she pretended not to remember those long hours in the hot waters. She didn’t even acknowledge him. And so slogged the weeks and months until one day he took another job. He left without saying good bye, and she didn’t seem to care.

Years went by, and he sometimes asked old associates about her. Slyly, so that none would think anything inappropriate took place. Her treatment of him was common knowledge, and it didn’t impress some folks, and he didn’t want them to think that he cared about her. But he did, and so he asked. Once he sent her an email. A friendly email asking how she was and apologizing for their falling out. He wanted her to know that he valued their friendship. She never replied.

More years went by, and his wife again lost her way and left. He took another job so as to escape his life, which was a disaster. He still worked in the same field, and occasionally thought about his old friend. He wondered if she ever thought about him. He doubted it. He hoped that someday, he’d see her again. Once he thought he did. A woman who looked just like her walked down the street. It wasn’t her, of course.

Eventually, he stopped thinking about her at all. And as it would happen, that’s when she made her appearance back in his life. It was at a conference. He saw her from across the room and she saw him. He thought he saw her eyes light up and a smile threaten to overtake her, but she turned back to the man she was talking to and ignored her old friend. Later, he met her in an elevator and attempted small talk. She insisted on one word answers until he mentioned that he just found out that he was supposed to drive another member of the convention to a town about three hours away for another meeting, but he didn’t know who. She looked shocked, and said I’m the one who is supposed to go. He couldn’t tell if she was pleasantly surprised or simply mortified. But she looked just as good as the day he first saw her, and he chanced to tell her so. At this she smiled, and said thank you.

They met at the entrance to the convention center and he walked her to the car. It was a cloudy, cold day, and she wore a light jacket. He took her bags and placed them in the trunk along with his. They drove and made small talk. She didn’t open up to him much, but he tried. Halfway to their destination, they drove into a blizzard, and he had to pull off the highway. He said we should get a couple of rooms and make the rest of the drive in the morning when the roads were cleared and to this she agreed. The motel clerk informed them that he had only one room available, and it was a single bed. He looked at her and said I’ll sleep on the floor and she said okay and they took the room.

The room was small and not very cozy since the heater blew only slightly warm air. He called to complain but the man only apologized. He did offer to bring extra blankets, and this he did. She went into the bathroom and locked the door and he heard the shower running. He found something on TV, and dozed on the bed. She came out wearing only a towel, which was too small for her long frame and it showed the bottom of her buttocks. She apologized and quickly grabbed her bag, taking care to bend down at the knee rather than at the waist and went back into the bathroom.

She came out a few minutes later wearing a white button up shirt that fell past her butt and, he assumed, panties of some sort. She again said sorry and then said I didn’t pack night clothes suitable for company. He said oh yeah and she said I sleep naked in hotels because I like the feel of the sheets. To this he smiled and they laughed together. The important thing, as far as he was concerned, was that she too smiled.

He moved his blankets to the floor and he went to lie down and she said we can stay up and watch some TV, it’s still early. He said okay and she said you can sit on the bed if you want. He said okay and he did. She sat down too and he tried not to look at her shapely thighs while she pretended not to notice. After a time she said you don’t mind if I smoke do you and he said no. Then she said remember that time when we went on that trip to DC and you me and Christie smoked in that club and he said yes I remember and they laughed because they knew that she and Christie didn’t smoke. Or not officially anyway. The girls swore him to secrecy and he kept their little secret. He thought she looked sexy smoking that day, and to his surprise, she looked even sexier in the bed, smoking and wearing a white button up shirt. She offered him one and he took it and they smoked together and watched TV.

Eventually she stretched out and got under the covers and he took this as his queue and he got up to sleep on the floor. He went into the bathroom and put on his shorts and came back out and made his bed and she rolled over towards him and smiled at him and he smiled back. She said I missed you and he said I missed you too and he turned out the light and tried to go to sleep. But he couldn’t.

Minutes passed by in a time that seemed like hours and she said hey, to which he said what. She said heat rises and it’s probably cold on the floor. He said yes that’s true but I’ll be fine. And she said why don’t you sleep up here, it’s a queen sized bed and there’s room enough for both of us. He said do you think that’s a good idea and she said sure we won’t touch. So he got up in the dark and crawled onto the bed and brought his blanket and covered up.

Her breathing evened out and he thought she was asleep. She wasn’t. She said, it would be warmer if you got under my covers and he said okay and hoped he didn’t sound anxious. She was a married woman and he thought that maybe this wasn’t appropriate. But he crawled under the covers and he nearly fell asleep when she touched his shoulder with her hand and his eyes jumped open. She said he left me and he said nothing in return for a long time and could only feel her warm hand on his skin. He said she left me again too and he rolled towards her and he could feel her breath on his face for she had moved closer to him. In the dim light he could see her face and could see that her eyes were open. She smiled at him and could see her white teeth. He smiled back. She said I’m sorry she left and he said I’m sorry he left. And she closed her eyes and he closed his. But his wouldn’t stay closed and his heart was pounding and he said in a rush I loved you and her eyes opened up and she smiled again and said I know. And she looked at him for a long moment and finally she said I loved you too. She moved towards him with quickness and he wrapped her up in his arms and he could feel her warmth and she could feel his and they slept.

When they woke they were friends again. And maybe they were more.

title: They Were Friends Once [RF]

question: What does the story say about the negative moments in the narrator's relationship with his coworker?

answer: Their friendship withered and died after he offered her a suggestion and she reacted in a childlike way. They rarely talked after that. After the hot tub party, the coworker doesn't acknowledge him and doesn't care when he leaves his job without even saying goodbye to her.  When he sent her an email, she never replied.

question: What does the story say about infidelity?

answer: The protagonist's wife leaves him and runs off to live with her college boyfriend. At the hot tub party, the coworker is flirty with the protagonist. His wife later loses her way again and leaves him a second time.

question: What does the story say about the type of person the coworker's husband is?

question: What does the story say about attraction?

answer: The protagonist thought his coworker was beautiful since her first day on the job. She likely thought of him as attractive also. At the hot tub party, he takes pleasure in watching her exit and enter the water in her bikini. When they reunite after a few years, he thinks she looks just as good as the day he first saw her. They wind up sharing a hotel room, and he tries not to look at her shapely thighs. He remembers how sexy she looked smoking one day, and finds she looks even sexier smoking in the bed.


text:
“It’s a rotting dead piece of wood,” Mr. Brown spat, “what am I to do with this?” The boy cringed at the sight of the red faced, wrinkled and balding man. He took a small step back, remaining out of arms reach and attempting the look of a meek, little mouse. “It’s a present.” He said, softly, “from a Mr. Leon Porter. He said I had to bring it to you today.”

“Well tell him I don’t have a need for it. Bring it back to him. I’m busy.” Mr. Brown handed the tree back to the boy. The tree was half the size of the boy and was actually a carved, wooden stump with wire branches. Green twine was wrapped around the branches and small, red ornaments were glued in random spots near the top.

“I’m sorry, sir, I cannot return this to him,” the boy replied, “He’s dead.”

The room was quiet for a moment, the old man seemed to be lost in a thought. After a few seconds he asked the boy, “Did Leon tell you why he needed you to bring this to me?”

“No, well kind of,” said the boy. “Mr. Porter, he umm, had trouble thinking. He said, he told me that he needed to return a favor and that I had to help him. This tree. That’s all I know.”

Mr. Brown sighed, sitting back into his chair. “I’m not sure why I’m telling you this, but Leon was a friend a long time ago, but not anymore.” His face went from soft to stone. “Anyhow, just throw it out then.”

“Alright,” replied the boy. He grabbed the tree and left.

Having no use for it, the boy tossed the tree near an alley on his walk home. Shortly thereafter a young, well dressed couple enter the alley.

“I don’t know why on earth women wear shoes like these. I’m literally dying from the pain.” The woman said. Her companion grinned slightly, rolling his eyes while the woman removed the shoes and tossed them, quite furiously, down the alley.

As the shoes went over a pile a rubble there was a sound of shattering glass. “Now look what you’ve done,” the woman said, glaring at her partner while he just shrugged. She went to retrieve the shoes and noticed the stiletto point had punctured an ornament on a raggedy looking, fake Christmas tree.

She picked up her shoe and noticed a folded piece of paper stuck to the bottom. Her partner walked over as she unfolded the paper and read it:

_

Joe Brown,

What we had meant nothing. You had a wife and I was a widow with a child. We were both stupid. Love, affection, it’s nothing. You proved that when you said those words, “I cannot love you.” Well I’m dying soon. The only memories I can hold on to now are these. That I lived, I loved, I was lied to, and I died, first inside and soon physically. And it was all you. All you. I’m so angry.

In a different world I could tell you that I’m scared. I’m scared to leave this place not having found love. What if it’s only darkness past the white light unless you’ve found some sort of connection? What if you’ve doomed me to an eternity of non-existence or worse, forever feeling your absence.

I’m scared. Please remember me now that I’m dead. Please. It’s all I have left.

Yours forever,

Leon

_

Joe returned home that night, waiting a few minutes in the car to compose himself. He didn’t want to see his wife, didn’t want her to see into his heart and wonder why there was sorrow there. He had to go in sometime though, so he left his car and put on a fake smile.

“Hello, honey,” he said, closing the front door behind him. The room seemed dark and there was no response. He sighed with relief, thinking she must have stayed late at work. He worked his way upstairs to the bed room. After removing his coat and hanging it on the rack, he sat on the bed. He loosened his tie and just thought for a few minutes.

_

That tree. That night he first met Leon. He looked so cold sitting in the alley. Something deep inside Joe had been hit hard, it was like nothing he had ever felt before. He stopped the car and approached the man.

“You look cold.” Joe said.

“Eh, it’s not too bad. At least I have. . .“ The man didn’t finish, just stared into the sky as if in thought.

“Well it’s not safe out here. Let’s get you somewhere warm.”

_

They went to a nearby coffee shop to talk. That’s where Leon explained how he lost his wife. That he had never really loved a woman, but the pressure. Karen was special; she deserved more. So he told her. She got the kid, the car, the house, everything.

It all spiraled out of control from there for Leon. In his depression he lost his job and his will to live. How could he start again at this age? There are no fresh starts for old men.

Joe eventually put Leon up in an extended stay motel. He hid the whole thing from his wife because of the money and because good deeds are better kept a secret.

_

On the following Christmas, Leon had no one. Joe snuck away the day before Christmas Eve. He told Leon this would be their day. They built a small Christmas tree together out of carved wood, wire, and some old ornaments. It was that night that Leon made a move on Joe and Joe had to explain.

“I love you, Leon. I really do. But this is not something that can happen between us.”

“Oh okay.” Leon replied. It seemed to be the end of that.

_

But things got worse from there. Leon started following him to work sometimes, watching. Writing strange letters. There were some calls to the house with no one on the line, probably Leon. He even followed Joe and his wife out on a date. That was the last straw.

When he went to meet Leon it went very strangely. Leon barely made any sense. He talked about destiny and angels. He said Joe was his soul mate, that they were to become one and change the world. He cautioned Joe about his wife, that she was a devil intent on destroying the plan.

Joe did the best he could to end it right there. He told Leon he could no longer support him financially. He tried to convince him to seek help and offered to take him to a hospital. Leon declined and Joe left.

_

Sitting on the bed all these memories warred in his mind. There was something about Leon that really broke Joe’s heart and to see his life spiral out like that, to see him fall into the grip of mental illness was completely heartbreaking. Joe began to sob uncontrollably into his pillow.

Then there was a rustling sound and Joe looked up. His wife stood in the darkened hallway with a strange look on her face and a paper in her hand.

“We need to talk, Joe.” Lydia said, throwing the paper down on Joe’s lap. Included was a picture of Joe and Leon together.

Joe went from sorrow to shock. “What is this?”

“You tell me!” she responded angrily. “Susan found this on her walk home. What the hell is it? What the hell is it, Joe!?”

Joe picked up the letter and begun to read. His heart sank deeper with each word, tears falling down his face.

“I can’t do this right now” he said, trying to convey everything with just the look in his eyes. “Please, give me some time. I promise I can explain all of this to you later.” They stared for a moment and she nodded.

He took the car out on some back roads and parked. He reclined his seat and screamed and sobbed and had moments of complete silence and nothingness. Eventually he fell asleep.

_

The next day he met with his wife in a secluded coffee shop. Joe explained for hours what had happened, confessing that he had been using money to help Leon. He explained the stalking and the delusions.

After he was done he stared in her eyes for what seemed like forever. He could see her processing. And then, after eternity, her face softened and he could see trust return in her eyes.

He could tell, just from that penetrating glare, that she also understood the depth of sorrow he felt for his friend. He felt a deepening respect from her towards him, it wrapped him like a warm blanket. He knew, though the road was tough, they would now be stronger for this.

title: [RF] Ornaments

question: What does the story say about Joe's relationship with Leon?

answer: Leon first meets Joe when Joe is sitting out in an alley. They go chat in a coffee shop and leon explains how he lost his wife, his job, and his will to live. Joe begins supporting Leon financially. Joe and Leon spend Christmas eve together, and Leon tries to make a move on Joe. Leon then starts stalking Joe, forcing Joe to break off contact.

question: What does the story say about the type of person Leon's wife was?

question: Summarize everything relating to the central conflict.

answer: Leon is depressed after losing his wife. When Joe tries to support him, Leon becomes attached to Joe to the point of obsession and stalking. Joe's wife is upset when she discovers a letter from Leon.

question: Summarize everything relating to Christmas.

answer: At the beginning of the story, the boy delivers a Christmas tree with red ornaments to Mr. Brown. A woman tosses her shoes and notices the stiletto point has punctured an ornament on the Christmas tree. During the flashback segment, Joe and Leon spend Christmas Eve together, during which Joe makes a move on Leon.


title: [SF] Beauty Sleep

question: Why did the narrator decide to get the operation?

answer: Because they felt sleep was a waste of time and they wanted to use their time more efficiently to progress their career and hobbies.

question: What would have happened if the device did not deactivate?

answer: The narrator might have died from sleep deprivation.

question: What is the message of the story?

answer: The story seems to be saying that despite what the narrator believes, sleep is a necessity.