Monster - an original work

I walk the streets, knowing that eventually one of black heart will choose me as his or her victim. I walk each night, hoping that I will be undisturbed, but tonight, as on every other night, it is not to be.

He starts following me when I am not far from my destination. He catches up and drags me into an alley. My heart is heavy with what I fear will transpire.

"I warn you to release me" I tell him.

He narrows his eyes at me, trying to judge if I could be a threat. He misjudges, as do they all. "I'll release you, when I'm through with you, whore!"

I don't struggle and he appraises me again, noting that I don't appear frightened. He continues with his attack upon me, pulling my skirt up and with his knife cutting through my nylons and exposing what he thinks is his prize.

"I give you one last chance to cease this folly now." I offer him one final escape before I must act against him.

He sneers at me as he holds the knife to my chest as he opens his pants, releasing himself for his attack.

He sheaths his knife when I fail to make any motion to free myself from his grasp. Grabbing me roughly, he enters. I gasp in reaction to the pain.

He smiles again and I finally act.

His eyes widen as I bare my fangs before burying them deep within his throat. He moans in reaction to the ecstasy of the dark kiss.

I draw just enough of his blood to weaken him, then I release him.

He falls back against the other wall of the alley and slides to a sitting position, staring at me in a daze.

"You were warned, and now you have received punishment for your actions." I kneel before him.

"This is only the beginning. I have only taken enough of your blood to make you a bit weak. You will not die unless it is by your own foolishness. However, you will remember. You will remember and you will desire to re-enact this moment, but to no avail. There will be nothing that you can find that can compare to what I have done to you this night, and you will never have this again. I have marked you. To vampires, you are now anathema. They will not approach and you will waste your life trying to recapture this moment. This is what you have earned by your actions."

With that said, I rise and leave him weeping softly in the alley.

Background and Info:

Monster.com originated in 1994 as Monsterboard.com and is considered the leading job search site. In January of 1999, TMP Worldwide merged Online Career Center (the internet's first employment site started in 1993), and Jeff Taylor’s Monsterboard.com to form Monster.com. Monster currently has local content and language sites in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Luxembourg, India, and Italy.

Monster allows job seekers to post their resume online for free and have use of the job database. Job seekers can use customizable agents to search for jobs, manage their resumes online, participate in online chats, seek advice from career professionals, post under the monster message boards, research companies and use the Interview Center and the Career Center. Employers posting positions to Monster.com have resume skills screening, real-time recruiting, and the resume database. Monster has expanded their site to include Chief Monster.com geared for senior executives, Campus Monster for recent graduates, Technology Monster for IT professionals, Monster Talent Market for free agents, as well as Monster Moving for help with relocation services.

Monster also has become the first dot com Olympic sponsor. In January 2000, Monster became the first web site to sponsor the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and the 2002 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Teams. Monster is providing financial sponsorship as well as generating a private online career management services to the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, the United States Olympic Committee, and U.S. Olympic Athletes.

Out of 25 blimps worldwide and 10 in the United States, two of which belong to Monster. On the East Coast is the Blimp “Trump” and the West Coast is “Skeeter”, named after two of the monster personalities found on the website.



How to use Monster.com to get a job:

OK, the obvious hints...

Use the pages geared towards your field: technology, sales, legal, etc. MonsterTrack for college students, ChierMonster for executive, Monster Talent Market for free agents. Use the career center, salary calculator, posting boards, chats, talk to career counselors.

The not so obvious hints:

First important thing to do: CREATE A PROFILE.
Most people bitch about making a resume since it takes a while and is a bit confusing. But it’s detailed so it will help you find a better job. Once you take the time to do that (and even copying and pasting your existing resume still takes time) the rest is done for you. Do it and take the time to do it right. An hour or two spent there will save you endless hours searching through job postings randomly.

The key to using monster is to create a resume in their database. It’s free. Employers want to see what’s there. They are looking for people to fill their jobs even as you are looking to fill their postings. Usually an employer will be given free access to the database if they purchase a job package, and they will use it. Recruiters use it, too. And they are not all bad. The most important thing to know about creating a resume is this: updating it. Most people go in, create a resume and then leave it. Which is all fine and good. Until you understand how the searches through that resume database work. When you update your resume, even if you change one space, one word, it gets flagged as an ‘updated’ or ‘new’ resume. When employers and recruiters search through this database, the default option for them is to see only new resumes. So an employer might look for a job with specific qualifications and ignore your resume since it’s not new or if they’ve seen it once. But. They go back, and search for a second, third, fourth posting they have available and never see your resume again. When you update your resume, it will get seen more. Way more. Update it often. Daily if you can. New jobs are added daily, more jobs are searched for daily. Take 5 minutes and change something. Once you take the time to create a profile, you do 5 minutes of work daily and you will have a job sooner than you ever would have hoped for. We’re talking days here, especially in the IT industry.

Second important thing to do: CREATE JOB SEARCH AGENTS.
You can create a few of them. Do so! What happens is you enter in a keyword search and you can receive an email daily of all the jobs that match your search. It’s essentially what you would do if you were looking through jobs. Except this is emailed to you. You get a specific email for every search you create. So if you are looking for a job programming, you create a search agent that looks for anything that matches perl and a second one for SQL. Don’t be too specific in these searches since they eliminate more job postings that will be emailed to you. The email sends you a link to the employer’s web site, you can go, quickly check out the company if the job sounds interesting. Then click the url contained in the email for the posting, and with the resume you created earlier, and in one click you apply for the job and your resume is mailed to the employer. No email, no cover letter, immediate response. Whenever applicable there is even a contact name contained in the posting. Email for more information. Send a txt copy of your resume along to the employer, saying you saw the job on monster.com and applied online but you’re sending an extra copy of your resume along via email...

Of course, there are a million more hints like follow up thank you emails and how to interview etc. But those two key aspects will start your job search off and you’ll be ahead of the million or so other people also using the page.

The Monster Network:

www.monster.be
www.monster.ca
www.monster.co.in
www.monster.co.nz
www.monster.co.uk
www.monster.com
www.monster.com.au
www.monster.com.hk
www.monster.com.sg
www.monster.cz
www.monster.de
www.monster.es
www.monster.fr
www.monster.hu
www.monster.ie
www.monster.it
www.monster.lu
www.monsterboard.nl
www.monsterIndia.com
www.monsterireland.com
www.monsterireland.ie
www.monsteritalia.it
www.monsterjapan.com
www.monsterscotland.co.uk

A defensive set for Ultimate Frisbee. Sometimes known as a "1-3-3" or "Puke." The defense consists of one man (the 'Monster" or "Puke") who chases the disc and sets the mark on each thrower. The mark is straight-up - the huck must be avoided at all costs. Behind him is a wall of three men, who stay about 10 yards upfield from the disc and move from side to side to stop anyone from cutting in towards the handlers. Behind the wall is a deep deep, a left wing, and a right wing, who split up the backfield and ideally prevent the hammer. This can be a really effective defense against an even slightly-disorganized offense, because it takes a lot of teamwork to get anything upfield past the wall. The only drawback is that your monster must be really on top of his game, really fast, and in great shape - he's called a monster for a reason - and you must be prepared to take him out after a few points so he can go puke. This is a damn tiring defense.

Monster is the eleventh album from the band R.E.M. It was released September 27, 1994, the follow-up to their hugely successful Automatic For The People and Out of Time albums. Rather than continue an introspective, mellow train of thought like their previous album Automatic For The People or a pop and social commentary vein like their huge 1991 album, Out of Time, R.E.M. did something that simultaneously alienated their fanbase and earned them the respect of many others. They released a hard rock album chock full of heavily distorted guitars, nearly to the point of drowning out everything else. This album was produced by Scott Litt and R.E.M. and as usual, all songs were written by the group. It totals forty nine minutes and sixteen seconds over twelve tracks.

The sheer audacity of this approach took much of their fanbase by surprise, and this album received a lot of negative feedback from their fans. On the other hand, to this day I am utterly impressed with the sheer audacity of it; taking your previous sound that had resulted in two monstrously popular albums and completely throwing it out the window takes some serious guts. Even more, I think it's an extremely enjoyable album; it's the sound of a band having fun, especially Peter Buck, whose guitar often sounds utterly inspired.

The album opens with the first single from the album, What's The Frequency Kenneth? (3:59), a song about Dan Rather and schizophrenia. There is an excellent writeup explaining the story behind this song. It opens the album with fuzzy guitars, telling the world openly that this is not going to be Automatic For The People, Part Two.

The single came out early in the month and I have to admit, it took me by surprise (along with much of the rest of the music-listening world). I tuned into my regular rock station one morning in early September 1994 just as this song was starting to play; I thought it was a new grunge band with a singer that was trying to sound like Michael Stipe. When the announcer came on and said that it was the first single from R.E.M.'s upcoming album, I was in disbelief... but the kind of disbelief that comes with a smile. It's a great song and a huge change of pace from what the group was doing before.

The second track is the third single, released in December 1994. Crush With Eyeliner (4:39) is full of loud guitars once again, giving this tale of an unusual girl seen on the sidewalk an edgy feel. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth contributes to this track, and the Sonic Youth feel is all over this song.

King of Comedy (3:39) continues the heavy guitar influence on a track about the power of celebrity. A gutsy subject from a band taking a gutsy musical approach to an album and pulling it off wonderfully. A friend of mine, a supposed R.E.M. fan, has stated to me that he has never been able to listen to this album beyond this track. The distorted vocals just fit it all perfectly; this is a great rock track.

I Don't Sleep, I Dream (3:25) isn't as chock full of heavy guitar as the first three, but it still retains a very edgy feel. The song is about someone seeking a relationship that is a change of pace, which contributes to the whole general feeling of change one gets from this album. The falsetto parts of the choruses are fantastic; this is what U2's Lemon could have been.

Star 69 (3:07) again returns to the heavy rock theme of the album, with some particularly nice riffs in places. It's about paranoia concerning people who call and hang up; the riffage in the middle makes this another excellent track.

The fourth single from the album, released in April 1995, is the sixth track. Strange Currencies (3:51) is easily the most mellow song to this point on the album; it's about the weird exchanges that occur in any relationship that exists for a while. The music almost sounds like a heavier version of Automatic's Everybody Hurts; it turns out quite nice.

The fifth single from the album was Tongue (4:08), released in September 1995; it's also the seventh track on the album. It's very unusual, using some sort of electric organ and a strongly falsetto style on vocals from Michael Stipe. I'm really unsure as to what the song is to be about; the lyrics are rather unusual. The music, however, is top notch and that's what makes this song a worthwhile single.

Perhaps the most well-known song from the album is the eighth track, Bang and Blame (4:48), which was the second single, released in November 1994. It's one of those songs that you can drown yourself in; in fact, turning this song up and just closing your eyes paints a better picture of what this album is about than any mere words I could express. It's about a relationship collapsing, but when the chorus comes ripping in, it's magic.

I Took Your Name (4:07) is somehow very reminiscent of Crush With Eyeliner earlier in the album in terms of instrumentation; the vocals are distorted and detached, though, making the song feel different. It's about the ties that bind in a relationship as it ends; a very good song with the edgy guitars that made Crush With Eyeliner such a good track.

The tenth track was intended to feature Kurt Cobain of Nirvana in a guest appearance, as he and Michael Stipe were good friends, but due to Kurt's unfortunate and untimely end in April 1994, things didn't go as planned. This song, Let Me In (3:27), remained on the album and is quite reminiscent of something that might have appeared on In Utero, a wonderfully distorted mess that somehow clicks into place. Michael Mills supposedly used Kurt Cobain's Fender Jaguar in the recording of the track. Stipe's vocals cut through the fog of distortion wonderfully.

Circus Envy (4:14) is another rocker, this time about a person who is quite cruel in a lot of ways to the singer. The lyrics are unusual and the fuzz is turned up very high here, a distortion-filled rocker near the end.

The album closes with You (4:52), an optimistic song about being in love and being focused on your partner. The guitars are much more sedate here, but still distorted, bringing the album to a close and setting the stage very well for their follow-up album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi. A very nice closer, mostly thanks to the distorted Peter Buck guitar and Michael Stipe's vocal experimentation.

What can I say? This album was a monstrous change in direction for a band and it alienated their fanbase, a part of which never really came back to the band even though they've released some truly excellent stuff since then. It is a great hard rock album; the problem is that many R.E.M. fans aren't fans of hard rock. If you liked this one, I would recommend Nirvana's In Utero, as well as this group's albums Document and Murmur.

A monster is any creature that does not exist in the real world. Dragons, goblins, and various aliens from the movies are examples of monsters.

Humans seem to have a fascination with monsters, they have been filling their folklore, fiction, and popular culture with creepy crawly things since the beginning of time. Perhaps it is the fear of the unknown? Or more likely monsters are embodiments of the faceless fears of the dark, loneliness, and death that have plagued almost everyone since time began.

Every culture has its own monsters, even the modern day western world (although now they are called "aliens"). Many types of monsters are oddly widespread. The vampire, lycanthrope, and dragon in particular have appeared independently in many far flung cultures (which leads one to wonder, did they really exist at one time?)

Sea monsters are especially prevalent in any culture that lives near the water. Over hundreds of years we have found that some of those "monsters" were indeed real (Giant Squid for example). Lake monsters resembling the plesiosaur have been reported for thousands of years, but scientists have yet to discover a body.

When designing a monster for use in a movie, game, or fiction, you must take several things into consideration.

Monsters have to eat

This one simple fact is overlooked by almost everyone. A dragon, for example, will be the largest predator around for hundreds of miles. It will most likely live in a cave, and the entire area for at least 50 miles will be plagued with the constant slaughter of herd animals (needed to support the body mass of the beast).

How about the case where the space marines go to the abandoned station/outpost to find it has been overrun with carnivorous beasts. What have they been eating between the time they overran the area 3 years ago, and today when they start eating the crew of the newly arrived ship.

Mammals and insects especially need huge amounts of food to survive. You can't just have a planet populated by billions of giant insects, with no other species. It doesn't work.

So always design a ready food source for your monsters. Humans are a poor choice, as they take too long to grow to maturity. Herd animals, plants, and insects are a much better choice. These are easy to work into your story or adventure. You just have to think about it.

Monsters living in peace! Real or Malarkey?

Fantasy RPG designers have a real problem with this. They will have one small dungeon, with 15 different species of intelligent monsters living in it, seeming oblivious to each other's existence. It doesn't work that way either. The most powerful species will subjugate any and all other species in the complex. They do not just live in harmony, that is not how evil works. To properly account for this you should move the bulk of the valuables in the complex over to the most powerful monsters, while making sure they have the best rooms, and so on. Don't forget that all these monsters will have to eat (making the weakest species do some sort of agriculture works nicely).

What kind of power is that?

People like to make their monsters fantastic, with abilities beyond what earthly creatures can accomplish. This is fine, but be realistic. No monster will have ever developed nested heads that come out of the largest one. Any small creature of immense power (like a beholder), will need to have some inter-racial squabble to keep them from taking over the whole planet. Resist the temptation to create cool looking monsters that would have never came about in any sort of natural environment. Avoid abilities that could simply never exist (it is conceivable that a creature could develop a flame breath, it is not conceivable that it would develop the ability to transform into a mist).

Wrapping up

The best way to create a realistic monster is to find the equivalent creature on earth, and use that to fill in the gaps. Look at wolves for inspiration on how medium sized carnivores actually live. Lions, elephants, monkeys are all good inspiration too. If your creature is intelligent, and has a way to build tools, then there is only one species to look at for inspiration, man. Your gopher-men should have as much detail as real humans, they should have goals, religions, taboos, and customs. They should manipulate the environment around them, in the same manner that humans do.

Here are a few monster nodes to get you started (just send me a /msg to have your node added).

  1. creeping mold
  2. blue mold
  3. gray mold
  4. banshee
  5. behir
  6. beholder
  7. Brain Mole
  8. broken one
  9. Troglodyte
  10. triton
  11. deep dragon
  12. grimlock
  13. swanmay
  14. roper
  15. nightmare
  16. wemic
  17. arcane
  18. shrieker
  19. violet fungus
  20. gas spore
  21. ascomoid
  22. Zaratan
  23. Fog Giant
  24. xorn
  25. bag of devouring
  26. Living Wall
  27. Brownie
  28. halfling

The 16 oz. energy drink Monster is an unusual addition to the current roster of popular 8 oz. energy drinks, including Red Bull, Amp, Venom, and many others. Common commercial sources indicate that the drink has a "smooth flavor you can really pound down."

"Special ingredients" (Per Serving):

Note that there are 2 servings, so there is twice as much of everything in the whole can.

Monster retails for $2 a can, as with most 8 oz. energy drinks, but is a little more difficult to find. It can be bought in bulk online at http://www.thinkgeek.com/ for a little bit less.

Of course, you can't always believe what they say. I picked up a can of this stuff at Discount Den by the Purdue campus, and my first sip of it brought neither citrus nor taurine to mind - it only made me think of one thing, and that was chapstick. This stuff tastes like chapstick. After some consideration, I noticed some tropical something or other; pineapple, lemon, maybe pina colada, but it was still mostly chapstick.

I was working on only 2 hours of sleep, and personal tastes will vary, so don't take this too seriously. But I don't mind chapstick all that much, so I kept sipping it throughout the lunch hour and on into my C++ lab. After about an hour of my chapsticky-sweet goodness, I gave a friend of mine a taste and he said (and I quote), "My god, that does taste like chapstick."

But of all the Sobes and Mad Rivers and tea and coffee I've ever had, Monster was by far the cleanest, most comfortable lift I've ever had. I guess there's something to be said for 5000 mg of miscellaneous stimulants.

This 2003 movie, written and directed by Patty Jenkins, is based on the story of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer in the 1980s. This well-crafted and well-acted film successfully walks a delicate line, allowing the viewer to sympathize with Wuornos yet feel justifiable horror as she kills a string of johns. A chilling and compelling story.

Wuornos is portrayed by an unrecognizable Charlize Theron, who gained thirty pounds and was elaborately disguised with make-up, contact lenses, and dentures for the role. Theron seems at times as if she's channeling Wuornos; her ability to embody the troubled woman is uncanny. As her character reveals in the movie, Wuornos had a very difficult childhood, raped at a very young age, beaten by her parents, and selling sex for money while still a teen. As an adult, she survived by her wits, turning tricks for money to buy beer and cigarettes, stashing her few possessions in a u-store locker, washing in gas station toilets.

One day Wuornos meets a young lesbian, Selby (Christina Ricci), at a bar; they agree to meet the next day. But Wuornos' last trick of that day becomes a nightmare: he beats and rapes her, burning her with acid. In pain, fear, and rage she frees herself from the ropes he has bound her with and shoots him. And so her life is changed forever.

Wuornos seeks out Selby, who had thought herself stood up, and the two run away together. Their relationship is totally believable - the tough Wuornos, filled with bravado, quick to lash out in anger, yet desperate for love, is ranged against naive Selby, vulnerable, manipulative, fascinated by the hooking, disgusted by the killing. Wuornos' attempts to get a regular job is heart-breaking: with no education, no work history, and no training, her chances of "going straight" are infinitesimal, and she soon turns back to the only life she knows, pushed by the passive-aggressive Selby.

Also painfully believable are the times when Wuornos dehumanizes the johns, working herself up to kill. Occasionally they pull her back from the brink, but not often enough: during nine months covered by the movie she kills a number of men, taking their money and cars. When the women realize that the police know who they are, Wuornos puts Selby on a bus back home, and is soon arrested. Wuornos argued in court that all the murders were done in self-defense, but was convicted of murder, spent twelve years on death row, and was executed in 2002.

Theron won an Oscar for her brilliant portrayal of Wuornos. Ricci is also great here, and Jenkins' spare script and excellent direction are also worthy of mention.

If you do watch this movie, also see the documentary "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer" by Nick Broomfield. It gives more detail about Wuornos' life and includes interviews with her in prison, where she seems unhinged by her years in captivity and ready to die. Both highly recommended.

Mon"ster (?), n. [OE. monstre, F. monstre, fr. L. monstrum, orig., a divine omen, indicating misfortune; akin of monstrare to show, point out, indicate, and monere to warn. See Monition, and cf. Demonstrate, Muster.]

1.

Something of unnatural size, shape, or quality; a prodigy; an enormity; a marvel.

A monster or marvel.
Chaucer.

2.

Specifically , an animal or plant departing greatly from the usual type, as by having too many limbs.

3.

Any thing or person of unnatural or excessive ugliness, deformity, wickedness, or cruelty.

 

© Webster 1913.


Mon"ster, a.

Monstrous in size.

Pope.

 

© Webster 1913.


Mon"ster, v. t.

To make monstrous.

[Obs.]

Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.

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