Short Story: The Machine

In "A Lady in a Machine-Shop," Susan Bivin Aller uses creativity, determination, and confidence to demonstrate how they led Margaret Knight to succession as an inventor. Knight and her family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire when she was at a young age. At the age of twelve, Knight witnessed a mill worker injured by a steel-tipped shuttle. This motivated her to create a safety mechanism, her first invention, to prevent any further injuries in cotton mills.

Doing laundry, studying, eating, knowing how to manage time, being social, dealing with bad choices, and so many others are all things we have to deal with when going off to college for the first time (Pennock Title). Some of these are simple everyday things that come natural to us, like breathing, but some can be much more difficult than others. One that is rather trying is finding time to get your laundry done. Often times it’s not finding the time to do your laundry, but the resources to do so. I don’t mean if a machine is available or not, but if a machine is working or not. Having problems with machine functionality seems to be a common trend when it comes to university life.

“I like stress. I love it. It pushes me harder to do my best work. It’s beneficial for me to be here and to work on something I am so passionate about.”

“H-hey, kid… You have to get out of here” The old janitor sputtered, as he coughed blood all over his uniform. “It’s not safe anymore” The janitor spat a large globule of blood to the floor. “Take this knife and run, there’s nothing here for you now.” The janitor pulled free a long silver dagger from the inside of his uniform, and handed it over to Tristin.

A jolt of pain shot through Avi’s leg as Meg’s slight frame crashed into Avi’s sore body, making her grunt, and glance down at her leg, only then realizing that a rough looking bandage was tied around her calf. “Oh, I’m sorry.” Meg gasped, pulling away. “Are you okay?” She looked down at Avi’s leg.

“It’s the new software, it’s completely automated, humans can’t make nuclear decisions!” All the men were silent. Then another prompt appeared on the screen: ‘Nuclear retaliation- five.’

“How could this happen?” He wondered. He tried to think of why someone wanted the CEO dead, but he couldn’t focus on driving at the same time. “Well, it can’t be that bad, after all, they probably missed the important organs.” he thought. When he got there, he realized how wrong he was. “Well, I was wrong.” he pointed out in his mind. “Well, it doesn’t matter, time to get him back to the hospital.”

"HELP, HELP" I heard from the SUV. As I ran over there I noticed that one of them was bleeding from the head.

“Kid, you gotta come with us. Your head’s bleeding like crazy. Can you not feel that?” On instinct I touched the back of my head. I could feel it. The blood. I pulled my hand away, and it came back covered in red.

“That boy is heading for trouble if he doesn’t straighten up his act,” Ernest said as they went to his house. “Would you help me clean the blood off my face and put band-aids on the cuts? Thank you for your help, you saved my life because those boys would have killed me,” Ernest said.

Daniel's dull gray eyes were blank by the time he left the media center. He didn’t know what he wanted to feel anymore, so he felt nothing, he allowed his emotions to fade off into the back of his head, at least for a little while. Daniel knew he probably should just go to PE, it was a better distraction than hiding in his dorm.

After reviewing the simulation; Trevor is facing a dilemma, he just lost his job, his health insurance is no longer active, he is limited on funds, and he is having chest pain.

“Sorry,” Booker murmured, his eyes focused on the large amount of blood staining the cement floor. There was no doubt his friend was in need of urgent medical attention, and he knew he must quickly formulate a plan, or Tom’s life could be at

Keith, I believe that is in-line with the film assignment that we had. As you mentioned, the machine metaphor may be appropriate when the officers merely receive and carry out the directive, arresting the suspects involved in the graffiti. Just as the marines were directed to recover civilians and escort them to an air base. But, when you ask more questions about possible long term solutions then the machine metaphor may not be able to handle the complexity of the organizational issue. The brain metaphor may be more appropriate in this situation. As with the film the marines scanned their environment, asked more questions, (locating the weakness of the alien), and ultimately gaining the knowledge to initiate a successful counter-attack.

“ Ready, aim, FIRE!!” exclaimed President Smith. The next thing they knew Christopher and Christina were knocked out by the power of the machine.