Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Literary Analysis

Every year a poll goes out in the United States asking what the participant fears. In every single one of these the number one fear is spiders.  One serious thing very little fear is isolation. In Ray Bradbury's short story, "All Summer in a Day", the main character, Margot, is very isolated from all of the other children. They even invited her to play, but she didn't even respond. The author left the ending open for the reader to decide what happens to her. Insanity? Suicide? Whatever it is, it isn't good. Scientist even conducted a cruel experiment on monkeys relating to Isolation. They wanted to see what a monkey would do if it was never touched, ever, in its lifetime. They gave it fresh food and water, but kept it in a cage and completely by itself. Eventually the monkey would just sit in a corner and starve. The scientists saved them, but if not, the monkey's would've committed suicide. All because of Isolation.

"All Summer In A Day" has a very large amount of evidence to back up the purpose of the story. When the main character, a girl named Margot, gets bullied, she doesn't even respond. Bullying is a serious topic, but she was almost asking for it. She just would stand in the corner and when kids would bully her she wouldn't do anything. And sometimes, she would almost try to aggravate the other children by talking to herself about the sun, and when they told her to be quiet, she would continue ignoring them. Pushing them even further to the edge of bullying her.

Even when not being bullied, Margot would isolate herself. Kids would invite her to play tag with them. "Tag, your it!" A kid would say to her. She would totally ignore and not even acknowledge the child's existence of ever touching her or speaking to her. What would really annoy the kids is when she bragged about how she had seen the sun and they hadn't. She would describe the sun endlessly witch eventually led to her being locked in the closet. This story is classified as irony, it also included a good dose of it as well.

Being isolated wasn't completely her fault. She was forced to be with a mean cast of people. Her parents would've taken  her back to Earth if they didn't have to pay. Margot desperately wanted to return to earth, but her parents still valued money more than their child's sanity. After Margot was locked in the closet the teacher asked if everyone was here. The students reply was none other than "Yes". The teacher didn't even take the time to do a roll call! How could a teacher not notice that a pupil as strange as Margot was missing! What nice people these students are to lock another child in a closet so that she wouldn't see the sun that only comes out once every seven years. It's hard to be optimistic about her sanity staying in shape without seeing the sun for another seven years!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Minecraft Part 7

Tom handed out some enchanted weapons, I had a sword similar to the one I had fought Randall with. Medium in length but light, he and I both, had figured it was perfect. Once a weapon becomes enchanted it glows a certain color. They explained to me what the colors meant. Purple, the color of my sword, made it so the sword stuns the enemy and they go insane for a short while and attack anybody. I thought that was a little horrific, but they pressed on me to use it. I tried to refuse, but my attempts were in vain. I figured out that Patrick was a long range marksman, after I asked him why he was using a bow. The bow was glowing light blue, the color of ice, because whatever limb the arrow hits, the limb is rendered useless unless given an antidote. Tom was holding an axe that probably weighed very high because when I tried to pick it up I dropped it after fifteen  seconds. His axe was glowing yellow. Which makes it have a much cleaner cut. Randall was using a slightly curved sword which glowed red. When I asked him about it all he said was "It's just in case we have to make a quick escape"

 We were all waiting in anticipation in the basement excluding Patrick, who was keeping watch upstairs. I was nervous at first, but then I started thinking that nobody was going to come. Patrick even exclaiming to us from upstairs that nobody is coming. I guess that Randall knew they were coming because he kept Patrick upstairs.

"I'm gonna go outside just prove that nobody's gonna come"

Randall went upstairs and exchanged a few words with Patrick that I couldn't understand. "What do you think they're saying?" Asked Tom

"Randall's probably mad at him but I think that Patrick is too stubborn to not go outside" All of a sudden Patrick came storming down the stairs. Obviously mad. I had enough people skills to know not to ask him anything unless I wanted to risk being me the one he was mad at. Then I heard breaking glass and a thud. We all rushed up and saw a body on the ground. Tom looked over it and realized it was not Randall, where was he?

"What the-" Tom was cut off by a human jumping through the glass onto him. I plunged my sword into the small of his back. Luckily it killed him immediately so that he was not subject to the strange power of my weapon. Another jumped in onto me but an arrow was through his arm less than a second later. He rolled of me in horror of what had happened to his arm. Ice was engulfing it and he couldn't move it. He was flailing it around then fell to the ground because of the weight. Two more came through and I found Randall. He rolled from underneath a bed and through ones legs. He then thrust his sword into the mans torso. The one left was running at Tom with a rusty knife and sliced his arm. Tom then dropped his axe onto the mans foot, slicing it clean off. Patrick then put an arrow into the back of his head and he was killed. Randall immediately started tending to Tom's wound.

"One jumped at me but I fought him off and hid under the bed. I heard footsteps so but I didn't know if it was you or them." He pointed at the bodies, that were quickly disintegrating.

"What's happening to them?"  Patrick asked

"This is what happens to people on their last live. I suppose its been brought down to one now" explained Randall

"How can you tell that they weren't just on their last life?" Questioned Tom

"It's just a hunch, because people would be more cautious and smart on their last life. Anyways, it'd be very coincidental if they were all on their last life."

"Let's ask this guy" I said, standing over him. He was just laying there. Holding onto his left arm with is other. Randall walked up to my side. He crouched down low, and asked.

"How ya doing?"

He just lay there staring for a while. When I started to feel aggravated about him being so silent he finally said something "Why do you care?!" He was acting tough but in his eyes he looked scared. Tom stomped on his ribcage and the man coughed up blood.

Randall asked again, with the same emotion. The man gave up his tough guy act and said "Please d-don't kill, me, I don't wanna die, I juts wanna get out of here like you" with a whimper in his voice.

"Who do you work for?"

"Who are you people!" Asked the man

"We're asking the questions here!" Randall shouted with annoyance.

"Ok-kay. Me and the other guy had just arrived and those people from the city found us and took us in. Then they said that they needed a favor and we all agreed because they had fed us and given us shelter" He took a deep breath and continued "They told us to come here and attack you, they said it would be a piece of cake."

"So, this was your first life?"

"Yes" answered the man

"That means that we can not die! We only have one left, whoever is controlling this world has changed the rules." Randall exclaimed. Tom was dragging the man outside and left him there.

When he returned he said "What do we do with him?"

"We tie him up and leave him at their doorstep!" Patrick laughed at his own joke.

"Lets do that, we have nothing else to do" Randall said

"Really!" Patrick sounded surprised."Okay" Tom had walked over and opened the door. I heard a hissing noise and saw an explosion out of the corner of my eye. We all flew back and Tom landed on me with a thud coming from me. I pushed him off me, his extreme weight made that task very difficult for me. Patrick was obviously unconscious while Randall was already on his feet.

"What happened I asked?"

"The man decided to crawl away with one arm and walked into a creeper."  Explained Tom. The entire front side of the house was destroyed and all I saw was a crater and a bloody mass. All of a sudden a volley of arrows was landing in front of my feet. "They know we've defended against their attack force so they'll be firing arrows at us. We must go now" Tom looked at Randall for confirmation and he nodded. Randall rushed downstairs to put the weapons away. Tom threw the unconscious Patrick over his massive shoulder. And started running. He was carrying all that weight so I guess he needed a head start from the hundreds of arrows fired in our direction a few seconds later.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Bus jokes.

A woman got on a bus holding a baby. The bus driver said: "That's the ugliest baby I've ever seen." In a huff, the woman slammed her fare into the fare box and took an aisle seat near the rear of the bus. The man seated next to her sensed that she was agitated and asked her what was wrong. "The bus driver insulted me," she fumed. The man sympathized and said: "Why, he's a public servant and shouldn't say things to insult passengers." "You're right," she said. "I think I'll go back up there and give him a piece of my mind." "That's a good idea," the man said. "Here, let me hold your monkey."

 A man trying to get on an overcrowded bus was pushed off by the people inside. There's no room,' they said. 'It's full up!' 'But you must let me on!' shouted the man. 'Why, what's so special about you?' they asked. I'm the driver,' replied the man

Roger was sitting in a very full bus when a fat woman opposite said, "If you were a gentleman, young man, you'd stand up and let someone else sit down." "And if you were a lady," replied Roger, "you'd stand up and let four people sit down."

 Janet: What's the difference between a cake and a school bus ? Jill: I don't know. Janet: I'm glad I didn't send you to pick up my birthday cake !

Answer me this!

If fire fighters fight fire, and crime fighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight?

 If buttered toast always lands buttered side down and a cat always lands on its feet, what would happen if you tied a piece of buttered toast on the back of a cat and dropped it?


If nothing ever sticks to TEFLON, how do they make TEFLON stick to the pan?

How come noses run and feet smell?

If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?

Sources: http://www.best-funny-jokes.com/answer-me-this-jokes-829

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Minecraft Part 6

People in the Borg tribe were very short tempered, we found that out while walking through their city. The trail wasn't even close to how long we thought it would be. It twisted along a few trees and then there we were, inside the city. Didn't give us much time to plan either, the only thing Randall told us to do was "To walk quickly and keep our heads down." So we did, so much that we could see very little in front of us.

"Hey!" Screamed a shopkeeper, Tim had knocked over what looked like a merchant's cart. The merchant grabbed his arm but he easily broke free. Patrick already had his blade out and was fighting with some other people who had noticed that we were not from around here. I did my first noble action and helped Tim with people fighting him he did a jab to the throat and a body fell to the ground. As I quickly took in our surroundings we were in a long and narrow street that would most likely lead us out of town. That's good we could run away and hide inn the brush, I thought, but it wasn't that simple.

Me and Tim fought our way out of the crowd, and started running towards the end of the street. It looked like everyone was out okay except Randall. I asked Tim about him but all he said was "He can handle himself." I didn't beileive somebody could swordfight through a group of men that big but seconds after those words passed his lips, Randall emerged and started catching up to us. Suddenly, something wizzed past my ear and Tim crumpled to the floor.

An arrow fired from somewhere in the rooftops had embed itself in Tim's knee. Tom noticed and yelled "NO!" over the screams of the men after us. "TIM!" He rushed to the crumpled body. Who was laying unconscious.Tom started to say something, but a hand pulled him away, Patrick's. "NO, TIM" Tom screamed

"We must go" Patrick said to Tom. Tom struggled but his sadness weakened him "We will get him back:" Patrick whispered. And then we sprinted towards the trees. They had grown very thick and blocked out most of the sun.

"We will travel deeper until we setup a base, we must be on the outskirts of their city to help Tim escape." And once we ventured a few miles deeper into the woods, we set up base. Every one but Patrick pulled out an axe and started chopping down trees to make a clearing for the base. "Hey Jeff, you go and get firewood from the wood we chop down" I nodded my head in response. I was amazed at how quickly they were chopping down trees, it was almost in sync as the trees fell down. I turned to watch Patrick who was doing the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. Pulling chunks of wood that out his backpack that were too big to fit inside it. Then something even weirder. As he put a piece of wood next to another the sort of bonded and made one piece. I stood in awe for minutes. My peace was disturbed when someone shoved me and motioned for me to get to work.

Pulling chunks of wood of logs is exhausting, as I figured out. Tom showed me how, all you have to do is punch the wood a few times and a perfectly square wood piece falls out. After punching a few times my arm was really starting to get tired and my knuckles were starting to bleed. I decided I was done and walked over to Patrick with my pile. "Is this enough?"

"Yea, sure, just set it down somewhere and light it up."

"How am I supposed to light it up"

"Uhhh, why do I have to do everything" Patrick grumbled

"Somebody's grumpy today"

"Shut-up, fine, I'll show you" He pulled something out of his pack.

"How does all that stuff fit into the backpack?"

"It just does"

"But how?"

"You ask way to many questions, did you know that? Now this is called a flint and steel, it is made with a piece of flint, and a piece of steel. Now we put it over the wood" He rubbed the two objects together. "Bam, a fire!" I was impressed, but what just happened had made me curious to see what was inside the house. I ran around the campsite, which was just roughly a small wooden cabin, a campfire, and a large picnic table. My curiosity was going to make me implode so I went to the cabin. I opened the door and my heart missed a beat. There was five beds and nothing else was there. I was disappointed, I didn't know why I had been so excited. Until I saw a suspicious looking door towards the right corner of the building. I was excited all over again.


I opened this door and a flight of stairs lead down to a lower level. I walked down and saw a switch. I flicked it on and My eyes widened. How could he not tell me about this. I walked up to is and felt everything. It was a weapons rack with a sorcery table and a potions maker. It might not sound like much, but on top of the sorcery table was a book floating and looked like it was reading itself. I could see on it that you would combine elements on it and it could make poisons or enchant weapons.    

"Get up here Jeff, you little crap!" Screamed Tom

"What did I do?"

"Just get up here!" As I ran up the steps Tom was staring at me with a look of disgust.

"What?"

"You started a fire" Randall said as he walked into the room with Patrick.

"But Patrick told me to" I said, almost whining

"WHAT!" Randall  yelled "You know not to." Randall sighed

Patrick had a look of surprise in his face as he said "But...I"

"No butts" Randall said "Everybody go downstairs, grab a weapon, and let's hope they didn't see the smoke from the fire." I thought they didn't, we were to far away. We waited all night but there was no attack. Not until we least expected it.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Marsupials

Among the many categories that scientists use to classify animals, marsupials are among the most interesting and unique species of animals. Marsupials are  for giving birth to under developed young, and having the baby live in the pouch on the animal.

A Tasmanian devil
Different species of marsupials will live in every continent of the globe. However, the only form of marsupial that lives in North America is the opossum, which makes its home in every country north of Mexico in North America. Many types can be found in South America although many closely resemble the opossum. In the smallest continent of the world, Australia, the kangaroo, the koala, the Tasmanian devil, and the wombat can be found. The only marsupial wolf would've been added to this list but has recently become extinct.

While different species of marsupials live everywhere, most protect their young and act the same immediately after birth. The very short gestation time, 4-5 weeks, means that a baby marsupial, known as a joey, must develop extremely quickly. As small as a pebble, the baby must crawl across the body and into the pouch. To crawl the upper limbs must be far developed. From there the baby will latch onto the nipple for food. To hold on its jaw must be very strong and developed. The joey will not emerge for several months until fully developed.

Many species have different methods of protecting themselves from the harsh weather in the biome they live in. Thereafter, once developed, and emerging from the pouch, the joey must now be taught how to brave the world as a marsupial. In the higher north areas of Australia where wildfires and floods are abundant, marsupials will scrounge around remaining rivers for food. They will eat leaves and roots, as well as various forms of grass. Almost all species of marsupial grow very long eyelashes that protect the eyes as sunglasses would, shading them from the sun. In intense heat the marsupials will eat early in the morning and after dark to escape extremely high temperatures.

The extinct Marsupial wolf
Being football season, it is easy to classify animals similarly, there is the NFC North and the AFC south. There are marsupials and other animal groups. Marsupials are one of the most unique animals that will ever be found on this planet. These wonderful creatures that are losing their population, must not be taken for granted. And protected, unlike the marsupial wolf, which is no longer existing.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Minecraft Part 5

I didn't know this was possible. That the kid who was about to end it could save it. I don't know if that it was really classified as saving my life, even though that it was his fault that I was going to die, intentionally. If he done this on accident, then he would be rescuing my being. I wondered if there was a death limit, but that question quickly found its way out of my head when Randall put his hand out to help me up. More than a hundred thoughts raced through my brain-most of which said not to accept his help. I didn't heed their warnings and put my hand out and grabbed his. He pulled me up when one of the twins (the ugly one) rushed up to give me my sword.
"Why didn't you kill me?" I asked
"Because that would be meaningless" said Randall "You would have less of a chance for surviving with us"
"Umm...what?"
"We fight a lot, mostly creepers and corrupt people who want everything. If you died here you would have less lives to fight with us. If you've died hmm, I would suppose, five times?"
"Six"
"Well, the maximum deaths are at eleven right now. Sometimes they change, go down or up."
"Then why would you try to kill me?"
"That's our test for now. We used to not test. If I or one of us ever came across a person, this person would be asked if they could fight with a sword or a bow and an arrow. Even though we all lived in the twenty-first century they said yes. Those liars. The first skeleton we saw I gave hi a bow and wasted all of my arrows. Long story short, we died. Some told the truth, like those three behind me. You were the first person we tried the actual test on. You passed, if you didn't, I would've had your head. Patrick was the only one who didn't like the idea. So will you join us" Randall asked with a pleading face.
"Sure" Randall smiled, "but under one condition. We go on a manhunt for that girl you killed."
He sighed "Fine, I really want you in our group, but only for a day. If we can't find her then we leave her."
"K"
"You already know Patrick's name"He pointed to the ugly one and said "this is Tim" He pointed to the other guy "This is Tom, and you are?"
"Jeff"
"It's getting dark, let's get back to camp" And I followed as they made treacherous journey, over many mountains and around lots of bushes when we stopped.
"Camp sweet camp" said Tom. Him and Tim immediately snatched some tools and wood and made me a little hut. When I walked in I noticed that there was a bed inside. No windows and one torch was what consisted of the hut. I came back out noticed that there weren't any torches around and why no light emulated from my hut. Ask in the morning was the answer from all of them. I bid them all good night and went to bed"

 When I got up the other houses were gone. I walked outdoors, the four others were huddled around a fire pit, I wondered why they did not light a fire. I joined them. The brothers immediately got up and started destroying my hut."Next time you will have to make your own. And demolish it for that matter."
"Okay"
"Once we are on our way we will show you the reason for us not using light outside our camp."
"Let's get moving" someone said, I did not know who, and honestly, I didn't care. I had another thing on my mind.
"What about Madeline?" I asked with a rude tone in my voice.
"Later, we may find her where we are going" Randall said wisely. I mumbled some words at him under my breath. All the time we had been walking, I didn't realize that, but we were already a quite a while away from our previous campground. After about an hour of walking, Randall stopped, everyone else stopped but me. I kept on walking, oblivious that everyone else had lie down and wasn't moving.
"Get down" Patrick hissed. I dropped to the floor, not because he had said so, but because I saw light. This light was preceding from a house in the woods. About two stories high, and with a massive clearing in front of the house, none of us wanted to go near it.

"Let's get closer, maybe we can subdue the person inside of it, tie them up and take the house" Randall said "You all see that movement in there. Hopefully only one person"

"How do you know this person is one of them?" said Tim

"I don't, but it certainly seems like it. This is probably just an outpost. In that area without trees is most likely a path. One that leads to their village."

"May I ask what you are talking about?" I asked

"These people are our enemies, we are just a little group  from a large amount of people who try to survive in this world, I'm sure there are many more. But these people we are looking at now are the only ones that give us trouble."Tim explained

"What do they do?"

"Everything they can, they have superior numbers to us, but we are far more advanced. Not barbarians like them" Randall said with disgust in his voice "They rob, kill and, blow things up. Like your house" Now I was mad. These people made my house explode. "They call themselves Borg, we should go like, now" And we were on the attack, enclosing on the house.

"Follow me and do as I do" Patrick whispered in my ear. I bobbed my head up in down as a response. All five of us walked towards the left side of the house. In the front Randall's predictions had come true, there was a gravel path leading towards forest area. Tom sprinted towards the door and kicked it in. From the rest it was like slow motion. Tom jumped to the side as a barrage of arrows came towards him. None hit him but he was dazed. Next was Randall, he threw some TNT in and a trail of red dust followed. The explosion was deafening and threw us all on our backs except Tom who was built so that he could withstand the blow. The first person I saw from the house was a young Asian, perhaps in his young twenties, he was flying into the door way, he hit the wall and fell. He landed on an apparent booby trap for intruders like us, which we never triggered. Four arrows fired from each side and stabbed him in the abdomen and neck, blood spurted out and he squirmed on the floor until he died a few seconds later.

 Tim pulled out a something like a knife, except with a serrated blade and was curved. He jumped into the house and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Randall followed, but just walking, almost menacingly. I decided to walk in, carefully stepping over the trap - and the body - to enter.

Upon entering I had a sense that there was no more danger. Especially when I saw Tim with a bloody blade, staring grimly at something I could not see, and I set my mind so that I did not want to. Randall walked out of the door and motioned for us to follow. He started down the path and so did we, walking into the city where we would later lose a member of our pack.




.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Stages of life in a star

Rockets speed through space. A popular sightseeing tour in the future, one of the rockets filled with schoolchildren on a field-trip, learning about stars and how they work. The multiple types of them, that include red giant, white dwarf, and neutron stars.  How all stars have nuclear fusion occurring in their cores, which creates massive amounts of energy, to help it become a beautiful, bright and warming component of the universe outside our planet.  Stars have different stages in their life that will affect us someday, but as of now, are fascinating to learn about and look at.

To begin with, red giant stars are swollen, masses of stars that have entered the beginning of the end of their life. This phase happens directly after the longest of the star's life, the main sequence, is over with. When a normal star, like our sun, reaches the end of its journey, it begins to collapse on itself because it can no longer counter-act the gravity pulling it inward on itself. The star begins to collapse. But all of the heat starts creating nuclear fusion in the very core of the star, thus, causing the star's output energy to maximize and push the outer layers of the star outward. This is what will become of our sun, just about eating up Mercury and Venus and Earth. Without any hydrogen left to burn for fuel, the red giant will collapse on itself and form a white dwarf, but if a star is massive enough it will begin helium burning at its core and create carbon.

Being interested by the Red Giant is easy, but there is still a cool stage after it that is key to learning the stages of stars.White dwarf is the name for stars that were medium and small in their lifetime but collapsed because it lacked the fuel it needed to survive. According to Universe Today, 97 percent of all stars will become a white dwarf, that is what destiny has in store for the sun after it is a red giant. Once the outer shell of the Red giant collapses on itself it reveals its inner core, a hot white ball of burning mass, which is why its so small and white.  One of these stars is about the size of the Earth. Except this is amazingly dense because of the entire star compacting in on itself. One small cube, the size of a small Lego, would weigh close to one ton. The white dwarf begins very warm, but over time-billions, sometimes even as long as trillions of years-the star starts to cool down to the temperature of the background temperature of the galaxy. The white dwarfs can only be up to a certain amount of mass. Any point after this the individual atoms wouldn't be able to hold back the star's gravitational pull which would collapse down to  a neutron  star or something more decimating, a black hole.

 Likewise, if a star is in between one and a half the size of our sun and five times the sun, it will become a neutron star, that is made up of many neutrons. Anything over five times our sun and you will just get a black hole. But if it's less than 1.5 times our sun, it will just become a white dwarf. Anything in between and you will get a neutron star. This star, that is incredibly beautiful to look at in pictures, is formed when it collapses in on itself, all of the protons and electrons are forced together into neutrons, since the star still has enormous amounts of gravity, any piece of debris or particles floating around space into the star would be immediately turned into a duplicate piece of neutron material. When these stars are created they maintain the thrust of a main sequence star, although they have a much smaller diameter. Causing them to spin of up to a speed of 100 times per-second. A neutron star actually has different layers, the outside layer being about a yard long, Under that there is nuclei with a growing number of neutrons. The only thing keeping them stable is the large amounts of gravity within the neutron star.

In conclusion, a star can go through many stages in its life.  Just like a human, from baby to child to teen to adult to senior. Most Americans haven't even thought about how stars have stages. That they are just balls of light in the sky,nothing else. It's unbelievable that only 55 percent of Americans even know that the sun is a star. How could people be so oblivious to the very object that keeps them alive, but all stars go through at least one of these one way or another. So it is definitely awesome that a star could expand even after its lost all of its energy. Just like something in the human brain that keeps the body going even after it has become tired of running, or anything else that can wear them down. Stars are beautiful and extremely interesting to learn about and watch, because they come to an end after us so we can watch them our entire life with awe and wonder.

Friday, December 2, 2011

The Periodic Table

Today we had a follow up on a previous ed-chat about the periodic table. This was Mr.Roehl's sub, Mr. Delwhich's, first ed-chat that he taught in. I thought that it was very good because it covered the basics and I feel that I learned something useful. He helped us learn that a element consists of an atomic number, atomic symbol, and the atomic weight (average atomic mass). The atomic number tells us how many protons (positive charge) are in the element and how many electrons (negative charge) there are. The atomic symbol has a particular letter[s] for the element. The atomic number shows how many neutrons there are, and the atomic mass unit (AMU). Some of the atomic symbols have nothing to do with the name of the element because the elements are older and found in nature so they were originally named in Latin. We also learned that vertical rows on the periodic table are called families because they show similar characteristics. Today in the follow up we played a fun game of jeopardy where my team was Nate, Redmon, and me. We won and the game was fun and I feel I gained new knowledge of the periodic table of scientific elements.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Maze Runner

Authors note: I am writing a book review and summary of The Maze Runner. I would like to be reviewed on my vocabulary and sentence fluency.

The Maze Runner, this book starts off in an elevator, pitch black with metals screeching and grinding. Thomas-the main character-wakes up with no memories of his past life, scared,with nothing. He can't see but he can crawl around the box that was lifting him. Suddenly it stops and he hears voices above him. The roof is pryed apart and he is greeted by adolescents who call themselves the gladers. The box is the center of a large courtyard called the glade, where the mysterious maze is around it. Machines called grievers roam outside and attack any humans that come near one. Thomas makes a friend immediately, who he finds quite annoying  although they are best friends. The walls around the glade close each night, seeming magic. As the are large yet they seem to stretch to close the four entrances. The night Thomas arrives his new friend, Chuck, helps him with his sleeping arrangements. The next morning a new kid arrives. The two years the veteran gladers have stayed, a kid has only come up once every thirty days.Thomas doesn't notice yet, but every Glader is a boy, until the new arrival. As she is lifted up she is in a coma. They quickly take her to the homestead, which is their hospital and base, to watch over her. If you are stung by a griever and survive to make it back to the glade. The grief serum must be taken or else the victim will meet his/her end. After this serum is taken you go through the changing which helps you to get your memories back. Ben, a teen who has just recently been through the changing tries to kill Thomas but is caught and banished. Banishing  insures the attackers death, during this process he is lead to the door seconds before closing and is left outside with the grievers. The kids in the glade all have special jobs, but Thomas may have the most special, a runner, they run outside during the day to map out the maze, and as each day goes on, they realize the maze changes. Somehow. Thomas and his fellow runner get trapped outside the walls one night and manage to become the first Gladers to ever survive a night in the maze. The only way was to lead the grievers off a edge called The Cliff. Mysteriously, the grievers disappeared as they were thrown all in the same spot.When the Gladers return home the walls stop closing and grievers take kids every night. They now know they must find a escape rout. After hard thinking it must be the griever hole. The spot where they disappeared. The Gladers lose half their numbers fighting their way their where they find a slide and escape. The creators of the maze are waiting for them in a chamber where the Gladers fall. They lead a insane person is who tries to kill Thomas but Chuck throws himself in the way of the knife and dies, though, saving Thomas' life. People with guns then shoot all the creators and "rescue" the remaining Gladers. I would give this book a 8 out of 10 for good intense action, while there was boring parts, and a crappy cliff hanger ending. But that can all be solved in the sequel. The scorch trials.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Vietcong

The United States Army had a large power to go to war against. These were the Vietcong, who would use the guerrilla warfare as a combat method to fight. One American soldier could take out ten Vietcong before dying himself. But there were always multiple guerrillas to take the late communists' spot. The well trained Americans were not trained enough to battle the fighting style of the VC.
                                                                      Definition of Vietcong:
"A Vietnamese supporter of the communist National Liberation Front in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War (known in Vietnam as the American War)." The official term for VC is the People's Liberation Armed Forces`



                                                                                      WHO THEY WERE
The Vietcong included both guerrillas unites as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants who fought. They were from Vietnam, both south and north. They were guerrillas who wanted to fight against the Americans, but were very unsure about fighting well trained soldiers when they were just farmers. They fought against the armed forces of the U.S.A. and the government of South Vietnam. Beginning as a unorganized group of guerrilla fighters. Over the course of four years (1960-1964) the VC had grown from around zero to thirty-thousand. There has never been an adequate defense system against guerrillas. They blend in with their environments and wear no uniforms so the soldiers wouldn't know the difference between a peasant and a guerrilla. What really defined the VC is that they were communists and wanted to make Vietnam a country that ran off of communism. Most people were forced or fooled into becoming part of the VC!
                                                                                      GUERRILLA WARFARE
The term "guerrilla" was developed by small bands of Spanish soldiers fighting the large Napoleon army. In Spanish the word guerrilla means little war. The tactics employed by guerrillas date back to the ideas of Sun Tzu, a military strategist who lived more than 2,000 years ago. Sun Tzu argued that all warfare should exploiting your strengths and the enemy's weaknesses. He gives several suggestions on how to defeat an army larger and better equipped than yours. These strategies and tactics were adapted by communist forces like the VC. The VC were organized into small groups called cells. These cells were usually 3-10 people. They worked together but the knowledge of members of their cells were kept to a bare minimum. Therefore, when a guerrilla was captured and tortured, his confessions did not do very much to harm the VC. The VC believed they needed to recruit peasants in order to win the war. The peasants thought that their poverty was only a punishment for the crimes of their ancestors. The VC educated these peasants and taught them that they were poor because of wealthy landowners who took all of their money. The VC would sometimes execute the landlords because of their cruel ruling over the poor. The peasants were motivated to join through fear and gratitude. The VC said that if the US or ARVN took the land that they would get it back. This view was reinforced if the Vietcong would leave a village to flee or hide from US forces the villagers would be taken and if the VC had already beaten the peasants would be beaten and tortured, sometimes hauled off to jail. At the end of the day when they would return home their house would be destroyed, their chickens killed, and their rice gone. "If a villager wasn't pro-Vietcong when we got there, they sure as hell were when we left" explained US Marine William Ehrhart.

                                                                                      WHAT THEY DID
  The Americans had been in Vietnam for three years before the Tet Offensive. Most of the  battles they had fought were small skirmishes where the VC had involved guerrilla tactics. The well trained and better supplied American soldiers were quickly realizing that their traditional combat styles weren't working on fighting the VC . In the beginning of 1968 the North Vietnam Army's leader, General Vo Nguyen Giap, decided it time for a major surprise attack on the cities in South Vietnam. The communists made a diversionary attack on the city and American military base in Khe Sahn.  The VC  had just broken the ceasefire for the holidays. The Americans were surprised by the high numbers and ferociousness  of the assault. But they quickly rounded up and fought back. The VC had hoped for  populous uprising in support of their actions, met heavy resistance instead. In some towns and cities the intruders were repelled within  hours but in some places there was weeks worth of fighting. In Saigon, the communists succeeded in occupying  control of the U.S. embassy for eight hours until the U.S. regained control. In military terms the Americans won the Tet offensive.
                                                                                      LIVING
 Life was very hard, they had to live in three man cells. With two other mates to watch over you, it was very hard to desert. Most of the time their living quarters were the Cu Chi tunnels, near Saigon. The tunnels could withstand any B-52 bombings. They ate, slept, and woman even had babies inside of the tunnels. These tunnels were located under the city of Ho Chi Minh. They were the base of operations for the Vietcong during the Tet offensive. The tunnels also served as a supply route and hospital as well as living quarters. Life was very hard in the tunnels, there was only a scarce supply of food, air and water inside the system. Also infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, scorpions, spider and vermin. Malaria spread through the tunnels and was the second most cause of death other than battle wounds. A captured Vietcong member reported that almost everybody in the tunnels had some significance of having intestinal parasites. The U.S. had campaigns to flush the Vietcong out of their tunnel, two being Operation Crimp and Operation Cedar Falls. Operation Crimp began on January 7, 1966, with B-52 bombers dropping 30 tons of high explosive onto Cu Chi, turning the once lush jungle into a moonscape. The U.S could not throw grenades into the tunnels for the clever design of the tunnels so that the grenades would have minimal or no effect. And the Americans could not enter because of many booby traps placed in the entrances such as punji stake pits or trip wires rigged with explosives.
                                                                HOW THEY FOUGHT
They would often run raiding missions to camps and villages to take supplies, food, and weapons. Sometimes their method was to force a little boy into an American camp holding a can of coke. It wasn't a real can of coke, it was just a decoy rigged with explosives. The can would then blow up with the boy holding it inside the camp.
The Vietcong fighting style relied heavily on the placement of booby traps.
They put large amounts of pressure on US/ARVN troops. Not only did they have to worry about shooting innocent civilians because the VC wore no uniforms, but they had to wonder if their next step would have them fall into a pit filled with Punji stakes. A lot of soldiers would suffer from a post-traumatic stress disorder. Most The VC would use many different types of landmines during the war, these were activated if a US soldier would step on it. Most wouldn't go off until the soldier would step off. If someone were to step on it the other men would dig a trench and slide a knife or something heavy under the soldiers foot. Then another soldier would charge and tackle the poor soldier into the trench hopefully protecting them from the explosion. Bouncing betties would jump into the air after triggered up to waist or even chest height and explode large fragments of metal with quite a wide radius. Toe poppers exploded when stepped on but inflicted a less severe injury. They would normally cause damage to the victims foot.
  Punji stake pit: It is just what the name suggests- it is a pit. The VC  would dig a hole and line the insides with spikes. These were simply sharpened pieces of bamboo that had also been   fire hardened. They were sharp enough to easily penetrate a soldier's thick boot.  Many times the stakes were covered in poisons or feces that usually cause infection.  After the hole was lined with stakes the covering was placed on. This brush and grass "blanket" was just thick enough so that it looked real, but are flexible enough that they penetrate easily when stepped on. The punji bear trap was constructed in a similar way to the punji pit. But instead of one pit it was two on top of each other. A larger pit was on top while a smaller hole was dug out inside of the large one. The VC would put a bear trap over the smaller pit so that when a victim's foot would fall through the brush covering the trap would snap shut, there was hardly any escaping from this trap. The side closing trap was a more sophisticated version of the punji stake pit. They were made with a large plank of wood over a pit which,   in the middle, was connected to a piece of wood the stretched  over the width of the hole, which acted as the pivot for the larger piece of wood. When a soldier stepped on one end of the plank his weight caused the wood to lower  and the victim fell into the pit.
The next item was trip wires. These would  a rope or string of some sort placed in between trees. There were non-explosive trip wires and also the opposite.  A trip wire could make a giant ball of mud with poison tipped stakes fall from a tree and hit the victim usually in the chest or upper waist. Or might trip a poison tipped arrow to shoot at the victim. Some would be covered in feces. The bacteria in human waste would then infect the victim. No matter what the wire would trigger it was intricately designed so it would hit the victim just right. The explosive trip wires would most likely pull the pin on a grenade concealed by a tin can or box. Sometimes in fields were traps called "daisy chains" these would be grenades  in a large field where the first one set off would create a chain reaction, making just about the entire field go up into the sky.
The VC also used ingenious hiding tactics. Sometimes a US soldier would have crawl into a VC dug foxhole just to find his enemy. If nobody was in it he could get out easily without any harm, but if a hostile was in one he could literally look up and see the barrel of a gun pointing right at him. It was as if somewhere, a VC was always watching the soldiers. The Vietcong also made efficient work of the environment. Haystacks, trees, bushes, and large piles of brush made effective hiding spots. Here they would wait until a US soldier came close enough for a surprise attack. But the VC were also well known for building intricate under ground tunnels. They would build some elaborate tunnels that almost made and underground town. Normally there was something large covering the entrance hole like a cooking kettle or something large, these also disguised it. The VC would enter through these holes and hide in large chambers. If the Americans searched the tunnels they would be perfectly safe if no one was in it. But if there was a VC member he would be alone with them because only one soldier would search the system.
                                                                                          GEOGRAPHY
Vietnam is a country of tropical lowlands, hills and densely forested highlands, with level lands covering no more than 20% of the area. The red river delta, rising in China, is about 746 miles long. The entire delta region, is no more than nine feet above sea level. Most of this the US soldiers were not used to. You could be walking in grass taller than your self then go to rice paddies, rivers, mountains, and plains. It was hot and humid, with all the gear and armor the soldiers wore, it made them loose energy faster and  move slower. Also causing noisier travel through the rough forest terrain. The VC would easily be able to ambush the Americans while hiding in the thick forest terrain or in the rocky mountain environment . The Americans took advantage of their air cavalry by doing high-level (high-level to avoid the risk of being shot down) bombing missions to destroy the jungle which was the Vietcong cover, napalm and agent orange were also dropped. The US also used helicopters to fly troops in and out of spots where they believed the VC to be. The downside to this was that they could not put their full military power into action. To avoid pitched battles the VC would often shoot patrols quickly and run away. The US did not want civilians to be harmed so they encouraged villagers to evacuate their own village and move into what the US called "fortified villages", this backfired because the peasants did not want leave their villages because the VC had also promised more land to them when communism took control.  It also provided  more targets for guerrilla attack and the US had to use men and resources defending them.
Conclusion
The Americans started out winning the Vietnam war but as morale grew low and supplies decreased, the weary soldiers had to draw back. Some would go insane under the immense pressure of traps placed over the field of battle. The VC emerged victorious with almost nineteen times more deaths than the  US who ended up with about  58,000 deaths while the VC had more than 1.1 million deaths. The VC hiding tactics caused high superstition among US troops, and the US public were becoming more and more disapproving of the war, these factors lead to the US defeat.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Twist on Little Red Ridin hood

Little Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time, Red Riding Hood was coming home from the sock trade off. Mom was standing at the door with a bag. She said to go to grandma’s house to deliver the bag. Once Red Riding Hood felt it she realized it was very hard and heavy.
            As Red was running through the woods she cut her arm on a special thorn. She decided that it was poisonous with its dizziness. The girl new that only a special bear’s spit could cure it. She used her tracking nose to find it. After fifteen minutes of tracking she found one and it found her. It was already charging.
            Little Red Riding Hood took a breath, then a gulp. Then a breath again, and charged. When they reached each other they both stopped. She did a roundhouse kick to the head. Karate chop to the spine. And sank her fangs into the bear’s neck.
            She decided to save the blood for later in her emergency jar. Red stuck her hand into the deceased bear’s mouth and took it out. She smeared the spitty hand all over her wound. This was the best feeling ever for Little Red Riding Hood.
            Now she was back on her journey. She thought about how she would explain this bad
fighting to her mom. But she was stopped in mid-thought. Because she had arrived at her destination. She walked in and saw blood smeared all over the walls. The next room was worse. There was the bad wolf chewing on the kidney of Little Granny Hood. Red hit the wolf with the bag and it died instantly. When she was home her mother told her that that was what the bag was for. In case the wolf came.

Minecraft Part 4

I woke up, and man I was getting so annoyed by dying. I woke up right next to my bed, and a blown up wall. I was underground  but there was still a giant cave in next to my house. I guess that when you have a bed you spawn there. But where was Madeline. She never made a bed so she didn't spawn here. I grabbed all of the stone and patched up my wall, it was a very hefty task because there is now a giant crater next to my house. I then shouted for Madeline, no response. I went back to the spot where I found her. Although she wasn't there, some other kids were.

"Hey, mister Ugly is here to have fun with us" One of the kids shouted the second he saw us. They were playing in the river, and there were four of them. The kid who yelled at me had a really nasal voice, and was dressed in some kind of tunic, same with all the others."Lucky us who got to see you again and we can beat you" They all laughed at that except one kid. He wasn't looking to happy. In fact he looked uncomfortable. "Maybe we could kill him again and take all of his stuff"said the nasal "I don't think so we should, Randall"  said the uncomfortable kid "Shut up Patrick" said Randall "Go!" and they all closed in on me.

I pulled out my sword, which I had now upgraded to iron. And prepared to fight, when Randall said it, he wasn't kidding. Every kid advanced except Patrick. All the kids looked like they were a little bit younger than me, now that I could get a good look. Randall had a very big nose and short white hair, he was obviously their ringleader. The other two kids looked like twin brothers except one had a long scar running down his face. But they both had long brown hair;down to their shoulders. And one was Tremendously ugly, with zits on almost all of his face so that the places not covered looked more like little white patches. But the other was fairly handsome. Patrick face was dirty with mud and had various cuts on it, he was the only one wearing normal clothes.

Anyways, Randall charged, whilst the other three boys just plopped down on the ground, I wondered why the two twins hadn't done anything, but I soon found out. Randall spun three-sixty degrees around and almost landed a blow to my head. I leaped out backwards out of the way so that his sword didn't connect with my face. He quickly recovered and swung low at my hip, the blade of his sword tore through my shirt and sliced through my hip. I yelped with pain. But Randall didn't do anything or show any emotion, he just kept fighting. My turn on the offensive was now, I thought. I chopped straight down from the air, but Randall jumped to his left and got out the sword's way. My blade landed in the dirt. and created a plume of dust. My next swing was a little bit lighter. And once again, Randall jumped to his left. This time it was an experiment, I chopped that would definitaly fall short of hitting him but he still jumped left.

A plan started forming in my head. I faked a jab at Randall's stomach and quickly pulled back when he moved to his left. And I swung around his left so that he could not dodge that. But it almost seemed like he was expecting it because he immediatly parried my blow and pushed me onto the ground. My sword went flying into the river. I thought that that was the end of my life. When someone saved my life


                                                            END OF PART 4

Monday, September 26, 2011

Minecraft Part 3

I hit the jackpot, the cave was huge! It was filled with diamonds, gold and this other red stuff that glowed. I had no idea what it was, but that makes me even more exited. My pockets were filled with coal, and there is much more but my pick axe broke. I got lost but I found my way up after a long search. I never even had to use my sword because it was pretty safe down here. I figured out that this was pretty much an abandoned mineshaft. I wonder what had happened, why the people left with so much more to explore and mine. But now I was even more exited because I know that people had been here. I hoped I could find someone, because I was getting very lonely. I was just mumbling to myself about my riches when I heard some footsteps followed by a scream. It was dark outside. I rushed out the entrance to the mineshaft to see a girl running from a mob of zombies.

Luckily it was only zombies. I seemed to have died a lot to skeletons and what I have started to call creepers. They have four legs and no arms, with sore red eyes that gross me out. Then they explode. The girl was all scraped up and about two meters  past where I was standing. I stepped out, pulled out my sword and swung. There was about ten zombies, and they closed in on me pretty fast. They looked like they were trying to hug me until one swung his arm at my face and tore off the skin on my cheek. I screamed with rage, and started hacking at them like I had been sword fighting all my life. After about a minute they were all pieces laying on the floor in a bloody mess. Now that the adrenaline had passed I realized that my cheek was flowing with blood and it stung like two-hundred and twenty-two bee stings all in one place. I took the bandage off my head and held it to my cheek. Then I remembered the girl.

I looked behind me and saw the girl sitting in a heap on the floor. She looked up and I saw that she was crying. I noticed that she took the fall from the mound of rocks two and she was cut up in many places. The leather seemed to make good bandages so I gave her some for her hands. Her hair was in a mess and her eyes were swollen from crying, nonetheless she was still pretty, and she looked about my age, "Follow me" I said. That was the first time I had talked for a while, and my voice was scratchy. I led her to my house, which was well lit up now. We entered and went into the basement were she sat down and I told her my story. "My name is Jeffrey and yours is?"

"Madeline "I arrived shortly before you found me. I awoke right as the sun was setting and started freaking out I cried and cried, shouted for help but you didn't show up. But you were in the mines so you couldn't hear me. I hope that I get out still. But you've been here for almost a week and haven't come back. I wish I could go home, but at least I found you. Well, anyways, I was walking trying to calm down and a zombie came I knew that wasn't good, so I started to run I passed a few of those "creepers" but they blew up but I got extremely lucky that they didn't hurt me. Some more zombies gave chase and I thought that I was screwed. I gave up but that was too late. I had already started rolling down and I knew that I was done for... when you saved me"

Right as she was taking a breath from the talking a large boom went off. Then the wall right in front of me blew up. We both flew back from the explosion. It was an underground bunker. I thought it was a creeper but I realized this was to big for a creeper to do. There was some laughter, this sucks, I thought. Some other people tried to blow up my house. I stood up and passed out.

                                   END OF PART 3

Friday, September 23, 2011

Cucumber

Jamie was a fresh cucumber fresh from the pick. He was bought and stayed in a large refrigerator at a very large home; it was a foster home to be exact, it had very many smells and sounds. When Jamie first got there two hours ago he met a very old tomato named Jerry, who took him under his wing and made him his servant. Jerry was about a month old but he never said how old he was.
“Hey Jamie, come and change my underwear and get me my water so I don’t dry  out and get me Harry so I can tell him he’s fat and get my son Koobie.” Jerry said in his wispy and annoying voice.
“Okay but you don’t wear any underwear, nor do you have a son. You’re a tomato; the only way you could have a son is if the farmer cut you open and planted the se-“
“No no no no. I am a special tomato and can have sons if I wanted to.” Interrupted Jerry “Now just get me Koobie, and Harry”
Jamie nodded and headed off for Koobie and Harry. Koobie was easy to find, he was hanging out with the carrots.”Yo Koobie Jamie said to him “Jerry wants you”
“Aww man” Koobie replied “I don’t wanna go. He always says that I’m too old to be a cucumber” Koobie was a Cucumber just like Jamie and was about a hour older.
“We also have to get Harry”
“Why?” asked Koobie
“Because Jerry wants to call him fat, maybe slap him a few times too”
“K” So they headed off to find Harry. He ended up being in the lower shelf having a party with the Orange gang. Harry was in that gang, almost all oranges were. Their main purpose was to beat the living juices out of over ripe fruit
“Hey Harry, Jerry wants you” Jamie said.
“Why should I care?” Harry asked
“Just come or Jerry will come down and beat the poop out of all of you” Koobie said.
“Because you know he could” Jamie said to Harry.
“Fine” And then they all headed up to where Jerry was.
When they got up there Jerry screamed “You are all late I should beat you silly until you all turn orange oh wait Harry is already orange so I should beat you until you are all red and then I’ll eat you then-“ At that time the door to the refrigerator opened, and at the same exact time Jerry passed out and rolled around. He then rolled out of the refrigerator.
“No, not Jerry!” screamed Jamie.
“Who cares” Harry said.
“I think we should go rescue him”
“I’m with Jamie” said Koobie
“Fine, I’m going back to the party” Harry said
“Okay, no one cares Harry” Koobie said
“I’m jumping off to go get him” said Jamie
“I guess I am too then” Koobie said
So then they both jumped, it was a long drop, but not a long enough to kill drop to kill them. It takes a very long drop to get a cucumber to go splat. They both blacked out.
Jamie got up and waddled around. He could hear kids running off in the distance. He then realized that he was on a counter the whole kitchen away from where the fridge is. Where is Koobie. Jamie thought. Then he heard the screams that sounded like Koobie.
Oh my God, Koobie is screaming his high-pitched scream. It sounds like it is coming from the pot over there on that black counter a slight way away from me. He ran towards the screams of pain. He then touched the black that he could now tell was glowing red a bit. He screamed also and jumped off. It was tremendously hot. There was a roll of paper towels above him.
He grabbed them and wet them with the sink and rolled them over the blistering black surface. He then walked over the paper towels. “Koobie, jump over to me”
“Where are you? I can’t see you.”
“Just pursue my voice” so Koobie jumped over the edge. Apparently his hearing was not the best-he jumped on the opposite side.  Koobie screamed from the heat.
“Where are you?” Koobie shouted.
“Over here on the other side”
“Aww man” Koobie then (very painfully) walked towards Jamie. When they were both back onto the counter Jamie realized that the bottom half of Koobie had turned brown.
“How did that happen?” Jamie said
“What?” Koobie asked
“That” Jamie pointed to the lower half of Koobie’s body.
“Oh my God! What happened to me?”
“Why would I ask you if I knew what happened?”
“I don’t know, maybe to make fun of me.”
“Would I really do that?”
“Yes” Koobie replied.
“Whatever. Let’s just go down to find Jerry” They finally decided to observe their surroundings. They were in a large kitchen with an assortment of knives scattered all around. There was a door to their right and the fridge was over in the left corner. Vases-some broken-were all over the place. There was a sliding door to cupboard on the other side of the room in, and there was an island front of them. “I think that we should go back in front of the fridge to where we landed. So they walked over to where the fridge was.
“Whoa look at this blood!” exclaimed Koobie
“That’s not blood, that’s just tomato juice.” Jamie replied “Probably Jerry’s”
“I think it tastes good” Koobie said after licking some of the juice.
“Gross, you cannibal”
“It’s not considered cannibalism unless it’s cucumber juice”
“Whatever. I think we should follow it.”
“K”
Koobie said
“I thought I saw a flashlight lying under the fridge earlier.”
“Okay let’s go”
They ran outside and almost fell off the edge of the counter. “Whoa!” Koobie shouted. “You almost made us black out. AGAIN!”
“Sorry, let’s just climb down” So they did, and walked over to the fridge where they then laid down on their front side and looked under the fridge.
“Now how do you suppose we get under there?” Koobie asked, frustrated. Because it was obvious they couldn’t get under the fridge.
“Well now that that is out of the question we could try to find some matches” Jamie replied
“Now where in the world are we gonna find matches” Getting even more frustrated, that his face was turning red. “It’s not like there is a tree that grows matches and plops them right in front of vegetables when they need them! For God’s sake Jamie, we’re gonna die out here, gonna go rotten or the humans are gonna find us and make us a pickle-“He paused to take a breath “-which I heard is very painful. Drowning us in vinegar and making us tastier. I’ve already gone half brown, which wasn’t a fun experience. I don’t know why I came with you here. I don’t know why you came down to have us die just for Jerry.
“I hated him. And I hope he’s happy when we rescue him.  I don’t know if it is really rescuing though because he might already dead or when we do find him how are we supposed to get into the fridge. I don’t know what the point of living is either because then the humans will just eat us. What’s the point Jamie?” Tears started welling up in Koobie’s eyes” Why” his voice cracked “What is the point?.”
“We could break out” Jamie said “And actually have a life, but that is after we find Jerry. He was like family to us” Jamie sighed “Let’s just go find him, with those matches over there on the counter.”
“Oh” Koobie replied.
The matches ended up being a little hard to get to because they were on top of the island which was completely smooth on the sides “We’re gonna need something to help us up” Koobie declared
“No duh” They sat and though for awhile, Jamie was pacing to think, then he said “I heard a cat earlier. We could ride that up to the top”
“Now how do you suppose that we are to get a cat to ride?”
“We take a rope and tie it around its neck and then we can control it”
“That might work but how are we supposed to get a rope?”
“There is one right behind you Koobie”
“O, I knew that”
Ropes are quite heavy to two cucumbers. They were moaning and groaning before they had walked four feet. “Maybe we should try pushing it instead of carrying it” Jamie said. So that they did, it was a lot easier to push but was still hard. They got to the door and luckily it wasn’t too close to the ground so that they and the rope could fit under the door. They had a boatload of luck because the cat was waiting for them. They hopped onto its back. The cat, whose name was-according to the nametag-Rory, gave little fight so in no time at all were the friends in the kitchen about to hop onto the island. at that moment Koobie got scared “ Um, I don’t really feel like going up. You can go without me”
“Okay.”
“Okay, that’s it. You don’t care that I’m scared, nothing but okay!”
“I was just saying okay”
“Just go” And with that Rory jumped onto the counter and brought them both up onto the island. “I said I didn’t want to go!” Koobie screamed.
“Well, you never jumped off”
“Uhh, fine.”
 Afterwards they rode the cat down and to the cupboard with the matches. Koobie then lit one “Ahhhhhh!” Koobie screamed a horrifying scream that pierced Jamie’s ears. “The match burnt me… Oh” The whole place started on fire. Koobie managed to drop the match in the process.
“You piece of crap” Jamie said
“At least we can see heh heh” Koobie said with a weak grin.
“Hey I was trying to sleep!” said a familiar voice
“Jerry!” Jamie shouted excited.
“Big whoop now let’s go” Koobie said.
Soon later the three of them were out of the burning cupboard. But they got burnt on the way trying to find Jerry while dodging falling pieces of rubble. There was a loud fire alarm going on that was frightening the cat. So they all hopped onto Rory’s back and leapt out the cat door, and over the fence behind the foster home. Then Jerry said “Now who is going to change my underwear” and the two boys beat him to a pulp.
“That was why we rescued him” said Jamie. At that moment a farmer came up behind them and picked them up.
“Oh, lookie these, they’ll have lots of seeds to plant” So he took out his Army grade knife and chopped up the two vegetables then and there. He didn’t do it slowly either. He then took out the seeds and planted them.
But at least they will have kids!

Minecraft: Part 2

I awoke a third time in this strange land. I have died three times since that first time I died. Even though I've been here three days. And no deaths have been fun. Each time I "re-spawned" as I have started to call it, I had a headache and a nasty sour taste in my mouth. All my stuff is gone too, but when I go back to my death spot I see all my stuff on the ground. The first time I had no idea about that, so I didn't get the stuff I lost until right before y second death. This time I died I had fallen from a very high distance. Earlier I made a chest to store stuff for starter supplies, in case I died. So I picked that stuff up and headed off to the place where I passed away.

My stuff was inside a small ravine. That was where I had died apparently, but I had no way of getting down there. I walked my way around it saw a path I could take down. It was very steep but it looked as though I could walk down it. I was wrong. After about two steps I fell and started rolling like I was doing a somersault. Once I hit the bottom I felt very lucky that I hadn't broke anything, but I realized I was starting to get hungry. I quickly got my tools and started to head up the hill when I noticed a cave. But it looked man-made. I decided I could get back to that later.

I ran to my house, which I could clearly see, because I lit had solved my lighting problem with some coal and wood. At my workbench I realized I could make some torches with sticks and coal. I was really hungry so I went off looking for animals. I saw a sheep and killed and silently asked it for forgiveness. But all I got was wool from it. So I went off a found a herd of cows I only killed three but I still got lots of meat and leather. When I returned home, I also mined out beneath my house so that on the surface it looked like a wooden shed. But underground it is like a bunker. With the wool I got I made a bed. And the leather I made some leather armor.(I still had the clothes I was wearing when I got here.) Then I hit the bed to get a good night's sleep.

In the morning I was more hungry than ever. I realized I needed to make something to cook my food, so I crafted a furnace. I put my meat and some wood in, and in a few minutes, out popped some steak. I ate it ravenously, it tasted the best. I decided to go out to that cave I saw earlier. It looked like it was made by a human but I didn't think that any lived in this world. I started towards the ravine with the cave in it. When I got there I was smarter about what I was doing (or so I thought).I got down in a small crouch and started sliding. By the time I had got to the cave I was already going to fast. I still tried to stop but I just scraped up my hands and flipped over. I was then going face first into the rocks on the hill and ended up tearing my armor. When I finally stopped my face was bleeding in multiple places and I think I broke my index finger.
With the rest of the armor I had I wrapped it around my head to stop the major wounds from bleeding too much. I then looked up at the cave and marveled at its beauty. But I didn't know that I would be fighting for another's life and my own here in a few hours.


                                                  END OF PART 2

Doughnuts

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Minecraft

I was taking my morning car ride. I guess I had a nice life, two parents, both had jobs that occupied most of their time, no time for me So I had tested the car once, and now I drive regularly and I haven't crashed once. I'm only fourteen so I can't drive with a license yet but I learned out of boredom. One day I decided to try and hit one-hundred miles per hour on the freeway. I started of cruising when I decided to push it. The car was at ninety then ninety-five. Wow, I thought, I might be able to get away with it. So I went to one hundred, I put both the windows down and felt the rush of adrenaline. I could do this every day, I thought. Even my conscience loved it! Until the cop car came up behind me.
I went crazy then, I pushed the car to go one-fifty. I saw the flashing lightsand wondered if I was going to be on the T.V. show "Cops". There was a turn in the freeway, but it was going to be hard because the road was surrounded by soundproof walls because of neibhorhoods on the other side. The turn came and I crashed into the wall. But I wasrough the fast that I went staright through the wall and into a house. I might have run someone over but I'm not exactly sure. Well anyways I stopped on the road when the cop came and hit my car (Or my parent's) in the back. I didn't have a seatbelt on so I smashed my face on the windsheild, broke my nose in a bloody mess, and went flying through it. Everything went black.
I awoke in a strange world early in the morning. I didn't know the exact time but it was just getting light out. "Hello" I shouted getting worried "Anybody there" no answer. I tuned around and saw a sheep just standing there, with a blank expression on its face. "I thought that since he was the first thing that I met I should keep him as a pet. I named him Jack. By then I realized something was wrong. That I somehow came into this world and no one  is here at the moment. I decided to get some wood so I used my fist to grab some wood. With that wood I made a workbench which I took the rest and made a wooden axe.
I went back to the forest where I got the wood earlier and this time got much more with the axe I made. That wood I made into planks and made a house. Jack was waiting for me when I came back I made some fences and gave him a pen. My house was very small but finshed. but I didn't realize until night that I had no light sources.
 I was taking a stroll at night when something hit me. I looked and saw a zombie approaching and  many more things coming. A green person with no arms and four legs approached me and blew up, I died.

                               END OF PART 1