I ran until I felt I was about to explode. I didn't want to end up like Tim, abandoned. I stopped running and caught my breath. The others had kept on running without me. Even Tom looked like he could've gone a few more miles. "We need to put as much distance between us and them" Randall wheezed.
"We can't take a break?" I asked. Randall didn't answer but instead ran. I'll take that as a no. We kept running, no breaks.Everybody started to slow down. We kept a steady pace and jogged through the forest. The thickness of the trees became a brush and soon we were in a long clearing. It's risky to run through an open space like this but as long as we run I guess we are safe. I pushed myself like I never had before I felt as if my legs would pop off. Obviously the others are all in better shape than me.
Patrick's body jerked awake. Tom didn't notice and kept on running. Patrick started clubbing Tom in the head, I don't think knew who it was. He looked up and saw me and instantly stopped. Tom lie him down and jokingly said "You might have given me a concussion" Patrick grinned. But it disappeared quickly when he got his bearings.
"Where are we. What happened?" Randall then explained how we had been attacked and ran. He didn't miss much. Except running. After a few minutes of silence we moved again. We were all prepared to run faster and made good time.
"For once in a long time, I finally feel lost" Announced Patrick. He didn't admit it, but I'm pretty sure that Randall was too.
"This is good" Randall said. We stopped on the top off a long cliff overlooking the way we came. "They'll be able to track us, no doubt, but when they do come we'll either be gone, or, be able to see them." Unfortunately, that didn't work out because a thick fog rolled in. The sun was beginning to set. "Patrick and I will begin to make camp, while Patrick and Jeff defend us from the forces of night."
"I'll get the East side" Patrick pointed in the left of the cliff "You get the West" He pointed to the other side. I pulled an enchanted sword out from my backpack. I stood ready and waited. Since seeing an enemy wasn't a good option, I mainly relied on my sense of hearing. I didn't dare look back since I might alarm some zombies or whatnot of our location. After a while I got tired, I started to become lazy. I was halfway to being asleep when a rustling awoke my senses.
I jumped, prepared to fight anything, expecting the worse. The noise was advancing towards me I was prepared. When the figure advanced out of the fog I literally jumped. I raised my sword above my head and then saw what was standing in front of me. I was expecting a zombie, or worse. But it was only an ocelot. I pulled some fish out of my pack and stuck my hand out. The cat edged towards it until it was within eating distance. It just stared for a few moments, then nibbled at the fish. Eventually once it was finished it started purring.
The cat had long black stripes running along it sides while it was topped in gray. The cat looked young, yet battle worn. I was trying to think of a name when Chirpy popped into my head. I started petting of it, instantly claiming it my pet. I assumed it was a guy, it was a 50% chance, although, if I was wrong that would be very awkward for me and my pet, Chirpy.
A creeper walked out from the fog maybe half an hour from when Chirpy came around. I held my sword in a defensive stance and prepared to swing. Before my arm was released in a forward motion the curious side of my brain caught me and wondered, why wasn't the creeper doing anything? I studied it in awe. It wasn't looking at me, but Chirpy. They had their eyes locked onto each other. The creeper wasn't ticking, which was odd, normally once you were within a few feet of their body it would explode. I was easily two feet away from it and wasn't blowing up or anything. The creeper blinked, turned around, and started walk away.
I just stood there trying to comprehend what just happened. The simple part of my brain was hooked on the thought that the creeper had just decided it wasn't interested. But the other half had strayed upon the thought that the cat had to do with the creeper's disappearance.
A few seconds later I hear Tom's bellowing voice saying the camp is ready. A moment I hear loud growling and the soft riddle of noise coming from the spiders. I raced into the tent with Chirpy where Tom and Randall were waiting. I zipped the door closed. "Where's Patrick!" I ask anxiously.
"Open the door!" Randall screams at me. I open it and look out. At first I think it's okay but I quickly changed my mind after I heard growling.
"Patrick!" I scream hopelessly looking through the fog for him. I trudge towards the East side, where he said he'd be. I don't see anything but bloody, sticky grass. I start sprinting farther in that direction. A noise stops me. It's a meow. Chirpy runs up beside me and I'm comforted that I'm not alone. Chirpy starts to trot ahead of me. I know dogs can sniff out people, maybe cats can too. I'm starting to follow him when I hear a clink of a sword. It's in the direction Chirpy is headed . I start following that cat. Maybe cats have good hearing instead of smell. I see a faint silhouette of three figures. Two are oddly deformed and attacking the third which is carrying a weapon. "Patrick!" I shout.
When I arrive I notice three dead zombies on the floor and a spider having spasm beside them. Patrick is obviously exhausted, which is showing by his sluggish movements and his weak swings. Just as it looks like the zombies have won I jump into the battle. I charge at them at stick my sword through one's stomach. It follows through until the other side where it sticks out of it's belly. The other zombie tries to claw at me but I dodge. Just at that moment Chirpy jumps onto his shoulder and starts tearing the bone out of its socket. He's a fighter.
"Good job boy" I yell in praise. I swing me sword and it connects with flesh. There's a soft tearing sound as the zombie's head is sliced off of it's body. The headless zombie stands for a few seconds and then it's lifeless body falls towards the ground.. I pick my cat off of the zombie and start petting him. Patrick is on the ground, his stomach rising and falling to his breath.
I throw his body around my body and head back to camp.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Waterun
Author's note: This story is a story written for literature group to see who could use certain words (highlighted) in the most meaningful way.
Jon stood up and realized something was wrong. He was dizzy and felt sick. A fever. He started panicking and tried to light a fire but things were to moist from the night. They would only get more moist as it started to rain. He started in a random direction and kept going. Is that a house? He thought as he approached something with light coming out of it. It was and his hopes arose. Just his bad luck, a lighting strike drove in through the sky and hit the tree next to the house. It toppled onto the house, flames quickly sprouting their way up through the roof. Jon was emotionally crushed, but still looked on the bright side and looked through a tool shed near the house. It contained a bunch of trash but it was mostly useless. He spotted something glinting and inspected. It was a hammer. This might come in handy. He thought.
Living in his least favorite place to be wasn’t easy. Jon stood apart from almost everybody at school, couldn’t play any sports, and was constantly picked on by his fellow classmates. After every day at school he come home to his Manhattan apartment to his step dad abusing his mom. Jon hated his step-dad, the one who forced him to move to New York. The exact place he promised himself he would never travel to, but, there he is living now. His cousins used to live here and he would celebrate Hanukkah with them here. Jon previously lived in a cottage in northern Vermont and he loved it. His best friend and him would always play in the forest and chase animals around. Sometimes he would go swimming and find platypuses, and bring them home as a pet. All of that fun came crashing down on top of him when the fires hit. Everything he knew and loved, including his father, was destroyed. He and his mother were forced to move in with a slop of a human.
“Rosalie!” He would call from his room. She would come over to see him wearing one of her tank tops and mocking her. Jon always asked his mom if they could move out but his mother would shake her head and say that this was a good place to stay. Jon particularly hated it because Mike, his step-dad, would only have two chairs at the kitchen table at night. The only other Mike claimed to be his lucky poker chair. Jon just cried the first night, but he quickly became accustomed to sitting on the floor. Mostly
because of Mike’s beating. But this night was different, Jon decided he had enough.
Jon regretted leaving his mom, but he had to get out of there. His legs were getting tired as they carried him down the stairs and out into the streets. He ran and ran until he hitched onto a pickup truck where he rode out of the city. Jon got out of the pick-up truck at a rest stop and stole an orange that was sitting in the cup holder.
He strode into the rest stop and looked for food that he could take. He saw a little box of cookie crisp, and realized that he should try it. He snatched it up and stuffed it down into his pocket. A scraggly man was watching him and noticed this.
The man yelled out and Jon ran out of the store. He noticed a bike sitting on the wall and he took it. He rode it deep into the forest until he got too tired to ride the bike anymore. The month was march so spring was begining and certain flowers were sprouting out of the ground. This gave Jon more hope as to keeping food. Some animals would be coming out of hibernation and he could hunt them. This largely improved Jon’s chances of survival. All of his running caught up to him and he just lie down to rest. He woke up chilled and sweating, he realized he was having a nightmare. It was him in his old house and the ghostly version of his mom was haunting him and he ran away but he still felt bad about his mom.
Jon stood up and realized something was wrong. He was dizzy and felt sick. A fever. He started panicking and tried to light a fire but things were to moist from the night. They would only get more moist as it started to rain. He started in a random direction and kept going. Is that a house? He thought as he approached something with light coming out of it. It was and his hopes arose. Just his bad luck, a lighting strike drove in through the sky and hit the tree next to the house. It toppled onto the house, flames quickly sprouting their way up through the roof. Jon was emotionally crushed, but still looked on the bright side and looked through a tool shed near the house. It contained a bunch of trash but it was mostly useless. He spotted something glinting and inspected. It was a hammer. This might come in handy. He thought. Just then a lightning strike hit the shed and fires surrounded Jon. He knew his life was over but as soon as that thought passed his brain, he passed out.
Warmth was in the air and he saw a woman in white feeding him. The whole room was white. The woman was Asian and looked like a nurse. Jon fell back asleep.
The second time he awoke the same women was there feeling his heart. She noticed he was awake and her eyes opened wide. She ran out of the room and Jon overheard her saying something to a male and he came in the room. He started talking but Jon couldn’t understand it because he was speaking in a different language. He noticed this and tried again, this time a different language. Jon thought he said something about a Krabby patty but Jon guessed not. The man tried once more and finally got it right.
“How are you feeling?” The man asked, but with a strange accent.
“Good” But as Jon said it he quickly noticed the burning he felt on his chest and legs. The man must’ve noticed distress and said
“You were burnt in the fire but we rescued you. Stay in bed for a few days, then we will let you out”
“Where am I, who are you?” Jon asked but the man just shook his head and said
“That’s for another day” Once Jon was alone he looked out of the window and saw a weird sight. Some people outside, were washing a fluffy alpaca under a waterfall.
The next morning Jon was feeling well enough to get up and explore. He found the man and asked him the questions asked earlier.
“This place is called Waterun, although I have no idea how you got here. By the way, my name is Helgen. Anyways, that house you came to, no normal human can see it, unless,” Helgen snapped his fingers “The lightning, yes. That allowed you to see the house. The house was our portal between here, and Earth.”
“Wait, so this isn’t Earth, how am I supposed to get back?”
“I don’t know, the portal is gone, but you are welcome to stay” So Jon did, he loved living in Waterun and learned their language. He had a family, and shared his stories of Earth with his fascinated family. He died at the age of ninety-three, never returning to Earth.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Marshmallow
I’m always excited for this time during fall. I go on a camping trip see my friend Joel and his family. Joel has read hair that covers his head and he is at least a head taller than me.We arrived at the camp thirty minutes late as usual. My friend Joel had already set up his tent while we were pulling in. It was a campsite in door county that we go to every year.
There we meet up with my friend Joel and his family, he has a step-dad and he came along to. He has a dog named Rufus and it barks so much it drives me insane. That's why I requested a campsite that wasn't next to theirs. I feel pity for their neighbors.
We set up our camp and we all drove down to the beach. Me and Joel went swimming and he pulled out a dead lobster and started chasing me with it. I ran ashore and we played in the sand awhile with his little brother. His step-dad started making jokes about how the sand looked like poop. After it started getting dark we started to go back to his camp and make smores. They were really yummy, then we all had some and me, Joel, and his siblings all played ghosts in the graveyard. We had so much fun I was disappointed when my mom told me that I had to go back to bed.
We went back to our camp. And oddly enough we all fell asleep right away. I was sleeping soundly until the sound of Joel's dog barking awoke me. He sounded really close and I noticed I could see his silhouette outside of our tent. My parents both woke up and tried to take the dog back to his own camp. When we started heading towards Joel's he just ran as fast as his large legs could carry him.
When he had noticed we weren't following he started barking a lot and we quickened the pace. Once we arrived at Joel's campsite I had a feeling something was wrong. Rufus was nudging at their tent door so my mom sort of knocked on the tent to wake somebody up. There was no noise. My dad became impatient and just opened the door himself to look in. He took a short gasp and turned pale. My mom looked in and started shivering to. It wasn't anywhere near being cold out. It was my turn to look in and the sight made me turn numb.
Everybody was missing. We wanted to find them, but as closer inspection to the tent it looked like there had been a struggle. My dad noticed it was quieter and we realized that there was no more Rufus. He was gone. My mom called out "Rufus!" and barking started coming from the east woods. We all ventured out into the woods to find him until we realized we were lost. Something bumped into me and I yelled out in shock.
My parents both turned and looked but it was only Rufus, I patted him. I scrunched my eyebrows and strained my ears. In the distance I heard a peculiar dripping. I asked if my parents had heard it but they both shook their heads. I asked them if we could search out the noise and they said sure.
I traveled along but then it stopped. I kept going in the direction but it started up again. It was now coming from a different direction, I crept along that way until I came to a clearing. A flashlight was in the center with a piece of paper by it. I picked up the flashlight and turned it on. I then read the note, it said "Shine the light up if you please, but the sight will surely bring you to your knees." I shined it up and I fell in horror.
All of Joel's family, including him, were hanging from the trees by a rope. Their necks were all bent at a funny angle with their mouths wide open. I closed my eyes and wished this all away but once my eyes were back open nothing changed.I figured out that the dripping was coming from a water bottle hanging on Mrs. Esveldt’s fanny pack. A rumbling sound came from the bush and I turned. A large man came tumbling out of the brush and started sprinting our way. He kept on running and I was frozen to the spot. My legs finally came unfrozen when he was just about face to face with me. I ran away as fast as I could and a started following my parents.
We kept going. Then we hit a highway and hitchhiked our way back to camp. We packed up and left as fast as we could. And now, every night, I have dreams with Joel and the creepy man chasing me with large knives. Every time I see someone or something that resembles him, I quickly turn around or hide in a crowd or something near, because as much as I hope he isn't, I think he is Joel's deceased DadWednesday, 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.
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 !
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
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.
"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 |
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 |
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.
.
"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.
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.
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