Poetry (Haiku)

I look up to you…

You have kept me safe, and warm.

You’re such a nice roof

Great Olympic Moment

The greatest moment in Olympic history was the 1996 opening ceremony because boxing gold medallist and sufferer from Parkinson’s disease Muhammad Ali lit the torch that would stay lit all throughout the Atlanta Olympics games. I think it’s both great and inspirational, mainly because it was such a struggle for Ali due to the disease. Reading about this event made me feel very inspired. It showed me that Ali hasn’t let the disease stop him from playing a part in the Olympics. 

My Movie...

So basically i wasn't feeling creative enough to film a movie. Sorry about how weird it is... I wan planning on making him sing but that didn't work out...

Collaborative Story - Part 4

 I stopped and flopped onto the ground, and waited for Casey to come and devour my body. I waited, and waited, and kept waiting, but nothing happened. I sat up and looked in the direction that I came from, and I saw a hooded figure with a shovel, standing over what used to be my happy, loud best friend. 

Maybe its just the fact I probably don't have any sanity left but this man seems to have the most friendly grin i have seen. He limped up to me, wrapped in his urine stained blanket. I get up just in case I need to run away but something tells me this man isn't the kind of guy that will eat me like my best friend had just attempted to. No. Eventually his limp turns into a faced pace shuffle. He mumbles something... He realizes he should drop his shovel and focus on eating my brains. I start to sprint but not for very long because I trip up on the curb. Hes close to me now, the many wrinkles on his face visible. I start to shed tears. This mysterious man does not eat me but instead lifts his hand from his blanket and reveals a ice cream cone with melted strawberry ice cream dribbled down the side. "I heard you talking to your friend before," He grumbled "I thought you might like mine..." he handed it over "its very unfortunate about your friend, shame really. " "yeah..." I managed to say. I was bleeding and crying and some stranger just gave me an ice cream.    

3 Day Episode

I would make a three day ep called PLAYDOUGH.
All it really would be is playing with playdough. Maybe even make playdough or do some claymation.

DAY 1-
Make playdough and play with it. Maybe start coming up with some cool character ideas and start a claymation movie if you wanted to.
DAY 2-
Would introduce a competition. Like a sand castle competition just with playdough. Play with more playdough, watch some claymation movies.
DAY 3-
Finish up comp and play with more playdough.

Each person should bring in a dollar the first day to go towards the playdough comp winner's prize. This 3 day episode will develop CREATIVE, COLLABORATIVE and JOYFUL ILQ's

Short Story Writing

They say normal humans only use a small percentage of our brain. But I am not normal. Nor is this girl sitting next to me. I don’t know her actual name and neither does she. I don’t even know mine. We use nicknames. I call her Red and she calls me blonde, after our hair colour. One thing I do know is that we aren’t one of those people who use that small percentageof the human brain. We use all of it. Red and I are test subjects of some terrible people. They stole us while we were young and messed with our brains. Or so we are told. Red and I just woke up one day with all the knowledge in the world.We are the smartest people in the world and we are trapped like lab rats. They told us we are kilometres under the ground. They would take us up to the world to con people, assassinate and any other things they want us to do. Money, I’m sure they have a skyscraper full of it. Red and I have discussed this. They must have tampered with our ability to know what is right. We can’t just scream out HELP. I don’t even know who I am.

"Get up!"a man in a mask said. Red was next to him. We walked down the long corridor and she whispered "killing a rich guy." I just nodded. I haven’t seen daylight in almost four months now. I look forward to these (or at least that’s what they are making me think) because I spend my time hunting my reflection. Because all I have is a bed in the underground prison they make me call home. No mirror to know what I look like. I guess that's the thing i miss the most. As we approach the end of the corridor the man in the mask gives us a pill and we take it. They have to knock us out. It’s probably just easier for them. I don’t know. Blackness goes away and I’m chained to a bed in a room. I wait 14 minutes and forty-two seconds before a man comes in wearing a black suit and the usual mask.He un-chains me from the bed by using the key he keeps in his front pocket. He will always keep it in his front pocket. I spend the day discussing the plan and other boring things I think are interesting.

The plan was easy. The rich man we are killing is hosting a party. We hack the security systems and kill the lights. Red will grab him and be out of there before anyone can figure out what even happened. I will break into his vault and lead masked men safely in and out of the vault so that they can steal whatever they need. I will meet Red a mile outside of his property. By this point masked men will have taken the rich man and all his money. The rich man will no longer be rich. He probably won’t be alive to even care. It was going well, we hacked the system perfectly (as usual). But red pulled out a mobile phone. "What are you doing? Where did you get that?" I yelled. She was shaking so much. She just screamed into the phone and hung up. "The police are on the way" she said. My brain told me to kill her. They wanted me to kill the traitor. I was too busy thinking about how she pulled it off. She knocked me out before I had the chance to try and hurt her.

I don’t know where I woke up. Red was smiling over me. Red doesn’t smile? Yet I just smiled back. "I never knew I could smile." I said and she just laughed. Red doesn't laugh? Yet I couldn’t help but join in. We just laughed. I literally could not remember the last time I laughed. They didn’t want us to have a sense of humor. When we both stopped laughing I asked her what happened. She explained, between giggles, that she called the police and they had to come because they heard ascream through the phone. They caught majority of the masked men and found out what was controlling us. She explained that they had several chips located throughout our brain. "Some surgeons worked on taking out those chips for a few months, or so people tell me." She said. "How did you do it? Calling the cops and all, I mean." "It’s simple," she said "really. I just… did it. One thing I’m still concerned about is that the leader of all those wicked men got away." "I’m going to kill him then." I said.I started walking out of the room before I stopped and had to ask. "We are still smart, yea?" she replied with a yes, telling me that she told them to try and just take out the bad chips. She also insisted that she came with me.

Finding him wasn't that hard, actually. We found him in an ugly motel. I doubt the receptionist lady even cared about giving a room to a wanted criminal. I whispered this to Red and she laughed. The receptionist, who had horrid grey hair that resembled a bird’s nest a bit, told us only one room was occupied. We went up some stairs to that room and Red put her ear up to the door. "Blonde, come here." So I did and all I heard was a deep voice that was crying heavily. I could have picked the lock but I kicked down the door, just for dramatic effect. This seemed to put Red in stiches. His eyes were bloodshot and he was wearing a dirty singlet and boxer shorts. "NO…" the man mumbled and jumped out of the second story window into a small patch of bushes. We ran down and caught up to him rather quickly. Red and I dragged him into a dirty alley-way and then she said "what do we do with him." I shrugged. "I don’t actually know." I got all up into his face to try and be intimidating. He squealed like a little girl. I had my hand tightly wrapped around his collar and I looked back at red to seeif she had any ideas. "Tell him that we don’t like him that much" so I did. And this made Red laugh. It was getting dark. I kicked him a few times and so did Red. We left him crumpled in the alley-way. I really did think that he deserved to die. But Red and I both agree we should get into the habit of making this guy’s life hell.

Blog Review- Neatorama

Neatorama is a blog I found while trying to look for something to review. Neatorama is a website focused on ridiculous posts. Silly photos and videos ranging from dogs that ride bikes to fun ways to pour ketchup. This is absolutely wonderful. Its pretty silly and somewhat stupid but its certainly something i'll pop into if i ever need a laugh or a cure for my boredom. So if you are silly enough to be entertained by a man in meat armour go ahead and endulge yourself in the madness that is neatorama.com

Photos

Photos of a few of the things i did in the holidays at Rotorua. Museum, Luge and the Zorb.

Term 1 Reflection

Term one has been pretty decent I guess. It introduced us to the many new opportunities. One thing I noticed first off is that with most classes we just started. No silly name games or whatever which I enjoyed because the extra time to actually learn is needed. English was fun. I did learn a bit. The majority of it I learnt from my teacher last year. I still think homework is a waste of time, on the internet or not. With the exception of maybe a piece of important work you didn’t finish in class. Though I’m still certain I got more homework in term 1 as a year nine as I do now. But I’m not complaining…
I’m glad we didn’t get CONNECTION drilled into our brains like we did last year. That was lame, having to get social with everyone who was in the same room with you for ten or so weeks. I don’t love everyone miss Impey… so that’s all for my crazy rant at the moment.

Voki

KONY 2012 Opinions

Maybe I was wrong to think “KONY 2012” was too good to be true. Before I watched the video and knew very little about it, I was thinking that it’s just another moving story about the poor lives of Africans and that all they needed was heaps of money. And though eventually that is what Jason Russell (the guy who wants to make this all happen) asks of you, he made the video in such a way I almost felt like doing what he says was what I needed to be doing. I understand that news is spreading that it’s all a scam but considering about 85 million people have seen this video the chances of nobody questioning it is impossible.

The more I think about it the more it drives me insane. There is always a chance that all Jason Russell wants is money and popularity. Yet the way he crafted that movie reeled me into the cause. He was close friends with one of the victims of Joseph Kony, he sounded like he was a trust-worthy man and he had a little kid to top it off. By the end of the end of the video all I could remember was the name Kony and the prices of the wrist-bands.

Looking back on all I’ve said, I think I have managed to convince myself the campaign is bad. And it doesn’t help that I now know Jason Russell was caught on a drunken rampage in the nude. But of course another thing has changed my mind. http://www.kony2012.com/ has a list of what they call “The Culturemakers.” They are people whose voice and opinions count. Celebrities, put simply. And a lot of them I know. People like Ellen DeGeneres and Mark Zuckerberg. People who have only made my life better and I really doubt these people would sign up for scams. KONY 2012 has made my mind crowded with confusion and I’m going to settle on one decision…

KONY 2012 is a good, legitimate campaign and Jason Russell has merely crumbled a bit with the pressure of millions.      

Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer - Review

Death Bringer is the sixth book in a series wrote by an Irish man named Derek Landly. The series is unique and very enjoyable. It follows two main characters; Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain. Skulduggery is technically dead, though his life as a walking and talking skeleton is still rich with excitement. He can also do magic (and is very good at it). His role in the story is being awesome and fighting crimes. Valkyrie is a sorcerer and detective with mysterious ancestry and incredible power. She is Skulduggery’s partner in crime-fighting and has only recently been introduced to magic.

Death Bringer has somehow introduced a new way for Valkyrie and Skulduggery to save the world from utter terror. It focuses on necromancy (death magic). Necromancers believe that someone with ultimate power can rid the earth of death, meaning immortality for everyone. This person is called The Death Bringer. The Death Bringer’s job is simple… kill millions of people all at the same time.

I loved this book. It was anything I could have asked for in a book. Derek Landly’s style of writing is incredible, in my opinion. His book usually make me laugh incredibly (this one still did) but it got serious awfully fast. From the first chapter this book is awesome. There is rarely a boring part in any of his books and I have often lost track of time while reading them. Death Bringer was fast paced, with lots of action, humour and twist. I can happily say that the romance in the book is not silly or cliche and there isn’t much of it at all, which is great.  The end, I liked especially. It’s not the only time Derek has left readers with a cliff-hanger. I’d recommend this book to anyone who really wants to have a good time reading. Maybe nine is the minimum I would say to start reading the series. But if you want to read Death Bringer maybe eleven is the minimum; because I do recall a fair amount of violence and the book isn't small. But I guess it depends on who the reader is. 

Wordle

Some pictures of my french toast.

How to Make French Toast

Ingredients:
 -1 large egg
 -1\2 cup of milk
 -pinch of cinnamon
 -pinch of nutmeg

Method:
 -mix all ingredients together with a fork
 -Take a slice of bread and lay it in the batter. Turn slice over to cover other side. Remove from batter. You want the bread slices to be coated in the french bread mix, but not so soggy that the slices are falling apart.
 -Once battering bread, place on hot pan coated with butter. brown on each side.
 -Serve tast with maple syrup and fruit :)

Makes enough for one or two.

Creative Writing

It was the dead of the night. Helen Curious was walking out of the shop when she was checking what she had grabbed. She had done well. The store she had just robbed was stocked with brilliant jewellery and money. The ski mask she was wearing was irritating her; though she made a mental note to not take it off. She was in a shopping mall. There are always cameras… and alarms. But after a small panic attack she remembered she had disabled most of them. And just as the thought crossed her mind a screech came from an undetectable place. She had done something wrong. A security guard came running at her. She had done well avoiding them so far. Helen began to run. This task is unfortunately difficult task for Helen. Helen is 93 years old.   

Eventually a young man charged at her. He was unarmed but the force of his tackle injured Helen. The young security guard hadn’t realised how old Helen was when he was chasing her. It was too dark to see anything. Helen wondered whether he would have treated her differently if he knew just how old she was. She was thinking about a lot. She only just realised the pool of blood by her left ear when she died. She was too weak to live, far too fragile. She knew she would die. A hit like that would kill any old lady, master thief or not.

A strong pull captured her. She was rising. But when she looked down she could still see her crumpled dead body. Also, she could see the traumatised young security guard who just realised he had killed someone. She was almost about to pass through the ceiling when she fell. She fell so rapidly that she had no time to be scared about crashing into the earth. Yet she continued falling. Falling was something Helen hated. When she stopped, which took far too long in Helens opinion, she felt dizzy and hovered. Helen was very confused. She had no idea what to even call herself. She was hardly a body, for she could see no arms or legs. She had decided she was some sort of spirit. Waiting for something to happen was hard for Helen; she likes things done quickly. And then a man came out. At least it looked like a man, it was hard to tell.

He approached her. It was only now that Helen could see his face. It was scared, dark and rough. His eyes were small and the darkest red. His lips stayed perfectly still, giving Helen no idea how evil this man is. “Hello, Helen.” And only now does he grin. “I have been watching you, very carefully,” he says. His voice is deep and hollow. “You have incredible sneakiness and wit and I would be so very grateful if you could do be a small favour.” She nods, indicating him to continue. “You see, I have always been on the lookout for someone like you. You have incredible talent, did you know, Miss Curious.” Helen tries to open her mouth to reply but she can’t. The form she is in must restrict her to only being able to view things. The man chuckles and waves his hand. She begins to feel blood run through her again. She has hands on her new arms, fingers on those hands.

Before she can speak, though, the man hands her a small mirror and her hair is long and blonde. Like it was when she was young. Her wrinkles that use to cover her face are gone. The strange man has granted her youth. But before she is flattered, she realises that this man is going to be asking for a large favour. “You are dead,” he tells her “I am merely covering your death. You are an imitation of life.” Helen is still shocked. “Who are you?” she asks. “That is irrelevant.” the strange man said “Though I have summoned you here for a reason. Like I said earlier, you are talented. I want to make you live again.” Helen smiled. “If you wanted me to die, why didn’t you kill me?” “I don’t have that kind of control” he replied. “All you have to do is go up to the surface and kill whoever I ask. You are still dead. I just can talk to the dead. So you needed to die to help me.”

Helen wanted more explanation but before she could ask another question, he held out his hand. Helen knew that shaking that hand would mean that she would be his slave. That she was obliged to do as he says. She’d have to kill. She isn’t that kind of criminal. But she could be. She knew she could. Helen Curious: The un-dead assassin. She loved the sound of it. She smiled slightly, and shook the hand of the man with the dark red eyes. 

My Holiday

My holiday was a rather unproductive one. But some of the more exciting things included movies, friends and swimming. Though the only movie I saw at the cinemas was "We Bought a Zoo" because my friends mum thought it sounded awesome. But my friend and I just spent more of the time eating popcorn; so it really didn't bother me much. And I got plenty of burns from staying out in the sun too much. I also managed to sit on a triangle.
Well, a large amount of my holidays was camping at a place called Orere Point My family and I spent about two weeks there. We left a few days after Christmas, did exciting things while it rained, and left about a week after new years. A few things i did there were swimming, wandering and the dishes. And when I wasn't doing those things, I was at home reading or watching TV.