Our Country

Author's Note: This is a short paragraph that I threw together explaining some of the reasons that I'm proud of our country.

Our country is definitely one to be proud of. We have freedom of speech, wealth, elected government officials,  and a strong military force. We can stand up for ourselves, and fight. There isn't much that there isn't to be proud about in our country, except a bad economy. We have good schools, and can provide education for kids. We have homes, and food, and don't need to worry about starving to death. These are just a few of the reasons that I think our country is definitely one to be proud of.

My Hook

"Are we there yet?" said Laura, the blueberry.

"Not quite," replied Carlos, the talking waffle shark. They kept walking, through the unicorn pastures of cloud 9. Then, out of nowhere, they heard a deep voice.

The E.A.W.C.

They cleared the fake security gate as Wilson shot the guard with his custom 2001fps Airsoft Sniper Rifle. He motioned to Stanley, who swiveled the truck around and slowed down just slow enough so that he could jump in the truck bed. He slammed down the sniper and took position of the gattling gun (also airsoft) which was mounted on the roof. He prepared for the war to come, and stuck his semi-auto airsoft pistols into his side holsters.  Glen took out his G36C, and aimed it out the passenger window.  The first stage of the Airsoft World Championships (AWC) was about to start.

        One of the other teams advanced fast, but their 530fps guns were no match for the armored f150. Glen hit the driver with his G36C and they spun out. Stanley cheered as he shot his pistol out the window with one hand. Suddenly, they got cut off and Wilson almost flew over the truck as Stanley stomped on the brake.

“That was close,” said Glen.

“Too close,” Stanley replied. Stanley slowly stepped back on the gas again and they moved forward. There were only 3 teams remaining, and the trio steadied their grips on their guns. They were coming up on another team, with a truck twice their size.

“Whatever you do, don’t run into them,” said Glen.

“Don’t worry. I won’t.” They sped towards it, and just as the other team thought that they had them, Stanley dodged to the side, and Glen started open-firing on the truck. His expertise caused a pellet to fly straight into the driver’s temple, causing him to become unconscious. Wilson fired the gattling gun in the rear windows, hoping to get the remaining members of the team. They were, after all, the smallest team there, with only three people. They would have more recruits, but nobody could live up to their excellence. The other two teams were dueling on the other side of the stadium, and Stanley saw one of them flip over, which meant that there was only one team left. They spun around and went racing at their opponent, and when they were about ten yards away, Stanley pressed a button on the dash. All of a sudden, the car flew up in the air and did a flip over the other truck, the whole trio firing at the hopeless car below. The gattling gun destroyed the duct-tape windows, which had been put in as replacements, and Glen knocked out their entire team of about 8 in a mere 3 seconds. Yah. He was that good. Then, a bell rang, and the entire crowd cheered. The Trio had won the Extreme Airsoft World Championships. They jumped out of their truck, and went to collect their trophy, a gold statue of a kid holding an airsoft-gun, and as a team, they raised it in the air, so that everyone could see. These champions still live in disguise today, but no one, not even those entrusted with the secrecy of the Dojo, (it’s another story) know who they are, or where their location lies.

Beaver Assault

Author's Note: I wrote this with my upcoming vacation in mind, and I tried to place my character in an interesting, but maybe not realistic, spot, where I could go somewhere with it and make a good story. This takes place in Arches National Park, where there are lots of interesting rock formations, etc. I'll put a picture of it at the bottom.

Derill and John, homeless ninjas, are hiding behind a rock, waiting for sun-down.

Derill peeked out from around the rock, "The coast is clear."
"Okay, should I go for it?"
"Sure, you've got nothing to lose."
John sneeked around the corner, and started for the trailer. Once he got there, he put his ear against the wall as if he were listening for any noises inside the camper. He gave a thumbs up to Derill, and slipped on his black mask. Derill did the same, and slowly crept over to John. They got out their lockpicks, and tried for the door. Neither of them could seem to get it. But then they came up with an idea.
"Sensei Chin-chin..," he called
"Sensei Chin-chin..," he called a little louder. Then there was a ball of mist hovering over the ground. Soon, there was a man sitting there crossed-legged.
"How can I help you?"
"We, uh, need this door unlocked."
"Okay." He flicked his wrist, and the lock clicked. "It's unlocked."
"Thank you Sensei."
"No problem. That'll be $89.99 plus tax."
"We, uh, don't exactly have that much. That's why we're robbing, uh, borrowing rather, money from, uh, Justin Bieber,"
"Oh, why didn't you say so! I hate that kid too. There's something wrong with him you know!"
"Yes, we are very aware of that."
"As much as I would like to see him sing some high pitched song about losing his money, I cannot. See you later boys!"
"Bye Sensei." Sensei Chin-chin nodded and disappeared in a cloud of mist.
"Well he was nice."
"Yes. Yes he was."
The boys stepped inside, and looked around. Justin Beaver was sleeping in a pull-out bed, and his security officer was sleeping in another. John crept over to the guard, and karate-chopped him in the throat. The guard didn't make a sound as he died a short, painful, death.
"Wait, lets leave the "girl" alone. I want to see what kind of song the kid makes up about this tomorrow. He will be a delight to watch"
"Yah, lets leave him. Let's focus on the prize." Slowly they opened drawers, suitcases, and backpacks, until finally John whispers,
"I found it! I found his wallet! And Credit Cards!" The boys didn't waste time celebrating, instead they opened the door, and started to step outside, when they heard a very high-pitched voice,
"What do you think you're doing?"


TO BE CONTINUED...

 Arches National Park

Delicate Arch

Total Randomness

Author's Note: I know what you're thinking. "Where in the world did he come up with that?" But I have an explanation. Recently, we did a group writing piece where the people next to you influence your writing and help you decide what direction that you take it in. It may sound simple, but it makes your story pretty random. Anyway, Enjoy!

I am driving across a bridge, toward a country you have never visited before. On the other side of the bridge, I can barely make out what seems to be a series of homes that look to be abandoned, for there is no one in sight. There is a train station with a steaming locomotive parked on the track.  All of a sudden, a big llama appears in my passenger seat. "What the heck?!" I yell.

"Hi, I'm George, welcome to Llamaland!" he says.

"What? I thought this was magic beanstalk land!"

"No, this is Llamaland, magic bean land is back in the other direction. Now that you're across the border, you can't turn back."

Then, he snapped his fingers, and he turned into an antelope.

"I don't care what animal you are, just get me out of here." I said. He kept snapping his fingers and changing. What type of animal are you? I asked.

"I'm an antelpoewhalebunnydogchickenllama. I can switch between animals. Would you like to see the whale?"

"No, just bounce out of my car already, unless if you can get me to magic bean land."

"Okay, looks like I'm leaving!"

"Ok, good!"

With that he opened the door, and jumped off of the bridge. He fell, and fell, and fell, until finally I heard a splash. All of a sudden, it started raining corn. I turned on my windshield wipers, but the sun-roof wouldn't close. My car was rapidly filling up with corn, and there was nothing I could do about it. I tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge. I realized that I didn't seem to be getting any closer to the other side of the bridge. I realized that I was stuck forever, and that I would have to survive soul-ly on corn.  Then, I remembered a commercial I had seen on TV, I started singing, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!" then, my agent appeared in the back of my car. It really worked! I was expecting some decapatated bear or something to show up, but it actually worked! My agent teleported us to magic bean land, and I thanked him dearly. Then, I sprinted towards a box. A six-foot tall bean named Emilio greeted me, and I at his head off. He tasted good. All he needed was salt and maybe some special sauce, then he would've been perfect. I thought about my friend Emilio back at home, to didn't taste quite as good. Believe me, he doesn't taste good. Another bean named fred came up to me and told me that I was under- arrest for murder. Then, he placed hand-cuffs made out of pineapples on me, and I at them, along with his legs, so thet he couln't catch me again. I left him a gift, which happened to be  pineapple bomb. And he exploded into popcorn. I decided after 20 more attempted arrests, that magic bean land wasn't for me. I developed a ton of pinepple devices, and injected myself with magical pineapple-powers, and teleported to a desert. I walked, and walked, until I found a guy that looked as though he was about to pass-out from walking so far. I gave him a pineapple, and we continued on. I had to give him the heimlech twice during that afternoon, because he was so sick from walking, but I gave him a potion so that he wouldn't remember it. Then, I realized that he was really my brother, so I showed him my secret pineapple-stash, and devised a plan to get the evil doctor pineapple. We put on costumes, and took my pineacopter to San Francisco, where we saw a kid with a nerf gun arguing with the doctor. We saved the kid, but didn't manage to shut down the evil doctor pineapple.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Our Satire

Author's Note: We tried to keep our project up to date with current events going on in Madison. It doesn't have an extremely abrupt end because nothing has really ended yet in real life. We tried to be creative and make it entertaining. Enjoy!

Click HERE to view our project.

The Fun They Had

Author's Note: Sorry for posting this late, I guess I forgot to post it all of this time. While I was writing this, I kept trying to think of how I could write about such a short story. Finally, I thought of this:


Can the advantages of having technology be taken too far? If you walk in to almost any classroom these days, you will find that you are surrounded with technology. If you ask almost any student if the use of technology is beneficial to learning, they will probably tell you that technology provides many advantages to the field of learning, and that it makes school more fun. Although this may be true, "The Fun They Had", is a good example of how too much technology can have a negative impact on our world.

One way that too much technology can be bad is that it causes a lack-of sociality. One-on-one learning, like the robot-teacher in the story, can be a beneficial method of teaching concepts. It allows the teacher to adapt their style of teaching to whatever way that particular student learns best. This, however, isolates that student from interacting with the other students in class, which is a very important part of building our social confidence. If nobody ever built up their social confidence, everybody would be shy, and never want to talk to anybody. It would make the world an extremely poignant place.

Can you imagine passing a bunch of people on the street, and not even your neighbors acknowledging you? It sure would make you feel socially isolated. If kids learn to interact with other people at an early age, it will make communicating much easier for the rest of their life. If you don't believe this, just look at the world around you. Many people interact with others through technology. Text-messaging, e-mails, and IM are all examples of this. Most people use technology because it is quick and easy, and they don't want to spend the time actually talking to the person. Not that this is always bad. Sometimes you need to get in touch with someone that is away somewhere, and you can't talk face-to-face with them. Sometimes all you need is an actual chat with someone. It can boost your social awareness, and you can get to know someone better than you would in a text or e-mail. In total, this just goes to show that technology can harshly limit our social skills, and it is important to take a break from technology every once in a while, and actually chat face-to-face with someone.

Another reason why technology can have a negative impact is because of reliability. Usually, technology works well. But sometimes, it can have problems. Luckily, we don't rely on technology so much that we can't do thing the old-fashioned way. These days, if your computer is broken, and you need to type something, you simply write it on paper. In the future, if we rely too much on technology to do things for us, we are putting ourselves in a risky situation. If all of a sudden the technology malfunctions, and we don't have a different way of doing things, we get stuck in a situation where we have nothing to do, kind of like how Tommy didn't have a teacher for a month because his robot teacher broke. It just goes to show that although technology can provide a fast and easier way of doing things, we shouldn't rely on it too much because it isn't foolproof!

Although there are many advantages of using technology, it can still be taken too far. Although technology can be very tempting, we should remind ourselves of the old-fashioned way to do things. We should practice doing things without technology, and talk to people more often. Sometimes, all you need is a simple break from the rapidly growing world of digital screens and codes. Just take a break from technology, and do things on your own. There are many reasons why technology could be taken way too far, and these are just a few of them.