To Kill A Mockingbird Cover

Maycomb Observer

Directions For Lord Of The Flies Game

Survival

Equipment

“Survival” contains one playing board, one dice, twenty-six question cards, an answer sheet, and four pawns.

Objective of the Game

Try to survive in the island as long as possible for the ships to take you back home.

Start of Play

-Shuffle the questions and place them in the card holder.
-Place the pawns on Castle Rock.
-Roll the dice to pick who goes first; the person with the highest number goes first.
-To start the game, draw a card. Get the question right, you roll the dice; get it wrong, you stay at your spot.

Bonuses

-Lord of the Flies: when you land on this spot, you confront the lord of the flies; just like Simon. Because of your fear for the lord of the flies, you move back two spaces.

-Simon’s Nature Area: when you land on this spot, you are comforted by nature; just like Simon. This gives you more strength to keep on surviving in the island; you move up two spaces.

-The Mountain: when you land on this spot, you light the fire using Piggy’s glasses. You light it to draw the ships attention, so now it’s waiting for you at the beach.

-Bathing Pool: when you land on this spot, you cool off and you are relaxed by the cool waters from the hot climate. This allows you to either think more clearly, or get more delusional; if you get the question right, you move up three spaces; get it wrong, your delusions accidentally make you walk to “Simon’s Death.”

-Simon’s Death: when you land on this spot, you begin mourning Simon’s Death; you lose a turn.

Winning the Game

In order to win the game, you must first land on “The Mountain” to ignite the fire. Then the two spaces that lead you to “You Have Been Rescued” will be available for any player. Finally, when you land on “You Have Been Rescued”, the ships will take you back to England; which makes you the winner of the game.

My Version

      The spear flew across from the sky and landed next to Ralph. As soon as Ralph stepped on soft sand, he stopped; dead end. Jack and his tribe followed him out of the jungle of fire. With no mercy, Roger threw the spear at Ralph as the hunters approached Ralph and stabbed him. Pool of red spread across the sand merged with the water from the ocean.
“He was mine Roger; you should have let me do the first blow, and the last blow!” Jack said.
“Yea, what are you going to do about it?” Roger remarked. “I’ve had it with your insolence Jack Merridew! Whoever is wants to join me, follow me to Castle Rock, whoever is against me, will be hunted down and killed.”

     Jack started to feel the same way as Ralph while he watched most of his tribe members leave to Castle Rock. All that remained was Maurice, Sam, and Eric. Jack knew what Maurice was thinking while they both watched the jungle burn down. No food, no water, no shelter. As much as they regretted burning down the forest without having the slight speculation of what the consequences might be; Jack and his remaining members ran to the only place where they could hide from Roger: beast’s cave. When they entered the cave, the beast wasn’t there, so Jack took it as a sense of gratitude for the offerings they made.

     Days went by as Roger’s promise was being fulfilled; three days after Roger formed his new tribe, Eric never returned from getting water from the lagoon; two days after that, Sam went missing when he went looked for Eric. All that remained were Jack and Maurice. They stayed in the cave while the rainstorm attacked the island. Jack noticed something odd while he watched a stream of water flow amongst the trees.
“Maurice, go outside and check if there’s something wrong,” Jack said.
“No, you do it,” Maurice replied.
“Why don’t you want to do it?”
“…I’m scared that Roger’s tribe will be waiting for me outside.”
“Sucks to your fear, I’m still the leader of this ‘tribe’ and I say you go do it.”
As Maurice surrendered in defeat, he approached the entrance of the cave. The first thing he saw was the beach, being overflowed with water. Then he saw the jungle slowly being inundated with water, and the stream of water heading towards the cave.

     “Tsunami!” Maurice yelled.
“Watch out!” Jack yelled, but it was too late. A tree collapsed and fell on Maurice. Blood spread across his face. Jack made a run for Castle Rock, the highest place in the island. Avoiding the falling trees and the stream of water that chased him, he finally made it to Castle Rock; then collapsed in the cave. Memories rushed back into his mind, if only they hadn’t killed Ralph; if only, they lit the fire the first time, he wouldn’t be in this position. Jack began to cry, and then fell unconscious to the mighty roar of the jungle while it was being swept away from the ravaging waves of the ocean.

     Jack’s eyes opened to see the daylight lighting up the cave. He walked out and saw that the water was going back to its rightful place. In the water, he saw Roger being dragged into the ocean. Jack began to walk over to the beach; to the place where they had their meetings. There he saw a littlun dead on the ground, holding Piggy’s specs. Jack took it out of his hand and then he saw a few logs in the distance. He walked over there and ignited the fire. The smoke that arose from the fire reminded him of the old times, the time when Ralph was still the leader and all of them tried to start the fire.

     After a couple minutes, a hand touched him on the shoulder. Someone wearing a blue shirt that had four golden arrows pointing upwards on his shoulders stood behind him. Jack turned around and saw the naval officer.
“Are you okay? Are you the only survivor?” the naval officer asked.
“I’m okay, and I don’t know if I’m the only survivor.” Jack replied.
“What happened here?”
“Tsunami hit the island.”
“Okay, I want all of you soldier’s to search the island for any survivors,” the naval officer said. Jack now realized that the officer wasn’t the only person standing behind him; there were also a group of ten people behind him wearing the same uniform with fewer arrows. As they scattered around the island, the officer told Jack to wait in the ship.

     No survivors were found, so they prepared the ship to leave. As the ship began to sail into the ocean, all that could be heard from the island, was the laughter from the lord of the flies; slowly awaiting his new victims….

You Can't Have It All

But you can have the rain pouring from the sky, like the water from the Niagara Falls.
You can have the sound of your alarm clock, waking you up every morning, whispering into your ear: “hit the snooze button and everything will be okay.”
You can have the giggles that children make at every joke, and the sweet chime of birds in the morning, always putting you in a good mood. You can have love at first sight, and after a day, watch her slip away from your arms and into another country.
You can have the honeybee sit on the nectar in between the misted yellow petals of a flower.
You can have the angel and the devil residing on each shoulder making you pick heads or tails.
You can speak a language, but yet, no one gets you; like an English kid in Spain. You can have a honeybee sting send someone off to their funeral.
You can’t have a perfect world, but you can have the sweet and peaceful noise that nature has to offer.
You can have your 2 year-old cousin say: “the first word I learnt in school today, was moco”.
You can have a dream, a dream where you were the president of your own world- a world where no one would treat you like an outsider. You can have your father sit on your bed trying to get you to sleep, while he brings Peter Pan and Robin Hood to life.
You can’t have the Holy Grail, but you can have the refreshing drink of fresh lemonade after an intense work out. And when you can’t sleep on a stormy night, you can revive that old memory where you depict the sheep jumping over the fence a hundred times, and finally fall asleep.
You can’t have the sweet smell of world peace, but you can have your favorite songs cheering you up after a bad day. You can’t control the wind or blow onto the direction you desire, but you can have the azure skies revealing the sun’s smile.
You can’t have the beauty of a flower all for yourself, but you can have the leaves of a tree that will grant you your every wish for everything you can’t have.

Poetry Notebook

Music As We Know It
Selected by: Prashan Paravni

Synopsis: The poems in this notebook will be about music.

Description:  Music can change the way you feel everyday depending on what type of music you hear. The kind of genre you like shows your personality like Pop, or Death Metal, or Classical. Music is played to entertain the listener and maybe cheer him/her up or might let them down. Music will always be a part of society because of the emotions it introduces to its audience.

Violin- by Mark R Slaughter


Mammary Tunes- by Mark R Saughter


The Guitar- by Federico García Lorca


Storm-Music- by Henry Van Dyke


Go Greyhound- by Bob Hicok


Piano- by D. H. Lawrence


Feel The Music- by Tiffany Burton


What Is Music?- by Jessica Cole

The Black Figure-Benjamin Moore AC-26

She sat on her chair,
enviously staring
at the people outside;
still trying to unshackle
the chains keeping her,
in agoraphobia’s grip.

She looks down,
sees the black figure,
the only friend she’s had.
The one that,
was as dark as a night
with a hiding moon,
didn’t betray her,
didn’t lie to her,
but always,
looked out for her.

The one that followed her,
everywhere she went;
her only friend
since childhood.

The thirty year-old black figure,
the one who can tell time,
the one who can never let you down,
the one who has witnessed your every sin,
is called shadow.

Book Review: Ranger's Apprentice, The Ruins of Gorlan

Ranger’s Apprentice
The Ruins of Gorlan
by: John Flanagan

Genre: Fantasy

Where I got it: It was recommended by a friend of mine who has already read this book.

One sentence summary: Will is an orphan who grows up to be a ranger’s apprentice; while his master (Halt) teaches him the ways of a ranger, Will confronts with one of the most horrid creatures known in Gorlan- the Kalkara, who is trying to kill all of the superior positions in the Castle of Araluen.

First sentence: Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, former Baron of Gorlan in the Kingdom of Araluen, looked out over his bleak, rainswept domain and, for perhaps the thousandth time, cursed.

First chapter review: Will is nervous because the next day is Choosing Day, where the Craftsmen decide how you are going to spend the rest of your life. Will describes what all of his friends want to be: Horace to Battle School, Alyss to Diplomatic Service, George to Scribe School, and Jenny to cooking school. Will wanted to apply to Battle School, but as Horace pointed it out, Will is too short and wasn’t strong enough. You can clearly see that Horace and Will don’t get along; but later on in the book, Will saves life, which forms a much stronger bond between them.

Verdict: I thought that this was a great book because I like reading books about fantasy, mystery, and fiction. I liked the way the author described the every detail in every scene of the book, and how he describes the relationships with the other characters; how their personality changes with every interaction they make with other characters in the novel.

Cover comments: Shows a person (most likely Will) wearing a blue hood and he has a bow and about four arrows on his back. I also see a castle in the background. This makes me think that this person is going to an archer like Robin Hood, and as for the castle, it makes me think that the setting of the book would be around the medieval times.

Fear

The tide was coming in;
there was only a narrow strip,
of firm beach between the water,
and the white.

Ralph needed to think,
understanding the wearisomeness,
of this life.
He lost himself
in a maze of thoughts.

With a convulsion of the mind,
Ralph discovered the conscious,
of his grim mood,
and the fault at the fire.

The platform was of noise and excitement,
scrambling screams,
and laughter.

We began well,
we were happy.
But remembering the beastie,
the snake,
the fire,
the talk of fear,
we get frightened.

We’ve got to talk about this fear,
I’m frightened myself,
but we put up,
with being frightened.

Be frightened
if you want,
but this fear can’t hurt you,
more than a dream.

Where I Am From

I am from computers,
from HP and Dell.
I am from the wall-sized windows;
big, transparent,
gazing at the other buildings surrounding it.

I am from pizza and eyeglasses,
from Savina, Rajan, and Ashiana.
I am from the educated ones
and the well-behaved ones,
from “One thing at a time”
and “You have to work for it”.

I am from the era of meditation;
staying still, with nothing in mind.

I am from a cluster of Indians,
from eating vegetarian on Mondays,
from going to the temple every Friday.
From wearing traditional clothing in weddings,
and from worshipping copious amounts of gods/goddesses.

I am from my dad’s side of the family,
from eating pasta and fish.
From when dad won fourth place in the lottery,
from the old family pictures hidden in the closet;
yet to be recognized again.

I am from those moments.
A trunk with future carvings,
the roots that holds the family tree.

Pray For Japan

     A ten meter tsunami hit Japan, which preceded an 8.9 earthquake-one of the largest earthquakes recorded since the 1900’s- shocked the eastern part of Japan; leaving copious amount of dead bodies. Japan has never been in this condition since World War Two. Japan has been hit by many earthquakes before, but not by a fitful earthquake like this.

     Right now, many of the biggest countries have deployed search and rescue teams to facilitate the job of rescuing any survivors. Sadly, because of the mud and debris left over from the tsunami, it’s going to be hard for the fastidious dogs to differentiate the smell of a human and of a corpse. Unfortunately, there have also been tsunami alerts for the western border of North America, China, and Hawaii. It has also been said that Japan has moved three feet away from its original position on the map.

     To make matters even worse for Japan, a professional on nuclear power plants said that one of their nuclear reactors, the Fukushima Reactor, had leaked radiation; leaving a ten mile radiation in Japan. Now the residents in Japan are supposed to stay indoors for 24 hours and must stay at least twenty kilometers away from the radiation. It is crucial for us to help Japan during this moment of crisis.

Memoir- House On Mango Street

House On Mango Street

     The author of House on Mango Street is Sandra Cisneros. The title of the book is House on Mango Street because she used to live in a house on Mango Street, and this is where she grew up and went through her teenage years. The memoir is about a Mexican girl named Esperanza, and how she grew up in the United States in poverty. The author organized the memoir in vignettes.

     She learns that she didn’t want to be a stereotypical woman. She didn’t want to have the future as the other Mexican women have; being bossed around by their husbands.

     I thought that the book was okay, though it wasn't my type of book. This book is more recommendable to people who are looking to read a book about how people-specially people that are have different ethnical backgrounds-live in poverty. A couple of the vignettes of the book were a bit interesting, and some of the vignettes left you thinking about how harsh Esperanza’s life was when she was a teenager.


Lines We Love:
“Está muerto, and then as if he had heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries.” (56)
“Hard to imagine her legs once strong, the bones had and parting water, clean sharp strokes, not bent and wrinkled like a baby, not drowning under the sticky yellow light.” (59)
“She is always sad like a house on fire-always something wrong.” (84)

What I Believe

I believe that whoever we,
see, hear, meet, and befriend,
shapes us into who we are.

I believe that music,
helps you think and relax.

I believe that life,
is one big tree.
Leaves,
may fall off and die,
but new ones are always formed.

I believe that life,
is like the waves of the ocean.
Pushing away its obstacles;
shaping and creating new ones.

I believe that faith shouldn’t decide,
 how we live,
or how our future is going to be.

I believe that we decide,
on how our future is going to be,
based on our actions.

I believe in karma,
and when it strikes,
it can inflict you,
for better or worse.   

I believe that,
in order for there to be an ending,
there has to be a beginning.

Disgrace to All Bank Robbers

     It all started when two psychopathic retards charged into a bank. Of course, they didn’t plan their robbery meticulously, because one of the pedestrians spotted them running across the street with guns in their hands. These two retards were Jack and George. Jack and George had a simple plan for their escape, escape from the back and assimilate into the crowd.

     While they were unlocking the vaults and taking out the money, Jack thought that it would be an excellent idea to cause a dissension about who got more money. The original plan was that Jack would get 55% of the cash, and George 45%. The extra 5% was because Jack planned the whole thing out. While the argument took place, the police were gathering at the front. By the time George helped Jack realize that his plan might get them killed, and that Jack should be lucky that George would be giving him the extra 5%, they finally noticed the red and blue lights that appeared from the police cars that were stationed at the front door.

     This time George planned their way out, but this one turned out to be even more retarded. His demands were simple; bring them a limo with champagne inside, to provide a safe route to the airport, and to give them a private jet that took them to England; or else they would kill one of the hostages. George wanted to be lionized for their robbery. What was even more stupid about these bank robbers was that they left their guns on the table while they picked one of the shackled hostages to take with them. One of the hostages was a policeman, so he jumped across to where the table was located and took one of the guns. He shot both of the idiotic robbers, and then went outside to report to the other policemen-that surrounded the complex- about what happened.

The Failed Assasination Attempt

Anarchy was the right word that described the chaos that was occurring in the main cabinet. Every time someone found out about the conspiracy on the assassination attempt that was going to occur in three hours, were reported dead by a car explosion.

     When in reality, they were apprehended and shackled to a foreign area, tortured, then shot to death. Obama’s State of the Union Speech was occurring in three hours. People in his own cabin wanted him dead because they worried of him being a “socialist”.

     The only problem that the vice president had, was that he was going to be sitting on Obama’s left-hand side. He was going to have to hire a contact killer to carry out his mission. The contract killer is going to go disguised as one of the family members of the nine year-old who died in the Arizona shooting. But, the assassination attempt failed when security caught him. Of course, when they caught him, he was headed to the Federal Bureau for interrogation. Then CNN reported him dead in a car explosion….