KENL News of Animals Around the World Pt. 1

(This is one story from a whole thing I wrote in 8th grade.  I will be posting further installments every so often for some time.)

        We will start our program tonight with a flood of poodles in Seattle, Washington.  The poodles came from far and wide, some even rumored to have come from Texas.  One in particular had a distinct Redneckistanian accent, but tried not to show it.  The poodles that came from the ocean decided to grow fish tails and live in the Everglades.  But the rest of the poodles seemed dazed, just hanging around until someone came to take them to a poodle shelter in Kansas.  The Kansans liked the poodles, and they soon had all found good homes.

More coming!

P.S. I won't be posting for about 3 weeks because I will be on vacation so don't bother checking back until the end of August. 

America the...

So, I don't know who agrees or doesn't, but I think America the Beautiful is better suited for our national anthem.  What would other countries think of a country whose anthem is about a war?  Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of countries have anthems about war.  But the majority of our country's people can't even sing the entire thing easily.  The average range of the human voice is about 2 octaves, and I'm pretty sure the Star-Spangled Banner is about 3.  America the Beautiful is a wonderful song about how lovely our country really is, and it was made after our country was fairly complete.  I know it's a little late to change an anthem, but it just seems best...

Update!

I know I’ve been a little irregular with my posts, like posting three in a week and then not posting for three months.  So I’ve decided to start posting a little more regularly.  I’ll try to set a particular day that I’ll post on every week or two.  I’ve almost always got something to write about, I just forget.  With a new system like this, I won’t forget to post this stuff.  So yeah, this update post will be like my shortest one ever, but there will be more to make up for it.  If you'rer a regular reader of my stuff, you're probably annoyed by my lack of posts.  I hope to change that.  Not everything I do will be its own post; one of the things I'll do is post Nakajet images.  But just check once every week or two and I'll probably have something new!

The Nakajet

Okay, I’m finally going to get this post up.  Unfortunately, I don’t have pix yet, but if I put the rest of the blog up I’m more likely to remember to get the pictures I need.

       This paper airplane design is one I thought up somewhere around a year ago.  For one reason or another, we didn’t have much to do in Band that day, so some of the percussion guys and I started making paper airplanes and throwing them at each other.  None of the designs they had made work very well if you just fling them, which is what the guys were doing, along with wondering why I could get the airplanes to go farther.  I knew exactly two designs: the really simple jet that everyone learns in elementary school (which we already had one of), and a really good airplane of a design that a lot of people learn in middle school.  Not many actually know what it’s called, but it’s a Nakamura Lock.  The latter is the one I like better, so I made one.  Turns out that it doesn’t like being flung.  It works best with a slowish throw.  I’m not exactly the most original/knowledgeable person when it comes to paper airplane design, so I decided to combine the two.  Whaddaya know, it worked.  And it goes really far with a really hard throw, as long as you don’t throw it at the ground, or straight up.  I think we eventually lost that one under a drum set or something, but I can still make one.  It’s super easy as long as you’re accurate with your folds.

       First, fold paper in half lengthwise and unfold. (Pretty standard for most airplanes)  Second, you fold the first two steps of the elementary jet. (fold 2 corners to center, do it again)  Then, fold the top half down so the point is at the bottom and along the crease you made in the first step.  Fold the top layer in half back so the point lies on the line at the top; then unfold.  Fold top two corners to the center line, NOT flush with the line, but instead so the corners match and the edges rest on, but not below, the ends of the crease you made by folding the point up.  Then, fold the point back up.  Fold in half so the point is out, then make the wings.  I can’t give exact sizes on the wings, but fold them so they’re level with or below the bottom of the plane.  Tweak it so when it’s resting in your hand the wings go slightly up.  Confusing? I’ll have pictures soon, I promise.  I might also have a paper with fold lines and order numbers you can print.

       I call this design a Nakajet (hence the title of this post).  The elementary plane doesn’t have a name, but it’s a jet.  Combine that with Nakamura, and you’ve got Nakajet!

Again, sorry about pix, they're coming eventually.

CtheC

       Everyone needs to see the ocean at some point in their life.  I mean actually see it, not just pictures.  Pictures are great and all, but with the ocean, pictures mean nothing.  Especially if they're pictures of all those pristine beaches in Mexico or Australia.  That's not how the sea is; that's how travel agencies want you to think the sea is.  Don't go anywhere like that, seriously.  The "pristine" beaches get crowded because of their "pristine"-ness.  If you want to play in the surf, go ahead.  But at some point in your life, go somewhere else.  Maybe somewhere with tide pools.  I can't tell you about East Coastline, but I can say that Northern California, at least, can show you what the sea is really like.  You can't see the ocean as itself at Waikiki.
       If you haven't been to a place where the ocean speaks, and no one is there to interrupt; where waves crash against rocks like they have for millennia; where whole worlds live at your feet; where the pristine blue ocean shows its true colors. . . find that place.
       Go.

Pumpkin Patch

       1040 pumpkins.  That's how many are at our church's annual pumpkin patch.  We (the youth group + a bunch of adults) had to unload these 1040 pumpkins last Saturday.  The giant truck containing them took up the length of our parking lot, and almost hit a silver VW bug backing in!  We had 3 wagons and a couple of wheelbarrows, but they were mainly for the small ($2 size or less) pumpkins.  Once we got to the big ones, we had to get a sort of bucket line going.  The really big ones were still transported by wagon, though.  The line disintegrated more than once, often when there was a delay of more than a few seconds between pumpkins.  They were placed all around the church steps and lawn, and this wooden trailer we get every year.  Once the trailer got there, the truck had to move around to the front of the church so that our line could get to the lawn.
       There were pumpkins of every shape and size.  Anyone who got a really heavy one had to warn the next person by saying, and I quote this directly, "Heavy!"  I started also saying "heavier than it looks!" because there are some green ones (I'm not sure if they're pumpkins or just gourds) that don't look heavy, but are solid or something.  A lot heavier than they look.
        We sell them by size - smallest are tiny, only 25 cents; the largest can be up to $20!  The $20 ones are the ones that were loaded onto the wagons.
        It can wear you out, passing pumpkin after pumpkin to a person, even in our zigzag bucket line (easier on your back than when everyone faces the same way).  Regardless of the fact that it's Monday and I'm still sore, it was really fun seeing all these pumpkins.

P.S. Apparently this computer won't let me upload images right now; when it does, I'll upload some pix of the patch that I took.  I didn't get any of the unloading day, anyway, though.

The Day Without Desks

Today my school did something called Day Without Desks to raise money for education in Haiti.  Basically all the desks and chairs are pushed to the side, and we either stand or sit on the floor.  They've been selling T-shirts and donations are possible too.  As you can see, I've bought a shirt.  Hey, it fits, it's an awfully good deal for a shirt, and the money goes to a good cause.  Why not buy one?  Anyway, it seemed pretty harmless.  Well, a lot of people didn't like it. (Mostly girls, I noticed. . .) I overheard one girl on Monday saying that she was planning on just ditching the day because she didn't want to sit on the floor.  I mean, come on!  It's probably better than the stupid chairs.  And it's not like it's going to kill you to see how the kids in Haiti live (because that was the point of not having desks - the kids there don't ever).  That's just being a weenie, and seriously selfish.  I mean, I don't even have a good back, and do you see me complaining about sitting on the floor?  A lot of people sat in chairs anyway, because it wasn't absolutely required to sit on the floor, which makes it even more stupid to ditch because of that.  It should be required to sit on the floor, or you should have to pay $1 for a chair and another dollar for a desk or something.  That would make even more money than the shirts.  I only saw 30 people out of our large school wearing the shirts.
       What would have been even better, but was disapproved by the board, would be Day Without Shoes.  There are so many slightly valid reasons to disapprove it, but it would still have been great.