Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Speak Statment #6

Speak Statement #6

At first I would have said yes to the statement I had chosen, for I hadn't read it correctly. "Girls are more likely to have been sexually harassed" Is what I had read. I had missed the words "say they" , this had definitely changed my mind. As a girl I would normally never tell anyone if I had been sexually harassed ,besides my mother, for I would have found it to be to embarrassing to tell anyone else. I'm just not the kind of person who would go up to my friends and say just about anything that involves harassment. Though I doubt that every other girl on this planet is at all like me. Some may be less embarrassed or shy to discus this kind of thing with there friends, though I still doubt that it would be a very open topic among people. Never in my life (save for a few occasions) have I heard people saying things like, "Hey, he/she touched my ass." to their friends. Though I do believe that most girls/women would never tell anyone.
Guys on the other hand are a whole different story. Seeing as I am not a guy, I can't actually tell how they would react. My friend, Haley, made a point in the comments on how they might react, and I do agree with her.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The Things of Value

There are many things in this world which many people can put a price tag on. Then there are those few precious moment that are just priceless. What is their difference? Is there one? Or do some things just  seem more important to others, then they do to anyone else?

I'm very grateful for all the things that I own, like my computers, Xbox, PlayStation, Ipod, and many others, but there is one thing which I find just a tad bit more important to me then the others, my poi. Recently, I've taken up a new hobby, which is actually quite dangerous.Without my poi this 'hobby' would be literally impossible. Now I know most people don't know what poi are, unless your one of my friends, or some one who is very into the circuses arts. Poi is a style of Hawaiian fire spinning. Yes fire, real fire. And I know you think I'm insane, and you know what? I am. I spin with chains, about the size of your arm. They are like metal shinning beads making up a long silver string with what looks like a woven marsh mellow on the end, now charred black from excessive use. Once night falls I set up my little area in the back yard making sure to keep the fuel near the house, and of course, away from the fire. The smell of camping fuel fills my nose as I soak me poi in the gas. My mother has the lighter. The spark of the small candle flame appears at its tip. All foolish nonsense, and reckless behavior is left behind as the first wick is engulfed in bright glowing flame. The warmth of fire flickers up the chain, as I light the second poi. As if on instinct I move my arms without  thought and spin them at either side of my body. The heat of the intense flames and closeness keeps me from feeling the bitter cold of the night. The flames hiss and roar as they dance through the air painting red and blue loops through the dark, which stay suspended in the air for just a fleeting moment. The pounding bass of the music rumbles the ground with each interweaving cross of flame and heat. As soon as it starts the end is near. The flames flicker out and the darkness seeps back in to take the place of their warmth. Without my poi, which are quite expensive, I would never be able to enjoy the thrill of spinning fire.

There are a good number of things in my life that no matter how hard I try I could never put a price on them. Seeing as there are to many to mention, I shall go with the first one I can think of, reading. I love reading, truly. The nice relaxing solace I get from sitting cross legged, lost in the sea of pages, of a good book. Slowly turning each thin page with gentleness, as if it would shatter beneath my fingers. The stories playing like movies in my mind, each person having their own being, and each place with its own sights and smells. To imagine I am in there with them, slipping away from the real world into my own. The world of imagination. The peace and quite of being the only one there, that I've grow to love. Relaxing my nerves from a busy day in school (every school day is busy for me) and just drifting off into another place. I can never give up my love for books, and it truly saddens me to know that slowly they are disappearing from the Earth, and that some day people may never know of books, and the feel of leather binding or paper back in ones hands will be forgotten. I hope that some how this never happens.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Wandering the halls of the Heart of Gold can lead to strange and crazy things.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Mostly Harmless: Aurthur Dent
The Invisible Man: Griffin (Invisible man)  




Aurthur Dent was once again wondering the hallways of the Heart of Gold, in search of something to do. Not only was he lost, he was also quite flustered about one of the most recent events. Zaphod had recently gotten into an argument with the ship's main board computer, about god knows what, but now the computer is pouting and refuses to work.Therefor, the ship is now drifting lazily through the emptiness of space. Walking slowly down one of the Heart of Gold's many hallways Aurthur silently sighed to him self.
     "Why do I have to go through all of this? All I want is a good book, a nice comfy chair to read it in, and some tea to help relax my nerves." Tea, it's been years since he last had a good cup of tea. Yes, of course he tried to reason with the ship's Nutri-Matic Drink Synthesizer, but that only resulted in the same plastic cup filled with the same liquid which was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea, it also nearly got him killed.
     By now Aurthur had wandered into some of the oldest and most unused parts of the Heart of Gold, and found himself to be quite lost. The lights over head flickered and went out, he could only guess it had to do with the computer. He swore and stumbled down the now pitch black hallway running his hands over the walls as he went in search of a light switch. Now the darkness he was in isn't any normal darkness, it's space darkness which is completely the same as any other darkness, but it's just a lot more dark. Swearing as he went his hand ran across a bump in the wall.
     "Now what are you?" Aurthur asked the wall, as he ran his hand over the bump. It felt like some sort of button, or at least he though it was a button. "A light switch perhaps?" He stood there pressed the button, and waited. Nothing. He pressed it again, and again, frustrated he pounded on this small unseen thing with his fist. A loud clicking sound vibrated through the wall, as the button sank back into it. A low rumbling sound joined the clicking, which was soon joined by a mechanical voice.
     "Improbability Drive set two activated." It spoke.
     "Wait, wait, don't do that!" Aurthur begun to panic, he knows what the Improbability Drive is, and what's it's capable of, but never had he heard of there being two on this ship. Running his hands over the cold steal surface of the wall, searching frantically for the button which has now vanished within said wall. "I-I only meant to turn on the lights!"
     "Improbability Drive starting up, preparing to warp." The voice seemed to echo around the hallway.
     "No, no, stop that now!" Aurthur yelled, his hands pounding against the cold wall.
     "Warping in three."
     "Can you understand me? Lights turn on the lights." He tried to reason with the machine.
     "Two."
      "Listen here you piece of junk-"
      "One."
      "Please! Just stop!"
      "Warping, I suggest you grab onto something."
     Before poor Aurthur had anytime to react, let alone grab a hold of anything the ship hurdled forward, maybe even backward into the Improbable space. Like a rag doll, Aurthur crashed through the hallway, and with an abrupt stop of movement was sent sliding into a nearby table. Slowly opening his eyes with a groan of pain he noticed that the lights were back on. Perhaps the computer had finally come to its senses. Shakily getting to his feet he gripped the toppled over table for support, still quite woozy from his ride through Improbable space. Regaining his balance he set off to see if the others were all right, and if the Improbability Drive had done anything to the ship. Though without him knowing the others, would be know where to be found, leaving poor Aurthur all alone on a dead ship, floating off in the nothingness of space, but he is not completely alone for there is one other aboard the ship who is , if not more, confused about what exactly just had happened. Slowly making his way to the main control room Aurthur stopped half way. Coming from the control room was a long sentence of some of the most colorful words he had ever heard.
     Standing now in the door way, he saw that there was nobody there. Taking in a shaky breath he uttered a quite "H-hello?" There was no response, there was no one to get a response from. There was not a soul in the room, as Aurthur stepped into it. "Is there anybody there...er...here?" A glass was knocked off a nearby table, and shattered upon hitting the ground, fallowed by another string of swears and curses.
     "Darn it!" Came a voice.
     "Who...Where are you?" There was nobody in the room nobody but Aurthur. Who could have said that?
     There was a crunching as if the glass was being stepped on. Soon small amounts of blood could be seen, around the table with the shattered glass. The blood began to take the shape of foot prints, which seemed to slowly make there way over to a chair which had been knocked over in the movement. Said chair seemed to lift itself up right again, and a small indent in the cushion could be seen as if some one was sitting in it. 
      "I-I see you. You're sitting in that chair, stop trying to hide and tell me who you are!" Aurthur demanded, feeling unnaturally brave.
      "Oh, really now. You can see me?" Questioned the Voice
     "Well...er no, but you are sitting in that chair aren't you?" Aurthur pointed a shaky fingered toward the chair, from where he suspected the Voice to be coming from.
      "This chair, yes I am sitting in this chair. What of it?"
      Putting a hand over his face Aurthur sighed, " I'm going insane. I've bloody lost it haven't I?"
       "No, I assure you, you are completely sane, or at least seem to be." Said the Voice in a reassuring tone.
       "No, no I've gone mad, I'm having a conversation with myself, I'm completely mad."
     "You are not having a conversation with yourself, you're having one with me."
      "And you are just a figment of my imagination. The Improbability Drive has caused me to go insane!" He began to laugh with a laugh one would use when being told a bad joke.
     The chair creaked as the voice lifted itself from it, marching its way over to Aurthur it yelled at him voice tinged with annoyance and anger, "I am not a figment of your imagination! I am a living man, and I will prove it to you!" Before Aurthur could object he felt a something about the size of a fist connect with his shoulder knocking him to the ground.
     "Ow! Why'd you do that!?" He yelled into thin air, grasping his now throbbing shoulder.
     "Can a figment of your imagination do that? Do you believe I am real know?" The voice demanded. "Or should I convince you again?!"
     "No! No need to do that, I believe you, no need to hit me, you're real I get it...But where exactly are you?"
     "I am standing next to you, yes I know you can't see me, yes I know that being invisible is also impossible, but I tell you invisibility is very possible if I'm not proof enough for you now...and I am sorry for hitting you, I just-get easily angered." The invisible man said sympathetically.
     "So you're invisible?" Aurthur stood up shakily afraid of getting punched again by this invisible figure.
     "Yes."
     "And you're human, what's your name?" He turned and faced where he though the man was standing              
     "My name is Griffin, and yes I am a human. What is yours? I'm over here, you're facing the wrong way."
     "Oh." Aurthur turned around to face in the opposite direction.
    "Name?" The invisible man asked.
     "What?"
     "Your name, what is you bloody name?!" The man asked again annoyed.
     "My name, my name is Aurthur...Aurthur Dent."
     "Well, Aurthur where am I?"
     "You're on a space ship, in space...Where in space I don't know." And it was true Aurthur didn't know where they were, all he knew was that they were drifting off in the nothingness of space. Seeing as space has a lot of nothingness to it, and can be quite hard at times telling where the nothingness ,you are in, is.
     "A space ship, alright...How did I get on this space ship?"
     "I...I don't know. I mean it has to have something to do with the improbability Drive, but it doesn't really make sense."
      "So, from what it sounds like is that you were correct."
      "About what?"
     "You are insane. Space ships, improbability things, being in space that's impossible! What is a spaceship?" Griffin said in a humorous voice.
     "I'm sure you're right, but all those things are not reasons for my insanity. What's the date?"
     "What?"
     "I'm asking you whats the date."
      "1897, why are you asking me this?"
     Aurthur sighed, this would be hard to explain, "As I thought, you're from the past. Some how the improbability Drive took you from your time and put in mine."
      "The past? You mean time travel, that's what it sounds like. It seems anything is possible."
      "Yes like time travel, see you're in the future, and uh...how would I explain this..."
     "Listen, I'm not stupid, explain and I'll listen and fallow along as best I can, but I'm still convinced your insane."
     "Right, well the improbability drive is like this huge machine, and it can do things, and make anything happen-"
     "So I can get home?"
     "With the right coding."
      "Alright spaceman, put in your coding, and send me back, I've got very important things to do in my own time, and right now they are way over due. I don't like that."
      "See, that's the problem."
       "Problem?"
      "Yes, I don't know how to work it." Aurthur said bluntly, really he didn't. He never learned, because Zaphod had forbidden him from touching it.
      "You don't know how to make it work, it's your own machine ain't it! How do you not know how to work it?! You, mean I'm going to be stuck here on this ship, in the middle of space with no way to get back to my own time!" The invisible man bellowed in rage. "This giant hunk of metal, that you seem to know so much about, and you can't even work the machinery!"
      "You think I'm enjoying being stuck here, in god knows what part of the universe, getting yelled at by someone I can't even see! I'm not in my own time or space either, when the drive warped me here, I was hoping to at least be stuck here with Ford, or Trillian, even Marvin, but not some random man who's bloody invisible!" Aurthur yelled back, he had had enough of this invisible being torment.
     "And what's that suppose to mean!?"
     "It means that I find your invisibility annoying. I'd like to see the person who I am yelling at."
      "You think I want to be invisible? This was an accident, I had only just started testing it, and now it seems it's irreversible!"
     "Alright,alright your invisible it was an accident and your annoyed, well so am I...Yelling won't get us anywhere."
       "Right, look is there any way, any way at all that you could figure out the coding?"
       "Yes, but it will take a long time."
      "Good, because we've got all the time in the world."
       "What do you mean?"
       "That clock up on the wall there, neither hand has mover since I got here."
        Aurthur looked up at the clock which was mounted over the computer, and Griffin was right it still read the same time as it had for quite a while. "Then we better get started."
     After many hours, at least that is what it seemed like Aurthur and Griffin had compiled a good list of codes, and papers of which the would enter in the hopes to finally return to their respective times, by the end of it Aurthur had finally got back to the real Heart of Gold. There he stood in the same hallway as he ran his hands over the cold metal walls, and over that one button which had caused all this trouble. Stepping away from the wall he turned around to head back down to the main computer room, only to walk into the other wall behind him, for it was still oh so dark in that one old hallway. No, he would not tell the others.