Ignore this Title

[swf width=”400″ height=”180″]http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/bubblr_blog.swf?id=7376[/swf]

I did this post because it was the first thing that popped into my head.  I found pictures of the same roller coaster and decided to create a sort of virtual ride.  Since amusement parks aren’t operational during the winter, you can ride on a roller coaster without moving away from the computer.

I guess this post could also be interpreted as how life is, because there are lots of twists and turns along the way.  You don’t know what you’re faced with until you come to it.  You have to make the best if your experience.  After all, life is short.

Enjoy the ride!  Admission is free.  Come again!

The gravel crunched under Brett’s feet as he hurried down the road. All the shops were abandoned, except for one with a broken neon sign flashing the word “Di–er” at him. It was an ominous sign. Gingerly, he pressed the door open and walked inside.

Old tunes emanated from the jukebox in the corner. Four chairs were clustered around each vacant table. A few people sat on bar stools, swivelling around listlessly. A teenage girl stood behind the counter, flipping through a crossword puzzle book. She looked up at Brett. “Can I help you?”

“Yes,” he said, leaning against the counter desperately. “A blimp just crashed outside the city. A lot of people are hurt. We need as much help as we can get.” She looked up at him curiously.

“No one here cares, to be honest,” she replied, scribbling something in her puzzle book. “All of us ended up here, from planes crashes to skydiving. In this cloud city.” She gestured to the smog outside.

“But we need to get somewhere with doctors, like a hospital. Are there any places here?” Brett waited for an answer. She filled out another blank in the puzzle and answered, “Yes, but all the buildings have been abandoned for a long time. Even if you did find a clinic, there would be no one there.”

Brett turned back toward the door. “Maybe I can bring some of them here. They need help.” He ran back through the city and to the clearing where the blimp was.

It was gone.

The shock of the crash was now coupled with the loss of the blimp.  Where had everyone gone?  He returned to the diner, gasping for breath.  “It’s….gone,” he said, breathing heavily.  The girl at the counter looked up at him, thoroughly interested.  “Gone?” she repeated.  He nodded and slumped down in one of the chairs.

“Where was it?” she inquired, stepping out from behind the counter.  Brett sat up and peered out the window.  “That way,” he said, pointing to the left.  “But you can’t tell anyway.”

“Incredible,” the girl said.  “That might be our way out.”

A way out.

Droplets of dew clung to each blade of grass, making them shimmer in the early morning light. The lone cedar tree stood aloft, its leaves flickering in the soft breeze. The sun slowly rose up behind the hill. Its dancing rays played across the courtyard, letting shafts of sunlight glide across the slick stone walkway and the front of the church.

The foundation was ancient, with crumbling mortar in between the bricks. On the sides of the building were magnificent stained glass windows. As the sunlight filtered through the glass, blue, yellow and purple splashed across the floor, creating an enormous art palette. If you moved farther up, you would see that an old clock tower was perched on the roof. The rusted hands no longer worked; they were only a fragment of time forgotten.

Ivy curled around the shingles, adding to its forlorn appearance. Apparently it had not been attended to for some time; its decrepit state was disheartening.  The dirt road that led up to it used to be trodden over by excited feet, but now lay hidden under the overgrown shrubbery.  Perhaps if someone could find it they could restore it to its original glory; however, no one ever came.

A squirrel slowly shimmied up one of the sides of the building.  As the sun rose to spread its warmth, the small creature’s nose twitched.  Suddenly, it scurried down the front of the building and darted away, leaving the forlorn church alone and forgotten, as it had been and would be.

WARNING: This post contains controversial issues about politics and the Earth

Did you know that something is wrong with Earth?

It’s being affected by global warming. You probably have heard a little bit about it. Global warming is the result of our extensive use of fossil fuels being added to the atmosphere. The sun sends heat waves down to Earth, but since the atmosphere is thickening, the heat waves are contained, making the surface of the Earth increase in temperature.

It probably doesn’t sound like much, but it is a major issue. The video below is a trailer for the movie An Inconvenient Truth. Parts of it are over-dramatic, and you may not like the narrator, but it addresses what will happen if we don’t fix this problem.

[googlevideo]2078944470709189270[/googlevideo]

One of the problem we are facing is the melting ice caps. The man standing in the picture on the right is next to the last glacier of Mt. Kilamanjaro in Africa. In my eyes, that does not resemble a glacier; it looks like an overgrown icicle. Also, if you saw it in the video, it showed that parts of Greenland and Antarctica are splitting off. Afterwards it showed different areas around the world, like San Francisco Bay, submerged underwater. This is because as the ice caps melt, the oceans raise up nearly 20 feet from the melted ice water. That’s serious.

Since the ice can’t absorb the heat, the oceans are heating up as well as swelling. The most memorable hurricane was Katrina. As it moved toward Louisiana, the warm water made it increase in size and strength. I remember hearing that when it hit Florida, it was just a Catergory 1. When it slammed into Louisiana, it was a Catergory 5. All because of global warming. Also, you may not have heard, but last summer a massive heat wave swept over Europe. It wiped out 35,000 people.

Other countries have taken the initiative to fix the problem that has been created. Europe is using SmartCars; different countries have signed the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol states that it will target certain places to cutdown on the climate issue. Nearly all of the countries have signed except for–US (and Australia). However, Denver and other cities in Colorado are supporting the fight against this climate crisis.

If you can squint just hard enough, you’ll be able to see a miniscule blue speck. As quoted by Al Gore in the documentary: “All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars, all the famines, all the major advances: it’s our only home.” If we keep this up, we won’t have a place to call home. We have to try. We have to combat global warming.

For more info on what you can do to help, visit climatecrisis.net.

1) I want to use books as ideas for what to write about. I want to draw interesting ideas from what I read this semester and put them in a post.

2) For once I want to write a continuing story. I don’t want to stop halfway through and get bored with what I was doing.

3) I want to write from my point of view about important topics happening right now. I want to share my opinions both inside and outside of my blog.

What I need to do:

1. Learn about how to write a continuing story

2. Learn about how to create interesting characters

3. Write a short story

4. Finish it fully with an interesting end

5. Write a novel from this story