2013/4/29 Explanations + S.R.

Woopsies. Forgot to post yesterday, and I thought I did.

That sucks.

For some reason, I can't keep to the same schedule for a long time, even a few days.

That sucks.

Ultimate.

Right now, I'm sitting with my brother, Jason, on my comfy beanbag. I love sibling moments! Yet for some reason, he decided to open his mouth and suck in a huge breath at this very blog post.

That's my brother.

Yeah. He likes blowing breaths at me/my computer and punching my cheek.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Cyberport with my classmates! We're going to chill out and have fun.

(-

Excuse moi, Jason decided to 'borrow' my computer for a few moments to search different guns, as he was reading Artemis Fowl.

-My teacher's definition of having fun is grabbing a nice game, like cards, or a book, and sitting down.)

So. The blog post's name is called Explanations + S.R. because I'm going to talk about explanations and SR!

Yeah. Boring... *yawn*

Still, I am.

Tomorrow my class is going to Cyberport. We're gonna sit down on our fluffy blankets/towels and read a nice, calm book and having a nice time.

We, of course, being me. Only I have a fluffy towel! Mwah-ha-ha-ha.

You know, today, I'm ignoring SR, in case you forgot, it's snot-rag, my annoying friend. She was making bitter comments about us not caring about the script.

Backing up...

Yeah. I'll explain what exactly the script is.

In my school, we have something called EXHIBITION! In Exhibition, we chose a topic, aka issue in society, to work on and take ACTION about.

ACTION consisting of indirect, advocacy, direct, and research.

'Tis a long story, as you can see.

DIRECT ACTION: Face to face action, action that directly affects the sendee, and the sender.
  eg. Donating to an organization/ Comforting an asylum seeker or refugee

(The issue I chose to work on was asylum seekers. My next post is all about asylum seekers! And refugees!)

INDIRECT ACTION: Action that does not directly affect the sendee, but affects the sendee's community and society as a whole.
  eg. Volunteering at an organization = affects sendee because sendee's issue (said issue being asylum seekers and refugees) is affected because sender would be volunteering to help organization. Does not affect sendee because sendee's environment and stuff is improved, you see?

ADVOCACY: Raising awareness! Tell people and things!
  eg. Making posters and sticking it around my school. I did make posters with my group. More about my group later/ We made a survey about asylum seekers and went around asking random people on the streets, and told them what exactly asylum seekers are/ Making a BLOG or BLOG POST about it.

RESEARCH: You guessed it, research. Learn the facts about asylum seekers!
  eg. going onto websites to learn more/ Reading BLOGS about asylum seekers! Hence me!

My group is, well, a group that works together to make stuff. Haha, I'm being WAY too vague and rambly.

Anyway, so we took action. And yeah, action is all of those things above.

Unfortunately, SR is in my group, though it's over so I should call it 'was in my group'. As we neared the end of Exhibition, we had to make a board and stick facts, and graphs and stuff onto the board and present it to our parents, and the rest of the school, said rest of the school being Year 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

We didn't have enough time to make the video that SR wanted to make, and SR got so angry at us she threatened to tell her mom to tell our teacher to lower our grades. And SR was supposed to be my friend! I quote, when we were taking everything off our boards, SR said, 'Well, I'll take the script because no one cares about it.' And Izzy and I got mad because of it.

Actually, no one likes SR, now that Kayla-not real name, she's a good friend of mine- found out that Wanda doesn't like SR, Tanith told me she doesn't like SR, and Izzy told me that SR was driving her crazy, no one does now!

I suppose it'll be a bit mean to shout, 'Woohoo!'?

Yeah, it will.

Still remember my name? (Carolina Martinez). Just curious to see! :D

More on asylum seekers and refugees tomorrow (I hope), and cha cha!

2013/4/28 Introduction

My name is not Carolina Martinez, and I am not about to tell you my real name.

See? From the first sentence, you can tell what you should call me- Carolina, if you haven't figured that out yet- and that I am rather smart about internet anonymousity- if that's a word.

Location? On my comfortable beanbag at home, next to loud electronic music my brother's playing...
Alright, it's Hong Kong, but that'll probably change in the future.

Age? Oh, never mind my age. You can guess.

Family? Mom, dad, obviously, and a brother. I'm not about to tell you my brother's real name, but let's call him Jason Martinez for now.

I've had about two blogs before, but according to www.blog.com I broke the rules and I can't blog there anymore. I can't be bothered to start a new one on there, since it probably will be bad, blah blah, and I'll have to start another one.

Hint: Don't use www.blog.com. Haha, but if you want to listen to my advice, go ahead.

I can tell you a few things, though.

Last year, I moved from Shanghai on August 13th to Hong Kong, here. Obviously, August 13th is an important date to me as I spent two whole years there, so I really didn't like having to leave Shanghai and my friends. I hated Hong Kong at first, because it came immediately after Shanghai, but now it's grown on me and I came to a conclusion that I actually would miss HK if I left, which, unfortunately, I am- U.S.A, here I come after a year! I'm going to U.S, my hometown, once I spend two years in HK, if the H7N9 virus doesn't reach Hong Kong.

See? I have depth.

I have friends! I'm not a loner! I'm not popular, but people like me. Perfect balance, I say.

I have three very nice besties. I have one annoying bestie. The annoying bestie's name I shalt not tell you, but she will be called S.R., short for snot-rag, which the popular kids call her because she's so annoying. it's a bit mean, but what else should I call her? Her name's very unique because she's Indian, so you can probably track her down.

Oh, right. I forgot to mention that I'm female.

I have four best friends, including SR. I became friends with SR first because I talked to her first. She wasn't annoying at the time, I wonder what happened to her.

Maybe because of me! *gasp*

My second bestie came after SR. She was new, just like me and SR-perhaps why we get along so well is because we were both new- and she came in the middle of term. I'll call my second and best BFF Izzy.

My third BFF is Indian, too. She isn't new, in fact, she was in this school from Year 1, I think, as was her best friend, aka my fourth best friend, though SR would be the fourth because SR's so annoying. I'll call my third BFF Tanith! Random picked name!

My last BFF that I hadn't mentioned is Wanda. Fake name, totally not her real name since as a British, she wouldn't have been named a rather Chinese name. I'm Chinese! Can speak Mandarin, can use chopsticks very well, and can do Chinese stuff. Though I was born in America. I have black hair and I have brown eyes.

Now, I named Wanda Wanda because her name is actually _ _ _ _ _. _ _ _ _ _ in Wonderland _ _ _ _ _. Short for Wonderland is Wanda. You see, I have very strange knacks for coming up with nicknames...

What annoying habits does SR have, you ask? She has a weird accent and switches proper grammar words, for instance:

EXAMPLE A: I also printed that out. (Correct)
EXAMPLE B: I printed that out also. (Incorrect)
And guess which one SR likes using? That's right, b. But she says sentences like sentence B so much I want to punch her in the face.

Yes, I am a grammar+spelling+punctuation freak. But that means that I can write very good stories. Like novel stories! And I won an award for it.

Yes, moi-that's french for 'me'-has been shortlisted for a short story I had written out of 1540 other entries! I'm in top 4/5. Wanna read it? (SR complaints will go later)

Here it is! :D

 I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Jasmine glanced at me out of the corner of her eye.

 “You okay?”

 I nodded. “I’m fine.”

 Jasmine didn’t respond immediately. I turned my head to look at her, only to see my sister craning her neck to see the pilot.

 I followed her movement. The pilots’ eyebrows were furrowed, and the co-pilot was staring at the radar. He pressed a button, and the signs for seatbelts lit up.

 “Passengers, attention.” The co-pilot’s voice resounded through the small plane. “We are going through a severe turbulence. In ten minutes we are going to pass over the Great Wall to have an emergency landing, so would everyone please put on their seatbelts and get ready.”

 I sighed and fastened my seatbelt, and then did Jasmine’s, trying to stop her from hyperventilating. My little sister always had a problem with heights, so having a sister like me-calm, cool, and level-headed- that had a strangely catastrophic life was very useful for her.

 “Oh, God, Stephanie, what if we crash? What are we going to do-” The plane wobbled.

 “Whoa!” Jasmine’s knuckles were white on her seat. She began to grab at the emergency jacket under her seat, and gestured at me to do the same. Sighing, I obliged. Jasmine stuffed the jacket behind her and began to pack her bag.

 The plane shook again. Jasmine froze for two seconds. “Do you think we’re going to crash, Steph?”

 “We’re going to land soon, Jazz. No worries.”

 Jasmine nodded slowly. “No worries. Right.”

 The plane swayed a few times. The plane’s nose suddenly dipped, and I suddenly regretted telling Jasmine that it would be fine.

 We began to plummet. A few passengers screamed as the air pressure increased rapidly. I imagined myself as Brian Robeson, in the plane that was crashing and suddenly landing in the ‘L’ shaped lake.

 Three hundred feet, two hundred, one hundred fifty, one hundred… I blacked out.

 “Stephanie! Wake up!” I sat up, and Jasmine’s forehead hit mine.

 I rubbed my head wistfully, as if I was an amnesia victim. Jasmine stared at me.

 “You’re awake! Finally!”

 “I figured,” I muttered.

 “I can’t believe we crashed. There was an airport, like, this close-“ Jasmine narrowed the distance in between her thumb and forefinger. “-and BOOM!” She imitated an explosion. “We landed. You blacked out when we were almost at the ground. Eve’s hurt really badly, since she was sitting roughly where the plane cracked.”

 “Who’s Eve?”

 Jasmine narrowed her eyes at me.

 “Oh, a passenger. Of course.”

 We sat in silence for a while, listening to people shouting, the noise mostly coming from where Eve was sitting.

 Eventually, the noise died down as Eve fell asleep. The head pilot called in an assembly, to get to know everyone and their situations.

 There were roughly fifty people on the plane. None of us really cared what the other parties were doing, but we just wanted to get home.

 “Don’t worry, everyone. We’re along the Great Wall, so we can’t be far from civilization.” The head pilot reassured a few passengers that were panicking.

 Soon, night fell as the daylight dimmed. Groups of twos and threes huddled together, whispering about the situation. Jasmine and I just lay in silence, knowing that no words could help.

All too soon, I woke up. It was about six o’clock, so there was enough light for me to explore. I began to walk eastward. There was a forest there, next to the plain that everyone was sleeping in. Jasmine was still asleep, so I didn’t worry about her.

 The forest was dry, which made me more confident. I moved fast, since I was one of the best athletes in Yale.

 A few minutes later, I was tired. The forest seemed to go on forever, but I knew that the end had to be somewhere and I was determined to find it.

 Suddenly, I heard a strange sound. It was similar to the binaural beats that I listen to, consisting mostly of Theta beats. Very quickly, I did a reality check, but my fingers failed to pass through my palm. I took a few steps cautiously, and the sound’s volume increased notably.

 I began to run towards the source of the noise. My palms were tingling, and I couldn’t shake off the feeling. Slowly, the beats began to become louder and louder, and soon it was as if the noise was being blasted in my ears.

 I stopped. In front of me was a swirling mass of pink, blue, green, and purple mist. In the middle was a circle of blinding white light, which reminded me of a few pictures I saw of the Hurricane Katrina.

 I instantaneously knew what it was. There was a portal in front of me, summoned by magic I couldn’t possibly fathom. Somehow, I also knew that it would take me home… home sounded like a haven right now. Forget about our jobs, home was where I needed to go.

 Jasmine. What about her? A voice in my mind asked me. I was tempted to leave her, even though she was my sister. I shook my head. Overwhelmed by the feeling of loyalty and protectiveness, I started to run back in the direction I came from. My brain told me I had five minutes.

 I began to run faster. I was almost there. Soon I was sprinting, and two minutes later I reached the plain. I grabbed Jasmine’s arm and hauled her upwards, and then took off again. Jasmine mumbled a few incoherent words, but I kept on going.

 When I was halfway there, Jasmine woke up with an anxious cry. “What the- where are we? What are you doing? Stephanie!”

 I burst into the portal, standing there, waiting for the portal to work.

 “A portal? Stephanie, what about the others?”

 “They’ll be fine.” I replied slowly and hesitantly.

 I hated lying to my sister.

Ooh, I think I changed the last sentence. It was supposed to be something really silly like, 'However, I knew they wouldn't, because they were in a different dimension.' Now, 'I hated lying to my sister' is much better. But... Oh, whatever.

Yes, I am a writer! Not published, except for my short story in an anthology, though.

I have a much longer piece of work, with separate chapters, oh yeah! in a FictionPress account. Just search, 'Carolina Martinez' in the author thing and you'll find the user Carolina Martinez. Choose any story you like, but I prefer 'The Disappearance' as it's my main working-on-story. Yes, I am advertising. Yes, I do not know why I'm going 'Yes...' so many times in my blog.

I'm also good at sports! And grades! Haha! I'm bragging! I also type really fast, like super fast, like 404 character per minute, in that play.typeracer.com thing it gives you estimates!

Well. I have won a gold medal before for high jump, and I can run 100 meters in 16.7 seconds.

I've gotten 100% in multiple tests before, and hard ones. I'm talking science tests with questions about cells!

Between my friends, I am known for randomly launching into geography and science fact lectures. Did you know that Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world, not Niagra Falls? Betcha didn't... *winks* comment if you did! Haha!

Well, that's all for today! Chacha, bye bye!