Shaking Humanity's Sphere

Nova. It's an average December day; the year is 2013. Snow is busy accumulating outside; my mother is out shopping; I'm snacking on Christmas cookies and watching YouTube. Amid my subscriptions is one channel in particular: ExplodingTNT. It's Saturday, so there should be a new video from him today. Sure enough, upon loading his channel, a new video is displayed in the top row. The Nova - Minecraft Server (1.7.2) . I click the video without any hesitation--it's a new server! I've never played on a Minecraft multiplayer server before, so this looks awfully appealing. A strange rush of adrenaline overcomes me, and I join the server. Funny, isn't it? How a seemingly-insignificant action can change your entire future. Ah, the butterfly effect. The word "nova" is typically attributed to astronomy; namely, a "star which suddenly increases in brightness before fading." In 1572, astronomer Tycho Brahe observes a constellation now known as Cassiope...

1 . Cory 4/6/2015 9:21:48 PM "Hey, how was school?" "Hi. It was the same as always." "Ah, same. Minecraft?" "Sure." 2. I remember the sweet smell of the state fair; the brilliant scent of Martha's cookies invaded my nostrils. 'Twas summer of 2014--perhaps my favorite year from my childhood. The late-night smell of food from the fair, my own sweat from being out in the heat all day; it was stuffy, but it felt right. It felt like summer, and it felt like 2014. Man, that really was the peak of my childhood, heh. 3. House. Sawyer's glasses. Minecraft. Undertale. Summer. Server. Internet. 2014. Childhood. Nostalgia. The strangely satisfying scent of the garage. The stairs. 4. When I think back to 2014, I think of my best friend. I met him in 2014, and he seems to be the "era-defining" character of that year for me. I think back to that picture of him wearing his red-framed sunglasses with yellow arms and the mirror len...

Family at a water park, relishing in a break from life's antics. A boy and his friend; the boy's mother and her boyfriend. The boy's friend sporting the funny-looking sunglasses. The friends split off from the family; walking and talking about life as they knew it. The water park was grand, so much to do for someone so little. The boy excitedly ushers his friend to a slide, and lines up in the one adjacent; a race! Sun reigning high above them, almost like an umpire waiting to declare a victor. Ah, summer. 

Perhaps my favorite period of time, 2014. There's me, exposed by the lens of a phone camera, and my mother, smiling in unison with me. We're on a Caribbean cruise;  the smell the sea not a negative one. How young I look baffles me. 'S funny, isn't it? How old we think we were relative to how young we really looked if you focus, you can even see that I'm still wearing braces! My, how I would develop since that cruise.  x

(The following is based on a video game character: Sans from Undertale.) Sans A magical skeleton with a knowledge base of quantum physics; with a bone-dry sense of humor; with a blue jacket and pink slippers; a lighthearted one. Wearing a permanent smile. Yet, that permanent smile doesn't show his pain; his memories of lives he never lived. Cursed with the knowledge that fate was completely out of his hands-- but instead in a curious child's.  Still, he had a promise to keep: protect the kid. Even if it hurts, they're still a good person, and so is he, even if under the surface, he isn't what he seems.

A conversation between best friends, not unusual. You know life isn't always fair, he told me, and I readily agreed. The world is a cruel place; it doesn't wait for you to be ready-- it doesn't even wait for you to get an inkling that something's wrong. Why'd you go? I heard myself ask him. Best friends are such for a reason; why leave? I didn't want to . That's not an answer. I never got one. Some hours pass, more words are exchanged. Eventually, he tells me to watch a movie. I've gotta go. Stay a little longer? Please? My pleads fell flat. His webcam's feed abruptly cut to black, as did my vision. Time to move on, I suppose.

I wrote this poem for Discussion Board 2  of Week 3, and believe it works well for this prompt. - A pen in my hand, like a magic wand. Surfing the surface of the Page--a canvas for creativity. Click of a button, like a signal; ready to dash its  Ink, like paint on the walls. This pen is an outlet; the communicator of mind to Paper.  Allowing my hand to dance around on paper; my mind to dance around freely.

I grip the soft paper of the coffee cup from the shop; I don't like that feeling. Audible is the gentle thumping of my fingers on keys as I type up my essay. My eyes wander around and drink up my surroundings: lots of niche little square tables, little round chairs; some comfortable chairs (a few people occupying them,) guarding the little brick fireplace,  a view outside to the snowy Minnesota world, the wonderful scent of coffee filling my lungs. Ah, my coffee is cooler now, but not as cool as the world beyond the window. There's a woman with a pink iPad and a little brown notebook, as well as sunglasses. I blink and she's sitting down at the table beside me. As I leave, I embrace the prickly winter wind ah, the sky is always a strange white during this time of the day, during this time of the year.  Buildings scattered about; strip malls lined like soldiers. A  crunch  in each of my footsteps as I connect feet with snow....

One song that comes to mind is "Rihanna - Diamond". The iconic line  "shine bright like a diamond"  is an example of both assonance and a simile. I should also mention that just about any song from Eminem uses a variety of figurative language. "Rap God", for example, uses a LOT of alliteration, and every single Eminem song uses similes/metaphors extensively--and probably the full pallet of figurative colors.

Green sunglasses~ Through those lenses, I saw a lot of stuff I can't possibly remember all of it but on the bright side (heh), my eyes were protected. Through those lenses, many times I saw a happy family they're doing something fun, like a camping trip or going to the summer pool that's my family! Through those lenses, I saw Puerto Rico that was a cool trip! (my family also appeared happy there.) Through those lenses, I saw clouds why wear sunglasses on a cloudy day? perhaps because a shade darker is how the world really is ...or perhaps it just felt like a sunglasses kind of day. Through those lenses, I saw red no, not the violent kind of red, but instead the red sunglasses my friend wore to complement my green ones. Through those lenses, I couldn't really see my vision was like rain on a windshield; I wore the sunglasses to hide the rain Through those lenses, I saw my childhood lots of fond memories there, including when...

Another boring Monday readily added to the catalog. Sitting there in Pre-Algebra, thinking about everything but. Striking up a friendly conversation with the assistant teacher while we work on a problem; "what can I do to make class more interesting?" "wish I knew." ... A shame, was it not? To get along with teachers, yet dislike what they're teaching. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. Seated near the window, I could feel the December chill threatening to breach. Yet, I was enjoying this 2014 winter; it felt right, like this is how the holiday season should feel. I take home my assignments which I had no intention of doing. Pry open the 2011 Macbook Pro; immediately load Skype. Send a message in the group chat: Cory 12/1/2014 3:27:11 PM hey im home, u guys wanna play Kohi? Just another day.