9th Assignment

Cat got your tongue?

     There were many reasons why the old mansion near the graveyard at Nowhere was off-limits. Known amongst the townees as the Dreadfort, owned by a family called the Boltons if you ask the city counsel and it's somewhat notorious reputation is the object of many local legends and scary stories. 

      Firstly, the house looked like no-one lived there; the windows were dirty and covered with dust, the garden hadn't seen a gardener in what seemed like a good hundred years and sometimes, in the night, there were horrifying sounds to be heard from the mansion. What didn't help was the general sort of eeriness that seemed to take over the old house and it's property; the air itself seemed to stand still and morose and even the slightest sense of fear seemed to amplify the closer to the porch you got. 

     Secondly, the house might've looked abandoned but it was far from it; at nights, a flickering glow can bee seen from some windows, as if the house was lit by candle- or perhaps firelight. The only living thing to be seen on the property is a black cat with eyes of molten silver and one ear which's tip is missing, who hisses at everyone trying to touch it. 

     Naturally the attention, or the biggest portions of it, are garnered by children or teenagers, youngsters who don't know any better than to try and dare each other to stay the night at the old property. No-one has gone further than the groundskeeper's hut that's located near the outside perimeter of the property. Legend has it that those who've tried have never returned with all of their wits about them, never speaking about the house again, afraid of even their own shadows. 

     Sam O'Connell, 14, is determined to show his friends that he, thank you very much, is not scared of some old house near the cemetery. No matter what Ben and Carol say, he will stay the night, the full night and near the Mansion itself; farther than anyone has ever gotten. Armed with his father's military knife, a journal and some essential camping equipment hes saying goodnight to his friends; tomorrow he'll become a legend, he can already feel it. He was right, he would become a legend but not in the way he imagined it. 

     The morning would come to find Sam nowhere in sight. Parents were called, police was called and still. The police entered the house forcefully after finding the boy's journal in the bushes, but little Sam was beyond saving. The police found his body in the writing room, covered in blood, the white carpet around him was stained as red as summerwine, it had drank his blood up greedily. The boy showed no signs of injury though, no wounds or anything. The baffled police found no signs of foul play, no signs of any other living being besides them and the cat with it's unblinking copper-orange eyes. The officers could've sworn they were silver before as it was undoubtedly the same cat.

    Little Sam's journal is still opened in the police officer's office. The only lead they have ever managed to get on the case. 

January 3rd, 2005

9:57 PM

on the porch, not scary at all. ben and carol are just a bunch of babies, even the cat is not so bad. well it doesnt say anything but it is just sitting there looking at me. no biggie

10:23 PM

this is dumb, nothing is happening and the damn cat keeps staring at me. i dont think it blinks

11:05 PM

had to throw rocks at the cat so it would leave. the house is making noises, father says that old houses creak naturally. i dont know, i liked the cat better

11:45 PM

i think someone is inside

January 4th, 2005

12:01 AM

the lights (?) turned on at the same time!!!!!!!!!! i dont think i want to stay near the porch for much longer, what if they see me?

12:05 AM

i think i heard a scream? ben said id be imagining these things as my imagination runs wild? i dont think thats it though

12:15 AM

someone is he

Not that it helps them much anyway.

8th Assignment

From Salt-Lake-City, UT  to Missoula, MT

Hi all! Today I'm going to tell you guys about my road-trip from Salt Lake City to Missoula to visit my friends who had just graduated college. I knew that driving from Utah to Montana would take me a lot of time so I knew I had to get a comfortable vehicle. That was the first thing on my to-do list, besides saving up 100 dollars for petrol. The trip was a little over 500 miles and as I used approximately 20 gallons of petrol, I spent 60-ish dollars on tanking up and was pleased with myself for my efficient planning.
   Next I had to decide on the vehicle. And truth be told I wanted a certain type of car, for the full American experience, of-course. Think iconic hippie road-trip bus. Luckily my buddy-pal Josh had a girlfriend whose brother had a Volkswagen Kombi. The bus was pale green with white linings on the hood and the interior was so nice! It had white-ish faux leather seats at the front and a couch-like beauty at the back with a mini kitchen. The bus was a beauty and it drove like a dream, I was so excited!

   Since the bus had a mini kitchen inside, I decided to pack some sandwich ingredients with me and, boy, did the toaster-oven do wonders to my chicken-parmesan meal. I also stacked the mini-fridge with some tomato juice and string-cheese. Yum.
    So, at the beginning of the road-trip, I was a tad worried, for the weather forecast had predicted some heavy rain on the day of my trip. Luckily after three sunny hours it only rained for one and stayed cloudy after that. It was perfect for me as I had an half-hour-long break near Pocatello when I had lunch.
    Apart from realizing a lifelong dream of an all-American road-trip, the ride went pretty smoothly. I did stop briefly near Idaho falls after seeing a young woman with two children battling with her broken tire. I stayed there for 5-ish minutes talking to her after helping her, because her children wanted to admire the good old hippie van and I found out that she was on her way to pick up her husband from the airport. After that I just had to go see the falls for myself. And it was a sight to behold, truly.

   After that minor break the ride went without an incident and I got to Missoula safely. It was nice seeing my friends again and I loved riding around in such an iconic vehicle. The trip took approximately 8-and-a-half hours for one leg counting breaks and I had loads of fun. In my humble opinion everyone should have a road-trip at least once.

7th Assignment

A comic strip

6th Assignment

A modern fairy tale

There is a really valid reason why Hannah's parents never let her talk to strangers, mainly strange people near the woods to her grandmother's house. Why? Well, legend has it, that in those very woods, there lives a wolf-like creature that likes to feast on human flesh. Most of the villagers don't pay those silly fishermen's wives tales no heed, but Hannah's mother does. Why, you may ask? Because people and herd animals have disappeared near those woods too often for those tales just be tall tales. Just because they live outside the City doesn't mean they have to believe every little rumour floating arond.

Hannah is a very lively girl tough, and while she respects her mother's orders, she is inherently quite curious. And who can blame a girl for caring for her sick grandmother. Besides, doesn't the huntsman live near the woods as well? Also, it's 2016, everyone has a cellphone to call for aid. How unsafe can it be? 

Hannah's grandmother has been sick for a while now and nothing could stop her from visiting her granny. Currently Hannah is donning her favorite red-colored jacket and hat with some hand.knitted mittens and scarf. It is in the middle of December, without those she'd be cold. Hannah's mother has prepared a backpack filled with delicious home-cooked pastry and treats for her to bring to her sick grandmother. And off Hannah goes.

5th Assignment

 Three haikus

Autumn

The leaves are falling,

these brightly coloured leaves are 

colouring my day.

Music

This music, which is

coming out of my speakers,

do you enjoy it?

Free subject

I dislike haikus,

let's never do this again.

I really mean it.

4th Assignment

Exploring a dictionary page

1: co'rollary, co'rona, 'coronary, 'coroner, 'coro'nation

2: coronet

3: kɔ: , kɔ:z 

4: coronation

5: culture, identity, image, planing, strategy, structure

6: no, never

7: small, flat pieces of dried maize

8: Cornish pastry

9: cornrows

10: corporal, coronary

Referring to the menu box above, read the following examples and say which they refer to

a: Begin doing

b: Sell and get rid of

c:  Progress/develop

d: Spend time with a group

e: Change opinion

f: Make a formal proposal

g: affect someone emotionally

h: Change position

i: live in a different place

j: change subject/time etc

Collocations

1: Guess

2: Scenario

3: Judge

4: Glance

5: Thorough

6: Action

7: Boundaries

8: Strong

3rd Assignment

Translation

A Chimpanzee can recognize faces just as well as humans 

The skill may have been acquired from our common ancestors.

A human can recognize faces faster and in a different way than other objects. Earlier, that skill had been viewed as inclusive only to humans, but now we know that chimpanzees also recognize faces with human-like efficiency. 

This new information emerged when Japanese Masaki Tomonaga and Tomiko Imura taught three female chimpanzees to find cars, bananas, and faces, for example among other pictures. The Chimps noticed their peers faster than other pictures.

A face that is upside-down isn't seen

For humans, facial-recognition is based on the whole picture and fast perceiving, and the same can seemingly be said about chimpanzees. Just like humans, the chimps recognized faces noticeably worse when the picture was turned upside-down. The covering of the eyes, nose and the face also slowed down the performance.

Instead, turning the pictures black and white didn't affect the facial-recognition. 

What gave the researchers trouble, was the chimps finding pictures of bananas among other objects as fast as that of a face. However, the fast recognition of the fruit wasn't the same as noticing a face amongst the bigger picture. And when the pictures were turned black and white, the bananas disappeared for the chimps. The treat was easily recognized by the color yellow.

The chimps' ability to recognize faces shows its close relation to humans.

The human beats a macaque

Surprisingly enough, the chimps recognized the human faces as easily as those of their own species. That however, was easily explained: the test-animals had been spending a lot of time with their care-givers, humans. The faces of the macaque were weakly distinguished, although they lived in the neighboring cages. Even the faces of human babies were picked out more easily than the macaque, although the chimps having never made contact with the babies.

Were it the faces of humans or those of the same species, the chimps noticed the pictures that were taken from straight forward better than those taken from the profile. Which indicates that eye-contact is one of the factors that raises the chimps awareness. The same can be said about humans.

''These results should be remembered when discussing the progress of social awareness. Both of these species might make use of the information the face offers in their social lives similarly,'' estimates Tomonaga, who works at the primate research institution at the University of Kyoto.

The research was published by Scientific Reports.

2nd Assignment

A series of peculiar events

It was a day I'll never forget, not because it was in any way atrocious, but because it was simply so eventful.

The day started quite normally, I would say. I woke up half past five, looked out of the window and saw a squirrel climbing up a tree. Regular start for a regular day. As usually, I did my morning routine first. And as I went downstairs it dawned on me: today was my day off. I had no work to be done today, save for a couple of errands, but they could be done quickly and then I could just laze around. I would be lying if I said I wasn't euphoric.

So, after breakfast (which was a simple meal of pancakes and syrup) I went upstairs to change into my outside-clothes. After looking around in my closet for an outfit, I settled on a white dress with a brown cardigan.  A nice choice for these warm summer days, wouldn't you say? Wrong. As I was ready to leave the house and put on my jacket, I must have swung my arms around wildly because I knocked down an ornamental miniature vase/cup filled with blue water that was filled with glitter. Of course the glittery water just had to spill all over me. So, not only did I have to change, I was also covered with glitter because it is just impossible to get off.

As I finally managed to leave the house, covered in glitter and dressed in a plain T-shirt and jeans, I noticed something weird. Not 'oh my, Mrs.Jones is spying on Mrs.Cole's cabbages again' level of weird, but 'what is this kid doing'. You see, this little girl was dressed in her pajamas, crying and digging a hole for her pet rock to hide in. Apparently her parents didn't let her keep a muddy rock inside so she had to give her friend a place to hide until she can come back and retrieve it. Children, am I right?

As I made my way to the post office to mail my grandmother a thank-you card, I saw two people walking hand-in-hand by the sidewalk across me. What's the matter with me now, you might ask. Well, these two people were definitely not just regular people; they were dressed in full renaissance fair regalia. There wasn't even a fair anywhere near the city at that day! As I became more and more bewildered by my day so far, I got to the post office and luckily it posed as a distraction from the day I had had. Little did I know, it was not over.

After leaving the post-office, feeling happy and productive, I thought to myself:''Why not give yourself a treat? Let's go to the ice-cream parlor.'' And off I went. My mind already on the promise of future delicious chocolate ice-cream, I almost missed the sight of a deer standing at the crossroads near the parlor. A deer, in the middle of the city? Now, luckily the police had already been called and they were working on escorting it away. But still, you don't see that every day now, do you?

After getting a bagful of my favorite ice-cream, I  started the walk back to my house. The police were still busy with the deer, only now there was an arrow on the road directing the flow of traffic away from the poor animal. On my way back I briefly stopped by a news stand and saw that almost all of the gossip papers were filled with the same picture: the Queen of England walking trough the doors of the church, on her way to her granddaughter's christening. Because it  was Sunday, it was crossword day for me, and I bought a crossword magazine. Happy, if a bit confused with the events of the day, I finally made my way to my neighborhood.

As I was nearing my house I saw Mrs.Jones pushing against her shed door to keep it closed. As a friendly neighbor, I rushed over to help her. This, to my absolute mortification, is where the abominable glitter all over me comes in play. Of course she had to notice it and comment on how it is so nice that I finally found the magic of arts-and-crafts. How it is so world-shattering to just hold something of my own creation in hands and marvel at the beauty of it. Apparently glitter is something that I'll never again want to bring up with her, even involuntarily, as she will talk your ear off.

Having finally managed to escape the clutches of that arts-and-crafts enthusiast, promising to show her my amazing glittery art some days, I entered my house. After putting the ice-cream on the freezer I simply flopped onto my bed and took a well-deserved nap.

 In hindsight, that day might've been a blessing in disguise. Thanks to all of that strangeness crammed into one day, I can now see my future being as uneventful as possible. Just the way I prefer it. 

1st Assignment

A good text, my way

You'll need:

1 cup                   Good ideas

1 pinch               Frustration

8 grams              Optimism

500 grams.        Preservation

1 spoonful         Skill                                      

2 bags                 Preparation

Instructions:

There are many ways to achieve a good text. This, however, is how I do it. Please note that these ingredients are measured by my own preference and thus they can be adjusted as you go.

Everything has to start somewhere, and so do texts.  For us, the beginning is when you'll get an idea for your text. Sometimes it can be just a phrase, a title or even a monologue that gets the creative juices flowing, sometimes you just have a general idea of where you want to take it. Which is why preparation plays such an important part in the writing process. You can have a bullet list, a mind map or even keywords written on a separate piece of paper; the help it gives you is enormous. This also helps you to stay in topic and avoid droning on about irrelevant topics.

Sometimes I'll get frustrated by something I've written while I'm beta-ing the text. For me it's helpful, in moderate amounts, to see where I've started slipping from the text making sense to  senseless mumbo-jumbo. But always, always keep in mind to be optimistic; your own writing may seem boring to you, but it is mostly due to the fact that you already know what it contains. You are familiar with the text, and chances are that you've read it dozens of times, but for new readers the text is more interesting as they haven't read it already. 

What helps, of course, is a dash of skill. To know how to make a text flow right, how to keep it short, while informative, how to keep it interesting to read is a talent that needs to be in one's repertoire, but also one that can and will increase by time. What is best to keep in mind is that something is always more enjoyable when the text is structurally sound; a nice skill to have is correct grammar. As off-putting as a boring text can be, nothing beats an illegible mess in terms of a bad read.