Alexus Rogers: Post 7

"There's lots of money out there. They print more everyday. But there are only 5 golden tickets out there in the world." quote from grandpa Buckett from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (The version with Johnny Depp).

Alexus Rogers: Post 6

Courage is when your scared out of your mind of doing something but you do it anyways. It's when you have tears pouring down your face but you still give your speech. It's when Bob Marley gave a concert even though he was shot the day before. It's when Lucy Burns and Alice Paul refused to plead guilty to the charge of obstructing traffic when she was protesting for women's rights in front of the white house and then when they were forced into a workhouse where they went on hunger strike due to the injustices.

Wiser VII

What if someone could compact and channel pure sunlight into a weapon? A sword made of sunlight? What about even a gun? Could we solidify other forms of energy into blades or bullets? Nuclear, wind, heat? What if there was a gigantic arena where warriors came from all around to display their prowess with the different forms of energy they're able to utilize?

Wiser Post VI

I wonder if our brain ever gets fed up with the meat puppet it has to control. What if muscle spasms are your limbs trying to fight back?

Madie 7

Each time I meet somebody new, they are a million pieces of other people I have met. They are his eyes, or her hair, or his laugh, or her voice. If I get to know them, they eventually become their own person in my mind, but the ghosts of others remain.
Who am I to the people I meet?

Donaher week 7

"What? Who even has a diary?" he scoffed, thinking nervously back to his diary. Should he write this encounter down?

Donaher week 6

Mad Max, but everyone is driving those plastic Little Tykes (TM) cars.

Donaher week 5

Playing a low C# for over 46 measures in a largo really puts your life at a new perspective.

Bergeron Post 7

An idea I had between classes - A young, jewish, Russian magician in 1882 adopts the concept of transcendentalism, which is waning out in the United States, and makes it his life philosophy. When the May laws are put in place by Alexander III, restricting the jewish people of Russia, the magician decides to make pilgrimage to the United States to the grave of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who has recently died (April 1882), and live freely there. With him, he takes a childhood friend who has recently been betrothed to an obsessive husband and they escape the country using his knowledge of slight of hand and her intelligence, living out their own offbeat love story under fake names.

(Also a side note - I ate an entire bag of Doritos during a physics test and that was pretty inspiring.)

Garrett post 7

Worms have it all. All they do is build cool tunnels, eat dirt and help flowers. What a life to be lived.

Garrett post 6

Will we ever run out of music? Not just random sounds and noises, but actually decent sounding songs and melodies. Will there ever be a day when the last combination for a melody will be made? What will be the last song and what was the first?

Garrett post 3

I hate losing things, especially little insignificant things. Just knowing that they are in the world existing and I can't reach them is so frustrating. There should be a "find my iphone" like app for everyday objects.

Kevin Brooks post 7/VII

Why is it that decaf "coffee" is still called "coffee", yet the thing that gives it its name, caffeine, is no longer present in it? (Yes, I understand that caffeine is slightly present in decaffeinated coffee but still, food for thought.)

Cianciolo: Week 7

In the summer I spend most of my time at the beach. When I come home, my feet are always covered in sand. The sand gets dragged all throughout the house and specifically into my bedroom. I wake up in the morning and instantly step in sand, a feeling I have grown to love. But that is only in the summer at the "Cape house" as we call it. Most of the summer I wake up and have nothing to do so I leave the sand on my feet. When I am working I must wipe my feet before I put my socks on. This morning I woke up, sat up in my bed, and wiped off my feet out of habit, even though my feet had not yet touched the ground.
I believe these subtle conditioned responses are important to an individual. The subconscious decisions you make when no one is watching are true indicators of who you are. The acts are so mindless that there is no stopping them. They reveal something about you that is unknown to even yourself.

Waszak 7

Why is it that when you go to market basket and get "freshly picked" apples it's like they're taken off the shelf and just thrown into a bag that says they were "freshly picked". The apples that you actually get from the orchard are much better, so I think market basket should stop lying to us. #firstworldproblems

Lauren 7

There's always someone out there.
Someone you see often, maybe have talked to, someone you know on a superficial level.
But when you begin to talk and the conversations deepen, first brushing, then punching through, to the core of life and purpose and the meaning of everything, you realize you have more in common with them than anyone else. You share the same world, but for the longest time, lived as ghosts to each other.
Then, instant connection, and you just *understand*, and your life is swept up in an avalanche of light.
Isn't it a beautiful thing, to think about how many more hidden gems are buried in the earth of our lives, waiting for us to find them?

Hackley 7

• I nearly got really hurt from my horse, but my life didn’t flash before my eyes like they say it does in the movies and books; everything just got really slow but sped up at the same time

Reid 7

Sometimes you just want to feel someones presence. Today I moved closer to a friend of mine in trig, even though I knew that I wouldn't talk to them in class because I had a test. I thought about this and have no idea why I did it. Was it so I didn't feel alone, or was it something else?

Kristen Kim Post 7

Someday, our entire universe is going to crack and break and fall apart and there will not even be a single fossil in memory of who we were. In billions of billions of years, it's not going to matter what your GPA was in high school or how much money you made. There is going to be no trace of all the things that ruled our lives, no testing booklets, no reports of falling stocks, no eviction notices. All of these things are going to be particles smaller than dust and there will be no one alive left to remember they existed at all. No one realizes that these things do not matter. Why aren’t you living the way you want to? Someday, the only thing that will have mattered is how stupid the human race was to have let happiness go in exchange for paper and numbers and rules.

Sydney Kim Post 7

My brother walked into an elevator door. He thought it was open, but it was closing and he ran right into it because he wasn't paying attention. You can miss a lot if you're not paying attention, like an elevator door.

Mathews 7

One time, when I was young, I wrote a story. It was something that I thought was really cool and original, something that no one else could think of.  I thought it was great. Just a few years later I read it again and realized it was the same as the story of Sonic 06. I’m embarrassed.

Gregg 7

I think my cat is a demon who manifested itself in a fluffy cat body because at the same time every night he howls and runs at top speed through my entire house. Also he tries to chew on everything he can reach and I don't know what's up with that.

Jain Numero Sept

The planets Jupiter, Venus, and Mars will converge to within 1° of each other this week. An awesome view of the orbital mechanics. They are so far away from each other, but to us they seem to be almost touching each other. 

Nelson Post 7

Can we blame a piece of technology for all of our problems? Isn’t the real problem the people who are operating it?

O'Neal Post 7

If you leave a light on forever, uninterrupted, at what point does it stop working? Does it eventually shatter, or does it just slowly grow dimmer? In what way is human life like this?

Nelson Post 6

I came across a prompt while doing college applications that asked what I would redo in life, but I believe mistakes make people stronger and smarter.

Victoria Lee Post 7

I wonder how it feels to push back the barrier in your mind that makes you retreat from suffering, from starving, from fully experiencing the coldness, the instinct that makes you return to feeling normal again. We never allow ourselves to experience these extremes, but if we did, I think that would be what it means to be truly numb-- to be lost in one feeling, unable to turn away. Not what we usually consider numbness as, being lost in no feeling at all-- that seems more like normalcy.

Waszak 6

I was in the in class suspension room (for a college meeting i don't know why it was in there) but anyways, there is nothing else on the walls except for a picture of waves crashing on a lighthouse and it made me wonder why is it necessary for that picture to be in there, and why for one picture in the room they chose that.

Madie 6

How terrifying it is that our minds are so powerful they can change memories we already embedded into our brains to create a different story than what actually happened.
The way I remember you, is it real?

Madie 5

I think I still hear your music in my dreams

Gregg 6

In freshman year, I thought it would be edgy to have a tattoo, so my friend and I got together some pen ink and safety pins. While the ink took to my friends skin perfectly, and she was able to create cute little flowers with needle dots, the ink refused to stay in my skin. So now I have a little triangle made up of a few faded, black dots. The funny thing is that I’m not even ashamed of my makeshift tattoo. The more I look at it, the more I like it.

Cianciolo: Week 6

From a dream:

I was with my friend Brendan on top of a hill in Westford discussing our physics project and saying we were the only ones in the world who understood anything. On either side of the hill were huge wooden catapults for a game where we would have to kill the dragon priest in the tomb at the top of the hill before he killed us.

We had to aim the catapult at the tomb as soon as the dragon priest (above) left the tomb (below), or we would die. The one to miss with their catapult would be killed by Mr. Bowen.

Bergeron Post 6

I live in a cold place, so I wear a coat. When it started snowing and I needed a scarf, I drove in my very own car and bought one with the money I earned. I like to drink tea and write in cafes when it rains. I know how to get anywhere I want to go in town. I play guitar until my fingers go numb. Sometimes I like having the TV on, other times I despise it and I'm only happy when I choose if it's on or off. I like silence and noise and certain periods of progress. And no one can understand why I've never hated living alone.

Rochon Post 6

He looked at me and I was home. All of my insecurities I'd had before getting in the car disappeared. It was me, him, and our usual life conversations with no awkward pauses. Find one like that, one of the good ones.

Kristen Kim Post 6

Things end all the time. Seasons change, friends leave, love is lost. The clock never stops ticking, and things never stop evolving, and it is tragic every time to watch things that matter to you dissapear from your life.  Why does loss keep hurting when it never stops happening? Why do humans get attached to anything when they know that they can never keep it? Maybe people were made to feel pain.

Victoria Lee Post 6

Education is one of the greatest gifts in the world. To know things, to see the world in a way you never could have seen on your own. And education is everywhere, too. Learning never stops. You keep learning about other people, places, and perspectives, even the second you step off school grounds.

But like anything you learn in school, if you never stop to analyze and understand what you've learned, if you never learn to truly appreciate the education, the World then becomes one-sided and black and white. Since you haven't acknowledged the education, your perspective narrows to only what you see from only your eyes. How will you understand other people and ideas? How will you see the World for how it truly is, in it's 3-dimensional and vibrantly colorful way? Even if you don't agree with an opinion, or you don't like a particular subject, it will still always shape your vision, opinions, and judgments, so you can open your eyes to the beautiful world-- the beautiful world that is seen through a million pairs of eyes, hearts, and souls.

Reid 6

"It's all you tiger"~Tony the Tiger This quote is from a satire video about the Frosted flakes mascot Tony the Tiger. The video showed extreme scenarios about how these children tony used to know had turned bad he he didn't know how to help them. It made me think how things change. You think you won't be that senile old grandpa who has to ask kids about how to open and send emails, but those seniors probably thought that themselves when they were young. I wonder what things will change about me as I grow older.

O'Neal Post 6

Do things like awards have any meaning? Are all awards just intrinsically arbitrary? If one small factor is changed, the award could go to somebody else. Awards might just be a way to make us feel like our lives have purpose and our efforts are meaningful (not that that's a bad thing).

Sydney Kim Post 6

The other day, my mom brought home chipotle for dinner. I had texted her my order and was so excited for my burrito bowl. But when I got my burrito bowl, there was no sour cream, no corn, and they had put mild salsa on it. I hate salsa, especially when it's just diced tomatoes. I was so upset with the contents of my burrito bowl, I started crying. Full-blown, bratty, tantrum crying. Senior year is really stressful okay. Everything is so fragile, that when something goes wrong, it all shatters.

Hackley 6

• Why do they get rid of naptime in high school? We need it more than little 8-year-olds with endless energy.

Jain #6

Something funny I witnessed. I was at a Lowell Riverhawks hockey game. Everyone is given glow sticks to light up during the first intermission, to break a world record for most blue glow sticks lit up at the same time. After breaking the record the college students throw the glow sticks on the the ice. All 3,000 of them. This delays the second period.  

Mathews 6

Story Idea (I’ve been working on this for a little while and I’m skeptical to say in the least): A boy (in his edgy, emo 12 year old years) tries to summon the devil. It works, and the devil is mad because the kid interrupted him on a date, so he rips out the kid’s eye by accident. He then apologizes and gives him a new eye that kills anyone it looks at. Approximately 5 years later, the boy walks into his living room and finds Satan wearing nothing but a kitchen apron. The devil is dating his mom, and his mom has no idea that her boyfriend ripped out her son’s eye.

Lauren 6

Why does love need a label?
Platonic or romantic, why can't "I love you" just mean what it means?
I. Love. You.
It's just love, plain and simple, why do we need to worry about the type that it is?

Cianciolo: Week 5

I was talking to someone who said they wished they could go back to the past and kill Hitler. While a reasonable suggestion because of the amount of people who suffered, I thought it was strange. Obviously, the classic response should be "That would change the future for now, so you might not be able to have gone back there in the first place and therefore may not be able to come back to the present." While this is true, it is a thought which has been thought of for years, making it not much of a revelation.
As I thought more about the concept, I thought about killing Hitler in order to save the Jews killed. I realized that this act would only benefit myself, as everyone else in the present would think that none of the Jews were ever killed. This means that killing Hitler would not help the people of today, because there is nothing to have been lost.
The people of today have already felt the pain and it cannot be taken back. In that train of thought, everything that has happened in the present has already happened. This means that time cannot exist in a linear fashion, because we are therefore living in the future.

Kristen Kim Post 5

Today, I visited somewhere I haven’t been in almost exactly a year, give or take a few days. As I enjoyed the scenery, I was struck by the thoughts of how much things change between rotations around the sun. So much has happened in between these suspended moments in time and even as I walked the same pattern of steps in imitation of my former self, I came to the realization that I am nothing like the ghost whose footsteps I followed. I could elaborate and talk about all the differences, but I think the important thing is that I’ve changed, not what the changes have been. It’s a nice reminder that everything is temporary and things get better.

Lauren 5 (the actual 5 because my 4 got mislabeled)

There is a certain boy who walks the same earth we do. His world is a different city, but our lives have only briefly intersected through family friends.
He has experienced what we can never imagine. He has died twice, both revived, and then almost died again.
But when we met, I saw someone living in their own world, guided by the light of his own lantern down his own paved path, where nobody will interfere with what he feels he has to do.
He is described as callous. Unfeeling. Inconsiderate. But look what he's been through. I saw him sprawled on the couch, swallowed up in the world of Borderlands and Mad Max, and I wondered...what thoughts slumber inside his head? How did those experiences change him?
I will probably never know, because we have never talked, at all.
The thought of him always reminds me to never have a quicksilver tongue, never be fast to judge others, because you really don't have an idea what they have been through.

Victoria Lee Post 5

Being alone and being lonely are two very different things. Being lonely indicates you've been ousted somehow-- you're an outsider, not allowed to enter. It's a place where you don't belong. Being alone makes you on the inside of things, just wanting to observe from the outside. Wanting to discover things about a place you've always known.

Hackley 5

• is twin telepathy real in some form? or is it just that they were raised similar so they act similar? My sister and I always wear the same thing without communicating what the other is wearing, and if I’m downstairs singing a song and then go upstairs, sometimes my sister will be singing the same song at the same part. Why?

Reid 5

What causes legends and myths to be born? Is there truth to them? What myths weren't passed down and what myths will be? Will Obama be worshipped as a God? What opportunities have we missed out on that could make us legends?

Alexus Rogers: Post 5

Blakey (my 6 year old brother): "We have 2 mummies and 3 daddies in our family. Because I'm not going to have babies. Because I don't like babies. I HATE babies."

Alexus Rogers post 4

If the population of "mentally unstable" increases to the point of overpowering those who are sane, then who is truly insane? If the majority of people truly believe something and fight for it, who is wrong and who is right?

Waszak 5

The importance of moments is so underrated when all people want to focus on is capturing the moment with a camera. We should try our best to take the moments we treasure in and focus less on trying to capture it because it means more to live it then to look back on it.

Garrett Post 5

what if there was a pill to erase the feeling of knowing something or someone. it only lasts a minute. You take a pill and you see your best friend as if you’ve just met them. you take a pill and read your own writing to see how others see it. you take a pill and look at yourself in the mirror to see how others see you. in a state of depression you overdose on pills trying to forget who you are

Alexus Rogers: post 3

Alice: "This is impossible" 

Mad hatter: "Only if you believe it is" 

When people stop believing things are possible,  they stop trying. When you stop trying, that's when you truly fail.

Wiser Post V

"...when he speaks, his voice sounds the way grease sounds when it pops and snaps to fry chicken, the way cicadas sound on a particularly heated summer night. In other words, it is inherently Southern in its honey-thick charisma."

garrett post 4

what if there was a society where heart attacks are extremely frequent, and there was a drug you could take every time you felt a heart attack coming on to immediately stop it. The drug only works when it’s in the event of a heart attack, otherwise it’s too strong and will kill you. People start dying from heart attacks with the bottle in their hands, but police don’t know whether the cause of death is taking the drug or an actual heart attack. a girl is home alone and feels chest pains and eyes the bottle, if she waits too soon it could become a heart attack that will kill her, if she takes the drug it could just be chest pains and the drug could kill her itself. does she take the pill or not? does she wait until she’s sure it’s a heart attack? askjfnwefspdmflkmws

Waszak 4

The pumpkin spice fad is overrated and instead we should just have pumpkin all year so people don't freak out about it in fall, people who love pumpkin can have it all the time, and we can just live our lives normally with other quality fall things in the spotlight.

Wiser Post IV

Maybe Mother Nature isn't sweet and caring. Maybe she seeks to sap away all of our life forces. Perhaps because she is made of rocks and trees, she needs us to feel for her.

Rochon Post 5

The fact that we teach people how to not get raped instead of teach people how NOT to rape is discomforting. When going out, we're always told to be careful, always use the buddy system, but what do we do when we're just as careful but there are just as many bad people in the world?

Kevin Brooks Post 5/V

Imagine if you got grades for your social life, like each time you left a friend you got a grade for how you handled things with them

O'Neal 5

We are like the phoenix- each night our old selves are burned and destroyed, and each morning a new self is born. Humans are constantly in a state of change.

Gregg Post 5

I feel like how messy my room is at the time is directly proportionate to how stressed out I am.

Sydney Kim Post 5

"What a treacherous thing to believe a person is more than a person."
-John Green

Expectations are overrated.

Jain Post 5

My Senior quote: "It's stupid to talk about things you're not. Be your self, and you'll be fine." 

Mathews 5

Today I got something I value more than almost anything in the mail: my limited edition 3DS. How did I become such an insufferable loser.

Nelson Post 5

Make decisions based on who you are today, not who you were yesterday. People become wiser every day, and new information should never be disregarded.

Bergeron post 5

Story Idea: A group of scientists run an experiment in which a child is raised by AI (Artificial intelligence) from infancy. While this experience makes the AI seemingly more human, it makes the human child less human, disconnecting her from basic human emotions.

**Inspired by Tiny Human and Me The Machine by Imogen Heap

Hackley 4

Some people say that the light at the end of the tunnel we see when we die is also the light of being born. I don't believe in reincarnation, but it's still an interesting thought

Kristen Kim Post 4

I want to tell her that I’ve walked a thousand miles in her shoes and I know better than anyone that the shoes are too tight and pinch your feet and have broken glass on the inside. These shoes are Cinderella’s shoes when you are the wicked stepsister, only wanting a life of glamour and respite. I want to tell her that she doesn’t need to marry the prince to be happy, that she deserves better. I want to tell her that the prince is the wicked one, forcing every maiden in the land to try these corroded shoes onto their feet. 

But I bite my tongue, because we can’t all get what we want.

Madie Post 4

We do not know who or where we are, but we at least know when.

Madie Post 3

I heard someone say your name. No, they weren't talking about you, how could they have been? But never the less I felt my ears perk up and my skin flush while my whole body suddenly became tense before I could even process that it was someone else.

I wonder what happens when you hear my name, probably nothing.

Victoria Lee Post 4

Every single hero has to start off looking like you and me.
Heroes are people, and people are heroes.
Friendly reminder that you can change the World.

Kevin Brooks Post 4

Everything can be going all fine and dandy then boom, feelings pop into your life and ruin EVERYTHING.

Nelson Post 4

It can often be easier to change one's mind than to change one's actions. People want to avoid feeling like a hypocrite, but pursue the laziest path to do so, and may end up believing something that is incorrect or morally wrong.

Sydney Kim Post 4

I am a lifeboat. Far out in the sea of despair. Hundreds of miles separated from the chemistry cruise ship. Too far out for anyone to save.

Reid 4

Humans find inspiration for art and creativity in music and color. So what would happen if the world was devoid of color and music? What would people write about? would people find something else to inspire them or would the world no longer have creativity?

lauren 5

Nothing is ever truly black and white. How can a human being, a complex creature of every shade and hue of color imaginable, create a situation with only two doors of opposite outcomes? Black or white. This or that. No middle ground. It's impossible.

Donaher Week 4

Fairy/Disney tales, but as noire pulp-fiction novels.

Red Riding Hood lit her cigar and took a long drag. Out hissed a cloud of smoke that smelled not only of quality, but of danger as she laid out her deal with the Wolf. "I give you these goodies here in this basket, yeah?" she said softly. "And in return... You take care of my dear little Granny."

She smiled as the Wolf agreed, pleased with his cooperation, but also at his gullibility. This greenie hadn't even suspected that she had a Third Party who was just aching to take an ax to a Wolf.
______
Ariel reached for her magnum, prepared to stuff this octopus with so much lead, she could use the body to make a shipment of pens and pencils.
______
"Onaha means family," Stitch spat, the barrel of his gun smoking. Captain Gantu stumbled away from his hostage, clutching his ruined shoulder. Stitch wasn't finished. Snapping in a new magazine, he bore his teeth in a terrible smile and snarled, "Family means no one's left behind." He gave Gantu his final fireworks show.

Rochon Post 4

Today, I went to McDonalds. Waiting in agonizing pain for my food, I decided I would make a new friend. Life is too short to sit around, waiting. Make someone's day, do anything to make someone smile, start a friendship. I asked the McDonalds worker who gave me a free milkshake to take a selfie with me, then asked her if she wanted to hang out sometime. She said yes. Be friendly.

Hackley 3

We were at a Salvation Army mass to support a family friend when the collection came around. The man to my left could only put three pennies into the collection basket, and the man on my right quietly slid in a neat stack of bills. However, the man with the bills had deep furrow lines on his forehead and was balding, but the man with three pennies to give had no wrinkles and a full head of hair even though they were about the same age. How is it that the wealthy man had more to worry about than the man who didn't know where his next meal or change of clothes was coming from?

Cianciolo: Post 4

From a dream:
I had a college meeting with my guidance counselor. I told her the colleges I wanted to go to and she continued to bring up a college that did not exist. I persisted to tell her that I did not want to go there, but she decided I was applying there early decision, which is a binding agreement where I have to go if I am accepted. I told her I would not sign the contract and she told me she already has my signature, and she will forge it and take all the money for my other applications.

Gregg Post 4

The worst part of nightmares is trying to run away and doing that awful dream-run where you push yourself so hard and barely move faster than a walk.

Bergeron Post 4

What if Juliet had died with the wrong lover? I think she'd be a very unhappy ghost.

Mathews Post 4

Today I was a watermelon. You really don’t know what it’s like to be a watermelon. Neither do I, I was actually just wearing pink and green.

O'Neal Post 4

Why does our society value thinking so little? You always have to be doing something, whether it's watching TV or going on your phone or reading or talking. Doing nothing but thinking is seen as odd, and maybe that's why we're so stupid.

Jain Post 4

With Hurricane Joaquin incoming(not really anymore) can we be better prepared for a natural disaster than last time, and with this much warning. 

Victoria Lee Post 3

There is a potted flower on my desk. Whenever they die, my mother replaces them with a new one.

"Why do you always let the flowers die?" my sister asked.

I shrugged. "I don't even notice them." (I know I know, I'm a terrible person)

Just an example of how so much beauty in the world goes unnoticed. Just because it's not acknowledged, doesn't mean it's not beautiful.

Donaher Week 3

HE stood proudly, taking in the sights of regal people not wandering amongst magnificent buildings that weren't there. The smell of pastries not baking floating through the nostrils of the people who never even were. The call of shopkeepers and the babble of hundreds of voices that cannot be heard by anyone. He could see it, smell it, hear it, so it was not real.

There was no one around to ask about it, so naturally he talked all the time about the city that doesn't exist to everyone who wasn't there.
____
SHE sat timidly, watching the boy in sand-dusted, raggedy clothing make his way though the regal people in the market. She could see him gaze about in skeptical wonder at nothing, hear him laugh out loud at the gaudy costumes that he couldn't see. She could see him, hear him, (she never had the nerve to try and catch him), so he was not real.

There were a hundred people around to ask about it, so naturally she talked not at all about the boy that doesn't exist to everyone who was there.