A polar bear approached the ship and, smelling the cauliflower soup cooking for lunch, promptly poked his head through an open porthole - (WG 5)

Cook‘s log: January 23rd evening on board the John F. Kennedy arctic explorer II

It’s been quite an eventful day. First thing I did was to cook up my cauliflower soup, taking whatever I could from our rations to pulverize in my blender. I used cans with chicken/duck/rooster flavour, some garlic, tree onions and a sack full of Atlantic potatoes. I fear I’m at a Dead end. One time the crew put on a sign on my cauldron saying: Bottomless pit – 65 feet deep. My guys are really gonna be longing for KFC’s after eating this.
I was told a strange story by the radioman. He had just intercepted a Canadian radio channel, which played a lipstick commercial for Revlon followed by a silly country song called “Caution, this sign has sharp edges”. The first lines went something like:
Hank, let’s talk about your daddy
Tell me how your momma loved that man
Well, just break a bottle hoss
I’ll tell ya’ about the drifting cowboy band
I could understand why he had put the following sign on that radio: Be careful, this machine has no brain, use your own. However he was able to get one conversation through for me:
Hey, Champ, how was the lecture?
It was okay, happy to be home with Lucas.
Yeah, that reminds me, what are you doing tomorrow night, all of you?
I think we’re going to have my in laws coming over, but I don’t know.
Makes me think of how far this Sirius expedition is from home. I miss my family, even my annoying mother in law with her addiction to Skittles or my son Harry. I laugh each time I think of how he explained gravity: “It’s falling down. Because you can’t stay on/up there, can you? Because you just fall, and you can’t fly. That’s why”. I remember reading “The Golden Compass” aloud to him under his silly lamp, only to hear him complain about the absence of hammers and revolvers in it. He’s gonna be a tough guy when he grows up.
I think the solitude is driving me crazy. All I have to amuse myself with in my room is a poster of “The Clocks” and a sign saying “When flooded turn around, don’t drown”. I’m gonna Stop writing for now. I need to find out what is lurking outside the porthole.

Louise and Niels

Dear aunt Sylvia !

İ write you this letter in bewilderment. You told me, sweet auntie, that İ could always turn to you when İ was in trouble because as you said, life has its ups and downs.
When İ met this pleasant American gentleman, it was a dream come true. Like "Alice in Wonderland" you read to me when İ was little. He brought me flowers and offered me things that İ had always dreamt of having when İ pressed my nose against the smart windows in Piccadilly.
The melliflous words he whispered into my ears. İ was so happy. We lived in a whirl of pleasures, and it captured me. But now, all we do is look at things and try new drinks, and İ am unhappy because İ am pregnant, and he wants me to cut it out.
The mood has changed. He talks beside me when İ say bright things like "the hills look like white elephants". İ likened the hills with white elephants because they were hazy-blue and because white elephants, you once told me, can turn out to be a burden instead of carrying fortune.
What it is that burdens me? Can İ believe him when he says that everything will be as before, it is just to let the air in, he says. One moment İ tell myself he is right ... everything will be fine ... the next moment İ get the jitters when he says that everything will be fine, and İ think he is only talking nonsense.
Oh, there he comes, the train has arrived, and we are whirling on ...
Laura

A Sermon

Writing Game 4
Text for revision: R.P. for QuarksDaily Blog-post
Genre: Sermon

Scene: A young male preacher addresses the audience at a Evangelic concert, U.S.
--
I will preach as if I were never to preach again!
Let us start out with a prayer to the lord, and I would ask for you to pray, pray for the woman by your side or the man close to you.

*deliver short prayer, ending with an amen*

Women! There is so much going on here today that you do not understand!
But I will tell you where I am coming from
I believe that you should enjoy life. GOD wants you to enjoy life.
I will tell you things that will make you so happy with yourselves and God
You will deny it
But ask your self one question
Would God not want for your children to be raised in a healthy way? For you, yourself, to enjoy life?
“Enjoy!”, God says.
I am telling you the truth and nothing else than conforming to this truth matters.
I stand here today
I am troubled in my heart – about your self-esteem, you self-image, your control over yourself.
God will grant you this control! Amen
*await applause*

Writing game 4

Article based on the excerpt from The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe:

We all want to know more about the universe. What is out there? Can we make any contact with creatures of other worlds? And more importantly what would a possible cooperation with aliens mean to our daily life? For the past couple of years Civil Aeronautics Administration has been taken the first steps to answer these questions. But t is not always a glamorous story.

Ever since President Dwight D. Eisenhower started the space program everybody have been talking about what will happen when we actually get out there? And “who” we will meet? But before getting the answers, we have to figure out how to get there. Scientists have been working on that problem since the beginning for the 1950’s. The Soviet already won the race to send a satellite into space, when they in 1957 allowed Sputnik 2 to orbit the earth with the dog Laika. Now it is our turn.

Pilots have been put through extensive tests to make sure they are up to the challenge. NASA has already identified seven chosen men for the Mercury program. Now US will beat the Soviet by being the first to send people into orbit.

But this is not exclusively a sunshine story. Like all big goals, it has coasts. And today it claimed a young man – husband and father – who met his end. Some will say it is a small price to pay for the goal at hand. But the wives living with this fear every day have their doubt, especially on a day like today. “It is never easy to lose someone close to you, but we try to support each other as much as possible. Living as close to the base as we do, we quickly hear something. And there is a golden rule between us to gather when something has happened, in order to support each others in time of grief.” Said Alice Cooper married to Buck Cooper, a pilot in the space program.

The hills like white elephants (4)

I feel alone in the world
I feel lost in my own thoughts
I feel scared by the shared life inside
All alone

I feel like wondering of to the land of the elephants
I feel secure when I am covered by the hills
I feel empty inside apart from the moving life
All alone

I feel like I am part if the white sky
I feel weightless without this burden
I feel connected to the white elephants in the horizon
All alone

I feel floating and confused
I feel drawn to the white sky
I feel calmed by the hand of the sky
All alone

My last Victim

Coupe Gorge by ~Itseni on deviantART

I stalked through the darkened hallways of the Castello Estense. My eyes were used the dark, and there was a part of me
that could appreciate the beauty of my surroundings, even as my heart closed itself in preparation for the coming, bloody business.

It'd been a cold night when my client approached me. I was sitting in my house, having a drink of wine when the knock came on my doors.
I wondered who would go out into the cold Florentine rain at that time of the night. It was my master, the Duke.
"Cesare," he said. "I need you to kill someone."

And so I made my way to Castello Estense. It was some trouble sneaking past the guards, but The Duke had ordered me to make it a clean, simple murder.
"They will know," he said, "that I am not a brute. They will fear me the more for that."

It was not hard getting past the brutes at the entrance; a bit of rub, a few gold coins exchanged, I was in. Such is the way of Italy in these days, my friend.
From what I had heard, the duchess was a pretty young thing. Blonde. Slender. It was a shame she had to be killed. Apparently, she had angered her Duke in some way or another.
Not my problem.

Castello Estense lies in the middle of of Ferrara. It is a place of shadows, of lies, and of great beauty. Here, the high and mighty men of Ferrara meet and discuss the latest way to fill their pockets.
I made my way down a corridor of statues, each one appearing monstrous in the darkness, each one appearing to my eye as if they knew of horrors too horrible to be spoken of.
Perhaps that is why they are mute.

My victim was asleep in the Master Bedroom. I brought out my .45 flintlock and cleared my throat. Ferrara stirred from his sleep.
"Who - who are you?" he stammered.
"Just a man," I said. "A man with a gun. Cosimo de Medici sends his regards."
He smiled, contemptible. Still sure that his rank would protect him. He was a fool. "Medici? The banker? Tell that fool that I will-"
I fired my flintlock. The Duke's smile stopped.

Financial Poker Gambling Becomes Legal

That morning I got up and poured myself a bowl of Kellog’s Cornflakes for breakfast with milk from the refrigerator. But after one bite I felt more like McDonald’s. I left the bowl of cereal and put on my Max Factor lipstick, cherry flavoured. I flashed my Mona Lisa smile in the mirror; I was ready for the day. I suddenly remembered something about Abraham Lincoln from yesterday at school, which made me forget to brush my teeth. Unfortunately I didn’t notice this until noon, where I was made aware that my breath smelled like a combination of spring onion, red onion and sweet potatoes. My friend told me this, after we talked about our day off yesterday:

- I had a terrific day off yesterday. I did absolutely nothing. Often it’s like you have to do so much that you scurry all over the place.
- I had a great day yesterday too, with Disney movies, on VHS.
- You have a VHS?
- Yeah.
- I have the Lion King, but I never watch it because it’s on VHS.
- I saw that one yesterday!

Thinking back on the Lion King, made me want to go into the nature. Therefore I decided to take a walk to the park, where I spotted a sparrow and an owl flying overhead in opposite directions. I even heard the cry of a seagull, which was weird because there was no sea in miles. I found a bench and pulled out my book, Harry Potter and the Ballet Shoes, which I had bought at Bog & idé in Vestbjerg. I thought it sounded funny but turns out it was a knockoff.
I really wanted to sit on the grass but the sign said ‘Don’t Step on the Grass!’ it could just as easily have said ‘No Parking!’ because my ass is just as big as Venus, which made me sad, and to think twice about the McDonald’s.
It was really hot outside, like being in an oven or maybe a really big toaster. I started looking for a restaurant where they would have frozen yoghurt to get something to cool down on. I thought it would best to have some non-fat frozen yoghurt, considering my large behind.
I asked a woman passing by with her child, who made ‘ga ga ga’ noises, where the nearest health restaurant was:

- Excuse me, where’s the nearest healthy restaurant?
- Just around the corner, but you should know that it’s a No Smoking restaurant.
- Thank you very much. Bye.

- Bye.

Before I entered the restaurant I made sure I had my Magnum 47 hidden in my purse, just in case the emergency exit was nowhere around, because you never know in this crazy poker gambling world.


Made by Solvej & Michelle

writing game 5 travel writing

In a task worthy of a deadly serious videogame
A piece of travel writing.
We went idly down a street in an idyllic small town in the wondrous Peru. We were prepared to enjoy the beautiful native tongue of the Peruvian people. Alas we were horrified of the obscenities of the language we recognised, English. Two Peruvian brutish personages had the following conversation:
- 1 man : Hola fuckface!
- 2 man: ´Sup assface?
The conversation continued thusly as the two men shared what one can only hope to be a mere cigarette.
- 2 man: .... good shit...
- 1 man: Yeah... (exhales) ...Real good!
Needless to say we felt faint. Horrified, we semi-ran from the place only to find ourselves faced with a petite woman who was selling dead blackbirds, pigeons and eagles. We kept on walking and suddenly found ourselves in a shady bar called Uranus. We could not grasp why only male personages were to be found at this particular bar and almost all of them eating Pringles or Mc. Donalds. Even more confusing to us, was the fact the some of the men were applying Christian Dior Red Devil lipstick. Suddenly it hit us, like the bullet that hit President Lincoln, we were at a gay-bar in a small town in Peru. This was too much for our wee nerves, so we bolted the joint with such speed that we dropped our copy of “to Kill a Mocking Bird” and our faces depicted the figure in the painting “the Scream”. ...

In the evening, after a plenty amount of soothing tea, we started to walk towards the bus station. However, both our personages became trapped in the most atrocious labyrinth of signs. One could only assume what the signs meant, but since it being close to midnight and we were clinging to each other we hoped they depicted wholesome meanings, such as:
- Stop
- Drugs not allowed
- Walk
- Do not step on the grass
- Smoking allowed
- Please do not touch feed the dogs
Finally, after a strenuous day, we got on the bus to the airport. Alas our troubles were not over yet. Firstly and obese woman carrying spring onions, vidalia onions and yams created a small yet very forceful scene do to the fact that a baby was strapped to a bazooka while it uttered the words “gag a ga” and aimed the bazooka at the obscenely obese woman who could not get out of the line of fire.
Thus one can only conclude that a trip to the Peruvian small town life is a task worthy of a deadly serious videogame.

By Heine and Malene

Scenery;
A young girl and a boy are sitting at the local McDonald restaurant. The girl is having a happy meal and the boy is having a hamburger and a cola.
Boy; So, now you have me here, what do you want?
Girl: Well, it’s just, I have been thinking. I don’t know whether I want to get rid of it anyway
Boy: What the fuck? Are you some crazy bitch? What are you gonna do? He yells a bit louder: This bitch is gonna ruin my life.
Girl: Shut up. It’s not you going through this. It’s not that easy
Boy: Hell yeah it is. You just go to one of them clinics and get it done. What the hell are you thinking? You wanna have a child with me now? I am not even your boyfriend
Girl: Yeah I know, I just dunno really
Boy: Come on, get yourself together, you don’t want a baby now, alone
Girl: No I guess I don’t. Maybe it was just a stupid thought
Boy: (almost whispering) Crazy ass bitch…

Why Read Harry Potter

Why read Harry Potter? Good question you might think, and several reasons have been given as to why and why not. Here’s one more for why you should:
When reading, go deeper and try and explore the aspect that has been named the Rowling Code.
Consider this:
Classical fairytales – as this has sometimes been classified – often include the number 3 and 7. We see the number 3 in Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione.
The number 7 however, is far more present. For starters, there are seven novels, one for each year a student must attend Hogwarts. Harry is born in the 7th month of the year, July. In the first book, Philosopher’s Stone, there are seven obstacles the trio has to overcome to get to the Stone. Rowling is spelled of seven letters, as is the final – seventh – book’s title. Deathly and Hallows are both seven letters long.
Rowling herself has mentioned that 7 is regarded the most powerful magical number, as we also learn in HPHBP that Voldemort has split his soul into seven pieces in the Horcruxes.
One if these Horcruxes we learn was once owned by Helga Hufflepuff. Research shows that the name Helga is of Scandinavian origin and actually means Holy. Helga’s Cup à Holy Cup. Could this be a coincidence, maybe, but the Cup could have been attributed to any other wizard but was chosen to be connected with the one which name means Holy. Could this be a reference to the Holy Grail? Possibly; in the book we also learn that the Cup was said to have powers, just as the Holy Grail.

Think of this too: In the Papal Inquisition, now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, each cardinal cast a vote and throws them in a goblet/cup where after the person overseeing the process will call out the names and announce if there has been a majority. At the end, the papers will be burned with various chemicals. If the smoke rising from this burn is black it means that a pope has not been elected, but if the smoke is white the new pope has been elected. Now compare it to the process we have in the champion selection process in Goblet of Fire.

(Credit Einsjam, for more information go to: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/topic.php?uid=2264634324&topic=6320)

Hills like white elephants - poetry

We could have everything.
I guess so.
We can have the whole world.
I guess so.
We can go everywhere.
I guess so.

We could have everything.
No, we can't.
We can have the whole world.
No, we can't.
We can go everywhere.
No, we can't.

We could have everything.
I’ll scream.
We can have the whole world.
I’ll scream.
We can go everywhere.
I’ll scream.

hills like golden camels

The hills across the valley of the Fergana were velvety and golden like a peach. There were no roads and no trees, just a white building with flaking walls. At the outpatient clinic there was a café with green plastic tables outside, on the shadow of the building. A curtain of vivid colours made of thick cloth, hung across the open door of the café. The Uzbek and the girl with him sat at the table outside the café.
“ How long do we have to wait?” the girl asked. She had taken off her headscarf and put it on the table.
“ Put your scarf back “ the Uzbek said.
“ It is only a pregnancy test, and we have been here for four hours now” she complained.
“ Two teas” the man said into the curtain.
A young man brought two teas and some biscuits.
“Lemon? The young man asked looking at the girl.
“Yes” the girl said without looking up from her book.
The girl looked across at the line of sallow hills.
“They look like golden camels, like camel´s humps” she said.
“ nonsense!”
A woman´s voice called “Natasha Petrova” through the outpatient clinic´s door.
Twenty minutes later they came out , the girl smiled brightly at the nurse , to thank her.
The man looked at the dusty mountains.
“ In six months I will have a beautiful baby girl”
“Do you feel better?” he asked.
“ I feel fine” she said, staring straight into the young waiter eyes.