The Prelude of the Terrible Winter -Journal entry #2-

The snow gently crested the top of houses and fell elegantly upon the ground. The air chilled my nose as I peered with astonishment at this rarity; finally, snow has fallen in Miami weather! A few flecks of snow landed on my nose, and I stuck out my tongue to taste the falling chill. The trees, the grass, and the houses were now painted with fresh, clean snow. It seemed as if a million white paratroopers were descending upon the ground, invading and filing into every corner of this grassy plain. Suddenly, among the gentle awe of the harmless trickle, a majestic wind slashed through the air. I could see it coming since the falling snow was thick enough to form an amorphous shape of the wind's sweeping path, so I braced myself. It slammed into me like a tsunami and sent me falling backwards a few feet despite my readied position. The otherwise harmless fleets of snow now turned into swirling vortex's of frigid shrapnel, and to make the situation as dire, frozen shards the size of baseballs started to plummet from the sky! My feet and arms were instantly senseless, and when I tried to move towards my house, the snow had already stacked to about two feet. Like a living pulse, the wind rushed past me in torrents. This was the start, I realized, of an abominable blizzard.

Windows were shattering all around me, and the ice continued to pose a serious threat to anyone outside. I was very close to my house now, just a few more brisk steps. Upon reaching the handle of the porch door, I felt a stab of pain as a large shard of ice impaled my right leg. Immediately, blood started to pour in warm torrents and dried on my pants. I tore the bloodied knife of ice from my leg and ignored the sharp instances of pain that radiated through my leg. I gripped the handle once more and fought the unforgiving winds as I tore it open. I slammed the porch door shut and started for the house door. Peering at the surrounding porch, I would not have recognized it save the yellow tiles that my mom insisted on placing and the swinging chair that swung frantically by it's chains. All was in destruction, pictures broken and soggy from the water, chairs and fishing rods thrashed haphazardly upon the floor, snow forming a thick layer on everything, and upon that, the shards of the broken front and side windows! I clasped the house door and threw it open, inviting the warm air as it caressed my face. When I took a few steps forward onto the soft carpet, my sight started to blacken. My feet started to feel like twigs and my arms were as flaccid as worms. I felt my feet give way and the inviting darkness enveloped my eyes.

I gingerly opened my eyes. The light burned and seared, and for one second, I thought I was back in that terrible storm, left to die. Instead, I saw a hospital room filled to the roof with balloons, get-well pleasantries, and people. They were all hollering with euphoric happiness and they all charged towards me in a massive, embracing hug. I uttered, "One statement, please,"
and they all retreated back to the sides of my bed as they waited to hear me. "I know that we've all lived in Miami for many, many years. We've grown here, fell in love here, and made businesses upon this fertile soil. However, one implication bothers me," I calmly placed both of my hands upon my lap, took a mouthful of air and yelled,"WHEN DOES MIAMI EVER HAVE DECENTLY COLD WEATHER!?!?!?!"

In their shoes (p.s. Ants don't wear shoes) - Journal entry #1

If I were an insect

If I were an insect, I would be an ant. Ants are the living examples of a society that has no rules, leaders, or a form of government. In all practicality, they are led by chemicals and pheremones alone, which is emitted by the queen, other ants, and even the offspring. A general idea states that ants are quite complex and efficient, however, ants are not entirely efficient.

One example of this is when ants are given a task of collecting food from a given location. When these ants try to find this food, they will carve out a path that allows them to backtrack and give any other ant a familiar path to follow. However, the ant will do this once with no regard to it's surroundings, and this creates a problem. Instead of going straight down the path, the ant decides to veer off the course and go sideways, straight, and finally to the food source. This is mainly because ants cannot see any of the terrain around it, instead relying upon the direction of the sun, chemicals, and any definitive objects on it's walking path like a rock or a twig.

Another example involves the organizer ant, which chooses which food is suitable for the queen to eat: When worker ants bring the food in, the organizer ant works as the filer. Unfortunately, the organizer ant often refuses some food and decides to throw it outside the nest. This is a waste of effort, both for the worker ant and the entire colony, since the food can be used when Winter comes. Ants are not as productive as we believe, but they still maintain a determination and unrelenting thought process that is bound to complete a task.

Ants, despite some fallacies, have the most beneficially "correct" body structures, conforming perfectly to what they were designed to do. This, taking in the fact that ants have not changed significantly over millions of years, makes ants one of the more fortunate organisms to have walked this earth. If it be defensive purposes or living in harsh weather, ants have millions upon millions of years of survival-insuring genes. Ants have expanded all over the world, dominating forests and invading billions of homes. It's all for the nature of survival, and ants haven't even noticed their worldwide empire.

Childhoods End by Arthur C. Clarke

Imagine the skies suddenly shattering with the booms of ultra-sized spaceships as they dash through the atmosphere, Their magnificently sleek exterior shining like a steel spire in the sky. All stand in utter bewilderment as these incomprehensibly immense alien ships halt over the major cities and float as still as a sniper's finger on a trigger, seemingly ready to blast this world to pieces. Not one human dared to move, for these silver sentinels hung over the world like a guillotine, appalling even the most brilliant scientists and immediately intimidating these paltry cars and crude technologies.

"The stars are not for man."

These portentous figures, in fact, did nothing at all. However, one human being, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Rikki Stormgren, was the first earthly figure that greeted the aliens of that deep and enigmatic space above our heads. These aliens, called Overlords, were best represented by their leader, Karellen, who exchanged "talk" and questions with Stormgren. After a brief "skirmish" with Stormgren's unbearable need to find out how these alien's looked, Karellen finally said that humankind will see the Overlords as they are 50 years from now, a time that is beyond Stormgren's life at the age of 60. To spare the reader's captivity, I will withhold the appearances of the Overlords until you yourself read this wonderful book. One hint, the Overlords visited Earth earlier in history but made a bad initiating relationship with the humans, therefore giving them a bad "image" that was imprinted on the minds of human kind for the rest of time.

"All political problems," Karellen had once told Stormgren, "can be solved by the correct application of power."

The Overlords establish a powerful hold on the human race, but not a choking one. Humankind is still able to enjoy life, and in fact, the Overlords have actually made life on Earth better by abolishing any negative form of human affairs, and making the cost of any merchandise in the world virtually free. Travel has revolutionized to it's highest extent when the schematics of the foreign alien vehicles of travel were handed down to humans, so any person can travel to any spot on the earth in a matter of minutes to hours. Also, academics is flourished with an unlimited boundary that allows any person to achieve their career aspirations. Prodigiously, every single human being has learned how to speak and understand English. At this point, humankind has reached the Utopian society that has crested the top of that golden hill that represents every facet of perfection: Peace, liberty, global comprehension, economical stability, and creativity.

Divulging in any more information will only wane your pleasures when reading this book, but believe me, many surprises and lessons are to be experienced.
One question I may offer, what lies beyond those distant stars? In the fertility of our lands and the hospitality of the trees, animals, and the air we breath, we find the home that has bred us like the first flakes of snow in the mountainous Fujiyama. These lakes, oceans, and winds have blown across the Earth's face like the blood that courses through our veins. However, how will these other worlds fare for us? More importantly, how will other beings react? There is no doubting the presence of higher intelligences beyond our atmosphere, so more constructively, we will react to them. Casting that aside, are we really the center of the universe? For so long, we have reveled the importance of our own existence, but has it ever occurred to us that there might be other beings out there that share similar characteristics -Religion, language, relations, even emotions- with us?

We may just be another grain of sand in this eternal desert of spectral wonders and enigmatic phenomena.