Forrest Gump Essay - the Driven Life

Like any other students of my age, I have a great ambition. I dream of using my studies for the society and for myself, and sometimes I dream of achieving things that nobody was able to achieve before. Although this ambition is something that drives me forward in my life, it is also a thing that makes me very agitated when things go out of my hand. Yet sometimes I do feel that I want to put everything to destiny, and instead of being anxious about what will happen in the future, just think of it as a box of chocolate.

Forrest Gump, both in the movie and in the book, looked at the world with the extreme optimism. In fact, his whole life is filled with luck. He has achieved many things that awes the audience / readers, but most of them are not intended by him. Even after his achievement, Forrest either does not realize the importance of his work or sometimes does not realize his achievement at all. Although this makes the whole story funny and heartwarming, because it is so unrealistic, Forrest did not made me jealous. Although his achievements are something that I would like to achieve in my life, I also know that the time one really feels good about achieving something is not when the achievement itself is a great thing, but when one has spent time and effort in planning and working for the achievement.

In that aspect, it was not his achievement but his love that made a big impression in the story. Ironically, it was one thing that Forrest did not achieve fully in his life, and it was one of the few things that he craved in his life. Although his time with Jenny was short and incomplete, through his love with Jenny Forrest was able to seek the meaning in his life. Although Jenny did hurt Forrest in many ways, she was also a motivation for Forrest and many deeds that Forrest did. She has made Forrest mature and grow, break the shell; hence when she left the world, Forrest could continue living with his son.

The story of Forrest is intriguing. However, it is not because Forrest has been living such a lucky life for a man with such a low IQ, nor is it because Forrest has been strikingly optimistic about everything in his life. It is because through the unrealistic story of Forrest we can see the reality, the reality where people are kept driven by their dream, no matter how many times they fail.

Linkin Park - What I've Done (Video) - YouTube

Linkin Park - What I've Done (Video) - YouTube: "http://youtu.be/pMePM9Q-bYk"

Just to share.

Completely Irrelevant to any of the class works.

Lord of the Flies

 
Who is the guiltiest?

When I read the book for the first time, without hesitating I would have answered Jack.

However, after reading the book again and watching the movie, I feel that he is not.

Jack's only sin was that he was weak, a coward. In the name of 'chief' he had hid his fear, drawn the line so that he can feel he is different.

When Jack did so the other boys joined so that they can be a tribe; that is how the children are. They must have sensed the same weakness that they all had,

the weakness that they did not want to show to anyone else.


 
The sin Ralph had was that he was too courageous. He could not understand that boys around him had the human instinct of fear in their heart.

Ralph would have been a good leader, if it were not a situation where the boys had to fear.

Eventually, Ralph was hated not because he was against the ideas of the others, not because he witnessed Piggy's death, but because he was the one who did not fear.

With the death of Piggy, the children wanted Ralph to have the same feeling as they did – the fear.

Then the children wanted Ralph away so that they will no longer have to compare themselves, and try to justify themselves.


 
Being courageous is a good quality, a heroic quality.

However, a person cannot be blamed for not being a hero.

Not every person is born a lion; sometimes you are a zebra, or a monkey.

Of course, killing Piggy and Simon due to their childish fear may have been wrong.

However, when you are in a herd of zebra chased by a lion,

you cannot help secretly hoping that a crippled, a youngster, anyone weaker than you, to be caught by the lion

so that you may run safely.

Perhaps you may intentionally leave them behind so that they will earn you some more time.

But should a zebra be called guilty of the others' death?


 
The boys had to face a lion made of their mistakes and fear; they needed to run from it.

So who is the guiltiest? The lion.

Where the Wild things Are

I read the original book when I was young. Back then, I never liked the book because I could not stand the thought of leaving home and joining the monsters.

I guess I was a normal, 'good' kid back then.

Ironically, I could understand Max when I reached the age of 'adult'.

Nowadays I am anxious to leave the safe environment; the safe boundary of school and home. 

I feel that I can be a 'king' in the world of my own.

In fact, when I talk with my friends, I know that I am not the only one to think so.

As 19, I am at the verge of adulthood and childhood.

It is the strange age, a taboo, which belongs to neither side.

In school and home, people expect me to be an adult and a child at the same time.

Sometimes I feel that I myself am the 'wild thing', coming out of an egg.

Sometimes I feel that becoming an adult is getting rid of that 'wild thing'.

 

'Where the wild things are' is the place of adults that can only be understood by the children.

The things there act more like children then the adults.

They fight for ridiculous reasons, and their emotions are unpredictable.

However, although as adults people look down on such attitudes, such actions may be how the world truly is.

When I think of my childhood, it was not always filled with pink bunnies and sweet marshmallows;

I did not have the strength to control myself, and I went through the emotions of loneliness and sadness, emotions that were much deeper and greater than the ones I feel now.

Sometimes I felt jealousy; sometimes I felt hatred.

Reasons for feeling those emotions maybe childish, but these emotions became a basis for how I view and live the world.

I still have those emotions in my life; they are changing into different forms, as max's monsters will change into the monsters he will face in the real world.

The movie 'where the wild things are' is not exactly for children, nor for adults.

I myself am not exactly a child, nor an adult.

As a child, I hated the book. I know that as an adult, I would not have wasted my time watching this movie.

Yet I, the 19 year old I, enjoyed this movie. (At least partly)

Perhaps this is the only time I will.

Shawshank Redemption

From the start, people go through an institution. They are born in a hospital, which is an institution, go through kindergarten, grade school, university, spend a lot of time in a company and eventually dies in a sanctuary. Often, a religious institution would follow as an option.

Even Andy came from the institution – the bank. He probably was institutionalized in there, considering the fact that he was not caring enough to make his wife make an affair with someone else.

Andy became free when he was in prison. As ironical as it may sound, Andy realized how to be free in the place where freedom exist the least, what it meant to be institutionalized. If Andy did not go to prison in the first place, Andy would have never noticed how institutionalized he was – even if he did, he would have been satisfied with it, because that is what people call success. Adapting to the system, to survive and reside in the system is the common notion for a comfortable, successful life. Perhaps Andy realized this from the 19 years of imprisonment. He may have thought he was an honest, hardworking banker, but he could not even save his own life, let alone his wife’s.

I have been living in an institution for just about the time Andy spent in the prison. As much as people realize there is something wrong with the education system, with the irrational suicide rate and growing rate of crime committed by the students, people also know that the successful students are those who still adapted to the system and move on to the very similar system in the society. Often there are students, like Andy, who try to break away from it, but unlike Andy, who were so free in the place without any past memories, those students often have to be branded with the word ‘troublesome’.

They say it is the reality, and we have to live with it. As the warden told Andy. “Perhaps the whole society is institutionalized, yes, but that how you run the society” is what we hear all the time. Perhaps it is time we get some Rita Hayworth on our high wall.  

Spider Man

ACT III

10. The Road Back: Peter Parker feels guilty after his friend, Harry, decides to revenge Spider-man whom Harry wrongly believes to have killed his father. Harry doesn't know Peter is Spider Man, so he tells his plan of revenge to Peter, making Peter feel guilty.

11. Resurrection: Despite what had happened, Peter decides to leave as the hero and flies through the city, catching criminal and working as the hero.

12. Return With the Elixir: Peter is able to keep the peace of the city - at least for this story. 

Verge 2

I can't get rid of the feeling that I am writing twilight without romance and vampires and pretty boys... :(

******************************************************************************

The Curtis was supposed to be the normal, happy family. Mr. Curtis was an ex-soldier, participated in Iraq War, winning several medals. Mrs. Curtis was an ex- insurance saleswoman, but she quit the job when her sons were born. The two boys, Bryan and Benedict, were O.K. Bryan, who played soccer in his high school, was tall and healthy, easy-go-happy young man who got several As with some Bs, attending a decent college to become a science teacher. Except for a fact that he had no will to go to WestPoint which was Mr. Curtis’ lifelong dream, Bryan was a proud son of the family. Benedict’s case, the younger of the boys, was a little different. Benedict was smart, really smart. The thing was that Benedict just didn’t care for the things he wasn’t interested.

Benedict’s knowledge of the world was enormous, diverse and deep in every field of study. Yet at school, Benedict didn’t care about the human relationship, never understood why he should be in time or study for tests. Benedict would know all about the things taught in the school and more, but his scores were all Ds and Fs mostly because he would skip classes reading books or not answer to the questions on the tests, thinking it’s a waste of a time.

“The school’s supposed to teach! I learn nothing in that class.”

Benedict would complain at home, and despite Bryan’s effort to explain about all the human relationships he can get at school, how school can be a fun place and how with Benedict’s intelligence will lead him to be a valedictorian within a day if he’d just try, Benedict never understood, and finally dropped out before his freshman year ended. He got bored of everything too soon. More he learned, faster he got bored. His only permanent interest was poetry, and Benedict spent time at home reading all the poetries he could find from the libraries and internet, driving Mr. Curtis mad.

Except for a few troubles, Curtis’ was a happy home, and Eva was heading to their home to see Bryan. Bryan was coming home that day, and being Bryan, he was in charge of listening to everybody’s trouble and happiness. He had a good relationship with Scotts, their next-door neighbor. In fact, he had a good relationship with everyone. Eva needed someone to listen to her, and it wasn’t definitely someone at home or school. With her human relationship, Bryan was the only man.

“He’d better be home by now.”

Eva mumbled, afraid that Bryan may not be home yet. Eva heard about Bryan’s little brother, a psycho who got kicked out of school two years ago because he was too crazy. If he had not been, he would have been in the same grade with Eva. Emily would go on about the probably exaggerated episodes about how Benedict was the world’s weirdest freak, all the episodes about how he had put eyeballs into Microwaves and would inject medicines to his own body in order to test them, and so on and so on.

“Maybe he’s weirder than you,” Emily would say.

Eva never cared for the stories back then, but the sudden fear of meeting a supposedly crazy guy seemed undesirable.

Verge - 1

Eva Scott was an extraordinary 17 year old girl. That was what her counselor said. Her school mates called her ‘weird’. Her brown hair hung down to the waist, uncut because Eva didn’t bother to. She looked much better with her hair tied, but it was lucky if Eva bothered enough to brush her hair. Wearing the shirt that she found under her bed, Eva was sitting in front of her notebook, trying to figure something out.

“Evangeline- have you seen my cashmere?’

That was Emily. For your information, Eva is not short for Evangeline. Eva was born Eva Scott, but Emily loved those fancy names. Not only fancy names, but fancy everything. She had her cheerleader audition in a month and was practicing almost every day – although it was closer to choosing clothes and the cheap make ups.

“Stop calling me with such stupid name, Emily.”

“The name’s Emilia.”

Emily shot back, sulked.

“If I don’t make the team, it’s all your fault. I mean, no matter how I look, no matter how I try, who’d want to be a team with a kid whose sister is the school’s weirdo?”

Eva snorted.

“Emily, you are Emily Scott, not Elizabeth Caspian, not Rihanna Pulet, not Emilia whatever-last-name-you-created-this-time, not any of those stupid names you give yourself. If you don’t make it, it’s not because your sister lives her life as who she is, but because your one dollar blonde hair dye looks ridiculous, you spend your weekend at Forever 21 buying that stupid clothes that makes you look like a whore who doesn’t even know that red and hot pink is just overdoing everything, while making up that stupid names.”

Emily’s face burned.

“You’d better shut up or I’ll tell mama about what you have said. What are you doing anyway? You have been online for almost whole day I thought your Otaku innate has finally broken out.”

Emily approached, but Eva quickly closed her laptop, allowing Emily to read only the words, “Dream”.

Red-faced, Eva yelled, “Don’t you dare!” pushed Emily, making her fall to the floor. Emily, now also red with rage, pulled Eva’s hair, and soon the Scotts’ was filled with screams, pouncing, and cries, until Mrs. Scott ran up to her elder daughter’s room and pulled them apart.

“Girls! What’s wrong with you! You girls are sisters, not a pack of cats, in case you seem to forget.”

Mrs. Scott pulled girls’ hands, bringing them to her heart.

“Don’t you remember how close you were as little girls, playing together, sleeping together…”

Mrs. Scott pleaded at her two girls, looking through their eyes.

“Uhmm? Don’t you remember?”

Eva and Emily pulled their hands out, answering simultaneously.

“No.”

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(probably) prologue for my final project
Despite what it looks like, it is a fantasy.

Ronnie

Sam Appleton 15 ugly smart-ass city, double-personality, got a tail

Ronald 2 fat, short, rather cute; very, very caring; countryside; obsessed with eating spaghetti; green skin

Little Ronald, or Ronnie, was the most adorable child in the town. His cherubic chubby arms would stretch out, asking for a hug. His smile and laughter delighted anyone who holds him. Ronnie was 2, and was not old enough to understand the worries of the world. He did sense though, how his parents would often sigh at night. Ronnie would crawl to his parents as fast as he can, and would try to bring smiles to their faces in any way he could. Ronnie would sing a tune, or pat his parents. (This took him some effort, because they were too high for him to reach)

Sometimes he would find his ‘treasures’ to give his parents – flowers, small animals, a piece of bark, and all the small things around the town that could only be seen by Ronnie. As the townspeople go farming, they would see Ronnie trying to pull the worm out of the muddy ground. He made them smile all the time. Ronnie still had to drink milk, that was for sure, but he was slowly learning how to eat other ‘adult food’, and was proud of it. His number 1 cuisine was spaghetti. The red sauce would make a contrast with his skin color, a smooth, glowing glimpse of green. On his 2^nd Christmas, people would gather around Ronnie’s house and would laugh jolly at this Christmas-colored boy, who had tomato sauce all over his green face.

His parents would also give him warm smiles, but often they wondered – there was no school in this small countryside town, and he would have to go out of town to attend school when he reaches the age of 7. In this town where people were accustomed to surprises, Ronnie was just a ‘cute green angel’. “There are black people, white people, red people, and even yellow people around the world, so why not green?” They’d say.

Outside? His parents could guess what they’d call him – some kind of monster, probably, like Hulk, or Shrek, depending on whether Ronnie develops muscles or not. If somehow he loses all his fat, then he’d be named some kind of Alien.

So Mr. and Mrs. Appletons again spent the night trying to solve this. Should they do home school? But both of them didn’t even go to universities, and they wanted best education for their son. They dreamed of Ronnie going to college, even graduate school. Perhaps he’d be a doctor, or a cook – he certainly was smart. Mrs. Appleton was secretly dreaming Ronnie being a teacher, whom she considered the hero of the society. But a green teacher? Who’d accept such? Mrs. Appleton softly wiped sauce out of Ronnie, who was sound asleep. Then Ronnie woke up, saw the worried look in his mother and gave her the biggest smile he could give. She laughed.

“Perhaps you are out-of-this-world, Ronnie, you are.”

Ronnie

Sam Appleton 15 ugly smart-ass city, double-personality, got a tail

Ronald 2 fat, short, rather cute; very, very caring; countryside; obsessed with eating spaghetti; green skin

Little Ronald, or Ronnie, was the most adorable child in the town. His cherubic chubby arms would stretch out, asking for a hug. His smile and laughter delighted anyone who holds him. Ronnie was 2, and was not old enough to understand the worries of the world. He did sense though, how his parents would often sigh at night. Ronnie would crawl to his parents as fast as he can, and would try to bring smiles to their faces in any way he could. Ronnie would sing a tune, or pat his parents. (This took him some effort, because they were too high for him to reach)

Sometimes he would find his ‘treasures’ to give his parents – flowers, small animals, a piece of bark, and all the small things around the town that could only be seen by Ronnie. As the townspeople go farming, they would see Ronnie trying to pull the worm out of the muddy ground. He made them smile all the time. Ronnie still had to drink milk, that was for sure, but he was slowly learning how to eat other ‘adult food’, and was proud of it. His number 1 cuisine was spaghetti. The red sauce would make a contrast with his skin color, a smooth, glowing glimpse of green. On his 2^nd Christmas, people would gather around Ronnie’s house and would laugh jolly at this Christmas-colored boy, who had tomato sauce all over his green face.

His parents would also give him warm smiles, but often they wondered – there was no school in this small countryside town, and he would have to go out of town to attend school when he reaches the age of 7. In this town where people were accustomed to surprises, Ronnie was just a ‘cute green angel’. “There are black people, white people, red people, and even yellow people around the world, so why not green?” They’d say.

Outside? His parents could guess what they’d call him – some kind of monster, probably, like Hulk, or Shrek, depending on whether Ronnie develops muscles or not. If somehow he loses all his fat, then he’d be named some kind of Alien.

So Mr. and Mrs. Appletons again spent the night trying to solve this. Should they do home school? But both of them didn’t even go to universities, and they wanted best education for their son. They dreamed of Ronnie going to college, even graduate school. Perhaps he’d be a doctor, or a cook – he certainly was smart. Mrs. Appleton was secretly dreaming Ronnie being a teacher, whom she considered the hero of the society. But a green teacher? Who’d accept such? Mrs. Appleton softly wiped sauce out of Ronnie, who was sound asleep. Then Ronnie woke up, saw the worried look in his mother and gave her the biggest smile he could give. She laughed.

“Perhaps you are out-of-this-world, Ronnie, you are.”

Hero

I was sitting on a rock, music banging into my ear. Nicole was trying to figure out how to find the road inside the snowing, cold mountain.

‘This sucks,’ I thought. How did I end up being stuck in the middle of a snowing mountain with that genius? If our parents weren’t so obsessed with the idea of us being together, I would be at downtown with my friends now.

Nicole was the hero of our neighborhood. She won the grand prize for the national competition of science when she was in middle school (I won the second place), and she pretty much solved most of the town’s problem. She figured out how to fix the water tank when it broke without no reason (I tried, but all my hypothesis turned out to be false); she helped Ms.Gerald writing the law suit against her ex-husband (I tried, but the cases I found were outdated); she was the captain of the school’s cheer leading crew and he tennis team (I was the co-captain). We won the national last year. Worst of all, she was my father’s best friend’s only daughter. We grew together – we went to same school, did same after-school activities. My parents were always proud that I had a friend like her – they were proud that I was having the opportunity to be with her! When the reporting card comes, they didn’t give much thought about what I did – they would immediately go on to ask about Nicole. I would answer, giving meaningless effort to minimize her achievement. Dad would beam with pride; Mom would sulk at both dad and me.

“She’s not your daughter, Paul.”

She’d say, and then the usual argument between ‘Mike-is-more-than-a-brother’ and ‘What-about-Heather’ would begin, ending with the usual conclusion that “Heather-is-an-ordinary-girl.”

So it’s pretty much explainable that I didn’t talk to her that much except this annual event of hiking with Uncle Mike’s family. It was OK until now, except that Nicole and I rarely talked. Until this year. Somehow we were lost; somehow it started to snow too early than usual, and Nicole and I was stuck in the middle of snowing valley.

“Well, the Wonder Woman still isn’t done with furnishing her cape, I suppose?”

I snickered, tired of waiting. It was getting dark, and I couldn’t understand that the born-genius was still struggling with such a simple task. To my surprised, she jumped at me.

“What have you been doing, Heather? Sitting there all the time, and now you are ordering me around!”

I sprang up.
“What the..? Now the Super Girl has gone mad?”

“Don’t call me that! You always call me that!”

“Well you are! You are to my dad, at least! If you are complaining about getting the admiration of the whole nation, you can stop whining and get us outta here!”

“Ha, I’ve always realized that you try to act smart in front of your dad – doesn’t suit you very well, Heather.”

Then I jumped at her. We rolled down the road, and when Heather got up, she stumbled back, and before I was able to call her name, she disappeared – she fell under the stiff. It wasn’t high, so she didn’t break her leg, but it was clear that she couldn’t walk.

“Nicole!” I yelled. I stretched my arm to reach her, but it was too far. I looked around  - not many people pass by here, but there might be a chance. I ran until I found a group of hikers at the very far side of the valley. I yelled for help, but people wouldn’t listen. They were gone. Nicole was moaning, saying something about a rope.

“I will get one, Nicole. I will be back.” I yelled, and I ran – I didn’t know where to find the rope, and the snow was getting deeper, but I had to try. Then I saw it. A rope tied around a tree to make a sign for hikers. I tried to pull the rope out of the sign, but it was too tight. I took off my gloves, and kicked the sign as hard as I could while pulling the rope. It popped out of the ground, and I fell back. I stumbled, ran, and almost rolled down to Nicole.

I throw the rope to her, and started to pull her up. Pulling up an 18 year old girl by myself was not an easy task, especially after my hand was frozen. I could feel my skin being ripped out, and as I started to see Nicole’s face, the face of my father started to float through the air, with his laughter at the pride of Nicole. The unsatisfied sigh of mother, the moments when she was always over me, in the spotlight. I felt I was losing it, and without knowing it, had let the rope go.

Nicole yelled, and then I realized what I did and pulled her up again, blood dripping from my hands. I yelled and cried both to erase the hallucinations and to erase the pain.

I finally got her up. Sweating all over, I dropped myself to the ground. Nicole took a look at my hands, which had scratches all over from pulling the rope with bared hands. She frowned. I could see tears rolling from her eyes, perhaps out of relaxation or sudden realization of pain. Then she whispered.

“I thought you’d never come.”

I chuckled. Both of our voices were cracked.

“Hey, It’s hell living without a hero, Super Girl.”

“..But you are one, Heather. You are the only one.”

Found Poetry - A Diary of a First-Time Lover

original website

I don't think it's too bad a spoiler, for God's sake

at a fundamental level.

Yeah it does it in way tracks with the continuum,

and as robust as its core mechanism is,

these games must make themselves available

Even so, it's rare.

 

It's a rare game that has the pluck to question its own thesis

even while it is actively enslaving you with same.

by the time that fucker turns on you,

Ken Levine can be heard laughing halfway around the world.

 

On Friday, after almost two full weeks,

I am still shaking my head at the solution,

which was beyond stupid and may even be dumb.

You know what it was?

The insurmountable issue that made it impossible to record statistics from any round?

My clock was fast.

 

My system thought that it was May, and not March.

This time was wrong, but I didn't care,

because Apparently this was all too much to handle a time traveler

Failed, I flirted with references to magic doors from Aladdin

and The Lord Of The Rings.

it was a perfectly formed nibble of alpha with no numerics or grammatic sigils.

Anyway, he got me in.

I went immediately to bed.

Story in a Story - THE REAL WORLD

“What are you doing, Josh? Playing games again?”

“Hey Mike. Check this out – it’s basically a virtual world that I created – this guy here is one I created, and I am now sending him to college.”

“What’s all the fun if the game’s exactly same as the real world, Josh? I don’t know if this is that much fun…”

“Well, this isn’t same as the real world, friend. This is far better…Oh shit! What’s happening here?”

Maybe it was because I was wearing wrong socks – I looked down, and no, they were right pairs. Perhaps the law changed overnight and we weren’t supposed to walk around in jean anymore. Or is it my hair? Being stared at by hundreds of eyes in subway isn’t pleasing at all, especially when the sense of hostility from the strangers silently fills the air and I still have 13 stations to go. ‘Perhaps I should just get off at the next station and ride taxi.’

I thought about calling up someone for comfort, but they would call me ‘sissy’ or think that I got too drunk last night and still is not sober. I decided to simply ignore everything and go on. Then a man bumped into me. He murmured something about hair and hurriedly walked away.” 

“What was wrong with these people?”

Now they were beginning to edge away. A circle, with me at the center, formed. There was something definitely wrong with me. Only I couldn’t make out what it was. I wasn’t wearing any strange clothes. I wasn’t doing anything awkward, either.

“Maybe you got virus or something, Josh. I guess you gotta turn it off and turn it on again.”

“Oh God. I was working so hard on this one! I gotta destroy this guy, though. I downloaded his body parts from torrent and I guess that’s where the virus came from.”

That was when I heard a little clicking noise from back. I turned around sharply, but there was nothing there. The clicking noise came again – again from my back. Perplexed, I turned around again. Again, nothing. Feeling dumb, I was about to simply walk on, when the noise came again – again from the back. Was somebody making fun of me? I turned around again, and at that precise moment felt a sharp stab on my back.

The noise wasn’t only coming from my back. It was ON my back! Completely freaked out, I started running around like a madman. The stab came again. The crowd scattered, away from me. Then I felt some kind of liquid being injected through my spine…

“WTF? What’s going on?” I thought. Then I saw a dark figure standing over me. He called himself Morpheus. By then, I was really pissed. “What is this, the Matrix?” I thought.

“Now what’s happening? Is the character gone?”

“Gosh, I dunno. It’s supposed to disappear since I pushed the delete button but I am not sure – wasn’t there a black guy or something?”

“I think I saw him… but I am not sure. Maybe it’s another virus?”

“What’s with the F***ing liquid injection?” I yelled. The only response he gave me was that I was safe now. I was going back to the real world.

The “real world”, or so they would call it, was nothing like the one I was living in before. The buildings were damp and clingy, with a weird smell in the air. Something…something like blood.

“Hey, make yourself comfortable.”

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Morpheus called her Trinity – like the trinity of Holy Spirit, father, and son. What a strange name, I thought.

“It would take a lot more than a couch to feel comfortable here.”

It was true. The skeletal frames exposed from age and walls covered in slime were definitely not a good place to sit down, let alone feel relaxed. Trinity smiled a knowing smile. I had a feeling that these people hadn’t abducted me to the “real world” just for fun. My left thigh twitched as if it was worried it was going to get shot.

“Well, Josh, just turn off the com. Let’s just get out and buy some fresh air. I heard that they got this air from Rocky Mountain that has more Oxygen in them – I will get your protection suit.”

Trinity pointed to the screen. I was shocked – there I was, trying to get myself into a stupid looking suit. I yelled, and Trinity smiled.

“Well Josh, what do you think of this new simulator of the world? This stuff is much better than the one you were in.” I went close to the computer, and then I frowned.

“There’s no need for any more simulator.”

Josh turned off the computer. The screen blacked out. Josh was gone.

New Rommate

1.     ”Oh Hi. I thought I would be left in the dorm all by myself tonight. The school’s finished now?”

2.     “Hi. So you are my new roommate, right? The dorm parent just told me that there would be one. It has been awhile I had a roommate. This school takes a while picking another student.”

3.      “I’m James. They call me James. You must be Martin. The school’s genius. I heard about you from the dorm parent.”

4.     “They tell me so, I guess. What have you been reading?”

5.     “Oh, oh, nothing. Just...Just a diary that Paul left. He must have left it by accident.”

6.     “Paul? Who is that? Your brother or someone?”

7.     “Uh…he’s your ex-roommate.”

8.     “Oh, I didn’t realize…I mean I didn’t remember his name. Gosh, it’s been so long since he has left – about 2 month, I think.”

9.     “But you guys were in same class for 2 years! At least it said so in his diary.”

10.   “I normally don’t really care for kids in my class…I don’t have time to care for their jokes. I know I am at the top, but if I want to meet the expectation of my parents, if I want to remain at the top, I cannot care for those.”

11.   “But you don’t have to push everyone away from you all the time! Paul was your roommate!”

12.   “Yeah. What does it make a difference? You pushed him in order to get into this school, didn’t you? Didn’t you feel happy when they noticed you we have a seat for a transfer student, and when you got in by ‘pushing’ the other applicants?”

13.   “Yeah…true. But that’s a bit different. It was a fair competition.”

14.   “I am doing a fair competition too. What’s so unfair about my life? It’s not my fault that Paul or Peter or whatever his name was left. He probably had an F or something. A lose in the competition. And I the winner.”

15.   “No. Paul had a serious case of lung disease. I am not sure exactly, but he mentions doctors and breathing problems and so on.”

16.   “Oh. Well, being healthy is part of competition too. Listen, kid, in this society, to win, you have to keep away from everyone around you. Especially those who are inferior to you. They will hold you back in the competition.”

17.   “Do you wish…do you wish you had known Paul more? Or know more about me?”

18.   “No. Why should I?”

19.   “Um…”

20.   “Welcome to the nation’s top high school, my friend.”

Double Rainbow

It is end of the year; Paul visited his friend at NYC to spend Christmas together. Paul is eating chips, and his friend just finished reading some funny but rude comments on YouTube video of Paul, making Paul embarrassed.

“Gee, Paul, I just saw you were nominated for the YouTube thing. I mean, you are like, famous, right? Maybe we should make more items, like, like Tumbler. That video was surely funny…”

“It is strange how people would look at the finger that points the moon, not the moon itself. People tell me double rainbow is not something to sob about, but let me ask: when did you guys in NYC ever saw a rainbow, let alone a huge double rainbow that almost looked like a triple rainbow? Except on the T-shirts you make homosexual wear. Have you ever looked at the azure sky right after the rain, expecting a rainbow, or did you look at your gray city, complaining that your new shoe would be muddy and you’d have to buy a new one? Yet you say a double rainbow is not something to be impressed about.

I have asked what the meaning of rainbow was – and the answer I got from a university was that it was because of some water molecules. Now I graduated elementary school too, mind you. I haven’t asked about ‘how’; I asked ‘why’. Why nature would grants us such gift? What is it trying to say through this? Let me tell you, Jim, that video had only 40% of its color. Rainbow is supposed to be the symbol of hope, blessing – Noah received rainbow after the big flood; it was the symbol of the ancestor’s blessing for many Native American tribes; but here in America? What was the meaning of rainbow? How should I take it? I know you are atheist so I won’t talk about heaven. But I felt myself lifted when I saw that rainbow, Jim, and let me tell you, I know I was seeing something that was… that was out of this world.”

“Well, Paul, you are surely out-of-this-world.”

Jim made a funny face. He thought about recording this speech and uploading on YouTube as the sequel of Double Rainbow, but then he changed his mind. Starting to be bored, he searched for ‘related video’ in order to make himself more enjoyable.

“And to tell you something, Jim, when the same video was uploaded in January, nobody cared – some were even as impressed as I was, even though they did tell me that I seem over excited. It was after six month, when you – the star YouTube uploader – uploaded it in the ‘humor’ category. At first people thought it wasn’t funny, but when they had a feeling that other people laugh at it, they just laugh. It’s not the content, Jim. It’s the manipulation – people volunteer to be manipulated. That’s why they can’t focus on double rainbow, and focus on me – who doesn’t even show in the video.”

“Yeah, OK. I get it Paul. I won’t make a Tumbler. Let’s just sell Double Rainbow T-shirts – it’s making a lot of money. Now be quiet and take a look at this video – it’s a girl moaning over her pet dog’s death and it’s hilarious; I mean, the death of dog is sad and all, but it happens all around the world! Wow, she’s now hitting her head against a tree…”

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