Rebeccas Random Writings

In the month of February I read The Trojan War by Olivia Coolidge. This book is a combination of different Greek myths organized in a way so you have a timeline of the normally confused Trojan War. From the golden apple that inherently started it all, tragic love stories, Achilles and his downfall, all the way to the end with the fall of Troy. I liked this book because I like Greek myths, and this one is not only a collection of many of them but also a story. If you like Greek myths, want to get into them, or are into the Trojan War, I strongly recommend this book. My favorite character is Achilles. One of his Character traits is brave. The quote that proves this is “On the tenth day Achilles summoned the folk to assembly because Agamemnon would not.” This is brave because the leader in the current situation is King Agamemnon, and no other lesser chief dared to do something against his wishes. My favorite quote from the book is “She had dreamed that the son she hoped to bear was no child, but a flaming torch.”(Pg 6) This is my favorite quote because I find it kind of funny someone dreamed of birthing a torch of all things.

I live on a deserted island. I don’t exactly remember how long ago I got here, but I do remember how. I was on a ship, trying to learn how to drive when suddenly it malfunctioned. It spiraled out of control and ended up hitting a rock, breaking but not before capsizing. I remember being under the boat panicked, as it was sinking to the sea floor with me still under it. So much things flashed before my eyes, most of which I can’t remember. The rest of my way here is kind of a haze, I just vaguely remember grabbing at something, anything really. If I had to make an assumption, in my panicked state I managed to grab onto something with buoyancy, blacked out or just zoned out of everything, and eventually drifted to this place. I tried walking around making a mental map, but only could really tell that the shape of the island was oval-like. It looks like it was abandoned half way through building a resort on it. I managed to clear a room in this abandoned half finished resort after waking up on the first day? Second day? I don’t know how long I was out for. Luckily it seemed like due to the remoteness the resort was planning to be half self-sustained, so I found some seeds and some soil that wasn’t too bad. I also lucked out on them making a rain filter before abandoning the project, so I manage to live here. The island, for reference, is half forest half partially made resort. The forest so far seems to be lively, and no dangerous things besides the occasional bug I didn’t know existed. I’m mostly okay, although its still so lonely. I miss the people I love. I miss my cats. I miss my dog. I miss my friends. Sure the alone time laying down on the yellow sand may be fun, but I never want to be alone for so long. It’s barely livable, and im running out of medical supplies the resort left behind.

Random fact time! Calico cats aren’t a type of breed, but rather a fur pattern. There was a soccer team plane crash where people had to participate in cannibalism to survive, only 2 managed to leave. Cats are believed to be the only mammal that doesn’t taste sweetness. Cats can jump up to 6 times their length. Cats have 24 more bones than humans. Cats collarbones don’t connect to the rest of their bones. Cats typically sleep for 12-16 hours a day. Many cats are lactose intolerant. There has been an insane amount of serial killers that haven’t been caught due to destruction of evidence and incompetent investigators. When you slowly blink to your cat, it’s a sign of affection. Hissing is defensive, not aggressive. Some cats love the smell of chlorine. Cats love to sleep in laundry baskets. Cats like to sleep on things with the scent of their favorite person, such as dirty laundry. In Denmark 1955, a green cat was born. There is a cat that is the mayor of the historic district of Talkeetna, Alaska. A group of kittens is called a kindle.

In the month of January I read a book named Greek Myths by Olivia Coolidge. This book is a collection of short stories. My favorite story summarized is Heracles. In Heracles we see a small glimpse into his early life, and he later grows up to have a wonderful wife and children. Sadly, this isn’t how it ends. He’s driven mad and kills them all, but eventually he snaps out of it and goes to pray to the gods to know how to repent. To repent his sins, he has to preform ten labors for King Eurystheus which he really doesn’t want to do since he’s weak and a coward. He ends up preforming twelve labors instead of ten since Eurytheus voided both the fight against the 3 headed hydra for help, and cleaning King Augeas’s stables in one day for getting paid even though he never got help. I really liked this book because it was a compilation of entertaining Greek myths, some making me giggle a bit. I strongly suggest it for anyone who’s just starting to get into mythology, or even just as a book to pass the time. My favorite character is definitely Aegeus. He’s cool as hell! I mean he protects the weak, how is that not awesome? His character trait is kind and the quote that proves this is “‘Aegeus, the lover of justice, the protecter of the weak!’”. This trait shows that he is known to show hospitality to those who need it, showing he is kind. My favorite quote from the book is “The idea gave him exquisite pleasure and he used it dwell on it.” For context, this is referring to a sculpture he, Pygmalion, made and fell in love with. It’s my favorite because I find it kind of funny he fell in love with something he made. He even named it Galatea, who actually later came to life and embraced him because of Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty, bringing her to life since Pygmalion was a life long devotee.

Hello, I am here to explain what this means to me. To me it means don’t take the easy way out. For example, if you’re in a relationship with someone and you feel like you don’t love them anymore but you don’t want to leave them, you would have to make the choice between cheating(the easy way out) or talking about it with them (the right way out). Because although in context this was probably just a pep talk to Harry Potter or someone, it actually applies to a lot of real life situations. If you really want to get philosophical, you never really know what the right choice is in most situations. Sometimes there is no right choice at all. Sometimes the easy choice is also a right choice, but sometimes it’s a horrible one like the cheating analogy. This applies to a few real life situation, such as something that happened a while ago known as the “Dragon City Incident”. A bit embarrassing, and also a bit nostalgic. When I was 9 I thought I only spent 50 bucks of my parents money, I thought I was being secretive, don’t know why I thought it was okay to spend any money without asking but anyways. I ending up spending 100 dollars on dragon city, and I tried taking the easy way out and pinning it on someone else instead of owning up to it, the right thing to do. Of course that failed because neither of my brothers devices had dragon city on it and I couldn’t delete the app in time, which looking back was probably a good thing. Scratch that, definitely a good thing. Little me got it in their head you shouldn’t spend money without asking. Mostly. there was 1 or 2 times after that where I spent some money on robux without asking, once for the DD bow from royale high and the other to get bloxburg on a alt account which combined totaled up to 10$. But I haven’t since, really don’t know what was going through my head back then.

Someone I admire is my mom. I also admire my dad, I can’t really choose a favorite so I just spun a wheel. I admire her for many reasons, one being she’s honestly a great mom. She’s always been a great mom by never being neglectful, but not always saying yes either. She hasn’t spoiled me, but she hasn’t been overly strict either. Another reason I admire my mom is because she’s helpful. She always helps me find my phone when I misplace it (which is quite often), and she also always knows when things are. Multiple times when I’ve misplaced things she’s found them. The last reason im going to list is, well, not really a reason at all I guess. I really admire my mom because I’ve grown up with her. She’s always supported me, and I trust her wholeheartedly. Sure I might be scared or worried to tell her something, but that’s because I know she’s someone that can impact my life a lot because, well, she’s my mom. She’s important. At least I think she is. I just really care about her I guess. You can tell by the amount of “I guess” I’m honestly not really sure why I admire her so much. I guess she’s just a admirable person.

My word of intention for 2024 is exercise. I’ve tried having New Year’s resolutions relating to this, but I haven’t really done it at all. My word of intention is exercise because I want to slowly get more exercise. If it’s going on a hike with my dad or just lifting some of the weights we have at home, I want to exercise. One reason is health. Exercise is healthy, and I don’t eat the most healthy food most of the time so I should at least do the exercise to make up for it. Another reason is fun. Although this might not apply to lifting weights, I find hikes rather fun. It’s nice to walk through nature and appreciate it. Just walking on a path and seeing sights you wouldn’t see otherwise. It gives a nice sense of accomplishment. My third and final reasoning is social. When I go on hikes with my dad, we end up talking about random and interesting things. we went on a hike this weekend, but didn’t finish it because there was horse poop ahead and my dog Skye would probably be too tempted by it. Also, when i’m on walks with my dad he occasionally drops a giant lore bomb of his life. Turns out, he went to a school in England when his dad taught there for a while, and there his sister found out she likes running and he found out he doesn’t mind it, preferring to walk when its misty but not sprinkling yet so its not too cold, hot, dry, or wet. We also talk about random interesting things. For example, when we were walking back to the car I offhandedly mentioned that, if I recall correctly, the British used to eat grinded up mummies. After that we started talking about cannibalism, in which I learned about this plane crash with a soccer team on it that happened when technology wasn’t advanced causing the people having to eat those who died on impact as a result. Only three people managed to hike to nearby civilization, and they couldn’t find the plane since there was no advanced tracking back then so if you crash on the top of a mountain peak like they did, you likely aren’t surviving.

In the month of December I read a book called Wings Of Fire: The Lost Heir by Tui T Sutherland. In this book the focus is one one of 5 main characters, Tsunami. Tsunami and her friends are trying to find The Deep Palace, in order to find Tsunamis parents. when they get there they find out more about Seawings, they find out Tsunami is actually a Seawing princess and has a sister named Anemone, but there’s also mysteries like who attacked Tsunami on the way to The Deep Palace? You’ll have to read to find out. I personally like this book because it’s one of the books that got me into reading, and is a great reread for anyone who’s read it before. My favorite character is Anemone, because she is creative. The quote that proves this is “‘Drippy? Fatuous? About as interesting as sea slime?’”. This proves that she’s creative because those are some creative insults. My favorite quote from this book is “Before I tie your stupid tail around your stupid snout and leave you in a bundle at the bottom of the lake”. I like this quote because its a example of Tsunamis sass, which I kind of find funny.

If, in some twisted turn of fate, I became principal for the day I would do five things. First, I would allow phones during breaks. I mean seriously, we should just have them already. I don’t know why they wont let us have them, it’s not like we‘re going to call upon Lucifer himself using a ritual on our phones. we can search up how to cheat on tests on both things, so its a pain. Anyways, before this becomes an opinion writing i’m going to move on to the next thing I would do. Since I would have no idea how principal stuff works, I would make it so every class, for that day, is a themed party. This means no school work, just cookies and treats and fun games. I think everyone would like a day like that, coming from someone who had to take a mental health day a month or two ago. The third thing I would do is donuts for lunch. I would spend principal money to make it so there’s every option of donut from DKs, and I would have some myself. The fourth thing I would do is allow pets within certain areas. Imagine if you walked into a room and there were dogs everywhere. I would cry because of how cute the sight would be, I’m tearing up right now at the thought of it. The fifth and final thing I would do is hire somebody that can do cool bubble stuff during lunch along with giving everyone bubble wands. I like bubble wands, and I know there’s people who will put you in a giant bubble. These are the 5 things I would do, and I would gladly exchange a weekend day for all of them.

P.S, please tell the principal the phone thing is a good idea. I’m desperate, and IPad games are starting to get boring. Thank you! ^_^

This month I read a book called Wings Of Fire: Legends Darkstalker by Tui T. Sutherland. In this book it follows three points of view. Darkstalker, Clearsight, and Fathom. In this book, the plot is how Darkstalker came to be so evil, how he was stopped at the time, and not much else since this book isn’t even part of the main series. I liked this book because it showed information on a character that previously nobody knew about, and also gave some information on animus powers. It also gives you information about how nightwings used to be, which since we originally didn’t know much about them its actually a nice world builder. I also like it because you can read it at any point in the series, and it wont spoil anything. My favorite character is Clearsight because she is brave. The quote that proves this is “‘He might kill me.’ That future was horribly clear, real behind her eyes even as her mind refused to believe it.” For context, she is about to go stop Darkstalker from doing some evil stuff that I can’t say because spoilers. My favorite quote is “‘Is that what other brothers and sisters are like?’” This quote is my favorite because its one of the more light hearted ones, which later on are far and few in between. It’s also when Fathom and his grandfather, Albatross, are bonding which is wholesome.