The Boogaloo is hungry for thou,
with stealing eyes of flame,
thou wont want to learn its name.
Living in the foogly woods,
there in the middle he stood.
Born from Buzzpin flies,
you will be blind from one look in its eyes.
Scrailing screams, biggest roar,
you might as well just come and stay,
because the Boogaloo is on its way.
So come here child and have some tea,
and the Boogaloo will bring a treat,
but in return he will have your…MEAT!
dancing
My arms swayed,
but my legs stayed.
My fingers twirled,
but my legs just couldn’t move.
When you’re a tree it’s hard to have a groove.
A man by the name of Martin Stevens decided to cook a Thanksgiving turkey on a Tuesday evening for no special event, but he didn’t know how, and neither do I. So he got a turkey from the grocery store and put it in the oven. The turkey did not come out well. It was so burnt that it was blacker than the abyss.
The man, a stranger to cooking, decided it looked delicious. He took a bite and he loved it. He invited his neighbors to try the turkey. They loved it as much as he did. He decided to give them the recipe: Place the turkey in the oven and set the temperature to nine hundred and ninety-nine degrees. It was chaos. With this amazing new turkey recipe, everybody was rushing to the grocery store for a turkey. People told their friends about the turkey, so now hundreds of people were rushing to the grocery store before it closed. The store ran out of turkeys and the crazed turkey shoppers started a riot. The employees had to steal turkeys from the local zoo and start butchering them.
At last, after the employees illegally stole turkeys from the zoo and chopped them up, there were enough of the birds for everyone! Everybody got a nine hundred and ninety-nine degree burnt turkey! But the employees from the local zoo realized what had happened and started wrecking the grocery store for stealing their precious turkeys. They destroyed all the fresh produce and stomped on all the bread, once the zoo employees had finished their rampage they left, leaving the grocery store employees baffled. The end.
One day in California, there lived a boy. The boy had all the toys in the town. The boy wanted to have something new. How hard is it to think of something new?!
“Wait a minute,” said the boy, “I think I got it! All I want is a particular pet! I want an anteater! I want it nice and gray.”
As soon as his dad heard the news, he went to all the zoos that he could find. He asked the zookeepers calmly if they had any anteaters.
“We have anteaters, but our anteaters are not for sale.”
One day later, his dad found a zoo that said “Anteaters for sale”. He found the nicest, grayest anteater and gave it to his son.
The anteater asked the boy, “Please give me some meat and bread.”
The boy said, “No, you are an anteater and you should go outside and find some ants from my garden.”
The anteater searched night and day, but he couldn’t find a single ant.
Five days later, the boy’s aunt came over. The boy shouted over to the anteater, “Come see my Aunt Samantha! She is over 15 years old.”
The anteater turned around and said, “A giant ant?”
Sometimes people think it’s “a-nt”, but it’s actually, “au-nt”.
As soon as the anteater heard the word “aunt” he said, “Hmmm, a giant ant.”
The boy said, “Yes, yes, a good big ah-nt”
The anteater came closer and closer and said, “Hmm, I don’t care if the aunt is over 15. I don’t care how old the aunt is. Tonight, when Aunt Samantha is sleeping, I will gulp her down head to toe.”
So, at night he did exactly what he said. He ate her head to toe, toenails too!
In the morning, the boy looked around for his Aunt Samantha. Then, he saw the anteater in Aunt Samantha’s bed. The anteater said, “Since I ate Aunt Samantha for dinner, I will eat you for dessert!”
The anteater didn’t only eat the boy, he ate his whole family and even his plants.
After he ate everyone and all the plants, he had so much energy, so he dug into the boy’s garden. Then he saw a tiny speck of something black in the dirt moving. He said, “Ah! Another ant!”
The end.
Chapter 1- The Beginning of it All
I felt a burst of cold air when someone took the warm, loving covers off me. “Stop!” I yelled, trying to pull the covers back from whomever took them from me. “Hannah banana, it’s hiking day!” I heard my dad say, as hiking was his favored passion. “Why today? I had the best dream, I was jumping on cotton candy clouds and there were waterfalls of gatorade.” Gatorade was my favorite drink on the entire earth. “We’ve had this planned for three months! Why couldn’t you have saved that dream for another night?” he said as he was sitting down. “Daaaad, you can’t have or not have a dream, silly!” My dad replied, “ Yeah right. We have to get a move on if we want to get to our hiking site by 10:00! Start packing your hiking bag Hannah! Chop chop!”
As I was packing, I was wondering what to bring, but I didn’t want Dad to get mad at me for not knowing what to bring, so I brought: a six pack of Gatorade, some Band-Aids, and a couple of granola bars. As I was about to exit the front door to wait for Dad at the car, I felt someone stop me. I turned around to look at who it was and it was my older brother, Lucas. He is a total caution freak, so he handed me a keychain with flint and steel and a Swiss Army knife starter set with scissors, a variety of mini knives, a mini saw, and tweezers. Then I hugged him and walked to the car, as I saw Dad was in the car, ready to leave.
While I was in the car looking out the window, I saw car after car race by; it looked like they would never end. As I felt the car slow to a stop, I readied my things; for the adventure awaits, I thought. I opened the car door not wanting to feel the cold air, as it was the middle of fall. I got out of the car, and Dad was already next to the entrance path, to the hike. I didn’t know then, but this hike was going to change my life.
We walked through the path slowly, taking in all that was around us, breathing in all the floral, outsidey scents. We looked at all the plants, gawking at animals. Hearing birds *Chirp Chirp* every step of the way. We were walking for quite a while, an hour or so. Then, we came across this little area with what looked like never-ending berries. There were so many berries, heaps and buckets worth. I took a couple of blackberry-looking berries and stuck them in my mouth. “Dad! These are delicious! You should really try some!” I said. Dad replied with a, “No thanks, I’m not very hungry,” answer. “Well, more for me!” I said enthusiastically while shoving some more in my mouth.
We walked a bit more until I felt my stomach was not feeling up to shape, so I told Dad, and I sat down on a log. I drank some water and exhaled.
Chapter 2- The Hike
I hear birds sing. I smell all the same outdoor smells. I open my eyes. I put my hands out in front of myself. I see them. I sit up. I am still on a log. Everything seems normal. Until I notice. Dad. Where is he? How long was I out for? I say my thoughts out loud. I get up. I am stressed. I get stressed easily. Calm down. I walk around the log for a couple minutes. Wait. I see something. What is it? I bend down. I grab it. It’s a note. It says Hi Hannah, I am very worried about you when you passed out. So I am going to find some help. I won’t take long. Probably only around 30 minutes. I will be back soon, don’t worry… Then at the bottom of the letter was Dad’s signature. I read the note carefully, making sure not to skip any words, on accident even. Once I finished reading the note, I placed it in my pocket, making sure not to crumple it.
I looked around again, focusing on my surroundings, seeing what I would have to deal with for only about half an hour. I saw the sun get dimmer, and I looked up and saw that the sky was gray, filled with clouds. I thought about how not prepared I was. I sat back down on the log, in silence for about four minutes until I realized; I was hungry. I grabbed my backpack, it was leaning against the side of the log. I unzipped it gingerly, how the one of worst things to happen was the zipper to get stuck. I pulled out a chocolate chip granola bar, and with the backpack on my lap, I ripped open the granola bar as I took in a big whiff of the chocolaty, not-very-healthy granola bar scent. I took a big bite of it. Mmmmmmmm. I closed my eyes for a second to take in the granola bar’s glorious taste. I did really miss my dad though, I’m almost never without him, except for school of course. I also started to worry a bit, it had been four hours since I passed out. I didn’t know how time had passed so fast, then I thought he might be in trouble! Oh no! Maybe I should go venture for him! I grabbed my coat,backpack, and Dad’s note and set off to find him!
I went up a hill, a very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY tall hill that completely exhausted me, but I kept going forward. I also came across this raging river, there was no way around it, so I found this big, long tree that must have fallen over, so I walked right across it. Then I got, now fully exhausted and I saw this big cave that was kind of hidden. It did look very welcoming though, and it was starting to drizzle, so I went inside. I didn’t want to get wet.
I walked through the cave, although it wasn’t really that big, and found a little nook, so I put my backpack down and laid on it. It had been a very long day and I was completely exhausted. I didn’t have a mirror, but I knew I didn’t look my best. I could feel the bags under my eyes. I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.
Chapter 3- BATS
I saw my dad, in a meadow with daisies and dandelions with his arms open, waiting for me to run into them. I skipped across the meadow until I reached him, but when I did, he melted into nothing. I awoke with a start, I looked around, nothing had changed, no Dad and still in a cave.
But then something caught my attention, something had moved quickly. It had darted across the cave. It was a small cave but whatever this thing was, it was fast. Around three minutes later, I had lost interest in whatever it was, so I put my head down on my bag again, but I didn’t close my eyes this time, I still was a teensy bit curious to see what it was that had disturbed me. Then I saw it again and again, like there were 50 of them! I got up and stood in the middle of the cave to see what would happen, and then I saw it. Out of all things of what it could have been, this was what I least expected. A bat. I was no expert on bats, but this one looked poisonous. It had white foam coming out of its mouth, and its eyes were bright red and yellow. I had to get out of there. Then it came at me, it was chasing me! I tried to swat it off with my backpack, but it wouldn’t go away!!! But then I got one really clean shot at it and after I hit the bat, it fell to the floor. But what I didn’t know was that there were a bunch more of them staring at me, they looked like they wanted revenge, wanted to avenge their bat friend (or family, I don’t really know.) Then, one darted at me and bit me! “Ouch!” It didn’t hurt too much but if all of them bit me once, I would be in excruciating pain. I scurried out of the cave, bats attacking me, adrenaline pumping. But thankfully, one by one they started to lay off on me though. I safely (sort of) got out of the cave and sat down on a nearby rock. I started to look at my wounds, they were nothing bad, just a couple of scratches and bruises. I went onward, to look for Dad.
Chapter 4: The Ditch
I was doing great, just walking and drinking Gatorade, when suddenly, I felt really lightheaded, I also felt I could throw up at any moment. I was really dizzy, faint, and unsteady. I felt terrible. I didn’t know why this was happening right then or there, it was all so out of the blue. I mean, I did also end up alone, in a forest, seemingly all by myself. I sat down on the nearest log, but I was so out of balance that I fell off and blacked out.
I awoke with a start, my head still spinning, but I wasn’t near the log anymore, I was somewhere else. Then I heard a voice. I thought I was going crazy. How could there be someone here? I’m alone. (Or so I thought.) Maybe it’s an angel telling me I can finally rest. But no. I heard it again, like it was getting closer and closer until…I saw him. It was Dad! I found him! “Oh my gosh, Hannah! Are you okay? I’m so glad you are okay!” I looked at Dad, we talked, he was definitely a bit beat up, but other than that, he’s a tough guy. After a while, I finally came to the end of answering all of his questions about EVERYTHING, but now I had a couple of questions that I wanted the answers for.
“ OK Dad, a couple questions. Where are we, how did you get here, how did I get here, and how long have you been here.” He answered with, “We are in a big ditch in the ground. How I got here, I was looking for help for you and then I twisted my ankle on an oddly shaped rock and fell in. How you got here, I didn’t see much from inside this ditch but all I saw was you rolling and falling into here.” I cut him off, “Oh and by the way, I think why I rolled in here was because some really scary bats bit me when I was in a cave that I found and I think that they were poisonous and I fell off a log I was sitting on and then I fell off because I came unconscious.” “Awwww, my tough little girl!” He said while giving me a big bear hug. “OK, last answer, I have been here for maybe about like,” He stopped for a moment to think, like his memory of outside of this ditch was blurry. He squinted his eyes so hard I thought they could pop right out!!! “I really don’t know Hannah banana, I’m sorry.” He said it very sincerely. “It’s OK Dad, but now here comes the biggest question of them all…how do we get out of here?”
Chapter 5: The Plan
Me and Dad talk and talk for hours, thinking of the plan, until we figure it out. I get my backpack and eat the last granola bar without thinking of Dad, although I do offer him water. Then we are ready for the plan. I get onto Dad’s shoulders, then awkwardly he lifts me up onto the edge of the ditch. Then, my hand scrapes on something. “OUCH!” I lose my balance while trying to go one-handed because my other hand was bleeding. I then fell back down, though luckily, landed in Dad’s arms. “Ow.” I say. “You okay? Want to wash it off with some water?” Dad says sympathetically. “Not a bad idea.” I say back to him. I then go to find my water bottle and then realize, I only packed Gatorade. Although I know it might hurt a bit, I take a bit of Gatorade and use it to wash some of the blood off. It stung…a lot, but it did wash all of the blood away. “Ready for take two?” Dad asks, in position for me to get onto his back. “Sure.” Then I get onto his back again, and heave myself up and over the edge of the ditch. “I did it Dad! I’m up!” I shouted happily. “Alright, now tie a vine or something to a rock, I think I saw a big sturdy rock right up front.” I walked around a bit looking for a vine and then I found one on a tree. I rip it off and hold it up to admire it. A perfect length vine. I tie it as tight as I can to a big rock that I found and threw it down to Dad. “Heads up!” I yelled. “Got it! Can you help pull me up? You won’t be doing all the work though, I will mostly pull myself up.” Dad says. “Yup.” I get my hands on the vine and feel Dad pulling me down. But then, I get a burst of energy and I pull as hard as I can, and next thing I know, he’s out of the ditch! “Wow Hannah, have you been working out?” He says, mocking me. “Whatever.” I say sarcastically. “So, what do we do now, Hannah?” “Let’s get out of this place!!!”
Aftermath
Hannah and her dad make it out of the woods safe and reunite with their family. Hannah and Lucas become closer than ever. The bats that Hannah came into contact with were vampire bats. They aren’t real vampires but in real life they do bite. Hannah’s dad gets help for his ankle and it heals fast. Even though that whole catastrophe was over, Hannah was scarred forever. She does go to some therapy to help with all of her deep thoughts.
Chapter 1: Flamingos
What makes flamingos special?
Flamingos can stand one leg, did you know that it’s easier for them but it’s harder for humans? Since flamingos are pink, they don’t do it on their own. There’s pink plankton stuff in the water and they eat it and that’s what makes flamingos pink. Baby flamingos don’t start out pink, they start out gray. They start out puffy and they look like penguin babies because they are gray and puffy.
Where do flamingos live?
Flamingos usually live in mangrove swamps. Did you know that flamingos are a relative to dodo birds? They have the same beaks.
What do flamingo eggs look like?
Flamingo eggs are not the same as chicken eggs. They are like an oval, but no arch on the top. It kind of comes in on the side.
Did you know that flamingos fly? Mostly only swamp flamingos fly because the swamp gives them much more cool and they can sense when something is coming. There’s not that much danger in lakes though. Flamingo groups are called flamboyances. A flamingo is 3 and a half to 5 feet tall. And did you know that lake flamingos make mud and stick nests?
Chapter 2: Golden Pheasants
Did you know that golden pheasants live in Western China? Did you know that golden pheasant eggs are the exact same size and shape of chicken eggs? But they don’t have spots on them.
What do female golden pheasants look like?
They look more brownish-blackish. And the males look blue, red, a little black, yellow, gold, and there’s some grayish on the tail.
Golden pheasants can fly but only a few feet in the air and they prefer to stay on the ground. Golden pheasants eat berries, bugs, and leaves. In the wild golden pheasants live 5 to 6 years. But in people’s homes they can live 15 to 20 years. I think that’s because they get more treatment at houses. And I don’t think they live long in the wild because their are predators coming out to eat them.
What are golden pheasants’ predators?
Their predators are foxes and wild cats.
Chapter 3: Toucans
Where do Toucans live?
They live in the Amazon Rainforest.
What is a flock of Toucans called?
It is called a durante of Toucans. I thought durante means together, but it is Portuguese for during. It makes sense because durante and during kind of sound similar.
What do males look like?
Male and females look the same, except male beaks are longer and narrower.
How many years do they live?
They live 12 to 20 years.
Did you know that there are different types of Toucans? There are over 40 different species of Toucan. I would guess there are 60 because they are one of the most popular kinds of birds. All the different types of Toucan species have a big beak.
Does Anabella have to be perfect?
Once upon time in Japan there was a girl named Anabella. She loved going to Japan and she loved playing and helping. She also loved reading, taking walks, and even everyone in her family, and cleaning the house very clean. Every time her mom drops a glass of water Anabella helps her mom clean the wet floor, and Anabella is smart and helps her family whenever her family needs help.
She wants to be a teacher when she grows up so she is working hard so she can be a teacher when she grows up. She reads a lot of books so she could be a teacher when she is a grownup so she works harder than anybody else to do a lot of math like ‘is 100 greater than 1000 or is 1000 greater than 100?’ Anabella would think the greater one is 1000. Do you think Anabella will get it right or wrong? I think she will get it right because it says she is smart. What do you think? She knows everything! Do you think Anabella will get it right?
She does a lot of work every single day because she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She is trying to work as hard as the other students. Her teacher’s name is Miss Luna. Miss Luna helps Anabella to get it right. She practices her math, reading, and even hard math without anybody helping her. Her brain is trying to work hard to know the answers. Anabella’s mom said, “Your grandparents are coming here soon.” She tried to finish her math quickly, so her grandparents won’t see her doing her homework. After she was done, the grandparents came. Anabella came to the front door to hug her grandparents. And she said, “hi,” in Japanese. “Hello Anabella, I am so happy to see you,” said Anabellas grandpa. At bed time Anabella screamed in her pillow so loud! Her mom said “Stop screaming, do that at a sleepover!” After she yelled at Anabella she slept peacefully, she didn’t even say one word she just [zzzzzz.]
The next day Anabella wore her favorite outfit that says ‘I love writing’ with shorts and long socks and sneakers with a headband that has a bow. The color of the headband was blue. She felt very disappointed because she had to do math all over again. She had to do it fast because it was almost her math test. During recess Anabella saw a girl at the next bench. She sat right next to the poor girl. She asked what was wrong. The girl said “I wanted to be a writer when I grow up but I keep on practicing swimming instead of writing.” “What is your name?” asked Anabella. “My name is Cinnamon but my real name is Flora. My family is a god or ghost. I could help you.” Now Anabela knows if she makes a mistake her brain will grow! The End!
Once there was a girl named Sally. Sally loved hamsters.
One day her mother said, “Sally, I have a present for you!”
“What?’’ Sally said.
’’Look in this box,’’ Sally’s mother said. Sally’s mom was holding a big brown box. Sally opened the box and inside the box was a cute hamster. The hamster was a brown cinnamon color.
Sally said, “Oh, I’ll name you Cinnamon the hamster.” Her mom gave her a hamster pack and a guide, but Sally already knew a ton about hamsters. But she still read the guide, just in case. She let the hamster run in a spinner. Sally fed Cinnamon lettuce and carrots. And she took Cinnamon out for walks. And she gave Cinnamon a school, called Cinnamon school. When Sally went to school, she left Cinnamon a cardboard cut out of her so he wouldn’t be lonely.
One day, when Sally was taking Cinnamon for a walk he slipped out of her leash. Cinnamon didn’t realize he was out of the leash. Sally didn’t realize he was out of the leash either. When Sally looked at her leash, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Cinnamon wasn’t on the leash!
When Cinnamon looked, he was in the bushes. But Sally didn’t see him in the bushes. They were very tall bushes. Sally looked everywhere. She looked in one of the bushes, but she didn’t look in the bush Cinnamon was in because she didn’t realize there was another bush. Her mother was at the supermarket and her father was working, so Sally realized she would have to act like Cinnamon so that he would come to her. But she would have to read a book all about hamsters first. The guide! She put food out at night, but Cinnamon didn’t come to her. The bushes were so high that Cinnamon couldn’t smell.
Cinnamon fed on lettuce, because there was lettuce in the bushes, and he thought that those bushes were the woods.
And then her mom called and said she wouldn’t be back for a week because she was going to San Francisco for her work. And her dad would be working all day.
So Sally thought, if she was going to find Cinnamon she would need him to come to her. She walked all over the neighborhood singing her Cinnamon song. “Cinnamon, oh Cinnamon!” She sang up and down the street. But the bushes were too thick and high that Cinnamon couldn’t hear it.
Then she saw the bushes that Cinnamon was in were rattling. She thought that it just must be ants. She went to check the bushes, but when she looked, Cinnamon thought it was a hungry lion. When she looked he ran outside the bushes, then he came back when she was done looking.
Cinnamon was scared. Sally was scared too. She didn’t know what to do.
She thought she should wear her night vision goggles. But since the bushes were very thick, she couldn’t find him. Then she called out, “Cinnamon! Cinnamon!”
Cinnamon thought it was a snake because he only heard “Sssssssssisss”, so he thought it was a snake. And some of the leaves were cinnamon colored, so he camouflaged in them whenever Sally looked.
Sally was very discouraged. Then she said, “Maybe mom was right. I should have read the guide all the way through.” She had thrown the guide out when she was just half way through. “Maybe I’ll live my life without Cinnamon. Mom is going to kill me when she finds out.”
Cinnamon ran out of carrots and lettuce in the bush. So he went into the real woods to find some food. Mom got home and Sally said, “Can I go to the woods to see what kind of uh, leaves there are?’’
“Sure,’’Sally’s mom said. But Sally was actually going to look for Cinnamon.
It was summertime and Sally was moving in 62 days and she had to find Cinnamon before then. So when she went into the woods she realized she would have to be like Cinnamon again, which didn’t work last time but she was willing to try again. She saw Cinnamon’s footprints but ended up following a tiny cat that wasn’t Cinnamon and it scratched her. While Cinnamon was trying to find some hope and some food, the cat that scratched Sally came right in front of Cinnamon and it was really big. It was a ginger cat with orange stripes. The cat chased Cinnamon through the woods and out of the woods and back into the woods. He made himself a little hole to hide him and the cat couldn’t get him. Anyways, Cinnamon came out of his little hole and looked around. He wasn’t a very good climber so he couldn’t climb. He was a very good jumper though. Cinnamon wandered accidentally into bullet ant territory. And Cinnamon didn’t realize, but then a bullet ant started chasing him and Cinnamon knew about bullet ants because he went to bullet ant school. Cinnamon jumped over twigs and left and ran very fast but the bullet ant could probably outrun him. He jumped over a big pile of dirt and the bullet ants couldn’t get him.
When he saw the ants leaving, now Cinnamon was really scared. He trembled. When he got out from behind the dirt pile, he started to shake, partly because it was really warm. He didn’t like being warm. He needed to be room temperature. Finally Cinnamon found some lettuce on the ground and it felt very good to eat. Cinnamon started now to find his way home to Sally. He thought he heard her voice but he only heard hummingbirds. Meanwhile, Sally felt hopeless. Just then, Sally saw Cinnamon! Cinnamon ran to Sally. Sally kissed Cinnamon.
The end.
“Slow down!” shouted Kit Gold.
“Okay!” shouted Quinn Wing. They were playing tag.
“Got you.” said Kit. Then they saw something strange rustling in the leaves. A wind caught them like a tornado and they spun into a different world. They didn’t know where they were. The world had blue leaves on the trees and all the things looked different. Everything was dark and misty, not like in their forest which was bright and sun-shiny.
“Where are we?” asked Quinn.
“I don’t know,” said Kit, picking up one of the blue leaves and barking angrily.
“We’re not supposed to be involved in some kind of magic wind. My mom told me about the magic wind in stories. But I didn’t think it was all supposed to be true.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Kit. “But we’ve gotta find a way to get out of here.”
“First,” said Quinn, “we’ve got to find out how the magic wind got us and brought us over here.”
“Well, I know the tornado kind of got a little dimmer every time I thought about going
home. And then it just vanished and dropped us here. Maybe we could think about not going home, to go home.”
“That doesn’t make sense, but we could try,” said Quinn.
“Okay! Three. Two. One. Go!” said Kit.
And they both tried not to think about going home. And none of it worked.
“We’ve gotta keep thinking but first … AH! WHAT IS THAT?” screamed Quinn.
They saw something weird in front of them.
All the leaves around them started closing in and fire shot out of the ground. Fire was the same color. Some of it was blue and some of it was orange-reddish.
And then suddenly, Quinn blinked. They were swept upside down and crashed into a big pile of leaves that were greenish-orangish. They were in the same world, but on a different continent.
“I get it,” said Kit. “We think about some things, like not going home and then we go somewhere completely different.”
“Like what?”
Kit said, “Like flying up with your wings. You can fly up and tell me what you see.”
So Quinn flew up and saw a big, black cloud.
“Yeah!” screamed Quinn while he was spinning upside down back to the forest floor.
“Well, that didn’t work,” said Kit. “You shouldn’t be looking upwards all the time, not focusing on what’s on the ground. You might get blown up by something.
“What do you mean blown up?” said Quinn.
“You know what I mean. Not actually blown up.”
“Oh, right. Should we just find a way to get out of here?” asked Quinn
“Well, yeah that’s what we’re thinking about.”
“Did you hear that?” asked Quinn.
“What?” said Kit.
“That,” said Quinn, pointing out the boinging sound.
“Oh, right. What is that boinging sound? Should we go check it out?” asked Kit.
“Maybe,” answered Quinn.
“Okay, first let’s figure out what that thing is.”
“Okay!” said Quinn. “But what?” asked Quinn.
“That,” said Kit, pointing to some strange creature. “It was snapping its jaws wide open and closed. I think that’s just a plant, I guess?” said Kit.
“Kit?” said Quinn.
“What?” answered Kit.
“Did you notice how many of them there are?”
Kit blinked. He hadn’t noticed so many of them were there.
Kit said, “Can you fly us out of here, Quinn?”
“Yes, probably,” said Quinn. “Get on my back,” said Quinn.
Quinn soared up into the sky, trying to find the magic wind again. Suddenly, they found the black cloud again. Quinn flew straight into it. And suddenly it was all quiet. Super quiet.
“So, I think we landed in the middle of nowhere,” said Kit.
“Uh, not exactly,” he said. “Look, we landed on a single leaf.”
“Oh, then I guess we shrunk because the leaf is falling and it seems super super big.”
“Yes,” said Quinn.
“When are we landing?” asked Kit.
“Pretty soon, I think,” answered Quinn.
“Well, I think we already did. Because, look at the trees, they’re gigantic. When we were up there, they were very much smaller. I would guess they were really below us.”
“Well, I think we should get off this leaf. Just, let’s fly,” said Quinn.
“Yeah, we don’t want to get stomped on by some giant rabbit.”
“Did you forget?” answered Quinn. “They’re only gigantic to us now. But soon when we’re back normal size, they’re pretty much going to be normal size.”
“Okay,” answered Kit. “Just get me on the ground and we can get out of the way of everyone–”
“STAMPEDE!” interrupted Quinn.
Kit quickly got on his back and they soared over all the animals.
“Well, look at it this way, we should just–”
“Just what?” asked Kit.
“We should just try to find something that we could use from here to get back to our hometown Stuffyland.”
“Yeah, let’s look for that thing if there is.” Suddenly they heard rustling in the leaves. Kit looked down and said, “I think I’m floating.” No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t reach Quinn.
“I think we’re going DOOOOOWN!” shrieked Quinn. He twirled down and down and down. “We went up quite high,” he said, bonking his head down.
“Well, let’s get searching,” Kit said.
“Okay, but first we gotta find something.”
“Mmhmm,” Kit answered while looking up.
“What’re you looking at?” asked Quinn.
“I think I’m staring at that tree, not exactly up.”
Quinn looked too. What he saw was jewels instead of leaves. “I think one of those jewels is gonna help us get back closer to our home, but not exactly to there. Should we choose one?” asked Quinn.
“Yes, we should,” said Kit.
“Yes, we should,” mumbled Quinn to himself.
They looked at the tree carefully and saw one that was quite different from the others. Quinn flew up to that jewel and plucked it out from the tree.
“Think this’ll work?” asked Quinn.
“It should. C’mon. 3, 2, 1, let’s fly.”
Kit and Quinn soared up high and they saw the black cloud again. Before going in, Kit blew on the jewel four times and then they went in.
They were somewhere closer, Quinn knew it. They hadn’t been here before. “Why was everything so small?” Quinn asked himself. “Before things were huge,” he said, stomping his claws.
“Yeah we are,” said Kit, bounding forward on his four paws. Suddenly they felt like they were shrinking.
“Oh, why are you here?” Quinn asked something on the ground. Kit rolled around and looked at what Quinn was looking at. Quinn was looking at Softy from their world.
“Oh, what are you doing here?” Kit asked Softy the bunny.
“I thought I might help you,” said Softy. “What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know.” said Kit. “AHH!” Quinn shouted. Suddenly, everyone was pulled into the ground. They heard a scream. “HELP!” They ran into a big room and saw the screaming Princess Keeah.
“Just what is going on here?” Asked Softy.
“That?” said Quinn.
“Probably,” said Kit.
“What’s that?” asked Softy.
“Oh. That. You mean snakes that are behind her?”
“Uhhh, yes! Now stop fiddling, and let’s go.”
“Okay.”
“Softy!!” groaned Kit.
“Okay, okay.”
Suddenly, Softy started freaking out. He was scared of snakes.
“Guys!” said Keeah. “Should we just go up?”
“How?” asked Softy.
“Like this,” answered Keeah, jumping up on the little ditch that was on top of her.
Softy bounded back on the grass. “Come on, Quinn, Kit, come up!”
“Okay!” answered Kit, boinging out of the ground.
Quinn flew out. “Come on, let’s start running!”
“Sssss.”
“Uh oh,” said Keeah.
“Snakes!” gulped Softy.
“Woah!” said Kit. “Come on, Quinn, you’re the only one that can fly.”
“Okay, get on my back, Kit and Softy. Princess Keeah, you can fly too, can’t you?”
“Oh, yes I can!”
“So let’s go!”
They all flew up into the sky. Kit was looking down.
“You know, we’re all afraid of something,” he said. “And this is not the time for me to be afraid of heights, which I am.”
“Not exactly a problem,” said Quinn. “Because we’re going down now.”
“Oh, phew. That was close,” said Kit when he finally put his paws down on the grass again.
“ACHOO!” sneezed Softy. “Now, I think we accidentally flew through a portal without noticing. Because this place is very dusty.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Keeah.
“Okay. What do we do now?”
“ACHOO!” said Softy.
“Uhh, I think we have a problem here,” said Kit. “I think Softy’s allergic to dust.”
“I am–ACHOO!” said Softy.
“That is a problem,” said Keeah, tapping her head. “Now what do we do?”
“Umm, fly? Because if Softy’s allergic to dust and up there’s dusty, we just might be able to stop him from sneezing all day.”
“So?” Softy got on Quinn’s back and Quinn flew up, up, up.
Suddenly, Softy shouted, “Hey! You guys! Come up here too!”
“Huh,” said Keeah, but took Kit’s paws and went up.
“Well, now that we’re all together, I have something to show you,” said Quinn.
“Here we GOOOOO…” said Softy, bolting with Kit through a big dark cloud.
“Oh, we’re supposed to go through there?”
Silence.
Then Keeah said, “Why don’t we go in too, Kit?”
“Okay!”
Keeah took a deep breath and also bolted into the black cloud.
The next thing Keeah saw was Quinn and Softy waiting for them on the ground.
“Well, I’m glad we escaped the snakes,” interrupted Softy.
“Well, yes. But I don’t think we exactly saved them from, uhhh, raining?”
Everyone looked up and saw hundreds and hundreds of snakes pouring out of the blackest cloud in the sky.
“Oh dear,” said Quinn.
“Time to get out of here!”
“Uh huh,” said Keeah.
“Maybe we should run!” said Kit, grabbing Softy’s arm.
The next thing Quinn thought was, Maybe I should run too.
“I’m staying,” said Kit when Quinn caught up. “You’re not that fast.”
“Uhh, I am fast when I’m flying!” said Quinn, hovering over the ground.
“Okay, whatever. Now that we got away from the snakes, we can at least have the nuts I still have in my sack,” said Keeah.
“Well, at least we have something to eat.”
“Phew! At least we don’t have any more snakes to deal with,” said Softy, finally getting warm.
“Well, if I thought, now that we finally escaped, we can finally go to sleep like usual.”
After they laid down, Keeah started to worry. What if we never come back to the right place? she thought.
But Softy seemed to read her thoughts. “Oh don’t worry, Keeah, we’ll get back.” And then they all fell asleep.
The next morning, they woke up. Keeah was the first one to wake up and she was really good at making stuff. So she found four curved sticks and stones. She laid them out and decided to crack her nuts. Then Softy woke up, saying he would go exploring.
“Hey, Keeah!” said Softy when he got back. “I found a nearby stream! Except the water’s completely blue there.”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter. Just wake up the others, and I’ll try to find that stream.” So Keeah went and found the stream. Keeah grabbed her water bottle and opened the lid. She took out the water and drank. “Mm. Fresh. Water. Looks like Softy could have mentioned that when he got back.”
“Keeah, come on!” said Softy from the distance. Keeah ran back to their tiny hut or cave.
She had her water bottle and she showed Softy how she curved the stones she had washed in the stream.
So while Softy curved rocks into the right shape, Kit tried to find the biggest rock he could find. When he got back, he had a very big rock. Then Keeah grabbed the rock and started pounding it with her fist which she had to use magic until it curved in. Then, she put it around the sticks that she had tried into a cauldron. It made a good one. So Keeah put the ginormous rock in the center.
She said, “Softy, do you know how to make a fire with your magic?”
“Sure do! Why do you need me?”
“Oh, just to make breakfast for all of us.”
So Softy used his powers to light the fire.
Since Keeah still had millions of leftover nuts, so she just poured them all into the water that she had put into the giant rock. Then she found a perfect stick that would make a good spoon and she found many others that looked different but were still good. So after she had washed them and came back, she started mixing the nuts into the bottle. Then she asked Softy to go find something else that would be very good to put in.
Softy came back with apples, and Keeah said they were very good. So she used her power to split them and also put them in and start mixing the nuts and the apples together. Soon all the cooking and working was finished and they could finally eat.
“Mm! This is very good. Where did you learn to make such good stew, Keeah?” Asked Softy.
“Oh, well, when we were back in our forest, we had three cookbooks, and one of them had this recipe in it!”
“Can I have one copy?”
“Ha! Sure,” giggled Keeah. “Okay, now we can go searching for some way to get out of here and get home.”
“Oh, good idea! Just, I’ll grab your water bottle and the sack before we go,” said Kit.
“Good old Kit!” said Softy when Kit came back with all the things in his four tiny paws.
They had very much fun getting across the river.
“Woo hoo!! This is an absolutely crazy walking day,” said Softy and Keeah together.
“Uh, yeah, it is,” said Kit. “Uh, something is making us feel like something’s watching us.”
“Uh, I think nothing is,” said Keeah.
“No, I think something is,” said Kit, pointing. “Something with stripes that was orange with a very long tail.”
“TIGER!” screamed Keeah. Keeah flew up with Softy in her arms and Kit and Quinn decided that they would both go together.
“Well, I’m not sure how many dangers there are on this island.”
“Oh, yes,” agreed Quinn.
“Well, should I have something to tell you? We found the black cloud again!”
“Cool! Let’s go in!” said Kit.
So, the four friends zoomed off into the cloud.
“Okay, now I notice something.”
“You noticed what?”
“Hey, where are you guys?” asked Kit.
“Over here!” said a familiar voice. Suddenly Kit saw something. It looked like a bunny covered in dust, but he wasn’t so sure.
“Oh, hello, Mr. Dust Bunny!”
“No! It’s me! Softy!” came an angry voice.
“Ohhh. Where are the others?”
“Over there! You’re also covered in dust, silly.”
“Ohhh,” said Kit when he saw himself. He shook himself out of the dust and took himself to the others who were also covered in dust.
“Well, now we’re just in a giant dust pile!”
“If I get covered in dust again, don’t call me Dust Bunny!”
“Okay,” said Kit. “If I recognize you.”
“Okay, okay you guys. It’ll be much harder to find a cloud in a place of dust. Look, the trees are dust, the river is dust–”
“ACHOO!” screamed Softy really loud.
“…and that too,” finished Keeah.
It was cloudy and was so dusty that Kit thought Softy might sneeze out the whole world!
“I want my mom!” said Softy. “Looks like I’m catching a cold.”
“You’re catching an allergy to dust,” reminded Keeah.
“Oh, right,” said Softy.
“Guys! I found a way out,” Quinn interrupted Keeah’s humming.
“Oh! Right,” said Softy. “Now I can– ACHOO!” He flew out.
“Well, now that he learned to fly, let’s go!” said Quinn.
“You guys didn’t go to school yet,” said Keeah.
“Stuffies don’t go to school!” said Kit, turning around.
“Sooooooooo,” said Keeah when they got out. “This is dust world, I should say.”
Kit started humming himself a beat, Keeah started cartwheeling, and Softy decided it would be best if Quinn flew up with him so that he didn’t sneeze-a-rama all day.
“Who are you calling sneeze-o-rama?” said Softy, looking at Quinn’s ears.
But Quinn kept flying. He noted that if he found that black cloud again, he would scream so that the others would fly up and see the black cloud.
“Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock,” said Keeah. “When are they coming down here?”
“Eeeeee!” came the ear piercing scream from the sky.
“Sounds like we,” said Keeah. “Let’s go!” So they flew. And they flew. They flew up-up-up and saw the black cloud again. Quinn was still screaming and flying with his eyes closed and Softy to scream in his ears.
“Hello! Quinn! Stop shouting! They’re here!”
Suddenly, there was a giant growl. Everything went black. Then, “WOWEEEEEE,” Keeah heard, opening her eyes finally.
“Home! We’re home!” she heard another voice say.
“Well, we better get asking Keeah all the questions we had for her!”
Then Keeah heard a voice saying, “Keeah! We’re home.”
Keeah burst up and looked around. And then she started jumping up and down. Her jumping made the ground shake a little bit so much that the squirrels got kind of terrified.
The end!
I was sitting on my bed. I was in Gloop dimension 96. It was a very normal dimension compared to other dimensions. I went to school like any normal dimension, 5 days a week. I had just gotten off from school, where I was learning mathematics.
I had nothing to do, so I just stared at the wall. For a second, I felt like I was in a trance. But then, a voice snapped me out of it.
“HAVE YOU DONE YOUR HOMEWORK YET?” It was my mom. She was very strict about homework. But, the bad thing was, in Gloop dimension 96, kids had tons of homework. I took out his homework from my bag. I held it up and looked at the thickness of his homework. It looked like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I sighed, but slowly, but surely, I finished it.
When I was done, I looked at the time. In the Gloop dimension 96, there were 32 hours a day, so it was 13 o’ clock. He normally went to bed at 12 o’ clock but whatever. I walked over to my huge bed and belly flopped into it. I made myself comfortable and fell asleep easily. I woke up with a start at 4 o’ clock in the morning. I usually got up at 9 o’ clock so I could get on my Pc and start playing Fortnite.
I didn’t realize how much Fortnite he was playing until my little sister, Sophia, smacked him in the face. Sophia was 4 years old, while I was 14. I took off his headphone angrily and said bitterly,” what do you want?”
“Where are my colored pencils?” She asked, pouting. SHE HAD INTERRUPTED MY PLAYTIME FOR SOME COLORED PENCILS? I was in disbelief.
“Why couldn’t you have asked me later?” I said, putting back on my headphones.
“Because I need them for my school-” I didn’t hear the rest though. I jumped off the battle bus and then I felt another slap on my face. I didn’t even hear her. I took off my headphones, picked my sister up, and threw her out of my room. Now, that may have been a little bit violent, but sometimes she just annoyed me so much I just wanted to kill her. I walked back to my seat and put my headphones back on. I was in the Fortnite lobby because someone had killed me. I sighed. I turned my PC off and looked at the time. It was still only 8 o’ clock. I layed on the carpet of my bedroom, staring at the ceiling. Not before long I blacked out. I woke up to the sound of sizzling. I put on my shorts and t- shirt because it was summer. I forgot to mention that in Gloop dimension 96 we also have school in the Summer. This was one of the cruelest dimensions ever. I walked into the kitchen and looked at what his dad was cooking. It was a mango raspberry waffle. You’d think it sounds good, but it tastes horrible! I sat down at the brown table and grabbed my phone. I looked at the news that was on last night. Before I could get onto the News page, which was a news page called Brain Freeze, my dad took my phone. He patted me on my head, before setting down a plate of mango raspberry waffles. I reluctantly took a bite then my head exploded. Not literally, but, like it. It tasted delicious! I gulped down the rest of my waffles, then went to my dad, who was working on his computer. In the Gloop dimension 96, you have to work for 28 hours a day when you work. He had 4 hours to sleep, have fun and cook. I walked up to him and asked, “what did you put in the waffles that made them so good?” No response. I grabbed his dad’s arm on the mouse and shook it. No response again. I shook harder. Nothing happened. Dad’s eyes were glued to the screen.
I gave up after a while of punching and kicking, and packed my bag and went to my friend’s house. His name was Cameron. Cam for short. I waited outside for 2 minutes when the front door burst open and out came Cam.
“Whasup bro,” he said, coming up to me. “ Not much,” I said. We did our handshake then went to school. On the way I said, “Did you know that my dad’s mango raspberry waffles tasted actually good today?” He looked at me like I was crazy. He had tried them when he had slept over and he threw up. 4 times. It was disgusting seeing all the thrown up pieces of waffles on the floor mixed in with the apple juice Cameron was drinking. Dad hadn’t done anything about it because of work, and mom didn’t do it because she was doing laundry. Mom usually did most of the work around the house. She was very useful actually. She cleaned up all the messes that I made and made our beds, and everything. She was a very neat person, so everyday she’d clean every millimeter of the house. Even the ceiling. Sometimes she’d even interrupt my fortnite playtime for cleaning. I prioritize my fortnite playtime. 2 days ago, I thought about starting a youtube channel. I was definitely good enough to be one. Cameron snapped him out of it when he asked, “ did you study for the test?” I stopped walking. “What test?” I asked back.
“Don’t you remember, yesterday Mr. Gulch said he was gonna give us a ELA test today.” I was stunned for a few seconds then ran toward the grass on my left. “ What’re you doing?” asked Cameron as he frantically ran after me. I threw my backpack on the grass and opened my bag. I pulled out my ELA notebook and started reading it. I took out 3 pieces of paper, a folder, and a pen to study with. “What are you doing? There’s no way you can study for the test in”- Cam looked at his watch-“Ten minutes.”
“Thanks for the encouragement.” I grumbled. I studied my notes once more, then tossed my notebook aside. I put one of my sheets of paper on top of my folder then wrote down everything I remembered from my notes. This was my method. I basically just studied my notes then wrote down everything I remembered from my notes until I could remember everything from notes. “Sorry dude,” Cam said, walking away, “I don’t wanna be late. Good luck.” I watched him slowly disappear toward the direction of the school. I ignored him then studied for 5 more minutes. I packed up my bag then ran as fast I could toward the school. I walked into the school building. I went to my locker, then opened it and put my stuff into it. Just as I closed my locker, I heard a cheerful voice.
“ HI Benny.” It was Jack. Jack was a nerd who stood 4 feet tall in 9th grade, with braces and trousers on every day.
“What do you want?” I said, looking in both directions for potential bullies who could target me for talking to Jack. “ Nothing. Just saying hi,” he said as enthusiastically as he could.
“Scram,” I said, pushing him away. I walked into the opposite direction that he did, when someone yanked me back and grabbed me.
“Hi Benny. Why are you talking to Jack? Did you guys study last night?” It was of course one of the bullies I was talking about. His name was Mike, and he stood only 2 inches taller than me, yet had so much power.
“Why do you care?” I said, wrestling out of his grip. “Because you shouldn’t be talking to losers who have no life.” He responded. A crowd was forming quickly, so I ran toward my class, as light as I could on my feet, and slowed down at the end of the hall where my science class was. I walked into my class, where Cameron waved me over to his table. The others at the table were Zoe and Dan. Zoe was my friend from 2nd grade, and Dan was Cameron’s friend. Dan was pretty annoying though. I didn’t understand why Cam liked him.
My teacher, Ms. Brewster, was a tan lady who was nice most of the time. In class today we would be making something out of legos which was a robot that would help us with something.
“I think we should make a robot that shoots sharp legos,” said Zoe, laughing maniacally. Zoe has something called war syndrome, which is a case of always wanting war.”I think we should make something that helps us move stuff,” said Dan.
“Can’t we do that with our backpacks?” I said, skeptically.
“Well yeah, but maybe we could make something teleport,” Dan said.
“That’s not scientifically possible,” Cam said, shaking his head.
“What if we made a time machine, so we could go back to the Civil War so I could beat the Confederacy up.” Zoe said, her voice deep and evil. Dan took a step back and made a straight face.
“There’s no beating up anyone.” I said in a calm voice. Suddenly, Ms.Brewster came over to our table and asked, “Having a bit of trouble?”
“Yeah,” said Cam in a sad voice, looking down. “ Well, think about things you can make out of legos, that a robot can do, that is something you all want.” She said, walking away.
“I know what we all want,” Dan said.
“What,” I said, annoyed. “WAR!!!!!!” Screamed Zoe, startling the whole class.
“Nope, no, not war. Not war,” I said, embarrassed
I was so happy when science was over. Not because of Zoe, but because we had gym next. In this lesson we were supposed to be playing basketball. I shoved the door to the gym, where people were gathered below the basketball net, talking. The gym teacher, Mr. Mack blew his whistle very loud, killing my ears. Some of the sensitive people dropped to the floor and started screaming. “You burst my eardrums.”
“Aw shut up,” he said. Did I mention that Mr.Mack is jacked? He has 6 packs that bulge out of shirt. Everyone’s scared of him.
“ I’ve called off the basketball, slackers,” he said. “ Now go do 100 laps out in the yard before I make it 200.” Everyone was shocked. Mario, who was really good at basketball, started crying. I felt kinda bad for him.
I was walking toward the yard, when I heard a group of people whispering. I could slightly make out what they were saying.
“I hate him.” I could hear one of them saying. “Yeah he’s so trash.” Another one said,” we should prank him.” Another said. “Yeah.”
I continued walking, pretending like I didn’t hear anything. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the sidewalk diagonal of me.
“ FLIP.” I screamed, jumping 10 feet back. There was a rumble in the sky and a crack followed by it.
“GOT IT ON CAMERA!!!!!!!” screamed Ruby, who was a girl who gossiped everywhere.
“You did?” said a bunch of people (including me).
“Yeah, I was gonna take a selfie of myself on Instagram, but I turned my camera around accidentally and took a photo of the lightning.” She squealed in delight. She went to the photo app on her phone and showed us the picture. It was a bit blurry, but showed me shielding my face, with my body in a weird position.”Why do I look like that?” I asked.
“How should I know?” said Ruby, in a sassy voice. I shrugged. “ HUP HUP LET’S GO!!!!” screamed Mr. Mack, clapping his hands. I immediately ran toward the yard as fast as fast as my legs could take me.
Some people hearing about the development of quantum computers might question the need for them: aren’t computers powerful enough already? I disagree. Quantum computers are a whole different type of computing device than the run-of-the-mill computers that we are familiar with. Quantum computers use electrons or photons, which are called qubits (quantum bits. Qubits can exist in multiple states simultaneously based on a specific set of solutions, subjected to incompatible measurements, and even be entangled with other quantum bits. Essentially, instead of just representing 0 or 1, it can represent a value in between, intertwine with other quantum bits, and be able to become measurements that don’t work with other measurements.
This brings me to why quantum computers are worth making. 1) Quantum computers are more powerful than our current computers. 2) Quantum computers can help advance the medical world. 3) Cybersecurity on quantum computers will be easier than before.
It bears establishing that quantum computers are far more powerful than our current computers. According to Aiswarya PM’s article on Analytics Insight, “Scientists predict that Quantum computing is better than supercomputers as it performs tasks a million times faster.” If Quantum computing is already estimated to be a million times faster than supercomputers, then they must be must faster than current “consumer computers” with the power that is available to non-company buyers.
To put that into perspective, we can look at IBM’s post on ‘What is supercomputing,’ which states that “Supercomputers can be one million times more processing power than the fastest laptop.” That would mean that you would need 1 trillion of the most powerful laptops (10^12 laptops!) just to make the power of one quantum computer, not accounting for all the cables you would need to make them work together. That’s crazy! With all this power, you might be wondering what you should do with it. The answer is not to get infinite money or whatever else you might really want. The answer lies in many areas upon which we can innovate as a species, two of them being medical advancements and cybersecurity.
Quantum computers can help to create much-needed advancements in the medical world. A New Scientist video titled ‘How quantum computers work: Explaining qubits to quantum superposition’ states:
“principles of quantum mechanics will be able to in the box, in the computer, design new kinds of materials, new chemicals, new drugs, in a way which is much, much faster than having to go through laboratory trial and effort, so we think it could be transformative to attacking… in the future even areas like personalized medicine.”
This means that we’ll be able to make more effective medicine faster than we could before, benefiting both patients and doctors. The patient will get more effective medicine, and the doctor will be able to provide better services. Whereas if the future didn’t have quantum computers, we might have very complicated viruses that will take a long time to create a cure for. Using supercomputers, we can have quicker, more effective cures for different patients.
Cybersecurity on quantum computers will also be easier than before. In an article on the Interesting Engineering website it says, “[quantum key distribution] has shown us that quantum physics provides us with new tools and recipes to truly safeguard our secrets. … hackers will have a much more difficult time, as they will have to face both complex computational problems and quantum phenomena.” This means that we’ll be able to make more secure and trustworthy ways to store passwords, so we won’t have to worry about things like server breaches, social media hacking, posting fake content, and malware/viruses which lock you out of your computer.
In my essay, I covered the pros of quantum computing and how it will benefit us in the future. This topic matters to me because I personally have been, and still am, very invested in technology ever since I got my Nintendo Switch as a birthday present. It matters to computer scientists because they’ll be able to run more in-depth experiments. It matters to the world because they will be able to have a more reliable experience when using computers. We should care because it will lead to more powerful, medically advanced, and safer use of computers.
Sources Cited:
PM, Aiswarya. “Quantum Computing: Why Is It Better than Supercomputers?” Analytics Insight, 13 Feb. 2023, www.analyticsinsight.net/quantum-computing-why-is-it-better-than-supercomputers/#:~:text=Scientists%20predict%20that%20Quantum%20computing,that%20go%20beyond%20classical%20physics.
“What Is Supercomputing?” IBM, www.ibm.com/topics/supercomputing#:~:text=Petaflops%20are%20a%20measure%20of,power%20than%20the%20fastest%20laptop. Accessed 12 June 2023.
New Scientist. “How Quantum Computers Work: Explaining Qubits to Quantum Superposition.” YouTube, 23 Feb. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW7DKcrQ-7E&t=4s.
The Conversation. “Quantum Computers: How Scientists Can Shield against Cyber Attacks.” Interesting Engineering, 14 Jan. 2023, interestingengineering.com/innovation/quantum-computers-shield-against-cyber-attacks.
A lot of people don’t know what cryptography is or what ciphers are; do you? As a brief overview, cryptography is encoding messages, whether in the form of pictures, online messages, or paper messages. It can take the form of symbols translating for letters or scrambling up words, as one might sometimes do without thinking, like children constructing a made-up language. In this essay I will show you how, contrary to some people’s opinions, cryptography was important in ancient society and continues to be helpful in modern society. I will mainly talk about two ideas: how cryptography was used in “ancient times” like in World War II and how common script uses cryptography in its base as coding for privacy.
Imagine you are a war leader. Whether you lead an army of men in 44 BC, or sneak attacks and bombs on enemy territories in 1940, your tactics must be kept secret from prying eyes. One way that secrecy was protected was with encoding messages or cryptography. Viewers of an informational video by the World Science Fair channel on YouTube can hear a detailed explanation of World War II’s Enigma Machine, a cryptography machine that made and decoded code. The video demonstrates how vital cryptography was to both sides of the war effort. If a message was leaked, a whole attack could be jeopardized, or saved. When the opposing side found the code, it would mean the end of a whole branch of communication. Since radios allowed messages to be sent over great distances, using cryptography to send messages became a crucial means for sharing coded information. In the video, Simon Singh states, “Encryptions are important because if you’re going to send messages you need to make sure those messages aren’t necessarily going to be intercepted and stolen.” Radio became that missing piece of the puzzle for securing the messages. Soldiers no longer had to worry about messenger pigeons being physically intercepted; now you worried about the enemy finding your radio signal and hearing it in broad electromagnetic wave light. The Enigma Machine was made in Germany. The Germans would have someone send what the setting or “key” would be, then the machine would scramble the typed letters into different letters; it is a simple enough process but very confusing without the machine. The letters to send would light up, and for the process in reverse, you could decode the messages through the same setting in the machine. Errors were possible, but it was a much safer way to send messages than the alternative, and therefore the Germans’ best shot.
Speaking of best shots, technology has advanced to become more calculated, but more at risk. Encryption has originally been used to make codes, but also for privacy. While this is very advanced and secure with technology and an understanding of code, one could break through the encryption, which is why it must be secure and top secret. The code is so random that no one knows it; only a randomly generated string of numbers holds your latest browser search from being blackmailed. Not every company does this, nor should you be concerned. There is actually comfort in this random string. The possibilities are endless, practically, so unless one stumbles upon your set of code, it is most likely it is a dead person’s code or invalid. Even then, that is only one step of many towards good encryption. As Khan Academy’s video on cryptography mentions, it is generally safe, but there are ways to interfere, and “the more steps and parts there are, the more complicated it is.” As a rough rule highlighting how cryptography has impacted technology, more complex code usually results in fewer errors smoother computers.
While this essay might be short, there’s more to sort. In the sources list you will find the videos mentioned, to continue your cryptography search, sadly this is no verse. Past and old, present and current, future and new all have you. I leave you with the same question I started with; a lot of people don’t know what cryptography is or cyphers are. Do you?
Sources:
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Valentina who went to her grandma’s house on summer vacation. One night, she was walking her grandma’s dog and stumbled upon a well. She looked down the well and she found nothing. Two seconds later, when she was walking back home, she heard a buzz. She looked at her phone, and it read: Come help me. She texted back: Who are you? The person didn’t answer, and the phone just read: Come help me.
She walked past her home and down to the well, down to her grandma’s house. She asked her grandma, “What’s inside that well?”
And her grandma said, “Oh, nothing, just an old well. They’re going to clear it out tomorrow. They’re going to put cement over it.”
The next day, Valentina ran over to the well and looked down inside of it. She texted again: Who are you? Please stop texting me. And this time, the person sent a picture. It was of her, looking down inside the well, like someone was actually inside of the well and took a picture of her. She ran home and she asked her grandma again.
Her grandma said, “The people are about to come and clog up the well.”
Valentina ran over to the well, and it was too late. They already clogged it up with concrete, but then she heard a ringing. But it wasn’t from the well. It was from under her, underneath the ground.
She took her phone out and she heard that the ringing was probably because someone was calling her from underneath the ground. She picked up her phone and called them, and all she heard was, “Come help me. How could you? How could you do this?” And she ran home.
No one knows if that person was real, or if they just needed some help. And that girl, she never went to her grandma’s house again. Never in her entire life.
The end… or is it? We will never know…
