My Ideal World

When I first enter my world, I’m hit with a warm-cooled breeze and I notice the dark black sky. My world seems empty at first when I see nothing around. The grass is a bright, glowing white color. It is soft and fluffy. The grass feels like fur and cotton combined. The sky illuminates the grass with its dark, pitch-black color. The vibrant, gleaming grass balances the gloomy sky.

My world still seems empty even though I keep walking for what feels like an eternity. Soft, light classical music starts to play in my ears.  This music makes the world seem more full. It is played by a piano. Music fills my mind, making it the only thing I can think of.

The more I look at the black sky, the more beautiful it becomes. I slowly notice the different textures forming in the sky that are alternating. I start to realize that the shapes are leaves, trees, branches, and water, which naturally exist on Earth.

This world has no rules and laws. It is me, and only me, that exists as an entity in this universe. I’m free to make my own laws. Making my own laws won’t change anything, though, the rules would only exist for me. Even after this, if I decide to make my own rules, the world will alternate to fit my rules if they can be applied. Asking for a physical object, item, or place would be taboo. This will never be granted, as I need nothing in this world, not even food, because I will live forever without feeling the need for anything. Something that can be granted is something mental or physical. For example, if I wish to erase my memories, that will be granted immediately. If I wish for the sky to change shapes and picture something from my life, that will be granted, except that image would still be black.

Remember, I need nothing from this world. My mental state will not be affected, and I will only be at ease. I will not age due to there not being an existence of time. This world defies all the laws and rules of Earth and any other planet, as to this world is not one. This world is a metaphysical existence, a universe made by me. This is a mental world I can visit at any time, but I can choose to be there permanently if I wish to. I feel nothing from the physical me that is still on earth. As to being an alternate version of myself, it is similar to being a mental me that I cannot meet physically or meet in person mentally.

This world is infinite. No matter how far I walk, it never ends. The grass and sky never differ from before. The music never ends, and the song keeps going into different tunes and rhythms. No other sounds exist other than music.

Wisdom Tales

Wisdom tales are stories that have valuable morals about perspectives, lies, letting things go, etc. Before drawing the comics, we read multiple stories with different and similar morals. We would write a short summaries to help us with this project and for an assessment we would have. Some stories had multiple morals. Although, the different morals in a story were always similar to each other. We were allowed to work in groups or by ourselves to write the summaries.

 The story I chose is called The Red and Blue Coat. This comic is about other peoples’ perspectives. It talks about two friends and a petty disagreement they had. It starts off with them being great friends. Then they choose to live across from each other. The fight starts with one of them saying how the blue coat was beautiful and how nice it was. Then the other friend disagrees with him saying it was a red coat and then it gets into a serious argument. I chose this story because I thought it would be fun to draw. Also, I find that understanding other peoples’ perspectives would prevent most arguments and could help you understand people better.

The apps I used for this project are Comic Life 3 and Sketchbook. I did my drawings in  sketchbook and then imported them to Comic Life 3.



Daily Habits

            In Language Arts class we have been doing a daily plank every day making it a habit. We started on October 24, 2023, doing 30 seconds a day. When it became the week of December 11th, we were at 2 minutes and 15 seconds. While the few months flew by, planking slowly got easier and I was able to do it for a longer period of time every week. A few things that helped me were doing the plank often throughout the week, switching between forearms and a standard plank, and talking with friends. The benefits of doing something daily is that you start to do it at a certain time, you get better at it, it gets easier, you could be faster at it, and it could become a habit. These signs can show that your body is gradually getting used to your daily habit. A new habit I am choosing to do every day is making ten origami cats. I chose this habit because I love origami. I make cranes everyday so I decided to choose a different animal. I chose the cat because I was able to make small ones and I liked the simple design of them.

I Enjoy Reading Manga

I am a reader. The books I enjoy reading the most are Manga. I read these types of books because the images are awesome and I enjoy anime. I prefer to read the books instead of watching anime because the Manga is the original version of the anime. Manga has a lot of different genres. The genres I enjoy most are isekai, action, and slice of life. Other genres are Shonen ai, adventure, comedy, romance, and historical fiction. 

One of my favorite authors are Junji Ito and Sui Ishida. I enjoy reading books by Junji Ito the most. The art style and horror drawings in his books are really detailed and interesting. His books can be fiction or realistic fiction. The stories he writes are all original and detailed with shading, blood, and terror. Some of my favorite stories are Uzumaki and Tomie. Both of these stories are really original and interesting. The chapters in these books are different, but they are connected with little details from the previous chapter. He has 42 books so far including the drawing book he has. 

  

Photos from Beanstack

Sui Ishida is my second favorite author. His writing is detailed and his drawings are smooth and have a bit of sketching in the art. His stories are interesting. I like Tokyo Ghoul the most. It has a lot of plot twists and relationships between characters that people don’t expect. The Manga Tokyo Ghoul is better than the anime because the scenes and art are better. The art is better than the anime because in the anime the color made the line more refined and the artstyle a bit weird.

                                                                                                                                                     Photo from Beanstack

One of the most recent Manga series I have read and enjoyed greatly is Tokyo Revengers. The series is action, romance, comedy, time travel and slice of life. The main character is a teenager named Takemichi. The characters in this series all have interesting back stories and characteristics like determination, depression, and are funny. I enjoy this book because the fighting scenes are really interesting with conflict and connected backstories.

                                                                                                                                                     Photo from Beanstack

I own about 200-500 books that are Manga. I try to take care of all the books I own. My books are organized on shelves with figurines and are in order. When people first start reading manga, I would recommend them to go for short simple series with about 20-30 volumes. For example, My Hero Academia, TBHK, Tokyo Revengers, Tokyo Aliens, Blue Lock, Assasination Classroom, or Kimetsu no Yaiba.

 

Windows and Mirrors

photo from Beanstack

 

Tokyo Aliens Vol. 4 is a great book by Naoe. The genre of this book is action. Tokyo Aliens is a great series with each book having a great plot and awesome action scenes. Also, each book in this series has an awesome ending with great cliffhangers and plot twists. To me, this book is a window. 

Books can be windows or mirrors. Window books are books that don’t really relate to you. It’s like a whole new world or perspective. Mirror books are books that you can relate to. They reflect who you are or have similar characters that act like you. 

Tokyo Aliens Vol. 4 is a window for me because I can’t relate to the characters, plot, or setting. I’ve never been to Japan before and I don’t fight aliens. I also don’t relate to the characters. For example, I’m not part of an extermination alien group and I have a dad. Even though this book is a window to me, I love it.

Anime and Recommendations

I love anime/manga. One of my favorite manga writers are Junji Ito and Sui Ishida. I love the art styles from their books. My favorite series are Tokyo Aliens, Tokyo Ghoul, TBHK, Tokyo Revengers, MHA, and all the Junji Ito books. I love anime because there are so many different art styles and genres. I like action, comedy, horror, and isekai the most. My favorite anime character is Himiko Toga. My third and second favorites are Shoto Todoroki and Chifuyu Matsuno. My favorite anime game is danganronpa. My favorite game is V3. I also like drawing anime characters.

 If you like sports I recommend Blue Lock or Haikyuu. If you like horror I recommend anything from Junji Ito, the manga mostly but also the anime is good, too. Another series you could watch if you like horror is Tokyo Ghoul. If you like isekai I recommend Eminence in the Shadow. If you like slice of life I recommend Horimiya. If you like action I recommend MHA, Tokyo Aliens, Tokyo Ghoul, or BSD. If you like mystery, I recommend TBHK. If you like comedy I recommend Nanbaka.

Other animes I would recommend are Undead Unluck, Tokyo Revengers, Wonder Egg Priority, High-Rise Invasion, AOT, and AOD. There are also other great animes you can find on CrunchyRoll.

 

Camp Kirkwood

The first school trip we did was on August 30th to Camp Kirkwood. We went to camp on a bus. Before we got on the buses we played a game. We played the game until 10 people were left. If you got out you would go to the buses. We had some trouble putting all the students on the buses, but we made it all work out.  The drive was two hours long. We took one bathroom break during the drive. Then it started to rain while we got near the camp. The rain gradually started to get harder and on and off while we got closer to the camp. When we arrived it was raining a lot. We grabbed bags out of the trunks of the buses. We rushed to a concrete platform with the bags. We placed the bags in one area of a platform while we sat on the other side. After the counselors  talked about the camp to us we went to our cabins. My group was in cabin one. While we set up our beds and set our bags on the floor we were told our groups. There were six groups. During lunch we sat with our  advisors and got water and food. After that we cleaned up and got in our groups.

We met at a flagpole near the lunch area to get in our groups. Each of the groups got a counselor member to show them where each of the activities were. Group one, two, and three did the swimming pool first. And groups four, five, and six did their own things. At the pool we had to do a swim test to get a blue wristband to be able to swim without a life jacket, but if we got a green wristband that means we’d have to swim with a life jacket. If we didn’t take the test we would have to swim with a life jacket. After everyone took their tests we sat at the shallowest end of the pool and listened to the counselors for directions. Then everyone ran into the swimming pool with excitement. A few people got out of the pool after around five to ten minutes to go to the deepest end of the pool to go diving. After the pool we got a five minute warning and everyone got ready to do their next activity. We went to our cabins to change to normal clothes. 

After the pool group four, five, and six went to the pool and group one, two, and three did their own things. Group one did a forest ecology activity.  The forest ecology was at the concrete platform. The counselor would talk about different trees and there was a poster we would look at of a tree for examples. After the talk we played a few  games. The first one was where we had to partner up and you would have to blindfold your partner. Then you would lead your partner to a tree by holding their hand. They would feel the tree you took them to and then you would take them back to the platform. Then they would try to find the tree you took them to. You had to be cautious walking with the blindfold because there were a lot of roots and branches you could fall on. The second game was like a quiz game. You had to pick which side was the correct answer: tree, both or humans. She says a fact and then you would have to pick which one by moving to either the right, left or middle. The left was a tree, the middle was both, and the right was human. After this activity we did another one where we did a mini hike to find leaves that looked like cats. When we finished we sat in a circle in the middle of the platform and we made little cups out of them.

After the activity we had dinner. Then we met back at our cabins and got ready to do dodge ball or go to where we had dinner to watch a movie. The people who chose to watch the movie saw The Lorax. The people who did dodge ball went to where the forest ecology was. It was raining a lot while playing dodge ball. Some students hit the dodge balls out of the platform and some went behind the basketball boards. After dodge ball we got snow cones. When we got the snow cones we went to where the people watching the movie were. Then we went to the back kitchen and went through a line to get snow cones. Some kids went back to the platform to do more dodge ball while others stayed to watch the movie. The people watching the movie weren’t finished by the time some kids finished playing dodge ball. So the students walked back to the dining hall and sat where the people watching the movie sat to watch the movie. After the counselor paused the movie we went back to our cabins. We hung out at our cabin playing games and talking and then went to sleep. The games we played were cards, the crocodile game, down by the river, and UNO. The first day was really rainy. It still rained through the whole night off and on, getting harder towards the end of the night. While everyone else was asleep I was waiting for the next day to come near.   

  

Camp Kirkwood was really fun. The rain was really hard but the counselors  adjusted very well. The food wasn’t the best, but it got better towards the end of the camp. I would recommend this camp to people who like to be outside because of the different activities and setting.