Abandoned

They left me. 
The mothership took off with my brothers and sisters and they just left me behind. What am I going to do now? What will I eat? How will I get home? I am lost. I am alone. I sat down and curled into a ball on the ground hugging my knees. 
The ground is cold, now I’m cold. Am I going to die here?
  I need to make a plan, a rescue plan, I’ll call it project Save Aaron Delva, SAD for short. Step one to SAD, find out where I am. I lifted my head from my lap and took a look around. I was stranded here in a white barren canyon with walls that shined so bright from the glare of the sun that I had to look away. A looked left and right, no signs of life. Wait, I see something. Something passed by at the end of the canyon. It was a tall, thin, green figure with long slender legs and golden string flowing from the top of it. It was at least 5 times my size. I’m going to call it a Martian. I was hesitant at first but I’ve been here for hours and I’m starting to get hungry. I got up and brushed the dust off my legs. Something passed by again, this one was different, this one was a fat one with red in the middle and dark blue for its bottom, there was nothing at the top of this one. The fat one was carrying a black basket filled with something, I couldn’t see what it was. I got closer to the opening of the canyon, and then a saw it, I saw a sight that would give me nightmares, it was terrifying. There stood a huge metal machine. The machine was 10 times my size and next to it stood a blue Martian that seemed to be operating the mechanical terror. Worst of all, there were other Martians made of all different kinds of colors that would go up to this machine with baskets full of stuff, and then the blue Martian would take the stuff out of the basket and push buttons on the machine. The machine started making loud noises that made my stomach feel ill. I swallowed my fears and pressed forward out of the canyon only to find that there was not just one machine; there are dozens of them! And even more Martians! There were hundreds of them, all going to these machines. 
I couldn't handle it. 
I turned around and ran down the canyon until I reached the far side. This side is different, this side is quiet. FOOD! There in front of my eyes were fruits and berries of all kinds illuminated by lights to show off their perfection. Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, oranges, grapes, apples, tangerines, watermelons, cantaloupe, and some vegetables but those are gross. I feasted. With my belly full and my face covered in a color assortment of juices I laid down and drifted off to sleep. I will continue to work on project SAD tomorrow. 
“There you are. Aaron... Aaron wake up. It’s time to go home.” My mom picked me up and put me in the shopping cart with Luke and Clara, my younger brother and sister. “It’s time to check out Aaron, then we can go home.”
“Mmmmmmrrrrrrhhhhhhhmmmmmm,” I looked up at her dazed and confused. I was so tired I couldn’t quite tell what was happening. 
My mom pushed the cart through the checkout lane and I could see the blurry Blue Martian lady through my barely cracked eyelids. She was taking our precious cargo from our big silver basket on wheels on putting them on the other side. The beeping from the machine started to make Luke and Clara cry. 
“How old are they?” asked the blue Martian from behind the machine.
“The twins are two months and this sleepy guy is three years old.”
“Would you like a sticker?” I lifted myself up and nodded without words. I held out my hand and she put a spaceship sticker on the back of my hand. I smiled and sat back down. The blue Martian lady put our groceries back into the cart and my mommy pushed us all away. We rolled through the whooshing magic doors and outside to our bigger shiny metal thing. She put my brother and sister into their car seats, then she turned to me and asked “ready spaceman?” I looked up at her and nodded, she picked me up making a whooshing sound and set me down in my star covered booster seat and buckled the long black strap that went across my chest. She unloaded the cart into the back of the navy blue van and got in the driver’s seat and turned to me  and asked “ready for lift-off?” with a big loving smile on her face. I smiled and nodded drowsily, mommy started the engine and we drove away from the world  known as Wal-Mart.

Spring Break

Over my Spring Break I had the honor of participating in an event at CU. An event that involves running, dogging, shooting, and killing zombies. The wonderful event I am referring to is the four hour long CU HvZ lock-in. They lock the doors of CU engineering center at 10pm and we play. The game Humans versus Zombies (HvZ) is a LARPing game for the most part. LARPing, for those of you who don't know, is Live Action Roll Playing.

HvZ consists of two teams, humans and zombies. The zombies are identified by bandannas around their head, they get to run around converting humans by tagging them, they just can't be shot by the humans who get to carry as many Nerf guns as they want. Humans are identified by bandannas around their arms, they get to run around and "stun" zombies by blasting them foam darts shot by Nerf guns or by a thrown rolled up sock. Once a zombie has been "stunned" by a human they can't tag other humans until their stun timer is up, which is usually 1-2 minutes. A standard lock-in rings in about 100-150 players. The game starts with two Original Zombies (OZs), from there the zombie hoard slowly grows. The first game typically lasts around two hours running past midnight usually ending around 12:30-1:00am depending on when we actually get to start and what kind of game it is.

This lock-in was especially fun because I got to be one of the secret killers that got to hind in the crowd. My job was to kill other humans by shooting them in the back in which they then became zombies. The people who are controlling the game are called moderators, basically referees. I got asked by the CU mod team to join them last semester and sense I was new no one else new I was a mod making me the perfect secret killer.

The mods were pointed out at the very beginning of the game for any new players who wanted to stay safe. The mods also gave clues as to who the secret killers were among them, every 5 minutes they gave a new clue to nearby players. I was the first killer so they quickly figured that it was me and killed me. The fun twist to the game was that when the players found and killed the secret killers, they became a special kind of zombie called a banshee. Banshees are unique in that they can not be stunned by Nerf darts, they can only be stunned by socks. Once I was killed I got to be a banshee which is identified by a bandanna around the head and by wearing a white lab coat.

Everyone who attended the lock-in agreed that it was one of the best games we had ever done.

That's what my first Friday night of Spring Break was like... the rest was just me at work and sleeping.

A story that makes me smile

Many don't believe in love at first sight. I can say that I was doubtful myself until I saw her.

I was a freshman in high school. I was new. Moving from middle school to high school is actually a bigger change than I thought. The school was bigger, there were more people, the work was harder and more of it, it was a whole new world. My first period was history, not my best class. My third period was P.E. and that's where I met a girl, not THE girl, but I met a girl. Her name was ____. For the sake of privacy I shall refer to her as Lucy. I asked her out, this was early October. The next day I was sitting in History and I felt a tap on the back of my shoulder. I turned around to be smacked in the face with a feeling I had never felt before. It's like I turned around to be smacked in the face by a train full of things that I didn't know what to do with. I can't even remember the first words that spilled out of my mouth but I can't imagine they formed a proper sentence. The girl I asked out the other day, well this was her friend, Kelsey. I couldn't believe what I saw, never before had I seen someone so beautiful. I honestly thought that the entire thing could have been a dream. Alas I was now dating her friend whom I liked but I didn't have these explosive butterfly feeling in my stomach. Besides, there was no way I could ever get a girl that gorgeous to go on a date with me, I'm a freshman boy for gods sake. I didn't know what to do. It's wrong to like two people at the same time so I tried to forget about Kelsey. Overtime I was able overcome my shyness and was able to talk to and get to know Kelsey, it turned out we had a lot in common. We both are big nerds and gamers and love to just laze around and watch movies. It's really hard to stop liking someone that you feel that you really connect with and see every day in class.

Time had past and at last I was able to shove down the feelings I had for Kelsey. On December 15th, Lucy broke up with me.

Feeling lonely inside I sought solitude outside of the confining walls that is my high school. Kelsey followed me. She comforted me in my time of need. I couldn't help it, I knew how I felt deep down and in that moment I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to tell her how I felt all this time. I wanted to ask her out on a date that could last forever. I wanted to take her wherever she wanted to go. I wanted to run away with her with smiles on our faces. I wanted so many things in that one moment. I didn't do any of that. How could I? I am a freshman boy in high school with the knowledge of a two month relationship under my belt from which I really didn't learn anything. Besides how was I to know how she felt.

It took me till February to get the hint that she liked me back. I asked her out and that's when it started. I fell completely head over heels in love with her.

I have loved her for the past three years and I will continue to love her for as long as I live.

The need of water

“Down there in the darkness was a cistern filled with water so sweet that he could smell it” (Page 53).

Sun blazing overhead, heat beating down on me. Skin sizzling, blistering to the touch. Loss of breath with the weight on my back. The sweet taste of water running past my lips. The day had been long but as it drew to its end the match was over. I had played hard and long and the golf tournament was finally drawing to a close. At that point I was regretting forgetting water that day and thanked the existence of such a pure a substance as water. Nothing had ever tasted so good.

In the book, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the father found a tank of water and he sees it as this sparkly drink that was given to him by the gods. I can relate, maybe not in the same way but being without water for long periods of time does not feel good and when you finally get that first sip of water, it's like liquid gold. The most precious substance, simple but delicious.

On the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs there are the physiological/biological needs such as air, food, water, shelter, warmth, and sleep. These are the core needs to survive, for any human. But what does it mean to truly survive? Sure you need the basics to survive but to live solely on the pure needs to live on could drive any man mad. Even without the very basics of needs a human being can survive without food on average for 3 weeks and depending on many things that include the weight and build of the person in question could survive for 70 days. Without water though is a different question. Without water, at very best, 10 days and then you bite the dust. On average any human can only live without water for 3 days. Continuing on the most needed of needs if you find yourself without shelter or proper gear in a harsh environment, lets say it's a harsh snowy environment, then you will only have 3 hours to survive. Looking on the even more basic and yet simple thing that we all take for granted is air. Without air you can live for 3 minutes, after 3, if you don't die, you will suffer brain damage that will leave you in a vegetative state.

If you are to survive just remember the rules of three. 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, 3 hours without shelter, 3 minutes without air.

Welcome

Welcome all to my blog. I invite you all to take a look around and comment at will, there is not much to look at anyhow. There will be a variety of posts ranging from the deepest of thoughts to just writing whatever. Welcome and have fun.