So, I went totally haywire yesterday and started writing a story.

That doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize that I’m in the middle of writing three stories right now, and I wasn’t going to start any more until I had finished those.

But I got inspiration for a new story, and the whole thing came right then.  RIGHT THEN.  I got the beginning, the middle, the end–in one sitting.  So I thought since it came all at once, I’d write it down all at once.

I was having serious writer’s block on The Sacrifice anyway.  I think it’s because I just switched which character I’m following, so I’m following a man, and I have a harder time with men.  That’s probably just because I’m a girl.  I think it will go faster again if I just get back to it… which I still plan to, don’t worry.  I wasn’t going to start posting it until this summer anyway, because I realized I should wait until I was done posting science stories; because posting them in the middle of The Sacrifice could get really confusing.

And speaking of science stories, that’s what this is actually all about (as you probably guessed from the title).  So, after all that, let’s get on with the story:

Uncle Zade was in the kitchen eating breakfast when I came down. Mom and Dad were still in their bedroom.

“You look nice,” Zade told me, as I got myself a bowl of cereal and milk.

I took a deep breath. Didn’t he know I would just as soon have worn jeans but my parents wanted me to dress up for church? “Thanks.”

“You sound despondent.”

“Do I?” I tried to look naive.

My uncle laughed. “A bit. How’d you sleep?”

Too well. I wasn’t done thinking. “Fine. How about you?”

Continue reading Module 8 Story #3 →

I didn’t do school last week, because I was sick; and I was at a conference on Thursday and Friday (pictures coming later, I hope) so I wasn’t able to do it then either… so getting geared up today was a bit of a challenge.  It did feel surprisingly normal to just be studying, though.

Okay: part two of my story!  Not quite every day so far, but getting close. 🙂  The computer won’t keep my font this time for some reason. *sigh*  Oh well!  It works.

Later that night after dinner, I pounced on Uncle Zade and asked him to show me. I helped him rummage up three-by-five cards and a pen, then obediently went into the living-room while he worked. When he called me back in, he had laid the cards out in five rows of four. He had drawn symbols on all the cards: the first row went circle, triangle, heart, star; the second went smiley-face, circle, triangle, heart; the third smiley-face, circle, heart, star; the fourth smiley-face, circle, triangle, star; the fifth smiley-face, triangle, heart, star. Off to the side was a circle, a triangle, a star, a heart, and a smiley-face. I looked at the set-up skeptically.

“Okay,” Uncle Zade began. I want you to put those five that are not in rows into theses rows in such a way that all the rows look the same.” I looked them over, and found that each row was missing one symbol. I managed to sort them all out into five rows of smiley-face, circle, triangle, heart, star.

“Well done!” he said, looking over my shoulder. “So this is how we use index fossils. No rock formation has all the fossils, but if we have all the rock formations to help us, we can piece this together.

“Cool.”

“But those examples of fossils I was using earlier today—do you remember that?”

“The plants and dinosaurs?”

“Yes, those. That order is actually from a geological column, that I believe is accurate.”

“What’s a geological column?”

Continue reading Module 8 Story #2 →

I’m still coughing a bit, but today I really felt like myself for the first time since Monday.

And, of course, it was raining.  Oh well!  Who cares?  It was still a good day.  We sat on the front porch and watched the rain for a while like we always do when it pours, and I really enjoyed that.  Actually, I don’t mind rain that much, I just wanted to go outside and take pictures of the flowers today.  I’ll have all summer though, so we’ll be okay. 🙂

Anyway, I’m posting my next science story randomly when I feel like it so I can still do “Mystery Quote”.  (Do you guys like that as much as I do?)

The pictures is of a statue at a park in China.  It isn’t perfect for the story, but it works.  Isn’t it neat?  I love how that turned out! 🙂

The name of Module 8 was “Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism” which is pretty much Evolution and Creationism.  So… I got a little deep with this one.  It’s also very serious, not funny like the other one; but I think it turned out well.

I wrote this one in first person too.  Can’t say why.  Maybe because the first one was, so now I just think that way about science.  It’s also about a girl that’s about my age like the first one… I could have made them the same person, but I didn’t want to.  Enjoy!

My dear reader,

This chapter in my science book was about Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism, which is essentially how different people believe the earth formed. Dr. Wile made a point to say that he was biased, but would try to treat both sides with the same amount of criticism. He also pointed out that everyone is biased, so if you want a clear idea of both sides you should read things that were written by people who had different views and compare them. I, then, am also biased. But I am making no attempt to be even-handed. I am a Catastrophist, and that is the view that I am going to stress.

I also borrowed some of this information from other modules in my science book. Enjoy!

~H.M.R. on 3/30/15

The screen door squeaked loudly behind me as I closed it. I stood for a moment in front of it listening to the chaos of voices and drinking in the coolness of the house. It was steaming outside. I felt hot and sweaty, and was aware that my face was probably red. Playing tag in ninety degree weather was not prudent. Anybody could have told me that before I started running around, but all the other kids were doing it and I couldn’t help myself.

I navigated my way slowly through the kitchen to the orange water-cooler. There were way too many people at this party. It was at my house and I hadn’t even talked to all the guests—truth be told, I didn’t even know all their names. I finally reached the cooler and got a drink. I gulped the whole cupful and used my fingers to fish out ice-cubes; crunching them slowly and relishing the icy chill.

Someone bumped into me at that moment, and I nearly fell over. Good thing I had already drunk my water! “Oh! I’m so sorry! Are you okay, Sweetie?” the woman apologized. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered and wondered what her name was and how I was related to her as I watched her walk away. Big families could be inconvenient. My Dad was the youngest of three, but my Mom had nine siblings, and I couldn’t keep track of all that. Not when I only saw them twice or thrice a year! Well, at least they were still willing to come over. I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal we started going to church. I mean, nobody else did, but it still didn’t have to be this big a deal. At least my cousins understood that I only went because my parents wanted me to. I hadn’t told the kids at school yet—and hopefully I would never have to.

Really, they all only came over because Uncle Zade was staying with us so it was only natural that the party, reunion, or whatever-it-was should be at our place. Zade wasn’t actually my uncle, he was my Mom’s cousin. But I had called him that for as long as I could remember. My Mom had no brothers her age and she had always been way too rambunctious for her sisters, so her and Zade had played together when they were little. He and my Mom were still really close and even if he didn’t share their new ideas, he still wanted to stay at our house like always.  I was thankful for that.  Of all our many relatives, I would have missed his friendship the most.

Uncle Zade was sitting at a nearby table all by himself, the person sitting next to him having gone to greet someone who was just walking in the door. He noticed me trying to flattened myself against the wall to stay out of somebody’s way, and beckoned to me. Uncle Zade and I were close too. I couldn’t figure out when it had started, but somehow we became friends during one of his visits, and we e-mailed with each other now when he left. He technically lived in Texas, but he spent most of his time traveling the world as a geologist. Mom had always enjoyed watching our friendship bloom, probably thinking about the adventures she had had with Zade; and had always approved of our keeping in touch while he was gone—until now. Now she was uneasy about it because she knew he was telling me about evolution. Last year my parents had loved how much he was teaching me, and now I caught them talking about it in concerned voices because he was encouraging me to veer off away from Creationism. I didn’t understand this sudden change in them.

Continue reading Module 8 Story #1 →