Prompt #3: Time Travel Episode 1

Drake Maliac wouldn’t say that he hates his job. No, being a Zoner is not the worst occupation to have by far. He gets to visit different decades and see with his own eyes more of the past and future in a week than most other humans. It’s a pretty cushy gig compared to say, deep sea mining like his father had done for twenty years.

So, Drake is appreciative of his job. It’s just, he feels that the general public romanticizes the adventures of Time-Zoners, thinking that it’s all one big game, that they have control over destiny or something. That is completely untrue. For his year, 2216, exactly one-hundred and ten zoners are chosen from all over the world. It is a competitive occupation, many people vying for the spot every year, each with an outrageous number of credentials. Then once chosen, these 110 people take classes upon classes of physics and biochemistry and calculus just so that they know how it all works. Then there is the mandatory reading of at least eleven guidebooks. Then there’s a low-level desk job. And another, slightly higher level desk job. And a final, intermediate level desk job. And, if you make it through all of that, you get to become a Zoner and learn what the job is all about: being a glorified mail courier.

Most people don’t mind the tediousness of the bureaucracy and ladder-climbing. After-all, isn’t it worth it in the end to have the privilege of time-travel? Twelve years ago, Drake would have said, “Of course it is.” The feeling of standing in the Zone for one year and then slowly feeling every cell of your body separate and somehow travel together all at once before, after what feels like virtually no time, appearing in the Zone of another time? Drake though it was the best thing in the world when he first started.

Now though, now he’s almost bored of it. First of all, for every day he he gets to Zone, there are a hundred times as many when he’s signing paperwork and researching and then signing paperwork again.

Don't get him wrong, he understands why there are so many rules. Each time-Zone is its own jurisdiction, each Zone worker has to be an expert at avoiding paradoxes or meeting their past self. It's just that there is so much tedium. And then, when he actually does get to Zone-jump, it's to pass a message to the sister of the secretary of the President of Ireland in 2335 or retrieve an otherwise meaningless bauble from 2152, and then zoom it's back to his own time to report to his higher-ups.

As he stands in line in the zoning office, twelve people in front of him, to receive his warrant and the necessary papers for his next ambiguous mission, he’s sure this mission will be just as tedious as all the others.

Reveiw 2: YouTube

I do not do much, but one thing I do in excess is watch YouTube videos

I thought I would write a description of my favorite sects of YouTube as well as review my favorite YouTubers.

There are four main categories of video that I watch frequently: vlogs, sketch comedy, tutorials, music and web series.
The first category, vlogging, is pretty self-explanatory. People record their lives or different moments of their lives and post them on YouTube for the world to see. Video-blogging. Think: reality television, but actually real. 

The vloggers that I follow most closely are Will and his fiancé RJ. This is mostly because they are daily vloggers, which means that they each record their entire day and edit together the most significant parts into a ten-or-so minute video every day. Few vloggers have that dedication. The couple lives in Los Angeles and get to meet interesting people and do cool things, taking their viewers along for the ride.

And their dog is adorable.

Some other interesting vloggers are: charlieissocoollike, DailyGrace, CTFxC, and VlogBrothers

The next category is sketch comedy. YouTubers that use this method have scripted skits or characters, some reoccurring, that are funny or satirical. This is also probably the largest category of popular YouTube. Any type of humor you have, there is probably a channel you can spend all day laughing at.

One of my favorite comedy channels is called hartbeat by a YouTuber named Hart. She does comedic monologues as well as has reoccurring skits in which she plays all of the characters. Her silly type of humor is just what I need sometimes. A lot of her best videos are not 100% school appropriate, so better safe than sorry, you can find them in your free time.

Other popular sketch comedy channels: MilesJaiProductions, nigahiga, CollegeHumor, Smosh

YouTube tutorials are probably one of the most helpful things on the internet. You can learn how to do literally anything from YouTube from glass blowing to holding chopsticks to practicing safe sex to dancing to a Waltz. You can learn it.

One of the more frequent tutorials types you see on YouTube are makeup tutorials. See, I don't even wear makeup, but watching those transformations can be pretty enchanting.

Gigi Gorgeous is one of my favorite makeup gurus simply because I've been following her the longest. I'm not sure if she's particularly good but I do know that she likes a good, smokey eye-shadow. Whatever that means.

Other Makeup Gurus: nitraab, MichellePhan, missglamorazzi, Sara 

Being a hub for original content sharing, YouTube attracts a lot of independent musicians and dancers. A few quick searches and a random click and you can find a gem of an artist.

I'm not as devoted to YouTube musicians as some, but I will just feature Dave Days because this version of this song has been stuck in my head for the past week.

Last, but definitely not least, is the webseries category. Webseries on YouTube are basically television shows shot by independent directors and filmmakers. I love finding a good new webseries, because there are usually some really good independent writers involved. Awkward Black Girl is a really real and really funny webseries about a Black woman navigating adulthood in the most awkward ways possible.

Obviously, this isn't all there is into YouTube (I mean, I didn't even mention funny cat videos) but these are the spheres that I usually explore.

So, we all know what YouTube is. Now, why does it matter? Well, I think YouTube as a movement is helping with the problem of under-representation in popular media. In the case of the people you see on YouTube, you will probably never meet people like them in real life or see them in any mainstream media. YouTube gives is an inner look of the lives of people who are usually overlooked. It gives us a chance to tell our own stories, which is critically important. It's the new wave of independent media where content isn't prescribed for the majority.

And that's why I spend literally hours a day watching YouTube videos. Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Prompt #2: Up in the Clouds

There was a buzzing in the air and not just from the propellers of the ship. The sky that day was beautiful and clear. The clouds thin and buoyant. Terra was the captain’s first mate on the airship the Exhibition She had been taking the first watch on the ship that morning when she saw it. There was land ahead. Now, on a sea-ship this would be a common occurrence, but for this ship it most improbable. Actually, it was almost impossible.

“Land?” She questioned herself. She looked more closely through the telescope into the distance.

"Land, land!" She shouted, rousing the captain and crew from their slumber.

Terra stood astonished, still gazing at this-this sky island. In her five years of service on that ship she had seen many outlandish and outrageous things. She'd seen creatures with wider wingspans that twice the ship's length. She'd seen where the northern fae kept their gold hidden from common human thieves. She'd seen the land of Paolop where the people shined like glittering obsidian. She'd seen a man with hair as long as a tower is tall. She had never once seen an island in the sky that was not made-made.

Just then, the captain shuffled out to the bow of the ship with his heavy coats and a brown face painted with curiosity.

"What's this about land?" He asked.

Terra handed him the telescope. "Just look. See for yourself."

It takes him a moment to spot it, then: "Well hell. That is land."

"I saw it just as the sun was coming over the horizon. If we coal the steam a bit more, we could probably make it there before noon.

The Captain patted her heartily on the back. "Good work mate." He turned to the rest of the crew who were still a bit blurry-eyed from sleep. "Lop some coal in the steamer, rotate the propellers 12 degrees south and prepare to land."

Everyone immediately started to scuttle away, across the dull brass surface of the ship's deck, to do their assigned jobs. The second hand, a boy named Kneop, was the only one left hesitantly lingering.

"Um, sir," he hesitated.

"Yes, boy?" the Captain asked, distracted.

"Well, it's just.."

"Spit it out, now."

Kneop babbled out, "How do we know that this 'island' is safe. There could be any manner of creature or kingdom there. Do we know what it's like? Do we know what it's called? Do we know what's on it?"

"Take a breath, boy." The Captain hands the telescope back to Terra. "The answers to your questions are no, no. and no. But as long as we find something shiny enough to trade, I'll take those chances."

With that, the Captain stalked back away from the bow, toward the control station, leaving behind a bewildered Kneop.

Terra placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, it'll be just fine. We've been in weirder situations. Besides, this is a sky island. We just have to check it out."

Kneop nodded pensively. "Of course, of course."

And that's how it came to be that, around midday, the airship Exhibition landed on the odd island in the sky.

After a quick meal of venison and warm beer for fuel, the crew climbed from the ship and went to work. Izzy, the cartographer, set immediately to mapping the land as the sailors treked across it. Kneop was to make observations and, being one of the only literate members of the crew, write them down for later research. It was Terra and the rest of the crew's job to, in the words of the captain, find "something shiny."

An hour into their exploration and Kneop's worries seemed to be for naught. There did not seem to be any other living thing on the sky island. All that was visible for miles and miles was a layer of fine, tall brown grass, warmed from its close proximity to the sun. There was only rolling hills for as far as the eye could see.

The crew busied themselves with combing through the tall grass in search of anything of value. Terra was doing just this when she heard Izzy's concerned voice behind her:

"Captain, there is something very strange happening."

"And what might that be?" The Captain asked, perturbed.

"I'm making all the correct calculations, like I always do, but the further we go, the less things add up."

"And what in the seven bloody skies does that mean?"

"It means, it seems as if this island is moving. Like, the actual topography is shifting from one minute to the next."

"Ah," the Captain stroked his left eyebrow, a sure sign that he's in deep thought. "And is there any way you can be sure of this?"

Izzy seemed to shrug. "I wasn't prepared to map a moving landscape. That requires more complicated equipment, which is back on the ship."

The Captain paused in thought before shouting, "First Mate Terra!"

Terra stood. "Yes, sir?"

"You're the best navigator of the lot of us. You think you can get to the ship to grab the land surveying equipment and get back to us in one piece?"

Never one to turn down a challenge, Terra said, "I believe so, sir."

"Perfect. Go on then. Keep your eyes open."

And with that, Terra set off back East, toward where they had left the ship. She walked and walked for as long as the crew had walked earlier in the day, then double that. She checked the compass to be sure she was on the right track. She could not, for the life of her, find the ship. It seemed impossible that she could have lost such a large vessel, but after an hour, she decided to cut her losses and head back to the Captain and crew, no matter how embarrassing it would be.

So, back again, another half hour she walked alone, miserable in her failure. By the time she got to the spot where her crew should have been, she was frustrated to find that they were not where she had left them. Thinking that they had moved on without her, Terra started up swearing all of their names in her head. And their mothers too.

Then, she saw Kneop's notebook . Now, that was very strange. Kneop was never one to leave his things behind, no matter what. Out of equal parts curiosity and worry, Terra picked up the leather-bound journal and opened it to its final page.

Odd, unexplained shifts in landscape. Kneop wrote. An unnamed sound, like a humming. Strange, centralized warmt-

The entry ended there. Terra took a moment to feel her surroundings again. It was true. The land did feel warm, almost organic. Sort of as if it was...alive! At that last thought, Terra felt a distinct pulling at her foot. She noticed that the grass all around her had separated a bit as she was distracted, as if of its own accord. By the time she thought to resist, she was ankle deep in the earth that didn't seem to be earth after all.

As she was slowly devoured, Terra's last thought was that her last and final meal hadn't even been all that great.

Review 1: A Game of Thrones [No Spoilers]

If I could describe the television series A Game of Thrones in one word it would be: overwhelming. The show based of off a book series of the same name by George R. R. Martin. The series currently has three seasons, the fourth to begin April 6th of this year. After being inundated with Game of Thrones references by the internet, by family, and by friends, I decided to give it a try. By the end of the week, I had finished the first season and started the second.

The show is set in a fantasy land composed of seven kingdoms. The main plot of the story revolves around who will rule all these kingdoms as King of the Iron Throne in the south. There are many men vying for the position, which ultimately results in a lot of deception, plotting, and backstabbing (literally). I can’t go too much into detail without spoiling a lot of the plot, so you’ll just have to watch and see for yourself.

However, that is not even close to all that happens in the story. There is, for instance, the large wall erected to the north of the seven kingdoms, which keeps out some dark and sinister forces from destroying the land. And, as reiterated multiple times throughout the season “Winter is coming.”

There are also dragons.

By the end of the season, there is an intricate multi-dimensional story composed of four or five different plot points that are each interesting in their own way. Though it times it is hard to pick a side of the conflict to root for, I found my favorites in a many characters (most of which were slain, unfortunately).

On that note, I must stress that this is not a show for small children. It’s not The Chronicles of Narnia. There are scenes of complete nudity, assault, sexual scenes, scenes of torture and brutal (and sometimes cool) death blows.

Here’s a list of trigger warnings for the first episode: http://trigger-warnings.tumblr.com/post/23646118192/game-of-thrones-s01e01-winter-is-coming

One complaint that I can make about this show is the lack of characters of color (minus the “savage” army, go figure). I believe representation is a very important issue, so that fact stood out to me.

The only other thing I can say about this series is that there is a lot to take in. There are small details that can be easy to miss and many characters to keep track of. It’s almost impossible to both watch this show and do your homework with any degree of success, so that's something to take into account probably. Like I said, it’s a bit overwhelming, but in a really good way.

Prompt #1: 5-line poem

Flip the switch

Bleary and stumbling

In so deep

We fall again

Wide asleep

HI