༺═─── daily 14 ───═༻

finally! a day when sleep is worth stuff <3

༺═── word count; 361 ──═༻

I’m going to write about three separate characters and compare their sleeping habits as I don’t think I can write a total of three hundred words about one person. This really shows how much I love my characters; they have totally realistic sleep schedules and habits (I’m inwardly sobbing at the contrast between all of this).

Starting off with my protagonists, would be quite a sound sleeper, I reckon. Sleep always means good things for them, (seeing as my entire novel is about sleep) so she’d look forward to it throughout the day of feeling fake and being with people she doesn’t enjoy. She’d go to sleep not too early, but not too late, maybe at around half eleven so she doesn’t seem too eager. Her bed would be made up super comfortably as well, so it is extremely pleasant to go to sleep and so she can be in a good mood when she talks to her friends.

On the other hand, would be a terrible, light sleeper. After what happened to her while she was sleeping, she’s more than likely to go to bed at late times and try to stay awake for as long as possible, going to bed in the early hours of the morning and facing the consequences throughout the day, in the early stages of the aftermath. Hopefully, she’d get over it gently with assistance from her friends and maybe from a professional, but I can definitely see her having insomnia once dreams became less comfort and more horror.


Last but not least, would be an average sleeper, like myself. He’d go to bed at half ten or something reasonable like that, and get up early for work. He wouldn’t see the point in not sleeping or liking sleeping too much; in his opinion, there isn’t anything interesting about sleep that can’t be discovered while awake. After all, nothing you do in your dreams helps your reality, right? That would be his point of view before and after the incident, which shows his absolute lack of character development as he’s too confident and stubborn to make any dramatic emotional changes with, unfortunately.

July SWC Writing Competition

Blocked. A poem about Writer's Block
credit to: @GraceOBrien13 and @creatiivity for telling me what writers block feels like to them :)
blocked.
the ink stopped flowing
and the keys stopped clicking
and we all went quiet.
maybe we couldn't think of what to say next.
a sudden question that we didn't know how to answer
ｓｃｒａｍｂｌｉｎｇ for a single thought or idea
maybe we didn't know how to.
words without true form
ₜwᵢₛₜᵢₙg and ₜᵤᵣₙᵢₙg too fast to see
maybe there was too much.
a cloud of words
ⓒⓛⓞⓖⓖⓘⓝⓖ up your story
maybe there was too little.
the words had been drained
and there was ⁿᵒᵗʰⁱⁿᵍ left.
maybe it was more than we thought it was.
an illness
infecting us
ｏｎｅ ｂｙ ｏｎｅ
maybe it was our fault.
stopping with fear to start again
crying because of ourselves and letting our stories cry too
feeling the shame of stopping and yet not knowing how to ever start again
or maybe we just didn't want to.
our light had been extinguished
and our power, our purpose, our meaning was gone.

༺═─── word wars ───═༻

word wars

༺═── word count; 212 ──═༻

Carmen always loved the sea. She had always adored it and loved the way that the waves rolled up on the shore, and how on the open sea there was nothing but her and her crew.
But now, she finds that she loves the land.
Her only memories of land was running away from her family after being mistreated, crying, stumbling to a dock. Then, sitting down and feeling relaxed, because there was a magnificent ship launched right next to her, sitting in its berth. She'd climbed onto the ship, asked to see the captain, and secured a job cleaning it. Life had been rough, but enjoyable, because the sea was enjoyable and it was joy for her.
Now, she doesn't know what to think.
She had forgotten what running through grass felt like on her bare feet. It as a feeling incomparable to any sensation at sea. The sea, water and all, had nothing to compare with mountains reaching for the clouds and brushing against them effortlessly, or a cute café on a dock that happened to be the perfect mix of land and sea. There was also nothing that could compare with walking into said café and falling into a girl's deep blue eyes. There was nothing better than that.

༺═── word count; 306 ──═༻
Crouching at the edge of a world is no easy task, but it is not an easy task to pull you back from the world, too. You are too young to understand what that gaping hole is. “I just want to look,” you say, but you are too young to peer over without being scared. Or falling. Seeing you fall would be the worst, because you are the only one who can tie a knot to a tree and keep me there without my cutting of the rope. It is a strange metaphor, and that is true.

All this happened five years ago. You were eleven, I was fourteen. Now I'm nineteen and you are fifteen, as aged as we can be. Every second you are a different person to the person you were seven years ago. Seven years ago, you were a different person to who I am now.
It is confusing, I know. But you bargained with confusing and threw in your own input, and darling, I will make you pay for trusting me every moment of every day.
You said a while ago that you think time is not a place or a thing, but an abstract noun. I laughed and said, “Of course,” but you took it seriously. You thought that maybe time is a place, but neither of us have never had the luck to be there. Nevertheless, I smiled at your assumption and didn't comment. Why would I, when I know that in the end, you would be the one leering out into the eternal darkness at the edge of the world, the sea lapping around your ankles and a wistful smile on your face?
Maybe time is a place. If it is, it is a place where you can wrap your arms around me and hug without being guilty.

word war proof - 213 words

I walked down the street, contemplating my life choices very, very deeply. Why had I decided to come here and do this again? I couldn’t even remember anymore. It was probably just me being really, incredibly stup1d again. I did that a lot though, so it was not exactly like this was an incredibly uncommon occurrence. Um, anyways, so I guess I was stuck in this deal that I had made when I was not really thinking properly (I also did that a lot - it had quite honestly become more of a way of life for me, at this point. Heh fun fact, so sorry to randomly interrupt the very interesting story like this, but the device that I am currently typing on just randomly decided to make a bullet point. How fun. I suppose I will have to fix that later, won’t I? Okay, well, so anyways, aside from that small interruption, I was in a bad situation. Again, not uncommon - we remember all of that right? I don’t have to repeat myself again (although I sort of just did but oh well - whatever) Anyways, where was I? Wow it looks like I have already forgotten. Oh well it looks as though time is almost up so yeah bye

daily 14/7/2022 - 750 words

I don’t have many main characters that I use often in my stories, but last session I did use a few characters multiple times, so I suppose I can describe them. Belinda never sleeps at all, no matter how tired she may be, which could possibly be part of the reason why she is so rude all of the time. Since getting no sleep for multiple days in a row can often make people tired and cranky, this might be a potential reason for her being very incredibly evil. Most people would probably be evil, or at least really annoyed, if they never slept either. She was taught that sleep is a task for the week, and instead just casts random spells on herself so that she is not tired and so that she does not fall asleep. Selui, on the other hand, gets around seven to nine hours of sleep a day on average, so she is always very well-rested, which could be part of the reason why she is so kind. She also occasionally gets bored while living on her new houseboat, so she takes lots of naps throughout the day. She is very concerned about getting enough sleep, and this causes her to rarely ever get cranky or annoyed. However, when, on the rare occasion, she gets less sleep than she needs a day, she can be a very scary person to be around. However, although it is slowly getting better, she does have a very bad habit of waking up at random hours of the night for no particular reason, then going back tp sleep a few hours later. As long as she gets the right amount of sleep though, she does not exactly care when that sleep occurs. This also might account for a tad bit of her eccentricity, along with the fact that she does not always open the door when someone knocks on it to come visit her. This is out of character with her usually kind and friendly, although a bit strange, demeanour, so it would be most logical for her to be asleep then. It could also help explain why she often mutters to herself, although that, of course, could also just be an unfortunate side effect of growing up with almost no friends and then moving to an almost untraceable houseboat and shutting herself in there all alone for at least three thousand years - who even knows anymore. Xy gets the required amount of sleep per night and usually sleeps for around nine to ten hours with a steady sleep schedule. Xy always goes to bed and wakes up around the same times each day, but does not mind staying up a little bit later every once in a while if there is a good reason to. Xy typically does not take naps during the day but has a good enough sleep schedule and gets enough sleep regularly that it does not particularly matter. This probably helps contribute to Xy’s nice-ness and generally calm and positive attitude towards things. Selui’s trusty messenger bird sleeps whenever he feels like it and does not particularly care what everyone else thinks of his sleep schedule. This might be part of the reason for his general laziness and sometimes his bad temper. The character, whose name I can’t remember, that I wrote about in a few dailies and weeklies last session and had a sister, whose name I also can’t remember (although I believe one of their names may have been Rose) has a fairly good and normal sleep schedule, although she does get woken up by random forest noises throughout the night. She usually goes to bed around eleven and wakes up between six and seven, which is maybe not the best sleep schedule for her, but it is okay. It demonstrates her desire to care for her sister, but may be the cause of her often being tired all the time. Her little sister, on the other hand, sleeps excellently every night because she is very well cared for by her sister. She usually goes to bed around nine pm, and nine thirty or ten on weekends, then wakes up at 7:30 in the morning on schooldays (unless she wakes up late, which she usually does), and eight or 8:30 on weekends. This contributes to her peppy and energetic mood most of the time, although that may also have something to do with the fact that she is also fairly young.

14th July daily

Ivy- Ivy usually gets around 6-7 hours of sleep. She might be up till late reading a book, writing something of her own, chatting with a few friends on Scratch (she isn't that social) or just reading something online, and then she wakes up super late. Or she might sleep REALLY early and then wake up super early too. Ivy doesn't like sleeping for too long.

Devyn - Devyn is NEVER going to get an appropriate amount of sleep. She might be too tired or too energetic, and it makes the people around her really confused. Saying that she might get 4-12 hours of sleep (if you let her snooze on) Devyn once slept a whole day and missed school, and when she woke up she thought the test was tomorrow instead of that day. Her parents are always out for office, and when they come back it's 9 or something, so they don't expect Devyn to be awake at that time.

Maynard- if there was a nobel prize for best sleep cycle, Maynard would recieve it. He went to sleep on time, woke up on time and was NEVER late. If he was a few minutes late to the bus, the driver would move along, knowing he wasn't coming. His parents made sure he slept like this when he was small, so now it's inbuilt into his brain.

Colors in the World

There are many colors in the world
In everything you see
There are colors in your dad’s old car
And inside a fallen tree

Although sometimes colors may leave us
During bad times like quarantine
If you remember all the happy things
You’ll begin to view a scene

A scene where the grass is green
Where the birds' chirp and the wind blows
You’ll look back on the happy times
And appreciate them more as time seems to slow

When you focus on all the different colors you can see
The happy colors, like pink, yellow, and orange
The sad colors, like black, gray, and indigo
They bring a difference in the world and how we view each lasting day

July 14 Daily
prompt: write about your character's sleep (307 words)
Aria didn't sleep that well. In fact, she usually never slept well.
She was a bit of a night owl. Her best ideas tended to come to her at night, which wasn't the greatest for her sleep schedule.
Her family always got mad at her when she stayed up too late. Though, even if she laid in bed doing nothing, she probably wouldn't have fallen asleep.
So, she wrote down her ideas and her plans. It felt a bit childish, though she enjoyed it. Sometimes, she would look at them in the morning and think they were terrible, other times they might be the best things she had ever written.
All of her writing was necessary however because her journaling about specific plants and gardening led her to be quite skilled at farming, which was exactly what she needed to join the RSA.
All of this writing, however, tended to cause some problems.
Her sister, Zaria, who shared a room with Aria, didn't particularly like being woken up in the middle of the night by Aria's frantic scribbling. In fact, she hated it.
But, Aria was able to usually work around this. She wrote very quietly and didn't need much light to see. Soon, however, she wouldn't need to do this anymore. She would be moving to the RSA, and leaving her simple-minded family behind, going off to far greater things.
She wasn't just going to be a radish farmer for the rest of her life. Aria wanted more. And she was going to get more. She was going to rise to the top, and be the smartest and cleverest farmer in all of Gartalesh.
As soon as she was able to get a decent night of sleep and be rested, ready to work twice as hard the next day, to leave her stupid family behind.

July 14 daily

WC usually has 3-5 hours of sleep, sometimes less. She hates sleeping, since it means missing out on fun activities like stargazing. She often invites her friends to stargazing at midnight, but most of them don’t go since they’re sleeping. Ione usually goes with her, since they both share an interest in astrology. If WC isn’t stargazing, she’s probably reading a book or doing something online.

Ione sleeps about 6-8 hours of sleep each night. She sometimes stays up late to stargaze with WC, but she always wakes up at the same time. Once, she slept in for a few hours and didn’t notice until she saw the clock outside her home. She ran to school and realized she forgot her backpack, with all of her notes and other essentials. She also talks to Ezra about dreams, since she has a big book about psychology.

Ezra loves sleep. He sleeps 8-9 hours a day. He always talks about his dreams to his friends near the beginning of the day. Most of his dreams are nightmares, but he doesn’t mind, since they’re just dreams. He likes his good dreams, and has a notebook to write down his good dreams just in cases he forgets them. Ione sometimes talks about the meanings of dreams with Ezra, and he is always interested in what Ione will teach him next.

Wesley doesn’t sleep. At all. Sometimes, he can fit in 1-3 hours of sleep, but most of the time, he’s doing experiments in his lab, and he gets excited and keeps on experimenting until it’s morning. He takes naps when he feels tired, but he’s very energetic, so he’s usually fine without them. He sometimes uses himself as a lab rat to test things about sleep. He recently invented a pill to make people remember their dreams.

Vague ideas of my main characters' sleeping patterns arranged roughly from worst to best.
Jenna, as can be expected, has a terrible sleep schedule. She sleeps sporadically, sometimes for days on end, sometimes not at all for nearly a week. It isn't her fault, she can't do anything about it. Sleep, just like every other function of Jenna's brain, has been irrevocably altered, you could get away safely with calling it damaged. She'll lie awake for hours in bed one night, and then the next night she'll fall asleep easily and stay asleep nearly until noon, and that's one of the more common and less problematic examples.
For the first eleven years of her life, Caitlin slept with her older brother every single night. And even though it's been over five years now since his death, she still isn't used to sleeping without him. She tosses and turns, sometimes for hours, before managing to fall asleep. And when she does, dreams of her brother, often nightmares related to what happened to him, will invade her mind, erase any pretense of peace she had, and more often than not cause her to wake up again. She's gotten used tp functioning on little sleep a lot faster than she's gotten used to living without her brother, so it rarely has much of an effect on her anymore.
Soki's sleep is alright, but she does have a tendency to either stay up really late or wake up really early to work on a project or practice a skill, and if she gets going on something it's hard to get her to stop. So she'll wake up at a normal time, do something that will lead to an accomplishment, and end up staying up well into the night trying to reach the accomplishment. Or her mind will be wandering too much as she's trying to sleep and end up with her waking up really early and going to practice one thing or another. She doesn't struggle with it the same way Jenna does, or Caitlin does, but she could definitely use better sleep than she has.
Analyk sleeps pretty well most of the time, going to bed at a reasonable time, not taking too long to fall asleep, and staying asleep to a consistent and reasonable time the next morning. However some nights she struggles with anxiety that'll keep her awake significantly longer than she needs to be, but over the years she's found a lot of ways to minimize the sleep loss, and the kids in her neighbourhood certainly don't mind if she trades three hours of sleep for three new woven bracelets once in a while!
Julie sleeps pretty well, but she always has to be the first awake of her family, because waking up before the sun and before her chaotic parents and siblings wake up is one of the only ways she gets enough calm to work on projects of her own, often writing poetry, painting abstract art, or composing music. The need for this alone time, or rather calm time, means that even if she stays up late one night, or has trouble getting to sleep for one reason or another, she'll still wake up quite early and that'll make her tired and kind of unpleasant to be around for most of the day.
Calee, surprisingly, has probably one of the best sleep schedules of any of my characters. It doesn't take long for her to get to sleep, and she'll consistently wake up at the same time every morning, but don't get me started on her dreams. You'd think dreaming of the past would throw off someone's sleep schedule, especially if that someone happens to be a twelve year old girl, but Calee seems not to be phased by it at all, maintaining her good sleep as pretty much the one consistent thing throughout her story.
Ahana's sleep is incredibly regulated, mostly by accident. She rarely goes to the surface where she can be exposed to a proper day night cycle, so the changing of the light doesn't have an affect on her and the other elves she lives with ad much as it would on a human such as Marcus. Somehow, on no effort by her or anyone else, she'll fall asleep very quickly after going to bed, and then wake up at almost exactly the same time every morning without the use of an alarm or anything.
I need ten more words, so I'll add that my sleep is around the Caitlin to Analyk area. (759)

Weekly #2 - Script (2339 words in total)


Part 1: Fake Crime (801 words)
A few days ago, a priceless artifact was stolen from the national museum. It was described as a small, red, and extremely rare stone. The thief came at night and left no traces of his or her work behind. They managed to hack into the museum's alarm system so that the alarms did not go off. We are still waiting for more information on this very recent theft. The museum's night guard, Jerry Thompson, claims to have not seen anything unusual that night. He says he was on the third floor, while the theft was on the first. With no real proof, our only suspect is the museum's own Jerry Thompson.
Jerry is a single dad, and life has been very hard for him. He has two daughters, Mia and Riley. They are twins, each eleven years old. His older son just turned eighteen, but Jerry can not afford to send him to a good college. Could this be a reason for him to steal from the national museum? If Jerry is the thief, was he doing it for his children? Or for himself? The family lives in a small apartment. There is only one large room with the mere necessities. Two twin beds, an old couch, a small kitchen, and a little bathroom with no privacy are all they have in their little apartment. Police officers have interviewed Jerry, and we were able to be informed on exactly what he said.
He claims, “I was on floor three. I had heard something up there earlier on and decided to check it out. Everything in the Egypt wing appeared to be fine, so I headed back downstairs to keep doing my job. The next morning when my boss came in, he gasped as he noticed that the stone was missing. It's a very small and rare artifact, you know. There are so many things in that museum, that it is hard to keep track of something so small. I mean, it is in the very front of the museum right where you walk in, but I can not be everywhere at once. I have been the night guard here for three years, and nothing this bad has ever happened. I believe my boss, Mr. Reynol, is going to fire me. That stone was worth $15,000 at the very least. It's impossible to find anything like it anymore.”
However, there is good news: A lady happened to have been walking her dog near the museum at the time of the thievery. She said that it was around 11:00 p.m. when a truck pulled up and parked on the side of the museum.
In an interview with us, Mrs. Claxton said, “Maddie and I were just going for a stroll, Maddie being my dog, of course. We enjoy going on late-night walks through our neighborhood. I thought it was odd that the truck came so late at night, but at the time I really did not think much of it. I just assumed it was there to drop something off, or perhaps it was the night guard, Jerry. Anyways, a man wearing a black suit got out of the truck, which made me think there was some sort of party going on at the museum. He was also wearing black sunglasses and a formal black hat. I assume now that a ”party“ was meant to be his cover story. The man walked towards the back of the museum, so he possibly went in through the back entrance. I waited there for about a minute but decided to keep walking with Maddie instead of spying on this man. Again, I thought nothing of this at the time, but now I realize I must have been watching a thief.”
In another interview, the owner of the museum informed us that, “Do not worry, great measures are being taken to enforce our museum’s security. We are getting three new night guards and police officers are doing their best to catch the criminal that took the precious stone. I believe that we will get it back, but it might not be anytime soon. Let’s just hope that the thief doesn’t go after anything else that has even greater importance. I spoke with Mrs. Claxton earlier this morning, and she told me exactly what she saw. You already interviewed her, correct? Good, good. Well, I hope all turns out well. Stay safe, everyone.
If anyone has any information on this, please report it to a police officer. As of the time this article was written, our only main and real info is that it was a man that came at night. This is one of the crimes of the century. Be on the lookout for our next issue, which will cover even more information on this bad situation.


Part 2: Scratch Opinion (801 words)
Scratch is an amazing coding program for kids. It uses blocks to help kids learn simple coding, which they can take further to use coding languages such as Python, html, CSS, and Javascript. You can easily make an account at scratch.mit.edu. Choose a username, password, and get started.
There’s even more to Scratch than coding. It is also a safe and friendly site to connect with friends and make new ones. Kids can follow their friends to see what they are doing, and customize their profile pages to share their work with the community. By clicking, the “create” button, you can make your first project! Give it a title and share it! You can also love, favorite, and comment on projects to share your feedback.
In a studio, you can add projects that are all similar or are by the same person. Maybe a studio specifically for animal art, or you could even start an online camp. SWC is something very fun to participate in on Scratch, and it uses many different studios. SWC stands for Scratch Writing Camp, and it is being hosted by an amazing scratcher called @ Bellevue91. There are dailies, weeklies, and writing competitions to make you a better writer. Every camper is assigned to a cabin, and the cabin with the most points at the end wins for the current session. So if you don’t want to make an account on Scratch for the coding, do it for the writing and the incredible community.
You can check to see who has loved, favorited, and followed you and your projects by clicking the messages icon in the top right corner of your screen. You can also see comments on your projects and studio activity. It doesn’t matter how many messages you get in a day, because Scratch isn’t about becoming famous. It doesn’t matter if you have almost 400,000 followers like @ griffpatch (the scratcher with the most followers, go check him out!) or just a few that are close friends.
Going back to the coding part of Scratch, there are lots of different categories to easily navigate and use blocks. For example, some of the categories are Motion, Looks, Sound, Variables, Events, and Controls. Each block is full of Javascript coding. You can draw or select your own costumes to make your game, animation, tutorial, artwork, or whatever it is you make more interesting. Scratch Cat is a cute cat sprite that is automatically put into any project you create. You can delete this cat if you would like to. The main reason Scratch Cat is always there is to give you something to start with, and because it is Scratch’s mascot. You can add sound to your projects, too. Make a voice recording or choose something from the Scratch Sound Library.
That is already a lot of amazing things to do on this website, but there is even more. So far we’ve covered the community, studios, coding, sharing projects, following others, and customizing profiles. But guess what? Maybe you’ve made your Scratch account, and now you see a really cool project. You have an idea of what the creator could add to it, but, sadly, they don’t take your request. You can add that yourself! Clicking the green “Remix” button will make the project your own.
Before posting your projects, make sure to read the community guidelines. You can find them by copying this link into your browser: https://scratch.mit.edu/community_guidelines. These guidelines help to make Scratch a positive and helpful environment for everyone. Your account could be banned (temporarily or permanently) if you do not choose to follow them. If you ever see a person, project, or profile that is disrespectful, feel free to report it. You do not need to say anything. You just need to click one button and let the Scratch Team (creators of the website) handle the rest. Remember that they just want to make Scratch good for you. If you every feel uncomfortable about something on Scratch, tell a trusted adult and click the report button. Remember to only do this if something does not follow the community guidelines.
So far you have learned a lot about what Scratch is and what you can do on it. You have basically gotten an overview of the entire website. There is so much more that you should know, but you have to make an account to find out what that is. I haven’t said anything yet about what some things are such as the forums, the explore page, featured projects, and, well… I could go on forever. Scratch is an amazing coding website for kids ages eight through sixteen, but you could use it at any age. So go check out this amazing place to learn to code and make new friends. Scratch.mit.edu.


Part 3: Advice (522 words)
Question from @ Avacac12078 : “I want to get rid of procrastination and start the weekly, what should I do?”
Advice: Just do it and get it over with. Look in a mirror, and say out loud, “I am going to do the weekly. I am going to finish it. I am going to do my best.” If you sit there staring at the weekly and never start, you will never end up doing it at all. I would just get started. Don’t try to finish it all in one sitting, though. You can take breaks. Make sure to have fun with it.

Question from @ -WritingIsCool- : “I think my friend is stealing my goats, how should I tell him to stop?”
Advice: Wow, these questions are getting very serious. If you’re friend is stealing your goats, you should steal your friends bananas. Everyone loves bananas, and I know you love goats. If your friend decides to get more bananas, take their doritos. Doritos are irreplaceable. If they do not care about their doritos… then I guess they are not human. In that case, run away. You are friends with an alien.

Question from @ _kittykay_ : “every time I want to eat a mango my cat leaps up and steals it. what should I do to stop him?”
Advice: You have two options here. Your first option is to give your cat one mango. While they are busy doing whatever they are doing with that mango, grab another and shove it in your mouth. Your second option is to eat your mangos when your cat is sleepings. Cats tend to sleep a lot.

Question from @ i_like_kotlc : “My neighbor doesn't like mangoes. What should I do?”
Advice: Use that to your advantage. Your neighbor doesn’t like them, so there are more for you. And if you would like to be friends with this neighbor, try to eat mangos so much in front of them that they decide to try one and love it.

Question from @ RLove10 : “I don’t know how to tell my sister I broke her favorite toy, what do I do?”
Advice: This has happened to be before, and I have a decent solution. Just be honest with her. If the toy was cheap, you can buy her a new one. If it costs too much money or is out of stock, try to explain how the toy broke and get her to forget about it and find a new favorite. If your sister is still very young, she could easily forget about the toy’s existence within a week. However, if she is REALLY young, it is possibly she might cry when you tell her the news (just a warning). Give her a hug and apologize honestly.

Question from @ phoceanic : “how do I wake up in the morning without feeling extremely tired?”
Advice: Make sure to go to bed early enough to get a good night’s sleep. Your body needs it. If it is summer break for you like it is for me, then you can sleep in as late as you want.


Part 4: Advertisment (215 words)
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“Um, I guess this is okay? The taco shells are really hard to bite into, and they get stuck in my teeth really easily because of how thin they are. It kind of hurts. That’s the good thing about the toothbrush though. Even though every time I go to Taco Toothbrushes my mouth starts bleeding, they do have great customer service!” - Jerry Thompson

You heard it here first, folks! Come on down to Taco Toothbrushes today! You will not regret it! Only 300 dollars for two tacos, and 400 dollars for your toothbrush! Our prices are so low, you could come every day! Taco Toothbrushes, a healthy meal everyday.

july 14 daily - sleep
hours of sleep: 9.5 - words: 282
a lot of this probably doesn't make sense as im using random things from my stories without explanation :p

Prior to leaving Five Lakes Ban would usually get an appropriate 7-8 hours of sleep, as he lived with most of his family and never had any full jobs; he only would get up around time to leave for school or training. After he left Five Lakes and began to travel he began getting somewhat less sleep-around five to seven hours-and also became very inconsistent about when he slept, especially once they began to travel through different ‘time zones’.

Working on the boat Card would usually be able to get a good amount of sleep, but between extra work, caring for some others on the boat, and staying up purely because he wanted to, he ended up getting 3-6 hours of sleep on an average night. When he was released from work and met with Ban and some others, his sleep generally stayed the same aside from sleeping at different times.

As he owns the Branch and possesses all of its different blessings, Span doesn't need to regularly sleep and is able to stay awake for as long as a month if required. However, he usually takes short naps of 1-2 hours and will occasionally sleep for anywhere from five hours to several days if he hasn't in a long time.

Shari's sleep schedule is very adaptable as she spent most of her life traveling, and normally gets somewhere between 4-7 hours of sleep at any time of night.

Teri worked for most of his life on the same boat as Card, but he generally gets several hours more sleep than Card due to being younger (meaning he didn't have as much work) and not trying to carry too many extra burdens.

These are the sleep habits of the characters in my comic, Against the Galaxy.

Kari (young) sleeps as well as any kid would– her bedroom isn't much, but you can say that of any Jedi. She goes to bed on time and wakes up early and refreshed, so she's always ready for whatever crazy adventure the next day brings. Her curfew allows for a whole night's sleep.

When he's at the Jedi Temple, Jatt sleeps pretty well, although he often stays up late reading in the library. When he's on a mission, however, sleep is often a luxury that is harder to afford. He and whatever clone troopers he's with take shifts guarding the others, so he only gets to sleep for a couple hours at a time.

Kari (older) barely sleeps at all. She's always on the run, ducking Imperial troopers and doing odd jobs to earn credits or food. With this kind of life, she doesn't even have a comfortable place to rest, but Ozzie often lets her sleep in her starfighter while he flies it for her from the droid cockpit. The seat of a starfighter isn't the most comfortable bed, but it's the best she has.

Ozzie, as a droid, doesn't need to sleep, unless you count charging. His battery runs for a while, but Jatt, and later Kari, always make sure he's adequately charged for the day. At any given point in the day, Ozzie is usually the best-rested.

Erin, like (young) Kari, is a Padawan who usually sleeps in the Jedi Temple, obediently following the written schedule and waking up with a good 8+ hours of sleep. However, she's been an apprentice for a couple years, so she sleeps on the go sometimes, too. Usually, since she's so young, her master and the clone troopers see to it that she gets as much sleep as a growing girl needs, but on occasion her sweet dreams are interrupted by some unexpected complication.

Daily: (228 words)

I sleep from around 9pm-12pm, normally, depending on the month and everything,

I have difficulty sleeping when I get to bed, I usually start with trying to dream or pretending not to be tired to be tired, as well as ry8ng to count random sheep in my head. The dream method doesn’t work effectively, but still can work. The pretending to be tired one is m6 favorite, and counting sheep usually fails, cause my brain is working really hard then. Trying to dream sometimes, when I try to hard, makes my brain move and tha5 causes me having trouble sleeping.

Now, when I get into my sleeping, I have some habits too. I often roll around the bed, sleep sideways of my bed, or have my whole body tilted sideways. I’m not sure if I snore or not, but I don’t have any record of me snoring during my sleep.

I don’t believe I sleep walk or anything, and when all of my getting to sleep efforts don’t work well, I end up feeling tired in the morning, or sleeping a dreamless night, which is something I hate.

When my sleep efforts don’t work, it’s usually because I don’t excercise enough before bed, my stomach hurts, or something else like those, as well as that I slept too late, or stayed on the screens too much before bed.

Part 1: (800 words)

This part contains quotes which I have taken off from the word count as it is not my own words/writing!

You will notice that this article has some opinions. I originally had those opinions for part 2 but then changed my topic. I didn’t want to leave those opinions out so I just added it at the end as it fell into my topic for part one!

Total words: 835 without opinions and 1176 words with opinions.

Cabin Wars

Cabin Wars is a standard tradition in SWC. To some cabins, Cabin Wars is a chance to move up by using the words they have written from each war, as points. Others fear it, for they may be the only one online and prepared to complete a war for their cabin. This session, Cabins have won and lost their fair share of wars. Others have risen to the top and completed all the wars. This article features events that have been unveiled during Cabin Wars.
Cabin Wars happens twice a session. Lasting one day, starting at 12 AM UTC, Cabins will war other cabins. How they would do this is simple. Every member in SWC will have access to a list of wars they can copy and paste into different cabins, mostly only to their enemies. No one wants to upset their allies. Unless, their allies ask you to war them as they are in need of points. Members of a cabin will complete whatever challenge included in the war. A time limit will be given when the war is pasted- something like 7 hours is a good example. If the cabin is unable to finish the war in the time allotted then they lose points. If you complete a war you do not earn points. So if you lost the war you would lose 1,000 points, you will not gain 1000 points if you win. Some wars have extra challenges which give cabins the chance to EARN points. Usually something around 50 points can be earned. These extra challenges are usually related to things that you can do in writing. Examples are writing things in only verse or writing in only descriptive writing. These are examples from this session’s cabin wars.
The first Cabin War day of the July 2022 session was held on July 9th. At 12:00 AM UTC campers were given access to each war and thus began the warring. During the next 24 hours, a total of 99 wars were made valid- just missing the hundred mark, which is quite unfortunate. Leading off with the most wars given is Thriller. Thriller warred a total of 26 wars- that’s one quarter of the wars given! 22 of them were given by one of Thriller’s Co-leader. Despite many campers and leaders' protests, Myth was given 8 wars- tied with Adventure and Horror for most wars received. Following with the next most cabins warred are Sci-Fi, Hi-Fi, and Script! The rest of the 9 cabins remaining each got 6 wars in total throughout the day. Making an average of 6 wars given in each cabin.
Multiple times throughout the day, Cabins were given invalid wars. This happened for multiple reasons. We’ll be exploring these reasons here. Every Cabin (from what I have noticed) has had at least one invalid war due to the fact that it was not on the war list. Other campers had commented wars when the shield was still up. Some of them had miscalculated the time zone and were a few minutes too early or they just didn’t realize there was a shield on. Campers were also just unlucky and had commented right after someone else had. Causing only one of the wars to be valid and the other invalid.
This session many cabins took back wars. Whoever commented the war had to be the one to take the war back. The hosts of this session have noticed this and have taken action. They have discussed that it won’t happen again in the next cabin wars and had just gotten a little out of hand this time.
At the realization that Cabin Wars can give your cabin points at the end, Many cabins resorted to their siblings and allies. Cabins kindly ask their allies to war them- only wars they think they can do. Using this method multiple cabins were able to move up the leaderboard.
Now, we’re going to zero in on one of the cabins. Mythology was in the lead by a big number, because of this- campers and leaders are commenting in a lot of SWC related studios not to war Myth- as it will just give them more points at the end. You can find constant reminders in almost, if not all cabin studios. To fight back, Myth constantly asked siblings and random cabins to war them- because of this Myth was able to get tons of points and wars to keep their placing high up.
There are multiple reasons why wars were lost. The most popular being campers ran out of time. Some of the challenges given were too hard to complete in the allotted time. Players were offline on multiple occasions (probably to take their eyes off the screen and take a break) and their fellow cabin mates were left to defend themselves.
Cabin Wars has also arrived just in time for a bunch more campers to complete their weekly. Allowing multiple cabins to gain more points and move up the rankings.
Now we’ll feature some campers' opinions on cabin wars. A camper in Myth, @Eeveedonut stated that she feels quite positive about the idea of it, “I love them! They're so fun- except when no one will war you because you're in the lead, so then one of your siblings wars you instead. It's still fun and good because after all of it is over, we're all still friends.”
Iris’s words speak the truth- Cabin Wars can be lots of fun! Iris is in Myth, so she gives us a little bit of insight on how it felt when no one was warring her cabin.
Another positive opinion is given by @booklover883322, a camper in Horror. Bookie states that camp can be positive- with some negative drawbacks. Or in their exact words, “I really enjoy cabin wars. It's a great way to get us a bunch of words and have a bunch of fun with our cabinmates. I, personally, carve my day around cabin wars when I can, which can sometimes be a little unhealthy, TBH. Either way, cabin wars is a great way to encourage teamwork and encourage other amazing writers.”
Though a lot of people enjoy Cabin Wars, some people can find it a bit stressful. Cabin wars require a lot of time and dedication to the day. @zsparkly, is one of these people. Finch responded in a more negative approach, “i don't really like them because they cause a fair amount of stress. the friendly competition is nice but the rapid writing isn't so much that. but i can deal with writing a lot of words in a short amount of time. the thing that gets me about cabin wars is that they're always so unorganized. you never know how close you are to getting a certain goal, and when there's a collaborative story involved it's a hot mess.”
The main point of this article was to give readers a review on what happened in the recent cabin wars as well as show people how others may view it.


Part 2: (800 words)

Total words: 800 word o_O

Carrot Garden

Have you heard about the newest restaurant in town? Carrot Garden just opened up recently on July 9th! Many people have wondered about the quality of this brand new restaurant. I have gone to the newest addition in town as well as done some extensive research.
First off we’ll start with the restaurant’s architecture and design. The building itself is aesthetically pleasing.
The building is painted an ugly gray color- perfect. Rust creeps up the walls but blends in well with the gray so it's barely noticeable. Once you enter the parking lot- your nose is blessed with the smell of holy sewage water. The parking lot is small and roughly 6 cars. Near the building is a small trash pile of wrecked cars- which really adds to the mood. The cars are damaged a lot. Some of them are smooshed so hard it almost makes a square. While others are just bent in every odd way possible.
Once you enter the vicinity you are greeted by a barking dog. A plus to the restaurant as it is a pets allowed zone! The dog is rather cute with its spiked collar and dead black eyes. A waiter came and checked me in. She wasn’t really interested in her job as she kept booking me in the kitchen next to the trash can but after some adjustments she set me up at an actual table.
The place is poorly managed and very dull. Lights kept flickering on and off. Especially the one on top of my table. One of the table’s legs was chopped off at a weird angle because of this all of my stuff kept falling off. I had to use some books in my bag to rest the bottom of the table’s broken leg on. This way my stuff slid a little bit.
The restaurant doesn’t have a wide variety of meals they may prepare. There were only two things on the menu: Day old soup for $57 and cup of water (no free refills) for $62. I got a pretty good discount, at least that’s what it said on the menu. The prices had apparently gone down by $50 as the restaurant was just opening.
When I got my food I could tell the waiter made no effort. She just shoved the bowl and cups in my hands and slammed the spoon in my bowl. I have to say that this restaurant's staff is outstanding.
The soup was in a plastic bowl and really poorly presented- I could tell that the cook spent little time making the presentation. The cook is really good at making things perfect so quickly!
Before I tried my main course, I took a sip of the expensive water. I could see why it was so expensive! The dirty taste of the water makes you wonder what is in the drink! I tried the soup. It took a lot of effort to swallow the sour liquid. It was so good! I did not want to waste it and let it digest and my fragile digestive system.
Once I had finished my meal, I asked the waiter to get me the bill. A look of happiness spread on the waiter’s face as soon as she heard the word: ‘bill’. I guess the staff really do have pride and joy in their work!
The bill had totaled up to $561.870. The ink on the receipt was smudged so I could tell if the ‘.’ were ‘,’. When I had signed it 3 staff members, the waiter, the cook, and the owner, rushed to me and snatched the bill. I could tell they were clearly very happy. They actually gave me a sweet smile. A sure sign that they were friendly.
When they kicked me out, I found my car badly damaged. The front wheels both had holes in them and the car was badly scratched on the roof. The backseat doors were at a weird and odd angle- looking like they might fall off any minute (They did fall off as soon as I touched them). The smell of gasoline was overpowering when I noticed the gas leaking. All four windows were very cracked. My possessions were stolen- I could see that my jacket and diamond necklace were gone. A note was left on the dashboard saying that the restaurant owner had left a parting gift.
I have to say that this restaurant is really great quality and that you can trust the store with anything valuable that you really cherish. I give the restaurant a solid 8/5.783 for its amazing, helpful, and kind staff. The wonderful food that just makes it so that you never want to eat food again. And lastly, the amazon parting gift and wonderful building location and the building itself!


Part 3: (500 words)

Total Words: Exactly 500 words B))

The treacherous idon’tlikemangos disease has taken the SWC community by a huge toll. Tens of hundreds of campers have suddenly stopped having the insane obsession over mangos. This has brought devastation to the studios as there is no longer the insane amount of comments regarding the word and fruit ‘mangoes’. Many SWCers are sad and hope that those who have succumbed to this deadly illness will get better before the end of the session, so they can have one more mango party. So far there haven’t been any signs of improvement on the sick until a few days ago. A doctor that goes by the alias, Dr. Thimothy the sloth man has found the cure to the outrageous sickness. The medicine is administered into the body using a very dangerous procedure. Those who’s procedure goes wrong, they lose their memory of the amazing and godly Scratch Writing Camp. Imagine a world without SWC. Dr. Thimothy the sloth made sure that he was the only one to give medicine to the sick because he is the only one who knows how to do it properly- you can’t really trust people these days. The medical procedure is very complicated. First, You have to keep the patient upside down. They’re blood should flow all the way to their head where you will insert the first dose of medicine in the patient- just above the right eyebrow is where you will push the syringe in. Usually the patient would be lying in bed with their head hanging off the side. The next step is to put the patient in a very dark room and hypnotize them. This isn’t normal hypnotization, you need to hypnotize them with a t.v screen that only shows videos of mangos. Once their eyes don’t stray from the screen for less than 5 minutes then you administer the next dose of medicine. After that is done, you must mash up 16 mangos and have the patient eat it. Before the patient tries the food make sure you slip in some more of the medicine. Now the last step is extremely crucial. It is the step that decides whether or not Scratch Writing Camp will exist in the patient’s world. Dr. Thimothy must bring the patient to the Main Cabin. There, they have to spam mangos everywhere. EVERYWHERE. The worst part is that they have to do it willingly. If they do not do it willingly and are forced to do it then everything fails and they lose every memory they made related to Scratch Writing Camp. Dr. Thimothy has stated that those who have failed to believe in the mangoes have despised anything SWC related. They experience symptoms such as writer’s block and hate anything mango flavored, colored, or looks. This disease is very contagious and Dr. Thimothy wishes everyone to stay in their homes and isolate if they have had contact with the disease. His team is working on making everyone love mangoes again and don’t want any casualties.


Part 4: (200 words)

Total words: 200 words

Have you ever wished for a fun unicorn friend, someone you can always count on and talk to? Imagine a lovely unicorn prancing around the long and intricate Myth Maze. Except this unicorn is special and way different then the other boring regular unicorns because it has 3 heads like the mighty Cerberus from Greek mythology and a long mermaid tail. That unicorn you are imagining is George the Unicorn. George is the amazing mascot of Myth for the July 2022 session of Scratch Writing Camp. George is very nice, awesome, epic, and every positive word you can think of. George is supreme (mostly his third head though- the other heads don’t matter). George is a great friend and someone who can always bring a smile on your face. Now, with George still in your head, go to your profile. Scroll until you see that lovely section under the words ‘following’. Do you have a lot of people you follow or very little, or maybe the number of people you follow is somewhere between? Well, it doesn’t matter, George is either way the perfect addition to that! Go give the great and fantastic George the Unicorn a follow at: george-the-unicorn!


Total words of weekly: 2672 words!

Sleep

Main Cabin Daily, July 14th: How many hours did you sleep the night before this daily was put in? Write 1200 words about your various characters’ sleep habits and the effects they have on them for 700 points. For every hour that you slept that night, you have to write 100 fewer than the 1200—so if you slept 8 hours, you only need to write 400 words. (Caps at 10 hours for 200 words.) There are no points for proof.

245 words

I got 10 hours of sleep so yay ;)

Because of her role as an Apprentice, Kira usually is pushed hard during daylight hours to complete her duties, train, and study. This means that she’s usually pretty tired when night arrives, but evening hours are also the only time she really has to herself. If she could, she would use her evenings to practice her ability, but since she uses the element of Fire, the absence of sunlight is when her power is weakest.

Therefore, most nights, she explores the forest, river, and cliffs near the Training Grounds. She also takes this opportunity to study things she thinks her Master wouldn’t approve of, like far too advanced battle moves and fantastic stories. He actually does know that she is doing that, but has decided to overlook it as long as it doesn’t interfere with her day activities.

At first it did, and Kira had trouble focusing and staying alert during the day. That hasn’t really changed, but Kira has adapted better to the effects of getting less sleep, and most others just consider those aspects of her as character traits.

However, she does become quite formidable when she DOES get enough sleep, but she has been on a bad sleep schedule for so long that it can be hard for her to replace all the hours she missed over her life. With her upcoming Trials, however, she has been trying to replenish her sleep debt and gain the focus she will need to survive.

writing competition with (probably) lowest word count lol (it is a haiku so short)

On the Summit of the Mountain (13 words without title, 19 words with title lol)

On the tallest peak,
The snow crunching, wind wisping,
As I gaze below.

Daily #14 14/07/2022 Hours of sleep

Prompt: How many hours did you sleep the night before this daily was put in? Write 1200 words about your various characters’ sleep habits and the effects they have on them for 700 points. For every hour that you slept that night, you have to write 100 fewer than the 1200—so if you slept 8 hours, you only need to write 400 words. (Caps at 10 hours for 200 words.) There are no points for proof.

Ours of sleep I got: 9


Gale watches me intently, his tail flicking from side to side as he stares. I let him jump up next
to me, watching as he springs up onto the bed. He pads around the bed before rubbing past me, choosing a place to lie down. I sigh as he curls up next to me, waiting for my affection. I stroke him gently down the spine, watching as his smooth, grey, fur ripples in waves. Technically, I’m supposed to be in bed sleeping, definitely not patting the cat. I certainly love Gale, but it’s not like I’m staying up for his sake, as much as that would make him happy. Technically I have an assignment due tomorrow, or today I guess because I’m pretty sure it’s about 2 in the morning. I don’t actually have much to write, only about 200 words left, but I’m pretty much falling asleep on my laptop. I don’t generally stay up past 11:00, sure there is the odd occasion, like on New Years, but I’ve never had to do it over an assignment. I don’t usually procrastinate badly enough on anything to affect my sleep. I like to get my 8 hours so that I don’t doze off at my desk during a test or SAC.

I shift a little as Gale leans into me, purring almost too quietly for me to hear. I gently rub between his ears as he stretches out. I smile, staring down at him before writing a closing sentence to finish off my essay. I shut my laptop, and slide it onto my bedside table, stroking Gale for a final time before slipping under my doona. I curve away from him to leave him room and flick off my lamp, falling asleep before I can even begin to count sheep.

300 words

weekly for thriller! 2516 words *dances*

part 1 // 830 words

Fake Crime
Warning. Do you ever feel safe at home? Is it the only place you feel relaxed? Do the shadows outside seem like someone else's? Or do you wonder if you're being watched, even with all the security around you? If you do feel safe at home, please stop reading and leave now. This article will make you feel extremely unsteady and frightened.

People all over America have been going missing over the past few weeks. It started with Carolina Weaver, a young girl at 23 who unfortunately lived alone in the USA. It was the 20th of June when this incident happened. She was kidnapped at night, around 1 am, police officers, say, with no evidence that she'd been stolen. None of her possessions was missing, not even her box of priceless jewellery. No fingerprints, footprints outside, open windows or even some tiny mark would've been evidence that she was kidnapped. It was days before anyone realised she was missing. Her mother, Emalee Weaver, had a few words to say. She'll describe the situation she's been in.

“I was visiting my daughter on Friday like I always do. I arrived at the house and found it in a quiet state which at that stage, I did not suspect anything since Caro works at home by herself and does not communicate with others often,” Emalee said, sobbing. “I knocked on the door and called out to her to let her know I was here. She usually responds. But when she didn't, I dug the key to her house out of my handbag and unlocked the front door. It was dark and unusually creepy. The lights were off. I walked upstairs slowly and opened her bedroom door, thinking she was submerged in another painting or sleeping, but instead saw a terrible scene. Terrible for me, that is.” She quickly wiped her face with a handkerchief and continued talking. “Her bed was tidy, everything was in place - Caro never leaves her bedroom neat. And she's always in her bedroom. Never in the kitchen or living room. I decided that she was somewhere else, not wanting to believe the truth. I stood up shakily and started searching the rest of the house. I couldn't find her, but instead, I found this note.” Emalee raised a note she was holding, which was now dripping in tears. “It said, We've taken your daughter. We'll come back for you. So I grabbed the note, flew outside and called the police. They investigated and said it was highly likely she was kidnapped.”
The police were stumped as to what to do. Until came along the next clue.

Kevin Ashton, an 11-year-old boy, was kidnapped at night from his bed alongside 3 other sleeping family members on the 28th of June in Canada. It was pretty much the same situation as Caroline. Nothing/no one apart from Kevin was missing. The family was puzzled as to how he was kidnapped. Except for this time, there were more clues. The whole family will be here to tell the story.

“It was a peaceful night,” Kevin's parents Amanda and Samuel Ashton said. “Kevin went to bed at 9 o'clock, earlier than he normally does. He said he was tired and wanted to go to bed early. We didn't hear a peep out of him, no sounds, no words after he went upstairs. We went to bed at 11 o'clock, suspecting nothing as Kevin slept away. ”The next day was crazy. Since it was the holidays, we didn't check on Kevin like we normally would. He sleeps extremely late, sometimes waking at times like 11 o'clock. It was noon before we peeped inside his bedroom and saw the empty bedroom.“

”Mommy and daddy freak out,“ said Katie, Kevin's six-year-old little sister. ”They scream Kevin's name a lot of times everywhere in the house. My ears hurt now,“ she paused, rubbing her ears. ”I do remember something weird though. In the middle of my dreams, there were lots of thumps. Might have been people trying to take Kevin but he fight.“ Rubbing her head, she unexpectedly grinned at the reporter.

Interestingly enough though, this time there was a clue. Within hours of the family's discovery of Kevin's disappearance, Katie noticed/found something weird. It was a black stub, around the size of a fingertip.

Katie held it up proudly. ”See? I found this. I found this on Kevin's windowsill when mommy and daddy clean Kevin's bed and searched for glues. I am super detective.“

The police have taken it in for testing, and they have confirmed that this is yet another kidnap crime.

After Carolina and Kevin's disappearance, many others were gone too. Lily Sodkins, a 12-year-old girl in Mexico. Porter Hampson, a 20-year-old man in Canada. Many more followed. At every crime, there seemed to be at least one black stub or a mysterious note, warning that the kidnappers would come back for more. So…

Do you feel safe at home anymore?

part 2 // 832 words

Scratch opinion (I did a bad job of this, It turned into an swc advertisement halfway through)

”Mum? I was searching online for an educational game to play… I found this. Scratch. Can I make an account?“

Scratch is a free educational coding website for ages 8 to 16 (although many scratchers are beyond/below that age range) that allows children to build code using blocks, similar to Python script, but more kid-friendly. People who use the website, also known as Scratchers, can create a free account, communicate with other scratchers and share their creations with the world. Scratch is taught and used in after-school centres, schools, and colleges, as well as other public knowledge institutions. The website is developed by the MIT media lab. As of July 15, the community stats are 108,448,778 projects shared, 93,145,417 users registered, 657,090,656 comments posted, 31,297,416 studios created …and growing!

My personal experience on scratch was very fun, I made quite a few new friends and learned the basics of vector drawing and coding. I joined on Sunday, May the 31st, at around 8 in the morning. The reason? Covid-19 had entered the community a few months ago and there was a lockdown. It lasted quite long and my parents wanted me to stop pestering them all day to do something so my mum asked me to search online for educational games to play.

Now, at the age of 8, I wasn't used to using a computer yet so it took me quite a while to search for something up. I went to a collection of websites and scrolled through them. Most of them looked like the same old boring stuff, like reading eggs (no shame on reading eggs though people). One website caught my eye though, and I made a vow to look back on it later. It was, of course, Scratch.

I went on to the website of scratch and looked through it. I first tried out the coding. It was amazing to me that with just a few blocks joined together, I could make an object move! It was great fun and I found it interesting that people were able to communicate with others, get feedback, join studios, and follow others. I wanted to get started right away. Trouble was, I didn't have an account.

”Mum? I was searching online for an educational game to play… I found this. Scratch. Can I make an account?“

”Of course." was both my mum and dad's reply.

I was delighted. My sister too, as she was searching alongside me. As our dad helped with the email, my sister and I discussed the name of our account. We came to a final decision. Our first account was @Abby-Anna. @Abby-Anna was an account intended to be shared by both me and my sister, but I quickly realised that my sister didn't know how to code and would surely mess up my projects. So, me being the evil sister I always was, I banned her from using the account and made another for her, @Anna-Abby. It turned out she wasn't that interested in scratch anyways, so I had an account all to myself.

I started growing my account by making various projects like pong games and platformers. My first scrolling platformer was what got me some attention. It had 40 views, which was extremely exciting to me at that time (not anymore!) Despite the poor quality projects that I made, I gained around 300 followers because of F4F (follow for follow)

I made my second account in 2021, on February the 20th at around 8 at night. It was @_kittykay_, the account I'm currently using. I decided to not do F4F this time and to keep my profile clean, so my progress was slow. I liked making better projects that I dedicated time to and having a small circle of friends, but that wasn't enough. Until I found SWC, my home on scratch.

SWC (scratch writing camp) has been a big part of my scratch journey. It's developed my writing skills and helped me make amazing new friends. My first session was in March 2021 with @Imacreamoo. Since then I've been coming back to SWC every session, every year. I think this is my fifth session? It's not just about the writing. It's about competitiveness with cabin points, the late night procrastinating and the amazing community. And of course, the mangoes and chaoticness of irresponsible children who stay up until one writing, writing, and writing more.

Apart from SWC, I've also joined SAC (scratch art camp), SRC (scratch reading camp) and once SSC (scratch science camp) and I found myself always coming back for more like I did with SWC. I'm currently in the Thriller Rift with the amazing leaders Birdi @Bellevue19, Moonlit @MoonlitSeas, and Kit @KitVMH. That's part of the reason why I'm doing this, sci-fi has caught up to us.

Overall, what do I think of scratch? I think scratch is a great educational place for people from ages 8 - 16, full of amazing people, opportunities to learn coding and many welcoming communities.

part 3 // 525 words

AHH! My schedule is so busy that I barely have time to help my team in SWC? What should I do? - Emma201112y
Dear Emma201112y,
Now this is a situation that I understand. Unfortunately this happened to me in March too, and my best advice is to go online whenever possible. I know it sounds lame, but that's what I did and although I wasn't able to do many weeklies and dailies, I was able to write many words and words = points. So if you seriously can't get online, just write a lot! Even though it may not help now, at the end the total of your cabin's words will be added to the points. If you want to be a bit more evil, let's say you can fake being sick and earn a whole day at home just relaxing and writing. And of course, there's always the classic ‘stay up late’ solution, though that isn't recommended and you'll likely get roasted by your leaders.
Hope that helped!

I think my cat is plotting to kill me. What do I do - smalltoe
Dear smalltoe,
Oh, no cats are evil. You know, they aren't capable of actually killing you, even with their incredibly sharp claws, so don't worry too much. Their eyes - at night, the evil glint and the way they stare at you make me wonder if they're part of a secret rebellion. I take it back. Scrap my earlier advice. To prevent your cat from killing you (probably at night) lock it in an unused room or stinky bathroom.
Just pray your cat likes the stinky bathroom and doesn't rip the door down.
Don't forget to put their litter box there.

I like oreos but where i live, sugar isn't allowed (in any way, so we don't have food) so how should i smuggle oreos - Mydoggiedaisy
Dear Mydoggiedaisy,
This one's a bit more straightforward than the ones before. My advice is simple - buy sugar free oreos. Not sure if there are sugar free ones though. You could always make your own, but it won't taste as good as store brought oreos. Sneaking in oreos is much harder, but you could always try disguising oreos as some other boring round food or object. You don't have food? Just fly to another country. Or you could scream at the government. The food court at SWC always sells oreos, too, no matter what the rules are.
Hope you get to eat oreos soon!

my toilet won't stop talking to me – i kicked it and it just makes it talk louder - Polarbear_17
Dear Polarbear_17,
Interesting… I've never heard of a talking toilet before. Is it electrical? If so, unplug its electricity and it'll stop working. If not electrical, I suggest shutting your toilet's lid (aka its mouth) and sitting on it. Perhaps that will help. Or maybe you're just hallucinating. If so, go to your doctor immediately.
Have fun trying to make your toilet stop talking!

My poor sleep schedule has led me to get a bad grade, and my parents are very strict about them. They won't let me do SWC now What should I do? - Cherrie_Tree
Dear Cherrie_Tree,
You practically can't be an SWC camper if you have a good sleep schedule (just kidding I'm joking but staying up late is an swc tradition) Have you tried bargaining? Like if you tell your parents ‘I’ll sleep at 9 pm and wake up at 7 pm every day in November if I can do SWC' or ‘I’ll study for an hour every day if you let me do SWC for 30 minutes a day'. Start small, like ‘I’ll study for 30 minutes a day if you let me write for SWC every 2 days' and gradually build the offers up until you've managed to balance your sleep, school and swc time and make your parents happy.
Hope this helped!

part 4 // 329 words

Horoscopes (I thought I'd give this a try even though horoscopes are against my beliefs)

Aries: Practise both your strengths and weaknesses, Aries. You will play a significant role in earth's history soon, though it will not be the role you expected it to be.
Taurus: Holding grudges is dangerous for you, Taurus. Don't be too stubborn. Forgive others who forgive you, even if they've hurt you before.
Gemini: Be careful, Gemini. You need to know when to start and stop, for curiosity kills the cat.
Cancer: Practice calming yourself down, Cancer. Your time will end soon if you continue to always be moody and temperamental.
Leo: Do not be too prideful and arrogant, Leo. Instead, focus on your creativity and generosity, for it will fulfil your dreams to the fullest point of your heart.
Virgo: The dreams of your life, your soul and your spirit are coming nearer, Virgo. Keep working hard and giving everything the best you can!
Libra: Don't dig into relationships too early, Libra. With your beauty and luxury, your soulmate will find you, not you finding them.
Scorpio: Find the courage in yourself, Scorpio. Although you may want to be timid and weak, it's time for you to be bold and strong.
Sagittarius: Live life a little faster today, Sagittarius. Today has many bad things to come, and you'll want to get over them quickly. Make sure not to panic, and try to focus a little more on what you fear to help yourself.
Capricorn: Set aside your personality and try to communicate with others today. You may find that understanding others' emotions will be even better than facts.
Aquarius: You tend to float away with your thoughts, Aquarius. Today is a day that the world will need the real you on earth, not your daydreams. Try to anchor yourself to the earth's core to prevent you from flying away, even if you won't enjoy it.
Pisces: Don't overwhelm yourself. It's dangerous today, Pisces. Don't be afraid to swim free and recreate yourself, for it's important for your future.

Critique for @Figurative-Wings writing comp entry

(Btw, these are just suggestions, so you don't necessarily have to use all of it) ^^

All in front of both of us. In front of Pine.

Okay, so my first impression from these sentences is that they're redundant. When you say “both of us,” it indicates that Pine is already included, so I don't know if you need to include her name again in the second sentence. I also think you could make it more concise by getting ride of the “All” in the first sentence. After reading it a few times, I realize that you're trying to make an emphasis on Pine (which I totally get) but just something to think about

I rest a hand against her wrist.

The phrasing of this sentence is a little…awkward. Normally (at least in my opinion) you don't really see people rest their hands against other people's arms. Like, that just seems kind of unnatural. Instead, maybe you could say something along the lines of “I grasp my hand around her wrist.” (indicating that Helix is grabbing Pine's wrist)

A face appearing at the hatch. Not some kind of authority, lucky for me—just a kid. My age.

Here, “My” is the only word not italicized. Did you mean to emphasis this word? If so, drawing attention to this one word seems unnecessary. I think the fact that its a sentence fragment already says enough.

Images flash, now: her beaming face as she takes her own room onboard (much smaller than my captain’s quarters, but she doesn’t seem to care). Our first storm aloft, where I’m positive we’re going to crash and she says no and guides my every movement until we find a place to dock. Bringing up my adventuring, treasure-hunting family for the first time and watching her fidget. Gaping as I learn that her mother governs a city-state, then shrugging. Okay. You’re still my navigator.
You always will be.

No critique for this bit, I just really like this paragraph

But the sense fades as she rattles off a description of all the places I could go and how to get there.

Hmm, something about “rattles off” isn't really clear. I propose two possible solutions:
1. You can change it to “rattles off on…” (so add that extra “on”)
2. OR, you could chance “a description” to “descriptions” (making it plural) because Pine is mentioning multiple places.

Final words: I honestly really liked this piece! The characters and the plot were super cool and it was really interesting to read!