Author: RyanQ

”The Moustache” by Robert Cormier is a short story about a teenage boy by the name of Mike who is visiting his grandmother, Nana, in a nursing home. Because of his moustache, Mike’s grandmother mistakes him for her dead husband. As a result, Mike learns that Nana has guilted herself with her final argument with her husband before his death.

Mike has a girlfriend, Cindy, and he was bringing her to the movies in the Downtown Cinema. Mike’s mom was checking up on Mike so he could be formal for the movie, and then she said: “And that moustache. I still say a seventeen-year-old has no business wearing a moustache.”

Mike told her mother: “It’s an experiment,” but his mother wasn’t convinced and told him that the moustache is costing him money.

It is a Friday night and the Downtown Cinema has a half price for high school couples, seventeen and younger. Sadly, the woman in the box office took one look at Mike’s moustache and charged full price, even Cindy’s ticket. He couldn’t buy a burger for Cindy or himself since the clerk charged full price. Also, Mike has to study hard for a scholarship, so he didn’t own a car, and Cindy is really frustrated over that.

In order to cheer his girlfriend up, he told her that he would shave it off, although he wasn’t planning to. He has to visit his grandmother and her mother told him that his grandmother won’t even recognize him.

Soon enough, he reached the nursing home and there he was greeted by his grandmother who said: “Mike, Mike, I didn’t think you’d come,” and continued with: “I’ve been waiting all this time. See the birds? I’ve been watching them at the feeder. I love to see them come. Even the blue jays. The blue jays are like hawks — they take the food that the small birds should
have. But the small birds, the chickadees, watch the blue jays and at least learn where the feeder is.”

Mike looked around and didn’t see a feeder nor a bird. She complimented about a new coat, and Mike was dumbfounded, and then the attendant came in for juice time, and she conspiratorial winked at Mike and asked Mike’s grandmother for cranberry or orange juice. She noted that cranberyr was good for the bones.

She continued and realized that before his grandpa died, he had a big fight with his grandma, and also, she thought that Mike was the grandpa due to the moustache. She forced Mike to say: “I forgive you, Meg.” With this information in his head, he rushed home, hoping this didn’t happen between his parents.

Then, he shaved off the moustache with the electric razor that Cindy gave him for Christmas. He did this since he didn’t want any relation to the things he just interpreted.

The story “A Sound of Thunder,” Starts when a man named Eckels enters the office of Time Safari, Inc., a company that offers time travel to hunters that want to hunt prehistoric animals. Eckels gives a check for $10000 to the clerk and asks if the company ensures that hunters return alive from the past. The person replies that the company guarantees no safety, only the guarantee of dinosaurs. Hunters must strictly obey their guides, shooting only what and when they are instructed to shoot. Any disobedience will result in a $10000 fine, and also possible government penalties.

Eckels studies the nearby time machine and tells the clerk that having Deustcher as a president would be awful. The clerk agrees that it would indeed have been awful if Deutscher had been elected. The two men quickly return, however, to discussing the opportunity Eckels will have to shoot a T-Rex, the most famous prehistoric dinosaur. The clerk warns that if Eckels is attacked and eaten by a dinosaur, the company is not liable. Six safari guides died last year, along with a dozen hunters. The clerk asks Eckels seriously that he really wants to do this trip.

Eckels says that he does, and so he is introduced to Travis, the experienced safari guide who will lead this safari. Travis and Eckels, carrying rifles, enter the time machine, which is already occupied by Travis’s assistant, and two other hunters, Billings and Kramer. The machine kicks into operation and the nights, days, weeks, months, years, centuries, and millennia zooms by . Leaving A.D 2055, the men soon arrive in the middle of a jungle that existed millions of years ago.

As they look out of the time machine, Travis points out a metal path into the jungle. Made of anti-gravity metal, it hovers half a foot above the ground. It was placed there by the company to prevent hunters from in any way having physical contact with the jungle. Travis tells them that they are never to leave the path. He sternly told the men pay careful attention to this rule and never violate it. They are not to touch anything, and they are not to shoot at any animals unless Travis approves. When Eckels asks why, Travis explains that the company does not want to take any chances by changing anything at all about the future. Destroying even an insect, mouse, or any other living thing could cause undeterminable consequences in the future. This is especially the case since killing one living thing in the jungle would mean wiping out the potential offspring of that thing, and thus the offsprings’ offspring, and so on and on and on for infinite generations. The results of killing anything in the jungle are literally unpredictable, even bacteria, which is one reason that all the men are wearing oxygen masks. Killing just one animal might some day mean, for instance, that a future caveman might not survive by eating the distant offspring of that animal, and the non-survival of that caveman would change human history forever. In short: no one is to kill anything except an animal that would die almost 2 seconds after the encounter with the hunters. Which the company sprayed with red paint.

The company sent scouts to record any accidental deaths, that occur on a certain time frame, and they mark the dinosaur with red paint. Then, when they kill that certain dinosaur, then it wouldn’t have altered anything, since it was gonna die almost immediately after.

Eckels was scared when a T-rex marked with red paint approached, and ran off the trail, kicking up dirt. Travis screamed at him and told him to take the bullets out of the dinosaur. I would imagine that to be very disgusting. When they went back to the future, they realized that the president was changed, and the entire alphabet was in complete mayhem and the atmosphere had a different type of gas . Out of pure rage, Travis shot Eckels, and Eckels died.

When Miss Orville arrives as a substitute teacher for Roger’s class, she required that the students be obedient. She was a harsh and strict teacher, that’s why Roger called her ”Miss Awful”. However, on Miss Orville’s last day before she leaves Roger’s class, Roger realized that Miss Orville’s point of being harsh and strict was that she wanted to let them have a better life. Roger learned that we shouldn’t judge people until we’ve been in their shoes. Just like the quote: “Don’t judge a book by the cover”

Roger had the nicest teacher before, Miss Wilson. She played with the students during classes and even let the students take some rest. When she gave homework, Roger didn’t even care about it. Once she left for a week to Omaha for a trip, the students got a new substitute. She was stringent and mean. She came to the classroom with her plant in one hand, and bunch of works on the other. She was Ms. Orville, and students called her “Miss Awful” . Miss Orville confiscated Roger’s toys, ripped the papers of students who didn’t do the homework correctly, marched them in and out from the schools, and complained about the students to their parents. She insulted Roger by calling him the prodigy of misspelling. Then she asked Roger to spell flower and castle but he couldn’t. After this embarrassment of Mrs. and Mr. Clark were surprised to see how Roger became smarter and was afraid of her. Another day when parents came to pick up their children Nancy Reeves, Roger’s friend’s mother remembered that she knew Miss Orville and said that she was evicted from her apartment and was left homeless with her plants.

Since the students hated her they thought of many horrid ways of getting rid of her like beating her up. Another was the idea to rip the leaves of her plant. Miss Awful started her last day with announcement: “If I have been severe with you this past week, it was for your benefit. The world needs good citizens.” Then after when she saw the plant all bare she continued: “You see, Violence and destruction, Whoever is responsible, please feel remorse for your actions.” After the class ended there was no forming lines and some students were in regret while others were happy she was gone. She gave Roger his toys, and he understood why she was stringent to the students.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Austria in 1756. This young prodigy learned to play the clavier (piano) at age 4, and made his first symphony by the age of eight. In his lifetime, he would create up to 600 works of music, especially his famous Requiem mass, made right before he died.

As Mozart grew older, he managed to seize a job as a Court musician for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. He made so many symphonies and operas to the point where he got bored and went to Paris. That choice didn’t work well, and he ended up back in Salzburg, serving Archbishop Colloredo. They battled a lot, and finally, Mozart gave in and traveled to Vienna, which at the time, was a musical center for Europe. He was recognized and praised, and even married Constanze Weber, the third daughter of a musical family. Later, Constanze would prove a good financial supervisor for Mozart.

Finally, Mozart reached his peak. He was still in debt, but with the amount of revenue coming in, he moved into a opulent new penthouse and started spending money lasvishly. Soon, the world started to change, and it was really hard for a musician to survive and live a luxurious life. Roughly around 1786, Mozart’s fame depleted almost completely, with him barely performing in public.

He was forced to get a job as a chamber musician for the emperor to survive. He moved to other cities to spark his fame just like in Vienna, but all those uprisings weren’t successful. Luckily, in 1790, his financial situation started looking positive and here we are, still writing about his fame and music.

Sadly, by 1791, Mozart was in his deathbed, and he was writing his Requiem Mass. He finished the piece and conceded to death. This famous genius became world renowned even inspiring the great Beethoven. After 229 years, we are still speaking of his legacy.

This short story is fate themed, which includes a beautiful young princess of a semi-barbaric king falls in love with a young prince. The king didn’t like this so he implemented his “justice system” on the prince. He believed in fate and justice , so fate would decide what happened, but would it?

To math geeks, this is just probability , fifty fifty chance. Yet, back then, it was fate, (because people were slow in the head). Anyway, the kings “system” accommodated of a beautiful, young maiden (not the princess, but the most beautiful girl in the empire), and a hungry, vicious tiger. He would summon the prince in front of two doors, one was the maiden, and the other the tiger.

If the prince were to get lucky and chose the maiden, he was forced to marry her. If you got the tiger, it would rip you apart and eat you alive. My sentiment towards this would be, get lucky and suffer for about 3 seconds, or get hunted down and POSSIBLY die.

This means, you pick the tiger and die a painful, bloody death, or you pick the maiden and get your girlfriend or wife to come after your head. Basically, it sucks both ways. Also, you might not like the maiden, she may be beautiful and all, but her personality is what really matters.

There is an advantage to getting killed by the tiger, it will be a quick, but painful death. The alternative would be your wife torturing you with Chinese water torture ( developed by the Chinese, it sucks, search it up). Although there is a slight chance you can get away without getting hunted down by your wife, whereas the tiger kills you 100% of the time.

Also, people might have not considered the fact that, even if you die from the tiger, you die with loyalty to your wife and her family. That is a happy thought. Alas, when you marry the maiden, you betray your family and your ex-wife’s family.

In a recent study, we have noticed that scientists and engineers around the world are developing new technology, yet rushing these projects aren’t necessarily helping us. We can’t ensure our code is safe, plus the fact that we are rushing this, makes this mission perilous. We are creating AI and a lot of other things to try and face Covid, but these things have the potential to KILL, like literally kill a human.

We are creating so many things and telling states and countries to enforce quarantine, yet is this always good? I think not. The article states that people are starting to have less trust and faith in science. This virus provided a cover for governments to expand power and emit fear among the citizens. Even with millions of people’s lives at stake, we are still doing it.

Also, the more technology, there will be more chaos, and AI’s might start thinking on their own. With the government doing their power expansion, citizens freedom might be slowly corroded away.

Alas, I will say this again: There are millions of people’s lives at stake, going overdrive on technology will only make things worse. I think that we should take this virus slowly and steadily, and slowly find a vaccine.

”The Moustache” by Robert Cormier is a short story about a teenage boy by the name of Mike who is visiting his grandmother, Nana, in a nursing home. Because of his moustache, Mike’s grandmother mistakes him for her dead husband. As a result, Mike learns that Nana has guilted herself with her final argument with her husband before his death.

Mike has a girlfriend, Cindy, and he was bringing her to the movies in the Downtown Cinema. Mike’s mom was checking up on Mike so he could be formal for the movie, and then she said: “And that moustache. I still say a seventeen-year-old has no business wearing a moustache.”

Mike told her mother: “It’s an experiment,” but his mother wasn’t convinced and told him that the moustache is costing him money.

It is a Friday night and the Downtown Cinema has a half price for high school couples, seventeen and younger. Sadly, the woman in the box office took one look at Mike’s moustache and charged full price, even Cindy’s ticket. He couldn’t buy a burger for Cindy or himself since the clerk charged full price. Also, Mike has to study hard for a scholarship, so he didn’t own a car, and Cindy is really frustrated over that.

In order to cheer his girlfriend up, he told her that he would shave it off, although he wasn’t planning to. He has to visit his grandmother and her mother told him that his grandmother won’t even recognize him.

Soon enough, he reached the nursing home and there he was greeted by his grandmother who said: “Mike, Mike, I didn’t think you’d come,” and continued with: “I’ve been waiting all this time. See the birds? I’ve been watching them at the feeder. I love to see them come. Even the blue jays. The blue jays are like hawks — they take the food that the small birds should
have. But the small birds, the chickadees, watch the blue jays and at least learn where the feeder is.”

Mike looked around and didn’t see a feeder nor a bird. She complimented about a new coat, and Mike was dumbfounded, and then the attendant came in for juice time, and she conspiratorial winked at Mike and asked Mike’s grandmother for cranberry or orange juice. She noted that cranberyr was good for the bones.

She continued and realized that before his grandpa died, he had a big fight with his grandma, and also, she thought that Mike was the grandpa due to the moustache. She forced Mike to say: “I forgive you, Meg.” With this information in his head, he rushed home, hoping this didn’t happen between his parents.

Then, he shaved off the moustache with the electric razor that Cindy gave him for Christmas. He did this since he didn’t want any relation to the things he just interpreted.

When Miss Orville arrives as a substitute teacher for Roger’s class, she required that the students be obedient. She was a harsh and strict teacher, that’s why Roger called her ”Miss Awful”. However, on Miss Orville’s last day before she leaves Roger’s class, Roger realized that Miss Orville’s point of being harsh and strict was that she wanted to let them have a better life. Roger learned that we shouldn’t judge people until we’ve been in their shoes. Just like the quote: “Don’t judge a book by the cover”

Roger had the best and nicest teacher before, Miss Wilson. She played with the students during classes and even let the students take some rest. When she gave homework, Roger didn’t even care about it. Once she left for a week to Omaha for a trip, the students got a new substitute. She was stringent and mean. She came to the classroom with her plant in one hand, and bunch of works on the other. She was Ms. Orville, and students called her “Miss Awful” . Miss Orville confiscated Roger’s toys, ripped the papers of students who didn’t do the homework correctly, marched them in and out from the schools, and complained about the students to their parents. She insulted Roger by calling him the prodigy of misspelling. Then she asked Roger to spell flower and castle but he couldn’t. After this embarrassment of Mrs. and Mr. Clark were surprised to see how Roger became smarter and was afraid of her. Another day when parents came to pick up their children Nancy Reeves, Roger’s friend’s mother remembered that she knew Miss Orville and said that she was evicted from her apartment and was left homeless with her plants.

Since the students hated her they thought of many horrid ways of getting rid of her like beating her up. Another was the idea to rip the leaves of her plant. Miss Awful started her last day with announcement: “If I have been severe with you this past week, it was for your benefit. The world needs good citizens.” Then after when she saw the plant all bare she continued: “You see, Violence and destruction, Whoever is responsible, please feel remorse for your actions.” After the class ended there was no forming lines and some students were in regret while others were happy she was gone. She gave Roger his toys, and he understood why she was stringent to the students.

The story “A Sound of Thunder,” Starts when a man named Eckels enters the office of Time Safari, Inc., a company that offers time travel to hunters that want to hunt prehistoric animals. Eckels gives a check for $10000 to the clerk and asks if the company ensures that hunters return alive from the past. The person replies that the company guarantees no safety, only the guarantee of dinosaurs. Hunters must strictly obey their guides, shooting only what and when they are instructed to shoot. Any disobedience will result in a $10000 fine, and also possible government penalties.

Eckels studies the nearby time machine and tells the clerk that having Deustcher as a president would be awful. The clerk agrees that it would indeed have been awful if Deutscher had been elected. The two men quickly return, however, to discussing the opportunity Eckels will have to shoot a T-Rex, the most famous prehistoric dinosaur. The clerk warns that if Eckels is attacked and eaten by a dinosaur, the company is not liable. Six safari guides died last year, along with a dozen hunters. The clerk asks Eckels seriously that he really wants to do this trip.

Eckels says that he does, and so he is introduced to Travis, the experienced safari guide who will lead this safari. Travis and Eckels, carrying rifles, enter the time machine, which is already occupied by Travis’s assistant, and two other hunters, Billings and Kramer. The machine kicks into operation and the nights, days, weeks, months, years, centuries, and millennia zooms by . Leaving A.D 2055, the men soon arrive in the middle of a jungle that existed millions of years ago.

As they look out of the time machine, Travis points out a metal path into the jungle. Made of anti-gravity metal, it hovers half a foot above the ground. It was placed there by the company to prevent hunters from in any way having physical contact with the jungle. Travis tells them that they are never to leave the path. He sternly told the men pay careful attention to this rule and never violate it. They are not to touch anything, and they are not to shoot at any animals unless Travis approves. When Eckels asks why, Travis explains that the company does not want to take any chances by changing anything at all about the future. Destroying even an insect, mouse, or any other living thing could cause undeterminable consequences in the future. This is especially the case since killing one living thing in the jungle would mean wiping out the potential offspring of that thing, and thus the offsprings’ offspring, and so on and on and on for infinite generations. The results of killing anything in the jungle are literally unpredictable, even bacteria, which is one reason that all the men are wearing oxygen masks. Killing just one animal might some day mean, for instance, that a future caveman might not survive by eating the distant offspring of that animal, and the non-survival of that caveman would change human history forever. In short: no one is to kill anything except an animal that would die almost 2 seconds after the encounter with the hunters. Which the company sprayed with red paint.

The company sent scouts to record any accidental deaths, that occur on a certain time frame, and they mark the dinosaur with red paint. Then, when they kill that certain dinosaur, then it wouldn’t have altered anything, since it was gonna die almost immediately after.

Eckels was scared when a T-rex marked with red paint approached, and ran off the trail, kicking up dirt. Travis screamed at him and told him to take the bullets out of the dinosaur. I would imagine that to be very disgusting. When they went back to the future, they realized that the president was changed, and the entire alphabet was in complete mayhem and the atmosphere had a different type of gas . Out of pure rage, Travis shot Eckels, and Eckels died.

This short story is a fate themed, in which a young princess of a barbaric king falls in love with a young prince. Obviously, the king didn’t like this, come on, which barbaric king would? He was a fate believer and also believed in justice, so fate would decide, but would it?

After all, this is just probability in modern days, fifty fifty chance. Yet, back then, it was fate, (because people were dumb dumb). His plan accommodated of a beautiful, young maiden, and a hungry, vicious tiger. He would summon the prince in front of two doors, one was the maiden, and the other the tiger.

If the prince were to get lucky and chose the maiden, he was forced to marry her. If you got the tiger, it would rip you apart and eat you alive. My sentiment towards this would be, get lucky and suffer, or die.

You might not understand, but this means, you pick the tiger and die a painful, bloody death, or you pick the maiden and get your girlfriend or wife to come after your head. Basically, it sucks both ways. Also, you might not like the maiden, she may be beautiful and all, but her personality is what you look at.

There is an advantage to getting killed by the tiger, it will be a quick, but painful death, whereas your wife could torture with Chinese water torture ( developed by the Chinese, it sucks). Although there is a slight chance you can get away with out getting hunted by your wife.

Also, you haven’t considered the fact that, even if you die from the tiger, you die with loyalty your wife and her family. That is a happy thought.