Tag Archives: travel

The Camp Half-Blood Tournament

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 The Camp Half-Blood Tournament                           

  By Lily Chase

My name is Holly Victor, I’m 15, and my mom is Nike goddess of victory. My mother is not the easiest person or god to get along with,then again most gods aren’t. Oh my dad is a mortal which means he is only human. I was sitting in my cabin at Camp Half-Blood which is a camp for half bloods.

 I heard a noise outside my cabin and I looked out the window. There were campers outside like normal but they looked annoyed. I went out to see what was happening. 

“What happened?” I asked my sister, Laurel, who was standing on the deck in front of our cabin. 

“The dryads want the best volleyball players and the campers want us.” she said. I looked out to the crowd gathered around the cabin and they looked back at me. 

“ What do they want us for? I asked my sister.

“They want you more than me but still.” She said

“But why?”

“The dryads want to have a volleyball tournament against the campers.” 

I looked at her “oh,ok lets play.” 

She rolled her eyes “whatever, what team?”

“Duh, campers”

“Let us practise.”

The campers let us go to the court and Laurel and I stood in the middle of the court and picked the best players we knew.

“Lets have the Nike cabin and some of the Hermes cabin.” I said.

“ Which members of the Hermes cabin do you want?” a camper asked 

I point to the people I want and my sister agrees with me.

“Lets go meet the dryads.” 

We go meet the dryads that will represent them.

One comes up to us 

“Lets set the rules, shall we.” she says

We go to the forest, the campers welding celestial bronze weapons. 

“Ok we’re here, what do you want for rules.” the dryads which I learned to be Bluebell.

“There will be no cheating, no having others cheat for your team that goes for both teams.” I said looking at the Hermes cabin players. They looked at me sheepishly. 

“ Ok those will be the rules.” says Bluebell. “ You must go before you get hungry.” 

“ Yes, lets go everyone.” my sister says. 

We leave the clearing and go to the dining pavilion. I see Chiron and go up to him.

“ What is a good time to use the volleyball court?” I ask. 

“Ah, yes I was wondering when you would ask that. Let me think. I think you could use it this weekend if you would allow the other campers and dryads to watch.” 

“ Of course they can.” I said smiling. I walked to my table for the Nike children and my sisters and brothers asked when we could do the tournament.

“Chiron said we could do it this weekend, so we’ll see when the dryads want to do it.” I said.They all nod and we go to the fire to give our mom part of the food, which we do every meal. 

Later, we went to the campfire which is magical. The flames take their color to the mood of the campers there. When we got there everyone was talking about the tournament. When we entered everyone looked at us, then started talking again as it had gone silent. We went to sit down at our seats and I called the hermes players over to talk. They came over to us and sat down.

“ We will go to the forest after breakfast to see when the dryads want to do the tournament,then we will start practice.” I said. They all nod and get up, but I call one named Alice back.

“Yeah?”

“If I catch your cabin cheating I will make sure you don’t play.” I said, glaring. She laughs

“Ok, we won’t.” I let her leave and I turned to talk to my boyfriend James, who is a son of Apollo. 

“Will you watch?”

“Of course I will. How could I not?” He said smiling and taking my hand. Chron calls for everyone to get to their cabins and the people who are left leave. At my cabin my siblings bombard me with questions.

“When do we start preparing the court?”

“When do we meet with dryads?”

“OK EVERYONE LETS LEAVE HER ALONE!” Everyone looked at my sister, who is the cabin counselor, 

“ We have a big day tomorrow as we have to practise. Lets get some good sleep. Lights out when everyone is in their bunks.”

The next morning I woke up to find I’m the first one awake so I used that to get ready in my orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and jean shorts with my hair up in a messy ponytail that I knew would send the Aphrodite cabin into fits. I sat on my bunk when the rest of my cabin woke up.

“Someone is up early.” Laurel says. “ Did you at least get a good night’s sleep?” 

“Yes, I did, Thank you very much.” I said. After the rest of my cabin gets ready Laurel calls for us to get in line so we can get out of the cabin to go eat. I waved to James, who was sitting at the Apollo table, and went to my table. After breakfast, I went and gathered the team. We went to the volleyball court and I left Laurel in charge so I could talk to Bluebell. After I got back I had the team start serving the ball to each other. We practised until lunch, I let the team take a break to eat. I stayed behind to practise more, when I heard someone call my name. I looked over my shoulder and saw James walking towards me. 

“Hey.” He said, waving “ Thought you might want something to eat.”

“Thanks.” I took the food and sat down on the grass and he sat with me.

“ You’re sweating so badly.” He said laughing. He put his hand on mine. I smiled at him and put my head on his shoulder.

“Hey lovebirds!” I look around to see Lacy, daughter of Aphrodite, coming round the benches. “You might want to get to the cabins before the harpies get you.” I looked up at the sky to see that it was almost dark out.

“Oh, yeah guess we should.” I said laughing “We do have a big day tomorrow.” I get up and head to my cabin just in time for my sister to say lights out. The next day I got up and headed to the bathroom to get ready for the game so I put on an old tank top and volleyball shorts. My sister came in and did the same as me. After that I had her braid my hair and I did the same to her hair. I went out to put on my knee pads and shoes. I let the rest of my cabin get ready for the game.

“ Make sure you have water to drink.” I say to the cabin “You need to make sure you have a good breakfast but make sure that it’s small.” They all nod and get in line. We get to the pavilion and sit down. I have a small granola bar which I give a bit to the gods. After I eat I wait for Chiron to get to the announcements. When he does the first thing he announces is that the volleyball tournament is today. Everyone starts cheering and yelling. Chiron has to stamp his hoof against the ground to quiet everyone down. He calls me and my sister to come up. We look at each other and head up.

“What’s up?”

“I want a fair game, understand.”

“ That is our rule.”

“Good, go get your team I will ref.” We go get our team and head to the Big House where we would get ready. If there were any injuries the Apollo cabin would be on standby. I hear the people sitting down around the court then hear the conch shell being blown, which signals it’s time to go out. I lead the way as I was chosen to be captain of the team. We make our way to the court and as we approach I see the dryads already there, even though it’s a longer walk to the court from the woods than from the house. 

“ LET THE GAMES BEGIN!” Chiron shouts. We begin by serving. It was going great until I heard a cry of pain. I looked around to see that Laurel was on the ground. I rushed over to her and asked what had happened. She was crying but managed to tell me that there was a root sticking out of the ground that she didn’t see. I looked around, confused because the only tree that was visible was Thalia’s tree which was on the hill. I looked at the dryads, who were looking away from the scene. I helped get my sister off the court and I asked a camper if they had seen anything. They said that they had seen one of the dryads use their magic. I went up to Chiron and told him what the camper saw.

“Oh! PENALTY ON THE DRYADS FOR USING MAGIC!”

“WHAT! WE DID NOTHING!” one said looking a little embarrassed 

  “Really are you sure?” I asked, looking at all of the dryads.

“Fine we did.” The crowd gasped and started to yell 

“CHEATERS!”
“YOU DON’T DESERVE TO WIN!”

  “SETTLE DOWN!” Chiron yelled. Everyone started to calm down and let            Chiron say what he had to say.

 “DRYADS ARE TO TAKE AWAY ONE PLAYER FOR TWO MINUTES!” 

“WHAT THAT’S NOT FAIR!” 

“YEAH!” The dryads started yelling, but Bluebell stopped them.

“We do not take well to that but we will do it.” the dryads started to complain but Bluebell raised her hand 

“That or we will forfeit.”

“NO!” 

“FINE! Who do you want to take out?”

“Meliai.” one of the dryads walked off the court and sat down on the grass. The rest looked annoyed but they let it go. 

“ON WITH THE GAME!” We continued the game, which we got to serve first. The conch shell sounded and the game stopped. We waited to find out who was the winner. 

“THE WINNERS ARE THE CAMPERS!” The crowd went crazy and ran to give us hugs. I stood there stunned and looked at the dryads, who were looking upset. I walked over to them, getting looks from the campers, and held my hand out.

“Good job. Do you want to come celebrate with us?”

“Why? we didn’t win.” Bluebell said

“This was for fun so we all win.”

“That’s fair. We’re in” we smile at each other and walk back to the group.

“LET’S PARTY!” 

We went to the beach to party, which our camp director Mr.D took care of . I was standing in the ocean when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked behind me and saw James standing there. He put his hand in mine and I put my head on his shoulder. He moved his head to kiss me on the head but I moved my head at the same time so we kissed each other.  After we went back to the party

Something in the Woods

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Something In the Woods     

Author: Bobby Joe

It’s September 15, 2022 and my family and I took a roadtrip to California. Our Family is a family of five so it gets pretty cramped on roadtrips. We live in West Virginia so a road trip to California is a long time. We leave for our trip tomorrow so I have to hurry and get packing and so does my family.

Melinda-mom: “On our way there we are stopping at  hotels on the way so we can get actual sleep because the ride is 2 days.”

Luke: “Why is the ride so long?”

Casyn: “Yeah this is going to take forever.”

David-dad “The ride will be over before you know it just play a game on your phone or go to sleep.”

When we finally all get time to pack we pack the car with all our things because we are staying there for three weeks and that’s a long time. We’re getting an AirBnb in california so we don’t have to stay in a small hotel room with a family of five. When we finally go to bed we all have to wake up at 6:30 and get ready for our trip and leave the house at 7:00. Before we leave the house we make sure we have everything such as our suitcases, phones, chargers, and etc. Then after we have checked everything we leave for California. My brothers and my sister are just on their phones which I understand because the car ride is going to be really boring. 

We’re only three hours in the trip and everyone is exhausted so we stop at a gas station to all take a break and get some food. My two brothers got slushies and hotdogs, my sister and I got soda and nachos. Theory had tables at the gas station so we could sit down and eat which was good because everyone didn’t want to go back in the hot cramped car. After we’re done eating we go back in the car and start driving again. Now we’re finally out of our state we are now in Kansas so we stop at a restaurant because it’s dinner time. The food we got was really good but now we have to go back in the car and start driving again. That’s our last stop until tomorrow. Now it’s time to go to bed so we stop at the hotel and  go to sleep but we have to go to bed early because now we’re leaving at 6:00. Once we went to bed we were in the car for 10 hours so we were finally half way through our trip. This time we didn’t stop anywhere and kept driving. We stopped at a gas station to get more food because we were all starving. Once we ate we got back in the car.

Another 10 hours go by and we only have 13 hours left to our trip. Everyone is so excited to get to California. Another 5 hours went by and we were so eager to get there that we were planning and thinking about all the fine things we were going to do when we got there. 

While we were in the car we all decided to play a game. We vote on play ISpy. Casyn: This game isn’t fair. So we all decided to stop playing.

We’re now in Nevada which is so close to California. Then a few more hours passed and we were finally in California and were all so excited. Once we get to our hotel we plan all of the fun things we’re going to do. Tomorrow we’re going on a hike in the woods and were so excited. Once it’s finally time to go to sleep I wake up in the middle of the night and hear strange noises. I just think it’s my mind messing with me so I go to bed but they keep on getting louder and louder and I get up out of bed and just drink some water and go to bed. The noises finally stop so I can sleep. The next morning we all got up and I didn’t say anything about the noises because it didn’t matter. Once we’re all done eating breakfast and getting ready we go for our hike in the woods.

We are finally leaving for the woods and were so excited to go hiking and explore. Were hiking for a good hour but Casyn asks to go to the bathroom so we find a rest stop and wait for him. 10 minutes pass and Casyn still isn’t done but that’s pretty normal for him so we think nothing of it. While we’re eating we all have a snack because we’re all very hungry. While we were eating it’s been 30 minutes and no sign of Casyn were all so worried so my dad goes and checks the bathroom. He comes out and he says Casyn isn’t in there. 

Were all so worried so we all went searching for him but no one could find him. We search for one hour then one hour turns into two and two into three and we can’t find Casyn. So we call the police and they arrive in an hour because we’re far in the woods. They arrive for an hour and report back to us. They give us terrible news. They tell us that there’s no sign of Casyn and he’s no nowhere to be found. So we continue hiking because we believe we can find Casyn but we hear weird noises and some sound like Casyn saying “help me”. So we all start getting freaked out but we keep searching. Then we see a black figure and we get so scared. 

But the black figure wont stop us from finding Casyn so we kept searching then we realized my other brother was gone. We were paying so much attention to finding Casyn that my brother disappeared. So now we’re disappointed and worried but then something grabs my leg and starts dragging me and it’s this black figure and we all get scared so we call the police and they get too scared and don’t know what to do. But we see Casyn and Drew behind the monster. We run towards them and grab them and run away from the woods as far as possible. We never go hiking again in California but we still have our whole vacation left so we keep doing things as planned. The next morning we wake up and decide to explore Los Angeles. But we keep hearing voices and we see the black figure again. It was like it was following us so we got scared and went back to our hotel and hid. But when we look out the window it’s there again so we’re all so scared and don’t know what to do.  We all decide to go to bed after a long day but then we all hear weird noises like scratching and tapping sounds. We all decide on getting a new hotel tomorrow in Beverly Hills. The next morning we wake up and get to our hotel and we enjoy the rest of our vacation. Until we feel like someone is watching us all the time. Once our vacation is done we drive home and we don’t say anything the whole ride because we still have that creepy feeling. We get used to the feeling and just continue with our lives.

★ Fly Back to Me ★ 

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★ Fly Back to Me ★ 

Made By: Quinn Hernández

Name: June, Age: 13, Grade: 8th

One day I was on my way to a Volleyball game when I ran into Mark and his gang in the halls.

 “What are you in a rush for short stuff?” he sneered. 

I rolled my eyes at him and snapped back, “None of your business jerk!”

 I sprint past him, to the beach where the match has already started. I groan under my breath, knowing I will be scolded by both my coach and my parents for being a few minutes late to the game. 

“What took you so long in June?”

 My coach didn’t sound happy once I had made it to where she was standing, “Sorry I ran into someone and they wouldn’t let me pass them for 5 minutes… But please don’t make me run laps for being a little late coach!”

 I pleaded for her not to make me run laps until she made a bet with me, “If you get us to win this game you don’t have to run laps. If not, then it’s 20 laps at practice.” 

I accept it and go switch with my teammate, the opposite team hits the ball over and within seconds I spike it down into the sand. 

The crowd cheers for us while others groan disappointed with the team they were going for. I give my friends high fives and handshakes then it’s my turn to serve. 

I tossed the ball up and hit it over the net. The other team hit it but it went into the net. We kept playing for some time till we needed the last winning points. Which made me think if I was making my coach proud or not?

 When I went to serve again a bird flew by, knowing the details of its blue and green color, I should have known it was my grandma’s pet parrot Mango. I made our last point and we won! 

After our huddle I look for my grandma and find her with my parents. I walk over and hug her asking how her and mango have been doing. “Oh we have been great! How have you been June?” 

“I have been good, I’ve  had better days but yeah.” 

I walk with her to the car and then we say our goodbyes. Once I get home I instantly shower, eat some dinner, brush my teeth, and go to bed.

 The next day my whole body was aching, I couldn’t bear to get out of bed but I still had to get ready for church. 

I got out of bed the pain and my body ached, but I fought it off and got dressed out of my pjs. I went downstairs to get myself some breakfast and called my best friend who also plays volleyball with me. 

“Hey girl, what’s up?”, she asks when she answers the phone. “ Hey Ally, I was wondering if you would be at church this morning?”, She was silent for a second before replying “ I’m already at church waiting for you”

 I nearly dropped the phone when I saw the time.  It’s 9:40?! Church starts in 20 minutes!

 I set the phone down on speaker while I shoot up the stairs and get dressed into my church uniform.

 I ran back down the stairs grabbing my toast with butter, my bag, and my phone. I get my shoes on as quickly as possible running out the door, I arrive at the church.

 Oh my gosh I am so tired from running… “Oh hey Ally” I’m panting my hands on my knees. “Jeez how long do you live from here again June?”

 She gives me a mocking grin and I stand up straight. “ I live like five blocks down the street from here down the hill.” I was breathing heavily, My blood started to boil when Mark called out “June you look like a mess!”

 He starts laughing and I’m on the last thread from punching him in the face. “Mark, stop it!” Ally tries to get him to stop while I just get more angry. 

Him and his gang just laugh, I grab Ally’s arm and walk away with her, my grip on her arm tightens,

 “Let’s go Ally….” My voice was cold as I just looked straight at the doors to inside the church. “Ow June, that kinda hurts!”

 she winces in pain, I let go of her arm and I continue walking to the doors. 

Mark follows us and he manage to catch up to us with how much faster of a walker he is than us two are. 

“What’s the matter June? Are you a little upset because you look like a wet dog right now?” His friends behind us snicker, 

I stop in my tracks and turn to Mark.  “ You either shut up Mark or I’m going to punch you in the nose. You always wanna bug me so that you can just get yourself hurt then!” I shout at him.

“You sound like a high pitched squirrel when you’re mad..” He sneers while he grabs my arm.

I could feel how tight his grip was on my arm, I tried to pull away but he just pulled me closer.

“Mark let me go, Your acting so weird-” He cuts me off interrupting me.

“June you’re so dang stubborn just give up already” for some reason his words give me butterflies in my stomach.

“What?” I pull out of his grip and back up, “what are you saying Mark?”

I was confused and flustered at the same time. “I like you June. That’s what I’m saying…”

 I could see the embarrassment on his face, “Give me time to think mark..” My heart was racing as I walked into church, after church was over I still couldn’t get the thought of what he said out of my head. What were these feelings I have for him?

“June!”. Mark Walked over and I could feel my cheeks burning as he got closer to where I was located.

“What is it Mark?”.  I asked in a stern tone. “Whoa still mad about earlier?” He said in a seductive tone which made my heart pound in my chest. 

“No.. I’m not mad about anything” I mumble as he gets closer.

“Then what is it June?” he goes silent for a second,

“Are you still thinking of what I confessed to you still?” He smirks,

My heart was racing and I couldn’t get the words out to say anything.

I rest my forehead on his chest embarrassed to look up at him.

He held me in a somewhat hug that made me feel safe. 

“Mark.. I like you too, but I just didn’t know how to tell you..” 

His eyes lit up as he heard what I had just said. 

“That’s why you are always in a snappy mood, hm?” He teases me as he chuckles. I look up at him as he looks back down at me. “ Wanna go to the park?”. I asked.

He Smiles and nods his head. “Yeah I would love to go to the park with you June.” We walked together to the park. 

I started to speed up when a man in all black clothes was following us with his hand behind his back “Speed up..” 

I whisper to Mark as we walk faster.

The man starts sprinting at us. We started running and hid in the bushes.

“Are you okay June?” I nod my head and my breathing is heavy. 

We got out of the bushes and continued walking to the park, once we made it to the park it started to rain.

          “Oh how I love the rain..” I say in a soft tone. 

Mark looks at me and smiles “Wanna jump in puddles?” I accept his request and we jump in puddles dancing in the rain.“I love this!” 

        I giggle as I spin around In circles.

A while later we thought it was a good idea to go home. “It’s starting to rain a lot.” Mark holds me close to him. 

While we started to walk home, The man was back… But he wasn’t alone, He had a whole gang with him. We sprinted home and stayed at my house. I called 911 and told them there was a group of guys with weapons in front of the house.

When  the cops arrived they looked around the house and only caught 3 of them, when there were 6. Mark told me he would stay at my place to make sure I would be okay sleeping, “Yeah that’s fine..”

I tried to sleep in bed but I was still scared, so I went downstairs to the living room where Mark is. “What’s wrong June?”

He has this worried expression on his face, I sit down beside him. “I’m just scared they might find us again..”

He puts his arms around me in a hug. “It will be okay, they won’t be back soon..”

We watched a movie and I ended up falling asleep, Mark also fell asleep too and the next morning we didn’t wake up till 10:23am. “Good morning…”

I mumble as I start to open my eyes to see Mark was making breakfast. “Good morning sleepy head..”

I could smell eggs and steak being cooked. “Are you making eggs and steak?”

I walked over to him and the smell of the eggs and steak’s amazing.

Cheesy Problems

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Cheesy Problems

                     By: Cheryl Dean the 3rd

Do you cheese roll? Well hi, I’m Derek, and I’m a cheese roller. On July 15th which is tomorrow I will be going to the Summer Olympics for their first year of cheese rolling. I have been cheese rolling since I was 8. I am now 19 and I live in Albert Lea, Minnesota. I am currently staying at the 2034 Olympian Hotel in Paris. I will be going tomorrow at 7:30 am to get prepared to race at 4:30. My judge (Jill) will then weigh me, measure me, and much more. I’m going to bed at 7:30 to be prepared for the race tomorrow. It is now 7:02 and I’m going to brush my teeth, shower, and go to bed. Goodnight.

The next morning I’m going to training with my instructor (Jackson), and my coach (Owen). I’m at my warm ups but Owen is not here. Even worse, neither is Jackson. I’m starting to worry. (13 minutes go by). I know they stayed in the same hotel room. Maybe I’ll try calling them. Ring ring ring. Owen didn’t answer so I’ll try calling Jackson and if he doesn’t answer we have a problem.

I go to the front desk to talk to them. I found out their room number 304 and I got a room key since I came with them. 

Swoosh 

I go up the elevator to the 3rd floor. I found their room and I opened the door. I walk in to find them still asleep. I wake them up. 

“What are you doing in here Derek” 

I’m waking you up for training? 

“You didn’t get the email?” 

Huh?

 “It’s rescheduled for tomorrow Judge Meredith is sick”

 Ok. 

I leave. 

I guess I will check my emails for more info. Wait, I don’t have an email? Maybe it just didn’t go through. I’m going to try to email her to get more info. Oh! She emailed me back and said that she was confused. I asked her what she was confused about. 

 “I’m confused because we’re still having the race today and I’m not sick,” she said.

I go down the elevator. 

Swoosh. 

I go to room 304, use the room key, and walk in. No one is in there. So I go down to the front desk and ask them if they know anything about them or have seen them. They say

 “yeah they checked out about 30 minutes ago”. 

I am now confused because we were supposed to warm up, and they lied to me about today and told me it was tomorrow. Were they trying to make me miss it? I look out the window at the parking lot. The van was gone. I’m stuck here. No vehicle. 

I start getting hungry. I end up calling an uber. I go to Mcdonalds and there is a fight. I don’t think too much of it. Until I realize it’s my instructor fighting the chef and worker yelling “GIVE ME MY FRIES, MILKSHAKE, AND DR. PEPPER!” 

I leave.

After that I try to get an uber but it will be 35 minutes until I can. So I decided to go on a walk in Paris since I’ve never been here before. The eiffel tower was only a few blocks away. I’m sweating. I’m thirsty. I’m nervous. I don’t think I’m ready. Since my coach and instructor left, it’s just me. I decided to run a few blocks to the eiffel tower. And for extra preparation run to the hotel.

I am dripping sweat. I got ready for the race, including showering again. It is a 3:28 race that starts in one hour. I arrived at 3:34 and now they are weighing me, measuring me, and everything else. They’re are a lot of people. I’m anxious. I’m excited. I have a good feeling about this race. Even though my coach isn’t here to support me I will prove to him I’m fine without him and I’m better than ever.

“Alrighty ladies and gentlemen welcome our first contestant for cheese rolling!” 

They are about to introduce me!

 “6 ‘2’, 154 pound, male Derek Shepard!”

 Omg that’s me! 

Being announced at the olympics has always been my dream! And I am here to chase it. I am also here to chase that rolling cheese!

“And the race starts on 20, 19, 18”

 Oh my gosh I better have stretched well. 

“17, 16, 15, 14” 

It’s getting to me but nothing is stopping me.

 “5, 4” 

It’s the last few seconds! I got this and I’m more ready than ever. 

“ 3, 2, 1, GO!” 

I am running faster than ever.

 “And Derek Shpeard took the lead in 1st place!”

Ok i’m doing good. I’m almost there. I finished! Did I just win? We’re about to find out! Fingers crossed!

“Ok everybody we have our first place championship winner! Great job to…Derek Shepherd!”

Omg I just won 1st place at the olympics! I can’t believe this! Wait, are my coach and instructor in the audience? Why are they here? Well it’s kinda a good thing because I was able to prove I’m better off without them and maybe it’s a good thing they never showed up to practice. I just cannot believe they tried to convince me my big day was cancelled. I dont know whats going on with them but I don’t care because I just won 1st place at the world wide olympics!

After today I finally did some research and I would like you to meet my new instructor Alex, and my new coach Mark. They have really shown me what it looks like when people are really trying to put in their effort and help show me and tell me how I can improve and accomplish my goals.

2025 Genre-ary: Documentaries

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2025 kicks off with our third annual Genre-ary. We started with Sci-Fi movies. Then we did Musicals. This year, we will be doing Documentaries.

Again, this will be documentaries that are movies or shorts. There will be no doc series such as the Jinx. Of course, it is a DailyView which means I will be watching a movie every day in the month of January that I have never seen before.

I have compiled a list of documentaries from over the years that I have not seen before. Some will be well known ones, some will be ones we have never heard of before. I will be including some 2024 films instead of waiting for the June Swoon.

I will keep the tally of the Genre-ary on this page.

2025 Genre-ary: Documentaries

Wednesday, January 1: The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024)

Thursday, January 2: The Amazing Jonathan Documentary (2019)

Friday, January 3: The Turnaround (2024)

Saturday, January 4: An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Sunday, January 5: Remembering Gene Wilder (2023)

Monday, January 6: ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black (2018)

Tuesday, January 7: The Blue Angels (2024)

Wednesday, January 8: In-spi-ra-tion (2023)

Thursday, January 9: Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show (2017)

Friday, January 10: ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke (2019)

Saturday, January 11: Nature Boy: 30 on 30 (2017)

Sunday, January 12: Hoop Dreams (1994)

Monday, January 13: Will & Harper (2024)

Tuesday, January 14: Have You Seen Andy (2007)

Wednesday, January 15: The Rocket on the Roof (2016)

Thursday, January 16: Bigfoot: Fear in the Woods (2020)

Friday, January 17: 65 Roses (2019)

Saturday, January 18: Daughters (2024)

Sunday, January 19: Amy (2015)

Monday, January 20: MLK/FBI (2020)

Tuesday, January 21: The Thin Blue Line (1988)

Wednesday, January 22: MoviePass, MovieCrash (2024)

Thursday, January 23: Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (2016)

Friday, January 24: American Tragedy (2019)

Saturday, January 25: Whitney (2018)

Sunday, January 26: Misha and the Wolves (2021)

Monday, January 27: Last Breath (2019)

Tuesday, January 28: There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011)

Wednesday, January 29: Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

Thursday, January 30: Invasion on Chestnut Ridge (2017)

Friday, January 31: Girl in the Picture (2022)

Silo S2 E6

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Spoilers

“Barricades”

Silo streamed its sixth episode the other day and things continue to be happening. This episode spent most of the time in our original silo, with only a few minutes at the end of the episode with Juliette and Solo.

Sheriff Billings takes a stand after finally getting to be able to talk to Shirley, Knox and Walker. He showed himself that he was willing to follow the law and not worry about whose side he is on. He also seemed to discover that his shakes from the Syndrome were gone despite not taking his herbs for days. What does this mean for the people of the silo? Is it just one more lie that has been used to maintain the status quo?

Bernard is feeling like he is losing control of things as the revolt below him in the silo has been picking up steam and his attempt to starve them out has failed. He realized that he has lost the sheriff, who is going to follow the law and not just blindly follow what he says.

Things are going to go crazy when Juliette is able to return to her original silo. It’s coming…

The Pool (2018)

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The October 4 of 13

The October 13 continued today as I pulled a film from Amazon Prime to watch. It was the Thai thriller called The Pool.

According to IMDB, “Day, an insecure art director of a commercial production company is left alone to clear up a 6-meter deep deserted pool after the shooting. He falls asleep on an inflatable raft due to an unbearable fatigue. When he wakes up again the water level has sunk so low that he cannot climb out of the pool on his own. He screams for help but the only thing that hears him is some creature from a nearby crocodile farm.“

Starting off, I have an illogical fear of alligators and crocodiles. It makes no sense, but they give me a lot of stress and anxiety. I always joke that I am never going to Florida because of the killer alligators like I saw in Crawl. It is a joke, but that movie absolutely scared me. So seeing this man vs. crocodile survival tale, I was ready to be unsettled.

I will say that there were some good moments of anxiety in the film. Day, played by Theeradej Wongpuapan, and his girlfriend Koi, played by Ratnamon Ratchiratham, made an attractive couple stalked by this angry and hungry crocodile.

However, at the end of the day, it was hard to get past one simple fact. These two are dumb as shit.

I understand some things need to be exaggerated for tension, but when characters continually do the stupidest things during a film, it just pushes the level of believability. I found myself yelling at the computer screen over and over, wanting Day to do something smart once. There were so many opportunities to do something else and he constantly chose the wrong one. It was frustrating.

Then the CGI on the crocodile was at times wonky. That can be forgiven because of budgets, but when it is combined with the dumb characters, that makes a tough combination.

And for the dog lovers out there, there is a scene with a dog that is perhaps the single most horrific scene I have ever watched anywhere. The imagery of the scene will disturbing even if you are not a big dog fan, like me, and for the dog lovers out there, you will not be prepared for the shocking moment.

I had seen this receive 97% on Rotten Tomatoes so I was hopeful this would be a hidden gem. However, looking closer, the audience score is at 53%, and I can see why that is. This had some positives, but the stupid decisions, the CGI, the crocodile, and the horrific scene near the end dropped this one down for me.

Them: The Scare S2 E5, E6

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Spoilers

“Luke 8:17”

“Would You Like to Play a Game?”

Whoa. Some huge revelations dropped in these two episodes that made it a little clearer about what was going on… however, there are still some strange things going on.

I always thought Raggedy Andy was creepy.

Part of the intended confusion early in the show, the stuff that made me think that Edmond was only a copycat killer, was that he seemed like he had not killed before. I actually thought for a brief second last episode that these two stories going on we in different timelines, but I dismissed the idea quickly. Turns out, what we were seeing of Edmond was two years before the stuff with Dawn. Boom, mind blown.

Things go down hill quickly for Dawn Reeve. Edmond is her biological brother. She tries to save a little boy by taking him to the hospital and he dies in the back of her car. This little boy had told her that he was seeing a red-headed man who wanted to kill him. She is put on leave from her job because of this. The racist cops of the LAPD made things even worse, making sure that everything looked bad for her. McKinney is such an a-hole.

However, it is not as simple as Edmond is the killer. There is something supernatural going on too. How does that happen? Edmond hears voices. I do not think it is as simple as Edmond has mental illness. There is something deeper and darker going on.

The attack on Dawn’s son during his performance was frightening as could be, as was his breakdown in the classroom as he was seeing the red-headed man.

Wild speculation time: Does Dawn have something to do with these murders? I mean, more than just being connected to them or being Edmond’s sister? The missing time suggestion means something. What is it? Clearly, Dawn is not very stable at the moment and her life is falling down around her.

Deborah Ayorinde was outstanding in these two episodes. I am very conflicted by her character and I am not sure what this show is expecting me to think about everything. Is she just a victim? Or is there something more sinister going on?

Only two episodes remaining and there are a lot of questions with the show. Either way, this has really kicked into high gear, which was impressive because it was always very compelling already.

Bye Bye Birdie (1963)

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The Genre-ary is creeping toward a finish as we reach January 25th, and we pull out the Dick Van Dyke musical, Bye Bye Birdie, based on a stage musical.

According to IMDB, “Conrad Birdie is the biggest rock & roll star of the 60’s ever to be drafted. Aspiring chemist and song writer Albert is convinced he can make his fortune and marry his girlfriend Rosie if he gets Conrad on the Ed Sullivan show to kiss a high school girl goodbye. Albert’s mother will do anything to break him up with Rosie. Kim and Hugo, the high school steadies, live in Sweet Apple, Ohio where most of the action takes place“

Certainly, this is loosely based on Elvis Presley going into the army, as Conrad Birdie is very much like The King. Albert (Dick Van Dyke) is desperate for Birdie to sing a song he was trying to write. Rosie (Janet Leigh) hoped that the song would give Albert the ability to get away from his overbearing mother (Maureen Stapleton) and give Albert the strength to ask Rosie to marry him.

Fun songs throughout the film included “Put on a Happy Face,” “Kids,” and “Bye Bye Birdie.” 

This was quite a fun little movie that was sweet and silly. It works as a family film, but its not the most compelling ever. It was fine.