Random blog story #1

Today, I’m going to post a back-and-forth story that me and my friend James did after I tagged him with this picture from I survived.

Enjoy!

            After flipping the turn signal, James glanced at the passenger side mirror. What the fuck! He slammed on the breaks in the middle of the highway and leaped out the driver’s side door of his ’92 Corola.

            Creak!

            Boom!

            A twenty-eight car pileup created a mountain of metal before a massive explosion set the whole thing ablaze.

            While stumbling away from the destruction, James licked his lips. Did I imagine that?

            The smell of roasted flesh zipped through the air.

            James gagged, and his knees buckled. He began to swoon until he noticed the only survivors of the fireball.

            The spiders.

            And they were coming his way.

            Skitter!

            Skitter, skitter!

            They grew with each of their eight-legged steps until the largest one resembled an elephant.

            James screamed and spun on his heels, to run, only to find himself surrounded. “Fuck me.”

            “Oh, we plan on it,” the elephant-sized spider said.

            Looking for a hole in their formation, James found one of the spiders who hadn’t reached a ridiculous size since it had lost most of its legs. It was the only one that had sustained any sort of damage. I … don’t understand. I thought fire — After taking a deep breath, he dashed towards the crippled arachnid.

            The other spiders hissed.

            James sprang forward, and when his lead foot left the ground, he smiled. Victo—

            He shouldn’t have taken his eyes off of the street.

            A loose stone caught his back foot and upended him. He flipped through the air and landed flat on his ass.

            Thud!

            A spike rolled up his spine.

            His head jerked backwards.

            His muscles twitched.

            No!

            He had to ignore the hammer to the head-like pain and climb to his feet.

            No choice!

            While James righted himself, he felt something brush against his hand. He glanced back over his shoulder.

            The elephant-sized spider stared straight at him, all eight eyes filled with what could only be described as a twisted sense of glee. “That was cute. Do you do other tricks too?”

            Jumping back with energy he didn’t realize he had, James once again scrambled forward and tried to slip past the wounded spider.

            From behind, the elephant-sized spider released a jeering laugh. “That’s the spirit! It’s no fun if they don’t struggle a bit!”

            A team of spiders sprinted to close the gap on the left.

            The elephant-sized spider sauntered forward, the fur on its mandibles standing on end. “Just like that, my children. He must be tenderized!”

            James huffed, and with each heavy step, a jolt of agony lanced through his right leg. Fuck, I think I sprained my ankle.

            The wounded spider rubbed its two remaining legs together as if he were offering himself to it for a dinner special.

            After putting all of his weight onto his left leg, James juked to the left and broke into daylight.

            Skitter, skitter.

            Skitter, skitter.

            Skitter, skitter.

            James ran harder than he thought possible.

            Skitter, skitter.

            Skitter.

            Silence.

            A long moment later, James glanced behind him.

            Nothing.

            No fire.

            No cars.

            No spiders.

            Thank god, no spiders.

            James skidded to a halt and blinked. What? His head jerked left and right while his heart rate rose.

            Thump.

            Thump!

            Thump-thump!

            Thump-thump, thump!

            With a sour taste caressing the back of his tongue, James swallowed.

            As if right beside his ear, the voice of the elephant-sized spider said, “Guess you were just a one-trick-pony after all.” It sighed.

            James choked and staggered back into a tree. I must be going mad.

To be continued … .

Thank you for reading,

Travis

Next:

Goo stories #35

            After leaving Maru's temporary cell, I pranced down the stairs. "Mom! What are you cooking?" My paws slipped across the floor while I worked my way into the kitchen.

            The beautiful scents of tuna, squid and bread danced in the air. My mouth watered. Mom's voice acted as the melody for the musical and filled my heart with joy. The kitchen remained as it always had--four chairs around a massive table, all of which across from the stove that was beside the fridge.

            I licked my lips. "Mom?"

            Mom's head swiveled around to face me. "You look much more cheerful today."

            "Of course I am!" I dashed forward and brushed my body past Mom's legs. "I have you back!"

            Mom put down her chopsticks and knelt down to rub my head. "I love you, too, Goo."

            I wanted Mom to hold me, but I knew she was busy ... so I just stood under her and helped her cook ... by making her step over me. Wow! It felt good to have Mom back.

Next: Part 36

Writing update #17

I'm two scenes away from finishing BURNING's first draft, and I recently got a customized response from an Agent about PAINTING! I was so excited since I only expected form rejections lol. I've got an idea as to how I can fix the issues they pointed out. Thus, I made a new outline for my first few chapters. It turns the first 2 chapters into four chapters, giving a whole chapter to each POV character. It also adds more build up to the fight that was apart of chapter 2. I still need to comb through the whole draft once I get these new updates, but that will have to wait till I'm done with the third draft of BURNING. (Kind of far away.)

I've also been doing a lot of critique circle. Enough to reach number 1!!! lol

That's probably why I haven't finished the first draft of BURNING yet. Probably ... .

On top of all that, when I lay down for bed last night, the idea for the new starting point of PAINTING popped into my head. (The old starting point is being moved to the second to last scene in the first chapter, thus keeping everything in chronological order)

Anyway, here is part of my new opening scene. (The part I've written so far lol)

            Zack slammed the door behind him and stomped away from his apartment. I hate her so much.

            When the tears rolled over his lips, they left a salty residue. The pounding sounds of construction echoed across the street from his apartment. Of the twenty odd parking spaces around the twelve-story mansion — a large Japanese apartment building — only three parking spaces had cars in them.

            If I could actually find a girl for more than a one-night stand, I would definitely never find myself crawling back to Sena … or accepting her apology. Zack sniffled.

            Click.

            Thud!

            From behind, a door opened and slammed against the wall.

            “Get your lazy ass back here right this instant!” Sena’s shrill voice ground the English language like coffee beans.

            After freezing in place, Zack swallowed. “No.” You can do this, Zack. Just stand up to her. “I’ve had enough of you for one day.”

            Sena harrumphed. “You’ve had enough of me? Me?”

            Smack!

            Something hit him between the shoulder blades.

            Zack’s knees buckled. He glanced down to stare at the high-heeled shoe. “Sena —”

            Something itched at his instincts.

            Without turning, Zack ducked.

            A second high-heeled shoe whizzed overhead.

            Zack spun to glare at Sena. “Stop throwing things at me!”

            “Then stop leaving the toilet seat up!”

            “You cut holes in my favorite suit for that?”

            Sena spat before marching forward to grab him by the pink tie. “I swear that if you ever do it again —” Using her free hand, she grabbed him by his blond hair and jerked his head back.

            Zack yelped. “— I will stab you with a knife and make you clean up the blood.” Sena stared into his hazel eyes.

            While fighting down the urge to strike a woman, Zack gulped.

            With a snarl causing wrinkles to appear on her forehead, Sena pulled at his hair again. “Are we clear?”

            “Whatever.” Zack pulled at her fingers.

            “That’s not the correct answer.” Sena tugged on his hair again.

            Zack gritted his teeth. “Fine! I understand! Now let me go before I do something that we both regret.”

            Sena released his hair. “As long as you —”

            “Short-tempered bitch.” Zack straightened his pin-striped jacket and slapped away another attempt for his hair. “I’ll come back when you calm the fuck down.”

            Sena growled.

            Zack backpedaled until he made it to the sidewalk. Why is she always like this? Everything was going so well earlier today. 

Let me know what you think. 

Comment below! 

Thanks for reading,

Travis

 Next: Update #18 and new PAINTING chapter 1 

   

Goo stories #34

            Gasping ripped me out of my melancholy mood. What ... ?

            Cody rested his head in Mom's lap, clearly exhausted. With her eyes closed and breathing heavy, Mom seemed to be in worse shape. After scanning the room, I found the origin of the sound. Maru appeared to still be breathing.

            Rage exploded in my thoughts. Should I finish off Maru for killing Haro? With all my willpower, I shook the grim thought.

            "Goo ... ." Blood rolled down Maru's chin. "Help ... me ... ."

            I hissed. "Why should I?"

            "I ... know where ... the third ... Ancient toy is."

            After replaying the words in my head, started. "What?"

            "It ... has the power to ... bring your friend back to ... life."

            I shook my head then shivered. Once I killed the greedy thoughts floating around inside my head, I grabbed Maru by the throat. "I will find a way to save you, but not for a false promise."

            I am not lying--"

            "You will face the justice you deserve!" I dropped Maru and strode over to wake my uncle. When he rose, I told him my plan.

            Cody glanced between me and Maru. "I don't mind but are you sure?"

            I smiled. "Yes ... ."

            "The back and forth motion could kill him in his condi--"

            "No." I shook my head. "He will be fine."

            "Okay ... ."

            I felt truly evil for the first time in my life while I watched Cody hump the energy that he needed out of Maru.

Next: Part 35

Teaching in Japan #3

Today, I'm going to talk about teaching as an ALT at a junior high school.

This is probably the most comfortable of the three jobs. The pay is the same as an elementary school, though you generally have one or two elementary schools and one junior high school per week rather than only junior high schools. Classes here range from three or four a day to six a day. Sometimes, you have no classes at all, but you must remain there. With the varying schedule, you rarely get as bored as you do at a high school, and you don't feel as beat as you do at an elementary school.

This position has the least freedom for teaching the classes as you are running second hand to the Japanese English teacher. You basically meet with them before class, give them suggestions for how to introduce a topic, games that they could use on the topic and ideas, to help the kids master each grammar point. Sometimes, you're given full reins of the class and sometimes you are just a glorified tape recorder. Rarely, you are in the class alone, but it does happen. (A lot more to me recently for some reason lol) The satisfaction level isn't as high here as the students are basically learning what they have to in order to get into a good high school.

I don't normally do outlines in this class as I don't take the classes by myself, but I'll give you the general layout of classes that two of my Japanese English teachers use. But first, I'll discuss the classes themselves. They're 50 minutes with 10 minutes between each class and an afternoon recess. This job requires 60% energy, 30% improve whenever the Japanese English teacher throws something at you, 5% preparation for anything and 5% people skills to deal with the varying levels of students.

So, here is the basic rundown of classes with teacher 1.
-Greeting
-Song/chant
-Weekly activity
-Introduction/Review of the grammar
-Practice of the grammar
-New vocabulary words
-Checking what the verb and subject of each sentence of the reading text
-Checking the meaning of each sentence
-Reading practice
-Memorization
-Dictation
-Games or pair work (Sometimes thrown in there)
-Group presentations (like three a year)

Greeting: The same as in elementary school. 

Songs/chants: The songs are whatever the teacher has chosen while the chant fits with the grammar of the chapter.

Weekly activity: There are 3 weekly activities that this teacher uses.
-100 questions - 10 new questions every two weeks that the students practice and interview each other with in order to remember most of them.
-Previous year review - They go through the memorization tests from the previous year.
-Sentence drills - Basic sentence structure exercises. We use the 'Tateyoko drill' book

Introduction/review of the grammar: We make examples using the grammar for the lesson and the students repeat, then practice with their partners.

Practice of the grammar: The students repeat the basic grammar sentences again before going around the class, to interview each other.

New vocabulary words: Repeat each word and check its meaning. Next, they repeat them again. Then they read them on their own followed by saying the English while reading the Japanese. Finally, they repeat again. 

Check the verb/subject of each sentence: I read the sentences aloud and the students underline the verbs and circle the subjects. Then, one student says it aloud to make sure everyone got it right.

Check the meaning of each sentence: I read each sentence and one student translates it for the rest of the class.

Reading practice: I read each sentence and they repeat it. We do this a second time before the students stand up and read it twice. Once they sit down, the repeat after the CD in order to hear a different English voice.

Memorization: Each student gets 2 minutes to read over the sentences, to memorize each of the sentences in the correct order. Then, in pairs, they check each other.

Dictation: I read each sentence aloud about 3 times apiece and the students write them down in their notebook. When we're finished, they check their writing in their book, then write down the Japanese translation of each sentence.

Games: These vary. I'll post some later.

Pair work: Just a small group project where they try to come up with conversations using the grammar of the lesson or chapter.

Group presentations: Like pair work, but presented in front of the class and graded.


And that's one of my teachers. The other is a bit different.


This is the basic lesson plan for teacher 2
-Greeting (Same as the first teacher)
-Song/chant (Same as the first teacher)
-Introduce/review grammar (Same as the first teacher)
-Play games/do a worksheet with the grammar
-Introduce the topic of the lesson
-New vocabulary  (Same as the first teacher)
-Reading practice (Same as the first teacher)
-Translate the lesson
-Quiz about the lesson
-Read the lesson again
-Review game

Play games with the grammar: Just a simple game that uses the grammar that the students can get into and finish in five or ten minutes.

Do a worksheet with the grammar: A simple worksheet where they reuse the grammar over and over again to pound it into their heads. They do it alone for a few minutes, then they work as groups, to finish it, and at the end, we check it to make sure it's correct.

Introduce the topic of the lesson: Using picture cards, we describe the situation the lesson takes place in and try to give the students some context to the grammar they had just learned.

Translate the lesson: As it sounds, the students use a worksheet to translate each of the sentences in chunks, then they work as groups, and finally, we check it as a class. The grammar points are also reviewed after all have been checked to ensure they have the meaning. 

Quiz about the lesson: On the same worksheet, there are questions and answers as well as a true/false section. I read the questions, and the students write down the answers. After we check the answers, the students repeat after me then they answer the question as I ask them. For true/false, I read the questions and the students write down the answers. From there, we check the answers, and if it's false, the students have to tell me why it's false.

Read the lesson again: Just one final reading check.

Review game: From previous lessons, even some from the previous year, we take grammar and key points and play various games with them. I'll get into that more later.



That's the basics of my lessons in junior high school. I'll go into more specific details later on when I do a post for an actual lesson.

I hope you find this helpful.

Thank you for reading,
Travis


Next: As an ALT at a high school