Life in the Future

Life in the future By:Jack Sun VROOM a hovering vehicles went passed me. I woke up. I was somewhere. I didn’t know where I was . When I stood up, I saw that I was in a whole new world. It was like the future in my dreams. First, I wanted to just explore. At least my parents were not around. The first thing I wanted to explore was what was different. I probably already know about some stuff because it was in my dreams last night. The first thing I wanted to do was to go to a cafe but when I got there it was floating in the air. The cars were floating too so that’s how people got up there, I said to myself. I wonder what they eat. I also wonder if I would survive my life here without eating any food. BUMP! A person bumped into me. It was another kid. He said his name was Nate I told him all about how I got here and how I thought I would survive in the weird world. He said he would help then he said he would bring me to his house. Once we were at his house he had stairs come down from his house. THUD! The stairs hit the ground. I followed him up the stairs and saw that stuff in his house was much different than my house. Every thing he had in his house was all so big. The first thing I wanted to do was watch the big screen tv on the side of me. Next to the tv were some stairs. Up the stairs were two doors. He said the door on the right was his room and other door was his parent’s room. He led me to his room and he had another big screen tv in his room with a ;xbox,ps1,ps2,ps3.ps4,wii,wii u. I asked why he needed all those things! He said his friend could use them when they came over so we did not have to take turns and fight whose turn it was. Then I ask one more time, “Can we watch the tv now? “ He said,” Okay.” Then we went to the living room where the big screen tv was. I said, “I want to watch Cartoon Network.” He said, “In the future it was called Future Network.” Then, I said, ” I will try it.” After I finished a show on Future Network I thought it was kinda cool and better than Cartoon Network. After a while I ate at his house for lunch and it cost zero dollars. It was holographic food that came off the internet. “I never tried internet food,” I said. But, after lunch I found out that internet food tasted good and actually better than normal food. After lunch we went outside and went to Nate's favorite place which was a was an arcade. I liked games too but the arcade we went to was huge. The arcades I went to had games like from Pac Man to Minecraft. The arcade Nate brought me to had games like Minecraft and Agario. I like the games at the arcade in the future more than the games in the arcades in the past. We spent so long at the arcade that when we went back to Nate’s house it was already night time so I slept over that night. After awhile I woke up and could not fall asleep. So, I went into his kitchen and opened his giant freezer and got some milk to drink. Next to the freezer was a microwave. I put my milk in and pressed the on button and set it to 30 seconds. When I took the milk out I drank it and got really sleepy and went back to my room and fell asleep leaving the microwave on. Not long after I could smell something burning and woke up. I ran to the kitchen and saw a fire in the microwave. Then, I woke everyone up and Nate's parents told us to run out of the house. But, I tripped and the fire spread on me and I woke up and saw my brother on me. It was all a dream. After that day I never talk about it again.

Neymar Jr.

  Neymar Jr

By Eric Lemieux

  Neymar Da Silva Santos Jr known as, Neymar Jr was born in Mogi Da Cruzes, São Paulo, Brazil.  He had a rough childhood.  When he was just a little boy his father suffered from an injury.   He also almost died in a car crash when he was a baby .  Even though his childhood might have seemed bad it got better along the way.

  Neymar played soccer for a local indoor team named São Vicente.  Neymar started on a U9 soccer team.   After a month or two he was already on the U12 team.  He was very important to his team.  Without him his team would have been horrible.

  One day while watching one of his dad's games a scout was watching him .  He saw Neymar Jr weaving around spectators and using magical skills.  The scout went up to his mother and said how good he was.  At first his mom thought he was talking about the dad.  The scout asked if he would like to play for a team called Santos.  Santos is a local soccer team.  Neymar and his family happily accepted and Neymar was on his way.   He joined Santos at age 11.

  Neymar’s career at  Santos started in 2009 .   He was a star for the youth team and made many friends.    Once he even agreed to do a crazy mohawk haircut with his friend.  In 2009 he scored thirteen goals with Santos.  In 2010 he scored a total of thirty -one goals!   For Neymar’s last two years he scored a total of thirty-six goals and then announced his move to F.C. Barcelona.  Neymar even won the 2011 goal of the year award.  At the awards Pele, a great Brazilian soccer player, told him to move to  play in Europe.

  When Neymar arrived in  Barcelona he was greeted by a swarm of fans and photographers.  Everybody was hoping for a picture of Neymar in front of the club crest.  Neymar was on his way to Camp Nou, the Barcelona stadium.  There were fifty-four thousand fans were watching Neymar step on the field for the first time.  Eighty- six point three million Euros all seemed worth while.

In Neymar's first season at Barcelona Neymar had seventeen goals .  He had many assists and created a strong bond with Lionel Messi .  Neymar was already best friends with Dani Alves.  He played with Dani in the confederations cup winning squad.  Dani was also helping Neymar's family get settled in.  Neymar was getting used to living in this amazing city.

Finally it was time for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.  He was excited to be in the starting squad.   He would be playing for his home country for one of the first times.  In Brazil's first group game they beat Croatia 3-1.  Neymar almost had a hat trick scoring two goals. In their second group game they tied Mexico 0-0.  In their last group game they defeated Cameroon 4-1. Neymar scored two of the goals and got man of the match.

Finally ,it was time for the elimination stage of the World Cup.  Brazil was scheduled to play Chile. The game was going well until they tied the game at one. It went to a penalty shootout.  Brazil just pulled away from Chile and advanced to the next round.  In the next round they were getting ready to play Columbia.  In the first seven minutes Thiago Silva scored for Brazil.  After that David Luiz scored a wonderful free kick from thirty- five yards out.  After that disaster struck Brazil.  Neymar was tackled and taken off the field in tears.  Finally ,James Rodriguez scored in the eightieth minute.  Brazil won the game and advanced to the semi-finals.  Meanwhile, doctors figured out that Neymar broke his back.  It was July eighth and it was time for Brazil to face Germany.  During the Brazil national anthem they held up a jersey of Neymar's .  It was time for the game to start.  But they did not know that disaster would strike.  After the first half it was already four to zero.  By the end of the game it was seven to one.  The Brazil team was devastated.  But in a few days they would still end up playing for third place.  They were playing Netherlands.  Surprisingly, they lost three to zero.

 In the 2015 season he scored forty -five goals including international goals. He was playing amazingly.  But, soon rumors went around saying Neymar was moving to Manchester United.  Manchester United is a team in the Premier League.  Neymar was outraged.  He said he would never even think about going to Manchester.  Neymar still had an amazing season leading their team to win the Champions League.

 Now it was time for the 2016 regular season.  Barcelona came in as the favorite to win the league.  They were also the favorite to win the Champions League.  The Champions League is a league where the best teams in Europe compete for the title.  Barcelona got to the quarter finals.  It was horrible .They lost and got eliminated from the competition.  Everybody was surprised because they lost to the underdog. Now Atletico Madrid is competing in the finals of the Champions League.  In the tournament Neymar scored three goals and had five assists during their season

 Now Barcelona is competing for the Spanish League title. They have to win their last game and they need their rivals, Real Madrid to lose.  Real Madrid is the favorite to win but Barcelona can still win.

             Completed May,13 2016              

Sailing the Seven Seas

Sailing the Seven Seas

                                                            By: Katie Lynch

Did you know that boats are the oldest over water transportation?  Not motorboats, but sailboats.  Modern sailboats have engines, just in case, but not in the1600s.  Nope, they relied entirely on wind, tides, and boats to get them overseas.  This wasn’t exactly fast, but it was efficient.

Sailing was how the USA was founded.  Mr. Columbus sailed all the way from Europe.  Sailing also came in handy when someone in Scotland wanted  something in India they would say “Raise the sails!”

Sailing was so special that modern people decided to keep the tradition alive.  Now boats are smaller and faster.  There’s only two sails, and it’s very safe.  Read on to learn all about sailing!

The Sails

One of the most important parts of the majestic sailboat is it’s sails.  There are two sails on a modern boat, they are called the mainsail and the jib.

The main sail is also called the mainsul.  It connects to the boom, a long horizontal pole which branches off of the mast, another long pole sticking straight out of the middle of the boat.  The mainsail allows the boat to go.  You can sail without the mainsail, but it is a bit trickier without it.  

The jib makes the boat stronger and faster.  It is placed off the mast, and connects to the bow, or front of the boats.  Sailing with just the mainsail will work, but if you want to “fly” use the jib.

                                          Knots

Sailing knots are probably the best knots in the world.  Each knot is super strong.  Also everyone has a different part on a boat.

A sailing cleat is a knot used to tie a boat to  a dock, not a soccer shoe.  To tie a cleat you take a cleat, a hot dog shaped thing on a platform on a dock, and wrap your line, rope around the cleat, criss cross it, loop, and tighten.  A boat will never get away from a good cleat!

Another cool knot is a bowline knot.  This one is amazingly strong, but extremely easy to untie.  To tie this one you make a loop at one end of the line, then you take the other end and make it go out of the loop, around the extra, and back in the loop.  ( The bunny goes out of the hole, around the tree, and back in the hole)

Without knots boats would be nowhere, literally.  They wouldn’t be able to go anywhere or come back.  It would be a disaster.

Weather

Weather really affects sailing.  A sailor will check the weather many times before sailing.

Perfect sailing weather is sunny, warm, and strong, but not “it’s blowing me away” wind, that is blowing in the right direction.  

Bad sailing weather is cold, cloudy and/or foggy, and “it’s blowing me away” wind, or no wind at all.  Also you should NEVER sail in a storm.

          Scary things can happen if you sail in bad weather.  Though in good, a boat can soar.

Tides

Tides are also very important to sailors. A good one will have at least five tide charts on the boat.
                 A tide chart is a chart that has sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset, it also has times for high and low tides.  “Why are these important?” you ask.  Well, a boat can get stuck and/or seriously damaged if they touch the bottom.  This can happen at low tide.  

The sun and moon “wake up” and “sleep time” are important for two reasons.  The first reason is that the moon affects the tides.  The other reason is that you don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere or have not set anchor when the sun sets and the stars are out, unless you know how and want to sail at night.  

                

  Driving

  Driving a boat is a little like driving a car.  When you drive either of them you only have to steer the wheel slightly to get an affect.

A boat though, has a big wheel.  Also you can’t just drive it anywhere.  You have to have it so the wind and tides are at your side.  Finally sailboats don’t always run on gas.

A car on the other hand, you sit in to drive, and there’s seat belts.  Also a car is on land, and drives on roads.  A car must drive on the right side of the road, but a boat can sail anywhere in the ocean.

The Dinghy

Dinghies are little boats that are made because the bigger boat can’t go all the way to shore. If the sailors did  shore they would go there in a dingy.

Olden day dinghies were small and wooden. They looked like rowboats.  You would take your oars, paddles, sit backwards, and do a backward motion with the oars. This is called rowing. “Why sit backwards?” you say. Well, the way the oars are made so that they cup the water and push it back, this makes the boat go forward.

Now a day dinghies are usually blown up with air and can be quite big depending on the size of their “big mama boat.” Also you now steer a dinghy with an engine but just in case there’s still oars. To drive an engine on a dinghy, you must sit in the back so you hold the tiller, a stick jutting out of the engine. The tiller is connected to a little fan, that like the oars pushes the water back. To work the tiller you push it the wrong way. For example if you want to go starboard, right, push it port, left. I know this sounds confusing, but when you get the hang of it it’s easy.

            

             

             

You’re Ready

As you can see sailing is an amazing sport. The sails, knots, weather, tides, driving, and dinghies all affect the boats. Did you know that many sailors race around islands and buoy tracks in sailboats all the time? Now keep your sails up and your life jacket on so you can sail the seven seas.