Focus on a memory of a game that you played when you were a kid. It could be chess, it could be paintball, it could even be Cowboys and Indians– anything where you really got into the game. Start by writing about the experience itself, and then make it more real. Suddenly you are the king, the soldier, the intrepid native out to reclaim his lands! Use descriptive detail to imagine a surreal experience. Response should be a minimum of 500 words and is due at the end of the period on Friday.
TIP FOR BLOGS: Write your response in Word first - for the purposes of spellcheck and to save your progress between days (and if you need to take it home to work on) - then copy and paste into the comment section on the blog.
When I was a kid, I enjoyed playing a lot of different types of games and I was always up for trying something different but my favorite games that I always get into is manhunt or hide and seek. My cousin and her friends and I played hide and seek in the mall in the store Bloomingdale. We would play in teams because there was an equal amount of us; I got so into the game because of the thrill. It was me and my cousin on a team and she had to go to the bathroom so we had to sneak out of Bloomingdale, it was hard because the people that were it to tag us were by the door. So I felt like I was a spy on a secret mission. We ran all throughout the mall and going into different stores hiding. When we got back into the store Bloomingdale, my cousins friends saw me so all three of them try to surround me but then I ran into the girl’s bathroom that was in the store, and I sat there for ten minutes trying to catch my breathe. So her friend’s brother waited till I got out to tag me. He was just standing there on his phone then when I got out I rolled over on the floor and went to the other side to hide behind the clothes and then I just watched him stand there. Then I slowly crawled on the floor so he won’t see me, than I ran to the men section. My cousin ran into the girls section, where the women’s underwear was and just sat there on the floor. I was running around everywhere because I was so hyped up that I couldn’t just stay in one place, I wanted them, to see me and come chase after me that’s the point of the game. One of my cousin’s friends that were hiding got tagged so he was it with the three other people that were already it. Then when I was in the men section I was behind a counter, but not a cash register counter, and one of them spotted me and then all four of them gathered around me, so I made a run for it hoping I won’t get tagged but I had a big doubt in my head I was going to get tagged. After I ran I lost all four of them and they all passed me and I know that one of them saw me but I was hiding right next to the clothes and it was kind of obvious where I was. Then I went upstairs to the escalator and found my cousin and her boyfriend. We left the store to go sit down and called them to see where they were and they told us to go find them in the store Lord and Taylors, so we went and split up and then we found them all in one hiding spot.
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun - hide and seek in unexpected places.
DeleteWhen I was younger, I was always playing games. I was a big fan of chess, checkers and anything that involved running around. My favorite was when my friends and I got together for a few fun rounds of manhunt. It’s not imaginative, just running around in the dark and chasing people, but you’d be surprised where my mind would go. I played with a bunch of my friends and then some of their friends and then some of their neighbors, we weren’t a small group. Sometimes we would do boys versus girls and sometimes we would just do random teams. It was just a game, but it could become a million things in my head. Usually, when we played, we were a mix of soldiers and ninjas. We were ninjas until it got really intense then we were soldiers and at the end we were ninjas again. In this game there are no titles or given characters. You got to decide who to be during this cat and mouse game. You could even be a cat and mouse!
ReplyDeleteWe were soldiers, running and shouting. We were hiding behind a tree or under a bush like our lives depended on it. We would try to stick together but not so many as to attract attention. We would listen for when the enemy was coming in and decide whether or not it was too much of a risk to run for it. Shouting from across the way causes your adrenalin to rush and your heartbeat to pick up. You know what’s supposed to happen, you’ve done it all before, but you’re still tremendously nervous. It’s the darkness that racks your nerves the most; you can barely see anything or anyone. You’ll never know when it’s safe to make a run for it if the enemy is sneaky and quiet. Sometimes, if you’re really good, you can hide in one place the whole time and no one will ever know you’re there. It’s no fun because you miss out on all the action, but you never get caught. Sometimes that’s a good thing but sometimes it can be bad. You’ll stay in your hiding spot and no one will find you and you won’t come out. But what happens if your side loses? How could you possibly know? What if you could have had your people hide with you?
We were ninjas too. We would be running around the yard trying to get away from our attackers. Or we would run around the yard trying to catch someone. We would climb over fences or slide under them. Our agility seemed limitless and our weaknesses felt irrelevant. Some could jump over bushes and others could hop over dog poop without even knowing it was there. It was instinct and energy and determination. Someone was faster than you? Well, you could climb a fence so you were set home free. No one spoke; you didn’t want to be heard. It’s all about being sly and sneaky. You couldn’t give away your position. As soon two people went at it, so did everyone else. If you were the last one standing, there was nowhere safe. You couldn’t walk five feet without a silent ambush. You couldn’t go in any direction where there wasn’t someone standing, waiting.
Well done descriptions - I really get a sense of the mystery and excitement in the game.
DeleteWhen I was a little boy I use to love playing hide and seek. Playing it gave me the thrill of being able to use my height as an advantage. I felt that if I found a place to hide at that no one could find me. Most of the time I was correct ; since I was so little I found the best spots around the block. I would normally be the one that they found last. One day I was playing it with my cousins late at night; everyone went to hide including me. I ran as fast as I could and searched around for a new spot that I had never hid at before. I did a complete 360 view to see if I could find a place. I saw a tree and a small rooftop that had a place to hide in. I started climbing the tree as quickly as I could; I heard my cousin running towards me so I quickly climbed the tree and got in the spot. I thought that he was about to get me but he didn’t notice where I hid. Moments later I hear him saying that he had found the first person already. I was assured that I wouldn’t be the one to look for people the next round. It felt like ages to finally be the last one to be looked for. Time went by really fast; he kept going around the same spots until he got closer to me. I sneakily looked up and he was right under me. Luckily he didn’t look up so he went to a different spot to look for me. I felt relieved that he hadn’t found me. I quickly went down were he couldn’t see me. I thought that he had given up looking for me so I climbed down and started walking toward the front of the house; from the corner of my eye I had seen him still searching so I quickly sprinted back toward the back and he had heard me. I ran the opposite way of the spot that I had found and was about to get caught. I quickly dashed toward a small opening between a house. I had thought that I would be caught for sure but he didn’t notice me. A few minutes passed and he still couldn’t find me. The feeling that I got was like no other; I felt un findable. Finally after 15 minutes passed by he had found me. The first thing that went through my mind was that I had a spot where no one could actually find me. They kept asking me where I had been hiding and if I moved around while he was looking. I kept silent so they wouldn’t know what I had done to stay hidden from the finder. I knew that whenever we played again I would be the one to always be found last because of the spot I had found and of how short I was.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the lack of height can be a benefit!
DeleteWhen I was a kid in Elementary school during indoor recess time I used to love playing Battleship all the time. I wouldn’t care who would play with me I would just enjoy playing the game no matter the outcome. I remember once I would start playing I would be very intensely concentrated as if it was just me and the other person in the room with no one around. Sometimes I would even picture both of us on the boats in the ocean. I would be working one of the giant cannons on the deck firing at my enemy in the distance so far I couldn’t see them. Only luck would be at my side, only way I could tell if I beat them was if I heard the loud explosions of my cannon fire connecting with the ship. Soon after my fire my opponent would then return fire, again luck was on my side because the first few missiles landed only feet away from my vessel. Until, suddenly my opponent got a direct hit on me on the far right side of my ship. I wasn’t too concerned with the damage done to my ship because I had the largest one of all and I would take more than just one missile to take me out. The battle continued on for hours nothing but the sound of the cannons firing roaring across the see and the splashing of water when the missiles would miss their targets, nothing but men screaming out orders “fire missile G-5. Then I was able to make my second shot on my opponent. At that moment I thought the battle was over, just when I was about to get out of the cockpit of the cannon I heard yet another fire of a cannon not coming from us but from the opposing side. I quickly jumped back into my cannon awaiting the orders from my captain to return fire. Nothing seemed to be landing for us, missed shot after missed shot we went until our enemy landed their second missile. Now we were all concerned because it would only take one more shot for us to be in critical damage and potentially sink. This is when were in a state of panic because then my captain ordered for all cannons to fire in the only direction we got our shots in. We weren’t having any luck I was thinking to myself that this was a pretty dumb order by our captain until one of our missiles hit one of the enemy’s incoming missiles which made me quickly change my mind. The enemy figured out that we had all cannons firing and they decided to do the same thing. This got me nervous because anyone of those missiles could be the end of me. Before I knew it I was on my last missile, and everyone else was out of ammo. The enemy however was still firing at us, luckily they were missing. So I aimed my missile once more and just fired, but I didn’t hear the sound I just watched the flame of the missile travel further and further away. Until I was rattled by the sound of a huge explosion, I waited for a moment and finally the enemy stopped firing. I had one the battle once again remained victorious at battleship
ReplyDeleteI love how you imagine the action of the game playing out on an actual battleship. Reminds me of a movie.
DeleteWhen I was younger sorry sliders was a fun family game to play. The pawn slides slowly across the board as you wait for it to land on the five. Then you slowly slide the rest being careful not to hit your other pawns. One by one everyone else slides their pawns across the board waiting to hit your pawn to move you off the five you sit and hope no one hits it. The round is over and you become relieved that you have all the five pawns closer to home. Next round again you slowly slide your pawns across the board to land on the right numbers you need to get your pawns closer or even home. You land on all the right numbers you need and you sit and wait again hoping no one hits them. Everyone else slowly goes. Then all of the sudden one person hits your pawn off the number you need then the next person does the same. After everyone goes you realize everyone has pushed you off every number you need and even pushed you off the board. Next round all you need is a two, a four, two ones, and a five. You slide your pawns across the board and try to hit every number you need. You hit all the numbers you need and are excited, but you have to wait until everyone else goes to see if you have won. All my pawns are home I have won. New game has started I'm pushed and I'm sliding across the board I keep rolling and I try to stop as fast as I can so I can stop on the five. I keep rolling right over the five then I come to a slow stop on the three not bad but I need to do better to win. The other pawns follow me ending on all three's. Now it’s time for all the other players to go. They slowly slide there pawns across the board waiting to land on the five, they miss and land on four's and two's. Now it’s time for the next player I have landed right in front of their slide zone I hope I'm missed, they slide their first pawn it misses me and hits the pawn next to me, it slides across the board and lands on the other side of the board on a three. The next one slide and misses us all and again they slide their next pawn and misses us all. Now it’s time for the last pawn to slide, it slowly slides across the board and bam it hits me so I fly across the board and on to the table I'm out, I don't even count now. Now I’m behind everyone else sitting at the starting line as everyone else moves closer to home. Now I must land on the five to get to home. I slide across the board right over everything else slowly stopping on the five, now I’m home, I hope. All the other pawns are on the numbers they need. Then it’s time for everyone else to go. They slowly slide their pawns onto the board and they miss me and all the other ones. I’m home now we have won.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this game; sounds interesting.
DeleteOne day, when boredom struck, I decided to play a game. I went through different kind of board games such as battleship and sorry. Then I came upon candy land. I was so eager to play. It was one of my favorite games. I always had fun playing with my brother because I always beat him. I was really good at playing. I knew the board by heart. I loved all the characters especially Queen Frostine. My brother came over and we started to play. We were having a lot of fun in the beginning, but then it got really competitive.
ReplyDeleteI picked up a card and it had a blue square on it. I moved to the next blue square on the board. My brother picked up his card and had two yellow squares on it. This put my brother ahead on the board, but I knew the game wasn’t over yet. I picked up the next card and got two green. I moved to the next two green squares on the board. Now I was ahead of my brother. My brother picked up the card and it was a blue square. The square said that he was lost in Lollipop woods. When you get stuck in lollipop woods, you lose a turn. I turned to my brother and started laughing at him. I picked up the next car and said that I had to go back to candy cane forest. I was so upset, but I still gets another turn because my brother lost his turn. I picked up the next card, it said two orange spaces. When I reached there, my brother was still ahead of me by only two squares.
The game continued and I finally passed my brother. I was happy because I thought he was about to win. We went through all the cards so we had to start the pile again. I went to pick up the first card and I was upset to find where I had to go. I had to go all the way back to candy cane forest. My brother had a big smile on his face. I was really mad. I thought I wasn’t going to win.
My brother was almost at the Candy Castle. I was still down by lollipop woods. My brother picked up the next and he got one orange space. I picked up the next card and my face lit up. My brother was wondering what I got but he knew it wasn’t good if I was smiling. I was able to go to Queen Frostine. Queen Frostine was all the way near the castle. He was still ten squares away from the castle I had only fifteen squares away. My brother went to pick up the next card and was relieved when he got a blue square. But the only way to won is if he gets a one purple square. I picked up the next card and it had two purple squares on it, so I went forward, it brought me with just ten squares left. My brother picked the next card and got a blue square. He was so close. I picked the next one and got two green squares. I moved forward and only had three more squares away. My brother picked up the next card and got a green square. He was getting really nervous. I picked up the next card and there it was. One purple square. I had won the game. My brother got really mad. He thought he was going to win. There I was with another victory at candy land. I looked at her brother. He looked back. Then at the same time we both said “rematch” and started the game again.
Ah, sibling rivalry. There is really nothing like it.
DeleteAlternate assignment:
ReplyDelete“God dammit Ariya! You have to go! Why can't you just listen to me?!?”
“Why can’t you listen to me! The umbras won’t stop until they find me. I'm not gonna sit back and watch people die, watch you die.” I'm on the verge of tears but I refuse to let them fall. I turn away from him and stare into a field of pure darkness.
“The people they need my light,our light. I'm their hope and strength,if i'm not here what do they have?” I ask him softly.
“The knowledge that you're safe and not another dead body to mourn over. Please Ariya go, we’ll be fine. Please for me.” He cups my face and looks at me with pleading eyes. A single tear falls gently down his face. I kiss it away and linger there with my lips pressed against his cheek. Why can’t things be simpler? Why must our world be filled with hatred, war, death? Isn’t it possible for us to live together in unison? I look at my allies behind me and then at my enemies in front of me. I close my eyes hoping that maybe i”m in some nightmare, but I’m not. I have to face reality and be strong for everyone.
Sounds like a selection from a much larger novel. The tenstion in the piece is well executed.
DeleteHave you ever gotten so deep in boredom that you felt your mind starting to become numb? Did the thought of watching paint dry become an interesting way to waste time? Well then your life is probably very suckish and you never had the chance to play the wonderful game of Battleship. Throughout my younger years that game highlighted a lot of my most fun moments with family and friends. At times it got pretty competitive but never stopped being fun. Out of all the times I’ve played this strategy game there is only one occasion that I remember having the most amount of fun. This was about 4 years ago when I played against a friend that I’m no longer in contact. You may ask why and it’s because we took the game a little too seriously.
ReplyDeleteImagine a hot day in the middle of July in a small kid’s park. Think of all the trees and things for kids to play on like the jungle gym or monkey bars. This is the setting of where we used to play almost every day. I remember going over to the picnic area with the navy blue box that had the exploding ships on the cover and placing it on the table. If I remember correctly I think my friend’s name was Jonathan and he loved this game as much as me.
“Alright we’re going to play 3 rounds!” I remember exclaiming excitedly while taking out all of the pieces. “I get the red one this time!”
John pulled out the ship pieces and started setting up his side. “Okay but no cheating! Last time you sank all my ships and I barely destroyed your patrol boat.”
“It’s not my fault that you suck!” I laughed while putting my ships in the ‘water’.
“No you just keep ‘dropping’ stuff under the table and then would ask me to get it.” He laughed using air quotes.
“You know I’m clumsy!” We both laughed and I put the last piece on the board. “Enough chit chat! I challenge you to war!” In the beginning not much happened we got about 5 minutes in and no hit were made.
“F5?” I groaned and grabbed a red piece.
“You hit my submarine.” I muttered glaring over my game at him. He stuck his tongue out at me in response. “G2?”
“Miss” He gloated while giving me a toothy grin. I glared back and put the white piece down. “F4?”
“Hit” I groaned again while putting another red mark on my board. “A7?”
“Miss miss missity miss miss!” John cheered while sticking his tongue at me again. “F3?”
“Gah! You sunk my destroyer!” I hissed while he did a small victory dance. “No more misses nice girl. You want to play let’s play.”
John pulled out the ship pieces and started setting up his side. “Okay but no cheating! Last time you sank all my ships and I barely destroyed your patrol boat.”
ReplyDelete“It’s not my fault that you suck!” I laughed while putting my ships in the ‘water’.
“No you just keep ‘dropping’ stuff under the table and then would ask me to get it.” He laughed using air quotes.
“You know I’m clumsy!” We both laughed and I put the last piece on the board. “Enough chit chat! I challenge you to war!” In the beginning not much happened we got about 5 minutes in and no hit were made.
“F5?” I groaned and grabbed a red piece.
“You hit my submarine.” I muttered glaring over my game at him. He stuck his tongue out at me in response. “G2?”
“Miss” He gloated while giving me a toothy grin. I glared back and put the white piece down. “F4?”
“Hit” I groaned again while putting another red mark on my board. “A7?”
“Miss miss missity miss miss!” John cheered while sticking his tongue at me again. “F3?”
“Gah! You sunk my destroyer!” I hissed while he did a small victory dance. “No more misses nice girl. You want to play let’s play.”
at the board. I know what I have to do hopefully this can end it all and quick.
“Tell the crew to load for Tango 6.” He looked at me shocked.
“You can’t be serious! We can’t take another hit!”
"That was an order." He offed then was off to give the orders. The seconds dragged on like hours. As I say and waited for a signal of any sort.
"You sunk my battleship!" I jumped up from my chair and did a small victory dance.
"Haha I win you lose!" And on that day I lost a friend on the 'battlefield' and is the reason why I don't play any more games of battleship. They seems to get a little too intense.
In my house there is a classic game that we play ALL…THE…TIME. It’s a game that we have grown to love and has become a favorite of us. Whenever my cousins come over this is the game we play. It’s a fun, action packed game that everyone can enjoy. It’s called Wizards. It’s based off of Werewolves but instead of werewolves they are Wizards, and instead of dying the villagers were turned into frogs. That was when we were younger. My father loved the idea of werewolves and playing it with his kids but I had a nine year old brother at the time and my dad was cautious about what he played so he created Wizards, it is a traditional game now in our house, but it’s gradually gotten to the point in our lives when it’s not turning into a frog it’s turning into a ghastly white, not breathing human. If you want to come over to play games out of a variety we have then you NEED to play Wizards. It’s not you should or it would be nice…no it’s you need to play it. When we play with our cousins we have at least nine people that play so that means three Wizards, four Villagers, one Druid and one Seer. The Druid can kill or save someone once. If he/she kills someone said human cannot kill someone again and the same goes for saving someone’s life and said person can save or kill themselves, though it wouldn’t be logical to kill yourself. The Seer can see someone’s identity. The Wizards are three fingers and the villagers, druid, and seer are two fingers. The last is the Wizards. They can work together to kill someone in the night, only one person though, not two or three, one.
ReplyDeleteHow the game works is it’s a cooperative game. The villagers/druid/seer are trying to find and destroy the Wizards and vice versa. The moderator says, “Ok it’s night.” And everyone puts their heads down so they can’t see. The moderator calls for the Wizards and they look up and said moderator will ask if they want to kill. Usually on the first night they don’t kill. Then the Wizards, when they’re done, will put their heads down and the druid will wake up. The druid can kill or save, and if someone was killed in the night then the moderator will point at the person and ask if the druid wants to save that person (without saying the actual name). Then the druid goes to “sleep” and the seer wakes up. The seer points to a person and the moderator shows whether it’s a villager or a Wizard. Then the moderator will nod and say its morning time and everyone puts their heads up. The moderator will say who was killed/saved in the night and then let the debating and thinking commence. The people playing the game will talk about who’s a villager and who’s a Wizard. Eventually there will be a choice. Someone will choose who to kill. In the day you can kill one person, but you have two tries to kill someone. If no one is destroyed then you go back to “sleep”. When a person is killed then they must reveal who they were. The only way to kill someone is to say something on the lines of, “I vote to kill ______,” or, “Let’s kill _________.” Then someone has to second the vote. Thumbs go out in the middle and then if one wants the person to be killed then they do a thumbs up and if not a thumbs down. So that is the game that we play in our house that my father created and it’s what my story is based off of.