Nonfiction Blog (Harmen Alleyne)

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So I was going to post the prompt about robots but that one was weird so I decided to use the hand prompt.

So standard stuff, again. And I was intentionally vague with the names and concepts of the stories I mention because I realize that no one would bother to remember/understand anything about any of the stories. Prompt: I write with my hands So this is the essay where I explain my free-writing. I forget when exactly I started thinking up stories. It was definitely a very long time ago, with my oldest memories being around second or third grade. I had an imaginary world where there was a stand-in character for myself, and imaginary friends I would play with outside. I do have a faint memory of doing this somewhere in colorado when I was on a trip with my family, but I don’t remember much about what I was doing. Eventually I started to actually begin to think up my first actual story with a plot. It was terrible. The characters were unrealistic and one-dimensional. There was almost zero plot structure. There were too many specifics and too many vague descriptions where they didn’t...

1.00% Chance to get an SSR and I get the worst one (Also an essay about risk, mostly).

You know the standard procedure by now. I also expect no one to understand what the title means but this is my essay so I get to name it what I want. 648 words. Prompt: How much of a daredevil are you? There is a big difference between me in real life and the “me” in a video game. When it comes to real life, I take almost no risks. If there's a chance that failure can impact my current status, even if the change is only moderate, I won’t take the risk. If the risk is high enough, I will be paralyzed into inaction, and will usually be like that until I end up missing the opportunity or the risk goes down. I believe that if there's a chance for a large failure, I will almost never take that risk. I don’t exactly like to put myself in bad situations, which is probably why I’ve never broken a bone. I’m also quite cautious around food, since I have a severe tree nut allergy. If something has even “may contain” on the nutrition facts, I treat it as an absolute certainty unless I ...

Not even sure if I've censored this essay enough.

Prompt: How often do you curse, and why? Let’s just say that I swear a lot more than adults would want me to swear. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t actively try to offend people. In fact, I try my best to not offend people. I just subconsciously use swear words when speaking in my peer group. It started roughly around the same time that I entered Uni and discovered my freedom. I previously went to Urbana Middle School before entering Uni, and had a decent upbringing. My parents didn’t swear at home, and I had only some knowledge of taboo vocabulary at that time. Also, UMS handed out detentions like halloween candy. Teachers would give out detentions to people who asked others to stop talking during a test (I know from personal experience). I had tried my best to not use any swear words during my time at UMS. But then I came to Uni High. When I arrived at Uni High, everyone was using swear words, and I was a little surprised at the absence of detentions. Surprise quickly turned into curiosi...

These Titles are Going to Get More and More Complicated.

Standard Critiques. This came in at about 610 words. Prompt: Do you ever eavesdrop? Yes. Constantly. Now, before you say that I’m weird or a stalker, I will provide the reasons to contradict this notion. My ability to pick up information about people is a skill that I have honed over many years, and is (probably) not something you should be concerned about. It probably all started in elementary school when people would talk about me behind my back. I was always known as one of the “nerdier” kids at school, and people would occasionally make fun of me. I eventually got paranoid and began listening in on other people’s conversations. It was mostly just my friends at first, and nothing they said was all that hurtful. I could even jump into a conversation that some friends were having just by listening into what they had been saying for maybe a minute beforehand. I was also able to locate anyone who said something mean or hurtful about me, even when they thought I couldn’t hear them. I had...

The Legendary Artifact that I used to slay an Elder Dragon, among other things.

This essay is 632 words. Usual criticisms are appreciated (Flow, extraneous details, voice). Prompt 1: What objects tell the story of your life? (Rewrite) If there is one thing in my room that has spawned countless stories and jokes, it would be my computer. I bought a quite expensive and powerful laptop a few years ago. It was a red ASUS ROG computer (though no one has time for specifics). I got it because my old computer was under-performing and I wanted to be able to play games with friends without oppressive input lag. My computer and I have gone through a lot together. I would never sell it or give it away. My computer is a gaming laptop, which means that it is quite powerful compared to most laptops that people do work on. This not only means that it can handle more complex tasks than Uni provided computers, it can complete those tasks with ease and precision. You do not know how many homework assignments were completed in less than half the time using my gaming compu...

Personal Essay 1: "I don't like Thomas the Tank Engine or Bob the Builder"

This being the first personal essay I am submitting, any criticism is appreciated. Comment anything I should change with the flow, topics, or anything else. The essay is as close to 650 words as I could get and is definitely under 650, so no need for trimming unless there is something completely unnecessary. The prompt I used was "Have you ever felt embarrassed by the things that you used to like?" Personal Essay 1: There aren’t many things that I am embarrassed about that I used to like from my childhood, most likely because I like the same things now that I am older (such as my continued interest in dinosaurs from my first memories). The two interests that I held as a child that I want to leave in the past were my interests in the television series Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine. As a child, these shows and my characters filled up my thoughts and drove many of my actions. I was so invested in it that my parents bring it up occasionally in reference to my growth ...