Posted in Books, The Dreamer

Dreamer Part 5 // Friendships, Theories, and the Difference Between Watching and Stalking

Oh my goodness so there are these two big projects that we finished right before break and NEITHER TEACHER has put in the grades and it’s THE WORST. I don’t want to wait!

Heya! ‘Tis Naomi, and I’m bringing you the next installment of “The Dreamer”. Which, if you didn’t know, is this story series about girls and dreams and… welp, maybe you should just read the previous chapters (or, if you’re like me and don’t have amazing long-term memory but don’t wanna reread the entire series, you can read the previously on…). Seems easier, yeah?

Previously on The Dreamer: Kurota feels this weird connection with her classmate Nova and isn’t sure why. Being a logical weirdo, she usually wouldn’t act on such a feeling, but this one is really strong and so she’s been watching Nova for the past few months. Nova, oblivious to Kurota’s creepy watching, is trying to deal with losing her sister to a fire.

These two get paired for an English assignment. And well, Nova hasn’t really been paying attention to school… and… you’ll see what Kurota thinks about that in this part! Yay!

Get Caught Up: Prologue (The Dream) | Part One (Soulmates, Dreams, and Homework) | Part Two (Sisters, Grandparents, and Other Lost Things) Part Three (Observations, Awkwardness, and an English Assignment) | Part Four (Group Projects, Annoying Partners, and Zoning Out)

“… and she didn’t even know what the project was. Like she zoned out for the entirety of the speech. And I’m going to sound like a total nerd, but how is she not even a little bit excited to do a project on a way we’re hurting our environment that could get us to a national contest where we could literally win $500?” Kurota groans. She’s sprawled across Orenda’s floor as she complains about her group project. 
“See, you’re my best friend and as such I love you. But first off, since when was being a nerd a bad thing? And second off, how can you not take this as a good thing? You’ve been trying to talk to her and figure out what’s going on here since the beginning of school.” Of course Orenda thinks of it that way.

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/adults-bed-blur-casual-206293/

“I think you’re getting it twisted because you’re the one who wants to talk to Nova. Not me.”
“Mhm. You’re still the one who wants to know everything about her, and talking to her is a way better way of doing that than creepily stalking her all the time.”
“It’s not stalking if I’m not following her.” Kurota protests.
“Well, creepily watching her then. Better?”
“Yes.” 
“Well when you and Nova have some special bond, I am always going to remind you that I was right when I said you should just talk to her, you crazy introvert.”
“Well when I totally fail this project because of my partner and then never talk to her again, I am always going to remind you that I was right when I said I should stick to watching, you crazy extrovert.”
“Wait, does this mean you’re going to give up on watching her?” Orenda jumps up from where she was lying. 
“Yeah, probably. What’s the point? Not sure why I stuck to this so long anyways since there’s no reason whatsoever that she’s important to me.” 

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/adult-book-boring-face-267684/


“What if she’s your soulmate and you just decide that she isn’t important to you? Then you’ll never have a soulmate!”
“We are not going to your crazy theories again. I’ve heard them all enough times.”
“Alright, whatever. I know you don’t believe in magic and all that, but seriously? You should consider something that’s a little out of your comfort zone. Just saying.”
“Can we change the subject now?”
“Fine.”

And that’s that! Hope you enjoyed…

Posted in Monthly Wrap-Ups

Hello June, Goodbye May! // Yeah, I’m Alive

I am so tired of movies. We watched like a million on our last days of school and just like uuuuuuuuuugh. But, ya know, whatever. I’ll be fiiiiiiine.

Heya! ‘Tis Naomi, and no, I’m not dead. Nearing the end of school, I was in a kinda weird mood where I like couldn’t get ANYTHING done. Blame it on the movies we watched basically the whole school day for a week. But school’s out! And so I’ll hopefully have more time to write blog posts and do all the other things I need to do – except for that one month that I’m away for almost all of. But we’ll get to that when we get to it.

Right now, we’ve got a post to write!

Goals

  1. Stick to the schedule
    *ahem* Well you see, I did it really well for like the first half of the month. But um. Well.
  2. ACTUALLY do SOME kind of work on This Precious Planet each week
    I did! I did! You hear that everyone? I ACTUALLY COMPLETED A GOAL. Except, uh, it wasn’t This Precious Planet – it’s The Dreamer now. But whatever. I worked on my story and released the prologue!
  3. Get The Marrow Thieves back out and finish it, watch Kiss The Ground, and maybe watch Don’t Look Up.
    Oh yeah. That. Well uh – no, no, and no? I kinda forgot about this one…

This Month’s Media

Thanks for asking, but I don’t think I read or watched anything climate change-y this month. Sorries. I’ve got lots of summer reading to do!

Goals

  1. Publish at least one more chapter of The Dreamer.
    Pretty easy goal. I think.
  2. Stick to the schedule.
    We’ll… we’ll try.
  3. Read/watch some environmental stuff!
    Since I failed last month.

Holidays

It’s great outdoors month, and in light of that I’ll try to get some outdoors-y posts out there! And ALSO, June 6 is National Green Roof Day – which yay, because for some reason I haven’t really talked about green roofs on here yet!

And that’s all for today, folks! I’ll see you on Monday with a post about green roofs, and now I better be off – bye!

Question of the day: Do you have any environmental movie, book, or show recommendations for me?
Action of the day: Spend some time in nature!

Posted in Peatlands, Short Stories!

Flipi The American Bullfrog

Well hi there! It’s Naomi. Happy World Environment Day! Rowan @ Ocean Heroes did a WONDERFUL post on World Environmental Day, which included some things to watch or do. Check it out here. 😛

Anywho, today we’re going to be starting to learn a bit about peatlands through a short story! Enjoy!

The Story

Well hello there! I’m Flipi, and I live in the place you humans call ‘Dixon Waterfowl Refuge’. Right now, I have an AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING life!! But it wasn’t always this way, and I’ve heard the story.

A while ago, you humans came into our home and started TAKING OUT ALL THE WATER!!! What was our home supposed to BE without water? I don’t know. But, anyway, for one reason or another you humans took all the water out of our home! All of it! And then you started driving these biig bad THINGS across the home, and we had to leave!! AHHH!!! No!!

But after that, you humans… you realized what you did was wrong! I’ve been told that humans rarely understand what they’re doing wrong, and how much amazingness it was that you did!

You humans realized that we needed a place to live! And humans ALSO realized that our home could somehow save the world from dying! And you realized that if our home has water, your home doesn’t have to! Wow, right?!

You humans, you destroyed our home. But you fixed it! You need to keep doing this kinda thing! I have friends who used to live in other places, and need their homes back to! Pleease help us. Thank you human!!

A little note

I know that the story of Flipi doesn’t have too much to do with climate change, but I thought showing you the things we’re doing to our wetlands would be helpful to begin talking about peatlands. 🙂 I would like to do a big shout out to The Valley Animal Protectors, who help all animals!

Also, I’ll probably be doing a post explaining HOW people are restoring peatlands, so keep an eye out for that coming soon! 😉

How you can help frogs like Flipi

  1. EDUCATE yourself on peatlands, and SHARE the word about them by sharing this post or writing to friends.
  2. DON’T buy peat-based products!
  3. SUPPORT The Wetlands Initiative, by donating there! You can do that here.
  4. VOLUNTEER with The Wetlands initiative. You can learn more about that here.

Sources

“American Bullfrog (Lithobates Catesbeianus).” INaturalist, 3 Aug. 2018, http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15412056. Accessed 5 June 2021.

“Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin & Hopper Lakes.” The Wetlands Initiative, http://www.wetlands-initiative.org/dixon-waterfowl-refuge-hh. Accessed 5 June 2021.

“Peatlands – Climate Regulation and Biodiversity.” Www.youtube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcxZ9gvNfSU.

Well I believe that’s it! Did you enjoy that story? Have you heard of stories like that? Thanks for reading!

Posted in Uncategorized

CONTEST: Short Stories!

Hyesle everyone!! Naomi here! I am announcing a contest: SHORT STORIES!

Thank you to Maeve for this idea!!!!

General Idea:

When I started writing short stories, Maeve came up with the idea for a contest!! There will be a contest for writing your own climate-change-centered short story, like the ones I write once in a while.

Entering the contest:

To enter the contest, send your short story to thesocietytostopclimatechange@gmail.com with subject line “Short Stories Contest”! Your short story only needs to be the story part, if I publish your story, I will make the “How To Help” part of the post. If you want to make a “How To Help” section, you’re welcome to, though!

Rules/Deadline:

  • Deadline is March 15
  • Your short story should be 100-300 words long.
  • Do not plagiarize (I mean duh but worth mentioning anyhow)
  • Please include the name that you would like me to say the story is by.

Prize:

I will publish the winning story on our blog, and write an honorable mention for the people in second and third place!! The people in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will all get a virtual award as well!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you decide to submit something! I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Posted in Short Stories!

Aria The Koala

Hello friends! Naomi here with another short story post!! This is about Aria The Koala.

Hello! I’m Aria, a 10- month- old koala. But before we talk about me, let’s talk about us koalas and our home.

We live in the Eucalyptus forests of Australia, and we had a good life eating eucalyptus leaves. We stay in our mom’s pouches for the first 8 or 9 months of our lives, and there we eat from our mom.

I just got let out of my mother’s pouch last month, and I was so excited! But we’ve been facing some problems. Our food, eucalyptus leaves, has started degrading. It’s so horrible! I wish there was something that could make it better….

But anyways, onto the BIGGEST problem and my story. Yesterday, which was a completely normal day, I saw this brightness. Huh I thought, That’s weird. Was the light getting… closer? I heard screams from the brightness. WHAT? As it got closer, I saw what it was: FIRE! I was SOOOOOOO scared, my heart beating in my chest.

I’m gonna die I’m gonna die Oh no I don’t want to die don’t make me die oh shoot I’m gonna die…. The fire came closer. I felt something hot on my paw. OUCH! I look down to see black scorch marks on my paw. EEK! And then I see a human coming in a vehicle. I’m taken away.

There, when I get to the human’s base, I’m cared for. But my paw hurts SOOOOOO much and this place is a little bit scary… and what about my home?! And MOM???!!!! I wish this had never happened. But hey, humans can do things to help us!!

How you can help Koalas like Aria and her home:

  • PLANT A TREE! One tree planted has trees you can pay to get planted in Australia! This will help the forest and wildlife!
  • Be careful of where your tree-products come from. Make sure they are sustainably sourced!!
  • Reduce your carbon footprint! A lot of the reason that their are wildfires in Australia is due to Climate Change, which is why I have put this story on our blog!
  • Spread the word! If you have Social Media, share posts from koala organizations with your friends!

Note:
Are you really passionate about saving animals? Do you want to do EVEN MORE for the koalas? You can join The Valley Animal Protectors, who help animals!

Thanks for reading!
Please like this post if you liked it, and tell me if you have any ideas for stories! Thanks again!

-Naomi