"Everything About This World is a Better Place"

The campaign is now being fully implemented, everyone wants a piece of the biosphere in their building and in the streets. It is taking sometime, because the city has decided it would be bad to completely take from the biosphere outside the city, and the government is having to grow its own plants in order to fill the city, but it is already obvious how much nicer it is to go outside and breath in the air. I am proud of what the city is becoming and I can’t wait to see what happens in the upcoming years.

Everything is looking up for me as well, I haven’t felt this great in years. My family respects me, my ideas are heard, and I finally asked sissy to be my girlfriend yesterday... and she said yes!!!! :) Everything about this world is a better place.

A Brighter Future?

Today is a momentous day. My dad has started a new campaign to bring small biosphere into the city to help the growing pollution problem. Apparently many of the citizens and government officials are questioning the validity of this biosphere hypothesis, but they have given permission to start a test case in the lower class section of the city, where the water and air treatment plants already operate.

It is such a simple concept, I think people in the city are having trouble seeing what is going on. They do not understand why the plants are helpful. I'm worried because time is running out and people are very apprehensive towards the incorporation of plants into Choketown.

On a side notes, my dad has taken an even greater interest in me and my thought and ideas. Our relationship has grown in the past few weeks more than it has in the previous past few years. I’m feeling proud, and proud of my father too.

Sissy also seems proud of me. We have been spending a lot more time together, I’m really starting to like her a lot. We go out to the biosphere as much as we can, 1 to get away from the smog and filth of the city, 2 to escape from the ridicule of the people and 3 to be with each other, although the 3rd reason might just be a reason for me.



I laughed when I saw this today at the Biosphere.  they act like every little thing is going to kill them.

Father-Son Time

So my mom talked to Dad about keeping some of the plants in our house. He agreed that the ones cleared by the lab would be allowed back in the house. That is exciting. My dad also asked me to show him where I had been getting the plants. I was scared to turn over my secret hiding place to him, but I wanted to do whatever I could to help out the condition of our city. I think that he wants to use the plants in a new campaign to save our city.

Anyway, I showed my dad the biosphere. He was very impressed with how clean it was; however, I could tell he was afraid of getting too close to the plants and some of the foreign wildlife. My dad was curious as to how I found the biosphere. I hesitantly told him the truth of how I had been given that map from my uncle and the explorations I had been taking whenever I had been sent on errand runs.

My father then shared some stories of him rebelling as a teenager too. It was really nice to have a real conversation with him. I can’t really remember the last time we had talked like that. I am so glad that I took him to the biosphere, he seemed really interested. I am so happy that he is not mad at me anymore. Hopefully things around home will start to change. And hopefully me dad can save the city!

Speaking of favorite plants,  my Dad seems to love this one:

Calming Down

It looks like the excitement of yesterday’s plant-opolypse has blown over. After running the entire family through a series of medical examinations performed by team of 10 doctors we were all pronounced healthy and fit with no detrimental effects as a result of our exposure to the plant life. In fact, the doctors noted that my immune system was actually above average compared to everyone else. It looks like all that running around in the biosphere made me healthier.

On top of that, my mom curtailed my grounding and gave me my car back. She confided in me that she wanted the plants back as they made the house smelled much better than any artificial air freshener she could buy. I think she’s going to talk to my Dad about getting those plants back from the lab.

CHAOS

I finally decided to tell my father about the plants today. When I first told him that I had plants in the house and that I thought they were the reason why our room smelled so great, he kind of brushed it off saying “Don’t be silly David, now is not the time to be joking around about something as ridiculous as that... of course you don’t have plants, … no plants in the house... I am really busy...” and continued to walk past me while being harangued by text messages coming from his PDA. After getting a brush off like that I decided to make a point. I made the quick drive over to Sissy’s house to pick her during lunch and when we got back, we got sandwiches to go from the kitchen and retreated to my room to plan out how to get through to my Dad.

In the end we came up with a scheme to make sure my Dad knew beyond a shadow of doubt that there were plants in the house. With Sissy’s help, I filled a pot with some dirt and transplanted a tiny bush and a couple of flowers into it. We arranged it so the bush was in the center of pot with flowers forming a ring around it. Then before she and I left to drive her back to her house, we left the pot on top of my dad’s desk. Usually, when I leave my room close it firmly behind me and lock it up tight so my Parents and siblings. Just for effect, I made sure to leave my door wide open when we left.

After I dropped Sissy off at her house I came back home to complete pandemonium. Evidently, my mom had walked into the common room as it was smelling fresher than usual, noticed the pot of plants on my dad’s desk shrieked, turned around to face my rooms open door to a jungle of plants and proceed to faint on to the floor. My dad who had come running at the sound of my mom’s yell, was not happy. Apparently, he wanted to get to a piece of paper lying underneath the pot and the plants were in the way. By the time I got there, there were a couple of guys in sumo wrestler size containment suits trying to angle around my Dad’s desk like ungainly elephants as while trying to move the vase without too much contact. After turning into a swollen jalapeno pepper and launching into a fiery tirade and grounding me to the common room (as my room was being decontaminated of plant life), my father finally calmed down enough to say with an exasperated grimace, “wow you weren’t joking about the plants earlier”. My mom, who had long since recovered from the shock of having plants in the house, was now furtively sniffing the flowers along with a couple of governmental employees behind my Dad’s back.

Unfortunately, my Dad chose to turn around at that very moment to ask my mom for input on my punishment. “Honey, I think David should be groun...WHAT ARE YOU DOING DEAR?” my dad exclaimed as he finished wheeling around. “Smelling the plants my dear, I think they give the room a wonderful aroma.” she replied serenely. “Honey, ” my Dad replied forlornly “you do realize we have to test all those plants for hazardous characteristics before we should touch them...”. In the end I ended up having to sleep on the couch overnight as a hazmat crew scrubbed down my room with bleach and various disinfectants.

In the Meantime..

So it’s the tenth day after the life support systems broke down. The air has become so gritty and moist it feels like I am breathing in cobwebs whenever I go outside without a mask. Only a couple of minutes of breathing in that unfiltered air makes me feel sick to my stomach. As a result of the air quality and the lack of visibility, school has been canceled because they don’t want massive amounts of kids driving around in the smog and getting into accidents.




In the mean time, the plants are doing great, and compared to the rest of the house, my room is a lot fresher. Even though my mom and dad have not entered my room in years, they all seem to be spending more time in the common area next to my room. Even though they have not mentioned anything about it to me, I think they subconsciously realize that there is something about being near my room makes the air smell and feel better as it permeates their lungs.

This is especially true of my Dad. Usually when he is at home, he spends all of his time cooped up in his office working on land management plans for the city. These days, when he is not rushing in and out of the house on government business he is usually working in the corner of the common area. He has even gotten to the point where he has moved his desk out here. The cool thing is that Dad’s co-workers are starting to notice too, they keep lingering in the common room whenever they come to meet with Dad. The other day, a small group even had a meeting here instead of at the Capital building down town. Maybe I should tell Dad why that room smells so fresh. Maybe it will help him fix the city! I am really nervous about his reaction though. I don’t want to anger him.

My Room Looks Like a Biosphere!

Every time I go to the biosphere now, I bring new plants back with me, anything that is colorful, pretty, or interesting, I just have to have it! My room is so full of plants now that it is starting to look like its own biosphere. The atmosphere in my room is so refreshing, and beautiful. I love it. However, my room can get a little messy sometimes. I never realized how many leaves plants shed, especially the big green leafy one that I suspended from the roof. The mess is worth the fresh air though.

Sissy has also started bringing a couple plants home with her from our trips out to the biosphere. I think that she thinks that they’re even cooler than I do! Wow! She is so cool.

This is my favorite kind of plant because it looks like snakes. I have a lot hanging from my ceiling. They are called Caput Medusae.

Interesting Effects

A few days ago when I went out to the biosphere, as I have become doing everyday, I noticed something different. It seemed like I was able to breath easier, like the air was clearer and less dense and smoggy. I watched as some birds flew about me, they seemed so much livelier and more energetic than the mangy ones in the city. Why is this? Why is it that the biosphere seems so much lively and happy?

I’ve been thinking about this for some time, so I decided to test a hypothesis. I brought a pot to the biosphere, loaded it with some soil and a few plants I felt were looking very healthy and snuck it into my room. Nothing happened to the air in my room and the plants started to wilt and die. I had been watering them and giving them sunlight, just as we learned in biology, but they still weren’t looking too good. So I began to bring more and more into my room. Now the plants are looking much better and I’m feeling great too. I love being in my room, it feels clean and fresh. Do you get what I’m saying? I think its the plants. Somehow the plants make the air fresher and clean. Like its getting rid of the pollution in the air. It is its own little life support system. Just imagine if the city incorporated plant life into the city, we may not even need a life support system. Oh, what a wonderful thought! I cant wait to tell Sissy about my findings.

Heres a picture Ive been dieing to take.  It from a top one of the old buildings looking down at the green city.

Systems Down

Wow, today was really hectic. In the middle of Biology class, the video we were watching on the African Savannah suddenly cut out as the electricity to our school went down and back up again. In all honesty, it was kind of scary being plunged into that darkness unexpectedly, and a lot of people were yelling in shock. Jupe and I were holding hands and sitting next to each other a couple of rows back during the movie, and when the lights went out it was comforting to know that she was next to me. After the lights came back on a couple of minutes later, the worst seemed to have been over, but by the end of the school day we all knew that something much more ominous was happening. At first the destruction wasn't very noticeable, but as the day went on, the air and the water became noticeably more dusty and chalky. By math class, several government notices had interrupted classes to state that the city’s life support system had been damaged during the power short, and that the government was doing all it could to bring them back on line. By the time school got out it everything was getting unnaturally hazy and foggy.

http://solarcrash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dark-evil-city.jpg

On the plus side, with all the commotion in the city, my dad hasn't question me about my whereabouts as much.  He seems to be too busy with work.

Poor Cleaner Bot

Today after school, I found a cleaner bot choking on one of the left over basket wires  that I had accidentally left on the floor last night. I must have forgotten to pick it up this morning on my way to school.  This was strange because I almost never see the little things around, as they often do their cleaning out of sight and hide under couches and beds when humans are around.  When I was little, I used to always have fun trying to pull them out from their hiding spots as they frantically attempted to return to their dark refuges... Anyway, this poor thing had half of the length of the wire down its vacuum slot and was choking pitifully as it whirled around trying to get it’s vacuum propeller unstuck.  They are  usually able to un-jam themselves and get back to work, I let it whirl around for a while as I put down my book bag and woke up my computer.  Then as I was beginning to think about finding Gerard our Butler-Bot to see if he could help me take apart and unjam the poor cleaner bot, Gerard came floating in to investigate the noise the cleaner bot was making as it went to greater and greater lengths to try and become unstuck.  I exclaimed “Hey Gerard, I think the cleaner bot needs some help puking up the wire it tried to suck up”.  “Indeed young master”, the robot replied as he performed a laser scan of the cleaner bot, “the R42 Cleaning Unit’s suction system appears to have suffered serious damage.  I will open it and see if I can fix it immediately.”  With that statement, he swooped down upon the struggling cleaner bot and placed it under his arm like a package as he went out the door.  “Wait! Can I watch you fix that robot?” I exclaimed rushing after Gerard.  “Certainly sir, but compared to the cooker robot that you watched me and the engineer fixed last time, the internals of this cleaner robot are probably going to be quite boring... I would imagine you have homework and other more interesting things to do.”  Gerard replied. “Oh no Gerard, I really do want to see you try to fix the robot”, I replied.  So Gerard relented and let me accompany him down the stairs and into the robot docking area in the basement.  It was their central hub where all the robots came to, rest, recharge, reboot, be cleaned, and undergo necessary maintenance.  Gerard and I moved by the little queue of robots parked in stand by as they awaited orders to do routine cleaning and other tasks as specified by Gerard’s scheduling system or by special request of my family.

We then reached in the mini repair station where Gerard kept tools to fix simple problems with the house hold robots.  After shutting down the feebly struggling cleaner bot, Gerard opened its chassis and proceeded to take out it’s internal components.  When he finally took out the suction system, opened it up and extracted the wire which was tightly wrapped around one of propellers, and had broken the fins off of another fan.  Gerard gave a sigh, and intoned “Oh dear, this is not good we may need to replace this unit...”  “Replace?, what do you mean replaced?  We are not seriously going to throw the robot out just because it broke a propeller trying to do a task it was supposed to do right?”  Gerard blinked at me, and explained “Young sir, it is not only his propeller, but the driving mechanism that rotates the propeller was also over stressed, it can no longer provide adequate suction. Here I’ll show you”.  He re-assembled the cleaner robot turned it on, and then directed it to clean a little bit of dirt that had fallen off of my shoe as I had walked into the basement.  The scene was kind of pitiful...the little cleaning bot was initially over joyed to find itself free of the wire and immediately zoomed over to the clump of dirt attempting to whirl its faulty fans at full speed.  Normally it would have only taken one pass for the cleaner bot to vacuum up that clump of dirt, however 20 passes later, the clump of dirt was still sitting on the floor and the damaged cleaning bot was beeping hysterically next to it.  Gerard hovered over and gently shutdown the cleaner bot, recorded the incidence as a bug report and uploaded the cleaner bot’s logs to the company that manufactured the R42 Cleaning Unit as a bug report and dropped the machine into the recycling chute.  He then turned to me and said “I have just finished taking care of the damaged cleaning unit, and will be sending in a request to you father to order another one.  If that is all, I will escort you back to the main part of the house from which I must begin preparations for dinner and you will be free to do other things such as your homework.”  I wasn't feeling particularly hungry as I climbed those stairs, the guilt over leaving the wire on the floor for the cleaning bot to choke on was making my stomach tie itself into knots.

I Want Privacy!

I've been going to the biosphere a lot over the past few weeks.  Pretty much whenever I can, especially when my parents ask me to run errands and after school.  I go with Sissy quite a bit.  However, apparently I have been a little too obvious about my "secret" whereabouts. Today my dad grabbed a hold of me and started drilling me with questions, like where I had been going and why I am always late getting back home.  He also said he's seen Sissy in my car and thinks we might be doing things we shouldn't be doing.  He says its improper for a young girl and me to be alone driving around like we are before we've even established any kind of relationship.  I cant believe him!  He should know his own son is responsible enough and not stupid enough to do anything with a girl that would get us in trouble.  Its like the only time he interjects into my life is to criticize how I'm living my life, as if everything I do is wrong!
It also scares me to think that he wants to know where I've been going.  If he finds out about the biosphere I might never be allowed to see it again.  I may also never see Sissy again.  I don't know what infuriates me more, the fact that he's intruding on my privacy or the fact that he's close to finding out about the biosphere.

Woven Basket

I am making a basket!  While I was exploring around the biosphere Sissy mentioned that it would be great if we could have something dedicated to carrying around stuff in kind of like those baskets people use in the grocery stores.  Since were keeping our trips to the biosphere secret we can’t just put the plants and rocks we find into our back packs unless we want to clean them out thoroughly before we go home.

After browsing around in the library I found a historical anthropology book on how the Native American’s lived long ago.  In it I found a diagram of a woven wood basket that was used to gather herbs and other things.  While I don’t have strips of bark ready for weaving, I did see a recycling dumpster full of wires and rubber strips on my home from school, as trash day is not till next Monday, I think I’ll go by and salvage some on the way home from school tomorrow.

A Day in the Park

So as I had promised, I took Sissy to one of the biospheres. After picking her up from her house, we followed the map’s winding route through the maze of the city tunnels to one of the smaller biospheres near her home. When we finally got out of that dark tunnel and drove into to the sunlit garden, I saw her face break into that smile she is always wearing when we watch movies about the jungle in Biology class.

Anyway, we spent most of the day wandering around the biosphere as I showed her the many interesting plants that I had found, and the mini-fort/tree house that I had started building near the bench.

Later we ended up eating our lunch picnic style in the clearing between the bench and the fort. It was fun pretending we were picnickers from the year 2011, sitting in the middle of the long gone Piedmont park eating, chatting, and watching other people fish, play frisbee, and run.

After getting done with the make believe we ended up discussing politics the state of land management, and how we both felt our parents and the rest of society were constraining us in an unnatural mold. Jupe seems to really love this place, I am pretty sure I’ll be seeing her around here a lot more. I’m excited.

Awesome News!

Exciting news! Today I met a cute girl in my biology class named Cecilia Jupe, although she told me to call her Sissy. We got to talking and we found we had a lot in common. We both are fascinated by biology and even though it is forbidden we can’t help but imagine a world full of life other than humans and sewer rats. Our teacher informed us that plants and wildlife are dangerous, that they cause illness, rashes, itchiness, and can even be poisonous. Sissy and I both agreed that even if this is true there is something intriguing about the thought of green freshness rather than the dingy cement and colorless brick surroundings of the city, not to mention I personally haven’t seen any dangerous plants out in the biosphere, at least not like the ones made out in biology class.

Anyway I was so intrigued by this girl, I got on the Internet to blog, but before I began, some sense was telling me to look her up on blogger. It turns out she has a blog. Someone else in this mechanized city has a blog. I figured I was the only one considering blogging like this is considered strange and even disrespectful, since society sees it as being imaginative and not only considering the facts. My dad would kill me if he knew I had this blog.

She has been blogging about the same things I have as far as the city getting more and more stuffy and claustrophobic and how we are kept form expressing our creativity and imagination. I am now a follower of her blog and can’t wait to read what she posts next. Biology just got even better. Think I should show her the biosphere?

Sneaking Around

I ended up sneaking back to the biosphere today after school and did a little more exploring in the area near the bench I saw earlier. Behind the clearing, there is a wall with a tree growing up it’s face like a salamander gripping the wall.

I also came across what looked like an old school house,  take a look at this picture I took.  This is so exciting!

Secret Biosphere!

Oh my goodness. You’ll never believe what I found today! I was just driving around in my new hovercraft, my mother had asked me to pick up some groceries for her. I kind of took my time on the way back home, I was in no hurry to get back to the dungeon. I pulled out my new map and explored a little bit more. I flew past the power plant I found the other day, and I went even went a few miles further. Something green caught my eye. It was strange, I was not quite sure where I was, but it looked to be something like another abandoned power plant, yet, much, much larger. There were green plants everywhere! I had never seen anything like it. I was not sure how to approach the area. I was scared, but my curiosity took over, and I lost control. I had to explore.

I was engulfed by the lush green forest surrounding me. The verdant greenery blew me away, I had never seen anything like it! There were flowers, trees, and weeds, all the sorts of organisms that we studied in biology. Apparently they are very dangerous and hazardous, but the plants did not seem very threatening. I was careful not to touch anything, but the environment was so incredibly intriguing. Like I said, I had never seen anything like it. There was something about the area that was just different that Choketown. I could see off into the distance, there were not smoke stacks obstructing my view. The air was more crisp than I had ever imagined air could be, I wonder what kind of filters were being used! This place that I discovered was truly incredible.

I am afraid that if I tell anyone about my finding, especially my parents, they will never let me go back! It was so pretty there, and unlike anything I have ever seen. I can not even imagine not being able to go back now that I have found this place.

Exploring

Today I went out and explored some of the outskirts of Choketown. My adventure was very interesting. That map that I received for my birthday makes it really easy to get around and I love this new found freedom. I am discovering places that I never knew existed! I found an abandoned power plant just 15 minutes away from my house. It was creepy, but in an awesome way. I wonder who used to work there. Maybe it is closed because it blew up! Who knows? I hope that I can go discover new places tomorrow after school. I am so excited!

As I have been exploring, I've noticed somethings about the city I've never really noticed or thought about before.  As you leave the section of the city my family lives in, you come across a  much gloomier and dirty part of town.  The people that live here don't wear the same clothes as my family and neighbors do, theirs are dirty and torn.  They also all live very close to each other, almost on top of each other.  I don't like going around this part of town much because it scares me, but at the same time the new learning experience is intriguing.  Would you believe that none of these people have computers, or cars, or even phones.  In fact their homes look like they could fall in at any moment, not that it would matter because their roofs let the rain in anyway.   I have never known the vast differences between the rich and the poor here in Choketown.

My Hovercraft

Hi again. I’ve had my new hovercraft for about a week now, and it’s still AWESOME. I’ve gotten really good at driving around. It goes so fast! My parents have been making me run some errands for them. The errands are tedious, but I guess that’s part of the responsibility of having my own vehicle. Even though they’re taking advantage of me and my resource, I’m grateful they got it for me. This is so awesome!

Another Year in Choketown..

Today was my 16th birthday.  I got a bunch of presents some interesting some not as much.  The most notable one was my NEW HOVERCRAFT!!! Its nothing special just an old school junky Land-rover that gets up to 60 mph max, but never the less,  I am very excited.  Not only for the car but for the freedom.  I will finally be able to explore the world I’m forced to live in and feel the freedom of the wind in my hair.  Which sparks an idea, with another gift I received today.

The other gift that I was intrigued by was the strange (and frankly, kind of creepy) map from my uncle. I am not quite sure what it means, or what it is for. It certainly does not look anything like Choketown. What is stranger was the way that he gave it to me. My uncle took me off to the side and gave it to me while no one was watching. He told me not to show anyone nor tell anyone anything about it. I am so curious! Maybe it leads to some secret underground society! Or a really awesome hovercraft racetrack! (My uncle knows my parents would never let me go to a racetrack). I can not wait to check out what it leads to. If only I could figure out how to read it..

Wow, two great gifts in one day.  I am really worn out, I have not been this happy with my family in a while.  Knowing them, I was expecting a whole ton of clothes.  Or text books.. Ugh. I can’t wait to start driving around in my Landrover and figure out what that map is for. Hopefully it will get me somewhere outside the city of Choketown.

This place is horrible! If my father wasn’t the a city official, I would be out of here in a heartbeat. Although the air is filtered and cleansed of biological diseases, the city is full of smoke from all of the industrial processes.

But enough of that, today is my birthday and even though I despise this place I’m going to try to make today at least a little happier.

Oh, what a beautiful city! :(
The only thing that seems to change is the height of the buildings.
 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/New_York_City_at_night_HDR.jpg/800px-New_York_City_at_night_HDR.jpg