Archive | Writing RSS feed for this section

CollegeBored

14 Apr

With the College Board enacting sweeping changes to the SAT next year, parents and educators are worried. Though none were actually asked for their opinions on the matter, we’re pretty sure students are concerned as well. In response to this vocal blowback and out of genuine concern for student welfare and achievement, the Collegeboard has instituted a new practice exam: the PSAT, or Post-natal SAT.

Studies have shown that factors such as college readiness, eventual salary, and life fulfillment can be predicted almost immediately after a baby exits the womb. The PSAT holistically evaluates your 8-pound-bundle-of-joy’s scholastic ability in reading, writing, and math. With our rapid scoring system, you will get your infant’s scores in just two weeks, allowing them to start preparing for a second attempt almost immediately. Your baby will get an early taste of their future schooling life as their already sleepless nights are filled with rigorous test prep.

We at the College Board know that being thrust from a warm cocoon of innocence into the chaos of the world can be stressful in students, so we will be offering a wide variety of review materials for your fetus. In cooperation with Little Einsteins, we will be selling audio study materials for the PSAT, which you can pipe into your uterus at high volumes. Did you feel that kick? Looks like your little one just learned something new.

Of course, the College Board has gone to great lengths to make sure the PSAT scoring is fair. If your baby tries to stick a pen in its mouth during the writing section, he’s performing better than most of his peers, meaning a score in the high 700s. If your infant looks at a math problem, craps itself, and cries, he’s approaching math like many college students do! You’ve done a great job parenting this kid for the last five minutes.

To register for the Post-natal SAT, visit kollegeboard4kids.com. For help evaluating your parenting style and priorities, seek psychiatric or religious counsel.

 

 

Kim Jong Un by Paul Mitchell

27 Mar

Male university students in North Korea are now required to get the same haircut as their leader Kim Jong-un, it is reported. – BBC

When I first read this story, I was shocked. I wasn’t so surprised at the latest in a long line of tyrannical stunts from a clearly unstable leader. More surprisingly, North Korea has a university! As a junior in high school, applying to college is foremost on my mind. Eager to find out more about the University of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at Gleaming Worker’s Paradise of Pyongyang (“State” for short), I did a little digging. Here is what I found:

They have a fight song:

In the world’s cleanest city,
in the world’s most prosperous country,
underneath our glorious leader,
we are not going hungry.

Over the corpses of enemy imperialists,
we march toward victory – yeah!
All of our internal struggles are classist.
We are the best Korea!

So it’s fight, fight, fight,
hail to the DPRK!
We’ll sing as we work in the salt and sulfur mines
for twenty hours a day!

Hip, hip, hooray,
sing this victory hymn!
We pledge our eternal loyalty
to three fat men named Kim!

Their president writes a monthly newsletter:

Dear Students and Faculty of UDPRKGWPP,

March has been a busy month here at State. Spring has finally arrived; the birds cheerfully sing songs of the everyman, the squirrels once again go out to steal acorns from the American vermin, and the industrial smokestacks belch out a thick smog over fragrant, blossoming trees. Truly a sight to behold.

I trust the male scholars of the university are abiding by our Glorious Leader’s Glorious Decree on hairstyling. As you all know, male students must now wear their hair in the fashion made famous by our Eternal Father. On an unrelated note, it is with sadness that I announce the mysterious disappearance of 30 long-haired but otherwise unrelated young men. There will be no memorial service.

Our comrades in the Science Department recently announced great gains in the development of atomic missiles for our nation. They have finished gluing the device together and need only to staple on the fins before launching it at our cowering enemies.

The Working Women Students Union recently hosted a forum on female sexuality on campus. Though the university will refrain from commenting on this matter, I would like to remind students that the Health and Wellness Center offers resources to help you stay safe. Pumping out hardy, genetically-pure laborers may sound fun now, but the State has designated you to be scholars, not parents.

Finally, the university would like to extend our gratitude to alumnus Wei Teu Thin ’74, who donated his entire rice harvest to the construction of a new monument to our Leader.

Go State!

Kim Jong Un
President of Everything

Fun Facts:

Colors: American Soldier’s Blood Red and Western Coward Yellow
Mascot: Terry the Proletariat
Founded in: 1954
Founded upon: the graves of those who threatened us
Rival: University of Hamhung
Arch-Rival: American University
Arch-arch-rival: Capitalism.

 

Service Club Annual Appeal

17 Feb

Dear Prospective Donor,

As you likely know, the Repairing the World Club at our school sponsors and annual service trip to an area in need. In recent years, our eagerness to serve has carried us to the mucky jungles of Nicaragua, to the barren expanses of Kenya, and even the bracing foothills of Nepal. In all of these places, the value of our efforts could be easily seen in the gracious smiles of those we were helping.

Keeping with tradition, our trip this year will occur in a region of tremendous need. Allow me to paint an image in your mind: The piercing cracks of street violence echo through fetid streets. Mothers cry out  for their children as the innocent youth shriek in anguish. Friends and neighbors spill blood for mere scraps of food, and sometimes resort to consuming each other when there is nothing else to eat. The wounded trample the throats of the fallen as they run toward dusty and crowded hospitals, praying that the untrained doctor’s blades will be swift as he haphazardly amputates. Over this chaotic scene presides a cruel and merciless tyrant who spits in the faces of his subjects from his gilded throne.

Clearly, Toronto has problems too endemic and overgrown for the native people to handle. The Repairing the World Club has to extend a life-rope to those drowning in the cesspool of Toronto with this year’s mission trip. Unfortunately, traveling to this remote and dangerous locale is prohibitively expensive. We require your financial assistance to bring the gift of charity to the Torontonians.

This trip will challenge the integrity of our determination and our capacity for empathy. We do not know how it feels to live and work under the world’s most whimsical mayor. We can not begin to understand the harshness of winter in the most efficient municipality at snow removal. How many tears have been shed in the cleanest city in Canada? How many dreams have been shattered living in America’s hat? How does it feel to pay more for hospital parking than for healthcare?

This year in Toronto, we resolve to make a change. We resolve to to empower, we resolve to engage, and we resolve to resolve. Resolving to resolve cracks in our resolve will resolve things in need of resolving. You too can be a part of this magical giving experience with a check made payable to: “The Repairing the World Club Beer Party/Paintball Retreat Fund”. We thank you in advance for your generosity.

Sincerely,

Alexandra Moraine
Fundraising Chair
Repairing the World Club
Beer Party/Paintball Retreat Committee

Which Supreme Court Justice Are You?

28 Jan

Are you the life of the party like Ruth Bader Ginsberg? Or are you the guy your friends trust all their secrets with like Clarence Thomas? Maybe you’re the class clown just like Stephen G. Breyer! Take this fun quiz and find out which member of the bench you are!

1. People would describe your courtroom conduct as:
a. stern but fair.
b. firm but sincere.
c. rigid but just.

2. The justice to your left says a funny joke! You:
a. giggle once, inaudibly.
b. slightly raise the corners of your mouth.
c. exhale.

3. It’s Casual Friday at the office! You wear:
a. a black robe. (Classy!)
b. a bedazzled black robe. (Unique!)
c. a black robe with nothing underneath. (Flirty!)

4. In your high school yearbook, you were voted:
a. Most Likely to Enter Jurisprudence
b. Neatest Hairstyle
c. Closet Babe

5. When you walk down the street, it feels like:
a. 78% of the country doesn’t know who you are.
b. 84% of the country doesn’t know who you are.
c. 92% of the country doesn’t know who you are.

6. The best part about being a justice is:
a. the unparalleled job security.
b. the group camaraderie.
c. the paparazzi attention.

If you answered mostly As, you’re one of the Supreme Court Justices! (We’d say which one, but we can’t name one either.)

Hot Like Fire Sauce®

12 Jan

Some authors have become fabulously wealthy off their work. Much to my chagrin, I have not. But rather than keep chipping away at this humor thing until it pans out, I’ve decided to make my fortune off a single work: a supermarket-shelf romance. As brick-and-mortar book stores die in America, supermarkets are still going strong, meaning my book will reach the maximum audience possible. So, without further ado, I present a portion of my monetary chef d’oeuvre, Taboo: A Taco Bell Love Story. 

Chapter 8: Passion Hot as Fire Sauce™

The pallid glow of fluorescent lighting glinted off her auburn hair, greasy and lifeless like an unopened case of burrito lettuce. I stared deep into her eyes as I bit into a Chalupa Supreme®, and a moist wad of sour cream dripped clumsily down my chin. Suave and smooth, I wiped it on the sleeve of my hoodie. She signaled her affirmation with a girlish grin.

Slowly, I began to put my mouth around the object of my affection; the Fiery Doritos® Locos Taco Supreme was everything I’d hoped it would be. Pausing momentarily, I wondered which was more delightfully curvaceous – her body or this taco shell?  Both made me salivate excessively. Just as I consumed that mystery meat abomination, my lust consumed me. I wanted to unleash my love for her like guacamole from a caulking gun.

The oily tension at our table for two began to overcome us both. Her hands twitched either out of nervousness or a small saturated-fat overdose seizure. My toes curled inside my Crocs, digging deep like the roots of our affection. The raw ache of anticipation welled inside us both. The temperature of the evening climbed from Mild® to Hot® to Fire®, crescendoing  momentously in Limited Edition Fire Roasted®.

Our hands clicked together magnetically, and our heads aligned themselves on that cosmic auto-pilot that only soulmates share. Pausing just inches apart, she looked piningly at my buttery lips and whispered, “I must be a Cantina Steak Burrito® by Lorena Garcia, because I was made just for you.” We held the same tantalizing position as I replied, “You make my heart melt like Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes®.”

Suddenly, our lips locked together, cradling a Shredded Chicken Smothered Burrito® in between our mouths. As we lost ourselves in each other, we were blanketed by a layer of rice and pinto beans. Eventually, we tumbled off our chairs and onto the floor, wallowing in the food detritus like a pair of amorous hogs. We paused for breath, and she flirtatiously fed me a handful of the fallen legumes. From behind the counter an employee, jealous of our connection, yelled, “Ya’ll belong in an institution! Yo, this is wrong, man.”

If it was wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Wal-Mart’s Best Black Friday Deals

29 Nov

6:00 PM Thursday

  • Automatically entered to win a copy of “Commercialist Tramplings: 3D”
  • 50% off Unhappy Sales Employee Action Figure (time with family not included)
  • One free night in a tent at a Walmart of your choosing

8:00 PM Thursday

  • Complimentary nagging thought of what Thanksgiving would have been like
  • 25% off a toaster oven you didn’t know you needed until now
  • $100 off a TV whose horrific reviews seem meaningless at this price

8:00 AM Friday

  • $50 off your child still whining because you bought the wrong iPod
  • 100% off your own value of sleep and relaxation
  • Free sense of impending holiday doom with purchase of discounted Christmas decorations

Facebook for Moms

14 Nov

Facebook shares soared 15% Wednesday on blowout quarterly results — but the stock lost steam after the company admitted young teens are losing interest in the site. – CNN Money

With Facebook usage declining among young people, the company is introducing several changes targeted towards its older user base. Last week, the company introduced an entirely new version of the website with demographic-specific features: Facebook for Moms.

New features include:

Automated comments – Just press the automated comment button and you’ll get a customized comment from the phrases moms use most:

    • “blessed”
    • “wow”
    • “love you”
    • “lots of love”
    • “love you lots”
    • “so grown up”

SAMPLE: Wow!!!! So grown up! Love you lots! 

Easy Exclamation Points – Busy moms don’t have time to add all of those unnecessary exclamation points to their posts and comments. Now, just type one and we’ll add three extra automatically.

Smart Captioning – Post a picture and Facebook will automatically caption it with the child and vacation spot in this picture. You can turn this feature off, but we know you’re not posting anything but pictures of your kids on vacation.

Unlimited Game Updates – Your friends deeply, deeply care about your Candy Crush Saga progress. With this new feature, you can share your scores every two seconds.

Pinterest Compatibility – Facebook will automatically comment “Wow!! So beautiful!!!” on any pinboards titled “Dream Wedding”, “Home Decorating Ideas”, or “Desserts to Try”.

Single and Ready to ChristianMingle

24 Oct

Online dating can be a minefield of misunderstanding. Piercing the veil of smoke in self-written profiles is nearly impossible for many people. The first dates are often fraught with confusion when the online descriptions don’t translate into reality. The following is a guide on how to imagine the first date based on information from the web:

“Hi, I’m Kiki. I am a classy, articulate girl who loves to have new experiences. I am thrifty, optimistic, and I always speak my mind.  My passions include horseback riding and the theatre.”

“classy, articulate”

KIKI: Do you drink a lot of wine?
YOU: Not really, no.
KIKI: Well, you really should try this Bordeaux. The layers of apricot and pear really pair nicely. It’s got this bold flavor, but I just can’t quite figure what it is…
YOU: Red wine?
KIKI: No, it’s something more than that. They were just talking about it in Wine Aficionado, which is a magazine that I subscribe to.
YOU: Interesting.
KIKI: You can basically tell how good a wine is by how many vowels there are in the name.

“thrifty”

KIKI: I’ll have the filet mignon, please.
WAITER: Eight or twelve ounces?
KIKI (to you): You’re paying, right?
YOU (to Kiki): Uh, I guess so, yeah.
KIKI (to waiter): Fourteen ounces, please.
WAITER: Okay.
KIKI (to waiter): And can I just get two lobster tails on top of that?
WAITER: That will be a fifteen dollar surcharge.
KIKI: That’s fine, and can I just get an order of twenty-four oysters, please? Don’t bother bringing them to the table, I’m just gonna eat them some other time.

“optimistic”

KIKI: This date is going super well, right?
YOU: Yeah. Pretty super.
KIKI: I went to Cancun last summer and it was so beautiful. I can totally see us getting married there. On the beach at sunset, it’d be so gorgeous.
YOU: My parents were in Mexico last year and – wait, what?

“I always speak my mind”

KIKI: The lady behind me is farting like a bulldog.

Fun Columbus Day Celebrations

14 Oct

Columbus Day is sometimes called “Christmas in October”, or “Magellan Day on Steroids”. Yet, many of you likely don’t celebrate this important day with the same zest as other holidays. Here are some creative and crafty ways to get in the Columbus Day spirit this year:

  • Wear a funky exploration-themed sweater to school or work
  • Make cool art projects like hand tracing turkeys or finger painting root vegetables to commemorate the Columbian Exchange
  • For the kids: make Taino costumes at home and organize the children in a parade (Bring shackles for the group if you’re the life of the party)
  • Make fun Columbus tree ornaments in the shape of your favorite virus, like small pox or syphilis
  • Recreate the famous story by walking into someone else’s home and “discovering” it

TV Show Synopses Based on Their Titles

30 Sep

Hawaii Five O – A group of divorceés head to the Aloha State to celebrate their 50th birthday.

Royal Pains – Prince Charles finally passes his kidney stone.

The Walking Dead – Nursing home residents get up and move.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey – A harried mom decides to go to the gym, gets in the car, changes her mind, then goes inside to take a nap.

The Amazing Race – A panel of white supremacists celebrate the virtues of being white.