Often I find myself coming home from school, and being utterly and completely bored, even after an entire bus ride of thought on what I want to do when I finally get there. I put my backpack away, head up to my room, and sit on my bed. And my mind’s seemingly gone blank. So I think and think, but nothing fun seems to come to mind. Minutes pass, and I still haven’t thought of anything. What usually ends up happening is I give up on trying to think of something to do, and I go to check what’s new on YouTube. Or Instagram. Or on a video game that my friends and I play together. Today I found myself in this same predicament, trying to find meaning in what I find myself thinking was pointless. As you might have guessed, it, well, didn’t work out. My mom called me for dinner, and I sat down and ate. My family treats dinner as a time to come together and talk, and even if what we talk about during dinner might sometimes seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, I later reflected that I had had a better time at dinner than any previous time in between then and when I got off the bus. Back to the story though. When dinner ended and I returned to my room, I decided not to get on my laptop again. Instead I plopped down onto a chair with a sigh and tried to think of why I was so bored. One of the constant subjects of conversation in my family is being happy with what you have, and I felt like I was failing horribly at that. I looked around my room and saw all the amazing things I was surrounded by. To tell the truth, I just felt even more frustrated. And then I felt ashamed for being frustrated. What right did I have to be so ungrateful for all of these things? Still in a bad mood, I rummaged through my closet until I laid my hands upon my box of Magic: the Gathering cards. I pulled it out and looked through them, and they were entertaining for a little while. But I still wasn’t happy. I thought maybe if I had more money I could buy more Magic cards, and then I would be happy. But I had no way to make money. I laid down on the carpet in defeat, boredom and depression washing over me like a wave. In my mind I was despairing; why couldn’t I feel any joy? So I began to think back. I thought back over all the times my parents had told me; happiness does not lie in the possession of things. I thought over all the times in my memory where I was happy and having fun. And I began to notice a pattern. At first it was only a glimmer. But that glimmer grew and grew until it became a sparkle, shining in my head. A realization. As I thought back, I realized that in all the times where I had fun, had joy, there were people surrounding me. At the dinner table, I was with family, with people I trusted and loved and had fun with. Playing Magic the Gathering, I was always with friends, people I trusted and loved and had fun with. Whenever I truly was happy, there were people at my side. Though I have been told many times that happiness lies not in the having of things, but in the hearts and minds of the people around you, I don’t think I have ever realized it with such a depth as I did tonight. So I want to encourage you, whenever you are having a rough day, whenever you’re depressed but still being entertained and you don’t know why you’re not happy, to know that it is probably because in your heart you miss somebody close to you, even if they are just downstairs. Looking back, I realize that all the video games I ever downloaded, all the board games I ever bought, they were all because they were a way to connect with my friends and family. In truth, they are the most important thing in my life, and without them, I couldn’t be happy. I might be entertained by things, but they only bring me joy if I can share the experience with somebody else. I hope that maybe one day I will be feeling bored, and I will remember tonight and remember that, no matter what, my family and my friends will always be what truly brings me joy in life. For they really do.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Is Fornite Dying Down? People Have Different Opinions
“Fortnite” has been a sensation in the past few years, but many gamers now refer to it as “dead” as the popularity of a new game, “Apex Legends,” a new battle royale, grows. The rise of Fortnite In the past two or three years, Fortnite took the world by storm. It is the first and only battle royale to feature building. Also, like “PUBG”, the dominating battle royale before Fortnite, it had vehicles. You are also able to voice-chat with your squadmates, which makes communication very easy. Because of all this, Fortnite quickly became a worldwide sensation. However, it may be “dying” down, meaning becoming less popular, this year, as a new battle royale, “Apex Legends”, takes over the world of video games. Why some people say Fortnite is dying The main reason people think “Fortnite” is dying is because of the release of the game “Apex Legends” by Respawn Entertainment. It quickly gained 10,000,000 players in the first three days. However, some people think that “Fortnite” is making an attempt to get back “alive” by copying “Apex Legends.” “Fortnite” has added a “pinging” system to “Fortnite,” which is a system first used in “Apex Legends.” This system allows you to place markers on places or objects, which then appear on your squadmates’ screens. Also, some people have seen weird trucks supposedly called “Second Chance Vans.” A data miner, which is someone who looks at the code to find things about leaks or strange things happening in the game by looking at the game’s code, found out that Fortnite might be adding the trucks as part of a new respawn system, which, like the “pinging” system, originates from “Apex Legends.” In “Apex Legends,” once you squadmate dies, they drop a flag. You can pick up the flag and bring it to a “Respawn Beacon”, where they can get back into the game. In Fortnite, the truck will be the equivalent of the “Respawn Beacon,” and instead of dropping a flag, players will drop a card instead. Why does Epic Games think copying “Apex Legends” will bring it back alive? Justin, a “Fortnite” player in room 27, says, “‘Fortnite’ probably wants to copy ‘Apex Legends’ because ‘Apex Legends’ is getting really hot, and copying some features might help bring ‘Fortnite’ back alive, because these ‘Apex Legends’ features are making ‘Apex Legends’ really popular.” Why some people think Fortnite is not dying But, other people think “Fortnite” has a steady player growth rate, and that it is doing just fine. According to Dexerto, When FaZe Ninja, a famous “Fortnite” streamer, was asked if he liked “Fortnite” or “Apex Legends” better, he said he liked “Fortnite” better because it had “a lot more to offer.” He says one of the things that “Fortnite” has that “Apex Legends” doesn’t is the fact that you can play “Fortnite” on almost every platform except ChromeOS and Android, but you can only play “Apex Legends” PC, Xbox One, and PS4. On Quora, some people say that the definition of dead is where “it takes 30 minutes to load and half the players are bots.” A bot is a fake non-human-user generated randomly by the computer. They say that “even if ‘Fortnite’ lost 100 million players, it would still be a relevant game.” This brings us to the fact that “Fortnite” already has 250 million players, and there comes a time where some games have way too many players such that its rate of gaining players begins to slow down.
Saturday Newsletter: June 1, 2019
In this week’s newsletter, as it’s the first of the month, we focus on our new June 2019 issue. Click the links to read some of our brand new content, and scroll down for contest and other news, plus the latest from our bloggers. Cover: “Flight Through the Cosmos,” photograph by Hannah Parker, 13 In this week’s newsletter, as it’s the first of the month, we focus on our new June 2019 issue. Innocent Yet Dire Words by Isabel Swain A book lover dreaming of a better life uses poetry to cope The Place Where It Isn’t by Eliana Schaffer One girl’s quest for perfection Possibility by Vandana Ravi A magical place of serenity and beauty comes to life in a daydream Plus–poetry, a portfolio of Hannah Parker’s photographs, a story sequence, Letters to the Editor, and our June 2019 Honor Roll Letter from the Editor, June 2019 This is an issue about potential, possibility, and change. In Isabel Swain’s story “Innocent but Dire Words,” a young poet dreams of a better future for herself, while in Vandana Ravi’s short story, a girl dreams of simply another place. In Grace Jiang’s poems, nature comes to life again, after its seasonal death and hibernation, and in Andrew Wu’s story sequence “Nature in my Eyes,” nature changes in our eyes, as we attempt to see it from the angles and experiences of different creatures. Change is inevitable: we change, the world changes, time moves along. And, in the spaces between, in the time when it feels as if nothing is changing, we dream of the change that might happen. And yet when that change finally does occur—when yet again the rose blooms—it still feels miraculous. After reading this issue, I hope you will feel inspired to think and write about change—in the world or in you, past or future, real or imagined. Letters: We love to hear from our readers. Please post a comment on our website or write to us via Submittable or editor@stonesoup.com. Your letter might be published on our occasional Letters to the Editor page. Subscribers: read the new issue here! Contests and partnership news Contest: Write a Book! Start planning for our summer contest: book-length writing in all forms and genres by kids aged 14 and under (we have extended our usual age limit for this contest). The deadline for entries is August 15th, so you have the whole summer to work on perfecting your book, whether it is a novel, a collection of poetry or short stories, a memoir, or other prose. There will be three placed winners, and we will publish all three winning books in various forms. Visit our contest page and Submittable entry page for full details. Stone Soup’s books are getting some great reviews! Stone Soup joined LibraryThing a few months ago, and our books have been getting some great reviews from other members at LibraryThing and also on their own blogs. Visit our book pages and see what other readers are saying–and add your comments! Also, we have joined Goodreads! Are you on that social network? Please send a friend request our way! We also want to encourage you to leave a review any of the Stone Soup books you’ve read, like an Annual or a Stone Soup Book of . . . We’ve compiled a list of the ones listed on Goodreads here.Submit your creative work to Stone Soup Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com. “Have you ever wondered about the clothes you wear? Where they come from and what happens to them when you no longer need them? Recently, I got very interested in learning more about clothes. It all started when I went with my mother to a clothing donation box in the parking lot of a small mall near our home.” Read the rest of Mahati’s fascinating blog post about the life cycle of clothes here. Remember Abigail’s piece about Polish traditions for spring? Well, she’s back this week, this time in Japan! Read about Hanami, the cherry blossom festival, and more in the blog post “Japanese Traditions for Spring.” Shop in the Stone Soup Store Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
