Reader’s Digest

Reader’s Digest

By: Natalie Stamper

Table of Contents

Page 1: Title

Page 2: Table of Contents

Page 3: BRACES

Page 4: The YouTube Experience

Page 5: The Black-Eyed Children
Page 6:Ramen Noodles

Page 7: Virtual Death by a Belly Flop

Page 8: Hernia Surgery
Page 9: F.A.N. Night

Page 10: Pork Tapeworm
Page 11: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Review

Page 12: Interview

BRACES

Around 45% of children has braces. Sometimes they might be worried on what it’ll be like. This is specifically
on my experience with braces and it might be different for you. When it comes to having braces, it can be very
expensive but around 75% children have benefited from them. First getting prepared for them could take some time.
One of the procedures I had was that on both sides between two molars, I had to have some kind of spacer for some
metal band around the very back molars.

It doesn’t take extremely long for the brackets to be placed on the teeth. There’s some kind of glue that they
use to stick the brackets to the teeth. Then they use some kind of blue light that hardens it so the brackets will
stay on. Believe me, not as horrible as it sounds. After that, what you eat is limited. Can’t eat starbursts or
anything hard or sticky that’ll break the brackets. Once every month, you would go to the orthodontist to get a new
wire, but you can choose the color of the bands.

Sometimes having braces might be a pain, literally. When the teeth move some terrible toothaches could occur.
Other times the wire could be sticking out a little bit and poking and scratching the mouth causes sores. With the
toothaches, only lasts about three days and you won’t even notice. One last thing, brushing teeth is even more
important. That was pretty much the experience I had. Might be different for you, who knows?

The YouTube Experience

YouTube is a fun environment for people looking for enjoyment online. From tutorials to theories about many
different topics, YouTube probably includes at least one thing that everyone likes. Maybe it’s learning and
education. Sometimes might be funny compilations of people and creatures getting hurt and people raging and explicit
language.

Exactly what kinds of videos are included on YouTube? That’s a hard question, there’s lots of diversity and
variety in what many people make. Some of types of videos people upload include unboxing, time-lapse such as speed
paint, walkthroughs for video games, gameplays, tutorials, product reviews, fan videos, commentaries, and reactions.
Remember that these are just a few popular types of videos.

Some of the humorous videos might include animal fails, memes, skits, and pranks. However, YouTube isn’t
always an easy task. There’s still working hard with making videos that viewers will enjoy and being patient with
your channel SLOWLY growing. There’s also some benefits with YouTube though. Some of them might include independence
and just being yourself. Take it from a YouTube. I might be small on YouTube, but I have lots of independence when I
record. I’m also not afraid to be myself. I can be as wacky as I want. I can record what I want. Nobody can control
who you are and with your channel. Your channel is something that YOU control.

When making or watching videos, you’re also learning. Might not be something with school at times, but there’s
some learning involved. For example, when making videos maybe about a video game. You might be learning about and
researching that game. How about watching theory videos? Learning a possible background story or origin about a
movie. Although at the same time you might also be spoiled if you haven’t played or watched the game or show/movie.

The Black-Eyed Children

This is a true story with an encounter with the Black-Eyed Children. In a rural town in Vermont lived a woman and her
husband. It was during the night and it was snowing. At two in the morning, the two adults were woken up to a really loud sound
on the door that sounded like someone was banging on it. They opened the door, and what they saw were two young kids; a girl and
a boy.

They were just staring at the ground and were avoiding eye contact. The two adults sensed something very uneasy about
these two children. They have asked the two kids “Where are your parents?”. The children replied, “They’ll be here soon. Can we
come in?” The woman and her husband shared a look, and let the two kids in even though their instincts warned them not to. The
woman was in the kitchen making everyone hot chocolate, and the husband was alone with the two kids in the living room. The
woman noticed her cat… acting strange. It seemed to be hiding and being somewhat aggressive and it was usually friendly towards
outsiders.

When the woman went into the living room, she noticed that her husband’s head was in his hands. He claimed that he felt
really dizzy. When the woman went to give the two children the hot cocoa, they finally looked up. The sight was was very
startling and unsettling. Their eyes were just… pitch black. It was all black, no other colors, no white. The kids asked if
they could use the restroom, and walked out into the hallway. The woman asked her husband if he saw the kids’ eyes. His nose
seemed to bleed when he lifted his head. Following that, the power suddenly went out. The wife had a strange feeling that the
children’s presence influenced the strange events. The wife went to the bathroom to get a tissue, and just saw the two kids…
standing in the hallway. Their parents arrived, and they left.

About half an hour later, the power came back on. Not everything was normal. A few days later, three out of the four cats
they owned went missing. One of the nights, they came home finding the fourth cat dead in a puddle of its own blood. The husband
continued to have nose bleeds, and was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive type of skin cancer that’s linked to some kind of
overuse of indoor tanning beds. Which the person has never used. The wife even claimed that she’s started having nose bleeds and
had episodes of dizziness. Other events occurred that she never spoke about. I know, sounds like it’s hard to believe?

Story From: youtube channel: Snarled

Ramen Noodles

Raman Noodles (Chicken Flavor)

Directions

First things first, you’ll need a one of the raman noodle packs. No matter which flavor it is, it’s prepared the same way. Next get a cooking pot. It
can be any size. Fill half of it up with water; temperature doesn’t matter. Turn on the stove on high until it starts to boil. When it begins to boil
(bubbles will start coming up to the surface of the water somewhat violently), put the noodles in the pot and turn the timer on for three minutes.
After you put the noodles in, get the small pack with the seasoning in it and put it in the pot. Right afterwards, turn the boiler down to medium.
After three minutes, the raman noodles should be ready to pour into a bowl.

I know, I know. Just Ramen noodles, sounds boring I’m guessing? It’s also quite easy to make and only takes around five minutes. It’s
also pretty good with starting out with cooking. It’s honestly the only thing I really know how to make, and I love the chicken flavor. The first food
that I could remember after being adopted was chicken flavored ramen noodles. There’s many different flavors, and sometimes it might be more
delicious than the last time you had them.

Virtual Death by a Belly Flop

I was playing the Attack on Titan Tribute Game (AoTTG) with my friends Brianna and Lanney. While I
was playing the game, complaining of lag, the game being sensitive, and completely sucking at killing titans, my
friends were watching Undertale videos. I wasn’t bothered by it, TOO BUSY TRYING NOT TO DIE. About ten minutes into
playing, things got kind of crazy. I was getting bored on the server and people killing titans for me. I didn’t know
how to leave the game. I tried typing in the chat on how to leave the game, and a titan tried to belly flop on me.
Lanney noticed it, but I didn’t. When I finished typing, I finally noticed the belly flopping titan. I freaked out
and started yelling things like, “RUN!! RUN!!!” and “ZIPLINE!! ZIPLINE BABYYYYYY!!” After my horrible skills at the
game, I died but it was one of the silliest experiences I’ve lived through… also one of the scariest.

Hernia Surgery

Around second grade, my mom and I discovered that I had a hernia. I can still remember the
day leading up to the day of the surgery. I wasn’t able to have any water or food ten hours before
the surgery and I was allowed to stay up all night. I honestly remember sneaking downstairs to the
computer to play Club Penguin. The big day has finally arrived, the one surgery I would actually
remember.

In the waiting room, my parents and I waited for a while. Can’t really remember how long we
waited. Finally, time for the surgery. I had to wear one of the hospital gowns, and I was in one
of the mobile hospital beds. In the surgery room, I was given some medicine to help me fall
asleep. I chose the scent of strawberries. I could remember the scent growing stronger and
stronger until… everything went black. Some unknown hours later I woke up. The surgery was done.
The recovery wasn’t horrible. The pain lasted about a week, and I spent lots of time sitting in my
room playing with my barbies.

F.A.N. Night

F.A.N Night stands for Falcon Activity Night. Hmm, Falcon Activity Night Night?? It occurs twice
during the school year, once a semester. It’s like a huge school party that lasts 7-9 PM. There’s music,
dancing, and contests in the commons. Up by where you would enter the eighth grade hall there would be a
table with snacks on it. Sometimes there would be arcade games in one of the pods, and there’s usually a
photo booth.

Sometimes there would be song requests but sometimes song requests wouldn’t be available. The
“traditional” songs that would play are the cha cha slide, cupid shuffle, and the macarena. Every now and
then there would be a contest with prizes. A name is drawn from a box or a bag and the person will get a
prize. Once, there was a special occasion where the best dancer got a prize and got to choose their prize.
If you’re not into dancing or anything crazy, you can just hang out in the library. You can play computer
games or just hang out with friends and play games like Apple to Apple.

But as some point the library will close, but the dancing is usually pretty fun. Many people in the
commons would come dance to the macarena, cha cha slide, and cupid shuffle. Which one is your favorite out
of the three? At F.A.N night, there’s something for everyone! Those who loves to dance, just go crazy, play
games, listen to music, likes to play on the computer, play board games, and just relaxing.

Pork Tapeworm

The pork tapeworm is a parasitic worm. Its scientific name is taenia solium. There’s no age in life where people are more at risk to it. It
can happen to anyone, any time. Not exactly any time, there’s ways to catch the parasite. It’s spread through the ingestion of either
contaminated feces, or contaminated pork. The pork tapeworm has two primary hosts; pigs and humans. When the parasite is in a pig, it lays
eggs inside it and it’s eggs are spread through the feces.

When a pig ingests the contaminated feces, the parasite hatches from the egg and spreads throughout its body into the muscle tissue
where it forms a hard cyst. It’s not the same turn of events if a human ingests the contaminated pork. When ingested by a human with pork that
contains eggs or cysts, they’ll emerge or hatch from inside the human’s gut.

From there it can burrow through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. From within the bloodstream, the parasitic worms most commonly
end out either in one of the eyes or in the brain. Both cases can prove to have long lasting symptoms. In both cases, the worm forms a cyst.
Inside the eye or brain, the immune cells trying to attack it which affects the host more than the parasite. This can cause irritation, the
eye possibly bleeding, and even blindness.

When inside the cyst, it’ll still grow. That alone can cause some swelling of the brain. Symptoms vary where the cysts are located. The
most common symptoms include migraines or headaches, brain swelling, seizures, and could lead towards death. If a cyst is located in the
temporal lobe which controls functions such as memory and the senses, the symptoms could be horrific.

Some of the symptoms include light sensitivity, and possible hallucinations. Basically symptoms will affect what that part of the brain
controls. The treatment can be risky. The parasites give off some kind of chemical that makes it impossible for the immune system to penetrate
the cyst.

The treatment could cause the chemical to stop being secreted. If some people think that could be a good thing, outcome will be
horrific. Once the chemical isn’t being secreted, a massive attack of white blood cells will be launched on the cysts. That’ll cause the brain
to swell massively and can cause something called encephalitis which can be fatal. People can survive from it though, and the parasitic cysts
and will eventually die. The only way to prevent contracting the parasite is to avoid eating undercooked pork. In general, don’t eat anything
undercooked. There’s still many other parasites that can be contracted through undercooked meat.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Review

This movie came out in the year 2010. This movie was based off of one of the Percy Jackson & the
Olympians books by Rick Riordan. The movie revolves around a boy named Percy Jackson who appeared to grow
up with both dyslexia and ADHD. During one field trip, everything changed.

One of his teachers ended out being a greek mythology creature called a Fury (along with many other
creatures) and believes that he stole Zeus’s lightning bolt. His friend rushes him to a camp called Camp
Half Blood. In the process, his mother is “thought to be killed” by a minotaur. Percy finds out that he’s
the son to Perioden (he’s a demigod) and that his best friend is a satyr. At the camp, he meets the
daughter of Athena, Annabeth. After his first victory in training, Percy finds out that his mother is still
alive, but is in the underworld.

With his best friend and Annabeth, they go on a journey to save Percy’s mom. They’ll head to
different locations to find three magic pearls that’ll bring them back from the underworld after they save
Percy’s mom. They’ll encounter Medusa, a Hydra, and the Lotus Eaters. But the true enemy I will leave for
you to find out. Overall with CGI (computer generated images), storyline, and character development, I’d
give this movie a ten out of 10.

Interview

Mrs. Pittman
Mrs. Pittman was born on March 6, 1960 in Omaha, Nebraska. She grew up in Sioux City, Iowa. She had two pets in her childhood: a turtle
and goldfish. The turtle was either slow and not really moving much or hiding or sneaking around the place. She goldfish were very beautiful,
but they would act bizarre at times. Sometimes when she would get home, she would find fish outside the tank and for unknown reasons they
would jump out of the tank. For her, school was both easy and enjoyable. She was a very social person and had a photographic memory.
She loved math because there were logical answers to everything. She also enjoys that things were logical and that it’s balanced or
that everything equals out in the end. In eighth grade the school students performed a play called “Oliver!”. It was interesting to see how
everyone worked together for something that is so common all over. As time passed she began to travel. She’s traveled to the Caribbean, Korea,
Hong Kong, Manilla, Kyoto, Canada, Vancouver, and has been to Mexico multiple times. Before coming to OTMS, she taught students how to safely
ride bicycles. At one point she was an assistant coach and helped teach students how to play basketball.
Her dream job was becoming a para. The reason was that she liked teaching middle school students because she feels like they like to
learn. Being a para for the last couple years was enlightening and fulfilling. She learned new things from teachers and students and that
education helps make changes throughout the world.