Second article FISH

Debate Club Article

An article by: David-Paul Hotze

Yes, when thinking of a school debate club we mostly think of a room filled with tie wearing nerds discussing some of the latest technological advancement of computer but those times are now defiantly over. The debate club at FIS led by: _____________ is becoming more and more popular among the students. But what is a debate club? To put it simple a debate club is a gathering of people that discuss a certain topic presenting both points of view, the whole discussion follows certain rules. There are different formats of debates that can be carried out: ones that are about a spontaneously chosen topic, ones with defined topics and time for preparation, single 1 on 1 debates or team debates. Debates can pretty much any shape or form. Each team or individual will take one side either for (pro) or against (con) the cause. Sometimes the team will discuss and then select one member to speak for all or each member from both teams gets an individual amount of time to speak and give their opinion. Usually a judge or chairman will assess the discussion and declare a winner based on the strength of arguments and the professionalism of the teams. When there are more than one team present at the debate the first two teams will debate and the winner will emerge to a new round, similar to the qualifying for sports events.

The topics of debate are practically endless and can range from things like: Should abortion be permitted? To: Should there be a restriction of the amount of advertisements a person is exposed to per day?

Joining a debate club will bring you new experiences and knowledge. Public speaking will improve as well as the ability to comprehend things and to then express oneself on a spontaneous topic.

If more people join the debate club we can surely assume that there will be an FIS debate team that might go to larger competitions.

俳句 A few haikus by me

by: David-Paul Hotze

Of the Wind: Syllables

I love the fresh wind, 5

May it be cool or icy, 6

Refreshed and cooled. 6

Of a Robbery:

Stumbling hawkishly, 5

Men stumbling, darkly, thieves pinch 7

Planets panic, chaste. 5

Of the Amazon:

Raging piranha 5

Blushing, groaning cavernous 7

Shining plum bloats, numb 5

Poem #1 David-Paul Hotze

Too much work, nothing but working, homework. No end in sight, it is killing me, free time is forbidden. No more relaxing, no more sleeping. Typing and writing is all I know of for this time. My planner is overflowing. Every day and night is consumed entirely by academic work. Calculations and more calculations go over more math and Chemistry. My rear end is wearing off from all the sitting and my hands and neck sore from all the writing and shifting. Cold and dry are my skin and mouth, empty are my thoughts. I sit far into every night and sleep only once the clock shows at least 3 or 4 a.m. Everything is draining me. The weeks are long and the weekends so short. Still one week until the holiday but so many tests. Learning and learning until I know nothing but it I sleep and wake and continue writing. Finally at last the holiday is here, my savior, I sleep and sleep until I never have to sleep again.

Too much

Homework

No end in sight

Writing

Typing

Relaxing and sleeping

Not a part

Killing me

Planner

Overflowing

Time

Consumed

Entirely

Empty

Thoughts

Cold and dry

Empty Thoughts

Draining me

Tests and tests

Nothing I can do

Late into the night

3 or 4 a.m.

Long weeks

So short

Weekends

Holiday

Finally there

Savior

Sleep

Sleep

Until there is no more in me

There is too much, just too much homework

With no end in sight

Hope is small or not even present

Writing and typing is all I know

Relaxing and sleeping is something I do not know

It is killing me

Beating me to the end, the ground

My planner has no more space

Overflowing drowning in work

Time is consumed by work

Time is devoted to work

Only break, is toilet break

Entirely booked

Empty thoughts

I am cold and dry

Getting up in the mornings almost kills me

Tests over tests, I wish there was more

Drive me to the outermost insanity

Nothing I can do but follow

I start to lose sense of what is work and what is not

Weeks to long and weekends to short

Final Tests

Finally there, the long forgotten holiday

Savior of me

I sleep and sleep until there is no more sleep in me

Academic work, I love it

Eternal Work

A Poem by: David-Paul Hotze

There is too much,

Just too much homework

With no end in sight,

Hope is small or not even present.

Writing and typing is all I know

Relaxing and sleeping is something I do not know.

It is killing me

Beating me to the end, to the ground.

My planner has no more space for more and yet I get more

I am flooded by work, drowning in it.

Time is consumed by work.

Time is devoted to work.

The only break, is a toilet break,

Entirely booked,

Empty thoughts

I am cold and dry.

Getting up in the mornings almost murders me.

Tests over tests,

I wish there was more.

Work driving me to the outermost border of insanity.

Nothing I can do but follow,

I start to lose sense of what is work and what is not.

Weeks too long and weekends too short.

Final Tests

Finally there, the long forgotten holiday

Savior of me

I sleep and sleep until there is no more sleep in me

Academic work, I love it

WWI Short Story Historical fiction

It was an evening and a cold breeze swept across my face. The smell of gunpowder and death was in the air, the Germans had given us a demonstration of their heavy artillery fire almost the whole day long. I sit here now in my dugout just waiting for the day of the over the top assault. We were somewhere in France, commanded to hold the line by some anonymous general who has probably never seen action on a real battlefield. I can’t find any kind of motivation in my fellow soldiers, just one year after the sudden war outbreak there is still no end in sight. The stars shine bright and there was a feeling inside of me that wishes that there was no war and that I could be sitting at home now in my house in front of the fire place reading a good book and drinking a warm earl grey tea. Coming back to reality my best friend out here, Theodor Hastings steps in front of me and offers me some of the foul soup “You should eat something Edward or else you won’t be us any use in this war” he said. “That soup only makes me weaker and anyway I am not hungry. I ate an hour or so ago” I replied. He handed me the bowl and I took it anyway just to prevent him having to eat or giving it to the damn cat sized rats that raid this place every night. “The lieutenant said that we might be changed out tomorrow or the day after, that means we get to leave this dirty place” said Theodor flamingly. “My friend if you believe everything the dear lieutenant says you will just build up false hopes which will collapse when he comes to us and tells us that we must expand the trench and hands us shovels. I have learned not to trust people with too much authority they tend to get overwhelmed by it.” I said “You shouldn’t think like that the great leaders have brought us far and are seeking an end to this war” Theodor said disappointed. “THE LEADERS, THEY HAVEN’T…” before I could finish saying what I was about to there was a hard rumbling in the ground and then after a few moments of recovery and silence, this intense light appeared nothing and nobody seemed to be spared of it.

Where was its origin? Everyone seemed to have lost conscience. I stumbled forward and wanted to climb up onto the fire step and over to catch a glimpse. Something grabbed the end of my trousers, it was Theo “Don’t go you will be shot”. I did not even bother to answer or was I not able to. I held on to the sand bags and heaved myself up clumsily. There is was, I lay my eyes on it but did not know what to contemplate of it. It was a white light but also at the same time it had all colours one could imagine, an illuminated sphere hover slightly above the ground, in the middle of the no-man’s land between our trench and the one of the Germans. It was growing bigger and into a more oval shape. Now more of the others climbed up and wanted to see what made night day, even the Germans peeked over. They probably thought this was our doing. “What is that and why did it come here?”William asked “It’s a ghost and it came from the ground.” I heard someone mumble behind me. “Maybe it’s one of these northern lights that come and go something to do with the earth magnetism” Theodor said. “Nonsense, it’s much too bright and much too close to us I replied “But maybe it’s some kind special light” he tried to fill the gap with more of his imitated intellectual talk. “Shut up, now and get Oscar didn’t he study this kind of thing.”I commanded. Theo hurried off and the rest of us stood there gazing into this thing, the Germans as well were hypnotized by its mysteriousness and also had crept completely out of their trenches. War and the being foes had been frozen completely. After some time had passed I had no feeling of how much, Theodor returned running and behind him Oscar Willard, the certainly cleverest man found in these trenches. “So what exactly do you want from me Theodor seemingly you thought it was unnecessary to give me a reason to follow you” said Oscar. “Well, actually I was the one who wanted to speak to you; you have surely seen the light am I right? What you can tell us about the light you went to university and worked on this didn’t you?”I interrupted him. “To be honest I only had half a semester in paranormal sciences and then I changed to Physics and yes indeed I have seen that sun sphere, who in a 10 kilometer radius from here hasn’t.” he said “I didn’t ask you for an autobiography I want you to tell me about this super bright light bulb” I gave back “Calm down no need to behave uncivilized. Considering the brightness and the colour calculating in the distance we are standing at I would say this is a spontaneous molecular distortion but at much greater dimensions than the usual ones”. After this lecture of his me and Theodor shared confused looks “May I get an English translation of what exactly you just talked about” Theo broke in. “Yes, of course but I am not fully sure, I would call it a black hole”. I faced the thing again “Looks like we will have to take closer look at the glowing ball” I said anxiously. “You don’t seriously want to go out there, you don’t know if that thing is safe and what about the Germans they will shoot you.” I answered to the with “That pulsing light doesn’t seem to do us any harm or has it hurt us until now and the Germans, they seem to be as paralyzed as we were at the beginning”.

I hurled myself to the top and stood there for a moment if I were waiting for something. I heard sandbags get turned over and almost in the blink of an eyesight Theodor stood up right next to me. “We shall go then” he said and without bringing out another word I followed his order and we walked stiffly towards the glowing sphere. We walked past artillery holes, iron shrapnel pieces, and barbed wire. As we approached this mysterious piece of light the temperature seemed to rise. About two meters away from the thing we stopped and thought about what to next now. The spheres full light intensity was now onto us but it seemed to be fading as we stood there. I took my knife out of its sheath. “What are you doing, do you want to kill it“said Theodor. “No you fool I will test if it can kill us” and without saying anymore I lightly chucked the bayonet into the sphere with a simple under hand throw.

The moment it entered the lights origin is shone out so amazingly bright that everything around me disappeared including me and my companion. I came back to conscience sitting in a comfortable leather chair in front of a table with two cups of tea in front of me. The one was mine and the other was Theodor’s who was sitting across from me. There were other people around us also sitting in the same kind of chairs at the same kind of tables. We were in the open sitting in a café, café Kaiser read the sign. “Where are we and what just happened?” I did not answer this question of Theodor I was still gathering myself back together again. We were still wearing our uniforms and all of the people around us were speaking German, nobody seemed to care about us or even notice us. One of the waiters came and spoke in English to me with a light accent “Here is the newspaper you asked for, if I can be of anymore service please tell me”. He handed me the paper and I took it. I glimpse was enough the date this newspaper carried was 28 June 1914, this date I knew it. What was this the date of it came from the back of my head and struck so hard it almost killed me: the date the war started. “Theo do you know what is going on here?” I said still quite puzzled “No I certainly do not; I cannot remember anything since the moment we left the trench”. “I think we went back in time like in one of those Jules Verne books, I am not sure why or how but it has something to do with that light” I said. “Back in time, are you going mad? That’s not possible” Theo exclaimed. “I know it sounds obscure, but look at the newspaper date and all the Germans around us. We are in Sarajevo, the day of the assassination, we sit right at the scene”. I told him. “You mean that Gavrilo Princip, should be sitting here somewhere with the pistol covered waiting for the archduke.” He gave back. “He sits not just somewhere but two tables behind you. Not so loud or we might seem suspicious.” I said and we both gazed over at him in a very obvious and unprofessional manner. “I spotted him right after I put the pieces together Theo” “We must stop him, kill him prevent the War from happening, save millions of lives and save the Archduke.”He spoke up. “NO, exactly this we must not” I made it clear to him. “WHAT? Have you gone insane now we must, it is our duty. I will go over there now take him in an alley and shoot him there along with his terrorist friends”. Shouted Theodor. “We cannot, changing the past is also changing the future. Saving millions of lives can you be sure of that, maybe you are killing many more million. You can’t be sure of the consequences. You must let everything take place as it is without interference.” I said. “My friend I don’t know what happened to you, but I am still in control of my mind and I know what my duty is!” He got up from the chair and walked towards Princip. I knew that I couldn’t let this happen I must stop him. I pushed my chair back and before I knew what I was doing I had pulled my pistol and was aiming at Theodor. He must be stopped but this is the only way. I Pulled the trigger, the sound of my gun shattered silence and also the people sitting around us. They all sprang up and ran for their lives now. The thing I saw was that the bullet I had propelled towards Theo hit him in the middle of his back neck; he fell to the ground and was lying there now motionless. Even Gavrilo had fled now. There was screaming all around me and the last thing I saw was the Archdukes car turning around the corner and advancing to drive past the café.

I passed out and hit the ground. I opened my eyes and I felt tired I was sitting in a chair; seemingly I had slept for a while. This was my house back in England I recognized it immediately without any doubt. What had happened now future or past? I looked out of the window and across the street there was no army recruiting poster instead it was for cheap travel to everywhere, including Germany and Spain was written in bold. The dates it said: only now from the 14 of December to the 22, 1995. I was back where I came from; there was no war I had indeed saved millions of lives but at what price?

Is the past changeable?

By: David-Paul Hotze

The Janissary Tree

Historical Fiction novel by Jason Goodwin

-Indirect description by actions of characters

-A lot of insight into the scene passivly while following the plot

-Large cooking cauldron

-Metal house

-Many people filling the valley like streets

-Mystery/horror atmosphere is created by the dialog about the murdering

-Istanbul is described in detail of the time 1830

-Janissary forces seem like a revived secret service

-Yashim (Togalu) a eunuch is ordered by the sultan to solve the horrible crimes