Scratch

I'm making a rip-off of Super Mario Galaxy with Scratch, and I'm confused on some things with physics. I'm not really new to Scratch, I'm just not that good at programming. I'm having 2 main problems:

1.Launch Flowers & Stars- In the SMG games, there are flowers and stars that launch you into the air, but you can still control the movement of the player after you are launched. I want to be able to have some sort of parabolic movement, but I haven't gotten a solution to that yet. I have a temporary launching script in the meantime:
(launch is a variable that tells if you are being launched or not. If you are, launch=1. direction is a variable that is equal to the direction of the launch item touched. It changes as soon as the launch item is touched.)
[blocks]<when green flag clicked>
<set{ launch }to( 0
<set{ direction }to( 0
<forever>
<wait until><( <{ launch }> <=> 1 )>
<glide( 1 )secs to x   (( (( <x position> <-> (( (( <{ direction }> <*> 62 )) </> 45 )) )) <+> 187 )) )y   (( (( <y position> <+> (( (( <{ direction }> <*> 62 )) </> 45 )) )) <+> 39 ))
<set{ launch }to( 0
<end>
[/blocks]
This script is based on linear motion, and it has a fixed x and y distance. I do have variables for normal gravity, but I can't seem to be able to implement them into the launching script.

2. Sliding on the Ground- My game involves sloped surfaces, and because of two variables that sense whether the player is touching anything on the left or right side, I have to jump to get up them. This isn't as important, so I don't have a script for it. I don't necessarily need this bug to be fixed for any certain levels, but it would be nice if it could be solved. But I definitely need the launch problem solved, so if anybody could help me, I might be able to get the game done faster. Thanks! By the way, the game is called Super Vito Galaxy.