Monthly Archives: May 2020

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘The Office’

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The Office is a 2005 television show that revolves around a hilarious boss named Michael Scott and his efforts to run a branch of a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This show is pretty popular, and you’ve probably heard about it before, and probably have seen it before too.

The show has a total of nine seasons, and what it does really well is distinguish them from each other. Looking back, you can remember moments from certain seasons because of how the characters acted in each season. This show is anything but repetitive, and the gradual shift of the characters throughout the show is one of the greatest things about it.

Still, The Office has a great idea of it’s humor through its characters. Michael Scott, the boss, is hilariously oblivious to everything around him. He has a certain kind of charm and always says the wrong thing in every situation, leading to all sorts of hilarious hijinks. The single worst part of The Office as a whole is when he leaves the show in Season 7.

There’s also memorable characters such as Jim and Pam, who have a will they/won’t they sort of relationship, because Jim likes Pam but Pam is engaged. Once again, this storyline develops naturally and is mostly resolved after season 4, so it doesn’t get old or unrealistic.

One of the more unique characters is Dwight Shrute, a paper salesman who is Jim’s rival/friend. Dwight is kind of hard to describe, but to sum it up: he’s a man with a lot of pride. He is also very gullible, and falls victim to Jim’s pranks all of the time, which always end up being hilarious and unique.

However, this show isn’t for everyone. It’s rated PG-14, and if you don’t like shows that deal with sex or cursing, this probably isn’t the show for you. However, it’s certainly not overrated like a lot of the haters of this show say. The plot is solid, the characters bounce off each other in a realistic way, and the show could easily drive itself on humor alone, but has several storylines that are entertaining in their own way.

My final rating for this show is a 10/10.

Advice/How To

Mother’s Day gift ideas 

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By: La Dafia Dehaney

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and this is a time to show them how much they mean to you. Here are some things you can do for them, or gift ideas on what to get your mom.

  • A Mug – On the mug you can write “best mom ever” or “I love you.” 
  • Make them breakfast – Everyone likes breakfast in bed, so you can make them some pancakes, eggs, bacon, and a cup of coffee and serve it to them in bed.
  • Gift Cards – If you want to keep it simple, or be cheap, you can get them gift cards like a Starbucks card, Amazon card, or eBay card.
  • Gift baskets – You can get a pretty pink basket, or whatever her favorite colors are, and pack it with hair products, food, lipsticks, or anything else. 
  • Do the chores all day – For Mother’s Day, you can also let your mom rest, and you can do the cooking, cleaning, and everything around the house for a day. 
  • Write her notes – Write small notes around the house like “you’re the best mom,” “I love you,” “thank you for putting up with me for all these years,” or “thank you for everything you have done for us.” 
  • Make her food – Make her food all day; don’t order it. Make her breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast you can make her waffles, pancakes, eggs, or muffins. For lunch you can make her a bomb sandwich, pizza from scratch, mac and cheese, or a salad. For dinner you can make pasta, spaghetti, chicken soup, a burger, or a seafood boil. 
  • Get her clothes – Get her some of her favorite brands online. 
  • Scavenger hunt – Put cards around the house where she can solve mysteries and at the end of the hunt there’s a prize that she gets. 
  • Leave her alone – Some parents would love for you to leave them alone. So you can leave her alone for the whole day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advice/How To

Toxic relationships

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By: Zakianna Johnson 

You never really know when you’re in a toxic relationship, and for females, it’s harder for us to understand and realize how toxic a lover can be. When it comes to teenagers there are a lot of toxic relationships going on. Cheating, lying, stabbing in the back and more, and for people with depression, it hurts worse. But not even just relationships, friendships can also be toxic. 

Nowadays, there aren’t really many people that you can trust which makes it difficult to form a relationship or friendship. From my experience as a teenager, it makes it hard to have a girlfriend or boyfriend simply because the people that you think love you can just be there to use you. This makes it hurt so bad because you really think that they’re there for you when they’re just there for themselves.

It puts people in pain when someone is just there to use you for what they can get, and not for what they can give. If you’re going to get into a relationship you can’t make that person feel bad about themselves. You’re supposed to be the person that they can run to when they need to escape. You’re supposed to make their problems go away.

You can’t find a love like that nowadays; people are just out to use a person for what that person has. It’s not about love anymore, it’s about what I can get from this person. What can they give me? Or provide me with? How can I make it seem like I’m here for support when I’m just here to get what I want? Most of the time these types of people are insecure and non-dependable.

Which goes to the relationship becoming toxic and once the relationship gets toxic you can either stay in a toxic place, or release yourself from it. It’s better to release yourself from it, staying in it can make a person go crazy. Trust issues, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and abuse are all symptoms of a toxic relationship. No person should ever have to go through that. 

COVID-19

The positive side of COVID-19

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The coronavirus pandemic has definitely been difficult for a lot of people. Not only because of the constant fear of contracting it, but also due to the staying at home and not seeing friends or family. Even though times may seem very grim, there are still upsides to this virus that not as many people talk about. 

The biggest positive of the pandemic is the lowering of emissions. This is caused by less people going to work in factories. This lowering of emissions is very positive and proves that it is possible to cut emissions. Although this lowering of emissions may not be sustainable long term because it gives a lot of people jobs, it still shows that it’s possible to lower the emissions. 

Another positive to COVID-19 is how much happier pets are. Many dogs and cats are stuck at home while their owners are at work or school, or just out of the house. These pets need attention and most good owners give their pets as much attention as possible, but when owners are at home pets get so much more attention than normal. Dogs and cats all thrive when they get more attention so having their owners around is good for them. One issue with this is extra attention these dogs and cats are getting is that when owners go back to work and leave them at home again they could get stressed out and be more unhappy when they don’t get the extra attention.

The final positive is the positivity in communities around the world. Around the world people are coming together to celebrate health care workers for doing what they do. People are doing favors for their neighbors, who may not be able to leave their house, and wearing masks and taking proper precautions for people who are at higher risk.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Drive’ review

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By: Isaac Basques

Drive (2011) is an action packed, raw thriller/drama with a story that will keep you on your toes.

Drive was released on September 16th, of 2011, and made $81.4 million in the box office. The movie is about a no named character (Ryan Gosling) who is a getaway driver for heists. When he meets his next door neighbor in his apartment (Carey Mulligan) and her young son, he
begins to develop a very close relationship with them. Once her husband (Oscar Isaac) comes home from prison, he gets himself caught up in a life or death situation between him and friends from prison, and it’s up to him and Ryan Gosling to set it right.

This movie is very unique cinematically and takes its action in a very different way pace wise. It
doesn’t make action its main priority; it’ll focus heavily on the characters’ relationships and makes you root for them more if something bad were to happen. But when the action actually occurs in the movie, it gets very intense and keeps you on your toes.

The soundtrack in this film is what really stood out to me; it has a very retro theme to it, but it takes place in modern time and it fits very well.

The acting in the movie is good and feels raw and realistic.

Although, there are moments in the movie where the characters will often have very long pauses between dialogue and it makes for a kind of awkward scene for the viewer. This kind of goes for the whole movie; it’ll have too long of pauses and it seems like they’re trying to stretch out the runtime a bit.

One thing I’ve somewhat noticed over time is that they don’t really give too much personality to the main antagonist. They give him personality, but just not enough. They kind of feel as if they were written mainly to be enemies of the film and no one else.

Other than a couple small issues with this film, I’d say it is highly worth watching and will keep you entertained.

I give it an 8/10

COVID-19, Tech/Games

Conspiracy theorists burning down 5G towers in delusion that they are causing the corona-virus

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There have been a lot of theories on the coming of the new COVID-19 virus, but this conspiracy has been one of the most damaging. This theory involves the work of 5G mobile towers being accused of having connections to the virus. People say the towers have been emitting radiation poisoning, and that people are getting sick because of it. People have said that these towers, for mobile communication, can have an effect on giving people cancer as well as killing wildlife.

The news has been spreading through social media networks, but only recently there have been acts of arson. There is a Facebook group called “Stop5G Australia,” that’s filled with many people that believe the towers are making us all sick.

These theories are easily put down due to scientific facts, but that doesn’t stop individuals from continuing their beliefs. COVID-19 is a virus that spreads through human contact.

Because the attacks continue, it has had a saddening effect on emergency services that depend on the mobile networks provided by 5G. It’s not just the abuse of the towers, as reported by TheVerge,  there have been reports of worker harassment and people attempting to stop repairs and management of the towers as well.

National

Illegal immigration in the United States

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Image taken from: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/should-i-use-the-term-illegal-immigrant

There are four types of immigrants: citizens, residents, non-immigrants and undocumented. Today I will be talking about undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants are people who are foreign-born and who also don’t have a legal right to stay or be in the United States. 

You may ask, where do they all come from? Half of illegal immigrants come from Mexico or other Latin American countries such as: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, or Colombia. The other half comes other countries like Poland, Sweden, Pakistan, Somalia, and Iraq, which all provide large numbers of illegal immigrants here in the United States. 

Illegal immigrants come to the United States often because of new job opportunities that could be offered. They are able to build a better life in the United States because their own country is lacking certain things such as resources, decent living conditions, or safety. They could also flee to the United States because of war. 

A myth that has been well ingrained in peoples heads is that immigrants steal other’s jobs. The truth is they don’t. They take jobs that the American workers decide not to take. They also start their own businesses and spend their income on American services and goods. According to the ACLU, over 100 years, Immigrants pay more than $90 billion in taxes every year and only receive $5 billion in welfare. Without any contributions to the public treasury, the economy would then suffer huge losses. 

Some people ask the question “Why don’t they come here legally?” The answer to that question is that, it’s not that easy. The first thing immigrants have to do is get a visa and have a qualified reason to be in the United States.

There are many ways to be here temporarily, such as being a student, tourist, or being here for short term business. But all of these require for you to prove that you intend to go back to your home country. Each year visas are allowed globally for each type of relationship and once they are all issued, the rest are put on a waiting list. The process can take from anywhere up to 27 years. 

The Pledge of Allegiance states “with liberty and justice for all.” We don’t see any of this going on with illegal immigrants. They instead are kept in detention centers. Families are being pulled apart; women and men are housed separately and they are not allowed to know how long they will be detained, their personal belongings are taken away from them and they are not treated as humans, they are treated as ‘aliens’ and outsiders. This is a worldwide issue that deserves more attention than it gets. 

Advice/How To, COVID-19

Things to do during quarantine

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By: Linda Tellez-Ruiz

Quarantine can be very stressful and very boring. Although you may have a lot of time on your hands, no one‘s quite sure what to do with all that time. You and your family might be tempted to go out to a park, or do something outdoors, but you just don’t want to risk it.

Well, I have a lot of family friendly ideas to pass the time.

The first thing that’s fun, and also kind of expensive, but is totally worth it, is to get an inflatable pool. It doesn’t even have to be new; they’re basically sold everywhere and they’re probably only maybe $100. If you invested in one it would last you way longer than just quarantine so you could be using it for the summer, and just for family fun whenever you want.

Another thing that would be fun for the whole family is a big 1000 piece puzzle. They are very time consuming but also very fun. You can get them online for a couple of bucks.

Something you can do as a family is binge watch a TV show and also prepare to watch that show by cooking a family dessert. It’s a fun and tasty activity for the whole family.

Now, something that I like to do, that’s not really hard, but it takes a lot of time and dedication, is if you have a pet take the time and try to teach it some cool new tricks. I’ve done this and I’ve taught my dog how to roll over. It’s very easy, and very cute, and fun, just put on a tutorial on YouTube and follow the instructions.

COVID-19, World

Coronavirus in Mexico

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By: Heidy Ramirez

There are top 10,000 corona virus cases in Mexico. Latin America’s second biggest outbreak. There have been 970 deaths because of the coronavirus and Mexico is entering “phase 3.” Mexico does not really have hospitals that can help them all at the same time and if they do, Mexicans do not really trust it to be the top best thing.

It’s worse for Mexicans for the corona to be out there, because everyone is always out and around people. The Mexico metropolitan area is home to more than 20 million people so for the corona to be there, it will expand more than in most countries and states.

They do not have as many hospitals or doctors and nurses to help with the coronavirus stuff as Americans and other people do. They are also telling elderly people to stay indoors, even if they work, for their safety.

Most Mexicans are saying they don’t deserve what they have coming but they deserve moral support and help from other countries. Many doctors and nurses have to take more shifts because of how many people have the virus there and not many people that can help treat it.

There is at least around 1 million Mexicans trying to cross the border to get some good help
because they don’t really have much in Mexico. The government of Mexico did not give the
announcement to stay at home until April even though as I write this, we’re waiting to see
what the government and president has to say about all of this.

The system of health will be overloaded faster than other countries. Mexico had about 65 tests per million inhabitants (2,250 per million in the United States).

The National AIDS council of Mexico said that people who are testing are doing better than
other countries. Not everything will be solved when you take the test. There are going to be
more things you have to do so it’s better to be clear from it.

A virus never really goes away so in conclusion no one will ever be clear from it and in Mexico it’s probably worse to be because everyone’s always together like they’re one big family. The numbers started on March 18 which was 25 deaths and on April 22 there were 970 deaths because of the Coronavirus.

What are the things that nurses in Mexico are doing? They are avoiding wearing masks to avoid
sowing panic and two doctors and one hospital administrator have died. Also, there were at least
51 staff members that have been infected by corona.

Some Mexicans are attacking the doctors and the nurses with bleach and burning them and a lot more things because they’re scared of the coronavirus. There have been a lot of attacks since the corona virus started. There have been a lot of threats of who might be sick and who will try to do anything to get rid of the sickness. Mexico is just trying to be clear from it just as everyone else is having to do whatever they need to.

School Life

Teenagers and sleep

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It is common knowledge that sleep is important. A good-night’s rest can enable the body to repair and be ready for a new day. Sleep can even prevent excess weight gain, heart disease, and increased illness duration. 

Sleep is especially important for teenagers. Sleep helps fuel the brain and body. Teens need more sleep because their minds and bodies are growing quickly. According to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, teenagers need about 9 to 9 1/2 hours of sleep.

However, teenagers do not get even close to enough sleep. 

One reason is a shift in sleep schedule. After puberty, there is a biological shift in a teen’s internal clock of about 2 hours. For example, a teenager that used to fall asleep at 9:00pm will now not be able to fall asleep until 11:00pm. It also means waking up 2 hours later in the morning. Another reason is early high school start times. Some schools start as early as 7:00am, meaning some teens need to get up as early as 5:00am to get ready for school. Another reason is other social and school obligations. Teens have homework, sports, after-school activities, and socializing through social media often lead to late bedtimes.

As a result, most teens are sleep deprived. 

A lack of sleep can affect mood, behavior, cognitive ability, academic performance, and for those that rive, drowsy driving. Sleep deprivation will influence teens to be moody, irritable, and cranky. It also increases the likelihood of them engaging in high-risk behaviors (like drinking, smoking, driving fast, etc.). Inadequate sleep will also result in problems with attention, memory, decision making, reaction time, and creativity. A lack of sleep can also result in poor grades. When driving, a lack of sleep increases the risk of falling asleep behind the wheel. 

Well, how can teens get more sleep without sacrificing anything?

One way teens can get more sleep is by maintaining a sleep schedule. Choosing a bedtime and a time to wake up can help teens get enough sleep. Maintaining a sleep schedule also applies to weekends. Oversleeping on weekends can make going back to school on Monday incredibly difficult. Early afternoon naps are another way to get more sleep. Even 15-20 minutes of sleep after school can make an incredible difference. And as hard as it is, turning off screens before going to bed can make falling asleep easier as well.