All posts by HPSH Plaid Line

Tech/Games

Starting a revolution in a video game for six days

Leave a comment

By: Hoaseng Thao

In the video game, ARMA 3, there is a mod you can download called “Antistasi Plus” created by a Steam user named “Socrates”, which essentially makes you a guerilla fighter fighting against an occupant or invader, so I decided to download this mod and play it on single player to test it out. Here is the background story of my playthrough:

The year is 2035, a microstate nation located in the Mediterranean Sea known as Malden, is currently under the occupation of a military organization known as CSAT (Canton Protocol Strategic Alliance Treaty). It is up to me, a foreign fighter who definitely does not have any ties to any military organization who opposes CSAT, to fight alongside a resistance leader known as Commander Petros, who commands a resistance group, to liberate his nation from CSAT’s occupation. This is the tale of my journey of liberating the micronation of Malden.

Day 1

On a bright sunny day, on the island of Malden, I began my journey of liberating the island by first gaining the trust of the local population by dropping off a supply crate at the coastal town of Le Port. I made my way to the town of Le Port, where I had a standoff between a small force of CSAT soldiers alongside the local police force, and at the end of the standoff I had survived the overwhelming odds and I successfully dropped off the supplies at the town.

While I was at Le Port, I realized that there were two nearby factories that were occupied by the CSAT soldiers I had just faced, leaving them to be empty and for me to capture their resources. After completing my mission in Le Port, and successfully capturing two factories, I decided to rest for the day, so I can fight another day.

Day 2

I awoke from my slumber and headed out on a mission, a mission to capture a radio tower outpost on top of a mountain. I had originally planned to walk up the mountain but instead I drove up the mountain, successfully avoiding any obstacles and enemy patrols, and as I approached the outpost and saw its occupants standing around like the NPC (Non-Player Character) they are, I hurled over seven grenades at the NPC’s, killing all of them.

After clearing out the radio outpost, I successfully capture the outpost marking it as my own. As an hour passed by, I saw an in-game notification saying that there is an unknown signal on Malden and was nearby my location, so I decided to investigate the location of this unknown signal, but as I approached the location of the signal, I was ambushed by another guerilla force, who’s aim was to get rid of me and commander Petros.

The firefight I had with this other guerilla force, lasted for 13 minutes in which I was able to drive them away from me. After the battle I decided to take a rest from fighting, ending the day with a small victory.

Day 3

Day 3 was an important day, I was able to capture multiple towns and resource posts, making the resistance a lot of money as well as giving us more manpower. A third of the island was under our control; all we needed to do was to capture the lower sea ports and northern CSAT outposts before doing a full on assault on the Airport, located at the northern point of the island.

Day 4

The moon began to rise as the sun got its rest, and here I am on this island, wearing stolen night vision goggles I had captured from stolen supply crates. I began my campaign of conquering the southern outposts and resource plants in the dead of night, and CSAT, despite being a global superpower, regarded the island as useless and left the remaining CSAT units to fend for themselves. As the sun rose, most of the CSAT outposts in the south were either captured or destroyed.

Day 5

As I approached the CSAT base in the north, I devised a plan to utilize multiple mortars to overwhelm the occupants into surrendering but by some luck, a CSAT fighter jet appeared from the skies and began to bomb most of my men who armed the mortars.

Despite the presence of a fighter jet in the air, CSAT lost the base due to lack of reinforcements in the region. After capturing the base, I began to arm my men with mortars and the captured tanks we acquired from the base to storm the main airport, and within an hour, the airport was ours and the main island was free of CSAT soldiers.

Day 6

We had just pushed the remaining CSAT soldiers off the main island, and now we had to deal with the two remaining CSAT islands. The island in the north holds a sea port alongside an airport, while the other is located in the south which holds a small military base. The island in the north was heavily defended by multiple anti air missile launchers near the runway of the airport there, but there was a small mountain that made a blind spot for the missiles, so I began to use the captured attack helicopter, from the airport, and flew to the island, raining death from above and destroying the anti air missiles leading to the capture of this island.

Now there was one island left, the island in the south was heavily damaged and weakened due to an unexpected friendly NPC, firing every single round they had in their mortar, destroying everything in the base which led to its capture. With the island now ours, we successfully liberated the island and gave it back to the people of Malden.

After liberating the island, Commander Petros became the new prime minister of the island and he established relations with NATO to help maintain the peace in the area. I decided to leave the island in hopes of a new adventure.

If you want to play this mod, please buy the video game ARMA 3 by Bohemia Interactive on Steam and go into the steam workshop to download the mod.

Below are links to both the game and the mod:

● https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2912941775 ● https://store.steampowered.com/app/107410/Arma_3/

News

With tensions looming in Ireland and Northern Ireland, Biden aims to cool off the situation, and will also visit his Irish roots in Ireland

Leave a comment

By: Aeden Evenson-McDermott

As President Biden left for his planned trip to the Irish and UK regions, the White House called it “tremendous progress” referring to progress made since The Good Friday Agreement, which was signed 25 years ago, which aimed to end the violence occurring throughout the region.

The United States’s push to secure more economic stability for the Northern Irish was at the forefront but has coincided with the wounds of the past being reopened.

The Good Friday Agreement’s aim was to help with reunifying the predominantly Irish Catholics known as “Republicans” with those who wanted to remain a part of the U.K., mostly being Protestants, known as the “Unionists”. This period of high tensions was known as “The Troubles” and resulted in over 3,500 deaths.

When the actual Good Friday Agreement got signed on April 10, 1998, both sides stopped fighting and created shared power between the Republican and Unionists to make up Northern Ireland’s government. The U.K., as a part of the agreement would be limited to bolstering Northern Ireland’s military.

With the increased tensions now being focused on trade deals and reoccurring drawbacks from the post-Brexit era, the political issues for the British Unionists are mounting. The Northern Ireland Unionists are increasingly worried about how the deal leaves EU Measures in place, which allows for Northern Ireland to be closer to the Republic of Ireland, which is an EU member, while Northern Ireland is in the U.K. With the threat rising, a few issues have surfaced. A police car had Molotov cocktails thrown at it, a bomb plot, and a few suspected pipe bombs in Creggan cemetery.

President Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland was to help “keep the peace” during a time when the U.K. government is walking a tightrope in regard to Northern Ireland.

It remains to be seen whether or not Biden’s visit eases tensions or the tension remains.

With less than 24 hours spent in Northern Ireland, President Biden would head to Dublin, the capital of Ireland, and address the local Dublin parliament and attend a gala banquet before setting out to explore his ancestral roots.

He focused on the here and now with the imminent future rather than the stories of the past, but this would also be to point out the great accomplishments Ireland has made.

Through seeing distant family members and taking in the sights and sounds of Ireland, Ireland is becoming a steadfast ally in Europe and especially with the U.S. and this broadened the relations between the two governments.

Since the war in Ukraine started back in February of 2022, Ireland has taken in over 75,000 refugees and has also strongly condemned Russia for the invasion.

Ireland stands as a beacon of freedom of hope and has gained a foothold of liberal ideals while many other countries are struggling with the uptick of the far-right.

Through his adventures, President Biden would be enriched in Irish culture and customs, and would visit his ancestors’ home towns of Ballina and Mayo and would reflect on his family’s journey to America and living in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And as his Irish Catholic grandfather, Ambrose Finnegan always said to Joey growing up, “Keep the faith”.

Movies/TV/Theaters

The upcoming ‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’ movie

Leave a comment

By: Julia Yang

You may not have heard, but Blumhouse Productions is making a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. A Five Nights at Freddy’s movie has been long awaited by its fans and community. Some people have waited 5-7 years for a movie to come out, and fans couldn’t believe it when Blumhouse said it was really happening.

It’s being directed by Emma Tammi and written by Seth Cuddeback and Scott Cawthon — the creator of the FNAF franchise.

Scott Cawthon has been retired from the Five Nights at Freddy’s community ever since June of 2021 because of controversy around his political beliefs. Scott stated that he would not be stepping back entirely, but would play a lesser role in the development of FNAF. Even so, Scott has come back one last time as the FNAF creator to help write and release this movie that his fans have wanted for so long to see.

For those who are interested in watching, the movie is going to be live-action and won’t hold back on any violence or gore. It will be very detailed and explicit with the darkness that is Five Nights at Freddy’s. This means that minors are heavily advised to skip this movie and leave it to another year or four.

There have already been many set leaks and behind the scene pictures and videos of the movie being made; fans seeing these pictures makes them all the more impatient. Here are a few:

Here is a list of the cast that we know of:

  • Kellen Goff as Michael Schmidt.
  • Bill Skarsgard as William Afton (The Purple Guy).
  • Scott Cawthon as The Phone Guy.
  • Frank Welker as The Pizzeria Manager.
  • Nathan Gamble as C.C Afton (Opening Scene).
  • Real Robots-Animatronics as Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Golden Freddy (Fredbear (Opening Scene) and Spring-Bonnie (Opening Scene).

The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie releases on October 27th of 2023, so be ready, and be excited!

For more information, please visit:

Travel/Food

European hotel review

Leave a comment

By: Sophie Johnson

Over spring break, I stayed in three different hotels in Europe. The first one I stayed in was in Massa, Italy, called the Illy Hotel. This hotel had a very homey feel and I really enjoyed staying there. Not only was it just a block away from a beautiful beach, but it also had plenty of shops and attractions within walking distance including gift stores and gelato.

The rooms were equipped with two twin beds and a twin bunk bed fitting a total of four people. The views out the window were unreal with towering mountains, intricate buildings and delicious lemon trees outside. The meals at this hotel were good for the most part ranging from seafood salad to spaghetti. Overall, this hotel was a 9/10.

The next hotel I stayed in was called Hôtel Cannes MontFleury in France. This hotel was definitely bigger than the first one, but was not as enjoyable as the other two I stayed in.

The first night I was there, we were looking around for the pool. Not only was the pool empty, which was disappointing, but we found rats running around in the kitchen. Other than that, their breakfast bar had good food and I had two nights of relaxing sleep.

The group I was with didn’t get as much time to explore this neighborhood as we did at the other hotels, but there was a really good pizza place a few minutes away. I rate this hotel a 7/10.

The last place we stayed at was the Guitart Hotel just outside of Barcelona, Spain. I loved staying here so much. Once again, the beach was about a 10 minute walk away. I got to go swimming for the first time at this beach which was super fun too. They also had a nice pool and a game room which was cool.

Their all you can eat buffet was some of the best food I had on the whole vacation. For breakfast there were churros, eggs, sausage, fruit, everything you can imagine. For dinner, there were options of pasta, ribs, and so much more. They also had desserts including tiramisu, jello, ice cream, and pudding. The rooms were very comfortable at this hotel and they even had a walkout balcony. I rate this hotel was a 10/10.

Badminton, Baseball, Golf, Lacrosse, Scoreboard/Schedule, Softball, Tennis, Track & Field

Sports schedule for: Apr 24-29

Leave a comment
  ATHLETIC EVENTS SCHEDULE: APRIL 24 – APRIL 29  
MONDAY APRIL 24  
TIME BUS TIMES EVENT LOCATION 
4:00pm  Tennis vs. Central Central High School 
4:30pm / 4:30pm  Baseball vs. Washington Varsity: HOME C: Arlington and Arkwright 
5:30pm / 5:30pm 4:45pm | 6:00pm Badminton vs. Harding HOME 
TUESDAY APRIL 25 
TIME BUS TIMES EVENT LOCATION 
3:30pm  Boys Golf vs. Como Park Highland National GC 
4:00pm / 5:00pm 2:30pm | 5:30pm Badminton Triangular Burnsville / Edina  Burnsville High School 
4:00pm 2:45pm | 6:00pm JV Softball vs. Como Park Como Park High School 
WEDNESDAY APRIL 26 
TIME BUS TIMES EVENT LOCATION 
1:30pm  Girls Golf 9-Hole Tournament Oneka Ridge Golf Course 
4:00pm  Tennis vs. Harding Harding High School 
4:00pm  Softball vs. Johnson Phalen Rec Center 
4:30pm / 4:30pm  Baseball vs. Johnson V: Arlington and Arkwright JV: HOME 
4:30pm  Boys Lacrosse B-Squad vs. Cretin-Derham Hall McMurray Fields 
5:30pm / 5:30pm  Badminton vs. Washington  HOME 
THURSDAY APRIL 27 
TIME BUS TIMES EVENT LOCATION 
3:30pm  Boys Golf vs. Central Highland National GC 
3:45pm 2:00pm | 7:00pm JV Track and Field Meet Woodbury High School 
3:50pm  JV Girls Golf Match Cedarholm Golf Course 
4:00pm  Softball vs. Central HOME 
4:30pm / 4:30pm  Baseball vs. Johnson V: HOME JV: Phalen Fields 
FRIDAY APRIL 28 
TIME BUS TIMES EVENT LOCATION 
4:00pm / 4:00pm  Tennis vs. Minnehaha Academy V: HOME JV: Minnehaha Academy 
5:00pm  Track and Field Hamline Elite Meet Hamline University 
5:30pm / 5:30pm 4:45pm | 6:00pm Badminton vs. Humboldt Humboldt High School 
6:30pm  Softball vs. DeLaSalle Jane Sage Cowles Stadium 
SATURDAY APRIL 29 
TIME BUS TIMES EVENT LOCATION 
10:00am 8:00am | 4:15pm Track and Field Invitational  Lakeville North High School 
10:00am / 12:00pm  Softball Doubleheader vs. Saint Agnes and MPLS Southwest HOME 
Advice/How To, Music/Concerts

Benefits of listening to music

Leave a comment

By: Mya Olson Williams

Most teens these days are listening to some sort of music. Especially during school days. But is it doing any good? Yes, it actually has a very positive effect.

According to John Hopkins Medicine, listening to music can reduce anxiety, pain, and blood pressure. Not only that, but it improves your mood, the quality of your sleep, and memory.

Music is so universal and there’s something for everyone. Because it’s so beneficial, you should find what you enjoy and listen when you can.

Along with the other benefits I mentioned, listening to music can start up your creativity. Especially when listening to new genres you maybe aren’t a fan of or haven’t heard before. Challenging yourself to listen to them causes the brain to try and understand the new sounds.

Music can also be great for recalling old memories. Maybe some familiar music from many years ago reminds you of an old friend, place, or time in your life.

Another few other great reasons to listen to music is because it reduces stress, and relieves symptoms of depression. If you struggle with one or maybe both, turning on a good and uplifting song could make you feel better in the moment. The music you’re listening to relieves this stress by triggering biochemical stress reducers in your brain.

Aside from mental health, music positively affects your physical health as well. It boosts your immune system, keeps your heart healthy, and eases pain.

Now, if you think your student, or child constantly has their headphones in, maybe it’s a good thing! Because of all of the amazing health benefits music has, we could all listen to it every once in a while. And I’m sure most of us do.

For more information, please visit:

Getting To Know/History

Hello Kitty peace treaty

Leave a comment

By: Violet Hirman & Ren King

During World War II, many war atrocities occurred between the United States and Japan, those of which killed thousands of innocent citizens on both sides. Despite this, Japan is now an indispensable ally to the United States, strengthening the security of the economy, human rights, and trade relations between both countries. How did the two go from mortal enemies to close allies? The short answer: Hello Kitty.

First, a little background. During the Second World War, Japan and the United States were on opposite sides. Their specific relationship was tense, to say the least, but the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 solidified the animosity between them.

As the war ramped up and the German Nazis were defeated, Japan refused to back down. By this time, the US had been finalizing their plans for nuclear weapons, and decided to end the war and exact revenge simultaneously. But in doing so, they flattened two cities in Japan full of innocent people. During the dates of August 6th and August 9th of 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki became dust.

But how did the relationship between these two recover from this bloodshed?

It actually happened only a few years after; during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. Japan and the US were no longer enemies, but instead had something in common: they did not want communism to enter their countries.

They formed an alliance, but this didn’t stop the remaining fear from WWII to plague the citizens of both nations. The question is, how did the two governments resolve this issue? How could they possibly erase years of history from their hands?

A uniting force was implemented: consumerism.

The Hello Kitty brand was launched on storefronts in America in hopes to have Americans associate Japan with the cute cat while also making the Japanese feel like they had something in common with Americans. It also helped that at the time Hello Kitty was launched, foreign countries were “trendy”.

The first Hello Kitty store in America was opened on the coast of San Francisco, California and quickly expanded across the shoreline as it gained popularity. Soon, a store was opened in Pearl Harbor with exclusive merchandise from Japan to advertise to tourists the new friendship between the two countries.

While originally marketed towards young girls, as the brand spread, they found that there was a large audience of adults as well. As the 90’s approached, the popularity of Hello Kitty declined in Japan, yet increased almost tenfold internationally. The faster the consumers of other countries picked up, the more Japan became a hot tourist spot just for this brand, especially so with Americans. As a result, Japan became Hello-Kitty-centered.

In 2010, the New York Times called Hello Kitty a “global marketing phenomenon”, and it has not stopped speeding up since. Today, you can find almost every kind of Hello Kitty attraction in Japan, and over 100 thousand Americans travel to Japan with no hesitancy despite the relatively-recent war.

The brand, now “Sanrio” has expanded from just Hello Kitty. There are many different characters to appeal to more people, including Keroppi, My Melody, Kuromi, Badtz Maru, Pochacco, Cinnamoroll, Tuxedo Sam, and Chococat. There are hundreds if not thousands of Sanrio-themed buildings, amusement parks, stores, and more over the world at this moment. Most of the biggest being in Japan and the United States.

The two countries have come a very long way since the Second World War, and although not very well known, a lot of this is due to the genius marketing project called Hello Kitty.

For more information, please visit:

Science/Nature

Pluto’s planetary status

Leave a comment

By: Trump Vang

As of today, Pluto stands as a dwarf planet that orbits farther than Neptune. Many describe it as a cold and airless world, one with a year of 248 Earth years. Pluto hasn’t always been like this though, rather filling in a role much bigger than what it is today.

On February 18th, 1930, Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. Previously there were eight planets in the solar system, and many anticipated the surprise of a ninth planet out in the edges of the system. Their suspicions were correct, and Tombaugh’s intense searching through the night sky would find this ‘planet’.

Many had expected the planet to have a similar size to the 8th planet, Neptune, but they were to be disappointed. As more information came about Pluto, estimates on its size soon shrank. From a Neptune sized object, Pluto was downsized to an Earth sized object, then all the way down to being even smaller than Mercury.

Although Pluto’s size had been properly found, it was still considered a planet. Nothing else would change that, until the discovery of another ‘planet’ within that area.

Pluto was in a region, known as the Kuiper belt. This area of the solar system contained many small icy asteroids, orbiting all together in the shape of a belt. The Kuiper Belt also contained other spherical objects, just like Pluto. Though due to the fact that Pluto still stood as the largest out of these objects, it held onto its planetary status.

This was until the discovery of another spherical object, Eris. Pluto and Eris were very similar in size, though Pluto still reigned bigger in the size department. Though once Eris’s weight (mass) was calculated, it was found that Pluto wasn’t exactly the largest in this group of objects anymore.

For some time, many accepted Pluto, Eris, and a few others as planets, but others saw the issue with this. If they kept accepting these celestial objects as ‘planets’, they would just keep finding more, and before they knew it, they would have a multitude of planets to sort through. To combat this, scientists knew they would have to put a stop to this planet
finding.

In 2006, the IAU (International Astronomical Union) set guidelines for classifying planets. There were three rules in specific that were used to determine an object’s classification:

  1. The object orbits around the Sun
  2. It has enough mass to keep a spherical shape
  3. The orbit that the object takes, must be cleared (So, the object orbits by itself, having enough gravitational mass to clear its orbit)

Pluto had passed the first two rules, though its classification as a planet was knocked down by the third rule. Orbiting in the Kuiper Belt, there were trillions of small objects, showing Pluto’s inability to clear its orbit. Due to this, Pluto’s status as a planet was removed.

Ever since that point, there have been just 8 planets in the solar system. Pluto and its other spherical friends were all demoted to the classification under the term, ‘Dwarf Planet’.

More dwarf planets have been discovered ever since the term’s creation. Pluto still stands as one of the largest objects within this classification.

Although not being a planet, the world is still interesting in many aspects. Recently, a spacecraft named New Horizons visited this world, showing its surface and moon system to us. Pluto is truly a fascinating world, showing what beauty can be found, even in the outer stretches of the solar system.

Getting To Know/History

Remembering the US Army’s failed digital camouflage pattern

Leave a comment

By: Hoaseng Thao

You may remember the US Army’s digital camo pattern known as the Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP), which, despite its name, was not a camo pattern that could be universally used anywhere. Despite the camouflage being ineffective anywhere around the globe, unless it was a modern urban environment, or your grandmother’s couch, it was able to remain in service from 2004-2019 before it was replaced by the more universal camouflage pattern known as the Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP).

In the year 2004, The US Army announced the adoption of this brand new digital camo pattern the Universal Camouflage Pattern, which had a sparklingly resemblance to the US Marine Corps’ own digital camouflage pattern known as MARPAT (Marine Pattern), which was actually a copy of the Canadian military’s own digital camouflage pattern known as CADPAT.

The reasoning behind the UCP’s adoption was to eliminate the need of having two separate camouflage patterns for desert and woodland environments. Before the adoption of the UCP, members of the US Army were wearing the famous M81 Woodland Camouflage Pattern for woodland environments, and for desert environments they wore the Desert Battle Dress Uniform (DBCU). To make a good universal camouflage, you would have to have it blend in both desert and woodland environments, but the UCP on the other hand, had a weird color palette of gray and greenish colors that did not blend in any environment the US army was currently fighting in.

The UCP saw combat in many wars but are most commonly associated with the 2003 Iraq War and the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), but something that may surprise you is that the camo saw service in many other nations such as: India, Serbia, and Malaysia.

In the year 2010, some US army soldiers were given the opportunity to wear a different camo pattern known as Multicam by the Crye Precision Company. The reasoning for this was because the US army wanted to replace the UCP for a better alternative. By 2015, they would announce the Operational Camo Pattern (OCP) to replace the old and ineffective UCP camouflage pattern.

Despite the ineffectiveness of UCP, it remained as an icon of American soldiers serving in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as the infamous photo of the “Grandma Couch”.

For more information about the UCP camo pattern, please visit this website:

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Super Mario Bro’s’ breaking the box office

Leave a comment

By: Joseph Nelson

Critics were very hesitant when it came to test screening for the new Mario movie that would hit theaters soon, giving it only a 54% Rotten Tomatoes score before the premiere ,which led to many moviegoers being cautious when buying tickets to see their favorite plumber characters. Little did the critics know how wrong they would be…

The film “Super Mario Bros” is an animated film based off of the 90’s game ‘Super Mario 64’ and its adaptations afterwards so many early Gen Z babies and late Millennials were very excited to finally see their favorite plumbers on the big screen. This showed with the first weekend of the movie being out with the movie making $377 million in the box offices world wide. To put into perspective, ‘Frozen 2’ made $358 million in its first weekend, the movie sequel that followed up from the song (“Let It Go”) that many kids sang for months after release.

Many were surprised by the statistics of moviegoers with 45% of the audience being from the ages of 18-34, which to many was a total shock, but to the people who know about the games and their community, they really didn’t bat an eye.

Many also came to see their favorite A-list actors in an animated movie, as this film hosted some of the biggest actors on the scene with Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Micheal Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach. The production did not waste any money on the casting which turned out to work great. Even after many concerns about the casting, many were pleasantly surprised by how well the actors played their roles.

Two weeks have passed now, and ‘Super Mario Bros’ have now passed as the leading movie in the box offices with many viewers going twice to see the brothers again. In fact, the movie only dropped 41% in sales after its record breaking weekend, which for many critics is unheard of as usually movies drop down on average 60% of its first opening week. I like to think that this goes to show that even critics can be surprised by the success of what many were to believe as a flop of a movie.