Today I am interviewing one of the founders of Highland Park Senior High’s local “Outdoor Club”. Quinn Harvey and Anna Jones are the founders of this club that strives to get fellow members to explore nature in this age of technology. Today, I have Quinn Harvey with me in the flesh, so continue reading to learn more about Highland’s hottest new club.
Interviewer: So Quinn, how did you and Anna come up with this hip new idea? Was it more of a collaboration, or was one of you the mastermind behind it all?
Quinn: It started because last year I was talking to my Chemistry teacher, Ms. Noah, and we were talking about other high schools that had outdoor clubs, and I realized Highland didn’t have one, so this fall I emailed Dr. Tucker, and well… Here we are now!
Interviewer: So it seems like you had the initiative, how did your fellow co-founder get involved in this endeavor?
Quinn: Well, Anna was in my Chemistry class last year. So, while I did introduce the idea, she was often involved in this discussion. When I realized how much time and effort I would need to run this club, I decided to invite Anna to be a part of this journey that is the Outdoor Club.
Interviewer: Walk me through what a typical Outdoor Club meeting looks like.
Quinn: Well, we have two meetings a month. One is at the school, but the other is outside, exploring. The indoor ones are usually informational meetings about the next outing. However, we have watched movies and done various crafts. Some of the previous activities during these outdoor meetings include sledding and hiking. We plan to go rock climbing at our next outdoor meeting!
Interviewer: Can you tell the readers of the Plaid Line where they should go if they are interested in participating in the next one of these meetings?
Quinn: Our meetings are at 7:45 am on Tuesdays, once a month. Our advisor is Ms. Noah in room 3312. Our next meeting is an inside meeting on January 17th. We will be watching safety videos in order to be able to go to Vertical Endeavors later this month. It will be the weekend of the 28th, the details are TBD!
Interviewer: That’s awesome Quinn! Sounds like a good time, I’ll try to catch the next meeting, and hopefully will see some of the loyal Plaid Line readers there as well!
Quinn: I hope to see your face along with many others next meeting! Thank you for having me!
Almost everyone played video games in class in 6th and 7th grade. Lately, I have been noticing that everyone has been playing video games in freshman classes. I don’t really know why, but the students are suddenly playing video games instead of paying attention in class. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love playing a game while the classes get really slow. I will mostly just play games on my phone.
The way the students play games is usually on their phones. The most popular games are games like “Clash Royale” and “Clash of Clans”. There’s just something about these games that is more fun in class.
Another interesting thing about playing games in school is that some students have unblockers. These unblockers are coded by people and they let you go to any website even though they are blocked. Most of these unblockers are used for playing games in class. Most of the video games played in class are games like “Cookie Clicker”, “Helmetz Royale” and any IO game.
Everyone has probably played a video game in school before. In my opinion, people play video games in class because they try to compete with each other to see who’s better.
But also, these little competitions are kinda funny because at the end of the day they are meaningless. And it’s not like these people are playing these same games at home, because there are better things to do than play these small pointless online games.
But there’s just something about competing against your friends in school that is really fun. I mean me and my friends like to play a game called “Cookie Clicker” to see who can get the most cookies. Even though it’s a very pointless game, it’s still fun because of the competition.
If you want to get scientific about why people play video games in class, it is because of something called dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical that makes you feel happy and motivated. Dopamine gives you the motivation to play video games in class because it’s more fun than whatever you’re learning in class. If you want to learn more about that, you can go to thoughtfulparent.com.
The school band concerts were Thursday December, 15th. As a member of one of our bands, I thought I should give my thoughts on how we did, as well as get some other perspectives.
One trombonist had this to say, “The tuning was bad. Could have played louder and more confidently. I thought we kept the tempo and stuck together well. I thought the orchestra did ok, but the tuning and tone could have been better. Jazz band was my favorite.”
I think he had great points about the volume and jazz band. I don’t play an orchestra instrument so I’m not qualified to speak on that, but I do think Jazz band was my favorite. “Birdland” especially was very good, and the trumpet solos on that song by Cyrus were excellent. I think they captured the laid back, carefree mood they were going for quite well. They had plenty of volume, played their parts well, and every single solo was impressive and executed near perfectly. The band teacher, Mr. Matuzak, wasn’t so sure if they were ready for some of the songs. But many others and I think they turned out great.
Others and I thought that my band, the Scots band, had some trouble with volume. Given most of the members are less experienced and younger, it makes sense. I think we had a bit of trouble with keeping pace on “Falcon Fanfare,” but other than that everyone played well. Some of our songs, like “Marche Diabolique,” were the best we’ve ever played. Given the skills and practice our band put in, the outcome was about as good as you could hope for.
Overall, all the bands did well. Everyone spent a lot of time preparing for the concert, and there were some great performances of great songs that night. This makes me very optimistic about the spring concerts, because I know our school has the talent to pull it off.
In my opinion, gaming has been really boring lately. I used to wake up and be excited to play a game, but not anymore. There’s really no games to play, except for the big franchises like Call of Duty or “Fortnite” that have let us down. I think what we need is a huge game that will change the community.
Right now, you can see random trends of games going from very popular to nobody playing anymore. Games like “Split Gate”, “Fall Guys”, “Multi Versus” are all examples of games that everybody was playing but now nobody is playing. These games usually get popular from TikTok or big YouTubers. They are fun until your friends stop playing and the attention on social media goes down.
Another reason I think gaming is dying is because the big franchises are just not really trying to make their new games exciting. For example, Call of Duty now is just remaking games like “Modern Warfare”, “Warzone”, the Black Ops games, etc. All of these games are just recycled content. Back in the day, all had different content with new and exciting changes.
Probably, the biggest reason individual games are doing worse is because the big companies don’t really listen to their community. Take “Fortnite” for example. They come out with new updates almost every week; you would think the game would be really fun with that attention. The truth is, the community really hates these updates and misses the old content. The updates truly aren’t that bad until they add something that gives certain players an advantage over everybody else.
I asked some students here at Highland why they think the gaming industry is dying. One student said companies are trying to get easy money instead of investing more time into building better quality games, for example EA games have been going downhill for that reason. One student said that all the games are too similar to each other now. I completely agree with these statements. It seems like big companies are making the same games, slightly different for money.
In my opinion, the reason why gaming is dying is that companies are focused on the money. The games that are produced lately really aren’t fun because they are clones. There are also games that are known as pay to win, which means paying money gives you an advantage in the game. These types of games are perfect examples of why gaming is dying.
‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ is a 2004 film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry. The film follows a couple, Joel and Clementine (played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet) who go their separate ways and each undergo a medical procedure to have the other person erased from their memories forever.
In the story, it unfolds for the watchers as it unfolds for Joel, which is one of the reasons I found the timeline of this movie to be interesting.
The movie begins in modern time after Joel’s memory has already been erased, and then we supposedly meet Clementine for the first time. Then we are introduced to the old storyline of Clementine being the first to want to get her memory erased and Joel doing the same out of revenge. We then learn they have met before and they become aware that they had their memories erased, and we see the entirety of their relationship in reverse order leading up to them dodging and hiding to avoid the erasing from completing. But ultimately it ends in a breakup when Joel realizes that they can’t stop their memories from being erased, so they have to cherish the moments they already have.
By the end of the movie everything makes sense. The full circle that was made throughout becomes more apparent to the watchers. I think that having the story being shown to us in such a different order, compared to other films, makes our comprehension of Joel and Clementine’s relationship distorted just as it is to Joel in the beginning of the movie.
My understanding of this film is that Joel and Clementine’s relationship is a circular narrative. Joel and Clementine are two people who are destined to continue meeting and to continue to fall apart, which is something they both know and have both accepted.
However, just because they are meant to fall apart does not mean they aren’t destined to continue this loop, because I believe they are. Their relationship is predestination, not in the way that they are soulmates and will always be together, but in the way that no matter how hard they try they cannot truly forget one another, and meeting over and over is their version of fate.
My overall thoughts on ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’. I think this was a refreshing movie to watch especially now, because of how many movies of the same plot, storyline and predictable ending already exist. I really enjoyed watching this film and can’t wait to watch more movies written by Charlie Kaufman because I’ve heard he has a lot of movies like ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’.
I would like to rewatch this movie after a while to see if iI have a new understanding of it, but for now I can confidently say that I recommend this movie to anyone looking for something happy and sad all at the same time.
I rate this movie 5/5 stars and you can rent it on Prime Video.
On the 31st of October, the 18-year-old English actor Kit Connor went on Twitter and posted after a long hiatus. But it wasn’t what people were expecting.
“Back for a minute,” Kit tweeted. “I’m bi. congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye.”
So how did we get here?
Before this, Kit has repeatedly stated in a Tweet and an interview that he didn’t feel like defining his sexuality to strangers on the internet. “I mean, for me, I just feel like I’m perfectly confident and comfortable in my sexuality, but I’m not too big on labels and things like that.” Kit stated. “I’m not massive about that. And I don’t feel like I need to label myself, especially not publicly.”
But for the past several months since the hit Netflix show, ‘Heartstopper’ had been released, (based on a bestselling comic book by Alice Oseman) some fans have accused Kit of “queerbaiting,” after he was photographed holding hands with ‘A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow’ co-star Maia Reficco, in Paris. Given that Kit plays the character Nick Nelson, a bisexual rugby player in the show, some fans equate that to saying that since Kit plays a queer character, he of course has to be queer. If he shows any sign of possibly being heterosexual, then that’s “queerbaiting,” and some fans are allowed to treat him how they feel fit.
The actual definition of “queerbaiting” is: A marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ+ representation.
You cannot accuse an actual person of “queerbaiting,” or demand to know their sexuality and then act as if it belongs to you/or they owe you it. That’s how I’m sad to say, some of the ‘Heartstopper’ fans acted towards Kit Connor. Since Connor had not publicly defined his sexuality until now, some fans think he’s “queerbaiting.”
What’s particularly ironic about all this is that in the show, Kit’s character, Nick, is shown figuring out. and struggling with. his sexual identity and eventually showing the message of how you don’t owe anybody a coming out statement. I think saying that some of the fans who watched it completely missed the point of the show is pretty fair.
After Kit’s tweet, many people have poured in the comment section to show their anger of Kit being forced to come out against his will. Among the fans of the show and comics, there were celebrities as well, including Luke Evans and Connor’s co-star Joe Locke, and the author of the book the show was based on, Alice Oseman, joining in to show their support of Kit on Twitter.
What do you think? Should tabloids and everyone that watches a show be entitled to an actor’s sexuality? Or should actors be treated like actual human beings and be allowed privacy?
For the past 4 seasons, Brock Purdy had been the face of the Iowa State Cyclones football program. The quarterback had been a consistent leader on and off the field, and his impressive performances caught the attention of many NFL scouts.
As a freshman in 2018, Purdy burst onto the scene by leading the Cyclones to an upset win over the then-No. 6 Oklahoma. He finished the season with 2,250 passing yards and 16 touchdowns, earning Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year honors.
Over the next 3 seasons, Purdy continued to improve and establish himself as one of the top quarterbacks in the conference. He set a school record for passing yards in a season with 3,982 in 2019 and led the Cyclones to 3 straight bowl appearances.
In his senior season, Purdy threw for 3,188 yards and 19 touchdowns, leading Iowa State to a 7-3 record and a victory over Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. He was named a team captain and earned All-Big 12 honorable mention honors for the second time in his collegiate career.
As the very last pick in the 2022 NFL draft, Brock Purdy inherited the title of Mr. Irrelevent. However, this season has been nothing but relevant for Purdy. After being drafted 262nd in the draft out of Iowa State, Purdy joined the San Francisco 49ers as a 3rd string quarterback behind Trey Lance and Jimmy Garrapolo.
Trey Lance suffered a season-ending injury in week 2, making Jimmy Garrapolo the starter and Purdy the number 1 backup. Then in week 13, Garrapolo suffered a severe ankle injury, ruling him out for the remainder of the regular season.
Purdy stepped up late in the 1st quarter versus the Dolphins in week 13, completing 29/37 with 210 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception. Purdy led to 49ers to a 33-17 victory over Miami.
After his impressive showing, Purdy was set to have his first career NFL start in week 14, against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Purdy’s family bought tickets to this game weeks prior, hoping to see Tom Brady play, not knowing this would be their son’s first career start. And what a start it was.
Purdy and the 49ers spoiled Tom Brady’s homecoming, beating Tampa Bay 35-7. Purdy threw 16/21, with 185 yards and 3 touchdowns, including a 28-yard back-shoulder touchdown pass to RB Christian McCaffrey, and a 32-yard touchdown pass to WR Brandon Aiyuk. Brock Purdy led the 49ers offense to 4 touchdown drives in the 1st half alone.
Purdy made sure to find NFL legend Tom Brady on the field post-game. “You played great,” Brady said as the two shook hands. “Good job. Good going.”
Late into the blowout, Purdy was taken out of the game and replaced by former 4th-string QB Josh Johnson.
Just a day after Purdy’s historic start, news broke regarding his health and current situation. The rookie QB managed to handily defeat Brady and the Bucs, all while playing through an oblique and rib injury. Purdy underwent an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of the situation. The QB was listed as day-to-day following testing, suggesting that Purdy avoided serious injury.
Purdy stated in a press conference that he could have finished the game, despite being taken out, and appears optimistic about his week 15 status.
“Yeah, I mean, we’ll see how it goes this week,” Purdy said. “I just felt a little tight at the end, just from taking some hits. But honestly, if I needed to play throughout the rest of the game, I definitely would have. So, I’m going to get some treatment on it and will be ready to roll.”
After a quick turnaround, the 49ers played the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football, taking a 21-13 victory. Purdy was cleared to play through his injury, and went 17/26, with 217 yards and 2 touchdowns. With this victory, the 49ers officially clinched the NFC West and secured their spot in the playoffs.
Now that the NFC West and a spot in the playoffs have been clinched, less pressure currently sits on the 49ers shoulders for the last few games of the season. For Purdy, however, the starting spot is not automatically his going into the playoffs.
While it is unlikely for veteran QB Jimmy Garrapolo to return in time for the 49ers playoff run, Purdy will need to continue winning in order to secure the starting position in the chance that Garrapolo does return.
Purdy beat the Commanders 37-20 in week 16, completing 15/22, with 234 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception.
While it seemed as if there wasn’t much change likely in the 49ers playoff scenario, Brock Purdy led San Francisco to yet another victory, this time in overtime against the Raiders in week 17. Combined with a Minnesota Vikings loss to Gren Bay, the 49ers have moved up into the 2nd seed in the NFC. A victory in week 18 will secure the number 2 seed.
Purdy has played 4 games in the National Football League and is just the 4th rookie quarterback in history to win his first 4 NFL starts.
San Francisco will finish off the season in week 18 against the Cardinals.
Highland Park Senior High is filled with joyful, generous, and supportive staff. All of the staff play a part in making Highland Park Senior High a school that everyone loves.
I interviewed Kelly Schleper at Highland Park Senior High. In the interview I asked her these questions:
What do you teach?
She responded saying, “I teach math, geometry, pre-calc, and math analysis SL.”
SL is Standard Level.
How long have you been teaching?
She responded saying, “I have been teaching since 2006.”
I did the math and, in 2023, that would be 17 years of teaching!
What is your favorite part of teaching?
She responded saying, “My favorite part of teaching is working with students.”
What do you do in your free time? Any hobbies?
She responded saying, “I like to go cross country skiing, I like to walk outside, and I like to play games.”
Is there any interesting fact about yourself that none of your students know?
She responded saying, “I am actually the oldest of 37 cousins.”
How did you spend your winter break?
She responded saying, “Hanging out with my kids.”
The final question I asked was, do you enjoy teaching at Highland Park Senior High?
She responded saying, “Oh I love Highland!”
Based on Ms. Schelper’s responses, they seem like she is very engaged with her students individually, and very supportive of her students and other staff.
I also interviewed two students who have, or have had, Ms. Schleper. I asked them these questions:
How do you feel about Ms. Schleper as a teacher?Did you feel supported by her when you are/were in her class?
One of the students responded to the first question saying, “I love her as a teacher. I find her super funny and a great teacher. She helped me with everything I was struggling with in math.”
The same student responded to the second question saying, “I think she may be one of the teachers I feel the most supported by. She offers all of her classes extra help during advisory, which has really helped me.”
The other student responded to the first question saying, “I really enjoy Ms. Schleper as a teacher. I don’t think I could see her in any other career. She is super kind to all of her students despite teaching extremely difficult subjects.”
The same student responded to the second question saying, “I have never once not felt supported by Ms. Schleper. She always offers her students extra help and I know that has made a great impact on some of my fellow friends.”
FTX Holdings was founded in May, 2019. It was one of the first large crypto exchange platforms that the world came to know. As it was founded right at the beginning of the crypto explosion, it proceeded to make absurd amounts of money off the back of it. FTX became a world renowned company, and in the 2022 Super Bowl, became an American household name with one of the most popular and successful Super Bowl ads in recent years.
This sounds like the setup to a story about an extremely successful company on the forefront of cryptocurrency technology, right? Like many people that believed in this company, including celebrity endorsements such as Larry David, Steph Curry, and Tom Brady, you would be wrong.
On November 11, 2022, FTX Holdings filed for bankruptcy, and in the process, close to $11 Billion has gone up in smoke.
Humble Beginnings
FTX was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in May of 2019. Before SBF founded FTX, he founded an investment and trading firm called Alameda Research. Alameda consisted of SBF and roughly 10 of his friends, making random crypto trades for a pretty decent profit. When the company was at its height in 2017-2018, it made a respectable profit month after month.
When the crypto scene started to grow and gain more public attention, larger trading firms got into the scene and made it harder for little companies like Alameda, to make as much money. This is when SBF pivoted his business model and decided to go from exchanging crypto, to being the exchange himself. This pivot birthed the FTX crypto exchange.
The FTX Business Model
Before we dig into why FTX’s business model failed so catastrophically, we should look at what model DOES work for exchanges. The ideal business model for the average person putting money into a bank or exchange is where the organization holds your money and gives it back when you want it. While it is a good form of banking, it doesn’t make much money. Crypto exchange “Coinbase” uses this model, and only makes money by charging fees on substantial transactions.
What MOST banks will do is they’ll take your money, and invest it in physical assets such as real estate and long term stock options. This allows banks to be a better investor than you, and make a bit of money off the back end. This also allows banks to give their customers interest on their holdings, so everyone makes a little money. As long as real estate and other investments don’t crumble all at once, everyone’s happy. They still have enough money to pay people out if they want to withdraw some, or all, of their money.
Something very important to note about real banks, is that NO MATTER WHAT they are required to pay out customers up to $250,000. This is called FDIC insurance, and makes sure that even if a bank goes completely under, people can still make it out with a decent amount of money.
Where we run into major problems with crypto exchanges (cryptobanks) is the FDIC does not apply to them whatsoever.
Here’s a unique scenario to think about. Imagine that you give a bank $100,000, and instead of investing that money into something stable such as real estate, they take the money and buy a high quality Babe Ruth rookie card. The money you gave them is technically still there, but it’s no longer liquid. Now, take this scenario and multiply it by thousands of customers. For every $100,000 dollars put into the bank, a new rookie card is acquired. Now, uh oh, someone wants their money back, so the exchange has to sell one of the cards, no big deal, the card is sold for more than it was bought, you get your money back and the bank keeps a little.
Now the real problem occurs when a whole lot of people want their money back, all at once, and you need to sell a whole lot of these Babe Ruth rookie cards to be able to do that. If you sell all of these cards, they will end up having very very little value, and you’ll never get the money to pay back your customers. Take this scenario, and instead of a Babe Ruth rookie card, the exchange is investing in a worthless, self minted, crypto coin. That’s FTX.
Going criminal
While SBF was somehow keeping FTX afloat, his first company, Alameda Research, was making a large amount of terrible crypto investments. It was being run by the 28-year-old girlfriend of SBF, who was having an extremely hard time making good investments for Alameda. In referencing her direction and methodology around making massive crypto bets, she said, “’Ya know [I] adjusted myself to you know, okay we’re farming comp, uh and then it’s like oh were farming these things that are like foods, and now we’re farming these whatever weird, like meta food things, I don’t know.’ She goes on to say,‘Yeah I feel like I did manage to get, yeah, get away from my initial skepticism and end up embracing the mindset of like great, gonna go out and look for like, whatever like the weirdest, dumbest thing people are talking about today and like that’s gonna be the thing I’m working on today.’” Through this interview, it becomes pretty apparent that she has little to no idea what she’s doing regarding handling multi billion dollar cryptocurrency bets.
As Alameda was losing obscene amounts of money hand over fist, SBF started taking money directly from FTX’s accounts and secretly fueling the dumpster fire, Alameda Research. While on the surface this seems sketchy at worst, this is a 100% illegal way to conduct business. This is the point at which FTX and SBF start to resemble Enron. What was going on behind the scenes here was completely illegal and SBF should face criminal punishment.
The collapse
In early November, 2022, a leak was made of FTX’s finances. The leak showed that FTX was “loaning” money to Alameda to keep up its failing bets, and in return, Alameda was giving them FTT Tokens. FTT Tokens are the tokens minted and sold by FTX as mentioned in its business model. The FTT Token was only being propped up by FTX’s profits. As more people invested into FTX, these FTT Tokens gained more “value” even though there was literally no solid financial support behind that said value. FTX would continuously buy the FTT Token to keep its value up. The leak brought to light that almost ALL of the money on FTX’s books was being held in this made up, completely valueless FTT Token. So, instead of having people’s real money in their vaults, FTX was filling it with these worthless crypto tokens. People started to realize that this was a major red flag, and decided to start pulling money out.
Very shortly after this leak was published, the CEO of a similar crypto exchange, Binance, said publicly that he had a large amount of this FTT Token and was scared for its stability. Instantly, he announced that he had decided to dump it all. With the CEO of Binance dumping all of his FTT Token, the value plummeted and everyone who had money in FTX also started to pull their money out of the business.
The house of cards that was FTX fell apart and literally overnight, the company went from the largest and most valuable Crypto Exchange, to worth absolutely nothing. FTX collapses and as a financial powerhouse, simply ceases to exist.
The aftermath
There will be a lot of changes in the wake of this catastrophic financial oversight. The company that Wall Street counted on to do accurate accounting for FTX, Prager Metis, is facing serious consequences as it was their responsibility to notice a fault this large in the company. The people involved in FTX and Alameda all should also be facing serious jail time.
Several other things were noticed as well. As I mentioned Binance earlier, it would be good to note that after FTX collapsed, people were rightfully skeptical and decided to look deeper into Binance’s finances (sick rhyme). What they found was that almost 50% of THEIR reserve is also in their own Crypto Token. In the Crypto world, this has immediately popped up as a huge issue, all over the place, and is an extremely dangerous balancing act to keep up.
As mentioned earlier, this situation is very reminiscent of that of the Enron collapse, which I have covered in a previous article. While the similarities between the two fraudulent companies are deeply woven, it brings me great joy to announce that the new CEO of FTX, whose job it is to oversee the company’s liquidation, is none other than John J. Ray, the same guy that liquidated Enron 20 years ago.
What can we learn?
What I have taken away from this incident, is to not blindly trust companies with your money. You never know who is up to what kinds of shady business, and who will hang you out to dry whenever they want. While keeping your money in banks is a decently safe way to operate, nothing will ever be safer than a big treasure chest full of money buried in your backyard.
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