All posts by HPSH Plaid Line

Advice/How To

Tips for getting past writer’s block

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By Teah Henry

Whether you were writing an essay for school or your own story, surely you’ve hit writer’s block before.

Writer’s block is when a writer has trouble getting words down and continuing what they were writing. It can be tough to deal with and cause your writing to severely slow down. Luckily, there’s ways to get past it. 

  • Write Everyday 

This is a tip more for people who write as a hobby. It’s something that takes time of course, but writing everyday proves to help writers have writer’s block less often.

The writing you do can be whatever you want, such as a journal entry or challenging yourself to write at least five hundred words of a story. It keeps your brain fresh and makes it easier for you to write even if you’re not in the mood for it. 

  • Just Write 

This is a piece of advice everyone hates hearing, but it works.

Write down whatever you need to, even if it’s just scattered thoughts. This helps you move forward with your project, and can also help you get back into a writing groove. If you don’t like what you wrote, you can always go back and edit it. There’s a reason for first drafts!

  • Read and Analyze 

Reading pieces of writing you like can help your brain start to flow again. It also helps to analyze what you’re reading.

Picking apart the sentences and looking at their structure can also help improve your prose. Looking at what you like about other pieces of writing can help you write even better. 

Those are just three tips on how to get past writer’s block.

Unfortunately, there’s no guaranteed way to get past it, but these tips can help and hopefully do! If they don’t work, it’s always okay to take a breather and step away from the computer or notebook. Sometimes that’s all a writer needs!

World

Sex trafficking in Central America 

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By: Kayla Arellano

*Note, this article may have material that could trigger individuals (sexual assault, violence against women), therefore, we present a trigger warning here.

Human trafficking has been happening in Central America since 1990, and has been the center of attention in Guatemala, Honduras, and in El Salvador. Human trafficking in Central America has increased throughout the years due to gang violence and corruption in Latin American countries. Gang member seduce vulnerable young women into sex trafficking by promising them security, safety, and a better life in the U.S.; fake job offers; deceived into romantic relationships; coerced by older family members; approached by other victims; etc. 63% are underage, and 96% of the woman are from Mexico or Latin America.

The Polaris Project published a report, in 2016, showing how human trafficking happens in clubs, bars, cantinas, and strip clubs. They are smuggled to the United States without them knowing where they are being taken. When they arrive in the U.S., they take them into any of the previously mentioned places, and are forced to work as a cover for business transactions. 

Dressember.org has found research that labor trafficking, and sex trafficking, occurs in these places, and the employer will use fraud and force to maintain the workers and make them believe they have no choice but to keep on working.

The Polaris Project also had a case study where, in a cantina in Texas, inspectors noticed strange behavior in the female employees. It looked like they were being kept away from the inspectors and the woman showed fear towards the employers.

The employers had told the women that they were in enormous debt because they had been taken to the U.S., and that they would have to work at the place they were sent to, and would have to have sexual interactions with patrons every night. If any of the women resisted, there would be physical violence, sexual abuse, or harm to their families, so they had no choice but to work for them. 

For more information, please visit:

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Why are teens smoking more now?

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By: Heidy Ramirez

“Why are teens smoking more now?” is the question of the day.

A lot of them are smoking because of peer pressure or stress and it has not been good with the pandemic going on. They don’t really have anyone to turn to, so people turn to drugs.

2020 was no one‘s year. There was a riot, pandemic lockdown, and COVID.

The teens that start to smoke, mostly start before the age of 18 because of their friends, older siblings or they think they look cool. Another big reason they start is stress, because of everything in the world.

Right now, with the entire pandemic, and with the students not going to regular school, and parents not going to work, there is a lot of pressure at home because of school and work. So, there are a lot of arguments going on, and that creates people wanting to let out steam which is smoke, so they start smoking. 

There is a lot of pressure, and it mostly falls on the teens because we have to show leadership to these younger kids, but the parents don’t understand that it could be a little bit too much for us, so we turn our heads to smoking.

Some teens think that doing grown up stuff can make you grow, but that’s not what happens with smoking; they are smoking their life’s up. The teens are using vapes, juul’s and e-cigs now these days, and there are different flavors so you can choose the one you like and get hooked on it.

For more information, please visit:

Science/Nature

Villains of the sea

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By: Grace Helmke

Killers of the deep.

The sinister shadow that lurks beneath, ready to attack.

The shark has been plunged into the public eye inspiring widespread fear amongst individuals all over the world. Their razor sharp teeth, ready to rip practically anything to shreds, and their silent, menacing movements make for the perfect Hollywood villain. Are these sea-dwelling creatures the fearsome menace that the media portrays? 

Hollywood has made a significant impact on the general public view of sharks, depicting them as beings of malicious intent. The 1975 film ‘Jaws’ is most likely the source of the widespread fear, and Hollywood’s overuse of the demonized shark character.

Because of its incredible successes all over the nation, creating multiple millions at the box office, and bursting its way into pop culture as a well known classic film series, copycat movies were bound to emerge. It created an endless cycle of Hollywood movies based on the perpetuating stereotype of the vengeful killer shark, leaving America in a fascinated fear. 

This was an incredible shift of thought from what the notion was before the movie was released. It was once believed that sharks were harmless creatures. They stayed out of the way of humans, and humans did the same.

When swimming became a regular recreational activity, sharks were acknowledged very little. Even in the scientific world, they were seen as simply another oceanic inhabitant instead of a test subject with interesting, unusual or even dangerous enough behavior to study. They were simply just there.  But ‘Jaws’ flipped the nation overnight. It created a fearsome character that the public latched onto, and never let go of. 

Today, because they have captured public attention, sharks are studied extensively. Their behavioral patterns are documented and analyzed religiously by scientists all over the world.

What has come from this research is an enormous amount of myth debunking. The most impactful myth created in Hollywood was that sharks are man eaters. Of course, because that meant that sharks threatened human lives, they became the villain.

But the reality is that sharks do NOT like the taste of human flesh, nor do they actively hunt humans for prey.

In the extremely rare occurrence of a shark attack, it is just a case of mistaken identity in an area of low visibility. They would likely just be giving a bite out of curiosity more than have the desire to make a meal out of a human. That is why there are more documented shark bittings than shark fatalities.

There just isn’t enough blood-vessel-containing-fat on humans for us to be a hearty snack. Even an individual with a high concentration of fat on their body does not have enough fat, that contains blood vessels, for sharks to want them. Our blood and fat isn’t something they enjoy. 

That leads into the next completely false myth that sharks are just mindless killers. While sharks are predatory creatures, they don’t kill anything they see, nor do they constantly think about food. They are incredibly intelligent and evolved creatures, who can navigate themselves across the ocean using only their sense of smell.

Much like humans, sharks are curious and sociable creatures. An experiment was implemented in which two objects were placed in the water: one resembling the shape of a seal, the other a square. The great whites approached the square out of curiosity over the seal shaped object. Instead of biting and attacking the object, they would bump into it, attempting to “feel” what it was. This inquisitive characteristic was exhibited in several experiments, the sharks in question having no intent to harm the object, only discovering what it could be. 

The news has also impacted our perception of sharks. It seems that anytime there’s a shark attack or shark encounter, it’s plastered all over the news. It makes it seems as though shark attacks are common events happening all the time.

But the truth is, that there is an incredibly low chance of an individual even seeing a shark in the wild, much less attacked.

Let’s put this into perspective. You have about a 1 in 3,784,067 chance of being attacked by a shark. And that counts non-malicious shark encounters as well. When you think about the millions of people that enter the water a day, that number is extremely low. You have a greater chance of being struck by lightning, or winning an Olympic gold medal. 

That being said, do sharks deserve to be so villainized?

The answer is no. They have been wrongfully dubbed a malicious creature due to aggressive news coverage, and Hollywood’s fabrication of the shark villain. Not only do they have an aversion to the taste of humans, they are incredibly intelligent beings capable of high functioning brain activity. They have simply fallen victim to a Hollywood charade. 

For more information, please visit: 

Science/Nature

Tiger endangerment

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By: Jalalaisa Geleto

The Tiger is a troubled species of cat. They have been pushed to the brink of extinction many times, and some tiger subspecies are no longer with us.

Their territories were once all of east China, Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Eastern Siberia, Central Asia, and the Malaysian Islands. Now, they are restricted to small pockets in each of those lands. They don’t even exist in most of China, Korea, and Central Asia anymore. To see a tiger that doesn’t live in India, or a Southeastern Asian country, is a miracle.

The reason tigers populations aren’t increasing much, even though organizations are actively trying to save them, is because each tiger needs a lot of land for themselves. They are not pack animals. There isn’t a place that’s “densely” populated with tigers, because they live on their own and far from each other.

The average tiger male requires 23 to 39 square miles to himself. The average female only needs 7. The amount of space tigers are allowed to live in has only decreased, leading to more tigers dying.

Since 1900, 93% of tiger lands have been taken from them, severely lowering their population. Since the 1990s, their population has decreased another 43%.

Tigers are a doomed species, and there is nothing you can do about it without giving them more land to live on. Which is not going to happen.

The Indians are mostly poor and are looking for land to make farms and build infrastructure. Many of them don’t care about the cultural aspects of tigers and focus on material things. At the rate India is modernizing and growing, the tigers might not have much space left.

In China, the tigers are doomed and are on their last legs. There are barely any tiger sightings in the country anymore. In Siberia, Russia, they find the Siberian tiger once or twice every year.

The only way to save tigers is to open more lands for wildlife. Until then, they will stay rare or even become extinct (especially in China).

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Editorials/Student Voice, Movies/TV/Theaters

​The danger of high school movies

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​By: Annika Getz

There are countless movies revolving around high-schoolers, and middle-schoolers, and their many adventures and misadventures. These movies appear to be harmless on the surface, but when one thinks about the material in said movies, and the results they have on real teenagers, it’s evident that they are more harmful than they seem.

For starters, there’s a significant lack of diversity in most of these movies. The majority of the time, the main characters are white, cisgender, able bodied, and straight. It is this exclusion of races, sexual orientations, and gender identities, which results in straight, cis, and white, being seen as a sort of default.

However, it’s not just the lack of diversity which makes these movies detrimental to teenagers. Another big issue is that they’re often very dramatized. The situation which the characters are placed in are more often than not, extremely unrealistic. This sets an impractical expectation for kids going into high school and middle school. School, in real life, often seems boring in comparison to the films that teens have watched leading up to it.

Many movies also include a “quirky girl” trope. This trope creates a girl who is supposed to break stereotypes, but usually it is not carried out well, and ends up only perpetuating said stereotypes. The “quirky girl” is often portrayed to be unlike other girls, however this implies that most girls are stereotypical “girly girls.” It also degrades those who are like that.

These movies also dramatize cliques, many times even giving names to each specific one. When this is done, it only enforces the idea that everyone has to fit into a specific group in order to enjoy their experiences in middle school and high school.

And while there are groups of friends, it normally isn’t as dramatic as it is in many of these movies (this is of course only my experience, and I’m sure there are some people who have undergone different experiences).

I believe another large issue with these movies is that they are not typically made with teenager’s best interest in mind. Oftentimes, they’re just capitalistic money grabs, fueled by corporate greed. This means that they aren’t made with the viewers wellbeing in mind. And sometimes, regardless of the creators intentions, these movies still have some sort of negative influence on the teens watching.

I’m not saying that high school movies are inherently bad. There certainly are some good ones, but sometimes, it feels like for every good one, there are ten bad ones.

Given everything I’ve just listed, I think it’s incredibly important that directors and writers make sure to keep the wellbeing, of their teenagers watching, in mind when making these movies, because when they don’t, they more often than not, end up harming their target demographic.

Books/Art

‘Great Gatsby’ review

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By: Mohamed Ahmed

‘The Great Gatsby’? Never heard of it. What is it? 

‘The Great Gatsby’ is a book written by a famous author called F. Scott Fitzgerald. I am going to try to determine if this book is for you. 

‘The Great Gatsby’ takes place in the 1920s. The main character/narrator is a young man with dreams of hitting it big in the bond business. After his father put a timer on him Nick rushed to find a new home which ended up being close to a distant cousin and college acquaintance. His house also put him next to the title character.

One of the things I enjoyed most is the theme of the American Dream and the harsh reality of the real world. He delves into all sorts of relationships and how not everyone gets their perfect ending. 

The story starts out very slow however. It takes a long time to set up the main characters and the new environment all while keeping the story mysterious. He slowly builds a world and gives hints to foreshadowing. 

When all the pieces are in place though, the story comes together in an incredible way. The author found a way to word the story so that he keeps the mystery of Gatsby alive, all while keeping the story flowing. 

There are lies, ghosts from the past (not literally), mistakes, and heavy plot twists. 

The most important thing about the story is that it is from an outside perspective. If the narrator was all knowing then there wouldn’t be anything left to the imagination. There are vague scenes. It leaves the story up to interpretation inviting discussion because depending on your education level, life experiences, and knowledge about the author, you will interpret scenes in different ways. 

Due to the number of times that the author rewrote it, you know that the story is carefully crafted and the words that are used are intentional. 

All-in-all, to most people, I would recommend this book, especially if you can pass the first phases when the characters are all being introduced. 

Editorials/Student Voice, Music/Concerts

Xenophobia in the Western music industry

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By Ellie Mulvaney and Irene Cohen

Music is often called a universal language; something that ties people together without bounds. Throughout history, genres have been passed through people and geographical groups to spread different traditions, dances, and instruments through the music they originate from.

With this history, it’s hard to imagine that modern society is sometimes extremely intolerant with music, and the culture that’s associated with it, sometimes resorting to racism or xenophobia to hate on unfamiliar forms of media.

K-Pop is a genre of music thats name is a direct conjunction of its meaning: Korean pop. It’s typically associated with bright colors, vigorous dances, energetic songs, and is usually performed by groups.

The genre has spread west in past years, led by worldwide sensation group BTS. The group kicked off their first US tour in 2015, and since then, has only grown, getting their first Grammy nomination in the “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance” category in November of 2020. However, the road to this accomplishment was anything but easy, and to this day, they still are on the receiving end of countless amounts of unjustified hate.

The stage makeup and outfits they wear are beaten down for being too feminine, while their songs are often branded as shallow, despite the language barrier that many Americans don’t care to overcome when looking into their music.

On a professional level, they have been void of some opportunities that many theorize could be due to where they’re from. At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, the group received a nomination for “Best Collab”, which was won with regards to their song with an ​American​ artist, rather than a nomination for their solo music video that broke the record on YouTube for the most views in 24 hours.

This lack of Western recognition for the current, biggest, boy band in the world seems to run deeper than just simple coincidence, and bleeds into the xenophobia in America.

Some argue that BTS even being included in award ceremonies is the representation of East-Asian music groups that is needed in the award ceremonies. While BTS is able to get some representation from mainstream Western media, this is the first step in a very long journey to be more inclusive in award ceremonies.

Even when foreign groups are included in these ceremonies, they have special award names like “Best in K-Pop” instead of simply “Best in Pop.” They have these categories to make it seem like these groups are good but cannot be compared to our Western music artists. It is almost demeaning to have these categories.

This doesn’t just happen to K-Pop idols, either. In many music award ceremonies they have “Latin Pop” for Latinx artists instead of giving them just the “Pop” award.

We have seen countless times that when a song isn’t in English, it does not get the same representation in the award ceremonies that English songs receive. Many a time, songs not performed in English have performed extremely well worldwide to get beaten out by some English pop songs only known in the Western world. And that’s the best case scenario. Most of the time these songs aren’t even nominated for an award.

The Western music industry needs to be more inclusive in their coverage of music. Too long the Western music industry has not recognized the success or impact of a song, album, or artist just because it is foreign. The mindset of this music industry needs to change so that products of Western artists will not always be considered better than that of different regions.

Music should surpass language and culture, not be judged on it.

Sports

Does Jake Paul have a chance of beating Conor McGregor in a boxing match?

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By: Jimmy Somerville

If you haven’t already heard about YouTube, and social media superstar, Jake Paul, challenging the notorious Conor McGregor to a boxing match, you probably aren’t very active on social media as Jake Paul’s challenge to Conor McGregor went viral.

Jake Paul is just a YouTuber who boxed another unfit YouTuber, and a former NBA player, who was only 5’9. He won both fights and thinks he can beat one of the best MMA fighters of all time.

Jake Paul rose to fame alongside his brother Logan Paul. The two brothers went famous on the old app called Vine. Then, when Vine was no longer a thing, they switched to YouTube and became some of the most popular people on the platform, and in social media as whole.

Jake recently got into boxing, and like I said before, has had two fights against two non-boxers, which he won both fights, and actually didn’t look half-bad. Supporting my opinion though, and many others’ opinions, boxing and sports experts say his chances of winning against McGregor are little to none.

Now, Conor is an MMA fighter, which is mixed martial arts, which is a combination of everything fighting such as: boxing, wrestling, jujitsu, kickboxing, and many more forms of fighting. So, Conor actually isn’t strictly a boxer as Jake is, but Conor has been boxing since he was 14, and stand up fighting (boxing) is the best part of his game; he is considered one of the best stand up MMA fighters of all time.

I’d say Jake’s chances of winning a boxing match vs. McGregor is probably around 0.5%. So, around a 1 in 200 chance of winning. My reasoning for the percentage not being lower is an old saying called the “Puncher’s Chance” which this basically means there’s always a chance you can land just one lucky punch and knock your opponent out.

By the way, I am a McGregor fan and not a Jake fan!

Editorials/Student Voice, Entertainment

Obsessions with serial killers have gone too far

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By: Olivia Knafla

Whether you spend your time on Instagram, Tiktok, or YouTube, you’ve probably seen a thing or two about serial killers at some point. Whether it was a short video summarizing a case or a post to remember victims, there is lots of information on the internet about these killers that people naturally find terrifying, heartbreaking, fascinating, or all three.

True crime is captivating for a number of reasons. With the tap of a screen, or click of a button, we can delve into spine-chilling words from the comfort of our own couch and return back to real life afterwards. We can learn about the situation without being thrown into the danger. On top of that, true crime can appeal to many interests from psychology, to criminal justice, to law. It’s easy to see the appeal for the genre because there is so much to be learned from it.

That being said, it makes sense that people find serial killers and the cases surrounding them so intriguing – but where should the line be drawn?

I believe the line lies between two words: interest and romanticization.

The illustrate my point, consider the two following situations:

  1. A person spends some time learning about what a serial killer did, how they were caught, ect., because they find it interesting to research and learn about.
  2. A person spends some time learning about a serial killer to then post online about how much they love said serial killer, whether as a joke or in seriousness.

Which situation feels strange or disturbing?

Most likely situation B. Why? Because the person from situation B is no longer interested in what happened or why, but only in the killer themselves, and for all the wrong reasons.

It may seem unrealistic for somebody to post about their fondness for a killer online, but it has happened more times than can be counted.

Even off-screen, killers in prison can receive up to hundreds of letters of fan mail weekly or even daily. And while online, such interactions may be less direct, they are certainly not invisible.

From people posting about how attractive Ted Bundy is to making fan accounts for Jeffrey Dahmer, it’s an understatement to say things have gotten out of hand. This was not the work of a couple internet trolls or people posting solely for attention (although I’m sure those people have some sort of involvement in these types of posts), but a large number of people.

For example, in January, of 2019, Netflix had to take to Twitter in response to people posting about how hot Ted Bundy was in the documentary: ‘Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes’ and near the release of: ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile’ with the following statement:

All of this being said, it is no secret that Hollywood enjoys glamorizing killers and their relationships. Take the TV series ‘You’ for example. The show is centered around killer Joe Goldberg and his relationships with women who just seem to love him so much.

Rather than talk about, quite literally, anything else, social media flooded with posts about how attractive Goldberg was, creating a uniquely uncomfortable environment for actors and those affected by similar situations.

Possibly worse than all of this though, was in early 2020, when teenagers located the Instagram account of an alleged active killer in the east coast, named Peter Manfredonia, a 23-year-old student at the University of Connecticut. Authorities were attempting to locate him after he was suspected of murdering two people, assaulting one, and finally kidnapping another. However, this did not prevent his comments from being flooded with everything from compliments to people writing down their home addresses and phone numbers.

Below are some of the comments that were left under his photos.

It should be obvious that these responses are not normal nor acceptable, and there are several answers that go further in depth explaining why.

Firstly, to show appreciation to somebody who is a serial killer is wildly insensitive to the victims and their families. Walk a mile in the shoes of somebody who was tortured and killed and then consider leaving these comments or making such remarks.

If that is not enough, think of the further damage such remarks could cause. Of course, no person is the same, and killers all have different ways of thinking and unique minds. However, by directly inflating the ego of one of these people, especially those who are not yet incarcerated or dealt with legally, is irresponsible and foolish.

No person who willingly hurts or preys upon others deserves any sort of fanbase, and by giving it to them you are telling them that you approve of them and what they are doing. And make no mistake – there is no excuse for it.

So, one may ask: how are we to get people out of this mindset? How are we, as a society, going to stop showering the monsters who walk among us with love and appreciation?

While there may always be some who enjoy the attention or shocked laughs they receive for glorifying these folks, the best thing you can do is to not do it yourself. If you choose to interact with an individual who participates in such behaviors (either online or in person), explain to them that it is wrong and why. Only when we all value our lives and the experiences of others will we move forward from this. And that I hope we do.