Category Archives: Entertainment

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Gilmore Girls’ season one review

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By: Priya Anderson & Ruby Anderson

Source: Screenshot from Ruby’s IPhone, Gilmore Girls opening credits

The 2000s TV show ‘Gilmore Girls’, created by Amy Sherman-Palladio, is a comedic drama set in the fictional Connecticut town Stars Hollow that is centered around the relationship between single mother Lorelei Gilmore and her teenage daughter Rory Gilmore.

Season one of Gilmore Girls introduces many important characters such as Lorelei and Rory. This mother-daughter duo sets the stage for this show as they have a quirky and loving relationship bringing together themes of family, relationships, and friendship. Lorelei, who is played by Lauren Graham, is the hard working single mother of Rory. Throughout the season Lorelei navigates the hardships of single motherhood, relationships, and the tough expectations of her wealthy parents. Rory, played by Alexis Bledel, is an intelligent and ambitious 16-year-old girl with dreams of going to Harvard. During season one we follow Rory’s journey after being accepted into the prestigious school, Chilton Academy.

Stars Hollow is the perfect setting for Gilmore Girls. With its eccentric but charming characters, the small New England town is full of personality and factors into the show’s comforting feel. Stars Hollow includes a variety of businesses and shops from Luke’s Diner to Ms. Patty’s dance studio. Residents of Stars Hollow are a big part of what makes the town so perfect. Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), the owner of Luke’s Diner, is a grumpy but lovable character we see often throughout the show. His diner is the town’s hangout spot and Lorelai and Rory’s favorite place to eat and relax. There is also the towns dance instructor, Ms. Patty (Liz Torres) who loves to gossip and involve herself in town events. Lorelai’s workplace, The Independence Inn, introduces us to her best friend Sookie St. James (Melissa McCarthy) who is a talented chef and an important character to the show. The many more amusing characters in this community help add a comedic relief to more serious aspects of Lorelai and Rory’s hectic lives.

The complex relationship between Lorelai, Rory, and Lorelai’s parents Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard Gilmore (Edward Herrmann) creates an important narrative throughout the show. After Lorelai seeks help from her parents to pay for Rory’s tuition she is, in return, forced to have dinner with her parents and Rory every week. Tension between Lorelai and her parents is common throughout the season from their wildly different lifestyles and lack of understanding of each other. Emily and Richard show what life was like for Lorelai before she became pregnant with Rory and left home to take care of her on her own. Lorelai’s difficult relationship with her parents is shown in conflict and are some of the most important moments throughout the season.

While ‘Gilmore Girls’ is mostly about family, the theme of love and romance also plays a big role. During season one we follow the love story between Rory and her first boyfriend, Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki). Early in the season the two meet at Stars Hollow High School shortly after Dean transfers there from Chicago. The two quickly start dating after Dean finds interest in Rory and they begin to get to know each other. The brief yet serious relationship between Lorelai and Max Medina (Scott Cohen) begins when Lorelai meets the Chilton teacher at a parent teacher meeting not long after Rory begins school there. The relationship between the two starts off slow as Lorelai is hesitant due to Max being her daughter’s teacher but quickly becomes serious throughout the season.

Rory’s acceptance into Chilton Academy created many new difficulties. The elite school is a big difference to the public school she attended with her best friend, Lane Kim (Keiko Ageno) who is a recurring character throughout the series, and is known for her love for rock music and her struggles with her strict mother. Chilton being a great way for Rory to be accepted into Harvard, is an academic challenge in Rory’s life bringing her piles of school work and introduces her intense classmate Paris Geller (Liza Weil) who quickly becomes a rival to Rory as she sees her as a student who wants to take her spot as top student in her class.

‘Gilmore Girls’ season one sets off the series to a great start introducing loveable and relatable characters, as well as offering a great atmosphere for a show that will be loved by many for years to come.

Tech/Games

Easy introduction to JavaScript

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By: Charlotte Bistodeau

Image created with Google AI

There are around 1300 programming languages in existence today but there are only a few that are most commonly used. I’m going to take you through the base languages of coding (HTML/CSS) and the most popular coding language (JavaScript) to give you a better understanding of something few stop to learn about.

HTML/CSS

HTML or HyperText Markup Language, is a markup language that’s used to give structure and meaning to web content and is the standard markup language for creating web pages. HTML consists of a series of elements that tell the browser, or a web page, how to display content. For example, defining paragraphs, headings, data tables, embedding images and videos into the web page. 

Example of HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Page Title</title>

Etc. etc.

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets, is a language of style rules that describe how HTML elements are going to be displayed on the web page or other media. Stated simply, CSS is a coding language used to style a Web page. CSS can also be used to control the layout of multiple web pages at once which saves the coder a lot of work. For example, CSS is used for setting background colors and fonts, and laying out content in multiple columns.

Example of CSS:

body {

    background-color: lightblue;

}

h1   {

    color:  white;

    text-align:  center;

}

Etc. etc.

JavaScript 

JavaScript is an easy programming language to learn, the most popular and the most used in the world. JavaScript is a scripting language that allows you to give web pages interactive elements and implement complex features such as dynamically updating content, control multimedia, animate images, timely content updates, interactive maps, pop-up menus, clickable buttons, and a lot more. JavaScript uses a combination of basic HTML and CSS to make the web page function.

JavaScript isn’t only good at making web pages but it’s also a great tool to start game development. Because Javascript is easy to learn and understand and can be used just about anywhere, it’s a great way to start game development of smaller games. JavaScript is not only used by beginners, but intermediates and also advanced coders, making it a great starter language for coding and programming. 

Example of JavaScript:

<!DOCTYPE  html>

<button type=”button”

onclick=”document.getElementById(‘demo’).innerHTML  =  Date()”>

Click me to display Date and Time.</button>

<p  id=”demo”></p>

Etc. etc.

Out of all 1300 coding languages, these three are the simplest and most basic programming languages to learn. There are plenty of better coding languages for specific things such as C++ being a much better option for developing an open world game than JavaScript because C++ was built exactly for that sort of thing. But if you’re looking to get into coding then I can wholeheartedly recommend JavaScript to you.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘It Ends With Us’

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By: Sophie Elmstrom & Lily Sheldon

‘It Ends with Us’ came out on August 9, 2024. This movie was based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover, and the film was directed by Justin Baldoni. The film stars Jason Baldoni, Blake Lively, Jenny Slate, and Hasan Minhaj. The movie received mixed reviews, but it was a box office success, grossing 346.4 million worldwide against a production budget of 25 million. We wanted to give our thoughts on this movie, and compare it to the reviews of others.

Here’s a quick rundown of the movie. Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) moves to Boston to pursue her dream of opening her own business after the passing of her father. In Boston, she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, and they start to fall in love. As their relationship develops, Ryle starts to remind Lily of her parents’ relationship and the abusive tendencies of her father. Lily is at a dinner with Ryle, when she discovers that her high school sweetheart, Atlas, is the owner of the restaurant. Old feelings for Atlas begin to bubble up again, and Lily is stuck with an impossible choice to choose between Atlas and Ryle. Ryle hears about Atlas, and becomes enraged and jealous. He takes out his anger on Lily in forms of domesticated abuse. Lily reveals to Ryle about her father’s abuse to her mother and Lily escapes Ryle, and seeks out Atlas for help. She discovers she is pregnant, and moves out and lives with Atlas for a little. Lily asks for a divorce from Ryle, and he agrees after she asks Ryle how their daughter would react if she was abused by her partner. Lily hopes she has ended the cycle of abuse in her family, telling her daughter “It ends with Us”.

The movie also has a series of flashbacks where we go back in time to when Lily was in high school. One day, Lily is looking out her window and sees a boy her age coming out of the abandoned house next door. As she is walking to her bus she sees him at the stop as well. This sparks Lily to leave supplies at the door of this house in hope of helping this man out. Lily and this boy start talking to each other and Lily finds out his name is Atlas. These two end up falling in love with each other when suddenly Atlas moves away and they don’t continue to talk.

This movie received a 6.5/10 from IMDB and a 57% from Rotten Tomatoes. We believe that this ranking is just a little too low; we think this movie deserves an 8/10. Many reviews agree with the rating of 6.5/10, they believe that the story is very flat and not interesting. Many disagree with what we believed about how it is similar to the book, they said that it missed many book details.

As individuals who have read this book, we believe that movie did a very good job at portraying these characters and the story. Although there are controversies with this movie we believe that the movie was very good and interesting. The way that they portrayed Ryles’ character was very similar and the casting was very good in our opinion.

Overall, we believe that this movie deserves a 7/10 because although it wasn’t a perfect movie it was a very good book adaptation.

You can watch this movie on Prime Video.

Music/Concerts

Why ‘Plan A’ is one of the best albums this year

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By: Bailey Glime

‘Plan A’ by Lil Tecca is one of the best albums this year and here is why. ‘Plan A’ shows a more experimental Lil Tecca who uses different tones in his voice to make songs sound vocally different. The album has 18 songs and is 44 minutes long, so the album is not long but has a lot to offer.

‘Plan A’ doesn’t just have the same sounding songs like other albums. This album dives deeper into different sounds to attract the audience more. It also makes the songs more of a fun listen too. The album also has songs that are more chill, and others that hype you up more.

Personally, the song that sticks out the most and is my favorite is “HOMEBODY”. This is one of my favorite songs because of the way Tecca makes his voice go up and down. There is also a catchy chorus that is fun to not just listen to but dance to as well. This song is also not a long one to listen to, and it has the listener wanting to listen to it again.

Compared to other albums of the same genre, this album isn’t completely serious and it’s more fun. At the same time, it has that seriousness in it that the other albums do too. The effect that this has on the listener, is that they can understand the lyrics better but still groove to the beat. This makes it a replayable album.

A song that makes the album pop with its lyrics is “120”. In this song Lil Tecca is talking about how with his success now he has a lot. He sings about being able to own expensive things like a 120k necklace. This song also has a groovy beat that just makes the lyrics pop more.

Overall, ‘Plan A’ shows many different sounds and makes it a very fun and interesting listen. It really dives into all the techniques Lil Tecca has under his sleeve, and draws the listeners to the album. This makes it one of the best albums this year. Having all these sounds mixed together makes this album a really enjoyable one.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Heartstopper’ Season 3 review

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By: Persephone Pond

‘Heartstopper’ is a Netflix original series based on the Webcomic written by Alice Oseman. Directed by Andy Newbery, season 3 of this show released all 8 episodes on Thursday, October 3rd, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews. This article is a quick, spoiler free review from the perspective of a long time fan.

Seasons 1 and 2 focused largely on building foundations of relationships between characters and expanding on the experiences of coming out as queer, while season 3 dives deeper into mental health issues that teens deal with and the experiences of moving further into a relationship. From the perspective of a queer teen who has been through much of the same things these characters in the show have, the writing deals with these heavier themes incredibly well.

Good representation of the lived experience of queer people is not an easy thing to find, luckily more and more writers have been incorporating these sorts of themes into media nowadays. In contrast, representation of mental health issues, especially eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder, are still largely stigmatized in today’s society. Charlie Spring, the protagonist of ‘Heartstopper’, deals with these issues in season 3, which changes the atmosphere of the show from lighthearted to kind of depressing. Although these heavy themes make the season more sad, it’s so important to spread awareness, especially in today’s society where these problems are not uncommon, they’re just repressed.

Charlie and Nick, the protagonists of the show, deal with the stress of mental illness, while side characters still get enough attention to grow an attachment to them. Season 3 also brings up more controversy about binary transgender teens, non-binary gender exploration, and asexuality, which weren’t elaborated much on the past 2 seasons.

Overall, these characters have a way of pulling on anyone and everyone’s heartstrings, and season 3 of this show is so powerful. I highly recommend sticking with ‘Heartstopper’, or starting from the beginning.

Books/Art

Gotham: One of the worst comic cities

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By: Munira Ahmadad

The city that Batman resides and fights crime in was first given the name Gotham in the 1940 comic ‘Batman #4’. In real life, Gotham has been used as slang for New York City. Originally, the term Gotham comes from ‘The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gottam’,  a 16th century fictional English town. The residents of Gottam were incredibly stupid, and a potential translation of Gottam is “Goat town” as goats are associated with stupidity. Gotham became an insult for New Yorkers, and more modernly “Gotham” is more connected to New York’s nightlife or the darker side of the city.

Unlike Metropolis, who’s major threats are from space, Gotham is filled with street-level crime. Even without the Arkham supervillains, the city has several issues like political corruption and the Gotham City Police Department’s higher members being involved in drug trafficking and being bribed by crime groups.

Not only has Gotham’s economy been controlled by numerous crime families for generations, we see in the 468th issue of ‘Batman’ Vol. 1, (1991),  that by the 1990s Triads had managed to take a billion dollars out of Gotham annually. There’s gangs, mafia groups, and also there’s the Yakuza operating in Gotham, too. Gotham has always been cursed to suck since the city was apparently built on top of where an ancient evil dude was sealed and imprisoned. He later names himself Doctor Gotham.

The mayors are often either incompetent or also corrupt, and since its origin, Gotham has been structured so that those taking part in gang wars, drug smuggling, organized crime, etc. don’t have any real reason to fear the law or authority. That was until Batman.

After Batman’s rise as a vigilante, he quickly became something trigger-happy criminals on the streets learned to be afraid of. Because of this, political figures in Gotham were more interested in using the law enforcement for finding and bringing the Batman down due to him taking the city’s issues in his own hands and becoming pretty much the only effective direct role for taking criminals out. The reasoning presented is that Batman is a criminal himself and a threat, but as we know the police force and government take part and aid crime themselves. Batman is a threat to them too.

One good thing about Gotham is that the dark and eery vibe is great for Halloween.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ (movie) 2005 – Review

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By: Christine Yang

What it’s about:

‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ is a movie about a fairy girl named Elina that’s from a place called The Magic Meadow. She would often be made fun of by other fairies due to her not having wings. But one day there was a rumor that an evil fairy, Laverna, from a “myth”, kidnapped Topaz, a powerful and guardian fairy from The Magic Meadow.

The next day, there was a green gas that prevented fairies from being able to fly and made them weak in The Magic Meadow, which was slowly creeping up to different places in Fairytopia. Elina and her friends Bibble and Dandelion want to find the answer to the disappearance of Topaz, but unfortunately, Dandelion can’t keep going through with the mission due to the gas affecting her. As Elina and her little friend Bibble go through the mission to find Topaz, they eventually uncover information that no other fairies would know, and only guardian fairies do know, and make new friends along the way. 

Review:

The movie ‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ is a good movie and has a good plot, but in my opinion I think the movie was rushed a little bit, like there could be things added between scenes.

The characters’ hair seems really “blocky”, the colors of the settings and characters also seem dull and not as detailed, especially the place Spooky Woods. Some of the creatures in the movie look like bugs because their eyes are really wide open.

Overall, the music in the movie was pleasant and more “classical”, which was only used about 3 times in the movie. There wasn’t really singing parts, which can make the movie not entertaining to others, but I wish there had been more.

In my opinion, I rate this 7/10.

I recommend this movie to younger kids like the age 4-7 years old, but anyone can watch this movie for nostalgic feelings or just for fun. ‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ can be watched on Amazon Prime Video (rent: $3.59  Buy: $14.69), Google Play Movie (Rent: $3.99  Buy: $14.69), Fandango at Home (Rent: $3.99  Buy: $14.99), YouTube (Rent: $3.99), and Apple TV (Rent: $3.99).

Also, the movie ‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ is in a collection with three other movies like, ‘Barbie: Fairytopia – Mermaidia’, ‘Magic of the Rainbow’, and ‘Mariposa and the Butterfly Fairy Friends’.

Tech/Games

JOYSTiCK Reviews Ep. 12: ‘Tetris’ – Block Tuah

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By: Daniel Kendle

Hey guys, welcome back to JOYSTiCK Reviews, and you know what I really hate? Climate change. But I’ve also taken a rather strong dislike towards popular games nowadays. So many terrible, terrible video games are coming out as of late, and unlike other poor saps who call themselves “gamers,” I’ve chosen not to lay down and take this blatant mediocrity.

‘Metroid Dread?’ Too scary. ‘Elden Ring?’ Too easy. ‘Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition?’ My mouth hurts. The only good video games as of recent are ‘PUBG’ and ‘Concord.’ Speaking of the latter, I was really sad the day it was announced it was being shut down after less than 2 weeks; I held a service for it and everything. Yeah, I missed my dog’s funeral, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make (Much like my dog’s!).

That’s why I’ve been replaying old games lately, like today’s topic: ‘Tetris.’ Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the title. It’s one of the most popular video games ever, selling hundreds of millions of copies across dozens of platforms, and is still kicking around to this day.

But why is that? Has the game been updated throughout all these years due to it being a masterpiece? Or was this comically-large tracking device fastened around my leg because my opinions are, shockingly-enough, controversial? Let’s find out.

If there’s 1 word to define the game ‘Tetris,’ it’s this: “simple, yet complex” (math was never my strong suit). In my opinion, the game’s been in the public eye for the last few decades due to the notion of it being easy to learn, yet hard to master.

The gameplay’s simple in theory: players are given a tall grid, and 1 after the other, differently-shaped blocks fall from the sky, all being made up of 4 different cubes contorted into different shapes. Players can rotate, move, or speed up the block and its descent, eventually letting it settle along the bottom of the grid.

As the game progresses, a pile of blocks will form. Every time the player manages to get a vertical row of the grid entirely filled with blocks, it’s removed, and the pile shrinks in height. The point of the game is to try to last as long as possible without the pile overflowing, and to see how high of a score you can garner.

To bite the bullet, the game’s so great because of the diversity of each game. While I might be wrong about this, each game’s blocks are randomly-generated (except for select older editions of ‘Tetris,’ I believe). This means that there’s a virtually-infinite amount of ways a game can be played, as the 7 usable blocks’ different forms make strategic placement not just a necessity, but crucial in understanding the intricacies of the game.

The gameplay loop is short, but sweet, and this is why I think the game has that universal appeal. There’s no characters, no story, no wild controls, not even any slightly-abstract theming. It’s literally just blocks falling down. The closest the game has to surrealism is the fact that the blocks magically disappear when a row is formed, but that’s able to be construed by most as a game mechanic rather than a choice of world building.

Anyone, whether they’re 1 or 101 years old, can enjoy ‘Tetris.’ Its gameplay is perfect for what it is.

As it happens, the rest of the game’s experience is pretty good too!

The main musical theme of ‘Tetris’ might be one of the most iconic in gaming, and is definitely in my top 10 favorite songs of all time. Perfectly-melodic, beautiful, and wonderful, yet it has that bit of edge that makes each game feel tense. In fact, one of the best ways to describe ‘Tetris’ is through the word ‘dread.’ The combination of the slowly-falling blocks, foreboding, quick music, and knowledge of the consequences of misplacing your next move makes the game all the more engaging.

The graphics, while definitely not the game’s main point of praise, are still pretty good across the board. Since there are so many versions of ‘Tetris,’ it’s hard to properly articulate my feelings on its art style with specific notes, but I’ll try.

I think the game’s graphics have aged well, especially since the different developers for the games generally keep the blocky aesthetic intact for each version. Not that each version of ‘Tetris’ uses pixel art, mind you, but what I mean is that each edition still feels like the classic game from the 80’s: polygonal shapes with bright colors. There’s not a version of ‘Tetris’ with “hyper-realistic graphics” or anything of that sort (not that I’m opposed to it…I’ve been known to be fairly aroused by cubes in the past).

The visuals, in combination with the music, have both stood the test of time and are continually iterated-upon with each remake of the game. And overall, that’s how I’d describe ‘Tetris’ in a nutshell: a game that’s both able to retain its immortal charm, and yet still manage to iterate on its core concept. For example, ‘Tetris 99’ is a battle royale-style title exclusive to the Nintendo Switch that has 99 players pitted against one another. ‘Hatris’ is a much older example; a sequel of sorts to ‘Tetris’ that lets players stack…hats. And ‘Facetris’ is one of those games that, if you search it up, you understand why I’m omitting any details about it here (2 words: facial body horror).

…and I think that’ll do it for this review! ‘Tetris’ is a masterpiece, no getting around that. Its universal appeal is deserved, and expected based off of its simple, yet astronomically-fun gameplay. Combine that with stellar songs (or “song,” singular) and ever-changing graphical prestige, I’m very happy to award ‘Tetris’ with the coveted 10/10 rating, a rating I’ve only given out in this serial to 1 other game, that being ‘Metroid Dread.’ And just like ‘Dread,’ ‘Tetris’ is easily in my top 5 games of all time.

But now that that’s done and dusted, it’s time to wrap up for today. This little red dot on my ankle’s tracking device began beeping a bit into the review, and it looks like the police just outside my door – with an armed escort (Chuckles)! Oh well, glad to see someone remembered my birthday, even though it isn’t for…6 months.

But alas, that’s all the time we have for today. Thank you for reading this issue of JOYSTiCK, have a lovely October, and I’ve got a body to hide.

Travel/Food

Top 5 Christmas desserts

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By: Isabel Strack

Image created with Pixabay:https://pixabay.com/illustrations/ai-generated-christmas-8400419/

There are many dessert options for Christmas, but these are the most popular ones and here’s why.

Peppermint bark

Peppermint bark is a very popular Christmas dessert, and here is why. Many people like peppermint bark because it is very easy to make and tastes delicious.

You can bring it to family gatherings or even just to have in your house when you’re wanting something sweet.

To make it, all you need to do is melt a white chocolate bar, cut up some candy canes, and then you just chill it and it’s ready to eat. Peppermint bark is a big crowd pleaser and you will get many compliments on your baking skills.

Here is a link to a recipe for Peppermint bark: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a41534277/peppermint-bark-recipe/

Gingerbread cookies

Gingerbread cookies are also another big Christmas treat, and here is why. Many people enjoy these types of cookies because they just look and taste like Christmas.

These gingerbread cookies have been a popular dessert for awhile now, so many people will assume someone will bring it to a gathering.

These cookies started when Russian bakers would make these cookies as a replica for the people attending the party that day or evening.

These cookies will be very easy to bake as long as you have a cookie cutter.

Here is a link to a recipe for Gingerbread cookies: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/best-gingerbread-cookies/

Frosted sugar cookies

These cookies are very fun and easy to make. You can make these cookies into fun shapes, and cool designs that you can frost on.

Many people already have their own recipe for these cookies, and enjoy baking them with their family for the holidays.

These cookies are pretty easy to make and are a fan favorite.

Here is a link to a recipe for Frosted sugar cookies: https://sugarspunrun.com/easy-sugar-cookie-recipe/#recipe

Mint brownies

These brownies aren’t as popular as the desserts I talked about before, but still taste delicious and everyone will enjoy them. They are a little bit more hard to make than the others but are still pretty easy to make, and will be worth it in the end.

Many people don’t know about this dessert, but once you bring it to a gathering people will be telling you how delicious they are and asking what the recipe is.

Here is a link to a recipe for Mint brownies: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/classic-mint-chocolate-brownies/#tasty-recipes-74358

Caramelized pecans

This also isn’t as popular as the other desserts, but it is one of the easiest and best tasting desserts you can make.

If you aren’t a very good baker or just don’t enjoy baking that much these pecans are the way to go.

Although it is very easy to make, it is still very good and will make your whole house smell like Christmas.

Here is a link to a recipe for Caramelized pecans: https://stripedspatula.com/stovetop-caramelized-pecans/#wprm-recipe-container-11234

Tech/Games

Breaking down all of the Minecraft ‘Life Series’ rules and general ideas

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By: Julia Yang

Before we start, what’s the ‘Life Series’?
The ‘Life Series’ is a multiplayer Minecraft series created by a YouTuber and Streamer that goes by the name Grian. Grian gathers around 15 of his friends and they all have to survive in this series for as long as they can until a winner is chosen.

‘3rd Life’

‘3rd Life’ was the first ever season of the ‘Life Series’ that Grian had created. This series was not an official ongoing thing when it came out since this was originally a test idea. The idea of ‘3rd Life’— and basically the overall idea of the ‘Life Series’, is that every player has a set of three lives.

  • If you’re on your first life, you have a green name tag and are a peaceful player.
  • If you’re on your second life, you have a yellow name tag and basically act the same as a regular green player.
  • If you lose both of those lives and end up on your third life, you gain your red name tag, become hostile, and go after other players to make them lose their remaining lives.
  • If you lose your third, and last life, you are out of the series and will no longer upload anymore episodes of the season.
  • The last player remaining wins the season.

‘Last Life’

In ‘Last life’, all players will start off by getting a randomly selected amount of lives, the minimum being two and maximum being six. Unfortunate players with two lives or less are lucky this season as this time, everyone is able to give out their own lives for the sake of other players with the command “/givelife”. For example, if later in the season I end up on my last life, I can bribe or threaten another player with more lives to lend me one of theirs to no longer be on my last life.

Another larger twist to better ensure drama is “The Boogeyman Curse”. This curse entails death and betrayal. A player will be randomly selected and be given the curse in every episode where they have to kill another player by the end of the playing session or else all of their lives will be taken and they’ll be set to their last life. When a player is the Boogeyman, all alliances and friendships tend to be thrown out the window in desperation of getting a kill and not losing their own lives. There can be multiple Boogeymen at a time. The last player standing wins.

‘Double Life’

In ‘Double Life’, the stakes are much higher than any other series. You see, in ‘Double Life’, your health bar is tied to another randomly selected player. If they take damage, you take damage. Which also means, if they die, you die.

The general rules still apply, green lives, yellow lives, and red lives all act the same, but it’s double the trouble. All you can really do is hope your “soulmate” isn’t an idiot.

The last pair standing wins.

‘Limited Life’

In ‘Limited life’, you have 24 hours to live. Just like every other life season, there are green, yellow, and red lives. In this season, if a player has 16+ hours, they’re on their green life, if they have 8-16 hours left, they’re on their yellow life, if they have less than 8 hours left they’re on their red life. When a player dies they lose 30 minutes off their time, if a player gets a kill, they gain hours.

In this series, yellow lives can kill green lives to get more time, but if they kill a non-green, they don’t get any time. Red players on the other hand can kill anyone and gain time.

This season they bring back the “Boogeyman Curse”. This time, if a Boogeyman gets a kill, they gain 1 hour and the victim gets -2 hours taken away. Thankfully, there can only be one existing Boogeyman at a time.

Last player standing wins.

‘Secret Life’

‘Secret Life’ is an extremely interesting and entertaining season. In secret life, things are of course changed up once more. Players are given 30 hearts of health, but these hearts will never regenerate. Once you lose a heart, that heart is gone forever.

The very special thing about this season is that all players will be given a secret task every episode. Once you successfully finish your task, you will walk over to the large statue at the spawn and press the succeed button. Pressing the succeed button will give you +10 hearts. If you have, let’s say, 26 hearts, you will get 4 hearts for succeeding and 6 valuable items because you cannot go over 30 hearts.

If you for whatever reason seem to not be able to finish a task or you’re up for a challenge, you can re-roll for a harder one. If you succeed at a hard task you get incredible items, if you fail, you get -10 hearts off of your health bar.

The normal tasks can range from stealing the torches out of 4 people’s bases without them knowing it’s you, or not moving when someone is looking at you. Harder tasks will be like summoning a boss, or jumping off a 100+ block tower and landing in a one block wide puddle of water.

You cannot tell other players what your task is unless the task says it’s okay to do so. If you tell your task when you weren’t allowed to, or another player manages to figure out your task and you confirm it, you have failed and will need to press the fail button.

All green, yellow, and red lives act the same behavior wise, but things have once again changed drastically. Green lives will remain the same, yellow lives however have a very special power. Yellow lives are able to investigate, stalk, and follow you to try and guess your task. If a yellow name guesses your task correctly, it is an immediate fail and you will have to press the fail button. Red lives are lethal in this season. Red lives will constantly gain tasks, once they finish a task, they immediately get another one. These tasks all have to do with causing harm or distress to other players who aren’t on their red life. When they succeed in their task, they gain +5 hearts. Failing to complete a task at the end of a session does not count as a fail for red names.

The last player standing wins.

‘Real Life’

‘Real Life’ was silly and only had one episode. This season, it’s basically a reiteration of ‘3rd Life’, but in VR. That’s it. Green lives, yellow lives, and red lives, but in VR.

One final time: the last player standing wins.

Grian plans to continue this series for as long as he can come up with his own little ideas, because obviously there’s only so many ways you can make things different in a series like this. In the recent Minecraft Championship (MCC), Grian states that he was sick for a little bit but it gave him a lot of time to think about a new ‘Life Series’ season and what he could do. So, if you missed watching all of the ones I mentioned before come out, you can look forward to the new one he’s planning to make.

Here are all of the ‘Life Series’ members’ (Minecraft) YouTube channels and names: