Category Archives: Entertainment

Tech/Games

Instagram: Life updates and personal perception

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By: McKenzie Welch

Instagram has been around since October 6 of 2010, and it has changed more than ever thought possible when it was first launched. It was first created as a means to share life updates so friends and family could see what you were up to, but it has now turned into something more. However, Instagram turning into something more cannot always be perceived in a positive light.

Instagram can still be used to share life updates, but there are now more strings attached. You can shop off of Instagram, you can follow your favorite celebrities, you can track your likes and comments, you can get brand deals, and more. All of these things can have severe impacts on mental health, especially as you’re growing up.

Instagram has been proven to increase the amount of people with depression, concerns about body image, low self-esteem, socially anxious tendencies, and other mental illnesses and feelings. In fact, a self-reported survey from ‘The Wall Street Journal’ found that 1 in 3 teenage girls struggle with body image issues due to Instagram and social media as a whole.

The issue with Instagram is that, despite it being promoted as an app for sharing moments of your life, you only see people’s best moments. It is rare that someone will post a moment where they were at their worst, or where they were struggling. This creates unrealistic expectations for life that are extremely difficult to live up to. Especially when you’re young, and it’s hard to see that there is so much more to life than your teenage years.

From my personal experience, I can say there was a time where I felt that Instagram was detrimental to my mental health, and it most likely still has lasting impacts today. Whilst I just try to have fun with Instagram now, posting when I want, and whatever I want, I still struggle with the ideas of not living my life to the fullest, not being pretty enough, or missing out on important high school experiences.

The truth of the matter is that everyone lives their life differently, and I feel as though it is high time that users of Instagram start to express that. It is important for everyone to be who they are, and there shouldn’t be a need to put up a facade on social media, but society has made it out to be a necessity for many.

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Editorials/Student Voice, Tech/Games

Video games in class

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By: Manny Ochoa-Reeves

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.

Clubs and Activities, Music/Concerts

Winter band concert

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By: Gabe Kleiber

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.

Editorials/Student Voice, Tech/Games

Why gaming is dying

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By: Manny Ochoa-Reeve

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.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ review/analysis

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By: Kaylen Fuentes

*Warning: This article contains spoilers*

‘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.

Entertainment

Kit Connor

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By: Abisola Dosunmu

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? 

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Tech/Games

JOYSTiCK Holiday Special – Can you beat ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ without experiencing permanent PTSD?

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By: Daniel Kendle

Happy holidays!

While writing for JOYSTiCK, I’ve always enjoyed playing and reviewing games (good thing too; if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here). However, I thought it would be nice to take a break and do something a little… dumb. But fun!

Now, lately I’ve been writing a lot of ‘Minecraft’ related articles. My last one was on ‘Minecraft Dungeons,’ a charming spin-off title, and the one before that I’m unable to pronounce without dry-heaving. And lucky for me, THAT’S the one we’re going back to today!

Gaming challenges are always fun to check out. Whether it be minimalist challenges, pacifist runs, “not using ____” play through, you name it. All very fun and interesting ideas to spice up a game you’ve already played.

So what if we did that? How about we begin an annual holiday special dedicated towards doing a gaming challenge? How about we ask the following question:

“CAN YOU BEAT ‘MINECRAFT STORY MODE’ WITHOUT EXPERIENCING PERMANENT PTSD?”

This might be one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life. And while it may seem daunting, I am prepared for the journey ahead. Will I survive? Will I defeat this arch-enemy of a game, never having to play it ever again? Will I sustain lethal brain damage by the end of this? (If you’ve read my review of this game, you’ll probably know the answer to that last one). Whatever may be the result of this alien idea I’ve come up with, I am ready. More accurately, I am ready…

…for war.

CHAPTER ONE: A DESCENT INTO HYSTERIA

Friday, December 2nd. 3:14 PM. I get out of my parent’s car, walking up the side steps to our large brick house. Unlatching the white gate, I make my way towards the locked door, waiting for my mother to open up. The weekend seems calm, peaceful, like I can relax.

It’s wrong.

After throwing my backpack into my cubby and unpacking my lunch, I look back at my bag and see the bulge of my iPhone and AirPods in the outermost pocket. A grim waft of hydrated air rolls my neck as I skulk over to the pack, unzipping the pouch. Picking up my phone, I do a face scan and unlock it to see my homepage, the black-and-red icon for Netflix just above my browser. I click on it, and tap my account with the rhinoceros on it. Looking at the picture, I remember it from a BBC documentary, which gives a bit of solace whilst dread creeps through my heart.

I head on up, sandwich in one hand, phone in the other. Lazily slouching down onto my parent’s bed, I flick through movies and shows, looking for the object I so desperately want to leave.

‘Stranger Things’? No.

‘MANIFEST’? Nah.

‘Don’t Look Up’? Not today.

Then, I see it. Its icon has an animal with a vague green shape, eyes square, face contorted into a silent scream. Cuboidal head, prism body, logo for Netflix Interactive viewable in the corner. A backdrop of a navy tint surrounds the abnormal creature, once part of a respectable piece of media, now a husk of decrepit life. I click, wanting to run, wanting to hide, but I know better.

“Daniel, you’re 14, practically an adult by now.’“The voice in my empty head says. “You’re at the age when smoking a cig wouldn’t kill you (probably), and yet here you are, frightened by ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ of all things. Press play, let’s get this over with.“

The voice in my head compels me; I watch the small preview shown on the game’s UI. It shows key moments from throughout the series, like a man watching a tape of his life before execution. Shuddering, the writhing animation is of a quality compared only to a horror movie, a work of fright. My hand is shaking, I can’t eat anymore. Hunger is drained while head is full – full of terror at the thought of going back to this. But I need to do this, for Ms. Lingofelt, for all the kids in Newspaper/Journalism, and for all the readers of JOYSTiCK. For those who are tired of hearing about this game, for those who love seeing my suffering.

I press play.

CHAPTER TWO: SIGNS OF DYSFUNCTION

My muscles contract. I recoil from a pose of curling fear, unraveling my arms and legs from my chest. The gentle tune plays during the opening, a misleading rope that could send me down a rabbit hole of misery.

“Well, this isn’t so bad. The music’s nice, the animations haven’t started yet, the actual ‘story’ hasn’t begun, maybe this won’t be so bad?“

And then the narrator starts talking.
Never mind.
Moving along, I hear the game’s introductory question, an old joke spiraling around Reddit a while back.

“Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized zombies, or 10 zombie-sized chickens?”

My flight-or-flight response kicks in. How foolish of me to go back to this game, I remind myself. Why couldn’t I have reviewed something normally, like… ‘Tetris?’ Such a sad sight; a man ensnared within his own creation, a moth fluttering towards a flame.

After forcefully answering the question at hand, the dialogue continues for a while longer, and I pause the video to recollect myself. Rubbing my temple I look out the icy-white window, snow pelting down against the frosted glass. I sigh, knowing that I don’t have anything better to take care of. No homework, no chores, no nothing. Normally this’d be a sign of joy, but I couldn’t help but wish I had work to keep me busy. Unfortunately, this IS homework, technically. I press the triangle again, and settle back down into the sheets.

…..

For the next good chunk of the game, this is how it plays. After maybe an hour of watching, I pause to take a break, a relief from the twisted storm I’ve caught myself in. I eat, I sleep, I go on walks, all to take my mind off the pain I’ve endured from this nightmarish experience. My sanity is numb; I can’t feel my fingers, with a creeping chill forming worse each time I subject myself to this creature of a product.

Once I reach the end of episode 2, I feel… better. I feel refreshed, like I can overcome this iron grip latched onto my soul. What the other 2 episodes will be like, I can’t tell.

CHAPTER THREE: THE BOY’S BREAKING POINT

Chapter 3 starts like the other 2 had before: me crying for about an hour. After retracting my tears and going through a couple hundred tissues, I sat down for the long stretch. I can smell victory, and it smells good (probably).

Lo and behold, the penultimate video starts without a hitch. 2 hours ago I would’ve been terrified of this image, this ancient, primal threat. But thou must see that I have dramatically matured since then! Yes dad, I AM self-sufficient! I can experience trauma, too!

While sitting through the opening narration crawl once again, I get the ping! of a text.

“It’s time for your daily French lesson. Take 5 minutes now to complete it. -Duolingo.”

This is a pretty standard Duolingo alert; since it’s an app for learning languages, these aren’t uncommon. However, in my glory-dizzy saga, it instead looked like this:

“Human child, you shall never be able to vanquish the ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ demon. Come now, let us continue the blood-letting ritual. Your soul is not fit for the realm of humanity; passing your spirit into our hands shall let the Elder Ones rejuvenate their aching bones. -???”

I know deep down that my mind is playing vengeful tricks on me, and I can’t blame it. In reality, my brain’s the one subjected to this torment, not me. I am merely a vessel, a carapace, my pink thoughts an alloy. It’s trying to make me go back to my old ways of thinking, but I won’t let it.

I won’t let it.
I-I won’t let it. No.
No, no, no. No, I won’t.
I-I won’t-t! No!

CHAPTER FOUR: NO MORE STORY MODE

THATS. IT. NO MORE.

No more ‘Minecraft’ reviews. No more slandering ‘Minecraft Story Mode.’ No more thinking that I’ve gotten past the treachery that has infected this serial.

When I started JOYSTiCK, I was excited to be able to review video games for school purposes. But now, 6 issues later, half have somehow featured the same game. And I need a break. I need to return to my roots, I need to review other games.

I made this jokey episode not to delve into the actual question at hand, but to just make a funny spin-off article for the holidays. But the menace of ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ still lingers. It’s not really even fun to criticize this game anymore; I’ve done it so many times. It’s time I move on in life, to new horizons, to new experiences.

Episode 6 (this one doesn’t count) will come in 2023. I hope to see you then!

Movies/TV/Theaters

Review of ‘Wednesday’

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By: Stephanie Caballero Benitez

*Warning this review may contain spoilers.

The new Netflix series ‘Wednesday’ came out November 23, and since then has done really well. Lots of people have watched the show and many have enjoyed it. 

What is ‘Wednesday’ about?

In ‘Wednesday’, we follow the story of the teenager Wednesday. As it’s known from ‘The Addams Family’ Wednesday isn’t an ordinary girl, her entire family isn’t.

The first scene we see on episode one is Wednesday throwing piranhas into a pool to get revenge on some bullies for her brother Pugsley. This incident causes the expulsion of Wednesday, which leads to her getting transferred to Nevermore. Nevermore is an academy that welcomes outcasts, freaks, and monsters. Wednesday is to temporarily live in Nevermore.

While at Nevermore, Wednesday experiences things that make her interested in staying at the school. Someone attempts to murder her and she runs into a monster that is killing people near the forests of Nevermore. Wednesday stays in this school trying to solve who the monster is, by staying, Wednesday finds out secrets about her family and ancestors.

I personally enjoyed this show very much as I am a fan of ‘The Addams Family’. Wednesday was portrayed by Jenna Ortega very well and I definitely think that the role was made for her. I also really enjoyed how Tim Burton added the song “La llorona” onto a scene with Wednesday, since it seems that some don’t know ‘The Addams Family’ is a LatinX family.

Another thing that I liked about the film was the people that surrounded Wednesday, some were very different from her, especially her roommate Enid and the sheriff’s son Tyler. 

Other people had different opinions on the show. Some didn’t like how Wednesday and her family were portrayed. They believe that instead of a no affection family, and a Wednesday that talks bad about her mother, it should’ve been a very loving and accepting family just like the original show ‘The Addams family’. Some people feel as if the monster was really fake looking, cartoony looking, overall just out of place. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the storyline and development of this show and hope for a season 2. I would give ‘Wednesday’ a 9/10. You can watch the show on Netflix.

Travel/Food

Enchilada recipe review

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By: Gabe Kleiber

Today we will be reviewing an enchilada recipe from Skinnytaste:

This has nothing to do with the food itself, I enjoyed eating with the skillet on the table. My family doesn’t usually eat like that, but it was nice because everyone could have the exact portions they wanted. It was also right in front of you and the leftovers were extremely easy to store. Because everyone plates right on the table from the same dish, in a weird way, it makes you feel closer as a family. Anyway, onto the food.

As with a lot of homestyle meals similar to this one, not much is super vibrant flavor wise. That isn’t to say this wasn’t good though. The tortillas, chicken, beans and cheese make up a very big portion of the dish but only really shine when combined with enchilada sauce. This is the most memorable and unique part of the dish, and everything else takes a supporting role. If you want to add more depth to it, cilantro and/or jalapeños are a great way to add freshness and spice. I really recommend doing this because the little things are what make a dish complete.

This dish was not the most extravagant flavor wise. Everything was at the very least decent, but nothing really made an impact that made me dying to make it again anytime soon. However, it was pretty easy, quick, filling, and pretty tasty. It is probably best for a busy day, or a day you just don’t feel like cooking a lot, but still want to make a good meal for your family to enjoy together. 6.5/10

Books/Art

A review of ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’

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By: McKenzie Welch

‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ is a young adult fiction novel written by Stephen Chbosky that is set up in the form of multiple letters being sent to an anonymous recipient. It covers the course of Charlie’s life through his freshman year of high school, with Charlie being the author of the many handwritten notes.

Charlie has lived as a loner for most of his life. He has never really had friends, but he’s always been okay with that because he’s never had the experience of having a loving community of people around him, besides his family.

The novel explored issues between family members as well. It was clear that other members of the family were struggling, and the novel displayed how relationships can form tension when there is a lack
of communication. This can be relatable to real life, as there are often times when people feel as though others are not understanding them, which can place stress on the connection they have.

My favorite part about the novel was that it explored how friends, and the ability to be yourself around these people, impact an individual’s quality of life. Charlie met a group of people who, although they were two to three years older, accepted him exactly for who he was. This was something that Charlie had never experienced before, but learning how to be a friend to others was an adventure that helped him learn and grow as a person, and he also got to discover more about himself and his personality.

Although many of these topics seem heartwarming, in reality the topics that this novel deals with are heavy at times. There are situations that make it difficult for other characters to smile, but everyone helps each other through it all.

All in all, I give this book 5/5 stars. I felt as though writing the novel in the form of letters was something new and unexpected, and it kept the book captivating for me. I also really enjoyed that it explored both the positives and negatives of growing up, as life isn’t always perfect.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for something to read that is more applicable to real life. However, I strongly suggest that anyone planning to read this novel reads the trigger warnings first, as many of the events that happen are heavy and at times difficult to get through.