Month: December 2010

We Aren’t Really Horsing Around..

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I’ve been riding horses since I was five and there have only been a few years of my life where I wasn’t fully immersed in a riding program. When I came to OVS, I expected the riding program to be just as it was at my old barn, Springdown, but it wasn’t at all. I can barely remember the Lower Campus’ program, but when I came to Upper and I was incredibly pleased.

Horses

It was 2006 when I joined the Upper Campus’ riding program, and since then I can safely say that I’ve ridden almost every horse, jumped every fence, and gone on every trail offered.

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Spider-Man Meets Broadway

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment


Recently, Broadway’s musical, “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” has become an online hit as people have been intrigued at the idea of a masculine hero turned into a man in tights.

Directed by Tony-winning Julie Taymor, with scores by The Edge and U2‘s singer Bono, this musical has become the most expensive show in the history of Broadway, reported to cost a total of $65 million.

On Sunday, actor Reeve Carney took center stage as “spidey” on Broadway as preview performances of “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” began in New York’s Foxwoods Theater. Unfortunately, audiences were marred with long delays by numerous technical mishaps.

“Overhead stage wires dropped on the audience, scenery appeared on stage missing pieces–and the show’s star was even left swaying helplessly over them midair during what was supposed to be the climatic end to the first act,” said Michael Riedel, a known New York Post columnist.

Feeling more like “guinea pigs” than an audience, these public viewers did not share the same excitement as directors had anticipated.

Although it may not have gotten off to a great start, “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” is expected to be better prepared, more equipped, and ready to perform on it’s scheduled opening, January 1st.

Ambani brothers at war.

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After their split in business a couple a years ago, the richest brothers in the world, Mukesh and Anil Ambani, seem to be constantly competing against each other, not only at work but also at home.

The brothers divided their billion dollar property after the death of their self-made father and oil tycoon, Dhirubhai Ambani. Ever since, there has been no stoping for the two who are determined to beat each other in the race.

The two took their competition home. While the elder, Mukesh Ambani spent a whopping $60 million to buy his wife a corporate jet for her 44th birthday, the younger, Anil, did not feel left behind because the year after he spent $84 million on a Yacht that he bought for his wife, Tina Ambani.

yacht.jpg

With the opening of Mukesh’s new billion dollar house in Mumbai, which has been announced the most expensive house in the world, it is obvious Anil probably feels a little left behind. However, it is probably not long before the younger brother had something new to challenge his brother with.

Qatar and Russia Beat out US and England to Host WC

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Today, 22 FIFA members voted to put the World Cup in Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022. This comes as a bit of a surprise when there were countries like the US and Australia bidding against Qatar. Russia receiving the 2018 bid was not a huge shock after allegations surfaced that England FIFA members had possibly participated in unethical business practices (To put it nicely).

Sepp Blatter hands over the world Cup to Russian minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko

So some stats on Qatar. First for all of you who have never even heard of it, it is in the Middle East, a peninsula sticking off of Saudi Arabia. The population is just over 1.5 million with 4, 416 square miles of land, making it the smallest country in land and population to ever host a World Cup. Qatar has the second highest GDP per capita in the world, with wealth coming from its large amount of oil and gas reserves. The country is an absolute monarchy, being ruled by the al-Thani family since the mid-19th century.

Qatar

Obviously Qatar has the resources to build stadiums and other necessary infrastructure for the World Cup but there are some potential problems. First Qatar is a strict Muslim country, and soccer hooligans have a tendency to make religious people upset.

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Shorted Shortstop

shredicusmaximusLeave a comment

Ever since the offseason meetings began, Derek Jeter‘s contract fiasco with the Yankees has had more curves than many of the starlets he has dated in the past. Coming off the worst season of his career where he set career lows in Batting Average (.270), OPS (.340), and Slugging Percentage (.370), Yankees GM Brian Cashman told him to “Shop around the free agency market.”

Jeter NY Post Cover

This almost dooming quote stemmed after Jeter rejected the Yankees offer of a 3 year $45 million contract. His 10 year $189 million contract from 2000 has just expired and he has officially become a free agent. Most Yankee fans will agree with me that we love having him in New York, however we have to admit that a contract this lucrative is simply asking too much.

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The Beatles Are On iTunes!

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“Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget.”

Apple displayed this arcane message on their website until 10 A.M. Eastern Standard Time on November the 16th. It has been replaced with a large monochrome picture of the Beatles with black bold letters reading, “The Beatles. Now on iTunes.”

This message is still presented on Apple’s website today. The Beatles have reached the Top 100 downloaded songs on iTunes within the first few weeks and still stands strong in its ranking.

UCLA Bonfire

smackyjackjack2 Comments

Yesterday (Wednesday, Dec. 1), the UCLA Bruins held their annual beat ‘sc bonfire.  The bonfire is a burning of all things Trojan. The students at UCLA brought their old red shirts to burn. Any student who brought a red shirt was given a free blue one. The bonfire was held at Wilson Plaza at UCLA.

The great rivalry between the two schools has resulted in major pranks. The students at UCLA have been taking turns guarding the massive Grizzly Bear statue. This year, however, they failed to protect it enough. The bear was painted red and the surrounding fountains were spewing red dye.

Welcome to the Rest of Life

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Lately I’ve been becoming more and more stressed. Not only are finals coming up, but college apps are due. College

As a California resident, my dad has me only applying to four schools, all in California. However I’ve seen people applying to maybe even 15 schools. To be honest, I question how they do it.

Here at the Ojai Valley School we use Naviance, a program that allows college counselors, teachers, and students to access the same program in order to lessen confusion and stress of the application process. Faculty can easily input their letters of recommendation and student can manage all their different applications. I haven’t really used Naviance to be honest, but I’m sure that I will in the near future. I’ll let you know whether or not I find it to be useful, because you care so much.

But really, college apps aren’t just stressful because of the application itself, it’s also the idea of going away, leaving home, and finally being independent. At least for me it is. I’ve been at boarding school for five years and having as much free time as college gives you sounds rather terrifying. What do you do when you only have maybe four hours of school a day? Here we’re booked solid from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep on the weekdays and plan days in advanced what to do on the weekends. Isn’t OVS supposed to be a “college prep school?” If so, it only prepares us for the academic side, not the real side.

Nerdfighters.

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Nerdfighter: (n) a person who is not composed of cells, bones, tissue, etc. but is instead composed entirely out of awesome.

Welcome to Nerdfighteria.

Hank and John Green, proud founders of Brotherhood 2.0 and Nerdfighteria, are two brothers who wanted to reconnect using only video blogs. The Vlogbrothers promote being weird or a bit off-center, proudly stating that being a nerd is one of the best things to be.

With three videos a week, Hank and John are still able to keep up with their “day jobs.”

Hank Green is the creator of the website ecogeek.org and is a comical musician, writing songs about Harry Potter, selling dogs on eBay, and giraffes.

John Green is an award-winning author, writing the books Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and the co-written Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Their videos are humorous and sometimes rather informative.

I am very proud to be a Nerdfighter and encourage anyone to watch the Vlogbrothers’ videos and join Nerdfighteria.

DFTBA*, Nerdfighters, DFTBA.


*An initialism: Don’t Forget To Be Awesome

North Korea Terrorizes South Korea

yrreskrapLeave a comment

Bombs ignited infernal flames. Buildings were shaken, violently convulsing with each heavy missile. Cameras caught people scrambling, the fear so clearly portrayed. Tensions were at an all time high. Families were packing, boarding ships to evacuate the island to the safety of the mainland.

This is a country in war.

Last Tuesday, South Korea’s Yeongpyeong Island was bombed by North Korea. North Korea had sent warnings to South Korea, advising the South Korean military to stop military exercises. However, the South Korean military continued to train their soldiers. The bombs were a result of South Korea’s disregard of these orders.

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