Month: May 2011

I Can’t Believe It.

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I can’t believe it.

In a matter of days, the seniors will be on that stage, giving their speeches and receiving their hard-earned diplomas. They will be wrapping up their four years of high school and go onto college as freshmen.

And I will become a senior.

God, it’s just so hard to wrap my head around.

It feels like just yesterday when I was 14, braces-clad, and had just come out of eighth grade. High school was so new to me. These three years escaped me.

It’s funny how four years make the perfect stretch of time to help students learn, grow, and move onto the next stage of their life. Freshman year I felt totally unprepared-I was still shocked that I was actually in high school.  Sophomore year, I felt like I was still a freshman and I didn’t (or couldn’t) realize that I was growing up and that I was more mature than I was the year before. This year, I still can’t believe that two years of my high school has past and gone and that I am already almost three quarters of the way done. I will be a senior and write college essays in my sleep until!

That means:

I will be heading tables at dress dinner.

I will be making announcements at milk & crackers.

I will be writing college essays.

I will be taking the SAT‘s again.

I will probably lose hair.

I will be graduating.

I will be in college.

I still can’t believe it. I don’t suppose I will until I am on that stage next year.

Ashton Kutcher To Replace Charlie Sheen on Hit Comedy “Two and a Half Men”

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment

“Two and a Half Men,” in my opinion, is an absolutely hilarious, enjoyable television show.

If you have never watched it, it is about an arrogant bachelor/song writer and his nerdy, uncharismatic brother, and his brother’s unintelligent, lazy son.

My father watches an episode every night, and thus, I have grown very fond of it as well.

And although it might not exactly be suitable for a young audience, it can always make me laugh, and that is all I need when watching television.

However, recent controversy between Charlie Sheen, the actor who plays the bachelor brother, and the shows producer Chuck Lorre has led to the firing of Sheen from the show.

For the past few months, the search for Sheen’s replacement has taken place, and it has just recently been announced that none other than Ashton Kutcher will take on this role.

Although Ashton Kutcher seems a little bit too “pretty boy” for the show’s main role, he is a great actor, and I am looking forward to new episodes (finally!) of “Two and a Half Men.”

In the meantime, you should all check out the latest episodes, though maybe only watch them with people 16 or older: ).

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mysterious Love Child

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment

Yep, just another public representative having fun with a secretary.

“No biggie.”

Yes, I am being sarcastic, but I am also just so gosh darn tired of these high ranking officials, who we look up to as mentors and inspirations, committing such acts of entitlement and arrogance.

You would think that after so many presidential affairs have leaked out over the ages, that such a public official would be smart enough, even if not moral enough, to resist from having sexual relations with a woman besides their own wife.

Really guys?

Ugh, just so annoying.

Anyhow, to elaborate on the Schwarzenegger story, our previous California governor has admitted to having an affair and fathering the son with a member of his own household staff.

And funny enough, this news has just begun to circulate, arriving in the headlines only one day after Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, went public about their separation.

Unfortunately, I am not too surprised about this news. Just another arrogant man who believes his position in power entitles him to step outside the boundaries of morals.

Hopefully, people in politics will actually learn from the mistakes of men such as these.

And if that dirty feeling that I believe must exist from having an affair does not stop you from doing it, I hope that your pride in your position will.

Jon Stewart Slams O’Reilly

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Common: known by most as a rapper. However, when it comes to his fans, he is best known as a poet. Apparently, he is also a known affiliate of a “cop-killer.” That is why when he was invited to a recent White House Poetry Slam, Fox News literally couldn’t contain their excitement.

Bill O’Reilly almost immediately challenged Jon Stewart to a debate. Here’s Part One of the video and here is Part Two of the video.

As Stewart points out, Common is not the first artist to write a song about a convicted “cop-killer.” The key word being convicted, but not yet found innocent or guilty.

Stewart then goes on to point out that A: “It’s a poetry slam, who gives a crap?” and that B: “Songs are not literal. When The Weather Girls sing, ‘It’s raining men,’ it’s not really about precipitation of males.”

The debate has many entertaining moments, as well as many seriously good arguments about the unimportance of the issue.

Anyway, give the two parts a watch, its well worth the ten or so minutes.

Not So E-Z Up

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Half the field had fallen asleep after 2:30 am. Only a select few were still walking, but luckily there was a free coffee stand open for the whole 24 hours. Even the 6 of us kids were still up and about trying to stay up until at least 4:30. We walked a bit more, but soon we got super tired and decided it was time to take a break. We had all set up camp underneath a green E-Z Up. It was cold and windy, but the warmth of our sleeping bags took care of that. Ryan was posted in a fold out lounge chair, Kai, Lucy, and I were sprawled out on the lime green tarp, Mrs. Davis curled up under the booth table, and Mr. Alvarez was laying just outside of the shelter of the tent.

It was late. Around 3-ish maybe. We had already walked at least a trillion or so laps. 18 hours and 12 cups of coffee later I was disappointingly unable to fall asleep and what I saw would make the night a zillion times more interesting. It started to sprinkle and the sprinkling got heavier. The corners of the E-Z Up began to sink and leak. Nobody thought anything of it at first (mostly because we were either half or fully asleep). When the rain got heavier I started moving all the bags underneath the tent so they wouldn’t get anymore wet. That’s when Mr. Alvarez woke up. The tent kept dripping and eventually it got so bad that it just couldn’t be ignored… maybe it was just the coffee.

We scraped the water off the tent with lacrosse sticks. Frustratingly enough the water just kept building up. At this point everyone was awake trying to fix the problem. The tent frame wouldn’t rise or spread or move pretty much at all. The only thing we could do was get rid of it. Kai was pushing the water. I was holding the covering taught and pulled it down. Kai pushed the fabric up towards the edge and before I could move out of the way a waterfall of rain dumped on my head. I was completely soaked. My shoes were in puddles. My pants were drenched and my hair was dripping. It was awesome.

We all curled up in the middle of the tarp; unorganized and uncomfortable. About two hours later I woke up to a bright and shining sun, took a few walks around the track and when Mr. Alvarez’s run around the track ended we wondered how and why everyone else’s tent kept them dry and ours drooled all over us. The hunt was on. We looked under every tent. The Fire Department’s tent was exactly like ours, but we noticed something different about the frame. We ran to our booth, took off the cover and lowered the frame legs. It turns out the top of the tent extends high, so high that it was supposed to let water roll off the sides. I guess ours wasn’t fully raised.

Oh boy, what a night. But hey, it was so worth it.

Brush Clearing

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Today for my community service hours for OVS, I had the job of clearing all seven water pipe heads and the pipes around the water tanks on back gate.

I got driven out to the last one close to the 150, and was told “goodluck see you back at school”

And so with a plow, a scraper thing, clippers and a pickaxe I began the long day of clearing brush.

Seven heads, a bench, and the water tanks later I was done.  AND I only finished half my hours.

But to be honest I actually enjoyed it.  I had some tunage going and a lot on my mind so it went fairly quickly.  I only have a few blisters so in all it was a pretty good day.  After work I went for a great drive to top off the day.

Social Rejections may be much painful than Physical Pain

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null“Social Rejection Shares Somatosensory Representations With Physical Pain,” by Ethan F. Kross, Marc G. Berman, Walter Mischel, Edward E. Smith and Tor D. Wager; published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Most people have the experience of being ostracized in a group throughout their life. I remembered one time on the basketball court, my friends didn’t let me play because I am too short. However, I started to grow taller and taller and get better skill and then finally beat those people. But this is not a really intense social rejection. Some people have very intense social rejections that can influence their whole lives. New research shows that the same areas in the brain that reflect physical pain are activated at moments of intense social loss. “When we sat around and thought about the most difficult emotional experiences, we all agreed that it doesn’t get any worse than social rejection,” said the study’s lead author, Ethan F. Kross. The previous research doesn’t have this discovery is because the emotional pain simulated in the previous experiments was not powerful enough to create the response. This time, the team found out that if the emotional pain was painful enough, it can create responses in the physical pain area in our brain. However, throughout this research, the researchers don’t know where the body will feel this physical pain when our brain is affected by the emotional pain.

Relay for Life 2011

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null“I ran the whole night!” said my roommate, Amit Pandya, as he walked in our room after he has stayed overnight at Buena High School. Many students from OVS have participated in Relay for Life which is held at Buena High School on 5/15. The American Cancer Society Relay for Life is an event that gives everyone a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember ones lost, and fight back against the disease. Last year, I ran for our teacher, Mr. V, and so does every student from OVS. This year, Mr. V wears a purple t-shirt, which is for the survivors. However, this year I ran for my aunt, who just found out she has stage 4 cancer few months ago. Several of OVS students have decided to stay overnight to keep running and support the American Cancer Society. Amit said that he has run over 100 laps last night, and played lacrosse, and sung karaoke with his friends. Because of the passion of these participants, we got the award for the most spirited team. Although I don’t get a chance next year to participate in this event, I will keep supporting my aunt to fight against the disease, and so do other people who have family, friends, and people who they loved are suffering from cancer.

19

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The number 19 is not considered special by most people. It doesn’t get the glory of 10 or hold the importance of 100. But on Saturday, May 14th of 2011, the number 19 got a little credit.

Manchester United won their 19th league title this past Saturday. To most people, that does not seem to be a good enough reason to shave the number in to your chest hair, but for Manchester United star striker Wayne Rooney (pictured above) it was a great reason.

This league title now gives Manchester United the most league titles of any English club. Again this may not seem like a huge deal. But looking back it is a huge deal.

Before the 1992-93 season, United only had 7 league titles. This was not bad but compared to Liverpool’s 18 titles, it was quite small. But in only 19 seasons, United won 12 of their now 19. That is simply incredible.

With this new title United can now surpass their arch nemesis Liverpool as far as the most dominant team in history. All of the last 12 titles have come from Sir Alex Ferguson who took over a struggling team.

United had not won a title since the 1966-67 season. During that time they had been relegated and had lost much of their prestige. But Fergie changed all of that. During his reign, United have won many accolades including the Treble, the only team to have ever accomplished the feat.

Fergie should be credited with much of the rebuilding that has happened. He took over in 1988, taking over a club that was on the verge of relegation. He has now built them in to the largest team in the world.

United now hold 19 league titles, a number that for them seemed impossible to get to. They were weak and now they are strong. Now they can be the ones celebrating by carving numbers in to their chest hair.

Botox for 8-year-old

vabenissimo1 Comment

What would you do when your child complains about wrinkles?

This Mother Kerry Campbell would immediately persuade her Daughter Britney to have Botox and fillers injected to lessen the “wrinkles.”

She buys the products from cannot-be-publicized-online-man. And, she, who is apparently a “trained beautician,” tests the products’ quality and credibility by injecting into her “adult” face before she uses for her “eight-year-old” daughter’s face.

A 34-year-old mother from San Francisco defends her malignant practice, “A lot of the mothers there (beauty pageant) are giving their kids Botox and it’s pretty much like the thing and a lot of moms do it. I am not the only one.”

Moreover, Britney was forced to get her legs waxed so she would be more “beautiful.”

Britney’s friends consider all these practices “cool” and even looks up to her.

What’s wrong with all this? Someone tell me.