Category: entertainment

Bubba Gump.

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Speaking of restaurants in the United States, “The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company” stands out as one of my favorite. I love it not only because I am a seafood lover, but also is because of the interesting background. The “Bubba Gump Shrimp Company” is a seafood restaurant chain inspired by the 1994 film, also my favorite movie – “Forrest Gump.”

The first Bubba Gump restaurantt opened in 1996 in Monterey, California by Viacom Consumer Products. The Bubba Gump restaurant is named after the film’s characters Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue. In the film, Bubba suggested the shrimping business and ultimately Forrest pursued the idea after Bubba’s death in the Vietnam War.

The restaurants are fairly popular throughout the nation. And by September 2010, thirty-two Bubba Gump restaurants operate worldwide. I am not sure about people’s motivations of going to Bubba Gump, but as for me, I mistakenly thought that the restaurant was the real one in the movie.

The menu at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. is primarily associated with shrimp dishes, but also offers a variety of other seafood. One main focus of the culinary style is Southern and Cajun cuisine, as the main characters in the film came from Alabama.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was really thematic – full of the quotes and posters from the movie. The waiters also ask questions about the movie.

I enjoy the restaurants with certain themes. They provide the customers various feelings and experiences besides just eating their meals. Such restaurants can always easily build profound impressions and make people want to return. This is actually a great strategy!

Trash & Fashion.

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Recently I did a story on our school’s first Trash Fashion Show and I gained some new knowledge about creating beauty.

What is the definition of beauty? In my opinion, beauty does not mean a gorgeous appearance, but it’s more about the internal significance. Just like Trash Fashion, which most people would refer to the costumes that are just simply made of trash.

However, trash fashion is much more than that.

It takes time and endeavor. Since I have the same art class with my friend Sophia, I was lucky enough to actually watch the complete process of her making the plastic wedding dress. She started from collecting and reorganizing the materials – plenty of white  plastic bags. First of all, she created the long train by sewing knots. It turned out to be a “web” eventually. Then she made the body dress, in which she built several layers to make the dress fluffy.

It took her about two months to complete the whole bridal gown. According to Sophia, the most difficult part was to glue the bags together and the materials were so soft that she had to be really careful not to tear them off.

Finally the big day came. I did not expect to be her model, but because of the absence of Ellen, who was supposed to the model, I had to wear the dress instead. I was totally astonished when I put on the huge dress.

We walked on the deck of the pool. It drove everyone’s attention and I felt extremely proud of my designer. It seemed like a real fashion show to me and people were taking pictures, asking questions. For a moment I thought i was dreaming.

Just like Sophia said, “Trash Fashion does not mean everything will look trashy, it’s more about fashion. Within such simple materials, we can still make beautiful pieces.”

Yes, I think she’s right. Trash Fashion combines two “opposite” concepts together and builds something beyond the normal beauty.

On the other hand, trash fashion also helps to increase people’s environmental awareness. Fashion may be fabulous, but the way our clothes are made is incredibly wasteful. The small things we waste from daily uses can be saved instead of being thrown away.

It was my first time seeing and wearing such gorgeous fashionable clothes made out of “trash,” and It was also the time that I realized trash fashion can be beautiful as well.

Top 4 best Video Games of 2013 so far

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2013 is definitely an amazing year for gamers all around the world. This list will not include titles that have not been released yet.

4. Pokemon X and Y

The newest installation of the Pokemon series, X and Y have taken the Pokemon universe to a whole new level. Revamped graphics, new Pokemon, hundreds of hours of gameplay and its new online features have old, competitive and new fans happier than ever.

3. Battlefield 4

It is clear that DICE (game developers) have revolutionized first-person shooters forever. Battlefield brings action-packed infantry and vehicle combat and combines it with crazy destruction, 64 player servers and arguably the best graphics and visuals ever resulting in one of the craziest gaming experiences I have ever seen.

2. Grand Theft Auto Five

The most sold game of 2013, this amazing piece of art reached 1 billion dollars in sales in less than a month. Its compelling story line, engaging gameplay, an open map the size of a city, hundreds of hours of fun and the addition of GTA Online made this game one of the best.

1. The Last of Us

This PlayStation 3 exclusive is definitely one of the best titles to ever be released. Set in a post-apocalyptic “zombie” scenario, this game features a middle-aged survivor named Joel and a fourteen year old girl named Ellie who embark on a horrifying, thrilling and exciting adventure.  This game’s writing and story line is one of, if not the best to ever be released.

The Pokemon Controversy

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Ever since the release of the first Pokémon games in 1996, hardcore Christians and vicious PETA members have bashed the franchise for its depictions of evolution and alleged “animal abuse.”

Pokémon is a franchise of games about a young trainer who embarks on a journey to defeat 8 gym leaders, the elite four and become the new Pokémon League Champion. Pokémon are caught in the wild with items called Pokeballs and are used to battle other trainers. Pokemon gain experience points and level up by battling other Pokemon, eventually resulting in their evolution.

Christians all around the world have protested against the franchise claiming that it goes against their beliefs. However, the type of evolution depicted by Pokemon is more relatable to growing up rather than becoming a different species. The Pokemon games show no sign of Darwinian evolution and do not contradict the beliefs of any creationist. It is merely a misconception.

Evolution Chain of 3 Pokemon

On the other hand, PETA members have criticized, protested and demonized the Pokemon franchise for its alleged depictions of animal abuse. Trainers use their Pokemon to battle other trainers. Granted, the subjects in these games are easily misunderstood, but there is no justification for PETA’s overreaction. PETA claims that this child’s game teaches kids to abuse animals. However, the games are focused on the special bond that a trainer develops with their Pokemon and the importance of teamwork, not cock-fighting.

Pokemon is a child’s game set in a different universe and it’s by no means a tool for evil.

PETA’s Extreme Overreaction: http://features.peta.org/pokemon-black-and-white-parody/

What Happened to Music?

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When you turn on the radio these days, you’re bombarded with an obnoxious, headache inducing, auto-tuned song made up of repetitive words that don’t even make sense. Artists like Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, and Lady Gaga pollute the press with news of some new stunt they have pulled, or their ever increasing shenanigans that demonstrate an effort to ditch the sweetheart image and rebel against all society norms. Not to mention their music is absolutely terrible.

Miley Cyrus has received a lot of criticism for her recent behavior – and rightly so. While it is her choice to behave how she wants, she is a public figure. She is someone young girls, and even the occasional young boy, look up to. She appears in magazines and TV, and sends an image and message to youth that it is ok to act the way she has been, when really, it’s not.

But while her actions are her choice, she could at least produce some worthy music. I mean what happened to artists like Bruce Springsteen, The Who, and The Police, who made amazing music and kept up a (somewhat) respectable image? It seems like the tunes you hear on the radio are famous for what shocking move the artist pulled the previous week, or whatever their baffling outfit of the week is, not their music. And let’s be honest, if the success of these songs was based solely on how good they were, and not how infamous their singer is, we’d have music actually worth listening to playing on the radio.

Record companies continually churn out songs where you barely even hear the true voice of the artist, but instead, hear the not-so-lovely voice of auto-tune. Singers hit notes that don’t seem humanly possible, and definitely make it impossible to actually understand what they’re saying. They change pitch at a dizzying rate, yet again making it impossible to understand what they’re saying. Not that they’re saying anything actually worth hearing.

It’s amazing how almost every song that comes out is about either falling in love or how some pop-star had their heart broken. They get to be just a little repetitive. I’m no artist myself, but I can’t help thinking there must be something more to write about than love. If you think about how many artists have albums that solely talk about love, it makes artists with diversity look like absolute geniuses.

I’m not saying all music that comes out these days is bad. And of course, everyone has their own taste. But the majority of the new pop music, or what comes on the radio every fifteen minutes, is pretty bad. It’s definitely time songs stopped becoming famous for whatever shocking stunt the singer pulled and actually had a little diversity for a change.

Love the Cheetah

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For some reason, I’ve always loved cheetahs. Starting from around age 9 I’d watch Animal Channel for hours at a time, but it wasn’t until I was about 13 did I really notice the cheetahs. From then on I would watch cheetah documentaries and such until midnight or one in the morning, which was pretty darn late considering my usual bedtime was 9.

Firstly I think they’re beautiful. Beautiful physically and beautifully structured to get the most out of its main feature – their speed.

Long, spindly legs with powerful base muscles provide the power to charge through the fields. Unlike most felines, cheetah claws are only semi-retractable, meaning that their claws are always showing. This allows them to easily spring into action at a moment’s notice.

Their protruding chest contains a massive heart and pair of lungs for maximum oxygen intake, while their concave stomach and flexible spine allows for rapid and easy movement. A long tail acts as a rudder to stabilize quick turns and their especially long eyes views the world through a wide-angle lens.

Feline ears are usually pointed while the cheetah’s are rounded, like a bear’s. While walking or sitting, their hunched shoulders and fuzzy back almost have a bearlike appearance too. To me, their most distinctive qualities are the two black stripes that curve through their faces. The stripes start at the innermost corners of their eyes and curve down and around the nose before ending above their bottom lip. On some cheetahs the spots around the outer corners of their eyes are more distinctive, trailing down their cheeks or to the back of their necks.

Most predators hunt by simply leaping upon and overwhelming their prey. With the cheetah’s slimmer demeanor, they simply don’t have the power of a lion or leopard, so they have a trickier method instead. While chasing their prey, usually antelope, they’ll flick out a paw and trip it.

The sounds they make are ridiculous. They can purr and growl, sure, but they can also make peculiar (and adorable) chirping sounds. It almost sounds like the bark of a tiny dog, uttered through the vocal chords of a baby kitten, but through the body of a full-grown, dangerous cheetah.

Well, not very dangerous. Cheetahs are notoriously skittish and can even be too nervous to breed sometimes. In the San Diego Zoo, four of their cheetahs actually have canine companions to help calm them down and keep them happy.

People always ask me what my favourite animal is, and one of the first to pop into my mind is “cheetah,” along with “horse” and “snake.” Cheetahs have been with me longer than any other animal before, besides for dogs, and I long to interact with one in the wild one day. So far I haven’t even seen any in the few zoos I’ve been in!

(San Diego Zoo = Bucket listed)

Rene Magritte.

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“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist. ”
—- Rene Magritte

This summer I had a chance to see Magritte’s real work at MOMA museum in NYC. Magritte has been one of my favorite artists for a long time for his particular impressionistic style.

Rene Magritte was born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, in 1898. His earliest oil paintings form 1915 were Impressionistic in style. The oil paintings he produced during the years 1918-1924 were influenced by Futurism and by the offshoot of Cubism practiced by Metzinger. Most of his works of this period are female nudes.


In 1922-1923, he worked as a draughtsman in a wallpaper factory, and was a poster and advertisement designer until 1926. In 1926, Magritte produced his first surreal oil painting, “The Lost Jockey,” and held his first exhibition in Brussels in 1927, in which he got lots of critics on the exhibition.

Later during the German occupation of Belgium in World War II, Magritte remained in Brussels. He briefly adopted a colorful, painterly style in 1943-44, and was known as his “Renoir Period.”

His work was exhibited in the United States in New York in 1936 in Museum of Modern Art and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Magritte’s paintings mostly embody the combination of realism and impressionism, and he is able to present his particular idea of humanity and dream. One of his representative piece is “The Lovers I (1928),” which identifies the mystery of two lovers who are shrouded in white cloth.

Magritte inspires me a lot, not only in art area, but also life.

“Life obliges me to do something, so I paint. ”
– Rene Magritte

“Death” Valley.

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Recently, I did a research project on National Parks for AP Environmental Science class. I chose the  Death Valley, which I had always considered it as “dead land” until this time I finally learned that it is actually full of lively species.

Located at 282 feet below the sea level, Death Valley is 300 miles northwest of LA, in the eastern flank of the towering Sierra Nevada Range (which also stands as the 8th lowest depression on earth and deepest in North America). Formed about 1.8 billion years ago, the Death Valley was previously an ancient sea and later developed into rock, which formed warped mountains and uplifted plates.

Death Valley is famous as the hottest, driest place in North America. Summer high temperatures commonly run above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind is pretty common in this arid area with desert biome, especially during winter time. Dust storms can blow up with the approaching cold-fronts, therefore the valley remains long summers throughout the year. And the coolest months are December and January. The rainfall average is only 1.92 inches.

Even though the climate is arid and dry, Death Valley still consists of great diversity of wildlife. Species of animals such as Fringed Myotis, Coyote, Sagebrush Checkerspot, Roadrunner, and Chuckwalla all habitat in Death Valley.

However, the endangered species in Death Valley have been a huge issue. Species such as Amargosa Toad (Bufi nelsoni), Southwestern Willow Flycather (Empidonax traillii extimus), Devils Hole Pupfish (Crprinodon diabolis), and Desert Tortoise.

In Death Valley National Park, groundwater feeds seeps, springs, and a rare desert river that are crucial for sustaining plant and animal life. Moreover, lots of species rely on the groundwater.

Most of the land between the roads in Death Valley National Park has been given an additional layer of protection from further development by being designated Wilderness. Today there are more than 109 million acres of federally protected Wilderness in 44 states. Recently the “National Park Service” released its new stewardship plan for Death Valley National Park, which focused on managing Death Valley’s wilderness, which comprises 3.1 million acres of the 3.3 million-acre park.

We all live and share the same environment with animals, plants and other species. Therefore, humans are also responsible for our own behaviors. I’ve never been to Death Valley before, but I don’t want to see it turn into a forever “dead valley.”

Never Fixed

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In Journalism class, we watched Shattered Glass. Or most of it, anyways. I was having a terrible, awful, no good, very bad day, so it heightened the suckage of the movie for me.

Well, it wasn’t a bad movie really. It followed the, slightly antagonistic, days of Stephen Glass, and appeared to be a lovely movie at first. Stephen Glass seemed to be charming, witty, awkward, and an easy to talk to person. He was a journalist and was loved by his co-workers and boss, Michael Kelly. After a strange “punishment” of circling commas beheld the crew, Michael tried to defend them and ended up getting fired.

Their new boss, Chuck Lane wasn’t too hot for Stephen. Or at least lacked the bond that the last boss shared with the workers.

One of Stephen’s stories was about a teenage hacker, how Ian Restil hacked into the company Jukt Micronics’s computer system and how he became a hero among other hackers.

Guess what? The whole story was total bullcrap. Whoaaaa plot twist of the century.

Ugh.

Anyways a reporter at another company, Adam Penenberg at Forbes Digital Tool, got suspicious and researched the company. Him and his co-workers discovered an amateurish website for Jukt Micronics and nearly no evidence that any of the story actually happened whatsoever.

Aaand Stephen Glass is suspended. For two years.

That’s about where we left off in the movie. In reading of the movie’s Wikipedia page, I discovered that Stephen had admitted that 27 of his articles were fictional in at least one part.

I can understand the pressures of writing, I can. Our school’s journalism program is pretty intense, and, even as a rookie, I’ve found myself one or a few times thinking “maybe I’ll just pretend this happened…”

I didn’t though. I did my best to stick to the truth, however boring or difficult the truth may be. If Stephen had made up one of his stories, maybe two, I would’ve been a little more forgiving towards his character. But no, he had to make up 27 different stories and that is just ridiculous and weak.

Beijing Opera.

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Beijing Opera, also known as “Peking Opera,” is one of the most representative performing art of Chinese culture. It is the largest Chinese opera form, and is extolled as “Oriental Opera.”

Having a history of 160 years, the Beijing Opera is developed from absorbing many other dramatic forms, mostly from the local drama ‘Huiban’ which was popular in South China during the 18th century. It is a scenic art combining music, performance, literature, aria, and face-painting. The performance focuses on the technique of expression and different roles have different meanings.

Some main roles in Beijing Opera are: Sheng, a common name of male characters; Dan, the general name for female characters; and Jing, which refers to some male characters with particular appearances or personalities. Lots of them are based on the real historical people.

Another feature of Beijing Opera is the facial painting, also known as Lianpu. Lianpu is regarded as the colorful dressing on actors’ faces. The colors are varied with each characters to represent different themes. For instance, red symbolizes loyalty, such as Guanyu, a great general during Three Kingdoms Period (220-280). Black signifies honesty and frankness.

Beijing Opera portrays the soul of Chinese national culture. It is the unique and eternal treasure of China.