Category: journalism

Stuff having to do with the world of journalism.

I guess this is goodbye.

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment

So graduation is right around the corner, and I am honestly unsure of what I am feeling.

Last Friday, the seniors at my school attended an alumni luncheon, and I couldn’t help but think of my past two years at OVS, and how I could sadly never get those moments back.

But I guess that is life.

Moments happen. And whether they are good or bad, we cannot fast-forward or rewind.

There are moments when I am so excited about the prospect of college and the long-awaited, stress-free summer.

However, there are times when I am walking by the amphitheater or down by the pool, and I remember moments from Junior year.

I remember the friendships, the laughter, and the inside jokes.

I remember my amazing roommates within the past two years and my best friend Parky (yes, that is her nickname) whom I honestly could not have gotten through these past two years without.

Ojai Valley School has given me so much: life lessons, life-long relationships, and experiences I could have never gotten anywhere else.

And to my journalism teacher, I just wanted to say that you are an absolutely amazing person, and a mentor to all of your students. You push people to do their best, and you have taught me to work hard, strive for the best, and most importantly, to follow what I truly love.

So I guess this is goodbye.

I will be graduating on Thursday, surrounded by my parents, teachers, and friends.

I will be graduating, and will not be coming back next year.

But I hope that every underclassmen will listen to this.

Make every moment worth it, and try not to complain. Because, in the end, you don’t want to have regrets. In the end, you want to be sad, but you want to be happy that those past four years were the best you could make of them.

And yet she comes again.

sennymcflyLeave a comment

It’s been at least one month since Aunt Lela’s funeral. Just last weekend we were at Relay for Life and I was walking in her honor.

It’s been four hours since my great grandmother passed away.

It’s been 20 minutes since I got the phone call from my mom. After the fourth ring I decided to pick up. “Mama, I can’t talk right now.” My roommate was sleeping and I didn’t want to disturb her. “It’s an EMERGENCY.”

This one I was close to. It really hurts this time. All she wanted before she died was to hear me sing. I didn’t do it for her.

I feel guilty, but it’s not about me. It’s about this woman who was so kind and funny. She loved her family, but she especially loved her daughter. The one who took care of her until the very end with very little help.

Now, she’s gone. What is her daughter supposed to do?

We can only pray and give love, right? What else? Why is death such a powerful thing?

I will pray. Not for God or Jesus or whoever. None of them. I will pray for my family. Because with tragedy comes grief and with grief, one never knows what can come of grief. So, I will pray and I hope you will too.

Grammie and Bubba

Are You There God?

sennymcflyLeave a comment

Faith is the journey continued in hopes of finding the end

it is the belief that after years of hard work, finger breaking there will come rest

There is faith in mothers that they will nurture us

there is faith in fathers that they will protect us

there is faith in lovers that they will love us

But, what faith have I in someone else’s religion?

What do you believe?

I believe in love

love can’t be taught or preached

it can’t be written or spoken, not published, or broadcasted

I have faith in love

Cattle-ranching Trip

yourgingerkidLeave a comment

Not very many people can claim that they’ve been on a real cow roundup, but I can!

Last Sunday, a group of three seniors, including myself, OVS art teacher Ms. Smith, and lower’s Australian riding instructor, Andy, loaded two horses and made the six hour trip up to Independence, California to stay at the Smith Ranch.

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Without knowing what a cattle roundup is to the fullest extent, I imagined massive herds of cattle running in each and every direction as the riders each struggle to keep them in a group and headed towards the pens.

Without knowing what ‘putting cattle through a shoot’ is, I imagined the branding to be a horrid sight, and the castration to be something that my weak stomach wouldn’t be able to handle, and the tagging to be intolerable.

I was completely wrong in every sense.

The first day of herding cattle was as easy as one could possibly imagine. The cattle didn’t even bother to defy the natural order of things and simply moved as soon as a horse came near them.

I was also lucky enough to ride one of the most incredible horses that I’ve ever encountered. Elizabeth and I were given to rented horses from a pack station down the road whose names we weren’t told. I was given a lovely strawberry roan quarter horse who was not only calm and collected but willing to go whenever asked to grab a stray calf. We named him Barry for his color and the large “B” branded on his left flank. We were also given an older gentleman of a horse who never ceased to have his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his head regally held above all of the others. Not to mention he was easily over twenty and was covered in random patches of abnormally long hair. He was named Thor, which was followed by more jokes that I could ever keep track of.

Throughout the whole time our faces were stuffed with the most amazing food, and minus the brief stomach flu that we all experienced, it was definitely one of the best weeks of my life. If any riders are considering going next year, they definitely should. It’s absolutely wonderful!

Gers

therightliberalLeave a comment

Rangers Football Club (or the Gers as some of their loyal fans call them) recently won the Scottish Premier League title. This is the third title in a row they have won.

unfortunately in the SPL it is almost always only a competition between two teams, Rangers and Celtic. This year followed that. Rangers finished the season with 93 points in front of Celtic who had 92. The third place team? They had 63 points.

No other team in Europe has won as many trophies as Rangers, yet on the international scene they don’t get much credit. among many other large numbers, Rangers have won 54 league titles. 54! People are raving about United’s accomplishment of 19 (including me) but 54…that is incredible.

Granted the SPL is nowhere near as difficult as the EPL but it is still amazing.

I love Rangers because of my Protestant Scottish heritage, I’m no bandwagoner. But for those people looking for a team outside of the EPL to support, look in to Rangers.

They play pretty football for a Scottish team partly because they have players from all over the world. They have fanatic fans that give the atmosphere a great feel (usually) and they are a succesful club. They really deserve more credit.

But who deserves credit most of all is Walter Smith. After the last game of the season, Smith retired as coach of Rangers. During his time the team won 21 major titles including 10 times league champions. He has been a wonderful representative of the Ranger organization and he will be honored and missed. I cannot stress enough what a great coach and a great asset he has been. There is a great article on his importance here.

So go Gers! And for any Hoop fan reading this, don’t count on us stopping at 3.

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: ).

Not So E-Z Up

sennymcfly2 Comments

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

venturatrekerLeave a comment


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.

MY POST GOT DELETED ><

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment

So, I was working on my post, slaving away (ok not really) at my blog, and suddenly, out of nowhere, “BAM!”

Its gone. : (

“Where is it? Where is it? No, no, no, it has to come back!” I cried as I attempted to revive the last of my blog that I was attempting to finish right before the end of studyhall.

I tried to exit out quickly in order to block the computer’s memory (ok, so maybe it doesn’t work that way) and in panice I cried out to my classmate Bill, “Bill! Bill! Come here!” Unfortunately, even his genius brain could not solve the problem.

My blog was simply DELETED.

And so I sat in my chair with a scowl and a sigh, but then suddenly realized that if this is the worst thing that has happened to me throughout this whole week, I guess I am pretty darn lucky.

Sometimes I feel that these moments of frustration and pouting are necessary, in order to remind me just how lucky I am.

Although cliche as it may be, these are the moments when I imagine starving children across the nations, and people living in wars and terror across the globe. I imagine people who are losing their loved ones, or undergoing the worst of hardships, and then I realize that these few minutes of pouting is a waste of time compared to what I could be doing.

So instead I turned my attention to fundraising ideas for student council relief funds. I may not have made an immediate life changing impact for anyone, but I know I am spending my time productively in order to soon directly help those less fortunate around the globe.
Everyone should recognize just how lucky they are, and realize that sometimes it takes a hardship for us to recognize the good things in our lives.

Boy’s Romantic Prom Gesture Gets Him Banned From The Dance

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment

Although the talk of prom may not be popular amongst Ojai Valley School students anymore, numerous schools are just getting ready to celebrate theirs.

This means that the excitement over which prom date, which dress to wear, and which place to dine is rampant amongst teenagers everywhere.

And for many guys, there is always one question that needs to be answered: “How should I ask her to prom?”

I’ve seen the classic bouquet of roses and chocolates, the tennis balls perfectly ligned up to spell out prom, and a hand written song accompanied by a guitar.

For James Tate, a student of Shelton High School in Shelton, Connecticut, his plan was already in place.

Tate and two other friends visited their campus and posted a sign saying “Sonali Rodrigues, Will you go to prom with me? HMU Tate” on the top of their school building.

However, that coming Monday, after Sonali had joyfully said “yes” to Tate, James and his two accomplices were requested to the principal’s office.

Rather than asking them to simply take the poster down, the school officials gave all three of the boys a suspension of one day.

In addition, the school felt that the three boys had clearly violated school rules by trespassing after school hours and “vandalizing” school property. Thus, this punishment was expanded in order to ban the boys from attending their school’s prom.

Tate and his friends are not fighting back against their punishment, but simply wish their school officials could recognize that it was a kind way of asking Tate’s date and they never meant to break any rules in the process.