Category: journalism

Stuff having to do with the world of journalism.

Self Care

uwucutiepatootieLeave a comment

This school year I have noticed that I have been a mess. I used to put my self-care over everything. I have fallen out of my routine and must start picking up my old habits because they used to bring me so much peace.

I used to be very strict about hair care. For my hair, I would always oil it before I washed my hair. I would specifically use rosemary and castor oil on my scalp and argan oil on my ends. I would leave it in for two hours in a claw clip and would use my scalp massager to stimulate hair growth. I would always go to bed wearing a silk cap to prevent gaining split ends. I was so psycho about it that I would refuse to let my hair rest on my pillow without my cap. I would never use heat on my hair to make sure I was getting dry hair with split ends. This year, I never oil my hair, use my silk cap, and use heat on my hair every day. I have noticed a significant difference in my hair and it feels so much more damaged.

Last year, I struggled a lot with acne. My skin would look horrific and then it would begin to clear up and break out bad again. It was a never-ending cycle. I had listened to what my dermatologist told me exactly but it didn’t seem to work. There wasn’t one day I would miss my skincare, even when I would go on camping trips. I wouldn’t put any makeup on my face because I was concerned it would make breakouts worse, even how badly I wanted to cover it up. I refused to touch my face without freshly washed hands. I always wore sunscreen when I would go out. I finally switched to a different dermatologist months ago and it has significantly improved my skin. Now that I rarely break out, I don’t take as good a job with my skin. I use makeup products on my face that aren’t that clean and I don’t clean my face three times a day anymore. During the day, I rest my face on my pillow although it isn’t freshly washed which is something I never would have done last year. I never wear sunscreen now. Although my skin isn’t bad anymore, I’m not taking good care of it and overtime I will be able to see it’s damage.

There is so much more self-care I used to do last year that I don’t do as often now. I am an a very clean person still, but putting my self-care first gave me clarity in my life and brought me joy.

“Makeup Brush” by Freestocks.org/ CC0 1.0

Dawn patrol

progstenLeave a comment

As you lie there in bed in the midst of some of your deepest sleep, lying comfortable and in contempt, you let your body rest and recover when the alarm you set mere hours ago at 12pm goes off 5 hours later. As you lay there in your dream, being bombarded by the “by the seaside” alarm, when you find the strength to roll over and turn off your alarm, you lay there, your body begging you to go back to sleep and get a good night’s rest for the first time in months, you remember why you wake up in the first place. With barely enough energy how, you get out of your bed still in your pajamas. You go outside into your garage, grab your cold and wet wetsuit and your board, load up the car, head inside for a muffin and a Diet Coke, brush your teeth and finally head out at 5am. The car drive is quiet one. Trying your best to not fall asleep at the wheel, you pop the Diet Coke can open and make the drive to venture. Rolling into the parking lot, you start to feel the energy of the ocean. Stepping out of the car into the cold, opening the trunk to grad the coldest and wettest wetsuit known to man, and forcing yourself to put it on. Despite the cold, you hike out to the beach prepare your body with some light stretches and head out to the water. The first wave hits your feet as you tread amongst the slippery rocks, trying your best not to fall and ding your board. After walking the most painful and annoying walk of your life on the rocks, you manage to get to waist-deep water, where you can start the paddle. As you hear and barely see the first wave coming, you perform a duck dive; as the water submerges your entire body for the first time, the cold hits you like an avalanche, cold and almost breathtaking. As you emerge from the depth under the wave, still in shock, you continue the paddle as the next wave rolls towards you. After repeating the process of duck diving and paddling and getting pushed back you finally make it past the break. Sitting out there on your board, ready for a wave to appear from the darkness, is a feeling unlike another. After time passes and waves roll by, the first light appears, and with it, the waves truly emerge from the dark. As light comes to the sky, if the clouds are just right, some of the most amazing colors emerge, and the sky looks like a fake painting you see in a art gallery. Sitting there on the smooth water with the waves rolling is really the best feeling of your life.

This is my perspective on surfing in the morning. Also, I imagine this being said while talking to someone who has never gone surfing before and telling them about what surfing is like, but the speaker is too excited to really describe it exactly how they want to. Also after they would say something like “you just have to exspeince it to get it”

PC: https://res.cloudinary.com/manawa/image/upload/f_auto,c_limit,w_3840,q_auto/articles/3104/surfing-wipeout

self image

purcyLeave a comment

Recently I have been trying to have a positive self image. I don’t even think I can comprehend what that means, but I’m just trying to judge less. People always think I’m a mean person but I am really working on it. I think I am like that because I’m so hard on myself. It’s easier to have a positive body image but it’s so hard to love your brain. I want to love my brain so bad because I think it would make me so much happier. Its unhealthy habits that make us have negative self perception. It sounds really easy to start good habits and positivity, but it really is the hardest thing to wrap my head around. I hate it when I feel like I’m moving forward and doing better and then I just have the most minor setback that breaks all my progress. But what can i do but start over

Pc: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1097822846649200723/

Usually i try to write

baka228Leave a comment

Usually, I try to write about something worthwhile, about my thoughts, feelings, or events that happened to me, and which would be interesting to share. But today is not that day; today, I want to talk about all sorts of nonsense that has been on my mind lately.

47 days. After precise calculations, I realized that I have exactly 47 days left to go to school. It seems like this number should be much larger, but definitely not in my case. I am the most vivid case of senioritis you can find on planet Earth. Immediately after receiving the acceptance letter from the university I wanted, unexpectedly even to myself, I just stopped worrying about what happens at school. I am absolutely calm about not doing homework, and it doesn’t bother me much. I won’t lie, I never really liked the process of studying in an American school, and the only reason why I truly strived and learned subjects was my admission to the university; now that the goal is achieved, the motivation is completely gone. In my case, trying to find opportunities to reduce my days spent in school buildings, I discovered that some camps take away as much as 5 days! I signed up for many, which significantly reduced my time spent at school this semester. I am glad that I have very little time left until the end of school. I won’t lie, I will be the happiest person on graduation day, during the ceremony I will definitely be crying, but not out of sadness but from overwhelming happiness.

The second thing I wanted to talk about is my sleep. Lately, I’ve been having terrible problems with sleep. I wake up every hour at night, and if I’m unlucky enough to start thinking about something that bothers me, then I can’t sleep for a couple of hours simply because I can’t stop thinking. It bothers me, but I can’t do anything about it.

PC: me

One Step Closer to Freedom pt 2

kittenqueen3Leave a comment

I checked the mail every day for my paper and finally on Saturday after getting Starbucks I biked home and like usual I checked the mail and there was a letter addressed to me. At first, I was confused but after reading who the sender was my body was filled with a sense of excitement and anxiousness and sentiment. As excited as I was it also felt sentimental in a way. I love driving with my parents, honestly, I probably talk to them more during drives than at home. That’s something I can get over but the anxiety I had about passing my test and having a good photo. I hate my passport photo and I wanted to have a good driver’s license photo. I took over 20 practice tests and as I was falling asleep on Sunday night all I could think about was my permit test. I woke up and got ready for school and the only thing I was thinking about was the test. I was so focused on the test that I forgot to study for my math test and definitely failed it. Back to the exciting stuff I headed down to the DMV and got registered. I had to take a vision test and I passed, feeling confident it was now time to take my photo and this is where things begin to go downhill. My photo genuinely looks like I am being held at gunpoint. I shook that off knowing I could retake it when I got my license and headed over to the testing area. As I pressed start my heart began to race. At first, I thought you could see your errors at the end but then I got one wrong and I realized I was doing pretty good. I was 25 for 26 I finished my test pretty quickly and only had 3 mistakes as soon as the words “congratulations you passed head over to the window” appeared on the screen I was filled with joy. I finished up the paper and headed over to Starbucks. My mom let me drive to pick up my brother from school and then drive home. Although I have countless missing homework assignments that was the first time in weeks that I felt productive. This brings me one step closer to my license.

pc:me

One step closer to freedom

kittenqueen3Leave a comment

For the past few months, I have been doing my driver’s ed and I finally finished last Monday. To take your permit test you need a physical paper that states you have completed your online driver’s ed. This slip takes 2 days to 2 weeks to arrive and I needed my paper to come before March 4 because that’s when I was planning on taking my test. I’ve always dreamed of having my license and being able to drive anywhere I want to. As lovely as Ojai may seem I’ve lived here my whole life and well there’s not much to do. The freedom of having a license has always been something I have been excited about and getting my permit was moving me one step closer. I have many friends in Ventura and often go. there to hang out with them so being able to drive would make hanging out so much easier. Anyways today is Friday and I still don’t have my. paper but I’m still studying hoping it will come tomorrow or Monday.

pc:”Bmw Car” by Maxwell Davis/ CC0 1.0

Tiktok

justthatonegirllLeave a comment

I need to get off TikTok. It’s so entertaining but every time I am bored I find myself stuck scrolling and it’s becoming an issue. My sleep schedule is slightly ruined by my obsessive scrolling. It distracts me from doing my school work and focusing on things that are much more important. I did give myself a screen time limit on TikTok but every time my time is exceeded I just say ignore for the rest of the day. I don’t know. I need to delete it. But it is a time killer. It is also a major time taker and waster. I would much rather be watching a cute movie while baking but I loose my time from sitting on tik tok. But like at the same time… I learn while I am on tiktok. I learn events going on in the world previously and current. I learn recipes. I learn hacks and tips for classes I am taking in school. I learn a lot more too. My point is I am stuck. Should I cut down on my screen time hours and do things more productive or should I get trapped in the social normalities. I know the correct answer is to cut down on tiktok so I am going to make it a goal to be more productive.

PC:ME

Pet Peeves Part 2

godgoldngloryLeave a comment

We are back with Part 2 of my top pet peeves. First off are people who have clearly never worked in the customer service industry. I get having a bad day and being less cooperative than normal and all of that, but some people clearly have had everything done for them their entire lives and treat those who are working for their benefit like dog poop. Secondly, I literally hate minions so much. Their stupid faces and their stupid noises, please stop. I hate every single thing about them, so we don’t need to dwell on this one. Next, it’s so annoying when your nose is so stuffed you can’t breathe without your mouth open. I am not a mouth breather usually, so when I am forced to be because not a single air molecule can pass through my nostrils, it is quite upsetting. Next, I have people who interrupt other people constantly and have zero awareness. There is a difference between interrupting people and doing it without any surrounding awareness. That’s all I need to say there. Elaborating a little on what I was saying earlier about small dogs, and I know they’re not particularly super small, but I can’t stand Shiba Inu dogs. I get that they’re all cute and kawaii and nice, but their faces kinda annoy me. Lastly, rounding out the series, are people who try way too hard when singing in the car. If you’re with a group of people, especially friends like on a drive somewhere and you are playing music, you don’t have to prove yourself or anything like please. This is not American Idol. So please, keep your tone-deaf screaming out of the car and never let it touch my ears again. This one was a bit longer than the last one, but as you can tell, I am very passionate about some of these things. I would be happy to oblige any requests for a Part 3. I’m sure I can find more content to make one.

Dave the Minion Minions Animated film Tim the Minion Universal s, the minions, illumination, despicable Me, universal Pictures png | PNGWing

PC: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQg3tvKO-rxmp4aoEZcjZiLMeCwOqnPH6Mj8g&usqp=CAU

Credibility

Closed AccountLeave a comment

First things first, if you are hungry, have a snack – I don’t want any negative reviews on my blogs.

Ate something? Let’s get started.

Robert Sapolsky. Have you heard this name yet? If you haven’t, I promise you will in the near future. A quick YouTube search reveals he has aired at TED, Andrew Huberman, and Big Think. His most viral lecture posted on Stanford’s channel has attracted over 17 millions views. The source of this attention is Sapolsky’s stance on the Free Will. For him, humans have no true control over their decisions.

This time I don’t want to go into the philosophical weeds, but instead talk about – human ignorance.

For that, I need you to watch this 1-minute video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OsleLlBWlBo

Hopefully, the stars aligned in a way that gave rise to just the right hormone configuration that made you watch the video.

Years ago, when I stumbled upon the Extraneous factors in judicial decisions(commonly known as the Hungry Judge) study, I was blown by how faulty human nature is. The fact that one person’s hunger could result in another person’s life-long sentence was astonishing and angering to me.

Not so long ago, I stumbled upon this article: http://daniellakens.blogspot.com/2017/07/impossibly-hungry-judges.html

I was once again blown by how faulty human nature is. This time, because of my own naiveness and either foolishness or bad intentions of the 1,939 scientists that cited the notorious study.

The article proposes that the study should be dismissed simply because of the absurdity of its findings.

To quote Lakens: “If hunger had an effect on our mental resources of this magnitude, our society would fall into minor chaos every day at 11:45. Or at the very least, our society would have organized itself around this incredibly strong effect of mental depletion.”

The study has received so much criticism that the second sentence on its Wikipedia page is about its possible flaws:

“The hungry judge effect is a finding that judges were more inclined to be lenient after a meal but more severe before the break. It has been suggested that this may be an artifact of the scheduling of cases, based on their likely outcome and duration.[1]“

And yet, 1,939 scientists including respectable Robert Sapolsky cited it. Whether they did it out of ignorance or in a desperate attempt to support their own studies is not entirely clear.

However, it is clear that common people like me, putting our faith to the rigor and objectivity of the scientists, need to be wary of how foolish even the most educated of us and them are.

PC https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234040721p5/187.jpg

Overwhelmed

uwucutiepatootieLeave a comment

Lately, I have been struggling with keeping up with my homework. I have been sick for the past week and focusing on school has been really hard for me. I took the past two days of school off and now I am even more behind. I have an essay, project, and test due next week, along with all of the homework I haven’t done from this week and I don’t even know what to do. I am missing even more school next week to go on a mandatory camping trip with my school and I’m going to fall even more behind. I still feel exhausted and not fully healthy and thinking about starting the hours and hours of homework I need to catch up on is horrifying. I have only missed a day and a half of school this whole school year until this week and I feel like because I’ve been sick, I have mentally missed a week of school even though in reality I have only missed two days. I hope that I feel better before my camping trip or else my week will get so much worse.

“Free stressful business woman working“/ CC0 1.0