Category: journalism

Stuff having to do with the world of journalism.

Vignette

treefroggyLeave a comment

This is a vignette I wrote over the summer at a creative writing camp I attended. Enjoy.

Syracuse wound through the maze of a prison, following behind his human who led him by the reins. He kept catching Riven’s eye beside him, but neither of them dared to snuffle or neigh to each other for fear of alerting the things their humans feared to their presence. Their humans seemed anxious enough just from the quiet clacking of their hooves on the concrete.

The deformed humans in the cells stared, but were unable to vocalize in any way. The gouges and scars covering their faces were horrifying even without their monstrous, misshapen bodies, so Syracuse tried to keep his eyes anywhere but on those creepy humans. Riven’s skin twitched when something skittered behind him and brushed against his fetlocks, but he did his best to remain calm so he wouldn’t set off his human.

The ground gradually shifted from concrete, to bricks, to carpeted floor. Syracuse and Riven’s hooves were nearly silent on the carpet, and they stared up in wonder as the scenery around them changed to reveal a room bigger than their stable with gold-embellished bookshelves lining every wall from floor to ceiling. However, no matter how much they wanted to explore, their humans kept tugging at them fretfully and they ended up hurrying through the room without being able to get close enough to see a single book title.

Syracuse and Riven were led through several more halls that seemed like they were part of a residency wing of the castle. After what felt like eons to them, their humans brought them up to a massive set of oak doors.

Riven’s human stepped up and pulled one door open. Despite how immense they were, the hinges were perfectly greased and made no noise as the door swung in and flooded the dark entryway with blinding light.

Syracuse and Riven squinted into the sun as their humans took them outside. When their sensitive eyes finally adjusted, they had to stop to gaze upon the gorgeous, sprawling mountains and sheer, marble cliff sides.

Their humans pulled at the reins again, urging on the horses with clucking noises and kisses, and Syracuse and Riven reluctantly moved. They were led down a winding path, and when the road straightened out again, their humans stopped them so that they could mount.

There was no more time to admire the views once their humans were on their backs. Heels dug into their ribs as the humans nudged them into full gallops to get as far from the dreadful castle as they could.

http://www.artnet.com/artists/william-thomas-smedley/two-men-one-black-riding-horses-past-ruins-of-KFE75MMzasrvYDbMqXmYuQ2

Some of my Favorite Things Recently

graceovs1 Comment

I’ve started a new school, which, of course, is a challenging transition. It’s easy in times like these to get caught up in anxiety and needless worry, so I find it helpful to redirect my focus to the positive aspects of my life right now. Whether life-changing or minuscule, there is no shortage of things that I LOVE.

  1. Old books: The way the weathered pages feel between my fingers, the smell, the inky typeface.
  2. Pina colada smoothies: I seriously think I would live on these if I could – especially in 100-degree weather.
  3. Sleeping: There’s something so comforting about getting in bed with the AC on so I can snuggle up between the duvet cover and clean sheets.
  4. Shooting stars: I saw one the other day and it was magical.
  5. The sea: The floating, bobbing over waves and swimming with all the fish beneath me.
  6. Gilmore Girls: I will always aspire to be a Rory Gilmore.
  7. Sushi: What I would do for a spicy tuna, avocado roll, or a Lemon Flush special from Hakane…
pc: daily collegian

Vice Prez

udarsh318Leave a comment

The other day I gave my speech for student council vice president. I wasn’t feeling nervous for like the entire day up until about five minutes before I was supposed to give my speech. I felt like I was gonna puke all over the place. Anyway, supposedly my speech was really good, I got a lot of compliments and people told me that they weren’t sure who to vote for until they heard my speech, and they decided that they would vote for me, so that’s pretty cool. I’m not really sure why people think it was so good, I mean I feel like it was a pretty mediocre speech and there were better ones that people didn’t really seem to pay attention to, but whatever the case I’m glad people liked it. I mean I really just talked about representing the Students and like putting them and their desires first and stuff, which I feel like is kinda basic stuff when it comes to Student Council. But whatever, people liked it and maybe I’ll win tomorrow, I guess we’ll see.

Student Council Applications! | LAND O' LAKES HIGH SCHOOL

photo cred- https://lolhs.pasco.k12.fl.us/student-council-applications/

College Essays

udarsh318Leave a comment

We’re supposed to start writing our essays for college applications, but I’m a little stuck. The issue is, I have an essay that I really like, that is probably the best thing I’ve ever written, but there’s a limit to how many words our essay is. The limit is 650 words. Want to guess how many my essay is? 1371 words. One thousand three hundred and seventy-one. That is over double the maximum amount of words allowed for an essay. This means I either have to start from scratch or somehow trim down the essay until it’s only 650 words, both of which would be very difficult. And of course, these essays are going to be really important to my applications because, for the UCs at least, colleges won’t look at my SAT score which was actually pretty good and which I will probably improve upon. They only look at GPA, extracurriculars, and essays, so my essays have to be good. Anyway wish me luck, I’m gonna need it.

How to Format a College Admissions Essay - Wordvice
photo cred- wordvice blog

I cannot commit to a show

cannassuerLeave a comment

For some reason, ever since my senior year started, I have been physically incapable of actually committing to finishing a show. I have literally started eight shows and have only finished three, one of which I barely finished. I seriously do not understand why but for the past year I have had the attention span of a goldfish and only play video games or watch youtube in my free time, and yet I have like seven really good shows outstanding right now.

First is the plethora of actually great animes I have just stopped watching. I started Dimension W which was great but canceled my Funimation, I started Mushoku Tensei which was great but forgot about it, and then I started Devilman Crybaby which is easily the best anime I’ve seen in forever, and yet every day I just forget to watch it because I’m too busy watching someone try to beat Elden Ring with a torch for 2 hours.

Photo Credit: The Verge

And then there’s both Breaking Bad and Black Mirror which I’ve been watching for years now. I love both shows but for some reason, I just never want to watch them when I’m at home and can play a game or watch youtube. It’s so weird because there was a time wherein a three-week period I watched, Tokyo Ghoul, Death Note, Chivalry of a Failed Knight, and Soul Eater. Now I can’t even finish a 24-episode anime in a year.

Working

udarsh318Leave a comment

I have a job at a local bar, or pub, I guess. It’s got a bar but also has places to sit. Anyway, I’m a busser and the Host, which is kinda cool. I get $15 an hour plus tips every night, and I usually get like 10-20 bucks from each server and sometimes the bartender, so I end up going home with like 30ish dollars every night I work, which is two to three times a weekend. In addition to the 8-12 hours, give or take, I get another 60-90 dollars per weekend. It’s pretty good money, it pays for gas and car insurance and stuff. After a while, I’ll have a solid amount of money and that might help me when I go to college and stuff.

But, there are definitely downsides to working every weekend. For one, I don’t hang out with friends very often and I don’t really have a lot of time in general. I end up missing a lot of school events and things, and sometimes that kinda sucks you know? Sometimes it feels like I’m losing friends because I work so much, and It’s not exactly necessary for me to work, but I want to have a car and I need to work to have a car so here we are. Anyway, I’m gonna quit at the beginning of next summer so I can have one more summer where I do whatever I want so I guess I’ll just look forward to that.

Five Swedish restaurants with fantastic locations | Visit Sweden

Credit- visitsweden.com

No more high school baseball

im6footLeave a comment

My high school baseball career has come to a close.

I recently contracted Covid-19 which caused me to miss our round 2 playoff game, which would ultimately be the final game of our season and final game of my high school career. It was a weird feeling knowing I just my time as a high school athlete ended without being able to do anything about it. I got so many texts and phone calls from people telling me how sorry they were that this happened to me but I didn’t feel sorry for myself nor did I feel any emotion at all. I was just focused on making sure the people around me didn’t get sick while everyone else was focused on the fact I can no longer play high school baseball.

The funny thing is I am content with my career coming to end the way it did. For instance, in the last game I played in we won, our school got its first-ever playoff win in school history, and I balled out. So there’s no bad taste in my mouth about how my high career came to an end. I am also playing baseball in college so that makes this ending not too bad.

However, there are a few things I miss about high school ball. I’ll miss the road trips to away games, the inside jokes with the guys, getting yelled at by my head coach, and getting out of class early on gamedays. I’ll miss the early morning lifts, the post-game workouts, the late nights hitting off the tee, the extra work after practices, the sprints, batting practice, catching bullpens the day after catching a whole game because we don’t have a backup catcher. But the one thing I’ll miss the most the memories I’ve made with all my teammates.

pc: mlb.com

Shocking Shoes

bartholomulethegreatLeave a comment

Last weekend, I attempted to buy a pair of white shoes for a job that I have recently gotten, but I found out that the pair of shoes that I wanted to get was sold out at the Nike store I went to. After I found this out, it got me wondering about Nike statistics and how many shoes they sold annually. Let’s just say that the amount of shoes sold annually is quite shocking. This number is around 780 million pairs sold annually. Shockingly 800 million dollars are made from sales of Air Force 1s alone. Let’s just say the average price of an Air Force is 100$, this one style of shoe comes in three main styles lows, mids, and highs. That means there was an estimated 8 million pairs of shoes made every year. That means that you could give everyone in LA two pairs of Air Forces and some leftover. It seems that even with the number made every year they are always sold out. As I was told by the Nike employee that I asked, they almost never have them in stock because they are being bought constantly and the only time they really have them is when someone returns them. Nike makes around 30 billion dollars per fiscal year meaning that Air Force 1s make up around 2.6% of Nike’s annual revenue.

Image Credit: Nike

FIFA

navraj22Leave a comment

My favorite video game series ever is FIFA. I grew up playing the career mode and play nows against my cousins, so playing today reminds me of those times. I remember once, my cousin played me when I was 8 and he kept the ball the whole game, scoring at the last minute of each half. I cried the whole time, but he blocked the door and wouldn’t let me stop playing.

Anyways, in the 10 years since then, I have grown up with FIFA. I moved from career mode to online seasons in FIFA 17 and switched to the ultimate team in FIFA 22. I play in my free time and I played all summer, so I got really good this year, but when school started, I realized I couldn’t play because the wifi at my grandparents was so bad. Solely playing on the weekends didn’t suffice, I needed a solution.

That’s when I realized I could play at school during free periods. Since that realization, I have been playing on the college counseling room tv during all my frees and have been doing homework at home instead of during frees.

I am excited for school to be out so I can play FIFA all year. Here is a photo of my ultimate team’s best player’s card.

PC: Futwiz

I’m Obsessed With Opossums

treefroggyLeave a comment

Everyone be quiet because I’m here to talk about opossums again. I’m not taking any criticisms at this time or any time.

Photo credit: whis_kurrs on Instagram

LOOK AT HIM. HE GRABS THE PIZZA. I’M IN LOVE.

My mom reads these posts so I’m not allowed to curse on them but HECKING LOOK AT HIM. HE IS PERFECT. HE HAS NEVER DONE A SINGLE THING WRONG IN HIS LIFE.

His name is Pep and I want to cuddle him so badly. Literally, I’m in love.

Anyways yeah. I saw an opossum and needed to post about him. That’s all.

I’m screaming and sobbing and passing away currently. I love opossums so much.