The Washington Wizards are sending point guard Spencer Dinwiddie and forward Davis Bertans to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for a future second-round draft pick and forward Kristaps Porzingis. The Wizards are adding another big in Porzingis, which I don’t get they have Kuzma, Gafford, Hachimura, Bryant, and now Porzingis. I guess they might try and mirror the Cavs who had a boatload of bigs/forwards. Dallas adds a veteran guard who will probably come off the bench and add a stretch-big both will play big roles for Dallas in the latter half of the season.
Washington gets a C for this deal while Dallas gets a B-
pc: clutchpoints.com
Harden heads to Philly:
The Brooklyn Nets are sending James Harden and Paul Millsap to Philly, the 76ers are sending Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, two first-round picks, and Ben Simmons. This is a win-win trade for both teams. the 76ers add a second superstar next to their all-star center Joel Embiid; while New York adds rim protection with Drummond, 3-point shooting with Seth, future assets, and a young all-star point guard/power forward in Ben Simmons. Both teams are in win-now mode and this trade keeps them both in this focus.
Philly gets an A and Brooklyn gets an A as well, in my opinion.
Well, it’s official, the ISS (international space station) will be falling out of the sky by 2031. NASA has stated that in ten years’ time they will bring the ISS down into Point Nemo in the Pacific ocean. What’s special about Point Nemo? It’s the furthest point from land on the earth. It has become a spacecraft graveyard, dozens of satellites, telescopes, rocket boosters, and other such things. The ISS has provided us with tons of experiment data, product testing, and even some world records. It has become a safe international space, where men and women from multiple countries come together to spend a few months doing repairs, experiments, and other space things they might be required to do. It has given us opportunities for peace as well as development. The next ten years will see the last experiments done on the station and then its ultimate burial in the sea. In ten years’ time, we will no longer see the small dot flying across the night sky.
As embarrassing as it is for me to say, I have seen over eighty animes. Yes, I hate myself. But, I am qualified to critique animes, especially the ones that suck. In most of the animes, I have two similar problems. Ok, three if you count the weird incest stuff and blatant sexualization of middle-schoolers. But plotwise my main problems are either a massive plot with no lore and context or a very dark plot that doesn’t deal with it in a dark way. Sure whatever I know I was spoiled by Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan, and Vinland Saga and that’s just how some animes are but I don’t care. I also get really annoyed with bad or shortened endings which you may see me rant about here and there. Now, these aren’t exactly my least favorite animes, most crap animes are just way too boring. So much so I can’t even write about it. Instead, here I have some memorable animes that did something critically wrong.
First, we’ll start with a smoking hot take. Sword Art Online deserves none of the hype it gets. Sure I enjoyed it a lot when I started, but eventually, it got mind-numbingly boring and became an incestual cesspool throughout the second season. I mean in what world does a girl falling in love with her brother in real life and in a video game make any contributions to the plotline? Not only that, but Kirito is just casually given the power to duel wield swords? Which don’t get me wrong is definitely a cool power for the SAO universe, but at least give us a reason to why he has it or show us him getting it. It’s really a failure of storytelling and kind of relies on horny fan service so I’ll give it a solid G- for a good idea but too horny and inconsistent for me.
Seven Deadly Sins is in a similar boat as SAO for me. Part of the reason I really didn’t enjoy this anime was that I watched it in dub and Meliodas’ voice is the same as both the Blue Exorcist MC and young Eren Jaeger. Until he grew up, Eren was an insanely annoying character for me. So when you add Eren’s voice to a small blonde boy who inexplicably looks 12 and has the accumulative power of every Greek God combined there’s not much to like. And no I will not take “he’s a demon” for an answer. Not only that but this fool is eternally bound to some random girl who is cursed to be reborn over and over again. And all this fool does is grope her like what the hell is this? Honestly, Seven Deadly Sins was a perfectly good anime. It has great supporting characters and every fight scene is very interesting, but I cannot handle Meliodas and Liz it’s quite literally excruciating to listen to/watch. Solid S+ for stop groping unsuspecting women in anime PLEASE.
It was honestly pretty tough to decide the last one for the chopping block, so I’ll do an anime that I enjoyed but at the same time am very very disappointed with. Gangsta was quite the hopeful anime for me. It has honestly one of the more interesting plot lines and character creation I’ve seen in anime for a while. The characters are all very tangible and relatable, they give all the major characters and some of the minor ones pretty compelling backstories. But to me, that’s the main problem. Gangsta is standard short-length for an anime (about 12 episodes) and it is way too little time to provide full character backstories and a coherent plotline. Which they provide much more of the former than the latter. For the most part, until the end, the story is mildly interesting. There are some really exciting moments and character introductions, but they never elaborate and give them the screen time they deserve. I mean the other main character doesn’t even get any screen time in the last episode and neither of the other interesting characters gets any as well. The show just ends by killing off the less interesting main character and that’s it. Like they didn’t even give enough time to kill off the rest of the cast. At least give me a good ending. Solid E- for extend the show a little, please.
As a kid who was raised by a father who really likes movies, I can happily say that I have seen a lot more good movies than bad ones. Even the ones I didn’t thoroughly enjoy, are usually just slower movies that are hard to watch with a teenage attention span. However, at one point I did have a girlfriend who liked to watch the bachelor so I’m pretty well versed in awful media now and I can say with certainty that I have seen some pretty awful movies. Some on my own time some because I was forced to watch them.
Alright, let’s start with a steaming hot take. If you get mad at this one I would definitely stop reading this blog now. If you know me, you know I have a primal hatred towards musicals. Especially ones dealing with love and/or falling in love. In my opinion not only is love not that exciting but there is literally no emotion exciting enough to warrant breaking out into song and dance. And that is why I literally hate La La Land. I’m sure I will get crucified for this but I will die on this hill with pride as I am certain that this is a garbage movie. First I will agree that it does have its funny moments. But this movie literally cannot decide what the hell it wants to be. First, it’s kind of a drama about this scum bag dude who never deserves love in his life, then kind of a comedy as he meets the most mundane and indecisive woman in the world. Then it’s kind of a comedy but the whole time I’m just hoping that these two just cut their losses and go find someone else. Neither of them is an interesting character and neither of them is charming at all. Watching them fall in love is like watching paint dry with a bit of song and dance in between. This movie to me is the epitome of Millennialism, no I will not elaborate. This movie is a solid D- for decide what the hell you want your movie to be. (Sorry not sorry to the La La Land Stans in here)
The second movie on the chopping block is Ready Player One. As someone who both adores the book and most of Spielberg’s films, I was hoping for an absolute banger when I went to see this movie. What I got was an absolute sell-out of a rom-com with a pretty boy as the lead actor. Not only does this movie completely betray the book harder than any Hobbit or Lord of the Rings could possibly hope to, but THEY ALSO TOOK THE F***ING RUSH REFERENCE OUT. And as someone who was born in Canada, I will never forgive the writers and Spielberg. This movie sucks and Spielberg is on thin ice. Solid F- for F*** this movie.
Now for actually the worst movie, I have ever seen. Although I have infinite amounts of hatred for both Ready Player One and La La Land, I understand that there is appeal there and that people like this movie. The one movie that I will never understand or ever have an ounce of respect for is The Kissing Booth. I hate this movie. It is so bad that I can happily say that I would rather watch paint dry for two weeks than watch this movie once. I have seen this movie twice and both are the most torturous experiences of my life. This movie sucks so bad that if you like it, I urge you to go get some taste. Netflix literally made one of the most unrelatable teen movies ever made, but the plot might literally be the worst plot ever written. Solid H+ for hiring some new writers.
From spice tolerance to the complexity of my skin I am one of the whitest guys I know. For the record, I am aware of the ease in my life that being an upper-middle-class white male gives me in life. I find that some of the main things that affect me in a different way than someone of the same age and class but nonwhite male are the way that I am looked at in almost every aspect of my life. I don’t have a rough time with people most of the time even when I’m doing things that are somewhat illegal. For example, I go into town most weekends and sometimes I partake in a little bit of trespassing and just look somewhat shady sometimes and I’ve never been arrested or even questioned. There is only one encounter with the police that I can remember that I have had and it was extremely pleasant. One of the nights that I was out in town with some friends we decided to play bike tag at night. If you don’t know what bike tag is, it is exactly what it sounds like, but every time you stop biking you have to check snap maps to give the seeker an advantage by being able to see your recent locations. Continuing to the story, a couple of cops pulled over me and like two of my friends that were playing and asked us if we were yelling and egging houses, (we were not) so we told them that we weren’t and that we had seen a different group of kids doing so. They just believed us and let us go with no further questioning, and it makes me wonder if my friends or I were to be people of color would we have been asked more into it.
Aside from the police treating me in a possibly different way, I fall into the category of white people that are horrible with any spicy food. Some spicy food I can handle, but anything past like Chile Verde and I will tear up a little bit. I know that that sounds like such a baby thing but I just don’t find myself eating high spice foods often, I know that there are white people that love spice. I just am not that white guy. I do season my food with more than just salt though, so I’m not a monster that doesn’t know how to season his food.
I’d say that I’m somewhat tan, like not enough where it’s like dang he’s tan, but enough that I’m not like paper. That is why I am so white but not necessarily physically the whitest person ever.
Cincinnati Bengals vs Los Angeles Rams. Joe Shiesty vs Matt Stafford. I am really not quite sure how this year’s Super Bowl will pan out. Many people believe the Rams will steamroll the Bengals with the elite pass rush of Aaron Donald, Leonard Floyd, and Von Miller absolutely decimating a below-average offensive line. However, I believe Joe Burrow will somehow survive this defense pressure and only be sacked twice. It will be the passing game of the Rams that will win them this game. Having Cooper Kupp and OBJ will cause havoc in Cincinnati’s secondary. I believe both receivers go over 100 receiving yards and each score.
My Super Bowl MVP will go to Aaron Donald who will record both sacks for LA and will also have multiple tackles for loss, as well as a pass deflection and a forced fumble.
The final score will be 38 to 24 in favor of the Rams.
This Monday. 10 Am. Ojai Valley School. The last conference room on the right. It’s going down.
I will be orchestrating the show of the century via my video podcast. Myself, my co-host, and my newspaper’s editor will be eating the world’s spiciest chip. On camera. It WILL be the highlight of my year or the reason I get violently ill and have to leave school.
Going into the new year, I needed new ideas for my budding podcast. To be honest, my coverage and predictions about Omicron were shaky to say the least, some would even say disastrous but hey you live and you learn.
ANYWAYS, a ton of planning has gone into this. I had the idea on a crisp Thursday morning at 7:15 am on the toilet browsing Tik Tok. I saw this random old dude force feeding himself for views on tik tok when I saw him down 4 or 5 very spicy chilies, some daused in the world’s hottest hot sauce, followed up by a shot of vodka and him spraying WD-40 down his gullet. The funniest part is he starts with this cute little gag accent which slowly transitions into him moaning, whining, and crying as he forces himself to eat them (attached his so-called highlights at the bottom). Truly enthralling stuff. When I got to Journalism that day, I was instantly bombarded by my teacher and editor about not doing enough during my time between episodes (true but no way I would admit it).
“I’m gonna make my editor eat something so hot, she doesn’t have a tongue to tell me to slack off less,” I thought to myself.
It’s a pretty great plan if you factor our the fact that I will be torturing myself and my co-host for a gag/to see my editor’s face when she eats this chip.
I have created a whole show around the one spicy chip which I will outline:
First, we will chat around for a second, maybe get a cameo on the fourth mic from our teacher, get some other Journalism students to chime in and what not, setting the stage for the main event. Then, we will spin a wheel to determine the order in which we eat the chips. Then, another wheel will be spun to determine how much of the chip will be eaten: 60% for 1/3, 35% for 2/3, and 5% for 3/3. You are gonna hear “another wheel” a handful more times throughout this blog. Get used to it. After this spin, we will eat the chip, and film our reaction for 3 minutes. We will then all play Family Feud while handling the heat. The winner will get first dibs to spin two wheels that are mostly filled with things that help heat like milk and carbs, but also some negatives like tonic water and an onion. The other two will spin this wheel in the order of their points in Feud. After this, we will have a spelling bee, something my editor is impossibly terrible at. After this, we will probably wrap up, and that will be our show.
I am pretty excited, but I hope nobody gets a stomach ulcer leading to me getting sued. I’ll attach the podcast to my next blog so stay tuned.
A year or two, I had a puzzle games hyperfixation. Instead of going on TikTok or watching YouTube, I would listen to music and play puzzle games for hours. They’re actually super fun. Here’s my favorite ones.
Connect
The connecting games are definitely my favorite ones. When I got a new puzzle game, I would be done with every single tier of difficulty (each having around 100 levels to play) within an hour or two. They’re super fun and I don’t know why. There’s just something so satisfying about figuring out the way that they all go together after thinking about it and trying different combinations.
App: Puzzledom
Car Parking
The car parking puzzles are addicting. There’s a game I have that’s just car parking puzzles and as far as I can tell, it has an infinite amount of levels. (I’m on level 1,466, so I’m pretty sure there’s not an end to the levels.) The escape games can be included in this category since it’s exactly the same game, but I prefer the ones where you’re moving around cars instead of just blocks.
App: Let Me Out
Tangram
I first played with tangrams in, like, second grade. Tangrams seriously felt like a fever dream until I found a game that had a tangram category and I realized that I hadn’t made up the concept and gaslit myself into thinking it was real. Anyways, they’re fun.
App: Puzzeldom
Blocks/Hexa Puzzle
These are kind of the same as the tangrams, but a little different. I like them. That’s all.
App: Puzzledom
Word Shatter
For some reason, I really like word puzzles. The word shatter kind is my favorite since it’s like a word search but less frustrating. An honorable mention is the word soup kind of game where you make words from a certain collection of letters.
App: Numpuz
I play most of these on apps that have a collection of different puzzle games. My favorite apps like that are Puzzledom and Numpuz (not sponsored by them, but I wish). I play my car game on an app called Let Me Out, which is just the car puzzle. Go check the apps out, but be warned- they’re addictive.
So, I know what you’re thinking, here we go some privileged American white kid is gonna complain about the small inconveniences he experiences in his country. But no, that’s not what this is. I’m talking about the real problems. The massive amount of poverty and homelessness, gun violence, crime rates, education, healthcare, all that bad stuff. So many people in this country think its the best country in the world, but in reality we are not in even in the top ten in education, over 40 million Americans are living in poverty, and recently more and more books on historical tragedies are being banned every year. Our healthcare system is probably the most corrupt industry in our country. The first thing you do when going to the hospital is fill out some personal information and then show them your insurance card, that insurance decides what level of care you get. You have a sprained knee? If your insurance is good you’ll get an x-ray, maybe even an MRI (which really isn’t necessary they just want the money). If your insurance is bad, you get ice, Advil, and an ace bandage. This disparity in levels of care goes all the way up, if you’re rich with cancer you have a much higher chance of surviving, if you’re poor, you might not even know you have cancer till you’re already dead. People get turned away at hospitals for not having health insurance or means to pay a hospital bill. Then there’s our actual government system, and the corruption within it. All senators are paid a maximum of $174,000 yet the average net worth of a senator is $14,000,000. Nothing goes through without the support of corporations. This government is supposed to be by the people, for the people, and of the people, but it has become a massive oligarchy in which the poor get poorer while the rich get richer. Corporations have blocked laws to make the government essentially calculate your taxes for you, from there they send a check or a bill to your house, but companies like TurboTax have paid senators off to keep it from passing, allowing them to keep their profits. “Healthcare” companies have paid senators and house members to keep universal healthcare bills from going through, as well as running smear campaigns calling universal healthcare socialism and saying this like the government would have access to your medical records. This is just straight-up false. This country is probably among the most corrupt in the world, and we are doing nothing to stop it. The media has turned us against each other so we don’t see what’s going on behind the scenes. The worst part is nothing will ever change, people are far too greedy to allow anything to change. For now, we’re just gonna have to deal.
Another week and another set of music that I currently think is quite fire. This week I got my permit and have been listening to music at quite a high volume while I’m learning to drive. Some of the songs that I’ve been playing this week are the following.
To begin Paper Heart by Ollie is a song that has to be a part of my driving time playlist I’m working on. Ollie is a lo-fi pop/rap musician that sings about generally sad topics and delivers them quite well. The song, Paper Heart, talks about how he’s fragile and that a girl is playing with his feelings and making him feel like he’s under her control.
The next song on my list is Lead me on by Sammy Rash, yet another song about a girl that a messing with a guy’s feelings and screwing with his mind. Sammy Rash is a pop artist that has someone upbeat songs that have a lovely guitar melody and have realistic themes in the lyrics.
Second, to last on my list is a bit of a different song because of the fact that the last two were sad songs that were slow. The song, Let the Bad Times Roll, is an upbeat rock-pop song that just feels good and gets my mood going. The Offspring have been making songs since 2000 and their punk rock/ alternative pop music is just amazing. Although they aren’t underground, they are definitely a great listen.
Finally one of my favorite songs of this week is Fuck Authority by Pennywise, this song has a great electric guitar and beat to it. The song came out in 2001 and I wish that I had had it on my playlist a while ago, but it is sitting happily in my main playlist. Pennywise makes hip-hop rap and rock music and they are just killing it. Their vocalist has a great voice for the genre and the sounds just sound great.
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