Category: journalism

Stuff having to do with the world of journalism.

Poop Maps

udarsh318Leave a comment

It’s march again, and since last year we have been running a poop maps league. Basically, “poop maps” is an app where you log your poops and it keeps track of them, and then of course you can make a group of poopers and it counts all the poops you’ve made since you joined the group. So this marks the second annual poop maps competition.

Last year, I think Adam won the poop maps league, his in-game username is “prunesensei” referring to a very hard dry poop. The usernames themselves are just as funny as the whole poop league competition. Mine’s “thepoojeww” Logan’s is “dunmper_daddy” and of course, there’s “emanuelzagatalogabson”. This year I’m hoping to make it in the top 5. I don’t think winning is gonna be possible this year as Ben has about six poops in one day, and if he keeps that pace up he’s projected to hit 180 poops this month, which is just a crazy number.

Anyway, I’ll keep you all updated as the competition moves forward.

Poop Map - Apps on Google Play
Credit: play.google.com/poopmaps

Journalism Showdown

bartholomulethegreatLeave a comment

Two weeks from now, the Journalism class at my school will be participating in a smash tournament amongst the class. For my blog this week I will be giving a prediction based on how I think the skill of my classmates is in smash.

For those of you readers that don’t know what Super Smash Bros Ultimate is, it is a game that consists of fighters trying to stay on top of a platform. Characters have a bunch of different attacks these include a neutral smash, a side smash, up smash, and a down smash on top of these attacks there are the same directions but with a light attack. Heavy attacks do more damage at the cost that they leave an opening at the end of the attack for the opponent to take advantage of.

The ordering of placements will go like this (I’m not going to use their names for privacy I will use their initials)

The list goes from first to last

  • E.H.
  • N.J.
  • A.K.
  • C.C.
  • H.L.
  • Z.D.
  • S.H.
  • B.M.
  • E.S.

Wildcards: Z.Z., C.H., F.A.

E.H. Has the game and plays it a lot, so I trust his skill.

N.J. plays with E.H. a lot and supposedly is very good, so he makes the number two spot.

C.C. recently got the game and had been playing it a lot.

H.L. plays smash on her brother’s switch in preparation for the tourney.

Z.D. hasn’t played a lot of Smash but has a lot of prior game knowledge.

A.K. plays games to my knowledge but I don’t know how much, I just know how good others are.

B.M. plays Madden so he knows how to strategies, so I think he’ll do pretty well.

E.S. doesn’t play games and when she did it was quite disappointing.

F.A. I’ve never seen him play a videogame ever he says he knows how, though, so he’s gonna be a wildcard.

Z.Z. is a bit of a mystery to me because I have no clue of her videogame knowledge, so I put her at the bottom but she is a bit of a wildcard.

C.H. confuses me because I don’t know if he plays videogames, so he’s another wildcard.

Credit: Demon Gaming

Traveling Sucks the Life Out of Me

treefroggyLeave a comment

I’ve been traveling a lot recently, and it’s just reminded me how terrible traveling is for me. I really can’t ever travel healthily. It always ends up with me needing days to recover and feeling completely out of it both mentally and physically.

Mostly I hate flying on planes. The altitude really affects my ears, so I’m popping them for even weeks after I fly sometimes. Not even eating something or chewing gum helps. I have to be wearing the special pressurized earplugs and chewing gum to even feel somewhat okay when the plane takes off or lands.

Besides my ears hurting a ton, I get super swollen from flying. My fingers get too big for my rings to fit on them and my feet swell up so I have to loosen my shoeslaces a ton for them to fit into my shoes. Probably because I don’t drink enough water, but I lose my appetite and feel sick when I eat or drink anything when I fly, so I can’t really force myself to drink. Also, nobody likes going to the bathroom on planes. I avoid it if I can.

photo credit: tibco.com

When I get to my destination, I’m always so exhausted that I can barely even remember the events that happened when I look back on the memory. I get overwhelmed so easily when I travel that I’m on the edge of having a meltdown. It’s not super fun to go through a ton of pain just to forget why I was even there and only remember being agitated.

When I get back home, I need several business days to rest before I really feel like myself again. It takes a long time for my body to readjust to being home, but it takes my mind even longer. I have super realistic dreams every time I sleep, and when I’ve just traveled they’re even worse because I wake up and don’t even know where I am. It’s hard for the fact that I’m home to register in my brain, and I’m still in fight or flight mode from the new environments freaking me out, so I just end up in a terrible mental state for a week or two after traveling for even just two days.

Needless to say, I need a good few months of being strictly at home again. Honestly, that was one part of lockdown that I didn’t mind- I didn’t get to travel anywhere.

Talking About Confidence

ojaipizzaLeave a comment

I’m not a very confident person, but I can say I’m pretty humble. I started to realize that the people around me always show off something they feel so proud of. There is nothing wrong to show others your success, but how they show their success will affect me looking at this person’s personality. I always don’t like the person who always thinks they are so cool or they just think how good they are at some area. I always feel so disgusted. For example, one of my friends from Taiwan he keep doing some gang signs because he watched some people doing it on TikTok. He just keeps doing it even he doesn’t know what that means. He just thinks he is so cool doing that, and keep doing the same thing over and over again. I mean I also do gang signs as a joke with my friends sometimes but I don’t know how he can do that every day. Speaking of being humble, I’m good at swimming and I also do it for my previous school team. At the swim races in Taiwan, I also broke the record, and be the fastest swimmer in the race. However, I never tell others how good I am at swimming or do some actions to get the attention of others just to get respect or admiration. I still respect those people who are overconfident, but I just don’t like it that’s all. What do you think?

Photo Credit: Overconfidence

MeditatingAF

navraj22Leave a comment

Mondays are stressful. I wake up in my comfortable room in my house in LA. I throw all my stuff into a bag, inevitably forgetting something important. This week it was my Xbox. I then jam my various bags of shit into my truck and go straight to school. This week, when I got to school I was blessed to learn I have 3 tests on Friday, and that the 3 English essays I was supposed to be working on were also due Friday. It was also the first day of golf practice. I have blogged on end about the irony in the fact that golf, my leisure activity, doesn’t give me anything but stress.

I made it through the school day and found myself at golf practice, with a deeeeeeeeeep pit of anxiety forming in my gut. I couldn’t focus on playing and left halfway through practice. I had a talk with my friend schmogan (real navraj22 fans will get it) before I left practice about how he has used meditation to feel more in control of his life. When I got home, I was greeted with more stress. I had to entertain my grandparent’s questions they ask every day, “when do you hear from colleges,” “are you warm back there,” “did you have enough to eat.” It’s so annoying. That’s a story for another blog.

Anyways, that night, I did my homework, (none of those things due Friday though), and practiced meditation for the first time. I am using Calm, an app, with a 30-day introductory course. I am on day 4 and it’s going so well. I have been able to manage my stress so much better, and have felt like I am more in control. I got all my English stuff done early in the week and my Friday has been great. I just bombed 2/3 of those tests, but I’m not worried.

Big-up meditation yo.

PC:NPR

Snowboarding

udarsh318Leave a comment

So, personally, I love snowboarding, I’ve been doing it for like 9 or 10 years I think. I learned at Mt Bachelor in Oregon which, is a pretty cool mountain if you ask me. It’s got some pretty sick runs and the summit is super sick. Honestly, the best mountain to snowboard on, way better than Mammoth. Mammoth is pretty solid though, I gotta say. Snowboarding is one of the best sports out there, everyone should try it, except maybe Ella, she’d be horrible. Anyway, there’s a lot you can do too. Like the jumps and stuff, so sick. And when there’s a lot of powder it’s like floating in the air. It’s so cool, you like don’t even feel the snow. Anyway go try it, except Ella, she’d be bad.

Mt. Bachelor Ski Area, Terrain, Snow, Ratings
Photo Credit- powderhounds.com

My Chatty Self

bartholomulethegreatLeave a comment

I talk a lot, as many of my fellow journalists and my teachers know. I am quite the talker in most circumstances. During class, I used to consistently be sent outside for being a disturbance for talking in class. But somewhat recently I have learned to control my outbursts of vocal engagement. For example, recently the OVS journalist participated in THE ONE CHIP CHALLENGE, where three of the journalists ate chips that were very spicy. There were many times when I wanted to comment on what was happening, but I was able to make myself just shut up for the duration of the filming of the event. I find that I will speak without thinking and say something stupid that I don’t mean. People don’t realize that about me until they get to know me. I have made great strides in not speaking in class and even just being more of a quiet person in general. I hope that I continue on this path and it allows me to not be as intrusive to the class time.

Credit: Dreamstine.com

Grading NBA trades

im6footLeave a comment

The Unicorn heads to the nation’s capital:

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.

pc: theathletic.com

Death of the ISS

udarsh318Leave a comment

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.

International Space Station | NASA

PC: NASA. gov

My Bottom 3 Animes

cannassuerLeave a comment

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.

Photo Credit: https://occ-0-2794-2219.1.nflxso.net/dnm/api/v6/E8vDc_W8CLv7-yMQu8KMEC7Rrr8/AAAABUS0tODygRPvN6Ekv8edM7fDKBMYR0-ZnptNi6Oo8O4dDaOg7yfpGQMdi-COGkltQqoNq5e5g4mS43KiuLPGev2c3MfO.jpg?r=48d

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.

Photo Credit: https://gritdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/netmarble_seven-deadly-sins-grand-cross.jpg

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.

Photo Credit: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7rbRiDTq4OY/maxresdefault.jpg