Over the summer, I had one homework assignment for AP Psychology. It was to read Forty Studies That Changed Psychology and write two paragraph summaries for ten of the forty studies that caught my eye. In normal fashion, I read only ten of the studies and wrote the paragraphs the night before the due date. One of the studies that caught my eye was a study called Masculine or Feminine … or Both? that explored gender in psychology and proposed the idea that instead of masculinity and feminity being measured separately based on sex, they would be two variables on the same graph. Not only did this study introduce the idea of androgyny, but it also completely changed how psychologists studied gender.
The study was done by a professor who gave her students a list of positive attributes and asked her them which ones she felt were desirable to the opposite sex. This made it so that it strictly abided by gender norms in society. She then took the list and turned it into a test in which different attributes were listed with an “agree-disagree” spectrum with masc attributes contributing as negative variables and femme contributing as positive variables. She then made scoring guidelines: anyone -.05 or under was on the masc spectrum, anyone 0.5 or over was on the femme spectrum, and if the score ranged from -0.49-0.49, the person would then be considered “androgynous”.
In 1974, this was one of the most progressive gender studies in human history as it suggested that gender attributes weren’t exactly tied to sex. However, this study was done in 1974, not only have gender studies come a long way, but some of the research methods are outdated. For example, the attributes that are labeled “masculine” or “feminine” are only based on hetero-normativity and do not consider same-sex or other forms of attraction. Although it is likely a lot of the attributes will stay the same, some might change which is very important if something like this is to be measured. Then there’s the possibility that androgyny as a measurement of gender is outdated as well.
I’m not saying that we should all remove androgyny from our vocabularies altogether, as it is a good adjective for someone who has physical attributes of both sexes. What I do think, is that it limits psychological studies of gender as it still somewhat adheres to the idea that there are only two real classifications/identifications of gender. Realistically, a study such as this is really more useless than anything. In today’s world, there are so many gender identifications such as non-binary that completely exclude masculinity and femininity altogether. It might even be better to exclude gender identification in psychology altogether as it is extremely difficult to study something that has an actively growing number of variables.
Recently there have been some games that have been released or partially released to those who pre-ordered them. Some of the primary games in this category are Call of Duty Vanguard and Battlefield 2042. There are some other games that have come out recently but these are the big two in my personal opinion.
(these are in no particular order of how much I like the game)
First off is Call of Duty Vanguard, this game is a classic Cod (Cod is call of duty for short) it has the basic ideas that show up in most Cods. These characteristics include similar game modes and attachment addons. Gamemodes are as follows Free for all, team deathmatch, capture point, and search and destroy. I look at most Cods as of recently is the Developers just gave the previous game a new coat of paint and called it good, making it not one of my top choices for games.
Image Credit: Forbes
The next game I want to talk about is Battlefield 2042. Battlefield is a first-person shooter or fps for short like Cod but it has its own unique quirks and game modes. To start Battlefield has 3 primary game modes, one is called conquest, in this game mode, you and your team are tasked with controlling as many points on the map as possible while the enemy has the exact same goal making it a fight to the death over point control. The second is called Breakthrough, in this game mode, you and your team have to take points in a consecutive order making your way through the map, because of the points needing to be taken in a certain order it creates more of a centered combat area as opposed to Conquest where it’s just everyone running around. The final game mode is called Hazard zone and it is quite the new idea for the Battlefield franchise. In Hazard zone, you and your team of four are dropped somewhere on the map and are tasked with collecting data drives and extracting via a helicopter to earn in-game currency. Overall Battlefield is built to withstand the abuse that players with put it through because of this it is not made once a year like Call of Duty making the Battlefield games feel more polished.
So ya boi was driving to get lunch during his robotics meet, and basically he slid out and hit a pole. He all good tho so like we chillin but the car is not chillin. There was a lot of oil and transmission fluid leaking and power steering fluid all over the place. But it might not be super bad because the side that hit the pole is the one with all the fluid tanks so I guess we’ll see.
Technically the computer isn’t in my backpack (because I’m typing on it currently) but I packed it this morning so it counts. I have a either 2017 or 2018 (not sure) MacBook Air and it’s covered in stickers. My charger is also in my backpack. It’s the old kind that attaches magnetically and it’s kinda wide.
I always have my main binder in my backpack because I keep most of my papers in there. I have dividers for each subject and an extra for my English essays. The binder is green and it’s like 2 inches thick I think.
My Spanish Binder
I have a separate binder for Spanish because my teacher requires it. It’s purple and an inch and a half thick.
My Subject Notebooks
The academic classes I have today are journalism, math, and Spanish. I also have my chemistry notebook because I’m gonna do the homework during my study hall. My journalism notebook is purple, my math one is orange, my Spanish one is blue, and my chemistry one is yellow. I’m aware that my color choices might be controversial. Honestly, I just randomly assigned the colors at the beginning of the year. I kinda regret that choice now, but I deal with it.
My Pencil Pouch
My beloved pencil pouch has seen all of high school with me. One of my mom’s friends gave it to me in eighth grade. I keep a phone charger, hand lotion, chapstick, pencil lead, a fidget toy that’s a stick with glitter in it, a bit of trash, a Sharpie, an eraser, several black pens, lots of colored pens, a few highlighters, and my one favorite mechanical pencil in it. It’s pretty nifty.
My Glasses
I have reading glasses that are blue-light blockers. The frames are dark blue and white. They’re RayBan.
I always bring some manga with me if I know I have a free block or study hall and don’t have a ton of work to do. I’m working on volumes 7 and 24 right now. I have about 11 My Hero Academia manga and these are the last two I haven’t finished yet. I’m looking forward to getting more manga for Christmas.
My trusty TI-84 Plus CE always stays in my backpack. I’ve had it since last year. It’s the rose gold edition.
Here’s a random picture I found of the same kind of calculator I have.
Tissues
I have tissues in my backpack because you never know what could go down at school. By that I mean getting a nosebleed or having a bad allergy day.
Some Candy That’s Literally Over Two Months Old
I’m not kidding. I have several packs of M&Ms from the first day of school when all the students got candy thrown at them. I wonder if they’re still intact or if they’ve melted and re-solidified too many times for them to be recognizable.
Some #2 Non-Mechanical Pencils
You never know if you’ll completely forget that you have a huge standardized test, so I have some #2 non-mechanical pencils just in case. I’m always ready to take a PSAT.
A Dinosaur Pop It
He’s a T-Rex and he’s rainbow colored. I got him in France over the summer for like €5. Pretty good deal. He’s very precious to me.
My Rescue Inhaler
I have asthma so I carry a rescue inhaler with me just in case. It’s the blue kind.
A Little Bag of Crystals
Gotta keep the vibes good.
My Afternoon Medication
I take the quick release for my ADHD meds around 2pm. I keep the pill in a little pill holder I got in Barcelona. It has a Gaudí lizard on it.
An Extra Mask
Just in case.
My AirPods
So I don’t get bored during my free block or have to be the person listening to the assignment out loud. They have a turquoise case.
A Cliff Bar
I get hungry sometimes. I like the original chocolate chip kind.
A Pair of Earrings – I Was Wondering Where Those Were
While checking my backpack to make sure I didn’t miss anything, I found my India agate crystal earrings. I haven’t seen those for a few weeks now. Glad I know where they are now.
They’re shaped like this except they’re earrings and they’re dark green.
For this week’s blog, I’m going to discuss my take on the animals I could fight and win, but I like Pokemon and so I’m going to talk about the Pokemon I could beat in a fight. These are just fictional animals and they can use special attacks, I’m just going to set the baseline as just treating them like an animal fighting me not something that can blow me up (for obvious reasons).
To begin, let’s start with an obvious win, Klefki.
This is Klefki, its a sentient set of keys that floats. I’ll lead off with the fact that it’s a key chain what is it gonna do, if I had to fight it I’d just grab it by the keyring and shake it around like a ragdoll. This is an obvious win for me 100% of the time.
Next is a so so win-loss ratio
This is Ditto it’s a Pokemon that can morph into anything it sees, so for example it could morph into me and have the same “stats” as myself. The reason this is a toss-up for a win or a loss is that it can turn into me, I just don’t know if I would win in a fight against myself or if it would even turn into me and create me vs me situation. I’m going to give this a 50-50 chance that I would win.Next is Darmanitan its a fire Pokemon that is 4’3″ so it’s shorter than me but it weighs 204 lb so it’s much heavier than me. I see this fight as a 100% loss for me as it is a giant fire gorilla that could definitely kick my ass in a fight. My tactic for this fight would be to attempt to get it to hurt itself but I really doubt that I could dodge this thing. Second, to last is one of my favorite pokemon Marshadow, this Pokemon is a ghost fighting type. This Pokemon would kick my ass about 70% of the time because it is a ghost, the other 30% of the time I could totally beat it because it’s only 2’4″ tall and it weighs 48 lb. In the situation that I am able to make contact with it, I’d just punt the little thing as hard as I could launching it into space like team rocket (example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib084tzN8H0 – credit: Quilifai on youtube). In the event where I go to kick it and my foot goes straight through it, I’m quite so fucked like there is nothing that I can do at all, that’s my reasoning for my win-loss ratio.
Finally Zoroark, this Pokemon comes in at 5’3″ and weighs 178 lb, and is known as the illusion Pokemon. Personally, I look at this fight as a toss-up because I think that I might be able to beat this Pokemon by just straight-up fighting it. I feel like its size and weight puts it in a lower weight class than me making this one pretty even. I do think that the size of these Pokemons arms is quite lacking compared to mine. Im going to give this fight a 50% win-loss ratio.
I really, really love opossums. They’re smart, unique, friendly, and adorable. Here’s some cool facts about them.
They are the only marsupial that isn’t native to Australia.
Opossums are marsupials, which means they’re a subspecies of mammal that carry their embryo out to term in a pouch on their belly. The most commonly known marsupial is probably the kangaroo. Opossums aren’t much like kangaroos, but they also carry their joeys – a litter of which can contain up to 20 babies – in a pouch and then on their back until the joeys are ready to live by themselves.
There are several species of opossums, all of which are native to the Americas. They range all the way from South America to Canada.
Much like apes, humans, raccoons, and some other species of animals, opossums have opposable thumbs. This means they have a fifth finger on the side of their paw that allows them to grasp objects and handle them in a way most that other animals can’t. Opossums usually don’t use this advantage for evil, though. Raccoons, on the other hand (pun not intended), will use their opposable thumbs to get into storage bins, to open trash cans, to unscrew lids of containers, to open doors, and other nefarious things. Opossums are much kinder than raccoons. Plus, it’s unbelievable cute when they hold things in their tiny hands.
Prehensile tails are a trademark feature of monkeys, but opossums have them too. They use their tails to hold onto thin surfaces better, to climb, to hang from branches, and to balance them as they walk. Their tails look a lot like the tails of rats, but there are muscles in their tails that allow them to use them much better than rats can. I, personally, think that their crusty, scaly tails are super cute.
They are omnivores, but don’t hunt mammals(except for mice).
Opossums are omnivores, which means they eat meat and plants. However, unlike most meat-eating animals, they don’t hunt almost any live mammals as their prey. Opossums usually scavenge food from unlocked dumpsters, left out pet food, or road kill. The only live prey that they consume are worms, bugs, mice, and sometimes smaller birds or snakes. If they are really starving, they might go after a larger target like a chicken, but this is very uncommon.
“Playing possum” is a popular expression for pretending to be dead or asleep. Opossums have an flight instinct that causes them to fall to the ground, loll their tongue, un-focus their eyes, and pretend to have died when confronted by predators that they can’t easily escape. They won’t get up even if they’re jostled around. It’s pretty cute. To humans, it just looks like the opossum is having the best nap of its life.
They like to play dress-up.
This fact isn’t scientifically verified, but look at these guys! They sure do look like they’re having fun. They look adorable, too. So stylish.
Sometimes opossums look like they just tripped and fell in front of the popular kids and the popular kids all saw their Paw Patrol lunchbox fall out of their backpack. It’s like my favorite thing. Look at this little guy.
(Photo credit to @gladysopossum on Instagram)
All in all, opossums are pretty cool little animals. If you see one near your house, don’t bother it or hurt it. They’re non-threatening creatures and it’s just living its life. If you can legally rehabilitate opossums or care for disabled ones as pets, definitely do. They’re sweet little guys. I love them so much.
So my friend and I decided to make a Minecraft server for some school friends.
Photo credit: Google Play
It’s going pretty well except that I cant seem to figure out how to give people permission to do certain things. and some kid accidentally destroyed my villager trading hall. Anyway its pretty cool cause like I just log on and chill. It’s a really good de-stressor after work or school or a particularly bad conversation about some dumb drama or another such emotional topic. I love Minecraft its frickin sick like actually, it’s so nice to have. I know I sound like a nerd but I actually love it. It is so fun and it is just a distraction from everything thats going on you know. I don’t have to sit there with my own thoughts. Anyway, Minecraft is awesome.
So basically after soccer practice the last couple of days; Eugene, Logan, Ben, and Emanuel have been making dumb TikToks. They’re pretty cool, we tried to post one where the camera followed Ben into the bathroom and he started dapping everyone up, except everyone was in weird spots, like Caleb was in the weird corner spot where everyone throws their smelly sh*t, Emanuel was on top of the lockers, I was in a stall barefoot and morgan was “peeing” with his pants at his ankles. Unfortunately, TikTok took it down for violating community guidelines, so the next day we did it again but morgan had his pants on. Anyway, u should follow TikTok the username is ‘lemmelineuupbud” there’s a bunch of videos on there one even has like 20,000 views.
I’m going to a Glass Animals concert soon because they’re my favorite band, so here are my favorite Glass Animals songs. They’re a great band, and if you don’t know them you should definitely listen to them.
Content warning: talk of drugs, self-destructive behavior, mental illness, suicide, sex, pedophilia, and other mature themes
Also a disclaimer- my favorite album by them is How To Be A Human Being so most of these will be from that album. This album explores the stories of 11 characters (some based on real people) in the 11 songs on the track. The album cover shows every person who’s story is told. The album is seriously amazing, both sound-wise and because of the story behind it.
Number 5- Agnesfrom How To Be A Human Being
Agnes is such a beautiful and bittersweet song that I can’t help but put it in my top five. The song is about a woman named Agnes who is struggling to cope with addiction and mental health issues. It is told from the perspective of someone who is presumably very close with her. It’s a meaningful song for people who have watched a friend – or even themselves – be lost to their self-destructive tendencies. The song ends with the narrator implying that Agnes has committed suicide, which is fitting because it’s the last song on the album.
Lines from the song that hit especially hard are, “I want to hold you like you’re mine,” and, “You’re gone but you’re on my mind; I’m lost but I don’t know why.” The first line implies that the narrator might be in love with Agnes but never got the chance to act on his feelings because she killed herself. The second line makes the concept of suicide feel more real for people who have never had someone close to them commit suicide or attempt to. It also gives perspective for suicidal people that people care about them and they have so much to live for.
The narrator of Agnes is pictured in the center of the album cover on all three covers. He is either holding a camera up over his face, looking straight ahead, or holding his hands over his face. He faces forward in each album cover whereas every other character has their back turned on one version of the cover.
Number 4- Poplar Stfrom How To Be A Human Being
Poplar St is told from the perspective of a boy who lived on the street the song is named after. He starts off talking about his childhood living on Poplar St and how he would climb trees and scrape his knees. He mentions that he saw a woman named Mrs. Moore having sex with one of his other neighbors. Since she uses the prefix “Mrs.” it’s likely that Mrs. Moore was having an affair.
In the next verse, the narrator says that his mom never liked Mrs. Moore and thought she looked like a prostitute because of the clothes and makeup she wore. It’s assumed that the narrator has aged and hit puberty because he then says that Mrs. Moore seduced him and brought him to her house to have sex with him. This reveals the true nature of Mrs. Moore that was hinted at in the first verse. She’s a predatory woman who uses men – or even teenage boys – for sex.
The first line of the chorus makes sense now- “I feel like a new man.” The narrator is only a teenager, but he feels like a mature because he has a relationship with an adult woman. He is driven by hormones and doesn’t realize that what he is doing is completely wrong.
In the last verse, he says, “Just another boy who lived on Poplar St; tangled up in lust and her exotic needs.” He isn’t the only teenager who was a victim of Mrs. Moore’s pedophillic actions. He then says that Mrs. Moore called collect (which is charging the calling fee to the person who you call, so he had to pay the fee) and broke up with him over the phone.
Mrs. Moore is on the right side of every album cover. She wears a white dress and sometimes sunglasses.
Number 3- Heat Waves from Dreamland
Heat Waves has been Glass Animals’ top hit since it came out, and for good reason. It’s a great song that has addictive sounds and meaningful lyrics. It’s stated by the band on the storyline feature of Spotify that the song is about noticing that you’ve changed from who you used to be and that an important relationship in your life has been ruined by who you’ve become. This hits home for me because I’ve definitely had points where I realize that I’m a different person and that I can’t go back to what used to be. I’ve also seen it happen to my close friends where they drift away because they’ve become someone who isn’t compatible with me.
The line “Sometimes all I think about is you” makes me think about myself before my ADHD started to really impact my life. Everything got harder around the time I hit puberty because of the new mix of hormones interacting with my ADHD. Sometimes I think about where I would be if I didn’t have ADHD, but then I realize that I am who I am because of my ADHD. My favorite things come from my hyperfixations, my personality from my symptoms, and my mannerisms from mimicking the people around me. It’s a lot to deal with sometimes, and I feel like this song encapsulates my own struggle even if it’s not specifically about my situation.
Number 2- The Other Side Of Paradise from How To Be A Human Being
This song is my favorite solely because of the music behind the lyrics. It’s mentally stimulating to listen to, especially with the volume all the way up and the bass boosted. It’s catchy, fun, and kinda gives me an adrenaline rush if I’m being honest. The story behind it is cool too, but honestly the instrumental is my favorite part of it.
The Other Side Of Paradise was their top hit before Heat Waves came out. It was definitely my favorite song by them at one point. I love to listen to it when I’m writing fighting scenes because I think of choreography while listening to the song and then translate it into words.
The story of the song is about a man who leaves his girlfriend to become a professional basketball player and ends up becoming a totally different person than the person she had been dating. The girlfriend is the narrator. The character of the basketball player is pictured in the center behind everyone else. He is either spinning a basketball on his finger or holding the basketball in every cover.
Number 1- Season 2 Episode 3from How To Be A Human Being
This was actually the song that got me into the band. I heard it on TikTok and immediately searched the lyrics to figure out what song it was. I listened to it alone for a few months, then decided to check out the other songs in the album. The rest is history.
This is another song that I love because of the music. Glass Animals has great percussion in all of their songs, but this one definitely is the best. The vocals are super good too, though.
The story is about a girl who’s has a marijuana addiction. It’s told by someone who is presumably her partner. They talk about how she can’t seem to get off the couch, is always high, and isn’t prioritizing their relationship anymore. They say, “So it hurts to say it’s hopeless; and we ain’t gonna make it.” Her partner is planning on leaving her because of her dependency on marijuana to get through the day and inability to live without it. It’s a message about the ways drugs can change people for the worse, like a few other songs on the album.
The girl being described in the song is in the bottom left corner of the album cover. She wears a blue sweater and has a small gaming device in every cover, which is a reference to the style of the music video.
Those are my favorite Glass Animals songs. It was hard to choose rankings for them. I’m really excited to see them live.
Update from after I saw the concert: it was SO GOOD. They’re amazing in person and so passionate about what they do. I love Dave so much.
A few nights ago I decided to watch Fight Club. For a while, I had put watching Fight Club off because of all the hype, I had heard a lot about it and I didn’t really understand why there was so much fuss over a movie about people who fight each other. However, whilst watching a Netflix Special about cliches in movies, and the bomb scene from Fight Club was featured. I was a little confused having scene that since I couldn’t really connect people fighting with a bomb scene that looked like it was from Mission Impossible, but I was intrigued.
The movie begins with a slow burn. The first few scenes just introduce the main character, he’s really nothing special just a slightly nerdy white guy with mundane life and a mundane job. So mundane in fact that he begins to develop a major insomnia problem. As it gets worse, he begins to attend various support groups as it helps him cry and therefore actually get some sleep. At this point, I’m thinking to myself How the hell does this turn into a bunch of guys fighting. When his support group sessions get invaded by another faker, he quits. Instead, he takes up random one-time interactions on the plane as a form of therapy. On one of these flights, he meets Tyler, a young, attractive, charismatic, and interesting guy who makes soap for a living.
Although Tyler clearly is more interesting than the main character, they both share the same problem: their lives are extremely boring. They start the Fight Club, as the Fight Club grows, it gains massive traction, Tyler spreads it from city to city and basically becomes the god of people with mundane lives. His influence over them becomes so strong in fact, that he convinces them to become terrorists. They burn a smiley face into a building and even blow up multiple financial headquarters to erase people’s debt. The main character freaks out. He had no involvement in the terrorism, just the Fight Club but he knew that Tyler had dragged him into committing one of the most serious crimes.
In a final confrontation with Tyler, the main character begins to realize that he has been Tyler this whole time. Tyler was a figment of his imagination created by his insurmountable insomnia that represented everything he wanted to be in life. He was Tyler and even was so delusional that he sometimes pictured himself watching what Tyler was doing. I had begun to suspect that the main character’s insomnia had something to do with it because the plot was getting so bizarre that some of this had to be hallucinated. However, I kind of believe that this was one of those Usual Suspects type movies in which the viewers are meant to catch on earlier than the characters but still feel uncertain because of how off the rails the movie was before.
These types of movies are my absolute favorites. Much like No Country For Old Men or Momento, for most of the movie, I could not figure where this movie was going, and as the movie progressed, the plot spiraled further and further into its own insanity, and by the end, you don’t really know what to feel because you’re still trying to figure out what the hell you just watched. I’m still thinking about a lot of what happened in that movie, and some of it still perplexes me a little, but I am certain that it was one of the best movies I’ve seen in months, and it’s definitely about a little more than just guys who fight each other.
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