Recently, on my TikTok for You page, I’ve been getting a lot of videos about the guy called Clavicular, who looks maxes. He seems really scary, but he is kind of valid. He has done tons of injections, and something called bone smashing, where he hits himself in the face with a hammer, and I thought he was just really psychotic, but somehow everything he has done has juristically changed his appearance. The second he reached his “ascension”, which is reaching his prime, he blew up. He was kicked out of college because of his looksmaxing, and even though his life felt ruined in the moment, he became successful for looksmaxing. His career is just based on rating people and trying to get his rating up, but I’m lowkey really invested. His next part of his ascension is his double-jaw surgery, and I hope it goes well and that he doesn’t botch his face.
As the spring season arrives after the team’s defeat in the basketball playoffs, I will be joining both track and golf for this season. During this season, I will mainly go to track for practices and meets. As for golf, I will still be playing in the games and league finals for the team but not going to the golf practices as often this year. I am excited for this season since I haven’t trained for track for a while. Last year, the spring season didn’t feel as competitive because I only did golf. However, with the new coach this season, who broke the record in his college when he was still a student, plus who coached multiple All-American athletes who are now in D1, I am truly excited for the new coaching system and will finish this year strong. There will be 6 track meets this season. The first one will be held on the 7th of March. I am planning on being a sprinter and running 200 and 400. My goal is to run 100 meters and be the fastest on the team.
I just came back from the Death Valley camping trip. It was a backpacking trip that was 4 days and 3 nights. Overall, The trip was fun, except I was sick right before I hopped on the van to start the journey. On the first day, it was mostly travel. On the van ride, we each picked 3 songs and created a playlist; after around 1 hour, everyone was already asleep. We had 1 stop at the gas station throughout the whole ride. We got some snacks and hopped back in the van to continue the journey. The dinner was pasta, but I was sick; I couldn’t taste or smell it, so I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. It was around 5 degrees Celsius at night, which is around 36 degrees Fahrenheit. On the second day, we hiked with our day packs into this little valley. In the afternoon, we went to this crater from a volcano that had exploded billions of years ago. We played some spike ball inside, which was cool, but the hike back out of the crater was not it. Anyways, the temperature on the second night dropped to -5 degrees Celsius, which is 23 degrees Fahrenheit. On the third day, we backpacked a little without using vans or cars. I had the worst nosebleed on this day; it wouldn’t stop for around 1 hour. I used many tissues and paper towels to stop the blood. With the sickness, it was a terrible experience. However, now that I’m back from the trip. I would have enjoyed the journey more if I wasn’t sick. The views, from the sea salt flats to the rocks, valleys, mountains, and the stars, were unforgettable.
We had another soccer game and we finally won!! We played Nordhoff JV and we won 8-0. It feels great to win and I really do think our team played well. Pretty much all the people who usually stay on the bench got some time in the game which they typically do. I played defense the whole time and the ball only went onto our side of the field probably less than 5 times. We have another game on Saturday against Cate, which we will most likely lose. If this is the only game we win all year at least it felt good. I like playing defense but midfield is my favorite. Wish the rest of my team luck against Cate this weekend because they might get demolished. I wish I could be there to help the team but I’m also excited for my horse show. I also think if I were to go I would definitely get hurt and it would just suck to go all the way to Carp on a Saturday just to lose. PC:Google
During the one week break, I will leave school early to fly to New York. This morning, I woke up at 6 in the morning to finish packing the rest of clothes. My ride was booked at 7 in the morning. I had to wake up early since I had to finish laundry. Anyways, the main reason I have come to New York is to study for the SAT, since I only got 1000 to 1100 in the PSAT right now. My goal is to be getting at least 1450 by the end of this intensive training program. I met my english tutor when I was in 1st grade. He taught me english until 6th grade. He has started a company just for helping students with the SAT. He invited me last summer to join this program for this week. It is an eight-day program and it will start tomorrow, Saturday 8:50 in the morning. There will be other 7 people joining. Hopefully all goes well and I can get a better score on the SAT. The schedule for the rest of the 8 days is… starting at 9 in the morning the classes start and they end at 6:30 at night. I will be going to the gym after too to stay in shape for the upcoming basketball tournament right after the break.
A while back, I reviewed all the books I did for required reading in high school, and nearly all of the books in the “almost masterpiece” tier were from Ms. Whipple’s classes. I don’t know how she keeps getting away with this, but I’m adding Merchant of Venice to this tier. (The most I will say about Heart of Darkness is that I put it in the “I respectfully tolerate” tier.)
Before I read Merchant of Venice I actually thought I would put it in the “respectfully tolerate” tier, as I thought it would have aged too poorly for me to be invested in. My only exposure to it was a Jewish youtuber I liked using the play as the ultimate example of a poorly aged classic, so I feared the only thing I would find in it would be garden variety antisemitism.
Though after reading it I suppose I know why we’re learning about it. It’s true, parts of the character Shylock, the main Jewish character in the play, and especially the way other characters treat him that make me cringe. People call Shylock a dog and Lancelet, the most “love to hate” character in the play, outright says he should hang for his religion. But once I read about Lancelet tricking his blind dad into thinking he’s dead, just for the kicks of it, I began to wonder if my disgust towards the characters is meant to be the point.
All of the Christian “heroes” have unsavory qualities, even outside of their antisemitism. Portia mocks the men who want to marry her because they are foreign. Bassanio is a gambler and wannabe gold digger. And what most surprised me was how Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, sells her dead mother’s ring to buy a monkey. As a Jewish convert to Christianity, the other characters act like she is her father’s moral superior, but her actions only make the rest of the cast’s moral standards suspect.
At this point, I can’t help but wonder if Shakespeare was on the better side of history, that he really try to write Shylock as the most sympathetic character in a sea of terrible people. He has some of the best lines, many of which sufficiently call out the injustice of his world, and his villainous actions can’t hold a candle to many of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes. My bread and butter are works where nearly everyone are equally terrible people, as it makes the halfway decent ones stand out all the more. So I can’t help but find that Merchant of Venice scratches my itch, so into the Unofficial Whipple Tier it goes. I don’t think it’s quite on the level of works like Invisible Man, which are stories that I think anyone can get something out of it. I still get that youtuber’s discomfort with Merchant of Venice, so I’m not making this messy story required reading for all of humanity. For all my low expectations I still think it needs an inventive production to bear stomaching for modern audiences.
In this winter basketball season we will have 13 games, all away games. In recent practices we have been working on our offensive game plays. Coach has introduced us new plays such as Duke and Princeton. Duke is when the 1 calls for a high pick and roll on the court with the wings and 4 staying at their positions, 2 at the wings and 1 at the free throw line. Princeton is when the 1 will call Princeton high on the court with 4 players stacking from the left wing all the way to the right wing. It will require paying lots of attention during the games because Princeton can be used in different forms such as inside screen into an easy layup, or pass and cut to dish to the player on the top to get a wide open 3. However, with all these games finally scheduled we are still working on getting an indoor basketball gym to host 1 or 2 home games excluding CIF playoffs. This will be another exciting season with the new coach, new system, and new games. We are in hope of returning to playoffs this year.
Okay so I think I was right about soccer, riding and school being too much. I have been feeling so run down lately and I literally have no time to do anything. I also just sprained my ankle at soccer so now I might not be able to ride or do soccer but I’m pretty sure I still have to go to practices and just sit there. Hopefully that will make it easier for me to catch up on school. It is so weird because for the first month of school I felt like I had no work to do and now it feels like it just doesn’t stop. But if I don’t practice then I won’t be playing in our games next week and seriously hate just sitting and watching my team lose and not being able to help. I also have a feeling we’re going to get a lot of fouls because I don’t think most of the tema know how to do a throw-in or what offsides is. I’m praying we don’t get obliterated by nordoff.
I honestly don’t mind homework that much. I usually don’t make much of a point to do it either. It usually all just falls into place,but sometimes it ends up not working out which has already happened this year. I seriously despise breakfast club. It is so awful. Like I get it if you have a bunch of missing stuff or if you’re just not turning stuff in but if you get it in by the end of the week I don’t think you should have to go. This happened to me at the beginning of the year and I literally just watched tv the whole time. It really sucked for my mom too because she had weekend duty as well so she had to drive me up there at like 8 then drive me back at 9, then turn around and go back up. I’m so happy she didn’t make me stay. People complain about OVS a lot but I actually do think the way the classes are scheduled is helpful. I usually don’t have any homework once I get home because I’m able to just get it all done during the day. It’s definitely better than lower but I liked the schedule better last year.
At the end of my sophomore year, I had to choose my classes for junior year and I had 2 options. I could take normal classes probably have more free time and be less stressed or I could challenge myself to do AP classes, have barely any free time and a lot of stress. Me being the great decision-maker I am I choose to sign up for 5 AP classes. During the summer while I was working on summer assignments I quickly realized 5 APs would simply be to much. Knowing I would have my license and more freedom I didn’t want to spend all my time doing school work, so I dropped one. It is now the end of the first quarter and I’m doing great my social life is thriving and so is my academic life. There is a lingering fear in the back of my head that I will fall behind and my grades will drop but this hasn’t happened yet. I’ve been consistent in all my classes and I really do hope this continues. I have learned to have a positive attitude, even if I feel everything but positive. Changing my outlook on school has made doing my homework and studying so much easier. Today is Halloween and the first day of school I’ve missed all year which is very impressive as last year I missed way to much school.
OVS Journalism Blog 
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