So NASA has a moon landing program called Artemis. This program is going to take the next group of Americans to the moon, including the first woman and person of color to ever go to the moon. Today, the Artemis rocket was rolled out onto the launchpad from the vehicle assembly building. In the coming days, the crew will practice loading and unloading fuel from the rocket and go through a full launch procedure known as the “wet rehearsal”. The first launch of this rocket will be uncrewed ahead of the crewed launch to the moon to bring the first astronauts to the moon since the 1960’s. When Artemis I launches in 2024 it will go farther than any human-rated spacecraft ever. It will go 40,000 miles past the moon carrying testing equipment and data measuring devices to see how humans will fare in the Artemis spacecraft. Once Artemis II launches it will carry humans on a 4-6 week journey to the moon and back.
Albert Camus, a philosopher, once said “accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful.” Camus is stating that there is meaninglessness in life, but we must accept that fact, and despite its meaninglessness we must not become depressed. The only real answer to the newfound meaninglessness is acceptance, and with the acceptance of lack of meaning one cannot become depressed or stressed. Every situation no matter how difficult or troublesome it may seem, becomes simple. All that is necessary is to simply live, it is not a necessary reaction to feel that the task is useless or difficult, because everything is useless regardless. Camus talks about the “Myth of Sisyphus,” a greek myth in which a king is condemned to roll a rock up a hill for eternity. Every time he pushes the boulder all the way up the hill it rolls down again, forcing Sisyphus to start over once again. Camus stated that if Sisyphus simply accepted his menial task as absurd and fatuous that the task would no longer have ay level of difficulty, all that is left for Sisyphus to do is to push the rock and live his life.
I have two other brothers, and they always did everything better than me; which I always feel so much pressure doing something with them. I always doubt my ability to do anything, like anything. I began the thought of I just can’t do it right. This year, I become a senior, ready for college. You have no idea how much pressure I have on myself. I don’t want to give up and go to random college, meantime, I still keep believing that there is a 1 percent possibility I can make something beautiful. A couple of weeks ago, Penn State needs a requirement of 120 scores for the English Language Proficiency. I spent my own money and took it almost twenty times, my highest score is 115 still couldn’t reach 120. Penn State can be an easy school that most everyone can get into. However, I’m still stuck in that dumb English test and couldn’t think of any way to improve it. Recently, most of the decisions came out, I got rejected by UIUC and LMU. I am not surprised at all because I know those types of good schools won’t accept me. Until this Tuesday, I got an email from Syracuse University. I just want to say, I think I’m dreaming right now. I got accepted! At that time, I told myself that I’m not that bad, not bad. Meanwhile, I’m so thankful that my brother and friends are there always supporting me. I just can’t believe it, really can’t. I can say I am really proud of myself, and I should love myself more.
Doesn’t matter if I’m in a relationship or not, sometimes when I went back to my room and lay down on my bed; I just felt so lonely. Have you ever felt that way? Did you ever feel that you have no one to rely on but yourself? Yourself is the only person who knows what you have been through, and knows what’s your feelings and emotions were in the worst situation. Every time I talk about my feelings with someone, they always say they understand what it feels like. However, that is not true, no one has been through something terrible like you do. They’re not you, they don’t know what your pains feel like. Everyone is busy with their own problem, which doesn’t have time to help you. At this point, you realize you are the only person left holding yourself up and keep walking every single day. I always told myself that it was just progress of becoming a stronger me, but it’s really lonely. Even I found the joy of being on myself, loneliness is still bothering me sometimes.
My golf game is in a perpetual cycle of shit. I haven’t had a great round in over a year, there is always something going wrong. When I am hitting fairways I am not hitting greens. When I am hitting greens and putting well I am missing fairways. When I am chipping and putting well I am hitting snap hook hosel rockets straight into the ground. Nothing ever goes right.
My driver must live in a state of constant fear due to the amount I fucking throw it. I am in a consistently unhappy angry mood on the golf course. Everything is too complicated, grips, swing length, swing plane, swing tempo, shot aim, wind, and lie all factor into one shot. I have decided to simplify the game.
Every golf practice since I have made the change, I begin by hitting 9 chip shots, iron shots for accuracy, iron shots for tempo, then woods and drivers for accuracy, then I finish with 30 minutes of gate putting to drill in my stroke and tempo. I also need to be sure to not overcomplicate swing changes, instead, I need to implement more subtle changes.
I have decided to really buckle down and focus on playing as well as I can and this practice regiment is hopefully what gets me there.
So we started boys volleyball recently. It first boys team at the school in like 20 years which is pretty cool. But honestly, I’m loving it. It’s so fun like genuinely and the games just don’t seem long enough. I’m a starter too which is really cool. We had two games this week, one against SCVI and one against Pilgrim school. We beat SCVI which is pretty cool because I don’t think we were really expecting to. But we played Pilgrim today and we definitely knew we would lose but we put up a good fight. It was honestly some of the best volleyball we’ve played ever. Which I guess isn’t saying a whole lot seeing as we’ve only been playing for a couple weeks but that’s beside the point. I got home and took my shoes off and my toes are literally bleeding from playing, that’s how hard we were trying. Pilgrim was definitely the better team though, but they have had a boys team for a long time. We genuinely were improving as we played the game and it was frickin awesome. We have two more games next week and I can’t wait to see how we do.
For many people anime is one of the genres of tv that they enjoy watching on a regular basis. For me, it’s the same, but I specifically like anime for the amount of variation of shows that are available to watch. For example, you could want to watch a sporty kind of show and throw on some Haikyu, an anime about volleyball and the main character’s struggles with succeeding. But if you aren’t feeling that and you want something more fantasy or like magic you could put on something like Konosuba or The Worlds Finest Assasin. These two take place in a world where the main character is reborn and has a goal to achieve that was set by a goddess at the beginning of the show. But hey maybe you prefer more romantic-type stuff and want to watch a heartwarming love story. If so then Toradora, A Silent Voice, or Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop are your thing, all are different takes on ways that love can come to be. For example, A Silent Voice is about a deaf girl that is bullied, and eventually, her bully falls in love with her when she gets older. Well if that’s not your vibe right now and you want to watch a dystopian future show then Sabuki Bisco or A Certain Magical Index are my two top picks. Sabuki Bisco is set in a world where a disease called Rust is running rampant with no cure. There is a group of people that use chemicals to grow mushrooms that can cure the rust but people think that they are terrorists because the mushrooms destroy stuff. Finally, if you are in the mood for blood and gore or horror then High Rise Invasion, Corpse Party, and The Future Diary are my picks for you. High Rise Invasion is about a world that was created to decide the next god amongst the people put in the world. There are people with masks that attempt to drive the people without masks to suicide by jumping off the highrises. All of these are examples of why I like anime, and that is the freedom to watch what I want when I want to and for there to always be something that will fit the genre I feel like watching.
My bag is simple black and white Nike duffel bag. There is nothing crazy special about it, my duffy is just bag that I’m constantly in. It has one big compartment with a mini interior pocket and a mesh pocket on the outside.
pc: travelmacedonia.net
Accessories
Mentos gum:
I chew gum while lifting. Chewing gum is an essential for my lifts, I prefer Mentos brand gum because the favor is immaculate and lasts for along time. Chewing gum helps me focus and stay locked in.
pc: amazon.com
Chapstick:
A chapstick-stick is an important item in my gym bag. I hate having chapped lips and especially in the gym so I’ll always apply a layer of chapstick prior to my lift.
pc: chapstick.com
Supplements:
Pre-workout:
I use Legion Pulse pre-workout and love it. This pre-workout has few ingredients and has a relatively balanced caffeine level. Legion Pulse is a pre-workout that does drag me through my workout, rather it gives me a little extra push through my lift.
pc: stack3d.com
Creatine:
I take Legion Recharge as my creatine supplement. Not too much to say about it, I take a scoop of it on a daily basis.
pc: amazon.com
Equipment:
Lifting Belt:
I use an all-black Gym Reapers belt. No complaints, it gets the job done. I wear it mostly during squats but will throw it on during deadlifts or if I do heavy barbell rows.
vc: me
Wrist wraps:
I rock the Ethos 18″ wrist wraps. I only use them on certain lifts like dumbbell bench press, dumbbell incline press, and dumbbell shoulder press. They provide stability and support in both my hands and wrists/arms.
pc: dickssportinggoods.com
Wrist Straps:
A recent addition to my gym bag that I absolutely love is my Gym Reapers wrist straps. I use these almost every day in the gym whether it’s for the upper body or legs I’ll use these straps daily.
Knee wraps:
The newest addition to my gym bag is my Gym Reapers knee wraps. I’ve only used these a couple times, I only use these when I squat heavy or if I load up plates on the leg press machine. These knee wraps provide security and safety to my knees and surrounding ligaments when doing a heavy exercise.
pc: gymreapers.com
Additional stuff:
Some other not-so-important items in my bag are resistance bands, cash, a water bottle, and a shaker bottle. These are all items I use but not as frequently as the items listed above.
This last weekend I went on a school trip to Mammoth Mountain, and I am learning to snowboard. On the first day of the trip, I did some pretty basic tricks and went on many runs including many greens and blues. The next day, I went to shred the park and learn how to do a couple of new tricks on a snowboard.
credit: Me
The first video was my third attempt at hitting a cannon. A cannon is a large cylinder that is slid on and can be done sideways or straight on. I opted for hitting it straight on as it is much easier than hitting it sideways or in a boardslide. Doing a cannon looks really easy and the only hard part of riding on the cannon is getting on it because some of them have a small gap in between the cannon and the jump onto it.
Credit: Me
The second video was a different cannon in the park that I hit after feeling much more comfortable on the cannons and my snowboard. I hit this obstacle with a little more speed and from a different angle than the previous cannon.
Credit: Me
Not every trick is a success at first and sometimes you fall, I’m planning on going back and destroying the rail. During spring break, I am going back up to June Mountain and my plan is to go to the park and destroy all the obstacles. I also might be getting my own snowboard soon, I am thinking about getting a Yes. board or a Signal board.
Credit: Ride Snowboards
I want a Board with a mix of park and all-mountain potential because I really enjoy hitting rails and then taking a break and going to some powder and hitting some groomers.
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