This week's Photo: 

My Weekend

Presidential Updates

Written by: Seah Dalisay 9th

Another leap year, Another election year. CNN claims, “America and the world could look glaringly different by January 1, 2025, depending on the outcome of a momentous crush of conflicts, pivotal global elections, and geopolitical forces that will create critical moments in the year ahead.” 

On July 13, 2024, a failed assassination of Former President Donald Trump was made by shooter Ethan Crumbley at a Republican rally in Pennsylvania. Ethan Crumbley visited many websites on how to build explosions before the attempted assassination date. President Biden later expressed his concern toward the Former President and said, “No place for this kind of violence in America. It’s sick. It’s sick… I plan on talking to him shortly, I hope,” He added "I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information…every agency in the federal government” is investigating the matter and providing him reports. 

The incident follows the event of President Joe Biden dropping out of the election race. He then admitted to being pressured out by democratic colleges claiming he was too old and frail to defeat former President Donald J. Trump. After President Biden’s decision, Vice President Kamala Harris quickly took his spot in the election run. She established herself as a Democratic front-runner to take on Donald Trump within hours after President Biden's exit on Sunday, July 21, 2024.

Vice President Harris received an extensive amount of support from the Democratic party and many celebrities, including her family, after announcing her candidacy, and based on the late-July poll, 79% of Democratic parties are satisfied with her candidacy. 

On September 10, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Trump face off with a debate…

Vice President Kamala Harris started the debate with a handshake to the Former President followed by saying, “Let's have a good debate.” Former President Trump continued to debate with the accusation that “dangerous, undocumented immigrants are eating dogs and cats.” The former president then proceeds to tie Vice President Kamala Harris to President Biden for the rest of the debate. She quickly said, “You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me.” The former President and VP continued to answer the questions given while firing back at each other. At the end of the debate, Former President Trump said, “All I do is tell the truth. To tell the truth. If I lose votes or gain votes, I don’t care. But this was my best debate. I thought it was very good. I’m very happy. I think we did great. I felt I won by a lot.”

Both candidates continue to endorse their campaigning and get lots of support from both parties. By January 2025 we will discover our new president for the next 4 years. Will we have our first female president of the United States, Kamala Harris? Or will we have our Former President Donald Trump again? Just like CNN claims, the result of the ballot could make America and the world “glaringly” different.

Connections

How to play:

• Find 4 groups of 4 words

• Each group contains 4 words that are connected by category

For Example:

Pocket / Wallet / Purse / Bank → Places to put your money in. 

Snow / Base / Foul / Winners → ____ Ball.

• The categories of each group will be more complex, it will not be something like “Adjectives”, “Words”, “4-Letter Words”, or “Contains a vowel”.

• Each category varies in difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard, Very Hard.  

• Click on 4 words and hit “submit” to see if it is a category.

• Feel free to reset the game if you lose. Have fun!

Created by: William Espiritu 10th

Check out more of our Customized Connections

 Here !

School Update

Spirit Week - This week (9/16) - (5/20)

This Week's Features!

It's Called a "Lunch Line"

Written by: Eric Dang 11th

It's every day that students like myself are sitting in class, tired and bored, in a room that's always too hot, or too cold. No seriously, why are the rooms so cold. When in the midst of our prayers to go home, a heavenly chime plays from overhead: the lunch bell.

Everyone rushes out the door, some claim tables, some microwave their food, while others line up like ants to get their lunch. Yet unlike ants, who are able to keep themselves in a single file line, we appear to be incapable of doing so. Even as a species that is known for its intelligence, and I know, I have practiced being in a line since middle school, so many of us seem to let go of our manners as if returning to the wild, and rush to the head of the line. This could be seen in the forms of vigorously dashing to P25, speeding and weaving through people similar to being in a relay race, or perhaps even cutting in front of others in order to get your meal first. Truly such fascinating and innovative ways of getting to lunch faster. I commend you for your devotion to ending hunger, even if it's just yours and not the world’s hunger.

Not being at the front of the line would lead to good food choices being taken. Although, I'm not very sure if the options can be considered "good". In fact, I'm not sure whether some of the items even look edible, therefore everyone should make sure they cut in line without exercising caution. Plus, if we cut in front of our friends, it just allows us to bond further. Clearly, cutting like brutes is the way to go. Similar to how in the wild, the early bird gets the worm, we need to keep embodying this phrase.

For those of you who don't partake, and could care less about your placement in the lunch line, I strongly urge you to follow in the footsteps of your peers. If you're still reluctant, stay back and watch the free safari excursion, featuring nature's most entertaining creation: Humans! As we move on with the school year, I hope you all stay safe and don't get trampled by a herd of hungry students.

(Disclaimer: This article is satire, please don’t come after me)

What makes a classic film a classic nowadays? Is it the famous cast of faces involved in the creation of the film? The creative design of the costumes and backgrounds? Or is it perhaps the spectacular musical soundtrack that gets composed for them? Films such as Casper and Ghostbusters are considered classics by many filmgoers these days for all of the above, from Bill Murray’s praised performance portraying Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters to the faithfulness that Casper kept to when portraying the title character himself. The original Beetlejuice film from 1988 also included all of the above, being considered a classic film in itself by many, but how well did Beetlejuice Beetlejuice keep to the original? Warning, major spoilers for the movie are ahead.

When fans of the first film caught wind of a sequel in the works back in February of 2022, many began hoping that Tim Burton would stay true to the original film. Fans became thrilled when it was announced that Michael Keaton would be reprising his role as Beetlejuice alongside Winona Ryder as Lydia Deets and Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz. Banana Boat (Day-O) by Harry Belafonte, the staple song of the Beetlejuice films, also made its return but was officially titled as “Day-O” in the film's credits and performed by Alfie Davis and the Sylia Young Theatre School Choir instead. 

A small but rather interesting fact that fans recently received about the new movie was that Michaell Keaton actually had the same amount of screen time that he had in the original movie, a total of 19 minutes. “Then it started, he and I would talk, but we had a deal. I said, ‘If we ever do it, I can’t be in it too much,” Keaton explained when asked about the decision. “If I’m in, it may be a minute longer than I was. That’s it.” 

While Beetlejuice Beetlejuice did bring back many aspects of the original film, it also brought in many new parts to the film. Newer but more easily recognizable actors such as Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, and Danny DeVito were cast as Astrid Deetz, Wolf Jackson, and Janitor in that respective order. We were also given an actual background for Beetlejuice himself this time around, having been a grave robber during the 1300s when the bubonic plague was spreading throughout Europe before meeting his future ex-wife Delores who was portrayed by the lovely Monica Bellucci. 

So did Beetlejuice Beetlejuice stay true to the original film? 

In my humble opinion, it did. It balanced well between the many different plot points of the film, from Lydia finally confronting Beetlejuice head-on after terrorizing her family nearly 30 years ago to, mending the mother-daughter relationship with Lydia and Astrid after finally reconciling with their respectively dead husband and father Richard who was portrayed by Santiago Cabrera. With the film's ending heavily implying that Beetlejuice still isn't quite finished with the Deetz family yet, a third film seems to be quite fitting to finally close the curtain on the Beetlejuice films. After all, Beetlejuice doesn’t come unless you call his name three times right?

In spirit of suicide awareness month (Sept. 1 - Sept. 30), today’s subject will be a song about raising awareness and defeating the stigma around such a topic. 

‘Neon Gravestones’ by the musical duo Twenty One Pilots, on the 2018 album “Trench”, is an electro/power-pop track themed around the idea of suicide and the stigma surrounding it. This song was written during a time when suicide rates were at their peak affecting 14.2% of 100,000 overall and affecting 10.4 percent of the youth. Suicide has always been a tricky topic to talk about, usually having to dance around certain points, but unlike most conversations, “Neon Gravestones” dives headfirst into the problems and ideology about it such as using it as a joke or a way to threaten someone. Using lyrics such as 

[And could it be true that some could be tempted

To use this mistake as a form of aggression

A form of succession, a form of a weapon

Thinking "I'll teach them, well I’m refusing the lesson]

 shows using suicide as a form of aggression glorifies it in such a way that it shouldn’t be taken seriously or thought of as more of a joke than something that affects real people. A quote from lead singer Tyler Joseph exemplifies this idea almost perfectly by saying “Don’t kill yourself. It's not worth it” at the end of concerts during the Bandito Tour, or the era of the band in which the song was released. Other lyrics in the song that share the same message are

[Find your grandparents or someone of age

Pay some respects for the path that they paved

To life they were dedicated

Now, that should be celebrated]. 

It shows that the path you pave and the life that you live makes life worth it. The story he is trying to tell or his call for action with this track is for the abolishment of Vialism, a religion that is based on the thought process that suicide is the only way to feel free or truly alive, and why that way of thinking isn’t the way to live.

Overall, this is a powerful song about idealizing suicide or glorifying it in any way, for doing such can cause hopelessness or feeling that you as a person don’t really matter because of the way you feel. 

Take a listen to the song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MeQ9rA2Ifg 

Lyrical history was made on May 4th, 2024, by the critically acclaimed musician and rapper Kendrick Lamar. The diss track, “Not Like Us,” erupted the feud between Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham), criticizing his controversies and ultimately solidifying such accusations against the Canadian rapper. News about their dispute has since dwindled from pop culture papers, as according to majority belief, Kendrick came out of this controversy victorious. Announced this previous weekend by Kendrick Lamar himself, he will appear at the Super Bowl's halftime show on February 9th, 2024, sponsored by the NFL. The musical altercation between the two artists has sparked controversy in the music industry, but now this controversy has made its way over to sports fans.

Kendrick’s decision to perform at the Super Bowl, one of the most-watched events in the world, is a power move that cements his status as not just a rapper, but a cultural icon. The anticipation is building—what will he say, or better yet, who will he call out during his performance? Some speculate that Kendrick might use the stage to address the beef directly, adding yet another layer to this ongoing saga.

This isn’t just about music anymore; it’s about making a statement and seizing a moment that could redefine the narrative. The Super Bowl performance could become a defining moment in pop culture, one that people will talk about for years. Will Drake respond? Will Kendrick drop another surprise? Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: this story is far from over.

Current World

Monkeypox is a disease that resembles smallpox and causes a rash to spread across the body. The monkeypox illness, which is brought on by monkeypox viruses, usually affects rodents like rats or mice as well as animals like monkeys. However, humans can also contract the disease. The first outbreak of the disease monkeypox goes all the way back in the year 1958, located in Copenhagen. The first monkeypox victim was tracked down to a colony of monkeys, which ultimately shows how it got its name. The disease mostly had patients located in parts of Africa up until 2003 when the disease traveled to the United States, and up until then, new people were being passed on with the disease up until now. Discussing the topic of the new outbreak of monkeypox holds very significant importance, as even though monkeypox is a lot less fatal than smallpox, it's still very dangerous. Monkeypox, like any other outbreak that we have experienced (like COVID, for example) is spreadable through close proximity. The most common way to spread monkeypox is through direct contact with scabs or body fluids from people who have the illness; even clothes, blankets, and sheets that come into contact can very much have the possibility of spreading the disease. But person-to-person contact is not the only way to spread monkeypox; it can also be spread by animal-to-person contact, which is as simple as coming into contact with animal furs or body fluids, cooking animals for food, and even more severe actions such as being bitten by these infected animals.

As for monkeypox symptoms, a person infected with monkeypox would typically have the following symptoms that can last for more than 2 weeks: Monkeypox symptoms could be fever, headaches, chills, tiredness, muscle aches, backaches, swollen lymph nodes, and most commonly, rashes. This rash often starts to spread commonly to parts of the body, such as the face, hands, or feet. Monkeypox can very much spread from other people, but typically they go through phases; some may turn into blisters, pus, or scabs. When you come in contact with severe monkeypox, rarely but still possibly, it can lead to complications such as severe scars all over your body from rashes. It can even cause blindness, and other infections, and possibly but very rarely lead to death. An important idea to get across is that having monkeypox could allow you to spread it to other people. The duration of this could be as soon as your symptoms start and as far as your rashes or scabs heal. 

A way you can prevent having monkeypox is by getting your vaccine. Many of these vaccines, such as ACAM2000 and Jynneos vaccines, can prevent diseases that originated from each other, such as smallpox and monkeypox. Though unfortunately there is no specific cure targeted to treating monkeypox; treatments that are used for it mainly target similar diseases like smallpox, such as tecovirimat (TPOXX) or brincidofovir (Tembexa). But it is still possible to cure monkeypox. Another reason for the unspecific cure is that most monkeypox treatments are mainly aimed at lowering the symptoms, such as managing skin damage caused by the rashes, and pain management for headaches, fever, or other severe symptoms. 

Monkeypox is a very dangerous disease and should not be taken lightly; symptoms and complications for others may vary, which is why making sure to avoid close proximity contact is very important. Make sure to take extra precautions, such as consulting with your doctors on vaccinations you can take in order to prevent similar diseases. Staying safe and taking precautions could allow less spread of the disease, which decreases the possibility of another pandemic. Make sure to stay safe!

Advice Column

Comic Column

Jujutsu Bob Volume 1

Written by: Daniel Velez 11th

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