Tales of Tenth Grade

Transcript: No way! How could you possibly think that their earlier music was better! Their older music is so much better! It's more concrete! More refined! Refined? What is that supposed to mean? Refined is not a way to judge music! Sure it is! Undoubtably! It's not even a question! Ok then, enlighten me! What does refined mean? More produced? More conventional? Cause if that's what you're proposing.... that's completely crazy. It's not just that. There's more production, the production is cleaner, more elaborate. Evelyn, I tell you it's just smarter... just more refined . So? That doesn't make it better! Yes it does! It objectively does! Ugh no! Their earlier earlier albums were so much more genuine! The sold themselves to fame! This refinement that you speak of is only a product of that! So what if Death Pigeon got more popular! That doesn't negate their quality! Yeah, it kinda does! No it doesn't! It's less...

     So my brother Hayden has been annoying me for about 3 months now to listen to this one band he likes and I still haven't listened to them. Its not that I don't think I would like the band, they actually seem like exactly my musical taste, and I've enjoyed a lot of music similar to them. No, the reason I haven't listened to them is because of the way Hayden's gone about convincing me to listen to them. You see, he's been giving a masterclass in how not to convince someone to like something you like.         What Hayden does is he marches in to my bedroom every other day and says "You should listen to X," with the occasional added, "They're really good." And then he leaves. Thats it. It seems he chooses to perform his little skit at the worst times, too, like when I'm doing homework, or about to go to bed, or worst of all, when I'm already listening to music. The last thing I want to do when listening to music is to be interupt...

Over the course of the month and half that we have been in quarantine, I have actually accomplished a lot of things. From fixing up my room to painting my kitchen cabinets to making new clothes out of old clothes I haven't worn in years, I have been doing anything to escape boredom. For a while, my mom and dad wanted to change the color of the cabinets in our kitchen to white, so my mom had bought paint to do it. She had been waiting for a time to do it, so over spring break, she asked me if I wanted to help her out and paint them with her. Since I had nothing better to do, I took a paint brush and started painting one side of the cabinets while she started on the opposite side. We started it near the end of spring break, so it took until after spring break to finish it, but we later sanded it and are waiting for the paint to cure so that we can wax it. Since my mom had all of this extra white paint, I decided that I would paint some of the furniture in my room. I had gotten a few...

This questionable short story is a product of about three existential crises and an ungodly amount of green tea… I also, rather unfortunately, appear to have lost any semblance of creativity lately, so you must excuse whatever mess of words follows this (but please enjoy nonetheless).   It was designed to withstand the tests of time. Harsh, barren; yet not unforgiving. Life teemed within the tundras sheathed in snow, the shrubbery clothed in white powder, the craggy mountains cloaked in the essence of stars. The land radiated a coldness which belied the life within, for sheltered in its rocky heart it cradled the tentative warmth of life. Naught but the wild, the untamed could thrive here, living by the unhindered glow of coruscating stars.  It was a land of hushed beauty, a land of boundless hopes and wild dreams and untamed mystery. Hesitant hues of sparkling snow and glistening ice scattered across its frigid expanse, setting the land awash in shy...

I did another vlog today and I'll preface it by saying that I didn't look it over when I was done so sorry if something weird comes up I blacked out while making it. Also, I was playing minesweeper while I waited for it to upload and I got this (my high score is 142) Video

Almost every post I've seen is about quarantine but to be honest, there's not much else going on. At least in my life. After the first few weeks, I was over it and wanted to be able to leave the house again. Now I've slowly gotten used to many aspects of quarantine. I want quarantine to be over but I feel like I'm familiar with it now and I've made plans to do things that I may not get around to if this ends soon. But as unfortunate as that'd be, I think I'd be fine if quarantine does end soon because like I said, I'm over it. I miss having a social life. I think the idea of no freedom is driving me crazy more than the actual concept but at the same time, there's so much I could've done if we could see other people and go places. However, I've been trying to make the best of my time at home. While I spend many days procrastinating on my work and spending way too much time on my phone, I have gotten around to doing some things that have made ...

decided to write a short story about quarantine, with a bit of a twist. :) Enjoy~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ She baby-ishly blew raspberries, staring up at the sand-colored ceiling, and popped a few Reese's Pieces into her mouth while she did so. She didn't know how long she'd been laying there, only that the wind howling outside was hellishly groaning and whining. The storm was far from over. Her body was perched on the mattress on the floor in the upstairs spare room. She tried not to let the whirring and whining of the monster outside get to her. She stood at the window, staring mother nature in her ugly face, banging on the door. Closing her eyes, disallowing the rain to enter, she slammed the window down. Still, the wind was relentless. At least now, the window was closed, and the rotting scent of The Fall couldn't get inside. At least not into the house. But her mind was already corrupted by the stench. Grey le...

This is one of the harder blog posts to write, because what I’ve done during quarantine has been pretty much nothing. For my mornings, I set alarms 2 minutes before each of my live classes, go to them, and go back to sleep, not really waking up until around 11, or after 3rd period. Then, I have breakfast and do all my work, hopefully being done by 2:00. The rest of my day is incredibly unproductive, but I haven’t been bored. Just because I don’t have anything to do isn’t a problem, I can just relax and never get too stressed. I tried working out a lot to do something productive when the quarantine started, but with all gyms closed, all I could do was run and do pushups. This made me hate pushups and I hurt my wrists, so it didn’t take long for me to give it up. My other attempt at productivity was to learn how to wheelie a bike. I had almost learned over the summer last year and thought I could get it, but I was wrong. The weather also made it impossible to stay consistent, with what h...

Three friends were hanging out in an apartment. One was playing Xbox, Two was cooking a meal for the others and Three was also playing Xbox. Three had low batteries in his remote so he went to get new ones from his junk drawer in the kitchen. He stepped up on that one annoying step to make it in the kitchen thanking God that he remembered about it. He had noticed that his garbage was super full. Since this was his apartment he felt like he should take the garbage out to the dump outside but he had felt really sore from the workout he had done earlier that day and he really had to use the bathroom so he decided he would be clever. "One, Two, I'm going to flip this coin and if it land on heads then one takes out the trash but if it lands on tails, two takes out the trash," he said. Heads: The coin flew in the air and landed on heads. One begrudgingly got up. He was in the middle of a game. On his way out he stubbed his toe on that on that dumb step in the kitchen. ...

All new jerseyites have been on lockdown for the past seven and a half month. As many of us have found out quarantine isn't exactly the pleasant time of work and school we all expected. Isolation from all people outside your immediate family can take a toll on your mental health. It is vital to find ways to stay busy during these trying times. Picking up a time consuming hobby like drawing or whittling can present a person with an enjoyable pastime and provide a meaningful way to spend the day.  Spending time with family members is also a great way to deal with the monotonous drudgery of quarantine. I have spent many nights with my parents or siblings. Even if you don't completely get along with all your family members human interaction is vital to mental health. I have found that a mix of both spending time with family and developing new hobbies is the way to go if your looking to get through lockdown in one piece. 

I think we can all agree that our lives are kinda crazy right now. We're all adapting to the new lifestyle of quarantine. Yeah there are some positives, maybe it's because I try to see those as best I can. But there are also negatives, and at this point those are starting to beat out the positives. I miss my friends. Going from hanging out with them every single day of the weekend to not seeing them at all, is hard. Of course there's facetime, calling, and texting, but it's not the same. In the beginning, I didn't want to go back to school at all, but now I do. Seeing everyone again is going to be the best thing in the world and I think that after all of this is over, we aren't going to take the time we all have together for granted. I also miss my family. Not seeing them is also hard but seeing them again will be great. Now positives. There's time to change things. My room, my fitness, and a bunch of other things. Maybe it's a little too much time, ...

Quarantine for all of us has consisted of a lot of boring days. Sometimes I go for walks, sometimes I spend all day doing school work, and honestly, sometimes I'm just sleeping through it. But, since I love food as much as my own dog, I wanted to share with you the foods I've been making. First, toward the beginning of quarantine, I found a healthy pancake recipe. Now don't get me wrong, I love good old fashion, sugary pancakes. But, I decided that I was going to try to eat a little healthier. As I was scrolling through Tik-Tok endlessly for hours I came across this recipe: 1 smashed banana 1 egg 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp cinnamon blend 1/2 cup of oats optional: add chocolate chips I'm going to be honest when I made these they definitely didn't turn out the way they did in the video. But, that's only because I made my pan too hot and the insides didn't cook all the way through. However, I do recommend these 10/10 to try! Also, since my dad has been ...

Over the course of the past few months, a lot of major events have occurred. Like the U.S. navy releasing video footage of what they claim to be UFOs (which is absolutely insane- why now?), Kim Jong Un allegedly becoming brain dead, The US almost starting a war with Iran, of course, the global pandemic that has forced most of us to stay home, and the Australian bushfires. All these things will have long-term effects, but one that isn’t widely known is the dangers of wildfire smoke. An article published by BBC covers this. The author includes a U.S. study on juvenile monkeys, where it was found their immune systems were lower than normal even 12 years after being in a wildfire. The effects may have even been passed on to their children. Professor Lisa Miller at the University of California presented the results of a study on wildfires’ impact on children at the American Association of the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle. Wildfires like the ones in Australia are likely to becom...

During quarantine, I have noticed that the weather outside has had an extreme impact on my mood. On sunny days, I feel more awake and productive, while on rainy days, I feel lazy and sleepy. It wouldn't be that bad to have a rainy, lazy day every once in a while, but Sparta has experienced countless gloomy days in April. On these days schoolwork seems to take forever for me because I have no motivation to get it done. When I do finally finish work, the day seems to be over and I feel very unproductive.  I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me that was getting affected by the weather outside my window, so I looked it up - and what I found was super interesting. Scientists have found that more serotonin -  a hormone in the brain that lightens mood - is released in the brain when there is more exposure to light and less serotonin is released when there is less sun exposure. In extreme cases, someone could be diagnoses with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), that it is basic...