Isaac Berkower - Week 9 - Is it actually Geshmak to be a Yid?

 For those who have never heard of the song "Geshmak to be a Yid", this is how it goes:

"Someone once asked me what it's like to be a Yid oy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy (x2)

This is what I told him (x3) oy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy

uoh uoh uoh oh oh

Geshmak to be a Yid (x2) ay yay yu ay yay Geshmak to be a Yid

oy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy yuy (x4)

(Repeat)"

    This song is one of the most famous songs in all of Orthodox Judaism behind maybe "Ashrei" by Yeshiva Boys Choir, so let's take a deeper dive into the meaning of these words.

    First, you might be wondering what the word Geshmak means. Geshmak is a Yiddish word that means that something is delicious. So is the song saying that Jews/Yids are delicious, or does it mean something else in the context of the song?

    I'm sure that the person who wrote this song never tried to eat a Jewish person, so I think that we can rule out that he meant to say that Jews are delicious. What he meant by saying that Jews are delicious I think is that Jews are full of flavor,, and very energetic and vibrant. But is that actually true?

    The short answer is obviously yes. If you've ever seen Jews on Simchat Torah, then you have your answer there, but for an outsider, it might be harder to prove. 

    To prove it to an outsider, I would tell them that Jews make up one of the smallest groups of the population, but then ask them if they've ever heard of the parties that Jews throw. Bar Mitzvahs, Weddings, Holidays, Brit Milahs, etc. Jews will find any way to throw a party about anything. 

    So, getting back to the question of are Yids Geshmak. The answer is undeniably yes. 

Maybe not every Jew is energetic, but Jews as a whole are super energetic, and I think that this song, "Geshmak to be a Yid", speaks volumes to that fact.

    Do you think that Jews are Geshmak?

Jacob Abramchaev - Week 8 - 2AM SNACK!!!!!

Welcome back to the weekly Abramchaev blog!! This week, I was on a facetime call with my great friend, ZEV ENGLANDER. It was 2AM on a school night, and I was just having a chat with him. Then all of a sudden, I said, “I’m hungry.” I immediately remembered that Zev is secretly an aspiring chef who always sends me awesome pictures of food that he makes. He knows that I have zero kitchen experience, so he said to make something pretty simple, a poached egg on toast. Since he didn’t have the confidence in me to explain it he said, “screw it, I’ll make it with you.” He went to the kitchen and had everything prepped before the boiling water, and he kept saying that I’m way too slow, which I totally understand, but he still explained the process step by step. I didn’t understand that the water can’t be too powerful or else it will break the yoke, which will lead to an overcooked egg. I really doubted myself when he was giving a quick-cooking lesson, but even with my lack of cooking experience, I was able to produce a serviceable poached egg on toast. I cut right through the middle of the egg and sprinkled some salt and pepper on it. It actually tasted very good and I was satisfied with what I made. By the time I finished everything, it was already 2:30am so we just ended the call right there.

Zev E. Blog 8- World Series game 4 Review

 From the age of five to 14, I was obsessed with baseball. I went to a bunch of games and watched them all on TV. Whenever I tried to talk to other kids my age about baseball, I would get the same response. Baseball is boring. The game is like 4 hours long. The guys just stand there. It's soooooo slow. I never understood how anyone could think that until a couple years ago. My interest started fading from baseball, and I got into more fast-paced sports like hockey and especially football. I still watched the baseball playoffs because I will always be a baseball fan at heart, but it was kind of anti-climactic. Game 4 of the World Series between the Dodgers and the Rays was completely different. It re-lit the fire for me and I was jumping around yelling at the players like I was a little kid again. The game was close from the start, but an explosive rally put the Rays ahead. I don't have any deep connections to the teams, but Clayton Kershaw has been my favorite player since I started playing baseball so I wanted to see him get a ring. The Dodgers came up to bat in the 9th, down a run. The situation looked dire, and I was biting my nails like I used to. A pinch hitter with abysmal career statistics and zero postseason experience came up with the game on the line. 2 outs, bottom 9, runners on, down by one. The best of the best. Why wouldn't it be so that the worst player on the Dodgers roster his a WALK-OFF to win the game to earn a commanding series lead. This game was absolutely incredible and will go down in the books as a top 10 world series game in baseball history. I did not think it was possible, but I can strongly state I am once again a baseball fan. 

Borat 2 Review - Dan week8

 For those of you that don't know, Borat 2 came out last Friday, and boy was it a rollercoaster of emotions. As if having one Borat movie out in the world wasn't enough, Sacha Baron Cohen decided it was time for a sequel after nearly 14 years of the release of the original movie. I won't spoil anything because I know a lot of people will want to see it, but calling it "eventful" would be criminally understating it. There are so many outrageous stunts by Borat, all in public and around people he's never seen before. Unlike in Borat 1 where Borat travels with his handy friend and assistant, in Borat 2 he travels to America with his daughter, and together they learn about the ways of the Americans. From racist rednecks to fancy ballroom dancing, Borat doesn't skip a beat from his original movie in 2006 and keeps making viewers cringe and cry and laugh and smile and frown and every other verb you can think of. No matter what type of movies or actors or genres you like, I think both Borat 1 and 2 are essential for the human race to continue functioning. 

If you already watched Borat 2, what did you think of it? Did it live up to your expectations?

Jagshemash!

Olivia Ball - Week 8 - DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE DOWNHILL

 My favorite thing to do in my free time is watch tv shows and movies. Whenever I have some free time before I need to start my homework, I scroll through all of my roku apps to find something to watch. Netflix and HULU had nothing, so I looked at free movies on Xfinity. I stumbled upon a movie called Downhill. This is by far one of the WORST movies I have seen in a long time. 

I’m going to give a summary of the movie and spoil some things, but I don’t care and you shouldn’t either because it actually sucked. When I saw that it was a comedy and a ski movie I thought it was going to be good. Boy was I wrong. It basically just consists of a couple and their children escaping the grief of the main character’s (Will Farrel) father’s death in Austria. The goal is to go there and just ski a lot, but on the first day, there is a controlled avalanche blast that sends a show flying over the lodge that they were eating at. It caused panic among all of the people, however, Will got up and left his family in distress. The rest of the movie is literally just showing the tension between the family after they thought they were left alone to die. 

Don’t even get me started on the ending. The main characters, Pete and Billie finally make up at the end when Pete agrees to never leave them alone again, but as they are heading to the airport to go back to America, snow falls off the roof. Pete, once again, moves away from his wife as they are almost hit again. Then it ends. TERRIBLE ENDING. Do not watch this movie unless you like bad movies. 

Please enjoy this pun by Yair, “the movie is bad because it is all downhill from the start.” If you don’t get it, I have no words. 

Also fun fact my parents saw this movie and said it was awful. 

Would you still watch the movie after reading this? 

Coby Russo Week 8- Big Brother All Stars Season Finale this week!

 

Hello all! Welcome back to my glorious vlog that makes you ooze happiness and joy. I HAVE EXCITING NEWS! The Big Brother All Stars season is finally come to an end! For some context, Big Brother is a reality type show where about 15 people lock themselves in a house for about three months and compete to win the grand total prize of 500,000 dollars. Throughout the participants' time there, challenges for Head of Household (meaning you can't be voted off that week and have to nominate two other contestants for eviction) and challenges for the Power of Veto (meaning you can save yourself or one of the two nominated from being evicted that week, and the Head of Household would have to nominate another house member).We tune in on the planning sessions, schemes, emotional conversations, brutal fights, tears, pranks, and laughs. As of right now, the fight is between Nicole, Enzo, and Cody. Nicole just recently won Part 1 of the finale. Tomorrow, during the two hour special, Enzo and Cody will compete for part 2. After, Nicole and whomever wins part 2 will go up head to head for the most crucial challenge of the season. Whomever wins that will choose someone take to the voting ceremony. Finally, recently evicted houseguests will vote for a winner to earn the 500,000 dollar grand prize. Would you ever want to do something like this? If so, how would you play your game.... be quiet and hidden until you need to come out as a "comp beast" or would you attempt to win every challenge you could from the beginning?

Maya Melamed 8- turtle storytime

Here is a story about how I almost ran over a turtle.

Two days ago at night, I had to drive to Target to go pick something up. My little brother wanted to come with me so he did. I was driving out of the neighborhood, it was all normal but pretty dark since it was night, and all of a sudden... there was a huge turtle on the street. Because it was dark I only saw the turtle at the last second and was so close so running it over. I ended up swerving to the side super last minute and got so close to someone's mailbox. Because it was so last second I couldn't tell my brother that I was gonna move like that. He was on his phone and when he looked up he just saw a mailbox coming his way so he was confused. I ended up not hitting the turtle or the mailbox which was good. As I was driving to the target, I was just thinking and hoping no one would run over the turtle since it was very hard to see him. After picking up what I needed at Target, I started driving back home. My brother and I were talking and were wondering if the turtle was okay. I had the idea to go back and see if the turtle was still there. I went back to where I saw him but could not see him anymore. I hope the turtle is okay. I definitely did not expect to see that on my way to Target.

Have you ever seen an animal on the street?

Week 8 Blog Post Hunter David - Looking for a Tech Internship

 Recently, I have really been searching for a place where I can intern and build up both my working experience, as well as boost my resume for college. I am likely going to volunteer at the soup kitchen near where I live, but I also want to intern in something that I am very interested in, which is technology. I have been looking all over the internet looking for jobs and/or internships that would accept someone of my age, education, and overall experience. Though I know a lot about current technology, I just may be too young to be a part of anything right now, especially due to all the circumstances of COVID, and there not being anything available for me to participate in. I have looked up possible internship opportunities at Apple, Google, and local tech places in Florida. I will hopefully be able to find somewhere soon that interests me, and I can get what I want out of the experience. I know that it will be especially difficult to find a place doing things in person, and so it doesn’t really matter to me whether it takes place virtual or not. I also do not care about making money from it right now. I rather get the experience from it, and then maybe I can get promoted or find other opportunities elsewhere down the line. So, if anybody knows of or has heard of a place like this, anything having to do with technology, let me know in the comments. Have any of you guys tried looking for an internship opportunity in something you are interested in and/or passionate about?

Ellie Week 8: YOU'RE SO GOLDEN DADADADA DA DA DA

 Ladies and gentlemen of the 11th grade AP Lang class, the day we’ve been looking forward to since my week 4 blog, has finally come: today...the “Golden” music video finally dropped. Let me tell you a brief explanation of how today and the past couple of days have gone. If you’d like a recap, go read my other blog post. On Tuesday, the 20th, his website, doyouknowwhoyouare.com, changed its theme to Golden, with a yellow background and giving you a note that says “Dear ___, You are Golden. Love, H.” (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you are free to do your own research.) To keep this short, I won’t mention the other boring things that happened. On the 25th, a 15-second video dropped, which we’d soon find out was the beginning of the music video, of his silhouette running through a tunnel before a black screen popped up saying “GOLDEN. OCTOBER 26.” The main issue here was usually with the other videos, it told us what time the music video would be dropping, this one did not. Romy and I decided to wait to watch it together, so I went to sleep pretty early because I doubted it’d come out at midnight and I’d have to wait to watch it anyway. I woke up this morning feeling very excited, but had no idea what to expect. I was a little anxious about it dropping during school because I had a very busy day and wouldn't have time to watch it before school ended.  At 10 am, HSHQ tweeted a GORGEOUS unseen picture of Harry captioned “GOLDEN. 2 HOURS.” (are you sensing a theme here?) Now, no hate to Mr. Bowman, but we were taking a test and he usually doesn’t let us leave even a minute early, even if we’ve already finished. I had the premiere open and ready and as soon as he said “Ok guys you can-” I ZOOMED out of there. Anyway, to make a long story short, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. May have shed a few tears here and there, but I think almost everyone can agree it’s his best music video, minus the excess clips of him running in slomo. Now flash forward to now, it gained 10 million views in less than 12 hours. Insane. Oh also he released some pretty ugly merch minus a green hoodie with a bakery on it; Romy and I couldn’t figure out where it was from and we still don’t know. In conclusion, I think even if you’re not a fan of Harry’s you should still watch this video. If you can manage to say he’s not the cutest person alive after watching this, I have major concerns for your mental health. Also, the song is a total bop. Have you seen the music video and what did you think about it? If not, would you watch it?

Eden Richman Week 8 - My Phone Screen Cracked

     Everyone has felt that moment. You drop your phone, it is face down on the ground, and the anticipation is killing you. Once you pick up that phone, you will know whether you dodged a bullet, or cost yourself a broken screen. This is what I felt this morning while I was walking into school. I walked across the concrete (I have bad luck with concrete as you can see from my previous post) and my phone slipped out of my hand. It has a mind of its own that phone, it just decided "I'm going to make Eden's day a lot worse today! I'm going to jump out of her hand!" It fell face down, and my heart skipped a beat, I reached out my shaking hand to reveal the atrocity which was my beautiful screen covered in cracks "NOOOOOOO!" I would have screamed if the security guard wasn't watching me, but he was. I just had to pick it up and keep walking, he saw it all happen and had no reaction. What kind of twisted monster doesn't even give words of solace to a girl who just cracked her phone screen!? I was appalled, to say the least.

    Instead of the feeling of relief when picking up a phone free from cracks, I felt Spain (with a silent 's') My heart goes out to all of the people who have to grieve like me, with a cracked phone and living with the risk of getting torn apart by glass shreds protruding from the once smooth surface. Have you ever cracked your phone screen? How did you feel? 

this is not my phone but it is an accurate representation

College Visits

Romi Avidor Week 8 10/26/20 Hi again! Today we had our first college meeting. Of course, many rules and regulations are different now due to Covid. One of the topics that were discussed during the meeting was being able to visit colleges that you can see yourself attending. This was one of the big things I personally have been waiting for. I always wanted to go and be able to visit these colleges that I am interested in with my mom. Last year, in march, we planned on going to New York and visiting NYU. I was so excited to visit NYU because it is a school I am looking into and I heard so many great things about. Sadly, Covid started and there was a big risk of us going to New York because if we came back we would need to quarantine and at the time we didn’t know how serious this was. We did not end up going which made me really upset because I was looking forward to it. Now, it is my turn to start the college search and most campuses are closed for tours. They only offer virtual tours which is not the same experience as being there. Being able to see the college you want to attend and experience what it is like to be there is different then seeing it over a facetime call. How are you supposed to know that you are comfortable there. You can easily think that it is the college for you when in reality maybe it is not. I am wondering if we will be able to visit colleges in the future or will we just have to assume that we like the area and can see ourselves living there. Luckily last January, I was able to do a college tour with my sister and parents at UM which is my number one choice. By being able to walk around and to see what it is like to live there, I am able to see how comfortable I would be going to school there. I hope that in the near future we will be able to visit colleges and experience what our college life will be like. What colleges do you want to visit? I inserted a link as to why college visits are important. https://www.ivywise.com/blog/how-important-are-college-visits/

Lauren Hodes- Week 8- Iced Coffee

 Hi blog so while i’ve been bored in quarantine i’ve developed a little addiction for myself. I started drinking and making my own iced coffees. Coffee is so versatile and such a good pick-me-up during the day. There are so many different types of coffee that you can make. From iced to hot the combinations are endless. I love iced coffee so much and couldn’t imagine my life without it. This sounds a little extreme but it’s true. Here is how I make my iced coffees- so, I buy a big bottle of cold brew at publix every week or so so that I can make my own coffees on demand. I add cashew milk and a little bit of creamer. My favorite creamer brand is called Nutpods. I get it at publix and they are dairy-free. I keep my coffees pretty healthy because I don’t like eating a lot of dairy throughout the day. They still taste really good though! Where it gets fun is different creamer flavors. Currently, I love the pumpkin spice seasonal flavor. It is only available for a few months during the year. Usually, I love the hazelnut flavor during the off- season for pumpkin spice. I also like just the plain vanilla flavor. Nobody in my family really drinks coffee except for my mom sometimes. It’s okay because I make up for it! Leave in the comments below how you like your coffee if you drink it. Enclosed is a picture of an iced coffee I made.

Ethan Wirtschafter- Week 8- The Small Victories Count

 

The Small Victories Count. A major way that I have found success in my life is by celebrating the small victories. I find that by doing so, it helps me gain momentum and strength to take on bigger tasks and challenges. Here are some examples of small things that help me tackle harder problems. For example, in the morning, every day, I make my bed. While it is a small victory, it is a good way to start off the day. It is a small sense of pride and accomplishment and it prepares you to take on the bigger issues of the day, as you have just completed one of the many challenges that will be thrown your way. And if by chance you have a terrible day, you will come home to a nicely made comfortable bed that may cheer you up, or give you the strength to take on another task such as getting another assignment out of the way. Speaking of school work, when I feel overwhelmed with too much homework or studying, I like to make a list and put the small things on top so I can start knocking off assignments and gain momentum. When looking at the list of many assignments it can be intimidating and can cause one to not want to start, but by getting rid of many little assignments the list condenses. Finally, I enjoy putting on my tefillin every morning and praying because it is a great way to start my day. It makes me say aloud what I am appreciative of and reminds me of things many people often forget to be thankful for such as being able to breathe, walk, speak, hear, eat, and live healthily. It also makes me think about my day, my goals (short and long term), and ask G-d for help in areas where I need a boost. This is another small but meaningful victory that I like to claim at the beginning of the day, and it gives me energy and strength to fight through the day and stand up to whatever life throws at me. Let me know what you guys personally think about each of these tips. Will you start to use these in your daily life? 

Tallahassee / Georgia - Diana #8

  

On Wednesday I drove up to Tallahassee with my parents to visit my sister and get a tour of FSU. My sister has been at FSU for three years now, and I have not visited her once. A visit was overdue, to say the least. The car ride is about seven hours, but my dad has to go to the bathroom almost every 60 or so miles so almost eight hours. The car ride was the dreadful part obviously. Once we got to my sister's apartment, I put my luggage inside and got situated. I was staying with my sister on Wednesday-Friday while my parents went up to Georgia. I got to live the life of a college student (corona edition) for about two days. I was able to tour FSU, and I can't even tell you how beautiful the campus was. I have always had my heart set on UF, but after seeing FSU I might be having second thoughts. Also, I stayed in the dorms at UF for volleyball, and they were nothing compared to FSU. Not only was the campus nice, but the food selection in Tallahassee. WOW. I was overwhelmed with so many great food options. Anyways, on Sunday my sister and I drove to Thomasville Georgia where my parents were staying. Once we got to Thomasville, we had a food tour at 10:45am. Wherever my family travels we always do a food tour. We do them because of course, we love food, but we also get to learn a lot about the area. My family has a pact that you have to try everything on the tour no matter what, and we had some pretty interesting things. We had shrimp and grits, cheese, pizza, fried green tomatoes, coffee, and dessert. Some food tours are better than others, but I definitely recommend doing them because they are quite an experience. Then, on Sunday we took on that seven-ish hour drive and made our way back home. I haven't been on a trip in a while, so it was nice to get away for a little bit. 

Have you ever done a food tour?? 

I attached a link to some of the best food tours around the world in case you happen to be in one of these places. 

(I did the one in Vancouver and New Orleans, and I can say those were the best ones I have been on) 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/annabel/2017/03/13/eat-the-world-9-best-food-tours/#ece1e2f71907 

Romy H week 8 Bagels

 Romy H week 8 Bagels

Was I completely stumped on what to write this blog about? Maybe. Did I just write about what I ate for breakfast? I mean yes, but there is much more to it than just that. Bagels. The most superior member of the bread family. So versatile, so delicious. Bagels are hands down my favorite form of bread. Sure, baguettes, toast, and rolls are good but not nearly as good as a fluffy, fresh bagel. I could have a bagel every day and never get sick of them, ever. My favorite bagel is a simple plain bagel. Fun fact-I hate sesame bagels. I like putting plain cream cheese, capers, smoked salmon, pepper, and lemon juice on my plain bagel, and the bagel also has to be perfectly toasted. I also love chocolate chip bagels and other types of bagels, but that is my most boujee form of bagel assembly. I am very happy with just cream cheese on my bagel, but sometimes you have to go the extra mile. As you can tell, I am quite passionate about bagels, but you should be too. They just never get old. Bagels are definitely one of my top 5 favorite foods ever. I recently have been on the bagel side of TikTok. People have made bagels with all sorts of ingredients, which further proves my point of bagel versatility. A bagel could be packed with protein as an egg and cheese sandwich or be pan-fried like french toast(I’ve never done this, but I saw it on TikTok so if anyone tries that let me know). Do you love bagels? What do you put on your bagel? What is your favorite food that you could eat over and over again and never get bored of it? 

Rain, rain, go away...

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

The weather in Florida these past few weeks have been pretty miserable. It has rained in the afternoon so much that I have to change my plans many times. I usually have tennis after school, but when it rains my practice gets canceled and I don't get time to train. Also, I miss out on socializing with the people I play tennis with. I have been going to the gym, but I don't have many friends there and it can get boring to do the same thing every day. Also, I do not like the fact that I am not spending much time outside in the sun, and I feel like sometimes that can hurt my sleep.

I'm not sure if it always rains this much during this time of year or if just feels worse because of Coronavirus and social distancing. In a normal year, I would probably spend more time socializing, so I think it is less of a pain, but when my tennis practice gets rained out, I miss out on my after school socializing.

Luckily, we have not had any direct hits in terms of hurricanes this year. There have been many that have gone through Louisiana, but none have really hurt Florida that badly. I feel like eventually, we will get a bad hurricane because we haven't had one for a while. The weather has been good for too long, and I think that it is only a matter of time before a big storm hits us badly. It is a bit strange that we haven't been hit with any major hurricanes because when I was younger I remember hurricanes being a bigger part of my life. In fact, I was born between two hurricanes (Hurricane Jeanne and Hurricane Francis), although I do not remember anything about them because I was one week old. I want to be able to witness a hurricane so that I can tell my kids about it, but at the same time, I want to be safe. We will see what happens in the next few years in terms of hurricanes, but hopefully, we won't get anything too major.

Isaac Berkower - Week 8 - Should Everything That is Immoral be Illegal?

    Let me preface this blog by saying that I am answering this from a philosophical perspective, and not a political one. Also, I tried to make the first half of the blog unopinionated and only talked about my conclusion in the second half so you could compose your own opinion. 

    This is a question that I thought deeply about last week. To answer this question, let me first start by defining the term immoral in my own words. Immoral behavior is a behavior that is seen as wrong by the moral standards of society. This could be anything from cursing, smoking, drugs, or all the way way to murder. As you can see, immoral action is a huge category that encompasses actions that can just be seen as bad habits, to actions that can be punishable by death. So, should all of these actions be illegal?

    I don't think that there is much of a difference between the definitions of the terms illegal and immoral because something being illegal means it is not accepted by law and something being immoral means that it is not accepted by the culture. It is just a difference between culture and law. So, the next question would be which term makes a person less likely to commit to the act. Speeding is not really seen as immoral, but it is illegal, yet people still do it all the time. On the other hand, getting drunk all the time is seen as immoral yet people still do it all the time. This shows that both could be ineffective at times, but both terms also have an upside.

    Making certain actions immoral rather than illegal allows people to feel more freedom in their life. After all, no one is perfect and to hold everyone to perfect standards of society that can be legally punishable would be ridiculous in my view.

    Making all immoral actions illegal may lower a person's desire to do that immoral action, but not everybody sets the same standards for immoral actions. Some people may not think that gambling and smoking are immoral. Let me just say that I am not arguing that if people don't see something as immoral then it shouldn't be illegal because I am sure that there are people out there who don't see murder as immoral, yet it still should be illegal. What I am saying is that there are certain actions that don't physically affect other people that I don't think should be illegal because it would be holding society to too perfect standards.

    Do you think that everything immoral should be illegal?

Dori Baron, Week 8- Thoughts on Going Back In Person

Hello everyone, welcome to another blog! Starting Monday, October 26th, I will be returning to school in person finally. It’s crazy to think that it’s been a whole seven (close to eight) months since I’ve had a full day of school in person. I’m not sure exactly what to expect. I wonder if I will adjust easily and feel like I never left, or if it will be like a completely different situation. I’m really excited to finally see people in-person and have life feel a little more normal once again. 

Also, I’ve actually recently gotten to the point where I’m sick of virtual school. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but for a while, I was a supporter of online school and even preferred it. I have loved being able to attend school in the comfort of my own home, wake up later, and not have to worry about putting together a presentable outfit. However, it has had negative effects. For instance, I’ve found that it’s harder to focus, to start work earlier because of procrastination, and to go to sleep earlier. As a result, I’ve felt much more tired in general every day, and I feel like spending the day indoors most of the time, staring at a screen for hours on end is not healthy for me in the long run! Not to mention, the days have felt so repetitive, and I miss being able to leave my house more. 

Therefore, I’m looking forward to starting school in person on Monday! For a couple reasons, I feel a little nervous because of the health risks, and, as mentioned earlier, I don’t really know what to expect. I’ve heard that a lot of people have preferred it to online school, though, so I think that’s definitely promising. Let me know in the comments your thoughts on in-person school versus online school and which one you like more! Also, if you’re in person, does school feel weirdly different at all or the same as before?

 

Week 8, Aly Strauss, Diary Entry

 Week 8, Aly Strauss, Diary Entry

There’s really not that much to talk about this week… so, I’m gonna do a journal/diary entry! So, today is October 23 and I’m starving. I had an apush class during lunch so I’m saving my lunch for after school. This time for lunch, I have Dunkin… yay! Also, this morning I was in school really early, and not even forcefully. Usually I wait in the car in the morning, but in the car I got a Matcha Latte at Dunkin because my mom surprised us with it, and I really had to pee, so I went in early.

Overall, today was so much fun! I’m getting more comfortable in this new school and I’m not as nervous to talk anymore! In my old school I didn’t talk as much ‘cause when I did, people didn’t really care, and also sometimes when I talk and I’m nervous, I stutter. Luckily everyone in this school’s so nice and even though we only have two years left, I’m happy I switched. 

That’s mostly it. Right now I’m in art class in zinman and the room’s empty, but the air conditioning is great! That’s all for today… Have a nice day to whoever actually reads this :)

Week 7- Ethan Wirtschafter- “The Best Show Ever!”

 

The Office is the best show ever created. I think I can speak for myself as well as many others when I say that this is my favorite show. I have watched the entire series over seven times and I continue to enjoy and laugh every time I go through it again. I have heard from many others the same that they have watched the show over and over again and it never gets old. To anyone who doesn’t know, The Office is a show about the life of many unique and funny characters who work at a regular everyday paper company called “Dunder Mifflin”. While that does not sound very interesting by itself, the geniuses who created this show have found a way to make a boring everyday paper job a hilarious and entertaining experience through workplace drama, comedy, violence, and romances. I highly recommend this show to someone who hasn’t seen it, and I can guarantee that it will be amusing to the viewer (Watch more than the first season before you form an opinion of the show!). Some of my favorite characters are Dwight, Jim, and Michael. Dwight Schrute is a very motivated salesman, loyal assistant TO THE regional manager to his boss Michael, a hardworking farmer, and a more weird, unconventional person. He is constantly getting into clashes with Jim, a charismatic paper salesman, constantly trying to one-up and prank each other. Finally, Michael is the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, and he has a unique, interesting, and hilarious personality where it is almost funny how unfunny he is. If you do watch The Office, who is your favorite character? If you don’t, do you want to start watching now?

Olivia Ball - Week 7 - Bones TV Show Review

 One of my favorite shows to watch right now is bones. It follows the group of scientists, primarily forensic anthropologists and pathologists, as they work closely with the FBI to solve murders. Most of you will probably think that I am weird for watching this because it is not like the shows that most people watch. I, however, find it very interesting despite the fact that I hate anthropology. I took a lesson on it in my summer Forensics class, and it was the worst. 

    The main reason why I love the show is because of the characters. The main characters are Dr. Temperance Brennan (also known as “bones”), the main forensic anthropologist, Dr. Cammile Saroyan, the head of the department and pathologist, Special Agent Seeley Booth, their FBI correspondent, Dr. Jack Hodgins, known as the bug guy who examines particulates, and Angela, an artist and technology specialist who performs facial reconstructions. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO WATCH THIS SHOW AND DO NOT WANT BE TO SPOIL ANYTHING THEN DO NOT CONTINUE READING. 

    I spent the first few seasons getting a feel for the show and enjoying the characters, and then I noticed that Booth and Bones would make a great couple. For 6 or 7 seasons I wondered if they would ever end up together and now, they are FINALLY married. Because of some psycho serial killer, their wedding kept getting cancelled and I actually thought that it might never happen. At the end beginning of season 9, they finally get married and it was what I have been waiting for forever. What is your favorite show? Do you like more serious shows, or stupid popular shows?

Here is the link to the show on HULU.

Already November?! - Hunter David Week 7 Post

 Though this may have been one of the worst years that we can remember, it is hard to believe that it will already be November in less than two weeks. It’s pretty crazy that this year is already nearly done after all of the terrible things that happened, from the pandemic to the terrible deaths of many celebrities. On the positive side, I am happy that I am already nearly halfway done with my junior year of high school. I do not know if it is just me, what the school year has already flown by pretty quickly despite the unusual changes that have happened this year. Before I know it, I am gonna have to start looking at colleges, preparing my resume, or pretty much decide what I will be doing when I am completely done with high school. I wonder by this time next, how much in my life has changed, both in school and out of school. Also, the world will hopefully be getting back to its normal self by then too. It would be nice to be able to hang out with friends, see movies in actual movie theaters, go out to restaurants, go to all sporting events and venues; all regular things like we used to before this whole pandemic had started. So even though this year has not been great for any of us, do you think it has gone by pretty quickly like me? And if so, why do you think you feel that way? 

"The Incident" Coby Russo- Week 7

 

Hello my fellow bloggers! Welcome back to the seventh piece of the absolute most amazing blog on this planet!! Today I wanted to share my bloody experience that occurred this weekend. On Sunday morning, my sister went to the gym and my mom went to yoga, so I was home alone with Dottie, my sister's cat. That morning, I was sitting on the couch watching tv and then, all of a sudden, I heard a loud crash coming from my mom's bathroom. I ran into the bathroom because I originally believed that Dottie got hurt. I then realized it was the Roomba. A Roomba is a small vacuum cleaner iRobot that moves around all the rooms around the house. Anyways, I had to turn off the Roomba vacuum cleaner because it was still on and chopping up the glass. When I reached for the off button, I got stabbed by a piece of glass. The deep cut started gushing blood and I didn't know what to do lol. So, I washed the cut with water, ripped a piece of paper towel, and wrapped my finger with the paper towel and scotch tape because I couldn't find the band-aids. A half hour later, my sister came up and fixed my finger, so I owe her now. The following day, we got maintenance to clean up all the glass with an industrial vacuum cleaner, and I got some band aids from Mrs. Noiman ahahaha. How would have you guys handled this situation?

"Friends"... Universally Loved or Hated? - Dan

 The show "Friends" is one of the highest grossing shows of all time. I think it's safe to say that everyone in this class knows what "Friends" is, so I won't explain it, rather I'm going to look at the discussion of whether it is a good or bad show. Obviously, that's a completely subjective argument, but I will weigh both sides. First, there's no denying that Friends at its peak was quite possibly the most famous show on earth. In the last episode ever of Friends, there were 52 million viewers, the fourth most viewers ever for a show finale. In the last season of the show, it was rumored that the 6 main characters (Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry) were getting paid over TEN MILLION DOLLARS an episode!!! That would've amounted to over 210 million dollars made for each actor in ONLY the last season of the show. I have a more biased opinion in favor of Friends because I grew up watching it because of my mom. Every single weekday when my sister and I were little and living in Chile, we watched an episode of Friends with my mom before dinner. My mom might be the biggest Friends fan I know, as she began watching when she was pregnant with me in 2003 and TO THIS DAY she watches Friends every night on NickAtNight. 

For arguments against Friends, one that is mainly brought up is that it is simply not funny. Now, obviously, that is subjective, but the people who argue this do have a point. Think about this, would you laugh at every scene that they use a laugh track for in Friends? Some argue that without the laugh track, it's not funny, and I can understand their point because if I think about The Office, I laughed so hard throughout the whole show and that one doesn't have a laugh track. 

Like any show, whether it is good or bad is completely subjective and if wanted to look at it logically, you could rank them by viewership. In any case, different people have different tastes. Do you like the show "Friends"? If you said no, why don't you like it? 

Jacob Abramchaev - Week 7 - CONOR COMES OUT OF RETIREMENT AGAIN!?

The notorious Conor McGregor is finally back and stronger than ever. On June 7th, 2020, McGregor announced that he’s retiring from fighting, and this wasn’t the first time. He’s now coming out of retirement on January 23, 2021, to have a rematch with Dustin Poirier. He was going back and forth on Twitter with Dustin Poirier who is ranked #2 in the world in the lightweight division of the UFC, and they’ve decided to have a fight dedicated to charity. They had a fight back in 2014, and Conor ended up beating him by knockout. I really believe this fight is gonna be so interesting because they’ve both completely evolved as fighters, and they're ranked in the top five in the world. McGregor had originally planned to have the fight in December with his own sports entertainment company, and not UFC. They were planning on fighting for charity and to donate close to a million dollars, but at this point, the details aren’t really clear. I understand that many people don’t like McGregor’s personality, but he does sell fights, and I was surprised that he would even want to do a charity event since I haven’t really heard of that in the MMA world. Dana White, the President of the UFC, recently said that both fighters have accepted but all they need to do is sign the contracts, so I really hope they end up going forward. McGregor wants this event to be so big to the point where he wants to fight at the AT&T Stadium in Texas, but White doesn’t see this happening due to the pandemic. I would’ve never believed the UFC would ever hold an event in a Football stadium, but I could see the Khabib versus McGregor rematch take place there. 

Do you think McGregor will win this fight and will he ever retire for real? 

(***Ethan Wirtschafter better respond to this)

Maya Melamed 7- Going out again

 

This weekend my family and I went to a restaurant for the first time since March. Because we have been staying home and have been being very careful, we sat outside instead of inside. It was honestly kind of weird to be at a restaurant and even be out sitting somewhere public because it has been months. I used to go out all the time to restaurants or other places so to now go somewhere after months of being at home felt kind of weird. Usually, at restaurants, I wouldn't be hesitant to touch things or feel uncomfortable, but this time was different. I saw myself not really wanting to touch the tables or use the silverware. I also felt uncomfortable using their cups and just drank from the can instead. I ordered a hamburger, and of course, with my luck, half of it touched the actual table. Because I was thinking of all the germs I obviously did not eat the part that touched the table. It was kind of sad though because I was really hungry.

I also would use hand sanitizer a lot too because I feel like it's just a habit now since we are now paying more attention to germs around us. But, I will say it was nice to go out to eat finally. It’s good to change the atmosphere even if it's just to eat. Ordering food to the house and eating it at the restaurant is definitely not the same. I just wonder when will the world be back to a place where we won't have to think about these things anymore and be cautious like this. I feel like there's a lot of people who are like me and are very hesitant with things that they wouldn't even have had to think about in the past.

Do you guys feel any different when you go out now compared to before corona?

Mental health

Romi Avidor Week 7 10/20/2020 Hi again! Today I am gonna talk about a serious topic: mental health. Since the beginning of the school year my personal mental health has been decreasing and I bet yours have too. I can not do anything relaxed. I can’t watch TV, I can’t socially distant hang out with friends, I can't spend time with my family, and I can’t sleep calmly. In the back of my head I always feel like I am missing something. A feeling where did I forget to do this? Do I have something due tomorrow? What homework do I have for the week? Do I have ACT work? All these questions sit in the back of my mind 24/7. It is really hard because this year I feel like we have been bombarded with all this work and I don’t even have one day to just chill. I am a person that gets really bad anxiety with things like this to the point where I cry and have panic attacks. All these assignments are really just not making my anxiety any better. This weekend I realized that both Saturday and Sunday I had homework to do and I took only a little bit of time to relax and be with family and friends. The problem is even when I take time to do other things it sits right in the back of my head. You need to do this you need to do that and now I started setting reminders on my phone so I wont forget. Honestly, the workload has been absolutely outrageous from some teachers and it is really screwing with my mental health. I know that for some people it can lead to depression, and of course that is very hard to deal with. When I was younger and in middle school my mom would let me choose a day to just take a break and do what I want to do with her. We called it a fun day/ mental health day. As I grew up, I am now in 11th grade and attendance is a big problem. I can’t just take a mental health day because I think about the attendance and how I will get an absence and what if I miss work. But now thinking about it, maybe it is worth the absence. Maybe I really just need a day to forget about everything and have fun with my mom. I know many people’s mental health is also rapidly declining, so I suggest you try and take a mental health day if you can. Is there anything you can advise me to do? https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2019/06/why-teen-mental-health-needs-to-be-addressed/

Ellie Levin Week 7: The End of 2020?!?!

 With the end of October very quickly approaching us, I’ve found myself freaking out about how fast time goes. Like how is it that this absolutely horrendous year is almost over? I already know that 2021 probably won’t be much better, but it’s so crazy to think that this year started off so crazy and hasn’t dialed down up til now. We still have 2 more months where things could go bazonkers, but pretty much this entire year has been a trainwreck, and yet it went by so fast? Usually, people say time flies when you’re having fun, but I’ve had one of the worst years to date. For most of 2020, I wasn’t too happy and had terrible stress and anxiety about the future. It just feels so weird saying we went into quarantine 7 months ago. We all really thought we’d just get a few extra weeks for Spring Break then come back at least in time for finals, and that most certainly didn’t happen. I still haven’t fully been back to school, with the exception of the PSAT, and I’m pretty sure there’s still random stuff in my locker from last year. Everything just kind of feels like a simulation, like the year just cut off and ended, and we just went with it? Like my dance studio just scrapped the whole idea of doing recital and we started with all new dances for this competition season, despite only performing all of our dances from last year twice. It’s insane to me how we all moved on with our lives and just accepted last year for what it was. What do you think about 2020 being almost over? 

Lauren Hodes- Week 7- Drivers License

 Hey welcome back to my blog! This Wednesday I will be taking my driving test (finally). I am taking it at Cantor’s driving school and hopefully will pick up my license from the DMV on Thursday. Because of COVID, they only allow 1 person in the DMV at a time. It is pretty sketchy there and now my dad will have to wait for me at the door. This will be an interesting experience for me being at the DMV alone. Anyways, I am very excited to get my license and be able to drive. Most of my friends have all gotten their driver's licenses and I am pretty much the last one. My birthday is in August but I delayed getting my permit for a few months until October. I have been eligible for a few weeks now but have just been trying to get as much practice as possible in. My mom mainly taught me how to drive and I drive her around everyday. My dad on the other hand has barely driven with me. I’m very excited to be able to drive myself around. I have plans to go to the beach on Sunday (and if I pass) I can drive myself! I just need to figure out what a 3-point-turn is and then I think I'll be all ready for the driving test. Comment down below when you got your driver’s license? Also if you passed the first time and if it was a hard test?

Dori Baron, Week 7- "The Album" Review

Hi everyone! I will be reviewing a new album that came out on October 2nd this past year. It is called “The Album” and is by the internationally famous K-pop girl group named Blackpink. I never thought I’d be someone interested in K-pop, but over quarantine, I guess you can say I surprised myself. It’s not just the music itself that I enjoy, but also the impressive production, outfits, choreography, and bilingual aspects (Korean and English) that drew me in. 

This album in particular was highly anticipated, especially by the Blackpink fandom (consisting of fans who call themselves “Blinks”), as the last time a song was released was during the spring of 2019. In fact, the first music video single released on YouTube, “How You Like That,” broke several world records, including the most YouTube views in 24 hours (you can find out more from this link below!) https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2020/6/blackpinks-return-sets-new-youtube-records-with-how-you-like-that-622453.

There are eight songs on the album, including two featuring Selena Gomez and Cardi B. The first two songs released before the full album debuted were “How You Like That” and “Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez).” At first, I have to admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of either of these songs. I also saw a lot of negative feedback on these songs. Now, I’d say these songs grew on me more, especially “How You Like That,” although I still wouldn’t consider them within my top favorites. 

Next, “Pretty Savage,” a very hard-hitting, empowering song, was one that I, along with so many others, loved. People even thought this song should have been an early release song instead of the other two. Featuring Cardi B, “Bet You Wanna,” was also a great song. It’s not one of my favorites within the album, but it’s catchy. Many people were nervous about the collaboration with Cardi B since she has a strikingly different style than Blackpink, but the mix worked out well. Then, “Lovesick Girls” was released along with a music video, and this is probably my favorite song on the album. It brings lots of good vibes and has great verses along with a catchy chorus. 

“Crazy Over You” and “Love to Hate Me” are also really enjoyable songs on the album that I love. The final song is “You Never Know,” a more vulnerable ballad kind of song. I think it was the perfect way to end the album. It makes the listener aware that you never know what other people are struggling with and can control, so spread kindness. Since it has come out, this album has been played on repeat, and I highly recommend you listen to it! It’s hard to sing along to all the words since some of them are in Korean, but either way, I’ve been enjoying the songs. Let me know in the comments below if you would consider listening or what albums/songs you have been listening to lately!

Only in Boca! Diana #7

    Welcome back to my blog! So the other night, I went to dinner with my parents, Coby, and Romy. We went to Ramen lab in Mizner (one of my favorite restaurants by the way). Anyways, as we were eating I noticed that there was a Chabad right across the street. I saw this guy from Chabad walking around outside, and all of a sudden he came to our table and asked my dad if he was Jewish. Obviously, he said yes, and the guy asked if my dad could go over to the Chabad because they needed another person to have a minion. My dad and Coby went to the Chabad together and participated in the minion. While my dad was there, he was called up for an Aaliyah. I don't think he has ever had an Aaliyah before, so he felt so honored afterwards. I never had anything happen to me like this before, but this whole experience really showed how tight the Jewish community is. Even though Coby and my dad may not have wanted to pray on a Saturday night, they put that aside and helped our Jewish community. I was thinking how cool this experience was, and where else would a stranger come up and ask you to be a part of a minion?  With antisemitism so prevalent these days, you would never think that someone would randomly ask if you are Jewish. Have you ever had something like this happen to you? Would you go to the Chabad like Coby and my dad if you were asked? 

The Library

 The Library

One of my favorite places in Boca is the library across the road from the school. I don't go there often, but when I do I always have fun (yes...fun!). I love walking around the bookshelves and exploring my interests, and the peace and quiet inside is so peaceful. 

Last week Friday I went to the library to get a book about Arduino, which is a tool in electronics/engineering that I wanted to learn how to use. Of course, the library had a book for me. I was able to find a quiet place to read, and I quickly got started because I was so eager to learn how to use Arduino. 

    A few months ago I picked out a simple book about algorithms, which got me interested in computer science. I tried to learn a programming language called Python because I thought it might interest me. After finishing a YouTube tutorial on Python, I started learning another programming language called C, and now I am taking computer science in school. 

    Now I am interested in studying computer science or engineering in college, so it's amazing to see how big of an impact a small trip to the library had on me. If I hadn't picked out that book about algorithms from the library, my life and hobbies would probably be very different. 

    I would recommend that you try out the library and see if you can find something you like. There is always something new to learn or an idea that can be taken away from a book.

Can you relate to the tranquility of a library? What do you like/dislike about the library?

Isaac Berkower - Week 7 - This weeks parsha

This week's Parsha, Parshat Noach, is about how Hasham destroyed all civilization on Earth with a flood, only leaving Noach and his family alive in order to rebuild society. He felt that it would be better to destroy the world and restart, rather than trying to fix the problems with what the world was. He could have tried to make all of the people act better, or even try to change their minds about doing evil by showing his presence to them. But, instead, he chose to destroy the world, something he just spent 7 days creating, and start from scratch. This teaches us that sometimes, it is better to restart something so that the base of it is not corrupt, rather than trying to build up from a corrupt base. If there was no flood, people would just look back to that time and see the people as role models even though they were evil people. In relation to Corona, a lot of people are choosing to rethink some of their important life decisions during this time as to whether or not they made the right choice and what to do about it. People who made poor decisions in the early stages of their lives are now given the chance to restart from before their mistake because of the amount of free time that this virus opened up in everyone's life. Do you think that it is better to restart from a bad decision you made or work off of the mistake?

Romy H week 7 Escape Room!

Romy H week 7 Escape Room! 

On Saturday, Diana, her parents, Coby, and I went to an escape room. It was at a place called Adventure Vault in Boca, and we chose to do the room called Death and Breakfast. When we first got into the room, the lady gave us a walkie talkie in case we needed clues and gave us the backstory. We all started off handcuffed, and the first step was to find the keys to get us out. We were doing pretty well and getting through steps to unlock different drawers, but eventually, we got stumped. We had to ask for a clue, and once we did we were cruising. About 10 minutes later, we got stumped again. We only needed two clues to get out, and it took us a little under 50 minutes. We had an hour, so we escaped with time to spare. Most of the time while we were in there, Dee was throwing the fake cockroaches and fake bloody limbs everywhere. We had so much fun and we were so proud that we actually got out. The escape room got us using our critical thinking skills. It is hard to connect the dots between each hint and things you find around the room, but once you do, it all makes sense. You really need a good team that is determined and calm. While most of our team wasn’t really invested, Diana’s mom and I were the power couple. Dee’s dad was complaining most of the time while yelling at the lady through the walkie talkie. There is no way you could ever do this alone, so it is a great bonding activity. I highly recommend doing this with your family or even friends because it is fun, but you are also learning and using your brain. Have you ever been to an escape room? If not, do you want to go to one? If you have, what was your experience like?