6. Schnitzel 2025

The NFL and NBA have an official problem.  Not an “official” problem like a prominent issue, but an issue with the officiating of games. Maybe this is just me complaining from my couch at home, but fans all across the country have witnessed multiple occasions where the referees are purposely sabotaging games or making bad decisions which weigh in favor of one team.  The job of the referees is to manage the game and impose rules when necessary. This is to create a fair game between the two teams and to settle any disputes over rules at the time the problems arise.  I understand that these referees are human, just like us, and can easily make mistakes. However, with new technologies being implemented into the game, they have the power to stop the game and check with instant replay cameras to see if the right call on the field was made or if it should be changed.  Along with this, the officials also have the power to initially make the right penalizing calls at the righ...

Esther Oyetunji, three-time national champion of Original Oratory. Source: NSDA At 7:59 a.m. on November 22, 2024, five other high school students and I were sat in a Palo Alto High School classroom, anxiously waiting for our Original Oratory judge to speak. He would be ranking our speeches from best to worst, and this order would carry over to our next rounds, determining which one of us received a bid to the national Tournament of Champions competition. At 8:00 a.m., the man announced that our round should start and told the first speaker to begin when ready. A redheaded boy dressed in a tailored suit walked up to the front of the classroom, took a deep breath, and started speaking. At 30 seconds past 8:08 a.m., he delivered seven fateful words. “I have a tumor in my head.” The other competitors and I all snuck a glance at the judge. To our horror, his eyes were filled with sympathy. The girl next to me and I exchanged a look that carried an unspoken message. We’re so screwed. He...

When people talk about the “power of connection,” they usually think about life-changing events or grand gestures. But sometimes, it’s the small, everyday moments that have the most lasting impact. Take, for instance, my TikTok streak with my friends. It might seem simple, just a daily exchange of videos, but it’s become something far more meaningful than that. It’s not about the TikToks themselves; it’s about the act of reaching out, every day. In a world where everything feels like a race against the clock, those tiny moments of connection are like little pit stops that keep us going. I like to take care of all my streaks; five, to be exact, ranging from 117 days to 280 days. And I’ve only broken a streak once in all this time (which wasn’t my fault, by the way). My streaks were almost broken when Tiktok was “banned” (taken away for 14 hours). By accident, I deleted the app during that time, and my phone wouldn’t let me redownload it. However, there was no way I was about to let my...

  Recently, There was a huge academic purge which stripped us out of quite a few liberties and freedoms. To not beat around the bush, Chat GPT has become quite a big problem affecting the academic integrity of American High School students. The main problem is that it is really hard to find out if a text is written by AI conclusively, so how does it work ? There are two characteristics of a writing which can help identify if a blog is written with Artificial assistance are perplexity and burstiness. Perplexity is how surprising a piece of writing is, human writing has a high perplexity score but AI writing is very monotonous. Burstiness is the variety in the complexity. My previous blog has a burstiness score of 0.65, for reference AI generated paragraphs have a burstiness of 0.16. Unfortunately, formal writing is often written to follow a simple structure because of its inherent nature of formality, so even though this metric is really powerful in finding AI usage in a normal se...

What is the number one driving force in the world? It’s power—whether it be political influence, billions of dollars, or even simply flipping the lights on. When trying to identify what is the most “powerful” power, you can parse through infinite lists, but to save you the effort, no power in this world controls us quite like electricity . I talked about the monarchy in my last blog, detailing how kings and queens have ruled empires. But I’ve seen wars started for less. Have you seen the every day twenty-first century person when their phone was at 2%? The hysteria, the fear, the utter terror is irreplicable. Electricity is the real boss, and if you don’t believe me, let us look over our battery-dependent existence Blackout! A few months ago, my neighborhood had a sudden power outage. I remember hearing all of the lights and plugged-in devices “click,” and watching my zoom meeting disconnect as we lost Wi-Fi. The panic that ensued immediately was embarrassing. It went something like th...

What’s the point in turning on the news if everything is so devastating? It’s so much easier to turn a blind eye, it’s much easier to ‘protect your peace.’ It’s just so much easier to live in a state of ignorance. How else are we supposed to sleep at night? When most people think of the musical Cabaret , they equate it with similar burlesque-inspired show Moulin Rouge! ; in reality, the two are extremely different. While both feature a tragic love story at the forefront of their narratives, one of Cabaret ’s most important aspects is the power of knowledge—and by proxy—the power of ignorance.  Source: University of Michigan Cabaret is set in the Kit Kat Club, a cabaret in Berlin, during the late 1920’s, just before the beginning of World War II and the rise of Nazi Germany; the oncoming violence and disaster is subtly foreshadowed throughout, and its danger is channeled through the main characters, Cliff and Sally.  Cliff, an American writer visiting Germany, recognized the ...

I love instant noodles.  Yesterday, I made instant noodles for a midnight snack. I used Paldo Gomtang Instant Noodles, and I was reminded of the quarantine period (can you believe it's been five years since the peak of COVID-19). Although a bit concerning, my lunch every day throughout 7th grade was Paldo Gomtang Instant Ramen. I ate instant noodles so much back then that I was able to craft a perfect routine in how to make the noodles balance between soft but not soggy. During that Zoom lunch break, I would immediately go to my pantry and grab the instant noodle pack.  Take a pot and put the noodles Fill the water just above the noodles  Then boil the noodles till it is about to boil over Lastly, my secret recipe is to leave the noodles in the pot after turning off the heat for exactly 4 minutes. Looking back, all those instant noodles probably stunted my growth. However, they were a crucial part of my daily life. I love instant noodles for its simplicity, flavor, and th...

   Art has always existed in our world, the first instances of people expressing themselves with colors and paintings can be dated back to 30 000 BP or later. Art allows people to draw and paint what they're feeling inside. When all words fail to express our emotions, we can physically represent them on paper and canvas. Majority of the best art is created from profound emotions, there are even museums dedicated to this. Scientifically, emotional art activates specific areas of the brain that are linked with emotional processing. This is especially relatable to people who don't know how to express themselves or have no one to express their emotions to, whether that is happiness, sorrow, regret, or something much deeper! Art can take many forms, painting, drawing, clay sculptures, etc. Each form of art can be amplified by the amount of emotions put into it. In my free time, I love to paint and draw. It is the best form of emotional release, it can help you calm yourself and rel...

Nostalgia. Joy. Heartbreak. These emotions are amplified by music. Music is a powerful part of our lives that can contribute to connecting their emotions and to the other people around them. When you are happy, music can elevate your mood to almost drastically joyful levels. But, if you are heartbroken and looking for something or somebody to relate to, music can act as a shoulder to cry on. Music’s power comes from its ability to connect with our emotions and memories. Nostalgia, for example, is the emotion that is elicited when I hear the song “Sorry” by Justin Bieber or “Roar” by Katy Perry. It has the ability to link certain moments and emotions with a single tune.  Scientifically music has the capability to alter your mood as well! It can activate your happy hormones (dopamine) and make you feel amazing! Or it can do the opposite and suppress them, making you feel somewhat miserable.  Music also has the power to bring people together. Especially in events such as conce...

Being in junior year, everyone’s always running around. Everyone’s juggling school, extracurriculars, homework, and life in general, like we’re all in some sort of race. We’re all constantly told to be busy. If you're not doing something every second of the day, then you're not doing enough, right? But here’s the thing: what if doing nothing is exactly what you need? I’m not talking about the “doing nothing” where you’re scrolling through TikTok for hours or binge-watching Netflix (because we all know that’s just trading one type of busy for another.) I’m talking about real nothing. The kind where you just sit, relax, and let your mind wander without trying to fix anything. No deadlines, no stress, no pressure. And the funny thing is, sometimes the best ideas come when we’re absolutely doing nothing. Think about those moments when you're in the shower or lying in bed, not thinking about anything in particular. Suddenly, your brain starts connecting the dots, and the problem...

  On the 7th of December, I was given the opportunity to participate in the Berkeley Science Bowl (BSB) . I woke up at 6 ready to try my best, using my one and only fleeting chance at glory and even though I did, that is not the purpose of this story. I won’t try to build suspense and waste your time on me and the story of our school because the true heroes of this tale are the four 14 year old girls who proved the world wrong, and made themselves the pioneers of their own destiny. Imagine a room at Berkeley, and If you can't imagine one here is a picture (faces blurred for privacy). It was the first game and we went up against the A team of Canyon Crest High and our spirits were high, they were never higher. Well here is where we meet the villains of this story. They are a sinister syndicate of seniors stipulating stories as my team and I walk in. Here are the basic rules for the competition. Every round there is a 5 second toss up question and whichever team buzzes and answers fi...

Zach Horwitz in The Laughing Man , a 1inMM Production that went viral. Source: IMDb Z ach Horwitz is living proof that gaining wealth, influence, and power is a lot easier than you think. A college athlete harboring a secret passion for acting, Horwitz pitched a business idea to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who surprisingly took him up on the offer to create FÜL, a juice bar chain. When things ended up falling apart, Schultz invited Horwitz to join his venture capital firm instead, urging Horwitz and his wife to move to Los Angeles in 2011. His proximity to Hollywood allowed him to finally live out his dreams of being a movie star. Horwitz created 1inMM Productions to make small films that he starred in. He also partnered with several streaming services to buy and distribute movies in Latin America. This proved lucrative, and Horwitz looped in Jake Wunderlin and Joe DeAlteris, two of his college friends, to invest in his company and profit from his returns. The two were so impressed ...

“With great power comes great responsibility.” Power and responsibility are intertwined and fundamentally inseparable, as famously expressed by Spider-Man. These seem like nebulous concepts—what does it mean to hold power? Does it mean shooting webs to stop supervillains, or harnessing the power of nature to restore balance? I find that power means taking responsibility when in a position to do so; whether it be in the small things, like being an officer of a school club or an older sibling in a time of crisis. No piece of fiction exemplifies the relationships between leadership, power, and responsibility better than Mouthwashing .  Source: Rely on Horror   Mouthwashing is a psychological horror game that takes place aboard the Tuplar, a spaceship stranded in the middle of outer space. The game tackles multiple themes ranging from capitalism and sexism, and is quite dark. I’d recommend it to anyone able to stomach gorey horror—the game definitely is not for the faint of hear...