Archives for August 2012

The botching of play was so blatantly obvious that after players continuously hit the birdie into the net and served it out of bounds, the fans started to pick up on the mischievous play at hand. They booed the players off the court.

These athletes have already been sent packing, but it brings up a very interesting question, is this the correct call?

In sports, it is not uncommon to lose games during the current season in order to get a higher draft pick for the next year. Essentially, these girls were doing the same thing. They were losing today to make tomorrow easier, a very smart strategy on their part.

Of course, you don’t set up the Olympics in a way that people try to lose, but you can’t blame the athletes for finding a loophole.

Alice in Wonderland seems to interest New Yorkers: from the three spin off restaurants, Alice’s Tea Cup (Chapters 1, 2, and 3), to the bronze statute featuring Alice and others from Wonderland in Central park. So its not surprising that Alice and her fellow characters were made permanent subway art. 

Located at the 50^th street station on the No. 1 train line, is “Alice: The Way Out” by Liliana Porter. Crafted from glass mosaic, the panels are placed on the platform walls of both the uptown and downtown train lines. Installed in 1994, the art depicts a silhouette Alice in blue mosaic pulling back what appears to be a curtain. 

Also shown is the mad hatter, a card solider, the queen of hearts, the white rabbit, and more. Porter crafted “Alice: The Way Out” to allow viewers to interpret the silhouettes as they please, and leave actions of the characters up to the imagination. 

Because the subway system is underground and Alice fell down the rabbit hole, I think this is a very clever way of showing a classic character in a new light. If you ever find yourself on the west side in midtown, I suggest you take a peek. 

As I was writing my op-ed piece yesterday afternoon, I started getting a bit touchy. I just started to write what I was feeling. I barely thought or said to myself this is how I’m going to write it, it just came to me. Do you guys ever have that feeling that you can’t stop writing? I had that feeling yesterday.  I was watching videos of dogfights to get more in the mood. I saw their injuries and my eyes started to get watery. I just don’t understand what people see in this “game” what amuses them so much? Is seeing a dog full of blood, barking and biting the other dog so amusing? If it is, I don’t see it and I’m happy I don’t see it. If I were a famous person, who had a lot of money I would focus on the animal abuse and the animal shelters because I don’t believe animals should get killed just because they cant fit in a shelter. I remembered when I was lying down in my bed with my dog by my side watching Marley & Me, I cried while hugging my dog. I recommend all of you to see Marley & Me and also, HaChi: A Dog’s Tale.  Best movies ever made about dogs.

So Daniel and I will be writing dual opinion articles. I will be writing about women’s gymnastics and he will be writing about men’s gymnastics. The big question is the hype behind it and which should be watched by the masses (that may or may not change). I am Looking forward to this because I want to see what he argues. I’ll make sure to try and write the best opinion piece I can. Tonight though the women’s all around will be taking place and hopefully it adds information to my article. Its going to be a tough battle but I think Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas will do fine (hopefully I’m not jinxing it). Even though I’m backing women’s gymnastics I have to say congratulations to first time Olympian Danel Leyva for winning the bronze medal in the men’s all around finals. 

Stumbleupon is a cool website that I have discovered a few months ago. It is a great site to go on when you are bored and you have time to kill. You have to first sign up and then it makes you choose your interests: alternative rock, animals, arts, beauty, oddities, books, cartoons, clothing, movies, music, design, fitness, food, humor, celebrities, internet, jewelry, logic, mythology, nature, photography, poetry, puzzles, quizzes, quotes, travel, weight loss, writing, etc. They give a bunch of different choices and you can choose as many as you like. As soon as you are done choosing, you can get ready to stumble. So the website finds random sites that correspond to your interests and displays it for you .For example, if one of your interests is puzzles, the website finds you a puzzle to do. Or if your interest is jewelry Stumbleupon would find directions of how to make a pretty bracelet. And if your interest has to do with animals it will find you cute pictures or videos of animals. If you like what they showed you, you can press like and other sites like this will pop up later on. You can also dislike if you didn’t like what site they showed you and those types of sites won’t show up anymore. This site is really entertaining; however, it is only good to use when you have time to spare. It’s not a good idea to go on it when you are busy because you will easily get distracted.

Stumbleupon is a cool website that I have discovered a few months ago. It is a great site to go on when you are bored and you have time to kill. You have to first sign up and then it makes you choose your interests: alternative rock, animals, arts, beauty, oddities, books, cartoons, clothing, movies, music, design, fitness, food, humor, celebrities, internet, jewelry, logic, mythology, nature, photography, poetry, puzzles, quizzes, quotes, travel, weight loss, writing, etc. They give a bunch of different choices and you can choose as many as you like. As soon as you are done choosing, you can get ready to stumble. So the website finds random sites that correspond to your interests and displays it for you .For example, if one of your interests is puzzles, the website finds you a puzzle to do. Or if your interest is jewelry Stumbleupon would find directions of how to make a pretty bracelet. And if your interest has to do with animals it will find you cute pictures or videos of animals. If you like what they showed you, you can press like and other sites like this will pop up later on. You can also dislike if you didn’t like what site they showed you and those types of sites won’t show up anymore. This site is really entertaining; however, it is only good to use when you have time to spare. It’s not a good idea to go on it when you are busy because you will easily get distracted.

I’ll tell you a funny story that occurred today after I left school. So class ended and my classmate and good friend, Jia Min were outside waiting for our other friend and getting umbrellas out of our schoolbags, since it was raining. We found out a little later on that our friend had left earlier and was buying some pastries  so we decided to leave.

First, I need to tell you how the outside of the Baruch campus looks like. There is this shiny short marble-like dark “wall or step or seat” (I don’t know what you would call it) that extends from the corner to the front door. Jia Min, does this really stupid thing. She opens her umbrella, and steps onto the “wall”, probably because she forgot it was raining, and slipped right on her butt. I had to help her up and the other students who saw what happened laughed as they walked by and told her it was a stupid thing to do.

The thing that I find most hilarious is that more than once, Jia Min told me she loves rainy weather. I wonder if she still loved the rain as we walked to the train station with me and my dry clothes and Jia Min with her soggy wet shorts.

Many things in life come as a test to us. We are constantly being challenged to prove ourselves successful in whatever we do. A lot of times, we fail and lose what we were striving to win. Sometimes the fear of failure and rejection can be enough to keep us from trying to succeed. However, failing at something you put effort in is a lot better than wondering what if? I learned this from my experience with my trigonometry teacher Mr.Shah. I got my schedule a few days before sophomore year began. I scanned it nervously reading out loud the teacher’s names as I moved my finger down the page. There it was – fourth period, trigonometry, Mr.Shah. I heard many stories about how hard of a teacher he was. Even my brother laughed when I told him. I knew this was going to be a terrible year. A lot of my friends got Mr.Shah this year as well. The first day of call I automatically started to like Mr. Shah’s class. He seems like such a nice person. I easily got that he was very strict with grading and very serious about teaching. He told us all on the very first day to expect a very hard and deep into the topic class. He said we have to work a lot if we wanted to succeed. I knew he meant it. A few weeks later, it wa the night before the exam. I set aside six hours to study. If he wanted hard work that is what he will get. I felt prepared for the test the next morning. Fourth period came around sooner than I expected. I have been reviewing all morning but that test was crazy. I thought I did terrible. I felt defeated. He gave back our tests the next day and I look down at my test. A big fat 80 was plopped at the top. I wasn’t used to getting 80’s. I was satisfied, but not happy. All my friend, however, failed miserably. We all talked about our scores and they all decided to give up on the class since they lost all hope in succeeding. They tried to convince me to stop trying as well but I knew that I could push myself to do better. The next test came and I got a 96 on it, after staying up all night studying. My friends all got bad scores and complained to me saying how it’s unfair that I was smart and they weren’t. However, I was no smarter than they were. All I did was work hard after failing instead of giving up and not trying. I could tell my disappointed friends when they had as well.

Former Knicks star and Harvard graduate, Jeremy Lin, who scored more points in his first five starts than any other player since the NBA merger with the ABA,  just signed a four-year, $28.8million contract with the Houston Rockets, which has left many Knicks fans devastated.

Mike Aponte, an avid Knicks fan and season ticket holder, feels that Jeremy Lin transcended the game of basketball. He recalls last season when he saw people from all over the world supporting and wearing Jeremy Lin jerseys.

“Linsanity captivated all nationalities. People that weren’t even fans became fans,” he said.

He also feels that Lin could have made the Knicks a lot of money in the global market.

After coming off the end of the bench in February, MSG, the company that owns the Knicks, saw its stock increase by 31 percent, and increased Knicks T.V. game ratings by 70 percent. “Linsanity” was officially born.

“They were handed Jeremy Lin on a platter and they let him go,” said 18-year-old Queens resident Jarenth de Leon.

Head coach Mike Woodson and several Knicks executives had expressed a great desire to bring Lin back  after his contract expired this off-season. According to Marc Stein of ESPN, a Knicks source said that “[the Knicks] will match any offer on Lin up to 1 billion dollars.”

In the end, though, the Rockets offered him a contract that the Knicks just would not match.

Lin isn’t the only one switching teams.

“It’s sad to see him go; he was a good player. They shouldn’t have let him go. They should have renewed him even for another season,”  said 28-year-old student, Jay Figaro.

“I’m going to be a Nets fan now.”