Spirit Week

 Once again spirits spirit enthralled the very being called the students of Firebaugh High School. This mass of spirit is concentrated into one week which is nicely named spirit week. This is where everyone, as minimal as it might be, shows their falcon spirit. I personally did not participate on the festivities due to my forgetful nature. However that did not stop me from enjoying and vicariously sharing in the spirit of the week.

Now the first day of this pep riddled week was named sports day aimed at letting fellow students, mostly males, to advocate their loyalty to whichever sports team they follow. During that day I saw a whole range of sports jersey. Every region of sport was represented; from basketball to baseball everything was there. The one predominant sport was soccer however. I blame this on the high concentration of Latinos; I mean I wanted to bring my sport jersey too, GO CHELSEA FC!!!

The next day, that I was able to remember, was dedicated to comic book heroes. Due to the fact that a blockbuster movie called "The Avengers" was barely released this year. The overall theme was heroes associated with that exact franchise. Some people even brought costumes, which was rather neat and sort of redundant considering that Halloween was the very next day.

Which leads me right into Halloween; which fell right in the middle of our spirit week. A lot of people came in costumes and all dressed up. There was some good ones and bad ones, but an overall good vibe was had. We even got a Halloween theme cookie for lunch, neato no?

The main day was scrabble day; which gave students a chance to express ridiculous and fun messages through shirts with letters on them. This is usually the most popular day due to the fact that anyone can pick a phrase or word, photograph themselves and their friends representing the word through their shirts and have a rad picture to share on their Twitter or Facebook. I personally liked when the word "seniors" was spelled out, Go Seniors!!

-Pride&Ownership  
 

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Two Shades Of Homecoming

Homecoming was both a disappoint and an actual treat; why this contradiction you might ask. Well homecoming is split into two events: the football game and the dance. In my opinion, the football game was a disappointment and the dance was a treat (for most of the time). To fully understand my position I think I'll explain why the game was a disappointment first.

The first thing that was really disappointing was that the game was held at the stadium of our arch rivals Lynwood High School. Now I am aware that this was something that is beyond the schools control because our school doesn't have a stadium and is too small to get one. However the feeling of not having this game at our campus still takes hold. Next came a real disappoint; which was that the school our team was suppose to take on did not show up. This resulted in the game being forfeited and that was essentially the end of the night. No not really, but that was the whole purpose of going to this event; to see my school's team play and win. After this misfortune the cheerleaders and drill team performed making something out of a disappointing night. I did not even get a refund!!

Next came the dance; which was really fun and enjoyable. It started off rather slowly however, due to a miscommunication by ASB. However as people arrived and the music started going the event came to life, people started dancing and enjoying themselves; I even broke through my shell and danced with the rest of my friends. However one thing that was not at the standard of the dancing was the food. The food was literally two pieces of bland strips of chicken with a supposed salad on the side. Let me just tell you that I don't like salad at the best of days, but that salad looked like it came straight out the garden; there was an enormous raw mushroom in it.

However in the whole scheme of things; the dance was a great success in my eyes. Hope the next one remains at the same standards.

-Pride&Ownership       

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San Diego

I recently went on a trip to the sub-Californian city of San Diego; the purpose of the trip was to visit the universities of San Diego State and UC San Diego. Before I talk about the universities themselves, I would like to talk about the way to San Diego. There is only one word that describes the journey to San Diego; tedious. The trip going there took a whopping 3 hours; a quarter of the trip was spent on that bus.

However not all was bad, the view of the ocean was brilliant, especially as we approached the universities. As the hours seem to prolong themselves, I was able to rest for the first time in these fatigue rigged weeks. It was a torturous blessing you could say. However the main attraction was finally reached around 11 o'clock. We first went to SDSU, which is known to be a "party" school; that was the exact impression I received from visiting the university throughout the tour. In an overall sense the school appeared lively; with alumni roaming around happy to answer our questions and showing there jubilant natures.

One item that really stood out for me was the gym; which was an enormous establishment. The exercise equipments were renewed at a reasonable rate, even a climbing wall was in there; awesome. The academics were not touched on much and we were mostly shown the facilities and great student life. However some tidbit I was able to absorb was the surprising 100% job outlook for their criminal justice major.

Next came UC San Diego; the environment looked somber, but maybe that was just the clouds that blocked out the sun and sent a chill breeze to refresh us from the heat from hours past. However this negative ambiance was shaken off and the tour began. We were told about the opportunities to study abroad at the school; which was an exciting prospect for my classmates, but a sad limitation for me. Then we saw the library which looked like a space ship and had a Dr. Suess statue in front of it. We then talked to some alumni about student life in UC San Diego and ended the escapade by talking to a admission representatives.

However the real highlight of the trip came afterwards; where we went to the beach. Now the beach was relatively close to the university, but the real strain came in the form of steep hill leading to the beach. The way down was not so bad; with the constant threat of losing balance and rolling down to our inevitable death. Midway down we stopped to see a spectacular view. In which there was two ridges of two mountains left a strip in the middle filled with the beach and horizon; the sun almost setting giving it an orange glow. Once we reached the bottom, we had a good time running around, but never touching the water. The last part of the trip was the least enjoyable since going back up would be a mission. It was a very extraneous ordeal, but one that I enjoyed because of the excessive exercise.

Leaving I was very tired, but happy to have experienced this. I now could see where I would like to go for college and made fantastic memories as a senior. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and am happy to be a part of the Avid Class Of 2013!!!

-Pride&Ownership                      

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Movie Night: The Avengers

 It was the nineteenth of October and I found myself heading to my school at seven o'clock at night to see a movie. The night was of the cloudy sort with a kiss of a chilly breeze; fortunately I had brought my sweater. The scene was just right for a classic outdoor screening for a horror flick. However the movie shown today was The Avengers. It didn't take long for me to arrive at the school that would serve as a movie theater for the night. The admission price was a very affordable one dollar; you received a complementary button of your choice for the purchase. I had arrived a couple minutes early, so I took the liberty to explore the establishment prior to the movie showing.

There was a total of three booths, two of which sold refreshments and one that sold buttons. The button booth was of no interest to me, so to no surprise I headed to refreshment stand first. I first went the booth that sold only two items: cookies and bagged cheesy popcorn. What really astonished me and made me seriously concerned for the well-being of my wallet that night were the prices. Two dollars for popcorn! Enough said. This idea of overpriced food made my hunger dissipate at an alarming rate. However I did purchase some coffee and pizza at an understandable total of 3.75$.

It did not take long for the night to get going and the movie began without a hitch. Now I had seen the movie prior, so watching the movie was a redundant exercise. However the reason I went to this school event was not for the cinema, but for the social experience. I speculate that most of the other alumni there were present for the same motives. I had a splendid time watching the movie with my friends; adding on to the experience as a whole.

I can say with full confidence that the whole event was an enjoyable one. The music and jubilant atmosphere were a forecast of the great night ahead. The movie was great and the setup was perfect to get the most out of the experience. I heard that another Movie Night was being planned; I can't wait for it.       

 

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Is Pure Altruism Possible?

 First of all, to have a relevant opinion on this, we need to know what altruism is. Altruism is the practice of a selfless act for the well being of others. In other words its doing something for someone, no matter the risks, for nothing in return. This is what my classmates and I had to discuss in our Theory of Knowledge class and ponder on whether this is possible or not. We were able to come up with several opinions on this and even took sides on the matter. It was an intriguing topic for us. Amazingly however, being so early in the morning, we were able to come up with some rather brilliant presumptions.

I believe pure altruism is not possible. One of the reasons is because what one of my classmates pointed out, we can't tell whether a person is altruistic or not because we don't know what they're feeling. You are not also capable of self judging yourself whether you are showing an act of pure altruism because just thinking about whether you committed that act will show that you really didn't do it for the well being of others, but instead to self acknowledge yourself. Whether it's a big risk you are taking in order for the well being of others, or a simple act of kindness, there will always be some kind of acknowledgement, whether it's from self or other people. You're still getting something in return, whether you want it or not.

Another reason why I don't believe in pure altruism is because of religion related arguments. In Christianity, God is supposedly the ultimate being and that all human beings should believe in him and give thanks to him for everything we have. Clearly this is not pure altruism. So if the "ultimate being" is not able to reach this, how will it ever be possible for a human to reach it. Some other arguments would be how the Christian religion believes that you have to believe in Jesus Christ in order to enter "heaven" because of his sacrifice he did for mankind. This is not a pure altruism either. This is from a religious point of view though.

In the end it was really fun topic to discuss in our class because of the various opinions that most of the time did make sense but would then be contradicted by something else and so on and so on. In my opinion, I would consider this as a paradox because we'll never really know what an act of pure altruism really feels like or tell whether a person is being purely altruistic or not. However, now that I think about it, maybe it is possible. For example, I'm sure most of us have all experienced this, where your parent makes you give your toy to your little brother in order to make him happy but makes you mad. Therefore, you're doing something good and get nothing in return. Unless your parent acknowledges you in some way, then you are getting something in return making it not selfless. Yea it's not possible.

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College Applications

 
     "I can't wait till I start applying to college", that's how I used to think when I was about 12 years old, but now I wish that I never had to apply. Now that the time has come and college application are open, I am stressing out over how to get certain information. I'm thinking how am I suppose to get in my SAT scores if I already put in my scores in the application, why would it ask for the same information twice. I kept hearing form previous seniors "I'm busy with college applications", but they never told me how stressful it is to fill out the application. I didn't know half of the things they were asking for, I either had to talk to my parents or talk to my teacher to get some help.
 

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The Rally of Max Pep!!

As I entered the packed gymnasium, filled with M.A.Firebaugh High School alumni, the atmosphere is electric. The pure energy felt throughout the relatively small enclosure was undeniable. An unaltered spirit of what it meant to be a Firebaugh High School student hit me as I entered the "area of max peppiness". The layout was practical and very well organized: freshman in the middle sitting in chairs, on the left bleachers a mixture of sophomores and juniors, and in the right bleacher the rest of the juniors with the undeniable head of the pack seniors. More after the jump.

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