Bigotry.

I’m surrounded by bigotry. And I’m ok with that. Two of my closest friends, Seiji S and Casey C are grade-A, 100%, undisputed bigots, and I’ve learned to appreciate that. Why? I don’t know. But I enjoy being around their off-color “bean” jokes.

Friends are a crucial part of high school. I’ve been lucky enough to have the same solid group of friends for four years and counting. Friends help you enjoy time in high school, and take the pressure off of academics. You choose your friends. If you don’t get along, you either get pushed over and deal with it, or you find new friends. And believe me, I’m not a pushover. I don’t enjoy their bigotry because I have to. I enjoy it because I can. What do we do for fun? We don’t get f*ed up and faded on the daily. We’re not fades or anything. We don’t get drunk or high together. It’s difficult to do that, being around certain unnamed people who make it difficult on us. How do we enjoy our time together when w͖e’re hanging out? lol we steal flags and s***. We whip around in rich neighborhoods, stealing lawn lighting, lights, and fags. We do this to “stimulate the economy”. Think about it. When we steal this stuff, people have to go buy new lights. This stimulates the light business. People have to go but new flags. This stimulates the flag business. When we throw the lights out into the middle of the street, someone needs to pay to clean that up. Not us. This stimulates the street cleaning business. We know that this really is not an efficient way to go about this, but it’s our excuse, and it’s funny. What does all this have to do with anything? Really nothing. This is my current life in around 21,000 words, and I have no specific thing to talk about.

High School is weird. I don’t like current high school culture. I don’t like current high school fashion. I don’t like current high school classes. When it comes to high school, I have a very conservative mindset when it comes to high school. I think all high schools, anywhere in the world, should be white picket fence, apple pie on the windowsill, middle America cliche typical high school. Honestly, with typical factions. Jocks, nerds, preps, greasers, etc. With typical aspects: swirlies, bullies, lockers, and pop quizzes. I would actually give up my current life to go back in time and live in 1950s era suburban America. All of my friends, family, and my whole life. All gone. Just to live then. It’s just too appealing in my mind. Don’t ask me why, but I just need to live back then. I know this must sound contradictory because I’m currently typing this novel writing assignment on a school provided laptop in the school’s aquaponic garden during my AP Language class, but I digress. Of course, this impossible, and I’ve learned again, to accept that. So I just make the best of my current life. And I think I have. Tiger Newspaper, the South Pasadena Sacred Palms Ultimate Frisbee team, Urban Sustainability. These three things have made high school tolerable.

“Tiger is my life”. That phrase is often thrown around by the staff, jokingly or not. Actually though, it’s true. For the amount of work that it requires I put in, I have no problem working for hours on end on it. Like, take today. I have school for what, like 7 hours? That honestly sucks. I can barely get through second period Gray on even days. Arnold is fine. Laron is fine too, but it’s boring. That’s a whole day of not really enjoying what I’m doing. Then, as school lets out later today, I’m going into room 615 to work on deadline tonight for 9 straight hours with maybe one or two breaks to mob to Hard in Da Paint by Waka Flocka Flame. I have literally zero problem with that. Why? Because I will put effort and not complain about things I enjoy. And the best part about it is the fact that when we finish, the whole school experiences our work and enjoys it. There is nothing more gratifying than having Ryan DeLucia come up to me and compliment me on my column and say my message really resonated with him. When he told that to me on the sideline of football’s game against Beverly HIlls, I almost lost it. I worked so hard on that, and to know someone read it, analyzed it, and took time out of their day (during a football game that they were playing no less) to come up to me and compliment me on my writing is one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced.

And in what must have been twenty seconds for you was nine hours for me. Nine easy hours at school, which must sound like a contradiction.

The paper came out today, and it is the best one this year. Sure, I left the “a” out of “misleading” in my column, and Maddy Hirano’s name is spelled with a “y” not an “ie”, but these edits are simple and don’t take too much away from the paper as a whole. Going color was a great idea, and the sports dominant looks great, as well as the graphics. I could go on for hours about this issue in particular, but I’ll spare whoever is reading this the time.The point of it all is, once again, as much as school, work, respon
sibilities, etc. may suck, as long as you do what you love you’ll have a good time.

I’m not even a thousand words in, and I have writer’s block. I’m supposed to finish by the end of November, but at this rate I’ll finish by March 6th. I really don’t feel comfortable writing about my actual self because I know other people may read this and I don’t like expressing my actual feelings to others. It’s just a pet peeve of mine, when people ask me about my feelings. So if anyone is actually reading this, just know this is what I want you to hear, and not what I am actually thinking/saying. I feel like that’s what differentiates me from other people. I don’t express my feelings at all. Feelings are for girls.

I think it’s cool how we spend time in class to work on this, because I have no motivation to do any of this at home. I have a very short attention span when it comes to homework. Ohhh I just got a snapchat.

My music taste is something I can talk about. I really am bad at making small talk, especially to people. I’ve never tried to make small talk to a book. Ey, what’s up? Anyway, music. I feel like I have a very broad taste in music, but also a very closed-minded exclusive one. Like, I’m currently listening to this Future-Beatesque song No Qualms by Karma Kid, but I also want to hear songs by Johnny Cash and Neil Young. My taste in music spreads from certified hood classics to throwback songs from the early 40s and 50s. As widespread as that may seem, I only prefer to listen to a select few from these genres. For example, I have two songs by Elvis Presley in my library. I think they’re both pretty good, but I don’t really like the rest of his songs. Same with My Morning Jacket. I like a select few from their album Circuital, and no others. That’s why I don’t use things like Pandora, or Spotify. I like to select my songs personally, put in the information myself, and listen to them that way. I don’t want to be given music. I feel like half of the enjoyment of music is finding it yourself, and keeping it to yourself. That’s why I don’t listen to songs that other people do. I’m not trying to be a hipster, I just want the music I listen to to be MY music, and nothing else. Any thoughts or feelings I get from this music I want to myself. Nobody else can experience what I am experiencing. I don’t know why I think like this. Maybe I never learned to share as a child. Maybe I want to be solitary. Or maybe, just maybe, I don’t like knowing about other people’s lives and feelings. I really don’t know and I really don’t care.

Well I haven’t written in a very long time. Friday night, the day before my birthday, was the biggest game of the football season. Against La Canada. If we win, we’re in playoffs for the first time in 11 years. If not, we’re out. It was great being on the sidelines with Tucker Matt and Alex shooting the game. When we were up 21-3 at the end of the game, the raw emotion from the players and fans was so inspiring. The alma mater was great, and I was even planning on cutting together a little video just from that night because it was so great. When I got home, I checked the Twitter, and saw tweets saying LC actually made it. I pegged them as typos and moved on with the celebratory #CIFs and pictures. Then, slowly but surely, official word came out that we had been disqualified for violating CIF rules. I was shocked. Mr. Hogan and Alex started texting me, and I went hard researching what was happening. The s*** talk to my Twitter was so real from LC students, and I really didn’t care. All I cared about was getting the information out to the public, and hoping the SP players weren’t too hurt. I posted three long news briefs on the Tiger Facebook that night, all of which blew up. I also interviewed Anderson a bit, but she gave brief answers. The journalism was so real I couldn’t sleep. That night, Shine called me at midnight for what I assumed was for some clarification for Tiger. When she actually wished me happy birthday, I couldn’t even hang with these feelings. It was just cool. Then I had to pack and get ready for BOB 1. Did not want to do that at all. I wanted to know everything about what just happend. I went out and bought my Oatsn supplies and got late night coffee at Winchell’s. I finally got to the Y with my stuff, and couldn’t sleep on the bus. I plugged in my headphones and just sat, listening to Bahamas and wondering what I could have done better with the reporting. It was weird. I wasn’t tired at all, and it wasn’t the coffee. Anyways, I will NOT go into depth about any of BOB because I did not enjoy it. It was my birthday, and I didn’t want to be there. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. I kept the reporting up from BOB, sending in any information to Shine or Hogan for them to review and post on the Facebook. It was a well oiled machine, but that’s what Tiger is as a whole anyways.

We got back Monday at 3:30 PM. I immediately check again for information, but there wasn’t much to talk about here. My birthday gifts were waiting for me, and I got a PS4, so turn up.

Looking back at the reporting, there’s some serious great stuff. It’s all over national news sites. Our twitter is being screenshotted and shared on these sites and the news. The school is receiving negative national attention for the third time this year. I’ve been hit up by so many adults since I’m spearheading this story. The coolest part of the whole thing is that this story is all over the news. I broke this story. I broke this story. Feels good, man. Either way, with new developments and such, it’s really interesting to follow and report on. I have an interview with Outlook Sports scheduled for later today, and I can’t wait to see how this all plays out.

On Monday night, me and my friends went out to stimulate the economy. We broke SO much stuff in San Marino and stole a bunch of flags off of flag poles. I have 6 total flags now, and it’s pretty funny. We found a cool new spot in the middle of it all. There was this one house. We knocked over all of their trash bins, stole the flag off of their flag pole, and dipped. While making a super tight U-turn to get out of the situation, Casey hit another house’s bins, and stalled out right in front of a car. We restarted the car and sped off. It was so crazy I couldn’t handle. In the end, it goes to show that stimulating the economy is a worthwhile expedition and should be enjoyed by all.
James looks like a squirrel. Today, Coach Konrad is having a players meeting at 2:15 in the weight room. Imma tryin get in on that. If I’m not allowed in, Max Garcia has agreed to film what Konrad says and hit me up with that. JOSO.

I got kicked out of that meeting. Turns out they weren’t discussing anything important, just voting on players of the year. Shults landed a solid exclusive interview with Luna, where he stated there is actual evidence that has been brought to his attention. He also stated that he is content with the way he and the administration handled the conflict. He shouldn’t be, because they really did poorly.

So Tuesday, Girls’ volleyball had their first CIF game of the season. They hosted West Torrance, and won in three sets. It was the first time that there was an actual student section, and it was cool because they gave away free shirts and the whole crowd was into it. West Torrance had this player with dread and she looked like Riff Raff and we made her know that. I interviewed Coach Ben post-game and he gave an insightful, calculated interview as always. I know this is probably really boring for whoever is reading this if you even made it this far, future me included, but I need words and I have to write about everything.

Yesterday was alright as well. It was their second game in CIF. Me and Jenny pregamed at Factory Tea Bar, and I played Jenga for the first time in my life. I’m not very good. We left and went to the game, where there were twice as many people packing the stands. They gave away 140 orange shirts so that was cool. Twitter was hype, and the crowd was great, but we lost in 4 sets. It wasn’t that great but it was really fun to watch. Jenny and I went to the red taco truck after for some postgame deliciousness. Then home.

Norman, my strangely lovable handyman, has been renovating my room for like, a month. He finally finished while I was at Camp Roberts, and my room looks fire af. The floor glistens and is smooth. The closet space is also great. The loveseat from downstairs got moved up and is comfy. Desk looks cool because we cut out the whiteboard so I can see out the window. And the best part is now the speakers are spread out in my room, making music sound so much more wholesome. Again, I’m sorry if this is boring, but I need words. I need to pass Rachel Ba.

Lemme talk about Norman. Norman has stated to me that he is of hispanic descent, but his exact heritage has been changed a few times. He may be Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Salvadorian. He usually tells me where he is from by whatever kind of knife he has on him, be it switchblade or carpentry. He is tall, maybe 6’6’’ or 6’7’’, and is very lanky. He has a small ponytail to tie up his medium length grey hair, and his facial hair is bordering on the fu manchu look. He always wears the same outfit. A button-up T-shirt, jeans, and a carpenter’s belt. He walks like Skye Spector, and has a very distinct posture. He always looks like he is somewhat surprised, and you never really know what he’s gonna do next. Sometimes I don’t know he’s at my house, and he just pops out of nowhere and scares me. He likes to talk. He talks so much, that he stays for an extra 40 minutes after he is finished working just to talk to my parents or me. Once I was making a pizza, and he was sticking around just to get a slice. I told him I had to leave before it was done, and he left. He also likes football, and has a lot of strong opinions on it and many other things. Despite all of this, he is still a good handyman, and one of my favorite recurring characters in my current life.

James is writing about me right now. He thinks his stories about me are very funny. They really aren’t. Like, they’re not funny. But whatever floats his boat. Bad humor is still humor I guess.

School has not been good recently. Tiger’s been my saving grace all year long, being there after a long day or being something to look forward to, but recently it’s been kind of boring. APES is tough and we STILL haven’t turned in our project even though I’ve been trying to get Arian to actually do his work. Gray is easy but literally the worst class that I have now. He’s so passive aggressive.

S/o to James for this Power Bar right now.

Anyways, Stats has gotten harder, but probably because I don’t pay a lot of attention in it. We failed our project, but that’s what you get for working with literally the worst group of people when it comes to academics. Arnold is fine because it gives me a good fun break between History and Spanish. Tiger, as I’ve stated, is still great, but is kind of boring recently. And Spanish, well, I just hate Spanish. I don’t know, man. It’s just been a really bad couple of weeks at school. Grades have been going down but not terrible. I can get them up, but it will take effort; something I don’t have a lot of.

Anyways, here’s a short story titled James: The Altadena.

James lives in Altadena, but goes to South Pas. Why? I don’t know. But he has not friends in Altadena. He only has pets and a grandma. Ole grandma Anderson. How old is she? They call her Nanny. She has a cute dog named Russy. Russy fits in well with James’ 20 pets. He has 2 canaries, 3 geckos, 1 tarantula, 1 diamond dove, 3 dogs, 5 “animals”, 1 horse, 1 horse, and 3 water iguanas. This is what James does. He also comments unoriginal, strange things on Youtube videos. Why? I don’t know. Nanny would not approve of this behaviour. Anyways, one day, James was on his way to South Pas to finally play some ultimate with these guys he thought were his friends. He showed up, and they curb stomped him, breaking his teeth open on the pavement. As he was bleeding out in the Winchell’s parking lot, he called his mom to pick him up, but she couldn’t until 2 P.M. So James died. That’s why you stay in your own city.

James has been writing stories about me for a while. They’re as funny as the one I just wrote.

Again, this is gonna sound repetitive, but I’m gonna tell you about what we did over the weekend. It was pretty boring. I was gonna hang out with Shine on Friday, but it never really happened. Saturday was also really boring, but I finally hung out with Casey Seiji and Tom that night. We went around San Marino stimulating. This was kind of low key, but it was one of the better sessions we’ve had. There was this one huge house in San Marino that had a mailbox that was an exact replica of it as a mailbox. Like, they didn’t skimp on the details. It was cools until we smashed it. Not trying to vandalize. Like, they had to pay someone to fix that, or at least buy the parts to repair it. We stole a few pumpkins. Some we smashed on the house’s front steps, others we threw over a bridge onto an empty street below; we wouldn’t throw it at a street with moving cars. Also, we used a wrench and got this street sign off of a pole, and took it with us. We also discovered that stop sign poles and no parking sign poles can be removed. If you shake them back and forth vigorously, the metal will break up the weak concrete it’s planted in. You can pull it up a bit, but have to shake it more. Then, after all of the concrete is broken, you can yank it out of the ground, and there you go. You’ve got a stop sign pole. We dislodged like, three of them that night. We’ve moved on from lights. We’ve moved on from flags. We’re on to lamps and poles. We’re really pushing our luck here. Like, there’s never any cars or cops around, but it’s still sus when you’re straight up wrecking a neighborhood, even if it’s in the name of economic stimulation. We’ve been getting smarter though. We don’t stick in one area for too long, and if we make too much noise, we leave asap. Casey’s eggshell white GTI is probably pretty noticable if someone were to call the police, but our actions often aren’t noticed until the morning after. My main worry now is cameras. A lot of houses, especially in predominantly rich neighborhoods like San Marino, have installed security cameras recently. When we go up to take pumpkins or something, they may check their cameras and put out a report. But also, that’s pretty farfetched. Either way, we are thinking of getting masks or something. That would be cool and funny, but even more sus.

Now James and Seiji are all writing stories about me. None of them are funny but whatever.

Tiger Thanksgiving is coming up. It’s gonna be at my house this year, this coming Saturday (It’s Tuesday today). Nobody signed up for entrees, so hopefully we’ll have enough sides. I’m planning on putting together a playlist today. I’ve like the Four Owls for a while now, but only a few of their songs. I just recently found their full album, which is just as good as the two songs I listened to before. I don’t like rap music, but this UK underground is actually good. The beats are nice and they drop fat bars and don’t rap about stupid s*** like how rich or black they are. Like, I want to make the playlist tonight, but I have an APES test tomorrow, and I’m tryina get a good score on that. Need to improve that grade. It’s the struggle. School got kind of tough, especially APES and Stats. Yes, Stats has gotten kind of difficult. I’m still gonna try to take AP Stats next year, but who knows?

I’ve been going around recently asking people which they would prefer: banana cream pie or key lime pie. The obvious choice for me is banana cream. I’ve honestly been shocked at how many people prefer key lime to banana cream. Everyone seems to know a lot about pies. When asked, their first response is often asking where the pie is from. When I told them to just choose in general, it’s really been an even split. It’s little things like this that are interesting to me. Here I was, assuming everyone’s take on pie was the same as mine: banana cream over all others. But no. It’s these things that help me understand that everyone has their own opinions and makes their own choices. All from pie. Weird.

We played La Canada in ultimate on Friday. Everyone else on the team went in expecting them to be garbage, and not giving them the respect they deserved. We went in, and beat them 15-2. Even though we completely smashed them, it was a great experience for the other team. They got to play a team that has experience in the game, and we played a mixed game after the initial match. They had a Mr. Arnold-esque advisor who was there to observe and make sure everything went well, which it did. He was thankful to us for coming out and playing, and was just a cool guy. I hope the team takes it as a good experience, and comes out to the SoCal tournaments and gets better, because that’s where the fun of the sport is. All in all, the game was pretty bad, but the experience was good. And, to be honest, it felt nice to absolutely ball up outside of scrimmage or pickup. I can’t wait until the beach tournament when we get to wreck the other teams. Gonna be turnt.

Me and Casey went out and got pie. We went to Pie and Burger. It was pretty good, but really pricey. A hamburger there is like, 11 dollars. One slice of pie was 4.50, and it’s really not worth that much. Either way, it quenched my recent yearn for pie. The slice of banana cream that I got was a slice of typical yellow looking pie, with a huge glob of cream on top. The cream was at least twice the size of the actual pie. It was pretty solid too, which was weird. I dug in, and it pretty much tasted like I remember; good af. We drove by a couple of the locations where we stimulated, and honestly, San Marino has done a great job of cleaning up the mess. The poles that we took out were immediately put back in and fixed upright. The mailbox house that we demolished was reconstructed and looks like nothing happened. Me and Casey both agreed that we’re pushing our luck here. The police are always in full effect in San Marino, and we’ve been going at it for months now. We decided to tone the stuff that we do. Maybe keep the egging, but no more straight destroying city property with our crowbar and wrench. Maybe we’ll keep smashing pumpkins, but just maybe.

I bought FarCry 4 the other day and have been playing it a lot. They should call it FarCray because it’s so crazy. You can ride elephants and stuff and shoot ice and stuff and stuff and stuff. But in all seriousness, it was a good $60 investment. I needed a new game for the PS4 that wasn’t sports oriented, and this was the best choice. The graphics and physics are so realistic when I do something like drive off a cliff, I feel actually frightened because I had been  controlling this super realistic thing. Good stuff, good stuff.

I have a spanish test next. It’s a pretty big test. Chapter 8. I feel good about the first two sections, but the third is tough. I didn’t do any of the homework for that section, and I’m not feeling too good about it. I’ve been Quizleting for a while, but I don’t know. I have a good grade in Spanish, and the tests are never TOO hard, but I just don’t feel great about this test. Starting on Sunday (today is Thursday), I really wanted to start doing well in school. I’m far from failing any of my classes, but I want to get good grades this year. I feel like I’ve been trying harder, but also slacking off much more. It’s been a struggle to get all my work done, so I’ve balanced my classes all year. I prioritize my classes and work well. For example, on even days, I look to see which class I will have the most work in. I usually prioritize it as Spanish first, History second, and English third. For odd days, it’s APES first and Stats second. This doesn’t mean I don’t prioritize Tiger. I actually put that above all the others. It’s just that there’s no homework. At least it doesn’t feel like homework because I enjoy doing it. I really started to feel remorse towards my current study habits this weekend, but especially yesterday. I was getting my hair cut when this clean cut, successful looking businessman came in through the door. “How was your trip” the barber asked him. “It was great! My office didn’t burn to the ground without me either!” They went on to discuss his life as a successful man, and how he enjoyed his vacation to Buffalo (Where it snowed 7 feet). I really began to feel envy towards this guy. He seemed so successful and on top of things. I want to experience the same level of respect that he felt. It really inspired me to start working hard in school, and study for tests and stuff. I don’t know why but I felt that way and still do. And it worked. I studied for my spanish test and I’m gonna try my hardest. That’s what’s important. Not the grade necessarily but the effort towards something that you don’t enjoy doing. I think that’s what is important in life; putting effort into something you don’t want to. That’s what determines success in this world.

I’ve been pretty bored recently. I never realized how boring my memoir would be. I always thought, “Wow, I could totally write about myself for hours on end”. I was so so so wrong. It’s not even funny. Either way, gotta get this done.

Currently, it’s Thanksgiving break. It’s actually 1:39 AM on Black Friday. So far this break, I’ve wanted to do one thing: party. It’s been so long and I want to do something; anything. It pains me. I’ve hung out every day, but now me and my friends have reached a brick wall. We’re tired of stimulating and we don’t want to cross any boundaries. So we usually just hang out for like, a hour or so from 10 to 11 pm and I go home, hop on the computer, and become bored and Snapchat. Because of this, I’ve tried to find alternative forms of entertainment that aren’t video games or the internet. I saw Horrible Bosses 2 with Casey and Lorenzo in the best movie theatre ever. It was only 11 bucks to get in, and the seats recline back like a bed. There was nobody around us, so we just each got two seats to ourselves, which was like a legitimate bed. It was awesome. Too bad the movie was not. As much as I loved the first one, this didn’t meet the hype. It was pretty funny, and I enjoyed watching it, but they really didn’t need a sequel. I mean, it’s not like they ruined the gripping storyline or ruined a groundbreaking genre, but it just felt kind of forced, ya know? Either way it was fun. I also went and got tacos with Stephanie again, which was fun. We gon go on some more food runs together to dim sum and stuff.. We have a whole agenda. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I also hung out with Jenny and Shine tonight, and just got back. It was honestly kind of boring, but I enjoyed the company of others for the first time in a while. Even if we we’re doing nothing, I still had a good time. Came home at like, 12:30 (badass, I know), so hopefully mom will have some chill and not flip a b**** tomorrow morning. Tomorrow I have to go to Temple City High School for some meeting about TigerGate, which is the new nickname for the forfeit scandal. Julie DeLucia has been a b**** about the whole thing and is almost forcing me to report on it, but it’s good criteria for that EiC campaign. I’m driving Steph and Alex, and Shults is meeting us there. Gon’ be some journalizm s*** goin’ down. Anyways, that’s how Thanksgiving break has been. Pretty meh.

Who is reading this, if anyone? It’s either future me, some person in the distant future to see how life was like now, or my parents who found my copies of my book. Steve, Natasha, if you’re reading this, just know that I tried to hide it from you, not because there’s incriminating things about me in here, but because I don’t like when you want to know about my personal life. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Want to hear a hilarious story? Ok so I was added on Facebook by some guy name Yung Horus. After some research, I saw he was some shitty rapper with a lot of tattoos. Then, his friend Anthony Goff added me. He seemed to be almost famous or something. He was really swagged out and stuff. It was funny. So then, James added them, and we went on liking their weird posts and pretended to be big fans. It was funny. Then one day, Horus got arrested, and his girlfriend took over his account keeping all of us fans updated on his wellbeing. All the homies were commenting and stuff and me and James hopped right on this. We said we would start a fundraiser to pay for Horus’ bail, and that we would need people to sell chocolates around the country door to door. We actually got two people interested. We set up a pay pal, and were going to ship a box of see’s candy to this guy’s house. I backed out at the last minute because we we’re only gonna pocket the money, and I didn’t feel good about doing that. Even if we would contribute to his actual bail, it would have been so laborious. I wasn’t having it. Either way, I just recently found out Anthony Goff is a signed artist on Soulja Boy’s record label. It’s weird. I’m still friends with both of them, and I love them so much. Just great times on Facebook. It’s one of those weird things that only you and one friend are into and you bond because of it. Me and James became better friends because of that, and I think it’s hilarious.

Mike Brown has been in the news lately. No, not the terrible, senile, awful, disgusting, horrible, terrible, dreadful, ghastly, nasty, vile, foul, revolting, repulsive, repugnant, odious, sickening, nauseating; yucky, gross, beastly owner of the Cincinnati Bengals, but the 18 thug who got shot dead in Ferguson. I’ve sided with the policeman in this case. EVERYONE is supporting Mike Brown, but they really don’t understand. Ok, so. Brown robbed a 7-11 on camera. It’s evidence. It happened. No question. The police were called as the 6’6’’ 300 lb homie walked out. He was spotted by an officer walking in the middle of the street. That constitutes a stop in my opinion. When he was confronted for both walking in the street and allegedly robbing the store, he assaulted the cop and grabbed for his gun (the cop’s gun). He didn’t get it and started to run. The cop, recently attacked, in an attempt to subdue the suspect (SUBDUE!!! NOT KILL!!) used his state-given resources and training to stop him. He stopped him with his gun. This is what you are supposed to do according to police training. He shot him 6 times. He died. Everyone is up in arms because they thought the cop just showed up and shot him. That’s not what happened. He was acting in self defense. I’m not condoning the use of handguns in law enforcement, but I am saying the cop’s actions were completely understandable, justified, and legal.

Thanksgiving hosted a whole new experience this year. We didn’t go down to the house in San Clemente. For the first time in my life, we chilled at the pad. Alex stayed in SF, and the grandparents came up. Came down, dealt with some Tiger BS, watched a bunch of football, and ate. I had wine with dinner, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t because I’m getting older, but because my parents know I drink. Whatever. I would say they’re homies, but nahhhh. They ain’t. Me and mom got in a huge argument over the Ferguson case, and once I shut her liberal-hippie anti-white and gun argument down, she went on and on about how conservative I had become and why. That’s the way, mom. Lose an argument and blame it on how conservative I am. I’m old enough to have my own political preferences and not buy into all the bullshit my aging-hippie parents feed me. I’m far from a republican, but my views on many different issues vary from conservative and liberal. This certain issue I am conservative, and I am right. Shine is also displeased with the side I am on, but I guess they both haven’t seen the evidence I’ve seen. I just know a lot about it. It feels good to get into current events, and discuss it maturely and in depth. I just hope they don’t judge me too much on that.

Oh, another thing I did this break was buy pants. Yeah, lifechanging. I bought four pairs. Three pairs of commuters, khaki, gray, and dark blue. I also bought one pair of 501s in khaki. I don’t like jeans, and these colors match my wardrobe. I like khaki colors, and wearing them makes me feel mature. Jenny agrees that they are the best kind of pants. I look completely different, and I like it.

Recently in music, I’ve been getting back into the “Future Beats” genre. There’s some really good songs out recently. Lucas Chambron has a great remix of The Fugees’ Ready or Not. I also really like the original. Also, Music Sounds Better With You by Girrafage is great. Another duo, Jaymee Franchina & Jeremy Smith mix together Biggie and Flume. It’s really good. I only have two of their songs, but I love them both. Also, there’s an absolutely beautiful mashup of Can I Get Witcha and Love Club by Biggie and Lorde, respectively. It’s really a great song. That’s the music I’m into right now. I of course still really like My Morning Jacket, Destroyer, and Neil Young. Oldies are great. The best new group I’ve discovered, though, is Bahamas. Just amazing music and I really don’t get old of their songs. They are surf-rock but have folky aspects. Some of the songs really resonate with me, and I listen to them all the time. So, if future me is listening; listen to Bahamas, even if you don’t like it. I like it, and you should check it out.

What else is new? Sorry, I’m just trying to pass 2000 words in this single session. (I started by talking about Thanksgiving break). Well, ugh. I don’t know. It’s 3 AM. What am I supposed to talk about? I kind of word-dumped all of my thoughts just now, and I don’t know what else to say. I mean, I downloaded Rainmeter again, and I actually know how to operate it. It’s looking nice, but it’s taking away from my productivity to be completely honest. I’ll find a way, because the sleekness is sooooo worth it. It makes the whole computer look so sexy you don’t even understand. Man, I’m already at like, 20 pages, and I haven’t been writing for that long. It’s hard to type now. I’m so tired. I need to wake up in less that 5 hours. F***. Alright, I’m going to bed after this song. It’s that Biggie Lorde mashup. It’s great!

Still really bored this Thanksgiving break. Nothing to do. Hanging out is boring now, and there’s been no parties for a really long time. I’ve just been confined to my room and have been really bored. I finished watching Cowboy Bebop, which I torrented about a month ago. I didn’t really binge watch it, but I got through the last 5 episodes last night. There’s only one season, and there were 26 episodes, or sessions. It’s really great show. Despite being an anime, which throws a lot of people off, it has a gripping story that really lets you appreciate the atmosphere and characters. In just 26 episodes, you become emotionally attached to the various characters in their adventures around the solar system. The show combines elements of comedy, drama, and action really well in an original way. The characters are very relatable, and the atmosphere of every episode feels perfect. I know it must be weird to be hearing this about a cartoon show, but it is all true. The best and most unique aspect of the show, however, is it’s soundtrack. The Seatbelts, a Japanese American jazz band, provide the original score for the series. The music complements the show perfectly. It all stays in the same genre, as it is the same tv show. But jazz can take on so many different forms, as can the TV show. If there’s a comedic chase scene in a busy city, it may be accompanied by a more upbeat melodic tune. But when Spike Speigel has another flashback in black and white, it may be accompanied by a more somber wailing saxophone. It’s a really unique choice that pays off in the end. The show wouldn’t be nearly as memorable if it weren’t for the soundtrack.

So last night, me, Ian, Andres, Max, and Casey hung out. We drove into like, deep La Canada, and then just went North. It was admittedly boring until Max and Andres got out of the car at one point. I drove away, but right as I thought we were in the clear, Max threw a tangerine perfectly through the window, splatting right on my windshield on the inside of the car. I drove the car to a gas station, where me and Casey cleaned it up with water and paper towels. I wasn’t even mad because it was such a good throw. If he had like, hit the side of my car or dinged a door or something, I might have been mad. But nah, it was just too good of a throw. Anyways, later that night, Max wanted to meet up with his girlfriend. She pulled up next to us, and there was another girl in there. So Andres, being a fiend, jumped in their car, leaving me Ian and Casey. They left and we were supposed to follow. Made a super thug turn into a side street, almost hitting a curb. I texted them a little later that we crashed. Me Casey and Ian made up a very elaborate lie saying the car was totaled, and that Casey had to be brought to the hospital in an ambulance. It was really not funny but we kept it up for a while, making plans to make it a whole thing where Casey conducts a social experiment saying the crash changed him and he had just become a devout christian. It’s honestly really f*ed up, and I ended up telling those who called me, concerned, that it was a hoax. Eh. Casey’s whole philosophy following that was that he’s not going to see most of these people in a year and a half, so who cares what they think of him? A true Corvino thought. I care what people may think of me right now, and I’m not really willing to do something like that just for like, a days worth of humor.

I’ve been trying to think of creative ways to prolong this nanowrimo. Prolong is not the correct word there. Let me re do that. I’ve been trying to think of creative ways to hike up my word count and meet the minimum. Is the minimum 15,000? It used to be 20,000, but I think it’s 15 thousand now. Either way, I’m probably not going to meet that by strictly writing my memoir. Is this even a memoir? What am I writing? I heard that News Editor on Tiger Stanley Wu just put a bunch of food in at the end of his. I’ve also heard that you only need to submit like, 10 pages to be graded. Of course, you need to meet the word count. I’m going to update my word count right now, actually. There, I updated it. I kind of wish that it was a page requirement instead of words. Right now, with everything single spaced, I’m at 12 pages. Like, double spaced it’s like, 24. That’s a lot of pages. I kind of want to get this published, but I’m not willing to put the effort in. I’m pretty sure I’m going to put a bunch of my articles from years past in. I mean, that’s totally justified. This is a memoir. I want only myself to read this in the future, if anyone. So if I want to read my articles in the future, that’s what I’ll do. What word count am I at now? Seven Thousand Five Hundred and Sixty Six. See what I did there? I spelled out how many words I’m at by writing them out instead of typing in numbers.

I just heard a funny joke. Have you heard of the Mike Brown Drinking Game? You just stand there and take six shots. Heh. That’s actually really funny. I don’t know. I just I’m just gonna end up putting some articles in here. I’m done writing for now.

Yeah. It’s the last day of this thing. I think I’m just gonna put in a bunch of my work from throughout high school. Like, I could talk about Urb sus or Frisbee, but I know I’m gonna remember those things. I guess I could just give like, a minute long rundown. Lemme try.

Ok so frisbee really helped me deal with high school. Coming in as a freshman, I was told I HAD to do something. I signed up for football, and that was a really good experience. I started, and had a great time with friends. But when I learned I would have to spend all my time in the offseason in the weightroom, I quit. Was not about to be about that life. I had joined the frisbee club earlier in the year. I had played before, but this was different. It was high school. So to keep it short, I’ll just say I became very good friends with everyone on the team. Still am, still play. It’s really been a good part of high school, especially taking on a leadership role. Good stuff.

Second thing, Urb Sus. I hated it as a freshman, and talked a bunch of s*** about it because I thought it was stupid. I joined halfway through the year when all my other friends did, because I had nowhere to go. Now, after helping the new president (Elliot), I am the president, and have been managing it with Lorenzo. Again, same thing. I don’t know. I don’t want to write right now.

Ok. I’m gonna start putting in my other work because this is a memoir. I’ll probably start with articles.

I’m gonna start with the most definitive article of last year. It was about a CIF volleyball game at home. Me and then sports editor Clem were hanging out at the game, and really bonded because it was so crazy. He was confident in my writing, and I feel this is one of the best articles I’ve ever written, as it was about my best memory of high school so far. Anyways. Following it will be another one of my favorites, also about volleyball.

            In 5 fiery sets, boys’ volleyball proved that they are the real deal, completing an improbable comeback against 24 nationally ranked D1 Clovis West. Down 2 sets to none, the Tigers realized 3 straight victories, advancing past the rigorous first round of the CIF State Championships. The win not only secured a spot in history for the team to bask in glory, but gave students and parents alike something to rally around and cheer for.
“We didn’t play well in the first two.” Coach Ben Diaz said, “We played sloppy. Didn’t do our job on the net, hitting balls out of bounds, it was just ugly.”
         Behind a packed crowd, both teams were put under immediate pressure. Clovis handled it well, and went up early 0-4. Sophomore Max Luck broke the silence with a great kill, stopping Clovis’ hot streak. Solid overall offense by the entire team helped them even it up at 8. Luck and senior Thomas Kutzer combined for a huge block, stuffing a sorry Clovis player at the point of attack. Max continued his offensive dominance with another kill, followed by an Andre Rudchenko block. Clovis sent a barrage of powerful serves towards the Tigers, but sophomore libero Alex Nakagawa did a wonderful job receiving them. Despite this, Clovis pulled away and led 12-17.  Luck and all-star Richard Yu went on a series of volleys to help even out the score at 23. The two teams sent the set into extra points, since a team must win by two to clinch the victory. Clovis simply outplayed the Tigers, and earned the first set, 25-27.
         “Going down the first set, we realized ‘Hey, we can fight with this team’,” Luck said, “They just kind of killed us in the second. We realized we had to step up big time. ‘This is our house. We’re not gonna go down in 3. We’re not losing in 3. This is our game.’”
         Second verse, same as the first for the Tigers. Second set, at least. The only difference between the first two sets were the referee’s questionable calls. Two back to back tip calls had the home crowd infuriated, as they found their team down 2-0 right off the bat. Yu helped the Tigers recollect themselves with a big kill. This inspired the Tigers to even the game up 5-5, a satisfying payback for the crowd. Right as the noise lowered, a third disputed call was made, sending South Pas players into a frenzy. Kutzer got them right back into a game, coming down on a tip like the Hammer of Thor, tying the game at 7.
         “The crowd was awesome.” Yu said, “If we fight, it’s all you guys. It was the best crowd I’ve ever seen.”
Sophomore Greg Luck had been quietly helping the Tigers with some unacknowledged brilliance. He really let his skill show, however, when he evened the game up on a great kill. Each team went back and forth for a good while, with Clovis maintaining a sizable 4 point lead. Despite the efforts put on by both Lucks and Yu, Clovis conquered the Tigers 17-25.
“In our huddle before the third set, we just said ‘if you really want it, you gotta sacrifice’.” Diaz said, “We were great right off the bat. Started off strong, bit the ball straight down, and just really played well.”
The third set marked a turning point not only for the gym, but for the atmosphere of the gym. Down 2-0, South Pas’ fans were still rallying wholeheartedly behind them.
“The crowd really helped us get through those 3 sets” Diaz said, “Once the crowd woke up, we woke up.”
The set started like any other, tied at 3-3, early on. Most fans thought it would end the same; both teams putting up a respectable fight, but Clovis edging the Tigers by a few points. This, however, was not the case. Clovis went on normally, hitting balls through the Tigers’ blocks. Yu put a stop to this and completely shifted the game’s momentum with a beautiful roll shot. Greg Luck joined him with a kill, which Yu answered right back with. The Tigers’ lead soared up to 14-9, highlighted by a colossal Yu kill, sending the crowd into a crescendo of clamor. Clovis responded with some quietly efficient play, tying the game up 16-16. Greg Luck had two back to back kills to start off his killer run, in which he and Yu carried the team to a 25-21 victory. The team wasn’t done there.
“We felt we could get there,” Yu said, “We played so confident. We did an awesome job. I love my teammates”
The Tigers lost no momentum between the sets, blasting out of the gate to a 9-3 lead, despite a few more questionable calls by the referees. Rudchenko had another outstanding block, his second of the game. Yu hit yet another roll shot, helping the Tigers go up 16-7. Every point the Tigers scored had the crowd rumbling. Deafening cheers by students and parents had the gym shaking with excitement. South Pas blocks and kills kept their 9 point lead, with the score sitting at 21-12. Yu went on to score the Tigers’ next 4 points in astounding fashion, singlehandedly sending the game to a fifth set. Tension was in the air for potentially the schools’ greatest comeback in recent history.
“Going into a fifth set, you gotta realize, you can’t mess up.” Max Luck said, “In a regular set to 25, you can mess up maybe once or twice. Going into a fifth set, a game to 15, no errors. You can not mess up. They will come back and beat you no matter what the score is.”
In volleyball, the fifth set is the final set of the game, and in this case, the determining factor between advancing in the bracket, or going home. Fifth sets are also played to 15.
“In the huddle before the match, we just took a second to breath.” Luck said, “Then we came out and we fought hard. In the fifth set, we realized they were gonna fight hard too. This was their last set, this could be their last game. They’re not gonna give it to us. We just needed to play our game. And we got it done.”
Yu was still smoking hot from the fourth set. After the Tigers lost an early lead, he helped them tie the game back up at 5. When Clovis went up by 2 again, Yu and the Tigers would answer right back with 3 of their own. Yu had 5 straight points against Clovis, every hit unstoppable. Yu eventually let up, his hits not quite as powerful. Clovis seized this opportunity to tie the game at 11. Either team 4 points away from a big victory, every play mattered. Kutzer was the first to strike, sending the Tigers up 12-11. Clovis came back and scored 2 straight, leading 12-13. Greg Luck wouldn’t let them win quite yet, and tied the game with spike of his own. Max Luck had another huge spike, bringing the entire gym to their feet. South Pas was one point away from an impossible comeback. Rudchenko served the ball, Clovis received well and set up their left-handed hitter, who had been giving the Tigers trouble all game. The ball was hit, and before it landed only a few feet outside the line, the gym erupted. Fans and parents stormed the court to congratulate their victorious Tigers. South Pas had edged Clovis 15-13, 3-2.
All around the gym, people were smiling and cheering. The team had brought people together in a rollercoaster of emotions and newfound school spirit.
“The crowd was the main reason we won most of those games,” Luck said, “It was definitely a big factor.”