The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Recently, after watching the movie, I began The Great Gatsby. Considered by many to be the “quintessential American novel,” The Great Gatsby was one of the great books of its generation. While I initially felt ambivalent towards the modernist genre of novel in general, This novel changed my mind; I found this book very interesting and relevant to today’s world.

The novel starts with an introduction from Nick Carraway, the main protagonist and the narrator of the story. Nick introduces the line that divides the two cities, East and West Egg, as well as the lower-middle class industrial area known as the Valley of Ashes that splits the two districts. Nick lives in East Egg, even though he has the connections and family wealth typically associated with the “Old-Money” class of West Egg. At the same time, Fitzgerald also introduces one of Nick’s old acquaintances, Tom Buchanan, a temperamental, dishonest character who used to be one of Nick’s classmates at Yale. Nick also introduces Tom’s wife, Daisy, who will later be important to the plot of the book.

Nick first meets Gatsby through one of his lavish parties, which he throws weekly at his large mansion in East Egg. It is revealed that Nick had served with Gatsby in the WW1, fitting of the post-war setting of the book during the Roaring ’20s. Nick finds Gatsby’s parties shallow and garish, reflecting the West Egg sentiment about East Egg. Nick later uncovers that Gatsby’s parties were a futile attempt to win back Daisy, with whom he was deeply in love.

As the story progresses, the rivalry between Gatsby and Tom deepens, and the reader is also introduced to the lesser-known, shadier side of Gatsby. Fitzgerald includes several references to prohibition-era legislation and politics, including references to bootlegging and the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal, using the character of Meyer Wolfsheim, one of Gatsby’s shady contacts, as an allusion for Arnold Rothstein.

I won’t spoil the rest of this story, but this book is definitely a classic that is worth reading. I really like how Fitzgerald is able to make his message about the American Dream and his overall Modernist sentiments about the meaning of life very clear to the reader, allowing them to create their own interpretation of the novel. I would recommend this novel to anybody who is interested in reading about life during the Jazz Age, or in general, anybody hoping to add a new piece to the puzzle that is the American story.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Mazu – Sea Goddess and Queen of Heaven

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Mazu is a respected female deity in Taiwan. She is known for offering help to endangered seafarers using supernatural aid. She is also known as the Empress of Heaven, the sea goddess, and other names. Mazu is said to have been a young woman with magical powers, who was given life after death after a tragedy. The legend originated in China during the 10th century (900s), then traveled down the coast and across the strait to Taiwan. Word spread, temples sprung up, and Mazu became a very powerful figure on the island.

Mazu, or Matsu, is the deified form of Lin Moniang, a shamaness from Meizhou Island. She was said to have been born to Lin Yuan, a local fisherman. Her birth happened under Liu Congxiao’s reign, a Quanzhonese warlord in the Min Kingdom, on the 23rd day of the third month of the lunar calendar, in the year 960. This was the first year of the Song dynasty. Despite being awfully quiet, she was blessed with many abilities even as a normal child, such as being able to predict the weather and experiencing divine visions. Mazu is a goddess as the result of a miracle that occurred while she was a teenager.

One day, her father and four brothers were out on a fishing trip off of Meizhou Island, when suddenly dark clouds began to fill the sky. A hurricane that they could not conquer had fallen upon them, blocking out the sun and rocking their boat with huge waves until it capsized. At the same time, Lin Moniang (mortal Mazu) was weaving at her loom, when she suddenly fell into a trance and turned into her pure spirit form. She transported herself to her father and brother’s boat and managed to save her brothers from the storm. Unfortunately, her mother saw her in her trance and woke her up, preventing her from rescuing her father, who was still in the ocean. Out of depression, Lin Moniang climbed up to a cliff and jumped into the sea, but right before she hit the water she transformed into a beam of celestial light and ascended to Heaven. In Heaven, she was rebirthed as the goddess we now know as Mazu. As the light disappeared, a rainbow appeared in the sky, signaling the end of the storm.

Sanchong Yi Tian Temple in New Tapei, Taiwan, with Mazu as the principal deity

She is guarded by two demons, Qianliyan (“Eyes That Can See One Thousand Miles”) and Shunfenger (“Ears That Can Hear the Wind”). Before they became her guards, they were both in love with her, and she made a deal with them that if they could defeat her in battle, they could marry her. She easily beat both of them though with the help of a magic scarf that blinded them, and they vowed to serve as her guards forever.

Rivals By Tommy Greenwald

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Rivals, by Tommy Greenwald, is a great novel for teens for love sports. Two star basketball middle school boys feel the pressure to perform: a pressure many playing at an elite level feel. It is totally relatable, and as an AAU basketball player, I can really sympathize with what each boy is experiencing.

For Austin Chambers, basketball is starting to feel like a job. He must deal with his father’s legacy and worries that he’s not good enough to live up to it.

Carter Haswell, across town, is brilliantly talented and stressed to stay on his school’s basketball team to help them win and get a scholarship for college to ease his family’s financial situation.

Carter and Austin’s schools are traditionally rivals, and competition between those two middle schools is fierce. Neither school wants to lose, and Carter and Austin each do whatever it takes to win. However, the competitive spirits go way too far, and a few players get seriously injured. Through this, Tommy Greenwald shows how it’s good to compete in sports, but not to let it escalate to the point where people get hurt. Winning shouldn’t be a priority over health.

By the end of the novel, Carter, Austin, and the rest of their teams realize the same thing: at the end of the day, these sports are supposed to be for fun. This is something important to keep in mind because whatever sport you play should be to have fun and be competitive. Austin’s dad also sees that his son just wants to play for enjoyment, and that he shouldn’t force his legacy on him. He lets Austin have fun at the park simply playing ball, and Austin feels like basketball is his friend once again.

This book was totally enjoyable and relatable. The reader can really connect with the characters and learn an important message: sports should be competitive, but never forget that they are supposed to be fun.

Rivals by Tommy Greenwald is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.

How to Reorganize and Decorate Your Desk

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Most of us use a desk for…everything. Watching videos, playing games, doing hobbies, finishing homework. Desks tend to get cluttered easy, but with some good organization and decoration it becomes easier to direct your focus to the right things!

Cleaning

When cleaning, it helps to start with one place at a time. Try just doing one desk drawer or picking up one type of supply. You don’t even have to clean everything up in one sitting, you can do it over a day, over a week, etc.

Putting markers back in boxes, stacking papers, and throwing away scraps are good ways to start that aren’t too overwhelming. Do whatever works for you!

When deciding whether something should be thrown away, consider whether you might need it later or if it has sentimental value to you. Loose papers and plastics should be recycled, if possible.

Now for the redecorating!

Storage

Desk drawers get easily cluttered. It helps to divide them with trays so you can easily sort, say, pencils from pens, or highlighters from erasers. If your desk doesn’t have drawers, keep your supplies in a bag or container that’s nearby and in view. If your supply storage is somewhere harder to reach, you might get lazy and just leave things out on the table!

If you have a lot of cables to your devices, try separating them using a cable organizer to avoid tangles.

Desktop

If you find that your desk gets a lot of scratches or marks, you can try getting a protective deskmat that can withstand some blows.

Lighting

Lighting is a great way to enhance the mood of your work area. Maybe you want to try hanging fairy lights for something cozier, or desk lamps. Different colors can also change the feel of your desk, so try them out!

Wall Decor

Besides just the area on your desk, the walls around or behind it can be decorated! Try hanging up posters, prints, or if you dabble in art, even drawings of your own. Just make sure that whatever you use to hang them off won’t damage your walls, and you’re good! You can also hang up objects or props you love, as well as plants (real or fake!).

Habits

Cleaning your desk one time won’t solve the problem forever. When you take something out, put it back when you’re done. Plus, doing small sweeps regularly to rid your desk of trash is easier than letting it pile up.

And that’s it! Redoing your desk can help motivate you to finish work and make the space feel more comfortable. If you want more ideas, try looking up references, as they’re a great place to start. Good luck!

Review for Matched by Ally Condie

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It was good, not great, but good. It is a solid book that leads into a good series. I am going to talk a little bit about the book’s plot, high points, and characters.

Plot: Cassia, a smart teenage girl, finds out that her best friend is her Match (which is basically a mix of a soulmate and an arranged marriage). However, she sees that she is also matched with a boy named Ky. All the while, her grandfather gives her real poems, which are banned in the Society, where they live. She shows these poems to Ky and they fall in love when he teaches her how to create. Then, the Society takes Ky away and Cassia’s parents let her go find them.

Best Part: I liked when Cassia hung out with her grandfather. I think he was a really strong character and even after finishing this series, he was still my favorite character. I loved how he was mysterious and wise, basically Cassia’s version of Dumbledore or Yoda.

Character: In this book, we meet the three main characters: Cassia, Ky, and Xavier. Cassia is, like I said before, a teenage girl. She is determined, curious, and highly intelligent. Although she was raised in the Society and doesn’t understand certain things, she wants to learn and love. She ends up dating Ky. Ky is a calculating teenage boy who has seen way too much. He definitely did not fit in, but he tried to for the people he loved. He ends up loving Cassia and enjoys writing. Finally, we have Xavier, Cassia’s original match and childhood best friend. He is a dependent and caring guy who follows the rules and just wants to help.

Overall, it’s a good book. I like how it’s a dystopian novel, but it doesn’t really feel like Hunger Games or Maze Runner. It’s unique. I also like how the love triangle between Cassia, Ky, and Xavier doesn’t feel forced but instead seems, I guess honest is the best word. Both Ky and Xavier are amazing and well rounded characters who are good for Cassia. I’d recommend this to people who like dystopian novels such as the ones I previously mentioned.

Matched by Ally Condie is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Soldier Field

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During this past holiday season, I went to my first NFL game.  My family and I were visiting my grandparents and cousins in Chicago, and we had tickets to see my favorite NFL team, the Chicago Bears. They were playing the Detroit Lions for the second time this season on December 22nd at Soldier Field. Caleb Williams and the 4-10 Bears were set to take on Jared Goff’s 12-2 Lions.

My parents and I took a shuttle from the Northwest suburbs of Chicago straight to the field. This was a fun and easy way to get to the stadium as the bus was filled with Bears fans all dressed in the team’s colors and excited for the game.

Chicago - Ingresso Soldier Field Tour - Flynet Travel

Soldier Field is located in downtown Chicago right by Lake Michigan so the late December low temperatures and high winds in the stadium were no surprise.  The area surrounding Soldier Field is called Museum campus and also includes attractions such as the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and the Adler Planetarium. While we didn’t have time to visit the museums, they are easily walkable from Soldier Field for visitors who have more availability on game days.

Staley Da Bear | Bear, Da bears, Mascot

When standing in front of the stadium you’ll see the George Hallas statue to the left and the Walter Payton statue to the right. We entered through the west gate underneath the pillars on the side of the stadium. In the stadium itself fans could stand next to life-sized posters of the players or take pictures with Staley, the team’s mascot.  Similar to other sports venues, the place was also filled with hot dog vendors and other food stands. There’s also an awesome view of the city from the higher levels of the arena, one of the advantages of having the stadium be right in the downtown area.  We saw Bearman, the superfan who comes to all of the team’s games with his face painted blue and orange while wearing a bear costume.  We could also see the lyrics of the Bears fight song, “Bear Down, Chicago Bears,” written along the inside wall of the stadium.

We found our seats on the home side of the field from which we could see the Detroit Lions emerge from the away team locker room a week after losing to the Buffalo Bills 48-42 at home.  Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears were entering the day with an 8-game losing streak including a 23-20 loss to the Lions earlier in the season.

Unfortunately for Chicago fans everywhere, the Bears division rivals jumped to an early 20-0 lead and never looked back.  While it was fun to watch my favorite team play for the first time, I would have preferred a better showing than a 34-17 loss.

I will always remember my first NFL game at Soldier Field for the cold weather, the great food, and the extension of the Bears two-month long losing streak.

The Secret History – Donna Tartt (SPOILER FREE)

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For fans of the aesthetic of upper-class academic settings or those drawn to the darker, more morose themes of literature (or both), Donna Tartt’s The Secret History offers a captivating and chilling experience.

Set at Hampden College in Vermont, the novel follows 20-year-old Richard Papen, who joins an elite, selective Ancient Greek class taught by a brilliant but detached professor. Richard finds himself having to assimilate with the foreign ways of his intellectually and socially superior classmates, who harbor secrets that lead to a series of tragic, life-altering events.

What I found to be most interesting in The Secret History was its exploration of themes like the corrupting impact of economic privilege, the conflict between morality and loyalty, and the weight that guilt carries on one’s consciousness. The novel is full of introspective, philosophical reflections and literary references, which may appeal to readers who enjoy deep character studies, thoughtful commentary on day-to-day life, and stories that stick with you long after the final page.

If you are unsure whether or not you’d enjoy the book, here are a few similar ones that you could compare it to:

–Dead Poets Society, N.H. Kleinbaum: Academic settings that are a breeding ground for free intellectual thought that take a turn towards darker themes

–The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde: Captures the psychological and moral downfall of a member of the intellectually and economically privileged class

–Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh: Shows the nostalgia, beauty, and eventual downward spiral of a set of elites through the eyes of an outsider.

Happy reading!

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

You Be You, I’ll Be Me

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One evening, I got to thinking about peer pressure. It is something that challenges each and everyone of us, and we have the choice to resist it, or to give into it. This may seem like a simple choice, but once you are the subject of peer pressure, you will realize the difficulty of resisting its forces. On that evening, I wrote this poem in the hopes that it will inspire many other people to be themselves, not what other people want them to be.

Everywhere,

Everyone,

A force pulls at them,

Pulls them until they cannot resist much longer.

It seeps into everything,

It tells people how to look,

How to act,

How to be,

It whispers to us our imperfections,

Slowly gnawing away at our sense of self.

It tells us we’re not good enough,

It tells us to look like the popular girls.

No.

Push it away,

stop it from taking over you,

From changing you,

Because you be you and I’ll be me.

No.

Ignore its’ demanding that you rip yourself apart and put yourself together again in the hopes that people will like you more,

because you be you and I’ll be me.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Movie Review (MINOR SPOILERS)

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If you are looking for a great fictional movie to watch this Halloween, I would recommend the excellent movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This is a movie based on J.K Rowling’s book.

Basically, a boy named Harry Potter is 14 years old and is in his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I like magic, so this was very cool. Harry’s name is put in the Goblet of Fire, which chooses the Triwizard Champions.

Since he was under the age of 18, he wasn’t supposed to get in, but Professor Moody, who later turns out to be a phony and has captured the real Professor, puts his name in the Goblet. I think that this is a very interesting turn of events, since he was an Auror, someone known for being good.

After the challenges, Harry is sent to a graveyard where the terrifying and evil Lord Voldemort returns. I found it very surprising that the evil and powerful Voldemort unexpectedly came back.

After this tragic incident, Harry begins a journey to finish the Dark Lord one and for all. His journey is continued into the sequel: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Extra: In the next book Half-Blood Prince, Harry has to find Lord Voldemort’s horcruxes, which each hold a part of the dark lord’s soul. Once destroyed, it will allow him to kill Voldemort.

All in all, this is an action filled magical movie with an amazing plot. (5/5)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.

Starter AP Classes to Take

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When exploring classes to take, you will likely come across AP Classes or advanced placement classes. These classes are college-level courses that you can take in high school for college credit. While each test is different for every subject, most tests consist of multiple choice, free-response, short-answer, and essay questions. Tests are typically taken during May, and scores are released in July. AP tests are graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. If you receive a score of 4 or 5, you can gain college credit.

One AP class that is easy and manageable is AP Human Geography. I took this class as a freshman (usually it is a freshman class) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I found that the content was straightforward and easy to understand; more significantly, it was interesting as well. In AP HUG, I learned about how humans are arranged and the ways in which they interact with others and the environment. At first, this class was challenging to me; however, later in the year, it became one of my easier classes. For me, the hardest part of AP HUG was the multiple-choice questions (compared to AP World they’re easy), and the note-taking which was long and extensive. However, if you diligently study and work hard in this class, you’ll fly through the exam. The multiple-choice questions can be tricky at first because many of them are stimuli and based on models. I believe I received a score of 72% on the first test from the MC’s. One tip that helped was doing test corrections and reviewing the things I got wrong. Although I did horribly on my first couple of tests, I did well on the exam–so don’t worry if you get a bad grade on tests. To conclude, this AP class is great preparation for future classes and an easy way to get college credit.

Helpful Sources

  • Mr. Sinn on Youtube
  • Crash Course Book on AP HUG
  • Princeton AP HUG book

The second AP class that I would recommend taking is AP World. Unlike AP HUG, World focuses on all of the major global events from 1200 AD to the present day. In comparison HUG hones in on the 21st century. Since AP World teaches students about most historical events, it makes the course difficult because there is much to remember. Additionally, the exam is made up of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, free response questions, long essay questions, and a document-based question (essay); this makes the extremely exam lengthy. Because the exam is long, it is difficult to remember all of the content. Another difficulty is that the multiple choice questions are challenging and have trickly answer choices. While you will face these hardships on the AP route, it will strengthen your test-taking skills + knowledge. You should take this class if you enjoy history and practicing writing skills.

Helpful Sources

  • Hiemler’s History on Youtube
  • Crash Course Book on AP World