T H E D I R T

2015 edition. Science Leadership Academy.

T H E D I R T 2 0 1 4 — 2 0 1 5

Op-EdRoom for Debate

CatcallsEnviroment

SportsSuccessPolitics

FoodRecipes

Bacon LoversResturaunts, Sweet Stops

Lifestyle Backpacks

NailsLauren’s Advice

Smart Phones

EntertainmentMusic Spotlight

Books in TranslationArt Regardless of Age

Game Review: Spelunky Going to the Movies

FictionMemoriam

Javier Story

Tobi Hahn, Josh BergJamin Gilliam, Hikma Salhe Jiwon ChoiTomy FleurineNick LePeraMitchell Berven-Stotz

Michaela Prell, Esperanza GonzalesAva Olsen, Kevin CourtneyAmirah Bolling, Imani Weeks, Anna Sugrue, Zoe Schwingel-Sauer

Hannah Nicoletti, Tenzin ChemiMellisa Alvarez, Ava Olsen, Gina SorgentoniLauren HummelAaron Block

Zack HershClaudia BonatotibusLeo LevySaul SalasAugust Polite

Miles Cruice-BarnettJavier Peraza

T H E D I R T 2 0 1 4 — 2 0 1 5

Photo CreditMichaela Prell

Tobi Hahn, Josh BergJamin Gilliam, Hikma Salhe Jiwon ChoiTomy FleurineNick LePera, Hikma SalheMitchell Berven-Stotz

T H E D I R T

Op-Ed

Josh Berg and Tobi Hahn

summer. At the same time I think that if there was year-round school, that the days would be compressed in a week, and there might be a 3 day school week instead of a 5 day school week and I think that the 4 day week-end could actually jeopar-dize their learning and the amount of time they would have to be taught different subjects. Well, to change my opinion, I would say

that schools should say the same, just be-cause I feel it works out fine just as it is now, and there would be quite a problem, and even an uproar if this would change.

TH/JB: Thank you.

Jae:JB: Do you support the idea of year-round

Year round schools are a divisive issue. While they have the support of many professional educators, par-ents and students are often opposed to them. Propo-nents of year-round schools cite the lack of disruption in learning - summer break often causes students to for-get much of the information they learned the previous year. However, many teens have summer jobs, and don’t like the idea of going to school for the whole year. Year-round schools can also cause prob-lems with the sched-ules of parents and children, causing many parents to be against sending their children to a year-round school.

Javier Interview:

JB: Do you support the idea of year-round schools? Why or why not?

JP: I believe I am pretty neutral because I feel as if there is both the benefits and the cons of it and I hav-en’t made my decision yet. For parents I think it works if there is year-round school because I know a lot of par-

ents have scheduling prob-lems with their kids being home all day during the summer, while parents and most people work during the

Room for DebateOp-Ed

schools? Why or why not?

JW: I feel like it really de-pends on the style of the student. Personally for me, I think year-round school-ing would have worked really well for me because I think it helps with time management. I think it’s really helpful for students to have con-sistency and routine but at the same time having a big chunk of time during the summer where stu-dents could really ex-plore things could be helpful for students who work better on a short-term basis. For instance, there are differ-ent semesters or trimesters, and then there are quar-ters. So having different choices would make learn-ing so much more flexible for students and I think it can help cater to differ-ent needs students have.

JB: You sort of talked about what you would

think as a student. But as a teacher, would you want to work at one?JW: I wouldn’t, to be re-ally honest, unless there was a significant chunk of time secured for time off because summer is when teachers really get to take

time off. I’m afraid year-round schooling will take that time away from the teachers, but if there are an equal number of days off secured for teachers I would consider working in a year-round school.

Monica Hahn:

TH: Do you support

the idea of year-round schools? Why or why not?

MH: I don’t support the idea of year-round school. Being on an academic schedule myself, since I teach col-lege, I appreciate and enjoy an extended period of free

time in the Summer. I for myself like that time to recharge and do things not related to my job and I know that my kids also like doing non-academic things or non school related things during that period. And it is also a period where I know that families go on vaca-

tion and where kids have jobs, as you mentioned. I think that eliminating that vacation would not be a good idea. I might be amenable to shortened summer break, but an elim-ination I would not support.

TH: You sort of already answered my second ques-tion, but as a teacher would

you want to work at one?

MH: I would not want to work at a school that had a year-round schedule be-cause as I said, I find that extended period that is not taken up by classroom time to be really valuable for thinking about future courses or recharging and I wouldn’t like to give that up

TH: Thank you.

Catcalling: to make a whistle, shout, or com-ment of a sexual nature to a woman passing by. -Google Definitions

Just because they may think it is a harmless com-pliment or that they want to let the woman know that they think she is beau-tiful, does not mean that it comes across that way. One important part of this definition is the fact that it says “of a sexual nature” which is pertaining to the idea that this society views women as something to be associated with sex first and foremost in addition the definition only talks about catcalling towards women; it does not regard men unless they are the

ones doing the catcalling. There is no excuse for cat-calling. There is no reason to comment on a strang-er’s sexual appeal, or shout crude comments at women, familiar or otherwise. Once upon-a-time, there was a period where men opened doors for women and gave up their seat for a lady. The fight for gender equality is a huge part of American history. Women were not allowed to go to work, ob-tain a higher education or do anything that a man usu-ally did outside the home. It was by struggling and fight-ing that women found their place in this country. Gen-der inequality is still some-thing that is still present, you can tell by the way men go out of their way to make women feel uncomfortable. Thomas Sowell, wrote in his book, A Conflict of Vi-

sions, “Each new gener-ation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.” Shouting “Smile for me” doesn’t make us melt, it makes us angry. The gentleman has died when the humane person should have taken its place.Just walking to the corner store can be a scary experi-ence for some of us. There isn’t a sign that a man will wear on his forehead that he will whistle at you, holler at you, or rape you. Women and some men, are afraid to leave the house due to the harassment they are bound to encounter on the street. Sometimes it feels like you are alone in a world of be-ing barked at in the street, but then you talk to your friends and find out differ-ently. They have their own personal load of stories that make you think, has this re-ally become that common or will this ever stop? In an interview with Jae Cam-eron from Hollaback! we

Jasmin Gilliam and Hikma Salhe

CatcallsOp-Ed

asked a similar question:

The Dirt: “Do you think that catcalling is something that can be stopped in the f u t u r e ? ” Jae Cameron (JC): “Ab-solutely ... I think that’s already hap-pening - when you look at me-dia and en-tertainment from as little as 50 years ago, you see this incredible normalization of street ha-rassment and other forms of sexism, things that would be laughable (and wouldn’t be tolerated) today.”Hollaback! is a wonder-ful organization teaching women to stand up for themselves on the streets. The organization was start-ed by seven youth as a proj-ect when they got together and the women told their stories of catcalling. They all agreed that catcalling

should be stopped and to-day we have Hollaback! They encourage women to understand the fact that it is never their fault that they have been catcalled on the

streets. Jae put this beauti-fully after we asked her this:

The Dirt: How has com-mitting to this project directly affected your personal life? JC: Very much so - like all forms of activism. I think that, broadly, it’s encour-aged me to respond to street harassment and recognize that it isn’t my fault when it happens. I think respond-ing to street harassment, and recognizing some of the reasons behind it, bring

up larger questions about entitlement to public space - which I think are really interesting to delve into. Working here has broadened my focus on how margin-

alized communities occupy (and do not occupy) public space.As a society, we have to realize that wom-en are human beings too. Women have feelings and thoughts too and harassing them in the street does not help val-

idate that. The fight for women’s rights should not have to go to waste due to the feeling of being inferior that comes with catcalling.

“..I think as individuals step up as bystanders, and as a society we agree that catcalling and ver-bal harassment is “not a compli-ment,” we’ll see a decrease in

street harassment.”-Jae Cameron

iHollaback

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, com-mitted citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

Environmental scientists are the people who learn more about the changes in the environment, the im-pact that humans make, and what these impacts mean. These people are the envi-ronment heroes who can make our environment into a healthy, green economy. The problem is that not ev-eryone cares about this is-sue to become the heroes of the earth because there are different issues or top-ics that we as humans wor-ry more about than what is happening to Earth. Even the students who care about this subject do not neces-sarily know all of the de-

tails and all of the import-ant aspects to make it their lives to study this field of science for the rest of their lives. So! I will tell you ev-erything you need to know about environmental sci-ence and why it is such an awesome subject to major or minor in during college. Before we begin discussing why this top-ic is such an amazing sub-ject to study more about in college, we need to know what environmental sci-ence exactly is and what it focuses on. Environmental science is the study of in-teractions of the physical, chemical, and biological components of the environ-ment. This study also in-cludes the relationships and the effects of these compo-nents with the organisms (such as humans, animals,

etc) in the environment.

Professor Richard Mc-Court, who studies biodi-versity, evolution, ecology, and systematics of green al-gae, stated that environmen-tal science also includes the study of natural or undis-turbed state and the changes of the human impact. It’s so important to learn about the environment of the world we live in because we need to learn about the beneficial and non-beneficial chang-es of the environment, and how we as humans affect the world we live in. We need to study if we need to minimize or control the impact that we create.

Environmental science is actually pretty interesting contrary to popular belief. When studying this field, people are able to learn many aspects of how to make our environment healthier than it is currently. The fact that this field of study is also very accessible in colleges are very useful because you

Jiwon Choi

EnviromentOp-Ed

can go to almost any col-lege and be able to study environmental science.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that Environmental Sci-entists were employed in roughly 90,000 jobs in 2012, and should expect to see a 15% growth rate in job opportunities. Here’s a possi-ble list of many potential jobs...L a b o r a t o r i e sLocal, state, and fed-eral governmentsE n v i r o n -mental reme-diation companiesVarious levels of schools (Become a teach-er or even a professor!)Oil and fossil fuel companiesPharmaceutical re-search companies You could be an environ-mental science journalistWork in a small companyOWN A COMPANY!!

Another benefit in studying environmental sci-

ence in college is that most colleges have this subject in their curriculum. In oth-er words, you could basi-cally go to any college and be able to study this topic.

Then, how much money do you earn when you become

an environmental scientist? According to the US Bu-reau of Labor and Statistics, the median annual wage for environmental scien-tists and specialists was $63,570 in May 2012. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $38,570, and the top 10 percent earned more than $109,970. And depending on where you work at, you earn different amounts. Here a few for

you: Federal government, excluding postal service: $95,460, Engineering ser-vices: $67,770, Manage-ment, scientific, and tech-nical consulting services: $64,940, Local govern-ment: $60,280, State gov-ernment, excluding educa-tion and hospitals: $56,640.

So… What skills or character-istics do you need to be a perfect can-didate to become a environmental sci-entist? Well, this might be just per-fect for you if you like collecting sam-

ples, interpreting results, and acting ethically and humbly. According to Pro-fessor McCourt, you need to be curious and creative. Also, you should also be proficient in science and math. You don’t necessari-ly need to have expert math skills, but you should be good at computer science and using computer tools. You should be involved and excited about helping

out through volunteering and joining organizations. If you have these skills and characteristics and are in-terested in studying about this topic more in depth, you might want to know what you should do in high school to prepare for your future. In high school, you

should definitely take math and science courses for all four years to get you su-per prepared. For example, Tamir Harper, a high school freshman, is very involved in helping out his commu-nity. He is one of the lead-ers for community service inside and outside of school

and he likes focusing on community walks, pollu-tion, and how we as human beings impact the world.

Environmental science is actually very important to study because we humans impact the environment so

much, and there are many changes every year. You can receive many benefits from studying this topic, and you can be one of the heros that help improve our environ-ment. I believe that learning more about the environment is very valuable. I have learned more about how

we impact the world, and how we can help make the environment better through volunteering such as clean-ing up litter, making people more aware about issues, and fundraising for natural disaster events. I strong-ly recommend this field to students are interested.

If you have the skills and characteristics for a per-fect environmentalist, you should consider checking this field out for college.

Why is Soccer Popular? In 2006, it was es-timated that around 715 million people worldwide tuned in to watch the world cup finals. What makes soccer so popular is that its easily accessible and understandable. The game only requires a ball and two objects to represent nets on opposite sides of a field. Be-cause its so simple anyone from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor can play soccer. Because people all over the world have soccer to connect to it brings people together to enjoy something. Soccer provides accessibility and fun allowing people every-where of any age, class, or status to enjoy the sport.

T r i v i aWhat is the world most popular sport?

Who is the world’s high-est paid athlete who com-petes on a regular basis?Which sport has a worldwide competition to determine which country has the best players every four years?What is soccer?Why isn’t soccer more popular in America?Should you watch soccer?

Did you know?Scientists have traced the origins of soc-cer all the way back to 2,500 B.C back in egypt.The average soccer player runs 7 miles per game com-pare to American football’s average 1.25 miles per gameDidier Drogba, a soccer player who plays for Chel-sea in England, ended a five year war in his home-land of the Ivory Coast.

Barbados once had to score on themselves in the world cup in order to ad-vance to the next round.

Where should I start?There are hundreds of soc-cer leagues around the world so delving into the sport can seem like a daunt-ing place for those late to the party. However there is an easy way to jump into the sport. People can start enjoying soccer by watch-ing matches played in the four most popular leagues in the world which are Bundesliga of Germany, Ligue 1 of France, Bar-clays Premier League of England and La Liga of Spain. These leagues offer the most high octane skill-ful level of soccer that you can find in the world thus making them a joy to watch.

Where can I watch Soccer? You can watch soc-cer on Espn, Sky Sports and Fox Sports. Soccer is

Tomy Fleurine

SportsOp-Ed

also readily available on-line for people to watch on the go making is easily accessibly to anyone who has decent internet access.

Today’s Soccer

In today’s soccer the best/most famous soccer leagues are the Spanish La liga , the English premier league, and the German Bundesli-ga. The best teams at the moment from La liga are Real Madrid and FC Barce-lona. The star players from this two teams are, the alien Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid and the Genius a.k.a the flea Messi who are widely considered to be the best strikers of their gen-eration. From the Premier League we have players like Diego Costa the strik-er and Eden Hazard, the center attacking midfield-er who are known for their physicality and creativity when the ball is placed be-tween their feet. Finally we Arjen Robben and Marco Reus who are renowned

all over the world for their speed and dribbling skills making other teams trem-ble. These three leagues are home to the best soccer players in the world leaving entire crowds in awe with the miraculous touch that they bring to a soccer ball. The best team in the En-glish premier league so far is undoubtedly Chelsea. The two star players from this team are respectively the prolific winger Eden Hazard and the goal scor-ing machine Diego Costa. Eden Hazard, wow, what a talent. His rise over the past couple of years has been meteoric, with the Belgian starlet undergoing a re-markable transformation from precious little young-ster in Ligue 1 to one of the most sought after players in Europe. The fleet-footed attacker has drawn compar-isons to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, aka the top soccer players in the en-tire world. All the rumours linking him with a big-mon-ey move to Paris Saint-Ger-

main are now forgotten. Jose Mourinho, head coach of chelsea, would be crazy to let him go and the Bel-gian play-maker, has clear-ly stated he will remain at the club for a long while. If he continues where he left off in the previous cam-paign, he would add the Player of the Year trophy to last season’s Young Player award and perhaps go for the ballon d’or award. Why not? After Chelsea wins it all, he will certainly be in the talk. All he needs to do is shake off the disappoint-ing showing for Belgium at the world cup. He’s had 5 goals so far in the season. Do not be surprised if this number doubles in the next few games, he’s that type of player. Diego Costa? Well Chelsea needed a new striker. There is absolutely no doubt about that. And it appears they’ve found the perfect one, the Spanish in-ternational Costa. Last sea-son he had an outstanding 27 goals, finishing 3rd in la liga in goals scored be-

hind the world’s best play-ers Messi and Ronaldo. He fired up Atletico Madrid to win la liga for the first time in 18 years. Diego also made Atletico being run-ner-ups of the champions league last year losing to real madrid in a dramatic fashion. The Brazilian-born striker is simply a goal scoring machine, scoring in so many varieties and in so many different occasions. He’s already had 11 goals this season in 12 appear-ances only being topped by another top striker with the name of Sergio Ague-ro but something tells me he’s gonna keep scoring and perhaps even surpass him. The man just cannot help himself. Chelsea end-ed up losing in the semis last year because well, they did not have Diego Cos-ta. Now that they do, well watch out Real Madrid.

Now for the Italian league serie A the best team is juventus with the aston-ishing star player Andrea

Pirlo this man is mostly known for his beautiful free kick accuracy and amazing goals and also the upcoming young sensation Paul Pogba of course. Now we have the bundesliga. The best team so far is FC Bayern Mu-nich as they have been for as long as I can remember. They really haven’t been challenged too much for the title as the team closest to them last year was 19 points behind, that is over 6 more losses than Bayern Munich ern! Their star player out of hard difficult decision is their very own goal-keeper Manuel Neuer, this man is listed the top best goalkeeper in the world. In other words it would be extremely silly and igno-rant to deny the existence of soccer in the fact that it is indeed the most watched and loved sport in the entire world today and i don’t know

Success. What bound-

aries stop us, what are the

roads that guide us to success,

and why does it all matter?

It was almost junior year and

the passion for my goal had

only grown further. Unfalter-

ing strength and belief were

guiding me on the never ending

path of success. Success only

lasts as long as one believes.

This is why I was in New York

City. It was there I attended the

professional bodybuilder Kai

Greene’s “Believe” seminar.

He suggests that a large part of

success is belief, which is rein-

forced in seeing other’s goals

achieved, and is further en-

hanced by hardships attributed

to the hero or heroine of the story.

It was this belief that Kai talked

about. He shared his life story,

about growing up in poverty in

New York, going from foster

home to foster home and never

really feeling like he belonged.

It was here he said, “Is it pos-

sible for a man who has won

bodybuilding competitions af-

ter bodybuilding competitions

to still be seen as vulnerable?

Sometimes, people see you in

the middle of a successful sit-

uation and think, ‘oh things

have always been great for

you’ without necessarily real-

izing you’ve been somewhere,

you’ve got a story to tell”.”

Success is like many other

things. It is hard to imagine

when looked at in the mac-

rospect. It comes in many

forms and is often disput-

able. What exactly is success,

and how can it be obtained?

Depending on where you are

from, and the circumstances of

your upbringing, success can

mean something else. In the

school districts of the United

States, many students of poorly

funded high schools struggle to

find their calling in life. A fes-

tering, endless cycle of juvenile

delinquency is the bane of any

population. The only answer is

to create unity among people

to help meet individual mile-

stones of personal achievement.

In these communities, people

should begin to encourage, not

discourage community mem-

bers to reach goals so that every-

one can be a productive mem-

ber of society. We must further

inspire others to follow suit yet

retain their unique properties.

I shall reiterate, what exactly is

success? Success is experien-

tial, meaning the idea of suc-

cess is different for everyone.

You might see success as mak-

ing big bucks and living a lavish

life. However, how do you end

up doing that? There are end-

less ways to obtain money. It is

argued that money doesn’t buy

happiness, but some of the rich-

est in the world seem just dandy.

What did the wealthy do to get

to their wealth and what other

things do they have in their life

other than money? If you have

one million dollars but wake up

feeling like one dollar then you

do not have success. However

if you are to have 1 dollar and

wake up feeling like a million,

then surely you have succeeded.

Nick Lepera

SuccessOp-Ed

So if we were to study a list

of celebrities, who would be

the happiest? The one with the

most positivity and hobbies at-

tributed to their name. Money is

simply a correlation to success

rather than a causation. A suc-

cessful person to me is deter-

mined by the individual, rather

than groups and mass ideas.

No matter how much we judge

someone’s success, if they are

not gratified by the work they

do or the people they socialize

with, how are they successful?

I spent much of my time grow-

ing up wanting to be a doctor, a

soldier, or an architect. Howev-

er, this was because I was led to

believe these titles would make

me successful by neighbours,

family, friends, classmates,

and the media. Perhaps they

could make me successful, but

it surely was not my success.

Generally, any sort of field as-

sociated with fame is denoted as

a path to success, for the own-

ers of this form of success have

often become portrayed as dei-

ties, making it seem less reach-

able to some people. So they

go through life wishing, rather

than believing in this goal they

have set for themselves. Many

people find themselves lean-

ing more towards less publi-

cized jobs that on average pay

well, majors in college replace

ideas and, as a result we fur-

ther distance ourselves from

passions that lead us in life.

It was halfway through my

sophomore year in 2013 when

I decided I would become a

professional bodybuilder. This

decision was met with scrutiny,

as I expected. However, this did

not stop me from pursuing my

dream. In many instances when

I find myself conversing, the

topic of what I want to be when

I grow up would be mentioned.

My answer is always received

with raised eyebrows. They look

at me as if I am naive, or insane.

A common concern for people

in their teenage years is peer

acceptance. This concern caus-

es changes in a persons behav-

ior. In an effort to fit the stan-

dards of different groups, these

people try to change who they

are. However they spend more

of their time trying to bargain

off pieces of themselves for the

happiness of their peers, and in

turn they forget to make them-

selves happy. It is at this point,

depression can hit someone

and it will hit hard. Success is

experiential, and only obtained

through the belief in a goal. If

belief is removed, what is there?

If you do not believe you can

do great things, that you can-

not go places, then who in their

right mind would even con-

sider putting work into a goal

believed to be unattainable?

Success is the realization of

one’s goals, and weighing them

over the sphere of influence of

your surroundings. It was the

bodybuilder, artist, and phi-

losopher, named Kai Greene

who said “If you don’t have a

dream, then you have noth-

ing to work for, nothing to get

up in the morning for, no rea-

son... and no purpose to be. But

friends we do have a dream and

dreams do come true, not be-

cause we keep believing but be-

cause we keep working hard.”

SuccessLeo Levy

Critic’s Corner: Global Warming

Hello my readers. I’m back again to continue my at-tempt to sway you from your liberal escapades! Even though this is our first publication, because of my heartfelt love for you readers, it feels like I am returning to a long lost family. Today’s “hot” topic: Global warming.

We’ve all heard of it. The sun fires rays from space, they bounce off our es-teemed planet, and the atmo-sphere pulls an Obama and allows them to stay within our borders and apply for working permits. Apparent-ly, this “Global warming” is bad stuff. This heat might be melting our icecaps, and causing draughts around the world. Now, the liber-

als say that it is our fault.

How can that be? We wouldn’t even be letting these invaders stay here if it weren’t for their trag-ic backstory and ability to work for less than we are le-gally obligated to pay them. Are sun rays fleeing perse-cution? Are the Ultraviolet A and B rays being banned from Ultraviolet C restau-rants and water fountains? Why won’t the atmosphere make this energy go away?

The scientists are trying

to tell me and you, World, that we, the human race, are responsible for these strict atmospheric reforms. The facts state that there are many, many factors in-volved when it comes to the increase of so called “Green-house Gasses”, something I had previously only as-sociated with the smoke produced by marijuana.

Greenhouse gasses are created by a wide array of things that are necessities in our lives: Vehicles, pow-er plants, factories, cows, and anything else that is run on our sweet, sweet, liquid gold. There has been an in-crease of around 150% of the tolerable amount of this in the atmosphere since the

age of America’s great rise, the industrial revolution.

Mitchel Berven-Stotz

PoliticsOp-Ed

The facts look scary, but I like to consider myself un-biased, able to look beyond the facts. And let me tell you how those nerds got these facts: Drilling holes in the very polar ice caps that they are claiming to be melting. So, we are supposed to turn ourselves into oilless prim-itives, while these scientists are sinking the planet them-selves. Man made global warming? I say liberal-sci-entist made global warming.

And what about our poor economy? If we are wasting time and energy producing and integrating alternative, reusable energy sourc-es into our energy system,

there is so much that we will lose! We will no lon-ger have an excuse to wage war in the middle east! And if we no longer wage war in the middle east, we will have to spend money on things other than the mili-tary, things that don’t mat-ter, things like education.

Our government’s fo-cus on the environment will stop us from making short lived, volatile jobs by build-ing an extremely dangerous, fragile pipeline through people’s neighborhoods.

vWe won’t be able to con-tinue collecting taxes in our esteemed Pennsylva-nia from all of the frack-ing that we don’t tax!

Anyway, it all comes down to the price to implement this new fangled technolo-gy. It will cost us billions of dollars to install enough so-lar panels and wind turbines to power the nation. This will take a whole six months before it breaks even and starts gaining money. That is six months where we as a country have to worry about spending and come up with petty excuses to blame government figures.

Our blessed United States stands to benefit extremely from both an environmental and economic standpoint from alternative energy. However, I lived 4 years of my early childhood in good old rural PA, where we are taught to trust in the tea party, and listen to our politicians. This ungodly, unethical, oil free energy, while seemingly perfect in every way, falls under the liberal, hippy umbrella. This stops me from sup-porting it myself, but that

doesn’t stop me from hint-ing strongly to you that it is, in fact, a good idea.

Michaela PrellAva Olsen, Kevin CourtneyAmirah Bolling, Imani Weeks, Anna Sugrue, Zoe Schwingel-Sauer

T H E D I R T

Food

Michaela Prell

kernels are popped, but as soon as the popping stops take the bad out of the mi-crowave otherwise the ker-nels might get burned.) After that just put the pop-corn in a bowl and add some salt. An even simpler option is to just throw some salt in the bag and snack away!

Apple Sandwiches

Up next we have ap-ple sandwiches. You still only three ingredients...An applePeanut butterG r a n o l aOnce you have all your

“When I go home, the first thing I do is make myself a bowl of cereal. And its never anything good.” Says 11th grade high school student Lauren Hummel. I found that most high school students, including myself feel the same way. But the time we get home from school we are tired and hungry.This mix usu-ally results in you wanting food but not wanting to make anything, so you just open a bag of chips or have some cereal. I want to give you some snacks that you can make pretty fast and will be tastier than just a bowl of Fruit Loops. Some of these snacks are going to be nice and healthy, but others not so much. We will start with the healthy.

P o p c o r n

The first snack on our menu will be popcorn, which is actually a very healthy food, especially if you don’t add a lot of butter. You will need...A brown paper bagCorn kernelsS a l tThat’s it! that all you’re gonna need. Then you...Put the kernels in the paper bag and microwave for 2 minutes. (You might want to put them in for about 30 more seconds if not all the

Recipes in 5 minutesfood

ingredients you must...Cut the apple into even slices and take out the core. You have to cut the apple while it’s laying on its side.Then spread peanut butter on one of the apple slices. Sprinkle the granola onto the peanut butter.Put the other slice on top and enjoy!

Tomato and Avocado Melt

For the next snack I’m gon-na instruct you on how to make a tomato and avocado melt. You are going to need...A tomatoAn avocadoC h e e s eB r e a dM a y oYou will need a few slic-es of cheese, you can use whatever kind you want. This is the same for bread, just use your prefered kind of sliced bread. I make mine in a toaster oven, but if you don’t have one you can just use the toast-er and the microwave. To make the melt you must...

Toast your bread just a little.While you wait you can cut your tomato and avocado into slices.Spread you mayonaise on the toast and put you toma-to and avocado on top. Then put cheese over everything.Toast/microwave un-til the cheese is melted. You can eat it warm or wait for things to cool down, either way enjoy!

Brownies in a MugNow it’s time to move on to our unhealthy snacks. First up we have brownies in a mug. you don’t even put it in the oven. You just make it in the microwave. The ingre-dients are a bit more exten-sive, but it is totally worth it considering it only takes about 2 minutes to make. Your ingredients are...1/4 cup of flour1/4 cup of sugar2 tablespoons cocoa powder2 tablespoons of cooking oil3 tablespoons of watera pinch of saltan optional scoop of ice cream.

To make this deli-cious treat you must...Stir your dry ingredi-ents together in a mug.Mix in the wet in-gredients next.Stick that in the microwave for 1 minute and 40 seconds.At this point you can go ahead and eat away, or put a scoop of ice cream on top and enjoy!

Cream Cheese Wrap?The next recipe is really two in one, but it does not really have a name. You can just call it a cream cheese, cinnamon and sugar wrap, or a jam and cream cheese wrap. The ingredients needed are...

Tort i l l aCream cheeseCinnamon and sugar

a n d / o rJ a mThere are just three simple steps...Spread cream cheese on a tortilla.Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top, or, spread whatever kind of jam you like you like.Roll up the tortilla and enjoy!

N a c h o s

Our final not so healthy snack is more on the sa-vory side. We are going to make nachos in the mi-crowave. You will need...Corn chips

S a l s a

Shredded cheeseFeel free to use any other in-gredients you like on nachos.To put it all to-gether you must...Evenly spread out the corn chips on a plate. Make sure not to pile them to much so that every chip gets the topping spread on them.

Spread salsa and any oth-er toppings on the chips.Sprinkle a generous handful of shredded cheese over everything.Microwave for 1 min-ute, or until the cheese has melted. Enjoy!

Interview with Ms. Echols

I n t e r v i e w e r : Esperanza Gonzalez

What comes in mind when you think you think of teachers? I always thought teachers lived in schools and had nothing else to do but grade papers and tests. Turns out, teachers can do many things for fun and don’t quite live in school. What are the things teachers might do for fun outside of school? Many of them play sports, sing, draw, read, etc. Ms. Echols is a teacher that loves to cook. She’s cur-rently a physics teacher in Science Leadership Acade-my. Ms. Echols surely does enjoy many things other than grading papers. What inspires you to cook?

Ms. Rami is absolutely

right, I do love to cook, and I spend a lot of time doing it. I also really love baking (probably more than cook-ing, actually). I will do my best to provide you with solid answers to your ques-tions, and if you have any follow-ups, let me know. (I’m not sure I’m going to do a good job separat-ing them out by number).

I think there are a lot of things that inspire me to cook. It is something that has been a big part of my parent’s life together. They have always put a lot of care and thought into cook-ing, and when my broth-ers and I were younger healthy balanced (and deli-cious!) meals were part of every day, even when we were buying the cheapest food we could. My fam-ily doesn’t really have a

distinctive “culture”, but cooking and baking have always been a huge part of our life together and that is really important to me. I hope to continue that with my family as I grow older.

Why do you like to cook?

A big thing that my parents have always enjoyed doing is experimenting and trying new things in the kitchen. I follow a bunch of food blogs, all (coincidentally) written by women about my age, and really enjoy trying the recipes they post, whether for baked goods or more dinner items. I occa-sionally buy cookbooks (al-though, it might not seem occasional if you look at the bookcase holding them all). Most recently, I bought one about Middle Eastern cooking, which has been re-ally fun because the flavors are different from most of the food I grew up with, so it’s really nice variety.

Esperanza Gonezales

Recipesfood

Is there a particular dish that you like to make fre-quently? If so, what is it?

I do have a couple stand-bys, that I go to when I can’t think of anything else, or need something really easy. My absolute favorite is baked mac-and-cheese, something my mom has always made and which I associate with comfort (my first year of teaching, I made mac and cheese ev-ery single week. I kid you not). I also really love mak-ing chicken cutlets, sau-teed spinach, this braised chicken and mushrooms recipe, and a tofu-brocco-li-mushroom stir fry with rice noodles. I also LOVE baking (ask my advisory). Pie is especially yummy, but I try to bake things that go with the season. YUM.

In your opinion, what makes a good cook?

I have watched a million

hours of the food network at this point (whoops), and one of the thing that has struck me over the years is that the people who I would consider to be really good cooks not only care about the food, but care about the people they are cooking for. There are people who can be mechanically brilliant but aren’t really cooking for something specific. The people I respect the most as cooks/chefs are the ones who are doing it for people they love or because they want to take care of people.

Bacon has been an up-

and-coming trend throughout

restaurants, cookbooks, cook-

ing shows, and so much more.

Advertisements use bacon to

their advantage to advertise

their latest burger, salad, or oth-

er food-related concoction. It’s

also been used decoratively on

duct tape, clothing lines, soap,

band-aids, and so much more!

Since there is a clear bacon-re-

lated obsession in our culture

today, we thought that it would

be useful to find and review

three recipes with bacon as an

ingredient. We have found a

recipe for bacon wrapped avo-

cado, parmesan crusted chicken

with bacon, and maple french

toast bacon cupcakes, and tried

each one. Please enjoy try-

ing these recipes on your own!

BACON WRAPPED

A V O C A D O

This appetizer dish

combines the buttery texture

of avocadoes with the chewy

caramelized texture of bacon

and the brown sugar to create

a truly addicting finger food.

I n g r e d i e n t s :

4-6 strips of bacon

1 avocado

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2-1 tsp chili powder

Yield: 3-6 people

I n s t r u c t i o n s :

Preheat oven to 425°.

In a small bowl, mix to-

gether the brown sugar and

chili powder. Set aside.

Line a baking sheet with tin foil.

Cut open the avocado and re-

move the pit. Slice about 3/4”

slices lengthwise through the

avocado, and then cut through

the middle to cut all of the

slices in half so that you have

thick chunks of avocado.

Cut each slice of bacon in 3-5

pieces and wrap each piece

around the avocado. Roll in

the brown sugar mixture and

place on the baking sheet.

Bake at 425° for 10-15 min-

utes. Remove from the oven

to a platter and stick a tooth-

pick in each for serving.

P r o s / C o n s :

P R O S :

Process was quick and easy

Great taste

C O N S :

Needed something to hold

it together, like a toothpick

Our Review:

The bacon-wrapped avo-

cado was a simple and success-

ful recipe. Brown sugar gave

the recipe a sweet taste and

caramelized the bacon, giving

it a different texture. We split

five slices of bacon in smaller

strips to wrap around the avo-

cado chunks. After seeing and

hearing the sizzling of the ba-

con being cooked in the oven,

we were so excited to dig in.

S u g g e s t i o n s :

If the bacon unrav-

els, use a toothpick.

Instead of rolling the avo-

cado and bacon through the

brown sugar mixture, press

it on with your fingers to

Ava Olsen and Kevin Courtney

food

Bacon Lovers

get more to stick at once.

PARMESAN CRUSTED

CHICKEN WITH BACON

This entree partners the crispy

Asiago flavor with the chewy

bacon coating to constitute a

delicate seasoning and taste.

I n g r e d i e n t s :

Oil for frying – about ½ -¾ cup

depending on size of skillet

4 boneless skinless chicken

breasts – about 4-5 oz each

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp pepper

½ tsp salt

1-1½ cups shred-

ded Asiago cheese

3-4 slices bacon – cooked and

crumbled (can leave slight-

ly under-done, it will fin-

ish cooking under broiler)

1 egg beaten

1 tbsp water

Yield: 3-4 people

I n s t r u c t i o n s :

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a small shallow bowl,

mix egg and water.

In another shallow bowl, mix

cheese, pepper, salt and garlic.

Heat oil over high heat.

Dip each chicken breast first

in egg mixture then in cheese.

Fry in hot oil un-

til crust is golden brown.

Prepare a baking pan by

covering with foil and

placing wire rack on top.

Place chicken on rack and

bake for about 20 minutes

or until the juices run clear.

Remove from oven

and turn oven to broil.

Top each piece of chicken with

Asiago cheese and bacon and

place under broiler to melt cheese.

P r o s / C o n s :

P R O S :

Was surprisingly simple

for such a delicious recipe

The smooth taste of the cheese

and bacon on top of the chick-

en went well with everything

Easy to set up

C O N S :

Even with oil in the pan, the skin

of the chicken easily comes off.

Did not need to be cooked for

20 minutes after being fried.

Needed some flour or some-

thing else to bind the skin to

the chicken itself and fry easier.

Can easily get burnt

while frying the chicken.

Our Review:

Overall, the parmesan-crusted

bacon chicken was a success.

There was one main fault with

the dish: the cook time was ex-

tremely long. The cook time

could have been decreased

substantially, because frying

the chicken and baking after-

wards made the meat tougher.

The seasonings and taste were

not affected, because the rec-

ipe still yielded tasty results.

S u g g e s t i o n s :

Decrease cooking time

Increase amount of oil in pan

when initially frying chicken

MAPLE FRENCH TOAST

BACON CUPCAKES

This sweet cupcake des-

sert is partnered with the salty es-

sence of bacon to create the per-

fect sweet and salty combination.

I n g r e d i e n t s :

C u p c a k e s :

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1 (4 ounce) box vanil-

la instant pudding mix

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp potato starch

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted but-

ter, at room temperature

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large egg whites,

room temperature

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup half-and-half,

at room temperature

1/2 cup bacon,

chopped and cooked

F r o s t i n g :

1 (8 ounce) package cream

cheese, at room temperature

2 tsp unsalted but-

ter, at room temperature

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 slices bacon, cooked

and chopped (optional)

Yield: 12-16 people

I n s t r u c t i o n s :

Preheat oven to 325°.

Place paper liners in

a 12-cup muffin tin.

Prepare the cupcakes:

Combine the flours, pudding

mix, baking powder, potato

starch, cinnamon, nutmeg and

salt in a bowl with a whisk.

In a separate bowl, cream the

butter and sugars with a mixer

on low speed until combined-

for 6 to 8 minutes. Gradual-

ly mix in the vanilla and egg

whites. Scrape down the sides

of the bowl; continue mixing

until light and fluffy. Add the

flour mixture in 3 batches, al-

ternating with the maple syrup

and half-and-half, mixing after

each addition and ending with

flour. Mix until the ingredi-

ents are just combined; do not

overmix. Fold in the bacon.

Pour the batter into the pre-

pared muffin tin, filling each

cup about three-quarters of the

way. Bake until a toothpick

inserted in the center comes

out clean, about 40 minutes.

Cool completely.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting:

Beat the cream cheese and

butter with a mixer on medi-

um speed until creamy. Add

the confectioners sugar, ma-

ple syrup and cinnamon; beat

until combined. Spread on

the cooled cupcakes; top with

chopped bacon, if desired.

P r o s / C o n s :

P R O S :

Cupcakes were really delicious

Was a creative recipe

C O N S :

Did not need to be baked for

40 minutes - they were a lit-

tle tough and crispy. They

seemed like muffins with icing.

Cupcakes were sweet.

Our Review:

The cupcakes were also a suc-

cessful recipe. The recipe called

for a large amount of sugar,

which definitely didn’t need to be

used for such a small amount of

cupcakes. The baking time was

also extremely long and could

be cut down by a lot. In regards

to the frosting, it was a little bit

runny. The picture that was on

the recipe online had light and

fluffy frosting that was piped

nicely, however the icing that

the recipe made was runny and

could not stand up on its own.

S u g g e s t i o n s :

Decrease cooking time

by at least ten minutes.

Restaurant Reviews are a great way to show people where the A list places are to eat. This is our restaurant re-view to show teens affordable ways to eat. No matter if its a quick bite, date night, or just hanging with your friends. Being that we’re teenagers, we choose places that is very accessible by public trans-portation. As picky teenagers we want to show you guys the two places we went and had fun trying the differ-ent kinds of food. Take this journey with us as we trav-el downtown to restaurants.The best thing about living in Philadelphia is having so many choice of places to eat . One bad thing is not knowing where to eat at and knowing which places are good. Green Eggs Cafe is a breakfast and brunch restaurant. They’re most busy on weekend morn-ings and during the day around 12:00 and 1:00. Green

Eggs sales a lot of different type of delicious food. There are three different locations in South Philly, Midtown Vil-lage, and Northern Liberties. Green Eggs cafe is a cash only restaurant. Everything is very affordable! The highest thing on the menu is 14 dollars. The atmosphere of the restau-rant can sometimes be very busy but is very comfortable and family orientated. There are good vibes all around, with the design of the restau-rant and the service from the waiters/servers. Green Eggs can be a little cramped, so we wouldn’t advise this to be a date place but it’s a nice place to go with the family. We got there from the Market Frankford Line and walked to Locust. It’s in between Walnut and Locust actually. The walk was not that long and there are plenty of nice stores around the area. If you would drive it might be hard

to find a parking space. Now getting to the food, Amirah chose to get a General Tso’s Wrap and Imani got Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese. The wrap was a mix of tangy and sour, and the mac and cheese was a mixture of spicy an and creamy. It was a good choice, but we both liked the Macaroni and Cheese.

Jeans Cafe is a place to get a quick bite to eat. It’s also a deli, which is really cool. Jeans is a busy place, but the wait is not long. The workers know how to multitask and they seem to work well to-gether. They serve breakfast and lunch. Everything is on the menu. They have cheese steaks, wraps, chicken ten-ders, fish fillet, cheeseburg-ers, and everything you would eat for breakfast or don’t nor-mally eat they sell it. It’s also like a little corner store too. Chips, cakes, candy and juic-es all surrounding the counter. Don’t even worry about the prices. Everything is under $10, I swear it’s not a waste of your allowance money!

Amirah Bolling and Imani Weeks

Resturauntsfood

Intro (for Anna and Zoe): This fall we aspiring des-sert connoisseurs went on a quest to find the best sweet stops in Philly. Anna, the pie lover, went looking for the best pie, and Zoe searched for the sweetest sweet shops. From Chestnut Hill to South Philly and from snicker-doodles to apple pie , we sampled plenty of delicious treats; here are our results.

Rating: : You’ll feel the need to rinse your mouth repeatedly to get the taste out of your mouth. :You’ll feel like you could’ve chosen a much better option. : You’ll feel like the you just experienced the epitome of mediocrity. : You’ll feel very satisfied with the delectable food. : You’ll feel like you’re in sugary food heaven, and you never want to leave.

Insomnia Cookies: Insomnia Cookies is a sweet shop that sells cookies and ice cream. They have a various different cookie types includ-ing snickerdoodle, double chocolate chunk, and white chocolate macadamia. The cookies are not overpriced as they are $1.35 each. They’re a yummy treat, but not the best cookies ever known to man. The cookies are slight-ly warmed, which in turn makes the chocolate chunks perfectly melted. The flavor is good, but probably not bet-ter than your family’s home-made ones. The stores also deliver (and closes at 3 a.m.), but not to every neighbor-hood, which is disappointing.

Sweet As Fudge Candy Shoppe: This candy shop is a small stand inside Reading Termi-nal Market. There are various homemade candies, includ-

ing: chocolate assortments, fudge, jelly beans, and more. When I went to visit I in-dulged in a small square of dark chocolate sea salt fudge ($3.25). This fudge was ide-ally rich; it wasn’t overly rich (I could eat more than one bite). This specific piece of fudge was crafted beautifully with caramel in the middle, and sea salt on top adding the perfect amount of kick and balance to the sweetness.

Capogiro: Capogiro is small gelato fran-chise that has multiple stores in Philadelphia. At each loca-tion there is a huge selection of gelato to choose from. My personal favorite is the dulce de leche. I find that no matter what flavor you try, it is always delicious. Gelato is much more rich than ice cream, and also more expensive. For a small it is $4.75. Even with the more expensive price tag, it’s more than worth it.

High Point Cafe: High Point Cafe is a local cafe with two locations in Mt.

Anna Sugrue and Zoe Shwingel-Sauer

Sweet Shopsfood

Airy. The cafe sells various pastries and hot drinks. Some of the most popular items on the menu are the crepes. There are both savory and sweet options. My favorite crepe to order is the chocolate one. It’s more a dessert, than a breakfast, but it’s delicious. The crepe layers are light, but not flavorless. There is also chocolate drizzled across the top and two generous dollops of whipped cream.

Marcie Blaine: Marcie Blane is a store that makes and sells homemade chocolate. The store sells box-es of chocolate (of varying sizes), and within each box are multiple types of choco-late. The flavors range from crispy hazelnut (milk choco-late praline) to salted caramel to smoked pimenton (cinna-mon hazelnut) to prosecco (sparkling wine, infused with truffle). In addition the delec-table flavors, there are also small intricate designs on these chocolates. There are an eclectic range of colorful designs. Since Marcie Blaine

is located in Philly they also have some Philly designs: love park, liberty bell, soft pretzel, and the philly sky-line. The chocolates start at $17.95 for a nine piece box. Getting these boxes are both aesthetically pleasing and a delicious way to try many dif-ferent well-made chocolates.

Bredenbeck’s: Bredenbeck’s is a pastry and ice cream shop located in Chestnut Hill. It has two entrances; one entrance for customers wanting to buy pastries and one entrance for customers wanting to buy ice cream. Usually I enter through the ice cream side. They have many flavors of ice cream; ev-ery flavor I’ve tried has been a success! What I especially recommend is getting a milk-shake. I am a milkshake snob and this place has mastered the art of the milkshake. The milkshake is thick, but you’re still able to sip it up through the straw. It’s also incredibly rich; their ice cream is top quality. They also have amaz-ing cakes. Every year my dad

orders their german chocolate cake for my mom’s birthday, and the cake never disap-points. The service is always welcoming and the scents in Bredenbeck’s are heavenly.

Sweet Ending: Sweet Ending is a great fro-zen yogurt place. One of the best things about this place is that you can get a lot of frozen yogurt for not a lot of mon-ey; the pricing is per pound, and is very cheap. There are about eight flavors to choose from. Sweet Ending is most popular in the Spring and Summer, but it’s open year round. The toppings bar has a lot of variety and my personal favorite concoction is to add strawberries and oreo crumbs to chocolate frozen yogurt.

Jasmin Gilliam, Mellisa Alvarez, Hannah Nicoletti, Tenzin ChemiAva Olsen, Gina SorgentoniLauren HummelAaron Block

LifestyleT H E D I R T

lifestyle

BackpacksHannah Nicoletti, Tenzin Chemi

My sketchbook because I am a visu-al learner and it helps me get my thoughts out

hikma:“My pepper spray because I’ve been harassed in the streets so many time so I feel the need and my moth-er feels the need to make me carry pepper spray.”

“My laptop and my charger because if my phone dies I can charge it on my laptop.”

Tiarra:my book bag is a timbuk-tu bag so umm its a hiking bookbag because I like hik-ing. so it has like all these features for hiking on there. I like it because it has a front strap that’s supportive. On it is… I bought it from the poconos… is a com-

pass. That’s important to me because I love nature and I don’t like the city so like it’s a way for me to find my peace and reminds me that I should go back to the woods.Olivia:The color of my book-bag is neutral so it matches my outfits.

Caitlin:My backpack is blue be-cause it’s my favorite color.

Maggie: “My phone because I can listen to my music. It al-lows me to express myself.” I Introduction Paragraph:

“Everybody has a story. In this project, our mission was to give the readers an intriguing way to tell one’s personal story and character through something close to

them but concurrently not so close to them, their bag.”

Everybody has a story. Part of their story is told through things they carry around everyday. They carry things that they couldn’t live with-out yet they don’t even re-member they are there. On a daily basis people sub-consciously place items in their bags but if you give it ten minutes they forget it’s there. You can tell so much about a person just by look-ing at what they carry each and every day. It’s time to take a step into their world...

There are many mis-conceptions we have about the correct way to care for our nails, the effect artifi-cial applications may have on our nailbeds, and the best ways to make them dry the quickest. We’re go-ing to be debunking some of the most common beau-ty myths out there about nails, giving you tips on a cute DIY design, and the best pages to follow on in-stagram for different nail designs that you might like.

Myth #1: Acrylic or gel manicures ruin your nails.If the application and re-moval process of either acrylic or gel nails are both done correctly, they shouldn’t cause any dam-age to your actual nail. This is all dependent upon the applicator, of course. Per-

sonally I like to manicure my own nails because it’s cost effective, and I don’t have to worry about any-thing breaking off of my fingers. On a special oc-casion though, it might be nice to treat yourself to an acrylic or gel man-icure for a different look.

Myth #2: You should not keep your nails polished 24/7; they need time to breathe.Nothing from the outside has an effect on the health of your nails. Everything that your nails need to grow are provided by what is al-ready in your body. I know that I like to polish my nails at least once a week just to have a fresh look, or because I want them to match what I’m wearing.

Myth #3: Dipping your nails in ice cold water results

in a faster drying process.Nail polish will dry once the solvents in the polish have evaporated. If you dip them in ice water, it will only put a stop to this process. Trust me, it doesn’t work. Your best bet for a quick dry if you are on your way out somewhere is to stick your fingers out of the car window as it’s moving, or to blow-dry them on a low heat or cold temperature.

Myth #4: If you clip your nails on a regular basis, they will stay healthy.Every time you clip your nails, your cuticles are be-ing exposed to fresh bacte-ria. The length of them is what actually keeps germs from entering the nail bed. I know when it’s the right time to clip my nails when my nail bed starts to feel thin and fragile, or when I’m washing my hair and I feel my hair get caught to a nail; this usually indi-cates that there’s a small rip on the side of the nail and that it should be cut be-

Mellisa Alvarez

Nailslifestyle

fore it gets caught and torn off accidentally later on.

Myth #5: You should file your nails in a back and forth motion to get the best outcome.Filing your nails in a back and forth motion is an awe-some way to damage your nails. You should be filing from the outside edge to the inside edge, and only in one direction. Also just in general, if you file your nails in one direction, you get a much cleaner and smoother edge than if you try going back and forth.

Myth #6: Jell-O helps to increase the health of your nails and their growth.Gelatin in any form has zero effect on your nails. I’ve personally never tried this before because my nails have never had a “sick day” where they are in need of immediate growth. If you’re clean with your hands and take care of them, you should have no reason to be doing this in the first place.

Myth #7: Putting nail pol-ish in the refrigerator will make the colors last longer.Putting nail polish in the fridge will only slow the thickening of the liquid, but what really keeps the colors long lasting is making sure that you tighten the caps of the bottles as best as possi-ble. I find that the color that lasts the least for me before it gets gloppy is white. Most nail designs will call for a white base, so I use it the most out of any polish and it ends up drying the fast-est. So make sure you seal your bottles as tight as you can, because the freshness won’t be there too long.

Myth #8: When you have white spots on your nails, this means they are lacking calcium.White spots are usually the result of a minor injury to the nailbed. These spots tell you absolutely nothing about calcium levels. Ha-ven’t you ever accidental-ly smashed your toe into

something, or have your finger slammed by a door? It’s happened to me many times, and I usually end up with a small white line or mark on my nail. That’s all it is; what a good smash on the nail looks like.

Myth #9: Any mani-cure cream can be used to treat a nail infection.If your nails are infected, don’t try self-diagnosing and end up using a harmful cream or ointment on your nails. Go see your derma-tologist to get a profession-al diagnosis and the proper treatment. I mean you don’t treat a cold with vitamins do you? It’s always bet-ter to be safe than stupid.

Myth #10: UV gels are better to use than acrylics.UV gels are actually just another form of an acrylic formula, so one isn’t actu-ally better than the other; they’re the same. When you really break down the chemical formula of either polish, you’ll find that they

both originate from the same substance, so if you’re debating with your friends about which polish is healthier for you, just stop.

It’s important that if you enjoy polishing your nails and want to keep them growing healthy, that you are able to differentiate the myths from the facts. It’s all about having the prop-er tools, materials, and a LOT of patience because one mess-up can ruin an en-tire design (trust me). Now we’re going to try an easy DIY winter nail design! Here’s what you’ll need:

10 Best Nail Artists/Designs to follow on Instagram

Nails Tutorial: @nailsartvidss (5.2m followers)

Nail: @nail (2.3m followers)

Tam: @ohmygoshpolish (1m followers)

SharingVü: @sharingvu (109k followers)

Chelsea Queen: @chelseaqueen (107k followers)

Britney Tokyo: @britneytokyo (66.2k followers)

Bernadette: @bdettenails (65k followers)

Amina: @amina2inspire (62k followers)

Kristin and Kayla: @polishedtwins (59.3k followers)

Lexi Martone: @leximartone (40.2k followers)

Photo CreditClaudia Bonitatibus

If you are a regular Pin-terest user, then you know how quickly you will pin a DIY article without ques-tioning if it works. You pin it to your DIY & Crafts board, along with hundreds of other crafts. We went through our ample amount of DIY pins ,and have compiled a list of popular DIY’s to try and see wheth-er or not people are wasting their time by pinning them. DIY #1: Painting on GlueThis is a fun project that can triple as a suncatcher, a wall decoration, or a coast-er. This DIY craft is fun for people of all ages! During the project, you will be painting on white glue with food coloring or colored ink. When dried, the final product will be colorful with a psychedelic effect. All this project requires is white glue, a small contain-

er lid (preferably a round one), toothpicks, and food coloring or colored ink.Step 1: To do this proj-ect you must first pour your glue into your con-tainer lid. Make sure the glue covers the entire lid. Step 2: Next, start adding col-or. Spread the color around with your toothpicks and be creative - there are tons of things that you can design!Step 3: Once you finish with your creation let it sit until the glue hardens. I deemed this craft a success until the the glue began to dry. It was fun, simple, and didn’t require a lot of mate-rials. The drawings started with very fine lines, but as the glue dried, the ink set-tled and the fine lines began to expand and bleed into one another. (This didn’t ruin the project). I would advise that anyone who tries this project should take into account the “bleeding

factor”. The finished proj-ect was a round, white cir-cle covered with beautiful, streaky rainbow designs.

DIY #2: Vanilla Scent Throughout the HouseThis is an extremely easy project that takes a couple of minutes to prepare and the results last anywhere from 1-3 days. If you enjoy the fresh smell of vanilla in your home, I highly recommend trying this. All you need is vanilla extract, an oven safe container, and an oven.Step 1: Preheat oven to 350°.Step 2: Measure three teaspoons of vanilla ex-tract and place it in an oven-safe container.Step 3: Leave in the oven for 20 minutes.Step 4: Enjoy the delicious smell. This craft was a suc-cess, and it was only min-utes after the vanilla went in the oven before you could already smell it. I would love to see how this works with other kinds of extracts, such as peppermint, al-mond, etc. The great thing

Ava Olsen and Gina Sorgentoni

Pin Busterslifestyle

about this craft is that the smell stays in the house for at least a day afterwards.

DIY #3: Sugar Scrub (Gina)If you would like to have an easy gift to give to friends and family, a sugar lip scrub is the perfect gift to give. Whether in the sum-mer or the winter, everyone is prone to get chapped lips. This sugar scrub will elim-inate your chapped lips, is easy to make, and tastes de-licious. All you will need for this project is coconut oil, white sugar, and some type of extract (vanilla, peppermint, orange, etc).Step 1: Take ½ cup of co-conut oil, and place it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds or until soft. Step 2: Remove from mi-crowave, making sure the oil is soft, then add 1 ½ cups of sugar. Combine. If the solution is too liquidy, then add more sugar to the mix. Step 3: Add in 1 tbsp of the extract of your choice (Pep-permint is recommended).Step 4: Combine until the extract is distribut-

ed throughout the scrub.Step 5: Pour into containers. How to apply: Take a small amount of the scrub and rub it on your lips. Exfoliate for however long you want. When finished, you can lick the scrub off of your lips. Enjoy your refreshed and rejuvenated skin!Creating this craft was a success! It was easy to make and required very few ingredients. The product it-self works wonders as an exfoliator and moisturizer, and has a long shelf life. It is a great gift to give to friends and family. I made a few small containers to give out during the holidays. I will definitely be making more of this lip scrub in the future.

DIY #4: Hair Mask This DIY is great for people that want silky, shiny hair. The coconut oil has vitamins that help nourish your hair and help control dry skin. The honey controls the moisture of your hair. The apple cider vinegar bal-ances the pH and removes

hair product buildup. The three of these ingredients combine together to cre-ate a perfect hair treatment. Step 1: Use 2 parts coco-nut oil, 2 parts honey, and 1 part apple cider vinegar.Step 2: Melt the coconut oil in the microwave for ten seconds so it’s soft.Step 3: Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and then apply to hair. (Option-al: Cover hair with foil so it doesn’t get on your clothes if you’re moving around).Step 4: Leave on your hair for 30 minutes, and then wash and rinse your hair. This DIY was suc-cessful for several reasons; it was easy to use, it made my hair light and fluffy, and it was inexpensive. I was doubtful in the beginning, but afterwards, there was a definite improvement in my hair’s texture and appear-ance. It can’t repair split ends, but it can definitely improve the texture of your roots to prevent split ends.

and especially in the case of ending one. Like all re-lationships, friendship is a fragile thing that is not al-ways appreciated from both sides equally. You have to deal with this situation care-fully though because people are sensitive and especially if it was a strong friend-ship at one point, it can be hard for other people to un-derstand that you are feel-ing a certain way and why. To deal with this, I would first ask, ‘is this really what you want to do?’ If your answer is yes, I would first like to tell you how to not deal with it. Ignoring them, avoiding them, cursing them out or yelling at them and sabotaging or stabbing them in the back is not what you do. That just ends up reflecting poorly on you.What you want to do is have a casual sit down and

Many teens of this generation and previous generations and surely of generations to come, some-times have a hard time ask-ing the questions that they so desperately need the an-swers to. Sure you could ask a friend, or an import-ant adult in your life but it can be hard to put yourself out there with some of those questions you may have and the implications that come with them. This provides an anonymous outlet for any and all of your questions with no judgement because your identity is unknown.

How do I end a friendship without hurt-ing the other person?

Friendships can be ex-tremely difficult sometimes

discuss what’s happening and explain why you are no longer happy with the re-lationship. I am under the assumption that you don’t want to totally cut them out of your life but become more like acquaintances than good friends. While this may not be a 100% amazing, fool-proof idea, there is really no safe way to end a friendship or any type of relationship for that mat-ter without hurting some-ones feelings a little bit.

I need help in a class, but my teacher intimidates me, and none of my friends can help me. What should I do? This is something I know many people, including my-self struggle with. You want to reach out, but you are scared that there is no one there lend you the helping hand that you need. You can also feel a little bit strand-ed at that point because the one person you know can help you is not someone

Lauren Hummel

Advicelifestyle

you are comfortable with and you are already uncom-fortable enough because of your lack of understanding. There is always the default of googling it, but that is not always very reli-able or effective in the long run. One thing you could do however, is turn to a teach-er that you are comfortable with. While most teachers only teach specific subjects but that doesn’t mean that they don’t know anything about all of the others. Your teachers are humans too and they have been in the same shoes that you are current-ly in so they understand. They are also teachers be-cause they want to enrich your mind and learning so it gives them a stronger sense of purpose when you go directly to them for help. Another solution is to get some backup. Most of your friends proba-bly wouldn’t mind going with you to your teach-er as a moral support. You would be surprised to know how far a little mor-

al support can take you. Or, if it is the idea of you confronting you teach-er in front of the whole class that you find intim-idating, you could send them an email arranging a get together to discuss the issue. Teachers also tend to act differently individu-ally than when they have a whole class watching them. Again, they are human too and often act different pro-fessionally than personally.

How do I juggle school and a relationship? High school is hard enough with all of the home-work, projects and tests but to further complicate it, you often find yourself in many relationships that use a lot of your attention. This is a totally normal. However, it can become a little bit over-whelming and I, of all people understand that quite well. First of all, school should always come first. While that can be a little frustrating, you still have

your entire future ahead of you and you can’t let your-self get caught up in rela-tionships and other drama. Romantic relationships especially can be very dis-tracting and sometimes even cause you to fall be-hind on school work be-cause you are so caught up in the relationship and making time for that. I must even admit that even I have fallen victim to this.To ad-dress friendships and work, people that are truly your friends will understand that you have other responsi-bilities and that school is something that is some-thing important to you. As to help balance social and school lives, something very helpful to do would be schedule and plan to doing things ahead of time. This will help to keep track of the time you have to do different things and save you from uncom-fortable situations, espe-cially when you have to choose between going out with friends and your boy-

friend or girlfriend. With school work especially, giving yourself deadlines or getting the work done in a timely fashion will allow you to have more free time. You could also try combin-ing your relationships and work by having some time where you have study ses-sions with everyone where you all collaborate to get some assignments done.

What are some test taking tips? I always get stressed. Welcome to the club. I always get stressed for tests even if I know ev-erything that will be on it but over the years, I have figured out some ways of limiting the overall stress. These tips are not guaran-teed to make your test tak-ing process less stressful, but from experience, I know that they can be helpful. One thing you can do is be prepared. Know-ing that you have every-thing that you will need to get the test done, can make it so you are not also wor-

ried about whether or not you have everything. Be-ing unprepared is a big factor with stress for tests. Like having extra pens or pencils and scratch paper. You can also make sure that you get enough sleep. It helps to keep your brain sharp and focused. It also makes you more alert and makes it more likely that you would be able to answer questions and un-derstand them either. These two simple things can help to make the test taking pro-cess much more stress free.

Your Per-fect Smartphone The new iPhone 6 design left a lot of dedicated Apple users question-ing their alle-giance. Some physical flaws paired with what seems to be the iP-hone’s move towards a more Samsung Galaxy-esque phone was not what people expected from the tech giant. So, for those who may be ready to look for a change in their smart-phone, here are a few good options. Apple’s iPhone is the most

popular smartphone in the U.S. holding a 41.4% mar-ket share in the as of April 2014 and Samsung is also a very popular smartphone

provider accounting for nearly 28% of the smart-

phone market share. The iP-hone and Samsung Galaxy have been competitors for awhile now. Google Nexus is a newcomer, releasing its latest iteration of the smart-phone on October 15, 2014, but it has the potential to be a major competitor like the iPhone and Galaxy.

It’s worth not-ing that the Goo-gle Nexus and Samsung Galaxy phones both run on Google’s An-droid operating system. However, the Galaxy runs on its own spe-cialized user inter-face: TouchWiz. Even though the Nexus and Gal-axy run on the same operating system it’s worth looking at them separately be-cause the experi-ence of using each

one will be a little different.Apple has long been praised for creating quality, durable

Aaron Block

Smart Phoneslifestyle

products with great design and this has been a ma-jor factor for consumers. However, that may not be so important when buying a smartphone. When you can buy a new phone at a severe discount every 2 years (and so many people take advantage of this), phone lifetime is not as important so long as it lasts 2 years. The design, how-ever, remains im-portant and is what puts Apple on top for many customers.The communities associated with both Android and Apple’s iOS may also be im-portant to many. For example, Android is con-sidered a much more open community for develop-ers. The requirements for an app to get onto Google Play (Google’s App Store) are much more lax than Ap-ple’s which is somewhat infamous for being incred-ibly picky about what apps

it lets into the App Store. Android has also always given developers more ac-cess to certain features on the phone itself. Mean-while, Apple has been very

restrictive about what it lets its developers do. For ex-ample, only until the latest major iOS update (iOS 8) were developers able to ac-cess the aperture and shut-ter speed of the camera. An-droid has entrusted its users with this feature for a long time. This may not seem im-

portant to the every-day user but if affects what kinds of apps that can be produced. Overall, if you want the most functionality out of your phone, I would go for

either the Sam-sung Galaxy or Google Nexus. The Android op-erating system makes these two phones incredi-bly powerful in a way that the iPhone can’t and likely won’t be given its histo-ry. On the oth-er hand, if you are mostly look-ing for a good looking phone with long bat-

tery life, then iPhone is the right choice for you.

Zack HershClaudia BonatotibusLeo LevySaul SalasAugust Polite

T H E D I R T

Entertainment

Zack Hersh

Anna Sun guys return

with a cool, dancey record

Into fun., Foster the People,

Bastille or Bleachers? How

about just indie/alternative pop

in general? This cool new re-

cord is worth checking out.

Talking is Hard is the latest

from Walk the Moon, the group

best known for their break-

through single “Anna Sun”. A

collection of glitzy and pulsing

80’s style dance tunes, returning

fans will love Walk the Moon’s

redesigned sound, and newcom-

ers to the quartet will be hooked

on catchy but melodic songs

and electro grooves. The album

is highlighted by the opening

track “Different Colors” and the

anthemic “Shut Up and Dance”,

the first single off the album.

Overall, a strong sophomore re-

lease from Walk the Moon, defi-

nitely worth a listen for fans,

critics, and newcomers alike.

Released December 2nd

Ratings, based on how much cer-

tain audiences may like the music

★★★★★ Will not like it

★★★★★ Will kind of like it

★★★★★ Will like it

★★★★★ Will really like it

★★★★★ Will love it

Newcomer Rating: rating

for newcomers to the artist

who already like the genre

Fan Rating: rating for re-

turning fans of the artist

Critical Rating: rating

from a critical standpoint

POP

ALTERNATIVE

Sucker, Charli XCX

Newcomer Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Fan Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Critic Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Fancy singer back with

smashing pop-punk LP

The singer-songwriter of two

of the decade’s standout pop

songs, Icona Pop’s “I Love It”

and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”,

Charli XCX, returns with a new

album that will be great for pop

and punk fans seeking new mu-

sic. Into Jessie J, Ariana Grande,

or other pop superstars and di-

vas? How about The Clash or

The Ramones? This catchy and

fun record is worth a listen. Or

five. Chock full of loud, sassy

jams like the opening title track

anthem of “Sucker” and “Break

the Rules”, Charli creates her

own crazy pop and punk sound

experience that fans of these

genres cannot miss out on.

Released December 16th

Talking is Hard, Walk the Moon

Newcomer Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Fan Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Critic Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Music SpotlightEntertainment

R O C K

Rock or Bust, AC/DC

Newcomer Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Fan Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Critic Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

AC/DC boldly scream that rock

music still has a place today

You’ve heard the name, now

hear the songs. Fans of Jimi

Hendrix, Eagles, Led Zeppelin,

Pink Floyd, or Nirvana, among

others, may enjoy AC/DC and

their latest album, Rock or

Bust. No glitzy beats, no elec-

tric synths. Just a surging record

of straightforward, classic rock.

While fans may not like it as

much as some of the Australian

group’s older albums, for others

it may be a great place to start

or to find new rocking music.

Right from the first song, the

title track “Rock or Bust”, AC/

DC lays down the law of the

land: energetic drum and guitar

centric music with heavy riffs.

Rock or Bust declares, quite

boldly, that even in a world of

pop and electronic music, ret-

ro, classic rock is still a thing,

and can still be awesome.

Released December 2nd

The Dream Walk-

er, Angels and Airwaves

Newcomer Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Fan Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Critic Rating

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Group digs deep into emo-

tions in dark and haunt-

ing yet melodic record

Fans of Foo Fighters, Blink

182, and Imagine Dragons,

among others, may enjoy this

new alt-rock album by Angels

and Airwaves, a modern rock

group fronted by the lead singer

of Blink 182, Tom DeLonge. A

collection of 10 deep and heart-

felt but not sappy songs derived

from painful personal memories

of the band members, The Dream

Walker turns pain and darkness

into passion. Fans will love the

progression each member’s re-

spective stories, and newcomers

will only begin to discover the

complex world and history of a

group that fans have attached to

for years. Add in the high crit-

ical quality and acclaim, and

this record is one to try for sure.

Released December 9th

Other new albums

Pop T h e

Pinkprint, Nicki Minaj

Alternative M o n -

uments to an Elegy, The

Smashing Pumpkins

The Hunger Games: Mockinjay

Part 1 Soundtrack, Various Artists

E l e c t r o n i c /

Dance Motion, Calvin Harris

Listen, David Guetta

New albums on the horizon

Imagine Dragons are releas-

ing a new album, Smoke +

Mirrors, in early February

fun. have planned the release

of a new album for early 2015

Fall Out Boy’s new album,

American Beauty / American

Psycho releases mid January

Claudia Bonitatibus and Trinity Middlebrooks

imagination to create the fictional world in which the narrative takes place. Books allow for a gradual and de-tailed development of plot and characters slowly over many pages and over a much longer period of time. This fundamental differ-ence is the most important obstacle to overcome when books are turned into films.

While we appreciate the slow-paced, pensive quality of books, the au-dience requires action in movies to keep them en-gaged. This makes some books easier to translate into movies than others - phil-osophical, internal narra-tive-driven stories are hard-er to make into movies than plot focused ones like epic or adventure stories. This is why epic, fantasy stories set in dystopian worlds are fre-

The sheer number of recent blockbuster movies that owe their origins to books is nothing less than remarkable. What is even more impressive is that the overall cinematic and artis-tic quality of these transla-tions is so high. Think about it: the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games, Diver-gent, Ender’s Game, not to mention classic works such as the Hobbit, are all box office smashes. While many of the book series spawned a legion of loyal fans, many movie versions of these popular books were busts: Eragon, The Golden Compass, City of Ember, Inkheart, and many others. These books seemed like they could have evolved into effective and popular films, but for some reason the final results were dissat-

isfying. The movies either did not meet the public’s standards or were simply discontinued. This goes to show that success is not guaranteed when translat-ing books onto the screen, which raises the question - what qualities in a book make it possible have a suc-cessful movie adaptation?

The problem is that what makes a good book and what makes a good movie are entirely different. Cin-ema is essentially a visu-al medium where the nar-rative unfolds via images over a short period of two hours or so. Plot and char-acter development are im-portant, and the music adds to the emotional impact; yet, a movie must first ap-peal to the eyes. Books, on the other hand, appeal to the intellect and stimulate the

Books in TranslationEntertainment

quently adapted into suc-cessful films, while more thought-provoking, con-templative books, like The Giver, require an action-ori-ented subplot to capture the imagination of viewers. However, often these cinemat-ic adaptations do not do jus-tice to the books.

Books have hun-dreds of pages to help the read-er cultivate their thoughts. They have paragraphs upon paragraphs to create situa-tions where deep thoughts are not only allowed, but necessary. A movie only has around two hours to do the same thing. Be-cause of this time limit, movies are not able to do justice to the deep thought provoking scenarios that are allowed to simmer in a book. Movies not only

speed up the story, they also add a little spice to keep watchers interested.We accept that not every book will be a heart stop-ping page turner and at times will even be boring. What

we don’t accept is a boring movie. Movies have to be action packed, full of drama and romance. They have to have good lighting, great camera work, and an out-standing soundtrack. With

all of the extra requirements for movies, small things like underlying themes fall through the cracks.

Accuracy to the books being adapted also plays a major

role in the pop-ularity of the movie. In the end, books are t r ans fo rmed into movies in hopes of luring their loyal fans to buy theater tickets, there-by siphoning off the success of the fran-chise; among this literary audience, ac-curacy is seen as extreme-ly important.

Movies have to take liberties; given the time restraints, it becomes mandatory to cut scenes out of the book that may not be essential to the plot or char-acter development. Howev-er, even though this might

not seem that important to those who have not read the books, those who grew up reading a book or series and

hold it dear demand that the movie rewards them with similar feelings to those in-spired by the book. It can feel like a betrayal when

the movie strays too far from the plot. The Lord of the Rings movie trilo-gy excelled in this regard,

but then again, these books were written as epics and were essentially cinematic, so almost all of the major parts of the books could be

included. This trilogy has come to represent the gold standard of movie adapta-tions. One thing that made

these movies seem more natural and authentic is that these books were written in third person. Since movies cannot easily show inner

dialogue, movies based on books written in the third person seem more accu-rate than those written in first person. And this inner dialogue cannot be easily omitted without changing the whole tone of the sto-ry. This problem confronts efforts to adapt into movies many of today’s popular, first person narrated books.

Books and movies are com-pletely different mediums, but still, one element is of prime importance to both - the credibility and attrac-tion of the story. If the au-thor is successful in creat-ing a fictitious world which the reader or the viewer enthusiastically wants to inhabit, the effort will be successful, no matter what medium it is produced in. A common misconception is that films are going to be an exact replica of the original text, but a different medium awakens a whole different dimension. Sometimes the accuracy of the film must be sacrificed in order for the

story to be translated across mediums. When watching these translations one must acknowledge that the sto-ryline, tone and even plot are not going to be the same as the books’ and we must respect the directors’ artis-tic license. While books can take their time and be more cerebral, movies can sweep you up in their visual ac-tion, but both require one to suspend disbelief and per-mit the storyteller to lead the imagination to places beyond our experiences.

Leo Levy

self, because it is one of the most difficult things to do.”

Externally, too, Phillip has often been frustrated by how much more difficult his work is made by his young age. He says that cli-ents have denied to pay him the prices they originally agreed on, citing his age, even after their assignments are complete. He’s even lia-ble to throw around the term “Ageism,” a concept coined in 1971 by elder-rights ac-tivist Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against older people, but which is now understood to mean any age-based dis-crimination or prejudice. Phil is not alone when he talks about ageism. In fact, while not heavily publi-cized, organizations like the National Youth Rights Association campaign to

When I asked Phillip King for an interview, and spec-ified that I wanted to do it in person, we both assumed that it would take place in an abandoned building. King’s body of artistic work is evenly divided between portrait photography and photography of abandoned architecture. He works as an active commercial pho-tographer. He is also 16 years old and a high school student, but he didn’t let that stop him when he was founding a Facebook com-munity called Humans of Philadelphia, with over 6,500 likes. Nor does he let that stop him from work-ing at Photolounge, the hub of Philadelphia’s pho-tography community, or having prints hung in gal-leries in center city Philly.

His motivation seems to be

a genuine love of the medi-um, as he told me when I fi-nally did catch up with him. When I asked why he prac-ticed photography, Phillip told me that “It’s so hard to put into words what it does, but I can never imagine my-self doing anything without it. It’s a very vital part of life for me,” and that “It really adds perspective to things.” His passion is evident in the sheer amount of his life which he had dedicated to the art, but, like most ar-tistic pursuits, his journey has not been without chal-lenges. Internally, Phillip says he often wrestles with self doubt. He cautions fel-low artists of such pitfalls, saying, “There are so many things that you might see as problems that are caused by yourself. But I’m not gonna pretend that its not hard to believe in your-

Art Regardless of AgeEntertainment

change the way that age is viewed in American culture.

Their focus, as an advo-cacy group, is on fighting

for the legal freedoms af-forded to Americans in the Bill of Rights which are withheld from youth. Spe-cifically, NYRA has cam-paigned to lower the drink-ing and voting ages, and repeal curfew laws. They are just one group, how-ever, in a large movement

fighting to end discrimina-tion against young people. Phillip King’s experiences help to illustrate the neces-sity for this sort of work. It

would be unconscionable for a client to refuse to pay an adult photographer for work they had already done.

Even coping with these barriers, though, Phillip has achieved incredible things, and shows no signs of slow-ing down. As his next proj-

ect, he aims to delve into the photographic genre known as bodyscapes, which sits at the intersection of his inter-est in the human form and

in architecture. He also urg-es aspiring teens who seek to make their voices heard to, “Be nice, and be louder.”

Phillip King Interview:

What sort of work do you do, mainly?Mainly retail. If you mean photography though, I do a lot of portraiture. I love portraiture, and abandoned architecture. With photog-raphy, I guess I’ve always been doing the same thing, which kinda sucks now that I think about it. I only real-ize it when I look back at my Flickr and want to kill myself. But I guess your style changes regardless of what you’re doing, as long as you’re growing with it.

Why do you do photography?It’`s so hard to put into words what it does, but I can never imagine myself doing any-thing without it. Its a very vital part of life for me. Its one of the only mediums I can use correctly, or I feel is really applicable. When used correctly, photography really is just the same thing as painting, you just have to know what you’re doing

with your tools. It really adds perspective to things.

What sort of challeng-es have you faced in achieving what you have achieved in photography?The only things have been me just telling myself that I can’t do something, or I don’t want to try a style or I’ll be shitty, et cetera, et cetera. Most of the prob-lems are really just self doubt. There are so many things that you might see as problems that are caused by yourself. But I’m not gonna pretend that its not hard to believe in your-self, because it is one of the most difficult things to do.

Do you think your work as an active photographer has been made more dif-ficult by being a teenager?Oh fuck yeah. Definitely. I fucking hate it. People try to dick you out of your mon-ey. Please don’t use my ex-act quotes on this one. They uh, I’ve done some jobs and people have just denied to

pay me the original price because of my age, regard-less of skill level or talent or if I did what they asked me to do. Ageism is a real thing, it’s a problem. Not a lot of people get that. You can still be a human being on the same level as anoth-er one, regardless of an age difference. Especially at this age there shouldn’t be a problem. I would under-stand if I was a 4 year old with a point and shoot, but clearly I’m doing something correctly if I’ve made it this far, so don’t be an asshole.

If you could give a mes-sage to aspiring teen art-ists, what would it be?Be nice. And be louder.

About Spelunky: Spelunky is a 2D sidescrolling, dun-geon-like, rouge jumping platformer that follows a traditional one screen, four-player screen-sharing with no online compatibili-ty. It’s a reworked game that was originally made free for the operating system Microsoft Windows back in 2008. On July 4th, 2012, developer Derek Yu re-leased his first selling game onto other consoles with re-mapped designs and heavy implemented elements into the new meta. For instance, newer levels, more player characters, more music and special events and the most important change the old one didn’t have, local co-op. You can now play with A.I. bots found in game store levels, or with up to THREE of your closest friends you may enjoy yell-

ing to and journal entries which are like collectible pages for you to complete, discover, learn, and have fun enjoying monster defeat/defeated progress counters! Such great reworks include tweaks, more appealing controls which can now be customized with any key or button. Like pressing the esc key to move your char-acter to the left on a key-board? I wouldn’t see why I wouldn’t! Smoother tiles to move on and fluent move-ment the old game lacked. It is still more accessible in the newer game and easy to pickup, and difficult as the old game. The game is has smoother controls, mar-velous graphics, and made items and physics more visually more appealing. Although, some may refer to the game as HD, but I would call it a masterpiece

of true innovation. It has so many more new levels, items, enemies, balanc-es, and much much more secrets you can find by learning the game beyond the tutorial can teach you.

S P E L U N K Y : THEN AND NOW: The old freeware game didn’t have much as the newer one have today. The older game had secrets, traps, and item stores with the same grumpy old men. But whatever was to the end of the screen didn’t move, so if you were to shoot a shotgun or a shop-keeper was chasing you, it would all remain still on the other side of the screen until you moved there. The traps were either too deadly or too narrow to maneuver, making basic first level ar-row traps very bouncy with very poor physical controls you shouldn’t have taken damage. Some items like the bow or a pistol were too

Saul Salas

SpelunkyEntertainment

broad, that or they just felt too weak or just wouldn’t work as you would think. Odd ragdolls would happen and enemies were easily too aggressive to charged the player quicker than your reaction time. But with the newer game, Derek Yu changed and brought back some of it’s core elements and fixed the things it need-ed and taken out some ob-solete items and reworked with it’s physics to make it so you didn’t get dry humped by a floor filled with the same blood pool that should have stopped if you died. Aside from all humor-ous tones, it’s a complete-ly new and different game.Gameplay: In Spelunky, you start out with 4 bombs, 4 ropes, and 4 life points. But you have to share these starting items depending on how many people are playing with you. Progress is unsaved when playing locally, so therefore, you cannot unlock shortcuts which skips certain parts of a world you would want to

skip, but you can still use them if you already own them anytime before play-ing. You can blow up tiles to reach certain places, find treasure, or hidden items and exits. Just like in the old Spelunky, how cool is that?Your goal of the game is to reach to world 4 or 5. Easier said than done, since each level you progress gets you more pressured with traps, and enemies. There is also an ingame journal, which is typically entries which only alerts you on the screen for every new discovery for the first time which is then saved. It tells you informa-tion about items, monsters, and new places you discov-ered which the old game didn’t had! It also shows the number of times you de-feated a monster, and how many times you died by them or traps. So the journal also acts as a personal sta-tistic for you whenever you want to revisit your score counter. The journal entry is very basic, and I always come back to read the brief

short summary of monsters, places, and items. I also find myself seeing how many times I defeated an enemy, because it’s a really fun tool to use and is claimed to be the best treasure you find and start out with by the main character, Yang. The first enemies encounters are very easy, and very frustrat-ing when underestimated. Because there are also set traps, such as spikes and ar-row, some of them are set to disguised as blocks, which if ignored can seriously make one really frustrated. Traps are included in ev-ery level in the game from spikes, to boulders, man eating piranhas. The only way to recover hearts is by rescuing damsels in distress which can only make you recover or gain one heart, unless you have the Kapa-la, or go to a Kissing Palor which are other ways of ob-taining more life. These act as trade or buy option es-sentials to the player, espe-cially if they needed more life. Oh, and if you die,

you would have to start all over from beginning of the game, or shortcut you took with ZERO gold and trea-sure you you would have or not collected. What’s also cool is that you can change their gender and appearanc-es in settings. You like pup-pies? Well there is a pug damsel option! Most ene-mies of the game can easily be whipped, or stomped on. Larger enemies may take up to 10 hits to kill them.In game stores: It wouldn’t be traditional if a rogue like dungeon crawling treasure game without a ingame item store! There is also gold in the game which you can spend in stores by a grumpy old man known only as “The shopkeeper”. He and his shops randomly spawns in some levels, and sometimes keep a vault in a 2 by 2 wall. He is very com-mon and will sell a bond-ent of items like jet packs and extra climbing ropes, sometimes weapons, some-times utilities. But if you at-tempt to shoplift or terror-

ize him, he will fight back and take out a shotgun and start spazzing out around in or out of his shop, jumping left and right shooting ran-domly in directions if you are not near him, but once he see’s you, he will manure obstacles and start a high speed chase while shooting you, almost killing you in-stantly! That or he would start tossing you around in hand-to-hand combat! He does not flinch and will use any ranged weapon near-by him if he so happens to drop his shotgun. This will make fighting him really difficult. Escaping him and proceeding to the next lev-el, he will always spawn at the exit of a level, even if there are no shops in the level! This is what makes Spelunky so frustrating, knowing you want some-thing from others knowing you can’t have, or afford. At this point of this game, I loved the idea that Derek put in this game, the ideas and temptations of risk over reward. Because he has the

same speed of yours, is able to parkour over the same obstacles as you and has the ability to use ranged weap-ons at his arsenal with or without is a true challenge of facing someone with the same level capable in-tellect powers you have at your own arsenal. If only I still had that jetpack...CO-OP: Whenever you die during co-op, the only way you can respawn is by pro-ceeding to the next level and finding a coffin. There is no split screen in this game, instead you share the whole screen with everyone else you are locally playing with. I was disappointed when this does limits your friends exploration. It’s a deep devastating game where one misconception can lead you from 10 hearts to none, and one enemy can lead to other disasters, making you more cautious to even the most minor enemies while traveling through levels knowing that if you take too long, a ghost (that you cannot hurt) will

spawn from the closest side of the edge of the screen. Following your main screen leader until he insta kills you, forcing you or your friend to drop every item you collected (or stole), onto the ground, waiting to be reclaimed by another.OVERALL OPINIONS:My final thoughts and opin-ions to the game. Spelunky has its flaws, especially with it’s limitation for multiplay-er and shopkeepers blam-ing you when an explosion goes off near their shop. But what really makes this game so great and makes me come back for more is the content it offers. It has great art style, physics me-chanics, modifiable mu-sic (PC only), spontaneous deaths. There are so many new things I could try or do in this game even if I were to beat it more than once. There are leaderboards rankings showing me who completed the game faster, obtained the most gold, and deathmatch to test out many weapons and items on your

friends. But what makes Spelunky such a fun mind-less task gathering routine game is that replay value it offers, and as a result, it feels good to accomplish something you worked very hard on. Which by far results in that pleasurable feeling when you have had something you wish you had would have right now. This is what games such as mobile games like can-dy crush, RPG, and other indie titles worth invest-ing time in. Fulfilling your needs you worked hard to gather is that pleasure Spelunky does, and los-ing it to something stupid is what makes you want to punch Derek Yu in the face.

August Polite

Entertainment

ter some thought it is quite clear that this new method may not actually be all that revolutionary, and that I may just be getting irrationally en-thralled by something that, not only did I not discover, but am literally the last one to engage in. Regardless, a good first step is to take your bike. No matter how much money you save by taking a bike, it still won’t do anything to combat the exorbitant pric-es at the theater. So here is the second part of our strategy: Go to Ritz owned theaters. Or any smaller establishments you can find tucked away be-tween parking lots and tiny restaurants. But mainly the Ritz. The Ritz theaters seem to be trying some strange new business plan where they are attempting lose money by practically giving away tick-ets. Evening weekday shows are cheaper, making it easier to catch shows after school.

Though actual theatrical re-leases are not the main source of revenue for most movies, they still denote importance simply in their scale. Per-sonally, I still find the idea of visiting a theater generally enjoyable, even though prices and refreshments are usually marked up obscenely high. The concept of going out to the movies is often viewed as an ordeal and something to be left for special occasions, and while there is validity in that perspective I find it hard to let this tradition slip away so easily. Over the past few months, I have managed to mold my schedule into some-thing more open, leaving some large chunks of time af-ter certain school days emp-ty and underutilized. With more freedom came more activities and soon I found myself going to the movies to catch a later show after school days, a practice that

always seemed foreign to me but now is almost cemented into my mind as purely logi`-cal. And with this new addi-tion to my routine, I found it necessary to try and make it work as a weekly event. The first issue that comes to most peoples’ mind is price. As I said before, it is common knowledge that the price of going to a movie the-ater is not often outweighed by the product, regardless of the movie’s actual qual-ity. And after the dark ages of taking a taxi or bus out to theaters on the other side of the city, it became clear that there were simply more cost effective ways to go about it. First off, I dusted off my bi-cycle, realizing that this was not only going to mean that price of transportation would be cut completely but that we could also get to the the-aters at almost double speed by taking certain streets. Af-

Going to the movies

Wednesdays in particular are when they offer their cheap-est tickets, most clocking in at around five dollars. If that’s not enough, instead of requir-ing identification proving you are older than seventeen in order to let you into a rated R movie, they actually charge less if you are a student! The first time I showed them my school id card expecting to be shooed away or fined I was rewarded with a few dollars knocked off of the price. I don’t even know if that’s legal but I guess I won’t be com-plaining. The only drawback I can see is that their selection of movies is not always the conventional teenager cup of tea. You won’t find any of the top box office moneymak-ers, only the smaller releases or indie movies. I think that their range of showings has actually weaned me off of my diet of garbage movies, and made me check myself when I would have been fine with saying that a certain film was “good” or worth my time. Because the truth is that most theatrical releases are actual-

ly below average in quality, and that the rating systems we have just accepted as law are hopelessly broken. The bot-tom line here is that the Ritz theaters show good movies, they charge less than half as much as most other theaters, and I’m pretty sure they bake the cookies at the refresh-ment stand themselves. If the whole thing has just been some sort of long con I think I would actually be ok with it. Lastly, we still have the issue about food and drink. I have burned my fair share of cash on cups of soda I as-sured myself were not 80% ice and have realized that there are better ways to do it. Most theaters let you car-ry in a backpack, a rule that may not be the safest but is most definitely the easiest to exploit. So if it’s not too cold and the streets aren’t too icey in January I expect I will be biking up to the sweet sweet Roxy with a lock in one hand and a backpack full of store bought popcorn and a box of peanut M&Ms in the other. As I biked home from

the Roxy in the biting cold a few nights ago it became clear that the dark ages are truly behind us. I’ve found something to do in the city that truly makes me feel apart of it. And though it may be dangerous to bike through abandoned lots and construc-tion sites as we tend to do, there, I still believe that I will look fondly upon these expe-riences years from now when I’m an old guy and most like-ly wax nostalgic about how good the Roxy was in my youth. But until then, I am left making these memories to be and hoping more peo-ple join in this tiny little tra-dition I find myself a part of. So please grab a friend, grab a bike, and go to the movies.

T H E D I R T

Authors

Fiction

As I cough and sput-ter at the strain of reach-ing for my sword, his left foot, a big black boot with laces double knotted and frayed at the ends, comes down hard on my wrist. I scream in agony and hor-ror as I hear a loud crunch.

“Y-y-you br-broke my wrist,” I gasp.

“Yes, well maybe you will listen to my advice next time,” he says with that ter-rifyingly childish voice of his. I look up at his silhou-ette towering 7 feet above me. The room is spinning and I feel woozy from the pain of my rapidly swell-ing wrist. He kicks my sword another five yards from me. My eyes are clos-ing, I am blacking out. There is nothing I can do,

I am defeated. For now. I slip away into the depths of the darkness and un-known fears that await me.

As I fall down, down through the never ending darkness, the doors begin to appear around me. Each a varying type of wood, all without a handle. I tumble through the darkness look-ing for an open one. I throw all of my weight towards the next one that passes and hit the ground hard. The door, worn and sturdy, slams behind me and dis-appears with a quiet pop like the sound of a chewing gum bubble that got a little too much air. I lie on the floor catching my breath as the smell of something sweet wafts through the air. Maybe I got a good one

this time. I peel my cheek off of the linoleum and take a look around. I am in a kitchen. The floor is a mus-tard yellow, or rather was, it is scratched and scuffed significantly, and has fad-ed from age. The cabi-nets are cheap pine almost as worn as the floor. The fridge is covered in mag-nets that hold up pictures, letters, and the random as-sortment of papers anyone might have on their fridge. There is no dishwasher, but the oven is on, baking what smells like chocolate chip cookies. Just like mom used to make, or so people say.

I hear a baby crying in the next room. I cautiously exit the kitchen and enter a living room. It all seems so normal and boring. There is a playpen that contains the crying baby. The televi-sion is on, muted. There are two couches and a cracked glass coffee table. The floor is hardwood, original by

Miles Cruice-Barnett

Memoriamfiction

the looks of it. Lying on the large faded carpet is a dying woman. She convulses vio-lently and the blood pour-ing from her nose stains the carpet in large splotches. A door slams and I run to the window just in time to see a man slink off into the deep shadows that the blood red setting sun has created on the small side street. I run back to the woman even though I know I cannot in-tervene. I kneel next to her and hold her hand as she chokes on her own blood.

“Andy...” She croaks out, and then I watch my mother die in my arms.

I awake with a jolt, re-flexively pulling on my re-straints, which is unfortu-nate for my broken wrist. I cry out in pain. The metal table below me is cool and there is a low humming that I suspect to be a electromag-netic suppressor. There is a single, bright light above

me. I close my eyes and the small dot fades from the inside of my eyelids.

“Good to see you awake, Mr. Diarmaid,” a man’s voice crackles over a speaker. “I was beginning to worry Hivo was a little too rough.” A motor whirrs as the table rotates to an upright position. I face a large metal door with an observation room above it. Inside there are two scien-tists working on monitors. The man who attacked me stands in the back with his arms folded. There is also a man who I recognize from an old photo who has a sharp nose, thin lips, and bushy eyebrows. Three doctors in scrubs and masks come in through the door.

“The whole process runs a lot smoother if you co-operate, Mr. Diarmaid,” the man says over the speaker, “so try to relax.”

The one thing in my life I can be certain about right now is that I am more powerful than ever before. Whatever I did to obtain this power came at the cost of my memories, and who knows what else. I lay on the operation table con-centrating on the thought I want to implant. I strug-gle under the force of the suppressor, but they have underestimated my power as (I hope) was the plan. There is a problem, stop the operation. I see one of the scientists behind the glass say something to the man with the bushy eyebrows. He yells something at the scientist, and then his voice crackles over the speakers.

“It appears we must cancel this operation for the mo-ment. Please escort Mr. Di-armaid to his... er... ‘room.’ Mr. Diarmaid, I will get what I want, whatever the cost. You cannot stop me, you never have, and you never will.” One of the three doctors, a woman,

approaches me with a sy-ringe. It would be pointless to struggle so I allow her to inject me with what is un-doubtedly a sedative. I feel a sharp pinch on my neck, and she pushes down on the plunger. The effects of the drugs are instant, and once again I am falling through darkness. I brace my-self for what comes next.

The doors swarm past me in an angry rage. Many of them have shut from the countless times I have been here. I still remem-ber the first time I experi-enced this phenomenon. It was a confusing time.

I awoke in a panic one day with no memories of my-self or my life. I was in what looked like a motel room. The room was dark, though the single window had black-out curtains so it was hard to tell what time it was. My head throbbed and I groped hopelessly for

answers. Where am I? Who am I? What happened? The struggle only made my head hurt more, so I tried to think as little as possible. The room smelled like old cig-arettes, as if the smoke had been embedded in the ugly wallpaper over many years. I sat up. The bed was com-pletely stripped: no blan-kets, no sheets, not even a pillow. I stood up, walked to the window, and pulled open the curtains with a jerk. Sunlight flooded the small room, obliterating the ominous shadows that had threatened to take away the light from my life. The sun felt warm on my skin. I felt at peace for a moment, but only a moment. I turned to get a second look at the room, searching for any clues, and there, on the cof-fee table, was a shoe box. A piece of paper was lying on top with a single word scrawled on it. I retrieved the note and read aloud.

“Answers,” I spoke, but the voice I heard

was not one I knew.

I tumble through a doorway, glad to leave the maelstrom of wood and darkness. I catch a glimpse of myself, hands in the air, through a door across from the one I just entered. That is all I see before my door shuts and disappears with that famil-iar pop. I stand and brush myself off before taking a look at my surroundings. I appear to be in some sort of office building. I am sur-rounded by cubicles. The iconic sounds of keyboard chatter, phones ringing, and people just being gen-erally busy fill my ears and give me a sense of calm. It drones on in the background like the roar of an ocean.

I spot myself walking down the hallway towards me. I remember how I used to hide whenever I entered my memories like this. I did not want to accidentally change the past, or break the space-

es change from the pur-ple of my craft to a natural pale green. A small goa-tee sprouts on my chin. My scars fade, leaving my skin as clear and fresh as a young man in his mid-twen-ties, but he still looks sad. This will do. Now if I am seen, I will no longer be recognized as Ferdinand Diarmaid, psychic sorcerer.

I listen at the door to an office that ‘memory me’ just walked through.

“Yes, sir,” other me says.

“Good. Well, I’m glad to have you in my employ-ment, Mr. Diarmaid,” says a man with a familiar voice. “Let me show you to your office.” It takes me a mo-ment to realize that I need to move. I am barely able to jump around the cor-ner before I hear the office door open. Footsteps echo down the hallway and my surroundings begin to dis-

time continuum by meeting myself. I have since learned that anything I do in here does not change the real world, only my own mem-ories. However, I still try to change as little as possi-ble so that I can restore my memories accurately. So as I see a younger me approach I step aside and hide my face. He passes me. I follow.

About half-way down the hallway I stop at a window and look at my reflection in the glass. I see a face that is worn and scarred, sad eyes that have seen so much loss, and a mouth that looks as though it has not smiled in months, and it hasn’t. I focus my energy and watch my skin bubble. My face distorts and changes. My nose grows wide and flat. My eyebrow hair falls out and dissolves before it ever reaches the floor. New eye-brows grow in their place, groomed compared to the bushy caterpillars that nor-mally adhere themselves to my forehead. My iris-

solve. I peer down the hall-way and catch a glimpse of my former employer as he turns the corner: a sharp nose and bushy eyebrows. The memory crumbles, the pain in my wrist re-turns, and my mind swirls with thoughts of this man, my employer, my captor.

To be continued...

DrawingClaudia Bonitatibus

that enveloped it had flor-as that were not green but a sickening brown. Their branches were jagged and bent at weird angles look-ing like they had clawed their way out of the ground. Despite this, these branch-es were held close to the mountain in such a way that they looked like they were being held captive.The snow of this mountain had its own uncanny char-acteristics. It stretched far beyond the mountain and into the horizon. It didn’t drop off the world’s end but instead melted into the sky creating a haze of blue and grey. It was hard to differ-entiate it from the the many white clouds aloft in the at-mosphere. The snow stuck to the sky as if it was the only thing higher than the moun-tain itself - as if going up was the only way to escape.

When he opened his eyes, the man was greeted by snow.

It covered the ground that he laid upon and had found its way into every nook and cranny of his body. Small piles of the snow were lodged at the worst spots—the armpits, the bel-ly, and the crotch. His back was towards the morning sky and the left side of his face was partially covered with a thin layer of slush. The first thing the man no-ticed was that the snowfall had stopped long before he awakened. That was the one thing about this place; there was always snow to see yet it was a rare sight to see it snowing. Although, it was a mere coincidence that the man thought this for his mind was as blank as

the thick frost around him.

It was when he pushed him-self up and on his feet, and the pain from sore mus-cles shot through his body, that everything began to become apparent to him.

He was in the midst of a huge mountain range that went for miles in either direction. Each mountain was blanketed with trees and brushes from pines to cedars that lent a friend-ly, green tint to the already white, barren wasteland. He stood upon the center-most lands of a mountain that dominated the others with just its unnavigable girth and a pinnacle so tall it was excessive. The man began to notice the dif-ferences of this mountain that separated it from the rest. The trees and brushes

Javier Peraza

With Eyes Unseenfiction

A tall, grey peak came from the mountain’s body and ripped into the blue above. The peak cast a huge shadow over the land that the man felt was the embodiment of anxiety; the colors beneath the shade did not lend a darker hue but were black.The other mountains were dotted with lodges, restau-rants, ski slopes, and re-sort centers. The one that the man found himself on had none. Its steep slope and mile stretching body prevented any kind of con-struction from happening. Looming overhead though were hundreds of cables that ski lifts and cable cars ran along. These were here to connect the various moun-tains and attractions. What could be seen of the far away ski lifts and cable cars were just tiny, silver dots.

The man turned his atten-tion away from the land-scape and towards himself. He began to feel his body for wounds. It took min-utes but a few hand ges-

tures later he felt nothing but bruises, some bloody cuts, and the sodden, cold clothes that stuck to his body. The boots on his feet were resilient to the snow, so, as expected, they were fine. His jacket was the thing that had suffered the most from the snow and in turn was heavy and frigid. he peeled it off with a few crude jolts, tearing of the jacket itself, and one final lurch of the back. Under-neath he wore just a beater and a pale colored sweat-er. It wasn’t cold. It was the kind of snow that one could frolic in without any care of what they’re wear-ing. The kind that even the most paranoid of mothers wouldn’t worry about bun-dling up their precious little ones. He held the jacket in his hands and examined it before throwing it down. It was one of those bright or-ange, ski resort issued jack-ets that were required to be worn on the mountain. Each of them had nametags and on his read “Daemon R.”

When he realized where he was, Daemon was met with the understanding of what happened. In front of him laid the ski lift. It was flipped on its side where at least a quarter of it was buried beneath the shallow snow. It was a lover ski lift that was built just for two. It had blue cushioned leather seats and a frame of reflec-tive metal that was prob-ably steel. The seats were ripped at their seams and gave way to hundreds of lit-tle cotton fibers that, against their pure delicateness, had still made their way into the surrounding snow. Daemon shifted his view to the top of the ski lift. The titanium latch that it used to hang from the cables was severed at its bottom. The strong metal resembled a hunk of children’s playdoh that was torn in half—mu-tilated tendrils that were frayed and hung in midair. He felt uneasy for he had once heard that even the strongest of winds couldn’t

bend titanium. It reminded him of abstract art, some-thing he hated. He could hear the words of his mod-ern American art professor from college, “Daemon, don’t try to understand them, they’re what you make of them.” Grey areas confused him. He always preferred to live in the black and white where explana-tions were plentiful. Which is why Daemon no longer felt uneasy from the sight of the titanium latch, nor the plain being of strand-edness. He felt uneasy be-cause he was on a mountain that was nothing but grey. Daemon tried to remem-ber how it happened but to no avail. There wasn’t the slightest sign of dam-age to the ski lift before the accident, not even a shaky wind. He knew that the re-sort checks every ski lift each morning for anoma-lies. At Wolf’s Creek Re-sorts, your safety is our top priority. When he brought this to his attention it only became more grey for him;

Daemon couldn’t remem-ber falling. In his head there was no in between sitting upon the ski lift and being on the ground. Panic slow-ly engulfed his body and his face became warm—the ski lift had broken and had plunged him and it to the ground. It was the kind of panic that happens when something awful occurs and there is isn’t one thing to do about it. He thought about it more until it became clear that he should be dead. How did he survive? How did—?

Then it hit him; Helena.

How did she survive? The assumed inclination that she did indeed survive made him sick to the stom-ach. Daemon wasn’t a stu-pid man. He had a Ph.D. in ethics and a teaching position at the Universi-ty of Bowmen that proved as much. To him, it wasn’t logical, it wasn’t ethical, nor was it probable that she was alive. He suppressed the idea only to be bounded

by a new one—when awak-ened, she wasn’t his first thought. Were his marriage vows that thin? Daemon had only thought of him-self and surviving the fall. It seemed that what the vet-erans from Iraq said about death was true, “When your friend is shot down a mere five feet away from you, you don’t feel sadness. You don’t suddenly mourn for them nor do you wish it was you that looked like a plat-ter of swiss cheese from all the bullet holes. You feel re-lief.” His heart was what be-longed to her. His mind, the facilitator of safe thoughts and deeds, belonged to him.

His love for his wife kicked in and he knew he had to find her. Daemon’s eyes frantically searched the scene for any signs of Hel-ena. He was still too deep in realization to begin mov-ing again. Daemon stopped his search and momentarily glanced at the ski lift. He saw his face in the reflective metal. Looking back at him

was a handsome man with a short trimmed, salt and pepper colored beard. The man had a full head of un-aging, brown hair that was brushed to the side creating a low wave. Creases and wrinkles were carved into the man’s face from years of exaggerated expressions. Disrupting the dull col-ors of the man’s face were green eyes—twisted spin-dles of forest shades that were packed tightly togeth-er to form a sphere. Starting from the far, left corner of his forehead and ending at the bridge of his nose was a long gash. It most likely needed stitches and made the area near his left eye swollen and black. Daemon could imagine himself hit-ting his head in the fall de-spite not remembering any of it. He reached up with a shaky hand and touched the gash. A sharp pain ran through his head and he retreated his hand regretta-bly. When the pain resid-ed, Daemon looked at the reflection one last time. He

saw nothing but himself.

His eyes were pulled from his own reflection. Dae-mon focused on the ground around him. The snow was undisrupted except for the man shaped spot he was previously laying in. It was so white and flat that it was hard to realize it was snow and not some endless noth-ing that resembled limbo. There were no signs of Helena from what he could see. There were no signs of anything but himself. He almost gave up his search when a patch of brown caught his eye. It poked out from the edge of the ski lift at an angle from which only he could see. It was something he over-looked because of its brev-ity and because it was on the other side of the hunk of metal. As he noticed it was the ground where snow had been departed, heat ran through him and gave him the ability to move again. Daemon stumbled a little to his knees when the sur-

prise took hold of his body. He bustled over to the ski lift and slide around to its other side. As he reached it he saw the brown depres-sion wasn’t small, but man-sized. Daemon knew it was where Helena had laid, but it was empty of any-body now. He dropped to the ground and studied the depression. The dirt spot was completely desolate of even a strand of hair. When Daemon blinked, his eyes became reflective of the dawn’s early rays. Tears be-gan to form in the creases of those eyes. A road blight-ed with yearning and wor-ry had been paved for him, and he had to travel on it.

In his grief, Daemon nearly missed the tracks. He held back his tears, wiped away the remaining ones and then saw; starting at the spot where Helena had laid was a long strip of flat snow that went as far as Daemon could see. It looked as if something had dragged Helena through

the snow. Daemon immedi-ately thought of an animal. The people at the resort said there were wolves on these mountains but there were no paw tracks around the dragging impression. He undertook the idea that another person could have come and rescued her, but that was soon dismissed. There were no footprints. There was nothing, just that strip of flattened snow. Helena must’ve been hurt and pulled herself to safety. Which was weird, for he did not know why she wouldn’t just come to him instead of going wherever she did.

Daemon stood up and in-stinctively reached into his pocket to call for help. He grabbed at empty cloth and remembered he had purposely left his cell-phone back at the lodge. Helena wanted this vaca-tion to be just him and her without any interruptions. Even though he promised her that it would be like that, he still regretted not

bringing it with him. He cursed at the air for being foolish. Daemon wasn’t angry at her, just annoyed that a cellphone could be both of their saviors now. Daemon then tried some-thing else. He looked up at the sky, at the ski lifts and the cable cars, and shouted.

“Help—I need help!” his voice crack-led through the air.

Daemon didn’t realize it was the first time he had spoken since the fall. His throat was so dry that his voice felt like sandpaper. He had tried for a resound-ing echo but instead ended up with something more along the lines of a squawk. After coughing profound-ly, and almost choking on nothing but air, Daemon looked for ways to moisten his throat. He took one look at the snow around him and decided otherwise. Now wasn’t a good time to risk a bacterial infection from eat-ing snow. Rather than that,

Daemon began to build up salvia in his mouth. Once he felt as if he had enough, he swallowed some and it ran down his dry throat. It was a similar feeling to the washing of one’s brit-tle hands after a long day in the cold. He repeated this a few more times un-til the back of his gullet was properly moistened.

“I’m stranded down here!” he sounded raspy but it was loud enough to start an echo.

His excitement at suc-cess was short lived. The echo didn’t bounce off the mountain sides to the peo-ple snuggled in ski lifts and cable cars. It was caught by the surround-ing tree branches and soon lost its sound. Daemon looked perpetuated. He tried again until his voice couldn’t take the scream-ing anymore. The calls for help started out sensible until they became plead-ing and begging in nature.

“Please send for he-lllp.” Daemon nearly coughed out.

Then fucks and goddammits were thrown into the mix with pleases and get-me-out-of-heres. Daemon was no longer looking for aid but rather rambling for the sake of making noise. Someone had to hear him. Some-one had to hear something.

“I don’t wanna fucking be here!—I want to go home.” was said with such a bitterness that even the most stony-eyed of peo-ple would feel bad for him.

Daemon was overwhelmed with frustration. He began to walk in idiotic circles around the ski lift until the flat snow looked disheveled and the ground poked out from beneath. He stopped only to bend down and pick up handfuls of the snow. One by one, Daemon threw them angrily at the sky. Some were launched from the curling, and somewhat athletic, motion of his fin-

gertips. Others were slop-py and pushed through the air merely from the sheer strength that accompa-nies a grown man. In fact, those handfuls were also caught by the surrounding tree branches. The gnarled twists of brown knew no bounds when it came to keeping things in. Their tightly knitted appendages connected tree to tree and blocked out heavy portions of the sky. They resembled nothing more than the clos-ing of a coffin lid—there was no world beyond them. Daemon proceeded to let out roars that, despite their intensity in sound, would not reach the ski lifts and ca-ble cars overhead. Like him, his voice was trapped on this mountain. Daemon had suddenly lost a battle with wrath and became enraged. He wanted a rescue and he needed to find Helena.

A hopeful memory formed in his mind. The kind that gave children energy to survive school Fridays for

the upcoming weekends. It washed away the anger, alleviated his spirit, and simply just made Daemon happy. His weekend were the words of the resort’s refuge advisor. Safety is al-ways close by here. Every cable car, ski lift, lodge, and resort facility are all outfitted with first aid kits incase of avalanches.

Suddenly, the padding sound of boots on thick snow filled the air. Dae-mon made his way to the ski lift and looked inside. Its seats were bare except for fallen ice crystals. He would’ve considered what he was looking for to be lost if he hadn’t noticed it under the ski lift. The fad-ed brown backpack, which doned a small red cross symbol, was half crushed, half sticking out from the ski lift’s side. When he pulled it out, Daemon made sure not to rip it. The ac-tion took quite a few tries and a lot of brute strength that almost destroyed the

pack entirely. There was only one compartment of the bag, which was firm-ly closed shut by two zip-pers. Before wondering what could be inside, Dae-mon searched its contents. He had hoped to find the solution to all of his prob-lems within. Not just the being stranded part or the needing to call for help or even the pressing matter of finding Helena. No, Dae-mon wanted this bag to hold the key to recovering what was left of his failing marriage. He wanted this bag to hold something that would take the pieces of his broken past and put them back together—or at least something that would wipe his mind of the memories. He wanted this bag to hold the cleaning of the blood on his hands. A sort of clean-ing that would allow him to reach true redemption for what he did. This bag held none of these things.Bottles of clean water, pack-ages of granola, bundles of rope, and match book-

lets were among the many things in the bag that did not survive the fall. They were all either crushed or ripped or just missing. The water bottles had puncture holes in them and had been steadi-ly leaking until they were almost empty. A heating blanket’s battery was beat-en till bruising. The funnel to a rain water purifier was bent inwards forming two flat sheets of metal. Sadly, the one thing that Daemon had immediately searched for was snapped in half; a plastic, orange flare gun. Daemon went into his de-spairing rage again. Every-thing was lost for him and he knew it. He wasn’t just angry or sad. Daemon was truly afraid. The most aw-ful things that could now happen were starvation, dehydration, illness, and the possibility of being at-tacked by an animal. These things terrified him to the point where there was noth-ing left to do but be a pawn to a relentless wilderness. The idea of being strand-

ed here forever weighed him down until he almost thought he was sinking into the surrounding snow. He kept staring at the long impression of flattened snow. Daemon knew it was created by Helena but there was something about it that unnerved him. He kept staring at it to check it, to make sure that nothing was coming from wherever it ended. He was thinking that this was punishment. This was all punishment. His fear, his damnation, it was all punishment.

Doing the only thing he could, Daemon dumped the contents of the bag in the snow. He sorted the things that were now useless from the only things that he could actually use. What was left in the pile were four flares, a few mini packag-es of saline water, one roll of gauze, and a sharp to the touch, hunter’s knife.

Daemon stuck the packag-es of saline water and the

gauze into his front pockets. Each flare went into its own belt loop on his pants, the belt holding them snugged to his waist. The hunter’s knife was double serrated, made from stainless steel, and about six inches long with an appropriately palm sized handle of leather on wood. It was placed care-fully in his back pocket.

Glancing at the flat-tened snow strip, Daemon thought of Helena. At its end he would surely find her. Now, it was no longer about getting supplies to keep himself alive. It was no longer about calling for proper aid. It was about finding her. If his last mo-ments were to be on an un-settling mountain then so be it—but so be it with her.

Daemon’s feet brought him to the tracks and he mount-ed them. They went as far as he could see and then were engulfed by trees in the distance. He took one step which soon turned into the

simple motion of following that flat impression. He left behind him the bag, the bro-ken supplies, the ski lift, and the spot he had awaked in.

Following the low line of snow took Daemon farther away from the wreckage. He thought he had gone a couple of miles from it though it felt like only minutes had passed. What was even stranger were the weird features he noticed on the way. First, the lack of wind on the mountain. The rest of the mountains of the resort had winds constant-ly blowing up snowstorms and making whistle like noises. There was no wind on this mountain. There was no blowing about of snow crystals or the shak-ing of brushes and tree branches. Everything was still and quiet. Which lead Daemon to his next conclu-sion; there were no animals to see or to hear. Unlike the other mountains with their large packs of deer, golfers, wolves, squirrels, and owls,

this mountain was empty.

Second, the more distance he covered, the more piec-es of sky were blotted out by the branches. With every step, one more tree branch would block out the only source of light. The branch-es of different trees grap-pled with each other until there was something of a natural ceiling made com-pletely of lively wood. In what he thought to be only an hour, Daemon was soon walking through shadow. There was only a few cracks of light coming down from above to guide his way.

The roots of the trees mimicked the branches. They came above ground and gave the snowy land-scape a pattern of coiling black and brown. It was all Daemon could do to step over the roots while still keeping an eye on the tracks. This was made all the more challenging since the roots varied in size and length.

Third—although there were neither animals nor people, Daemon had the strange feeling that someone was watching him. Occasional-ly, he would stop and look around to make sure that he was indeed alone. How-ever, it wasn’t one of those cliche moments he had seen so many times in hor-ror movies. The feeling did not pass when he stopped to search for his onlooker; instead, it persisted even when he stood still. Who-ever was watching him had the gall to continue star-ing even when Daemon stopped moving. This per-son or thing wasn’t inter-ested in where Daemon was going but more so just Dae-mon. When no one revealed themselves, Daemon dis-missed the idea that he was actually being stalked and then continued forward. He was a helpless victim of his own anxiety. The only one stalking him was himself.

Lastly, and probably the most unnerving to him,

were the tracks themselves. They continued perfectly in a straight line through the ever thickening forrest. Whenever a tree or a brush or a boulder blocked the tracks’ way they did not go around it. Instead, they were unyielding to whatever was in front of them. There was no sign of going around things like trees. The tracks magically stopped where the trunk started only to reappear on the otherside. Daemon had a build up of so many question to ask Helena for when he found her. What happened when she woke up? Why didn’t she come to him? How did she possibly do this thing with her tracks? Some-thing told him that he did not want to get to the point where he could ask these questions. It would surely mean his demise, but why?

Daemon almost did not no-tice the tracks’ ceasing. It came as shock to him for he had been following them for so long he forgot that he

was suppose to reach their end. He stopped suddenly in his heightening surprise and near lost comprehension of what was laid before him. The plenty number of trees that had once dominated the sky with their branches had now opened into a clearing. The field was oval in shape and was completely cov-ered in snow like the rest of the landscape. It wasn’t that outstretched, probably the size of a football field, though it went on a curve—coming up at its middle and going down into the forest at all its ends. Tiny moun-tain flowers, with their pastel colored petals and the tips a sort of curling brown, dotted the clearing, turning it into a meadow. In the middle of it all, dis-rupting the simple scene, was a lone, den-like cave.

Its body came up from the ground and went for a few just yards of leveled rock before ending. Its mouth, a gaping hole of just black, was huge and offset

the minuteness of every-thing around it. It had to be at least twenty five feet high and almost thirty feet wide. Unlike the rest of the land, with its many mosses, trees, brushes, flowers, fun-gi, and all other plant life clinging on to everything and anything, the cave was completely bare of life. Its cold, smooth surface of stone made it impossible for something to grow on or near it. Consequently, the mountain flowers around the cave were dead from the lack of sunlight caused by the even larger shadow it bestowed on them. They weren’t browning from winter’s touch, they were blackened from death’s great embrace. What made up for this lack of green decoration were the huge spiked boulders that pro-truded from the cave’s top and sides. None blocked the entrance. Things had to be able to lurk inside. The entire thing looked like the end of a creature bur-rowing itself underground.

It was the darkness coming from the mouth of the cave that made Daemon more afraid than he was all day. Its black mouth was thick and smothering to which that of even the bright-est lights couldn’t pene-trate. From the minute he had awaken until now, the things that had scared Dae-mon were of the known. Things like being defense-less against wolves or be-ing unable to call the resort. He knew what there was to be afraid of there. He knew he’d surely be eaten if con-fronted by wolves and he knew that he’d be trap here on this mountain until death without help. But looking at that cave entrance, looking at the tracks lead directly inside, planted a new kind of fear into Daemon. It was the fear of the unknown and it was the scariest thing out there. He had no idea what the cave held nor what the darkness itself concealed in its shadowy veil. The cave could be completely des-

olate of anything and only have Helena in it, whether she was grasping for life, dead, or perfectly fine. Then again, there was that touch of amplifying fear that told Daemon there could be so much more than that. And every bit of that so much more was so much more to be afraid of.

He wanted to turn around and never come back. He wanted to leave this place forever, to rid his mind of the memory itself. He wanted to forget his feel-ings, to forget the miles he walked to get here, to for-get Helena herself. But he couldn’t forget her. There was no forgetting how he felt about her. There was no walking away from the time he invested in experi-encing everything that was her. That is why his first step was towards the cave.

His body screamed to stop walking. His bones, which were once a strong structure for his physical motives,

were now resisting his mus-cles’ every movement of go-ing forward. His toes curled in his boots, his skin prick-led with each step. Shivers ran up and down his back to the beat of his heart, which was progressively mak-ing its way out of his chest with each thumping sound.

Daemon had no idea how long it took him to reach the cave. The mere fifty yards or so went right over his head and into the snow around him. He used the strong pulsing of his neck arteries to guide his steps.

Drub, drub. Daemon entered the clear-ing.

Drub, drub. He was halfway there—plenty of the small moun-tain flowers had already been crushed under his boots.

Drub, drub.Nearly there, the cave had thrown its shadow upon him.

Drub, drub.

Daemon took his first steps into the dark mouth and the point of no return was crossed.