How to Make Your Own Weird Barbie!

Posted on by Standard Respond

By: Natalie Summers

  1. Chop off her hair using the hedge cutters in the garage. (or scissors if you’re, as the cool kids say, “a square”)
  2. Use the super glue marked “keep away from children” to keep that hair sticking up and spiky! Wait for it to dry.
  3. Go grab Mommy’s neon permanent markers to redo your weird barbie’s makeup! Bring it back to the 80’s!
    Note: (Keep the markers nearby, you’ll need them later)
  4. Get some neon and black paint and splatter the paint onto the dress. Remember, the messier the merrier!
  5. If the hair is dried, (or wet), use the neon markers to add some pink and green on some of the spikes.
  6. Use a black sharpie and scribble all over the shoes!!! I bet Ken will LOVE Barbie’s new look!
  7. Put your weird barbie in the splits, and, if you want, use the same super glue to secure her in the splits forever. Again, optional.
  8. Finally, to make it YOUR weird barbie, play with her too hard! Make her depressed by telling her about the real world.

Hope your weird barbie turned out . . . swell.

The Truth of Equality

Posted on by Standard Respond

By: Wonder Matala

Equality is an amazing thing that we all need to have. Racial equality, sexual equality, gender equality . . . basically everything is important. But I feel like there should be a line. A line that shouldn’t be crossed. And I feel like we already crossed it.

I’m talking about how people support equality too much now. It’s about how equality strikes fear into people. It shouldn’t do that. Don’t understand? Let me explain.

Everyone is scared of being accused of being racist, homophobic, transphobic, colorist, all that, because who wouldn’t be? This could ruin their career after all. So people are as nice and careful as possible near that community. I know I’m starting to sound like one of those bad things I mentioned a few sentences ago but I swear I’m not. All respect to the communities who face inequality.

My point is we give a lot of respect which is good and almost all our months are dedicated to them. But then fear starts to thrive and grow each time. Getting canceled is basically a death sentence to most people. Especially celebrities and content creators. You’re showing yourself to the public a lot and you say one wrong thing, it’s over, and you’re getting hate faster than the speed of sound. Not really, but you get my point.

And the thing is, some people in those communities take advantage of that fear. They use it to get what they want because like I said, you say one wrong thing or do one wrong thing and you’re getting called the most absurd things. In fact, RIGHT NOW as I am writing this, I am in danger of these allegations. Also, some people of these communities think this too. There was this one black woman in a protest against racism and I quote, she said “You talk about black lives matter! Black lives matter! I know I matter. You all already made it clear enough.” and she said something about how if a white person kills a white person or a black person kills a white person, people don’t care but as soon as it’s a white killing a black, people go crazy.  

This proves how even the communities we’re trying to protect are getting tired of this. And the amount of times I was called racist or homophobic or any other bad thing at this school is too much for the first semester. Like 6 times each day. And I doubt it’s just me.

On another note, this is even affecting all the shows and games we all love. They try to keep up with equality. For example, Star Trek included a transgender character which is fine but the thing is that nobody asked for that. Some people were calling this cringe and that shows trying to be inclusive are bound to fall off. Don’t do it unless you know how to do it right.

Another example is Borderlands. They had a DLC that was about 2 gay characters’ weddings. Everyone didn’t like it. The reviews say it wasn’t good for the price. I loved all these things and they tried to be inclusive, but they were clumsy in how they did it. Show creators and game developers, don’t get scared into being inclusive just because it’s that time of the year. 

And now let’s get to the people who end up going all Karen on people just for misgendering them or saying one bad thing.There’s these people on the internet who post clips of them going to a restaurant and the waiter misgenders them and they end up calling the manager. Same thing with fast food workers, stop making their job harder for them. Politely correct them and move on. Everyone throws these terms around like jokes but they’re not jokes. You’re gonna end up ruining someone’s life at some point.

In closing, all respect to these people. But, I’m already paranoid enough and thinking about how I could lose my future dream job just because I accidentally made a bad statement on race or sexuality. Be who you are and don’t try to hide it because of other people since their opinion doesn’t mean anything to you. But, don’t take advantage of the kindness people show to you because of it. Remember what I said: treat everyone equally no matter of race, gender, or sexuality.

How School Affects Mental Health

Posted on by Standard Respond

By: Scarlet Bechtel and Gwen Duffy

Have you ever felt like there is so much weight on your shoulders that you can’t control? Maybe even depressed, anxious, or suicidal? Most likely, you have. Mental health has been an issue in students for school, and it’s only getting worse. School has been affecting students dramatically including depression, anxiety, and other disorders alike. Studies show that 1 in 5 children in middle school have a diagnosable mental disorder, and many more to come. Suicide rates have skyrocketed over the past couple of years and continued from the pandemic. One question is still dwelling in our minds, why?

Increase
Over the past 10-15 years, more and more children have reported having mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. According to the CDC, “over 50,000 people have committed suicide in the past year alone.” Pre-teens and teenagers have been showing more and more concerning symptoms over the past couple of years, as psychiatrists have been becoming as popular as ever. The percentage of children who went to counseling jumped by almost 4% in 2022, right after the pandemic.

Pandemic
The pandemic badly affected a lot of people especially kids in middle school because of the impending thought that there is a very harmful disease that could kill you, and many other factors alike. The pandemic was a huge stressor for parents, and disrupted children’s learning pretty greatly, as we had to learn online, which was equivalent to almost no learning at all. One of the strongest stressors is school. Children were forced to learn an entire year’s worth of material, while simultaneously learning the current year’s material was impossible, putting stress on adolescents.

Bullying
There has recently been a spike in bullying within schools, bullying is the act of constantly hurting someone on purpose (mentally or physically). Bullies usually make other people feel bad because they feel bad about themselves, if someone is rude to you then you might be rude to someone who doesn’t deserve it and it keeps going, this is called the ripple effect, the thing is the ripple effect works with both hate and love so don’t spread hate.

Interviews
Since we know all about how in general mental health in children is decreasing, what could students at Jefferson have to say? Elementary to middle school is a huge jump, and how could your emotions control that? All students were asked the same question, how has school affected your mental health? (Students mentioned are going to remain anonymous, for personal reasons. We chose 6th graders who were willing to help us. We appreciate it!)

“It- I don’t exactly know how to put it. It’s caused anxiety attacks, twice. I’ve stopped sleeping more than 5 hours a night, which I tried to remedy by drinking coffee again, and that caused another addiction. Not like a bad addiction, just, not being able to get through a day without at least a cup. School this year has increased my depression and brought about the first two suicidal episodes I’ve had since almost two years ago. To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what happened in school that caused all of this, but I do know that it has greatly affected both my physical and mental health.”

“Middle school is one of the most complicated places I’ve visited. I’ve met so many hostile, and hateful people gathered around me, which has affected the way I perceive things. I’ve always struggled with anxiety and depression, but it’s never been as intense. I’ve had multiple anxiety attacks, which cause physical issues as if I were about to pass out. My mental health is making me do things I thought I wasn’t capable of a year ago, which is bittersweet. My self-worth issues have gotten way worse as well. It messed up my mind pretty badly.”

“It’s really bad, so far this school year I have had at least three school-induced panic attacks, a newfound depression, and hatred for school which I’ve never had before.”

“It’s affected me negatively. People have been really rude and affected my self-esteem.”

“Badly. It’s affected my self-esteem and my mood. I hate going to school sometimes, and I’ve had a newfound depression towards everything.”

As we’ve talked to students from our school, and gone through statistics, we’ve realized how much children need help. Luckily, more and more children are going to therapy and receiving the help they deserve, but it isn’t available to everyone. Poverty is a huge issue, as is inflation. Children don’t have access to necessary help, as many go undiagnosed, or even unaware of the severity of their minds. Many organizations and helplines have appeared over the past decade, which has helped many middle schoolers, and hopefully will continue to do so. But stay safe and never be afraid to check on a friend.

Resources
If you need any help with any of these topics then we suggest you reach out to the school counselors. But, always know that there are people out there who can help you because other people go through a lot as well so the next time you are feeling sad or angry just think, how does school affect your mental health?

The World, Society, and Humans: A Three-Part Series

Posted on by Standard Respond

By: Wonder Matala

PART ONE: THE WORLD

Yes, I know, it’s a big topic to talk about. But this is all I could think of. We all know how the world is. It’s uh, not the best but it’s not completely an endless wasteland that we’re forced to live in. There’s a lot of flaws in this world. And we ALL know it. I’m just here to look into it and try to make sense of it. And also almost every problem in this world is caused by us, humans.

I think the world is actually not that bad. The world we live on, as we all know, is this mostly blue ball called EARTH.
It is one of the planets that rotate the sun. Remember when people thought the sun rotated us? Yeah, no.

I’ll say this right now. DO NOT TRUST SOME OF THESE RECYCLING COMPANIES. They advertise that recycling does a lot to save the earth but most of the time, it ends up in a massive pile of other trash and doesn’t help the earth at all. There are many garbage yards or trash mountains and more. And that’s talking about the ground part of the earth.

Water that makes up about 71% of the earth has a lot of trash in it too. These things are literally killing sea animals. There is plastic, metal, and more in the sea that we just allow to be in there. It’s absolutely disgusting to know that some people swim in it. Oh yeah, oil. There is a lot of oil in the sea from oil barges or oil ships which I believe are the same thing. There is a lot of trash covering this planet that is most likely over a billion.

I’m just like what? Can’t we take better care of the place we live in. I know some people try to help but it’s you and maybe a massive crowd helping (I’m talking about you Mr. Beast) but there are billions of people just doing nothing. And no, I’m not saying that you should help or donate to these causes but I’m saying that I take a muffin from the tray and somebody puts another one on it, it represents how if I take trash out from the sea, someone else puts trash in the sea. It goes from 100% to 99% back to 100% is what I’m saying. It doesn’t matter what anyone does cause sometimes it’s out of your control. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try, I’m saying most of the time it’s meaningless. We’re never gonna fix this problem and it’s sad to know that animals die because of it. And also you know all those ships and boats that sank? Do you think there’s anything valuable in them anymore? Probably not.

Overall, the world is filled with trash and garbage and is a disgusting sphere. Not all of it though.

Taylor Swift

Posted on by Standard Respond

A Poem by Isobel Gaedtke

Your words are so relatable
The world is so big
I understand
We need to calm down

We need to understand
Your power is big
Exhausting to always be that person
I know

I listen every day
For your words
Your beats
Your lyrics

Pink
Red
Blue
Yellow

Dark
Light
Unhappy
Bright

Life in words
Never sounded so good
So fun

You take music
And wrap it with true stories
What life is
As it happens

You know
You understand
You dive into life
And take it as it goes

We all look up to you
Your music
Helps everyone learn how to be a
Lover

You sing and dance
You make me wish and hope
That the next concert ticket is
Mine

A Very Gilmore Girls Christmas

Posted on by Standard Respond

By: Sofia Marquez

When you think of Gilmore Girls you don’t really think about Christmas. While some of you are currently amidst your fall rewatch, or you’re watching it for the first time, you can probably only count a couple episodes distinctly Christmas, but there is actually a holiday episode in every season! That is one thing Amy Sherman-Palladino did perfectly, putting every major holiday in every season. In this article, as an ongoing part of my Gilmore Girls series, I will deep dive into all seven (I am excluding A Year In The Life) winter/Christmas/holiday etc. episodes in Gilmore Girls!

Starting from season 1, ‘Forgiveness and Stuff ‘(S1E10) showcases Gilmore Girls’ two finest qualities, family drama, and a smart and funny script. Richard and Emily are hosting their famous, annual (pre) Christmas dinner. Lorelai of course had a fight with Emily previous to this, and was uninvited. Rory attends alone, while Lorelai naturally, spends the evening at Luke’s. Luke being the cold hearted diner owner he is, he makes her a Santa Claus burger, to make her night alone more festive. 

The night was fine until Richard started to feel unwell. It turns out to be a heart attack, and he is rushed to the hospital. Now is where each Gilmore Girl goes into their own emotional spiral: Emily trying her best to be the best wife she can be to Richard, Lorelai is trying to find out how she feels with this situation considering the emotional distance between her and her father, and Rory struggles with the thought of losing the grandfather who she only just started to form a relationship with. (It all ends up well though, Richard is fine, they all are happy, everything is okay.)

Season 2 (S2E10), the iconic episode ‘The Bracebridge Dinner’, is a perfect way to celebrate a season 2 Christmas. Jess-Dean drama, Emily-Richard drama, and a plot so Gilmore Girls it’s unbelievable. The extremely wealthy, affluent Bracebridge Group (group of what, I don’t know) wasn’t able to make it to their Renaissance-style multicourse dinner extravaganza, so Lorelai and Sookie are left to figure out what to do with the inn. They have all the food, all the rooms, and nobody to eat or stay in it. So, they invite the town! Along with all of Stars Hollow’s favorites, a couple special guests from Hartford come too! Paris Geller, Rory’s Chilton friend-enemy-friend, and Emily and Richard Gilmore. 

Anywho, a quick recap of what actually happens in this episode goes something like this: They all eat a crazy huge dinner prepared by the one and only Sookie Saint James, and with a Jackson starring in the dinner’s theater role of the Squire of Bracebridge. Then, after dinner, during drinks, Richard drops the news that he has retired. Plot twist! Emily throws a fit, but it all works out in the end. During the horse drawn carriage ride, Dean rides with his little sister, making Rory ride alone. Except she wasn’t alone for long, Jess Mariano hops in the sleigh last minute, only adding to Dean’s suspicion that there may be something going on there.

‘That’ll Do, Pig,’ (S3E10) highlights the Rory/Dean/Jess drama season 3 is all about. Stars Hollow High’s (Rory’s previous high school) annual winter carnival is the backdrop to this holiday themed episode. In all of her years, Rory has never once missed a winter carnival, and even now that she was dating Jess, that wasn’t changing. Jess has absolutely no interest in anything Stars Hollow High, but as soon as he finds out Rory’s ex-boyfriend Dean is going to go with her instead, he suddenly decides the winter carnival sounds wonderful. Nothing too crazy happens though, because Clara, Dean’s little sister was there the whole time. 

Meanwhile in Hartford, Lorelai is guiding Emily on how not to jump her mother-in-law, Trix (why Richard calls his mother that I will never understand). Medium.com’s quote on how this whole episode shows every Gilmore Girl’s own struggle ties into each other’s is perfect, “[on Rory’s current relationship, Lorelai’s lack of one, and how she is guiding Emily]…Playing to the show;s strong suit of displaying intergenerational female relationships in a complex and humorous way”.

Season 4, ‘In the Clamor and Clangor’ (S4E11) is giving, Rory cuts her brains off with her hair. (In my humble opinion, she totally did). Rory is at Yale now (who else thinks it should have been Harvard?). She got her infamous haircut, and Lorelai is still finding herself as a newly free adult woman. Rory meets this boy who likes the same bands as her while doing her laundry, and awkwardly asks him if he wants to get a coffee with her. He says no, and Rory is left there, alone, because she had never done that before. Later on, news about some crazy girl who is obsessed with the laundry room boy came about. Details entailed, following him around (Rory had seen him multiple times around campus later), and joining his classes (she switched into a class he had happened to be in). She loudly confronts him in one of the cafeterias, but she wasn’t the girl who all these rumors were about. Anyone else think it’s odd to spend an entire episode on a character who never returns?

In Stars Hollow, the church bells are back and more annoying than ever. They’re now ringing every fifteen minutes…Annoying! Luke and Lorelai are teamed up to break the church bells, recovering from a recen fight about Nicole, Lukes ex-wife-ish/girlfriend. Lorelai finally voices what has taken her so long: she really, truly cares about Luke.

‘Women of Questionable Morals’ (S5E11) Season Five’s snow centered episode. Since day one of Gilmore Girls, we’ve established Lorelai’s unconditional love for Snow. She loves it so much that she would jolt up in the middle of the night just because she smells that it’s coming. This episode is centered around the first snowfall, but it takes a turn when it all goes wrong for Lorelai. Newly opened Dragonfly Inn experiences its first winter, and it is one without coffee. The driveway is snowed in, two guests got lost snowshoeing, and it all goes downhill from there actually. To brighten her spirits, Luke literally builds her an ice rink outside her house. 

On the crazier side, with the first snow also comes the town’s Revolutionary War reenactment. A new female character has been added to war reanactment’s plot. The person originally set to play her was Kirk’s girlfriend, Lulu, but she ends up getting set, ending in Kirk in  a dress, Taylor on a horse, 7 men holding muskets, and 2 second graders narrating the whole thing in the snow for an audience.

Season six’s ‘Just Like Gwen and Gavin’ (S6E12) is perhaps one of Gilmore Girls weakest episodes… The holiday spirit is not awesome here. Once again, at the winter carnival, Lorelai is running a booth with her new dog Paul Anka. The entirety of this episode is spent with the Yale Daily News. Paris is in the midst of her dictator era and is eventually impeached. She takes this poorly, as she does most things. Rory is then elected as the new editor-in-chief. The other plot of this episode is just so annoying and frustrating that I actually skip it (I only do that with 2 other episodes). Lorelai finds out about April, Luke’s daughter who he has been hiding for 2 months. Not much to say because this episode does not bring me tidying joy. 

Lastly, (S7E11) ‘Santa’s Secret Stuff’ has arrived. Along with the other one ‘Merry Fistcuffs’ (S7E10)… Okay, where to start. I’m not going to talk too much about Merry Fistcuffs only because it’s just dumb. Luke and Lorelai’s new husband Chris (Rory’s dad) fight, Chris and Lorelai fight, and Emily and Lorelai fight. So, ‘Santa’s Secret Stuff’ will be the big focus. Rory and Lorelai won’t be together this Christmas, because Rory is spending the holidays in London with Logan, so the two swear to hold off ANY Christmas activities until they are reunited. 

While the two of them are only now doing Christmas in January, everybody is over it. Their favorite peppermint coffee from Westons was no longer being served. According to Medium.com, “Rory and Lorelai’s belated celebration is representative of Christopher and Lorelai’s entire marriage and season seven in general: a contrived happiness that is ultimately depressing.” I personally think that the new writers (the old ones left after season six) didn’t know how to write a Gilmore Girls Christmas episode, but at least they tried their best. 

One happy note is the soon to be end of Chritopher and Lorelai’s marriage, because Lorelai is now writing a character reference for Luke’s custody battle over April (who is moving to New Mexico).

That’s it from me on holidays in the Gilmore World. Have a happy holidays and keep watching Gilmore Girls!

Christmas and Snow

Posted on by Standard Respond

Poems by: Grace Keener

Christmas
I see the beautiful shining Christmas tree
I smell the delicious hot cocoa
I hear the shuffling of cramped feet
I taste the beautiful cookie I snuck from the counter
I touch the crisp wrapping paper as I tear open my last present.

Snow
The children laughing and playing
Excited for tomorrow
Families inside getting thighs ready
While the children are in the snow.

Video Game Console Review: Nintendo Switch

Posted on by Standard Respond

By: Sam Miller

Hey, Sam here. You may notice that the subject has changed. Well, someone else started doing book reviews *cough* Gwen Duffy *cough* (note: i am not angry at Gwen Duffy i do not blame her) and I want to do something different. So here we are.

The video game we will be reviewing today is not a video game, it’s a console: the Nintendo Switch.

Now to list some pros: the ones that come to mind are the portability. For you XBox and PS5 guys, have you ever been frustrated when you need to go somewhere and have to stop playing? Well, look no farther with the Switch! You just have to lift it off the port and boom, it’s a handheld.

Another pro is the games. Nintendo Switch has the best games that are limited to them. The list includes: Legend of Zelda BOTW, Legend of Zelda TOTK, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Mario Wonder, Super Mario RPG, Metroid Prime Deluxe, Super Smash Bros, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. These games are some of the best of the bunch and I will be sure to review them later.

Now that we got the pros, we need to cover the cons, and the big one that comes to mind is speed. Because the Switch is a handheld and a console, it sacrifices some power for some games (not all) with lag tons, especially non Nintendo games. Another con is that there are no super violent games (except for Fortnite) and older gamers will be disappointed. Wow, this cons list was small!

Overall, I would rank this a 4.5 stars out of five and recommend this to younger gamers.

The Joys of Autumn

Posted on by Standard Respond

A Poem by Isobel Gaedtke

As I breathe in the smell of apple pie,
I let out a long, contented sigh
The sweet sound of my sister humming
Causes my heart to beat along, thrumming

The cheer of Thanksgiving dances in the air
As the smell of the food sticks to my hair
My mother, inside, stirs the sauce
As my father picks up my dog’s ball and gives it a toss

The leaves crunch under my feet,
As the wind skips along, without missing a beat
I run inside to the warmth of my house,
Which is so cozy that it’s fit for even a mouse

I settle in to cozy up to the fire,
With my blanket, cocoa, and couch it fits my every desire
As I lift the steaming cocoa up to my mouth,
The sweet tang of the chocolate blocks out the things that could go south

Soft jazz reaches my ears,
Bringing back the memories from all those years
I sigh happily once again as I prepare for the feast,
Joy and hunger break over me, to say the least

Why Are Pies a Thanksgiving Tradition?

Posted on by Standard Respond

By: Cecelia Marquez

It’s not Thanksgiving without pie. When you set up your Thanksgiving feast, do you ever wonder, why pie?

Well, the first recorded recipe of pie was made in 1653. Pumpkin pie. Or what they called it, “Tourte of Pumpkin”. It was found in an old English cookbook.

So why do we have pie at our Thanksgiving?
The tradition started at the first Thanksgiving in 1621 when the Wampanoag tribe ate a celebratory harvest feast with the Plymouth colonists. The tribe brought over their native vegetable, pumpkins, and taught the colonists how to turn them into stew and pies, even though they lacked most of the ingredients to make the pie crust.

After all of its history, pie became a staple at Thanksgiving dinner tables across America. Today, there are many Thanksgiving pies, including pumpkin, apple, pecan, and sweet potato. Each pie has its own unique history and origin, but they all share the common thread of being a part of the first Thanksgiving. Whether it’s the sweet aroma or the delicious taste, Thanksgiving pie is a delicious symbol of the holiday season.

Have a great Thanksgiving!