Mrs. Ho's AP Lang - 2021/2022

Every once in a while you’ll hear the question, “if you could have one superpower, what would it be?” Well, if I could have one superpower, it would definitely be the ability to turn invisible.  Sometimes in life there are things you just have to do, even if you don’t feel like it. For example, going to school. But what if on those days when you don’t feel like talking to people, you could become invisible? Life would feel so much easier. Or if someone says something embarrassing about you, and you have that feeling where you just want the ground to open and swallow you whole. Instead of standing there embarrassed, you could just use your superpower and become invisible.  Becoming invisible would also be lots of fun to use to play tricks on friends. Imagine for a moment just how much fun you could have scarring or confusing your friends by doing normal things, just you’re invisible. It would make for a good story to look back and laugh at.  Of course, most people (includi...

The Horowitz family bat mizvahs are sadly coming to an end this weekend. On Sunday, my little sister, Eden, is having her bat mitzvah. This will be the last bat mitzvah for my sisters and I. After this weekend, the Horowitz family will have hosted four bat mizvahs, each one extravagant and eventful.  Let's break down each Horowitz girl's bat mitzvah so you can get an idea on how it went down. First is my oldest sister, Sivan's, bat mitzvah. Her bat mitzvah was in 2010. Wow! That was such a long time ago. I was just a little five year old. I may have been young, but I think I have a few memories from that crazy night. I remember watching the montage and sitting with my little sister. It was a beautiful montage and I think that is what started my love for bat mitzvah montages. I also remember my sister's snowball dance for some reason. I didn't join in I don't think because I was only five. Another thing I remember from that night was kiddush. My grandfather, on m...

    I absolutely love  superheroes. They provide action, mystery, character development, plot twists, and so many other things to keep you entertained throughout the series. However, they can often get repetitive. Every comic series has a league of superheroes, lots of heroes start with humbling origins, and they often learn that their powers have consequences after the death of someone innocent or loved. All of these things were part of one of my new favorite shows, Invincible. When starting the series, I thought it would just be a typical superhero origin story where the son develops powers late and then trains with his hero father and learns life lessons and grows stronger and better as a superhero. Honestly, at first, I was incredibly bored because I had seen this exact same story played out with so many other superheroes, and, while a love this typical origin story, it is exhausting to see it played out over and over again. I wasn't even planning on watching the next...

My journey of moving to Florida from Chicago was quite a roller coaster ride to say the least. There was so much going on during my very long and dragged transition from the Windy City to the Sunny State. It all started in November of 2020. My parents wanted to go on vacation and stay in Florida for two months, so they could get a lay of the land and hopefully find a house to move into. Little did my sisters and I know that they decided not to go back home when we were on the way there.  We ended up hopping from hotel to hotel and basically driving around Boca like crazy people with our car filled to the brim on the verge of exploding. In January we moved into a brand new apartment building. It was so new that my family was literally the only family that lived there. The only problem with the apartment was that it was extremely tiny. We were only planning on living in it for about a year, but it was just way too small for our liking. We ended up lasting for literally eleven days. T...

     I absolutely hate horror. Anything that has anything even remotely scary, I avoid at all costs. In 9th grade, all my friends bought tickets to six flags. That week, Six flags were holding an event called fright fest. As someone who hates anything scary, I had to, of course, cancel my tickets and not go to this great experience with my friends. My hate for horror runs in the family; my mom and I have the same feeling towards anything scary. So you can guess my response when someone told me to watch this “amazing” show called American Horror Story . This show was recommended to me at least a dozen times and each time I would give the same response: “I hate horror shows. I just can’t watch them.” Knowing me, I would not be able to sleep for months. I told myself not to watch it. This was until I met another person who was finally able to convince me otherwise.      The person I met told me that she also hates anything scary but to give the show a chance. ...

  Blog Sep 14, 2021 My weekend The weekends are my favorite part of the week. On Friday, when I come home from school, I complete an ACT practice test. I am motivated to finish the practice test quickly because I get to begin my weekend from there. To start off, I go to the gym. When I come home, I have to get ready for Shabbat dinner with my family and friends. Home for Shabbat dinner, my friends pick me up in the middle of the meal and join my family. My friends all hang out and eat dessert with my family as they wait to walk to my other friend's house. Friday nights are my favorite because I get to see my friends who I have not been with all week, since I go to a different school than them. On Saturday, I get to sleep in until noon, until I am woken up for Shabbat family lunch. I look forward to Saturday lunch because my mom makes the best schnitzel, an Israeli form of breaded chicken. When I finish lunch, I get to hang out with my friends which is special because I do not see...

Bob Ross, Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed is a Netflix documentary released on August 25. The film follows the famous painter's son, Steve, and others who reveal the dark truth of what was happening behind the scenes of Bob’s show, life, and death.  Even though Bob was, for the most part, a great guy on and off-screen, some of the people he worked with weren’t. His priority was always to teach people to be successful at and enjoy painting at all ages, everywhere, but unfortunately, this idea was not shared by his partners. The documentary sheds light on the questionable history of his company, Bob Ross inc, that was and still is exploiting Bob’s name for profit against his wishes.  While I found the documentary to be informative and entertaining, there were times where it felt slow and unengaging. There is not much betrayal and greed until the movie is half over. This is because the backstory takes up over an hour of the documentary. The backstory wasn't bad it was just ...

A show that I have recently been rewatching is Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse. The show was first released on January 20, 2012, and is currently available on Netflix. Almost a decade after its release, the show's reappearance on Netflix has given it a new life as it is still popular and relevant.  The show follows Barbie, a fashionable doll who lives in an extravagant dream house in Malibu, through her various adventures with her friends. One of her friends is Ken, her boyfriend, who constantly creates new inventions for her. One of these inventions is Closet, a robot that helps Barbie pick out outfits. Ken's unconditional love for Barbie is shown throughout the show, as is his complicated relationship with the schlond poofa. Other familiar faces in the show are Barbie’s friends, Nikki and Terresa, and her sisters, Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea. The main antagonist of the show is Raquel, who, in her attempts to impress Ken, is always trying to sabotage Barbie. Raquel's twin, ...

The Fascinating Phenomenon of Pareidolia      Ever since I was little, I’ve seen faces all over the world in inanimate objects, particularly in cars. The front and trunk of a car look a lot like a face, the two head/backlights as eyes, and the front/back bumpers are a mouth. In my young mind, every car had a different personality based on how they looked (to be honest I think Pixar noticed this too and said, “we can profit on that”. Even inside the car, there were faces like where the air conditioning vents are and where the roof lights are. Faces aren’t only visible in a car though, look around your house as well. I actually took a break from writing this in order to explore my whole house looking for faces. I found a face in things from tape dispensers to the design of tiles in my bathroom. I’ll provide pictures of everything I am attempting to describe down below. Something that is apparent with each face is that three attributes are always there, being, two eyes and o...

Of the many things that I wish to have, almost all can be obtained with hard work or some money. However, there is one elusive thing that I could not obtain no matter how much I wish for it: time. Many of life’s problems result from not having enough time. Often, a lack of time forces a person to sacrifice some of the things they want to do for the things that they need to accomplish. But what if there was a solution to that problem? What if there was a device in which you could push a button to freeze time? Of course you would probably want the device and likely use it frequently, but would you really use it as much as you think?  If I were asked to have such a device, I would leap at the opportunity. Having such a device would make my life much easier, as I would no longer have to struggle about time constraints or limitations. Need to complete a long homework assignment? Freeze time until you are done. Need a break in class? Freeze time and take your break. Feeling tired? Free...

  Have you ever been in the middle of an argument and thought to yourself, “wow, this is really petty.” Well, Stuart Semple and Anish Kapoor take the meaning of “petty” to a whole new level!      The story begins in 2016 when Anish Kapoor bought the rights to the color, Vantablack. This was the blackest black and he would not allow anyone else to use it. This caused a lot of arguments between artists, but one person specifically arose to fight Kapoor, Stuart Semple. Semple became annoyed with Kapoor and in response, he created the Pinkest Pink. This pink is available at a very cheap price and is available to anyone… except Anish Kapoor. When you buy this product, you must agree to the terms and conditions which include “you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your knowledge, information, and belief this paint will not make its wa...

      Recently, there has been a tremendous amount of people that are moving to Florida. This has been through the last 10 months, and the people moving are especially from New York. You might ask, why are people suddenly moving to Florida? Well, thats what I am about to tell you.     A big reason why people are moving here, besides the beautiful weather here, is because of Covid. In the last 10 months, there have been more than 33 thousand New Yorkers that have came to Florida. Some reasons were because they have to be masked up inside or when conditions were worse, some indoor places weren't open, so they thought it was more worth their paycheck to be somewhere you can always do something fun when being outside. I know from past experience because I moved back here from New York, and let me tell you, you do not want to be outside during the year, and you definitely don’t want to be outside during the harsh winters. Why you may ask? Unless y...

  Coral reefs are very underrated. Not only are they beautiful, but they are also homes to thousands of fish and living creatures in our ocean, and actually have a lot of effects on land. Over the summer, I did a lot of community service in the Florida Keys, and one of the organizations I worked with was the coral restoration foundation. The main goal was to restore coral reefs by out-planting coral and trying to help our ocean whenever possible. Something most people don’t know is that corals are actually animals, which is why I think they are in such bad shape today. By people not knowing they are alive, they tend to not care as much about them and would rather care about a different kind of animal.  The main reason our reefs are dying is because of humans. By pollution, overfishing, climate change, bleaching due to the rising ocean temperatures, and people simply not realizing what they are doing, we are destroying one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on our pl...

     It's that time of year again - football season! To me, this is one of the best times of the year. Not only will I be able to watch Tua Tagovailoa turn into a star with the new and improved Dolphins team, but I will also get to participate in multiple fantasy football leagues, which, to me, is the most fun part.      Now, I have never been the best at fantasy football. In fact, last year, I came in at second-to-last in my league. However, the rush of energy that this simple, casual game provides me and millions of other sports fans across the world with, is sometimes unmatched.      First off, for those of you who aren't the most familiar with fantasy football, it is basically a game that includes players in a virtual league (usually anywhere from four to 16 people but there can be more). The players then participate in a draft, which involves choosing the players that you want on your team. These players are real-life players from the...

          The new school year has started, and now that we have been in school for more than a few weeks, I don't want to speak for everyone but, maybe we can start to see how this year is going to be hard! Covid really messed up schools and students everywhere. Since being on zoom and learning from home, students have developed a habit of not learning everything to the best of their ability. This is because all of last year we had our notes for everything. We could use them for tests to guide us, and we always knew that they were there as references for our use, so we may have felt too comfortable and forgotten how to study and learn something to the point where it’s stuck in our minds.            As we have come back this year and have begun our courses and taken a few exams, I can say for myself that I have been off. Has anyone else felt that way at all? I feel like I’ve been procrastinating way more often than I did be...

Ori Shai 9/14/21 AP Lang Blog                                                                           LeBron Pursues Acting?     LeBron James has made his way to the movie industry. Because he's known for being one of, if not the, greatest basketball players to ever touch the Earth, he has quite a bit of fame. Because of this popularity, he has had a sequel produced for him of the famous basketball movie Space Jam. The original movie starred legendary former basketball player Michael Jordan. The  sequel's full name is Space Jam: A New Legacy. But how is the movie?     The film obviously stars LeBron James as the main character, but other notable stars are featured. One of my personal favorite features lasted for only about six seconds. Tha...

September 13, 2021          With all the holidays coming and going in September, the beginning of school is kind of dizzying. We’re supposed to keep up with all of our learning and be able to recall things from what seems like 50 years ago, but that’s hard. Being in and out of school repeatedly, consequently, is not conducive to learning. How am I supposed to do well on a test when the last time I had the class was a week ago? What are we to do when it just so happens that we don’t have certain classes scheduled for a week because of the weird schedule? I think that the month of September should be a month of introduction and light work, because it’s hard to get anything done during this time. For instance, today I was getting headaches all day because all this school stuff was just punching me in the face. An added factor to this, is that we’ve been out of normal school for a year and a half. We’ve gone through zoom school, through getting grades that we (som...

     Y ou know that feeling when you're at the airport and you get your boarding pass. You're really hoping for that aisle or window seat or that middle seat. But I hope I can speak for most of us and say that the middle seat sucks.  But then you look at your boarding pass and find out you got the middle seat. The disappointment just rushed through you and you now have a few hours to prepare for the WORST FLIGHT EVER! And the beginning to the best trip of your life is definitely not starting now!       Now let's break it down. Everyone has their preferences as to which one they prefer. It's clear they both have ups and downs of their spots on a plane. But, after all, all we want is to be comfortable when traveling.       When you have a window seat, not only are you able to look out the window and see the most beautiful view of the sky and wherever you are departing and arriving from but, you are also able to have a comfortabl...

     There are some things in life never get old and hold the same excitement every single time. One of those things is fantasy football. Personally, the best part isn’t the football itself, but rather the competitiveness which starts on draft day. To simply describe it, draft day is the best day of the year. On draft day, nine of my friends and I get together, and each draft a team consisting of the players that we think will be the best. An immense amount of research goes into the selection of 17 NFL players. This probably isn’t a good thing, but there’s a good chance I put more time and research into the draft than some school tests.      Draft day isn’t just about football knowledge, but believe it or not, there is actually quite a lot of strategy put into it. Each team (person) gets one pick each round and has to carefully select players in the right order. Do you choose two running backs in the first two rounds, or choose one running back and wide rec...

    Ariella Green Week 2: Wasted Food Don’t ya hate when food goes bad or wasted. There are some people in this world that are not mindful of this type of problem. Sometimes food goes bad intentionally or unintentionally, and we are not perfect, but we should try and never waste food. I personally hate having to throw out that avocado in the fridge that turned brown because I forgot to eat it. The other day I went out to dinner for Italian food. Well unfortunately, I left my leftovers in the car all night and my food spoiled. Instead of using my leftovers for another meal, I had to throw them out.  Fortunately, most of the people I know have never experienced what it’s like to be hungry and not have enough food in their home. All the time I see young children throw out perfectly good food. Why do they throw it out? The answer is because they just don’t like it or want to eat it. I don’t love to eat every food, but if that’s what’s been given to me to eat, I eat ...

     Throughout your life as you grow as a person, there are many steps taken to maturity. One important step that I believe is part of the steps to maturity is getting your driver's license. I believe that it is the path to a whole new world. This is because my parents don’t need to be my driver to wherever I need to be, I have more freedom because I can go whenever I want somewhere, and many more reasons.      On the other hand, i t can also be very challenging from a parents perspective of their kid getting their driver's license. The parents have to make the decision if they want to buy their kid a new car, give them an existing car from the family, or not get them a car at all. In addition, your insurance goes up and there is a lot of reliability and trust that your kid will be safe. Luckily my mom is able to rely on me and I was fortunate with a car that she had bought for me.       During the drivers test, I was in complete s...

      Technology has developed majorly since the first computers from the last century. Many believed that technology in the future wouldn't weigh less than 1.5 tons because of the processing and programs that they would run. However, recently, Boston Dynamics has built, in my opinion, the coolest technology that has existed yet: real-life, working robots.     Boston Dynamics robots can do anything. They have the ability to track, lift up, and move around boxes. It can even keep track of the box in case it drops it to pick it up again. It can also be programmed to do parkour including backflips, running along slanted walls, and can also pick itself up if it falls over. They have also been programmed to defuse fake bombs and shoot guns and can even differentiate between soldiers and civilians, which means that soon they may be able to replace soldiers or serve alongside and protect them in the battlefield. These robots can be manual ly controlled o...

The Kissing Booth movies have been some of my favorites since I saw the first one in 2019. They are Netflix original movies that are American teen romantic comedies. The third and final movie of this series came out recently on August 11, 2021. I was so excited to watch it and I did as soon as I could find the time to.  The movie takes place in two of the main characters, Elle and Lee’s last summer in California before they leave for college. Elle is dating Lee’s older brother, Noah, who goes to Harvard and Lee will soon be going to UC Berkeley. Elle gets into both colleges, but decides to go to Harvard with Noah. To make it up to her best friend Lee, Elle attempts to complete a summer bucket list with him that they made up when they were kids. At the same time, she is staying in Noah and Lee’s beach house for the summer with the two and Lee’s girlfriend, Rachel. She is kept very busy because she also has to help out with her younger brother and she has a summer job working at a re...