Mrs. Ho's AP Lang - 2021/2022

    R ene Descartes once said, "I think, therefore I am", but how do we know if that's true? Most people would agree with the fact that "we are" (as in we exist materially), but how can we be sure?      A very complicated concept is the idea that we don't even exist. What if we are dreaming or in some simulation like The Matrix? What if we are artificial intelligence and didn't know it? Or what if we aren't even human and are just a butterfly dreaming about being a human? You may think "that's just ridiculous", but can you 100% prove I'm wrong?  While it might seem unlikely, it isn't possible to prove that it isn't true.      In reality, we can never truly be sure if we actually exist or if what around us actually exists. For one, everything that we understand about the worlds input from our sensations that our brain then interprets into perceptions, but how do we know if our sensations and perceptions are accurate? There is...

Whenever I meet someone in America, the first thing that they notice about me is my accent. Often the question that follows after I tell them where I’m from is, “how is South Africa different from America?” Americans seem to think that South Africa is not just another country, but rather a far off planet. I’ve heard people say, “did you ride an animal to school?” and so many more crazy assumptions like this one. At this point, I just laugh it off. South Africa is actually more similar to America than Americans realize.  For example, no, I did not live in a safari with lions and ride animals to school. I actually went to a Jewish day school similar to Donna Klein, just a lot bigger. I also had a wonderful friend group, just like Americans do, who I used to hang out with on Saturday nights. I try my best to keep in contact with them.  So basically, as you can probably tell, the lifestyle is pretty similar. But don’t get me wrong, there definitely are some major differences and i...

  Ariella Green Week 7: The Airport      Don’t ya hate going to the airport?       I absolutely can not stand going to the airport. As I’m sure most of you know, I am very organized and like to plan out everything. When things don’t go according to the plan, it stresses me out.       Thursday morning, I assumed I would have an easy experience flying from PBI to JFK on JetBlue airlines. Little did I know, there would be many little bumps along the way that I had to deal with while trying to catch my flight.       First, we arrive at the airport at around 10:30 for our 11:45 flight. I personally believe that you should always give yourself enough time at the airport, so you don’t have to rush at the gate or if you want to make a purchase. We also had to face the challenge of finding somewhere to park, which is nearly impossible sometimes. After searching for a while, we found...

      There are many benefits to being organized, especially as a student. It makes you a better prioritizer, it helps you be a better student through meeting your goals, basically starts you off on the right track, and it can even reduce stress. By having all your stuff organized, like papers for each subject in a folder or binder for each subject makes it neat, so when you go through your bag you can find everything you need where you last put it. It also makes you feel better when you do this, you feel better as a student when you are organized and it makes you wanna do even better in school, in my opinion. This is probably why it also can reduce stress. It also keeps everything structured, and keeping it consistent can make it better when going to do your work. Also, using a planner to write down your homework for the week keeps you very organized and on top of things, by knowing what work you have to get done for the week it takes off a lot of stress, feeling li...

     Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year. The blow-up monsters and lights on the front yard of all the houses in the neighborhood get me so excited. Halloween is not a one-day holiday to me. It is a holiday like Christmas in which you prepare for it weeks in advance. Growing up, the second I saw October on the calendar, I knew it was Halloween time. Shows on all the television channels would turn to Halloween-themed episodes, and I do not think anyone could forget Disney Monstober. What got me really excited was getting into my costume and going over to my friend's house to go trick or treating. Everyone has their own Halloween traditions like binging all your favorite Halloween shows and movies, making Halloween desserts, going to a fun dress-up party, decorating the front yard, or simply going trick or treating on Halloween day. My favorite tradition would have to be Booing!      Booing is a game of trick or treat where you attempt to lea...

  10/26/21 This past week, one of my good friends flew down from Canada. I met my friend, Ryder, at camp years ago. We managed to stay in touch and maintain our friendship. Despite us being such good friends, this was my second time being able to see him since 2019.  Ryder stayed at my house and we were able to spend the whole weekend together. Despite not seeing each other in person in years, it was just like old times. We immediately acted as if nothing had changed and just spent our time together. From watching Squid Games, to going to the beach, and listening to a LOT of Doja Cat, Ryder and I had a great weekend. One of the highlights of the trip was the day we went out to Chipotle for the second time. I am tired out from Chipotle now but, we were able to go with one of my friends and we all ate together. We all had an amazing time and binged a few episodes of Squid Game afterward. We laughed a lot and made amazing memories together. This trip allowed me to reflect on what...

 I Used to Write Poems      When I was going through quite a difficult episode these past two years, I turned to letting out all my emotions into a notes document on my phone. Artistically, I wrote my feelings and found ways to express every corner of my consciousness onto the digital screen in front of my eyes. Looking back on all those poems, I got chills just realizing how much I got through and how much stronger I am now. I persevered and I’m still here today.      I think from moments like these where I look back and get introspective about my past self I tell myself this mantra: “My past and my future are rooting for me always, why would I ever want to let myself down?”  That mantra really got me through so much and I pose it to all of you who may be reading. If your life ever gets difficult, just remember that even when it seems that no one is on your side, you have someone. That someone is you. Your past self, your future self, and eve...

  The title might be exaggerating a little bit, but I did go through it today, specifically after school.  Because I got out of school 30 minutes before my brother, I decided to do some errands. While at Target, I saw the most beautiful mug I had ever seen. It was shaped like a cute little snowman, and I had to buy it. I then picked up my brother and drove home.  I had a lot to carry, and once I walked into my house, I threw everything on the floor. As my bags hit the floor, I heard a shattering sound as if something broke and quickly realized my mistake. I remembered that my mug was in that bag. Reluctantly, I peered through the bag, hoping my mug was okay. It was not, and neither was I.  Despite the colossal amount of homework I had, I decided to return to target to get a new mug. Lucky for me, I live very close to a target, so it wasn't that much of a shlep. Once I got there, I sprinted directly to the aisle where I found the mug in the other target. To my dismay,...

  My favorite TV shows I have recently started watching Manifest, which is a suspenseful, drama TV show on Netflix. It is about a flight that gets lost in time, landing five years later, although nobody on the flight aged a single day. I recommend this show to all people because it is suitable for everyone's enjoyment. My favorite show, Gossip Girl, got taken off of Netflix. I rewatched that show several times and was extremely sad when it got taken off of Netflix. Gossip Girl is a teen drama-based show about a rich friend group, living in the Upper East Side. I enjoyed watching this show because it had never-ending drama and was very relatable, as the teens were around high school age. I recommend this show to all people, although some may argue it is a “girl show”. This is not true because I know many boys who watched this show and enjoyed it. Another of my favorite shows is Outer Banks because it is a suspenseful show, although it includes a great amount of drama within it. I ...

  Adele recently announced that she will be releasing her fourth studio album, 30, which will be the first one in six years. When I first heard the announcement, I wasn’t very excited. Of course, I always thought that she was talented, but I never really got into her music.  as After hearing the news, I did not really think twice about it, until I went on Tik Tok, and realized her new single, Easy On Me, as well as people talking about her new album, was somehow involved in every single video. After hearing it over and over, I decided I wanted to hear more than fifteen seconds of the song, and started listening to her older music, and recognized that I actually enjoyed her music.  Her new album is about her divorce, which is a common theme in her music. She writes about her life and what goes on in it, and she has happened to go through breakups and divorce, so her new music’s message might be similar to some of her other songs.  I do not know about anybody els...

     It’s basketball season again, which means another intense season of NBA basketball. Last season, I was a fan of the New Orleans Pelicans, as Lonzo Ball, my favorite player, was on that team last season. However, he left the Pelicans in the off-season and signed with the Chicago Bulls, so I am now a fan of them, and man, am I happy to be.                The Bulls have started off the season exceptionally well, beating the Pistons, Pelicans, and Raptors. They have looked amazing throughout all of these games, and they are so entertaining to watch. Whether it’s Zach Lavine making his matchup look silly and swishing three-pointers in their face or Alex Caruso catching alley-oops from Lonzo, this team has been dynamic.      Even though I am technically only a fan of this team because Lonzo is on it, I am very passionate about the Bulls. The games are fun to watch, and though I’m not a die-hard NBA fan, I make sur...

     One of my family’s favorite desserts is Italian ices. The large variety of flavors and refreshing taste of Italian ices makes it a great dessert, especially on a hot summer day. Additionally, and most appealing to my parents, Italian ices are significantly healthier than the other dessert alternative, ice cream. For example, a small cup of Italian ices ranges from 170 to 370 calories, while a small cup of ice cream ranges from 390 to 640 calories. Over ten years ago, I used to go often to an Italian ice store called Rita’s in Boca Raton. The store closed due to poor management, and the nearest Rita’s store until recently was all the way in City Place in West Palm Beach. While I did get Rita’s on the rare occasions when I went to City Place, I longed for an Italian ice store to open closer to home. Thankfully, I got my wish last year, when two new Italian ice stores opened up nearby. Another franchise location of Rita’s opened in Coral Springs, and a different Italian...

     Okay, okay calm down. I know the title is a bit alarming. Don’t worry, I am completely fine now, but in 2016 on that one specific day at Six Flags America, I sure wasn’t. Today, I will be telling you about something that happened - or nearly happened to me - that not many people know about, and that without my dad there, could have gone really, really south.      It was a normal day at Six Flags America , in Maryland on a chilly April morning in 2016. My family was staying at my grandparents’ house during spring break, which was a yearly tradition at the time, and we decided to take a little break and spend some time at the park. After all, I have always been a major thrill-seeker, always eager to go on the next biggest roller coaster. For me, the scarier the coaster, the better.      I started my day off with a couple really intense roller coasters, and though they were fun, I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted bigger, and I wanted scarier. The...

 Ori Shai 10/26/21 AP Lang                                                                                     Basketball Tryouts     With winter on the horizon, sports are starting. My school (DKJA) has two major sports starting soon: basketball and soccer. I'm currently a junior (11th grade), and during my freshman/first year of high school, I participated in soccer; however, I was quickly injured with a jammed thumb at our first game. In my sophomore year of high school, I joined the j.v basketball team, but because of the COVID-19 outbreak, we were only able to play four games. This year, the schedule is back to as it was before. I can't wait for the season to officially begin.     This week, the three coach...

Do you ever get that feeling, when you’re watching a tv show, and you can’t wait for the next season to come out, but it’s taking forever? That’s exactly how I feel right now about Stranger Things . It is the perfect show, it has everything. Thriller, adventure, an amazing storyline, multiple characters to connect with, and of course the demogorgon. It’s truthfully the best show I have ever seen in my entire life. I know many may disagree, but that’s just my opinion.  The only problem is, after every season I have to wait almost a year, and in this case more, for the next season to come out. It almost ruins the show because you fall out of the excitement and story that inevitably consumes you and makes you want more. I keep hearing of different dates that the next season will be released on Netflix, and they always get my hopes up. I’m pretty sure that season 4, of Stranger Things, will be officially released in May 2022 sometime. Fingers crossed! A...

     Tonight as I was thinking of a blog idea I wasn’t sure what to write about so I decided to watch some TV and hoped to get inspiration as to what I should write about. As I was watching Dawson’s Creek (it’s a great show! You should definitely check it out!) I thought of the perfect idea.  Gifts. In the episode I was watching it was Joey’s birthday and Dawson had given her a gift.  So who doesn’t love gifts? Probably no one but there are always strange people out there. I love gifts and presents. Everything about them is so fun. Personally, I love giving gifts! I honestly think it’s more fun than getting them. The whole journey of thinking about the perfect gift is so exhausting yet so fulfilling once finished. To be completely honest, as much as I love giving gifts, I usually end up getting my friends a visa gift card every time (but that's not the point). Usually, though, I get my family members a thoughtful gift.  Most of the time when you think of ho...

 Week 6- The Importance of Learning How To Write 10/25/2021      I've been learning how to write now for 11 years, and I'm really thankful that I've been able to get somewhat good at it; because from what I hear, It's an important skill to have.      Since kindergarten, we've been learning how to write in a very specific way, in a standard form. We have Independent clauses, dependent clauses, and sentence fragments, each of which carrying its own weight. However, is it really necessary to write using these formulas for writing sentences? A clue from our presidents may tell a different story. It must be noted that there is a difference between writing a paper that is to be read to individual persons, as opposed to one that is to be read to a crowd. This delineation is especially important for a class centered around rhetoric. I’d like to posit that perhaps it’s more important to learn how to write in this second way- in front of a crowd- than ...

     I just felt the need to blog about this concept of taking a cold shower everyday. There are so many benefits from doing this. These benefits include,    waking you up, which is good if it is early in the morning and you need to wake up, or if at night and you need to stay awake to finish homework, it increases circulation, reduces muscle soreness post-workout, potentially boosting weight loss,  and makes you have glowing hair and skin. And these are just some of the basic benefits of taking a cold shower everyday. If you are on a weight-loss journey, this is so beneficial to you, even if you are just trying to lose a few pounds. If you are an athlete, or a basketball player, you can relate to this. From all that conditioning and running you have to do every practice makes your whole body sore, so this can be very relieving. The  cold water has regenerative properties, that make your muscles relax and repair after a to...

Everyone has their fears. Some people are afraid of heights. Some are scared of bugs, clowns, the ocean, flying, rollercoasters; the list it endless. But why? Why are we scared of things? You are probably reading this and think, "Avital, come on, think. The reason people are scared of things is because they probably had bad experiences with them in the past." Well yeah, that makes sense. But there are also tons of people who are scared of things and nothing traumatic happened in their life that would cause that fear.  Here is the perfect example; I have always been deadly afraid of spiders. The only thing is, is that I have never known why. Yeah, they are gross eight legged bugs and they are just creepy looking, but why am I so scared of them. I have never had a super traumatic moment in my life that had to do with spiders. I never had a scarring moment in my past that made spiders evil for the rest of my life. I have just always been so afraid of them and I have never known....

Some people may have noticed that I wear a whole selection of different multi-colored bracelets on my right wrist. The purpose of this, believe it or not, is not actually to stop my blood circulation, but rather because each one means something important to me.  The biggest one that I wear closest to my elbow is one that I made at summer camp, working as a counselor. It is important to me because it reminds me of the wonderful memories I shared with my campers and other counselors, as well as it has a Jewish symbol on it that represents my religion. I also wear a pink and blue bracelet that I made at camp.  I have three bracelets that are friendship bracelets with one of my best friends, Samantha Ostroff. One of them is a butterfly that changes based on the person’s mood, another is one that says salt, and the last is one that says cookies. Samantha has the other butterfly bracelet, one that says pepper, and the last that says milk. Samantha also gave me a bracelet that says m...

     Many families have different viewpoints on how they think diets should be defined and portrayed. For example, some may say that sugar-free coke is better for you than diet coke. These different viewpoints used to always make it hard for me to choose what I should buy when I am food shopping at the grocery store.       When I walk into the grocery store, I am always overwhelmed with the tremendous amount of variety of the same products. I enter the soda aisle and see that most of the first section is the brand coke due to the companies with a store for where the product will be displayed. There is not just one type of coke, it also includes many different types of coke. For instance, you could buy diet coke, coke zero sugar, green coke, and regular coke.       Many might say, what is the difference between all of these, and it is hard for me to think differently. My mom is a doctor who is very familiar and involved with how to b...

     Have you ever wondered what the fastest way is between two points where the starting point is higher than the ending point, an equal force of friction, and if there is a constant downward force of 9.81 m/s^2? If you have, you aren't alone.     Most people would assume that the fastest way between the points would be a straight line, because most people are aware that the fastest way between two points would be to go in a straight line. You wouldn't want to go left, then straight, then right if you only have to go straight. It just takes less time.     What do you think would happen if you started by simply dropping immediately to gain speed the quickest, and then you would start moving towards the other point when you are on the same level or y value as the second point. At first, it wouldn't make sense because, if you looked at a right triangle, the hypotenuse would always be less than the sum of the two legs of the triangle. Howev...

Ariella Green Week 6: Paper Cuts   Don’t ya hate when you get some form of a paper cut? Now, if I do say so myself, I am one of the best at getting bumps, bruises, and cuts. Most of the time I don’t even know how it happened because of how often I get hurt. I find that paper cuts are one of the most painful kinds of cuts because it’s as if you're being cut by a razor blade. It also takes paper cuts a very long time to heal, and they’re still smarting for a few days after.  This past weekend, when I was at Hebrew School, I was in the middle of handing my students the mini white boards. As I was passing them out, one of the edges nicked my right hand middle finger. (Of all fingers by the way!) This cut is still bothering me for over 4 days. It does not help that the cut is in the worst possible place because I have to use my right hand to do everything.  Also, about a few years ago, I was helping my mother pack packages. As I was closing the legal flat rate envelope, it cut...