DEADLINE Volume 7 | Issue Six
IN THIS ISSUE: Senior Spotlight: pg. 1-2 Netflix Nook: pg. 3-4 Baking with Dragons: pg. 5-6 The Biden Presidency: pg. 11-12 Album Review: pg. 15-16
TIME IS NOW
Senior Spotlight:
Alex Lor Hey Dragons! To start our Spring semester, I interviewed Alexandria Lor for this latest issue of Senior Spotlight. We talked a lot about her passion for helping others and her ambitions. Alexandria Lor (also goes by Alex) is a Hmong Asian-American born in California. At three years old, she moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she lived for most of her childhood until she was eleven years old. Her hobbies include reading, singing, and cooking. She loves to listen to musicians like Sam Smith and Lewis Capaldi. Unlike most people, she likes and enjoys listening to country music. Her favorite meal is chicken alfredo, and her favorite dessert is cookies and cream ice cream. She likes dark chocolate but doesn’t mind eating milk chocolate as well. During quarantine, she’s spent her time reading and cooking. She learned how to make savory dishes like pho, curry, and pasta. A new hobby of her’s is watching TikToks. Overall, she’s been sleeping more frequently during the quarantine. Alex’s plans after graduation are ambitious and motivated. She plans on getting a graduation tattoo of a dragon– to represent finishing high school and moving on to adulthood. She hopes to attend either Chico State or Fresno State. She has been accepted to Chico State, CSU East Bay, and Sacramento State, and is still waiting for Fresno State and UC Merced. We congratulate Alex for her acceptance and hope for the best outcome for Fresno State and UC Merced. Her major is psychology, and she hopes to complete her degree and get her Master’s in counseling and a Teacher’s credentials. She aspires to become a teacher or professor to help future students make their dreams come true through guidance and advice.
“I also want to experience what it is like to be a teacher or professor. I think that it’s a valuable job and it would be a good experience.” Her main goals for the rest of the year are obtaining her driver’s license and passing her classes (I’m sure we all are hoping for a good semester). Most of all, she wishes to graduate and leave with good memories. Alex expected to attend school events like Prom, Culture Cuisine, Dragon’s Night, Senior Sunrise, school dances, and Club Rush during her senior year. Unfortunately, with remote learning, school has been stressful, especially with not seeing friends and classmates. However, Alex appreciates the teachers, faculty, and PSA who’ve helped us transition into online school. She hopes to see everyone one more time before this semester ends.
“Hopefully, we can at least have an outdoor graduation because I’d like to see everyone face to face at least one more time.” 1
MCHS has changed Alex to becoming an entirely different person from the start of freshman year. Alex attended Morada Middle and hung out with a small group of friends. She was quiet and didn’t talk to a lot of people. However, she started to open up and became more talkative and confident in herself as she progressed from freshman to senior year. She’s also improved her work ethic and says she’s better at taking criticism than she used to.
“When I got to MCHS, I started to open up more and become more confident in myself as the years went by. I’m still over thinking about the work I get and doing my best about it, but I now relax more and focus on things other than school.” To ensure a great school experience, Alex advises you to use the resources and get help from people around you. You could talk to our counselors, use the tutoring centers, writing labs, etc... They’ve all been helpful in regards to classes and assignments. Make sure to connect with your classmates and help each other. Finally, don’t stress yourself out too much with college classes, and make sure to work as best as you can.
“Ask your classmates for help. Our community is small, so everyone that’s able to help will try their best too. Lastly, don’t stress too much about college and make sure to do all your work as best as you can.” Thank you, Alexandria, for letting us know more about yourself and your MCHS experience. We only hope for the best things for you in the future.
By: Danielle Tuazon 2
Designated
Netflix Nook Arlene Hickman
Designated Survivor takes place in a modern day America that has just been struck with a devastating attack; the capitol building has been bombed on the night of the State of the Union address. Everyone, including the president, all of the cabinet members, and congress, died. The appointed designated survivor (a person of the president's choosing to sit out during events where all people of our government are in the same space so in the case of national emergency where everyone is killed, there is still someone able to step in the president's place), Tom Kirkman, was the president's secretary of housing and urban development and was not at all prepared for the west wing. The three seasons follow Kirkman stumble into his presidency and the important decisions he is faced with on a daily basis. Designated Survivor originally aired on ABC and stayed on the network for two seasons. After being canceled like the many other shows on ABC, Designated Survivor was picked up by Netflix for one final season. Despite ending the third season on somewhat of a cliffhanger/open-ended ending, Netflix has confirmed that Designated Survivor will not be returning for a fourth season. Starring actor, Kiefer Sutherland, mentioned in an interview with Scala Radio that he did not believe the show was going to return for a few different reasons, “We had an amazing experience with Netflix and a kind of freedom that was wonderful. But the reality is because the contracts were so complicated and different from network television to Netflix, they didn't book a lot of the actors who were on the show and they took other jobs. I don't blame them for a second for that.” Kiefer compared his role as the president to his role as a FBI agent in his previous hit television show, 24. I find that with shows following a “good guys catch the bad guys” theme, the episodes get very repetitive and almost follow the same general plot from episode to episode. This was not the case with Designated Survivor. I really enjoyed the layers of issues and problems that Kirkman and the rest of his administration faced in each episode and how they often wouldn’t resolve an issue for multiple episodes. Along that note, this show also delved into more current issues that real life Americans face and, funny enough, gave some good examples of how our country could begin to tackle these problems. Designated Survivor was recommended to me by our very own Mr. Venhuizen. Mr.V said it was an exciting show with a strong political theme. I have to admit I was not expecting much out of the show, but I was sucked in by the complex characters and complicated tasks they are faced with. I found myself trying to come up with solutions to the predicaments Kirkman and his administration were facing. 3
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B
h t i D w r g a n g i ons k a Cake Pops
Nora Taing
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Have you ever wondered how to make those cute cake pops at Starbucks? I have a copycat recipe for Starbucks’ pink vanilla cake pop that you can try making at home! These cake pops are a bite-sized snack, so you can easily pop them into your mouth. If you do not have cake pop sticks, you can turn them into cake pop balls! 1. Bake the cake according to the package and leave them to cool until they are room temperature.
Ingredients
2. Cut the cake into quarters and peel off the outer browned layer.
- (optional) 24 cake pop sticks - (optional) cookie scoop
3. In a large bowl, crumble the cake with your hands. Then, add 2 tbsp of frosting to the cake and mix.
- A tall glass - sprinkles
4. Take some of the cake mixture and shape it into balls.
- (optional) styrofoam
5. Melt about ¼ cup of candy melts or chocolate in a small bowl. To do this, you can put them in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir.
- 1 box of classic vanilla cake mix - 2 tbsp of vanilla frosting
6. Dip the tip of the cake pop stick into the melted candy/chocolate and stick it into the cake ball. If you do not have a cake pop stick, you can dip the balls into the melted candy. Afterward, place them in a freezer for 30 minutes so that the cake pop doesn’t fall when dipping.
- 1 12 oz bag Wilton candy melts or any type of chocolate - 1 1/2 tsp Crisco shortening
7. While freezing, melt the rest of the candy melts in a bowl. Once it is melted, add 1 ½ tsp Crisco shortening into the candy melts and mix well with a whisk or fork. Then, pour the melted candy into a tall narrow cup. 8. After 30 minutes, dip each cake pop into the cup. Carefully tilt and rotate the cake pop around to cover the entire pop. Then, slowly pull up the cake pop. Do not swirl the cake pop when you are pulling it up. 9. Add sprinkles to cake pop before the candy hardens. 10. Stick in a Styrofoam block and let it stand for an hour. Do not refrigerate.
Tada! You successfully created Starbucks’ vanilla cake pops! Now you don’t need to spend so much money on a single cake pop. (Wow! Good financial decisions :D ) If you want to check out the official recipe and a Youtube tutorial, check out Dina from Simple Home Cooked on her website. Happy baking! 6
M
Star City Cafe Hevel
Out of Luck
C
Kevin Chung
Day 1
HONNE
H
Immortal
Marina and the Diamonds
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Summertime 2016 Jae Luna
Feel free to send us your favorite songs: tinyurl.com/mchsmixtape
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M I X T A P E
Green Tea and Honey Dane Amar
Broken Record G.Soul
Are You Bored Yet? Wallows
Daydreaming Marc Wavy
Dance Floor Marcos G
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Dining with the Dragons: Taqueria Carolina By: Elizabeth Rocili This restaurant is a Mexican restaurant located on Pershing Avenue in Stockton. It isn’t too far away from the campus of school. So when we are able to go back to campus someday, I recommend you guys should definitely try the food from here. Taqueria Carolina is open everyday from 7:30 A.M. to 10:00 P.M., except on Fridays, where they close at 6:30 P.M. They are open for pickup and delivery.
This time for Dining with the Dragons, I decided to get food from Taqueria Carolina (also known as Carolina’s Grill). The name of this restaurant used to be Taqueria Carolina, and it still says that on many food delivery apps (like DoorDash), but not long ago, they actually changed the name of the restaurant to Carolina’s Grill. Even though the name of this restaurant changed, the food and menu stayed the same. 9
This restaurant has a lot of different food items including tacos, burritos, breakfast burritos, fajitas, and nachos.
fan of really spicy foods, but the tiny bit of spice that was in the tacos made the food taste amazing. The reason I would give this restaurant a 4 instead of 5 stars is because the tortilla for the tacos were really soggy, so they just fell apart the second I picked up the taco. This made it really difficult to eat the tacos. I think that my tacos were like this because of the meat that I chose. My whole family ordered food from here, and my dad also ordered the taco plate. But, instead of ordering the chicken, he ordered the carne asada (which is just beef). I asked him what he thought of his tacos and I also asked him if the tacos were also soggy, and he said no. He thought that the food that he ordered was delicious. Other than that one thing, I thought the food had great flavor.
The cost of the food wasn’t too expensive, but because I ordered it through DoorDash to have it delivered, it was a lot more expensive. I think it would be best to just pick up the food yourselves. The meal that I ordered was the Taco Plate, which came with 2 tacos, a side of rice, and a side of beans. When you order the taco plate, you choose which meat to get, and I chose the shredded chicken. The cost of this meal was $8.50 and then I also ordered a soda which was $2.50. I felt that this actually wasn’t very expensive, but the thing that I thought was expensive was having it delivered. I suggest just going there to pick up the food, because it will save you quite a bit of money, but at the same time, having food delivered can be more convenient.
I would eat here again because the food was amazing and the food came really fast. If you guys like Mexican food, then you should definitely try Taqueria Carolina in Stockton!
The wait for the food did not take very long. After placing the order, it took about 30 minutes to be cooked and delivered to me. I would give this restaurant a 4 out of 5 stars because the food was delicious. The flavor of the chicken in the tacos was really good, and I liked that there was a little bit of spice to it. I am not a huge
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Issue 6
Jaskaran Bajwa
Current Events
The Biden Presidency:
the Beginnings of a New Administration
A
s of January 20, 2021 the United States sees the beginning of a new presidential administration with the start of the Biden administration. After a lengthy and arduous process of legal lawsuits and rhetoric that led to the invasion of our state capitol, America will return to business as usual, or will it? With every new presidential administration comes the conformation of key cabinet members and a signing of a whirlwind of executive orders. President Biden hopes to achieve a lot in his first hundred days of office, including repealing Trump-era tax cuts, bringing back our economy, opening schools, and vaccinating hundreds of thousands of Americans. While these goals are ambitious, he will face challenges in his pursuit. CBS states, “Mr. Biden will be relying on Congress to approve many of his initiatives...which could potentially be difficult.� One of his key challenges will be the Senate. While Biden has won control of the senate, it is by a razor-thin margin. With control of the senate, Democrats will be able to set the agenda and bring bills to the floor for a vote. With this new power, Democrats will be able to bring Marijuana legalization, a fifteen dollar minimum wage, and civil rights legislation to the floor. As for writing these confirmation hearings for members of Biden’s national security team are over and are being debated. These members are expected to have smooth conformations and are expected to begin their duties very soon. Some of the nominees have spoken on many key issues that some may find delightful and progressive, while others may find it disheartening.
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Nominee for Director of National intelligence, who will oversee all spy agencies, Avril Haines has promised to declassify the report on the murder of Jamal Koshoggi according to “The Hill”. Many have praised this decision as details around his death are still unknown. Nominee for Secretary of State, the highest American diplomat and highest ranking cabinet member, Antony Blinken, has made statements which many may find controversial. Blinken has stated that the Biden administration will continue to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will keep the US embassy in the city. This comes to the dismay of the Palestinean community and many across the world as they hoped Biden would reverse the decision. He has also claimed that he will consult with other gulf states regarding the Iran Nuclear Deal according to “Times of Israel”
Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, has asked Congress to act big on stimulus and pass a 1.9 trillion dollar stimulus bill. While some of his nominees will face opposition, such as Neera Tanden director of the Office of Management and Budget, for her controversial statements and shifting opinions, Biden should expect smooth appointments for all of his confirmations. While he has many challenges to face, Joe Biden is gearing up to be a president many will remember. From the challenges he will face to the historic people he has appointed, Joe Biden’s administration is gearing up to be one that will go down in history, but we will have to wait and see if his presidency will go down history as one of hope or failure.
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The Largest Creature EVER! We can all agree that 2020 and the starting months of 2021 have been crazy, filled with headlines that come to us at no shock because of what we’ve had to endure these last couple of years. But, experts finding fossils to the largest animal to roam the planet Earth were probably not on our prediction lists. On Tuesday, January 19th, 2021, the remains of a gigantic dinosaur were found in Argentina. Paleontologists found these remains in the NeuquÊn Province in northwest Patagonia and believe that this creature, named the Titanosaur, was ninety-eight million years old. Titanosaurs are known to be a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, commonly recognizable for not only their large size but their long necks, tails, and four-legged stance. Its twenty-four vertebrae tail and pieces of its pelvic and pectoral girdle helped paleontologists name it a Titanosaur. It had been buried in sedimentary deposits, commonly known nowadays as the Candeleros Formation.
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Now, call me crazy, but I’ve always had trouble believing that dinosaurs were real, especially after my mother had to break it to me that Barney was just a man in a costume. I always thought that there was no way that a Tyrannosaurus rex was roaming around, minding its own business, hundreds of millions of years ago, even with all of the scientific “evidence.” But now, with this discovery, and to know that he might’ve had an older cousin was jaw-dropping. Published in the journal Cretaceous Research, paleontologists believe that it was the “largest sauropods ever found,” beating out the Patagotitan. The species of Patagotitans lived around one-hundred million to ninety-five million years ago and were an outstanding one-hundred and twenty-two feet long. This isn’t the first time paleontologists have found Titanosaur fossils, though. These fossils have been found on all continents except Antarctica and have been sought to weigh over forty tons.
Something to think about before you lie down to go to bed tonight, or while you stand in the shower and can question everything you thought you knew, is what our planet was like hundreds of millions of years ago and how we’re still discovering things in modern time. Researchers are working endlessly to find new species and evidence of pre-existing ones too, and how their work continues to discover the rest of the remains of this dinosaur. This research was conducted by Argentina’s The Zapala Museum and the universities of Rio Negro Zaragoza. By: Mekhi Randle 14
An Activist’s Anthem: Death of an Optimist
By: Chau-Anh Nguyen
As someone who was ranked in the top 0.05% of listeners of Grandson’s music on their Spotify wrapped 2020, let me start off by saying that this article is obviously going to be biased. However, I’d still like to say that Grandson’s (also known as Jordan Edward Benjamin) new album, Death of an Optimist (abbreviated DOAO), is so well-crafted that it would be loved from the objective angle as well. Released on December 4, 2020, the alternative artist’s debut album consists of 12 tracks that total up to 38 minutes worth of music. Anticipation was high among Grandson’s fans (dubbed “Grandkids”) for the past six months when the artist began dropping cryptic clues, such as mysterious barcodes, sudden poetry, and even a leaked number. These random posts with seemingly no context at all confused and left fans on their toes, and many had to become creative when piecing the puzzles together. For example, because the barcode in the picture above did not scan, the grandkids deducted that there must be a hidden meaning in the numbers listed. Some of the most common guesses include, “DOA001, [meaning] Death Of America Part 1? . . . ,” “June 1st, 2021,” or some variation of both song/ album titles and release dates. In fact, one fan who called the number commented about his odd experience: “Welp, I called the number [. . .] So, it was talking about FBF Distribution Services, [and] then it gave an area code.” Eventually, the phone number was revealed to be an automated text message system where Grandson shares “some updates, snippets of new music, . . .” and hints regarding the upcoming album concept.
The phone number only allowed these sentiments to spur and grow, with many speculating if he even meant to leak the number at all.
This article would be too lengthy if we were to cover all of the in-depth details but to simply summarize, over the course of the six months, Grandson’s trail of mysterious photos, random codes, odd voicemails, and cryptic website updates caused such upheavals of intrigue that the entire Grandkids community even formed full-on forums (one of the most popular being an entire DOAO discord) to collaborate with other fans and piece the clues together. 15
As theories popped up throughout the months, Grandson built upon the excitement and began unveiling the ideas behind his album: an anthem of cautious optimism in the current political climate. The Death of an Optimist album, according to the artist, falls on a “spectrum of hope,” taking shape in the form of a conflict between Grandson and a new, emerging alter ego (dubbed “X”) that represents the musician’s inner doubts in the midst of political turmoil. As more DOAO singles were released to cultivate enthusiasm for the album’s upcoming release, the struggle between the two characters continued to be portrayed through cinematic music videos and black-and-white-esque photos. Interestingly, unlike his previous songs, Death of an Optimist caters to a different demographic. In his Kerrang! interview, Grandson reflected and expressed how he has spent “a long time” creating “angry music for people who don’t understand those issues of responsibility—or rather, have no interest in helping to combat them.” While his A Modern Tragedy volumes and series of collaborative singles serve as an outlet for those upset at the current injustices, his Death of an Optimist album is “ . . . for the people who are already here in that fight . . . struggling to continue to find hope, struggling to continue to find that purpose.”
Death of an Optimist hops from passion to weariness, from rage to numbness, and most fascinatingly, from interpersonal retreat to collective action. “This yo-yoing is indicative of our current collective state of mind. To win, it’s evident we all have [to make] the right moves at potential personal cost.” Death of an Optimist isn’t just a comforting hand that serves to make changemakers feel less alone, but it’s also an art piece that focuses on prompting those already angry into action. Grandson continues to describe in the Kerrang! interview, “There’s such a line to straddle between wanting to, as a collective, take on these big lofty problems, and then wanting to retreat inward, and go into our own expression, and you see that in music as well. Like, when I make songs that are very clear, pointed political messaging, I receive a lot more pushback and a lot more challenge than if I write songs about my thoughts and feelings. And it is easier sometimes to retreat inward in some way and avoid taking on these problems and get lost in some form of escape and some form of contentment.” He states, “I just hope that by electing more young people, we can amplify those messages . . . There’s gotta be somewhere in the middle between completely giving up on it and moving away . . . But, . . . it can’t just look like posting a black square on Instagram. Like, that’s not gonna do it.”
Grandson’s X represents the pushback that activists face in the line of their work. In a sense, he’s the parent that encourages you to stay silent in order to obtain a perfect picket fence lifestyle, he’s the skeptics that doubt the possibility of deep, systemic change, and he’s the exhaustion that threatens to overtake activists in the height of stagnant progress. [Side Photo Above: Kerrang! Photoshoot of X in his usual attire: a clean, uptight suit with slicked-back hair.]
While the temptation to retreat inward and find solace in escapism is strong, Grandson expresses—to both Out of the entire album, perhaps the song where this activists and angry citizens—how we must continue to concept really becomes the most profound is in the DOAO interlude, where Grandson sings, “I wanna be stay engaged. “You can’t give up, because it’s the right the change, I try to make my feelings vocal/He’s in my thing to do.” head, he makes me sick, he makes me antisocial/I try to do my part, I vote, I sign all the petitions/He tells that In the end, Grandson’s Death of an Optimist is a composition of socially aware music that explores the there ain’t no way that I’mma make a difference . . .” It is here that the rock hip-hop fusion artist’s message duality of hope and cynicism in activism. It is a special of cautious optimism really emerges into light: through album that provides support for the politically engaged Grandson’s fight against X that subsequently symboliz- and delivers criticism towards the angry but inactive. es the continuing search for resistance against the urge It inspires, comforts, heals, and propels—and it is one that I can undoubtedly rate a 10 out of 10. to fall into pessimism. 16
JANUARY 2020
Thank you for reading this issue from MCHS Deadline! If you have any questions, comments or concerns please DM us on our Instagram page: @mchsdeadline. We would love to hear feedback from you. While you are reading our digital copy, we have a website available for you to check out.
TEAM MEMBERS
adfa
Senior Editor: Chau-Anh Nguyen Senior Editor/Social Media: Hieu Ho Graphic Designer: Charlene Nguyen
We will continue to accept your song recommendations for MCHS mixtape all year round along with applications to take part in Freshman Interviews! So you may be apart of the next issue! The links for both of those forums can be fond in the linktree on our instagram page.
Graphic Designer: Aashna Singh
The Deadline team will continue to work hard and come up with new ideas! We hope you will come along with us on this journey! Until the next issue, stay fiery Dragons!
Senior Writer: Jaskaran Bajwa
Webmaster/Writer: Nora Taing Senior Writer: Arlene Hickman Senior Writer: Danielle Tuazon Junior Writer: Mekhi Randle