Christmas is a special time of year and there are a lot of things that I want this year. So let's get started!
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My old phone was an iPhone SE, which was this cheaper version of an iPhone 6 but was more power. It was a good phone and lasted me 2 years until sadly the screen stopped working, but it kinda was all my fault. I had dropped my phone in the summer, without its case because the case broke, and It cracked the screen a little but it wasn't bad. One day before a summer run, I put my phone in my console and when I came back, I found my screen had cracked a little more and now the circuits were showing. I was bummed out but it didn't affect me too much until I kept dropping it and it just got worse and worse. One time during choir I dropped my phone on the riser and it cracked the entire screen. I still didn't care that much until my phone screen started to not work. It was like that for a week before the entire screen just stopped working, and that's when I realized my life was gone. My phone is used to text all my friends and keep updated with them, but it is also used for my addiction, memes. It was such a pain because I wouldn't get my new phone until the end of November, and my phone broke at the end of September. That is two whole months without my phone and it sucked. Like I mean it really sucked. My only saving grace was my Apple Watch that allowed me to text and answer calls, but that was the only thing that I could do. No internet, no games, and no snapchat. It was pretty hard being limited to only those things but I managed to make it work for 2 months until I got my bonus from the bank, which allowed me to buy my new phone. I bought the Product Red iPhone XR and I couldn't be more in love with this phone. It runs so smoothly and the color is just stunning and the wait was worth getting this nice of a phone. I plan on holding onto this phone for a while, hopefully not cracking it for another couple years.
Being stuck on a deserted island all alone would really suck, so the three people that I would take with me on an island is as follows. Number 1: Elliot Dallmann aka "The Minnesotan." This man was raised in the wild by a pack of wolves and learned to survive in the cold Minnesota night. We can reach in fire and come out unscathed. He is a legend among men and could survive anything the world can throw at him. He has been around since the beginning of time, and some believe that he was the son of Adam and Eve, but who knows. Elliot knows anything and everything about survival and that's the reason why I would take him.
Number 2: Juan Gon aka "The Switch Master." Juan has reaches peak human performance while playing the Nintendo Switch and is one of the best players of all time. He has beat some of the best players in the world to obtain his spot and will hold it, even after he dies no one will be able to leave as big of a legacy as Juan. He's come up with some the most unique playing styles known to all gamers across the spectrum. The only person that has been able to beat him is me, but we don't talk about that because it would ruin his image. Making millions a year from this profession is crazy, and he is tired of being so good and would be a good idea for him to get away for a month on a deserted island. Of course he would have a switch on him with a car battery so that it would never run out of juice, and enough controllers for everyone. Number 3: Brendan Lee aka "BrenGaming01." One of the biggest YouTubers on the platform is a friend of mine, having more than 90 Billion subscribers. Which, theoretically shouldn't make sense because there isn't that many people on this planet. The reason you can't see that is because YouTube has blocked the number from being seen since it is so big. He creates some of the most entertaining videos and vlogs that will last a life time. The main reason I would bring him on the island with me is because he will be able to document our time on the island perfectly. A great singer is furthered by dancing skills, which luckily, he has. Brendan can hit the "nae nae" like the man who invented it. He also has one of the best "default dance" from the game Fork-knife that I have ever seen. Teaching me would be an honor and luckily, I'll be on an island with him for a while. That was my great list, can't wait to see them on the island! It's the season of thankfulness, with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, people are thankful for many different things and the people I'm most thankful about are my friends. My friends are very diverse with some being great athletes, others who are involved in everything, and those that aren't in anything; but that doesn't change the fact that they are my friends. I get super excited to see any of my friends because it usually means we are going to have a good time, even if we have to find a way to entertain ourselves by acting like complete idiots. The people that I surround myself push me to be the best me but they also push me to have fun along the way, and to take risks that I usually wouldn't take if it was my choice. I definitely wouldn't be the person I am today without my friends being there for me, for the better or the worse. The thing about them is that they aren't just there for the good times, they've also been there in the times that were hard on me. They support me in most things that I do but they also tell me when I might be going to far on some stuff. It's going to be pretty hard when I go off to college without having the friends I've known for my whole life, but I definitely will make the best of the time I have left with them.
I've played the flute in band since 6th grade and an opportunity to go and play at UNO, The school I plan to attend next school year, popped up so I decided to take that chance so I signed up. We left early in the morning to get there on time and had to drive through a bit of traffic. I listened to music most of the way there while drinking some coffee I made earlier that morning. We realized that we needed to take stands with us but we didn't know that earlier so we had a little bit of a problem asking for a couple stands to use. I thought i was a pretty decent flute player, not great but not bad, but as soon as I heard how the other flutes were playing, I instantly felt that I played like a 6th grader compared to them. They were all amazing, and the girl that I sat right next to told me that she took lessons from the UNO flute professor, who is world renown for being a phenomenal flute player. The pieces that we preformed were all great pieces but were very challenging, requiring me to really think about what I was playing. I was playing the high flute part which had me play some of the highest notes I've ever played. We even played one of Beethoven's master pieces that I couldn't even play right because of how hard the piece was, but even with all the challenges I faced that day, I had a lot of fun and learned about the instrument that I loved to play and will continue to play though college. Going throughout my day normally would be completely different if I were something like a pair of earbuds. Earbuds are some of the most useful things on the planet because they are used to listen to music and escape into the world of music. Music brings people together where other things can't, and earbuds are a way to listen to music without bugging other people and immerses the listener more than any speaker can do. Most people own a pair earbuds and are one of the most used pieces of technology and it's a pretty easy job. The only big problem of being a pair of earbuds is that you get tangled pretty easily, especially when placed in someone's pocket or a confined space where movement tends to happen. Everyone loves a pair of earbuds so being a pair of earbuds would be fun, I would also get to jam out the entire time I'm being used.
People have always wanted to keep in communication with other people, first with writing letters then to the telegraph, and now we have mini-computers in our pockets that gives us access to the whole world. The first iPhone was released June 27, 2007 by Steve Jobs which changed the whole game with a touch screen and other features that were state of the art for the time. It had a 3.5 inch display, a back facing, 2 megapixel camera, and 4 GB of storage which was unheard of at the time. From that moment on, Apple has only built from this success and are now one of the top manufacturer of phones along with the other top dog, Samsung. Samsung entered the smart phone market much earlier than Apple, in October of 2001 they released the SPH-1300. Now a days the phone market is dominated by these tech giants, and most have to choose what side their on, the Apple or Samsung side. Both phones offer things that the other doesn't. Apple's convenience factor allows seamless access to any Apple product without needing to go to many different places to fix one different thing; everything is in one place. Samsung's leg up on Apple is the ability to change anything and everything about the phone without repercussions and is pretty cheap for great quality products. In the end it comes down to personal preference, and in the end, Apple is the way that I go because I am already pretty deep in the Apple Ecosystem that makes accessibility so much easier. What phone is in your pocket? Memes are some of the greatest things to happen to all of humanity, bringing people together for laughs and making fun of others mistakes. Every once in a while a meme will come into this world that is not offensive to anyone and is universally loved by all, one such meme is Bongo Cat. Bongo Cat started off as just a cute, adorable cat that played some bongo drums and was pretty basic at first. As it started picking up pace, people started tweaking it to make it more special than the others and after that, the Bongo Cat meme soared into main stream. My Instagram feed was filled up with huge amounts of those memes, all being different than the rest. One such Bongo Cat meme has him playing to different songs with different instruments that aren't just his bongo! He is very talented! One of those memes has him playing the keyboard and playing to the Wii menu music as a little Mii version of him plays a violin randomly on screen; what a great meme! Other memes have him playing a bunch of drums and switching to trumpet to play Make me Smile by Chicago. He doesn't just do game music, he can play dubstep and multiple different instruments that a cat shouldn't be able to play. This meme is one of the best memes out there because it can be whatever you want it to be. If you want him to play your favorite song, he'll play it! If you want him playing the clarinet for a solo, he can do it! The versatility of this meme is so great and not having anyone else be the butt of the joke that I rate this meme a 10 out of 10-IGN. I'm head over heels in love with tennis. I think tennis is so much fun to watch and even more fun to play, and I'm glad that I could play for the school for all four years of high school. The road to JV state was a long one so I'll start from the beginning. All throughout this year all I wanted was to hold a varsity spot on the tennis team and so I decided to take some steps to get there. So after school got out and June rolled around, I started to run with the cross country team every night at 8 and I would usually switch between practicing tennis with my dad and running. I figured running would be a great way to increase my stamina while playing tennis since we are constantly moving and running up and down the court, and also a great way to get in shape for the season. I started off pretty easily with one mile and then slowly made my way up to two miles, my pace wasn't the best but I also improved on that during my time running. Not owning a proper pair of running shoes didn't help at all so I went out and bought some Brooks to keep me from getting shin splints and other common injuries from not wearing the right shoes. I would usually go on and off with playing tennis and running so I wouldn't lose any of my tennis skill. I bought a new racquet in March for the next tennis season and this was my chance to perfect my skill with it. I also bought a pair of actual tennis shoes that I quickly fell in love with because of how light they are and how I could maneuver with them on. Another way I improved my game this summer was by switching up my grip style on the racquet, and doing this allowed me to hit balls faster and with more spin than what I had before. I rinsed and repeated the same schedule every day until tennis season arrived. My tennis season started off strong and stayed that way for my JV season. I sadly didn't get the varsity spot I was striving to get because one certain foreign exchange student decided to show up. I'm not mad that he took the spot I was hoping to get just because he is so good at tennis, he helps out the team more than whatever I would have done. Even though I didn't get the spot, I kept pushing to play smarter and better and I did as much as I could do. My doubles partner and I won a varsity match at the first York Invite against Ralston which showed that we are just as good as some Class A schools. We kept winning and winning until we played Lincoln Southwest who we lost badly to. They are a Class A team that has a very solid tennis program and it was a great match, it was the second time I've lost a doubles and first time I lost in singles this year. It was a bad defeat but it brought us down to Earth and gave me a new thing to strive for. The day before JV state was our rescheduled Adam Central duel that I didn't play in since I was at the UNL Men's Choir and I was very worried that for JV state that I wouldn't be ready for the competition. The day of JV state I had to wake up at five in the morning to prepare all my equipment and be at the school by 5:45, I actually had to speed a little to get there on time, and so our day began. Before we even left York, we were informed by another driver that our tail lights were out and so we had to drive across town to get a different vehicle, which was a great start to our day. We had to inform Ralston that we were going to be a little late and when we got there, all the other schools were warming up and by the time we started to warm up for a couple of minutes, they told us that we had to start playing. Our pool consisted of Bellvue East, Bellvue West, and Ralston. My doubles partner and I played pretty well for those matches but the teams we played weren't that good so it wasn't the best practice for what would be a very challenging championship match. Our championship match for first place was against Papillion and those players were extremely good at tennis and was definitely one of the hardest matches I've ever played. We were neck and neck with them all game and it ended up going into a tie breaker. Being up 5-1 was big for us, but they caught up making it 5-4, and then it was my turn to serve. My serves aren't the strongest serves but I have pretty good placement and it helped that we had the serve. We won the game on my serves making the final tie-breaker score 7-5 and I had one of the biggest smiles on my face. As we were walking off the court, I felt as if my stomach had butterflies in it and my knees felt a little weak because I've never played such an intensive match in my life. It felt great. Dalton Stodeick beat a kid from Elkorn for first place, Drew Hammer lost to Papillion for second place, Sam Warneke and Emmett Heiss won their match to get third place, and Matt Mittman and I took first place. At the end of it all, we won the invite with 64 points and then it was time for some victory Cane's. Now we are just waiting for our banner ceremony. A good day to me can come in many different forms and I don't think I've ever had the same good day twice. One of the best good days that I've had has to be the time me and my squad, consisting of Dean, John, and Beau, took a trip to Omaha to go to the Henry Doorly Zoo this summer. We had been planning it for month since all of us are extremely busy during the summer with jobs and sports, and we decided that we could go on a Sunday in July. We started the day off with having breakfast at The Huddle House and with the help of coupons, it was one of the cheapest meals I've had. Then our long journey to Omaha began. My dad was willing to drive us because he knew we were going to be pretty tired afterwards. We got there around noon and so our day at the zoo began. We were all pretty excited to be there and so we walked and looked at everything that was open to see and that took all day. We left a couple hours before the zoo closed and decided that we wanted something to eat so we went to Olive Garden. If you've never been to Olive Garden, they have amazing pasta and the bread sticks that are served are also fantastic. I ordered Lasagna with dumpling soup and by the end of it, I was so full that I didn't want to walk. My dad decided he wanted to pay for all of our food which was pretty nice of him to do for my friends and I. As we were leaving the restaurant, it was still a bit early to come back home and so I looked up if any bowling alley was open near and sure enough, there was. Bowling was super fun, of course I won a game, and all of us had a blast doing that for a couple games. Then it was time for the long journey back home. If I could go back and live that day again, I definitely would.
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AuthorMy name is Daniel Gomez, and I'm a student at York High School. Archives
December 2018
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