WRITTEN BY MICHAEL MCKNIGHT A fork in chess is when you attack two pieces at once. To make an effective fork, the opponent should not have any counter play against the attack, meaning that the piece you’re attacking with cannot be taken by your opponent. This is a beautiful example of a fork where the knight attacks both the king and the queen. Because the king is in check (meaning the opponent is forced to move the king) they cannot move the queen to safety allowing you to take it and then go on to win the game. Forks can be accomplished with most pieces and can give a very sharp edge in your favor for the rest of the game. This is another great example of a fork. The bishop checks the king whilst simultaneously attacking the rook. After this move black is completely lost and checkmate is imminent. This is an example of a fork in which the king is not in check. The knight is attacking both rooks. After taking the rook with the knight the opponent would take the knight. Even though you're losing a piece, the opponent is losing a more valuable piece and you will be up (meaning ahead) in pieces allowing you to win the game.
WRITTEN BY JILL LUNA AND AIDEN ORANTES
Rated by Author: 4.8/5 On March 22, 2011, Panic! At The Disco's third album, Vices and Virtues, released to both critical acclaim and of course, criticism. It received a 62/100 on Metacritic, which is a website that rates music based on reviews by people. Let's start off with the first 5 songs on the album, which are called "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", "Let's Kill Tonight", "Hurricane", "Memories", and "Trade Mistakes". These first five songs all have a very pop-punk sound, which is what Panic! At The Disco was known for, and it mixes the beats from their previous two albums, while having new sounds included as well. Most of the songs are themed around love, as well as the fallout from said love. They use a variety of instruments, such as the violin, piano, drums, and guitars, with Brendon Urie's beautiful vocals. The second half of the album consists of “Ready to Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind),” “Always,” “The Calendar,” “Sarah Smiles,” and “Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met…)”. These songs have a mix of traditional sounds. With instruments such as kick drums, electric guitars, harmonicas, bass, and acoustic guitar, it uses a mix of more modern, techno sounds. At first listen, the songs seem to be hopeful and about deep love for another, but after observing beneath the initial impressions of the songs, the deeper meanings can be interpreted in the lyrics. The lyrics in question describe a bittersweet type of love, where loving someone else may result in getting hurt with the absence of their presence, or how much they have impacted their life, for better or for worse. Even without paying attention to the lyrics, the music itself is just a great listen, since it ranges from more relaxed sounds, with "Always” and choir sections in “Nearly Witches,” to upbeat and fun with songs like “Ready to Go” and “Sarah Smiles”, making the listener want to get up a dance. The main writers for this album were Brendon Urie, John Feldmann, and Butch Walker, with one song being attributed to Pete Wentz, of Fall Out Boy. We rate this album a 4.8 out of 5, which would have been a 5 if it was the Deluxe version of this album, though this album is still solid. WRITTEN BY LEE BOCH
March 1st marks the beginning of Women's History Month, and also the birthday of Lupita Nyong’o. Lupita Amondi Nyong’o was born on March 1st, 1983, in Mexico City, Mexico. From taking a lead role in a production of Romeo and Juliet, she went to study at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts to earn her degree in film. She then graduated from Yale School of Drama’s Acting program. When she returned to Kenya, she noticed and took a spot as a production assistant in the drama The Constant Gardener (2005), in which she met Ralph Fiennes, who advised her to “become an actor if it was something she could never imagine being anything else”.1 Upon becoming a filmmaker, she directed, edited and produced a Kenyan documentary covering people with albinism in a black society called In My Genes (2009).2 In the following year, she would partake in a Kenyan TV series that aimed to promote HIV/AIDS awareness in Nairobi called Shula. In her debut performance as an actress, Nyong’o won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 12 Years a Slave (2013). She also later played other characters in The Winter’s Tale, Uncle Vanya, The Taming of the Shrew, and Elijah. When she featured in Eclipsed (Broadway play) she won a World Award for Outstanding Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Furthermore in recent years, she joined the Marvel film Black Panther as Nakia (the love interest of the character Black Panther) and was “honored with induction into Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (2019)”. Now she co-starred in both comedy-horror films, Little Monsters (2019), Jordan Peele’s Us, and action/thriller film The 335 (2022). Her other projects include: a series based on the novel Americanah, Trevor Noah’s memoir adaptation Born a Crime, and a drama based on the Dahomey Amazons, The Woman King (2022). In Lupita Nyong’o next movie, there will be an upcoming horror /Sci-fi film A Quiet Place: Day One that is initially to be released March 8, 2024. WRITTEN BY NATALIA JACKSON
Rated by Author: 5/5 Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson is a thrilling and addictive mystery novel that will keep readers guessing until the very end. The story follows Pippa Fitz-Amobi, a high school senior who becomes ambitiously determined to solve the cold case of a popular student who was found murdered five years prior to the time period that the novel takes place. Pippa believes that the police got it wrong and that the real killer is still out there. The author, Holly Jackson, does a great job of building the tension and keeping the reader guessing. Pippa is a likable and relatable protagonist who is determined to uncover the truth, even if it means putting herself in danger. The secondary characters are also very well-developed and add many layers of depth to the story. The book also addresses important themes such as the pressure of societal expectations and the dangers of cyberbullying. The pacing is spot-on, and the twists and turns will keep readers on the edge of their seats. In my opinion, Good Girls Guide to Murder is the perfect novel for mystery and thriller lovers. The author has done a fantastic job of crafting a compelling and suspenseful story that will have you intrigued from start to finish. WRITTEN BY AIDEN ORANTES
Rated by Author: 5/5 The Thing about Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin, is a novel that talks about the effects of growing up, and having your best friend die before you’re able to reconcile. It follows the main character, Susie Swanson, as she reels from the death of her best friend, Franny Jackson, who drowned. Susie slowly begins researching jellyfish, and tries to find a way to prove that Franny’s death wasn’t by drowning. She believes it was by being stung by a jellyfish, because otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense. All the characters introduced in the novel each have their own rich lives. Even if we don’t get to delve too deep into them, we know some of their struggles and personalities. The highs and lows of Suzy and Franny’s friendship is depicted through the eyes of Suzy, as a first person narrator. From the first meeting, to becoming friends, and they eventually drift apart, as well as the initial events that spiral into Suzy deciding to research jellyfish takes place. In the end, The Thing about Jellyfish will leave you heartbroken, yet hopeful for the main character. WRITTEN BY RIELLE CHLOE CANLAS
Rated by Author: 2/5 Warning: Content Contains Spoilers! They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera is a young adult novel that follows two teenage boys, Mateo and Rufus, as they discover that they only have one day left to live. In the book’s dystopian structured society, individuals are informed 24 hours before they die. The book starts off with Mateo receiving a call from the “death cast”, an unknown organization that calls you before your death. Later on, Rufus receives the same call. They go on an app called “Last Friends”, allowing you to make a friend before you pass. Mateo and Rufus meet from there and begin their adventure together. Mateo and Rufus go on an “around the world in eighty minutes” experience. They jump off of waterfalls, visit the World Travel Arena, and ride their motorcycle throughout the night. Before the 24 hours are up, the two go back to Mateo’s apartment. —Second spoiler alert-- Over their time spent together the two notice their feelings for each other. They end their last few hours with a kiss and lay in Mateo’s bed. In the middle of the night, Rufus decides to make tea when the gas burner starts to ignite and the apartment fills with flames. As he’s killed instantly, Rufus later wakes up and is filled with devastation. Overall, I’m not a huge fan of this book. Due to its title, nothing was surprising. The book ended really underwhelmingly. From reviews and research before reading, They Both Die at the End was really promoted for its heartfelt story. Although the aspect of romance and emotion is involved, I, as an emotional person, did not shed a tear. I’ve seen countless people cry over this book, but I believe the story was very predictable and distasteful. The adventures they went through were very wholesome but towards the end, everything was really rushed. I think reading this book is a great experience if you have some free time on your hands. Although, if you’re looking for something dramatic that leaves you in tears, I would not recommend this book to you. WRITTEN BY KARISSA CRUZ AND AMELIA MORRISSEY
Rated by Author: 1/5 With the fast approaching episode involving Meredith's farewell to Grey's Anatomy, fans of the show are scared and anticipating how she will say goodbye. Since 2005, the show’s first airing, Meredith has appeared in 400 episodes. Due to that, we feel that this final episode will forever make a change in Grey’s Anatomy. This show has been through many ups and downs over the past few years such as character deaths, actors leaving, and the pandemic. This all makes us even more nervous about the upcoming episode because we don't know how she will say goodbye. -Update- After watching the episode we were very disappointed. We feel that other actors who have left the show have gotten multiple episode goodbyes or flashbacks of their time on the show. When most of these actors left, the episodes following were touching and memorable, making most dedicated viewers cry while watching. But for this episode, all they did was say a short speech and that was it. This was a disservice to Meredith as she has been through and overcome so much through her time on the show. To give her such a crappy goodbye is just disappointing. On top of this the plot of the episode was boring and hard to watch. A former patient was back in the hospital after her condition worsened. This led to her having an emergency surgery performed by Nick and Meredith. In the end they couldn’t save her. Another storyline was with the interns competing for the chance to scrub in on a heart transplant with Maggie and Winston. Mika had the best technique of all the interns and got to scrub in on the surgery. This surgery ended up being very successful and saved the 2 week old child, Arlo. Along with Meredith leaving, the spot for chief of surgery is left open. So, Dr. Webber is searching for candidates and settles on Teddy after she asks for the position. The last pointless story line of this episode was Link running around to get the cake for the goodbye party. He ended up getting the wrong cake which honestly just felt cheesy and annoying for an episode that should have been sentimental. Overall, this was a terrible way to say goodbye and left the fans with no closure. WRITTEN BY: MICHAEL MCKNIGHT A system in chess is a type of opening that has little to no counter play. The London System is a brilliant example of such. The London is a white chess opening (white meaning you go first) that has shown in use in low-level chess to world championships. Being a system, there is not much the opponent (black) can do in response to this opening. This makes the opening very good for beginners as it’s simple and effective. The opening first gained popularity in 1922 when used in a match between Alexander Alekhine and Max Euwe. Alexander was able to win a very large chess tournament which took place in London (hence the name) and was able to win which brought attention to the move. Recently it has regained popularity as grand master Magnus Carlsen picked up the opening and started using it in many of his games. It won him many championships and showed the world its ability in high-level chess. This explanation of the opening will be using the coordinates on the chess board. An example of coordinates in the image below is the white king being on E1 and the black king being on E8. The first move in the opening is moving the queen's pawn to D4. What this does is establish dominance in the center and opens up the dark squared bishop. The most common response will be pawn to D5. You will then move the king-side knight F3. This protects the pawn and also gives more control of the center. The most common response is knight to F6. The next move is to move the dark squared bishop (C1 Bishop) to F4. This further controls the center and makes it difficult for black to make counter play. After this setup you develop your center pawns and play the mid game. Keep in mind that in most cases, even if the opponent doesn’t play the most common response the opening will still keep most of its structure. Play defensively (meaning not to attack the opponents pieces too much) and don’t lose your queen!
|
AuthorSDana Barbee Categories
All
Archives
May 2023
|