Author: adviser

  • Food Review: The Attic on Broadway

    Food Review: The Attic on Broadway

    The Attic on Broadway story is that Steve the owner opened it in 2012. It was not always a restaurant, it was a house that he turned into the restaurant. The staff members are so nice they treat you like family. I have personally met all the cooks and I have met the owner. The Executive Sous Chef Cheyenne McKenna states that she has been cooking at  the Attic since it first opened. She is super nice. My oldest brother works there also; he is Sous Chef. The smell from the kitchen always smells so amazing. The food makes my mouth water.

    A dish that they have in the Attic is the Mac & Cheetos. The dish is their homemade pasta coated with creamy cheddar, mozzarella and  jack cheese sauce, then topped with crumbled Flaming Hot Cheetos with green onions. This is one of my all time favorite dishes to get. The smell makes my mouth water, the Flaming Hot Cheetos mixed with the mac – the flavor makes your mouth burst with flavor. The presentation of the dish makes me feel so excited because I know what goodness is coming. It also makes me hungry because I can see the creamy cheese sauce melted down the side of the dish.  The food always is served fresh and hot. I truly recommend this dish.

    Another one of my favorites is the house made granola. 

    This wonderful dish bursts with flavor with the mix of fresh house made granola served with honey yogurt and mixed berries. The crunch and the creamy yogurt go amazing together. This dish makes me feel good because it is a healthy yummy choice. The barriers that come in the dish are strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.  

    This dish is my favorite dessert to get at The Attic. This is Banana’s foster pudding it is made with the banana bread and with sliced bananas with caramel sauce on top also on the side with homemade whipped cream  with a mint leaf on top. This deliciousness is always warm and explodes with flavor with  the bananas, the bread, the caramel with whipped cream all in one bite is magnificent. I highly recommend this dish.

     

  • Top 5 Valentine’s Day Date Ideas during the Pandemic

    Here are my topics for Valentines Day Dates for this year

    1. Picnics!

    Picnics are probably one of the most classic dates to go on. Picnics are where you would pack a bunch of your favorite foods or meals, and enjoy it at a nice destination, usually outdoors like the park or the beach.

     

       2. Renting an AMC Movie Theater for only 100 dollars

    Due to the pandemic, most movie theaters are currently not open to the public, so AMC is allowing you to rent a movie theater room for only $100 (older movies) or $149 (new releases) for you and up to 20 other people. This would be a good thing to do for alone time and a more quiet setting, or you can even do a nice double date as you’re allowed to invite about 20 people.

     

    3. Eating out at restaurants 

    Although many restaurants have closed down during the beginning pandemic, many now have opened up and offered outdoor seating, but due to that many restaurants have less tables, so I suggest you go early for Valentines Day or reserve a table!

     

    4.Game night 

    I feel like games really bring out people’s personality so game night is definitely a great date to bond with someone. I specifically recommend UNO, everyone gets crazy about UNO. 

     

    5.At home date

    This is your safest option this year, to stay home and have a home cooked dinner followed up by a movie, after all we are stuck in a pandemic.

     

  • Alternatives to Valentines In-Person Dates

    For those that love movie theaters, you can have a virtual watch party!

     For those that love movie nights and miss in person movie theaters, an online movie date would be a safer alternative. The use of add-ons like Netflix party allows simultaneous video viewing and live chats To immerse yourself even more in the movie theater environment, you can order each other food through food services like door dash and Post-mates to make it feel more like a “movie night.”

     

    For those that are seeking a challenge,  there are digital escape rooms!

     Navigate a digital escape room together! Escape rooms require participants to work together virtually and can create some stronger bonds. All of the virtual escape rooms are played from the participants’ home, making the game an easy way  to stay connected to others while still socially distancing.

     

    Play around with personality quizzes!  

    Online personality quizzes are not only fun but great ways to assess your compatibility. It’s a great way to have a laugh and possibly bond over some of your favorite foods, characters and movies. There’s also the love language test. The love language test is another good way to test your compatibility. This questionnaire is an interesting topic for discussion while at the same time a great opportunity to learn more about your date.

     

    For those that want to travel, you can travel the world through Virtual Museum tours! 

    Some of the world’s largest museums are now offering free online tours to everyone! These virtual tours are perfect because you don’t need to leave your household to travel the world! In essence, these tours are simulations of the in-person, museum experience.  If you don’t like art, zoos are another alternative. Virtual zoo tours and wildlife cams can be seen as another way to “go out” and travel the world without leaving your household

    Live cams at aquariums are also very interesting! There is a wide collection of aquariums from across the United States you can view!

  • Mythology: January

    Mythology: January

    Cronus or Kronos/ Chronos 

    At the start of a new year, the concept of time is engrained in people’s minds. The concept of the future, the past, and the present is what makes a New Year a New Year. With this theme of time, it makes us wonder who was the God of time, and what did he stand for? There are two Greek Gods that represent time: one named Cronus and another named Chronos. The reason for there being two different Gods is that they were both based on different religions. However, the main difference between them is how they both stand for an entirely different vision of how the world came to exist. 

    Chronos is the primordial god of time and he was depicted as a serpent with three heads. Primordials are typically considered as the physical embodiment of a concept rather than a God who controls that concept. In essence, Chronos was the time itself and time exists because he does.

    On the other hand, Cronus (also known as Kronos) is a God, more specifically the Titan Lord of Time. Cronus specifically represented destructive time and the time of harvest. He was described as a destructive and all-devouring force because he envied his father, Uranus, leading him to castrate his own father. Due to this, he is depicted with a scythe, to represent the instrument he used to castrate his father. While the Greeks considered him a cruel and tempestuous force of chaos, he was also associated with the “Saturnian” Golden Age, causing him to become the God of Time.

    These different embodiments of who controlled time and what time demonstrate the enigma that time embodies. The Greeks’ different idea of what time reflects our society today, as we all have a different perspective of time. When we go into a new year, what we make of our time is up to us. 

    Heh

    Time is often perceived as an eternal, linear stream. The Egyptian god that represents infinity and time Heh has many different representations of his name, all meaning endless- Huh, Hah, Hauh, Huah, or Hahuh. Heh has no clear gender, however, Huh represents the male aspect and Heh or Hauhlet represents the female aspect of this deity. Heh is additionally known to represent long life and eternity. 

    The Egyptians believed that before land existed on the earth, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. There were four frog gods and four snake goddesses – the number four representing completeness- that lived in that chaos who formed the Ogdoad, or system of eight deities. Heh was paired with Hauhlet and came to symbolize infinite time. As the God of infinity, Heh was linked with numbers. The image of Heh with his two hands raised was the hieroglyph for one million, considered equivalent to infinity in ancient Egypt (thus having the title of “the god of millions of years”).  During the day, Heh traveled in a boat named ‘Barque of a Million Years’ until the end of time.

    Heh is often shown crouching holding a palm stem in each hand with a shen ring at the base of each palm stem, which was the Egyptian symbol for long life (the shen ring is a traditional symbol for infinity). In ancient Egypt, time is depicted as infinite, paralleling how we see time today as the new year begins and time continues.

     

  • High Life Resolutions

    At the start of the New Year, a few of our staff members shared their New Year’s Resolutions.

     

    Zinia Francis

    1. Get a new wardrobe 
    2. Be more social with the people I enjoy 
    3. Take aesthetic pictures 

    Xandria Hines

    1. Text my friends at least once a week
    2. Create a resume & get a job

    Sierra Brott-Hunter 

    1. Get my drivers license 
    2. Get a job 
    3.  Not procrastinate 

    Daryl Holmlund, High Life Adviser

    1. Actually wear a tie to work for the first time since March 2020.
    2. Pack lunch for school that is more than a peanut butter sandwich and yogurt.
    3. Get more than five hours of sleep per night – for some reason I’ve been sleeping even less even though there’s nowhere to go and I’m working from home.

  • What should LBUSD do with $100 million? Students have ideas…

     

    The Long Beach Post has reported that Long Beach Unified School District is set to receive $99.4 million in federal funds from the December 2020 relief package. The money is based on LBUSD’s low-income and otherwise disadvantaged Title 1 student population. LBUSD spokesperson Chris Eftychiou told the Long Beach Post in an email that the district has been using federal funds from the earlier relief package for “technology, professional development, nutrition of students, distance learning and personal protective equipment.” 

    But what do Poly students think the district should use the money on? Our panel of writers made some suggestions.

     

    Xandria Hines

    With the grant of 99.4 million dollars given to the Long Beach Unified School District through the government’s relief funding, a lot of betterment can be done to the schools that LBUSD resides over, as well as those who work and learn there.

    With everyone stuck within their own homes for the time being, possibly until the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022, using that amount of money to tear down and rebuild some of the worst areas of the older schools would be a possible endeavor that could be done with the money. Allowing the schools to remain closed until the autumn/winter semester of 2022 would give the school board enough time to plan, budget, and rebuild some of the worst buildings that could become hazardous.

    If the reconstruction of hazardous areas is not a priority, however, the money could still be used for the reconstruction of schools, changing some of the unused, and more unused bathrooms into “sanitary stations”. With Covid-19 back on the rise in early 2021, schools may need to push back in-class schooling until the vaccine is distributed regularly and avoid of more severe effects, but for those who simply will not wait for such a time, having stations within the school where children and teens can pick up gloves to replace their ripped ones, pick up or refill their hand sanitizer, or replace masks they might accidentally throw away or break would help everyone stay safe at school.

    Using that money to redo anything about the standing school (repainting, cleaning, new desks, new supplies, etc.) would be a positive change for any high schooler that would be going back to school when it’s finally safe to do so.

     

    Chansochata Thon

    As an LBUSD student, I believe the most important area in which the budget can go is investing in better laptops for the students who cannot afford their own. First of all, the chromebooks that the school provides are not guaranteed to work well. Many of my friends and myself have a chromebook from school, and we have faced many issues. My chromebook, in particular, cannot handle having more than three tabs open when I am using zoom. This is a problem, because teachers usually require us to have multiple tabs open, whether it be a google doc, website, or peardeck. When I do have my zoom and more than 3 tabs open, the zoom becomes laggy and I cannot access the websites quickly, and at times I get disconnected. This causes stress, especially if the teacher gives a timed assignment. In addition, when I do get disconnected, I struggle in refocusing when I rejoin.

    In addition, the school can direct some of the money in helping students transition to a life with COVID-19. By this, I mean helping students cope and learn what to do when a family member is hospitalized. For me, when my dad was diagnosed with COVID-19, my family and I struggled in knowing what to do when he was sick, especially when his condition worsened. There seemed to be a lack of clarity of what to do, especially when we called an ambulance they would not take him to the hospital. So we had to take him to a hospital ourselves but did not know whether to go to urgent care or the emergency room. Furthermore, when he was admitted to the hospital, we had difficulty in learning how to pay bills. This caused immense stress, interrupting my motivation to learn. I believe some resources that may help include available/well known hot-lines or places that can aid families with bills, grocery, and information. In addition, these resources should also provide access for those whose first language is not English.

    Lastly, a resource that can directly help students during distanced learning is one-on-one tutors or a mentor who can track their grade and provide them support; this can be a tutor who students check up with or just someone who can be relied on for advice. These tutors should go towards the students who are evidently struggling the most with online school and want help (because if they need help but do not want it there will be lots of resistance on their part). This program could assure that the students who do not have the support at home can have access to what they need through Poly.

     

    Sierra Brott-Hunter

    I think that LBUSD SHOULD use the money on giving the students cord baggies filled with mask, hand sanitizer, thermometer. They also should provide better food. This is a good idea because if the students do not have a clean mask at home they have a mask in the bag. Another reason this a good idea to spend the money on the baggies is so students have hand sanitizer with them at all times and it would be easy to get out their backpacks they can also use it if they are in a rush between classes. A third reason this a good idea that should use the money on is the students have a thermometer to see if they have a fever before they go to school to let them know if they should stay home or not. I also think that LBUSD should use the money on better food. This is a good idea because the school food now is okay, but it is not the best food.

  • Almost Christmas – My Holiday Traditions

    Almost Christmas – My Holiday Traditions

    Our family celebrates Christmas on the 24th – we wait till 12am to open our present.

    Every year we go see my sisters and give them a tree.

    This year’s tree for my sisters.

    Also, every year we eat something different. This year we are eating crab legs. Also if you fall asleep early, one of my cousins is going to prank you. That’s if my family is all together.

    Sometimes my mom takes us to the movies if we are not going to be with our toxic family. By toxic I mean our family is crazy and starts to fight for nothing. It’s fun going to the movies – people think it’s boring but it’s not when you’re with your family.

    Younger members of my family and our dogs.

    This year we are not going to the movies because it’s closed. We are going to my tia’s house. She lives two hours away from Long Beach.

    My mom and I also go to the store and buy 100 blankets and make food for the homeless. We go drive around Long Beach and if we see homeless people we stop and ask if they want food and blankets some of them say no because other people also do the same thing and they say they already have a plate of food but I always say it’s okay it could be for the next day.

    That’s my favorite part of the day on Christmas making homeless people happy and how grateful they are when we do these things. That’s all I do for Christmas 🙂

  • Movie Review: Holiday In Handcuffs

    Movie Review: Holiday In Handcuffs

    Holiday in Handcuffs is a Christmas movie that came out back in 2007 and aired on ABC Family, now known as Freeform. It’s about a women named Gertrude, who also went by “Trudie” in the film and was played by Melissa Joan Hart, and her day started off terribly. She was the black sheep of the family. She worked a minimum job as a waitress, while her brother Jake, played by Kyle Howard, and her sister Katie, played by Vanessa Lee Evigan were a little bit more above her in their parent’s eyes.

     

    During the Christmas holiday she and her siblings, along with her boyfriend were going to visit their parents’ house, but while clocked in to work she gets a call from her boyfriend and he ends up breaking up with her, and on top of that it didn’t help that she missed a big job opportunity. After being broken up with days before Christmas, a man named David, who was played by Mario Lopez, was dining at her job and she decided to kidnap him at gunpoint, like the crazy person she is, and forces him to pretend to be her boyfriend, while she visits her family for Christmas. 

     

    They have a nice drive up the mountain to her parent’s place, while she explains to him what’s going to happen. She explains to her parents that he likes to “pretend that he was kidnapped” as a joke. So even if he did tell the truth no one believed him! And there’s no way of escaping, because her mom conveniently didn’t allow phones during the holidays so they can enjoy family time. Throughout their time being there he tried many ways to escape in order to make it back to his own family for Christmas but nothing seems to work… even keys for the cars were hidden. 

     

    While there he gets to know her and slowly starts playing his part in Trudie’s scheme. Although he didn’t enjoy his time being there, he got to know her and started realizing she may not be that bad of a person. But while starting to feel more comfortable, David’s girlfriend, who he was planning to propose to back at the diner Trudie worked at, starts to wonder where her boyfriend is. She contacts the police and they start her search for him. hile David was being held captive, he actually starts to fall for Trudie, but when his wife finally figured out where he was, the police were contacted and Trudie and her whole family was arrested for the kidnapping. 

     

    After being in jail for a bit, David actually vouches for them and gets them out. And in the end he actually tries to give their relationship a try. And although they had a crazy and rocky beginning they start to work things. 

     

    Overall I would give this movie a 7/10 rating. It’s definitely a nice and funny family Christmas movie that will have you on their crazy rollercoaster. So warm up your hot chocolate and popcorn and kickback and enjoy this wonderful movie with your friends and family this holiday season.

     

    Holiday in Handcuffs is available playing on Freeform throughout the holidays and is available on demand on FreeForm.com using a cable subsriber login.

     

  • My Family’s Christmas traditions

    My family is big on traditions like birthdays and holidays, especially Christmas. Christmas is one of my family’s favorite holidays because we get to spend time with each other and eat food and put up decorations. Our Christmas traditions start on Thanksgiving: we do secret Santa, starting by filling out a paper about  what we want and then we put them in my uncle’s hat and we go around and pick a name. We discuss who is making what food for Christmas and who is bringing drinks and rolls. We talk about who’s house we are going to have Christmas at and we also talk about what time to get there and what time we are going to eat. 

     

    A  week after Thanksgiving we put up Christmas lights and Christmas decorations. We go to my grandparents house to help them decorate and help them put up their lights. All seven grandchildren, the six boys and one girl, all help put up the Christmas tree and we each get to pick five decorations we want on the tree. When my grandparents finish decorating the tree, they let the youngest grandchild put the angel on the tree top. On Christmas morning I wake up at like 7 o’clock in the morning and have to wait for my mom and brothers to get up and get in the living room which that does not happen till 10 o’clock because my oldest brother likes to take 20 years to get up. Finally, we go to the living room then we open presents, my mom and brothers and I discuss what time we all should get ready to head over to my nanny  ’s house, aka my dad’s mom, just to say Merry Christmas and give them a gift basket. We stayed at my nanny’s house for about an hour and a half and talked to my aunt and my cousin and my three uncles on my dad’s side and we talked to my nanny. We go home to finish getting ready then we grab the food and take two separate cars, then we go on our way to Anaheim to my grandparents house. 

     

    We get to my grandparents’ house and we say hi to everyone and put the food in the dining room on the table. Then we all chill and sit down for a bit before all the grandchildren go outside and play pickle and throw a frisbee and we play  baseball. When we get called in by my aunt telling us it’s time to eat, all  the grandchildren go wash up and  get ready to eat, my cousin and my brother and I all eat at the cool kids’ table and the adults sit at the adult table with the  six year old and the four year old. After we eat we sit down for a while and just chat  and we roll a ball around until we are ready to do our secret Santa and let the little ones open their gifts. They way the secret Santa goes is that we start with my grandpa and then from there it’s so on and so forth. After presents we eat pie or cheesecake, we also help the little ones build or set up whatever toys they want to open fully. After that happens we all clean up the wrapping paper by playing basketball with it, then we all say Merry Christmas and good night and go back home. 

      

    This year for Christmas things are going to be a little different due to covid we are still doing the Secret Santa, already picked a name. My mom and I went to my aunt’s house on Saturday the 12 and talked about Christmas. This Christmas we decided to have brunch at my aunt’s house in the backyard. Which means we all have to wake up early and open presents at home then We are going to have brunch this year because my aunt has to go to dinner with her in-laws and  my brothers and mom and I have to visit my nanny. We are going to wear masks and social distance at both my aunt’s house and my nanny’s house so we all can be safe. What I am going to miss the most is that we won’t be able to play pickle or play baseball. I’m also going to miss having Christmas at my grandparents’ house because I won’t get to sit at the cool kids table. 

  • 3 Cambodian Alternatives to Traditional Holiday Meals

    3 Cambodian Alternatives to Traditional Holiday Meals

    What is better to eat during the holidays than a meal that warms your heart? During the holidays, my family always sticks to non-traditional holiday meals. Instead of fruitcake, eggnog, candied yams, and roasted potato, we have traditional Khmer meals. There is nothing that can warm my heart more than a meal that reminds me of my heritage.

    1. For the main course, instead of having beef wellington or a roasted turkey, we have Yao Hon. Yao Hon is a Cambodian Hot Pot. Each Khmer family makes their Yao Hon differently, but my family makes it from chicken stock (we also have an abundance of vegetables to cook within the hot pot). It is a quick meal to make since we only need to prep the stock and the sides to put in the pot.


    2. For an alternative to a warm cozy bowl of soup, we have Nombajok. Nombajok is similar to ramen, but the noodles are made from rice. Nombajok has different types of broth: the traditional Khmer broth is made from fish, but throughout the years, Cambodians have picked up different spices. It all depends on the family; for example, some Cambodians put curry in their nombajok.
    3. For dessert, instead of fig pudding, we have Nom Som Jayt, which translates to dessert banana. It looks like sushi but is considered dessert. It is made from rice, mixed from condensed milk, banana, and beans, then wrapped in banana leaf. When you leave the Nom Som Jayt out for a while, the banana turns purple and becomes much sweeter to eat.
  • Mythology: Holiday Edition

    Mythology: Holiday Edition

    Dionysus

    On Christmas Day, a Greek God called Dionysus was born. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele. Unfortunately, when Semele was pregnant with Dionysus, Semele was burnt to crisp; however Zeus managed to save Dionysus by granting him immortality and from then on, he was referred to as “the one twice-born.” (which referred to his prenatal birth and then his actual birth from Zeus).

    As a God, Dionysus was known as the god of wine, pleasure, festivity, vegetation, and frenzy; Compared to the rest of the Gods, he seemed the most fun to be around, mostly because Dionysus spent his life traveling around the world and was one of the very few Greek characters who were able to successfully bring back a dead person from the underworld.

    Dionysus made a lasting impact on Greek society. Four times a year, the Athenians and citizens in Greece would come to worship Dionysus. The Greeks would sing, drink large amounts of wine, dance, and revel in a state of madness to honor Dionysus. At a point, a contest was formed to honor the best tragedy, where three tragedies and one satyr play would be shown. Due to these celebrations, Dionysus drove the development of Greek Theaters. To this day, Dionysus has an impact on Western society, as greek theaters would then influence western theaters, giving us a platform to watch the Nutcracker and a Christmas during the holidays. 

     

    Huitzilopochtli
    Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the sun, was known as a principal deity in Aztec society. Huitzilopochtli is interpreted as “The Hummingbird of the South” or “Blue Hummingbird on the Left” where Aztecs believed that deceased warriors reincarnated as hummingbirds and Aztecs considered the south to be the left side of the world. Thus, his name takes a deeper meaning as the “resuscitated warrior of the south.” Huitzilopochtli is also known as Uitzilopochtli, Xiuhpilli (Turquoise Prince), and Totec (Our Lord). His calendar name is Ce Técpatl and his nagual, or animal spirit, is an eagle.

    In one version of events, Huitzilopochtli was the son of Omecίhuatl and Ometecuhtli– the male and female aspects of the primordial god Ometeotl. Alternatively, Huitzilopochtli is the son of the earth goddess Coatlίcue, born in the Coatepec Mountains. Huitzilopochtli avenged his mother after she was killed by her children Centzonhuitznahuac and Centzonmimizcoa. Huitzilopochtli dispersed them in the heavens to become the northern and southern constellations. His sister, however, Coyolxauhqui was the first to fall as he defeated her as he was born from his mother’s corpse and flung her head to the sky, which resulted in the creation of the moon. The conflict between Coyolxauhqui and Huitzilopochtli was thought to happen daily as the exchange for the control of the sky between the sun and the moon. Huitzilopochtli was thought to be accompanied across the sky by the spirits of fallen warriors (later reincarnated as hummingbirds), and from noon was accompanied by Cihuateteo or spirits of women who died during childbirth. Night arose as Huitzilopochtli moved through the Underworld until dawn, where the cycle continues.

    The Aztecs believed Huitzilopochtli guided them from the sacred cave of Aztlan to the Valley of Mexico, founding the city of Tenochtitlán in 1325 CE. During the journey, priests carried his image of a hummingbird on their shoulders, with his voice giving orders at night. Huitzilopochtli’s first shrine was built on a spot where priests found a eagle poised on a rock devouring a rock devouring a snake, an image so striking that it is portrayed on the Mexican flag.

  • Dangers of Long-Term Screen Exposure

    Dangers of Long-Term Screen Exposure

    Screens in 2020 have become the fulcrum of many people’s personal, professional, and familial lives. Almost every interaction between people is done with a phone, chrome, laptop, or desktop. Because of this, many can spend tens to hundreds of hours looking at a screen over the course of a month. And with school going online in March and continuing into the 2020-21 school year, it would come as no one’s surprise if teens and young children who have spent all of this time staring at screens begin to show eye problems beginning in their late teens or early twenties.

     

    Eye problems have already existed in recent generations affected by the introduction of electronics. Many young people spend most of their social life on apps behind a screen, and the extended exposure has already proven to cause multiple eye problems. These problems are described on UMPC: Life Changing Medicine and can include eye irritation, nearsightedness, and long-term retinal damage.

     

    The retinal damage can also lead to a possible loss of sight, as UMPC says, “Studies show that blue light can damage light-sensitive cells in the retina. This can lead to early age-related macular degeneration, which can lead to loss of eyesight.”

     

    This is caused by a blue-light that screens emit, that can cause erosion at the back of the eyeball, and can eventually lead to blindness. The best way to avoid any long-term ramification that comes from staring at screens for hours at a time is to take time away from them, and allow your eyes to rest from the strain.

     

    The best way to counter this is to minimize the time spent on all devices, regardless of how big or small they are. With developing eye problems, and the warning headaches and eye fatigue of eye strain, The Clinical Eye Institute suggests the 20/20/20 rule to assure that your eyesight doesn’t deteriorate due to eye strain. “For every 20 minutes a person is working they take a 20 second break, looking at something 20 feet away.”