Back to Artwork Chalk Pastel Peppers Back to Sections Chalk Pastel Peppers- Maida Redzepovic Maida Redzepovic November 6, 2023 Chalk Pastel Volume 4 Issue 1

Back to Articles Entertainment & Media Back to Sections The Life of Pi By Augustine Magapan Volume 2 Issue 5 March 28, 2022 Image provided by MARCA On March 14th we celebrate Pi Day because Pi, a numerical value of 3.14159265358979323 and so on, is represented as 3/14. Although Pi Day revolves around the concept of an irrational number used to find the area and circumference of a circle, we will be celebrating a story that also has the name “Pi”. We will commemorate the story, “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel. I, myself, have not read the book; however, I have watched the movie. With a strong rating and having the name “Pi”, I could not leave this out of the new issue for North Star . In the movie, it initially starts in Canada where a writer interviews a man named Pi about his life story in order to understand religious faith. Firstly, the Canadian writer originally heard of Pi from Pi’s so-called uncle, Mamaji, a family-friend who enjoyed swimming in pools. He asks Pi why he is named “Pi” as in the number 3.14. However, Pi responds saying that ‘Pi’ isn’t his real name; instead, he was named Piscine Molitor Patel, because of the recognition of his uncle who was also a champion swimmer that told many stories and one of them happened to be the Piscine Molitor which is a swimming pool in Paris. Throughout Pi’s childhood, he was raised in Pondicherry, India where his father was a businessman who owned a zoo. As Pi was growing up, people referred to him as “Pissing” Patel due to the phonetic sound of his birth name. As Pi continues to get bullied at school for his nickname, he changes it to Pi, short for Piscine. It is not as recognizable, and he explains to other students in future grades that it represents the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet and the number 3.14. As time progresses even further in Pi’s academic career, he earns the respect of his fellow classmates for knowing an abundance of numbers after 3.14 of Pi which impresses the Canadian author. Although Pi changing from “Pissing” to Pi led the Canadian author into marvel, the author wanted Pi to convince him that God exists; consequently, Pi moved on from his academic and origins of his childhood to his religious understanding. Pi stated that at birth, he was a Hindu. He learned the virtues of Hinduism until he went to Munnar and learned Christianity. One day Ravi, Pi’s brother, dared Pi to go drink the holy water in a Church in Munnar. Pi soon did it and was encountered by a priest. Afterwards the priest gave Pi water since he saw he was thirsty. Pi asked why God would send his own son to atone the sins of the innocent people. The priest replied that it was because he loved us. Pi was astonished and talked to the priest more and more and thanked the Hindu gods that he is learning about new religions and practices. When Pi went back to India, he discovered Muslim and started practicing the traditions by kneeling and putting his head on the floor that was “holy”; furthermore, he learned Arabic to increase his religious morality. After understanding the concept of God by learning multiple religions, Pi then used those practices every day. One day during dinner, Pi prayed for his food while the rest of his family did not. He was made fun of by his brother and his father told him that learning multiple religions would overlap and ultimately cancel out the religious spirit inside of Pi. Pi ignored his father and continued to practice and empower his religious mindset every day. For example, he wanted to feed a tiger named Richard Parker, who was supposed to be named Thirsty since the hunter found the tiger as a cub at first drinking water, but the papers got switched up where the hunter was named Thirsty and the tiger named Richard Parker. As Richard Parker got close to Pi when he was feeding him, Pi got caught by his father; consequently, Pi gets scolded. Pi told his father that animals also have souls and that we should respect them, but his father responded that they are not friends and that they are dangerous. His father then demonstrates that animals are dangerous by placing a goat in front of Richard Parker. Afterwards, the tiger violently kills the goat, scarring Pi. The demonstration Pi’s father made led him to feel bored and unhappy with his life. Until one day, he meets a girl named Anandi. Pi was invited to play music for the practice of dancers in India since the person who usually plays the music was absent. While Pi played the music for the women who were practicing dance, the teacher got upset that they weren’t doing well; therefore, Anandi, one of the dancers, led them. Pi became attracted to her where soon started to follow her everywhere she went. One day, he got caught by her and he asked about why she did a certain position even though it was not in the dance routine. This made Anandi interested in Pi where they both talked about religion for the rest of their time together. Unfortunately, Pi’s family had to sell their zoo since they were moving to Canada for a better life. This affected Pi greatly, since he had to say goodbye to Anandi right after they met. Pi then boards a boat that takes him and his family all the way to Canada along with other passengers and the animals from the zoo. While being on the boat, Pi struggles with the racism inside the boat from the French people; fortunately, some of the passengers were immigrants and dealt with the same issue. As the boat continues on the journey, Pi goes outside quarters on a stormy night seeing that the ship is damaged and about to sink. Struggling to stay on the boat, Pi and a few animals are the only ones that evacuate the ship leaving everyone else dead. A few days afterwards, Pi is stranded with an orangutan, hyena, zebra, and Richard Parker. Throughout their time in the boat, they all die one by one leaving Pi with Richard Parker. Pi then needs to focus on learning how to take care of himself and dealing with Richard Parker on a small boat. The movie continues where Richard Parker and Pi are still stranded on the boat struggling to survive with limited supplies. In order to survive together, they must learn how to communicate with each other and persevere or else they will die in a shameful way. Pi lost everything he has and only has God and the tiger. Will he make it out alive or go down hopelessly? Read or watch the story to find out! BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork The Memory Project Back to Sections Jaba By Luiginna Frederique March 28, 2022 Mixed Media Volume 2 Issue 5

Back to Articles Polaris Back to Sections The Pen's Soul Catherine Duong Volume 4 Issue 1 November 6, 2023 Image provided by iStock Author’s Note: The story below was my first draft of my college admission essay, talking about my life like a pen and breaking free from being controlled by outside forces. Since my English teacher said it was too fictional/not straight to the point, I could not let this go to waste, so I transformed it to make it into a fictional story by tweaking it a little. As this tale has not specified who the hand is, feel free to symbolize it differently while you read! I, as a soul of a pen, wrote words in neat, straight, and perfect rows for all my life, being fully guided by the hand. My black ink flows as smooth as untouched snow against the paper. Until I’ve found curiosity in numerous things, like... what if I write each word with one smooth stroke? What if I bend letters in a bubbly or ridged way instead of the standardized and authentic Arial font? What if I use different colors for my ink like yellow or green? And so I began, dragging my tip against a clean sheet of paper for testing all sorts of things from different fonts to using all sorts of colors without the guidance and silent observance of the hand. As a pen, we are always guided by a hand or hands, and I never fathom or thought of the idea of independence; doing everything all by myself. Dependence is something I’ve stuck with my whole life up until now. As I kept exploring over time, I found new ways to express myself, growing out of the ordinary of a regular blue or black pen and creating my own ‘voice’ through my strokes across the paper. It’s like those humans who found themselves in different hobbies and making them, them! Until there came a day where the hand scanned my actions, their movement at first hesitant, but instantly grabbed hold of my body, their fingers intwined. I would typically let them hold me, but this time I felt different. This newfound knowledge from my experiments gave me some kind of weird strength to rebel against the hand, and so I did. I attempted to wiggle myself free from their grasp, but all the hand did was grasp onto me tighter and force me back to where I started. Over time, there was a constant long, and conflicting cycle between the hand and me: I tried to express myself, and the hand saw me and finally forced me to undo my discoveries. As much as I wanted to surrender, I refused to. After pondering on how to break this endless cycle, I hid under the desk by rolling away and slipping away the cage I was once placed in, now free. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Portrait Back to Sections Fairy Light By Sienna Munro January 20, 2021 Photography Volume 1 Issue 4

Back to Artwork Art Guild Back to Sections Dying Savannah By Malachi Lewis November 24, 2020 Pencil, Charcoal Volume 1 Issue 2

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections Bridges Cody Sung Volume 4 Issue 4 May 29, 2024 Image Provided by Elaine Ching Bridges exist for one main purpose: to connect the gap between two different spaces separated by an obstacle of lower elevation than the surrounding terrain – whether a body of water such as a river or valley. As they are sometimes essential for connecting two places, bridges have been around for a long time, the oldest one found being from 4000 years ago (The British Museum). As humanity progressed, however, there came a need for bridges that could cover wider distances and hold more weight. This is when bridges began to diversify into different types – the six main types being beam bridges, arch bridges, truss bridges, suspension bridges, cantilever bridges, and cable-stayed bridges (Britannica). The beam bridge is the most common bridge form and is relatively simple. A beam on top of the bridge carries vertical loads by bending. As it bends, it has horizontal compression on the top. Simultaneously, the bottom of the beam has horizontal tension. To prevent the bridge from collapsing due to the weight of what is on it, supports carry the loads from the beam by compression vertically to the foundation of the bridge (Britannica). The truss bridge is somewhat similar to the beam bridge in that it also operates by bending in a certain manner to carry loads. Truss bridges have a beam on the top and a beam on the bottom, with vertical and diagonal support beams between them. When the truss bridge bends from a load, it leads to compression at the top and tension at the bottom. Depending on the configuration of the support beams, they can either experience compression or tension (Britannica). The arch bridge is unique among the bridge types in that it mainly uses compression to carry loads. The foundation, in the shape of an arch, works to prevent both vertical and horizontal sliding since due to the arch shape, the load from the bridge usually exerts both vertical and horizontal force. Despite the more complex design, arch bridges usually require less material than beam bridges of the same span (Britannica). The suspension bridge carries loads by using curved cables that experience tension. Those cables are attached to towers that support the bridge – those towers undergo vertical compression to the ground. The vertical compression leads to the anchorages at the bottom, which resist the inward and vertical pull of the cables. With a suspension bridge, the deck is hung in the air, so ideally, it should be heavy and stiff, so it does not move excessively when carrying a load (Britannica). The cantilever bridge is usually made with three spans, of which the two outer ones are anchored at regular ground and extend out over the area to be crossed. The central span rests on the extensions from the outer spans. Just like supported beams, it carries vertical loads with compression at the top and tension at the bottom due to bending. The two outer spans carry their loads by tension in the upper chords of the spans and compression in the lower ones. Towers inside both spans carry those forces to the foundation by using compression and exterior towers carry the forces by tension to the far foundations (Britannica). The cable-stayed bridge uses nearly straight diagonal cables from the horizontal deck to the vertical towers that carry loads by using tension. The vertical towers transfer the forces from the cables to the foundations through vertical compression. The forces in the cables also work to put the deck into horizontal compression (Britannica). Most modern bridges today are made of steel and concrete (Britannica). However, sometimes this is not enough to avoid collapse. Bridges can collapse for a few reasons. There may be a structural defect or design flaw, as with the Minneapolis bridge collapse in 2007 due to a weak connection point. An unusually heavy load may have also contributed to the collapse, another potential factor in bridge failures (National Transportation Safety Board). Finally, the bridge may be hit with a force that is too great to handle, such as with the Baltimore bridge collapse recently when a cargo ship hit one of its support beams (CNN). Sources: The British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/worlds-oldest-bridge-being-preserved-iraq Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/technology/bridge-engineering National Transportation Safety Board, https://www.dot.state.mn.us/i35wbridge/pdf/ntsb-report.pdf CNN, https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-bridge-collapse-03-26-24-intl-hnk/ BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Line Back to Sections Lillian Dolan - What is Line - 6 By Lillian Dolan November 1, 2020 Photography Volume 1 Issue 1

Back to Articles Advice Back to Sections Procrastination Tips (From an Expert Procrastinator) Rachel Ezeadichie Volume 5 Issue 2 November 25, 2024 Image Provided by Max Ching Procrastination is a problem that many students deal with, including myself. Thousands of assignments turned in at 11:58 with subpar effort put in despite having more than enough time to complete them. Despite the stress of racing against the clock for each assignment, many still find themselves waiting until the last minute to start. As someone who has tried for years to kick this awful habit, I have come across several different methods to jumpstart my work ethic with varying degrees of success. My goal is to share some advice to help at least one person get up and get to work. The first step to getting started with work is to create a game plan . Oftentimes, not knowing where to start makes getting started daunting and extends the procrastination. The amount of work can seem overwhelming at times, leaving you stuck doing nothing at all. A way to combat this is to make a mental or physical list of what you need to get done. This can be done by priority, due date, assignment size, or any way you see fit. Creating a list of what needs to get done can make the amount of work seem less overwhelming and help motivate you to start. Another tip is to separate your area of work from your area of rest. I used to do everything on my bed, from watching TikToks, to writing essays. This often caused me to stop working and scroll on my phone in the middle of a project. The constant urge to get on my phone distracted me and made it much harder to finish anything on time. If possible, work in a separate room from which you play or rest. This can help your mind to dedicate its full attention to work when you’re in that area rather than focused on other things. A major contributor to my procrastination was not starting my work at all. When trying to write an article, staring at a blank Word document is the hardest part of writing. Not knowing where to start made it difficult to start at all. To combat this, I would write one or two sentences with “___” in the margins where I couldn’t think of what to write at that moment. Seeing something on the page gave me an idea of what I wanted to create. Even something as little as a note on my phone would be enough to get my mind flowing. A final tip to kick that procrastinating habit is to give yourself a reward after you finish. After submitting an assignment, I would allow myself some time to close my eyes before continuing onto the next task. This would help me bridge the gap between assignments; instead of thinking of them as one large task, I could split the work into tinier pieces. This also allowed me to stop resenting the idea of work and look forward to rewarding myself. These tips are in no way a guaranteed cure for procrastination. I still procrastinate, this article being an example of it. Ironically, it took me a while to get up and start writing although I had this idea for months. Finding the motivation to start and continue until the finish line is difficult and daunting. Although it is challenging to curb these habits and work efficiently, it is important to remember not to overextend yourself and to start piece by piece. By starting small, you will be amazed by how great your work ethic will become. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Art & Culture Back to Sections Eid al-Fitr and Ramadan By Charis Hackman Volume 1 Issue 8 June 8, 2021 Image provided by Creative World UK The Culture Society talked about Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, two special holidays for those who follow the religion of Islam. These Holidays are observed through prayer and fasting. Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar, a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. The holiday is a commemoration of Muhammad's first revelation. Ramadan is also regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam and lasts twenty-nine to thirty days. One of the main traditions during Ramadan is fasting or not eating, called swam in Arabic; basically Muslims are forbidden to eat, drink, or smoke during the day and can eat when it is dark out. But Muslims who are or seriously ill, elderly, breastfeeding, diabetic, or menstruating don’t have to fast. The main point behind fasting is that Muslims practice discipline and self-control and is good practice for showing restraint for the rest of the year. On a usual day during Ramadan, families have to get up very early, before the sun comes up, and have a predawn meal called Sahūr . When the sun comes up, they do their morning prayers and the fast begins. Once the sun sets, family and friends gather for a meal called iftar , they then break their fast with water, milk and three dates, a type of sweet fruit and then eat dinner together. Charity or Zakāt  in Arabic, is also an important tradition, while people are fasting, they are encouraged to give as much as they can and a percentage of their income to the poor and do as many good deeds as possible. Eid al-Fitr Eid al-Fitr also called the "Festival of Breaking the Fast", or simply Eid, is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. Since, Islam is one of the largest religions in the world, each region has different ways to celebrate Eid. Eid al-Fitr lasts 3 days where people dress up, preform special prayers, greet each other with “Eid Mubarak,” meaning “Blessed Eid” and with formal embraces, visit family, friends, and family graves, and exchange gifts, like sweet foods, eidia  offerings in money bags, and games for children. Muslim families give donations to the poor, known as Zakat al-Fitr, or charity of fast-breaking in Arabic, normally with food like barley, rice, dates were given, instead of money. In countries where Muslims make up most of the population, the three-day Eid celebration is an official government and school holiday. “Some families even decorate their houses with lights, candles, and colored banners”. Muslims families also hold celebration with friends and family preparing and eating dinner with special dishes, desserts, and other foods together. BACK TO TOP