Casey Starr

Blog

Skiing is something everyone should learn how to do at a very young age. In my opinion it should be a requirement for all United states citizens to learn how to ski and try it out because it would being so much money into the economy if everyone was paying for skiing, and it would bring joy to everyone and realize stress. I am mainly joking because it cost money that people don't have but my point is that if you have the opportunity to be out in the woods, skiing with friends and just enjoying the outdoors you should take advantage of that.

Once I get out onto the slopes it’s hard to get me off. I always buy 50 cent ramon because the prices of the food in the ski areas are stupid expensive and take up to much shredding time. I normally just eat the roman hard on the gondola up to the glades where the powder is fresh. If I’m lucky I can find a nice line of fresh tracks and have the day of my life. On snow days, me and my friends wake up at the crack of dawn, drink our coffee on the way up to the mountain so we can check the first tracks on a fresh powder day. They best days are snow days during the week when all the New yorkers are too scared to make the drive so we got the whole mountain to us Vermonters. Skiing is what makes the winter fun for me and I can’t wait for it to start up again.

Big Ole Whale

One of the hardest questions in life isn't one that we come across as adults. It is a staple of any childhood, and the answer changes as frequently as the tides. For me, I always knew what animal I would want to be if I could be any animal. Some people try to complicate the question, create some sort of conditions that you need to meet in order to have a valid animal. The only answer I need is the killer whale.
The killer whale is the most amazing member of the underwater squad. Killer whales are technically dolphins, but when sailors first encountered one, they called it "whale killer". The name was soon reversed, and they came to be known as killer whales or orcas. They are the most fearsome animal in the ocean, and have only ever been hunted by humans. Orcas hunt a huge variety of animals, from sharks and dolphins, to moose and pelicans.
Killer whales can live to be over 100 years old, similar to how long humans can live, although the lack of predators means that orcas will more frequently live to be very old. They use echolocation to find their prey, as they cannot smell and their eyesight isn't the most useful tool in their toolbox. Possibly their best trait is their temperament. They only ever attack humans while they are in captivity, meaning that no wild killer whale has ever killed a human. If I could be any animal, I would be a killer whale.

Noobsquad Update

It was an intense week in fantasy football, with many good teams squaring off, and many bad teams participating as well. All I do is Winston continued his win streak, beating the Cashmere Bull by 14 points in what started out as an even matchup but quickly turned the victory away from Marcus. By 4:30, it was pretty clear after two rounds of games that I had a sizeable lead on Marcus’s underperforming team. He also made the mistake of starting Adrian Peterson, who, with age slowing him down and an offensive line that can’t seem to make any room for him, got a measly 3 points before being injured. Isaiah Crowell meanwhile sat on Marcus’s bench, gaining 21 points and could have gotten Marcus the victory if he knew which players on his randomly selected team were actually good.

Winners were rewarded again in Week 2, with half the league 2-0 and the other half 0-2. The winners are being separated from the losers early this year, with a few upsets as previous league champion Adam sits in second to last place, scoring less than 200 points in two weeks with a team that has only one good player on it. In other league news, four households have successfully hosted get togethers so far, providing pizza and burgers for the boys. We can only hope this trend continues next Sunday, and maybe this time we’ll be able to watch the real NFL Redzone as opposed to a stream from a sketchy looking website.

Mountain Removal

I love the mountains, and I believe that I can say the same about everyone else in this room. As a lover of the mountains of the Appalachian I believe that it is my duty to notify all of you of the situation in the southern Appalachians. In the southern, West Virginian section of the Appalachians, mountains are being destroyed through the act of mountaintop removals, where the top of the mountains are being taken off for the coal hidden underneath the first hundred or so feet of rock and soil. I would know what this destruction looks like because of all the experience I have had driving across this landscape, and because of all the hours of flying over and capturing pictures of the covertly decimated mountains. I believe that together we can break the deafening silence that surrounds this unspoken tragedy.

It is unimaginable to believe that up to 500 mountains have been destroyed from mountaintop removal spanning from northeast Tennessee and eastern Kentucky, through western Virginia and southwest West Virginia, all the way to Charleston, West Virginia.  In some counties it is calculated that up to 40% of the landscape has been destroyed from the mountains being flattened. These areas are among the richest, most diverse temperate forests in North America, and until mountaintop removal began 20 years ago, they were the source of clean water and beautiful tourist areas for much of the eastern U.S.  

Imagine a beautiful New Hampshire landscape, mountains like precious gems spread across the whole horizon. Now imagine that you look across the same horizon in the same location three to five years later and find yourself looking at a totally different landscape. Half of the mountains are cut in half and the others stand alone as foothills compared to what used to be. You have just witnessed what it is like to find yourself in the midst of a mountain-top removal area in West Virginia. Not only is this common, unsatisfying, and demeaning to see but it creates major environmental problems. The mountaintop removals in West Virginia are long overdue for opposition, and need to be rebelled against. Let us stand up together, and maybe we can make a difference before it is too late.

Injuries

Every year in sports some of the best athletes are incapacitated by serious injury. In football, this problem is especially prevalent. This year, notable players such as Keenan Allen, Danny Woodhead, Jimmy Garoppolo, Adrian Peterson, and Rob Gronkowski have some sort of injury that has or will prevent them from playing multiple games this season, and it's only week two. The problem with football is it is a pure contact sport. On every play, players are at high risk of injury simply due to the rough way the game is played. In addition, there are so many different ways football players get injured. The most common season ending injuries are focused on the knee; such as ACL and MCL tears. These injuries are especially common in running backs who take a beating each time they carry the ball. But more often players experience repetitive minor concussions on every play that build up over time. There has been so much publicity around concussions and CTE of late that it puts the protective gear and medical protocol of the NFL under question. CTE is by far one of the scariest injuries on the list, minor concussions can cause long term brain damage causing players to die and lose cognitive function at younger ages. I just wonder how the NFL can continue when so many top players cannot play. Is there anything they can do about the problem without drastically changing the way football is played? Also now I need a wide receiver because I drafted Keenan Allen in the second round.

The Dynamic Trio

Going into this NFL football season, many people had very different views on how good the New York Giants receivers group would be this year.  Everyone knew that Odell Beckham Jr. would most likely continue to play as well as he had in the past, but some people did think that the defenses would eventually figure out how to guard him.  So far this year, they have not found a way to shut him down, and besides a few unfortunate drops, he has played very well.  Though Odell Beckham Jr. is not the receiver that most people were worried about.  The past Giants star wide receiver had been injured nearly two years ago, and had not been able to play since then.  Many were concerned that he would get injured again, or that he would not be the same player that he was before.  Neither of these things have occurred yet though.  Victor Cruz has been looking healthy, and possibly even better than before his injury.  In his return back to the NFL, he only had 34 receiving yards, but caught a very impressive touchdown that eventually helped the Giants claim their first win of the season.  In his second game, he played even better.  Even though he did not score in this week, Victor Cruz caught 6 passes for 91 yards.  One of these catches, lead to the Giants being in great field goal position, and lead to the team with a last second field goal.  Sterling Shepard was a college football player out of Oklahoma, taken by the Giants in the second round.  Many didn't know how good he would be, coming right out of college, into being apart of such a talented receiving core, but he has handled the pressure quite well.  Many people also worried that even if all the Giants wide receivers were to play well, how the team receivers would interact with each other on and off the field.  So far, all the players seem to get along, and take sacrifices for the benefit of the team, in order to increase the chances of the New York Giants winning a game.  If the Giant's wide receivers continue to play this well, or even get better, it will be a very good year for the Giants, and will make the opponents defenses suffer throughout the season.

Team Fortress 2: Is It Dead?

Yes, I know this is a common topic among certain Youtubers and players, but I wanted to talk about my own opinions on the game and rant quite a bit. First of all, while I didn't actually play the game at the beginning of the Meet Your Match update that started most of the controversy, I do want to express my thoughts on what I think my experience would have been. I personally only play TF2 casually, I never really intended to play it competitively. For me it's more of a game that I can pick up and play a few rounds when I have the free time and interest, just like over 90% of the TF2 community. I only ever used the valve servers to play games. So when I first heard that valve had completely removed that quick play option in favor of competitive, I was worried. Would this mean that I couldn't play casual games and had to play on a ranked scale similar to that of CSGO or Dota? I felt like some of the best and most entertaining games included people from all skill levels. And let's not mention how much the system was broken from the start. Wait time of over an hour to play a match that might last 15? Seriously? And no penalty for abandoning matches? You can't join a match in the middle? Really? When I heard all about this, I was wondering what had happened to the game that I had enjoyed. Who at Valve was working on this and trying to fix it? Whoever they were, they really failed the community. Who decided that competitive was the next step in TF2? What about casual play for the 90% of the players who just wanna play for fun? Is it the fact that TF2 doesn't get Valve much money? Is it just not of interest to the company anymore? It almost seems like the people in charge of the game currently don't even play it anymore. I feel like the only way the game is going to stay alive is if the community shows interest in the game and helping it proceed to become the game we want. I'm personally excited to see if Valve will incorporate something community made, like the Frontline or Mayan community-created projects. But knowing Valve, we can only wait and see.

Football Sundays

As I'm sure you know (at least I hope you know), it's fall right now. More importantly, it's football season. I have always loved football, but I really started to develop a true love for it a few years back when I started playing fantasy football. I am in a fantasy football league with seven of my friends and every Sunday we get together and watch the games. Those days are some of the best of the year for me. I'm not quite sure why, but for the 9 hours (more or less) I spend both sitting in front of the television with my friends and watching football and then going outside to play football, I am having the best time ever. It's a great way to end the week, and it is the one long break I get from school. Currently, the two teams I root for, the Patriots and the Cardinals, are 2-0 and 1-1 respectively. The third team is root for, my fantasy team, is also 1-1, with the loss coming this past weekend. As I am sitting here and doing homework, I am already looking forward to next Sunday. Fall seems to be the best time of the year. I love it because the leaves turn color because it means its apple picking and pumpkin pie season, and, most importantly, because its football season!

The Greatest Movie of All Time: Space jam

Rainier

You ever seen a movie that inspired you and changed your life? Maybe it was Braveheart maybe it was Rocky maybe it was Good Will Hunting maybe it was the Wizard of Oz. But the movie that had the biggest impact on me was none of these. My favorite movie doesn’t have a yellow brick road or a corny plot about an underdog. My favorite movie has a plot way more important than that and a star studded cast to go along with it. When you think of Michael Jordan you think of 6 NBA championships you think of 5 mvps you think of horrible HanesTM commercials. You don’t think of his role in the greatest movie of all time. But Michael Jordan did have a role in the greatest movie of all time and he starred alongside Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan is the best combination we have seen since they decided to have common ground and the bus evacuation drill on the same day!

In the movie an evil alien theme park boss wants to capture the whole Looney Tunes gang and bring them to his theme park so more people will come to it. When the evil aliens gang the “Nerdlucks” come to capture the Looney Tunes squad, Bugs Bunny challenges the Nerdlucks to a game of basketball to decide if the Looney Tunes have to go be slaves at the theme park. Huge Stakes, think Red Sox vs Yankees game 7 of the American League Championship. The Looney Tunes posse are trash at basketball so they enlist the help of Michael Jordan. What the Looney Tunes squad don’t know is that the Nerdlucks stole the basketball skills from players such as the legend himself Larry Bird, and from Charles Barkley. The basketball game is an epic showdown; a showdown almost as big as the Olympians versus the Titans. Ultimately the Looney Tunes squad prevails thanks largely in part to Mr. Michael Jordan's tremendous performance.

The reason this movie spoke to me on a spiritual level was because I realize that however low I ever get in life, I can always find comfort in knowing that Michael Jordan was able to carry a whole team on his back and not have to do arthritis medication commercials later in life.

Almost nobody screws up this bad

When I woke up, I didn't know where I was. I quickly sat up, and... I promptly smashed my head against something. My head snapped back and I groaned. At least, I tried to groan. Only then did I realize, I couldn't groan! In fact, I could speak. Panicking, I moved my arms, feeling the smooth sides of the box I was in. I started banging on the sides. I started kicking at what seemed to be the roof. Amidst all the banging, I could hear faint scuffling noises coming from outside my enclosed area. I stopped my noise making and strained to hear the mumbles that were drawing closer.

The mumbles stopped, and my container lurched to the side. The ceiling was thrown open, and a bright light flooded my vision. I lifted my hands to my face in vain to reduce the light coming at me.

Finally, my eyes adjusted and I could make out the skeletal structure of my hands. Literally, I could see the bones. My thoughts froze to one word. "What?" I moved my hands, marveling at how the tiny little bones in my hands were held together by nothing, and yet they never fell off.

"Finally. You have awoken. Rise, skeleton number... um... where was that list? Ah! Here it is. Let's see. Hmm.... Ah yes. You are skeleton number 504,032." a voice from the side spoke. I lifted my head to see a figure, face obscured by a very droopy hood attached to a flowing robe.

"You have the honor of attending his glorious majesty Emperor Nico's Necromancer division. As a skeleton, you will be tasked to defend the Necromancer division from aggressors." I lifted my feet up and over the rim of the box I was in. I stood up, not quite coming up to the mysterious man's height.

"Go down the hall and to the left. Armory is down there, along with other skeletons." I stared at the man, or woman; I couldn't tell. "Well? Go! I don't have all day!" The person turned, and promptly dismissed me from his mind. As I walked off, I could hear him pull out another box, open the lid, and start spewing out the same speech that he told me.

"What a very inefficient system," I thought. Then, "Why am I a skeleton?"

A Day in the Life of Michael Bay

 Michael Bay is known for his: poor plot conception; nonexistent character development; and excessive product placement, explosions, and some sort of fighting that his movies have become a formulaic interpretation of what I can only assume is his daily life. However, even with my authoritative arrogance when it comes to the film industry, I actually have absolutely no idea how a successful director of cinema goes about his daily routine. So without further ado, I give you my interpretation of a day in the life of Michael Bay.

I wake up every morning at 8 AM sharp and sit my ass down to a delicious bowl of delicious Frosted Flakes (They're Great) and start pumping some tasty jams through this radical new speaker system called the Beats Pill. Then I walk out to my yellow, racing striped Camaro where I keep pumping those crucial beats through my Camaro's newly installed BeatsAudio surround sound car speakers. These, I have to say, were an excellent investment. Then, out of the blue, a group of robot aliens descends from the sky and begins its hostile invasion of the world. Me, being the completely useless and utterly ill-equipped human that I am, decide to go to war with the giant alien bad guys. And look! My bravery has paid off and there is a completely scientific and accurate reason why my yellow Camaro has just turned into one of the same robot aliens but he's on my side! What are the odds! (seriously guys this can't be that astronomical, it happens to me basically every day). But... Oh shit, there's more. A completely different group of aliens that have no affiliation with the giant sky robots have emerged from the depths of the Pacific Ocean and I am needed in China in a building, named by a twelve-year-old, full of giant animatronic robots that can only be operated telepathically by two people who share a deep and psychological connection, or, you know, two people that just met or resent each other, basically any two people can be put into these twenty ton machines and shipped off into the ocean to try and save the planet. But wait, we are just now receiving information that a third crew of aliens, this time from space again, has come into a small island in the middle of the ocean and has completely invaded our navy and taken over our Battleships, which for some reason were all anchored right off the coast of this tiny island. That reminds me, Battleship is a great game, and Hasbro is a great company for making this great game. Ooh, that gives me a great idea for a movie about an alien invasion that happens during the middle of a true world war where there's like seven different opposing armies spread out all across the globe. But anyways, back to these island aliens who have now basically killed Rhianna, but she's actually fine and so are we because those aliens are dead. Just in time too because we just got word from NASA that a huge meteor is about to collide with earth and I have been charged with the difficult task of teaching oil drillers how to be astronauts (trust me, it's a lot easier to teach oil drillers to be astronauts than it is to teach astronauts how to use a big fucking drill). Anyways, what they're going to do is drill into the center of the asteroid and put a nuclear device inside so that it blows up and doesn't hit the earth in one immense piece, more like shower it 20 slightly smaller pieces that will only leave the earth covered in a nuclear winter for the next few millennia. Oh yeah, update on the crisis with space robots, they're all dead because the electromagnetic waves, or whatever, blew them all up and now New York is gone.... But we're still here!!! Also, we strapped a nuke to the back of one of our robots in China and sent it through this weird portal thing that all the sea aliens were coming through and that blew up so the earth is saved again. Oh, and in the span of an hour we prepped the space launch with all of the necessary calculations perfect but somehow we still managed to mess things up, fix them, and leave one of our crew members behind on the asteroid for some unknown reason while the rock blew up and saved our planet. Then at around 1:30 PM I have lunch and call it a day.

The Etiquette of Acknowledgement

Since moving to Hanover three years ago I noticed something. Strangers suck. Yes their are gems, the odd one out that will turn out to be a great friend but the general lack of friendliness I've seen has been astonishing. I walk to school nearly everyday and I pass the same person waiting for her bus stop. Everyday I observe the same odd behavior, she looks off into oblivion, trying, straining to avoid my gaze. This isn't abnormal behavior for the area. I've been seeing this general "social constipation" all across New England. So what does one do if a stranger is approaching them on the street? Panicking and avoiding any possible social confrontation is not the solution. Stay calm and unless on the off chance that they are a pedophile you can calm down and make eye contact with them or acknowledge their prescience in any way you think is appropriate. This is only the first step in letting yourself go. When two people are willing to remove their social barriers magic can happen, unfortunately this magic is all too rare in New England. People are so invested in the own lives that they are forgetting something important, the human species! That unique interconnect web only available to us, take advantage of it, say hello.