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How to Grow Culinary Mushrooms

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I tasked The Bird on Fire staff with describing, discovering, and detailing PVS hobbies. Alyna reminded us we fell into some “interesting” hobbies during quarantine. Luke gave us sage advice on collecting vinyl (Avoid scratches). This summer, Levi took up growing mushrooms . . . in his grandparents’ bathroom. Here is his tale.

Ms. Zachik, Blog Advisor

By Junior Levi Kassinove

I realize that, in writing this, few people will have the time and energy to grow mushrooms. If you do, however, choose to grow culinary mushrooms, know that you will end up growing many more than you know what to do with. It’s a rewarding yet comprehensive process. And, obviously, if you ask me, I’d tell you that it is totally worth it. All the information in this guide comes from my own experience growing pink oyster and lion’s mane mushrooms. 

Part 1: Life Cycle of a Fungus

Before learning how to grow mushrooms, it is necessary to understand the life cycle of the fungus itself due to its drastic differences from the life cycle of a plant. Additionally, note that fungi are neither plants nor animals, but rather their own kingdom. 

The life cycle starts with spores, which are microscopic balls of DNA that are released by the billion from the mushroom’s gills. The spores travel the universe by wind and sometimes an animal’s foot if it had stepped on a mushroom. Eventually, some spores settle on dirt, corpses, feces, basically anything with nutritional value. I’ve seen people grow mushrooms on cardboard. When two spores meet, they form a microscopic white strand between them called a hypha. Over time, the hyphae will branch out and grow in new directions, making connections between new strands. Collectively, these hyphae are called the mycelium. The mycelium is basically the entirety of the fungus. Its most basic functions are to absorb and send nutrients throughout the mycelial network. A good way to think of a fungus is to compare it to an apple tree, where the tree is the mycelium, and the mushrooms are the apples. But some more interesting functions of the mycelium include deciding when it’s time to produce mushrooms, and even communicating (to a degree) with surrounding trees (Science Direct-Fungal Consciousness). According to the University of Illinois, the mycelium’s “network-like design mirrors that of dark matter, neural connections in the brain, and even the human-created Internet.” But this is not a discussion about philosophical questions; this is about growing mushrooms. So, when the conditions are right, the mycelium will produce the fruiting bodies known colloquially as mushrooms. As the mushrooms mature, their caps will open up and release spores. The cycle starts once again. The whole process takes a few months. 

Part 2: Growing at Home

As I said earlier, mushrooms can pretty much grow on anything with nutrients. They don’t need sunlight (although its benefits are debated by the mushroom growing community, more on why later), and they don’t need much water. What they do absolutely need is a sterile environment (nothing will ever be truly sterile, but I will use the word to describe sterility to the degree that matters to us), which is the main difficulty in mushroom cultivation. You might be wondering why that matters if mushrooms can grow just fine in the wild. Well, the mushrooms we see in the wild have stood the test of time and beaten out all other microscopic competition (mold, bacteria, and other mushrooms). There’s a reason why mushrooms produce billions of spores; it’s incredibly rare that a given set of spores survive in the wild. If you attempted to grow mushrooms without using a sterile technique, the mycelium would quickly become overtaken by mold or bacteria. It is by luck that a given set of spores end up beating competition and creating mushrooms in the wild. This means that, in your own home, you have to kill all other competition. So how is that accomplished? 

Mushrooms require a sterile medium to grow in. The easiest option for us homegrowers is precooked, microwavable-ready rice. The exact kind you can buy at any supermarket. Be careful, however, to not buy any rice with a high sodium content (>500mg) or any flavorings. Plain old brown rice is the best way to go. Now, since the area within the ready-rice bag is sterile, you need to somehow transfer the spores into the rice without introducing contaminants. This process is called inoculation. There are multiple ways to accomplish this, but the easiest way is to use an MSS (multi-spore syringe) to pierce the unopened bag and inject the spores. It is a syringe with a solution consisting of water and spores, which can be bought online. The idea is to inject the spores into the bag of rice and squirt the solution, then quickly cover the hole. The needle will come sterilized, but you still need to sterilize the environment surrounding the bag just before you inoculate. It is not overkill to spray the entire room with Lysol spray. You need to be absolutely sure that nothing gets in the bag but spores. If contaminants get in, there is no chance your young and ungerminated spores will be able to fight them off. So spray the room with Lysol; get gloves on; mask up (so you don’t breathe on the bag); and wipe the bag down with alcohol wipes. One of the required materials I did not mention before was medical grade paper tape (name brand is Micropore, found at CVS), which is needed as a means to get oxygen into the bag while simultaneously filtering out contaminants. So once the spores are injected (injecting any more than 1cc of solution will induce bacterial wet rot), quickly cover the hole with the paper tape. This tiny hole, of course, will not provide sufficient oxygen. To provide sufficient oxygen, cut the corner of the bag (1 in. wide, with scissors wiped with alcohol) and cover it completely with paper tape. All of this should be completed within a minute or so, starting from once everything is sterilized. Now, you can leave it alone for a few weeks without touching the bag. The bag needs to stay sealed. The hardest part is truly over now, although this was not my main challenge when growing. I also should stress that you are only minimizing the chances of contamination, and not completely eliminating it. Doing all these steps in a relatively dirty house with pets would likely get you a bag full of mold. 

Part 3: The Waiting Game 

The amount of time it takes for the mycelium to fully colonize the bag is dependent on temperature, genetics (luck if you’re using a Multi-Spore Syringe), and the method of inoculation. The ideal temperature for mycelial growth is 75-77 degrees Fahrenheit. So room temperature will work for most people. Anything colder will slow down the growth, anything higher will increase the probability of contamination and start to cook the mycelium. The colonization process will take about a month. You can tell when it’s 100% colonized when the bag is hard all the way through. Not rock solid, but it should be quite firm. If it is firm in some areas but mushy in others, it still has a ways to go. The genetics are completely random and vary from spore to spore in an MSS (the species is guaranteed of course), but you can also inoculate the rice with a liquid culture syringe or a colonized agar wedge for faster colonization. A liquid culture syringe is a syringe with a solution of already established mycelium as opposed to spores, which saves about a week of waiting. An agar wedge is a wedge cut from an agar plate, which is basically a petri dish filled with nutrients (with mycelium growing in this case). The advantage of an agar wedge over a liquid culture syringe is that it is possible to genetically isolate the fastest and strongest mycelium in an agar plate. Unfortunately that is too advanced for this post; after all, I did recommend growing these things in a bag of ready-rice. 

At one point I grew pink oyster mushrooms in fancy mason jars I bought online specifically designed for growing mushrooms. They contain sterilized rye berries, a self-healing injection port, and a filter. I know I could have gone with the ready-rice method, but this method further reduces the chance of contamination since you don’t need to make your own filter. Anyway, the white stuff you see in the picture to the right is mycelium, and when the jars are fully white, they are ready for the next phase. 

Part 4: Spawning to Bulk

A mere bag of rice will only yield about five mushrooms, so the next step is to expand the mycelium further. Though if you want, the process could end with the rice. Given enough time, the mycelium will just start pumping mushrooms like no tomorrow, and you’ll end up with a bag of deformed little mushroom children. I don’t think they’ll taste good. Moving on, the idea of spawning to bulk is that you can dump the colonized rice in some actual soil to grow out the mycelium in a shoebox. Sterility is not as important now because at this point the mycelium is big enough to deal with its own problems (antibiotic properties). The real issue now is what soil to use. You can either choose to make your own substrate (a real pain), or buy it online. For mushrooms that grow on the ground, your best bet is to go with a coco coir-based substrate. Coco coir is the fibrous husk of the coconut. A condensed brick of coco coir could be found at PetSmart, which is actually ideal for this process because of a reason I’ll explain later. Grounded mushrooms can grow on just coco coir, but a blend of coco coir, vermiculite, gypsum powder, and coffee grounds is optimal. Mushrooms that grow on trees prefer either a sawdust or straw-based blend with the optional addition of the other ingredients from the grounded blend. As long as its base is correct, you can use any combination of the other ingredients. For example, sawdust and coffee grounds work fine. You can either buy all of these ingredients separately at PetSmart and Home Depot, or buy a pre-made substrate online like I did somewhat idiotically (I bought a coir-based substrate even though pink oysters grow on trees, but it ended up working). It’s cheaper, as you can imagine, to just buy the raw ingredients. But there’s a caveat: you need to pasteurize and hydrate the substrate.

 Pasteurizing is basically partially sterilizing something. You pasteurize the substrate because although the mycelium is big and strong, you still don’t want contaminants lurking in that coco coir. Normally it takes two months for the mushroom mycelium to end up producing spores, but mold can start blasting spores within days of its existence. Within the week you will be growing a green box of death instead of delicious mushrooms. But, you don’t want to kill all the microorganisms, as some are beneficial to the process (Science Direct). Hydration on the other hand is a whole different ball game. You need to hydrate the substrate so that it’s not too dry and not too wet. It’s called field-capacity, which in dummy terms means the maximum amount of water that soil can contain without dripping if you hold it up. There is a proper way to calculate field capacity, but I think saturating the substrate and then squeezing the water out is pretty surefire. You can pasteurize and hydrate the substrate in one go if you use boiling water and a bucket, which also expands the brick of coco coir. You can also pasteurize substrate with an oven, but I don’t know why you would do that. Once you have your pasteurized substrate, you can open the bag of rice and dump everything in a shoebox, mixing well. Close the lid on the shoebox and wait for the mycelium to fully colonize the substrate. After it’s fully colonized, it’s mushroom time, baby. Now, herein lies the final challenge. 

Part 5: Fruiting 

The most difficult part of this process for me was the fruiting conditions. I’ll explain why soon, but first it is critical to understand what fruiting conditions are in order to understand how I messed up. Also, at this point the colonized substrate-grain mix is called a cake. Fruiting conditions are the conditions necessary for the mycelium to produce mushrooms. The factors here include temperature, sunlight (you thought I forgot about that), humidity, and fresh air. The only thing you need to do to initiate fruiting conditions is crack the lid open. Now, obviously you need to take other measures to ensure things don’t go awry, but that is pretty much it. Mycelium likes a marked decrease in carbon dioxide levels and an increase in oxygen levels. Why? Because when mycelium is growing underground and has finally reached the surface, exposing it to fresh air, it knows that mushrooms will protrude above the surface. The same concept applies to sunlight. Sunlight is used as an indicator of when it’s time to fruit, because the mycelium will only sense the light of day when it has colonized the surface. Mushrooms can easily grow in the dark, however, much like how mushrooms can grow in the bags of rice. But the presence of sunlight is argued to decrease the time it takes for pinning to occur (mushroom babies forming). This along with many other things is a subject of great debate within the hobbyist mushroom growing community. The optimal temperature is about five degrees Fahrenheit below the colonization temperature in order to “shock” the mycelium into fruiting (cornell.edu). The relative humidity of the air around the cake should be at least 90% (the mycelium will produce humidity). Now back to my grave error. I grew these pink oysters during the wintertime, so it was extremely dry in my home. I took no precautions to ensure the humidity was right, and so the cake ended up completely drying out. It was cracking. And so, in a last ditch effort to save my mushrooms, I completely filled the shoebox with water. I had scoured the internet for what to do when your cake dries out, and submerging it in water was pretty much the only solution. I let it soak for a few hours as advised by the wizards of the internet, and drained the water afterwards. Then I bought a humidifier and put it next to the box. Every day, it is important to mist your cake in order to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen to you. Also, it is important to fan your cake every day with the lid in order to introduce fresh air and move away the stale air. Don’t fan so much that the cake dries out, though. And similarly, don’t mist too much or something will grow on the mycelium. If you’ve got all this down, pins will appear in no time. After I soaked my cake I got mushrooms within two weeks. Once you see pins, fully grown mushrooms will be present within one week. They grow rapidly. Also, when the mycelium stops producing mushrooms, the mushrooms on the cake are called a flush. The crazy thing is that you can have multiple flushes! In order to do this, cut the mushrooms from the cake (pulling can damage the mycelium) and soak the cake in water overnight. The mycelium puts most of its water into the mushrooms, so in order for it to grow more, it needs to be rehydrated. Eventually the mycelium will run out of nutrients, but you can solve that problem by soaking the cake in coffee instead of water. You can pretty much get an infinite amount of mushrooms with one cake, that is, until senescence catches up to it. You can also just take a spore print of the mushroom and scrape the spores into a new bag of rice with the same sterile techniques. 

The possibilities are endless. Now, onto the ways mushrooms will save the world, and after that, recipes! Just kidding, goodbye.

Levi’s pink oyster mushroom cluster

End of the Year: Study Tips

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By Levi Kassinove

It’s the end of the year, and you’re probably cramming for finals. I’m here to teach you how to actually study efficiently, so that you don’t have to lose sleep. First off, for the night before the actual test, I personally don’t think you should study. The night before my APUSH test, despite several people telling me I was crazy, I didn’t review anything and relaxed the whole day. I got nine hours of sleep. By test day, I felt prepared and ready to take the exam. All of the knowledge you get from studying doesn’t get the chance to solidify if you don’t take a day off, in my opinion. Studying your head off the night before the test will only make you feel overwhelmed and probably forget a lot of what you studied. 

Without further ado, here are some of the best studying tips*:

  1. Eat well.

If you’re the type of person who eats either nothing at all or complete junk food, you’re going to fail at both life and your exam. Eat some actual fruit for once–stuff that’s not jam packed with artificial chemicals you see on ingredient labels like “blue 10” or “red 9.” And, try to eat an avocado. Those things are amazing. 

  1. Go through past quizzes.

One thing that I like to do before an exam is look through past quizzes. A lot of teachers either put similar questions to their old quizzes, or they just outright copy questions from their old quizzes. It’s definitely worth it to go through your old quizzes before taking a final. 

  1. Get good sleep.

We all know that getting enough sleep (ideally 9 hours, realistically 7-8) is good for studying. Try to have some self control with your phone. At 11 pm at night, ask yourself, “Would I rather continue scrolling through TikTok, or get enough sleep to secure a bright future?”

  1. Don’t memorize.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when studying is to only focus on memorizing facts. In any subject, it is much more useful to make sure you understand the concepts of your course. For instance, if I were studying for APUSH, instead of memorizing the fact that Lincoln won the election of 1860, I would rather try to understand why he won and what the effects of that election were. The latter study option allows you to answer a much broader range of questions, rather than hoping that the one specific fact you memorized is on the test. Even in math, as long as you understand the concepts and what’s actually happening in the problem, you could use logic to answer the question–even if you don’t directly know how to solve it. 

  1. Relax.

The best thing that you can do for yourself before an exam is to relax. Studying comes second. Constantly having test material bouncing around your head right before the test is not going to help you remember the material. Just relax, take deep breaths, and try to meditate. If you struggle with relaxation, I suggest that you practice meditation. It can change your life.

*The above study tips, while reasonable, come from the anecdotal knowledge of Mr. Kassinove and do not necessarily represent the educational community at large.

The Tea Club Revival

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By Levi Kassinove, Tea Club Founding Member

Two years ago, the former 8th grader Remi Benomar had the idea of starting a middle-school Tea Club. He pitched the idea to me during a Wednesday assembly meeting in the MPR. We talked at length about our visions for the Tea Club and how it would evolve in the future; we dreamt up Tea Club meetings where we would have tastings and discussions of flavor notes. It would be a place where people come together and have peaceful conversations. It wouldn’t just be about the tea, but rather the community. Immediately after hearing his idea, I knew we had something great. 

Mr. Killeen (now the Tea Club advisor)  loved the idea and, fortunately, so did the middle school. We had the former Science room completely filled on the first meeting. Around 30 kids were showing up for these weekly tea parties at lunch. Overnight, it became one of the most popular clubs in middle school. We had multiple varieties of tea, including spiced chai, hibiscus, and green tea. Members were to pick their tea at their leisure and add honey if they so desired. Some brought their own mugs, such as Indy Behr, and others used the mugs generously provided by Mr. Killeen, who also provided the tea. The club was a thriving community, but, unfortunately, it had some issues. For instance, moderation was extremely difficult with our large member count. Dozens of kids were in a single room, each with a cup of near boiling water. Spills and burns were inevitable especially with the shaky plastic tables we had. When Covid hit, the Tea Club disappeared into the shadows and was largely forgotten, save for a few of us who drank tea over Google Meets in its memory. By the time we were allowed to come back to school, the Tea Club was gone. 

Nowadays, a handful of middle schoolers still meet every week behind the gym to drink tea. But it’s known as an informal gathering rather than an official Tea Club meeting. So I’m revamping it. It’ll be the same aesthetic meeting place (behind the gym, mountains in the background), same core idea, but our methods will be slightly different. For instance, instead of having a fixed set of regular teas, we will have one type of tea available per week. The tea will change every week–a tea of the week, if you will. This way, the general discussion will be geared more towards the specific tea rather than normal lunch talk. The previous tea club was more club than tea, and now we want to put more emphasis on the tea. We will have fewer members, but in turn we will have higher quality teas. We will introduce members to the world of teas, from normal green, to matcha, to hibiscus, to oolong, and even to blends carefully curated by tea enthusiasts. It will be a place where people can discuss flavor notes and ultimately bond over tea, just like Remi’s vision all those years ago. This time, it’s without the chaos of a large group. It’ll have a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere, unlike the rowdy type that seems to be an inherent part of middle-school groups. It’ll be a tight-knit family of 16 high school students that come together every Tuesday to enjoy tea. Our debut was yesterday, Tuesday, May 4, at lunch behind the gym. The next meeting is next Tuesday the 11th. If you want to make friends and explore the wondrous world of tea, you can stilll sign up for the club. But, there are only 16 slots!

Sign up at this poster at Mr. Winter’s door. (Poster by Cole Robinson)

Top 5 College Majors You Should Reconsider

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By Levi Kassinove

It’s the end of the year. Graduating high-school seniors are signing up for next fall’s college courses, which means they’ve already made some decisions about what discipline they’re going to major in. This is a list of the majors that I think** you shouldn’t go into. Let me explain my reasoning. 

The undergraduate majors in this list aren’t necessarily the most useless ones, just the ones I personally dislike. If I offend anyone, hopefully it’s not someone I know personally. Also, this list is not in any particular order. 

*Levi’s Disclaimer: Do not take my advice seriously. Go into anything you want.

Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies

It’s the study of leisure. This is the major for people who want to create summer camps, become a recreational therapist, and design parks. That’s fine, but my question is: Why? Why would you want to spend your time in college learning about recreation, which is something we all take part in regardless of the presence of government-provided recreational services. You could learn about something that actually advances the world. Creating a park designed for maximum leisure isn’t going to stop wars. It’s not going to advance our scientific knowledge. So, it just seems like a waste of time and potential to me. 

Computer Science

Too many CS students only sign up for the money that comes with computer-science-related jobs. Says Michigan Computer-Science Professor Igor Markov, “Based on my recent teaching experience, there are definitely many students signing up for CS majors who aren’t prepared enough and have difficulty getting through foundational material” (Forbes). I say, it’s a fine major, but it’s too popular. We don’t need a million people trying to be computer scientists.

Junior High/Middle School Education

The people who have the patience to teach kids in middle school are a godsend, but it’s not something that I’d do for a million dollars. 

Astronomy

I love looking at the stars, and I’d love to have a nice telescope for astrophotography, but learning about space is something that doesn’t interest me at all. I feel that the secrets of the universe are more easily discovered at the quantum scale rather than astronomical. Also, you won’t become the next Stephen Hawking. Realistically, you’re gonna end up recording data for the rest of your life. You aren’t smart enough to become a theoretical physicist surrounded by giant chalkboards with equations written everywhere. 

Pre-law/Criminal Justice

Too many movies depict lawyers as the most arrogant and pretentious people in the room. They’re right. I participated in Mock Trial once, and some of the “attorneys” were infuriatingly rude. There was one girl who kept cutting me off in the middle of my testimony! She would ask, “Did you see Jamie and Eric arguing at Jamie’s mother’s funeral?” and I would respond, “Yes, but-” and she would cut me off right there. Now, that might just be my anecdotal experience, but according to law gazette.co.uk, the general public views lawyers as “arrogant, disinterested or unapproachable.” And, on top of being viewed as an arrogant lawyer, you may end up defending people that strike against your moral compass. Criminal defense lawyers often have to defend clients against charges of pedophilia, murderer, rape, and other unsavory acts. So, unless you want to be viewed as a narcissist while also having to defend the worst people of society (if you choose to be a criminal defense lawyer), getting into law is a bad idea. 

While these are my least favorite majors, most of them are still useful to the world. But, I ask: How do lawyers deal with the guilt? And, thank you middle-school teachers. Also, I used to love running around the playground and sliding down slides; so, I guess I have Leisure Studies majors to thank for that. If any of these majors are right for you, it’s not my place to say it isn’t. But, I hope I convinced you to re-think that career in law. 

*Our Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by Levi Kassinove are solely his own and not necessarily those of thebirdonfire.org.

The Story Behind Daylight Savings

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By Levi Kassinove

Daylight Savings Time (DST) is a period that lasts from Spring to Autumn, which begins when clocks are turned forward one hour. This offset lasts until Autumn, which is when clocks are turned back one hour. On that day in the Spring when we turn clocks forward, one hour in the day disappears. To balance it out, we gain one hour in the Autumn. Unsurprisingly, many people are unhappy about losing an hour in the day. But who is to blame? And, what are the pros and cons of the time shift?

It was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin who sarcastically said that waking up earlier would save candle use and money (Daylight Saving Time). It was then proposed by an entomologist in 1895 who wanted to have more daylight hours to devote to collecting insects (Daylight). His name was George Hudson. Nowadays, only a minority of the world practices Daylight Savings. Asia and Africa generally don’t, along with places of high latitudes and places near the equator (Wikipedia). The real reason for Daylight Savings is to follow the daylight shift that happens naturally as the seasons change. In the Summer, daylight lasts longer. So it makes sense to add an extra hour to the day by moving the clocks forward. If you normally wake up at 8 am, and the clocks are turned forward to 9 am, then you’d have to wake up at (your old) 7 am to wake up at 8 am. Now you have an extra hour of daylight. The same logic is applied for turning the clocks backward in the Winter, since daylight is shorter during Winter. You gain an hour in a day that’s growing shorter. It’s a little confusing, but the point is that Daylight Savings aligns our days with the changing sunrise and sunset. This is why places near the equator and places on completely opposite sides of the equator don’t use Daylight Savings. The places near the equator experience a negligible difference in the sunrise and sunset times as the seasons change. While the places on opposite sides of the equator, at high latitudes, experience such a drastic change in daylight hours that changing clocks one hour wouldn’t be enough. 

Daylight Savings has more downsides than upsides, according to many people. A common myth is that it was implemented for farmers so that they can have more time to water their corn or whatever farmers do. Point is, farmers hate Daylight Savings Time. They say that Daylight Savings Time disrupts cows’ readiness to be milked (Agriculture Myth). The actual reason why Daylight Savings Time (DST) was created was to conserve energy during WWI; however, multiple studies have shown that DST actually doesn’t save any energy (California Energy Commission Study). And, health experts argue that DST disrupts your circadian rhythm, which is otherwise in tune with Standard Time (uofmhealth.org). Despite this, Congress has been interested in permanently changing clocks to DST. As a matter of fact, the U.S. Senate on March 15 passed legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent starting in 2023. 

I think it’s clear that Daylight Savings is an outdated concept that should be abolished. It doesn’t save energy, and it has public health risks. And, when we switch between time standards, it’s such a pain to change mechanical clocks.

The Book was Better–or Was It?

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This week, Alyna and Levi tackle the age-old question: Which is better, the book or the movie? I have recently crossed over from the movie side to the book side, making this an interesting article for me. Who knows, you might change your opinion, too. — Super Editor, Jesse Denyer

By Levi Kassinove, Movie Critic, and Alyna Rei, Book Critic

Levi: Look, I know that this sounds pretty cut and dry. Reading has been shown to make you a better writer and generally stimulates your brain in a healthy way. Movies strain your eyes yet simultaneously require less attention to get the point. But, guess what; I don’t care. Watching movies is so much better than reading a book. For starters, you can get the whole plot of a story in under two hours with a movie. If you were reading a book, it would take maybe a week. And besides, who wants to read “She slapped him across the face” when you can just watch the slap? It requires no imagination, and that’s the fun part! And, as far as the “the sequel is bad” phenomenon goes, that’s your own fault for watching a movie with a bad sequel. Lots of books have bad sequels, but you don’t hear me complaining. Here’s another thing: Would you rather rely on your own imagination and perspective to paint the picture of the story, or watch the actors’ and directors’ take on it? They can turn a book into something special with each individual actor adding their own spin to the characters. Do you want to have to stop and imagine “He sheepishly ordered his Chipotle” every single time the author tries to describe something? It’s much easier and faster to just watch an actor’s facial and verbal expressions. 

Alyna: If I were to choose, I would choose to read the book. Don’t get me wrong; I do like to watch movies, but since I love reading, I would choose to learn a story through words on a page. I would say though, if you have a short attention span and are a visual learner, maybe watch the movie. Don’t waste your time. But, if you prefer going through the extra time to learn more detail, I would definitely recommend reading the book. Books have a way of showing more details than movies and allowing the reader to envision so much more than can appear on a mere movie screen. 

Movies and books have a lot of differences. For example, consider your imagination. When you’re reading a book, the process lets you use your own imagination. It gives you a larger scope of what the writer is explaining–and beyond. Whereas in a movie, you’re not using as much of your imagination because it is already presented to you–dictated by the director, set designer, CGI, and the actors. The movie only takes the highlights of what the book represents. 

Okay, maybe the plot of the movie can almost be the same as the plot of a book. But what about the actors? The book can describe what the characters are like. What does their hair look like? What does their face look like? What do their features look like? I wouldn’t say this is the hardest part of making a movie, but I would say this is a challenge. Finding the right cast of characters is hard since the character would have to be very identical to the character in a book. If an actor can’t show or interpret what the writer is depicting in the book, that can ruin the whole meaning of the story.

The book is open to different perspectives. When you are reading a book, you are put into the character’s shoes, even if you are the narrator. You can see what the character is feeling and can switch from each character’s point of view. 

I don’t feel as content at the end of a movie than at the end of a book. With a movie, it ends there with you thinking about the plot that is already determined. With the book, you can think of the outcome or you can think further. I’m not sure if people do that with movies, but I do that with books. I think of what could have happened if one thing was different. 

If you do like watching movies, I’m not stopping you. But if you come at me with the excuse of saying “books are boring” or “books take a long time to read,” I say you are wrong. Not every book is boring, and it won’t take a long time to read if you were to read an actual interesting book.

Books Alyna thinks are far superior to their movie:

  • Easily, the Harry Potter series.
  • The Hunger Games
  • The Maze Runner–the book felt more real than the movie
  • To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

PVS on Books v. Movies

For me, reading is more of an immersive experience. The movie that I build in my mind while reading the writer’s words puts me more in the situation.

Ms. Coffey

Who is Percy Jackson? Did he write Fight Club? Or, was it Harry Potter?

Luke Sonderman

Why is Tom Hanks playing Da Vinci Code’s Robert Langdon? Langdon is supposed to be ‘Harrison Ford[-like] in Harris tweed.’ And, Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher?! Reacher from the books is 6’5”. Tom Cruise is . . . not.

Ms. Zachik

How to know if you’re a narcissist (and how to change)

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By Not a Narcissist Levi Kassinove

We all like to believe that we are great people. Very few are self-aware enough to make an effort to improve themselves, except for me of course. Are you confident and comfortable in your own skin or are you just a narcissist? Are you so disconnected from reality that you don’t see the hypocrisy in your article for the school blog? For the people questioning if they are a narcissist or not, the good news is that you’re most likely fine. Real narcissists are “fully aware that they are narcissistic and that they have a narcissistic reputation” (Psychology Today). The truth is that they just don’t see the problem with it, and therefore make no effort to change. But, for the people who think they have some narcissistic tendencies and truly want to improve, I have some genius tips and tricks to share with you. Read carefully because I’m not going to grace you with my wisdom again. 

In order to identify narcissistic tendencies, we should start by looking at a non-narcissist such as myself. Modest people, when questioning if they are narcissistic, usually look online for a reputable-looking quiz to test for narcissism. This shows that the person is concerned about their behavior and wants to improve. A narcissist wouldn’t bother to take the quiz because they think that it doesn’t matter, and that they have nothing to improve. I took a quiz from Psych Central, which sounds reputable enough, and I got an extremely low score on the narcissism scale. When taking the quiz, keep in mind that you should answer the questions honestly, no matter how embarrassing it is to pick the option “I think I am a special person” in front of your friends. It is important to be honest with yourself so that you can do the quiz correctly, as I did. 

Narcissists don’t critically analyze themselves in order to find their flaws. Instead, they focus on critiquing other people while believing that they don’t have any flaws. So ask yourself: Do I often spend my time at the center of attention, looking down on others? Do I care at all about self-improvement? And, perhaps most importantly, do I really care about the well-being of others or do I only offer help so that I can later manipulate them? If you think you have some narcissistic tendencies, it’s best to subscribe to this blog and keep reading my articles. Maybe even comment on something. It’s your only hope of changing your narcissistic ways. 

For people with true Narcissistic Personality Disorder, change is impossible. “You cannot change a person with narcissistic personality disorder or make them happy by loving them enough or by changing yourself to meet their whims and desires. They will never be in tune with you, never empathic to your experiences, and you will always feel empty after an interaction with them,” says Dr. Angela Grace, PhD, MEd, BFA, BEd (Healthline). For the rest of us, and by that I mean the rest of you, the first step to becoming a better person is admitting that you can sometimes be a narcissistic jerk. From there, identify the times when you slip into that attitude and try to catch yourself. The most important thing is knowing the problem and wanting to change. Next time you explain something to someone or a group of people, try not to do it in a condescending way. You’ll find that people will be more friendly around you if you try to listen to their thoughts and feelings. The bottom line, though, is that this all comes down to being self-aware. As long as you’re self-aware, you can stay humble. Like me.

Why I Think Special K is a Great Cereal (and why no one else’s opinion is valid)

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Cereal is a very special part of American culture. It is, in fact, a subject hotly debated by the blog staff. Two weeks ago, Cereal Enthusiast Abigail Horwitt listed her top cereals. Blogger Levi Kassinove takes issue with her selection and its glaring omission: Special K. 

By Levi Kassinove, Cereal Connoisseur

Special K is an American brand of breakfast cereal that’s manufactured by Kellog’s. Its ingredients include rice (47%), wholewheat (37%), sugar, barley (5%), malted barley flour, salt, and a few other random chemicals (Kellog’s). According to Abby Walthausen for Yahoo News, “The original Special K was the culmination of a lifelong goal of W.K. Kellogg. . . . It was to be his uber cornflakes but the final recipe, with enough protein, vitamins, and minerals to survive by, was not complete until 1955, four years after Kellogg’s death.” Today, Kellogg’s advertises their cereal as low-fat, as a cereal that helps people lose weight. One person on Quora vouched for this cereal, saying that “it’s not a miracle food, but it’s healthy enough” (Quora). I will tell you right now that while this may be true for the original variation, the other subspecies of Special K are not healthy. I’m talking about the Special K Brown Sugar Cinnamon cereal, the Special K Red Berries cereal, and the Special K Chocolatey Delight Chocolatey cereal (All Cereal Varieties). Unfortunately, contrary to these deliciously unhealthy cereal names, the label of a “diet cereal” often connotes that it has a terrible flavor. With Special K, only the people who are open minded enough to try this diet cereal, with no preconceived notions, will have their eyes opened to the possibilities of Special K. The cereal has evolved since its introduction in the 1950s into a hidden gem of a breakfast. 

I can go on and on about WHY this cereal is so good. No, really, I will. In their “Red Berries” genre, the strawberries are masterfully freeze-dried. The strawberries, along with the other red berries I have yet to identify, get masterfully rehydrated upon contact with milk. Let me show you a picture of this cereal. Maybe it will be the catalyst for expanding that splinter in your mind–the one that’s saying you shouldn’t be such a picky cereal eater. 

I’d say that anyone (Jesse Denyer) who can’t get past the idea that this cereal is “only for old people” is just a drone who chooses to live in utter ignorance. In 2009, 75% of Americans said that they stay away from diet-friendly cereal because they think it’ll taste bad. Did I make up that statistic? Yes. Just give it a chance! Eat the cereal. 

*Disclaimer: The opinions of Levi are his own and do not represent the opinions of thebirdonfire.org; nor can we vouch for his statistics.

Has Levi Been to Area 51?

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Ever wonder how it would feel to float above your body and look down on it? Levi Kassinove goes in depth on astral projection. Levi, true to form, goes on to explain his thoughts on the matter. Is it all just a mind trip, or is it time travel? Maybe you would like to try it yourself. – Editor Abigail Horwitt

By Levi Kassinove, Conspiracy Theorist

Astral projection, or an out-of-body experience, is when someone gets the sensation that they’ve detached from their physical body. We’ve seen it on Netflix documentaries like Surviving Death; we’ve heard people say in surgery they watch themselves from above; maybe you’ve traveled outside the confines of your physical self. Oftentimes people feel like they’re dying when their “astral self” floats above their body; this may be where the idea of a soul comes from. When people from thousands of years ago experienced astral projection, they may have explained it by thinking we had souls. This could also be the cause of alien abduction stories. According to an NBC News story, what people believe to be alien abduction might actually just be a lucid dream or out-of-body experience. Michael Raduga, lead researcher at the Out-of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles, designed an experiment to “test his theory that many reports of alien encounters are actually instances of people experiencing a vibrant, lifelike state of dreaming” (amazon.com). He surmised, if he could “coach people to dream of a realistic alien encounter, . . . that could prove that many reports of such encounters . . . are really just products of peoples’ imaginations” (NBC news). Astral projection is indeed a real phenomenon, but its true nature is not entirely understood. What exactly is astral projection?

Many of you have heard of lucid dreaming, which is the event in which sleepers become aware of the fact that they are dreaming. Most astral projectors you talk to (Jesse Denyer) will tell you that lucid dreaming is completely different from astral projection. Countless people on Reddit support this anecdotally, and some even claim that “lucid dreaming is controlled hallucinations while astral projection is a true vision” (Reddit thread). 

A lot of the things people claim to be able to do during astral projection are similar to what’s possible in a lucid dream. You can visit any place you want, eat any food you want, meet any person you want, and pretty much anything else. However, in lucid dreaming, you need some frame of reference. Some people say that you can’t project to forbidden places. For instance, one anonymous internet user said, “since 99.9% of people on earth have never been inside Area 51 and haven’t the slightest idea what it is like inside, it’s a sort of blank area in their minds”(I sincerely apologize for having to crawl to Reddit, but it’s astral projection so what did you expect?). So it may just be a dream after all where your brain could only fill in what you could already visualize. Maybe Lilah, who claims she has aphantasia, should try astral projection. Maybe, astral projection is a form of lucid dreaming. The methods I’ve read about for astral projection all indirectly or directly say that you have to be half-asleep for it to work. You have to either attempt it immediately after you wake up, or relax your body to the point where you’ll fall asleep. 

I don’t believe that lucid dreaming and astral projection are the exact same thing, as lucid dreaming involves awakening in the middle of a deep dream, but they are certainly related. Astral projection seems to be, like lucid dreaming, a weird, in-between state of lucidity and dreaming while the person is awake. Try it. Some people claim to be able to time travel and visit dinosaurs, so why wouldn’t you want to try that? If you’re interested in attempting astral projection, Michael Raduga outlines various ways to do so in his free ebook, titled The Phase. It’s a 400-page mind-labyrinth that crosses theory with reality a bit too much, but it explains ways to hallucinate. If you’ve already had an out-of-body experience, tell me about it in the comments.

Levi projecting what astral projecting looks like.

*The views presented by Blogger Kassinove do not represent the views of thebirdonfire.org.

Sophomore Love Sonnets

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The sophomores are studying Latin American poetry in literature class. Of course, they read the love sonnets of Pablo Neruda. Then, they wrote their own “love” sonnets. Here is a sampling of two.

Love-Hate Relationship

By Levi Kassinove

What is my only source of happiness

That randomly triggers bouts of despair?

An endless stream of content

I can never look away from

Even if it kills me

I’ll spend thirty bucks on a case

And watch it shatter on the concrete next week

Great

I’ll watch anything

You provide an escape from the world around me

So the content doesn’t matter

Even if it’s mind-numbing

IPhone 12,

I love you because I can’t live without you

*****************************

My Love Sonnet

By Sophomore Anonymous

I was never a pretty girl.

It was rare that someone 

Showed me attention

And when they did they

Never really meant it,

It was never real affection. 

So, I found myself wrapped up

In the beautiful world of books.

How they loved me 

when I was someone else.

Falling in love was magical,

But it was never really real.

So now I’m just a dumb girl

With expectations higher than heaven.