It has been a great few months of obscure topics, but it’s time to wrap it up. With graduation coming up, there’s a lot on the minds of seniors everywhere. With just a few weeks left of our last school year, there’s a lot to get in order. But aside from that, I’m gonna go over every blog I’ve written and personally rate them.

#1 “Why the Cat in the Hat should be arrested“

This was my first and probably most bizarre blog post. Starts off weird right off the bat, and somehow gets worse as it goes on. What started with me trying to type anything to get my blog turned in, Turned in to something that a person with Schizophrenia would write.

9.5/10

#2 “Liminal Spaces“

This was written when I was having a strange obsession with liminal spaces. Kind of cringe, looking back, but oh well, just another piece to the puzzle.

6/10

#3 “Swedish Fish: Where Did This Iconic Candy Come From?“

I remember deciding to write this because I had nothing else to write about, and who doesn’t love useless information about food products.

8/10

#4 “The 7th Generation of Iconic American Muscle: 2024 Ford Mustang“

Like usual, I was at a loss of ideas, so I had decided to look up upcoming car models. I discovered the Latest Mustang was set for release, and I went at it.

9/10

#5 “The Pontiac Aztek: Why was it so hated?“

I had a strange temporary obsession with this ugly car, not sure why and looking back at it now I think it’s stupid.

3/10

#6 “The Origins of Metal“

I remember thinking this was cringe worthy as I was writing it, but I was desperate for a topic and I scraped this together. Although I do enjoy listening to it, writing about it just seems very weird.

4.5/10

#7 “How did JDM get popular in the United States?“

Really enjoyed this one, interesting history and something I am passionate about. I love cars, and this was probably one of my better blogs.

11/10

#8 “The Dark History of Volkswagen“

A bit of a history lesson, discussing how one of the most successful car manufacturer came to power, despite it’s dark ties.

8.5/10

#9 “Who were the Vikings?“

Another random topic, mostly fueled by me getting into Assassin’s Creed Valhalla during this time. Overall, this one was fun to write and learn about the in depth history of Vikings.

7/10

That’s all for the rating! Hope you enjoyed my blog.

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A quick google search could tell you what a viking was, but i’m going to go more in depth. The Vikings were travelers, pillagers, explorers, and conquerors. They most commonly raided monasteries because they were typically heavily under-protected and were rich in valuables. Most attacks had nothing to do with the fact they were Christian, it was simply because the church was very wealthy, often more so than kings and merchants. Interestingly enough, most Christians would not attack properties of the church, even when located in enemy territory. The Vikings were also skilled craftsmen. They created weapons, boats, houses, and much more out of raw resources. The Vikings also discovered and lived in North America about 1,000 years before Columbus. The Vikings were very diverse, consisting of people from Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Scandinavia and Europe. There were even a small number of black vikings. When the vikings weren’t out pillaging, conquering new territory, or overthrowing kingdoms in some cases, they spent a lot of their time doing farm work, crafting weapons, ships, armor clothing. The vikings were also very skilled traders and merchants. they would trade with other regions to get items they couldn’t make or obtain at home. Most vikings were pagan, believing in gods such as Thor and Odin, however during this time, christian missionaries would travel to viking lands in attempt to convert them, most usually peacefully. There was one man who converted vikings to Christianity by the blade, Charlemagne. When a king pronounced himself Christian, he also forced his people to be Christian. By the end of the Viking Age, most vikings were Christian and were baptized. Vikings were very spiritual people, and it is difficult for a person from the 21st century to interpret and imagine how they thought, as they were what modern people would call “superstitious.” Despite this we know a lot about vikings.

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Considering Volkswagen is not only one of the most recognizable car brands, but probably the largest, It may come as a shock that Volkswagen has had a pretty dark past. The name “Volkswagen” means “the peoples car” in German. During the 1930’s in Germany, not many people were able to afford vehicles, as they were considered a luxury. During this time, “you know who’s” fame was rising in Germany. That’s right, Adolf Hitler. Hitler wanted an affordable car for the German people so, he created his own. Yup, Hitler was the founder of Volkswagen. Which also means Hitler was a car enthusiast to a certain extent. He also hired Ferdinand Porsche to Help him out, Porsche helped with the design of the first mass Volkswagen, the Type 1, or as it was lovingly called the beetle. It got this nickname due to its bug-like design. This car was very affordable, study and was pretty quick, all things considered. One thing I did forget to mention, the vast majority of these cars will built by slave laborers. Hitler also had military spec beetles, called Kubelwagen, fit with armor plating and all terrain wheels. To be honest, It would be cool to own one of these today, there are probably hardly any left though, and if there were any, they would probably cost a fortune. But despite Volkswagen’s dark past, they still exist, I believe Volkswagen owns Audi, Mercedes Benz, and Porsche. This has been a summary of Volkswagen’s dark history.

During the 80’s, more sporty sports coupes were being produced in Japan. JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market, meaning cars that are only built in Japan. In recent years, even some United States built Japanese cars such as the 2017 Honda Civic Type R are now considered JDM. Japanese cars have existed for a long time. They apparently started making waves in the united states when popular car enthusiast magazines like “Super Street Focused” began featuring some of the cars in their magazine. As sales of these magazines started elevating, so did the amount of these cars hitting US showrooms.

But in the early 2000’s, something major happened that would change the car community forever. In 2001, the movie, The Fast and The Furious was released into theaters. This film helped popularize dozens of now considered 90s JDM classics, such as the Mazda RX-7, the Mitsubishi Eclipse, and the Toyota Supra. This movie being the first in its 9 movie saga, (as of right now) it had a box office $207.3 Million. With the release of this movie came a new wave car enthusiasts, young and old, and made many children dream of racing fast cars for a living, I know I was one of those kids.

There is another piece of media that was involved in the popularization of JDM in the United States: Initial D. Initial D is an anime, or Japanese cartoon, centered around a boy who discovers his hidden racing potential, despite not liking to race in the beginning. He wins many street races, all in his dads tofu delivery car, which is an AE86 Toyota Sprinter Trueno. The show features lots of other real life JDM cars, and probably popularized some new ones. I believe the only reason the AE86 Trueno is popular is because of this show.

These were probably the most contributing factors as to why JDM is as popular as it is in the United States today.

It all started in the 1920s, when the blues were becoming mainstream. The blues started a new kind of music people weren’t used to but seemed to enjoy. Over the course of the next few decades, new instruments would be introduced to the blues, such as the electric guitar. The blues influenced many genres we enjoy today, like jazz, country, and rock. During the 1950s, rock and roll music hit the stage. Two of the biggest influences of rock and roll were Elvis Prestly and The Beatles. These cultural Icons would shape the music world as we know it today.

The 60’s was when rock started picking up more and getting a more modern sound to it, with bands like the Rolling Stones paving the way. During this time, some bands started experimenting with guitar sounds, distortion, and changing the pitch for a lower type of pitch. During the 70’s metal started becoming mainstream, with bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath winning the hearts of many teenagers. This influenced many, many different genres of metal through the decades.

The 80’s was when many metal bands came to light and influenced sub-genres like thrash metal, black metal, death metal, speed metal, etc. I prefer thrash metal, so that’s what i’m gonna run this out with since there’s so many, I couldn’t possibly cover them all. So thrash metal was made popular in the 80’s by bands like Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, all with a similar sound of typically fast distorted electric guitar and a lot of drums. Many modern day thrash metal artists take heavy influence from these four. Most people prefer to listen to the originals because it is difficult to reproduce the sound from a different time period, and a lot of band butcher it pretty bad. The genre of metal in general has evolved a lot since then, with countless genres to discover.

The Pontiac Aztek was a very disliked vehicle during its time of release. There are many reasons for the hate, but the biggest reason was quite simple: The Aztec was not a very attractive vehicle, or in other words, people thought it was ugly, However, if you look at newer SUV’s, like the Nissan Juke for example. They also look pretty ugly, but they never got nearly as much hate as the Aztek. That is why I think the Aztek was ahead of it’s time. There are a few other reasons why people disliked them, such as factory defects when they were first released. Just little things, like the car would spontaneously combust on occasion. Another reason is the tiny car sized wheels on a minivan type chassis. I’m not gonna lie, it looks kinda strange, but I wouldn’t say its bad. People also dislike it because it is difficult to tinker with, but honestly, if you buy an Aztek, I doubt you care about performance or anything. The final reason people don’t like the Aztek is because they were produced in Mexico. Big deal. Now, let me tell you why these things were under-appreciated.

Well, let me start by telling you, this car is the ultimate party wagon. The Aztek has a lot of pretty cool features, like the removable center console that is actually a removable Ice box. pretty dope. Also, the Aztek is perfect for avid campers. They would come with a kit to turn the rear into a fine temporary living space. This included an air mattress and a tent that was specially designed to attach to the trunk. and it also had a canopy covering the door to the tent, for in case of rain I presume. Another cool feature is the fact that you were able to control your radio from the trunk. there was a built in radio control system built into the upper right panel of the trunk, fit with buttons and dials. A few extra cool features were the insane view, with the huge rear window. Most were AWD and had a V6 engine. Also, the Aztek was featured in the popular show Breaking Bad as Walter White’s car.

But yeah, I dont really get all the hate for this car, its pretty cool.

As for now, the next generation of the Ford Mustang looks promising. After that dumpster fire of a car, the 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E, which received a lot of criticism due to is ugly body and bearing little resemblance to former Mustangs, It seems Ford is trying to redeem themselves with this next gen Mustang. The 2024 Mustang is set to be released in the summer of 2023. I’m going to be going over what we know so far.

So the first thing I think should be clarified is, despite other muscle car manufacturers going fully electric with their newest cars, (looking at you Dodge) Ford is not following suit, as of right now. The newest installment of Mustangs will have a 5.0-liter V8 and a 2.3-liter ecoboost engine. Ford has not made an official statement on how many horses this thing will have, but the expectation is high. Depending on which engine you choose, a six speed manual or a 10 speed automatic will be available. There is supposed to be a convertible version available as well as the standard hardtop. The car will also have a touchscreen radio and no knobs or dials, as they will be on-screen. (big surprise)

As for the design of the Mustang, it closely resembles previous models, and in my opinion, looks great. I usually dislike the angular design for newer cars, But man, I’ll give the new Mustang some props. The Mustang’s newest design looks perfect, the futuristic design looks like something straight out of Cyberpunk 2077. The angular design looks awful on the new Hyundai SUV’s, actually, I think SUV’s in general. That design needs to stay on sporty cars, and it looks perfect on the new Mustang. I’m looking forward to seeing this on the streets, and seeing all the mods and body kits that come out for this, but at the same time I don’t really think it needs a body kit to improve its looks, I mean look at it.

I know what you’re thinking. “Well, they’re called Swedish Fish, so they must be from Sweden right?” Well the answer might surprise you. Yes. They were invented Swedish candy producer “Malaco” in the late 1950’s, as an attempt to expand the US candy market.

So you might be wondering… why the fish shape? In the 1950’s, fishing, and fish in general, were still a very large part of Sweden’s culture, and fish were highly consumed by the Swedish people during this time. They wanted the candy to reflect Sweden’s culture in some way, so they chose a fish.

Swedish Fish developed popularity with almost no advertising from Malaco, up until the last decade. As of 2016, Swedish Fish has its own YouTube series called “Treadin’ Water” featuring 4 friends sharing an apartment with a human sized Swedish Fish, styled like an 80’s sitcom. They have recently regained more popularity, becoming more available in stores.

Nobody really knows what the original red flavor is supposed to be. There was some speculation that the flavor could be lingonberry, but it has never been confirmed. However, one thing is certain: The flavor of Swedish Fish is unique to itself, and has an Iconic taste I’m sure most people would recognise.

Does this image look unsettling to you? uncomfortable? There’s an explanation for that. In this blog post, I’m gonna cover the concept of liminal spaces and why the conjure such strange and almost nostalgic feelings from the viewer.

Liminal spaces. Lets break down the words first, so you can better understand the phenomenon. The word liminality means “A state of transition between one stage to the next” so with this context, it seems to imply that these pictures hold some kind of spiritual significance, maybe a feeling of peace?

That wouldn’t really make sense though, because most people I’ve talked to seem to get an unnerving feeling from the images. So what causes the strange feelings?The answer is very simple. Nostalgia. Most of these images depict places that give off a familiar feeling of “have I been here before?” and the reason for that is most of the buildings give off the “90’s – 00’s” vibe, that people who were born in that time may have vague remembrance of similar places, causing that nostalgic feeling. A lot of these images also show 90’s – 00’s indoor playgrounds, sound weird right? Well, it’s not really, because the biggest contributing factor to the strange and isn’t just nostalgia, it’s childhood nostalgia. It’s the feeling that “the world you grew up in no longer exists” which is why most of them are dark and/or abandoned buildings. Another huge thing is the consistent lack of people, or life in general. Everything feels hollowed out, forgotten, kind of dead.

So, looping back around, the reason why they’re called liminal spaces, is because they feel like an alternate reality, somewhere you’ve been before but is not like how you remember it, and instead is now a hollowed out shell of the way it used to be.