A Collector’s Army is Stone Soup’s newest podcast about collecting everything from stuffed animals to baseball cards, hosted by Ayaan Pirani. https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/A-Collectors-Armory.m4a Welcome to A Collector’s Armory! This is a podcast about collecting different things throughout the stages of life. You might think of an armory as a place where weapons are kept, but I’m using the word broadly to name a place where any collectible could be stored. We’ll cover questions such as why would I collect these items, how do I display my collectibles, and where do I find collectibles? I’ll be your host, Ayaan Pirani, and I’ve been collecting things for a long time. My obsession started from a very young age with Hot Wheels and stuffed animals and has now progressed to Funko Pops and sports cards. The name of this episode is “All About Collecting.” We’re going to start off with what are collectibles? Well, collectibles can be a variety of things, from action figures to shoes. In short, collectibles are items that one keeps for personal satisfaction. On to question 2: how much money do collectibles cost? Well, for starters, the cost of a collectible can range from super cheap to really expensive. I have around 160 collectibles in my room at this moment. An example of a moderately priced one could be this Elf Bonnie plushie from Five Nights at Freddy’s that sells for about $6 but has a value of $40. An example of a more pricey collectible could be my Wander Franco pink fireworks rookie baseball card from Donruss. This card is worth about $45. An example of a super expensive collectible that I sadly don’t own is a Willy Wonka Oompa Loompa 2-pack golden ticket Funko Pop that recently sold for $100,000. Now that you know a bit about collectibles, you may ask, once I have a collectible, what do I do with them? Well once you have a collectible, you can find out a personal way you want to store or display them, so it can look good. For example, personally, with my Funko Pops to display them I purchased a baseball bat case and placed LED lights in the case. This allows my case to have good lighting. After that, I placed my out-of-box Funko Pops in the case. However, depending on what you collect, you might invent a different way to display your collectible. Lastly, you may ask, do celebrities collect things? The answer to that question is of course! Many famous people collect things for personal enjoyment. For instance, actor Leonardo DiCaprio collects action figures and has an absurd collection of them. Another example of a famous collector is Elton John, a musician who collects shoes. A final example of a famous collector is Jake Plummer, a quarterback for the Denver Broncos. He collects Hot Wheels. This wraps up your introduction to A Collector’s Armory. This is your host, Ayaan Pirani, signing off for today! Next month, we’ll be talking about collectibles from a young age. Leave a comment down below, stating what you would like to collect. Until next time, see ya!
Young Bloggers
Blox Fruits, Reviewed by Elliott Whang, 12
A beam of light comes zooming at me faster than I can dodge. I shoot a fireball back at my enemy. And…I die…but, I quickly spring back to life, fuming to get my revenge. This situation has happened to me multiple times. In a video game, of course. The video game I had just died in is called Blox Fruits. You might be thinking, “Why would beams of light and fireballs be going off in a game with fruits?” Well, these fruits are not exactly normal. In fact, these fruits can give the player special powers if eaten by your character in the game. To gain fruits in this game, you can either find them on the map, buy one with real or game currency, or trade fruits with other players. Speaking of other players, every server, which is a group of people in an online world, has random players in it, unless you play with your friends. You can join a game online with your friends and do challenges and quests with each other. You can gain levels by killing non-playing characters, which are generated by the game, therefore completing a quest. Each successful quest gives the player an increase of around 1-2 levels until you reach a maximum level set by the game developers. Playing with friends makes the game more fun and easier than just playing by yourself. It is also more efficient because teamwork can speed up the process of completing quests. The main goal of this game is to get to max level, where you can annihilate people. By gaining levels, you receive stat points that you can put into several different categories. These categories are combat/stamina, health, sword, gun, and fruit. Each stat point gives an increase in damage or health. In addition to leveling up, there are also other side goals, like getting different combat styles, clothes, swords and guns. But why would swords, clothes and guns be in a fruit game? By having swords, guns, and clothes in the game, it allows the players to also focus on getting different items besides just fruits. Clothes, swords and guns all have different rarities just like fruits. Clothes can give stat boosts, while swords, guns, combat styles, and fruits cause damage to opponents. Swords and guns are also added because this game is based off a show, which happens to have swords and guns. This game sounds really complicated, likely because there is too much to cover in a single blog post, so instead you should play it yourself. You can play this game inside a game called Roblox. You can download Roblox for free on an Iphone, PC, IOS, Android, and some Xbox models. If you don’t like the sound of fruit giving you superpowers, there are also many other fun and free games you can play. Stay tuned for my next blog about a game that requires less time and more skill. Are you ready?
The Meaning of Boycott: it may surprise you!
According to the Oxford dictionary, boycott means to “withdraw from commercial or social started relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.” There is a long history related to the term, like where it came from and why. A famous boycott in the 21st century is the Grab Your Wallet boycott, initiated in July 2018, which targeted Donald Trump for not understanding the effects of climate change and discrimination. A more well-known boycott in history was the one led by Rosa Parks in 1955, who refused to give up her seat to a white person. After being forced off the bus, Parks started the Montgomery Bus Boycott through which many activists stopped riding the bus. Black people boycotted for the right to equal seating. Rosa Parks’ protest defined the word boycott for me, but recently, I’ve been doing some research to dig deeper into its meaning. Born in 1932 in Norfolk, England, Charles Boycott made history with just his ego and his name. The time Charles was alive was a hard time for farmers who suffered from high costs for rent. Feeling sympathy for their cause, Charles, the head landlord, told his worker, Erne, to lower rents by 10%. The farmers, sensing weakness, got greedy and asked for 25% lower, and Erne said no. Charles got mad at them for being ungrateful and started to evict farmers. Now it was the workers’ turn to get mad; those who still had their houses refused to pay rent at all, and the farmers without houses stopped farming, depriving the people of England of necessities like milk and eggs. Charles decided to give back the houses because he, and all the townspeople, needed the food. England decided to name this action boycotting, after the person who was targeted by this protest. In conclusion, I am always impressed how understanding the derivation of a word can deepen its meaning. When reading about the current boycotts in the newspaper, or using my voice to stand up for what I believe in, I will always remember Charles, and I hope you do too.
