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The Student Voice of Forest Hills Central

The Central Trend

The Student Voice of Forest Hills Central

The Central Trend

The Student Voice of Forest Hills Central

The Central Trend

Audrey Basher

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer

After taking a gap year, Audrey is entering her second year on staff for The Central Trend. In her free time, you can find her reading, practicing music for Jazz Ensemble, or just playing games with her friends.

Favorite color: Cobalt

Favorite story type: Columns, reviews, and editorials

Favorite song: "Fly Me To The Moon" by Frank Sinatra

All content by Audrey Basher
Bittersweet isn't the right feeling

Bittersweet isn’t the right feeling

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer May 10, 2022

As I am sitting at my screen, my room is lit by two sole pale lights. One is the ceiling fan that drives me mad with its lack of hue, and the other a blank Google doc: an essay I haven’t written. That’s...

Eighteen

Eighteen

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer May 3, 2022

When I was younger, I had all these little ideas about who I would be when I grew up—of who I wanted to be when I got older and where I thought I’d be going Though here I am today, with eighteen...

Sonic 2 is a chaotic mess, and I love it

Sonic 2 is a chaotic mess, and I love it

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer May 3, 2022

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie is, to this day, one of the best video game movies—at least I believe it is. I’m not trying to say that’s a very prestigious title; I mean, what competition does...

This is the official box art for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Super Smash Bros.: a retrospective

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer March 22, 2022

Games have shaped my life in amazing ways. From changing who I am and how I act, to just building the bonds between me and my friends, they have shaped me. I grew up with what my brothers did. So when...

My childhood games: a retrospective

My childhood games: a retrospective

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer March 8, 2022

Sometimes finding a deeper meaning is hard. A hidden message or lesson I can learn from the world around me is sometimes not there. The amount of games from which I either have learned something from or...

A boy in makeup

A boy in makeup

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer February 9, 2022

Honestly, this past year has been a mess, and nothing about it makes sense anymore. I always thought I knew who I was, who I was going to be, but 2021 had a different plan for me. Going into the year,...

Team Fortress 2: a retrospective

Team Fortress 2: a retrospective

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer January 31, 2022

To grow distant. To watch the things you love leave you. To deal with the loss of what you once had. It hurts. To see friends grow distant. To know that the bond you shared is suddenly gone and you don’t...

Why do people want Mario to be a FPS game?

Why do people want Mario to be a FPS game?

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer January 31, 2022

Some of my favorite games are those that have been removed from the developer's hands. Games that have intense modding scenes tend to spark the most creativity. To me, Minecraft comes to mind. So many...

Nobody Saves the World has a world worth saving

Nobody Saves the World has a world worth saving

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer January 25, 2022

Nobody Saves the World is a game that sounds like its world is doomed. With Nobody in charge of saving it, the calamity has grown restless and seeks to cause death all around. It just happens that Nobody...

Club Penguin: a retrospective

Club Penguin: a retrospective

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer January 21, 2022

The silent and subtle push and influence we have on the world is all around us all the time. In the same vein, the world pushes back—it influences us just as silently. Strangers we might never meet again...

Xenoblade Chronicles X: a retrospective

Xenoblade Chronicles X: a retrospective

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer January 20, 2022

To escape reality, I’d go to some far extremes. I have always sought a world better than our own. One in which I could help. One in which my problems weren’t getting out of bed and trying to feel happy,...

Video games are becoming out of my reach

Video games are becoming out of my reach

Audrey Basher, Staff Writer January 11, 2022

There used to be nights where the time that passed around me was obsolete until the morning’s light was blinding me. So immersed in the worlds I chose over ours, that nothing was there to take me away. Those...

FHC’s phone ban fails at helping our education

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer December 15, 2021

Opinions expressed in editorials on The Central Trend are the view of the individual writer and are not the opinion of the entire staff of The Central Trend or the Forest Hills Central staff or administration. For...

TCT's The Countless Thanks 2021: Kyle Basher

TCT’s The Countless Thanks 2021: Kyle Basher

Kyle Basher, Staff writer November 23, 2021

Jem - for always being there for me Thank you for being there for me in my darkest times. You never fail to brighten my mood and make my days bearable. I wish we could hang out more often, but I still...

Skyrim Anniversary Edition is uninspired, but still the most fun I've had in Skyrim

Skyrim Anniversary Edition is uninspired, but still the most fun I’ve had in Skyrim

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer November 15, 2021

Tod Howard, the creator of Skyrim, has done it again. He has released even more content for his dying horse of a game. Skyrim is an open-world RPG in which you mainly walk around empty fields and fight...

Full orchestra brings the music programs of FHC together

Full orchestra brings the music programs of FHC together

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer November 11, 2021

If you asked band director Laura Zilhaver about getting a full orchestra together, she’d tell you that COVID-19 made it challenging; however,  she is bringing back one of the band’s traditions that...

Infinity's endless infuriation

Infinity’s endless infuriation

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer November 8, 2021

It always feels impossible until it’s done. Hobbies are inconceivably intriguing to me. You might like reading or sports, but for me, it’s video games. I can spend hours sitting in the same chair...

Baldur's Gate Three captured the essence of what D&D is

Baldur’s Gate Three captured the essence of what D&D is

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer November 1, 2021

Baldur’s Gate Three is the best D&D video game, but it can’t compare to the original. If you didn’t know, I am a fan of the famous tabletop roleplaying game, or TTRPG, D&D. Baldur’s...

Metroid Dread wasn't the game I wanted it to be, but I loved it regardless

Metroid Dread wasn’t the game I wanted it to be, but I loved it regardless

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer October 19, 2021

Atmosphere: one of my favorite tools in media. It makes the viewer uncomfortable through music choice, visuals, and more that they sometimes don't even notice. If I had to pick only one game series that...

Why are there almost 30 FIFA games?

Why are there almost 30 FIFA games?

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer October 12, 2021

One of the things I look forward to is the announcement of new content for one of my favorite games, whether, in the form of DLC (downloadable content) locked behind a paywall or just a simple update,...

This is the box art for the game Terraria by Re-logic

Terraria: a retrospective

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer October 6, 2021

I’ve always liked block games. To be honest, who doesn’t like Minecraft? That’s not what I'm talking about though. This is the other block game that is my most played game ever. Let’s set the...

Sonic Colors Ultimate is my favorite disappointment, and nostalgia is to blame

Sonic Colors Ultimate is my favorite disappointment, and nostalgia is to blame

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer September 27, 2021

I grew up on a lot of different video games, but one prevalent franchise from my childhood was Sonic. I would play the original Sonic Adventure—not the Sonic Adventure 2 though—Sonic Unleashed for...

How to make more of what games offer

How to make more of what games offer

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer September 20, 2021

Minecraft is a game that almost everyone knows. With it being the most purchased game in history with two-hundred thirty-eight million copies sold, you can expect it to have a large community of people...

Improv Team Q&As: Logan Verlinde

Improv Team Q&As: Logan Verlinde

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer September 16, 2021

What made you decide to join Improv? "I joined the Improv team because I saw the show last year, and it looked like a lot of fun. Also, [senior] Benji Zorn reached out to me and told me that he thought...

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is only sometimes a good Aliens game

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is only sometimes a good Aliens game

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer September 8, 2021

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a great game, but it's only sometimes a good representation of Aliens. The game takes place in the world of Aliens, which should be obvious enough, and the main story takes...

Morality vs. legality: emulation

Morality vs. legality: emulation

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer August 30, 2021

Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door (TTYD) is one of my favorite games. Good thing my Wii can no longer read the disc right? Fortunately, emulation is a great tool for those who run into this problem, want...

Media does not need to look good to be beautiful

Media does not need to look good to be beautiful

Kyle Basher, staff writer April 16, 2020

Beauty is a standard many try to live up to, yet many fail to meet. Media shares this quality with us. Directors don’t make movies or plays for money. Composers don’t write songs for money. Developers...

Minecraft: the gaming juggernaut

Minecraft: the gaming juggernaut

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer March 9, 2020

One hundred eighty. That number alone is quite small, but when you add six zeroes to the end, you get the number of copies of Minecraft that have been sold. It would not be an understatement to call...

Sonic The Hedgehog: the only half decent video game movie

Sonic The Hedgehog: the only half decent video game movie

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer March 4, 2020

Atrocious. The only word necessary to describe how I felt about the original Sonic design. Luckily Paramount, the studio behind Sonic The Hedgehog, redesigned the model to one worthy of praise. Yet,...

Sound design in media is the hidden gem

Sound design in media is the hidden gem

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer February 25, 2020

Bang, crash, clang. Sound plays a huge role in my life, but it is even more predominant in video games. Music carries a mood and silence as well as an atmosphere. Sound design makes the largest impact...

Super Smash Bros Ultimate fighter pass vol. 1 introduces a chaotic bunch of characters

Super Smash Bros Ultimate fighter pass vol. 1 introduces a chaotic bunch of characters

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer February 5, 2020

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been out for just over a year. In this time it has gone through seven major updates, five of which added new characters, all of which are supposed to feel unique. The...

The irony of brain over brawn in fighting games

The irony of brain over brawn in fighting games

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer January 29, 2020

Psychology: the study of the mind. Psychology has always been interesting to me.  Psychology is a way to look into the mind, mine or others.  One aspect of my life that has always been intertwined...

Serena Thiede is a freshman superstar

Serena Thiede is a freshman superstar

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer January 28, 2020

Freshman Serena Thiede is an athlete and a performer. She has dipped her hands in several different sports: dance, soccer, track, and golf, which is her favorite. Serena started her golf career due...

I can't

I can’t

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer January 27, 2020

People scare me.  New people and old acquaintances alike scare me. I am horrible at interacting with people, so I fear I’ll, in some unholy fashion, completely break any relations I have with people. I...

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is a remake done right

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is a remake done right

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer January 22, 2020

I have issues with time management, so when a game I have been really looking forward to comes out, I have a difficult time putting it down. On January 17, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, a JRPG,...

FHC teachers make their jobs full time in an odd way

FHC teachers make their jobs full time in an odd way

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer January 13, 2020

Orchestra director Andrew Pool loves teaching all the kids he gets to teach, from Central Woodlands all the way to the high school. Teaching at three schools as a full-time job might seem like a negative...

Shovel Knight: King of Cards should be renamed to King of Disappointment

Shovel Knight: King of Cards should be renamed to King of Disappointment

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer January 8, 2020

The Wii U was a failed console, but it walked so the Nintendo Switch could run. One of my favorite games that came out on the Nintendo Switch is Shovel Knight.  Even though the game came out nearly...

There is no such thing as bad luck

There is no such thing as bad luck

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer December 24, 2019

There is a 1.3 percent chance that someone dies in a car crash. Not to sound pessimistic, but one would have to be pretty lucky to have that happen. Luck is defined as success or failure based on chance...

Dauntless combines the fun of single player RPGs with fully multiplayer gameplay

Dauntless combines the fun of single player RPGs with fully multiplayer gameplay

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer December 17, 2019

Monsters that are at least thrice your height, are able to kill you with ease, and are immaculately satisfactory to take down.     There is a game that I have been highly anticipating for release...

Why do I work better at night?

Why do I work better at night?

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer December 16, 2019

At four am, I look like a decrepit, unwrapped mummy with hair. I feel exhausted—like I could pass out, but I don’t. I work on my article of the month paper for my Honors English 10 class that is due...

Lady and the Tramp is a classic given new life

Lady and the Tramp is a classic given new life

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer November 25, 2019

To say that deep down, I’m a sap for romantics is an understatement. So when I heard of a modern remake of Lady and the Tramp, I was ecstatic. The film is a mix of real actors and CGI, computer-generated...

Does the American youth even know what our government does?

Does the American youth even know what our government does?

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer November 20, 2019

FHC’s new Model UN teacher Trevor Riley cares for the political engagement of his students. He believes that students should be more engaged in political activities. He believes that the younger generations...

Escapism in electronics

Escapism in electronics

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer November 19, 2019

I’ve never had many friends. I only have one or two real, close friends at any given moment, so I spend much of my time online. Most days I perform the same routine: wake up, make facades for conversations...

Romantic, delicious, charming: The Cheesecake Factory

Romantic, delicious, charming: The Cheesecake Factory

Kyle Basher, Staff Writer November 11, 2019

The falling snow was illuminated by the Barnes and Noble’s lights which masked the deceptively large building known as the Cheesecake Factory. I got out of my mom’s car and stared up at the horizon...

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