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Learn more about Aster Gilbert and get to know the person behind the posts you have read.
Aster Gilbert (they/them) has called Washington home their entire life and feels at peace in the PNW. They’ve always had a passion for writing and telling other people's stories since they were little. They would often tell long rambling stories that randomly popped into their head one day about made up people going on grand adventures. As the fall quarter of 2025 began at Highline College, they began their running start career along with it. When presented with the opportunity to write for the school newspaper in winter, they were very excited. Their favorite type of article to write is arts pieces but they like to challenge themself to branch out and write for other categories when the ideas strike. Outside of the paper, their hobbies consist of listening to and creating music, playing with their dog Lucy, reading, and exploring new places.
Aster Gilbert's Recent Posts:
Caffeine is classified as a central nervous system stimulant, or in other words, a drug. Chances are you as the reader consume caffeine in some form as approximately 85% of Americans drink caffeine. The interesting thing is it’s not stigmatized the way any other form of non-medical drug usage would be.
People go on coffee dates all the time or joke about their chronic energy drink addiction. It’s not every day you meet somebody and they’ll ask you to go to a dispensary on the first date. What is it about caffeine that makes it socially acceptable to be addicted to it?
Chappell Roan, a pop star from Willard, Mo., has dedicated her career to creating a queer space built on love and safety. She grew up in an environment where she felt loved but didn’t get to experiment with being herself until she moved out. Her platform now allows other people to see themselves in a form of media that often doesn’t often represent them.
She has now become the name on anyone who’s interested in pop culture’s lips, and found herself in the center of another controversy, this time in Brazil. This current controversy involves a security officer and a fan. In her short two years in the spotlight, Roan is still going strong despite people claiming her 15 minutes of fame are over. This Brazil incident is just another controversy marking Roan’s time in the public eye.
As the NHL’s main season comes to a close, and a number of teams prepare for the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Seattle Kraken are preparing for the next season. On April 11, 2026, the Kraken were officially eliminated from the playoffs after a long string of losses.
After four players competed in the 2026 Olympics (none for the U.S. team) the Kraken went from a team with a decent standing this season – with a solid chance at representing the Pacific Division in the playoffs. Instead, they fell apart, ending their season with a 34-36 record, putting them sixth in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and out of the playoffs.
Rising star RAYE (born Rachel Keen) has released her much anticipated sophomore studio album “THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE.” It comes three years after her debut “My 21st Century Blues” which was also a long time coming.
She actually entered the music industry in 2014 after dropping out of the prestigious BRIT School in Croydon, London. It’s the same school artists like Olivia Dean and Adele went to, but for her, she felt “confined”.
Every decade is known for its horror movie trends and tropes. The 1980s had the rise of slasher movies, the 1990s had a more self-aware and meta response to the prior movies, and the 2000s had hyper-gory “torture porn” movies. The current biggest trend is called “elevated horror”.
The term can not be attributed to a single person, but instead to the general audience and critical thoughts on the genre at the time. It arose in the mid-2010s to describe art-house style horror movies that prioritize thematic depth and psychological dread.
People living in the United States and Europe immigrate for a multitude of reasons and always have. They could be fleeing conflict zones, they could be moving for financial reasons, or they could simply be exploring. Immigration is not only something humans have always done but it’s a normal thing for most living creatures to do. Birds migrate constantly for survival purposes and it is no different for us.
Here in the United States, immigration is one of the most hotly debated topics in modern politics. People immigrate worldwide all the time because it’s often a human necessity and simply a normal thing to do and yet, especially to the American right wing, it’s up there with the most important issues there is.
Pokémon’s 30th anniversary is happening in 2026, and its birthday is on Feb. 27.
Pokémon is the world’s largest grossing media franchise of all time, having made a lifetime revenue estimated between $115 billion to $150 billion. This far surpasses second place which even on the high end of estimates puts Hello Kitty at $80 billion.
Pokémon was able to achieve this in only 30 years.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic that’s hot on the tongue of everybody and it often feels unavoidable. There are a million differing opinions on it and how it can be used as a tool. Many people fear that it will go further than being a tool and will begin to take over people’s jobs. One field that AI is particularly prominent in seems to be education.
With the rise of AI in fields and careers like education, one might be curious what educators across the schooling system feel about AI. How do they feel about students using it? How about their co-workers or potentially themselves? Do they have fears of losing their jobs to these robots? Here were my findings over the course of a series of interviews with high school teachers and college professors.
Every year, the Grammys are built up for months (the nominations for this year’s ceremony were revealed on Nov. 7) as artists run campaigns to hopefully be awarded with the golden gramophone. In the lead up to the night, people love to try and predict the winners and some even get so confident that they bet real money on it.
For anyone who’s curious about the state of the predictions this year, here are the front runners for the big four categories.
The Grammy Awards – the self proclaimed “biggest night in music” – has happened every year around early February since 1959. A prestigious and mysterious group of voters made up of industry insiders (singers, songwriters, producers, engineers, and more) decide who will take home the gramophone-shaped trophies. This year, the ceremony will take place on Feb. 1 at Crypto Arena in Los Angeles. Should we still care enough to tune in?
The Grammys are far from the only major award show. The other three that are considered major U.S. award shows are the Emmys (television), the Oscars (film), and the Tonys (theater). The four of them together make up the EGOTs. The Grammys are actually the newest of the four with the Oscars coming up on their 100-year anniversary in 2029.
Welcome back Thunderbirds! The fall quarter of 2025 was very strong and the ThunderWord hopes readers had a refreshing and relaxing winter break.
As per tradition, the start of the quarter was marked by the return of Thunderweek, a week of events and spirit days to get students excited for the quarter ahead.