Minooka Arrowettes 2010 AAA Hip Hop
Transcription
Minooka Arrowettes 2010 AAA Hip Hop
Minooka Arrowettes 2010 AAA Hip Hop Peace Pipe Chatter Special Edition State March 24, 2010 Champs Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 State Champions by Designed by Melissa Magnus Minooka Arrowettes bring home State Championship Melissa Magnus Features Editor form in the open-pom division was no surprise, considering that it has always been a Minooka Arrowette tradition. On the other hand, we decided to venture out of our comfort zones for our second routine, and take on the challenge of competing in the most difficult division in TDI, which is AAA Hip-hop. “It was really scary, and a huge risk to choose hip-hop but it was totally worth the risk,” said junior Lindsey Nagel. At the first competition, when we performed hiphop for the first time in Minooka Arrowette history, and took first place, along with the Artistic Excellence award, we knew that the season was going to be a good one. “Our first competition was really exciting, and we did really well considering it was our first time out on the floor,” said junior, Michelle Targonski. Competition season progressed, and the Arrowettes continued to bring in first place victories raising excitement and the chances of giving Minooka their second ever, state champions. Our final regional competition took place at Prairie Ridge High School, where we took 2nd place in hip-hop, Arrowettes won 1st place and 3rd place at the TDI State and 3rd in openChampionships. Photo by Kelly Thompson. Everything leads down to this. The eighthour practices, the tears, the hard work. All that we have been working for as a team for the past 11 months has come down to the next three minutes of our final performance at the TDI State Championship competition in Peoria. A large booming voice echoes through the stadium making my heart seem as if it was going to pound through my chest, “Minooka! You may now begin your performance!” shouts the announcer. As I step onto the floor with my team, and look above me, only to see thousands of people staring back with anticipation, I think to myself “everything leads down to this.” It only seems like yesterday, when we sat as a team for the first time at our first summer practice, and brainstormed ideas about our upcoming competition season. Making the decision as a team to per- “It was really scary, and a huge risk to choose hip-hop but it was totally worth the risk,” said junior Lindsey Nagel. Arrowettes pose after the award ceremony at one of their regional competitions. Photo by Kelly Thompson pom. For the next two weeks up until state, we were told to eat, breathe and sleep poms. Making final changes to the routines, and perfecting every second of the dances was hard work. We knew that this was the time to leave everything on the line and give everything we had into the routines. Finally it was the weekend of March 6, the weekend of the TDI State Championships. The Arrowettes were going into state ranked in 2nd for hip-hop, and 3rd for open-pom, and we were more determined than ever to take home the state title. After a long emotional day of competing, we gathered together as a team on the stadium floor awaiting the results during awards. “It was one of the most intense moments of my life,” said sophomore Rachel Vidano. As the announcer came to the AAA hip –hop division, we bowed heads and held each other’s hands, praying for the win. The announcer reads the list of winning teams and the suspense builds. Fifth place, fourth place, third place, second place, our team still hasn’t been announced. The excitement builds as the announcer pauses for a brief moment, which seems like an hour, and shouts through the microphone “First Place, and taking home the state championship, Minooka!” Overall, the season was a huge success and it is an honor to be a part of such an amazing team. Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 State Champions Designed by Jacki Kaluzny 2009-2010 Accomplishments Hip Hop and Open Pom 1st - Stagg, Oswego East, Minooka, Plainfield East 2nd - Prairie Ridge SPC Conference Champs AAA State Champs The photos on this page were taken at the Arrowettes state finals in Peoria on March 6 by Kelly Thompson. The Arrowettes include seniors: Sydney Trepel, Taryn McCoy, Jenna Simotes, Callie Gliwa, Kristianna Kunz, Chelsea Cambell, Jaclyn Kenyon, and Tiffany Hills, juniors; Melissa Magnus, Michelle Taragonski, and Lindsay Nagel, sophomores Kelsey Kunz, Paige Gliwa, Sammy Boehm, Rachel Vidano, and Mallory Keck. Peace Pipe Chatter Volume 95 Edition 11 March 24, 2010 Specia l Theme Issue t a h W ou do y n a ? s c y a d 5 in 2 Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days ‘Meet Melissa’ continued from page 6 even though I’m not very familiar with his music, and I don’t like his music that I do know. After school, she had poms practice again. She was getting ready for the state competition the next day. Day 3 Melissa and the poms squad headed down to the state competition in Peoria. In the evening, they went to a party where the team dressed up like Lady Gaga. Day 4 Melissa and the poms squad won the state championship in the hip-hop competition, the first time MCHS has ever done so. This was Minooka’s second team state championship title, just a week after the wrestling team won theirs. About the poms squad’s victory, Melissa said, “It was probably one of the happiest, proudest moments of my life.” Melissa had an interesting experience on the bus ride home. She said, “I fell asleep on the bus. When I laid down there was a cup of ice tea next to me. I woke up with ice tea spilled all over me. I had to stand up the rest of the way home.” I made the horrible mistake of sitting at Melissa’s lunch table that was full of poms girls that were exhausted from the weekend. My conversation with Melissa was going well until one of her tired, irritable friends decided to take her exhaustion out on me. Most of my sentences that I spoke to Melissa only got half finished because her angry friend kept interrupting me. By the end of it, I was really glad that I was leaving Melissa’s table. Day 5 Melissa went to what she called a “shady” store to try on prom dresses with her friend Kacy Rogers. According to her, all of the dresses were tacky. Then they went to a Taco Bell in Ottawa and bought an ice tea. Then she went to the Minooka Taco Bell to refill her ice tea. Then she threw said ice tea at the house of someone she didn’t like. My final lunch with Melissa was much less stressful than the previous one. Her irritable friend was there, but fortunately she didn’t say a word. Melissa wanted to find me a date for prom. This included a few of her friends at the table. I also learned at that lunch to never insult the Jonas Brothers in front of Melissa. It all started with a discussion about me playing guitar, which turned into me telling Melissa that the Jonas Brothers don’t actually play their guitars. Melissa never actually denied this, and I pointed that out to everyone at the table. This caused Melissa to suddenly yell, “David Tibble, shut up!” at the top of her lungs. “I didn’t mean that to echo,” said Melissa as I recovered from the shock of being screamed at out of nowhere. Melissa apologized for yelling at me, and I apologized for insulting the Jonas Brothers (I’ll still insult them anytime, anywhere). Overall, my experience with Melissa was interesting. I learned many things; like that she really likes ice tea. “I drink ice tea every day,” Melissa said. This experience has shown me that taking five days to know someone is actually a good idea. Designed by Melissa Magnus Peace Pipe Chatter Minooka Community High School 301 S. Wabena Avenue Minooka, IL 60447 (815) 467-2140 Voicemail: ext 264 [email protected] Editors-In-Chief A&E Editor Jacqueline Kaluzny D.J. Valera Sydney Trepel Aubrey Aspan Erick Klank Cover Design Editorial Editor Sydney Trepel Iman Bradley News Editor School News Editor David Tibble Taylor Roop Features Editor Assist. Sports Editor Melissa Magnus Jake Hoffman Elliott Johnson Sports Editor South Editor Mike Noe Journalism I Interactive Editor Chatter Room Editor Jacqueline Kaluzny Ryan Miller Copy Editor Sports Photographer Ryan Miller Taylor Roop David Tibble Elliott Johnson A&E Photographer Aubrey Aspan News/Features Photographer Susan Bahret South Photographer Journalism I Journalism I: Adaue Ajiere, Elaina Bartoli, Alexa Bowen, Cody Conaway, Baylee Dibble, Nicole Eberhard, Christopher Evans, Brandon Fierke, Ashley Groll, Elizabeth Guldenbecker, Samantha Harer, Austin Hough, Jamie Huff, Catherine Jostes, Mallory Keck, Joseph Koenig, Shannon Lawlor, Danielle Luttrell, Michael Naszkiewicz, Dutch Nave, Liz Purcell, Carrie Rickmon, Paige Toepper, John Walsh Submission Policy: The Peace Pipe Chatter strongly encourages suggestions and/or responses to material printed on its pages. Letters to the Editor should be submitted to Mr. Thomas’s mailbox or to a Peace Pipe Chatter editor. While submission does not guarantee publication, PPC staff members will do their best to respond to all admissions. Submissions will not be returned. All submissions are subject to editing and will not be printed if they are considered to be inappropriate. They must be signed but may be printed anonymous upon request. 3 SURVIVOR Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days Story, Design, and Picture by Soozie Bahret How to live without your cell for 5 days mouse traps. Once you get caught, you’re never getting out. How strange is it that new technologies quickly become necessities. Number one example: the cell phone. What used to be a new business tool in the Nineties quickly became a lifeline to millions by the 21st century. Kids these days can hardly go 20 minutes without frantically checking their phone to see if they have received a text. It makes you wonder, how did our old fart parents live without cells? Time to experiment: Survivor; Land of the Lost Cell phone. Day 4: Day 1 The suspense is killing me. Someone could be texting my cell some insanely important message right now and I will not get it. From the start I knew if I heard my ringtone shoot off, “I love it when you call me Big PaPa,” that I would not be able to resist. So, reluctantly I shut my eyes, held Brucy in my arms (that is the name of my phone), and held down that power button. It took all the strength I had. It will only be five days, I told him. And there I sat. With out Bruce, how was I supposed to contact my friends for hang out time? I decided that the best way to avoid thinking about my long lost Brucy would be to watch a movie. So I headed down to dungeon, aka, the basement. I decided I should find a movie in which there are no cell phones involved, and so the obvious choice was Lord of The Rings. For the next two hours and 58 minutes of my life, I was lost in the mountains of Middle Earth on the way to Mordor; thus not thinking at all about who was texting or calling my cell phone. Nighttime was the worst. Instead of talking to my boyfriend, I had to resort to facebook messaging. Honestly, it felt like sixth grade. You know, like before we all had unlimited texting, we would chat by aim on our ridiculously lame screen names. I think mine was iheartcheez99. Facebook status: Living without my cell phone is the closest I have ever come to near death. I can see the light. Day 2: I guess not having Bruce during school hours was sort of helpful. I gave maybe 58% of my attention instead of the usual 33%. Yet I still could not help wonder what I was missing. At least four times already I performed the classic “freak-out search” for my phone. You know, where you think you left it somewhere, and so you look, and it’s not Living without my cell was like sitting alone on an isolated island. there. And then you start to freak out because you cannot find it, and panic takes over. Eventually, I would remember that Bruce was tucked safely under my pillow at home and not half way to a pawn shop. At lunch, my friends made me feel rather awkward when they began talking about weekend plans without invlovling me. I was about to to try and slip away from the table when one of my pals asked me if I was coming. “Didn’t you get my text?” she asked. And so I then explained to them the horrors of life with a cell phone. “Well,” replied my friend, “At least now you won’t have to worry about dropping it in the toilet.” I replied with my sarcastic laugh: “Ha. Ha.” She just had to remind me. I have dropped four cell phones in toilets during my lifetime. Stupid jeans and their stupid back pockets. But more important, she opened my eyes to the glass half full. So rather than stress about the cons of a Bruce-less life, I would have to find all the pros. Facebook Status: Life without a cell phone is like living on a different freaking planet. Day 3: I woke up thinking about the previous night’s activities. I drove over to my friend’s house and then we met some others to see Alice and Wonderland (which I thought was fantastic by the way). After the movie, we all just hung out. This may sound uneventful, but what made it a spectacular night was actually not having my cell phone. Simply, because there was no mother constantly badgering me. I did not have to receive the annoying messages from her saying, “Hey Sooz, where are you? What are you doing? lol” These irritating messages usually come twice an hour, and she would always insert “lol” when it was unnecessary. I honestly don’t think she knows what it means. So while I did feel a bit out of the loop, I also felt a new sense of freedom. Being Saturday, I had my eight-hour shift at the Mac Shack. Not having my cell at work was painful at first, but after a while I found that I indeed got more work done without the distraction. Eric Klank strolled through McDonald’s doors twice that day, each time asking me how I was surviving without a cell phone. My answer was becoming clear. Facebook Status: Cell phones are like It was Sunday morning and instead of sleeping in and enjoying the first beautiful day in four months, I was forced to wake up early and go to church. Fortunately, my alarm is on my phone, and my phone was turned off. So I received about an extra 30 minutes of sleep until my mother barged in hollering and such. Now I must tell you, I am not fond of church. I hear hour lectures at school, and I do not want to spend my weekend sitting there being bored to death all over again. Usually I have Bruce to keep me entertained. The games and text messaging can keep me entertained for the whole hour the pastor is talking. This morning, I unfortunately had to resort to playing hangman with my twin brother Danny. If you didn’t know, he is very annoying. I missed Bruce. When we finally got home, I thought about going on facebook to make plans with people for today. Then I realized something: I don’t have to hang out with anyone. I can just go out on this lovely day, and ride my bike. I rarely have any alone time, and without constant texts from friends, I can actually get away for a while. Facebook Status: Cell phone or bicycle. I’d pick the bike. Day 5: Monday morning brought rain, which sets the perfect mood: back to school. It is the last day of life without Bruce, and I am doing great. I have not had one thought about my cell yet today. The day flew and by the time I got home, it was thunder storming outside. And so I shot back to years earlier when my brothers and me were young and loved to run around in the rain. So I did it. I went out and danced like a complete moron in the rain. Thus I decided right then and there, the best part of not having a cell: Hakuna Matata. It means no worries. I do not have to worry about work calling, or my mother trying to be hip with her lol’s. I do not have to worry about making or breaking plans with my friends. I have more time to be alone, to focus and do what I want. Facebook Status: No cell means I can dance in the rain without worrying if I am getting that stupid phone wet. 4 Peace Pipe Chatter, February 17, 2010 5 Days Designed by Jake Hoffman Xbox detox By Jake Hoffman / Sports Editor Learning to do something in five days would be a little bit difficult; therefore, I decided instead of learning how to do something. I would learn how not to do something. Staying off Xbox for five days was my goal… and I accomplished it. I wanted to stay off Xbox because I am a lot more productive when I’m not on Xbox. Xbox is like crack, once you start playing you can’t stop. However, it was a lot easier then expected. I basically just kept myself busy by doing other fun - filled activities. Day 1 March 4, 2010, the day I was going to begin my journey of no Xbox. On this glorious day I was a bit nervous. Sitting in journalism I couldn’t think of an idea, so I thought of something I love to do… XBOX! I decided that would be my best bet. Ok, I know some of you are like “What?!? That is so easy to do!” But you have to understand that I play Xbox almost everyday ranging from two hours to who knows how long. You can’t just play one hour of Xbox by the way, like I said before it is addicting. I got home from school and decided I would watch TV to pass the time. Thank god for On Demand! Watched a bunch of CSI Miami episodes, and came to the realization that they are really cheesy. Without that I think I might have failed on my first day. Luckily, I got through the day without any thoughts of my Xbox. a pretty good movie, although the plot was a bit lackin. After the movie I ended up staying at a friend’s house; therefore, it was not a problem once again because I was keeping myself busy. Day 3 March 6, 2010, I arrived back at my house around noon. Then a problem popped into my head: I do not have any thing planned on this fine Saturday evening. When I do not have anything to do I play Xbox. Well now I was in a bit of a pickle… so I broke out my Seasons of The Office. Watched season’s 1-3 then took a nap. I woke up at about 11p.m . and once again was struggling to find something to do, to keep me busy. I went to the kitchen and cooked a pizza. The pizza was good, it was a four cheese, I am a fan of sausage, but it only took up half n hour of my time. I forced myself back to sleep… it only took me two hours of tossing and turning to fall asleep, but that’s beside the fact. al-Qaeda makes new threats Day 2 March 5, 2010, I am starting to hallucinate; my hands will not stop twitching… Just kidding today was another fairly easy day. I can’t believe I am saying this but school saved me today. If I wasn’t in school it would have been a lot harder not to play. Once I got home from school, I just sat around and waited to go to the movies. I went to see Alice and Wonderland. By the way it was Day 4 were sitting at home the Xbox would be staring me down and just begging me to play it. After school got out, I had a dentist appointment. By the time I got home it was already pretty late. I had practice in a bit so I just sat around and spent some time with my family. This was another plus to my detox because I actually was spending time with my family, normally I would just be playing Xbox in my room. Once I got home from practice, I just dozed off… Ending the final day of my Xbox Detox. The End! Waking up the next morning was a nice feeling because I knew that I completed my goal. It was fairly easy. I didn’t experience any withdrawal symptoms; it just made me a little more bored. I passed my time the best I could by keeping busy, the only times it got tempting was when my boredness took over. If you play Xbox, I would suggest trying this to see some of the other opportunities that will open up for you when you are away from your Xbox. March 7,2010 I dreamed of Xbox all night and woke up sweating… once again I am just kidding. I slept fine and woke up to the day being Sunday. My first distraction of the day was homework for any of my classes. Now normally if I had Xbox I would not be doing my homework. Once the homework was completed I decided a nap would be nice to pass the time. After I woke up, I watched some more TV. Eventually I fell asleep again and got a goodnight sleep. If I had my Xbox I would be up till 3 a.m. playing, I suppose that is a positive for my detox, better sleep. Day 5 March 8,2010, I woke up enthused to have school. Yes, I know I said enthused to have school… It just makes the whole process of staying off Xbox so much easier. If I am at school then I cannot be tempted to play but if I Happy after I returned to playing my Xbox 360! 5 Facebook Detoxification Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days Design and Photos by D.J. Valera 5 Days, 1 Goal by D.J. Valera / Editor-in-Chief Day 4 Everyday, millions upon millions of people log onto Facebook various times a day. For some, only a few minutes at a time, and for others, sometimes for hours. Facebook has easily become one of the biggest and prominent things in our society this decade; it’s a little difficult to imagine life without it sometimes. So, I decided to take up the challenge, to see if I could successfully detox myself from Facebook in just 5 days. Day 1 First thing I did was purge all Facebook related things from your mind, I forced myself to lose the need to update my status, check up on the latest gossip, and tending to my imaginary crops on FarmVille. This is probably the first step in this whole process. To do this is simple, you have to keep yourself occupied with other things so you are directing your focus on other things. Personally, I did my homework, which probably is one of the best options here, since Facebook usually is the result of not doing your homework. Just keep cleaning up your mind so that Facebook lowers in position of importance. Facebook should be almost completely out of your mind, you should also find yourself doing other things besides checking your news feed every few minutes or so. At this point, I found myself getting away from the computer more and getting out more. In all honesty, just continue what you have going really, keep resisting the temptation named social networking. Extra-curriculars keep you at school and away from your computer. Day 5 Day 2 If you made it this far without so much as a wink at it, congratulations! In just 120 hours you have successfully detoxified yourself from Facebook. The only thing you really have to do is continue what you have started on Day 1: continue cleansing your mind and start thinking of other ways to spend your time other than logging onto Facebook. Like, maybe getting involved with an extra-curricular activity or picking up something new. Being involved with the musical, it was easy for me to focus on if I’m getting my lines, songs, and dances right instead of seeing who is potentially posting on my wall. Whatever you do, avoid going on other social networking sites. Try not to get into something that you’re also trying to kick out of your life. Facebook has taken its spot so high in today’s world that it’s substituted a lot of things that we used before. I honestly wasn’t too sure of this challenge when I first started it. I didn’t think I would be that successful and actually almost caved in a few times. However, the day after I started this ‘experiment’ of sorts was over and I didn’t log onto Facebook, two words came to mind: it’s possible. Day 3 Homework is a great way to distract yourself from Facebook, and a great way to keep your grades up. At this point of the detox process, you should find yourself thinking of Facebook minimally and not be thinking about who is now Facebook official, what to become a fan of, or what group to join. Also, you should be keeping in contact with your friends through other means, likely calling or texting. Another thing, you should also be keeping track of important dates with a day planner or even just a calendar. Facebook has given the luxury of keeping track of all your friends’ birthdays, events you plan to attend, and so on. By having your schedule and important dates somewhere else just as easily accessible than Facebook, you’re more likely to stay off of it since you won’t have to check it to see if anything is going on. Getting friends together to play ultimate frisbee is definitely a fun way to get away from the computer. 6 Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24 , 2010 5 days Designed by Melissa Magnus 5 Days to meet someone newMeet David Tibble by Melissa Magnus / Features Editor Comfort Zone. We all have one. The limit within our daily lives that most of us know, we will rarely cross. “Okay, so Melissa, I’m going to try and make this as awkward as possible,” said David Tibble, as he approaches the lunch table. Right then and there, I knew that I had stepped out of my comfort zone. One Day Earlier It was an average day in 3A Journalism, and the class was shouting out story ideas for the special edition issue. I was having a hard time trying to think of what I wanted to write about. Suddenly Mr. Thomas asks the class who had B lunch on B days, and when I raised my hand a devious smile spread across his face as he glanced to the other end of the room in junior David Tibble’s direction. “How would you feel about getting to know David for the next five days?” Thomas asked me, and the class started laughing. I wasn’t sure what this “challenge” would entail, but I agreed to take it on, figuring it couldn’t hurt to step out of my comfort zone just for five days…or could it? I never knew who David even was until this year, and even then, I thought of him as the odd kid who has something to say about everything in my journalism class. From that day on, for the next five days, David and I were assigned to get to know each other at lunch, almost like becoming new best friends. Even during the weekends, it was required that we called each other to catch up on how our days were going. “This is going to be interesting,” I thought to myself as I handed David Tibble a piece of paper with my phone number on it, “very interesting.” Day One- I was sitting at the lunch table that I sit at everyday. But today, and for the next five days, it would be much different than usual. When David sits down, everyone at the table gets quiet probably wondering why he was there. I kindly introduced him to my friends “David will be sitting with us for the next 5 days.” Everybody stared in awkward silence. I could tell that this was going to be more difficult than I had anticipated. “So David, what did you do yesterday?” I asked as he sits down at the table, trying to avoid as many awkward silences as possible. “Well I don’t live a very interesting life, I pretty much just play video games and go on Facebook,” said Tibble. “That’s pretty interesting if you ask me,” I replied. Day Two and Three- It was Saturday and Sunday, and I had a very busy weekend. I’m on poms, and that morning we left for Peoria to compete and gain the titles of State Champs. David had a pretty exciting day as well. He informed me that he went to “the worst DMV in the state of Illinois,” in Morris to finally get his liscense. “Meet David” continued on pg. 13 Photo By Soozie Bahret Meet Melissa Magnus by David Tibble News Editor/ Copy Editor Is it possible to get to know someone completely in five days? Probably, not but I was tasked by Mr. Matt Thomas to get to know Melissa Magnus in five days. This came about because I couldn’t come up with a good story idea, and I didn’t want to do any of the ideas that were listed. The staff of the Peace Pipe Chatter really wanted to know what five days of my life were like even though I told them my life was boring. Melissa had to write the story about me because she had the same lunch as me on B days. I had to spend brief chunks of five days with her and learn every detail about her adventures during those days. Before continuing on, it is important to learn some important information about Melissa. First of all, she is on the state-champions poms squad. Secondly, Melissa loves the Jonas Brothers. Supposedly, she has actually met them. As a warning, never insult the Jonas Brothers in front of her (no matter how tempting it is). I had to have lunch with Melissa so I could learn everything about her. In my experience with Melissa, I had to pester her frequently in order for her to go into detail about her experiences. It was worth it because I now have a better idea of what it is like to be Melissa Magnus. What a person has for lunch can tell you a lot about them. Melissa brings a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, applesauce, pretzels, and a juice box to lunch every day. What does that say about Melissa? It means that she likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, applesauce, pretzels, and juice boxes. Day One- Melissa went to school. She had poms practice after school until 7 p.m. Later, she argued with Gina Magnus, her mom. Then she went to see the midnight showing Alice in Wonderland. She kept her 3-D glasses and purposely popped out the lenses so she could wear them on a daily basis. Day two- Melissa would not stop quoting every line from Alice in Wonderland, complete with accents. One such quote was, “What’s the difference between a raven and a writing desk?” I asked Melissa to stop spoiling the movie because I hadn’t seen it yet. She said, “I’m not spoiling the movie. I’m just quoting from it.” At lunch, I sat by Melissa and her friends stared at me in awkward silence. I did promise Melissa that I would make our conversation as awkward as possible. One of Melissa’s friends recognized me from speech class last year but I didn’t recognize her. I’m not good at remembering faces. One of the things I discussed with Melissa is that I am learning how to play guitar. Melissa insisted that learn how to play John Mayer songs “Meet Melissa” continued on pg. 2 Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 IV Days Story & Design by Iman Bradley 7 Get Those Messy Grades Up in only 5 DAYS It is almost the end of the quarter and you have 5 days to raise your grade. If your parents see a D or an F you are grounded. What can you do in the next five days to get your grade up? Most high school students ask this question toward the end of the quarter or semester. Don’t worry because here is your five-day plan you should follow to bump your grade up. Day 4 Day 1 Turn in all the work you finish on day 3 to your teachers. This shows how serious you are about getting all your work turned in. It also shows teachers that you also care about your grade. Check on Powerschool periodically to make sure your missing assignments have been graded. You will see a sudden change once those assignments are put in to Powerschool. Once you are one with your current homework do all those easy work sheets that were due a while back. They may seem like they do not affect your grade but not turning in a small homework can bring your grade down a letter grade. If you know that you have a bad grade but you are not sure in what classes you have them in, go on Powerschool to check all your grades. At the same time look for all the classes they have grades lower than a C. Once you find the classes you want to improve in click on each grade to find what assignments you are missing and what tests are coming with in the next 5 days so you can raise your grade. Day 5 Day 2 Go to your teachers to see if they accept any late work. Most classes except for JJC classes accept late work, but it’s always smarter to ask your teacher just in case they don’t. If they accept late work then make sure its not too late to turn in some of your assignments. Usually, while I’m in class I don’t even have to ask because when the quarter is almost over, most of the teachers will let their students know when the deadline to turn in late work is. Day 3 Gather all your late work and decide what assignment you can do right away. Separate them according to which assignments you can start on now and which ones you want to do on day 4. It’s easier to do all the harder work first and the easy work last. Once you decide what you can do now, sit at a table and do as much work as you can today. This process was easy for me because I leave all my work into folders. If you are organized it shouldn’t take long to find all of your make up work because everything is where it’s suppose to be. Turn in the rest of your work to your teachers and go on Powerschool and watch your grade improve. In the end, my grades improved. This five day process can help your grade a lot if you have a lot of make up work or absent work. This doesn’t mean don’t do your work for the whole year and then at the end of each quarter do all of it at the last minute. You should always try hard to just get your work in on time because it takes away a lot of stress. But if you are one of those students that are so busy that you sometimes forget to get some homework in, tryout this 5 day process, you will be surprised at the end result. 8 Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 days 5-day chef Day 3: Time for dessert. This one was a piece of cake (metaphorically, not literally) for me. You see, I’m a chocolate girl at heart so anything One of my biggest fears in life is being around chocolate worked just fine for me. After doing a little sharp objects, and when I say sharp, I literally mean bit of research, I found out that molten chocolate anything—scissors, knives, tables with sharp edges, lava cakes are one of the tastiest yet easiest desserts and even the little tools that are used to slice hard to make. Finally, my meal planning was finished. boiled eggs into perfect portions. If it was up to me, Day 4: So I’ve accompanied my parents to the food would come in precut packages and knives grocery store plenty of times, but that doesn’t mean would be obsolete. I took notes on where everything is supposed to be. Needless to say, I’ve never felt exactly at home I never realized how easy it is to get lost in Jewel! in the kitchen. Sure, I’m great at throwing a pot of I was running around the aisles, scrambling to find water on the stove and boiling up some pasta or the surplus of items on my list, continually getting putting something frozen in the oven, but that’s c o n f u s e d on if I had previously been down about it. So when I decided to plan and prepare a that aisle or not. While looking for three-course meal in five days, I wasn’t really peanut oil, I could not believe the thinking about all the time—and sharp variety of different oils stacking objects—it would take me. the shelves and how difficult Day 1: it was to find a single, small Planning out a full bottle of the stuff. A half an dinner isn’t exactly hour and a headache later, as easy as it sounds, I finally had everything I and I found this out needed to actually prepare the hard way. I thought the meals the next day. I’d just sit down at Day 5: On the final my computer, Google day of my goal, I came some recipes and be to the realization xe done—WRONG! I spent n that tomatoes, bell a r th A&E e d r y over an hour just looking peppers, basil, ha nb was to take l a for a decent recipe for an and green onions me Pho . ntire rth it. Trepel appetizer. Finally, I decided all had one thing in e n o y a w e l g n l n e d i y w on crab cakes, one of my k common—knives. One time Coo d, but ditor S e E t personal favorites, and even then too many I found my fingers dangerously pec it took me another 15 minutes too close (at least for me) to the blade of a large just to find a recipe that I thought I knife. It took me probably over 15 minutes to chop could trust. After getting frustrated with the lack up six tomatoes into 3/8” pieces. Not my idea of a of information I was finding, I decided to give it a fun time. rest and try the next day for an entrée. Once I finally got everything cut up and mixed Day 2: “Okay, what goes good with crab into their designated bowls, I started preparing each cakes?” That’s the question I asked myself course one at a time. First came the crab cakes— repeatedly as I searched everywhere for an easily mix the ingredients together, form them into patties, prepared entrée to accompany my appetizer. After and fry them in a skillet for 4 minutes per side. looking at just about every reputable cooking website, I finally found Red Lobster’s original “Chef” continued recipe for lobster pizza on their recipe homepage. on pg. 13 It sounded easy enough to make, and it was another one of my personal favorites. by Sydney Trepel / A&E Editor/Cover Design Designed by Sydney Trepel Do it yourself! Crab Cakes (foodnetwork.com) Ingredients: -1 lb. crabmeat, no shells -1/3 cup crushed crackers (recommended: Ritz) -3 green onions, finely chopped -1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper -1/4 cup mayonnaise -1 egg -1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce -1 tsp. dry mustard -1/2 lemon, juiced -1/4 tsp. garlic powder -1 tsp. salt - dash cayenne pepper -flour (for dusting) -1/2 cup peanut oil Directions: 1. Mix all ingredients together in large bowl, except for flour and peanut oil. Shape into even patties and lightly dust with flour. 2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Once oil is hot, place crab cakes in pan and fry 4 or 5 minutes until browned. Flip crab cakes and fry on other side until browned. Serve warm. Lobster Pizza (RedLobster.com) Ingredients: -1 flour tortilla (per pizza) -Land O’ Lakes Roasted Garlic Butter Spread -2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese -4 oz. drained roma tomatoes (approx. 2-3 tomatoes) diced 3/8” -2 tbsp. fresh basil cut into 1/8” julienne strips -2 oz. lobster meat cut in ½” – ¾” chunks -1/2 cup Italian six-cheese blend Directions: 1. Heat over to 450 degrees. 2. Lightly brush entire topside of tortilla with garlic butter 3. Sprinkle Parmesan over garlic butter 4. Drain diced tomatoes and sprinkle over Parmesan cheese 5. Sprinkle julienned basil over tomatoes 6. Portion lobster meat evenly over basil 7. Sprinkle Italian six-cheese blend over lobster. 8. Place on pizza pan and cook for approx. 4-5 minutes Chocolate Lava Cake (Kraftfoods.com) Ingredients: -4 squares Baker’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate -1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter -1 cup powdered sugar -2 eggs -2 egg yolks -6 tbsp. flour -1/2 cup thawed Cool Whip Directions: 1. Preheat over to 425 degrees. 2. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for 1 minute or until butter is melted. Remove and stir with whisk until chocolate is completely melted. 3. Stir in powdered sugar until blended. 4. Blend in eggs and egg yolks with whisk. Stir in flour. 6. Divide batter among cups. 7. Bake 13 to 14 minutes or until sides are firm and centers are soft. Remove and let stand for 1 minute. Invert cakes onto dessert dishes. 9 Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days g n i t t i Designed by Jacki Kaluzny Kn for dummies by Jacki Kaluzny / Editor-in-Chief When the Peace Pipe Chatter staff discussed ideas for this issue, one of the topics that come up was to become good at something. I thought I would take on this challenge. I wanted to think of something I had never tried before so my topic was obvious, knitting. Now when it comes to my sewing abilities I have never been too great. I can sew a button onto a shirt…but that’s pushing it. I knew the knitting idea would be a definite challenge. Day 1 The first thing I needed to do was learn how to start off the knitting. My first attempt was to make a long tail cast on. This is the stitch that edges the outside of your scarf and keeps it all together. My lack of knitting background didn’t help my situation. It was asking me to press and pull and loop things that I just could not comprehend. After about 20 minutes of going under the left loop and pulling over the right I decided to call it a day. Day 2 Day two was a bit more successful. Now that my frustration had settled I was determined to master my long tail cast on. After a few test runs, I finally got it! I was finally getting somewhere but didn’t want to push my luck for one day so I ended after that. I decided to text Sydney Trepel to complain about my frustrations. I told her how hard knitting turned out to be and all she did back was laugh at me. Once again I received no help. When I got home from school after choosing my topic I tore through our linen closet to find our sewing supplies. Luckily I found an unused knitting kit fully equipped with needles and green yarn. My first instinct was to ask my mom for some guidance but I could tell by the dust on the box that she would be of no help. It was time for me to take matters into my own hands. To start out, I did what anyone else would do when they want Now that I had learned to learn something how to make my cast on I new, I googled it. I could actually learn how came across many to knit. I thought the first instructional vidpart was hard but that was The knitting process was a long, frustrating task but was a eos which saved me. nothing compared to this. They told me that the great expierence in the end. The videos made it look easiest thing I could so easy but that wasn’t make would be a scarf, the case for me. I now had to pull the needle through my so that’s what I tried for. Day 3 already made stitch, wrap it around the loose piece of yarn, and then pull it back through the stitch. This process made my head spin which then lead to the end of day three. Day 4 By day four my finger tips were beginning to get sore. I was getting sick of all the little steps I had to take but I knew I only had one more day after this to master my knitting. I decided to go into day four with a more positive attitude and it worked. When I finally focused on what I was doing (after a good 30 minutes) I started to get the hang of my knit stitch. I now understood why it looked so easy in the videos. Day 5 Finally, my last day. I sat down in my room and began my whole routine all over again. I wanted to start from the beginning to make my scarf. The cast on came easily but the knitting started out slow. It was harder than I thought to get back into my rhythm. I finally succeeded and made my way stitch by stitch, row by row…until I got tired. I had been knitting for an hour and a half and just couldn’t bring myself to pull and loop and longer. Working on my knitting made me appreciate all the blankets my grandma has made me over the years. It was not easy. I may not have finished my scarf 100% but I did complete my goal, I learned how to knit. Maybe one day I’ll gain the patience to sit down and finish my scarf. 10 By Aubrey Aspan/ A&E Editor With Spring Break arriving in two days many people have plans to go some and others don’t. But even if you don’t, who says you can’t go somewhere anyway? Having a mom that’s a flight attendant definitely has it perks. Because my family and I fly free, and we often find ourselves jumping on an airplane to wherever we feel like a change of scenery, I have also been to pretty much the entire east coast and as far as the west coast goes, I have been to California, Texas, Utah and some other fun states, but who really wants to go to Montana anyway. These vacations in my opinion happen to be the most exciting and interesting family vacations that I have ever taken. Now I know that not everyone’s mom is a flight attendant but instead of going on the annual family vacation to the same place, talk your parents into taking a Spring Break vacation little bit out of the ordinary. Day 1 The first thing when planning a lastminute vacation is figuring out where you want to go. Considering the absolutely Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days Designed by Aubrey Aspan e e v h i T F n O s y a y D l F horrible weather that the Midwest has this time of year, I would consider somewere down south where it is at least a little bit warmer. Or if you’re feeling really adventurous, you can take a map close your eyes and randomly point, wherever you finger lands you go. This is also pretty similar to Yes Man the movie when they jump on a plane that’s leaving next. I have actually done this and we have ended up in San Antonio, Texas, Miami, Florida, and New York City, New York. New York City was one of the most interesting. We got on a flight in the morning visited my east coast family, ate, went to the Empire State building, and flew back later that day. Because this vacation is a five- day one, driving abroad isn’t an option, unless you want to end up driving for two days, staying at your destination for five hours and getting back in the car and driving right back. Day 2 Once you get to wherever your going you should definitely rent a car. Trust me, you never want to end up walking around some random city without a form of transportation. As far as a hotel room goes I would make sure that it’s a good hotel and can be trusted. In my experience hotels such as Holiday Inn and Best Western can be some of the scariest hotel rooms that I have stayed in. I’m not saying that all of these are bad but if the place looks a little shady don’t stay in it, trust me. If 10 extra dollars a night means nice pillows and a bed I’m not afraid to sleep in, it’s well worth it. Day 3 Don’t spend all day cooped up in your hotel. Seeing the sights of city is probably the best thing about a vacation, and as boring as it sounds, going to see historical sights is actually some of the most entertaining places to go. To prove this in San Antonio, Texas, there is an area called the River Walk. It is one of the most interesting places I have ever visited. From the boats to culture and food it was one of the most fun places have ever been to, and you guessed it, we jumped on a plane and landed in one of the most fun vacations I personally have ever had. Day 4 Shopping is always a must when going to a different place. Another word of advice: don’t buy to much stuff, you never know how much or how little you can fit into your suitcase. Even if you can fit it in your suitcase doesn’t mean that it will fit into the overhead bin of the airplane. Who wants to pay the extra money to check bags. Shopping at places you can go to back home isn’t a good idea either. If you can get it in Illinois, why travel somewhere and waste valuable suitcase space on the way home for the more valuable things? If you’re not into shopping, which I know many of you guys aren’t, doing something adventurous is always fun too, snorkeling, renting a wave runner, or going to an amusement park is always fun, and then you don’t have to worry about fitting into your suitcase. Day 5 On your final day of your vacation don’t forget anything. Scope out your entire hotel room, even if you think that you’re sure that you have everything look again because the last thing that you need is to find out you forgot something in the rental car as your sitting in your seat during take-off. Even though a last-minute vacations seem pretty hectic when you look back at it and realize how fun it was. And who wants to sit at home this spring break when you could be traveling around the country and having fun. Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days Becoming by Ryan Miller/Copy Editor After a long day at school, you get home and may begin your homework or a project that’s due tomorrow second hour. You work on it for 15 minutes, and then notice that your computer seems to be a little lonely. So you abandon your after school endeavors and get on your Facebook or Myspace, just to see what’s going on in the world. And as soon as you log in and scroll down a bit you see a video, a video from the one place where videos are made by amateur Stephen Spielberg’s post their videos so that one day they too can become stars. The site of course, is Youtube. First founded in February 2005, the beginning of the internet era, Youtube became one of the biggest video sharing websites to hit the internet. Since then it has been bought by Google for 1.65 billion dollars and has gone from standard quality to High Definition, all within a five year time span. In my observation I have seen that the most movies that have been popular involve parodies of music videos, television shows, and movies. Another type of video that I have seen have a lot of hits are of people who go on blunt rants about anything. But the one thing that people mainly look for on Youtube is comedy. Comedy is probably the biggest genre on Youtube to search for. So for my story idea, I had proposed that I become a Youtube sensation, and knowing that this wouldn’t be an easy task, I would need the help of a reliable production comapany. Designed by Ryan Miller A Sensation upload to become popular, it has to be memorable. Along with this insightful advice, he also said that parodies are among the most viewed as well. So I took us all day, so it wasn’t until 9 p.m. that we went back to Tyler’s house and start editing the movie. We had only got about 20 seconds of it done by the time 11 11 get by the end of the night. When I finally returned home after my physical endeavors at Cinemark, I immediately logged onto Youtube to see how many views my video had gotten. On its first day it had gotten over 300 views! I know it’s not an impressive number compared to the millions of views some videos have gotten, but it felt like a great start. I also had three comments from my friends on my video, one of them saying “I loved the scene with the car chase, loved it!!!”. Day 4: When got home from work on Sunday I again checked my video to see its progress. I stunned to find out that it got over 2,000 views in such a short amount of time. I had even gotten more comments such as “impressive work” and “How were you able to do this??”. All from people I didn’t even know and, like the two above, they were pretty positive, except one who just stated that Ford was better than Pontiac. Day 5: On my last day of becoming a Youtube sensation, I spent the day looking at other videos that enticed comedy and parody. There were some decent ones, along with the ones that no The picture above is from the original “Green Police” commercial that aired during Superbowl one found impressive at all. By nightfall, XLIII. Picture obtained from google.com. I checked one last time on how my video was doing: I had over 3,500 views in just a matter of four days. In the end, I had to thank my friends and Neptune Productions p.m. rolled around and everybody decided thought to myself and finally came up for helping me get some views on my to leave. Tyler assured me that by the next with the idea of making a parody of The video. day it would be edited fully and be posted Green Police: Audi commercial that Although I hadn’t become a complete played during the Superbowl. I figured that by at least 3p.m. The creation of The Youtube sensation, I had in fact gotten a because the commercial was short, it could Green Beret, the title of my movie, was certain amount in such a small time span. Day 1: For my video idea, I thought be remembered specifically, so I was going beginning to come to life. Some tips are to remember that you have to make my video about a minute as well. Day 3: Because it was Saturday long and hard of what to exactly make. to be original, that you should do it with Day 2: On this day, I was filming I had to work during the day and most Coming up with nothing, I went to my a group of friends instead of individually, my video with fellow Neptune Production of the night. But sure enough Tyler had friend Tyler Kretz, President and founder and that comedy is like gold on Youtube. actors. Filming was good and got in most done what he had promised and I was of Neptune Productions, a Youtube The experience was exciting and the excited to see how many views I would channel. He said that in order for my video of my scenes that I wanted. It basically accomplishment felt great. 12 Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days How to Become the Coolest Kid in School Elliott Johnson / Sports Editor Over the past five days I attempted to become the most popular kid in school. Now grant ed, it is VERY hard to bare such a title, but from my experience, there is a very slim possibility that it could be done. I went in to the task at hand with a winning attitude and a second to none game plan. dler, science teacher, came up to me asking if I was “that kid in the picture,” and telling me that now my picture is posted up in her classroom. I didn’t know what to do so I just laughed. She wasn’t the only teacher that put me up in their room. Mr. Brian Petrovic, sicence teacher also has the picture posted up in his room. I sent out a post on Facebook on March 4, 2010 that stated, “Dear Facebook, The next few days I will try to become the coolest kid in Minooka. It strictly for journalistic purposes though.” This was a key part just so that my fellow students would not catch the wrong vibe. I took a picture with two of my friends who seemed to be in a higher social class then I. They were T.J. Condon, and Tony Velasquez. The picture had the words “Elliott Johnson…he’s trying to be the coolest kid in school”. I was well aware that it would be extremely difficult to be “the most popular kid in school” at both South and Central campus, so I just stuck to my own: south. When I got home, I talked to a few other people about my plan and asked if they would help me on my ridiculous quest to Minooka stardom. They said that they would help. Days three through five I didn’t do much by Day 1 Days 3-5 because all of my results and reactions came in the first two days. It was a crazy week and my plan went better than I expected it to. This was a pretty fun experience, but all the wild things aside, I learned something very important; there is no way someone can become the most popular kid in their school in just five days. Here are some tips: make yourself as noticeable as possible. For me, the picture was easy to make but reproducing it was Designed by Elliott Johnson the hardest thing to do. Also don’t try too hard. The harder you try the cornier you become. You don’t want people to think you are flakey or weird. I learned to be gracious for the friends that I already have and not to strive for popularity. I am glad I got the opportunity, but that lifestyle just isn’t me. For anyone who wants to try, and learn from their own mistakes…….Good Luck. Day 2 That morning of day two I had one of my helpers mass produce the picture that I made. I passed out about 30 to each of the five that agreed to help. For all you “math whizzes” out there, that’s about 150 copies. Throughout the day, I had multiple students approach me and acknowledge what I had done. I even heard a lot of people say “Hey, that’s the kid in that picture.” A lot of people saw it and some didn’t like it judging by the ripped up pictures on the ground. Throughout the day, I felt like some kind of star. Mrs. Jamie Chan- Sophomore T.J. Condon, sophomore Tony Velasquez, and sophomore Elliott Johnson in the Central Campus library taken pictures to start their grand master plan. This picture was one of the two steps taken to get to Minooka Community High School stardom. Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 “In the life” continued from page 16 Next came the lobster pizza, which was the easiest of all to make: spread garlic butter on a tortilla, sprinkle on tomatoes, parmesean cheese, basil, and lobster and put it in the oven for 4 minutes. Lastly, the molten chocolate lava cakes. After mixing the all of the ingredients together, I poured the mix into cupcake containers and put them in the oven for 14 minutes. Once all the preparation was done, the cooking really only took about 25 minutes at the most. As everything was coming off the stove or out of the oven, I had my family sit down to be my taste testers. The crab cakes were a definite hit, especially with ranch as a side dipping felt a terrible pain in my leg from earlier. I didn’t even realize how bad it was till then. I didn’t want to say I couldn’t fight and back out, so I went up and pretty much gave little effort because I had already won what I came for and it wasn’t worth risking more injury. The guy pulled guard on me and armbarred me within the first 30 seconds of the match, but it didn’t matter too much. I quickly went off to talk to my parents and what not, completely forgetting to get my medal. After that, we pretty much just watched other people compete for the rest of the day from the bleachers because I couldn’t walk. Day 3 I got up hoping that my leg would be in good enough condition to compete in No-Gi today, but it was not my lucky day. It felt just as bad as before, so we just headed to the convention center to watch some of the No-Gi matches, along with the judo and muay thai tournaments. We watched for sauce, and my mom even went so far as to call them “superb” and “the best” that she’d ever had. The lobster pizza shockingly won everyone over as well, although they would have been slightly better and crispier had they stayed in the oven for a minute or so longer. To top it all off, the lava cakes were an instant success, especially with a topping of cool whip or ice cream. Overall, I really enjoyed making dinner for my family. It was really worth it to see the finished products of the courses I had prepared and to see my family’s reaction and pride. As for the continuation of my cooking skills…well that’s another story. “Meet David Tibble” continued from page 6 “5-Day Chef” continued from page 8 out, which is a technique used to escape from the bottom, and got me in his closed guard. He went for an armbar, but my arm was almost out anyway, so I stacked him and got side control. Once again, he shrimped away, and I got him in a front headlock and changed to a arm-in guillotine real quick. It wasn’t very tight because the gi was in the way again so I fell back into my guard. I got his arm out of the way, but the choke still wasn’t tight. After about 45 seconds of holding it, he slipped out. At that point, there was 30 seconds left and I was up 6-2. He tried passing my guard so I got grips on his sleeves and sunk in a triangle choke. He fell on to the ground and tapped just as the matched ended. I had won first already, I was extremely happy, but also disappointed that it was only one match. I didn’t feel fully worthy of it. After that, they put me in the 150 lbs. division to get some more matches in. When they called my name again to fight, I got up and Jump Designed by D.J. Valera about three hours, then I limped around for a bit checking out all of the booths that people set up to advertise their products and companies. I got a bunch of free samples of all the bodybuilding and magazines. It was about 1 and I decided it was time to head home so we didn’t get home too late because it was a school night. After another five hour nap and some staring out the car window, we finally arrived back at home sweet home. All I did was unpack and go to sleep. I was pretty exhausted from the weekend. kimuras, a darce choke, and an Ezekiel choke from knee on belly, also. We ended with three rounds of five minute sparring which I did fine in. It was nice returning to the relaxed environment of the gym. At competitions, I get to compete with people near my weight, at the gym, everyone has at least 40 pounds on me. Which, in the long run, helps a lot when tournament time comes around. I headed home, ate, and went to sleep. Day 4 My weekdays are pretty much repeats. Wake up, go to school, go to practice, come home, eat, sleep. Practice wasn’t until 6 so I at least got to get a meal in before. Today was practice with my main instructor, Mark Turner. We went through the rigorous workout that he likes to call a warm-up, which ended in me not being able to feel my arms, and began learning some technique. He went over how to transition from butterfly guard to snake guard first, which It was Monday, and time to go back to school. I can’t say it was very exciting, just another day. After school, it was time to head to practice already. My leg felt pretty good, just slightly sore. Today was just an hour of No-Gi with Mark Vujovic. We did some basic drills, and setups that he likes to do. First it was swinging armbars, then switching side to side from knee on belly, and then Day 5 lesson to all, informing everybody to not go to the DMV on Saturdays,” said David. It was very crowded in there, and “the size of a small pizza place.” Unfortunately, he was not able to get it because “the computer system was very confusing” and he chose the wrong category to wait for in line. On Sunday Tibble attended a family party. “It was one of those not so cool parties, for family friends,” informed Tibble. “Later I watched Oscar nominated movies like Hurt Locker, and District 9” said David. “I watched the Oscars, and I was glad that the Hurt Locker won Best Picture. It was really good movie. I was really glad that Avatar didn’t win, because it was really overrated. It’s Dances With Wolves with blue aliens. The movie I wanted to win Best Picture was District 9. That movie was legendary.” Day Four- The weekend was finally over, and I was extremely tired and irritable. Sadly, I decided to take it out on David. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to invite him to sit with a table full of Poms girls who had just gotten back from State later than midnight the night before. “David if you do not shut up I will punch you in the face,” said Lindsey Nagel, as he continued on 13 was pretty easy once you got the hang of it. After a couple drills, we continued on. Next thing we did was transitioning from snake guard to 50/50 guard and doing the basic heel hook from there. That took a little longer to figure out, but it was pretty fun to do. Heel hooks are illegal in Gi competitions so the lesson wasn’t very useful but it’s always a good tool to have when it comes to NoGi. We ended with a couple more rounds of sparring. As I was heading out, one of my teammates noticed my hoodie that I got from the tournament and asked about it. I had totally forgot that I didn’t tell them I was going because I was sick the week before. So I spilled the news that I had gotten first, and got a big congratulations followed by a bunch of handshakes. That put me in a good mood and on that note, brings an end to the adventure. All in all, it was a good turnout for the weekend, minus the injury and not being able to compete Sunday. and on about his weekend. I was perfectly fine listening to David’s stories, until he started insulting the Jonas Brothers. “David, shut up!” I screamed in response to his rude remark about the Jonas Brother’s guitar playing skills. Day Five- The last and final day of this “adventure.” At lunch, David and I caught up on what we did after school the day before, and once again he informed me that he played video games and went on Facebook. “David do you stalk people on facebook?” I asked jokingly. “No, but I do stalk people in real life,” Tibble responded. At first I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but it made me laugh pretty hard. We go through our everyday lives talking to the same people and never really going outside of our “clicks” to meet new friends at school. Overall this experience was pretty interesting, and I learned a lot about somebody that I hardly knew anything about five days ago. Step outside of your comfort zone. You never know, you might meet somebody new. 14 Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days Designed by Michael Noe How to watch five trilogies in five days by Michael Noe / Sports Editor Entertainment has always been part of the human culture. Whether it’s movies, plays, books, or games, people always need to find a way to pass the time. One of the biggest and most popular forms of entertainment is to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. A good movie can take you inside the action, and can relieve your stress by bringing you to a whole new reality. Some movies have such an interesting story to tell that it can span from one feature film to a trilogy that keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. A few of the most popular trilogies are The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, which consisted of two separate trilogies. The first told the story of Luke Skywalker and his battles against the Empire and his father Darth Vader. While the second was a prequel trilogy telling how his father became Darth Vader, and how the Empire came to control the galaxy. Back to the Future is also another popular trilogy that takes you all over the timeline. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to watch one of these trilogies all in one day? How about all five of them? Now here is your chance to find out how to watch all five of these trilogies through a span of five days. Assuming that you already have the trilogies, the first thing that you have to do is figure out how long each movies running time is. The original Star Wars trilogy will take approximately 6 ½ hours to complete, while the prequel trilogy will take about seven. The Matrix also takes about seven hours to watch all three movies. The Lord of the Rings will be the biggest struggle to watch all three films, as that lasts almost 10 hours for the original version, and a staggering twelve hours for the theatrical version. The Back to the Future trilogy will take the least amount of time, as it will consume just under six hours. The next step will be to decide what trilogies you want to watch on what day. With The Lord of the Rings taking up the most was cool to see how the story unfolds all at once instead of individual intervals across months. Day 2: On the second day, I watched the original trilogy of Star Wars. It took me about eight hours to complete with the breaks I had in between. By the time I was finished with the second film, I was really getting tired of the whole Star Wars saga. But by the time time, you will want to pick a day that you have nothing going on to watch that trilogy, whether it be the original or extended version. Also, it would be a smart move to pick your busiest day to watch Back to the Future, as it is the shortest of these five trilogies. Day 1: On the first day I watched the prequel trilogy of Star Wars. I started watching it about 1 p.m, and finished with the final movie at about 7 p.m. I took a small break in between the first and second movie to grab some Totinos Pizza Rolls to eat. It Star Wars was over, I was ready for the next day, when I would begin my journey t h r o u g h Middle Earth. Day 3: Day three was the toughest to sit through because I had to stay in one spot on my family room couch and watch over 10 hours of the same thing non-stop. Good thing that I believe LOTR is one of the best trilogies of all time, because if it were anything else I don’t think I would have made it. My family and I ordered Giordano’s pizza to eat while we watched Frodo battle his way through Middle Earth and throw the ring into the volcano. It was the longest series of movies I have ever watched, and it will be a long time before I ever try that one again. Day 4: I switched gears back to the scientific world again when I took on the three movies that made up The Matrix trilogy. This one seemed like a breeze after what I went through the previous day. It took just under seven hours to complete, and was a relief from the bow and arrows. By the end of the third movie, I couldn’t wait for the last day to come and go. Day 5: The morning came way to soon, as I was still tired form the countless hours of cinematic footage from the previous days. But it was time to finish the last trilogy, Back to the Future. The only good thing about starting this trilogy was the fact that it was the shortest one. I was sick and tired of being cooped up inside, and couldn’t finish the last movie because I had to go to a family party. Unfortunately, I was not able to complete the task at hand in five days, but one must realize that it is much harder than it sounds. This experience taught me a couple things about watching so many trilogies in a short amount of time. Make sure that you take breaks in between movies to walk around, because you will get real tired, real quick if you sit in the same place for such a long period of time. Also, be sure you pick the right trilogies to watch. If you pick something that you don’t particularly like, then it will be excruciating to sit through. Finally, know what you are getting into before you jump into a long cinematic adventure. It may seem like a breeze at first, but you will soon realize the patience it takes to complete this near impossible task. 15 5 days of McDonald’s: Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24 , 2010 5 days Designed by Eric Klank by And I’m not loving it. Eric Klank/ A&E Editor 14,260 14,260 is the amount of calories I consumed in less than five days thanks to McDonald’s. For five days every meal, every piece of food I ate was from the home of the Golden Arch. But why? Well, in an average teenager’s life, fast food is one of the main food groups for them. Fast food is convenient and good. Most teens have it a few times a week, and although it can be unhealthy, most just avoid the warnings. So I decided, why not see how my body reacts and how “great” the food ends up tasting by the end of the whole ordeal. Day One The five days spanned from Thursday, March 4 to Monday, March 8. The first day I started out with the original Big Mac. The Big Mac meal is my personal favorite, so I decided to start on a high note. Later that night, I stopped by McDonalds again, this time getting a 10-piece Chicken McNugget meal with barbeque sauce. Day one, complete, and still feeling not too shabby. Day Two I started out my Friday classy, with a gourmet Egg McMuffin. I’m not a breakfast-sort-of-guy to begin with, and the Egg McMuffin wasn’t the thing to persuade me to eat breakfast more often to say the least. Later that day I ate a 5-piece Chicken Select meal. My taste buds still allowed me to not get sick of McDonald’s food yet. That night I then had a McDouble meal to finish things off. That’s when it first hit me, things are going to get rough. My stomach after finishing up the meal was not agreeing with me, and I knew more McDonald’s for the next three days would not allow things to get any better. Day Three How do you start out Saturday mornings McDonald’s style? With hotcakes and sausage of course! The hot cakes weren’t bad as they don’t have a “McDonald’s” taste to them, but the sausage, well it was not too enjoyable. For lunch, I went big, two Mc Chickens with an order of French Fries. Poor choice. I did not feel as energetic and up to par as I usually do. For dinner, I had the Angus Deluxe. Quite possibly the worst thing on the menu, this sandwich had a total of 760 calories alone. That’s almost half the calories you should have in an entire day! That’s not even including the fries and drink, which I had with it. The Angus Deluxe meal easily pushes 1,300 calories on it’s own, how good is that for you? Wished it was empty. Day Five Monday came along, the last day of an expedition that turned quickly sour. I had hot cakes for breakfast, they tasted fine ald’s classic drink, a Coke. Well, it was big, but tasty? At this point, no. I grew sick and actually disgusted of McDonalds. Conclusion Over these five days expedition I learned something that is pretty much known, too much of a good thing (good in it’s own way) is a bad thing. McDonald’s food started out good to me, and it quickly turned sour. I also did not get anything healthy, obviously. I was pretty much constantly tired, and the last two days of the expedition I had a dull headache, both of which I’m pretty sure came directly from the lovely food I had eaten. I also gained two pounds of the five days. So, if that pace kept up I would have gained about 140 pounds over the course of a year of the McDonalds diet. That would have me almost doubling my weight, in a year! I’ve alDay Four ways been a once or twice a Sundays are holy days. week consumer of fast food, God surely did not care to and didn’t think much of it. make fast food good for But after realizing the crayou. Still not feeling good zy amount of calories you from the night of McDonconsume, along with other ald’s before, I skipped things, I think I’m going to breakfast. For lunch I had make a lot of changes to my what anyone else would I drink my McDonald’s Milkshake at the Channahon McDonald’s. diet. The whole experience have on such a day, another was pretty interesting to do. Big Mac meal, and for some I felt it was something worth reason it didn’t taste half as good the sec- considering they were from McDonalds. doing, and it definitely made me realize a ond time around. I wonder why. That night I I then had a Big Mac snack wrap. I think lot more about how bad McDonald’s food is was pretty hungry, but I was quickly getting they took the rejects of Big Macs and put for you and how it can even affect how you sick of McDonald’s food. I decided to just them into a wrap. Oh boy, was it terrible. feel. My fair warning to anybody: don’t eat eat one hamburger. I still needed to fill up My last meal of this 5-day expedition was nothing but McDonald’s for any time span. my stomach. Ate one more. a Big ‘N Tasty with fries and the McDon- 16 Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010 5 Days Designed by Taylor Roop ..In the life of a submission grappler Taylor Roop / News Editor by Five days in the life of a submission grappler and Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor…how to explain? Most people who hear submission or Brazilian jiu-jitsu automatically think of a UFC fight, which is no surprise because that’s how the two got popularized back in the day. Submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are essentially the same competition except you wear a Gi(a traditional martial arts uniform) in BJJ and you wear fight shorts and a rash guard in grappling. The closest thing I can explain it to being is wrestling or what you see the UFC fighters doing while they are on the ground. The goal of the sport itself is to make your opponent tap out (give up) via a submission which would be a choke or a joint lock. Three months ago, I immersed myself into the sport and have been doing nothing but that. I train anywhere from four to six times a week with the Demian Maia Jiu-Jitsu team at Overtime MMA in Naperville. The team is headed by Mark Turner, a brown belt in BJJ under Demian Maia who is the current UFC middleweight title contender with a 12-1 record and five World BJJ championships under his belt. Over the first weekend of March, I headed to the Arnold Classic BJJ & Grappling challenge in Columbus, Ohio, one of the biggest annual Midwest tournaments. I was entered in the Under 130 lbs. teen divisions in Gi and NoGi. Day 1 The first day of my adventure was not so exciting. A day that consisted of sweating, sleeping, and starving. I woke up like normal and got ready for the day. We were leaving for Columbus around 1:30, and I wasn’t going to school so it was time to run some errands. The day began with a trip to Joliet Junior College to take the Compass Test to get into the dual-credit classes. I did good enough to qualify for everything but math. After JJC, I took a trip to Inwood Athletic Center to run and sweat off some pounds. I paid for my pass, ran for a bit, then proceeded to the extremely, extremely hot sweat room. After a while in there, I stepped on the scale and weighed at 128 lbs. so I was good to go for the day. I headed home, and it was time to go. We packed everything in the car and began our ride. I plugged in my iPod and took a nice 4 hour nap. Fast forwarding, I wake up and my dad says that we might not make tonights weigh-ins because we didn’t account for the time zone change (they are eastern time, an hour ahead). Not making Friday night weighins meant not eating for At, my first match of the Arnold Classic, I took his back soon after he took me down and began to work for the choke. at least another 16 hours, and it had already been a good 24. After an hour and a half of worrying, we made it to the Holiday Inn where they were taking place at 8:57 and the cutoff time was 9. I ran inside as fast as I could and was one of the last three people that got weighed that night. I was excited to finally be able to eat. We headed to our hotel, checked in, and ordered a couple pizzas. I was pretty satisfied, and on that There was about 30 seconds left in the match and I locked in a triangle choke to win the match. note, I went to bed to make sure I got a good night of the ground, he did not control anything but sleep. my head, so I easily took his back, and got Day 2 It was 10 and I hopped out of the bed excited as ever. I was extremely pumped to compete. After my whole family got ready, we headed out to get some breakfast real quick before heading to the convention center. I had a couple pancakes from McDonalds. I arrived at the convention center, and was in shock. It was extremely packed, and there were more bodybuilders than I had ever seen before. We headed into Hall C where the tournament was and I changed into my Gi. After a bit of sitting around, they called my division at noon and we went over to Mat 6 where we were assigned. Strangely, there was only one other person in my division, but over 10 in the next weight class up. I stretched out for a couple minutes and they called my opponent and I to the mat. The referee talked to us for a minute to make sure we understood the rules. The timer started, and the match began. We tied up immediately and he shot for a single leg. My standup is not impressive whatsoever, so I got taken down immediately. He scored 2 points. After we got to my hooks in and held him for a couple seconds. I was now up 4-2. He immediately started protecting his neck to prevent chokes as I started to go for a rear collar choke. Suddenly he let go, and started pulling at my leg, so I went for a rear naked choke. It isn’t something I normally do with the Gi, but it was there so I tried. I couldn’t get it tight because the Gi was in the way, and right after that I felt a terrible pain in my ankle and knee. He did an ankle lock which I didn’t expect at all because they usually aren’t allowed for teen divisions, but in this tournament, they were. I was about a second away from tapping and he let go. Unfortunately, that loosened up my grip, and he reversed me. Luckily he didn’t get the two points because he didn’t land immediately in side control, it was a few seconds of scrambling after. I quickly shrimped out and got half-guard. Almost instantly after that, I swept him and got another two points and top control. He shrimped “In the life of a submission grappler” continued on Pg. 13.