March 25, 2011Volume 49 Issue No. 5

An Independent Publication of Leigh High School

Your Events Calendar

ContentsNews (pages 02-04)

Opinion (pages 05-07)

Features (pages 10-11)

In-Depth (pages 08-09)

Entertainment (pages 12-13)

Sports (page 15)

Flip-Side (page 16)

SOS Fashion Show - p. 02Libyan Revolution - p. 03Westboro counterprotest - p. 04

TV glorifies teen pregnancy - p. 05Society’s priorities - p. 06Too many bands sell out - p. 07

Modern families - p. 09

Products made in America - p. 10An examination of typography - p.11

Pokemon B&W review - p. 12Nostalgia in kids’ shows - p.13

Spotlight on golf - p.14 Freshmen varsity athletes - p. 15

Cute Sadies proposal stories - p. 16

Tonight: Sadies DanceMarch 25: Release of Sucker Punch March 25: Release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2March 28: Release of new Whitesnake albumMarch 29: Varsity Softball at Leland, 3:30-5:30pmMarch 29: Boys Volleyball at Gunnderson, 5:30-8pmMarch 29: Release of new Wiz Khalifa albumMarch 29: Release of new Snoop Dogg albumMarch 29: Release of new Jay-Z albumMarch 31: Varsity Softball at Pied-mont, 3:30-5:30pmMarch 31: Boys Volleyball at Leigh, 5:30-8pmApril 1: Stanford Blood Drive at LeighApril 1: Realease of Insidious April 1: Realease of Source CodeApril 5: Varsity Softball at Leigh, 3:30-5:30pmApril 5: Boys Volleyball at Oak Grove, 5:30-8pmApril 7: Varsity Softball at Leigh, 3:30-5:30pmApril 7: Boys Volleyball at West-mont, 5:30-8pmApril 8: Release of Soul SurferApril 11-15: Spring Break

WASC visit coincides with Spring Fling

improve staff collaboration and profes-sional development, to improve stu-dent achievement, to improve student support services and communication among the school community, and to incorporate ESLR’s (Expected School-wide Learning Results) into the culture of the school. Leigh’s 2011 report described the changes to the curriculum that have taken place in the three years since the last visit. These changes include the intro-duction of Special Education inclusion programs, the implementation of Alge-bra 1 Math Recovery, the introduction of AP Language and Composition and AP Literature and Composition, the introduction of Earth Science, the ad-dition of eight new drama courses, and the introduction of the TOPS class. Meredith Moseley confirmed that the staff has revised the action plan for the remainder of our six-year accredita-

Today, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges visited Leigh to determine if Leigh has made suffi-cient progress towards accomplishing the schoolwide action plan. It is no coincidence that the March 25 WASC visit was scheduled during our Spring Fling week. Observing part of our Spring Fling week gives the two-member committee a chance to witness the level of student involvement that Leigh has to offer. The committee will be deter-mining whether or not Leigh will stay accredited for the remainder of our 6-year-accreditation, or if another visit will be required next year. The purpose of WASC accredita-tion is to ensure the academic programs at Leigh meet the standards of universi-

ties; for example, it serves to guarantee that an English course at one school is equivalent to the same English course at another school. In 2008, an eight-member com-mittee visited Leigh to determine what term of accreditation Leigh would re-ceive. Leigh was required to do a self-study including reports from adminis-trators, teachers, parents and students. The 2008 WASC/CDE Self-Study described Leigh High School this way: “Nestled in a residential com-munity of mostly single family homes in the Los Gatos foothills, Leigh serves a community of middle to upper-mid-dle class students in the heart of Silicon Valley. Leigh is a safe, motivating place for students to obtain an education, one that prepares them to compete at some of the most demanding institu-tions of higher learning nationwide.” The purpose of the three-year vis-it is to make sure that Leigh has made

adequate progress towards accomplish-ing the school-wide action plan. If this is the case, then Leigh will continue with the remainder of its six-year accreditation term with a full self-study and visit at the six-year mark, 2014. The 2011 WASC 3-Year Visita-tion Report noted that “The Visiting Committee identified three critical areas of follow-up: Develop and use a method to assess ESLR integration and achieve-ment. Implementing high yield teach-ing strategies and best practices across all content areas. Utilize assessment data to support all students’ academic achievement and social development.” If Leigh has not made sufficient progress, however, a revised progress report and action plan will have to be submitted to WASC, and there will be a required one-day visit next year. Leigh’s school-wide action plan in 2008 consisted of four goals: to

From top left to bottom right: 1. Junior Zoe Demertzis hosts the spelling bee/pie-in-the-face activity on Tuesday. 2. Senior Caitlin Massey gets pied for an incorrect spelling. 3. Spring Fling court girls run around during Kajabi Can-Can. 4. Seniors Holly Nolan, Kevin Gaan, and Tony Santilli dress up as an In-dian and cowboys on Monday.

Earthquake preparation neededNostalgic throwbacks in modern television and video games trigger yearnings for the old days

Nostalgia, that warm feeling you get when looking at an old photo-graph and realizing just how awesome of a combination a Duck Tales t shirt and overalls were. The thrill when the announcer shouts “COMPUTER PLAYER, DEFEATED” in Super Smash Bros. Opening the floodgates of childhood memories and feelings is what nostalgia is, and people are be-ing drawn more and more towards the good old days as they grow older through watching the TV shows and playing the video games of their youth. But as those that miss the glory

days of TV and video games are return-ing to their old roots, they are finding something new. A lot of the TV shows and popular movies that were watched by our generation as kids have references and jokes that completely went over our little heads. For example, the movie Space Jam is a pretty simple equation: Mi-chael Jordan + Looney Toons = awe-some. But hidden in that equation is an implied sexual joke by the doctor when he asks one of the basket ball players who got his skills taken if he “wasn’t performing as well in any oth-er aspects.” It could be argued that it wasn’t supposed to be a sexual joke, but

there is no denying the next example of a ref Two weeks after the devastating earthquake, Japan updates no longer flood Yahoo News and society’s short attention span has already shifted its gaze towards Rebecca Black. But if anyone should continue paying close attention to the reports of empty grocery store shelves, packed evacua-tion centers and worrisome radiation levels, it’s us – in the most specific meaning of the word. Scientists are currently making a lot of noise about the possibility of a Japan-sized quake hitting California.

There is no controversy around the fact that California sits atop several active faults, (more than any other state in the country), and a sizable earth-quake is inevitable in the near future. Richard Allen, associate director of the Seismological Laboratory at UC Berke-ley, estimated that there is 99.7 percent chance that our state will experience an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater within the next 30 years. Many observers have suspi-ciously noted the serge in seismic ac-tivity around the “ring of fire,” or the earthquake/volcano sites that borders the Pacific Ocean. Notably, in a report for the March 14 edition of Newsweek, Simon Winchester linked the recent

earthquakes in Chile, New Zealand and Japan to predict that California faults are next in a progression of re-lated tectonic movements. Winchester explained, “[A] sig-nificant event on one side of a major tectonic plate is often…followed some weeks or months later by another on the plate’s far side. Now there have been catastrophic events at three cor-ners of the Pacific Plate — one in the northwest, on Friday; one in the south-west, last month; one in the southeast, last year. That leaves just one corner unaffected — the northeast.” Nathan Bangs, a geophysicist at the University of Texas Institute, debunked Winchester’s claims in a

“Leigh is a safe, moti-vating place for students to obtain an education, one that prepares them to compete at some of the most demanding institu-tions of higher learning nationwide.”

- 2008 WASC/CDE self-study of Leigh High

Andy SimionasStaff Writer Maddy Kirsch

Editor-in-Chief

Chris WymanStaff Writer

Pictured in Longhorn: Junior Rachel Yankey participates in a lunchtime activity wearing a Tigger costume.

TheWrap-up: Every year, the Sisters of Soci-

ety holds a spring fashion show to help contribute to the Princess Proj-ect. The Princess Project is a notable cause aimed at donating dresses for girls who can’t afford them for prom. This year’s masquerade-themed show is to be held on Mar. 31 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Leigh High School. This year the SOS Club asked if it could use the new theatre to kick off the spring fashion show, but was denied. “It’s too new, were still trying to figure out how it works”, said band director Suzanne Royer, who is in charge of the new theatre. The new theatre won’t be turned over until March 28, because there is still a lot to learn on how to use the new building. If the SOS Club were to use the new theatre, it would take eight people and two days to hang the stage lights. The music and dra-ma teachers had to go through eight

tion: “Yes, we have revised our action plan, because we completed many of the tasks on the action plan.” The 2008 report describes school spirit activities at Leigh: “Besides clubs and sports, students also participate in school activities like dances, sporting events, pep rallies, class fundraisers and events, car washes, and special events. Based on staff and student observations, participation in extracurriculars is extremely high at Leigh, and students enjoy the spirit and atmo-sphere of the highly-involved school,”

The updated report also describes how student extracurricular activities match the quality of academics at Leigh. During their visit today, WASC members saw the level of involvement that has been described in the past two years. Gina Nicoletta described the ben-efits of the timing of the WASC visit, “WASC’s visiting team gives the school a couple weeks to choose from; one of the weeks that were offered is the week the Spring Fling was planned. From that, the unique opportunity that we get is we get to show a visiting team, who has been to the school before, students engaged in more than just academics.”

WASC visits, continued from Front Page

SOS parades prom dresses in masquerade

the event. Initially, many Eleight staff mem-bers were hesitant about auctioning off students, but the idea eventually evolved into a lunch auction; bidders would ac-tually pay for food and dining accom-modations, not for time with a person. The people would serve as accessories to the actual product: the lunch. Initial bidding took place through Facebook, on an event page that listed all the auctionees and their current pric-es. Members of the Eleight continuous-ly updated the numbers as more people placed bids. The bidding culminated at lunch last Thursday, when journalism stu-dents Spencer Thresh and Andy Si-mionas emceed the live portion of the auction. Although all sorts of students were represented in the auction, includ-ing Homecoming King Larry Donald and Queen Lauren Weber, the two top money-makers were teachers. The top bidders for all auctionees will receive notices to pay their dues and arrange their dates sometime next week. The dates will take place on campus the following week.

Photo by Zack Galou

hours of training in two days. “It’s like we’ve been given a new car, and we need to make sure we know how to drive it,” stated Royer. There are a lot of expensive instruments inside the new theatre, and you need professional training to know how to use them; otherwise the

simple press of a wrong button could mess up everything. Due to these complications, the fashion show is set to take place in the cafeteria, as it has in previous years. A runway will be delivered for the models days before the show so that practices are possible.

The Eleight fundraises with lunch date auction

The date auctioneesGentlemen:Larry DonaldBrad DelplaneDeven PattersonAdam SoretFaizi SamadamiDanny DavisBroderick BakerKevin GaanChris Wyman

Ladies:Lauren WeberKatrina JabbariKelly PhillipsHolly NolanKrystal Kate SoltaniAnnie JungMaddy KirschSydney Black

Faculty:Mr. Mike WhiteMr. Jon Pratt

Photo by Zack GalouCounselor Jon Pratt participated in the auction.

- Christopher Wyman, Business Manager

In an attempt to raise money for publishing costs, The Eleight held a live lunch date auction in the quad on March 17 and took online bids throughout the prior two weeks. The newspaper has always func-tioned as an independent business and accepts no funding from the school. It normally supports itself by selling ad-vertisements to local small businesses, but in the suffering economy, sales have been slow for the past two years. In responsive to dwindling ad sales, The Eleight began to find uncon-ventional ways to make money. They held several fundraisers at Round Table Pizza and one at Powell’s Candy Shop, but quickly found that off-campus events were far inferior to their on-cam-pus counterparts. A lunch date auction was the brainchild of journalism students An-nie Jung, Maddy Kirsch, Christopher Wyman, and Caitlyn Nurnberg, but the entire newspaper staff was involved in promoting, planning and running

Photo by Jenna GeokeThe display case houses fashion show paraphernalia.

news03.25.11 page03

Protests turn violent in Libya Inspired by a series of large-scale revolts in neighboring countries, Lib-yan citizens are protesting against the dictatorial regime of Moammar Gad-hafi. The protests in Libya began on Feb. 15, several days after the over-throwing of Egyptian and Tunisian presidents, when approximately 200 people began demonstrating outside of police headquarters following the arrest of human rights activist Fathi Tebil. Police violently broke up the pro-test, causing up to 40 injuries among the protestors. Battles between gov-ernment loyalists and rebels erupted subsequently, and on Feb. 23, approxi-mately 300 protestors and 120 mem-bers of government forces were killed. President Ghadafi’s refusal to step down from power keeps the future of Libya in a state of uncertainty. “Libya is a cloud of doubt, be-cause it’s become a civil war. Thousands have died and everyone is trying to es-cape. I doubt Gaddafi’s government will last,”says senior Robert McIntosh in response to the situation. As the clashes between the rebels and the loyalists intensify, world gov-ernments are under a great deal of pres-sure to intervene.

As of now, the United States Government and world leaders alike have expressed dismay with Gadhafi. President Barrack Obama insists that Gadhafi “step down from power and leave.” “I like what the United States is doing, what with the sanctions and the international aid,” McIntosh adds, in support of the Obama Administra-tion’s and Congress’ foreign policy on Libya. Global Organizations such as the United Nations have begun acting on the Libyan crisis, having imposed a travel ban and freezing the assets about the Gadhafi family and their inner circle. The US Government carefully weighs its options as the world watches a nation in distress. The Libyan revolts carried both economic and political impacts. Libya happens to be the world’s twelfth larg-est oil producer, and produces two per-cent of the world’s oil. The world’s oil prices have risen up by 10 to 20 percent since the revolts started mid-February. Gas prices in America have in-creased by almost 15 percent within the last three months. With oil pro-duction reaching it’s capacity, even relatively low-impacting nations such as Libya can fluctuate the market. To learn more about what you can do to help with the situation in Libya go to: www.islamicreliefusa.org/libya

Abel MariamStaff Writer

Caitlyn NurnbergStaff Writer

Lighting up gets struck down:City council decides to impose tax on medical marijuana

Mary Jane, weed, pot, reefer, chronic, grass, greens, bud, dope, and hydro are just some of the many names that the infamous plant, most commonly known as marijuana, goes by. When people think of marijuana they usually think of teen-agers getting ‘stoned’ in their bedrooms when their parents are not home, or deadbeat semi-adults sitting in their par-ents smoke-filled basement. When think-ing about marijuana people don’t usually associate it with medicine, but the fact is medical marijuana is used for many illnesses. It is most

often used for cancer (to ease the vomiting and loss of appetite caused by chemotherapy) and glaucoma

(because the pain and progress is known to reduce when using the drug). It is also used for multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.

For a medical marijuana li-cense you have to be at least eigh-teen years old, and in most dispensa-

ries you can only visit once a day. However soon medical mari-juana might not be so easy to get; start-ing on April 1 the city of San Jose will start taxing medical marijuana providers, even though they say that the businesses are operating illegal-ly. Because San Jose does not recognize these providers as businesses, the new tax is starting quite the uproar from peo-ple in this particular line of work.

“So what they are saying is, ‘You are

all drug dealers and you have to give us a cut,’” said Dave Hodges of Cannabis Buyers Collective in an interview with reporter Karina

Rusk. Although many people claim they are a front for drug legaliza-tion and recreational use, many people do get medical marijuana li-

censes because they are legitimately in pain. For those people, this measure will have damaging af-

fects. Because the marijuana will be taxed, it stands to reason that it will cost more, so in turn it might put some people in a financial tight spot.

“…If anything [this tax] will just help the econo-my,” says junior Adam So-ret This measure is being put into effect by the city council with hopes that the 7 percent tax will help San Jose close a $110 mil-lion budget deficit. Even with these high hopes, many council members are doubtful that the tax will be of much help. “It will not fix our pen-sion problem, but it may keep a library open, or a city staff member still em-ployed,” said San Jose City Council member Pierluigi Oliviero in an interview

with ABC 7 news. Oliviero was the first city council member to suggest the tax. This measure, Measure U, passed with 78% of the vote, which is a landslide by most measures. With the tax inevitable, and roughly 100 medical marijuana dispensaries operating in San Jose some of the establishments are all for the tax, stating that it will vali-date them as actual business own-ers and not just ‘drug dealers’ while others think it’s crazy that they are being taxed when they are not even recognized as a business. With the dispensaries divided, people will just have to wait until the tax starts being put into effect in April to see the lasting effect it will have on these bay area corporations.

Photo courtesy of Euan SlorachPeople gathered to protest for Libya in San Francisco on February 26.

Photos courtesy of KayVee.INCA medical marijuana dispensary located in California

Police forcefully break up protests outside their headquarters, resulting in 40 injuries

Medical marijuana ready to be sold.

Photo by Zach Galou

news 03.25.11page 04

Kelley GroganBusiness Manager/Sports

As legions of adults and stu-dents alike gathered to Gunderson High School’s March 4 perfor-mance of The Laramie Project, they were surprised to see that the West-boro Baptist Church, which had planned to picket the event, never showed up. The church, consisting pri-marily of members of the Phelps family and headed by Fred Phelps, are notorious across the county for their radical views on homosexual-ity, and the thousands of protests they organize each year to object to anything they believe to be associ-ated with it. The Laramie Project, an ad-aptation of a real-life incident in Laramie, Wyoming, in which a gay college student was murdered and the crime was ruled to be a hate-crime, was opposed by the West-boro Baptist Church because it

Nicole HamiltonStaff Writer

depicts a homosexual. “My school’s principal an-nounced on our daily an-nouncement not to do anything rash if the protest-ers were to show up, but represent the pride of our school,” says G u n d e r s o n junior Genella Cox. “When I heard ‘protest’ I immedi-ately thought of…fires and angry signs. But I’m happy that there were people against stupid protests like those of the WBC,” says junior Mi-chael Rea. Countless locals were infuri-

ated by the church’s promise to protest the play, and a counter-

protest was organized that includ-ed students from all schools in the area, as well as facility members and out-of-state attendees. But when

the church family failed to show up, the counter-protest turned into

an impromptu gay rights demon-stration, which lasted the week-end the play was showing. “ I heard some people talking about [going to the play] in one of my classes but they tried to buy a ticket on time so they couldn’t go, be-cause we [were already] sold out,” says Cox. The reasons

why the church failed to show at the play are unknown. “In my opinion, you saw that they weren’t going to come because they had to stay a certain feet away

from the school, so if they came to protest where would they have pro-tested at?” says Cox. Shirley Phelps-Roper, who or-ganizes the majority of the protests, believes that what her family is do-ing is the right thing to do. Accord-ing to the church’s ideals, America is a country that is doomed due to its lenient stance on homosexual-ity, and was once arrested for en-couraging her son to stomp on an American flag. “There isn’t any way to fix that situation for them. It’s not go-ing to be any less painful if we are there or aren’t there. They did that to themselves,” says Phelps-Roper in an interview with Fox News, in response to a simi-larly canceled protest at the funeral of murdered Amish schoolgirls. The Church plans to increase protests by four-fold in 2011, in response to canceling both the pro-test of the Amish funerals and the protest at Westboro.

AP Testing gets the bootThe College Board plans for changes to Advanced Placement courses

College Board has reported that there will be changes to the Ad-vanced Placement classes of Biology and US History in the 2012-2013 school year. Their goal is to shift the focus of these course away from heavy memorization and toward more in-depth looks into a fewer number of topics. In fact, in the past two years, APUSH has had an audited sylla-bus, but for now, there are no major changes. In AP Biology, the course is go-ing to move from eight themes to four themes, and will allow the students to create their own experiments instead of just following the pre-designed College Board procedures. The new approach altogether is going to be more hands-on. “[It’s] going to allow teach-

ers to go more in depth,” said AP Biology Teacher Donna Green. “I’m ex-cited!” Originally, when AP courses were first created in 1956, the amount of subject mat-ter was not a problem. However, as the decades rolled on there were sci-entific breakthroughs and new discoveries, as well as highly significant events in history. The plans for the curriculum are going to focus more on a con-ceptual understanding of the matter. The revamp-ing of APs will start this year with German and French Language. Physics, Chemistry, European History, world history, and

art history will follow in their foot-steps, being ready for changes in 2014 and 2015.

“We really believe that the New AP needs to be anchored in a curriculum that focuses on what students need to be able to do with their knowledge,” said College Board Vice Presi-dent Trevor Packer in a recent New York Times article. When questioned as to whether students should take AP Biology and AP US His-tory now or next year, he said it would be better to wait until the 2012-2013 school year, if they have the option. But as for the current and past AP Biology and AP US History students, they are going to miss out on the opportunity. “I’m kind of jealous since it seems like the classes will get

easier, but at the same time it’s not really necessary. The classes are hard but not impossible, and they

prepare you for what college will be like. College classes are just as fast and rigorous, so it kind of defeats the purpose of AP classes to change them. Plus if AP classes stray too far from college classes, college classes may not count them for credits,” says former APUSH student and current AP Bio student, Claire Henry. “But creating their own experiments in Biology is a good idea, since the class now already focuses on that a lot to teach us why we do certain things in an experiment. Right now there is a set list of AP labs that we have to do during the school year and memorize for the test, but it seems kind of pointless. Designing our own experiments would be better.” All in all, there is going to be a solid curriculum for the AP teachers to follow in the coming years, result-ing in a better understanding of con-cepts and less of a burden on students’ minds due to memorization.

Rallies get out of control defending what they believe in.

Counter-protests at Activist gathering to pro-

Gunderson High School:test Westboro Church

turns into gay rights rally

Photo by Maddy Kirsch

opinion3.25.10 page 05Wanna be famous? Get pregnant

You’re 16 years old and you have to tell your friends and family that your life is going to be changed forever all because you are now pregnant. Reality TV shows give the off the perception that it’s okay and sometimes a good thing that young teenagers are getting pregnant like this. This scenario is becoming a common occur-rence in high schools all over the nation and popular televi-sion shows are putting these teenagers in the lime light. By even having this on TV, pregnan-cy is being glori-fied. For young girls like Maci, Amber, Jenelle, and Kailyn; this is their real-ity. On Dec. 8, 2009 the first season of the hit TV show “Teen Mom” aired on MTV. The show is about the reality of having a baby while still a teen and all of the difficulties that teen pregnancy entails. Now, “Teen Mom” is on its second season and its ratings are continuing to grow. Shows like “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant” glorify these young girls and their families to a point where some want to be like them. Some might say that shows like “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” teach students a lesson and

show them what having a baby is re-ally like; however, the message that is being brainwashed into viewers’ minds is that it is “okay” to get pregnant in high school. Television stations started this growing trend and it has continued through “Glee”, “Juno”, and “I’m Preg-nant and I Didn’t Know It”. “States with higher rates [of teen pregnancies] were Arizona, Nevada

and New Mexico, which led the na-tion with 93 pregnancies for every 1,000 teenage women,” said Gail Col-lins from the New York Times in her column on Feb. 16. These statistics are becoming so high because people see it hap-pening on TV every day and think that it’s something normal and that it isn’t such a big deal anymore. Now it’s happening at high schools all around us. Girls used to go through the trouble of hiding their pregnan-

cies because of their embarrassment, but now girls aren’t even trying to hide it, and sometimes even flaunt-ing it. These shows set the characters up to be idols in our society and role models to teens. “It’s ridiculous and I don’t think it should be promoted through the media. Unfortunately so many people waste their time watching it, I don’t think there’s much that can be done,”

said sopho-more Jessica Wakeman. T h e girls on “Teen Mom” are now famous and are only known because they were pregnant. Jenelle has the struggles with money and Kailyn with a place to live; but what view-ers don’t see is all the back stage prob-lems that they face every day

on top of what is aired. To some teens this show can be seen as a gateway to fame and money. Overall, shows like these make it seem like a normal thing for teenagers to get pregnant and that it doesn’t mat-ter because they will never get in any serious trouble because they see these characters are able to live through it with ease. However, they don’t know all of the truth about Maci, Amber, Jenelle, and Kailyn’s lives.

Controlling the chaos

During the last few months, we have had more fire alarms go off than I remember ever having in the past. It’s the same routine each time: an alarm goes off, the teacher complains about class being inter-rupted, students get in a line and walk outside. Everyone’s happy to be miss-ing that extra ten minutes of class, but no one really cares about the alarm otherwise. California Education Code Section 32282 mandates that all public and private high schools practice certain procedures, such as an earthquake drill, at least once a semester. “Aside from im-proving our educa-tion systems), safety

needs to be placed as a higher pri-ority especially with all of these natural disasters occurring left and right [sic]. Look at Japan, they only had 30 minutes to evacuate,” senior Reem Jubran stated. In the event of a fire, students are expected to file out of the room in a calm fashion to avoid chaos. Once in a line at a safe distance from the school ,

we are to wait until an official

informs us that it is safe.

Le i gh seems to have fire

drills all the time, but in a state and location where earth-quakes are aplenty, why do we rarely prepare for earthquakes? In elementary school, we had fire fighters and police officers come to our assemblies and tell us how important it was to take these drills seriously. And we did.

B u t once the later

years of middle school and high school came around, drills became

just drills. None of these things would ever

“actually” happen. The West Coast is pre-

dicted to have a massive earth-quake at some point within the next ten years. A simple duck and cover routine will not save us from that. If, instead of one of the drills, we had a safety awareness assembly or even a class discussion on all our potential options in certain situa-tions, we would take it a little more seriously. Granted, we will never truly understand the immensity of cer-tain disasters until they actually happen, but thoroughly discuss-ing safety options will keep us safer and more alert in the long run.

Photo Courtesy of MTV.com

Shannon KeenerFeatures Editor

Varija YelagalawadiIn-Depth Editor

F i r e Drill:

In an orderly fashion get in your class line. Go quietly to the out-

side of the school

Earth-quake Drill:

Hide under your desk and cover your

head and neck

Editors-in-ChiefAnnie Jung, Maddy Kirsch

Section EditorsNews: Jordan BoomsliterOpinion: Jenna Goeke

Features: Shannon KeenerSports: Kelley Grogan

Entertainment: Josh VasquezIn-Depth: Varija Yelagalawadi

Visuals EditorKylie Brown

Business ManagersChris Wyman, Kelley Grogan

Copy EditorsVarija Yelagalawadi

Staff WritersJosh Vasquez, Jenna Goeke, Danielle Baldelomar, Blayke Leach, Jennfer Park, Shayna James, Rebekah Hassen, Maddy Kirsch, Shannon Keener, Annie Jung, Varija Yelagalawadi, Jordan Boomsliter, Kelley Grogan, Alex Sainez, Spencer Thresh, Zack Galou, Terra Steadman, Kylie Brown, Abel Mariam, Marissa

Rodriguez, Caitlyn Nurnberg, Nicole Hamilton, Andy Simionas, Chris Wyman, Kim Foote, Jordan Weinberg, Sydney Black,

Roya Askari

Design StaffJosh Vasquez, Jenna Goeke, Blayke Leach, Jennfer Park, Shayna James, Re-

bekah Hassen, Maddy Kirsch, Shannon Keener, Annie Jung, Varija Yelagalawa-di, Jordan Boomsliter, Kelly Grogan, Alex Sainez, Spencer Thresh, Terra Stead-man, Marissa Rodriguez, Caitlyn Nurnberg, Nicole Hamilton, Andy Simionas,

Chris Wyman, Kim Foote, Jordan Weinberg, Sydney Black

Visuals StaffKylie Brown, Zack Galou, Abel Mariam, Roya Askari, Danielle Baldelomar

AdviserElizabeth Towner

The Eleight is an independent publication of the Journalism class at Leigh High School. Its content reflects the opinion of the Writing Staff and does not necessarily reflect the views of Leigh High School, its Board of Trustees, faculty,

administration or student body.

If you feel that The Eleight improperly or insufficiently represents any part of the Leigh High community, or have any other questions,

suggestions or comments, please email Leigh’s Journalism class via the_eleight@yahoo.com.

The Eleight is an independent publication dedicated to honest, ethical, accurate and complete

coverage of the Leigh High student body and its surrounding community.

Earthquake drills at Leigh need more attention

Dear Readers,

Although it’s been looking a little East Coast-esque in the Bay, spring is here and many of us are feeling the proximity to sum-mer - on sunny days, the shorts come out and “senioritis” and an all-around, grade-ir-relevant apathy toward academics has set in. Have heart and persevere in this last stretch of the school year, folks. Seniors, congratulations on your col-lege acceptances as they continue to roll into your mailboxes and inboxes!

Thank you,

Annie Jung and Maddy Kirsch.

opinion 3.25.11page 06A cumbersome task

Do you like it smooth, slick, and waxed, or do you prefer the no-fuss, real-men-will-take-it-unwaxed approach? Maybe efficiency is the name of your game and you take a hard and fast approach to it. Maybe you favor the gentle, languid method, devoting the utmost attention to each caress, leaving no square inch untouched or neglected. Whichever way you like it, you’re not doing it enough. Flossing - among every dentist visit’s top laments, an estimated 90% of the American population doesn’t do it properly, with a good showing of people admitting to hardly ever or even never flossing. I recently started flossing daily. On the second day of this new regimen, I Googled “flossing” on a whim. The results only convinced me to remain steadfast. There was a thread where non-flossers and avid flossers alike dis-cussed their reasons for taking up the practice. A particular comment really did the job - “I never feel like flossing, and then I think of how badly the crap that I pull out of there smells. The idea that food is fermenting between my teeth gets me to do it.” It was a powerful use of the word “fermenting.” This well-worded comment singlehandedly converted several readers into flossers. A few days later, I got home very late and after finishing my work, felt like passing out like a frat boy on my bed. I was vaguely aware of the sensa-tion of being guilty through my quick-ly shutting down mental processes, but sleeping ASAP seemed important. Then I remembered that aside from personally hand-delivering “Welcome” invitations to cavities, I’d have food “fermenting” between my teeth as I slept. Boy, was that a wake-up call. This idea imbued me with a sudden vigor and leaping to my feet with an anti-plaque spring in my step, I flossed the dickens out of my teeth. The only time that anything fermented ought to be in my mouth is if the stuff in question is wine, bread, or cheese. This worries me. Will I become too lazy or busy to bother flossing in college? When I went to visit USC during February break, I stood at the bathroom sinks brushing my teeth and making small talk with some of my other foam-filled mouth bearers. The girls were all friendly, and we sipped, swished, and spat before exchanging Colgate-scented smiles goodbye. However, of the three girls I brushed with, none of the four of us broke out the dental floss. Maybe it was just that sampling of college students who happened not to floss that night. Maybe the flossers exercise their dental hygiene practices late at night, hanging out in a big plaque-fighting circle at three in the morning; it was only one o’clock when my host and I got back to the dorms. Unfortunately or fortunately, I know that finishing my paper will take precedence over my gums. Interestingly, polls show that Republicans, Protestants, and wom-en are more likely to floss than Dem-ocrats, Catholics, and men. Daily flossers live about six and a half years longer than those who

don’t floss, as flossing protects your immune system. Come to think of it, it’s funny how we treat some of our material possessions so fussily. We have shock-absorbent, waterproof, and aesthetically-pleasing cases for our iPods, nour-ishing conditioners and shine treatments for hair, engine checks and oil changes for our cars, and thousands of types of creams and scrubs for skin, of which we shed forty pounds a year. Yet many of us neglect our teeth, even though we only get one set of gnashers to last us several de-cades’ worth of coffee-stained smiles and popcorn kernel-filled laughs at the movies. It’s quite a foolish choice of dental hygiene lifestyle, once you think about it. Root canals are bloody agony to go through and they’re a real solid weight-loss procedure for your wallet. Halitosis, bad breath, is the number one complaint abot cowork-ers and having it is among the top phobias. People have been fired for having an offensive breath. But you know, once you start, it’s an easy habit to pick up. Now that I’m in the swing of daily floss-ing, going without it feels weird. My oral care regimen feels incomplete without it. Would you shower but keep half of your body covered in Saran Wrap while you cleanse? That’s what not flossing is like. You can brush as vigorously, of-ten, and meticulously as you like, but you’re still only going to be cleaning 60% of your teeth, leaving almost half of your mouth to enjoy a gradual build-up of tartar and accumulation of cavities. It’s a cumbersome task, indeed. Fingers might be too big to fit comfortably inside your mouth, and you look like a banshee or sad whale sometimes as you engage in the in-stinctive facial aerobics that accom-pany the act of flossing. Honestly, it’s like girls and how they open their mouths most amus-ingly when applying mascara (seri-ously, they look hilarious). I’m looking forward to my next visit to the dentist now. As it turns out, many of us are sticklers to the “Oh, shoot, I have to go to the dentist” routine: we brush extremely well in the few days preceding an appointment and may even floss more in those three days than in the past three years com-bined. There will be no adolescent last-minute shoddy prep this time. When you’re older, you can raise your glass of fermented liquid and toast your healthy teeth and gums.

A look through the pensieve

Charlie Sheen and Justin Bieber vs. Japan and Libya

“The masses are asses”-- Alexan-der Hamilton. While browsing the web for your daily helping of news, you read CNN’s reader-voted stories, which consist of a firefighter stealing a severed foot from a crime scene, how to erase Charlie Sheen from your inter-net browser, and an Apple fan camping for the new iPad, ac-cording to newsroom.blogs.cnn.com. The problem is: the audi-ence of some of the so-called prestigious news corporations are interested in more mundane topics than important ones. Often, we wish to read entertaining news rather than hard news. For example, the monetary king of our genera-tion’s pop music, Justin Bieber, is receiving more attention than other less visible, yet more im-portant things. Most of this genre of in-formation comes from the ma-jor news hubs to make a profit. They know that in the American news media, money is more im-portant than reporting reputable news. Even on our own high school campus, some students, like senior Shane Wittig, disapprove of the cur-rent state of society’s priorities. “News has become completely mixed with entertainment. The media reports what people want to know and not what they ought to know. In my opinion, the only real news source is

public broadcasting, which has unfor-tunately had its government funding slashed,” said Wittig. Senior Andrew Lau believes that the problem is caused by the evolution of information trafficking: “I think a big deal [of it] has to do with the emergence of new ways

to transmit information, such as the internet. Everything is so readily avail-able; events cannot keep up with how fast we can get news out, so we begin trying to find filler,” said senior An-drew Lau. Amongst this confusion, there is a share of important information com-

ing from lesser journalists, like local newspapers, college and high school newspapers, civil journalism, and pub-lic broadcasting. These organizations would rather communicate real news to the people. “PBS receives federal funding and grants from foundations so they do

not need to worry about ratings or corporate sponsor-ships. This allows them to report the facts objectively without worrying about how large their audience is,” said Wittig. Conversely, some think the large news corporations have questionable integrity when re-porting the news. The assumption is that they are out to make money, and accomplish that goal: “Society’s priori-

ties are in increas-ing profit margins and pocketing the greens,” said Lau.

Sometimes, American journalists quite simply can’t get certain foreign information. The crisis in Libya, for example, is hard to record, since jour-nalists there are highly censored. Society’s focus in media generally succumbs to non-important informa-tion, when society should be reading about relevant and worldly news.

Learning from Japan, continued from Front page...

statement he made to LiveScience on Tuesday, “There is no evidence for a connection between all of the Pacific Rim earthquakes… When an earth-quake happens, it changes the stress in the vicinity around it, and if there are other faults nearby, this increase in stress can trigger them and produce more earthquakes. In other places, it relaxes the crust and puts earthquakes off.” Perhaps the most radical predic-tion was captured in a video interview with earthquake forecaster Tim Berk-land that collected almost one million views on Youtube. Berkland claimed that the March 19 full moon hightened the probability of an earthquake last weekend. Accord-ing to him, the moon coupled with frightening trends in ocean animal mi-grations all over the Pacific (many fish and whales can sense tectonic waves) meant that we should all be worried. He also warned that he equinoctial tide that passed last Saturday would make any seismic activity even more dangerous. Berland’s interview was posted on March 15, so he was wrong in pre-dicting the time frame for the natural disasters.

What society truly cares about

Jokes and opposition to Sarah Palin continue to make headlines and top news stories (even T-shirts!).

In the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, California suffered one of its greatest disasters as damaged cities faced countless fires and collapsed buildings. Although the quake only lasted about 50 seconds, nearly 900 died.

Photo courtesy of www.blogspot.com

Zack GalouStaff Writer

Photo courtesy of blogspot.com

The scientific community is obvi-ously not in agreement about the par-ticulars of California’s future earthquake and its possible relationship to Japan’s, but that is beside the point. As they sort out the realm of pos-sibility for this imminent quake – in terms of a timeline, a size estimate and a potential damage estimate – the rest of us have a responsibility to prepare our-selves and encourage a movement to-wards preparedness in our government. Many Californians seem to be un-der the impression that our country is better suited to react to a natural disaster than, say, Japan. This could not be fur-ther from the truth. Japan is not only more accustomed to natural disaster - it sits atop the in-tersection of the most violent tectonic plates and has experienced 195 tsunamis throughout it’s recorded history, more than any other country in the world - it is also more technologically prepared. Japan has the most sophisticated earthquake warning system in the world; sensors in the earth’s crust detect early P waves (the less destructive type) and send signals to computers before violent S waves begin. The warning is

then transmitted to almost every type of consumer electronic device in existence, overriding vibrate and silence settings on many of them to deliver the impor-tant message and save lives. Scientists say that California’s sys-tem is far less advanced and that it will be years until we can implement some-thing of the same level. After the quake, California proves ill-prepared to deal with related prob-lems. A study found that many hospitals do not meet earthquake safety require-ments, potentially leaving thousands without medical care after the disaster. A study by NewsBeast also placed two of our nuclear reactors in the sec-ond slot on a list of the country’s most vulnerable plants, despite claims by PG&E that they are built to withstand the most powerful earthquake “likely.” The fact the plants were built more than 30 years ago, in the 1970s, is no consolence. Ignoring these signs of unpre-paredness would be an insult to the memories of the some 18,000 people killed by the Japanese quake. California needs to step up to the plate. - Maddy Kirsch, editor-in-chief

opinion3.25.11 page 07

Senior Moments

Dancing through life

In first grade, a bird pooped on my head when I was on my way to choir in the cafeteria. I had no idea—so I went all through choir with bird poop on my head. I was always the kid who, tried as I might, always ended up with more white glue on my fingers than on my art project. Yes, I was that kid. The awk-ward kid. I blame some, if not all, of my awkwardness on my genetics. If you’ve ever met my father, you un-derstand why I attribute my nerdy and dorky traits to him. My grandparents had me quot-ing “Fiddler on the Roof” by the time I was two. We have pictures of me reading the fourth Harry Potter book when I was in second grade. Yes, I was that nerdy of a seven year old. That’s another awkward trait I inherited—poor eyesight. The ‘cool’ kids never had to wear glasses in el-ementary school. Nope. Velma in Scooby Doo did, though. And Velma was SUPER cool and hip with those big glasses and hairy, burnt orange turtleneck. Between acne, glasses, braces, and bad hair days, I was quite the awkward child. But I was pretty happy through all of it. I had good friends and a great family and life was pretty fan-tastic back in late elementary school and even middle school. Even though looking at the yearbook photos from that time pe-riod makes me cringe (If we went to school together, resist the urge to look me up in the yearbook. I’m not being modest—there’s a reason that those photos are posted on Facebook), I am honestly quite glad that I was awkward. I keep referring to myself as awkward in the past tense. And I’m sure that many of my friends will lovingly point out that I still AM quite awkward. They’re right. I am still quite quirky, dorky, and awkward. But, my dear friends, you are too. Honestly, who doesn’t admit to being dorky or awkward? Nobody is Mr. Cool all the time. If you really are that cool all the time…well, I’m sorry for you. Life is more fun if you’re a little dorky—and I am the expert on dorky. I’m human. I’m a teenager. I don’t have all the answers (don’t have a heart attack, Dad). I make mistakes on a daily basis. Who doesn’t? But if you can’t laugh at yourself for those mistakes…you’re missing out on free quality enter-tainment. I love the movie “Sydney White”. Judge me if you will, but I find the movie hilarious and one of Amanda Bynes’ best (“She’s the Man” is still the ultimate best movie EVER—followed closely by “The Lion King”). I find it highly ironic that

a movie with a title so similar to my own name revolves completely around embracing your inner dork. If you haven’t seen the movie, go rent it. It’s no “Inception”, but it’s a cute movie. I know that I’ve done an AMAZING job of hiding it the last four years, but I’ll finally come out and say it: I am a dork. Shocking, right? But it’s true. I’ll admit it. I’m so grateful that I am the dork that I am. I’ve never had the best clothes or the best hair. My makeup isn’t per-fect. I say things aloud that I don’t mean to. I trip over my own feet daily. I have less than six months un-til I reach adulthood. That’s kinda terrifying for me, because I don’t feel ready at all. Paying taxes and manag-ing a budget and having a credit card seem light-years away for me. But sadly, they’re not. I had an epiphany the other day regarding why I feel so unprepared for adult life. I feel so unprepared for maturity and adulthood because I’m so short. When we’re kids, adults are always so much taller than us, right? They loom over us and we’re con-stantly looking up at the world. Well I haven’t grown since sixth grade and I’m still stuck down here at 5’2. I’m still looking up at the world. My mother is still taller than I am. When I go grocery shopping, I have to cross my fingers that the soup I need is on the bottom shelves. I can’t be a true adult until I can get items off the top shelf, right? But life doesn’t seem to be working out that way. Adulthood has no height re-quirement. “Life’s a dance you learn as you go. Sometimes you lead, and some-times you follow. Don’t worry about what you don’t know, ‘cuz life’s a dance you learn as you go.” Mrs. Lucitt, my first grade teacher, taught my class that saying. And, besides her strange obsession with hippos, it’s the only thing I re-ally remember about my first grade class. When I was six, I really didn’t understand what the saying meant. I just mindlessly repeated it back to her, eager to get out the door for recess. It makes much more sense now. I’m a senior. I’m legally able to drive a motorized vehicle. I’m going to prom in a few months. I’ve taken senior pictures. I’ve ordered my graduation announce-ments and my cap and gown. I’ve applied and been accepted to my top school. I’ve signed up for an apartment and been assigned roommates. Only a few short months, and I’m out in the ‘cold, cruel world’ on my own. I have the rest of my life in front of me. I’m packing up my things and heading out into the world. Who knows where I’ll end up in five years? After graduation, I’m not forced to stay in San Jose during the school year. I can choose to study abroad in Europe if I want to! I don’t really know what the next few years are bringing me. Now, I’m not a good dancer. Josh Sayre has been to Mormon dances and can testify that I’m not going to be feature on “So You Think You Can Dance” anytime soon. But who cares? I’m dorkily dancing my way through life, and loving every minute of it.

“Selling-out” is a term thrown around a lot these days in all entertain-ment industries. When a band, artist, actor, ect. reaches mainstream success where they previously had none, they are considered to have sold out. “[Selling-out] is to give up your ‘street cred’ for more wide-spread fame, thus receiving a group of ‘haters’ from those who respected you prior to selling out,” said junior Zoe Demertzis. From a fans perspective, “selling-out” is usually a bad thing. For whatever reason, we like not only to be the first to discover something, but also to be one of the only people to discover it. So what is the artist’s perspective? In an interview with Alter-native Press, Geoff Rickly, vocalist for the band Thursday, expresses how the lack of money brought in from music actually has a negative effect on his music. “If you can put your song in a car commercial, put it in a car com-mercial,” said Rickly. “People can call us sellouts all they want. I just wish we could sell out more. I’d have more free time to write music.” Mike Murphy, former bassist for

Josh VasquezEntertainment Editor

Teenagers nowadays are con-stantly coming under fire from the adult community, viewing the major-ity of the younger population almost as if they are all the mischievous little gremlins from their nightmares. Most teenagers in our modern so-ciety are considered troublemakers who love to break any and all sorts of rules or laws just because they are laid down in front of them. Now is that really the case or are teenagers and their actions simply over-analyzed and misunderstood? “I think they [teenagers in gen-eral] are misunder-stood but, there is a select few that are troublemakers,” stat-ed freshman Kimi Schiefer. A teenager, de-ciding to cross the street to get to his friend on the other side of Leigh Avenue instead of wait-ing for the sign to walk across, runs across to his awaiting friend. He may be seen, through the eyes of an adult figure, as a careless jaywalker. In this situation, an innocent teenager can be seen and judged to be just another inconsiderate traffic viola-tor when really, that’s not the case; he was just trying to save a few moments of time by crossing early, as the coast was clear, to get to his friend. This misunderstanding and im-mediate judgment happens everyday

Stickin’ it to the manAre teen’s rebellious natures justified?

Selling out is not a crime!

with day-to-day relations between teen-agers and adults. Although it can be argued that some teenagers do like to break laws like staying out past curfew, drinking under age, and other things that they consider “recreational activities”, it can also be argued that they do it on pur-pose, fully aware of the consequences. “I think teens break rules just

for the thrill of breaking them. I don’t think teenagers are misunderstood, I think we all do it on purpose,” ex-pressed senior Charlotte James. Teenagers, like toddlers aging between 2 and 3 years of age, share a psychological “disorder” psychologists call the Oppositional Defiant Disor-der where adolescents display behavior such as argumentative attitudes, “talk-ing back”, and disobedience of teach-ers, parents, adult figures in general. In this disorder, teens (and toddlers) often

questioning rules, displaying active de-fiance and refusal to comply with adult requests and rules, and deliberate at-tempts to annoy or upset people. However, this can’t mean that all teenagers are susceptible to such a dis-order, or even fall under this category of diagnosis. Even though some teenagers do things that can be frowned upon by

some parts of today’s society, the actions of a select few peo-ple shouldn’t label an entire age group as a bunch of reck-less troublemakers. Not every teenager goes out of their way to break the laws laid out in front of them as a form of entertain-ment, or for some kind of rebellious teenage “thrill” only achieved from the satisfaction of sheer disobedience. “In every group of people, there are people who like to break rules because

of certain incen-tives, and there are other people who are misunderstood just

because of their presentation,” stated Leigh Psychologist Minhlan Trieu. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” you would agree that just the peers around you, “appear” a certain way does not necessarily mean you act a certain way. If this adult logic and constant accusations were justified, teenagers would be just as justified to label the majority of the adult society as a bunch of killjoys and buzz kills.

ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) is common among teens and accounts for an intense opposition to authority figures

People wrongly criticize “mainstream” artists

Photo courtesy of reason.com

the band Haste the Day who recently split up, agrees with Rickly saying, “Money allows the artist to concen-trate on their art so they don’t have to go home and get a job.” Rather than thinking of the art-ist’s success we are thinking of the ex-clusivity of the artist for our own self-ish reasons. Selling out doesn’t have to

mean the artist is becoming worse, but there is a negative view of artists who “sell out.” Let’s not forget that it wasn’t until director, Francis Ford Coppola was severely in debt that he decided to be a part of The Godfather. Originally, he wanted nothing to do with the film, saying the source ma-

terial was “pretty cheap.” The trilogy has made over $574 million to date and won nine Oscars. People travel all across the world to visit the Sistine Chapel and the gaze upon the timeless masterpiece by Mi-chelangelo. But Michelangelo was no painter at the time. He was a sculptor and in

fact, he despised painting. He viewed paint-ing as an inferior art. But the pope needed a paint-ing for the chapel pronto and as it turned out, there weren’t many available job op-portunities for an artist in Italy at the time, so Michelangelo took the offer. The bottom line is that

to stop supporting an artist once they

become more popular is selfish on the part of the fans. Fans should think about why a musician might license a song to a commercial, why an actor might ac-cept a role in a major motion picture, or why a sculptor might decide to paint a timeless masterpiece. Chances are there’s a good reason.

Local bands receive the good, laid back life when they sell their master pieces to larger corporations.

Alex SainezStaff Writer

“

Quiz

The picture perfect family. What more could you ask for? For the Davis family this means mother, father, and three kids (two boys and one girl) all spaced perfectly within two years of one another. Not only that, but all three are or were at one point involved in Leigh activities such as leadership and sports.

Breakin’ down the families at Leigh!

““The concept of the traditional fam-ily, that is, the ‘natural reproductive unit’ of mom, pop, and the children all living under one roof, is not an immutable one. It is a social con-struct that varies from culture to culture and, over time, the definition changes within a culture”

- H. Ball

Getting to know the Davis’: Ever since Emily Davis, the eldest of the family, left for college, the guys rule the Davis house. “Now that Emily left... we watch sports all the time,” says Danny Davis, the second oldest and a junior at Leigh. The Davis’s have the stereotypical traditional family. A full family balanced out by the family dog, their family is just as normal as any other. “There is no perfect family, but we all get along and Chris and I do a lot of things together,” said Danny Davis. “We have it good compared to what it could be,” said Chris Davis, the youngest of the Davis family and a freshman at Leigh. They are a happy family, but not without their own problems. “I always get compared to Danny and I hate it. Academics, sports, and classes. [But] me and Danny are bros and I didn’t pick him but I have to make the best of what I got,” says Chris, the youngest.

Getting to know the Garcia’s: In her interview with The Eleight, Megan Garcia called her family hectic, crazy, amusing, and loving. “We fight like a normal family, but for the most part we get along,” said Garcia. Megan and her brother Kris were 10 and 12 respectively when their family “merged” with the Wilcox’s, whose kids Riley and Kyle were also 10 and 12 at the time. To Megan, the best aspect of her family is all the extended family she has: the step-grandparents, step-brothers, and step-dad. “People always say ‘Oh, it sucks [that] your parents are divorced.’ but it really doesn’t,” said Gracia.

Family. The building blocks of society. The foundation upon which our entire lives are based. The single-most influential part of our environment. Most of us assume that our own family is the craziest, most hectic possible. We can’t stand eachother, yet we love eachother all the same. We argue about our family values, but stand by them in public situ-ations. The media has taken all sorts of family dynamics and explored them thoroughly with the Kardashians, Stepbrothers, Cheaper By The Dozen, Family Guy, and Jon and Kate plus Eight. There are many categories commonly used to define our family units: tradi-tional, mixed, adoptive, interracial, religious, homosexual, or cross-generational. The day-time show “Modern Family” has grown popular due to the fact that most famIlies are able to relate to at least one part of the three different families that are inter-twined. Families are difficult, impossible, aggravating, hectic, and just all around stressful. But without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today. And when it comes down to it, fam-ily is what love is.

Photo courtesy of the Davis family

1. Who’s your best friend?

A: my sibling(s)B: I have more than one best friendC: someone I’ve known since el-ementary school

2. What do you like to do in your free time?

A: hang out with family and/or close friendsB: practice a sportC: study and/or read

3. What do you do at night?

A: family dinner B: partyC: sleep as early as possible

In Depth created by Shannon Keener, Maddy Kirsch, Blayke Leach, Spencer Thresh, and Varija Yelagalawadi

Traditional 68%

Mixed(step)

17%Divo

rced 6

%

Adop

ted

4%

Othe

r 5%

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.

The Brady Bunch is the classic prototype of a mixed American family. Broadcasted by ABC beginning in 1969, this opening grid has survived over 40 years and is still recognized by many children today. The Brady Bunch theme song does a good job communicating the foundation of a mixed family: “Here’s the story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls... Here’s the story, of a man named Brady, who was busy with three boys of his own... one day when the lady met this fellow, and they knew they was much more than a hunch. That this group, must somehow form a family. That’s the way we all became the Brady Bunch.” But it is true The Brady Bunch overglorifies family life at times, so The Eleight interviewed a real mixed family, the Garcias’.

“Getting to know the Garcia’s: In her interview with The Eleight, Megan Garcia called her family hectic, crazy, amusing, and loving. “We fight like a normal family, but for the most part we get along,” said Garcia. Megan and her brother Kris were 10 and 12 respectively when their family “merged” with the Wilcox’s, whose kids Riley and Kyle were also 10 and 12 at the time. To Megan, the best aspect of her family is all the extended family she has: the step-grandparents, step-brothers, and step-dad. “People always say ‘Oh, it sucks [that] your parents are divorced.’ but it really doesn’t,” said Gracia.

What you call yourselves and how people refer to you as a family greatly impacts your children, who are constantly trying to figure out where and how they fit into your modern family.

- Kela Price

Getting to know the Haidets: Brett and Claudia Haidet are both adopted. They share the same adoptive family, and are as normal as siblings get. But they have separate stories as well. Brett still keeps in con-tact with his birth family and was able to see them six years ago. “They had four kids after but couldn’t keep me because of the money situation. My parents treat me like any other kid,” said Brett. He loves both his birth and adoptive family. Claudia has a different story. Unlike Brett, Claudia hasn’t met her birth parents. With having an older brother that is also adopted they are siblings just like any other fam-ily. “My brother and I don’t really agree on things,” she says about Brett. “[But] we take it personally when people joke about being adopted.”“Biology is the least of what

makes someone a mother- Oprah Winfrey

Adoption is when a child grew in its mommy’s heart instead of her tummy.

- Unkown

Is your family well represented in the media?

Adoption can mean many different things: helping out an abandonded child half a world away or fostering kids from your own neighborhood. For the Haidets it was both situations. Brett was born in Chicago and had the privledge of knowing his birth parents and Claudia was born in Romania and was adopted directly from birth. They all come from different places, but this eclectic group came together as one fam-ily.

Family. The building blocks of society. The foundation upon which our entire lives are based. The single-most influential part of our environment. Most of us assume that our own family is the craziest, most hectic possible. We can’t stand eachother, yet we love eachother all the same. We argue about our family values, but stand by them in public situ-ations. The media has taken all sorts of family dynamics and explored them thoroughly with the Kardashians, Stepbrothers, Cheaper By The Dozen, Family Guy, and Jon and Kate plus Eight. There are many categories commonly used to define our family units: tradi-tional, mixed, adoptive, interracial, religious, homosexual, or cross-generational. The day-time show “Modern Family” has grown popular due to the fact that most famIlies are able to relate to at least one part of the three different families that are inter-twined. Families are difficult, impossible, aggravating, hectic, and just all around stressful. But without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today. And when it comes down to it, fam-ily is what love is.

4. What do you want to be when you’re older?

A: a job to make my parents proudB: something which will make me richC: something I am passionate about

MOSTLY A’sYou are a very family-oriented person and put family above ev-erything else.

MOSTLY B’sYou’re in a stage of your life where friends and your social life take precedence over everything. You still pay attention to family and academics, but sports and friends take up most of your time.

MOSTLY C’sYou are a very passionate individ-ual who knows exactly what you want in life. You’re determined to reach your goal, and you put hap-piness over monetary/financial satisfaction.

Yes

No

13%

87%

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.

-Johann Schiller

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same in-stant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the com-mon thread that bound us all together.

-Erma Bombeck

In the film The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock’s character takes in an underpriveleged child, Micheal Oher, and raises him as her own. The mov-ie is based on a true story, and adoption is certianly a very real way to create a family. The Elieght inter-viewed the Haidet family (both the Haidet kids are adopted) to prove it.

The Brady Bunch is the classic prototype of a mixed American family. Broadcasted by ABC beginning in 1969, this opening grid has survived over 40 years and is still recognized by many children today. The Brady Bunch theme song does a good job communicating the foundation of a mixed family: “Here’s the story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls... Here’s the story, of a man named Brady, who was busy with three boys of his own... one day when the lady met this fellow, and they knew they was much more than a hunch. That this group, must somehow form a family. That’s the way we all became the Brady Bunch.” But it is true The Brady Bunch overglorifies family life at times, so The Eleight interviewed a real mixed family, the Garcias’.

Two words five letters

Just another page

What’s in your shopping cart?

Less than 5% of all non-food items at Walmart at Walmart are made in the U.S.

10% of all Chinese exports to the U.S. are sold to Walmart

More than 80% of the 6,000 factories of the Walmart chain’s suppliers are in China

More than 50% of material products at Walmart come from China

“Made in America” products are increasingly rare commodities

features 3.25.11page10

It goes the same way for most Leigh students. You go drive to school in your German car, study books written in England, solve problems on your Chinese calculator, answer texts on your Japanese phone, and go home to eat foods packaged in Mexico and Taiwan. You’d be surprised how many products you use every day are manufactured outside of the United States. There are obvious things, like the car you drive or the com-puter you use, but then there are items that you really have no idea where they came from, or how they were made. How much do you really know about the products you use every day? Since the economic crash in 2008, people across America have been trying to figure out ways to best restore the economy. Although there is no “right answer” to how to fix the economy, one of the main things that economists say can fix the economy is buying American made products.

However, it can be surpris-ingly difficult to find American made products, despite the fact that we live in America. One of the biggest ways you can help support American industry is to buy an American car (think: Ford,

Chrysler, Chevy). Sure, they don’t have a super great reputation for being well-built as of late, but they’ve improved drastically since 2008. “You don’t hear people make jokes like ‘Never buy a Japanese car made on Monday or Friday.’ People make those

jokes about American cars. If American can make better American-made prod-ucts, people would be more interested in buying them,” said AP United States History teacher Frank von Rassler. All of this talk about “buying

American” may have you wonder-ing: what can you do? The best thing you could do would be to pay closer attention to the prod-ucts you use every day. Clothing brands such as American Apparel and Juicy Couture may be expensive, but the reason why is because they are made in America, and don’t use sweatshop labor. If you can’t help with the big things, just try to buy American with the stuff you use every day. Next time you’re at Whole

Foods, look for the fruits and veg-etables that have stickers on them that say, “Locally Grown.”

Not only will this help support our local economy, but you’re more likely to get better quality food. In the end it comes down to a difference of opinion, and what’s more important to you: the price of the things you buy, or where and who they were made by.

Battle of the Brands When people go to buy a $200 purse, do they ever stop to consider the reason for paying such an outrageous price? Of course the brand-name may be reason enough for spending that ex-tra cash, but what are you really paying for? If it isn’t the genuine quality and materials, then you may just be wasting some precious greens. In order to fully differentiate between a product that is quality and one that is cheap junk, one usually de-pends on the prod-uct’s brand-name or store it is purchased in. However, that name or store is not the only thing you should be considering. Because believe it or not, that branding is just a sneaky trick by marketers to make consumers think that the product is actually better. In reality, what makes something genuine quality is the materials or in-gredients it is made with as well as how it is manufactured. Most clothes are made with rayon, polyester, nylon and plain old-fashioned cotton. Many tuxedo fran-chises such as Men’s Warehouse claim suede or satin collars, when it’s really a far cheaper material. “The majority of our tuxes are made with white wool and an off-white polyester. We charge eighty-nine dollars and up, which is based on the quality of material and prestige of the company,” commented Men’s Ware-house manager Yezeg Toros.

As far as medicine is concerned, there is a different approach to how much you pay. Opposed to the ingredi-ents used, people pay for the marketing of a brand medication. Brands like Lunesta and Cymbal-ta, are highly-advertised on television and are exceedingly expensive because you pay for how much your medicine is commercially advertised.

With generics, the ingredients, effect, and dosage are identical to the original brand medication, and are proven to have the same effect. The only reason that they are half the price of their counterparts is because they aren’t advertised left-and-right on television and have already been tested through producers and consumers to be safe, further reducing the cost of its circulation or analysis. “Actually, generic drugs are only cheaper because the manufacturers have not had the expenses of develop-ing and marketing a new drug. When a company brings a new drug onto the market, the firm has already spent substantial money on research, devel-

opment, marketing and promotion of the drug,” confirmed Melissa Stoppler, M.D., in a Medicine.Net article. The same concept goes for many food products such as cereal, where the advertising and name of the product accounts for the increased cost. Much like with medicine, off-brand cereals offer the same ingredients and taste of their brand counterpart,

while offering a price reduction. For example, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes costs 24 cents per serv-ing, while its generic Malt-O-Meal Frosted Flakes costs 13 cents per serving; the nutritional value and ingredients of both cereals are exactly the same. Most people are also unaware that the name brand company is making the generic, and the brand products often come in smaller quantities. These com-mon “copies” of origi-nal brands occur with countless items rang-

ing from household items to food Whether it is the advertising in-volved or the materials used, anything labeled with brands or national visibil-ity is likely to be pricey. The trouble is finding out whether they are worth the money they demand. Knowing what you pay for is always important. “Most of our purses are made with leather and jacquard--a durable, hybrid cotton that’s much stronger that regular T-shirt material. You can’t go wrong with something so durable,” de-clared Coach manager Ernie Narvez. The proof is in the pudding. The name of a company is only as good as its product, and the product is only as good as its materials or ingredients.

Ironically, even objects like this plastic Ameri-can flag are manufactured in China.

It seems that China is owning us

Rather than spend half your paycheck on fancy brand names, why not go to discount shops for the same thing?

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

Photo Courtesy of flickr.com

Jenna GoekeOpinion Editor

Marissa RodriguezStaff Writer

Bob Marley once said, “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suf-fering for.” I didn’t believe this could be true for the longest time. In my mind, the people that were worth my time, were the people that would never hurt me. But realizing that everything happens for a reason allowed me to understand this statement. It’s not a simple truth for me to grasp. I wish I were the playwright, scripting my story as I go along. I wish that I were the actor, perform-ing a script already written for me. But neither is true, we do not have complete control over the course our life takes, nor is there a set plan that we must follow. We choose our decisions, and our reactions, but sometimes the com-bination of events that seem to be in-significant can result in something very important. Understanding that everything happens for a reason, with today’s events the product of yesterdays decisions, and today’s experiences giving us the knowl-edge for tomorrow’s challenges is crucial to understanding that a person could be worth suffering for. We put up walls to protect our-selves but also to find someone who is willing to break them down. We play hard to get to find someone who thinks the game is worth playing. We fall down so that we can become stronger and so one day someone can come by and help us up. People hurt us to force us to de-cide if they are worth suffering for. This is the story of how a series of events that put me in the right place at the right time to meet someone that would change the way that I think. This is the story of what it took me to believe that everything happens for a reason and that someone could be worth suffering for. It took me a couple months, a little bit of denial, a new be-ginning, and the decision to move on. In my case, the recipe for seren-dipity was 2 teaspoons of angry ex-boy-friend, 3 tablespoons of a former friend that turned out to be not that great of a guy, and a cup and a half of my friend Steve’s crush on Earl. When all of these were thrown together over a couple months, fate brought me to a candle shop with Steve and Shawn to visit Earl. I was half wondering why someone would buy one candle at $19 instead of two for $20, and half curiously staring at Earl, thinking to myself that his Face-book does him little justice. That night, when I went out to dinner with the group that I was with and Earl, it rekindled a feeling that I had forgotten. For the first time in a while, I felt the first sparks of a crush. When I would make jokes, I hoped that he would laugh. If I told a story, I would look to see if he was listen-ing. As the night went on, however, I felt a small twinge of sadness at what I believed to be a lack of interest, and soon enough this doused any sparks of curiosity.

My belief that we wouldn’t talk again was soon pleasantly proven wrong the next afternoon. As we talk-ed that same bubbly desire for him to notice me came back in full swing. To my delight, we traded numbers and made plans to get coffee. Over coffee and a blueberry scone I did something that I hadn’t done in the longest time; I opened up. A rare feat by itself, but made even more ex-traordinary considering I was giving a no holds barred tale of my life to some-one that I had just met. To my surprise, though, it felt really good. As I learned more about him, I found myself becoming increasingly curious about him. I wanted to know more about him; I wanted to open up to him more. I wanted him to be a part of my life, and as we talked, I took down some of the walls I had put up around myself. I learned a lot that week. I learned that me just being me is fine. I learned that opening up to someone could feel really good. I learned more about an amazing guy, and after not being able to answer his simple question, “Are you happy,” I began to reflect on the things that were making me unhappy. The second week of break was marked by short phone calls while he was on break at work (even if by some stroke of tolerable bad luck I happened to be taking a nap every time he called), and plenty of late nights talking. This ephemeral state of happiness peaked the night that he invited me over for a fam-ily dinner. Somewhere in between hav-ing my height marked on the wall with everyone else’s, the awkward moment when I won the game of gin rummy without realizing it, and a debate about the benefits of artichokes, I felt at home away from home. However, as great as things were, returning to school once winter break was over, we quickly realized how scarce overlapping free time was. I always knew that it would be tough, I knew that I’m a busy person, I knew that he’s a busy person, but I never realized how little time there would be. As things got worse, I refused to accept the stark reality. The long hours that we spent together were the first to go; they soon became short, sporadic talks sitting in his car if he had time to stop by. I told myself that a phone and a Facebook were all I needed, until that slowly went away also. Our conversa-tions, once a substantial contributor to my inbox, soon became limited to a couple intermittent texts sent during brief windows of free time. But I told myself that what really mattered is that we had feelings for each other. “You need to move on.” Five words I thought that I would never hear from Earl. It simply made me feel help-less, I was watching what I thought was the start of something good fade away, yet there was nothing I could do. We talked a few times after that, but none of our conversations led to any definite answers or decisions leaving me stuck in a state of uncertainty. But one person can only carry a relationship so far and sometimes it’s best to cut your losses and decide that someone isn’t worth suffering for. I decided that there is someone out there worth suffering for, it just isn’t him. This experience has brought many valuable lessons about myself, about other people, about relation-ships, and just life in general. Things don’t always work out, but all you can do is learn and keep on going. Bob Marley’s words of wisdom now make a lot more sense, so I’ll end with part of Wiz Khalifa’s Fly Solo: “And hopefully we could be friends but I really doubt it see you be catching feelings now and I be catching planes the story of my life, you’re just another page.”

features3.25.11 page11

The Pursuit of Happiness

Not like the movies “I think you should just ad-mit that you’re a big softy, that this whole cynical thing is just an act so that you can seem wounded and mysterious and sexy…” -27 Dresses I love chick flicks, I really do. And 27 Dresses is one of my favorites. So when I heard this quote, I knew it was just too perfect not to use as inspi-ration for my March column. For last month’s column, I consciously tried to avoid the sub-ject of love, since I wanted to avoid a cliché February column. But this month, I completely caved. I’ve been thinking about love a lot, but not in the way you’d assume. I’ve been thinking about whether or not it’s actually possible to care enough about a person more than you can care about yourself. I mean this in the least nar-cissistic way possible, but I have no idea if I could ever be capable of that. So many people have different ideas of what love really is, and I think that America’s female population has a problem with looking too closely to the media portrayal of love. We’re raised to believe that someday we’ll all find a Prince Charming, and that “happily ever after” does exist. We watch Titanic and The Notebook religiously, hoping that such boys exist in real life, and are as hopelessly good-looking and nice, too. (And I get it, I really do. Leo DiCaprio pre-facial hair and pre-weight gain really is something to worship). But then we get to middle school, and everyone is so freaking hormonal that girls are declaring their die-hard love for a different boy each week. High school is different but the same in a lot of ways. A lot of girls get so caught up with the whole “high school sweetheart” thing, that they don’t even take a second to realize that marrying someone you’ve been dating since you were fifteen is highly unlikely, and frankly a bit hopeless. Also, if you pull a High School Musical and declare your unend-ing love for the most popular guy in school by singing to him from the bleachers during his basketball game, you will not make him fall in love with you. Disney doesn’t know crap about high school. Get over it. We, being the female teenage population of America… and pos-sibly the world, focus too much on how we’re perceived. Regardless of whether or not we’re looking for a boyfriend, I think it’s safe to say that most girls have at one point or another won-dered how a boy would perceive the way she looks/acts/thinks/speaks. I’ve done it, sure, but it makes me so sad. There’s a fairly new book I came across, by a guy named Alan Francis. It’s called Everything Men Know About Women. Want to know the best part? The entire book is blank. I’ll admit, it’s pretty funny and inventive, but I think it goes both ways. Girls claim to understand how guys think (especially the girls, like myself, who just claim to know ev-erything. We’re the best.) But if we spend so much time speculating how to catch their atten-tion, then do we really know what guys are thinking? I highly doubt it. The differences between guys and girls are so vast, I could write an

entire book on it (and it’s been done before, many times.) But I think girls just focus too much on acting like Allie from The Notebook, or Viola from She’s the Man. We’re so focused on getting that guy to take a second glance at us in the hallways, or for him to “like” our profile picture or perfectly thought-out Facebook status, that we don’t even take a second to breathe. We don’t take a second to re-alize that most high school boys couldn’t care less about how “ex-cited for Jersey Shore!” we are ev-ery Thursday night, or how long it took us to edit that cheesy pic-ture of us pretending to look all thoughtful and brooding while staring out at the beach in Santa Cruz. I don’t know all that much about guys, but I can almost guaran-tee you that THEY DON’T CARE. Crushes and unrequited love is hands down the most annoying thing about high school. Give me twenty AP English prompts; I’d take that any day over the feeling of knowing that someone you like has absolutely no interest in you. It’s awful, really. But right now, I’m just focused on finding love in my own life. Not romantic love, but pretty much every other type. I want to have a relationship with my family, with my little broth-er, with my Grandmother, with my 6-year-old cousin, Ashlee. I want to know what it’s like to fully put someone else’s needs before my own. I want to have someone in my life that I know I absolutely couldn’t live without. I’ve never felt that before. I’m a loner. I’m not a lover; I’m a fighter. I’m cynical, but not because I’ve been hurt before. I’m mean, yet surprisingly sensi-tive, and I’m really not close with too may people. I have a lot of issues and I’m a difficult person, and not even in the cool way like how Miley Cyrus is in The Last Song. But the best thing about me is that I’m honest with my-self about it. And I think that’s what the foundation of love really is. When you take away the pet names, the Valentine’s gifts, and all the lame stuff—if what you get is a true and sincere relationship based on two people that care about each other, then that’s what I think love is. So if that’s possible, and if I ever come across it, then maybe I’ll stop be-ing so damn cynical about everything. So I hope you all don’t think that this column was written in an attempt to sound wounded and mys-terious. Unless of course you took it that way. Then... that’s exactly how I meant it.

Annie JungEdditor-in-Chief

Typography: Fonts that flaunt

In the realm of academics, there is a myth that “nice” handwriting can earn you a better score. AP students swear that in different styles of handwriting, the same essay will receive varying grades. And why not? When written in an impressive hand, BS is perceived more positively. Words written with such confidence, with such a flourish, must surely be of value. Much like handwriting, your choice of font can significantly affect how your words are perceived. Fonts are, in effect, your digital handwriting. is known globally as the stuff of little kids’ birthday in-vitations, a font looked upon with dis-dain for its puerile nature. is a popular Internet font, similar to Klavika of Facebook newsfeed fame. is, of course, the hallmark font of schoolwork. An in-tegral part of MLA format, the absence of this ubiquitous font on your English pa-per may get it docked a full letter grade. During this recent surge in popu-larity of all things hipster, a font called Helvetica has been gaining attention, mainly due to its similarity to Arial, an extremely common typeface that is most likely your default e-mail font. Even Hipster Hitler has joined the supremacy debate with his bashing of Arial and the now-iconic shirt: “heilvetica.” For most, the differences between

the two fonts are near imperceptible and will often go undetected. Much like an interior designer will have thirty shades of white (ivory, cream, ecru, bone), a good graphic de-signer will have thirty versions of what inexplicably seems to be the same font. Serifs can help you decide how suitable a font is for whatever purpose you’re using it for. Looking at the two “E”s below, notice the strokes on the first “E” - those are serifs. Fonts with serifs are consid-ered easier for the eye to follow the text,

especially with small font sizes. For Web content, sans-serif fonts are favored be-cause they’re easier to read on a screen. If you’ve got something to type up that’s not an English paper, such as invitations, branch out from Word’s limited offerings -

often looks cheap and out-of-place. Dafont.com has a huge offering of free fonts. It is very easy to acci-dentally spend two hours browsing through and downloading from their font galleries.

Photo coursesy of meme generators.com

The player has the option to challenge the Elite Four in whichever order they choose, and each Elite Four member has not just a themed

Just by reading the title you start to get scared a little bit, which is precise-ly the point. “Beyond Scared Straight” is A&E’s Emmy award-winning documen-tary created by Arnold Shapiro. The show has made a huge impact on audiences through its portrayal of an ef-fective juvenile pre-vention/intervention program at New Jer-sey prison. Over the years, both the prison program and the film have turned countless kids away from drugs, violence and crime, and kept them out of prison. Shapiro cre-ated this show hoping to keep today’s teens from becoming tomorrow’s prisoners.

These youthful offenders pro-grams put boys and girls of all ethnicities and backgrounds, ranging from 11-18, into an intensive one day in prison ses-sions that show them all the realities of life behind bars, hopefully preventing them from wanting to come back. Each one hour episode f o c u s e s on a different inmate-run prison in the U.S., follows four or five at risk teens be-

fore they attend the program, throughout their day inside the prison, immediately afterwards, and then follows up with them

entertainment3.25.11 page12

Mar. 6, 2011. The day I em-barked on my Pokémon journey. The opening cutscene graphics of Pokémon Black foreshadowed the astounding upgrades to the aesthetics of Pokémon. Greeted by Professor Juniper, the first female professor to be in a Pokémon game, I entered the world of Pokémon. My rivals, Cheren and Bianca, actually have a lot of character from the start that develops as the storyline thickens. Seeing the new battle graphics for myself, I was flabbergasted. Compared to the battle scene design that has been recurring since Generation I, I was in awe of its beauty. Above all, I was truly looking for-ward to meeting all of the new Poké

mon of the Unova region. Despite a lot of negative feedback on the new designs, I actually quite enjoy a lot of the new Pokémon for their looks and qualities. A decent handful of Unova’s Pokémon introduce handy new abili-ties and stats that aren’t anything to sneeze at. Of course, there were a few lapses in creativity (e.g. the Vanillite evolutionary line, modeled after ice cream), but there have always been a few that aren’t quite as aesthetically ap-pealing as others. I wasn’t sure what to think of Team Plasma when I was introduced to them in Accumula Town. I was en-tertained by the fact that they’re clearly based on PETA, as they preached to crowds of Pokémon trainers, trying to convince them to free their Pokémon. However, I must admit that the plot was predictable for the most part. Although there was an emotional twist at the very ending, the overall plot was similar to the one we had with Teams Magma, Aqua and Galactic. We’ve already saved the world in several ways, it isn’t necessary to make us do it again.

As for new features, there are a few that I liked and a few that I could’ve been without. I thought it was unnec-essary to incorporate triple battles into the main gameplay. In their defense, they might be fun in multiplayer bat-tling with friends/over Wi-Fi. The Pokémon musical, which is essentially Genera-tion V’s Pokémon Contests, were charming. However, they didn’t hold a candle to HeartGold/SoulSilver’s Pokéathlon, a mini-game in which Pokémon com-pete in a kind of “Poké-mon Olympics”. I was the most impressed with the design of the cities and gyms. Black and White utilized changing camera angles within cities, bridges and gyms. The gyms were a refreshing change from previous gyms in their design. The Elite Four design was completely unexpected.

theflic

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Kylie BrownStaff Writer

“Joseph and the Amazing Techni-color Dreamcoat” amazed Leigh High School on Friday, March 11, 2011. It follows the story of Joseph, who is able to overcome the obstacles that his brothers throw his way, and forgive. Even though this story is prevalent in the sacred texts of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, this story still applies to modern society. While Joseph faces adversary without losing sight of his dream, he teaches us to never lose sight of our own dreams. Especially

since our country is just coming out of a recession, this hopeful message is needed more than ever. The costumes sparkled, while the actors amazed with their chemistry. When asked about the cast’s chemistry junior Andrea Goeke replied, “This year, there’s no drama. Everyone is like one big family…” Perhaps this was part of the reason that this musical was so successful. But the stage and the costumes played a sig-nificant role as well. The presence of the stage was felt more, as the set design was more detailed

and intricate than in past musicals. Behind the flurry of dance numbers and costumes, the backdrop of a pyramid

against a starry night sky lit the scene and made this musical unforgettable. The costumes varied from 60s gogo apparel to 50s poodle skirts to French berets to sombreros and snazzy sleeves. But even more than the set de-sign, this musical wowed with the ac-tors’ expertise and chemistry. Savannah Henry especially did with her fluid-like dance moves and incredible acting as the part of the Pharoah’s wife. Each actor displayed an array of hidden talent, but some standouts were seniors Savannah Henry and Brandon Boogard, as well as junior

Andrea Goeke.Goeke wowed the audience with her incred-ible singing voice as one of the narrators. When asked about her singing, Goeke said, “I’ve been taking voice lessons for about two years. I just love to sing and act.” Senior Brandon Boog-ard played an excellent Jacob/Potiphar. He turned a poten-tially awkward role into a lively experience. When asked how he got into character, Boogard said, “I just like making people

laugh while we act ridiculous. It’s fun.”

one month later to see the lasting im-

pact of the experience on their lives. On the show there have been many events that have happened inside

of the prison that have made a lasting impact on them. From lis-tening to the pound-ing on the door while walking through the prison halls, to eat-ing the prison food, and being confronted from actual inmates that committed first degree murder. Beyond Scared Straight is about transforming the lives of young people through intervention and second chances, even if the program

helps one teen from coming to prison, the program is 100% effective.

room, but an entire themed tower. My jaw dropped when I first walked into one of the towers. I applaud Game Freak’s designers on the region as a whole. Unova’s geography reminded me of the uniqueness of the Hoenn

map, and it was very fun to explore. However, I wasn’t a big fan of Castelia City. It was very

difficult to navigate, as it was based on New York City.

Overall, I was very impressed with the ad-vances in graphics and the

general gameplay. Though at times during the gameplay, it

didn’t feel like I was playing Poké-mon at all because of the changes.

Despite that, Pokémon Black is a delightful, addicting game to play and it was definitely worth $35. Even past the Pokémon League, there is still so much to explore and so many more Pokémon to catch.

Courtesy of stripersonline.com

Courtesy of Nintendo

Zekrom, one of the many Pokemon available to players.

Britney (right) experiences the realities behind bars from real inmates.

the next five tracks, with the high-lights being “Make It Stop (Sep-tember’s Children),” “Satellite,” and “Survivor Guilt”. Having easily some of both the catchiest lyrics and the hardest hitting guitar riffs on the whole album, these five middle tracks bring to light exact-ly what Rise Against is fighting for: a new world, whatever that may mean. “Broken Mirrors”, the eighth

track, is possibly the worst song on Endgame, but that is not saying it’s a bad song. For the most part, it simply just does not sound like Rise Against. This is hard to say because their sound has changed com-

pletely over the past couple of years, from f a s t - p a c e d punk angst to hard-hitting, lyrically driven

hard rock. But normally, their songs fol-

low a constant formula, which this song does not really have. The CD really picks back up with my personal favorite track on the album, “Wait for Me”, which has more of a melodic feel to it and some of best metaphoric lyrics by Rise Against thus far. The song is followed by the final three songs on the album, “A Gentlemen’s Coup, “This Is Letting Go, and “Endgame”, creating an ex-tremely strong finish to a powerful record. Each song has their own big moments and assets, but at the same time they all work perfectly together. If you can get past the fact that Rise Against is not the same band that they once were, you will find quite possibly their best album to date. Endgame mixes stunning lyrics, stir-ring rhythms, and McIlrath’s amaz-ing growl to create a call to reform, to be “the orphans of the Amerikan [sic] dream.”

Rise Against was formed in Chicago, Illinoisin 1999.

Courtesy of 100xr.com

Photo By: Kylie Brown

This musical was first performed in 1968 for a school in London

“Do you care to be the layer of the bricks that seal your fate? Or would you rather be the architect of what we might create?” asks Tim McIlrath, frontman of the famous punk rock band, Rise Against. Well into their twelfth year comes the band’s sixth studio album, Endgame, and while its style may be worlds apart from how Rise Against started out, their power and talent remain. And while Endgame is not perfect, it gets very close with possibly some of the band’s best lyr-ics to date and unforgettable musicianship. The CD starts with the song “Architects,” a call to realization that each person creates their own future, and McIlrath makes sure to burn the idea of fighting for control in today’s society into the listener’s mind.

While it may not be the strongest track on the list, it is a great sample of the album as a whole, both musically and lyrically. “Architects” is followed by the first single off the album, “Help is on the Way”, which seems like reas-surance to victims of tragedies every-where. But in reality the song is criti-cizing the world’s lack of relief to-wards those who were devastated by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and the oil spill off the Gulf coast, and even could be applied to the re-cent earthquake in Japan. For example, late in the song McIlrath sings, “We were told to sit tight because somebody will soon arrive. ‘Help is on the way.’ But it never came.” As a whole though, this song is one of the weakest on the album due to its predictable sound and what seems like a pattern used in some of their previous songs of other albums. Endgame really kicks off with

Kim FooteStaff Writer

Food Challenge: Ice scream for brain freeze

entertainment03.25.11 page13Underground sound

fusion of jazz and classic hip-hop as well as his introspective and deeply personal lyrics. His magnum opus, Below the Heavens, set new standards for conscious rap in the underground scene. Blu is not the only artist known for his thoughtful lyrics, clever word-play, and head-bobbing beats. Common Market, composed of MC RA Scion and DJ Sabzi, are two anomalies in the rap game: two deeply religious members of the Baha’i faith, who put the quality of their music over their potential income. These two artists are many of thousands across the country, and while it is easier to turn on the radio and settle for what comes out, go out and search for new artists. Whether it be through YouTube or Google, go help the real artists take back rap from the corporations that have saturated it.

Jordan WeinbergStaff Writer

the theatre, and it also has an effect on those that watch it a second time around. But sometimes all it takes is the intro to an old favorite to get that good old nostal-gic feeling. Senior Derek Bendixen states, “Hearing the startup

for the intro song to Pokémon would get me all giddy. Recently I’ve been watching some of the same episodes I loved as a kid, and it’s hilarious see-ing how horribly cheesy they are. That damn song,

though, hearing it now seems to bring back the memories of my youth com-pletely. Also, new TV shows like Adven-

ture Time give that same nostalgic feel-ing even though it’s a brand new show. The reason is that what capti-vates kids the most is the sublimeness of it all, the bigness and openness of the world, and the fact that there was an adventure in the most mundane things, and shows like Adventure Time capture that same essence with simplic-ity, awesome vocabulary, and the occa-sional fart joke or double entendre. With the new video games and TV shows capturing aspects of the old we fell in love with growing up, it gets that same warm nostalgic feeling along with something new.

Andy SimionasStaff Writer

Spencer ThreshStaff Writer

The contenders in this month’s food challenge were served just des-serts. The tornado club sundae at Baskin Robbins is a humongous double banana split sporting two full bananas and cradling six enormous scoops of ice cream. The colossal sundae has only had a total of 120 challengers, half of whom have tasted the sting of defeat. The worst part of failing this challenge is the irony of the fact that ice cream is historically one of our na-tions many comfort foods. Just ask one of the thousands of girls who have been broken up with recently. “At least Ben

and Jerry won’t leave me,” she might say, but this tornado sundae might just make her regret that statement as it lays waste to the trailer park known as her stomach.

Our two challengers stood wide eyed in front of

the hall of fame, a list of names of those who had completed this legend-dairy challenge. Seniors Andy Simionas and Spencer Thresh could not hope to beat the record time of finishing the sundae

Only listen if you have enough shovels to dig it

There is no denying the next ex-ample of a reference for an older au-dience in Space Jam. There is a brief scene in space jam that directly refer-ences Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fic-tion, where Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam shoot out the teeth of one of the monsters wearing matching suits and with the exact same music as in the

opening credits. Scenes like this are put into mov-ies and shows for the enjoyment of the parents that are dragged along into

If you’re as tired as I am of pop-infused, mainstream, Top 40 rap, then it’s time you join me on a journey to the underground. Underground rap is made by art-ists that are not signed to major record labels, the hip-hop equivalent of indie rock. Underground artists have more leeway with their creativity and artistic expression. Their music reflects this and is often in direct contrast to the radio-friendly, intelligent-lyrics-free songs seen on MTV, VH1, or heard on the radio. Now that you know what the underground is, it’s time you hear of the artists that dwell in its domain. Blu, aka, Johnson Barnes, is an MC from Los Angeles known for his

Blu:Album- Below the Heavens Lyrics- 9.5/10Music/Beats- 9/10Best Songs- Simply Amazing, Dancing in the Rain, The Narrow Path

Common Market:Album- Tobacco RoadLyrics- 8/10Music/Beats- 8.5/10Best Songs- Trouble Is, 40 Thieves, Crucible

Eleight crew attempts a monstrous six scoop tornado sundae at Baskin Robbins

in one minute and fifteen seconds. That is one minute and fifteen sec-onds without so much as a brain freeze to slow him down. “The record,” explained the store owner, “was set by a fourteen year old middle school-er.” We here at the Eleight are pretty sure that the fact that he had no clue what type two diabetes was helped give him an edge. Armed with just spoons and an appetite for glory, our con-tenders faced off. Heading to the counter our contestants asked for the works, and then sat down to do some major work. Heads held high, our contestants exchanged some bold words in regards to the challenge. “I always have room for Ice Cream,” stated Thresh, as he gobbled down

his first bite. Simionas, jaw hanging in awe, said, “Spencer is an ice cream fiend, He is unstoppable.” In response to this, Thresh began to drink the mush of dairy treat, and

then between gulps replied, “It’s really just my diet; at my mom’s house I eat about three pints in an afternoon, so I guess I have been training.” Just as Thresh kicked it into high gear, Simionas hit the frozen wall; no matter how hard he tried, he could not force the creamy frozen treat down.Every kid dreams of eating dessert for-ever, but the cold truth is that most

people cannot handle it. On the thir-teenth minute of this food challenge, the frozen battle of the tornado con-cluded. Thresh finished his sundae in “a casual time”, and the ice cream left poor Simionas with the cold taste of defeat. One forever frozen in food chal-lenge history on the wall of Tornado survivors, and the other forced to walk a frozen waste land of sorrow.

Photos courtesy of Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon considers bringing back 90’s cartoons

Photos by Annie Jung

Andy Simionas takes his first bite of the monstrous sundae.

This month’s challenge includes two bananas and six scoops of ice cream covered in whip cream and chocolate syrup.

Simionas and Thresh both finish off their ice cream.

Andy SimionasStaff Writer

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Relive your childhood Saturday mornings

sports 3.25.11page14

The Eleight’s Athlete of the Month:The Eleight: What made you start track?Sarah Cline: I started track because when I quit gymnastics, my coach sug-gested that I try track. He said I’d al-ways been a fast runner, and he thought I had potential in that area. TE: So your coach suggested it but why did you stay and con-tinue?SC: I stayed because the people were really nice and the weight-lifting was different. It was a new experience. TE: What’s your favorite thing about track?SC: I love the feeling I get when I’ve just crossed the finish line and I know I ran well and well I get a high adrenaline rush that makes me feel better. Even if I didn’t win, it feels great knowing that I ran my best. TE: What motivates you to be better?SC: I’ve always been really driven. I just have big dreams and hopes for my future. I think it comes from my par-ents who are both really hard workers. They’ve had a lot of success from their hard work, so I think I work hard hop-ing the same will happen for me. They always have positive attitudes and they never give up, and I aspire to be that way. TE: In your eyes what is your biggest accomplishment? Why was it impor-tant to you?SC: I think my biggest accomplish-

ment related to track would be making it to the state meet. It’s important be-cause it helped me realize my ability in the sport. My biggest sports related ac-complishment would be making it on the state team three times in gymnas-tics. This means that I was one of the top six gymnasts in NorCal for three different levels.

TE: Was it worth putting the work in to be able to reach these accomplish-ments?SC: Absolutely, it was worth putting in the time throughout the season. I was able to gain knowledge and experience in events previous to the state meet and my state teams. That was what made the accomplishment so significant. TE: How many colleges have sent you interest letters?SC: I’ve received letters from about ten schools including Duke, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, and Notre Dame. TE: If you could go anywhere where would you got? How do you picture yourself there?SC: My dream school is Stanford! When I picture myself at Stanford I see myself being really happy. I know that I would be challenged both academi-cally and athletically. All the students seem motivated and have their own uniqueness. Everybody wants to be there and being there would give me a chance to grow as a person. I think I

would be able to thrive in the environ-ment at Stanford. TE: What was the transition from track to gymnastics like? SC: The transition from gymnastics to track was absolutely surreal. For thir-teen years, my entire life was gymnas-tics. It was a huge part of my identity. When I quit, I gave up seeing my clos-

est friends every day, and it was a complete schedule and attitude change, because before I had prac-tice every single day 5-6 days a week 4-6 hours per day. That end-ed abruptly so my life felt very dif-ferent for a while. Track has a way different vibe than gymnastics, too. It’s not about how good you look; it’s just about pure ability. Now, I realize that gymnastics and track really aren’t all that different. You need major motivation and skill for both, and the people you connect with are incredible. From

both track and gymnastics, I’ve learned so much about myself and life. TE: Who is (are) your biggest Fan(s)?SC: My parents are my biggest fans. They do so much for me, and I already owe them big time. I just love them a lot, and I truly appreciate everything they’ve done for me. I wouldn’t have had any of the sports related success that I’ve had without them. Their sup-port means everything to me. TE: If you could do anything without failing what would you do?SC: If I could attempt something with-out failing, I would… not sure… um, jump to the moon.Bungee jump without a bungee cord? TE: Is there anything specific you’ve learned during you participation in sport?SC: I’ve learned that you have to mo-tivate yourself and there’s not always going to be people around you who want the same things. I learned that, it is true, That you can do anything you set your mind to.

Terra SteadmanStaff Writer

Going on the greenThe Eleight takes a closer look at the art of golf

“”

I’m not the kind of person who gives up on what I want.

- Sarah Cline

Sarah Cline

Photo courtesy of dyestat.com

Stepping up to the tee, your driver gleaming in the warm sunlight, you prepare for your first stab at the flag that stands hundreds of yards away. The course looks magnificently green and the only sounds are the padded paws of some nearby jack rab-bits and the soft spring breeze sifting through the trees and the grassy fields. The white, dimpled ball lounges upon the tee in a mocking fashion, daring you to hit it just once. You do, and you watch with pride as the ball flies high – over the fairway, across the green, and into that tiny hole, inching its way past the flag pole. It’s a hole in one. “I have been playing golf since I was four years old. It’s something that I have always done with my family. It’s a very personal, individual sport. It de-pends on you whether you will do well or not,” reflected senior Monique Bar-rera, a player on Leigh’s golf team. The origins of golf remain un-clear, but scholars have argued that the game first began in the Netherlands sometime in the 13th century, when people hit leather balls with sticks toward a target. The player with the least amount of strokes taken to get to the target would win. However, golf evolved into what it is today in Scot-land. “Golf is from Scotland. The golf course in St. Andrews is the oldest in

the world and that’s basically where it all started,” said Jim Hohenshelt, the co-ed varsity golf coach.Today, the rules are similar to that of the older generations. A player must hit the golf ball into the hole, using only golf clubs, with the least amount of strokes in order to win. Within the course, there are eighteen holes, all of which must be filled in order to com-plete the game. The length between the tee and the hole varies, but it is usually somewhere between one hundred and four hundred yards. “There are a lot of rules. Some of them aren’t so clear either, but for 200 years golf has been played and has evolved into something that people can really enjoy. Some of the rules are necessary, but in casual golf the score doesn’t really matter; you can just make up your own rules,” explained Hohen-shelt. The majority of the rules are based on golf etiquette. These rules are there in order to keep the players safe, to keep up the pace of the game, and to help maintain the quality of the golf course. Players tend to learn about these rules over time as they continue to play with more experienced players on the course. “In golf, I think that the rules are more about etiquette and I like that. Like, you can’t walk into another per-son’s line of sight when you are put-ting,” explains Barrera. As for Leigh’s golf team, the coach and the players feel that the group is off to a great start.

“They are highly favored to make CCS this year,” said Hohenshelt. “It looks pretty good. It’s also a young team; lot’s of good sophomores and juniors,” adds in Barrera. Opinions on this sport vary. Some prefer golf ’s counterpart, mini-golf. Mini-golf is similarly ruled, but the players hit their golf balls through obstacle courses. Also, the courses are very small; more like two or three yards long. “I like Mini-golf because it’s golf that’s pretty much easy. You don’t have to swing and hit a hole that’s a thou-sand yards away. It’s easy and it’s fun. There’s no stress involved. And you can’t really miss…most of the time.” said senior Nick Karkas. Others believe that the original golf game is more challenging, and therefore more enjoyable.“I like golf more because you get to hit the ball farther. It takes more skills. It’s more of an adult game,” explains senior Daniel Ross, who has been playing for about five years. Despite the varying beliefs, golf has remained one of the most popular sports in America, and is still growing.

Shayna JamesStaff Writer

varsity sports. And the upperclassmen Long-horns have a united response: our teams wouldn’t be as strong without them.

sports3.25.11 page 15

Freshmen take over Leigh sportsSydney BlackStaff Writer

They’re everywhere: swarm-ing in the halls, stealing the good lunch tables, and hogging the bathroom stalls. The Class of 2014. As one of the largest freshman class in recent years, this years’ fresh-man are making big waves at Leigh and a mass number of these little freshmen are making it onto Leigh’s varsity sports teams. Varsity sports teams are placed under a lot of pressure. Senior and juniors are anxious to impress college scouts to nab athletic scholarships, while college seems far off to sophomores and freshmen. Sharing the court, and the spotlight, with younger teammates can make it harder for older athletes to be noticed by college scouts.

Because playing time can be limited, should varsity be reserved exclusively for upperclassmen? “With a team of fourteen, playing time can be an issue some-times and I know that I feel that everyone should have at least one year on JV so the upperclassmen, especially the seniors, could have their time on the field. But playing time should be earned, not handed [to you], so if you have the skills for Varsity we want you on the team. I know that if we didn’t have some of our underclassmen last year then we wouldn’t have won all of our games,” said senior Ciera Lindsay of the softball team. For an 18 year-old senior, be-ing beaten by a freshman that only recently hit puberty could be a little embarrassing. It takes a senior with great hu-mility to be able to graciously handle being beaten by an underclassman. However, most Longhorn

athletes express positive feelings towards their expe-rience with younger team-mates. “It can be hard to get beaten by someone three years younger than you, but at the end of the day we’re a team who supports everyone and if someone is better than you, no mat-ter their age or grade, then they deserve their spot and it will only make the team stronger,” said senior Inna Tounkel, co-captain of the girls’ varsity tennis team. “We have a lot of new excellent freshmen with CCS cuts, but some seniors might have a problem with them upstaging our relays. If they’re good, let them help represent the team!” said senior Brittany Lucero of the swim and dive team. But regardless of athletic abili-ties, freshmen are freshmen and it

seems almost an upperclassmen responsibility to lovingly tease them. From the chant at the home-coming lip syncs, to the empty threats to throw them in trash cans, upperclassmen seem to love to mess with freshmen. “The freshmen did get clowned on a lot throughout the whole sea-son--especially Jared [Williams]. But they handled it very well for the most part. It’s just something that happens when they play with the big boys,” said senior basket-ball player Sean Kurian.

This year’s freshmen seem to understand that it just comes with the territo-ry and that the seniors re-ceived the same treatment when they were freshmen. Although some freshmen might find var-sity teams to be a little intimidating, most of this year’s athletes don’t seem to mind. “Being on the team wasn’t awkward at all. The other two freshmen and I got to know our team-mates pretty well and just became part of the group,” said freshman Jared Wil-liams of the boys’ basket-ball team. Freshmen are the babies of the school and stereo-typically tend to annoy their older classmates. But the Class of 2014 is holding their own when it comes to

Photo by Kylie Brown

flip-side 3.25.11page 16

Where’s Hayashi?

Intriguing dance proposal methodsRebekah Hassen

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