1 Events December Edition

Hundreds of Cultures Band Together for a Better World

8 The Lounge Prints

Francesca Bortolotti

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Colours, music, aromas, food, crafts and voices from all around the world gathered together on Thurs-day, November 7th 2013, for BMSS’ Culture Fest. The event was enriched by diverse backgrounds and allowed us to experience the histories, com-mon practices and traditions from all around the world.

It was like we were taken on a jour-ney all around the world throughout the night. We first heard the amazing voices of Burnaby Mountain’s Con-cert Choir, which warmed our hearts and souls with the wonderful words of “Bonse Aba”, a festive, celebra-tory piece from Zambia, Africa. We then went to the land of India where the amazing Bollywood performers charmed us with the twirling of their sparkling dresses. Next, we travelled to China for an amazing performance of “Red Beans”, a pop classic. We re-mained in China for C.H.I.C-- not a chic fashion show, but the Chinese Heri-tage Instrumental Club who played two songs, “The Sound of Pipa”, and “Chrysanthemum Terrace”, using pe-culiar instruments of a sweet sound. We had fun with the guitar and the

voice of Citlali, who showed us the real spirit of hot Mexican culture and returned to Asia again with Korean Pop and songs about the classic Chi-nese heroine, Mulan. Finally, we saw

the Latino Crew dance to a mix of Sal-sa and Merengue, two exotic and ele-gant styles of the Latin culture.

7 Fashion Prints

OUTFITTED

As fall approaches an end and with the weather is getting chillier by the minute, there are multiple ways to keep warm and stay in style. Here are a few tips to keep cozy and look good!

Wearing tights under any bot-tom piece is a great way to conserve some warmth, without having to wear snow pants. Thermals will keep you snug throughout the cooler months, since they are made of tightly knit fabric. Wearing them under oversized sweaters, over button-ups or just by themselves is a simple way to stay comfortable and look put together.

Another tip to keep this mind; sweaters and cardigans, which come in all textures and colours, are a great way to mix patterns and can be paired with signature pieces, as well as add-ing a bit of detail to any outfit. The one type of cardigan that has not been ex-plored very much is the vest. They are great to layer with as they preserve warmth in the torso region. Without adding additional bulk to your arms, they make layering a breeze.

A common problem with lay-ering in the winter time is that you tend to appear swallowed up in all of the fabric. To avoid this, add a belt to cinch the waist, to create an hourglass shape. Trench coats and pea coats are not only currently in style, but they help keep the bottom half extra toasty – don’t forget that a neutral jacket is a staple in anyone’s closet!

Remember, accessories are also important to bring an outfit to-gether. Hats, as everyone is already

aware of, are an easy way to add de-tail and provide a barrier between the crispy winds and your ears! Just as hats add detail, scarves can add extra flare to an outfit. They are also an easy way to add a pop of colour!

Keep in mind that staying comfortable and warm is just as im-portant as looking your best.

Masha Rudyak & Selena Barcenas

The Laughing LionA lion with jokes so lame they’ll make you smile :)

Why did the ants dance on the jam jar?Because the lid said “twist to open”.

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2 Events Prints

Mountain Madness was a Record Breaker for Excitement

Zack Morely and Shaireen Cassamali

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The Flag Project

Francesca Bortolotti

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Student Council

The amalgamation of cultural foods, performances, and an overall festive atmosphere undoubtedly cre-ated the ultimate success of Culture Fest 2013.

With an impressive attendance of over 400 school and community members, a total of $2200 was fund-

raised for Burnaby Children’s Fund, a local charity!

Moreover, beyond the initial suc-cess of the event itself, Student Coun-cil experienced amazing school mo-rale of support and participation at Culture Fest and would like to com-mend all those who performed or contributed their time into ensuring all went smoothly during the event.

We would also like to thank every-one who attended this year’s Culture Fest! As well as the families, students, and business that supported us either through food donations or volunteer-ing, without all your help this event would have not been such a great success!

With the fantastic build-up of school spirit, we are beyond excited to see you all at this year’s Talent Show, as well as next year’s, “Culture Fest 2014”!

Walking on the street, riding the skytrain, standing at a bus stop, or drinking a frappuccino at Tim Hor-ton’s, we see many different faces and features. These different char-acteristics are what make each of us unique, but what is behind all of those faces? What are their stories? Their backgrounds?

We are all from different parts of the world. We travel to meet others, to enrich our souls, and to expand our experiences. As history teaches us, we follow our longing of knowledge, be-cause we are born to discover, and to grow day after day. Living in a differ-

ent country, and being able to learn about other cultures is something advantageous that makes us aware of the greatness in our world. It also shows us the importance of our own culture.

Often times, people are not proud of their roots and wish to have been born in another country. All coun-tries have positive and negative as-pects, but it is when we are far away from our homes that we realize how much we miss them, and how much we are wrong about them. Living in a multicultural society is an obvious advantage, but it is not the same

throughout the world! To travel and to encounter unfamiliar cultures im-proves our behavior, enabling us to be more respectful and comprehen-sive.

As many may have noticed, there are flags that hang from the rafters above the commons. This project was created to shine a light upon the numerous ethnicities hidden on our school grounds. The idea was brought forward by Ms. G. Patterson of the socials department, and was spearheaded by Student Council 2006-2007, with the help of the Parent Advisory Committee. We think that the flags we have hanging in the

commons, celebrate our multicultural society quite nicely. It is a manifestation of the effort to avoid ignorance to our own backgrounds.

There is no doubt in the minds of students at Burnaby Mountain Secondary that this year’s Mountain Madness was a record breaker for ex-citement, particularly during the se-nior portion of the event. Mountain Madness had always been quite fun, but this year’s energy was truly some-thing new. The BMSS bleachers were covered with splashes of colour from each team, displayed in afros, rain-coats, jumpsuits, and even a Santa hat!

Our grade eight students began by providing the yellow team with a lead at 98 points, the blue team not far behind with 85 points, the red team at 70 points and the green team at 58 points.

A competition indeed, but it is not the scores that defined Mountain Madness. It is the spirit and enthusi-asm displayed by each team! Adrena-line coursed through the atmosphere after each event thanks to the senior

cheer squads, creating the spirit it-self. This year was a new generation for every team cheer, making spirit points even harder to gain.

The only thing left to amp up the crowd were the Mountain Madness t-shirts, which as Mr. Papathanasiou exclaimed, were “trending high on twitter”.

“I would say it was the most exciting [Mountain Madness] that I can remem-ber,” added Mr. Davis. “The teams were extremely fair, honest and had excellent sportsmanship.”

Mountain Madness was an excellent way to end a stressful week of school as well as bring the entire school community together. A very

special thank you to Ms. Demelo and Mr. Papathanasiou, without you two hosting, this event could not have been as successful!

6 Reviews and Recipies Prints 3 Interview Prints

New Faces: An Interview with Mr. Chin

Did you enjoy high school?

“Did I enjoy high school? I loved it.”

Involvement in school activities seemed to be the key. “I was very involved in sports in high school [and] the honours program they had back then,” Mr. Chin explained. “... I was the top athlete at our school and… They gave an award out called Top Citizen, and so I was award-ed that from the city of Vancouver.”

It doesn’t end there; “I developed a pro-gram where we helped grade 8’s get settled into high school … We called it New Faces … And I believe that program is still running at that high school [David Thomson] right now.”

Who inspired you to be-come who you are today?

Being so involved in athletics, it is un-surprising that Mr. Chin’s P.E. teachers were important role models, “I had four PE teachers who I was really connected with that helped shape … Who I became”.

This is probably one of the reasons he is our principal today. “I did want to be a teacher, but I wanted to be a PE teacher,” and so he pursued Human Kinetics and Bachelor’s of Education degrees from UBC. In fact, he taught as a P.E. teacher here about ten years ago and “loved it”. He worked with “ev-

eryone downstairs”, including Mr. Pa-pathansiou, Mr. Sacilotto, Ms. Demelo and Mr. Davis. After being a vice-prin-cipal at Cariboo Hill, Moscrop, and Burnaby South, he returned to BMSS.

What’s unique about Moun-tain compared to other schools?

One of the distinct qualities Mr. Chin ob-served was our “cohesive community“.

“To me, there doesn’t seem to be very much of a great divide in this build-ing. It seems quite a cohesive commu-nity. It’s the biggest thing I’ve seen so far being here for two months; there isn’t grade 8’s, there isn’t grade 12’s. It seems that there’s a lot of intermixing of grades, which shows community in the school … We offer a lot of diversity here.”

As well, he finds that in his first two months in the school, the wel-come has been “overwhelming”.

Mr. Chin enjoys the positive atmo-sphere and the fact that, generally, the students work hard and do well, both in class and with extra-curricu-lars. He says that we seem to use this place as a “stepping stone to move on”.

Is there anything we can do better at?

Mr. Chin believes “students would ben-efit” from expanding the academic groups, perhaps with more AP cours-es in languages, sciences, and math as well as more exposure for extra-cur-ricular activities such as drama, visu-al arts, performing arts, and music.

“I like to see those grow, those things you can always do better,” he explains, “but they’re great now. Athletics also … I think we had six or seven banners last year, and that just shows that the school is establishing a reputation for athletics.”

“There are great things happening.”

What is the most important aspect of being a principal?

“If there’s one thing that’s important, I feel it’s to listen to everyone in the building.”

“Every student has a voice, every teacher has a voice, all the parents … My role is to listen and to make sure everyone’s heard.“

Mr. Chin also considers it important to follow through, but it’s not always easy when there is so much to do.

What strengths do you have that help you as a principal?

He is able to establish good relations and trust. This is important because, “If you’re not comfortable speaking to me, I’m not going to get an honest opinion of how you really feel. Some-times that takes time, that doesn’t happen overnight,” he comments.

Having said this, he explains the im-portance of being a good listener. “I like to hear what people have to say.”

What do you do in your spare time?

When he is not working, Mr. Chin en-joys playing golf and volleyball when he gets the chance. However, with two little ones always keeping him busy, he explains how hard it is to find time for himself. He has two boys; a three-year-old, Avery, and a nine-year-old, Adrian. Because they are so young, Mr. Chin is one of their few modes of transporta-tion. But aside from being a full-time dad, Mr. Chin is active as much as he can.

What is the wisest advice you’ve ever been given?

“Whatever today brings you, there’s always a tomorrow.”

Mr. Chin is happy to share these words of inspiration with everyone. He says, “Tomorrow can always be better. Or tomorrow can be worse. But there’s always a tomorrow. [It’s] a second chance of doing something. Whatev-er happens today, don’t worry, there’s always going to be a tomorrow.”

Lara Alvarez and Daphne Pattersonie took four years to create and is recommended to be watched in 3D. The rating for this movie is 8.5/10, because of its amazing pictures and scenes, but does not receive a high-er rating due to several plot holes.

Carrie

Carrie is a movie based on an socially outcasted senior high school student who has a psychologically twisted mother. Carrie is a quiet girl who is bullied at school by almost everyone and quickly comes to real-ize she has telekinetic powers. She is asked to prom by the top guy in her school but during the dance, she is humiliated and uses her powers to seek revenge on the people who had treated her poorly. The movie is fair-ly well done, but could have used a several more entertaining scenes. In my opinion, it was only good near the end, after Carrie lets loose on the school. Carrie receives a 6.5/10.

Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim is a futuristic ac-tion movie filled with robots and gi-ant monsters from the depths of the earth. A huge gap opens in the Earth, and massive monsters come out to destroy humanity. To combat these beasts, humans create fighting ro-bots that are controlled by humans to fight the monsters.  Pacific Rim features several epic fight scenes on a large scale, which were highly en-joyable. The movie also provides well thought-out character developments on the group of humans, who are in charge of protecting humanity from the beasts from beneath. I would give the movie a solid 8/10 for the fight scenes, because I, as well as the filled theater, was highly entertained.

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This recipe does not have to be followed exactly. Add ingredients according to your liking! Some ingre-dient ideas could include, ice cream, oreo, gummy candy, nuts, vanilla pudding, sprinkles, chocolate, rain-bow or plain marshmallows, jam and much more!

Ingredients

- 1 package brownie mix (19.8 ounce)

- 1 package instant chocolate pud-ding mix (3.9 ounce)

- 1/2 cup water

- 1 (14 ounce) sweetened condensed milk

- 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

- 1 (1.5 ounce) bar chocolate candy

Directions

1) Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool com-pletely. Cut into 1-inch squares.

2) In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water, and sweetened con-densed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in 8 ounces of whipped topping until no streaks remain.

3) In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half with brownies, half of pudding mixture, and half of the 12 ounce container of whipped topping. Repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

Enjoy!

Make sure to check out my blog (http://benedict1211.wordpress.com) for more recipes like this!

ChocolateTrifle

Benedict Kwok

4 Critical Review Prints 5 Poetry and Horoscopes Prints

“Oh, that’s amazing; beautiful!”

you marvel, gush, and sigh.

And for a view that’s just like this,

you say that you could die.

Such burning pinks and oranges

that play upon the clouds;

from facebook cover photos to

a backdrop for your vows.

Well, maybe it’s that sunsets are

an art that’s not my type.

Yes, sunsets are just wonderful,

but I don’t see the hype.

Do you not pay attention to

the sky above your head?

The dome of colour every day,

from birth until you’re dead?

No sunset ever is alike!

enthusiasts will claim.

Well, sorry; to my naked eye,

they all look ‘bout the same.

But even if they are distinct,

it’s not like they are rare.

The sky repeats and everyday,

A sunset it will bear.

Perhaps my dislike is a phase;

at seventeen, who knows?

Perhaps one day, when I’ve grown old,

I’ll love that sunset glow.

A Rant on my Apathy

Towards Sunsets

Robin Lai

Horoscopes for the Week

Aries- This week will be very dynamic and busy. Collaboration will make your day easy. Make sure you plan your activ-ity and do your best to think positively.

Taurus- Be cautious with what you say or do. People are sensitive when they are around you. Make rational choices and good relationships will continue through.

Gemini- Your focus will be authen-tic and strong. Delays will happen and you will think that everything is going wrong, so take a moment and decide what you want to do.

Cancer- Your energy is at its peak

and optimism is overwhelming. Work hard but do not forget to spend time with friends and family.

Leo- Strike the iron while it’s hot. Seize the moment and do everything you can right here, right now. As long as you try

your best, you will not regret a thing.

Virgo- You will manage everything very quickly, you will move easily and you will have courage. Take your time with your work and do not rush.

Libra- You may face challenges during the next two weeks or so. Nev-ertheless, don’t get upset, contin-ue to strive harder because favour-able circumstances are already set.

Scorpio- Be aware of your surroundings. You have a lot going on even though late-ly you have been lacking concentration. Take a break once in a while and relax.

Sagittarius- Keep being patient and optimistic. There may be difficulties right now, but you will learn to manage. Hold on to a bright outlook and smile.

Capricorn- You have been working really hard lately, so treat yourself and have fun. Do not be reckless though as this behav-ior will cause you heavy consequences.

Aquarius- You have enough troubles al-ready and things are complicated. Contin-ue to work very hard and have a positive attitude. Everything will be balanced soon.

Pisces- Do not expect too much. On the contrary, you have to fight to grab your chance. The greatest ac-complishments will come if pas-sion and perseverance are present.

Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

Michio Kaku’s intriguing book,  Physics of the Impossible, discuss-es the future of humanity, through cur-rent trends and predictable inventions, while giving insight into how the future may look anywhere from ten to ten mil-lion years from today. The book commu-nicates in depth about three classes of civilizations, Class One, Two and Three. Class One civilizations consume the en-ergy of an entire planet, Class Two civili-zations consumes the energy of a solar system and Class Three civilizations have control over entire galaxies. Humani-ty, as a whole civilization, stands as a Class Zero. But within current trends, it should reach Class One within a century or two. Professor Kaku has written sever-al books on related fields of theoretical physics, and Physics of the Impossible is a healthy blend of science, imagination and enjoyment for the young adult mind.

George R.R. Martin: Game of Thrones

This is the first volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, the greatest fantasy epic of the today. “Game of Thrones”  is now a major TV series from HBO, and stars Sean Bean. It is an epic fantasy series with more than enough gore, death scenes and tragedies. Another highly recommended book for those seeking a fantasy novel they can really sink their teeth into (is what?). The book kept me up hours upon hours as it was such a good read that putting it down was hard.

Demonic Dora by Claire Chilton

Dora Carridine is trying to sum-mon a demon, but she is not very good at it and nothing ever works out the way she plans. She imagined a sexy demon lord would be the answer to all of her problems, but her headaches are only just the beginning when her zealot par-ents try to burn her at the stake. Dora is left with only one option—to escape and follow her demon straight into Hell. This action packed book is full of hyster-ical moments, as Dora is not the bright-est and often finds herself in peculiar situations. The book  Demonic Dora, by Claire Chilton, is a great comedy rec-ommended for everyone with maturity.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

The story of  Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher focuses on Clay Jen-sen. Clay returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Han-nah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier. The tapes each discuss why Hannah commit-ted suicide and it says he is one of the reasons. As he goes through each tape he gets closer to finding out why he has aided in her perish. A good drama book for those who enjoy darker romance, this dramatic story will be one to remember.   

Book ReviewsZack Morley

Ender’s game

The movie’s main goal, which was well accomplished, was to show how epic a young boy can be. The movie revolves around a young boy known as Ender Wiggin, who is a ge-nius in many forms. The movie takes place in the late 21st  century, where the human race has evolved into a dominant military force to fight off aliens who began attacking several decades ago. Ender, after passing both physical, mental and situational tests, is slowly graduated from different mil-itary schools and eventually has the fate of humanity on his back. The sto-ry shows a compelling ending with a sad conclusion of how humanity as a whole is not always the heroes. Ender’s Game was good movie, with a rating of 7.5/10 from my personal experience.

Gravity

                        Gravity is an awe-inspiring movie about a woman and her crew who are up in orbit when disaster strikes the satellite station she is lo-cated on. The movie is based on sur-vival in a whole new environment that has not been seen before. With amazing cinematography, the mov-

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Movie ReviewsZack Morley