The 99% take a stand

We as Americans are pro-tected under the first amend-ment to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to peaceably assemble. However, a new form of speech and assembly has cap-tured attention throughout America- the occupy protest movement. It has sparked con-troversy and debate among citi-zens and continues to spread to new states and even surround-ing countries. The occupy protests’ slo-gan is “We are the 99 percent.” Protesters claim that one per-cent of the nation’s citizens con-trol fifty percent of the wealth, while other citizens can do nothing about the state of the economy. They are being kicked

puses such as Sonoma State, UC Berkeley, Harvard Univer-sity, and continues to make its move across the world as other 99 percent citizens speak out. The generality of these protests and strikes, however, has given rise to one question: What exactly do these occupy protesters stand for, and what will they accomplish? “Personally I think they are just people with nothing bet-ter to do than complain about something,” said senior Emma Canepa. “The fact that the pro-test doesn’t really stand for any-thing, yet stands for everything, makes it lose any validity it may have and just makes them look like whiners who need some-thing to yell about.” Senior Eric Rudawski added, “The movement is a global one and certainly de-serves the attention it is being given. However, it is almost

lackadaisical in its inability to define a cohesive goal- you of-ten see banners like, ‘occupy ev-erything,’ or ‘general protest.’” “I’m not really sure what they want,” said US History and AP Government teacher Don Mason. “The Occupy Oakland protest alone has cost the city $2.4 million, but only nine out of the 33 people arrested were from Oakland.” These statistics leave view-ers of the movement asking one question- what outcome could they possibly achieve? While the occupy pro-test’s message may be unclear and the outcome unpredict-able, one thing is certain: This movement is quickly spreading and continues to receive much of the media’s attention. As the protesters continue to refuse authorities, only time will tell what this movement will bring for America as a whole.

out of their homes, laid off from jobs, and people of all ages are in severe debt. The occupy protests start-ed on Wall Street in New York on Saturday, Sept. 17. New York residents walked on Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, NYPD headquarters and other symbolic locations throughout the week, holding signs in pro-test of the current state of the economy. Police officers began to cite curfews and loitering rules, but the protesters were resistant to forces. What some saw as police officers limit-ing the protestors’ freedom of speech sparked a chain of pro-tests across the country. By Wednesday, Oct. 5, several more occupy protests were seen throughout the coun-try. New cities active in the movement were Portland, Ore-gon; Tampa, Florida; Houston, Texas and Austin, Texas. Two of

Recently, police all over America have taken action in taking down these camps. Offi-cials have issued evacuation no-tices and expected these protest-ers to leave. These actions are a result of violence and health hazards in the camps. Mul-tiple people have been found dead in their tents, and at one occupy protest, a deadly dog virus is spreading throughout the camp. While they are still allowed to occupy the streets or parks during the day, protesters are not allowed to set up tents or stay in their occupied loca-tions overnight. In response to these recent changes, occupy protesters have either left the camps or have submitted to arrest. Occupy protesters across the United States say that the world’s “eye is on them,” as the movement spreads to other cit-ies, countries, and college cam-

the largest occupy protests are extremely close to home: San Francisco and Oakland, Cali-fornia. Occupy Oakland has proven to be one of the most prevalent of the protests. After violence between protesters and police forces occurred on Tues-day, Oct. 25, resulting in the in-jury of one protester, a “general strike” was planned for Wednes-day, Nov. 2. This strike gave the op-portunity for anyone who had a problem with the government or economy to come and pro-test. The strike included pro-tests against banks, capitalism, and an occupation of the Oak-land Port- the fifth busiest port in America. Though the protest was generally peaceful, there were reports of some break-off groups smashing windows of banks and stores, and spray painting some windows.

Chloe TamaroStaff Writer

The Foreigner travels to Leigh

Amanda CendejasFeatures Editor

After an extended streak of summer-like weather, it’s finally that time of year again: trees are shedding their leaves, the temperature is cool-ing off, and the landscape is aglow with rich burnt orange and gold hues. All of which could only mean one thing: it’s al-most time for the fall play! This year, the Drama Department has chosen to put on a modified ver-sion of “The Foreigner”. “We’ve really just up-dated [the play] to make it more accessible to stu-dents,” said Bryan Ring-sted, who oversees the drama program at Leigh. “We changed numbers, updated the costs of things but it’s fairly faith-ful to the original format.” This year, the fall play will have a double cast, meaning that there will be two sets of actors and actresses and the different casts will take turns performing. “Everyone who audi-tioned had something they could bring to their character,” said Ringsted. “There were so many good, skilled, well trained actors that I couldn’t

limit it to just seven kids.” Junior Vaughn Mayer, who is cast as Reverend David Lee, describes the experience as challenging yet rewarding. “[My character] seems very strong but deep down you know there’s something sinis-

ter about him, so I started to think, how could I shape my-self to be strong and helpful but also devious,” said Mayer. By opening night, nearly 13 weeks (totaling 144 hours) of meticulous rehearsal will have gone into perfecting the

production, and the actors aren’t the only ones required to put in copious amounts of time outside of school. Tech-nical Theatre students are in the process of building a set three stories high and even perfecting a few special effects.

“I won’t reveal too much,” said junior Jeremy Pack, who is cast as Charlie Baker, “but there is a trap door involved.” Set in a Bed and Breakfast in rural Georgia, the comedy focuses on two of the guests staying there: Charlie Baker

(played by Jeremy Pack and Aidan Welton-Drake) and Ser-geant Froggy LeSueur (played by Jacob Gemette). Baker is excruciatingly shy and is unable to speak to anyone unfamiliar; as way of explanation, Froggy introduces his friend as the na-

tive of a foreign country who can-not understand a word of English. S o o n enough, Char-lie finds himself privy to scandals, rumors, and se-crets indiscreetly discussed in front of him by other visitors. “The role of Charlie made me nervous as it requires a lot of acting without speaking, but it has really al-lowed me to push my boundar-ies,” said Pack. The annual

fall production will be hosted in the new perform-ing arts theatre from Friday Dec. 2 to Saturday, Dec. 10. Show times will be announced a

few weeks before opening night.

“Occupy” protests sweep through the US in hopes of change

Courtesy of thisisbossi from Flickr.com

The rigorous rehearsal schedule for “The Foreigner” cast.Photo by Kylie Brown

Nicole HamiltonCopy Editor

For parents who strive to involve themselves more with the school en-vironment, Principal Donna Hope’s morning parent meetings, called Do-nuts with Donna, can be an engag-ing, friendly way to find out about the goings-on around campus. They are held near-month-ly, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., and in a laid-back environment seldom seen in more formal meetings. During the meetings, Hope discusses current events, procedures, and concerns of the parents in atten-dance. “We had about 10 parents come to the first morn-ing [on Oct. 12], and had donuts, and coffee, and I just kind of gave them the same report I gave out to Home and School Club,” said Hope. “There were lots of ques-tions about college, and how students get into college.”

At the second meeting, which was held on Nov. 9 in the College and Career Center (Room 32), the subject that dominated the discussion for the first half of the meeting was the various construction projects being completed around Leigh’s campus, such as upcom-ing solar projects in the parking lot, which should be under construction

from January until March, and the

total recon-s t r u c -

tion of t h e G

build-i n g ,

w h i c h h o l d s the art r o o m s and one

wing of lockers. Other topics that were covered include the fall play, semester grades, and Project Cornerstone, which spon-sors the yearly NCBI training for fresh-

men and juniors. After the general discussion, par-ents were free to ask any questions they might have that weren’t already cov-ered. At the November meeting, there were about 6 – 7 parents in atten-dance. Some of the questions asked were about 12 week grades, about sending emails to teachers, the upcoming sports seasons and CCS. “ D o -nuts with Donna” is more than just a catchy use of alliter-ation, as well. W h i l e teaching ESL to first grade stu-dents in Mexico City, in early 1978, Hope recalls a local do-nut chain in the area, simi-lar to Dunkin’ Donuts in the U.S., called Doni Doñas. “Every day I would walk in and the first graders would ask ‘...aye, Miss Donna, did you bring us doñas today?’ And I’d say no, sorry, not today,” said Hope.

Hope shares donuts with devoted parents

Hope enjoys the morning meet-ings, and is pleased to be able to pro-vide an alternative to the monthly parent meetings hosted by the school, which are normally held in the evening

when many parents are either working, or are too busy taking care of their

children to attend. “That was a great

time to just sit and have a nice chat, basically,

but with lots of important in-

formation. It was fun! So I’m looking forward to doing them for the rest of the year,” said Hope. Hope also plans to be-gin a second type of meet-ing, which

she calls Dia-log with Donna,

that would serve a similar purpose to

the parents meetings, except that she would be

meeting with Leigh teach-ers.

The Leigh website has a list of times and dates for all the meetings that will be held this year, and for curi-ous parents, they can be well worth a morning of their time.

Shooting at Berkeley echoes around campus

Photo by Nicole Hamilton

A UC Berkeley undergrad mo-mentarily disrupted the chaos and excitement of the occupation pro-tests in Berkeley, California. The stu-dent, who had supposedly turned his life around, brandished a handgun on police officers in the middle of class. He was fatally shot by police after refusing to lower his weapon. The 32-year-old business stu-dent, Christopher Travis, was shot on Tuesday, Oct. 15 around 2:22 p.m. Hours later, he was pronounced dead at the hospital. Travis had been reported as having acted strangely weeks before the incident. How-ever, there is no further evidence as to why he acted the way he did. Travis had transferred into the Berkeley Haas School of Business, the country’s second oldest business school, from Ohlone Community Col-lege in Fremont where he had received his associate’s degree in business. His former employer said that Travis was a former dropout with “no direction”. However, after starting work for Allied Barton Security Services, it seemed as though he wanted to turn his life around. Christopher Travis soon rose to the position of shift su-pervisor. He then began going back to school where he got good enough grades to transfer to UC Berkeley.

Travis then went on to start a motivational speaking company be-fore starting business school in the fall. His mission as a former unmoti-vated video gamer was to “help people like you to achieve your goals in life.” Unfortunately, it seems that whatever was bothering Travis previ-ously started to affect him again. A staff member of the school said they saw Tra-vis on an elevator with what appeared to be a gun. After sharing this information with a colleague they called the police. The police officers tracked Travis to a computer lab where there were ten other students. He pointed a loaded Ruger 9mm semi-automatic pistol at the officers. After repeatedly ordering Tra-vis to put the weapon down, the of-ficers were forced to open fire due to his failure to comply. There were four students between the police and Tra-vis but none were harmed; only Travis was fatally shot. University spokesman Dan Mogulof told reporters that there was no evidence indicating that the shooter intended to harm any students. The school let out a warning at 2:53 p.m. letting the students know a shooting had occurred at Haas and that the police had the situation un-der control. Nearly an hour later, the school notified everyone that the threat was no longer present, and that it was safe to resume with their normal cam-pus activities. Berkeley then went on to

say they would provide counseling to any students traumatized by the event. This was the first shooting on campus at UC Berkeley in al-most twenty years, the last one be-ing in 1992 when a machete wield-ing activist was gunned down. Between this shooting and the re-cent anti-Wall Street protests, Berkeley has been in a state of turmoil. Hope-fully with the coming of the holidays, Berkeley can finally settle down and ev-eryone can return to their peaceful lives.

Donna Hope displays a board with the con-struction plans for the district this year.

The outside of the Haas School of Business, where the incident took place on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Photo courtesy of Jason Ye.

Adam SoretStaff Writer

Photo by Kylie Brown

Just Jab

Situation Critical

Constructive criticism is a bittersweet thing. I know perfectly well that when someone gives me “construc-tive criticism,” it’s really for my own benefit. Nonetheless, I can’t help but feel like I’ve done wrong. Sometimes I might even feel somewhat offended, depending on the situation. I’ve really never been the best at taking it and that’s a trait that has always been a bit of a curse to me. Taking constructive criticism usually triggers a couple of contrast-ing emotions. On one hand, I feel produc-tive. It means that the opinion of someone with a perspective other than my own is judging something I’ve produced, and using their input I can make whatever’s at hand more appealing to a larger crowd. Yet, deep down inside when I’m hearing their disapproval of cer-tain things, I’m justifying my rea-sons for what I did and why I did it. Hence, in all honesty I typically will not want to accept their suggestions. This said, not all criticism is bad. It actually can help us and make us stronger. Still, it is not always ben-eficial. In fact, in many cases, it is known to be counterproductive. Something I’ve never under-stood is how come so often, many people can be so critical of what people who literally don’t even affect them whatsoever do? This kind of criticism does nothing but cause unnecessary, use-less drama. Then again, that is what high school is known for isn’t it? One of the great things about life is that, for the most part at least, we can express ourselves freely. What we do or don’t do is nobody’s busi-ness but our own. If I wanted to walk out of my house one day, go to a sa-lon, and have the stylist dye my hair purple; that would be that. Here’s where it gets tricky. Just because you have the ability to do many things freely and without the consent of others, that doesn’t mean that you won’t face judgment. It doesn’t mean that I could go to school with my purple hair and nobody would react. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have a couple of people talking amongst them-selves saying, “Did you see Ka-trina’s hair today? She should’ve never dyed it. It looks terrible!” It’s all a matter of how you deal with it. Another great thing about life; It really is up to you. You can choose to let it ef-fect you, or you can just let it go. Sometimes though, it’s hard to let things go when criticism gets taken too far. News flash! People have feelings. Often times we put on an invincible exterior, because we’re afraid of showing others our weak-ness.

But the bottom line is that no matter what you do, where you do it, who you’re with; someone will judge you, and someone WILL criticize you. That’s life. Again, we all have our own opinions, and I believe it is more than okay to express that. I’m all for people standing up for what they believe in, and obvi-ously, different people have different opinions. But that’s where my idea of opinion and criticism branch off into their own little sects. Opinions says, “Here’s what I think, and these are my reasons to back it up”. Criticism says, “I don’t like what you’re doing, personally, so I’m going to put you down for it”. Facebook is a prime example of differentiating criticism and opinion For instance. Let’s say a group of people at school make up a hand symbol. Let’s say that, hypothetically speaking of course, this hand symbol represents the phrase “one life”. The hand symbol blows up and eventually causes a lot of hype. It’s all over Facebook so clearly every-one feels the need to put in their two cents on the matter. The people who created the hand gesture are, hypothetically, be-ing criticized for the whole ordeal. Why, though? Even if it is an-noying, even if it drives you insane for whatever reason, what good does it do to hate on it? Here’s a suggestion; why don’t we all just not care! Let’s say some-thing isn’t directly affecting someone, they just don’t like that thing and are bored so they’re still going to give it negative attention. Chances are, ladies and gentle-men, that this person is a participant in the ever increasing movement of unnecessary ridicule. It usu-ally doesn’t end well when someone shares an “opinion” on an individual’s personal choices. So pretty much it’s a lose-lose situation. In reality they’re just spread-ing pessimistic criticism. Life in high school puts a lot of pressure on us, and nobody needs the added drama of things that are in actuality, no big deal. The worst part of the whole or-deal is that the fear of being criticized actually stops people from doing things that they want to do a lot of the time. We’ve all faced this situation at one point or another, I know I defi-nitely have. It’s when you are on the verge of doing something, and sec-ond guess it because of what people might say. It’s when you primarily would do something, but you don’t even consider it because it would get a negative reaction (from people who more than likely don’t matter in your life at all). We’re not perfect, not even close. It is only natural to want to criticize something that we person-ally find A.) stupid, B.) annoying, C.) useless, or D.) all of the above. I sure know I’ve been guilty of it. It’s just a matter of taking the time to voice the ridicule and actually make an issue of it. What does that solve? Zip, nada, nothing. It wors-ens the situation on both sides of the spectrum. There are many negative things in the world, but a lot more positive. So why dwell on what bugs me, when I could be dwelling on what makes me happy? Imagine how we could change things by spreading nothing but positive vibes and taking out all the unnecessary disrespect. That’s some-thing we could all benefit from, and there’s no denying that.

The battle between private and public schools rages on

mean that public schools are worse? “I think public school stu-dents have more variety than private schools. In every way conceivable,” said Brian Chan, a stu-dent at Harker High. Even if they don’t think public schools are “ghetto”, private school students do, however, feel that pub-lic schools don’t offer as much on the way to college. Chan chose to go to Harker wwHigh because of the ad-ditional classes offered there, such as the astronomy class he takes this year.

Colleges do not discriminate based on what school a student went to. Admission has to do with the student. Nevertheless, Archbishop Mitty boasts a college enrollment rate of 99 percent of its students, while the California state average is 56 percent. But, at Leigh, at least 90 per-cent of students graduate to attend 4- or 2-year colleges. All this proves is that Chan was right—there’s a great variety in public schools. Leigh can offer enough for the way to college; in other areas of California, there are some public schools that do not. Additionally, the tables can be

turned on the pros of private education. “People say public schools are bad. Actually they’re more regulated in some areas that in private. Pri-vate schools may have more quali-fied teachers, but they may not have the ability to teach,” said Noritake. It’s true. In public schools, teachers are required to be certified, but there are no such regulations in privates. There’s a unique viewpoint on the private vs. public issue from the people who’ve attended both. “In general they have more money [at private schools]. More Mitty stu-

dents drive cars than Leigh students. And everyone plays a sport there,” said senior Rayan Aoun, who attended Archbishop Mittyhis fresh-man and sophomore year.But we have students who drive cars and play sports at Leigh too. The thing that separates Mitty from Leigh, said Aoun, seems to be the students’ grades. Compared to the gap between high and lower grades at Leigh, there’s a big-ger average group in Mitty.Based on his experience, the teaching styles at Mitty are similar to those found at Leigh.

Mitty did have a “newer campus”, but it was the same size as Leigh’s. Mitty does offer more classes, such as World History AP for sopho-mores and more computer classes. In the end, it seems, that pri-vate schools are on average richer than public, but that doesn’t mean they’re snobs. And though private schools offer more classes, it isn’t true that public school students are “ghetto” or can’t make it to college. It isn’t fair to stereotype on the schools; private and public are simple two different communi-ties that look remarkably the same.

You’ve heard it. “Those pri-vate school kids, they’re so rich.” Popular opinion says that students attending private schools are the wealthy, smart, and spoiled. But turn it around. What do they think of us? Stereotypes of schools have bounced back and forth be-tween the private and public school communities for years. On one side, public schools are depicted, sometimes self-described, as “ghetto”, poor, and dan-gerous. Their falling state funds make for cut classes and worse teachers. Their school campuses are covered in graffiti from local street gangs, and the use of drugs is common among students. On the other hand, private school students have been viewed as “rich snobs”. And since the kids are so rich, the school is too. Stu-dents receive the best cam-puses, best equipment, and better qualified teachers. And they don’t appreciate it. “Many private school students don’t value property, since they can afford to re-place them,” said Sabrina Noritake, a sophomore at Leigh. She added, “Not all, but I know of some like that.” So where do the facts end, and the typecasting begin? It is a fact that students of a private school must pay tuition to attend. Based on the US 2009 Cen-sus, it’s more likely for a family with high income to send their child to a private school. There are exceptions, such as low-income students attend-ing with a scholarship or grant. But yes, on average, private school students are richer. But does that necessarily

Rajashree BhattacharyaStaff Writer

“I’ll read this.” “No butter.” Think of it as a dare. A double dog dare taken to the next level. Say you’re going to do something? No butter. If you’re reading this thinking, “No butter...? Butter what?” you’re about to be educated in the mean-ing of this overused catchphrase. Being a victim of no butter is usu-ally one’s own fault. Instead of being dared, they’ve dared themselves in their claim to carry out an action. The only difference is some-one has to have called them out, and no buttered them. For example, some-one who tends to over ex-aggerate gets heated in an argument and speaks out loud, saying “I’m going to kill her!”, and quick as a wit, a friend’s response is simply, “no butter.” Now if this being does not do what they’ve just been no buttered to do, they’re at risk of re-ceiving a hit in the face. Junior, Nick Mora, is a well known user of this phrase. “I like no buttering exaggerated stuff that’s im-possible. But my examples may not be school appropriate. It’s fun to use, but it’s getting overused,” said Mora. Mora is an avid user of this phrase, and is quick to use it whenever seems fit during the day. “With school and football, all throughout the day I use it a lot!”, and more often than not, Mora is the one doing the no buttering. Although this phrase may be

overused, it’s got the potential to teach a small positive lesson: think twice about what you’re about to say, or you might find yourself in a no butter mess. Unless you’re a hardcore no but-ter user, this word game doesn’t have to be taken so seriously. Let’s pretend your friends are nice, and on the off chance that they are, a punch in the face seems a little harsh don’t you think? Bragging rights, or a never ending reminder of this chickened out dare will suffice. What probably started out as a

meaningless inside joke between a small group of friends continually bagging on each other, became a well known phrase. This phrase is typically used as a sort of comeback, or witty remark, in an attempt to call someone out on their false claims to do something. For the unfortunate, this

means you must do what you’ve said you are going to do, even if so jok-ingly. As for the punishment, tradi-tional no buttering consists of a high five or clenched fist...In the face. With no butter users constantly dissecting sentences and words for a reason to throw in no butter, filtering thoughts to words is an ideal tactic. No butter has gathered as many fans as it has adversaries. Often, those will come along who despise this phrase. They’ve prob-

ably grown accustomed to saying they’ll do silly things, and once no butter came along, they’ve started to limit their habits of speech. A phrase that has been used over and over again is bound to get old, especially when you’ve fallen victim one too many times for your own sanity. For those that absolutely cannot take a joke for the life of them, you might want to steer clear of these fun suckers as no but-tering a foe of this phrase may stir up some harsh feelings. You might find yourself with a punch in

the face without surrender-ing to your no buttered cause.

But to each his own. Some may love the small aspect of bringing in a challenge to everyday conversations, and some may detest and scorn this phrase, wishing it to be over and done with in our modernized lingo. But hey, If you can’t beat em’, join em’

Kendra WoodStaff Writer

Junior, Nick Mora takes “No Butter” in a literal way.Photo by Sadie Williams

Photo by Kylie Brown

What is true vs. what is a stereotype:

One who? One-two!

The People We Meet

Working at a restaurant defi-nitely has its perks- the discounted meals, free ice cream, friendly serv-ers, and great owners are just a few of them. But to be completely hon-est, the best part about working in a restaurant is the people I meet. Just the other week, I got a call for a to-go order. When the man came in we made small talk. He asked what school I went to and, to my surprise, he said he had graduat-ed from Leigh in ‘73 and (Get this!) was the infamous prankster we’ve all heard of- the senior who put a teacher’s car in the pool and flooded the quad! His stories were priceless and at the end of the day, he left me inspired to come up with an epic se-nior prank and really make the most of the last year of high school like he did. He now sells steel-cutters and robots for a living. How cool is that? I have to say, though, that the most interesting people are some of our Hick’ry Pit regulars. First, there’s Steve. The man who sits in seat #2 at the counter once a day, every day, with a pitcher of iced tea. He has to be one of my fa-vorite regulars. He always has some-thing to say about his generation versus ours, and his humor is always my source of entertainment for night shifts. He leaves me with something to laugh or think about every time. There are Jack and Ed. These two come in every Sunday with some family and brighten a room with their smiles and old lingo. Good ol’ Paul commutes to the Hick’ry Pit every so often just because he’s come here for years. Back in his day, he moved his son out to England so that he would not be drafted into the Vietnam War. An influential man? I think so. But my favorite group that comes to the Hick’ry Pit is the War Brides. A group of 40-50 people come in once every month or two to have breakfast together. They’re a whole bunch of old couples (which are the cutest ever). The twist? They were all married during or after World War II and are still together today. They come in and decorate the entire back room, wear patriotic clothing, and some of the men even fit into their old uniforms and wear them ever so proudly. They are true inspirations. In fact, the shortest man who led the rest of the group was the pilot who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. How’s that for meet-ing someone truly interesting? If I saw any of these people on the street, though, what would I think of them? What would you think of them? They are the aver-age man, the American family, the old couple holding hands down the street. How could anyone possibly know how unique these people re-ally are by just looking at them? As weird as it may sound, I think about this all the time. Walk-ing through the hallways at school, driving on the freeway, searching through a store. How do I know the little old woman next to me isn’t a Holocaust survivor? Maybe the child with that young couple is adopted. That woman, once upon a time, was a missionary in Africa. Someone next to you might have defeated can-cer or be battling it now. The florist might win the lottery tomorrow. People are so unpredictable. Everyone has a different story, an experience to share, wisdom to give. They’re diverse. There’s no way of judging someone correctly just based off of appearance. We don’t know

what they’ve been through, what they’re handling right now, or the successes they’ll have in the future- we don’t know anything about them. I hear this complaint the most frequently out of any: “I hate peo-ple.” But why? Because you haven’t taken the initiative to get to know them? That’s not their fault, it’s yours. People really do have something to give to others, but it’s up to you to become interested in them and take advantage of what they have to offer. People are so interesting and diversified, but it’s up to us to see that uniqueness. You have to take the initiative to get to know oth-ers and become genuinely interested in them. You might learn why they were a little cold-shouldered toward you when you first met, or why they come off so strongly. You can find out why they’re so opinionated on a subject and where their mind set stems from. There’s always a reason behind peoples’ thoughts and ac-tions, where they know it or not. There’s a quote that reads, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in people than you can in two years by trying to get other people in-terested in you.” -Dale Carnegie And that is completely true. No one wants to hear about your problems unless you’ve been friends for years. Relationships need to start off as a two-way street. Both people need to be genuinely interested in the other. A person needs to feel listened to and appreciated in order to make new connections with new people. So take that extra step. Go the extra mile. Get to know other people. Make as many connections with as many people as you can. They might give you a little insight. They can give great advice, prove to be one of the most trust-worthy people you know, tell you an inspirational story, or introduce you to another person who may change your life. We never know, and that’s one of the best things about life: The unpredictability. Reading this in class? Ask your neighbor about their weekend or their plans for Thanksgiving vacation. Reading it at home? Go talk to your neighbor and catch up for just a few minutes. If you’re in the car, ask your mom or dad to share a story about their childhood. It’s the little conversations that make big things happen in life. Ask people ques-tions, become interested. What you find in oth-ers might just surprise you.

Times are changing Remember the sweet, simple joys of childhood? Waking up promptly on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons, playing with Barbies or hot wheels, running around outside all day doing whatever your imagination created to keep you entertained. With time, comes change. This is something that is held evident in life. Unfortunately, change isn’t always for the better. The younger generations today are being born into a very techno-logically advanced era. We grew up when technology was used, but was not nearly as dominant and advanced as it is today, by a long-shot. Now-a-days, technology is everywhere we look. We can’t expect them to avoid it. For example, there are twice as many kids that can operate and play with a smart phone application than those who can tie their shoelac-es. More 2 and 3-year-olds can play a computer game than ride a bike. Hand a 7-year-old girl an iPhone and I can almost guarantee she will be able to work it. Just the other day my cousin who’s in 3rd grade taught me how to use a setting on my Droid. Something’s not right there. This said, the younger generation’s

ideas of fun typically include watching TV, going to the movies, playing video games, going on the computer, and so on. The problem here is not the tech-nology, rather, how it is being used. Approximately 74 percent of the time children ages 1-8 spend us-ing a technological device is spent in front of the television. Popular kids’ channels these days like the Disney channel and Nickelodeon no longer show many cartoons, because that’s not what the kids want. Instead, they resort to bad acting, shallow dia-logue, and poor displays of morality. I was watching my little cousin’s favorite show with her the other day, “A.N.T. Farm.” The basic story line of the episode was a couple of well-rounded, popular kids who have a problem getting rid of a not-so-pop-ular kid who would continuously try to be friends with them. They came up with possibilities including essen-tially tying him to train tracks, and other creatively cruel scenarios. After each scenario was named, the “audi-ence laughter” came on, as if this were supposed to be even remotely funny. Let me get this straight, they’re teaching kids that if someone is differ-ent, they should be victimized and bul-lied? It’s no wonder these kids are grow-ing up with poor values. In the end, parents and teachers can make a differ-

ence, but the chances are that it won’t matter. Kids look up to celebrities. All things considered, televi-sion can’t take all of the blame for this issue. An equally, if not more dominant part of the matter is music. What did you listen to when you were a kid? Considering we were all born in the 90’s, chances are you listened to

g o o d music. K i d s

today, on the other hand, lis-ten primarily to mainstream pop. Why? Because they’re too busy singing along to lyrics like, “Before I leave brush my teeth with a bottle of jack!,” as sung in a robotic auto-tuned voice by the infamous Ke$ha (can’t forget the dollar sign in her name,

it’s vital to the artist’s character). Little girls look up to these art-ists, which equates to them looking up to scandalous, un-classy women whose

objectives in life are to get rich and be sleezy. That’s sure to be a recipe for suc-cess. Not to mention the modern rap scene; what a lot of young boys are interested in. I believe that there are truly some knowledgeable rap-pers out there. If you look for it, you can find it, if that sort of thing inter-

ests you. However, little boys, inter-ested in underground rap with qual-ity lyrics spreading positive messages? Oh gosh no! Why would they want to listen to that when they can be feeding their brains lyrics about cars, money, “hoes”, b*tches, the female anatomy, and anything else concern-ing being selfish, getting money, and degrading women; followed with some “bangin’” beats, of course. Values being replaced with su-perficial traits was something bound to happen with the advancement of tech-nology. Although technology has been helpful in so many ways, the down-side is that it has also been corruptive. So parents, try to save the up-coming generations while you still can, and keep your child away from any technology! It’s probably best to move to a foreign land with no technology at all, and have them play outside all day and climb trees and play with rocks and stuff. Okay that was an exaggeration. What I’m really trying to say is, we need to censor the media that the children of America see, and try to introduce them to music and other media with actual values. It definitely does exist.

Unless you want your child to be the next Ke$ha, that is; which would be very difficult unless they have to have a really good auto tuned voice.

Technology corrupting younger generations Katrina Jabbari

Staff Writer

Singers such as Katy Perry use provocative lyrics along with a racy image to get teens to buy their music.

Photo courtesy of machechyp

The show “South Park” has been criticized for corrupting youth.Photo courtesy of AndersSteenNilsen

The starting age for cell phone and computer ownership has gone down rapidly in the past few years.

Photo courtesy of blogspot.com

Editors-in-ChiefMarissa Rodriguez, Kylie Brown

Section EditorsNews: Brianna Houston

Opinion: Caitlyn NurnbergFeatures: Amanda Cendejas

Sports: Zachary TatarEntertainment: Blayke Leach

In-Depth: Nanxi TangJunior Editor: Luke Weinberg

Visuals EditorSadie Williams

Online EditorsNanxi Tang, Christopher Wyman

Business ManagersChristopher Wyman, Nathan Keenan, Jeannie Ceglar

Copy EditorNicole Hamilton

Staff WritersRajashree Bahttacharya, Kylie Brown, Jeannie Ceglar, Amanda Cendejas, Mikayla Druhan,

Matthew Duell, Nicollette Eilia, Michelle Fitzsimmons, Dominic Guidry, Tiffany Ha,Nicole Hamilton, Sean Hiller, Brianna Houston, Katrina Jabbari, Jinny Jung, Nathan Keenan

Blayke Leach, Katherine MacQuarrie, Alassandra Marquez, Caitlyn Nurnberg, Kayla PavlicevichEmily Ransom, Michael Rea, Heyinn Rho, Marissa Rodriguez, Anna Schwarz, Adam Soret,

Chloe Tamaro, Nanxi Tang, Zachary Tatar, Julie Thompson, Sunna Thorkelsdottir, Andrew van Brunt, Joseph Vasquez, Thomas Viola, Makena Volzing, Luke Weinberg, Sadie Williams, Angel

Wilson, Kendra Wood, Christopher Wyman, Nikita Zakladnyi, Sarah Mowad

Design StaffKylie Brown, Nicollette Eilia, Michelle Fitzsimmons, Dominic Guidry, Tiffany Ha, Sean Hiller, Katrina Jabbari, Katherine MacQuarrie, Alassandra Marquez, Kayla Pavlicevich, Emily Ransom,

Heyinn Rho, Marissa Rodriguez, Adam Soret, Chloe Tamaro, Julie Thompson, Sunna Thorkelsdottir, Andrew van Brunt, Joseph Vasquez, Makena Volzing, Luke Weinberg, Angel

Wilson, Sarah Mowad

Visuals StaffRajashree Bhattacharya, Mikayla Druhan, Jinny Jung, Anna Schwarz, Sadie Williams, Kendra

Wood, Nikita Zakladnyi

Online StaffMatthew Duell, Michael Rea, Thomas Viola

AdviserElizabeth Nakamura

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.

AP: A Pain

Wasn’t AP supposed to be easy? What a joke. Now you’re freaking out over a giant writing portfolio due in two days and that AP chem work-sheet that isn’t making any sense. By the way, you have a quiz in APUSH to-morrow on the vocabulary you learned last class. But hey, at least it will look good on college apps. Is it really worth all the pressure and time though? On countless occasions, students have been told that one of the best ways to catch the c o l l e g e s ’ attention is to take as many AP courses as possible. Col-leges, espe-cially UCs and CSUs, want to see that you’ve “ c h a l -l e n g e d ” yourself in high school. AP classes also boost your GPA because the classes are weighted. But taking AP classes is not just important for college admittance, which is what most students tend to forget.

You’re actually supposed to learn some-thing from it. “[AP class-es] give the s t u d e n t s [the] op-portunity to do col-lege level c o u r s e work. [It] gives them an oppor-tunity to learn what works for them in

terms of study skills,” said AP English 3 teacher Rob-ert Warren. Getting a preview into college work gives stu-dents the upper advantage. In a study done by the Uni-versity of Texas in 2007, re-searchers found that there was a correlation between good scores on AP exams and better grades and grad-uation from college. The study also found that even those who scored a two out of five on

AP exams still had a bet-ter college performance as opposed to non-AP students. Cool, you’re actually getting some-thing out of pulling your all-nighters for AP English, but what about Hon-

ors? Supposedly it’s just less work and slower than AP with the same eventual

lessons. “They’re a b o u t the same as far as dif-f i c u l t y g o e s …the AP class of c o u r s e prepares y o u for an AP test

so we do that in addition to some of the American literature stuff they do in [the] English 3 Honors class,” said Warren. Honors may be just as difficult as AP, but the work is usually less. And in the end, the work is what helps us learn the most. Studies show that students who don’t do their homework will not see any increase in their achievement in school. Meaning those who work less achieve less. Simple math. So yes, AP classes are a pain in the neck. Yes, they stress you out. Yes, they keep you up all night. But in the end it’s worth it not only to seem very attractive to four-year colleges, but because you get some real knowledge out of it too. It’s time to “challenge” yourself.

Brianna HoustonNews Editor

Surviving Leigh: What Now?

Books. Classes. Teachers and every rule made to take away from the enjoyment of our adolescence. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect students. But, the administration accidently added an extra ingredient to the concoction…CHEMICAL X. Thus, Seniori-tis was born, using its ultra-contagious powers to attack the student population. The virus has been successful and has not only affected the senior class alone, but has spread to the other three younger generations (fresh-men, sophomores, and juniors) as well. Everyone in high school, at one point or another, has stated words along the lines of “I have to get out of here”. We have been told that life after high school, whether it’s in college or not, is better than high school. It’s as if it is a new beginning; re-birth into a new life. It really is your time to shine, to make something of yourself. To literally do whatever it is you want to do with the rest of your life. Is this freedom what we’ve been longing for the whole time? In high school you have parents, teachers, and possibly friends who are telling you “no” and holding you back from all the freedoms you could poten-tially attain and enjoy now and later in

life. Or are we longing to simply get away; get away from our parents, teachers, and friends? Maybe it’s our egos. We’re that pleased with ourselves that we actually believe we’re above and better than this school, these people, even our friends.

Or in fact, it’s that we really are mature enough and actually ready to leave the nest. Everyone falls into a dif-ferent category, but whatever the rea-son, bottom line is, we feel like any life, other than the one we’re living, will be better. At the end of every school year, the newspaper features an in-depth page of a map of the U.S. and shows where students will be attending the next fall. The majority of not only Leigh students, but most students in the area attend local community colleges. West Valley is also known as “Leigh 2.0”.

Now, is this a compliment or an in-sult? “I go to De Anza and although the party life isn’t as crackin’ as mov-ing away from home, you realize who your real friends are,” said former LHS student Veronica Covdy. Is the “party life” the main con-cern? It’s definitely a determining fac-

tor that can make or break your ex-perience. “Life outside of high school is sick. You don’t have to worry about all the drama. College, so far, is pret-ty easy and the freedom you have makes every day feel like a weekend. Also your true friends stick by your side,” said Larry Donald, another former LHS student. Although both these former Leigh students attend the same col-lege, they’re both experiencing con-trasting lifestyles. It’s true; high school is filled with unnecessary drama and fake friends. So, is life after high school really that much better? It should be clear, I think it’s safe to say that life after high school re-ally is better wherever you go. After graduation we take our first steps into the real world. Welcome to freedom ladies and

gentlemen, leaving our old life behind us. Senioritis is a blessing in disguise. While at first you become lazy, less suc-cessful, less willing, unreliable, irre-sponsible, etc., the virus actually sparks your willingness to get good grades and finish well to get into a good college so you can leave. Supposedly high school’s the best years of your life…WRONG! Ya’ll are living a fantasy, real life begins as soon as you walk across that stage decked out in that tacky shiny green cap and gown.

Makena VolzingStaff Writer

Are AP classes really as tough as they seem?

AP English students diligantly prepare before a test.

AP’s can be a heavy load.

Graduation is only the beginning...

Photo by Jinny Jung

Photo by Jinny Jung

Photo by Anna Schwarz

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

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

Dear Readers,

As the red and orange leaves drift to the ground and the brisk air chills you to the bone, we know that a whole season of breaks is just around the corner. Before you take off on what-ever Turkey Day shenanigans you may have planned for this Thanksgiving Break, we would like to take care of a few orders of business. First of all, we cordially thank you for picking up and reading this edition of the Eleight. Our staff would like to issue an apology for content published in the October Edition’s In-Depth. Due to multiple difficulties, we were unable to publish one of our own stories and thus pub-lished (with all credit given) an article found in a magazine. We give our sincerest apologies to the author of the piece, Amy Spencer. We wish the best to the Leigh student body over the break. Eat, drink, and be merry!

Your Editors-in-Chief, Kylie Brown and Marissa Rodriguez

in-depth 11.21.11page 08

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page0911.21.11 in-depth

only just started establishing himself in a world over-saturated with bland fashion. Macias hopes that his unique designs will set him apart from the brands that are mainstream and unin-spired. This approach has worked well for him, already receiving orders from out of the country.

To find out more about Ver-susAll or its creator, Di-ego Macias, visit his blog VersusAll .T u m b l r .com and to purchase his clothes visit VersusAll.b igcar te l .com. But hurry, once

his designs release, they tend to sell out within a few days. With Thanksgiving coming up, the time to start feasting on all sorts of delicious food is right around the cor-

ner. But instead of choosing to enjoy the seasonal indulgences herself, one student is using sweet treats to raise money for those less fortunate. Senior Claire Hardester has her own cupcake business. Cupcakes By Claire is a charitable company that

Black Friday:Alassandra Marquez

Staff Writer

Winter is just around the corner. Maybe you are starting to crave a sweet treat or some new threads. There are an endless amount of cafes and boutiques to get these, but some are actually be-ing provided by students at Leigh. Junior Diego Macias grew tired of seeing the same clothes everywhere he went, so he decided to make his own. Creator of VersusAll, Macias has es-tablished himself through his blog and is currently selling his designs on his own website. “I’ve always wanted to create my own clothing line; I saw an opportu-nity and people told me to make some [shirts] and sell them. So I made a little bit, then made some more, and that’s how it all happened,” said Macias. The clothes Macias is talking about are known as pock-et T’s, shirts with pockets on the front. The main draw to his shirts are the fact that the designs on the pocket are so unique. He uses animal prints hand sewn to the shirts to give his shirts a unique look that is hard to miss. “They’re all original designs, no one influenced me.” Macias says that this is just a hobby now, but if any chance to turn it into a brand comes up he will pursue it. His life has not changed much, except it is much busier due to an in-crease in demand for his products. Ma-cias also hinted at an upcoming sweat-shirt line for winter. The young entrepreneur has

bakes delicious cupcakes for charitable events. All profits go to the charity and their calender for where to find them can be found on their website,Cupcakesbyclaireonline.webs.com. “It started with a woman at my church, Sammi, and we [Hardester and friends] helped raise money for a charity that helps people with cystic fi-brosis.” Hardester started the business with friends Christin Janicki and Anna Pyzel as just a simple hobby to help out those in need. The cupcakes are sold in a “bakesale” fashion and all proceeds go to the charity they are helping. Hardester says this is just a hobby at the moment and doesn’t see it turn-ing into a career of making delicious sweets. Her only goal right now is to help those less fortunate as much as she can. It is great to see a student contrib-ute so selflessly to these great causes. Hardester still has time for school and friends while running the cupcake business. She hopes that more orders come in so that she can raise awareness for her business and the charities that they help. “I’ve been busier and it’s cool that

I have my own business,” said Hard-ester. To contact Cupcakes by Claire or find out more information, visit their website. There you can find out some of the charities they help and how to bring awareness to a charity you might have in mind. Hardester says there should be a Facebook page up soon to help spread the word about her inspirational cupcake business so keep a look out. Whether it’s charitable baked goods or an entire brand of cloth-ing, it’s amazing to see what students can do while also juggling school, a

social life, and work. Not many people can call themselves an entrepreneur, especially at such a young age. Ma-cias and Hardester’s businesses, while different, show how much people can accomplish at such a young age and is inspiring to say the least.

Young bucks makin’ big bucksNathan Keenan

Staff Writer

It’s that time of year again. One of the most important days of the year for retailers, it is the time when people leave their houses in the mid-dle of the night and go shopping. The infamous Black Friday is coming up for another round of push and shove. On Nov. 25, get ready to face the crowds. Black Friday is known for two things: the discounts on items in high demand and the serious injuries that are sustained during the rush to buy. But, the history of this nation-wide event is mysterious to most people. The “Black” in Black Friday comes from an old accounting trait. When working, accountants would mark the negative numbers in red and positive num-bers in black; this day of annual sales represents retailers going from nega-tive money (red) to positive money (black). It is always on Friday because it is the beginning of gift shopping and Thanksgiving is always on Thursday. What’s the big commotion? The sales. The appeal of Black Fri-day is that it is cost-friendly. “The best part of Black Friday is shop-ping with my mom and getting some good deals for the things I want,” said sophomore Samantha Gayer.Many people want to buy quality items

at an inexpensive price and a large handful of those people will do any-thing to get it, such as wrestle strang-ers at Wal-Mart. Between Thanksgiv-ing and New Years, the holiday stress is hard on a number of the population that cannot afford to lavish. “There are some good deals but it is al-ways very crowded, even at 5 a.m.,

so you do get pushed around a lot...it can get very chaotic,” said Gayer. The pros and cons of Black Friday are 1-1. Although the prices are a steal, the dangers that come along are not so desirable. There have been cases in the past of serious injuries, even deaths, which were the result of chaotic mobs. “It’s crazy, there are so many people and it’s hard to get around, like bumper cars but with shopping carts,” said Sheina, a sales associate for Wal-Mart in Mountain View who preferred not to share a last name.

According to Ranker.com, in 2005, a woman was paralyzed from a stampede in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Also, in 2008, at a Long Island Wal-Mart, an employee was trampled by approximately 20,000 eager shoppers and pronounced dead an hour later. At the same time, the onslaught of people assailed an eight-month preg-

nant woman and her un-born child was miscarried. Aside from these unprec-edented traumas, numerous injuries have been reported as well. “In my experience, I have seen a few minor injuries…We have planned to hire about 60 security guards for the occasion this year, to watch the outside crowds and the register lines,” said Lisa, assistant manager at Wal-Mart in Mountain View. Before you make the decision to participate

in this nation-wide event, consider this: is the $100 TV worth the po-tential $100,000 in medical bills?If you choose not to venture out into the night escapades but still want to shop, believe it or not there is Cyber Mon-day. The Monday after Black Friday is a day for online shoppers to seize the best deals. It’s the same pocket-saving deals at the comfort of your own home! Do not dread visiting retail stores on the days following Thanksgiving, but if you do choose to go, be aware of your surroundings for a safe experience.

Photo courtesy of VersusAllbigcartel.com

Photo by Anna Schwarz

I See The Light!

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we uncon-sciously give other people permission to do the same.” –Marianne Williamson

The first time I ever heard that quote was a few years ago in the movie “Akeelah and the Bee”. In the scene, the main character Akeelah is about to give up on making it to the National Spelling Bee when her mentor tells her to read the quota-tion that’s on his wall. Some in-spiring music plays dramatically in the background as Akeelah recites the quote until finally her men-tor asks: “So what does that mean?” Akeelah turns around and says, “That I shouldn’t be afraid…of me.” I never really got how the quote implied to not fear yourself, nor did I understand what fearing yourself even meant. But I liked the quote. I memorized it and could even recite it on the spot. For years, I carried that around with me in my mind, but still never fully comprehended it. Well guess what kids-- I finally figured it out. Plain and simple, to fear our-selves means to cower away from our own potential. It’s the unfortunate act of hiding all we have to offer the world because we feel we have no right to be great. We constantly are question-ing, “Who am I to be this or that?” Well, who are we not to be? Junior year got off to a rough start for me. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Well, not everything, but a lot of hell broke loose, that’s for sure. I’ll spare you the sappy details, but basically my self-esteem hit one of its all-time lows. And the biggest question I asked myself was: “Who am I?” I am aware of how cliché this sounds. I know I am most certainly not the first person in high school to question who I am. High school is basically just one big watering hole where we spend our time enduring the grueling and mentally exhausting process of self-discovery. This is far from revolutionary. We are bombard-ed with the media, peers, family, tal-ents, and grades attempting to define who we are. And we’ve simply allowed these things to guide us because we are too afraid to see that we are anything deeper than our looks and abilities. This is not to say that possess-ing talent and ability is insignificant. They do play a role in leading our journeys in life. The sad part, how-ever, is that our talents are limited by allowing others to estimate our ca-pability. We are only as great as how great others say we are, right? Maybe

this is so, however, because we only strive to reach the minimal bar set by others. If we really want be great, then we have to quit letting others set the standard for us. Because then we can measure our best against ourselves. Now would be the typical mo-ment to spout out some inspiration pep talks about “being yourself ” and “accepting yourself ”, but I know bet-ter than anybody that it’s not that simple. How can we accept ourselves when we don’t even truly know who we are? But just because we don’t know who we are in our entirety doesn’t mean we can use that as an ex-cuse to avoid the progression of self-acceptance. We do know ourselves a little bit at this point. We have gone through pretty minimal life experi-ence, but even that has allowed us to slowly realize what makes us tick. We aren’t experts on ourselves, but we will always keep learning as life charges on. Basically what I am getting at is that if we want to achieve great-ness, we must learn to accept who we are. But we skip a very key step and forget to wonder who we are in the first place. Yet, we skip this step because we are scared of being any-thing other than what we are told we must to be. How dare we chal-lenge that limitation of greatness? I know I went through many different attempts to find who I am, and paradoxically, my “failed” identi-ties have just revealed more and more about me. I was a self-proclaimed “Je-sus freak” throughout my freshman year and am still teased about being a “Bible beater”. I thought maybe I could be a star soccer goalie like my mom was, but that never ended up happening due to two shoulder dislo-cations. Or I could even be a national champion swimmer like my dad. I wasn’t a bad JV swimmer for Leigh, but athletics are not my calling. What about a super great singer? I took four years of singing lessons, but I know in my heart I will probably never be more than a cheery shower singer. Someone mentioned how eloquently I write, and I’ve always loved to write. Maybe I was a born writer. Perhaps a great actress or de-bater? Shyness has never been a trait I possessed. A public speaker…I never shut up. Definitely a therapist. I kind of already am one anyways. I thought I could maybe be a tall, thin gorgeous model. Guess I was just destined to be 5’4”, so that’s crushed right there. I tried all these things with one goal in mind: anything I chose to be I had to be perfect at it. I am a bit of a perfectionist. Or quite a lot. Ask anyone of my friends, I am a tad ridiculous with how or-ganized I am. If you happen to in-vite me over to your house and you need your laundry folded, I would be more than glad to do it for you. On my desk in class, all my papers and binders and pencils must be per-fectly aligned. My friends (especially in AP English…*cough* Savannah and Sabrina *cough*) mess with me and shift my things so I will read-just them again. But why do I do it? Because I want everything to stay within the lines. No boundar-ies can be crossed or there are conse-quences—imperfection. This doesn’t just apply to my neatness, but to my own potential. But now I’m starting to realize that if I never believe in my own greatness, I will never achieve it. I don’t know who exactly I am or how great I actually can be, but I know one thing: I have a purpose and I am so much more than what society and others tell me I can be. I am Makena Volzing. And who are you?

An original t-shirt by Diego Macias, as

shown on the brand’s website.

Pyzel, Hardester, and Janicki sporting Cupcakes by Claire apparel.

Dirty discounts & dangerous deals

Photo by Anna Schwarz

It’s that time of the year again: college applications. And college applications come with college tours, as you begin to seriously consider your educational future. But what are you supposed to know? There’s a plethora of information out there – too much, in fact. It gets confus-ing for a prospective college student. What should you focus on? A college tour will play a huge role when it’s time to select colleges. However, tours won’t really help if you don’t take advantage of them. After all, these are going to be the cam-puses you’ll spend your next four years at. You wouldn’t want to let a poor tour make you stay at a campus you hate. There are a few key things to do while attending a campus tour. First, sit in on some of the classes in your major. This will help you de-cide whether the classes are right for you – for example, you can see if the

professor suits you, if the classes aren’t too big or small, or if the classes aren’t too easy or challenging. Explore! Don’t restrict your visit

to just the official campus tours; rather, broaden your perspective of the cam-pus. Talk to students; they can pro-vide a much more personal image of the college, beside the more polished impression your campus tour guide will give you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Take notes and pictures! Write down

what you liked and didn’t like about the campus; these notes will help you later on when you’re deciding on which colleges to apply to.

Why not have a meal in the dining hall? As strange as it sounds, the dining hall is quite important. Observe how people socialize with each other – are they even socializing? Do students and faculty eat together? Could you stand the food for the next four years? One last reminder – don’t try to overload yourself with college tours. You will only be cheating yourself out of the opportunity to get a nice, well-rounded impression of

the campuses. If you rush or skim over campuses, you’ll only get the impressions glossy brochures and formal websites want you to have. College is about indepen-dence, learning to become an adult, meeting new people. So make sure you pick the right college – good campus tours will definitely help.

Jinny JungStaff Writer

Sunna ThorkelsdottirStaff Writer

Teachers have a huge impact on student success in school. These three are some of Leigh’s favorites!

Mr. White: Room 55 is crowded and loud during Mike White’s tutorial period. He’s talking enthusiastically to a stu-dent, whether it be about English or something completely random. His desk is organized, with a few papers, a black turn-in tray, and a coffee mug. “I go to Starbucks ev-ery day and get a coffee and either a pump-kin scone or a glazed old-fashioned do-nut,” White said. “Wow, when I de-scribe a day in my life, it sounds pretty mundane.” H o w -ever, White is anything but mundane. An English teach-er of 20 years, White keeps his freshmen and seniors engaged in the class as he projects his own love for literature. “I realized I wanted to teach when I read ‘Catcher in the Rye’. The main character…keeps having this dream where he’s standing in a field of rye with this crazy cliff, and there’s all these kids running around, and [he has] to stand on the edge to keep all the kids from falling off. When I read that, I had an epiphany,” said White. White claims that everyone on Earth is unique, but not everyone em-braces their uniqueness, and he hopes he can inspire his students to embrace theirs.

Mr. Von Rassler: “I’m a pain in the arse, yes. But unique, no,” said history teacher Frank Von Rassler. Von Rassler is the type of man that everyone respects. Even White, Von Rassler’s long-standing political rival, said nice things

about him: “Despite the fact that we disagree, he’s one of my favorite people on campus, because he feels so strongly about things. I think that’s important.” Von Rassler has been teaching history for 17 years, and he currently teaches World History Honors and the infamous ‘APUSH’, or Advanced Placement U.S. History. His method of teaching involves endless amounts of terms, lectures, and of course, his animated impressions. “He had a great Hitler impres-

sion! He would turn bright red [when he did it],” recalled Leigh alumni Lind-say Lowe, who graduated in 2005. Von Rassler is famous for his loud, German Hitler impressions, complete with flying arms and ges-tures. His most commonly remem-bered and referenced speech is part of a lesson in propaganda, and how Hitler could capture a whole crowd of people without even saying anything meaningful, just by saying it loudly and moving his arms. On a typical day, Von Rassler says, “I get here at tutorial, hardly anyone shows up, so I cry… [then] the bell rings, and I stare at the class for about 15 minutes.” His classroom during tutorial is indeed surprisingly empty, especially since his class is widely considered one of the more dif-ficult courses. However, no one can say they don’t learn from him; junior Nick

Mora claims his strong opinions and impressive vocabulary terms make learning the material significantly eas-ier. “I’m probably the best teacher at Leigh. No, that sounds wrong- take out the ‘probably,’” said Von Rassler. Von Rassler spends time with his family when he’s not teaching. He has two children, one of whom is junior Tatiana Von Rassler. Tatiana describes her dad as “distracted, sarcastic, [and] funny.”

M r s . Warken-tin: Chem-istry teach-er Leslie Wa r k e n -tin, on the other h a n d , c l a i m s “I don’t do any-thing but s choo l… [ Exc e p t ] on B days I get to walk on my ellipti-cal in the morning.” Wa r k e n -tin doesn’t teach 5th

period on B days, and instead holds tu-torial after school. However, she does enjoy going to Sharks games when she has the time. Warkentin often likes to start off the year with a bang for her students. “She set her hand on fire!” said sopho-more Courtney Reno. “She is really good at connecting with her students… and she always has me entertained with what she’s teaching!” Room 48 is almost always filled to the brim with students coming to get help with concepts, turn in work, or retake tests. However, Warkentin re-mains calm throughout it all. “[I start-ed teaching] because my kids hated school, and I hated that… I thought I could do it,” she said. When asked whether she consid-ers herself unique, Warkentin seemed baffled. “I don’t know anybody but me!” she said, laughing. “I think it goes with teaching chemistry.”

Teacher spotlight:

Mind over

Matt-er

Legos, Lawn chairs, and Lunatics

over 235 miles at a time? If a man with an appetite for danger, balloons, and lawn chairs ap-peals to you, Kent Couch from Bend, Oregon is your guy. Kent Couch is most notably known for flying one of his special lawn chairs attached with over 200 humongous party balloons from a gas station in Bend, Oregon to a small farm in Wyoming, a trip that spans over a remarkable 335 miles. Now, this attractive, young, scandalous, and innovative man (with a MySpace) is at it again with the help of an Iraqi daredevil, Fareed Lafta, who invited Couch to Dubai, India where they would begin their 400 mile journey to Lafta’s homeland of Iraq. Couch is planning on rigging 300 party balloons to lift the two men sitting in a pair of lawn chairs for an overnight flight of 400 miles at 25,000 feet, which will require oxygen masks. Firstly, I want to start off by say-ing that this is the coolest thing I have seen since the time Lady Gaga rolled up to the 2010 Video Music Awards and showed us all what the true defi-nition of swagger is: a dress made out of meat. Secondly, not only is this an ex-traordinarily original and innovative task, but also the first time in 10 years that an American has been peacefully involved with an Iraqi citizen in an at-tempt to show that, in my opinion, if flying a lawn chair 25,000 feet in the air is possible, maintaining a friendly and cooperative relationship with Iraq can certainly be accomplished. Kent Couch has truly left the tracks of his footprints on the path-ways of my heart, which is why I have currently been blowing up Couch’s news feed on Facebook, making him my number one top friend on MyS-pace, and spamming his e-mail with moderately creepy fan mail. What can I say? When it rains, it pours. Couch has shown me that, even in the midst of the chaos and fighting over in Iraq, friendship and love can shine through even in the darkest and most hopeless of places. Although flying a lawn chair into Iraqi territory may not seem rel-evant during a time of continual fear and violence that the Iraqi civilians are forced to live in every day, it actu-ally is. To me, this neighborly relation-ship between Kent Couch and Fareed Lafta is one small step toward forgive-ness and amnesty between both the United States and Iraq. Truly, Kent Couch gave sweet and precious life to the phrase “Mind over Matter” in his determination to reach out to an average citizen whose nation is affected with turmoil and violence that seems endless to both our troops, our government, the Iraqi government, and Iraqi citizens. I am confident that the gov-ernment is working on a solution to ensure the best possible outcome for both Iraq and its surrounding nations; as well as working to bring the dads, moms, boyfriends, girlfriends, sons, cousins, friends, uncles, and aunts home to their loved ones one last time to stay.

Can you guess what washed up on the shore of Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Florida on Nov. 4? If you answered this question with “a gigantic and slightly disturb-ing Lego man sculpture,” then come find me while I am in AP lunch and one of three rewards listed below will be available to you: one free massage pass FROM ME, an NSYNC CD signed by Justin Timberlake himself (I don’t know if it’s real or not), or a stick of gum. Can you guess what happened after the 100-pound, 8-foot fiber-glass Lego man made his debut on the shores of Sarasota, Florida? If you guessed that A) Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight and his crew of policemen would spoil all the fun and arrest the cute Lego man and place him in custody for 3-months, then you should: GET OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL ASAP AND BECOME A PALM READ-ER OR PSYCHIC. During the Lego man’s time in custody, authorities will try to deter-mine who the owner is, or where this bizarre yet majestic sculpture came from. Truly, I don’t know what is creepier: people requesting to be your friend from other continents on Facebook, or discovering a hu-man-like Lego sculpture lying in the sand during a pleasant stroll on the beach with your boo. Even though the Lego sculpture showed up without an invitation to the beach and might have frightened local passerby, I do not think that it was right for the police to come in and strip the Lego sculpture of, possibly, its only relaxing day of sun-bathing, sand-castles, and fame. Besides, don’t the police have to take care of homicides, drug deals, and armed robberies all before their morning doughnut anyway? For all we know, the Lego sculpture may have not been getting the attention it deserved at a Lego-land theme park, which led him to swim (or float?) the seas of the North Atlantic Ocean in search of a new and more promising home. Perhaps the Lego sculpture is some sort of cryptic message sent from the gods, or maybe even a peace treaty from one of the many foreign nations with which we are currently having issues. Truth is (and no you don’t need to like my status) I don’t really care how it got there; all I know is that it is A) HeLLa SIcK, and B) time for my next story. On a scale of 1 to Ryan Gos-ling, how attracted would you be to a man who flies a specially rigged lawn chair supported by more than 150 helium-filled party balloons for

College Hunting: What to look for on your tour

Leigh’s three to see

Photo by Brianna Houston

The residential college at The University of Mississippi.

Photo by Jinny JungThe three to see: Mr. White, Mr. Von Rassler, and Mrs. Warkentin.

So we packed our satchels, loaded the gondolas, and went on our merry way. We had to travel through the fog, though a faint sound of Celtic music could be heard and once we followed it, we arrived at La Villa Delicatesssen. But the maiden was no where to be found. All that was to be seen was four care-fully placed meat-ball sandwiches on the tables nearby. We looked around and though we did not know how we arrived at this place, we knew that fate had

summoned us here. The room was stark empty and we could not find the source of the music. Little Piglet Andrew,

ever hungry, and ever thinking with his nose, curiously snorted at the sandwiches he realized that they were the source of the tunes. Keenan’s skills of deduction, acquired from years of training, hy-pothesized that the maiden who had appeared before them was somehow connected to the sandwiches and that it was her who had led them there.

Meatballs of DeathAdam SoretStaff Writer

Blayke LeachEntertainment Editor

Nikita ZakladnyiStaff Writer

To Bieb or not to Bieb

entertainment 11.21.11page 12

Student Musician Spotlight:

Do you like saucy Italian meat balls all up in your grill? Well take your short shorts to the dry cleaners because we’ve got the story for you! All was well in the land of the long-horn. My warriors and I were knee high in gold digging tavern wenches. Life was good. As we were sitting at the banquet table in the mead hall, Iron Belly Adam Soret opened the roof hatch to let the cool November air dance through. Then suddenly, as if one with the breeze, an image of a fair, luminescent, maiden, scantily clad in marinara and crying what appeared to be chunks of garlic, emerged from the open hatch. “An medicine olc a chur ar a curse ar dom, ag casadh mé isteach iceapaire meatball. Aimsigh dom agus cabhrú le do thoil!” frantically exclaimed the beautiful dame.Not only was I thoroughly confused, but by the faces of my colleagues, I could tell I was not the only one. Nathan Keenan, the Duke of Haven, was the only one who understood that this maiden was put under a curse and kindly offered to lead us to the damsel in distress.

La Villa presents a monsterous meatball sub not for the faint of heart

Justin Bieber. You either like him or you don’t. If you like him, you LOVE him. If you don’t, it’s quite the opposite. With over 35 million fans, this 17 year old, purple lovin’ Canadian is a tween girl sensation. Girls scream for him, sing for him, cry for him, and fantasize about him daily. These girls, and sometimes boys, have what you call “the Bieber Fever”. The Bieber Fever is dangerous, it’s long lasting, highly contagious, and there’s no such thing as a mild case. The symptoms of the illness aren’t hard to miss. Those infected might be wearing a concert t-shirt or other Bieber paraphernalia. Often their ringtone will be one of Justin’s songs, they wear the glasses without lenses, tight purple pants, flip their hair excessively, and are usually if not always humming a Bieber beat to themselves. If you don’t see it in their eyes then ask to see their phone, if they have the fever their background will be of JB in some sort of uncom-fortable looking position, staring long-ingly off frame. A true fan will also own the DVD, the book, and at least two post-ers. They will have pet names for him and a strong dislike for Selena Gomez. I mean, seriously, girls go wild for him. And when I say wild I mean wild. If one ever dares to get in an ar-gument with a Bieber lover about how cool Justin Bieber really is, they have

Connor Bengston

photo by Sadie Williams

photos by Sadie William

photo by Sadie William

“Hark! We shall eat these sandwiches,” said the Duke, grinning because he believed that the maiden

had left them for the weary travel-ers. And so the warriors sat down, and were ready to feast when Soret

offered up a challenge. “Let us make a game out of this. These sandwiches are quite mighty, possibly too mighty for just one man to take on by themselves. So let us try, and see who, if any of us, can finish every last morsel!” And so the challenge began, as each competitor took to their own strategies to win. The sub, which turned out to be a two pound feast of two quarter loafs of garlic cheese bread hugging four meatballs cut in half. Each meatball weighed about a quarter of a pound each and was drenched in meaty marinara sauce. Not knowing how to approach this monstrosity, every competitor picked it up as a whole and tried to eat it just like any other

sub. That is except for Keenan, who daintily ate the meatballs separately with a knife and fork that he pulled from within his tunic. After several minutes of failing to create a dent in the sandwich, Soret and I finally gave in and pulled out utensils for ourselves to match Keenan’s win-ning method. The Little Piglet, though, could not keep up and Van Brunt quickly found himself out of the race. I contemplated and soon took to a strategy that included nearly choking on the soggy, saucy bread and before even thinking about the mush that was the meatballs. Soret did the exact opposite and strictly ate the marinara balls and refrained from

moving on to the garlic bread until absolutely necessary. While this was going on, the Duke Keenan found he could not continue and opted out of

the competition due to a sore tummy. As the chal-lenge went on my approach seemed to be my demise as I left the deadly meatballs for last with nothing to wash the taste down, while Soret got the worst over with and toughed out the bread, closing out the competition. I slowed to a stop as all I could do was watch as Iron Belly proved his namesake

and mustered out a win. He screamed in delight and stretched his sore being. All of a sudden, a sound of Celtic music rumbled from our bellies and grew louder and louder. A bright flash took over us and we were blinded by the light. When we recovered our sight, a beautiful woman stood before us, covered in the same sauce we just devoured and smelling strongly of garlic. This lady, the maiden, was the sandwich eaten by our very own Soret, and the curse was broken the moment he finished his challenge. The damsel planted a sloppy, wet kiss on the cheek of her savior and disappeared before our very eyes. As we left La Villa, our bellies were full and our minds were off in better places. Only one thing was left to question: what evil mistress puts a meatball curse on such a lovely lady? If only the competitors knew what awaited them …in the next edition of The Eleight.

another thing coming. These girls will fight to the death for their sweet, sweet Justin. They will insult you, belittle you, and ultimately tear you apart for even suggesting that he might not be all that special. “You’re just jealous you can’t get all the ladies like he does”, “take notes, clearly girls are more attracted to him than they are to you.”, and even “Jus-tin Bieber gets more in a day then you

have in your whole life.” Though prob-ably true, the fever victims will be the only ones cruel enough to point it out. This leads me to the counter part. The Bieber haters. There aren’t many who can say they just don’t like him that much, they HATE him. They hate his music and his voice. They hate his style, his face, his inspired hair-do, and anything he has to say about anything. They get literally nauseous at the sound of one of his hits or the screaming of a fan. And a Bieber hater is simply that, a hater. What they do best is hate. On

all he’s about and all he stands for. They can be most often spotted saying some-thing along the lines of “He looks and sounds like a little girl,” or “His voice won’t be so sweet once he hits puberty!” They are also constantly questioning his sexuality and the size of his prize. No one really knows why these haters hate so much, just that they do, and they always will. But what is it that makes these

two groups so violently determined about their love or hate for Justin Bieber? I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum. I loved him passion-ately for a good amount of time, and I hated him just as passionately for a while in my attempts to get over him. And, well, I decided that this clash of emotions can be simply solved. Everyone needs to come to an understanding. For all you hat-ers, Justin Bieber is better looking than you and makes catchy music that makes him a lot of money that naturally brings all the girls to the yard. Don’t hate him for being who you wish you were. Applaud him

for that. You don’t need to love him, but don’t hate him. For all you lovers, his music is only decent, and if any al-ready pretty good looking guy was re-ally good at playing every instrument, had a flawless and sexy voice, and sang songs about being hopelessly in love at 17 years old, you would be just as at-tracted to him. You don’t have to hate him, but try not to love him. It’s only hurting you. Also, Selena is hotter and richer than you will ever be and Justin is only using you to make money.

Inspired by music itself and the beauty of the concept surrounding it, senior Connor Bengston has been mas-tering his musical abilities for 6 years. The drum kit was Bengston’s first instrument, and the instrument that ultimately led him to fall in love with the world of music. Being his passion for 6 years, Bengston prefers to play h a r d c o r e and metal music on the drums. B e n g s t o n prefers to play the drums spon-taneously and let his body and soul take control rather than think-ing about. E v e n t h o u g h he plays it casually, Bengston also holds profi-ciency in the guitar. Despite it not being his preferred instrument, he has been playing it on and off for 3 years. Contrary to his playing style when he drums, Bengston performs folk songs when he plays the guitar. Bengston’s current focus is producing progressive-house music. Bengston composes and masters his work every day. Working under the

title “Yellohead” Bengston has a num-ber of songs uploaded to the internet. “My hair is yellow and therefore my name is Yellohead.” said Bengston. One of the rewards of com-posing for Bengston is self-satisfac-tion, being able to look at some-thing he made and be proud of it.Bengston envisions himself produc-ing music all his life, where his pas-sion for the arts will take him is a future that the fates will decide. “I’d like to be famous, but how com-

mon is that? I guess I’d like to just keep doing what I’m doing,” said Bengston. If Bengston were to choose, then he would want to become a producer, studio manager, or a recording artist, and record drums for other musicians.Some of Bengston’s influences in-clude Deadmau5, Wolfgang Gartner, Vehemence, and Led Zeppelin. To listen to some of Bengston’s songs, search for Yellohead on the music sharing website soundcloud.com.

Is the wide-spread “Bieber fever” catchy or killer?Katherine MacQuarrie

Staff Writer

Maddy Kirsch

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“Long Live the King”

On Oct. 28, 2011, the folk rock/indie band The Decemberists once again satisfied fans with their new album “Long Live The King”. For those of you who do not know who The Decemberists are, they are a music group from Portland, Oregon which consists of five band members: four males, one female: Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Nate Query, John Moen, and Jenny Conlee. Some of their more well known songs are titled “Down by the Water” and “This is Why We Fight”, both of which are found on their album, The King is Dead, released Jan. 14, 2011. The reason why the De-cemberists music is so refresh-ing to listen to is mainly because of the poetic lyrics of every song. Each carries such meaning and substance, which is lacking in much of the popular music today. This past month they released their EP- Long Live the King, which consists of six songs. The first song on the EP is titled “E. Watson”. The premise of the en-tire song is basical-ly about the nar-rator of the song burying a man named Edgar Wat-son in his grave. The harmonizing that the Decem-berists are known for is present in this song, which really helps begin this al-bum with a familiar feel for these artists. Next is a song titled “Forgone”, which begins with more of a country-like beginning, which sets the mood for swaying back and forth. It is a

Andrew Van BruntStaff Writer

Michael ReaStaff Writer

BF3 Screenshot by IG Nentetainment

Drake photos courtesy of Flickr eastscene

by The Decemberists

“Take Care” by Drake

Battlefield 3Developed by EA Digital Illusions CE

VS

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Developed by Infinity Ward

Five years ago if you were to ask anyone if they knew who Aubrey Drake Gra-ham was, they’d probably say something like “Oh yeah, he’s that guy on Degrassi”. Now today, it seems like Aubrey Graham a.k.a. “Drake” a.k.a. “Drizzy” a.k.a. “Octobers very own” is everywhere from Sprite commercials to making top billboard albums such as “So Far Gone” and “Thank Me Later”, but his new-est album “Take Care” has surpassed them all. The album contains two classic Drake styles

throughout which are easy to identify. The slow, R&B infused songs show his trademark emotional, romantic side concerned with ex-girlfriends and self-

evaluation. Meanwhile, there are the fierce and upbeat songs that consists of lyrical pulsation at-tacks that show Drake’s con-fident, near-untouchable state

of mind.

There are several common de-bates among gamers, especially when it comes to comparing different video games. To contribute to this never-ending war, fans feud between the games Battlefield 3, developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and released on Oct. 25, and Modern Warfare 3, devel-oped primarily by Infinity Ward and released on Nov. 8. While both games are quite simi-lar to start with, I realized immediately that the graphics of Battlefield 3 were indeed superior to Modern Warfare 3. However, although graphics are nice, they do not make the game, and the amount of detail within Battlefield 3 forces Xbox 360 owners to use separate disks for campaign and multiplayer. As I played through the cam-paigns for both games, I realized that they are short and lack any real inno-vation or qualities that separate them from previous games. However, when compared to Modern Warfare 3, Battle-field 3 has significantly less character

development and the plot feels like it was built around the stages, rather than the other way around. The multiplayer portion of Battle-field 3 appears to stay true to previous

installments, including large maps and incredibly satisfying scenery destruc-tion. There are different classes with skills, such as vehicle repair or player revival, that encourage teamwork. Ac-cordingly, the teamwork prevalent in Battlefield 3 is refreshing when com-pared to the lone-man style game play within Modern Warfare 3. Both games have a balanced va-

riety in the arsenal of weapons. However, Battlefield 3 differs from Modern Warfare 3 in that it includes bullet drop, which means that bullets slowly fall as they travel towards their target. This small detail adds slightly more realism to the game. When the health regeneration systems are compared, Battlefield 3 comes out on top. In Modern Warfare 3, damage is approximated by the amount of blood on the screen, and

players regenerate with-in seconds. In Battlefield 3, players have similar health levels, displayed as a percentage in the corner of the screen. The fact that health in Battlefield 3 takes more than a min-ute to refill gives attack-ing enemies a chance to finish wounded players off while also providing the opportunity to help wounded teammates by deploying health packs,

which speeds the regeneration process. Although Battlefield 3 has vehi-cles such as tanks and aircraft, they can easily obliterate ground forces. Because counters like AA guns and flares are often ineffective due to their limited range and the ability for vehicles to re-generate, the vehicles are overpowered and take away from the overall experi-ence.

Another distinguish-ing feature between Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 is the streaks. While Battlefield 3 lacks streaks entirely, Mod-ern Warfare 3 has a variety of creative rewards for players who earn a certain amount of points, not just for kills, but also for planting bombs and assists, giving players more of an incentive to do well. For those who love machinima, Modern Warfare 3 may be a better choice for now due to the presence of a theater mode. All matches can be recorded, al-lowing players to review clips from pre-vious games and save them. Although Battlefield 3 is working on releasing a similar tool named “Battlerecorder”, it will have to be included post-release.

In addition t o campaign and multiplayer, both games have a set of missions that can be com-pleted. In Battlefield 3 this mode is entitled “Co-op” and has six missions, while Modern Warfare 3 has “Special Ops” which features 16 missions and a survival mode. Overall, although both games share a high playability factor, Mod-ern Warfare 3 is better, in my opinion. This decision was not made due to the popularity factor of Modern Warfare 3; rather, due to the more developed storyline, the addictive streaks, and the more developed “Special Ops.”

more lighthearted song that contrasts with the first song that had quite de-pressing lyrics. The balance of the al-bum is already showing at this point. The third song on the album is titled “Burying Davy” which is yet another song about burying some-one. The song is about burying a man

named Davy that wasn’t very well liked. The lyrics say, “Mother wept no tears. His brother grew unruly. Mother wept no tears. At burying Davy. At burying Davy.” Throughout the song, the vocalist repeats the phrase “bury-ing Davy”. This song really is similar

in meaning to the first song which is interesting because it’s almost like the album is creating a sandwich of music. To add to that, the fourth song happens to be similar in style as the sec-ond song, titled “I 4 U & U 4 Me”. It has a country-like feel to it, just as the second song had. This song is one of

the best on the album and has a very catchy rhythm. The lyrics contain a repeating verse that says “That I for you and you were made for me”. Which personally, is a very cute little phrase. T h e following song is a remake of a song released in 1973 by the Grateful Dead on their album Wake of the Flood.

The song is titled “Row Jimmy”. The song really is a great song and though, the Grateful Dead’s version is and al-ways will be the best, the December-ists did a good job on it. They added their own touch to it, and made it their own which is great because it re-ally fits within the rest of the album. The last and final song is the best on the album. Saving the best for last came: “Sonnet”. It is more akin to the Decemberists past music. It is light-hearted and contains brass instrumentals between lyrics, ending the album with a triumphal feel. Personally, this song will end up on the “Most Played” playlist of my iPod.

Emily RansomStaff Writer

Photo by Guus Krol

Call of Duty screenshot. Photo by Michael Rea

The intro song to the album “Over My Dead My Body” is a more traditional R&B song with a killer hook sung by Chantal Kreviazuka (an up and coming female Canadian singer) while Drake softly raps over piano. One of the more intriguing songs on the album is “Crew Love” which features brilliant vocals by the Weeknd; if you haven’t heard of this guy check him out he’s incred-ible. The song starts off slow with the Weeknd which is complimented by a

strange, yet excellent beat, slowly picking up pace for Drake to do what he does best. The title song of the album, “Take Care,” features Rihanna, a hugely popular fe-male R&B artist, and is more aimed at his female fan base. Nev-ertheless, it’s hard not to appreciate the way Rihanna and Drake’s vocals effortlessly flow so well togeth-er. The truest rap

song on this album is “Lord knows” featuring Rick Ross. The beat is quick and up tempo and has some of Drake’s realist lyrics such as, “I’m a descendent of either Mar-ley or Hendrix I haven’t figured it out cause my story is far from finished.” After listening to this album it’s obvi-ous that Drake is no longer the young actor from the show Degrassi, but now has solidified himself as one of

the best artists in the game.

Photo courtesy of sidewalkhustle.com

Could Cam New-ton Win Rookie of the year?

With the NFL season slightly past the halfway mark, one of the most outstanding performances of the year so far has got to be the play of the Carolina Panther’s (2-7) rookie quarterback out of Auburn, Cam Newton. As of Week 9, New-ton has thrown for 2,393 yards, the most of any rookie this year, and 6th overall amongst quarterbacks. His 11 touchdowns to eight intercep-tions is a phenomenal ratio for a rookie, and he has consistently been playing phenomenally all season. With stats like these, Newton is al-most a sure bet to win Rookie of the Year. His largest competitor would probably be Andy Dalton, quar-terback of the Cincinnati Bengals (6-3), but I feel like Newton will most likely get the nod, assuming he continues his spectacular playing. True, the Panthers have only 2 wins so far this year, but it is important to remember that none of their losses were a result of poor play by New-ton. The Panthers’ woes stem from a lack of production by running back DeAngelo Williams, and a lackluster defense. The Bengals however, have been playing better football on de-fense, taking some of the pressure off of Dalton. The team may be doing better, but Newton is certainly out-performing Dalton position-wise. Newton’s success is even more startling when you look back a few months, when he was taken first overall in the draft, and then had

to wait several more weeks to begin talking to his new team, due to the NFL lockout that had been going on at the time. During the lockout, coaches and players were not allowed to make any contact with each oth-er, meaning that even after Newton was drafted, he could not start learn-ing the Panther’s playbook until al-most the beginning of the preseason. Despite all of these setbacks, as well as some poor play in the preseason, Newton came out in the Panther’s opener and threw for 422 yards. Not content to rest on his debut’s laurels, Newton threw for 432 yards in Week 2, this time against the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers. Any player, no matter how many years they have spent in the league, that can throw for 400 plus yards against the defense of the Green Bay Packers has an immense amount of talent. On the flip side, one thing to keep in mind is that phenomenal play this year might not translate into a phenomenal career. For evi-dence of that, one must only look at Vince Young, picked third over-all in 2006 by the Tennessee Ti-tans. Young had a breakout year, throwing for over 2,000 yards as a rookie, and certainly looked like he could become a franchise quarter-back. Unfortunately, as his career has progressed, Young proved not to have what it takes to lead an NFL team, despite the promise he showed as a rookie. He is now the backup quarterback for the Philadel-phia Eagles, behind Michael Vick. Could Newton fall to the same fate that Young did? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time, and certainly wouldn’t be the last either. But when you look at the way Newton plays on Sunday, the energy, the intensity, the poise in the pocket, he looks like a man who is capable of leading the Panthers back to winning ways, and perhaps even another Super Bowl appearance. He still needs a little improvement in reading a defense, and his decision-making could use a tune-up at times, but overall, he looks like a strong player. All that is left now is to wait and see what the Newton legacy becomes.

Athlete of the Month:Christopher Wyman

Business Manager/Online Editor

Lauren Holt, the well-rounded junior, commits her entire year to playing the game she loves, basket-ball. For Holt, there is no off season, but she still manages to play for the Leigh girls volleyball team, main-tain all A’s, and still spend time with her friends and family. Her humble-ness is one of her best traits. She is a great athlete individually because she puts the team before herself. “For this season, my per-sonal goals are to do whatever I can to help my team to anoth-er successful season,” said Holt. For Holt, basketball runs in the family. Her father received a full scholarship to UC Riverside making

him the first one in his family to go to college. When she was five, she began playing basketball to impress her father but it soon became one of her passions. “As time went on, I started to re-ally love the game and play more competitively and travel for it. Now I play because it is my favorite thing to do in the world!” said Holt. Holt’s high school basketball ca-reer started when she made the varsity team as a freshman. Coming onto a

team in the C-League, the team managed to work its way up to A-League this past season. Holt was awarded Most Valuable Player in the BVAL league, as well as Sopho-more of the Year in the BVAL league. “It’s super cheesy, but Papa Holt always tells me that if I play my best and do

whatever I can for my team, that all the rest [the awards, and wins] will take care of itself,” said Holt. Leigh’s Varsity girls bas-ketball team, with the help of Lauren Holt, managed to get all the way to league finals, taking second place after Holt had a foul called on her with

25 seconds left in the game. “Getting second last year was bit-ter sweet. Bitter because we had it right in our hands and with the 1 point loss we lost it, but at the same time it was extremely sweet because it was a ridic-ulous improvement from previous sea-sons. The year before we were a team that barely won half of our games, and the year before that girls basketball won only one game off of a forfeit,” said Holt. Holt has high hopes of continu-ing on to play basketball in college and possibly after. Her ability to bal-ance everything and her precocious sense of humility is what sets Holt a notch above the rest and it is why she is The Eleight’s Athlete of the Month.

resulted in the cutting of Rowand and newly acquired shortstop Miguel Tejada. Late in the season, the Giants tried to boost the offence by trading for outfielder Carlos Beltran whom expe-rienced his own slump shortly after his arrival in San Francisco.

The Giants’ pitching is typically feared around the league, whether it’s the dominant start-ing staff or the bearded one, Brain Wil-son, coming out of the pen to close out a game. In 2011, the Giants’ pitching

The 2011 Major League Base-ball season did not go as well as the San Francisco Giants or their fans had hoped. After the magical 2010 season, in which the Giants won the World Se-ries, the Giants had hoped to repeat but ended up just short. Throughout the 2011 season, the Giants battled with injuries and slumps from key mem-bers of the championship team. Injuries, like with rookie of the year catcher Buster Posey and second baseman Freddy Sanchez, hurt the Giants offensively and had an obvious impact on the lack of offensive production experienced by the Giants, compared to a year ago. Most of the success that came to the Giants in 2010 came from outfield-ers Cody Ross, Andres Torres, and Aar-on Rowand. All three of these players had their own slumps in 2011, which

staff ranked second out of 30 teams in the league, indicating that poor pitch-ing was not an issue for San Francisco at all this season. What the Giants need to become a championship again is an offensive change. On Nov. 7 the Giants did just that, trading away pitcher Jonathan

Sanchez and a pitching prospect to the Kansas City Royals for outfielder Melky Cabrera. Last year Cabrera hit 18 home runs, batted .305 and had a career high of 87 RBI’s (runs batted in). The Giants acquisition of Cabrera is a step in the right direction for the team’s of-fense. If the Giants could make another big move to boost their run production, it could put the Giants back in a position to becoming

champions once again. March 3 marks the start of 2012 Spring Training, so for all you Giants fans, mark your calendar.

The Giants’ offseasonZachary TatarSports Editor

Photos by Rajashree Bhattacharya

photo courtesy of Jilly Crady

The time has come, 49er fans; your team is back. This may be an odd thing to say half way through the regular season, but all signs point to it. The 49ers at the moment hold the second best record in the NFL, second to only the undefeated Green Bay Packers. Many people believe the 49ers are 8-1 because they have one of the easi-est schedules in the NFL. While the 49ers do not have the hardest sched-ule, they by no means have the easiest. They have beaten the Bengals (6-3), the Lions (6-3), and the Giants (6-3). All three of these teams are currently headed for the playoffs. While the 49ers do have the easiest division in the NFL, they have only played one di-visional game. Imagine when they do eventually play their whole division. The 49ers have some statistics that no other team in the NFL can match. Their defense has not allowed a rushing touchdown this season, and they have not allowed a 100 yard rusher in 31 games, an NFL record. This tough defense is key to the 49ers success which will take them far in years to come. Although the 49ers do not have the most productive quarterback yard-age wise, Alex Smith is tied for the least interceptions out of all starting quar-terbacks, only three this year. Jim Har-baugh, unlike so many coaches before

him, makes Smith feel comfortable. He never hounds Smith when he makes a mistake, which is key because Smith is known for getting into funks that lead to periods of terrible play. This skill in coaching is why the 49ers are sitting at 8-1 with the best turnover ratio in the league, plus 13. Yes, Smith does not throw as much as other quarterbacks, but that is only because the offense is not centered on the passing game. The running game, led by Frank

Gore, the 49ers second leading rusher in franchise history, is the center of the offense. Gore had a slow start this sea-son, but in the last five games he start-ed he has rushed over 625 yards with an average of about 6.5 yards per carry.Gore is not the only weapon the 49ers have in their arsenal. They have Pro bowl players in tight end Ver-non Davis, line backer Patrick Willis, and defensive end Justin Smith. The 49ers new line backer, Aldon Smith, who was a controversial first round pick in the draft, has 6.5 sacks this season and was named NFL rookie of the month in October. Draft-ing Aldon was Harbaughs choice and it has so far turned out well. Harbaugh is setting the 49ers on the right path. He knows foot-ball, which is evident from his days at Stanford. He eventually led Stan-ford to a 12-1 record and turned the team into what it is now, a 9-1 team ranked 7th in the nation. Harbaugh has instituted a mind set with the 49ers and has united them with little things, such as having them wear blue collar shirts after each game and say-ing the soon to be famous saying,“Who’s got it better than us? Nobody!”

The Leigh High School crowd anticipated the result of the Leigh vs. Branham Homecoming game with only a minute and thirty seconds left to the final score. Quarterback Gabe Davis led a game-winning vic-tory, with the final play interception by junior cornerback Lavon Donald. “Branham’s homecoming game was one of closest and most intense games of the season. The school spirit from the students in the stands supported our winning score of 24-21,” said senior Nic Le. During mid-July, Leigh High School approved coach Padia as the new coach of the football season. Despite starting the season late, the players picked up fast and won the first game of the season against Del Mar, and their second game against Santa Teresa. While winning five games, and only losing four, this year’s team has shown a great deal of progression since previous seasons. “At the beginning of the season I didn’t feel like we worked together

as a team, but we quickly pulled it together in a short amount of time. Each player has progressed over this year’s season,” said senior Jammar Lee. Coach Pedia is very proud of his players for achieving one of their main goals, which was qualifying for CCS. The players have been set out to achieve this goal since the start of the season. The fact that Leigh hasn’t participated in CCS champi-onships for the past two years shows this season’s improvement as a whole. Team goals and achievements are set out, new offensive and defen-sive schemes have been put into place, and all the hard work has paid off. “Gabe Davis made top 5 in CCS and receiver Ricky McDiarmid made an impressive amount of catches and yards throughout this season. Defen-sively, Nic Le and Jammar Lee are both two leading tacklers,” said Coach Pedia. After an impressive season this year, the boys have stood their ground. The Longhorns look forward to play-ing the Los Gatos High School Wild-cats, this Friday, Nov. 18, to start out the 2011 CCS playoffs. The team hopes to have the memorable oppor-tunity to become CCS Champions.

The 49ers are alive

Basketball Preview,

Football recap

continued from front page

Kayla PavlicevichStaff Writer

Sean HillerStaff Writer

Photo Courtesy of Arman Sanie

Photo courtesy of fotopedia.com

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

Senior running back, Brolin Bahbaheleh, runs through opposing tacklers.

Nanxi TangIn-Depth/Online Editor

Emily RansomStaff Writer

Where’s

For on the go use, use the code below with your phone’s QR reading application:

Terrific Turkey Day Sandwich

What’s so “terrific” about the Terrific Turkey Day Sandwich? You can put any Thanks-giving item you want on it! Here’s what we recommend:

Ingredients: turkey (your choice of light or dark meat) gravy 1 biscuit stuffing

1. Assemble desired ingredients and sandwich them between a nice, fluffy biscuit. That’s all!

Congress attempts to build a “Great Wall of China!”

E-Parasite, also known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), is the absolute best way to stop online piracy. It will be able to block any and all websites that have copyright infringement, and those that encourage copyright infringe-ment, and those that are accused of having copyright infringement, and those that seem capable of copyright infringement…

If a user on Facebook posts a copyrighted image, Facebook deserves to be taken down and blocked. This just shows that Facebook is “dedicated to the theft of internet property” and is a “rogue site that wants to steal American jobs by trafficking and counterfeit and illegal goods.” Same with many other sites such as Youtube, Tumblr, Twitter, Yahoo, Google, eBay, Mozilla, and AOL.

And this is just the beginning! America is headed in the right direction. Using censorship methods by Iran and China, we are headed toward the era of the future. So, we must act now. We must expand the power and reach of the federal government in order to shut down lawful consumers and entrepreneurs. We must shut down a free and open internet. We must shut down innovation, economic growth and creativity. The Internet is a dangerous place for such things. We must shut down sites to shut down jobs. We must act now, and regulate the internet, and stop free speech.

Boom, Roasted!

It goes without saying that everyone loves Thanksgiving leftovers, but it gets tire-some scarfing down the same old thing three times a day for the two weeks after Thanksgiving. Fortunately, there is a way to avoid plain turkey and gravy nightmares. From turkey and cranberry sandwiches, to pumpkin pie milkshakes, there’s a cornucopia of ways to make the most of your tupperware mountain this Thanksgiving. Eat up!

Hayashi?Kylie Brown

Editor-in-Chief

Kendra WoodStaff Writer

Sadie WilliamsVisuals Editor