The Magnet Tribune

A state- and nationally recognized student newspaper

Vol. 19, No. 1 http://my.hsj.org/tx/laredo/vmt March 19, 2012Vidal M. Treviño School of Communications and Fine Arts, 820 Main Avenue, Laredo, Texas 78040

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Festival honors music educator

Page 3

Special section: The new campus

Pages 6-7

Special moments to remember

Page 12

By Vasty Patterson

Mt staff writer

The district now has hand sanitizers in the high school and middle school cafeterias. One was recently placed in the Vidal M. Treviño cafeteria.

Sophomore flamenco stu-dent Evelyn Benavides said it is good to have hand sanitizer available.

“HandClens is a good thing. The flu season came back and the weather is changing. A lot of people are also too lazy to wash their hands sometimes,” she said.

This sanitizer happens to be a bit different though. It does not contain alcohol and the germ-killing ingredient in it is Benzalkonium chloride, or BAC. According to the website of the manufacturer, it is used in hospitals and doctor offices for over sixty years according to the company. This antisep-tic has been approved by the FDA as a germ-killing ingredi-ent in mouthwashes.

Most students seem to use sanitizer when they en-ter the cafeteria for breakfast and lunch. School Counselor Ana Salinas and custodians remind students to use the product. Some students refuse to use it simply because they do not like to.

School nurse Gloria Ortiz R.N. explained why HandClens is needed.

“Yes, it is necessary. Stud-ies of effectiveness showed that gastro-intestinal and re-spiratory illness was reduced by 31 to 42 percent,” she said.

The HandClens website states this product being al-cohol free is very important. Alcohol dries out skin when it evaporates. Alcohol’s dry-

ing effect causes chapping and cracking of the skin, creat-

ing cracks and crevices where germs may be trapped. Alcohol

is highly flammable, which is unwanted at schools.

Lamar Middle School eight grader Jaspe Patterson talks about how she doesn’t use HandClens.

“I tried it but it smells bad, and I don’t like it,” Patterson said.

Theater Arts student Sa-mantha Rodriguez is another who doesn’t use the product either.

“The first time I used it, I didn’t like it. It felt all sticky and gross, so I just use regu-lar hand sanitizer,” Rodriguez said.

Ortiz explained how this is really a good investment.

“By helping prevent stu-dents from getting sick, the number of absences decreases. The school saves money from

By ashley GalVan

Mt staff writer

Students’ return from the holidays was welcomed by news that some found inter-esting. A new program was started as of start of the sec-ond semester.

“Intensive Care Unit” is the name of the program that pub-licly lists students who owe as-signments.

The objections were just a matter of time, though there are people who think the list is a good idea.

“I think it’s a good idea because we have very smart students, but one of the big-gest challenges we have is that they don’t complete assign-ments, and if they don’t com-plete them they don’t learn ev-erything they’re supposed to,” said Sean Gaynor, AP U.S His-

tory/graphic arts instructor.This program works like

this. Every week each teacher submits the names of the stu-

dents and the assignments they’re missing on a Google Docs form. Then the lists are printed and passed around school for public display.

“What happened to the pri-vacy of the students when it was student-teacher confi-dentiality? Now everybody will know about it and make us feel bad,” opinioned Kimberly Luna, junior, conjunto mem-ber and music student.

The ICU program has been making its weekly rounds, sometimes with long lists of students with pending assign-ments.

“It’s an excellent idea,” said Rick Cortez, guitar instructor. “It really makes the students and faculty aware of what the student’s actual progress is. That awareness is going to be a key factor to improving the

ICU, says the listProgram shows who is missing work

Magnet Tribune online poll: A little more than half of poll respondents said they disagreed with the idea of making public students who owe assignments.

See ICU, page 11A

Sanitizer now in cafeterias

MT photo by Vasty PattersonA student uses HandClens sanitizer in the school cafeteria during a recent lunch period. The district has put hand sanitizers in all 30 schools.

Magnet Tribune online poll: The vast majority of re-spondents said they use hand sanitizer when entering the school cafeteria for breakfast or lunch.

See SANITIZER, page 11A

LISD drops to 4A competitionBy Daisie UrDiales anD norMa GUerra

Mt staff writers

Laredo Independent School District is now in the eight-team District 31-4A with Corpus Christi schools as competition for the next two years, according to the UIL’s Jan. 26 realignment.

“Four A will be easier to compete in, but it is loaded with talent,” said Daniel Gutierrez, head coach of Nixon girls’ track and field.

LISD will be saying goodbye to United Independent School District’s four high schools. UISD is set to stay in the trimmed

down seven-team District 29-5A.“The difference between 4A and 5A is

the amount of students in the high school. It’s easier to drop students when you have 4,000 than 2,000 students,” Gutierrez said.

The number of students in a school af-fects the overall chances of winning.

“The more population you have on campus, the odds are you will do better,” Nixon football coach Tommy Ramirez told the Laredo Morning Times after the new alignments came out.

Two years ago, Nixon and Cigarroa dropped to a 4A district and then decided

to try their luck in the 5A district. Now LISD heads to where administra-

tors hope to get a better chance at win-ning.

“I know our athletes will be ready for the challenge. I’m very confident in our coaches’ abilities to prepare our athletes for the new alignment and the challenges ahead of us,” LISD athletic director Rene Ramirez told Laredo Morning Times.

Nixon Principal Dr. Gerardo Cruz be-lieves this would be a good move.

“It would be good competition because it will be a bit tougher. Small towns focus

See 5A to 4A, page 11A

2 The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012School News

http://my.hsj.org/tx/laredo/vmt, Twitter. @Magnet_Tribune, Facebook: Search for Magnet_Tribune

By ViVianna resenDez

Mt staff writer

Counselor Ana Laura Sali-nas has spent part of the fall semester teaching students about having kindness and compassion.

To do this she showed classes of students a Power-Point of a girl shot in the Col-umbine High School shooting and brought along activities to show them in her own way.

First, a video

Salinas first showed stu-dents the video of the Colum-bine shooting.

“As you watch the video you will be able to feel and see how terrified these students were during the shooting,” Salinas said.

Rachel’s Challenge has in-fluenced many people through-out America. Especially in LISD schools, teachers have tried their best to inform stu-dents of what Rachel’s Chal-lenge is all about. Teachers went through training in late August.

Rachel’s Challenge is a pro-gram that teaches kindness and compassion to students.

the heart activity

Salinas showed the stu-dents an activity to reflect on Rachel’s story. One activity she showed was on a piece of paper she handed out to each

student with a heart on it. She explained to the students that they had to draw what “re-minds you of yourself.”

The students had to draw them all down inside the heart. Once done, Salinas instructed them to criticize each other’s drawings. Each time they criti-cized each other students were supposed to fold the paper to the point where it was folded so many times the paper was crumbled.

“The idea was that the pa-per will not look the same, just like people’s feelings they can be hurt and tried to be fixed but it won’t be the same. Their feelings will still be hurt,” Sali-nas said.

‘Firework’When the students were

done with this activity Salinas showed them a video also re-flecting on the Rachel’s chal-lenge story. The video was called “Firework,” a song by Katy Perry. This video showed that a person can be strong and stand up for what he or she be-lieves in, which is exactly what Rachel did. Her story is well known all over America thanks to her father, Darrel Scott, who has kept her story alive.

“I hope sure this true and heartbreaking story will show you how this girls life was changed in a matter of sec-onds but even though her life is now gone she can now pre-

vent other people from losing their lives too,“ said a person in the video.

her story

This is her story: Rachel’s life was lost in the Columbine shooting due to students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both seniors. She was the first one shot by the two young men. Her six diaries have now be-come the foundation for one of the most life changing school programs in America. Rachel had a theory.

“If one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reac-tion of the same,” she wrote in one of her dairies.

One other thing Rachel did that she became known for was in the back of one of her dairies she drew her hand prints. Inside the hand prints Rachel drew sad images.

“These hands belong to Ra-chel Joy Scott and will some-day touch millions of people’s hearts,” Rachel is said to have written.

what some learned

Students said they learned a lot from the presentation.

“This presentation has taught me that you have to learn to respect people,” fresh-man Amanda Johnson said.

“Treat people the way you would want to be treated,” freshman Arlen Barba added.

By Jennifer itzel BenaViDes

Mt staff writer

“Dual Enrollment allows students the opportunity to take college classes while still in high school. The classes are paid for by the district and the students receive instruction from the professor and tutor-ing from the mentor,” said Di-ana Lopez, AP English IV in-structor and Dual Enrollment mentor for juniors and seniors in this program. “It’s a great bunch of kids; I’m having a lot of fun doing it.”

The Dual Enrollment pro-gram is a head start for college classes at Laredo Community College. It helps some students get the basics out of the way.

“I won’t have to worry about these classes next year in col-lege. It’s a huge relief. It gives me a heads up on what to ex-pect,” said Agustin Dovalina, a senior in guitar.

This spring, classes offered are College Alegebra for se-niors and English 1302 for ju-niors

The usual courses are Eng-lish 1301, English 1302, Histo-ry 1301, History 1302, College Algebra and Psychology. With each class passed with an A, B, or C students receive three college hours. By the time they finish with high school stu-dents can graduate with 12 to

15 college hours, Lopez said.The students have the last

two periods (eighth and ninth) in Lopez’s classroom, where she helps and guides the stu-dents through their classes.

“My title is a mentor but I also make sure they have the supplies they need, concerns and guidance,” she said.

Students ride the school bus to college Monday and Wednesday. Seniors go to a separate class from the juniors because their courses are dif-ferent. Their college class lasts about two hours; therefore classes end around 5:20.

The difficulty of the courses varies from one student to an-other.

“I did not study for a test and did poorly, then after fail-ing the test I did not learn my lesson and kept constant with procrastination. I’ve taken three classes, History 1302, English 1301 and English 1302. I got a C in History and an A for both English courses. After experiencing almost fail-ure I decided to buckle down and work for a change,” Dova-lina said.

Christopher Moncivais, a junior in visual arts, added, “It’s nothing different from your average high school class. The work is very simple, but I guess that depends on your in-structor.”

By selena BorJas Mt staff writer

“It’s cool that we get to com-municate with people outside the country,” said Joel Rodri-guez, sophomore, about his class’s project.

David Blumberg’s Global Business class is taking part in a special project involving stu-dents in France.

Blumberg explained what the project is all about.

“Part of Global Business, we are supposed to be learn-ing about businesses, create a business that goes around the world.

So I was looking for a school somewhere else that we can do a yearlong project. So we can develop a product and sell it in another country,” Blumberg said.

He explained he found out about this on a website that connects schools from different countries.

He posted VMT on the web-site and received responses from six schools in different countries. The students made the decision to connect with France, Blumberg explained.

Global Business students

already received a reply from the students in France.

“They wrote to us at the same time we wrote to them and we recently received their letters. They should by now have received our letters,” Blumberg explained.

For their next reply, stu-

dents will create a video in French.

“We are now in the process of creating a video in French. We wrote to them in English, they wrote back to us in Eng-lish. So we figured it will be fair to produce a video in French,” Blumberg said.

When ask what the video will be about, Blumberg said it will be about the students introducing themselves and about the school.

VMT seems to be the only school doing this kind of proj-ect. When ask about it, Blum-berg said, “NO I don’t [know].

It’s a new project I’m trying. We are doing it step by step. I think the students are learning quite a bit this way and I know I am.”

students’ opinions

Joel Rodriguez, a sopho-more, gave his thoughts about the project.

“I think its fun that we get to learn how they are and how much different they are from us,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez talks about the benefits of the project.

“I guess in a way, we are able to make friends,” he said.

Another Global Business student, Krista Quintanilla, a sophomore, gave her respond to the letters.

“The letters are actually very nice. They were much better than I expected they would be. The grammar was very proper and I was surprise they could speak very well English,” Quin-tanilla said.

Quintanilla is excited to be part of the course/project.

“It’s excited. It’s interesting; it’s the first time I ever done this pen pal thing. Especially so far away in another country compared to usually just an-other city,” she said.

Counselor presents Rachel’s Challenge

MT photo by Vivianna ResendezNinth graders write things they like inside a paper heart before folding it into many pieces, part of the Rachel’s Challenge presentation.

Class, French students work on project

Photo by Selena BorjasFrom left, Micaela Villarreal, Miguel Villarreal and Joel Rodriguez look at letters they received from students in France last fall. The Global Business class is taking part in a special project involving students in France.

Dual enrollment helps students

get ahead

Important dates:TAKS: ELA, Wednesday, March 7

Spring break: March 12-16

STAAR: English I, Writing, Monday March 26STAAR: English I, Reading, Tuesday, March 27

TAKS: Tuesday, April 24, 10th grade mathTAKS: Wednesday, April 25, exit-level mathTAKS: Thursday, April 26, 10th grade and exit-level scienceTAKS: Friday, April 27, 10th grade and exit-level social studies

STAAR: May 7-18 end-of-course exams

AP exams: May 7-18

Sources: http://www.laredoisd.org/images/pdfs/staarcalendar.pdfhttp://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/about/dates

3The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012 School News


By aDrienne flores

Mt staff writer

“It is a very good system for me to be able to view my daughter’s grades and her im-provement,” said Lulu Medina, mother of VMT student Victo-ria Medina about The Parent Portal.

The Parent Portal is a new district system that allows par-ents/guardians of LISD stu-dents to view all grades their children have in their classes, according to Las Escuelas (“The Schools”), a school dis-trict online magazine.

“The Parent Portal is a sys-tem I advise a lot of my students and parents to use so that they will be able to view when their child may be slacking off, so that way they could be able to push them harder to raise their grades,” said Pre-AP English/Creative Writing instructor and Tapestry adviser Jamin Teran.

A freshman explained how she felt about her parents be-ing able to see her grades.

“I do feel a little bit more pressured knowing my mom has all access to my grades in every class, but I know she just

wants me to s u c -c e e d a n d it is better t h a t s h e w i l l s e e t h e m n o w

instead of her seeing my grades later on,” said piano student Victoria Medina.

The Parent Portal is a sys-tem that will help parents help their children pass their class-es. Teachers advise parents to use this systems and also to push their children when they see that they are slacking off, missing many assignments, or failing, according to LasEs-cuelas.

“Parents would just really like for the teachers to be more current with their input of grades, but other than that The Parent Portal is a really good and useful system for parents who want their kids to really push in school and succeed,” Lulu Medina said.

Parents can track grades on website

This screen shot shows the Parent Portal on the Lar-edoisd.org website.

By soPhia sanchez

Mt staff writer

A man who was the center of the South Texas music uni-verse was honored at the His-panic Heritage Festival.

The festival was dedicated to the late Eddie Galvan, who was a well known music edu-cator and mentor to a count-less number of artists and mu-sic teachers. He was also the band director at Miller High School in Corpus Christi and was VMT’s music department head for a few years.

The stage that reflected on the honoring of Eddie Galvan had a giant portrait of him in the middle with flowers and musical decorations made by visual arts students to repre-sent what he had done while he was living.

School Director Dr. Martha Villarreal told everyone how this Hispanic Heritage Festi-val is going to be the best one yet. She said this program was dedicated to a great man (Eddie Galvan) that did many things for VMT.

“He left his mark, he left his legacy” behind in the form of the music department, she said.

Carlos Luna, director of fine

arts for L I S D as well as di-rec tor of the N i x o n H i g h School Band , s a i d he was a per-

sonal friend of the late Eddie Galvan. He described how his friend was able to make av-erage kids into “super musi-cians,” and “had a touch to make miraculous sounds with high school kids.”

Not starting in Laredo but in Corpus Christi, Galvan was introduced into music at an early age along with his brothers. From sneaking a saxophone into his house and learning to play it by himself to joining a band at age 13, Luna said Galvan wasn’t one to take music lightly, and from then on showed signs that music would play a big part in his fu-ture.

He said that Galvan wasn’t only concerned of the music aspect of a child’s learning. Luna said that whether it was just one student or the whole

march-i n g b a n d , Galvan as a teacher w a s t h e r e to help t h e m out ev-ery step of the way.

He told how Galvan was awarded for all his work, and how scholarships have been honored in his name, and along with his brother Bob-by are honored in the South Texas Walk of Fame. Galvan was also the first educator in-ducted in the South Texas Re-gion 14 Band Directors Hall of Fame, Luna said.

Luna said inspiring genera-tions of children and showing them to reach their true poten-tial, Galvan truly was a man that left his mark, his legacy not only living on in his daugh-ter Dr. Mary Grace Carroll, di-rector of piano studies, and his grandchildren but through the children of VMT and anybody who remembers him and en-joys playing music as much as he did.

Parent Portal log-in site.

By aManDa Johnson

Mt staff writer

Visual Arts students placed at the Dia Del Rio Art Contest in October.

David Hinojosa won best show, Jessica Moreno won first place, Giovanna Garcia won third place, and Amaris Gutier-rez, honorable mention.

All the students were re-quired to turn in a painting of the Rio Grande showing its true beauty, Moreno explained. She said her painting stood out be-cause she went her own way.

Moreno explained the pur-pose of the contest. People nowadays don’t see the river in what it was meant to be seen, Moreno said. It’s nature and nature’s beautiful and when people usually hear about the

river they usually think about drugs and immigrants. And the purpose of the students’ paint-ings is to show people how the river originally looked, she said.

Hinojosa’s painting was of a girl and her hair slowly turning into the river. Moreno’s paint-ing was of a girl stepping on rocks. Garcia’s painting was a river with cactus, fish, and trees. Gutierrez’s was a broken stained glass window that re-flected the river.

“This is a great opportunity for students to express their feelings about the Rio Grande. And it’s amazing that they dedi-cate their time to helping their community become aware of the things that need to be done to beautify the Rio Grande,” said Gilbert Rocha, Visual Arts instructor.

MT photo by nameTeachers Cindy Hernandez, Diana Lopez, and Matt Arambula sell tickets at the His-panic Heritage Festival ticket booth, at St. Peter’s Plaza

Festival honors memory of music educator

Hispanic Heritage Festival photo al-bum is here.

More photos of the Hispanic Heritage Festival are here.

MT photo by Amanda JohnsonArt students from left Lizzette Facundo, participant; Jessica Moreno, first place; David Hinojosa, Best of Show; Daniel Segura, participant; and Visual Arts In-structor Gilbert Rocha, took part in the Dia Del Rio Art Contest.

Students place in art contest

Joanah caVazos

Mt staff writer

Senior musician Daisie Es-pinoza “feels great” after re-ceiving a surprise that is help-ful towards her future.

Receiving a $1,000 for col-lege has the senior trumpet player “excited” about obtain-ing this scholarship.”

Espinoza said she will use this money to pay for college expenses.

Volunteering was one way

Espinoza got her hands on this scholarship, sponsored by WBCA and Macy’s.

She volunteered backstage at the Star and Dance Festival. Espinoza was the only student

in L.I.S.D to receive this award.“Always stay involved,” is

the advice she offers to under-classmen.

(Staff writer Jennifer Bena-videscontributedtothisstory.)

Senior receives award

MT photo by Selena BorjasDaisy Espinoza holds a large check representing a scholarship awarded by the WBCA.

Programs on The Magnet Tribune online

Video: Teen dating vio-lence.

Audio: Talking about Prom fashions for young women.

Discussion about new school year’s calendar.

4 The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012School News


Students turn out for

recruiting fun

MT photos by Elizabeth Flores

Top left: Choir students hold up letters spelling “choir” at Memorial Middle School.

Above: VMT students look at performers, not shown.

Bottom left: Theater depart-ment head Vernon Carroll speaks to students at Memorial.

MT photos by Arlene Barba and Amanda Johnson

Top left: An art student walks around the Lamar Middle School gym during recruiting.

Top right: Orchestra stu-dents perform at Cigarroa Middle School

Right: Dancers prance across the Cigarroa Mid-dle gym floor.

Page design by Elizabeth Flores

Photo essay: Recruiting at Lamar and Cigarroa mid-dle schools.

Photo essay: Recruiting at Me-morial and Christen.

By soPhia sanchez

Mt staff writer

Denise Rodriguez was look-ing for something to read on-line when she stumbled unto fanfiction.net.

“I was just random looking for stories. I just clicked on the website and got into it,” Rodri-guez said.

Fan fictions are fiction sto-ries written by fans for fans. One popular site is www.fan-fiction.net.

She said reading and writ-ing stories helped her with oth-er writing activities.

“It has helped me improve my reading and vocabulary,” Rodriguez said. “There are some stories and writers there that have high grammar and vocabulary.”

People might write a fan fic-tion is because they want to improve their writing, and with

the help of the re-views that r e a d e r s post after r e a d i n g the writ-er’s sto-ries they are able to see

what they need to fix. Betas are like the editors of

the site and are easy to obtain if you advertise that you need help in editing your story be-fore you actually start telling it.

“You never disappoint me XDD Another epic chapter! And I like the lengthy-ness…although I found it rather too long, and some of the para-graphs were hard to read. Ex-cept for that, it was good sto-ry-wise,” said Windy Rain, the person’s username, in a review

for Vast White and Deep Black: Reunification, a story based on the Pokemon series.

Most of the people who write fan fiction in the website do it because they like writing about their favorite sections, whether it be about popular mangas (Japanese comics) and animes (Japanese animation), televi-sion shows, books, cartoons, games, plays, and movies, ac-cording to fanfiction.

“I think they are fun to read. The plots are always random. They have pretty much every genre there,” Rodriguez said.

One can never predict what the plot will be in the story, and the genres can range from Humor, Adventure, and Friendship to Horror, Angst, and Drama.

“I like Romance, Drama, and Humor,” said Rodriguez. “They are always nice and cre-ative.”

Rodriguez said her enjoy-ment of fan fiction is personal.

“When I read anything, I

just keep to myself unless someone asks,” she said.

5The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012 School News


By Diana zaMarriPa

Mt staff writer

It’s been described as catchy. It may want to make you dance. You may want to learn Korean so you can sing along. It’s mu-sic known as K-pop.

“I started liking Korean mu-sic probably in about 2007. I remember being a senior in high school and listening to Ko-rean music on my MP3 player and watching music videos on my computer,” Ana Maria Var-gas, a TAMIU senior, said.

What is K-pop?K-pop started in South Ko-

rea in the 1990s, some popular bands are MBLAQ, Super Ju-nior, TVXQ and 2PM.

“I didn’t discover Korean music on my own, though; my best friend was the one who introduced it to me. I don’t re-member how she started liking it, but I’m pretty sure that it was by clicking around on You-Tube,” Vargas said.

She said there is much more to like than just the music.

“It’s not so much only about

the music. Don’t get me wrong; the music is awesome and fun to listen to. For me, it also has to do with the people in the bands. The guys and the girls in K-pop are very talented and are amaz-ing when they perform live. The five-member group DBSK, for example, has many live, aca-pella performances that can’t be beat. It shows that they can sing and don’t have to dance or rely on their looks to succeed,” Vargas said.

Vargas said she also likes music from other parts of Asia.

“Actually, I also enjoy lis-tening to Japanese rock and some Taiwanese pop. I think with Korean pop, though, there is something that suits every-one’s taste. No two Korean pop songs sound alike,” she said.

She likes two K-pop bands in particular.

“DBSK and JYJ. What I like about them is their voices, their dance abilities, their chemis-try when they’re all together and YOOCHUN! (a member of JYJ)!” she said.

Vargas explained why K-pop

is important to her.“Honestly, I think K-pop

(and other Asian music) pretty much changed my life. It has changed the way that I view things now. I feel that there are so many things in this world that I’ve been missing out on and things that I haven’t seen. I mean, I only discovered K-pop about four years ago and immediately loved it. It makes me wonder what other amazing things I’ve been missing out on.

“I’ve also been able to meet really amazing people through K-pop. Some are here in Lar-edo; others I’ve met online. So, if I hadn’t started liking K-pop, I wouldn’t have met any of them. Maybe it doesn’t seem like meeting new people and liking a certain type of music is related, but it’s rare to find people who also like K-pop lo-cally. So, when I find a person who likes K-pop (or other types of Asian music), I immediately feel a connection with them,” Vargas added.

Elizabeth Vasquez, a VMT senior Visual Arts student,

started liking K-pop in the 11th grade.

“What I like about K-pop is the electro music, the different types, the language, the guys and their dance moves,” she said with a huge smile.

Vasquez said she likes J-Rock, K-pop and other types in the genre.

“My favorite would be Su-per Junior because they are members who bring on a show and have awesome dance moves and are members who think each other as brothers,” Vasquez said.

She said there is more to like than just the music.

“Why do like it? Because I love their language and music videos and Korean peo-ple,” she said.

Krystal Cisneros, a sophomore dance stu-dent, said her friend Anna Moreno intro-duced it to her.

She likes K-pop be-cause of “The way the beat sounds but they care more about the lyrics,” Cisneros said.

Cisneros explained why K-pop is for her.

“Because the music from America isn’t re-ally that good and they don’t try to say what’s

in their heart. Here in America we try to rap and make things sound cool and it’s really an-noying,” she said.

One K-pop band stands out for her.

“My favorite K-pop band is Super Junior because I love the way their songs are, and I love the sound and they talk about things that are so true. For ex-ample, love complications and (they) make it sound so fun to dance to,” she said.

Cisneros added, “I like K-pop because it really gets ad-dicting and I get into it. I really love it.”

K-pop has special appeal to local fans

Super Junior’s latest album cover for “Mr. Simple” shows members of the band.

Website lets people publish their fiction

Seniors enjoy Winter Ball, VMT’s Prom

fanfiction.net

The annual Winter Ball, VMT’s version of prom, was held at La Posada hotel on Feb. 24.

Hector Cadena and Andrea Garcia.

Marco Trevino and Sharron Bird.

From left to right: Edgar Mendiola, Bruno Gutier-rez, Joshua Orozco, Ser-gio Lujan, Javier Torres, Roland Chamblee, Chris Avalos, Agustin Dovalina, Robert Chamblee, Sammy Martinez, Anthony Oliva-rez, Joshua Guevara, Ser-gio Ortega, Nicholas Nora, and Mark Medina.

MT photos by Roland Chamblee

“The Top Five”Ale’s Top Five1. Some Nights (Intro) - fun.2. Anonanimal - Andrew Bird3. Snow in Venice - Elizaveta4. Alligator - Grizzly Bear5. Video Games - Lana del Rey

8 The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012Reviews


Anthony Green’s Beautiful Things isn’t so beautiful

Hear, Say

By Ale Martinez, Sharron Bird

Elizaveta unites pop, opera; Lana Del Ray smolders through debut album

By sharron BirD

Anthony green is known for his high voice and great acoustics, also being Circa

Survive’s front man. Right off the bat, I noticed this wasn’t his best work. It lacks the charm that was there in his previous album.

In his last solo album, Ava-lon, the songs were mostly sweet yet personal acoustic folk tracks about his wife. It flowed in the per-fect way with one main theme, or direction.

I felt Beautiful Things didn’t flow in the way that it should have. Honestly, it was a mess. There were songs that sounded like they were in the wrong place, and there were songs that seemed to not be-long at all. It was all over the place. Maybe this will be good for Green because he tried many different styles in this album, so he will get to see which styles work best.

There were actually very few songs off this album that I would consider buying. I do regret buy-ing the album; however I’m glad I bought the Deluxe Version.

The reason why I’m glad I bought the Deluxe Version is be-cause I did enjoy the song “Only Love” (Feat. Nate Ruess of fun.) However, I liked Ruess’ part much more than Green’s part. Still, I searched for a song in the album where I could put in a good word for Green.

vintange green

“Can’t Have it All at Once” was a song where I felt that green did his best. It really sounded like him, not like him in a slump. You see, usually when Green’s songs are slow, that is what makes space for an echo of beauty; however in this album he tried giving a little more edge to some of his songs which didn’t result in the same effect. Instead it made his music sound a little messier, but not in “Can’t Have it All at Once.” It sounded beautiful, with the perfect balance of fast beats, and echoing high pitched lyrics. Unfortunately, not the entire album was this way.

The transitions were anything from smooth in this album, and

once I started hearing “Love You No Matter What,” which is a short, sweet, and simple song. I mean sweet as in nice, not a great song. I do get the feeling it was written for a child, which isn’t bad because it’s most likely for his son James. However, it’s just not something I would really want on my iPod. Then again, maybe that’s just Green staying true to the artist within him, not paying attention to the marketing side of his music, which could either be a good or a bad thing.

“How it Goes” was just a relax-ing song, with great guitar and some good vocals, but still it’s nothing to neither like nor hate. However, I have to say I really dis-like the song “When I’m On Pills” because he was trying to give it that depressing drug effect, but it just didn’t work. Instead the song sounded too slow and just came off as sloppy, repetitive, and boring. In my opinion it was the worst song on the album, right next to “Blood Song” and “Lullaby.” As much as I wanted to like “Lullaby,” I just couldn’t. It annoyed me. “Lullaby” had a beautiful guitar part, but it was the vocals that really messed it up, in my opinion.

“Right Outside” (Feat. Chino Moreno) is another bonus track that I like which makes me really serious when I say that the bonus tracks are the only songs I really liked on the Deluxe album. Except for “Soul 4 My Soul,” which is an-other song I didn’t like.

It is literally impossible to sum-marize this album as happy or sad because there is just too much of everything and it’s all mixed up. There are depressing songs, yet there were also some more cheer-ful songs on this album such as “Just to Feel Alive,” which was surprisingly happy. Also, it was a lot heavier than his previous al-bum.

So to summarize, I say not all of the songs on this album were totally boring, but it could have been better. Maybe this is just an experimental album for Anthony Green that will be followed by an-other Avalon?

Hey you guys, how are my readers doing this fine wintery/springy

season? I know it’s been a while since I’ve written to you guys but I promise I’m getting back in the reading business.

I read this new book over the week and to be honest, I thought it was going to be a great book but it turned out to be a whiney, snorefest.

The book was called “Why We Broke Up” by Daniel Han-dler and illustrated by Maira Kalman. Everyone might know Daniel Handler from his fa-mous novels A Series of Unfor-tunate Events which he pub-lished under the name Lemony Snicket. I honestly don’t know how Daniel Handler writes be-cause I have not read any of his other novels except for this one, but to be truthful it was just a bit whiney with a little bit of obsessiveness. In all fairness the illustrations done by Maira Kalman were pretty good.

The book is about a girl named Min (short for Miner-va… her father named her af-ter a Greek goddess) who WAS

dating a popular jock named Ed. Yeah as you can already see, they’re not going to be compatible. I mean even their names don’t match together, and that’s what I liked.

Min and Ed break up over a situation that I as a reader had seen coming from a mile away. So, in the book Min is writ-ing a letter to Ed explaining why they broke up, but -- and here’s the weird and obsessive part -- she writes him a letter of each item that reminds her of him and puts in the letter details of what it meant to her. At the end she’d go have this great epiphany to explain why they broke up.

Honestly, I’m going to tell you the ending of Why We Broke Up because I want you guys to save your money and not read it. He cheats on her. Yup he full on cheats on her.

That’s the reason why it got me so mad in the first place because I read the summary “Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up.” (amazon.com staff writers) You see, reading this line from a summary will get you right into the book, but you read it and you just don’t feel it.

I mean I’ve had my fair share of break ups. I know how it is. Yes, you do get a bit obsessive but honestly she keeps every single little thing that they ever did. Then she gives it all back. Look, when I was dumped yes I gave back the teddy bear won at the car-nival and the necklace bought for me, but she gives him back stuff that is seemingly random and pointless to have in the first place.

I know you guys are proba-

bly mad that I gave away the ending but I’m mad that I wasted money on a book that just didn’t meet my ex-pectations. You can still read it because there is a little rea-son why she gets obsessed with giv-ing him all the stuff back but even I think it’s too much.

I wouldn’t rec-ommend reading this book but if you get it for free or have a chance to read it at the pub-lic library; then by all means go right ahead and read it firsthand. This book brought back old break ups, but then again this book made me realize that I’m glad I wasn’t as bad as Min was.

If you would like to know more about Daniel Handler or Maira Kalman please visit their website pages

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1274516/bio (does not have a website but IMBb has his biography so you guys could learn about him there.)

http://www.mairakalman.com/about/ (she has a web-site.)

‘Why We Broke Up’ just not worth it The Book Look

By Chris Avalos

By ale Martinez

Hey readers! Welcome back! I know it’s been a while, but I’m finally back with some new music that

will keep this year from being anything but boring. In this column, I’ll be talking about two lovely ladies. One fuses Opera and Pop, and the other smolders through her songs. Both artists are uniquely, and truly talented.

Beatrix runs - elizaveta

Often, the first thing that comes to a lot of people’s minds when they hear the word “opera” is “boring.” Honestly, how many people do you know listen to op-era for fun? Surely the last thing anyone thinks of when they hear opera is pop mu-sic. New York born artist Elizaveta is here to blow all of those ideas out of the water.

Born in the U.S. and raised in Russia, Elizaveta was originally trained to be an opera singer. She decided to take her tal-ent for opera and her love of pop and cre-ate something spectacular in her debut album.

The opener, “Dreamer,” is catchy with punctuated piano and vocals that grab your attention immediately. We can see right away that she can transform from Regina Spektor to full-on soprano. The best part? The transition is so smooth, it’s natural.

Elizaveta isn’t all catchy-happy pop songs and fluff. This girl has serious tal-ent, and it can be seen throughout the en-tire album. However, there are songs that show off her abilities better than others. The one where this is most evident has to be “Odi et Amo,” which is probably what the love child of a piano pop ballad and an aria would sound like.

What I really and truly like about this album is the fusion of two seemingly op-posite genres. There’s a pop sensibility in all of the songs, but there’s also that hint of drama that always comes with opera.

From the instrumentation (beautifully done piano, strings, and the occasional synth) to lyrics like, “Ithoughtyouwerean angel...you vanished in the shadowsandthenIknewI’dgivemylifetobewithyou.” BeatrixRuns has a bit of each side, and it all balances out.

The drama is delicious, and the fun is light, sweet, and endearing. Other favorite tracks of mine include “Snow in Venice” (a song about a long distance relation-ship that oozes charm especially when Elizaveta switches to Italian), “Orion,”

and “Goodbye Song.” Give her a listen. I promise you won’t regret it.

Born to Die - lana Del rey

Chances are that if you have an Inter-net connection and follow some sort of blog, you’ve heard of Lana del Rey. She grabbed the Internet’s attention with her retro, femme fatale persona. Her songs sound like they’re coated in red velvet.

BorntoDieis full of trippy beats, bal-lads that revolve around breakups, Lolita references, and songs about true love. From James Dean to red lipstick, this al-bum has vintage undertones that echo through every song.

Del Rey’s voice practically drips over every track like honey. The slow songs seem to fit her voice best (listen to “Blue Jeans” to really hear her smolder). Even though her lyrics stay on the shallow side sometimes, it’s all in good fun. Del Rey coaxes you to just go along for the ride.

How could you not come along? BorntoDie is hypnotic, and has brought some-thing back. I really don’t know how else to put it but it’s like Del Rey’s album has a sort of hazy, mysterious feel that is re-freshing. Personal favorites of mine in-clude “Off to the Races,” “Carmen,” “Dark Paradise,” and “Without You.”

Overall, Del Rey’s voice is the center-piece of the album. The instrumentals are interestingly modern with a vintage un-dertone. She wants you to focus on her voice, and succeeds whether you like it or not. BorntoDie sounds like a brave new style of pop, and that alone is something to be excited about.

Both of these albums are available on iTunes or wherever music is sold. If you have any comments, questions, or con-cerns leave a comment here or find me on Twitter (@ahl3h).

Sharron’s Top Five1. Plain Gold Ring (Live at Sing Sing) - Kimbra 2. So Good - Say Anything3. Alligator (Live) - Tegan and Sara4. Somebody that I Used to Know - Gotye5. We Are Young - fun

Just like in 2008, The Gi-ants made the playoffs as a wild card team and

the Patriots were a heavily fa-vored #1 seed in the AFC this season. Just like the ’08 sea-son, the Giants and Patriots found themselves matched up against each other in the Super Bowl. Like the ’08 sea-son, the Patriots were heavily favored to take home the Lom-bardi Trophy back to New Eng-land. Also like Super Bowl 42, Eli Manning made a fantastic play in the fourth quarter and the Giants managed to pull off an upset against The Patriots and sent Tom Brady off the field with his head down, hel-met in hand.

The game started very great for the Giants and not so much for the Patriots.

The Giants received the kickoff and put their offense out to start the Super Bowl. Eli Manning and the G-Men man-aged to move the ball quite well against one of the leagues’ worst defenses on their open-ing possession. Manning

hit a wall against the Pats’ D though, getting sacked on both a first and third down and the Giants settled to punt the ball away.

This was the start to the Pa-triots’ problems.

The resulting punt by the Giants pinned Tom Brady and the Patriots offense on their own 5 yard line. Tom Brady took the snap and dropped back into his own end zone, looking for a pass to give him-self some breathing room. He was hurried by Giants defen-sive tackle Justin Tuck and was forced to throw the ball away to avoid getting a sack. Unfortunately for Tom “Terrif-ic” there was no receiver near the ball he lobed away and was called for a foul for intention-al grounding in the end zone which resulted in a safety by

the Pats. That was 2 points for the Gi-

ants and just the beginning of a bit of a sloppy performance by the Patriots.

The ensuing possession for the Giants resembled their first offensive possession. They managed to move the ball against the opposing defense but stalled near the end zone. Fortunately for the Giants, the Patriots made mistake #2 and had a foul called against them for having 12 men on the field. What’s heart breaking about that play was that the Giants had just fumbled the ball and gave possession away to New England, but due to the pen-alty, the fumble didn’t count and the Giants kept their drive going for a 2 yard touchdown pass by Eli Manning to receiv-er Victor Cruz.

By the time the Giants put 9 points on the board; the Pa-triots had only 1 offensive pos-session and had yet to be able to do anything to respond to the Giants.

The game then progressed regularly. Both Giants and Patriots had their possession here and there but New Eng-land was the only team to score points in the second quarter. The first New England points came courtesy of a Gostkowski field goal and to close first half of the Super Bowl, Tom Brady threw a 4 yard touchdown pass to Danny Woodhead to put the Patriots ahead of the Giants 10-9.

The Patriots received the ball to start the second half and were finally clicking of-fensively. They drove down the field and scored on a 12 yard Brady toss to tight end Aaron Hernandez. The Giants an-swered back with 2 field goals on their next 2 possessions but were still down 17-15 go-ing into the fourth quarter.

Since their last screw-up,

the Patriots played generally mistake free football up until the fourth quarter where Tom Brady made another mistake.

On what seemed to be an-other scoring drive, Tom Brady felt pressured by the New York pass rush and heaved a ball to tight end Rob Gronkowski but the pass was intercepted by Giants Line Backer Chase Blackburn. The slip up by Brady did not result in points for the Giants but that did shift the moment the Patriots had managed to gather.

A couple of possessions passed by till the Patriots punt-ed the ball to the Giants later in the fourth quarter. With lit-tle less than 4 minutes left on the clock, and backed up into their own end zone, the Giants made a big play that changed the face of the Super Bowl.

Eli Manning completed a 38 yard sideline throw to receiver Mario Manningham who came up with what people are saying is “one of the greatest catches in the Super Bowl”. I’m not

It’s that time of year again and yes I’m talking to you girls! If you don’t know what

I’m talking about then you’ve been living under a rock be-cause I’m talking about the most impotent event in high school: Prom!

For those of you that have not looked at anything prom-related, you are in for a treat. Like I’ve always said; it’s better to plan ahead and have time to change anything you want. For those students that went to Winter Ball you already know what you’re in for. You got a small taste of what Prom will be like. For those that didn’t go to Winter Ball and have decid-ed to go to your parent school’s Prom, this will be your chance to really go all out. I know money can be tight and that’s one of the biggest issues for a lot of students. It’s always the same thing “Well I’m not going because it’s too expensive.”

That’s true, for example when my sister went to Prom in ’09 my parents spent more than $400 on the dress alone.

You can’t for-get the high heels, hair, and makeup. Those things don’t come cheap. Then the invita-tions for prom are over $100 with a date. I know that when you add up all that money it comes out to a lot of money you might not have, but look at it this way: you have 2 whole months to start saving up and letting your parents know what you need. It’s also a great idea to start looking at everything and anything related to prom. Go to your favorite magazine online, I’m sure they’ll have a prom section where they can help you find a dress within your budget. Always remem-ber what I wrote in my blog, girls:

“... the price tag is the least thing that matters; It all about the fit and material. It can be

$200 but might not fit your body, would you really want that dress just because it’s a brand name dress or would you rather find one that’s less but makes you look good? It’s an easy pick, girls! Also know which dress are for your body type if you don’t really know do some researching. Seventeen is a really helpful website for that.

Once you have found the dress the next thing is find-ing great shoes to go with the dress. If you are not used to wearing high heels don’t wear them that night. Either you practice or find cute comfort-able flats. If you are an expert and can last with them on, then make sure your heels have a platform; that will defi-nitely help and your feet will thank you. After you have

those two very impotent things done, it doesn’t not stop there. Make sure to get an appoint-ment at a hair salon you trust. A big mistake girls make is go-ing to a new hair salon the day of the even if. Huge mistake, since you don’t know how they work you might end up not liking the hair or makeup and you do not need any more stress that day. So start ask-ing around and go in for a test. Check the place out before you decide to get your hair and makeup done there.

Oh, one last reminder girls, do not wait last minute when it comes to buying a dress and shoes especially if you are picky. Plan ahead and get ev-erything organized, it’s not as hard as you think and you will be relaxed closer to the date.”

Now on to some trends for Prom 2012:A big trend is the one-shoulder dress, decorated with roses at the waist or on the shoulder.

Long, one-shoulder dresses are refined and evocative of Greek goddesses. This hap-

pens to be our Nixon prom theme, so it’s perfect! These goddess-like dresses are par-ticularly eye-catching in teal and turquoise hues.

Neutral color choices are slimming. Choose dresses that are all one color. Remember to keep it flattering and not too busy. That way you will look and feel your best.

Now if you are a little out there and like bold colors these will be ideal for you:

Try electric turquoise, bright purples and pretty raspberry. If your tan I suggest getting a white color dress because white will make your skin glow. Who wouldn’t love that?

Short dresses will be a great option, once again one-shoul-der and sweetheart styles are in vogue. Stay away from short dresses with full skirts and instead choose a short, sleek dress.

Long, sleek dresses will be the hottest fashion trend for 2012. Some of the dresses fea-ture halters and deep V-necks.

Portal, the first person umm shooter game? No, that’s not right. The first

person puzzle game? Not en-tirely true… There’s no exact way to classify the game. The one so far that sounds the best is what IGN classifies it as, a “First-person physics-based puzzle [game].” Either way it’s a great game, and rarely do you find a sequel to match something so awesome. So does Portal 2 meet up to its “brother’s” name? Is it a gem among duds for sequels? Let’s break down the game to make it much clearer.

For those of you who don’t know what Portal is, let me fill you in on WHAT YOUR MISS-ING from the original first part.

The first installment of Por-tal started out with the main character Chell waking up in the Aperture Science Test-ing room accompanied by the voice of a cynically comical su-per computer named GLaDOS. GLaDOS’ role is to make Chell test, test, and test in prom-ise of a cake. After a couple of brain straining, but entertain-ing tests, GLaDOS becomes even crazier, and tries to kill Chell by luring her into the incinerator room. Chell finds her way out, escapes the test-ing area and proceeds to kill GLaDOS. Chell does this by removing personality cores that keeps GLaDOS function-ing properly. After removing all of them she malfunctions and causes a portal to appear that

fills the entire room, dragging GLaDOS and Chell to the sur-face. A bright light covers the entire screen as it transitions to Chell on the floor, GLaDOS is visible, across from Chell, ripped apart. Chell on the oth-er hand is unconscious and gets dragged away by a robot, back to the Aperture Science building. Before the credits be-gin to roll, another video shows a room in the building filled with other personality cores, a companion cube (a cube with hearts on it), the cake GLa-DOS promised Chell, and a let-ter from GLaDOS saying that she’s still alive and she’s not

angry.So the storyline of Portal

was simple, nothing big. The games comical moments kept the player into the game and the length was enjoyable. The game offered three modes, the campaign, challenge mode, and advance mode. Portal was acclaimed as one of the most original games of 2007 and sold millions of copies throughout the years. For a game that came out first as a bundle with two other games, it did fantastic. Overall Portal was great!

Now that you, the patient

reader, have been informed of the first part, let’s move on.

SO would I say Portal 2 is worthy enough to live among legends of sequels? YES IT IS! In fact it surpasses Portal in so many ways.

The storyline, (oh yes, I defi-nitely have to start here first) is stronger than Portal. Portal 2 started out with Chell in, what appears to be a motel room. She wakes up to a voice on the intercom, saying she has been in suspension and needs to do a cognitive check up to see if she’s ok. Then after this check up, she is put back to sleep. She wakes up again in, what appears to be, sev-eral years and the motel looks weathered down and some-one or something is knocking on the door. As Chell walks toward the door, Wheatley, a spherical computer that aids you through the game, walks in. Wheatley explains that the place got in bad shape and he’s going to walk you out of Aper-ture. Along the way you learn the hard way that Wheatley is very VERY clumsy. He finds a way to accidently reactivate GLaDOS and for half the time, you’re trying to get away from her AGAIN. But it’s ok because that means more levels that

will definitely test your mind.Storyline=Amazing

The game offers far more hours of game play and the storyline is beyond greater. Valve, you really outdid your-self with this game. There are different parts in the game that are just going to make you go “gasp!’ or “Oh my GOSH!” It just blows my mind that they turned around and gave such a short game new life. The characters too have a much more concrete personality and

history to them. By the end of the game,

you’re going to find a way to love Wheatley and hate him at the same time. Wheatley is a personality core that came off GLaDOS, much like the other ones. But what makes him dif-ferent from the rest is that the creators of GLaDOS believe she was going to become too

smart, and would’ve outsmart-ed them. To keep her from becoming too smart, they de-cided to put a personality core on her that would slow her down. As GLaDOS puts it in the game, HE WAS DESIGNED TO BE STUPID.

GLaDOS makes a comeback and remains one of the main characters in the game, but her attitude and character chang-es dramatically throughout the game when she’s given a “wake up call.” (Yeah I’m just going to leave it at that) It’s both shock-ing and entertaining to see her transition like that.

Another new character that comes out is the old record-ings of Aperture Science CEO’s Cave Johnson. His voice re-cordings come out as you visit parts of the old Aperture Sci-ence building. Towards the end of your trip through this part of the building, Johnson mentions he tried an experi-ment on himself and is slowly dying. Although he is just a re-cording he has a major impact on the storyline.

Rather than asking “does Portal 2 rank up to Portal?” I should be asking “How higher does it rank up!” Portal 2 is really a great game the story-lines replay value is very high. In fact, I have just finished my second play through to see how fast I could beat it. And if you do get tired of the game, it includes a completely differ-ent campaign for co-op to add more hours of fun!

9The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012 Columns


Battle at all levels with ‘Portal 2’

Prom: Go all out for a special look Fashion Hallway

By Karinna Lopez

Game Break

By Roland Chamblee

Giants make it an exciting repeat of 2008The First Down

By J.T. Soliz

See FIRST DOWN, page 11

See FASHION, page 11

As everyone has heard, Vidal M. Treviño will eventually change locations. The big question that

everyone is wondering is, why? From opinions of some students here (pages 6-7) they are not pleased with the deci-sion but what they don’t realize is that the choice to relocate is for the benefit of our safety. From rats to old, tattered buildings, our safety is at risk.

Students agree the vintage build-ings create a peaceful atmosphere. Although it is peaceful, the buildings that we enjoy are possibly dangerous to the staff and students. More than

one building’s roof leaks when it rains. Most buildings are falling apart be-cause of their old age.

As a result of the buildings being old, the water leaks could cause mold. There have been many cases where the

water causes mold in the buildings. Many of the times the mold would go unnoticed until someone would get ill. That is threatening to our students and staff’s health.

Another safety issue is the roads that we need to cross within our four-block campus near downtown. There’s al-ways the possibility of a student being hurt while crossing the street. Reckless drivers and careless students walking into the roads may cause an accident. That is a very dangerous thing to risk.

People who can cause harm can walk into any of our buildings if they

chose to, and since our buildings are not locked during class, something devastating could happen. Plus, we do not have the luxury of a public ad-dress system so if there were to be a lockdown we wouldn’t be able to react immediately. A PA system would really come in handy for our safety.

Nuevo Laredo is only eight blocks away, and many have heard what goes on there. One recent shootout there took the lives of 13 people. A second one wounded a 19-month-old child and a pregnant woman. It is a possi-

Hello, my lovely readers! I hope your holidays went well, and I hope

2012 is treating you well so far. After some writer’s block while trying to write on anoth-er topic, I decided to go with talking about my resolution for this year.

I’ll start by telling you what my goal for this year is: to fi-nally lose weight and get fit. Original, isn’t it? While it’s not exactly of the creative type, I must say it’s very important to me. Why? Because this has been my resolution for the past three years. Go on and guess how it’s turned out. I’ll give you a clue: It involves getting asked when you’re due.

So my attempts at tak-ing control of my weight have failed three times, but it never really bothered me. Being slen-der isn’t exactly in my genes,

and I’ve learned to accept that. While I didn’t go around pa-rading my lonjas for all to see, I felt being a little thicker than most girls wasn’t so bad. Until now.

tight-Fitting clothes

Around the end of my soph-omore year (this past May), I noticed my shirts fit a little tighter than usual. Being flat chested, I assumed I was going through a growth spurt and wasn’t too concerned (and was just a tad excited). Then my favorite jeans started to feel a little snug, but were still wear-able. Then uncomfortable.

Then tight. And then…I wasn’t able to zip them up anymore, even when I wore my Spanx. That, my friend, is the ultimate sign that you have gone too far in your relationship with carbs, sweets, and soda.

I was in denial for months afterwards, telling myself that I couldn’t possibly be gaining too much weight. Whenever I tried on my jeans again and ended up nearly cutting off cir-culation to my legs, I consoled with one of these thoughts:

You do bloat easily. It’s probably just water weight.

Five pounds isn’t that much. It can’t be that hard to

work off. They shrank in the dryer.

That’s all that happened. None of this is your fault. Kenmore home appliances are out to get you.

Unfortunately, none of the above was the cause of my inability to squeeze into my pants without almost giving myself a hernia. The cause was me, and I finally realized that at a visit to my dermatologist in October.

more challenges You see, I’ve suffered from

acne since I was 13. It started off with just a few more zits than usual, which were usu-ally fought off with a generous application of spot treatment and astringent. By my fresh-man year, that clearly was not working for me (see 2009 Rodriguez family portraits for

details. Actually, don’t. I think I burned them all). My doctor prescribed me some antibiotics and medicated cleansing pads. That seemed to do the trick. For almost my entire sopho-more year, my skin remained clear. Yet during summer, I started to break out again. I figured it was probably due to taking a PE class, as well as the hot and humid Laredo weather.

However, after my sum-mer school session ended, I was still breaking out, and it wasn’t getting any better. My bumps started getting bigger and more painful, and my skin constantly appeared as if I was permanently blushing. It had come back, and I was devas-tated.

(“Devastated” is a bit of a dramatic term, but I’d rather not use the one that truly ex-presses how I felt, as I’m writ-ing for a school newspaper.)

shocking news

Anyway, my aunt, who had dealt with acne as a teenag-er, decided to take me to her dermatologist. One of the first things I was asked to do after being called in was to have my weight taken. This is where the story gets interesting…

I watched closely as the nurse slowly moved the point-er farther to the right, and then stopped. The moment of the truth was here.

“One hundred and sixty three pounds,” she said, scrib-bling onto a clipboard. Still in acute shock, I followed her to the examining room. In my mind, I was telling myself that it was about time I faced the music after a summer of glut-tonous affairs. Still, I held onto an irrational hope that I was right in accusing the dryer of ruining my self-esteem and pants. Deep in my heart, I knew my dryer was truly innocent. The guilt was my cross to bear, along with my love handles.

To make a long story short,

10 The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012Opinions


Comments? Write us [email protected]

EDITORIALThe Magnet Tribune

agrees with the construction of a new VMT campus, especially one that promotes student and staff

safety

School safety important in move

Yearly resolutions seem difficult to keep

Contact The Magnet TribuneBy e-mail: [email protected] || On the Internet: http://my.hsj.org/tx/laredo/vmt || Facebook || TwitterAddress: Vidal M. Treviño School of Communication and Fine Arts, The Magnet Tribune, 820 Main Ave., Laredo, Texas 78040In person: Room TM-23 (Journalism classroom), or drop off items for Mark Webber in the school office.

First Class Award: 1996-97, 98-99, 99-00, 02-03 03-04, 04-05, 05-06, 06-07, 07-08, 08-09, 09-10, 10-11 Second Class Award: 2000-01, 01-02

It is the policy of the Lar-edo Independent School District not to discrimi-nate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gen-der, limited English pro-ficiency, or handicapping condition in its programs.

The Magnet TribuneThe Magnet Tribune is a publica-

tion produced by students in the Journalism, Newspaper Production and Photojournalism classes of the Vidal M. Treviño School of Com-munications and Fine Arts, Laredo Independent School District. This publication provides readers with information relating to the school and its students, provides stu-dents a lab for producing a news-paper using professional-level computer software and offers an open forum for student opinion. The Magnet Tribune is distributed free of charge.

Dr. Martha VillarrealSchool director

Mark WebberJournalism instructor and adviser

The Magnet Tribune

Vol. 19, No. 1, March 19, 2012Editor of this issue: Savannah

PeñaPage one shows the bronze stat-

ue south of the Harding Building, “The Force of Creation,” created by former art instructor Armando Flores in 1993-94.

Production is by VMT journalism students using InDesign and Ado-be Photoshop on HP computers.

Printed by Greater Dallas PressCopyright ©2012 Vidal M.

Treviño School of Communica-tions and Fine Arts and The Mag-net Tribune.

Staff Superior: ‘99-00, ‘01-02Staff Excellent: 02-03, 03-04Staff Hon. Mention: 97-98, 98-99

Award of Distinguished Merit: 05-06, 06-07Newspaper Star rating nomination: 06-07Award of Achievement: 98-99, 99-00, 00-01, 01-02, 02-03, Award of Honor: 97-98, 03-04, 04-05

ILPC

Observations

By Rebekah Rodriguez

Waffle IronStory and art by Savannah Peña

See OBSERVATIONS, page 11

Hello fellow readers! Did any of you have a nice holiday vacation? I did

have a relaxing vacation. Note sarcasm.

Anyway, this is yet another ‘What really grinds Savannah’s gears?’ on the inside of holi-days vacation and its annoy-ances of jolly songs, fruit cakes and whatnot. And, yes I know its kind a way too late for this to be out. So what?

Holiday’s fun is getting quite annoying: No more fruit cakes, I say!!

After the school had gone for the two-week vacation for the holidays; I’ve been constant-ly going from store to store to shop for Christmas gifts. Once everything was settled, the gifts, I was the one who ended

up wrapping them all.Do you know how many

kids where in my family? A whole bunch of kids; related or not there were a lot.

My face was covered in tape; I stayed up until it was already the next day still wrapping the gifts. Little siblings fighting for something retarded to even

shout at them to be quiet. I was on the verge to snap at them but luckily they left for half an hour.

The whole vacation thing was bull when they said you are getting the load off; but guess what not me! Argh, vaca-tion should be not doing any-thing but go out with friends

to parties, staying up late and whatnot.

The point to this blog or col-umn or section, is that not all vacations are fun and games, like the Christmas one. To me it went like this:

1st week of vacation: My parents hurried my rear end (I can’t say the word here) to help them shop for Christmas gifts and soon wrapped them before any of my siblings could see them.

2nd week of vacation: Run-ning around the kitchen while baking cookies for last minute gifts for the rest of the fam-ily. Tiring, I do say so myself. Wrapping them in that foil looking paper and make them all fancy with curled ribbons and a bow.

Anyhow, after getting the whole thing ready my aunt took us in a driving spree to our families’ house to drop them off. Once reaching the final house I saw most of my aunt’s cousins there playing “Loteria,” while screaming, “Hey!” at us when we entered the house.

After that was done, I took the remaining cookies and ate them all and my siblings whined at me. Laughing at them but you know mothers and how they are. Well, she made me bake more cookies.

No more baking! I haven’t spent a holiday like that! Okay that’s a lie, Thanksgiving was way better. :D

[Note:WrittenunderabandnamedOneRepublic]

A holiday with cookies isn’t all that funEditor’s Commentary

By Savannah PeñaEditor of this issue

The Editor’s Commentary represents the opin-ions of the editor, and should not be understood to represent the views of the newspaper staff, faculty and administration.

See EDITORIAL, page 11

so sure about that but it did put the Giants out of the tight spot they were in. With that catch, the team managed to get things rolling and was 10 yards away from a touch-down.

Here’s where things got a bit odd.

It was second and goal for the Giants with less than a min-ute left on the clock. The call for Giants head coach Tom Cough-lin was this: Score the touch-down and put the Giants in the lead, or , take more time off of the clock and kick a last second field goal that, knowing what can happen in the NFL, wasn’t exactly a guaranteed thing.

Before Coughlin could make the call though, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick in-structed his defense to let the Giants score the touchdown to conserve the time on the clock and give his team a shot to still win the game.

So, on the play, Giants run-ningback Ahmad Bradshaw took the ball and ran towards the end zone, anticipating some resistance. The Patriots

defense though, stood up and let him on through. Bradshaw realized this and tried stop-ping himself from scoring the touchdown to take some time off of the clock. This resulted in an odd looking touchdown by Bradshaw, somewhat fall-ing into the end zone.

The Patriots now had a shot making a game winning touch-down with about 50 seconds left in the game.

Tom Brady did manage to move the ball a bit with the little time he had left but the Giants’ defense held up great-ly, stopping Brady from gain-ing any significant yardage. With 5 second left on the clock Tom Brady threw a Hail Mary pass towards the end zone to try and win the game. Unfor-tunately for Brady, the pass fell incomplete and the Giants won the Super Bowl.

So the Giants took Super Bowl 46 and kept Tom Brady from getting his fourth Super Bowl Ring. That’s the end of the football season, but things are still going on during the offseason like the Draft and

Free-Agency. I’ll be keeping up with that sort of news and keep updating!

more on extracurricular activi-ties like band and sports, so it would be tougher. There would definitely be a lot more of trav-eling,” Cruz said.

Students can’t wait to play against Corpus Christi schools.

“The chances of winning are at a better ratio in 4A than in 5A. I can’t wait to play on the field against Corpus Christi schools. I think it’ll give us that extra push to strive for the best,” said Reiver Rodri-guez, sophomore soccer player at Nixon High, said.

Victor Gomez, freshman soccer player, from Cigarroa High, thinks 4A is going to be more physical. Another player agreed.

“I think that they are going to put us to work more on our physical condition,” Samuel Gomez, freshman soccer play-er at Cigarroa High, said.

Reynaldo Alvarez, junior soccer player, thinks the only thing that is going to change is the traveling.

It seems like LISD would have a better chance at win-ning in 4A, but athletes and coaches will surely miss the 29-5A district.

“Honestly, I didn’t want to move because in 5A there’s more competition; it chal-lenges us. I wanted to spend my senior year in 5A, but they (LISD) know what is in our best interest,” Ashley Galvan,

junior soccer player at Nixon High, said.

Above all, Gutierrez will miss the rivalries.

“I rather compete against local schools; it makes every-thing more exciting with rival-ries,” Gutierrez said.

However students are ready to compete against their new rivals.

“We’ll be more than ready for our new rivals. We’ll be giving our all and be repre-senting South Laredo,” Alva-rez said.

The downfall of returning to 4A is what he said is the in-timidation factor of the Corpus Christi schools.

“The appearances of the other athletes affect our ath-letes. We’re already losing be-cause of the intimidation fac-tor, even though we’re just as good as they are,” Gutierrez said.

MT staff writer KimberlyLunacontributedtothisstory.

11The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012


my doctor told me that while getting acne was inevitable for me (it runs on both sides of my family), my weight was also a major contributing factor. Sudden weight gain throws off your hormones, which in turn promotes the creation of acne-causing oils, bad moods, and undesirable hair growth (the third one has always been in my life. It’s the Spanish blood in me). I learned I had cystic acne. I was prescribed the same antibiotic I’d been taking, at a double dose, and two topical medications. And there was one more thing my doctor wanted for me: to lose weight. How do you think that went?

This past week I went for my follow up appointment, and while my doctor is satisfied with my face, the weight is a differ-ent story. I gained two more pounds, and while he jokingly dismissed it as a result of the

holidays, I realized the situation with my weight is starting to get out of hand, and ignoring it isn’t making things any better. It made things worse, and I have only myself to blame.

getting Fit

So, while I’ve let myself pro-crastinate on getting in shape too many times, I’m going to try my hardest to stick to it this year and ultimately for years. I don’t want what I call a “fitness spurt” to happen. That’s when I suddenly get motivated to work out and eat right, only to fall back into my old ways two weeks later.

Instead, I want to be able to adapt to a healthier lifestyle so that I can finally have a steady weight for once. I want to be able to go shopping and try on clothes that make me feel pret-ty, and not just the kind that hide my fat.

It’s going to be hard, and I’ll admit I can’t do it alone. I know there will be times where I’ll want to throw in the towel and have a late night rendezvous with a pint of Cookies ‘n Cream ice cream. But I know that’s not going to get me anywhere any-more, so now it’s up to me to fi-nally take control of my health, once and for all. The only that’s stopping me is myself, and I must learn to stop making ex-cuses.

Now that I’ve finally stepped off my soap box, I want to ask you: what are your goals and dreams for 2012? More impor-tantly, what are some things that are keeping you from reaching for them, and how do you plan to overcome them? Tweet me at @Solar_Ice25 with the hashtag #MTObservations, or email me at [email protected].

OBSERVATIONS, from page 10

FIRST DOWN, from page 9

Strapless dresses with sweetheart necklines are also a trendy look.

Champagne dresses are all the rage on the red carpet. Think nudes, ivory, gold, and warm bronze.

Prom 2012 is all about di-versity. There isn’t one dress or color that’s the end-all, be-all trend. Designers know that there are a lot of different girls so they are want to show off

their unique styleI’m also seeing a lot of spar-

kle, textures, and unexpected accessories. The traditional prom ball gown is still in, and high-low hems are back and bigger than ever.

Less is always more. When in doubt, go for the simpler style choice. Whether it is your hair, jewelry, dress, make-up, or shoes, go simple. That way your overall look will be the

focus of attention, not some single item that overpowers your outfit. Hairstyles today are much more casual than be-fore. The days of hairspray and loads of bobby pins are thank-fully over.Keep jewelry to a minimum.

One last thing: Don’t forget to follow your own style and un-derline your charm and appeal in the best way.

FASHION, from page 9

student’s performances in all areas as well as their attitudes towards completing assign-ments.”

Gregorio Garza, Pre-AP So-cial Studies and Spanish in-structor, had his thoughts about the ICU list, too.

“I came to the decision that anything that the system can do to encourage to change the behavior of students to ac-complish their mission here in school which is to study, to get ready for the state exams, and the end of the year exams is good,” he said.

Dr. Martha Villarreal, school director, said the ICU program wasn’t intended to bother stu-dents -- that if anything it was “harassing in a nice way.”

Not all students reacted negatively to the program.

“I think it’s a great idea. It keeps the students on track with their assignments and

creates a sense of urgency in doing well in school,” said Akeem Gonzalez, junior guitar student.

Johan Siegel, junior, broad-cast student, had mixed feel-ings.

“The ICU program is both good and bad at the same time. It’s good because they (teach-ers) get people working but bad because it’s frustrating and gets on a lot of student’s nerves. They (teachers) don’t

trust us because the fact that they won’t give us the liberty of turning in the work by our-selves. What they’re (teachers) doing is forcing us to turn in assignments by their stan-dards. They give us a deadline and it’s our job to turn it in on time,” Siegel said.

Based on an online Magnet Tribune poll, “Do you agree with the idea of publicly list-ing students who owe assign-ments?” a little more than one-half answered “no.” A few said they did not care.

“No” answers totaled 52.9 percent, while 29.4 percent answered yes and 8.8 percent answered “I don’t care.” The re-maining 8.8 percent had other responses.

According to the poll, about 3 out of 10 answered were sophomores, with the next biggest group being teachers/staff. Freshmen and juniors followed, with equal numbers taking the poll, with seniors

having the least answers. The responses varied. A sophomore who answered

“no” wrote, “I don’t find it useful if the kids don’t turn in assign-ments. What makes them think they will by publishing them?”

A freshman who answered “yes” said, “Our generation only seems to respond when called out on some sort of mod-ern communication. Perhaps then, they could pay attention and stop slacking off.”

Another student, a sopho-more who answered “other re-sponse” wrote, “The ICU pro-gram is a good idea but at the same time it’s not. Most of the students are embarrassed to have their names up on the wall, and everybody knowing about their missing assignments. At the same time, it’ll get students to do their work to avoid getting their names on the list.”

Staff writer Mathew Casta-ñedacontributedtothisstory.

ICU, from page 1

Magnet Tribune online poll: About one-third of poll re-spondents were sophomores, and a little more than one-quarter said they were VMT teachers or staff.

all the absences that would oc-cur if it weren’t for this product. Most importantly, students need to educate themselves on germ prevention. This product works, but they still need to remember that it is very im-portant to wash their hands,” Ortiz said.

Based on a Magnet Tribune poll the vast majority of stu-dents at VMT use hand sani-tizer placed in the school caf-eteria. Those who used hand sanitizer totaled 72.7 percent. Half of the poll participants at-tend VMT, and about a third attends another LISD school.

“At first, it was because the janitors would tell us to. But I prefer to do it on my own now because there are tons of germs and I much rather have my hands clean and lower the risk to get sick,” said a poll

participant that attends VMT.Another participant was un-

aware of the sanitizers.“I didn’t even know we had

one! I haven’t seen it either.

But maybe when I do see it, I will TOTALLY use it,” said a responder from another LISD school.

SANITIZER, from page 1

Magnet Tribune online poll: More than one-half of poll respondents said they eat lunch at VMT, with the rest eating at another LISD school or a school not in LISD.

District 31-4A, football, 2012-2014

AliceCorpus Christi Flour BluffCorpus Christi MillerCorpus Christi MoodyCorpus Christi RayLaredo CigarroaLaredo MartinLaredo Nixon Source:UIL

5A to 4A, from page 1

Social Studies in-structor Matt Ar-ambula was se-lected as a 2012 Very Important Counselor for Texas A&M Uni-versity. He will visit the campus in April, and a VMT student will receive a $1,000 scholarship.

A&M recognizes instructor

bility that gang violence from Nuevo Laredo can cross into Laredo, come into our campus and harm us. Border violence is very intense, and the school is so close to all of it.

The college-like environment makes it more challenging for the security guards and teach-ers to keep track of us since downtown is near. While this has not happened, it’s possible

a student could be abducted, especially since in Nuevo Lar-edo gang members have been kidnapping people for ransom money.

All in all, these dangerous possibilities make the reloca-tion of our campus the best choice for us. The district can no longer take all of these risks that come with keeping the campus here. So now that we

have the chance to relocate to a new and safer environment, the district must take this op-portunity. Keep in mind that administrators don’t mean to take our freedom away; they just really want us to be as safe as possible.--By Dorathy Rodriguez, Ve-

ronica Lozano, Jasmine Ro-driguezof theMagnetTribunestaff.

EDITORIAL, from page 10

MT photo by Jazmin Garcia

12 The Magnet TribuneMarch 19, 2012

http://my.hsj.org/tx/laredo/vmt, Twitter: @Magnet_Tribune, Facebook: Search for Magnet_TribuneSchool News

Special moments to remember

Left: MT photo by Jessica CastilloBelow: MT photo by Amanda Johnson

The Gift of Christmas MusicLeft: Music and dance students, like Keanna Panko, performed at their Christmas recital at LCC.

10th anniversary of 9/11Below: Martin High ROTC students display the colors at VMT’s 9/11 ceremony at St. Peter’s Plaza.

Left: MT photo by Norma Guerra

Below: MT photo by Amanda Johnson

16 de septiembreLeft: Morning and after-noon students celebrated at the outdoor stage next to the Urbahn Build-ing. Shown are Jennifer Benavides, left, and Karla Ramirez.

Hispanic Heritage Fesitval

Below. The 19th annual festival honored late South Texas music educa-tor Eddie Galvan, whose picture overlooks the stage.

Top: MT photo by Jasmine Rodriguez

Bottom: MT photo by

Adrienne Flores

C h r i s t m a s carols

Choir students sang Christmas carols on the last day of the fall semester.

Halloween Costume Contests

The Magnet Tri-bune held its yearly contests for morning and afternoon stu-dents on Oct. 31.

Page design by Elizabeth Flores

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