The Granite Bay Gazette Volume 15 Issue 1

Fall

into fashion G10-11

Green Screen looks at hot autumn trends

Friday, September 16, 2011

Boys’ team aims for successful season

C1

Kicking off a new year

You wish y o

Gazette THE GRANITE BAY

B1

u could

too

Comparing the classes of 2011 and 2012 THE AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF GRANITE BAY HIGH SCHOOL

GRANITE BAY HIGH SCHOOL w 1 GRIZZLY WAY w GRANITE BAY, CA w 95746 w VOLUME 15 w ISSUE 1

Commentary

Chords of discord Misunderstanding over choir invite leads to confusion

BY KYLE PAWLAK

kpawlak.gazette@gmail.com

jessica reese jreese.gazette@gmail.com

Where you lead, Gilmores, I will follow

O

ne night six years ago, as my parents were heading out, my sister and I huddled in her room to watch a new show on ABC Family called Gilmore Girls.

It was witty and heartwarming, and my parents most definitely wouldn’t have approved. The plot of the show is, after all, a former teen mother raising her now teenage daughter – not exactly the kind of thing a parent wants their impressionable young girls to watch.

But our babysitter adored the show and convinced my mom to give it a chance. So that Thursday my mom, Jenna and I sat down to watch the latest episode.

Fast forward six years and you’ll still find us like that on any given evening – the only changes being the addition of my little sister and father to the viewers.

For me, Lorelai’s daughter, Rory, was the perfect role model: a young girl who aspires to be a great writer and, no matter her circumstances, pursues her collegiate dreams.

When I started watching the show I was a motor mouth and, much to the disappointment of those close to me, it did not seem to be a habit I could kick. I also happened to be a self-proclaimed braniac who adored school and reading – two things not widely accepted by fifth-grade girls.

And then I found Rory.

She had never kicked a soccer ball or loved P.E., never left home without a book, fully embraced her smarts and spoke a mile a minute.

For fifth-grade me, Rory was a role model I desperately needed as I entered middle school and then high school. I envied her determination, maturity and the confidence she had in herself and her dreams.

But most importantly, I saw a bit of her in me.

Ever since that fateful night, Rory and Lorelai have walked with my family through all the ups and downs of life.

When I did well on the PSAT, my mom turned on “Secrets and Loans” to celebrate (because my scores were “PSAT-riffic”).

When Jenna broke up with her boyfriend, we watched “The Break Up: Part Two” and encouraged her to wallow.

And, of course, whenever we encountered a snooty waiter, we called him Michele and suddenly the whole meal was so much better.

Like a secret code, we exchanged scraps of the Gilmore girls’ banter and wit over large bowls of coffee. It united us throughout the long years of adolescent angst and family turmoil.

And as my sister and I move on to new chapters in our lives, I know Lorelai and Rory will continue to tether the five of us.

Because, as the iconic opening song goes, “Where you lead, I will follow.” *** Jessica Reese, a senior, is a Gazette co-editor in chief.

As usual, the Granite Bay High School choir went on tour last year. Unlike previous years, however, the efforts of the Madrigal choir – who sing without accompaniment – attracted attention that brought them a prestigious opportunity.

Miscommunications between students, parents and facul-

ty led some to believe that the Madrigal choir was not taking advantage of the opportunity. In response, one student made a choice that has had major consequences.

According to principal Mike McGuire, there are several types of competitions the choir participates in, including a Madrigal competition in which students performed so well that they got “gold recognition.” It was because of this rec-

ognition that the Madrigal choir was asked to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

“Choir had a parent meeting advertised in emails about (what should be done with extra funds) and there was a discussion about the Madrigals and shouldn’t we apply the money to the Carnegie tour,” McGuire said.

In the end, those at the meeting left the decision to parents and the new choir teacher, April Bean, who took over the program from Kristin Faulkner.

Since no decision had been reached, the money was deposited with the tour company without any specific purpose attached.

Ten years ago, everything changed

See CHOIR, page A6

Bayside Church helped the Granite Bay community remember September 11 by posting 3,000 flags around the church campus to represent the lives lost in the attacks on 9/11.

More than XXXX people attended multiple services at Bayside over the weekend.

Scott Shaull, left, and two other Bayside attendees chat quietly near flag arrangements at a prayer service Sunday evening.

Gazette photo/ RACHAEL VASQUEZ

One Granite Bay family was spared a tragedy on Flight 93; another family wasn’t so lucky

BY SHANNON CARROLL scarroll.gazette@gmail.com

As the nation reflects on 9/11, few in the community seem to know just how intimately the terrorist attack hit Granite Bay. Two women with close ties to Granite Bay High School had tickets on United Airlines Flight 93, the plane that ultimately crashed in eastern Pennsylvania after passengers heroically prevented the hijackers from flying into either the Capitol Building or the White House.

One flew on a different flight and lived. The other switched from a later flight to United Airlines Flight 93 and died.

Photo courtesy of the GARTON FAMILY

The Garton family – son-in-law BJ Syzmanski, daughters Jessie and Jillian, husband Michael and son JJ – are grateful wife and mother Donna Garton, second from right, was spared on September 11, 2011.

Results in for STAR, AP tests

GBHS scores well on exams

BY RACHAEL VASQUEZ rvasquez.gazette@gmail.com

Last year, after Advanced Placement testing ended in May, many Granite Bay High School seniors were wearing the same forest green shirt.

It wasn’t an ordinary shirt. Its message – “If you didn’t take AP Economics, you don’t know shift” – was a testament to the newest AP course at GBHS. AP microeconomics and macroeconomics were added a year ago as part of a year-long block course with AP government and an elective called Law and Justice.

Donna Garton, the mother of three GBHS graduates, was dropping off her oldest daughter at Princeton University and had to stay an extra day in New York for a business meeting. She got bad news about a friend and slept fitfully. On September 11, she got to the airport well ahead of time and got on an earlier flight as Mike McGuire GBHS principal believes that incentives and teachers’ commitment helped motivate students.

a result.

Deora Bodley, a 20-year-old student at Santa Clara University at the time, was visiting friends in New York. She moved up her flight time because she

Low attendance jeopardizes dances

Party buses drawing away students

BY JESSICA REESE

Almost 140 students were enrolled in the course last year.

Of 113 seniors who took the AP microeconomics exam, 103 students passed with a score of three or higher – a 91 percent pass rate. In AP macroeconomics, 80 out of 107students who took the exam passed with a score of three or higher – a pass rate of 75 percent. Both pass rates were well above national pass rates last year.

In other words, AP economics students last year really knew their shift.

See TESTS, page A6

See REMEMBER, page A5

jreese.gazette@gmail.com

It seems Junior Prom has danced its last dance.

At the end of the school year in May, Student Government announced the dance had been eliminated from the calendar for the new school year. The main reason for its cancellation was a progressive decline in attendance. “(Junior Prom) hasn’t been a good money-maker for the class for the past few years, and last year attendance was so low that (the

class) actually lost money,” student government adviser Tamara Givens said.

Givens cites the increasing popularity of party buses as one of the contributing factors to this steady decline in attendance.

“The party-bus (trend) has killed our (attendance for) the date dances,” Givens said. “Because people want to do the party-bus thing rather than going to the actual dance.”

Party buses had, in the past, been See DANCES, page A5

inside this issue

News

A1 – A6

Voices

A7 – A9

Second Look

A10

Features

B1 – B8

Sports

C1 – C6

Green Screen

G1 – G20

AcaDec Makeover New year brings new team and new coach

A3

Clubbing at GBHS A photo essay from Club Day 2011

A12

News

A2

Granite Bay Gazette

Friday w September 16, 2011

NAMES IN THE NEWS

Michaela Monaghan mmonaghan.gazette@gmail.com

Teachers welcome new additions to their familes Over summer vacation, two Granite Bay High School teachers had new additions to their families.

Rachel Davis, the wife of Anthony Davis, an English teacher at GBHS, gave birth to a baby girl at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Roseville on July 2.

At birth, she weighed 8 pounds and 7 ounces. Davis and his wife named her Audrey Carolyn, however they plan to call her “Acie.”

His favorite part of having a new baby is “when she sleeps through the night,” Davis said.

Jennifer Hill, a Spanish teacher at GBHS, also gave birth this summer – but to twins!

She gave birth on June 13 to her daughter, Elizabeth Peach, at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and her son, Emory Joel, at 4 pounds, 14

Every day when I come home from work they look bigger to me and they are doing something new.

-Jennifer Hill, GBHS Spanish teacher

ounces.

Hill’s doctor was worried about Emory Joel because of his small size, but after a thorough examination he decided that Emory did not need to stay in the NICU. “My favorite part about having twins is watching them grow and develop. Every day when I come home from work they look bigger to me and they are doing something new,” Hill said.

However, having twins isn’t exactly a walk in the park.

“When one wakes up to eat, I have to wake the other one up too.

If I were not to do that, they could get into different feeding schedules and my husband and I would go insane!” Hill said.

The “Sunshine Bears,” a group of staff members at GBHS who donate to those in need, gave Hill quilts for the twins.

Horse Accident Jill Cova, also a Spanish teacher at GBHS, wasn’t quite so lucky this summer. On the weekend of Aug. 27, Cova fell off her horse and broke her scapula and one rib.

Cova spent one night in the hospital, and is currently recuperating at her home.

American Youth Leaders Summit Three GBHS students attended the American Youth Leaders Summit in Valley Forge.

The America Youth Leaders Summit is three-day conference that focuses on lectures, workshops, leadership skills and historical tours.

Junior, Ashlin Howes and seniors, Moosa and Haroon Zaidi, attended the conference from April 11 to 14.

The Freedoms Foundation’s Sacramento Chapter chose 19 high school students from the Sacramento area. These 19 students were given scholarships and the chance to attend the conference.

Identification Statement Granite Bay Gazette Published eight times per academic year c/o Granite Bay High School 1 Grizzly Way Granite Bay, CA 95746 Subscriptions: $25 per year/ $15 per half year

Granite Bay family finds out what is the most important through hardships Krumals keep a positive perspective through multiple tragedies

BY NICOLE BALES

nbales.gazette@gmail.com

In our community there is a little eight year old girl named Arabella.

She is a shy girly girl and the only girl out of three brothers. Her favorite things to do is play with her dolls, arts and crafts and listen to her dads bed time stories before she goes to sleep. But every night after he leaves her room she cries herself to sleep because she is afraid that any day terminal cancer will take her daddy away from her.

Tim and Jana Krumal have been married for 18 years and have lived in their Granite Bay home for 13, with their four children, Carson,13, Camden,10, Arabella,8 and Clinton,6.

Four out of the six have been stricken with life threatening diseases, yet their outlook on life is amazingly positive. Rather than focusing on themselves the humble family uses their misfortunes to help others get through hard times.

Last October, Tim Krumal, a pastor at an Auburn church, was diagnosed with two terminal lymphoma cancers, one of which is incurable, stage four.

Gazette photo /KRUMAL FAMILY

Jana Krumal and daughter, Arabella, play with a cootie catcher together on a lawn chair in their backyard. Jana suffered both from an arrhythmia and breast cancer. Despite the circumstances, the family has stayed positive and encouraging.

He has slow-growing lymphoma in his bones and by the time he was diagnosed, it was 60percent in his bone marrow.

After his first round of chemotherapy, doctors soon realized his

only chance was a bone marrow transplant.

Tim has since gone through six rounds of chemotherapy and gets a neupogen shot every day.

“Just the word cancer makes people fearful when you hear it,”

Tim said. “I remember when we first found out (we were) in shock for a while, but it does put things into perspective. For me, my whole goal of it, is ok God, what are you going to teach me out of this? You almost begin to simplify life and

Minimum days effect GB’s local economy Because of the large crowds, both Nuyo and Jamba Juice use more workers on mini Panera Bread supervisor Courtney Huber.

Businesses love that the students come and When Granite Bay High School has a day off, students scatter in all directions to eat at bring a huge lunch rush to their restaurants.

“One o’clock came, and everyone and their lunch options in the local shopping centers.

Restaurants around GBHS love the cus- mothers stopped by,” Naverrete said.

Managers seeking to get the most customers tomers that their close proximity to the high during minimum days, are starting to school brings. Junior pay attention to the dates of the miniNavarrete, manager mum days. “I have a couple of emof the local Jamba GBHS proployees that go to school at (GBHS) Juice says, “GBHS and they brought me a school calenprovides great busivides great dar,” Naverrete said. ness for us.” business for Businesses that were unaware of When so many the minimum days, like Panara, are students race to their us. looking for opportunities to bring favorite eatery, man– Junior Navarrete, business in. “I have been looking agers like NaverJamba Juice into getting a calendar going with all rete are sometimes the local events like the minimum manager caught off guard by days at the high school so we can the minimum days. prepare for them.” Naverrete said.

“Nobody (tells) me Brian Wilbert, a store supervisor it was a minimum at Nuyo, said the manager pays very day,” said Navarrete Even though Panera is not within walking close attention to events at the high school distance, students still flood to Panera once like minimum days in order to prepare for them. school gets out for the day.

Nuyo and GBHS are very closely linked “We weren’t aware ahead of time,” said

BY CHASE EVANS

See HARDSHIPS, page A6 Jamba Juice on the corner of Sierra College and Douglas brings in a lot of business from GBHS students on minimum days

GBHS students help local businesses while eating out on minimum days cevans.gazette@gmail.com

realize you spend a lot of time and energy on things that are really insignificant. It’s really helped me focus on what’s important.”

Shortly after Tim was diagnosed,

through the short walking distance.

“Our close proximity to the school really helps,” Wilbert said.

“It’s nice because later in the day when we have all of our regular customers, they get their drink faster because all the (students) came after school,” Naverrete said.

Businesses like Jamba Juice rely on the customer satisfaction of the students who go to Jamba Juice in the mornings to help market their restaurant for minimum days.

“We have tons of kids come here before school,” Naverette said.

Nuyo, however, is offering incentives for students to visit the restaurant. “(In the past) we offered our 1 dollar off for a student ID card, and we are considering bringing it back,” Wilbert said.

Nuyo is hoping this cheaper refreshment will attract more students on minimum days and throughout the year.

With such a large amount of people coming to their businesses, the managers are some-

Gazette photo/ rileY mac MilLan

times understaffed.

“I didn’t have enough people here,” Naver eete said.

Because of the large crowds, both Nuyo and Jamba Juice use more workers on minimum days to accommodate the students.

“Our main goal is to get people their drinks as fast as possible,” Naverette said.

Because of all the GBHS students, “the manager puts more staff on the high schools minimum days,” Wilbert said.

GBHS students definitely bolster the local economy on minimum days because of their appetite at local restaurants.

“The kids love to get yogurt on their way home on minimum days,” Wilbert said.

The more kids that go to local businesses to eat, the more profit that restaurant gains.

“Minimum days are great business for us,” Navarette said.

Naviance is the newest tool in college search

Technology helps you find your perfect school under many different criterias

BY SYDNEY KAHMANN

skahmann.gazette@gmail.com

Naviance Family Connection, one of Granite Bay High School’s online programs, helps students and parents research and apply to colleges.

However, only 342 of 2,100 have accessed Naviance this school year as of 9/2/11.

Many students, like sophomore Rylee McKeon, didn’t even know what Naviance was.

So the current goal is to get “the

students and parents onboard,” according to Christina Cross, GBHS’s newest counselor who is now heading the Naviance efforts.

“Naviance really is a tremendous resource,” Cross said. “I use the analogy that it is like one-stop shopping for students in their academic journey.”

Cross isn’t alone. Faculty across campus are all trying to get students involved.

Julia Hedstrom, the GBHS librarian, actively takes students and teachers into the library and teach-

es them how to use the resumebuilder option.

Cindi Underwood, who oversees the college and career center, frequently updates the college and career information on Naviance so that it shows the newest scholarships and what colleges will be visiting GBHS. Julie Leedy, an administrative assistant from the office, does a huge part in updating student information onto Naviance as well.

But what exactly is GBHS trying to get students to do with Na-

viance?

Cross and the GBHS staff want students to take advantage of the resources offered to help them make knowledgeable decisions about their college and career choices.

For freshmen, Cross recommends Naviance’s online four-year planning guide.

The Naviance course plan lets students decide what classes they want to take, and then tells them if they will have enough credits to graduate.

“The personality assessment and career interest inventory are also really neat,” Cross said.

These parts of Naviance are geared for sophomores and juniors, telling them which jobs are best suited for their strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes, according to Cross.

But the personality survey and four-year planning guide are really just the beginning.

See NAVIANCE, page A6

Friday, September 16, 2011

News

w The Granite Bay Gazette

A3

Academic Decathlon: Coach Davis’ lasting legacy New team, new coach, new strategy

The new season also features a new coach, Brad Cordell, the GBHS art history teacher.

“I knew that there were enough students who were interested in forming a team, but no teachers who were able to coach it,” Cordell said in an email interview. “I was

BY CHRIS PEI up for the challenge.” cpei.gazette@gmail.com This is Cordell’s first year as Academic Decathlon coach, although With the start of the 2011-12 he has assisted coaching the Art school year, numerous sports History portion of the competition teams, clubs and extracurricular for the past several seasons. committees have Under Coach had to cope with Anthony Dathe graduation of vis’s tutelage, the valuable and sucI am here GBHS Academic cessful Granite Decathlon team to carry on Bay High School has been able to the tradition alumni. advance to the One such exstate competition of leading the ample of this is every year for the GBHSAca Dec the Academic past decade. Thus Decathlon team, Cordell feels that team to victory. which has an enhe “has big shoes – Brad Cordell, tirely new team to fill” as the new GBHS Aca Dec roster apart from coach. the two returning Coach Cordell said he veterans: seniors will receive lots Moosa Zaidi, of help this seathe team captain, son, from both the and Nick Jones. team members The new team members for this and GBHS staff. season include Haroon Zaidi, Mol“I am here to carry on the tradilie Suilon, Karmtej Singh, Hayley tion of leading the GBHS AcaDec Porter, Meg Lyons, Aurora Gaumer Team to victory. I don’t plan on acand Nicole Carter. complishing this on my own,” he

Gazette photo /RILEY MAC MILLAN

Academic Decathlon coach Brad Cordell, above, goes over critical material with senior and team president Moosa Zaidi.

Karmtej Cheema and Aurora Gaumer, left, review their notes.

Gazette photo /RILEY MAC MILLAN

said. According to Cordell, Davis, despite having stepped down from the team on paternity leave, “will still participate as a specialist in economics and the speeches, and assist the team as needed.”

This season’s team members, according to Cordell, are exceptionally skilled in a number of academic areas, which greatly contribute to a very “solid and balanced team.”

“We have several musicians on

the team who will provide leadership in music theory. Several members are from the art department and will share their knowledge with the team. We also have team members who will provide

leadership in math and science.”

Cordell said. “The team from last season and I conducted interviews at the end of last May. There were See ACADEC, page A4

New year invites new teachers to GBHS

English Department welcomes new teacher, alumnus Micaela Badaracco

BY DORIEN JOHNK djohnk.gazette@gmail.com

Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ

Micaela Badaracco, a new English teacher at GBHS, talks to one of her students. She believes that personal connections are important because “everyone learns differently.”

T-dap vaccinations required at GBHS

BY BROOKLYN KLEPL bklepl.gazette@gmail.com

In California in 2010, there were the most cases of whooping cough in 60 years – 4,017 confirmed cases of Pertussis, an average of 10.3 cases per 100,000 people.

Adolescents are most vulnerable to whooping cough between the ages of 13 to 18. This is another reason why the state of California has mandated the Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis vaccination for this year.

Effective this school year, students without the Tdap vaccination cannot attend public schools in California.

“They should have been (making the vaccine mandatory) all along,” said Lindsey Chen, the nurse practitioner at the Sutter Pediatric Teen Clinic in Roseville.

Chen added that if the state was to make the vaccination mandatory for more than this year, there would be a much greater chance of wiping out pertussis altogether.

Some students and their families, however, have decided not

to be vaccinated.

Although this shot is mandatory for public schools, more than 100 Granite Bay High School students have not had the vaccine. The deadline was Monday, Sept. 5, and students without the vaccination are not supposed to be attending school.

“Some people feel like they (need to get) a personal waiver (or) that they have certain reasons, certain medical reasons (to exempt themselves from receiving the vaccination),” said Granite Bay High School nurse Linda Warfield.

Students who have not yet been vaccinated and are not eligible for an exemption or waiver can go to a local teen clinic, like Sutter Pediatric Teen Clinic, their doctor, a hospital or even local drug stores such as the Walgreens on Douglas Blvd. and Sierra College Blvd.

There have been some cases at GBHS where, after receiving the vaccination, the students’ arms began to swell and get sore. Students said their arms See TDAP, page A6

Every year, schedule pick-up day is an exciting day for both new and returning Granite Bay High School students. Schedules are not only received by students, but then carefully examined to see what teachers they have for the upcoming year.

This year, there are ten new subject teachers on campus, and each has their own story. One teacher, however, is a familiar face to some of the faculty at GBHS. Micaela Badaracco is a 2004 GBHS graduate who is now teaching her first year of sophomore English. After graduating in 2004, Badaracco continued her education at Sierra College, and then transferred to UC Davis. Upon receiving her degree in English, she decided to come back

COLLEGE AND CAREER CENTER SAT I & II Deadlines: Test date

Deadline

Late

Oct. 1

Sept. 9

Sept. 21

Nov. 5

Oct. 7

Oct. 21

Dec. 3

Nov. 8

Nov. 20

Oakmont HS staff member’s lasting impact remembered As the opening weeks came to a close for Oakmont High School, the teachers and faculty were heavy with thoughts and memories of a late staff member, Kathleen Sirovy. In April, Sirovy was diagnosed with a brain tumor and on Friday, Aug. 19, she died.

Sirovy was known throughout the district and certainly at Oakmont High School for being a beloved teacher, coach, assistant principal, and 10-year principal of the high school. As an assistant principal at Granite Bay High School 10 years ago, she touched the lives of many and made a long-lasting impact on both schools and the district.

Her husband George Sirovy, a retired GBHS teacher and athletic director, is a remembered faculty member on the GBHS campus. Many of his past co-workers are supporting him and

to the Roseville Joint Union High School Dis- ways, so that her lessons are always interesting. trict and start teaching.

This keeps her students engaged with the conBadaracco began her tent. teaching career at AnteAshley Atkins, a sophomore, is lope High School and then currently in Badaracco’s English 10 I was very soon found herself back at class. excited to have GBHS. “She explains the content very “I’ve always kind of wantwell,” Atkins said. “I feel like she the opportued to teach here,” Badaracco will prepare me for English (in my) nity to (teach said. “I was very excited to junior year.” have the opportunity to.”

Not only is Badaracco teaching at Granite Bay This semester, Badaracco English classes, but next semester, High School). is fully committed to teachshe will be tackling her first AP Lan– Micaela Badaracco, ing her English classes to guage course. the best of her ability.

Florentino Guzman, an English GBHS English teacher “I try to use a variety of teacher at GBHS, is currently trainstrategies because everyone ing Badaracco to successfully teach learns differently,” she said. her first AP class. Every day during Along with helping out students individually, See TEACHERS, page A4 she works with the materials she has in multiple

News Briefs

Gazette photo /OLIVIA CORNELL

On Club Day, Sept. 9, new and returning students alike traverse from table to table in the GBHS quad during their one lunch, in hopes of finding the club for them.

thinking of his late wife.

One teacher at GBHS was closer to Sirovy than most. Kay Bacharach, an English teacher at GBHS, was a close neighbor and friend of Sirovy. Both of their families were close, and Bacharach got to know Sirovy as an amazing person.

In an email, Bacharach said “She was just plain ol’ fun. Her energy and excitement for life influenced everyone, and as a result, everyone loved being around her.”

Fall Play Twenty six students are already hard at work, getting ready for their upcoming play, “What I Want To Say But Never Will.”

From rehearsals to stage setup, these students have been busy trying to create a play that impacts GBHS. This particular play explores the intimate question of: if you could say anything you wanted, what would you say? And who

would you say it to?

The goal of this student production is to create a play that offers a glimpse into teenagers’ important and most private thoughts. Opening night is Thursday, Sept. 29 at 7:30 in the GBHS theatre.

Club Day More than 50 club tables lined the pathways of the Granite Bay High School quad last Friday for Club Day. During the one lunch, students of all grades were doing what they could to advertise their clubs, whether it was handing out candy, blasting music and dancing or passing out papers to students within their table range.

Every Club Day has always been focused on reaching out to all students and trying to help them find their niche at Granite Bay High School. This year’s Club Day was no different.

-compiled by Dorien Johnk

ASB UPDATE Michaela Monaghan, ASB Athletics Commissioner, reflects on Sports-a-Rama The Gazette talked to Athletics Commissioner Michaela Monaghan.

Gazette: How will Sports-a-Rama differ from previous years?

This year the event is taking place on a Friday instead of a Wednesday. We switched the day to have more attendance because it has become such a popular event over past couple of years.

Gazette: How will you try to improve

the attendance besides changing the day of the week?

We’re going to try to get media really involved in advertising it. We have full teams this year for each class so we’re going to have them try to get their classmates to come.

Gazette: What events will take place this year for Sports-a-Rama?

There’s a class skit, a boys’ dance and a girls’ dance for every class and rally games.

The rally games include a tire race, a relay race, pass the person and human snake.

Gazette: What do you hope Sports-aRama will bring to our school?

I hope all the classes have good sportsmanship and are able to cheer on other classes while still supporting their own class. In the stand, I hope that there is positive competition and that everyone is really enthusiastic.

-compiled by Rachael Vasquez Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ

Michaela Monaghan, ASB Athletics Director, says Sports-arama will be taking place on a Friday this year, Sept.

23, in order to raise attendance.

A4 News

Friday, September 16, 2011

Borders closing its doors forever Employees and students reflect on what they will miss

BY KRISTIN TAYLOR

ktaylor.gazette@gmail.com

Every weekend a girl and her best friend could be found at Borders, losing themselves in ‘once upon a time’s’ in a place with shelves upon shelves of bound paper that seem endless.

But within the next month, Emilie Decavel-Bueff’s old routine will be cut short. Her escapes to fairy tales will be no more. Her weekend routine was to eat at Fresh Choice and then walk over to Borders and spend hours scouring book shelves.

Soon, however, the second half of this plan will be eliminated.

Borders recently became a heartbreaking site for book lovers, but a dream come true for opportunists looking to buy books for cheap.

Half-full shelves are crowded into the front of the store. Everything in the store, from bookmark to bookshelf, has to go.

“We started doing our 10 day or 14 days in the last couple of days and the last couple of weeks basically for sales,” said Alex Telander, sales manager of the Borders store on Douglas Blvd.

Bright and urgent signs out front advertise sales ranging from 60 to 80 percent off to bring in customers and clear out every last shelf before the store close at the end of the month.

“When everyone thought we were closing … it was our biggest day we’ve ever had,” Telander said,

“Since then, we’ve had a lot of bigger days, making even our Christmases seem not as big.”

Two GBHS juniors, DecavelBueff and friend Taylor Reynolds, contributed to these “bigger days.”

Over the summer, Decavel-Bueff made a $335 trip to Borders where she spent a couple of hours picking out well over a dozen books which she brought bags to carry around with her. “(Checkout) took a really long time,” Decavel-Bueff said. “The line wrapped all the way around the café and round the whole magazine area. It was like an hour.”

A week ago, Reynolds arrived with the same goal and looking for some great deals.

“I ended up spending about $150 on $220 worth of books,” she said, “and I got 20 or 25 or so books.”

Reynolds said all the best stuff was already gone, and that was reflected in a diminished crowd.

“It’s pretty low-key right now,” Reynolds said. “(It) was about the same as when I would go there (before the sales started).”

There’s no question that Borders will be missed by book lovers, but the fates of the employees are also in question.

Telander said the store is doing all it possibly can to help his coworkers, many of whom are Sierra College and Sacramento State students.

“We’re really open to-if someone has an interview or something scheduled- and we’re just letting them go,” he said, “We’re putting up job postings and stuff like that when we see things.”

But why exactly is Borders closing? Was the competition of the second-hand bookstore across the street too much for them? Is it the

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Gazette photo /riley mac millan

Signs inside Borders advertise the storewide closing sales, some of which approach 70 percent off their original prices. As some signs state, every item in the store is on sale and must sell before the store finally shuts down. recession to blame? Did the introduction of the Kindle and the Ipad have anything to do with it?

Telander said the entire company is crashing. As of Jan. 30, 2010, Borders operated 511 stores worldwide. Borders started in the ’70s and did well in the mid ’80s, early ’90s but was forced to apply for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 16, and is now in the process of closing down all its stores.

Telander blames reading devices for a big part of it.

“The Nook that Barnes and Noble had took a big chunk out of the market, and Borders I think was just too slow in getting on that band wagon,” Telander said. “When you have a Kindle or a Nook, you’re not going to buy from Borders, you’re going to buy from Amazon or Barnes and Noble and… there are lots of low sales because of

that.”

Telander said Borders made a second big mistake with its website.

The company didn’t always have an official website and was tied to Amazon for a long time.

As for the Almost Perfect Bookstore down the street, employee Scott Singley said the introduction of the electronic reading devices didn’t affect them at all.

“There’s too many people that still like the feel of books. Plus, not everything is available yet on a Kindle or a Nook,” said Singley, “I don’t think reading devices, the Kindle, the Nook, the Ipad, are ever going to be any more than a niche product.”

Telander expressed a similar view to Singley’s.

“Things like going to signings and stuff like that (don’t work without books),” he said, “My Ipad is a lot

of fun, but I have a thousand books too. Sometimes you have a cool cover that you won’t be able to get with the e-book version and have the same connection with.”

Singley said that for Almost Perfect, the struggling economy has actually increased sales to some extent, as people are trying to save money by buying books for less.

While Almost Perfect Bookstore prospered while Borders floundered, competition created no animosity.

“We actually have fairly good working relationships,” Singley said, “Sometimes if we didn’t have stuff, we’d send (customers) to Borders. A lot of employees are customers here. They would send people here when they didn’t have stuff. It was fairly symbiotic.”

Singley said he knew the real source of Borders’ problem.

“They weren’t meeting their bills.

They were paying their management staff, they were paying their shareholders, but they weren’t really taking care of the bills and they let the bills pile up until it was too late.”

And the piling up of those bills has shut down a store that many will miss terribly, including Telander, Reynolds and Decavel-Bueff.

Telander admitted he’s going to miss the Borders employees the most.

“It’s all about the people you work with and they’re really great people and great friends,” he said about his coworkers.

While Reynolds acknowledged that Barnes&Noble is an alternative for booklovers, some feel it can’t replace Borders.

“I’ve never been to Barnes and Noble actually, Reynolds said. “I don’t even know where it is.”

Survey reveals problem areas ACADEC: Many members had family McGuire thinks that this is irresponsible and doesn’t help the situation.

Kathy Sinor, a GBHS healthand-safety teacher, also thinks parent providers are a major issue. sults showed also nineteen percent The survey results show that by of freshmen, but 29 percent of 12th grade, 57 percent of students sophomores, 35 percent of juniors, had been to an event or party and 44 percent of seniors had used where an adult let them drink. drugs in the past 30 days.

“That’s alarming,” Sinor said, “I’m shocked to hear how many “We need to put to emphasis on people are dabbling in these ilparents.” legal substances; hopefully these She believes that if parents statistics will help the whole com- drug-tested their kids and put munity in realizing the changes more consequences on the matter, needed for a brighter tomorrow,” there wouldn’t be such a problem Kastner said. because kids would get in trouble.

The freshmen and seniors last Also, students know that drinking is harmful to your body. year had lower percentages comEighty-six percent of students pared to the district results for use of drugs like marijuana, inhalants, answered that they knew alcohol is dangerous, but kids continue to cocaine, methamphetamine or drink. any am“We’ve got to phetamines, Peer pressure, figure out a way to ecstasy, LSD get peers to believe or other psyit’s stronger than they can have fun chedelics, and gravity and fact... without (drugs or other illegal alcohol),” McGuire hang out with the drug or pill. said.

The classes of people you want Some kids just 2013 and 2012 to be. do it because their had higher friends are doing it. percentages.

“Peer pressure, In fact, – Mike McGuire, it’s stronger than at GBHS, gravity and fact,” GBHS Principal the class of McGuire said.

2012 had two He has some adpercent more vice for students: “Hang out with students using alcohol and two the people you wanna be.” percent more using marijuana than He also thinks parents need to the class of 2011. pay attention to the kids their child Also, the class of 2012 had five hang out with. percent more students smoking “Kids will sacrifice family valcigarettes. ues, everything, ignore all of that “It’s really disappointing to hear to belong,” McGuire said. that kids in my class are doing But the survey was not only hard-core drugs. Hopefully, these about drugs, it also had many delinquents that are participating questions about the quality of life in illegal drug abuse will realat GBHS. ize how they are damaging their Although physical bullying is future,” Kastner said, “Getting rare on campus (95 percent of (poop)-faced is so immature.” seniors last year had never been However, McGuire isn’t too afraid of being in a fight), rumors, surprised with the results. sexual jokes and being made fun “The trends seemed to be what I of is fairly common. would have predicted,” he said.

Twenty-five percent of freshmen He believes that a major problast year had sexual jokes, comlem in the underage drinking and ments and gestures made towards other drug abuse is parent providthem, and 17 percent had been ers. made fun of for their personal “(Kids) are getting prescription appearance, while upperclassmen pills and alcohol from home. In had much lower results. some instances, the parents are One very disturbing piece from providing because they think they the survey is that around 20 perhelp,” McGuire said. cent of students at GBHS didn’t Parents think that their child will feel safe at school. drink anyway, so why not give it Kastner could only offer a few to them at home where the will be words of wisdom for her peers: safe? “hugs not drugs!”

Questions concern bullying, drugs, student living situation

BY OLIVIA CORNELL

ocornell.gazette@gmail.com

Last year, every student at Granite Bay High School took a survey. A survey that, at the time, meant little to many students: it was simply something that took up a class period and had questions about living situation, drug use and similar topics.

Its official name: The California Healthy Kids Survey.

The purpose of the survey was for the state to collect data on student well being and doesn’t affect school funding or rank, according to GBHS principal Mike McGuire.

“Our biggest concern is the amount of access students have at home,” McGuire said, “(We look for) any particular areas (the administration) needs to pay attention to.”

One surprising result was that 11 percent of freshmen didn’t feel they had a teacher that cared about them.

Page Kastner, a senior at Granite Bay High, lamented this statistic. “(It’s) unfortunate that some underclassmen feel that their teachers don’t care about their success,” Kastner said.

The survey also asked questions about alcohol use. At GBHS, 46 percent of last year’s seniors had, in the past 30 days, consumed alcohol.

Results from the same question also showed that 37 percent of juniors, 25 percent of sophomores, and 16 percent of freshmen had done so.

Also, 23 percent of students like to drink in order to get drunk.

In a compilation of the results of all the schools in the district, drinking levels were slightly lower- 40 percent of seniors, 30 percent of juniors, 23 percent of sophomores, and 15 percent of freshmen, last year, had consumed alcohol in the 30 days prior to the survey.

For overall drug use, Granite Bay High also had slightly higher results than the district as a whole Nineteen percent of freshmen, 30 percent of sophomores, 40 percent of juniors, and 48 percent of seniors, last year, admitted to some type of drug use in the month prior to the survey.

In comparison, the district re-

and friends on the previous team

next time we go back, we have to summarize what we read,” Singh 17 applicants for seven positions. said. “Mr. Cordell usually has All of those who interviewed were power points put up, so it’s almost strong candidates.” like another class. The difference The members of the current is, it’s a lot more social and interteam decided to audition either active.” Singh said. because of siblings According or friends who to the team You study much captain, Moosa were previously on the team, or by Zaidi, there more in-depth in Cordell’s recomare several a specific topic... mendation. competitions “My sister did it throughout the In that sense, last year, so going season which it’s much more through the process the team has with her, going to rewarding and to prepare for, all her competiincluding a immersive than tions, it seemed friendly scrimschool. like it would be mage with great if I got into Bella Vista – Moosa Zaidi, it,” said Meg High School, Team Captain Lyons, a senior and a county new team member. competition in “As an individuFebruary that al, I’d like to work determines if at bettering myself in the acathe team advances to state, and a demic portion of the competition.” Northern California scrimmage Lyons said. “Personally, I’m more that’s held at Sacramento State of an art and music type person.”

University.

“My friends recommended When asked about the changes that I try out, said it was a good in the team roster, coach, and program,” said Karmtej Singh, a overall atmosphere, the team came junior and new team member. “I to a consensus that although many didn’t think the interview went too aspects of Academic Decathlon well, but I guess it did.” have indeed changed, “that isn’t Practices are twice a week at the necessarily a bad thing.” start of the season, but as the com“It’ll definitely be different this petition draws closer, the team can year, as Mr. Cordell has more meet up to as often as five times a of a free-flowing teaching style, week, sometimes even including whereas Mr. Davis was much Saturday practices. more ‘to the book’,” Lyons said.

“Every practice we get assigned “They’re both great. I’m sad to 20 to 30 pages of reading, and the lose Mr. Davis as a coach, but I’m Continued from page A3

also glad to have Mr. Cordell take over,” Zaidi said. “As for how they’re different, obviously Mr. Davis is much more experienced, having been the coach for 11 years. Mr. Cordell and I are kind of figuring it out along with the rest of group as we go.”

Zaidi, apart from being the team captain, is also an IB diploma candidate, so he often has to carefully balance his rigorous schoolwork along with his team commitment.

“There’s definitely a time commitment involved in it,” Zaidi said. “It mainly comes down to how much time you personally want to put in though; we only require our team members to finish the reading assigned to them.

Besides that, it’s just review and getting ready for the competition.”

“Yes, it’s like having another class in some ways, but it’s also different, in that you study much more in-depth in a specific topic, and study all the aspects of it. In that sense, it’s much more rewarding and immersive than school, where you’re just buzzing through the material.”

“As a team, I think our goal isn’t just to advance to state or nationals, but to also grow as a team in the process.” Lyons said. “I’m hoping that each of us will be able to learn how to work with each other, and eventually build a sense of camaraderie and teamwork.”

TEACHERS: Math, science, Spanish all

add new staff to their faculty rosters Continued from page A3

third period, Badaracco observes his current AP Lang class to see how the class should be taught.

“She takes copious notes in the back everyday,” Guzman said.

“I try to show her at least every different strategy of group work... so she has a lot of tools under her belt when she goes next semester to do it.”

Badaracco is very excited to teach AP Lang and has many goals for her upcoming year at GBHS. “I want my students to improve overall and gain their own confidence and their own abilities to grow,” Badaracco said. As for herself, she wants to improve her skills and use the most effective strategies she can to continue to

grow as a teacher.

“She is inspirational,” Guzman said. “She has a fire about her, and I think she is going to rock it next semester.” *** Badaracco is one of the many new teachers at GBHS. This year, two new math teachers arrived ready to teach. Tom Farmer, who teaches geometry and algebra, graduated from Sacramento State with a major in psychology and a minor in math. The other, Shayne Steadman, is an Algebra 1 and 2 teacher, who went to East Connecticut State University and majored in math.

Kyle Holmes is a new English 11 teacher. He graduated from UC Davis with a master’s degree in English. Ben Soper, the new Spanish 1 and 2 teacher, majored

in Spanish at CSU Stanislaus.

The GBHS science department added three new science teachers this year. Heidi Rounds, a graduate of UC Davis with a Bachelors Degree in biology, currently teaches CP and IB Biology. Alex Schmid, a CP Biology teacher, went to San Diego State University and majored in biology. The third is Damien Lawrence. He teaches Honors Chemistry and IB Chemistry and graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in biology.

The last two new subject teachers at GBHS are Judy Brown, a new culinary teacher, and April Bean, a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, who majored in music and music education, and teaches piano lab, chamber and madrigal choir.

Friday, September 16, 2011

A5 News

w The Granite Bay Gazette

REMEMBER: Santa Clara student wanted to get home from N.Y. sooner

Continued from page A1

wanted to get home sooner to see her friends, family and her boyfriend, Ryan Lindow, who graduated from GBHS in 1999.

The stories of these two women show just how hard 9/11 hit communities and families across the country, and how precarious our existence can be. What follows is literally a story of both life and death.

Making every moment count Deora Bodley grew up in San Diego, where she attended La Jolla Country Day School. She played basketball and was captain her senior year. She enjoyed writing – for school assignments and in journals -- and she was a poet. On the back of a picture her mom took of her looking at the Grand Canyon, Bodley wrote: “If I would just live for the moment, and make every moment count, maybe the future would work out. Maybe that moment would be a doorway to the future.”

Bodley’s parents divorced when she was young, but she remained very close with both of them.

Rain enchanted Bodley as a child, and she went outside whenever rain started. When she got older, she loved to drive her car – first a Ford Escort, then a Neon, then, finally, a Jeep she bought herself.

Growing up, Bodley was a volunteering machine.

She volunteered at the San Diego Zoo and at the Helen Woodward Center, which provides care and adoption for animals that have been orphaned. She was also heavily involved with Special Olympics. She helped with Teens Respond to AIDS with Caring and Education (TRACE) and would go from school to school talking to fellow high school students about sexually transmitted diseases.

When it came time for college, Bodley decided to stay in-state and attend Santa Clara University. She doublemajored in psychology and French – she planned to get a doctorate and become a child psychologist so she could help children during their toughest times.

She was a beautiful girl with dark hair, a wide smile and kind eyes that reflected caring and compassion.

She was in a serious relationship with GBHS alum Lindow, who also went to Santa Clara University. He politely declined to comment for this story.

Near the end of her summer break in 2001, Bodley went to New York to visit friends, as she often did. She decided to come home early, to see friends and family and get ready for her junior year at Santa Clara. She rebooked her flight for an 8 a.m. departure and headed to Newark Airport.

She had no issues as she cleared security, headed to Gate 17 in Concourse A and settled into her window seat, 20F, on a Boeing 757. Perhaps she relaxed, as most people do when they have finished with all the logistics that precede a plane flight. She might have even closed her eyes and leaned her head against the window. But we’ll never know, because the date was September 11, 2001, and she had just boarded United Airlines Flight 93.

Bodley was the youngest of the 44 passengers aboard the flight –including the four hijackers.

The hijackers invaded the cockpit, using box cutters they had managed to get aboard as weapons. The hijackers then turned the airplane around and headed toward Washington, D.C. Anguished passengers contacted loved ones on their cellphones and quickly learned about the three planes that had already crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, so those on board surely knew they were in grave danger.

At least some of the passengers decided not to go quietly. Four men – all former college athletes – used a food cart to try to ram their way into the cockpit and prevent the terrorists from destroying another national icon. The hijackers then crashed the plane. The last words that Todd Beamer – one of the four men who charged the cockpit – uttered before moving toward the front of the plane were the now immortal phrase, “Let’s roll.”

“My baby was no longer there” Bodley’s mother, Deborah Borza, said she can re-

ONLINE ONLY The changing views of September 11 wSenior writer Shannon Carroll looks at how our attitudes about 9/11 have changed over the last decade, and at how Bayside Church helped remember the victims as part of the tragedy’s ten-year anniversary. . wRead the story online at:

granitebaygazette.com

member September 11, 2001, as clearly as if it was yesterday.

Borza got two calls in the morning, relaying the message that her daughter was coming in on an earlier flight, United Flight 93. Borza learned from news broadcasts that Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, but the possibility that her daughter was on the plane didn’t seem real. Borza wouldn’t believe it until she got an official call.

“I went to work, and there was a Catholic church across the street,” Borza said. “I asked God where (Deora) was. He was the only one who knew. He told me, ‘She’s with me.’ ” At 12:20 p.m., she got the official call from United Airlines, saying Bodley’s name was on the flight manifest.

Borza still couldn’t process the information. She sat in silence for what seemed like forever.

“I dropped my phone and started screaming in the church,” Borza recalled, her throat tightening. “It was horrible. I was yelling out, screaming my daughter’s name, calling out for my baby who was no longer here.”

What might have been Borza is now left with only her memories and speculation of what might have been.

“A lot of her friends would talk about how she was always there for them,” Borza said. “She knew when to come around to be with them and give them a hug. She always seemed to know what they needed.”

Kathy Almzaol, the principal of St. Clare Catholic Elementary, where Bodley volunteered while at Santa Clara, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2001: “(She had) a phenomenal ability to work with people. We have 68 kids who had a personal association with Deora.”

Borza remembered: “Kids clung to her. I had some of those kids come up to me years later and tell me that, because of Deora, they loved reading.”

While no one can accurately predict what Bodley’s life would have been like 10 years later, Borza guesses her daughter would be married by now, possibly with a child.

“I’m sure she would be doing really cool, fun, family things,” Borza said.

She thinks Bodley would have her doctorate in psychology and would be counseling people.

“She made a difference everywhere she went,” Borza said. “People depended on her.”

Imagine what she could have done with 10 more years, and then the decades beyond that.

An inexplicable decision Donna Garton’s husband, Michael, actually flew on United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco. It’s just that his Flight 93 was on September 10, not September 11.

The Gartons had flown to New Jersey to help their daughter Jessie move into her new school, Princeton University. Donna had to stay an extra day because of a work obligation with Stanford University.

She had a late dinner on September 10, then got a call with some bad news regarding a friend’s health. She slept poorly.

The next morning, she left the Warwick Hotel in New York City around 6 and hailed a cab. Both she and the driver were surprised by how quickly they got to the airport. She was supposed to leave on Flight 93 for San Francisco at 8, but she was told at the check-in counter that there were seats available on a 7 o’clock flight.

She knew the change wasn’t going to save her any time, because she was still going to have to sit in San Francisco and wait for the same flight to Sacramento.

She considered staying in Newark and having a relaxed breakfast before getting on Flight 93.

“For some reason,” Michael said, “she decided to come a little bit closer to home.”

And, of course, her life hinged on that inexplicable decision.

In the air, on the earlier flight, the pilot announced that he had been ordered to land in Lincoln, Neb., because of a “national crisis.” No one on Donna’s flight had any idea what was going on.

“We were sitting on the ground for a long time, and people weren’t telling us anything,” Donna said.

“There were rumors that were going around about a bomb in Providence, R.I., but nobody really understood what was happening.”

When Donna got off the plane, she called her husband , waking him up, and told him she was OK. Michael’s reaction was: “Why wouldn’t you be?” Donna explained that her plane had been ordered to land in Nebraska, and Michael quickly turned on the TV to figure out what was going on.

“I remember them saying that they thought another plane was still out there, and it was a United Airlines Flight 93,” Michael said. “It’s at that moment that my heart stopped.”

Donna met a man who had rented a car in Lincoln, who was driving to Denver and who offered to take anyone who wanted to come with him. Donna accepted the offer. Her parents live in Denver, and Denver was at least closer to Granite Bay. “We had stopped at McDonald’s to get coffee when we saw that Flight 93 had crashed,” Donna said.

She grabbed the hand of an older gentleman and stammered: “I was supposed to be on that flight.”

She said he just looked at her and responded: “My love, I guess it just wasn’t your time.”

Michael said that every time the topic of 9/11 comes up, he thinks about what almost happened – but he can’t go there.

“Sure, that comes to mind, but my mind just….” He trailed off. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “It’s horrendous.”

Relief, gratitude and terror “I had to go and talk to my adviser about classes I was planning on taking,” Jessie said about the morning of 9/11. “There were a ton of different people in the room, and the person I was supposed to talk to was talking on the phone about an attack on New York City and buildings on fire. It was complete chaos.”

Jessie headed back to her dorm room, hoping her mom’s meeting wasn’t anywhere near the World Trade Center. She didn’t even think about the fact that her mom was supposed to fly home that day.

Then her dad called.

“Hearing my dad tell me my mom was supposed to be on that flight was the craziest feeling,” Jessie said.

“I immediately dropped to my knees. I was already crying, but I just lost it.

“I think when you come that close to losing something, you can’t believe you still have it. It was just this feeling of relief, gratitude and terror.”

The thought of what could have happened is never far from Jessie’s mind.

“There’s no reason she shouldn’t have been on that plane,” Jessie said. “In fact, there are a ton of reasons why she should have been. There’s no explanation why she’s still here today, but that’s something to be incredibly grateful for.”

“I was the reason she was (supposed to be on Flight 93),” Jessie said. “I can’t even imagine how that would have affected me.”

“I was freaking out” J.J. Garton was at GBHS when he found out the news of the terrorist attacks, after early-morning water-polo practice.

“I walked out of the locker room, and the quad was just silent,” J.J. remembers. “It was totally, totally dead.”

In J.J.’s first class, calculus with retired GBHS teacher Greg Holmes, the TV was on, and nobody was talking.

“I was freaking out a little bit, but I was just trying to stay calm because I didn’t know anything for sure,” J.J. said. “I knew (my mom) was flying home that day, but I didn’t know her exact flight.”

Toward the end of the period, newscasters reported that a United Airlines flight from Newark to San Francisco had crashed.

“That’s when it hit me, and I really freaked out. I didn’t know anything for sure, but I just had this really, really bad feeling,” J.J. said.

Because cell phones weren’t allowed on campus in 2001, J.J. had to run out to his car to contact his dad.

People tried to stop him to ask what was wrong, but he just kept on running.

“My dad answered right away,” J.J. said. “‘She’s fine,’ he said. ‘I’m talking to her right now on the other line.

She was supposed to be on that plane, but she didn’t get on it.’ I broke down right there and just thought to myself, ‘Holy shit!’ ” J.J.’s next class was U.S. History with Brandon Dell’Orto, and J.J. remembers not being able to pay any attention.

“I broke down in tears, and I ran outside to get the whole story,” J.J. said. “I was petrified. I couldn’t speak.”

Michael came and picked J.J. up from school, and they went to Jamba Juice together, where he got on the phone with his mom.

“She seemed to be doing a lot better than I was,” J.J. said with a laugh. “I think part of that was that she had already talked to my dad. I’d speculate that they decided to be strong for the kids and not freak us out any more than we already were.”

J.J. went on to get his degree from Stanford, where he credits his mom for always being there for him.

“She’s an amazing person. The world is lucky to have her.”

Thankful for a cab driver The Gartons’ youngest daughter, Jillian, was in fifth grade in 2001 and admits she doesn’t remember as much as her older siblings as a result. She thinks everything happened before she went to school.

She does remember that, when her mom finally made it home, friends rented a limo to pick her up at the San Francisco Airport. Jillian also remembers being unbelievably excited to get inside to see her mom.

Even now, the topic remains an extremely emotional one for Jillian.

“I’m just so thankful that cab driver drove so fast to the airport,” Jillian said, while crying. “My mom is such a big part of my life, so it’s really hard to think about if she wasn’t (here). She can always turn a situation into a positive and never has anything negative to say. Life would be pretty hard if I wasn’t able to talk to her. She is no ordinary woman. She is extraordinary.”

Making a difference Donna has always been super-involved in the community. She served on the Eureka Union School District Board for eight years. She has been a huge supporter of the Granite Bay High aquatics programs and served as the Vice President of Activities for National Charity League, where she volunteered a lot for Special Olympics with her youngest daughter, Jillian.

“When something like [9/11] happens to you, you realize there’s nothing more important than family, and you realize how precious they are,” Donna said. “There are families that had a different outcome, and that’s just tragic.”

“You just hug your children a little harder, embrace life a little more. It changes you.”

DANCES: Nearly 100 juniors attended private party last year instead of prom Continued from page A1

used to supplement school dances, much like a limo. However, as they’ve grown in popularity, it has become increasingly common for students to simply rent a party bus and skip the dance altogether.

Last year, specifically, a dinner was hosted at a student’s house on the night of Junior Prom. All the guests in attendance then boarded party buses, which took them to Downtown Sacramento.

“They called it Junior Prom, but they never intended to go to Prom,” Givens said.

“We just can’t support that financially.”

Senior Ashley Barron, the host of the dinner, said the event was a way to make the night more special for her and her friends.

“Our friend groups are so separated and we just wanted to bring everyone together,” Barron said, “which is why we decided to do our own thing.”

The past lack of attendance to Junior Prom also impacted this decision, according to Barron. After hearing from past students how small the attendance was in recent years, Barron and her friends thought it would be more fun to do something on their own.

She does not believe, however, that her event contributed to the low attendance of last year’s Junior Prom.

“I don’t think it would’ve been any different (had I not had the dinner),” Barron said. “I know, for (my friends), we would’ve just gone to dinner at a nice restaurant on our own.”

Rather than doing so, Barron collected money from the 88 guests to pay for the

cost of the party buses and the dinner she and her mom made.

Barron believes that party buses have become so popular among high school student because of the freedom they afford students.

“Everyone can do their own thing and you’re not regulated by the school,” Barron said. “(They) don’t tell you what you’re allowed to do, what you’re not allowed to do, what you have to wear, and what you can’t wear. It’s just easier.”

The competition between school dances and party buses has negatively impacted the student government financially.

In the past, Junior Prom has been an important fundraiser for the junior class. The funds it brought in were used to pay for events during the class’ senior year.

“When I was a class adviser it pulled in significant money,” Givens said. “You really want that money going into senior year.”

From Senior Sunrise to Senior Sunset, there are numerous costs that the senior class covers in order to prevent students from having to pay.

Givens does not believe that eliminating Junior Prom will have a major financial impact on the current junior class.

Still, as early as this year, some small changes may have to be made in order to make up for the lost funds.

In the past, seniors have had to pay a small sum – around three dollars – in order to attend Senior Picnic. With transportation costing around $1,000 and without Junior Prom funds to cover this, the school might need to begin charging seniors once again.

Other possible changes could include a small increase in the price of tickets for Senior Fifth Quarter.

“We don’t charge (full cost) typically for Senior Fifth Quarter, because the hypnosis show is pretty expensive” Givens said.

“It’s not cheap to hire him. (But this year) we will need to charge (full costs) for that.”

Of course, the class will still have one major fundraiser: class shirt sales. The money that is earned through the sale of these shirts benefits each class respectively. Typically, the senior class charges more for their shirts and sells the most.

With Junior Prom no longer around to raise funds, the shirt sales could help lighten the load for future senior classes.

Senior Rachel Pae, last year’s Junior Prom commissioner, thinks the cancellation is for the best for in the long term.

“In a way I feel like it’s a good thing that it was cancelled this year, because it saves us money and (time),” Pae said.

As a sophomore, Pae worked as a coat checker at Junior Prom and noted the small

number of students who attended. When she took the position of Junior Prom commissioner last year, she had been hoping to raise attendance.

“We were stressed and worried because we had all these ideas but didn’t know where to start,” Pae said.

Despite the innovations Pae and her team introduced to the dance, there was still “literally no one there.”

This downward trend has not just been seen with Junior Prom. The Sadie Hawkins dance has also been experiencing a drop in attendance over the past few years. As a result, Givens and student government have come to reconsider the theme of the dance.

“We were hearing that (students) didn’t really like date dances and that they didn’t like Sadies, Junior Prom, and Senior Ball so close together,” Givens said.

As of now, it is unclear what the theme of this dance will be. On the calendar, there is a “Spring Dance” scheduled for the Friday before Powder Puff, although the specific theme of the dance will not be decided

until January of next year, when the spring term begins.

“It’s not dead in the water, like no Sadies ever again,” Givens said. “It’s just a way to change things up a little bit.”

So far Givens has not had much negative feedback about removing the Sadie Hawkins theme.

“If people are really up in arms about Sadies, we can have Sadies,” Givens said.

“Nothing says we can’t.”

As for Junior Prom, the response has not been so tame. When the junior class president talked in front of the class at their class meeting, she was booed and heckled about Prom being cancelled.

“I think they’re upset that it was done to them, but I think that they know, in their heart of hearts, that they were going to do the same thing,” Givens said. “It’s a trend that’s happening. People aren’t wanting to go to prom, especially when it’s in the cafeteria. They want to do the party bus thing.

As long as parents are allowing that, we can’t compete.”

www.granitebaygazette.com

A6 News

Friday, September 16, 2011

w The Granite Bay Gazette

HARDSHIPS: Family maintains positive attitude despite all their troubles Continued from page A2

their 10-year-old son, Camden, developed Tourettes syndrome. Every day he sees his father struggle, his neurological disorder escalates and slowly takes him over.

Carson, 13, is the oldest, and he is already starting to take on the role as “man of the house.”

Shortly after he was born he had to have open heart surgery.

He looks like an average 13-year-old boy, but he can’t play sports or play with his friends because he is 100 percent reliant on his pacemaker.

“We just have to go along with it,” said Carson, “and we do lean on each other.”

Jana is the family’s rock, but she was weakened when stricken with breast cancer and arrhythmia and every day having to endure her family suffer while all she can do is pray.

Jana had a procedure to remove the breast cancer and had open-heart surgery for arrhythmia. Her recovery went well, but her kids will forever have the image of their mother being rushed to the hospital and the unimaginable thought that

they could lose both of their parents.

“We were never in this questioning period, why did this happen?” Tim said.

“God didn’t cause it, it’s just cancer. I think I get angry at the situation, I get angry at the inconveniences, and frustrated by it, but you just have to take it as a part of your life and deal with it.”

Tim arrived at Stanford University Hospital on Sept. 13th for the pre-transplant care and on the 16th he will be starting a chemotherapy which will kill everything in his bone marrow including his red blood cells in order to make room for the new bone marrow he will be receiving on Sept. 22nd from his brother.

“I was lucky,” Tim laughed, “three of my siblings tested 10 out of 10 so Stanford said, you kind of blew the statistics out of the water on us, so I told them my goal is to have the fastest recovery time in the history of Stanford, but we’ll see.”

At Stanford he has to have a 24-hour care giver. It will start off being Jana, but then she will rotate with some friends so she can go back home to take care of the kids.

Tim’s ability to go back home to his family will depend on whether or not his body accepts or rejects the transplant.

“Cancer is not a death sentence.

Some point in time, we’re all going to die,” Tim said. “You make as much of your life as you can, you can live three months or 30 more years, and we don’t know, I don’t know.”

The expected stay at the hospital is a month and then he will have to live next to the hospital for two months so they were told to come down with a budget of $30,000 just for living expenses’.

For the family, this is financially impossible.

Because of to the family’s skyrocketing health bills and no source of income, they have financially hit rock bottom.

They rely on the help of friends, family and fundraisers to get their minimum bills paid.

Fortunately, a retired couple in Palo Alto received the family’s blog (Auburn Grace Caring for Tim Krumal, powered by Helping Hands) through an email sent from someone at the family’s church to the couple’s church and they offered them their home for Tim’s twomonth stay at Stanford.

“It’s been so interesting to see the relationships we’ve built because of this, we just love it now when people stop by just

to pray with us or talk or bring a meal,” Jana said.

“When (Carson) was born, we got confronted with the possibility that he wasn’t going to live, I made the conscious choice to be around my family, whatever I did for a living, I wasn’t going to be the kind of dad that traveled and had to be gone weeks on end or worked (until) 7 to 9 at night and on the computer at home,” Tim said.

All the financial issues have greatly contributed to the Krumals’ stress.

One rainy day they had to drive to a doctor’s appointment, and their car wouldn’t start. They have a brokendown minivan that only works when it wants to. Tim, in the middle of his chemotherapy, was under the car trying to fix it “I think all of us just said, OK we’re going to take this journey, but we’re doing it together,” said Jana.

Although there is a likely possibility that Tim won’t make it back to his family after the process and there are so many complications that can occur with the rest of the family, the whole family still maintains not only a positive attitude, but a grateful one.

“Life is about the journey,” Jana said, “it’s the highs and the lows and how you go through it and the joys that you can take from the lows too.”

The family is hopeful that Tim will be back home with them by Christmas, a Christmas gift beyond compare.

“I have gotten more blessings from this; both from people, from God through this experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything,” Tim said.

On Sept. 24-25 with the help of the Khor family, a GBHS family who have also set up other fundraisers for the Krumals, Round Table will be hosting a community fundraiser for the family and donating a generous 50 percent of the profit. The event will be taking place at both Round Table locations in Granite Bay. “I was moved by the cause,” said Round Table owner Dan Stafford.

“We really wanted to do something that had some sort of impact and hopefully would drive more people in and make a difference.”

If you would like to donate to the Krumal family, contact Auburn Grace Community Church, at (530) 823-8330 or agcc@auburngrace.com for more information.

TESTS: Majority of GBHS CHOIR: GBHS teacher who received the death students score above basic threat chose not to press charges against student Continued from page A1

Continued from page A1

The tongue-in-cheek “shifting” is a reference to the supply and demand curve shifts students have to learn how to draw during the class.

From a GBHS stand point, there was a shift last year in the increased mastery of AP test taking.

To AP economics teacher Karl Grubaugh, the results are not out of the ordinary for GBHS students.

“How hard can it be to teach at this place?” Grubaugh said. “You’ve got gifted, talented people who want to do well, and if you can inspire them and move them in the right direction, they will do well.”

AP test results not only inform teachers on how well they prepared their classes, but former GBHS students have reaped significant benefits from their regimen of AP classes and exams – the more passing AP tests a student has to their credit, the faster they can graduate from college, or the more flexibility they can enjoy in their college careers.

“I’ve always resisted teaching AP courses because I thought it was arrogant and elitist,” Grubaugh said. “But I really loved doing it for the first time last year. For some students, it gives them an enormous financial advantage – they can get out of college faster and start working.

“Others (earn AP credit) and decide to stick around college for all four years, but their AP credits give them flexibility to really explore (their opportunities).”

GBHS principal Mike McGuire agrees that taking an AP test is worth the cost.

“The drop-out rate for college sophomores is more than 50 percent nationwide because they (didn’t take AP-types of courses) and are not prepared for the rigor,” McGuire said. “Our statistic for GBHS is not that high, but it’s still problematic.”

GBHS students didn’t just rise to the occasion in AP economics last year, of course – students took more exams in more subjects than ever before.

AP English Language and Composition enjoyed the highest pass rate at GBHS, with 93 of 97 students earning a passing score of three or higher.

The AP pass rates in government and Calculus AB were also quite high.

But it’s not just about passing the AP tests. Many students who take AP tests may not go on to major in that subject, but the life lessons and knowledge they’ve gained can be significant.

“Being able to work on (AP economics) and understand it, those students are going to be better educated in economics than 99 percent of politicians in this country,” Grubaugh said.

Because of the new yearlong AP economic and AP government block class, the number of students taking AP government also increased. The AP government test was taken by 172 students, second only to the 223 sophomores who took AP European history.

GBHS students also did well on the California Standardized Testing and Reporting exams, or STAR tests, as well.

“I’m very pleased with the improvement… but we’ve showed improvement over the last five years,” McGuire said. “We can do better than what we did (last year because) I know scores of high schools around us, and we are every bit as strong in every single area as those high schools.”

The all-important Academic Performance Index score, a measurement system that ranks California public schools, increased because of STAR testing results.

The API increase may have not placed GBHS in a higher ranking than other local schools, but the most rewarding accomplishment is that GBHS surpassed its previous API score by 23 points. In 2010, the score was 844 and last year it increased to 867.

The increase came after the school introduced a number of incentives for students, including grade bumps in classes that included tests and other incentives such as free parking for juniors and seniors, a possible free dance and other ways to creatively reward and honor solid student efforts on the exams.

McGuire, however, said something else was even more important.

“I don’t think that it was just the incentives of grade bumps (or) free or preferential parking… but (rather) teachers standing in front of their classes for the first time and saying, ‘You know what? This test does matter,’ ” McGuire said.

GBHS might have improved its API score, but from the perspective of AP U.S. History teacher and school testing coordinator Brandon Dell’Orto, STAR testing doesn’t take into account of students’ complexity.

“Our incentives worked pretty well for our A and B students, but it still didn’t work well for our C, D and F students who we are really trying to (evaluate),” Dell’Orto said. “My frustration with STAR testing is how do you get accurate data that (shows that) the kids gave it their best shot?”

Because more teachers focused on preparing their students for STAR testing, from homework assignments to Retro Day (when students return to their previous semester’s teachers for subject refreshers), Dell’Orto is concerned that some students might actually be losing different intellectual abilities.

“We’ve made STAR testing such a bubble test, and I think we’re doing a disservice to students,” Dell’Orto said. “Somewhere along the line someone is going to say, ‘They’re great test takers but that’s all they can do.’ ” GHBS apparently managed to transform STAR testing last year, and the 2011 results show that, of the 15 California State Testing subjects, the majority of GBHS students test above basic – a tribute to the hard work of students and teachers.

“It’s a great gain, like running cross country and making your best time – but you don’t quit now,” McGuire said. “You train so you can beat that time the next time.”

“At some point the new choir teacher (was) contacted about money for the Carnegie trip (and was told) that we (hadn’t) set aside money for the trip,” McGuire said, “(and) that information (filtered) to the students (and) somehow (got ) interpreted as, ‘We aren’t taking the trip.’”

Students and parents were upset by what they believed to be a dismissal of a once in a life time opportunity.

Because this all happened over the summer, while McGuire was in Yellowstone National Park and Bean was at a music camp, neither received messages from concerned parents and students.

According to Bean, one more event complicated matters.

“An article went into the (Roseville) Press Tribune about ‘The Madrigal Choir isn’t going on this trip to Carnegie Hall,’ and there were students that were upset and surprised by it,” Bean said.

Choir Madrigal Johnson Kohr, a junior, attested to this reaction.

“We were told from the beginning from our parent booster meeting that we might go or we might not. It was kind of left at a stalemate,” Kohr said, “but then during the summer most of us found out from the article in the Roseville Press Tribune that we supposedly weren’t going.”

Prior to seeing the article in the Tribune, the choir members had believed they were attending the performance at Carnegie Hall.

“A lot of us were mad, and we have a Face-

book page, so the Facebook page was full of people saying stuff like, ‘We were told we were going, why are we being told this by a newspaper?’” Kohr said.

Word of the comments on the Facebook page soon reached Bean.

“I had a choir parent who said there was one student in particular who wasn’t really happy and made some comments on Facebook,” Bean said. “For whatever reason, a few days went by and I didn’t think about it so I didn’t look at it.”

When she finally did look, one student had posted the article while others had added their thoughts. It was at this point that she saw the comment mentioned to her by a parent, and its content shocked her.

“They made reference to murder and my name in conjunction, (so) I contacted the administration right away to tell them and they basically said, ‘You need to contact the Placer County Sheriff because you are being threatened as a teacher,’” Bean said.

Bean worked with law enforcement to file a report. During the process, she was asked if she wanted to press charges against the student in question.

“That’s a serious thing, because if I had really felt like I was in danger, (they would) go to jail,” Bean said.

Bean chose not to press charges, though, understanding that the comment was made out of frustration and was not meant as an actual threat.

“The student felt like an opportunity was (being taken away) and needed someone to blame it on,” Bean said, “and so I was the target.”

Bean’s reaction, stunned but not seeing the Facebook comments as a serious threat, was echoed by Kohr.

“I was personally surprised that this person would go that far to make that comment, but the person who said it was saying it in a semi-joking tone, and people who know him know that he’s not actually going to do that,” Kohr said.

Aggravated with the overall Carnegie situation, a few parents called the Carnegie group, who stated that GBHS had money on deposit.

This confused people at first, but it turned out that the touring company they deposited money with also runs the Carnegie competition.

The company also explained that it was not required that the full choir come, that as few as one students could come, as long as a school staff member also attended.

“Once I (learned) what we (needed) to do, I met with the choir teacher and we go, ‘That’s where this whole thing got misunderstood, let’s find out from the parents who wants to go,’” McGuire said.

On Back to School Night, McGuire and Bean met with the Madrigal parents and explained everything, including the fact that GBHS was fully behind the trip, provided that the choir could raise the money for it.

“Once we got back to school and we were able to get more details, it makes sense and now we have decided that (it) is going to be an optional tour for Madrigals,” Kohr said.

According to Bean, the choir is now in the process of fundraising for the Madrigal’s trip to Carnegie Hall.

NAVIANCE: New site helps narrow college choices

Continued from page A2

Both Cross and Underwood have decided that the college search and scattergrams are clearly the most unique features available to students.

According to Underwood, the college search really helps students narrow down their potential colleges.

“There are numerous parameters where a student can go in and search a college by region, size, or public or private,” Underwood

said. “It will pinpoint colleges based on the things you put in, like gender, cost and sports programs; there are many different options you can choose.”

Once a student has decided on the colleges they want to apply to, then the scattergrams come into play.

“You can look at the history of our past graduates and do a comparison in terms of acceptance,” Underwood said. “It’s a graph that will show your GPA and test scores and compare your scores

with students who actually got in.”

Parents of GBHS students and teachers can get in on the action, too.

Parents have access to Naviance through their own accounts, which they can create on the GBHS website.

Teachers even access Naviance.

While teachers don’t need the college and career segments, they can use the personality survey to their advantage.

Cross said teachers have the ability to go into their own

Naviance account and can teach students based on their personality survey results.

Cross and Underwood, as well as the rest of the staff, plan to continue advertising Naviance on campus, throughout the year.

To check it out and access your Naviance account, go to: http:// granitebay.schoolwires.net/ Page/761, click on Naviance Family Connection and insert your firstname.lastname as the email and your six digit ID code as the password.

TDAP: Required shot key to avoiding health crisis

Continued from page A3

hurt for a few days.

Fortunately, the redness and soreness went away after a couple of days and all of the symptoms went away as well.

Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, results from exposure to the bacteria through open wounds. The skeletal muscles tighten dramatically, including the jaw muscles. It is usually very painful.

Diphtheria starts with a low fever, a sore throat and a build-up of the mucous membrane tissue in the nose. It spreads very easily

by direct physical contact.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is the most important bacteria that the Tdap shot fights against. It is a cough that starts out mild, but rapidly turns into coughing fits that sound like a “whoop,” hence the name.

Another name for whooping cough is the 100-day cough because it usually lasts about 100 days.

Whooping cough is very contagious, and it is an airborne bacteria. If students think they have whooping cough, they should seek medical care as soon as possible.

Those suffering from whooping cough

could have been exposed to the bacteria for up to two weeks before they start suffering the symptoms – a mild headache and a sore throat. Within two to three days after symptoms show up, the cough starts. It continues to increase and those suffering from the malady often cough so much they choke or otherwise have a very hard time breathing.

For Chen and other public health officials, the bottom line is that the Tdap vaccine is the key to avoiding a potential public health crisis.

“Without the Tdap shot,” Chen said, “we would have an epidemic on our hands.”

Read the Gazette, the studentproduced

paper of GBHS

Voices

Granite Bay Gazette

A Section

Friday w September 16, 2011

GAZETTE The Granite Bay

GRANITE BAY HIGH SCHOOL 1 GRIZZLY WAY GRANITE BAY, CA 95746

Editors-in-Chief: Shannon Carroll Kyle Pawlak Jessica Reese Rachael Vasquez News/Web Editors: Nicole Bales Chris Pei Voices Editors: Lena Eyen Haley Massara Lifestyle Editors: Danielle Dieterich Kelsey Knorp ShinEui Park Green Screen Editors: Ari Black Hayley McAvoy Michaela Monaghan Sam Spargo Sports Editors: Meghan Carlsen Austin Downs Mat Fukuhara Illustrators: Lena Eyen Chase Evans Hayley McAvoy Jessica Reese Sam Spargo Photographers: Riley Mac Milian Dorien Johnk Olivia Cornell Staff Writers: Crosby Allison Olivia Cornell Dorien Johnk Sydney Kahmann Brooklyn Klepl Riley Mac Millan Becky Massil Joey Puhala Kristin Taylor Brad Wong

Advertising Managers: Mary Haeny Brooklyn Klepl

Adviser: Karl Grubaugh The Gazette is published eight times per academic year by students in the advanced journalism class at Granite Bay High School.

Content is determined by the staff and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Granite Bay High School’s faculty, administration, adviser or student body.

Students are protected in their exercise of press freedom by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and California Education Code 48907.

Signed editorials and columns reflect the views of the writer.

Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged and must be signed, although anonymity can be granted on a case-bycase basis.

The editorial board reviews letters to the editor, advertising and guest commentaries and reserves the right to edit and refuse material. Reasons can include length, clarity, libel, obscenity, material disruption of the educational process at Granite Bay High School or violation of copyright laws.

Send Letters to the Editor to: gbgazette@yahoo.com Identification Statement Granite Bay Gazette Published eight times per academic year c/o Granite Bay High School 1 Grizzly Way Granite Bay, CA 95746 Subscriptions: $25 per year/ $15 per half year

Behold, the rare

Interderepublicrat!

If we put an end to party warfare, our government will work for us

T

he U.S. political system has Commentary gone bananas. Politicians are so concerned with getting themselves and their parties elected that they aren’t doing the right thing for our country. People have been talking about the problem for a long time, but no one has come up with a solution.

Until now.

We can get rid of the divisiveness between Democrats scarroll.gazette@gmail.com and Republicans if we get rid of the parties. Let’s go to a one-party So parties won’t system. I say we all register as pass a law or do Inderepublicrats. anything else Republicans are being if it provides obstructionist because they are even a tiny so focused on defeating Obama. advantage for the Democrats have been just as bad opposition – even in other circumstances. if the advantage Look at the recent debt-ceiling is what’s right for crisis. Something needed to be the country. done to prevent our country from The process defaulting on our loans, but the for nominating Republicans focused on how they presidential could use the crisis to make Pres. candidates makes Obama look weak. the problem They purposely let the problem worse. At the drag on for weeks, even though moment, all they caused great concern among the Republican the countries and investor groups candidates for that lend money to the U.S. president are government. All that concern may trying to show just well mean that the U.S. has to pay how conservative higher interest rates on its debt in they are, so the future. they compete to That would be quite the irony: show how much The Republicans claimed to want they disdain to cut government spending, but government. they may make the government Democrats getting spend more, while providing no ready for next additional benefit for citizens. year’s elections Recently, Pres. Obama sent out are competing an email to supporters with the to show how subject line, “Frustrated.” Obama democratic they asked for support for his plan to are, so they argue create jobs. But Republicans in that government is Congress don’t want jobs to be the solution to everything. created before the elections in Once the primaries are over, all November 2012. The country the candidates will try to sound craves jobs, but creating them more moderate so they can appeal would make the president look to the majority of Americans good. So Republicans don’t want who are not on the political to cooperate. fringe, but the damage will be Right now, this Congress is on done. Candidates will be stuck track to be with many of the least the extreme productive positions they We need to stand Congress laid out in ever. the primaries. up for what is The They have right, not what Republicans been raising a justify their lot of money our party is telling actions based on those us to do. by saying positions, and that Pres. they can’t just Obama is walk away – a disaster, especially if and anything that helps remove they ever want to raise money him from office is justified. But from those people again. the Republicans didn’t do such That’s why the solution is for a great job the last time they everyone to be Inderepublicrats. If held the presidency – anyone the parties fade away, then no one remember George Bush and his has to show how Republican or war in Iraq, the way he turned Democratic they are. budget surpluses into deficits, the We could still have the two (or financial crisis that he left behind? more) most popular candidates So I’m not willing to put blind run against each other in a faith in the Republicans. I say we general election, but they’d all be put off the fight about who should Inderepublicrats, so no one would be the next president. Let’s focus be arguing for one party over on what’s right for the country another. They’d just be arguing now. about who is best-qualified for the The problem is that the political position. parties can’t and won’t do that.

We need to stand up for what is They exist to get people elected. right, not what our party is telling

shannon carroll

I

Gazette illustration/JESSICA REESE

us to do. ­­I’m not suggesting a oneparty system like Fidel Castro has in Cuba, where one person dictates everything. I’m talking about a free-for-all where the best ideas and the best people win.

Ever heard the line “United we stand, divided we fall?” That’s what’s happening in American politics today: We’re divided, so we’re falling. We pick on our own president, making him seem weak at a time when we need him to be strong. Our inability to get anything done makes us the laughingstock of the world.

Sure, people will always have a difference of opinion, but if we’re so patriotic, why is it OK to always try to stymie and embarrass the leader of our country, the one who was elected by the people, for the people?

It’s actually really funny to watch the campaign trail for president. Except for Herman Cain, the Republican candidates are seasoned politicians. However, all they do is denounce Obama’s policies, rarely offering a solution of their own.

Republicans often say they look to our Founding Fathers for advice. They might want to read George Washington’s warning that political factions that seek to obstruct the execution of laws may claim to be following popular demand, when in reality their goal is to take power from the people

and place it in the hands of men that Jon Stewart would have less who do not deserve it. material for “The Daily Show” – Everyone in Washington should and I love Jon Stewart. read the letter Thomas Jefferson But the upside would be even wrote to John Dickinson in 1801, greater. Divisive forces like Glenn in which he said: “The greatest Beck and Keith Olbermann would good we can do our country is to have to get real jobs. And we’d heal its party divisions and make stop obsessing over whether Sarah them one people.”

Palin will Jefferson compete for alluded to the the Republican blind faith People who presidential that develops within people nomination, register as either of a certain because there a Democrat or a party. People would be no who register Republican often Republican as either a nomination refuse to consider Democrat or and she’d stand a Republican the other side’s no chance in often refuse to the debate ideas. consider the about her other side’s qualifications – ideas. “The or lack thereof.

Democrats are A nation of Inderepublicrats evil socialists,” the Republicans would focus on the good of all, might say. “The Republicans are not just the good of the party. So, looking out for the wealthy and as many of us get ready to vote want no government at all,” the for the first time in next year’s Democrats might respond. elections, let’s please not register Politics have become like the as Republicans or Democrats.

Super Bowl, where there can be Let’s register as Independents, only one winner. In reality, all the an affiliation that will have to contestants in politics should be do for now as long as the term working together so that all of us “Inderepublicrat” isn’t yet official. win. *** The only real downside to a Shannon Carroll, a senior, is a nation that works together is Gazette co-editor-in-chief.

We can never forget what we can’t remember

t can be very isolating to miss out on the most momentous event of your own generation, but that’s the awkward reality for most GBHS underclassmen.

As we reflect on the tenth anniversary of September 11, we find we have nothing but fragmented memories of the attacks themselves. Our concept of the tragedy is much more indirect, if just as important.

We think not of planes and fireballs, but of tearful parents, George W. Bush’s retaliatory speech, and, most of all, a looming, national uncertainty about the future of our safety.

So, though we weren’t

necessarily witnesses to the attacks, to say that September 11 didn’t affect us would be a terrible fallacy.

Ten years later, politicians still mention that date at the drop of a hat, to tap into the powerful emotion we connect with it.

Most of us can barely remember a time before fullbody scans, sorting liquids into a Zip-Lock, and taking off your shoes and belt before traveling.

The alternately somber and celebratory uproar caused by the death of Osama bin Laden shows that the wounds our country suffered 10 years ago have yet to fully heal – and they probably never will.

EDITORIAL The voice of the Granite Bay Gazette

Undoubtedly, the September 11 attacks changed our lives forever.

Yet when people ask us what we remember about that day, we often struggle with what to say, and that can make a day of national mourning all the more uncomfortable.

It’s difficult to not seem disrespectful, but at the same time, we can’t wax poetic about

the details of a tragedy that we frankly don’t remember.

We are put in the unpleasant situation of having to find something meaningful to say about our vague, distant concept of September 11, or else risk seeming cavalier.

We don’t deny the attacks were terribly upsetting to those involved, and to the country as a whole. But people old enough to truly remember the attacks shouldn’t expect us to force ourselves into mourning every year.

So long as we understand the scope of the 9/11, and show compassion to people we know personally who lost friends or family members that day, we

shouldn’t need to exaggerate our sorrow.

Instead of dwelling on the tragedy of the attacks, we should simply go about our lives, all the more thankful for our security.

We needn’t rewatch news coverage of the Twin Towers going down, or spend all day in a forced state of solemnity to prove our patriotism – we merely need to understand the disaster, acknowledge which threats are still present today, and focus on the political issues of the moment (our ineffective political parties, for instance).

So long as we aren’t disrespectful, there is no need to rehash our grief. The best way to honor the victims of 9/11 is to not let their memory hinder us.

A8 Voices

Friday, September 16, 2011

There’s no more ‘you’ in U.S.A

HEARD on the

BAY

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Americans self-centered and oblivious about global news events Commentary

What are your feelings about this year’s Sports-a-Rama?

“I would have liked to have been a part of Sports-a-Rama but I’m involved in volleyball.”

F r e s h m a n

Tamren Johnk “I hope that the seniors won’t dominate this year like they always do because the sophomores are going to have a good team this year..”

S o p h o m o r e

Spencer Palmer “I couldn’t do Sports-a-Rama this year but my class this year is going to be bomb.”

ari black

A

aublack.gazette@gmail.com

s an American citizen, I was raised, along with my peers, to hold pride for my country and to appreciate the inalienable rights handed to us at birth.

As a superpower, the U.S. has evolved into a nationalistic society working to perfect the flaws of our government, culture, and overall standard to reach a Utopian environment.

Throughout our progression, the American youth has grown an increasing ignorance to the surrounding world, both in lacking being culturally and globally educated.

Although our personal lives are maintained through our own economy and daily events, prosperity will not be reached until we learn to acknowledge the world, together as a whole.

Watching the World News every few days isn’t enough. Students will continue to be universally numb until we take the initiative to venture out and experience life beyond our country’s bubble.

In the U.S., we are centered on convenience, intended for fast moving and rushed lives. In a way, it is a setback for the children of our generation. We begin to concentrate on the wrong things.

Granite Bay is always called “the bubble”, when in fact it is our whole country’s fault for imposing close minded views on us; concentrating on personal futures of college and becoming a “successful business person,” while in the mean time there is a whole world going on around us.

Also, it is easy to forget that we are apart of what’s happening due to the fact that we live in a small town. Though big cities are more politically affected with riots and contain more political buildings, in the end we will be affected as much as those cities.

It seems like adults and college students constantly

Gazette photo illustration/LENA EYEN

take active roles in making an impact, but what about high school students? Why are we not the ones waking up to read the paper and watch the news to catch up on daily events?

I understand busy schedules flood the days of GBHS students, but taking ten minutes a day to catch up on current events is not a difficult thing to do.

It’s all about priorities. Rather than students watching another pointless show on MTV or texting another friend on their iPhone, at least ten minutes of the day should be taken to skim over a newspaper or watch a few minutes of the news.

Not that the news needs to be incorporated in a daily school setting, but instead of an hour and forty five minute class discussing what has happened to our country in the past, why don’t we spend a few minutes talking about the present?

It will all come down to us taking the initiative.

It’s our bulletin, so let us watch!

Teachers who ignore video bulletins leave students out of the loop

T

J u n i o r

Chiyoh Arai “Sports-a-Rama is my favorite school event because there’s so much energy and excitement so everyone should participate.”

S e n i o r

Gazette photo illustration/LENA EYEN

“I was on the staff team last year. I’m a class adviser for 2012 so obviously we want to bring a trophy home and be an example to the other classes.”

S t a f f

Darrin Pagel Compiled by Rachael Vasquez

he school’s video bulletins inform me of what’s going on, clear my mind when I’m stressed and get me through the day. Unfortunately, some teachers don’t see it the same way.

In the past, I’ve been cursed with second- period teachers who neglect to show the video bulletins. For some reason, they always seem to find some sort of hang up when second period rolls around.

This never really peeved me until I realized that some bulletins have a tendency to remain etched into the minds of many students. I mean, I still hear about last year’s homecoming videos. The ones I missed because of a stubborn second- period teacher.

In fact, it wasn’t until having a teacher who does show them that I can truly appreciate what I’d been missing.

These difficult teachers would always act like the cheery 10-minute clips were encroaching on their teaching time. Normally, I would let that stand as a valid argument, but the school puts an extra 10 minutes into the period specifically for the video bulletins. Not to mention that the bulletins aren’t even every day, maybe one or twice a week. So, by default, teachers are using the bulletin’s time on the days that the videos aren’t being run.

Fine, however some teachers find it necessary to use these extra 10 minutes on the days that there are bulletins.

I’ve got a problem with that.

When I would ask them why, they would always just say that they’d tell me if there was anything I needed to hear from the bulletins.

But the videos aren't just a matter of getting information; they’re also about the skits and the

Thumbs Up

Thumbs up:

School is back in session! Bring on the athletic games, friends I didn’t see over the summer and school spirit.

Commentary

joey puhala

jpuhala.gazette@gmail.com

overall video experience itself. Watching the nightly news is far more pleasant than listening to it on the radio; the same idea applies to the bulletins.

Not to mention how the media students feel about their hard work going to waste. If you spent one and a half hours every day working on videos made for the whole school to watch, wouldn’t you want the whole school to watch it?

To me, the solution seems simple; play the bulletins. They don’t hurt anybody, or affect the lesson in any way, but rather lighten up the bland mornings of the school year. This way, everybody’s happy.

So come on teachers, no matter how insignificant, unimportant, inefficient or downright stupid you think the bulletins are, bite the bullet and show them, because a lot of us students really look forward to those 10 minutes of lively media. *** Joey Puhala, a sophomore, is a Gazette staff writer.

Thumbs Down

Kevin Staniszewski

As it is commonly stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Instead of waiting until we’re older, why are we not taking the chance to learn from older generations’ mistakes now?

We should not take comfort in the fact that we are not all forced to keep up with daily events; it simply is our moral obligation to constantly educate ourselves on what’s going on in the world.

There is a time and a place for everything. Childhood is a time for figuring out the future, but it should also be a time to learn about the roles that we will one day take. Time flies, and one day we will be the ones running the world. *** Ari Black, a senior, is a Gazette Green Screen editor.

Thumbs down: School

is back in session.

College applications, homework and exams? No thanks. I’d rather sleep in ‘til noon and not be productive.

Thumbs up: As the Class of 2012, we finally get to run the school as seniors!

Took long enough.

by Rachael down: Vasquez, Thumbs I didn’t mind being a junior, though. Why did a staff the amazing seniors of writer.

2011 leave us? I miss my older friends.

Gazette photos /Riley macmillan

Friday, April 8, 2011

Voices A9

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Senior year is just another year

High school has grown familiar over the last three years, and ultimately, nothing changes now

T

hursday, Aug. 11, was my last first day of high school. I waited all through Wednesday for some kind of anticipation to kick in, for some sort of drumroll to start… but somehow at 11 o’ clock that night, my backpack remained unpacked, my schedule un-memorized, and my nervous system surprisingly inactive.

When my alarm went off at five the next morning, my two friends and I gave a simultaneous groan of disbelief. Were we really awake in what could be considered, based on our summer sleeping patterns, the middle of the night?

But Senior Sunrise is symbolic, and it was only by force of generational obligation that we got out of bed. Our sluggishness combined with the fact that we were supposed to arrive at the school at six meant we didn’t even have time to

Commentary

kelsey knorp

kknorp.gazette@gmail.com

stop at Starbucks.

Needless to say, it was a bad situation.

Anyone who is considering skipping his or her future Senior Sunrise, I will not in any way try and dissuade you. Unless you will be wrought with despair over the absence of your tiny speck of a self from the giant class number picture, I would even encourage it.

No group of 500 teenagers can successfully pull off a formation

realize I felt a remarkably strong that early. Besides, you’ll probably end up behind some 6-foot-7 sense of normalcy about this basketball player anyway. whole first day ordeal. I would Furtheralmost describe more, you’ll it as a feelprobably end ing of weary up arriving continuation— As I walk from at the event as if I had just class to class, it once the returned from sunrise has seems the unfawinter break already beto resume the miliar faces breed gun, and by previous year. the time you and multiply on a There was get to the a distinct lack daily basis. bleachers, of that “fresh any hope for start” feeling sentimentalthat one nority has been mally experiall but lost. ences on the first day of school.

But at least you and your best Don’t get me wrong. Westberg friend got a snapshot with the makes my government class inreasonably glorious sunrise in teresting, I love having Grubaugh the background, right? At the very least, you will be tagged in a three periods a day, and Guzman’s picture on Facebook as a tribute to allowance of my Kindle in AP your senior spirit.

Lang is greatly appreciated.

As 7:45 rolled around, I began to However, I no longer care where

I sit in the cafeteria. I no longer rush out of my house to beat traffic so I can socialize in the parking lot. I hardly ever make an effort to trudge all the way to the cafeteria during passing periods to gossip with my friends.

I love high school. I love dances, rallies, sporting events and shows in the theater. But perhaps I have acquired some form of senioritis whose symptoms include a sort of complacent comfort in my adolescent environment.

I will say, however, that I’ve felt a certain sense of déjà vu over the past month. As I walk from class to class, it seems the unfamiliar faces breed and multiply on a daily basis.

It’s as if I’ve come full circle since freshman year; instead of feeling distant from the older classes, now it seems there is a whole pool of freshmen and sophomores who I don’t have the

pleasure of being acquainted with.

Overall, I have realized there is no monumental transformation when a person becomes a senior in high school. Perhaps the sense of authority that some underclassmen feel radiates from their elders is a simple accumulation of four years’ worth of experience.

But along with this wisdom comes a whole new sense of uncertainty. Instead of whimsically daydreaming about where life will take me after high school, it’s time to succumb to the wills of various college admissions departments, to cross my fingers that after three years of grueling academic labor, I’ll finally look good enough on paper to win the approval of whatever institution will be my home a year from now. *** Kelsey Knorp, a senior, is a Gazette Lifestyle editor.

Football draws crowds for a reason

Other sports just can’t compare to the thrill and glory of the gridiron Commentary

chase evans

cevans.gazette@gmail.com

Gazette illustration/LENA EYEN

N

obody cares about high school boys’ water polo.

Is the boys’ water polo team good? Yes. Does the average high school student care at all?

Not really.

However, high school football brings out tons of fans each game and has a large following of students. What makes football different?

Why do people go and watch the football team play at Nevada Union an hour away and yet relatively few people come to our boys’ soccer team?

Why do so many people come to Friday night football games? Can you imagine a swim meet with 2,000 people cheering and rooting on our swim teams?

What about a girls’ softball game with more than 25 people in the bleachers?

Sports that are striving to have more fans look at football and wonder why so many people show up to those Friday night games.

Why do people come watch football? Because students like me love the sport.

I love to watch the 230-pound grown men fighting each other on the line.

I love to watch the finesse of the speedy wide receivers juking out the cornerback to get open downfield.

I love the atmosphere of the fully lit stadium with hordes of people yelling and screaming for their team on a dark Friday night.

I love the sound it makes when two helmets collide at full running speed.

I love to criticize and argue about a coach’s decision and determine the merits of the result.

I love to judge the players and their abilities on the field.

I love the drama that comes with a fourth-quarter drive that my team needs to win.

I love to watch people sacrifice their bodies for a game that is their passion.

However, there are people who don’t agree with my opinions about football. Some people hate to watch high school boys violently attack each other.

They think the sport is violent and pointless, void of finesse and skill.

But for most of us at GBHS, and football fans all across the country, we love all those things.

We vent the week’s emotion and stress through watching football. It gives us an opportunity to watch our violent guilty pleasure and not care about other issues.

Football is us living vicariously through the players laying their heart and bodies on the field.

Three chords and a new you

M

Friday nights is our time to yell and cheer and forget the week behind and get lost in the violence.

Even as swimmers and volleyball players complain about their near-empty stands, people still come to football games on those drama-filled Friday nights.

People come to football games because it does something that no other sport is going to do. Football lets us feel the danger and excitement of the players on the field.

Football is special. *** Chase Evans, a junior, is a Gazette staff writer.

Midtown subculture allows for an unusual duality

ost people at Granite Bay High School don’t know where I go on weekends.

Now, granted, I’d be pretty worried if they did – I don’t know most people at GBHS – but when I’m asked, I usually reply cavalierly, with eyes misted over, “Oh, I’m just going to a concert somewhere.”

Then, come Monday, I’ll show up at school, clothes held together with canvas patches, jacket bespeckled with buttons, and headphones permanently attached to my skull.

Where do I escape to, you may wonder? Am I some pretentious hipster who just wears super-obscure band shirts all the time in a vain attempt to flaunt my good taste, or is there something more?

I’ve got to be honest, GBHS – I’ve been leading a double life.

By day, I am the shoddy columnist and reluctant AP kid you’ve come to know. But by night, I spirit myself away to midtown Sacramento, and there, in a club, bar or basement, I am truly free of responsibility.

There is something about punk shows that never ceases to thrill me. Certainly, the music draws me there – the energetic screech of guitar, the heartbeatesque throb of the drums, the spectacle of the singer running about on (or off!) stage.

And of course, there’s all the sensory details any English teacher could ask for. The scent cocktail of cigarette smoke and sweat. The adrenaline rush of being shoved around in a mosh pit. The wonderful feeling of peeling off your jeans after a long, humid night of dancing.

But it’s more than the sum of its parts. When you’re at a show, you lose your sense of identity. Gone is

Commentary

haley massara hmassara.gazette@gmail.com

your social standing, your job, your age, the things that establish your place in the world. You are just a person, equal to everyone around you.

And that utter lack of hierarchy extends beyond the mosh pit, as well. I’ve met quite a few punk musicians over the last year or so, ranging from hyper-obscure local bands to enduring pioneers of the genre, and, if I may generalize, they don’t have an ounce of the typical rockstar snobbery in them. They’re sweet, friendly, fascinating people, just happy to be performing. Some local bandmates have even become personal friends of mine.

I know punk rockers aren’t thought of as having the sunniest dispositions, but I’ve lucked out. Since I started making my weekly midtown pilgrimages, I’ve gained a whole new family of misfits, geeks and ne’er-do-wells. Some of us don’t have much in common besides a shared taste in music, but ultimately, that’s all we need; when I walk into a punk club, I feel like I’ve reached Valhalla. I feel like I’ve come

home.

As scornful as it sounds, part of what I love about the punk scene is the fact that it’s still fairly underground. Shows are organized on Facebook, and certain venues won’t even list their addresses – you just have to know, or ask someone who does.

Aside from being a more practical way of getting the word out about shows, the thin veil of secrecy helps keep the punk community intimate and connected, like its own little tide pool of weirdness. Seeing a band at Arco Arena isn’t anything like seeing them in a basement on half-broken equipment with a few of your closest friends.

So I’m often hesitant to give out the addresses of my favorite nooks and venues – not because I mean to be exclusive, but out of fear of losing that intimacy, and the duality of my school life and this beautiful underworld.

It’s not often in life that we’re given a chance to reinvent ourselves, to meet new people without our past or our reputation haunting us. But that’s probably the most valuable thing my punk family has given me: a fresh slate.

They don’t know me as the kid I was in freshman year, or 6th grade, or kindergarten, like some GBHS students do. They know me as who I am now, in the moment – and that, as much as punk music and its devil-may-care attitude – is a fantastically freeing sentiment.

I can be whoever I want. But when Monday comes, I’ll still be me. *** Haley Massara, a junior, is a Gazette Voices editor.

Gazette illustration/LENA EYEN

A10 Second Look

ď ˇ Senior Riley Mac Millan, right, founder and president of the Avocado Admirers Association, promotes her club by encouraging students to be photographed as the pit of the avocado and by wearing the club t-shirt. Middle left, the Harry Potter Club displays books and posters to entice fans to join. As an initiation into the Campus Life Club, seniors Hailey Israeli and Sydney Mendenhall, middle right, knock down buckets with a dodge ball. Below left, sophomore Nicholas Palmer high fives a friend as they play badminton. Alumnus Eric Chee, below middle, returns for club day in order to perform. Senior Rebecca Schmidt, president of the Stop Trafficking of People Club, sports a smile to interested students.

wGazette photosw Rachael Vasquez

Second look

Club Day

Friday, September 16, 2011

OLD AND NEW CLUBS SEEK TO EXPAND MEMBERSHIP

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Lifestyle

Granite Bay Gazette

B Section

Friday w September 16, 2011

LEAVING A LEGEND OF SENIORITY

Commentary

shineui park

spark.gazette@gmail.com

College, SAT and all that’s in between

T

he next person who says the words “college application” or “SAT” is going to get a serious punch to the face.

I recall entering high school on my first day as a freshman, thinking how amazing and dream-like everything was going to be. Nearly every day I would tell my parents, “I am going to get good grades and get into an Ivy League school!”

It’s been three years since I’ve said those words, and what I’ve experienced the past three years has changed my perspective 180 degrees.

All I needed to do was receive the grades and participate in extracurricular activities and I would be set, right?

Wrong.

There are so many other issues that I never expected to face once I hit the middle of my junior year. I thought college research was going to be fun, but it’s actually tiring. I thought the SAT was going to be a breeze, but it takes a lot more studying than I imagined. I thought college applications were going to be simple forms, but there are a long a train of essays that I need to write.

Just explaining this gives me a headache. This madness never seems to end.

Listening to the freshmen complain about CP Biology or the sophomores complain about the workload in the AP European History and English 10 block, just kills me. They haven’t seen anything yet.

Although deadlines for these applications seem so far away, time flies by a lot faster than you think.

Every graduate I have talked to and asked advice from tells me one thing: do not, under any circumstances, procrastinate.

Knowing me, I probably am going to, and instead of digging a ditch I would want to hide from the world in, I will probably end up digging myself a grave to lie in forever.

But if I really think about it, this process is only rough during the fall semester. After so much work and papers and essays and research and paranoia, all that is left to do is just simply sit and wait for those pretty little acceptance (or tragic rejection) letters to drop into the mailbox. After that is when all the fun begins.

One by one, I witness my friends heading off to college. Whether they’re going to Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle or even staying nearby in Davis, they are all enjoying every little experience.

During the summer, all they talked about were the dull, yet exciting orientations where they had the opportunity to make new friends, or what dorm they are going to stay in for the year or the roommates they were assigned.

And what did I say to be in part of their conversations? Nothing, knowing that if I want to be in the position they are in next year, I have to go through this torturous application process.

Although it basically feels as if my graduate friends are rubbing their departure to college in my face, it provides a beacon of light for me. This is want I want. This is what I have been dreaming about.

This is the next step towards my future.

As they wave their good byes, I will be staying here, studiously working on my applications and studying for my SAT’s. There’s no such thing as skipping right to the finish line.

But believe me, I really wish I could.

*** ShinEui Park, a senior, is the Gazette’s Lifestyle co-editor.

Heading off to college after a successful senior year, graduates of the Class of 2011 leave large shoes to fill

BY SHINEUI PARK

spark.gazette@gmail.com

S

pirited, smart, athletic and talented—these are just some of the adjectives used to describe the “perfect” senior Class of 2011. After a successful last year at Granite Bay High School, the graduates have begun to leave for college. What they have left at GBHS is what some students and faculty members call a legacy.

Class of 2011 graduate Ethan Mendoza, one of the students who began the acclaimed “Tribe” and also won Mr. Grizzly for the 2010 to 2011 school year, participated in many school activities with the spirit of seniority.

“I think the class before us thought they were too cool for school spirit, but I think our class really prided ourselves with having it,” Mendoza said. “I may be a little biased, but I think this class was the best class that I’ve witnessed throughout high school.”

Last year, the Class of 2011 won first place for floats during Homecoming, achieved the first ever three-peat in Sports-a-Rama, won the Powderpuff game against the juniors, and every school rally and had many students accepted into prestigious colleges.

However, whether or not this now graduated senior class is the best class that has come through GBHS is still a matter of opinion, however.

See SENIORS, page B7 Gazette illustration/JESSICA REESE

Recovering from the new, modern monster

Following up “The REAL Spartan Spirit” cyber bullying dilemma

BY MEGHAN CARLSEN

D

mcarlsen.gazette@gmail.com

on’t bully, don’t bully, don’t bully.

It’s all kids have been told since kindergarten; this scary myth of a monster that is always ahead of them and lurking around every corner.

Schools all over the country have taken steps to build a wall against a whole new type of monster specific to this generation – cyber bullying. But what would really happen if this monster reared its ugly head?

Last year, Granite Bay High School’s younger siblings at Olympus Junior High School looked this elusive childhood legend in the eye, and now many freshmen and future freshmen have some first-hand experience taming this beast.

This experience started when someone called “Mystery Blogger” opened up their own blog called “The REAL Spartan Spirit,” which named over 15 students at OJHS.

inside lifestyle

How to

B2

Top Ten

B4

Random Student

B6

College of the Month

B7

Playing on every insecurity these kids possess, this anonymous cyber bully signed off with a simple “MB,” leaving the students, parents and administration, not just of OJHS but GBHS, itself, in disbelief.

Because many GBHS students have younger siblings attending OJHS, the news of this specific example of cyber bullying spread rapidly. It affected GBHS almost as much as it affected the junior high.

“It was so surprising that it would start that young and that they would say such mean things,” said Kristin Kupershoek, a junior and older sibling of Jill Kupershoek, an OJHS student.

While many people were named in the blog, only one current GBHS student was mentioned. Cody Conklin, currently a freshman, showed sympathy for this anonymous cyber bully as he said, “It was probably someone with emotional problems.”

However thanks to the reaction of the administrators of OJHS, the students mentioned have a handle on how to deal with

these situations. “(It’s) not a first (for insults) to me…

I was disappointed in that person,” said Conklin.

OJHS assistant principle, Sean Healy, said that part of their response to this incident was to call in all those mentioned and help them understand and deal with the hurt that had been caused.

“I really think our kids handled it better than the parents did,” Healy said. “The way people reacted to it made the problem, I think, even worse, because it spread the word even further.”

As more parents became upset and spread the word, more traffic was driven to the site and “Mystery Blogger” got more attention than they could have expected.

Despite this, the situation was taken care of. Even though “MB” was never revealed, the goal was reached: The blog was stopped. The administration supported this decision by punishing the blogger no differently than any other bullying incident.

Foreign exchange students From Italy, Spain, Holland and France

Mackenzie Sato update Early graduate’s life after high school

B3

B4

Cody Conklin Conklin had a first-hand experience with cyber bullying

Healy explained that they made every attempt to avoid labeling this person and thereby pushing them to continue with this form of venting. OJHS administrators are trying to teach this technique to all their students as well, making the culture of the school caring and personal.

In regards to future responses to this kind of behavior, Healy admits they are powerless to stop a student’s venting online when they are outside of school walls.

See CYBER BULLYING, page B7

Personalizing the classroom Teachers add their own flare to their room

B8

B2 Lifestyle

Friday, September 16, 2011

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Students spend summer abroad

Student

Spotlight

Teens gain worldwide perspective by traveling to various countries

SUMMER VACATION

BY MICHAELA MONAGHAN mmonaghan.gazette@gmail.com

Montana Strohl-Roy

Student donates time to helping environment as president of Eco Green club Gazette: What inspired you to become copresident of the Eco Green club?

A: When the president (graduated) she was like, “Do you guys want to do this? You are the only ones who come every time, would you mind taking over?” and we just basically said yes.

Gazette: Of all the causes out there, what drew you to helping the environment specifically?

A: Well first of all, it looks good for college. But also (the environment) is our main source of resources so I feel like we should give back and maintain it.

Gazette: What changes do you intend to make in the Eco Green club now that you are president?

W

hile the majority of Granite Bay High School students spent their summers going to the lake and hanging out with friends, a few students got the chance to explore other cultures across three continents.

JOLIE ROGERS Senior Jolie Rogers went to Australia this summer.

“I went with my family for 10 days because my grandpa owns a coffee company,” Rogers said, “and there was a new Costco opening in Australia, so we went to (give samples) to the Australians.”

While in Australia, Rogers and her family toured Sydney and saw the local culture.

“We did a bunch of touristy stuff, Rogers said. “It was kind of weird though, because it was winter while we were there.”

Rogers’ favorite parts were the Costco opening and seeing the local animals.

“The Costco opening was really interesting because we got to actually associate with the locals,” Rogers said, “but seeing the kangaroos and koalas was pretty cool, too!”

The biggest difference from the United States was the cost.

“It was a lot more expensive there. A Subway five dollar foot-long cost 17 dollars,” Rogers said.

2011 Gazette illustration/HAYLEY MCAVOY AND SAMANTHA SPARGO

MELISSA VAJANAPHANICH Sophomore Melissa Vajanaphanich traveled to Thailand for three weeks over her summer break.

“I went to Bangkok, Thailand and Samui, as well. They are in the same country but Samui is an island off the (Bangkok) coast,” Vajanaphanich said.

While in Thailand, she spent time with her relatives.

“It was really fun because my grandparents actually live in Bangkok and I have cousins over there,” Vajanaphanich said. “My favorite part was just seeing my family.”

Vajanaphanich also spent time exploring Thailand.

“We went kayaking which was fun because I love the ocean,” she said.

Though there were many discrepancies between America and Thailand, the biggest difference Vajanaphanich noticed was between Thai driving habits and those of Americans.

“It’s so much more relaxed,” Vajanaphanich said. “Everyone there is so crazy that they will just cut you off every single second. It’s terrifying just to cross the street!”

BRADFORD SMITH Senior Bradford Smith went solo this summer as he traveled to Spain to immerse himself in Spanish culture.

Smith traveled to Spain through EF Educational Tours. The com-

pany offers many different programs, including senior school trips and study abroad opportunities.

Smith chose to study abroad while living with Spanish families, as opposed to living in a dorm with other teenagers.

“I lived in Barcelona for three weeks; one week with a family that had a child and two parents, and two weeks with a widow,” Smith said.

Smith spent his time going to school and traveling around Barcelona.

“Every day I would go to school for a few hours and then go exploring in the city with other students,” Smith said. “We would usually get food, hang out on the beach, and then go to See ABROAD, page B7

A: Last year it was mainly focused on going to the Maidu Center and cleaning out Indian grinding holes and planting things there. We are hoping to focus on multiple (other) places around where we live.

Teens struggle to find jobs in rough economy

-Compiled by Danielle Dieterich

Youth face consequences of a financially troubled nation

BY CROSBY ALLISON

callison.gazette@gmail.com Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ

S.T.O.P. president Rebecca Schmidt holds a club meeting to discuss ways to prevent sex trafficking.

Gazette illustration/HAYLEY MCAVOY

How to...

Tie a

Tie

1. Start with the wide end of your tie on the right, and extend it about 12 inches past the narrow end.

2. Bring the wide end around and behind the narrow end.

3. Bring the wide end up, then pull it through the loop and to the right.

4. Bring the wide end around front, over the narrow end from right to left.

5. Bring the wide end up and through the loop once more, this time straight down.

6. Bring the wide end through the knot and tighten, bringing the knot up to the collar.

-Compiled by Kelsey Knorp

Club strives to S.T.O.P. trafficking Rebecca Schmidt raises awareness about a worldwide moral issue

BY DANIELLE DIETERICH ddieterich.gazette@gmail.com

W

hen senior Rebecca Schmidt learned from her adult leader that a little girl she knew had been sold into slavery, for a moment there was nothing but silence, then uncontrollable sobs as the reality behind those words sunk in.

Though Schmidt’s tears would dry, the experience left a lasting impression on her; it strengthened her ever growing resolve to end the horror that is sex trafficking.

Schmidt first learned of the issue in eighth grade and found that it immediately “weighed really heavy on (her) heart”.

To hear the stories of young girls and even boys being sold as prostitutes by their own families in distant countries like Cambodia and Thailand was one thing, but to find out that Sacramento was within the top five cities in the nation for sex trafficking hit terribly close to home.

Schmidt instantly found herself drawn to the issue and spent the next two years doing personal research on the subject.

“I’ve come to learn more and more about it because it has come to mean so much to me,” Schmidt said.

In the fall of 2010 all of her careful research and planning came together with the formation of the club known as S.T.O.P. Sex Trafficking of People.

As founder and president of this club Schmidt finally found a way to put her skills to use to aid in the fight against sex trafficking. “(The club’s) goal is to allow students the opportunity to help and do something for the cause by raising awareness of the issue as well as fundraising to support organizations that are against sex trafficking,” Schmidt said.

Over the course of its first year, S.T.O.P. managed to not only reach out to the community with its message of the horrors of sex trafficking but also to raise a substantial sum of money to be split between two organizations whose goal is to end the sex trade.

Senior Melissa Miller is treasurer of S.T.O.P. and feels the club’s efforts have made a significant impact.

“Last year we made over $1500 that will go to supplying the needs of these girls,” Miller said. “It’s just cool to do something tangible that you can see making a difference.”

It is the club’s policy to split the money earned equally between Courage to Be You, an organization that builds safe houses for rescued victims in the Sacramento area, and Agape International Missions (A.I.M.), which See S.T.O.P., page B6

M

onths have come and gone with no apparent improvement to the US’s economy, with the overall unemployment rate averaging at 9.2 percent since July 2010, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics news release. The unemployment rate for Placer County specifically is 11.2 percent.

For certain companies in the vicinity, business has been business as usual. Jag Atwal, proprietor of Artisan Meats and Fish, believes this is true of his business.

“When the [market] prices go high, our prices still stay the same,” Atwal said.

Trades such as the meat trade that follow the trend of the market and enduring professions such as the medical field have seen significantly less impact than most commercial endeavors.

According to the Employ-

ment Development Department, other industries, especially medical and legal professions, are flourishing due to the compulsive consummation of high-cost health that has been ingrained into American society. This contributes to the rising number of dentists and orthodontists within reasonable distance from largely populated areas.

As many Baby Boomers begin to qualify for social security, Generation Y, or the modern youth, is going to have to solve or at least satiate the economic problems they are inheriting. The higher the numbers of retirement-aged people that must continue to work, the fewer employment options are available to teenagers.

In past generations, youth have been able to take up work for early experience with labor. Fewer and fewer adolescents will be able to have that experience, and won’t be as prepared for work in the future.

Junior Natalie Sekigawa works at a relatively new establishment, Shady Coffee and Tea. “The prices have always been the same,” Sekigawa said. “We See ECONOMY, page B6

Gazette photo /RILEY MAC MILLAN

Shady Coffee and Tea is one year old and so far has not experienced much variance in the prices of its coffee drinks

Lifestyle B3

Friday, September 16, 2011 w The Granite Bay Gazette

Outsiders’ perspective on life in Granite Bay

Exchange students talk about their experiences

BY KRISTIN TAYLOR

ktaylor.gazette@gmail.com

I

t’s a small world after all. Es un mundo pequeño después de todo. Det er en liten verden, tross alt.

E ‘un piccolo mondo, dopo tutto.

For most Granite Bay High School students, only the first and possibly the second sentence held any meaning to them, and the rest might as well have been gibberish. Most probably gave up reading after the third. Despite the difficulties presented by language barriers, it’s amazing how easily people from opposite sides of the globe can connect.

In July, Granite Bay experienced a swarm of foreign exchange students from Spain, Norway, and Italy. This school year, one transfer student in the GBHS senior class transferred all the way from her home in Holland.

Senior Wesley and junior Paige Finkemeier, senior Drew and junior Megan Beiler and senior Mitchell Cooper were among the residents who inherited short-term brothers and/or sisters this summer.

Senior Kendall Blunden has an additional family member for the entire school year.

Their exchange students were their shadows and went with them everywhere. Paige Finkemeier brought her foreign exchange students Fernando Sanchez and Eugenio Gallotti to a soccer practice and said they came along to all her church events like pool parties and Ultimate Frisbee. Blunden and her foreign exchange student Lydia van Hal are on the same soccer team together. Megan Beiler hardly had a moment to herself.

“If I went to birthday parties or to hang out with friends or whatever, (Clara Requejo) came with me,” Megan Beiler said.

Around a hundred foreign exchange students found temporary homes in the Granite Bay/Roseville area, staying from July 5th through the 31st. This group of teens traveled halfway around the world with the program called Education First (EF). They spent their summers improving their English and widening their world view.

The Finkemeiers, the Beilers and Cooper all found out about the program through their local church.

EF looked to the high school youth group at Valley Springs Presbyterian Church to find families to provide homes. Christian families with kids who were in high school were ideal.

Miguel Requejo and his sister Clara came to America from Madrid, Spain. Miguel stayed with Cooper and his sister stayed with the Beilers.

“Our family friends had a boy who was 15, and

his sister didn’t have a home,” Megan Beiler said.

“We offered (to let her) stay at our house so they could be close to each other ... so his sister could get the opportunity to come to America also.”

The Finkemeiers hosted both Fernando Sanchez from Spain and Eugenio Gallotti from Italy.

“Wesley wanted a boy, so we got a boy, but then another guy didn’t have anywhere to go, so we got him too,” junior Paige Finkemeier said.

Lydia van Hal from the Netherlands is staying with Blunden up until next summer. She will be going to school at GBHS for the next year.

First impressions about America varied for the foreign exchange students.

“Everything is ten times bigger,” van Hal said, “the stores, the roads, the cars, everything.”

Cooper said Miguel Requejo had made the same observation and that Safeway was his favorite.

Van Hal loves the weather in California but thinks the food is too greasy.

Clara Requejo couldn’t get over how early the Beilers went to bed every night. Back in Spain, they eat dinner around 10:30 p.m.

Megan Beiler taught Clara Requejo how to play the card game B.S. and she found it very strange.

“She was like, I don’t get it. Why is the game called cow poop?”

The Requejos found their new favorite food: milkshakes, and thought it was weird that the Beilers owned a blender, which in Spain wasn’t a common kitchen appliance.

The Finkemeiers’ exchange students developed an obsession with Abercrombie.

“That’s all they would wear. They bought their whole wardrobes there,” Paige Finkemeier said.

Wesley Finkimeier said that the boys found it strange that they couldn’t go to clubs because that’s what they did for fun back home. It was also weird for them to see teenagers driving since most European countries have the driving age set as 18.

The American families also observed aspects of their exchange student’s cultures that were new.

Megan Beiler went on a class trip to Six Flags with the EF students and was astonished when they all pulled out cigarettes.

“They were all smoking when we were waiting for the bus,” Megan Beiler said. “Everybody does it. When you’re 12, you start smoking.”

The foreigners also paid less attention to personal space.

“They would kiss your hand or kiss you on the cheek and it was just awkward,” Paige Finkemeier said.

The language barrier was knocked over very quickly. Both Megan Beiler and Paige Finkemeier gained a lot from their experiences. Both started the school year with Honors Spanish Four after a semester off.

They were grateful for the opportunity to brush up on their Spanish skills. Cooper took advantage of this real world application as well.

“I spoke Spanish and he spoke English,” he said about his communication with Miguel Requejo.

“I learned slang phrases and cuss words,” Megan Beiler said. She also said that she noticed a change in Clara Requejo’s English skills and said she became more comfortable speaking with people towards the end of the trip.

Cooper and Miguel Requejo became “mejor amigos” over the span of a month, as did Megan Beiler and Clara Requejo.

“She wants me to come visit her next summer and stay with her in Madrid,” Megan Beiler said. They chat on Facebook all the time and Clara Requejo helps Megan Beiler with her Spanish homework.

The Finkemeiers weren’t as compatible with their foreign exchange students. Sanchez smoked and they had to let him do so in the backyard every night. Gallotti didn’t bathe as often as they had expected him to.

“It took him two weeks to take a shower,” Paige Finkemeier said.

If you really knew me,

you would know... . “I’m really insecure, but I let people think that I’m really outgoing and I’m generally a happy person.”

Hailey Solomon

E

veryone knows the drinking age in the United States is 21 years old. However, the United States is one of only five countries with the 21 year old restriction; in all other countries the age limit is less than 21 (with the exception of a few where alcohol is banned altogether).

Most countries have an age requirement of 18. So why is the drinking age in the United States 21?

Lydia van Hal, a senior at Granite Bay High School, is a foreign exchange student from Holland where the drinking age is 16. However, this isn’t too common. There are only 11 other countries with the drinking age also at 16.

Van Hal believes that younger drinking ages such as 16 or 18 cause less illegal activity. She feels that making the drinking age 21 does not prevent teens from drinking.

“Everyone’s still going to do it and it will only cause more problems,” she said.

However, she does think that people in Holland start drinking at an earlier age because the drinking age is so low.

“Whenever you can do something at a certain age, people do it, like, two years before (that age). Like, when people have older friends or something (they will go drink with

Gazette photo /riley mac millan

These quirks were only minor setbacks and overall, they had a good time introducing their foreign exchange students to the American way.

“I have become more open to different cultures and I’m thankful for having been given this wonderful opportunity,” Megan Beiler said. “This was a great experience and I would recommend (hosting a foreign exchange student) to others.”

Dealing with disease

within the person’s target range.

Layo plans on eventually transitioning from daily shots to the pump, but her doctor insists that she must learn the basics about the device he average Granite Bay High School before making the switch. student observes numerous other stuLayo is not the only GBHS student to have dents on campus each day, whether it be been diagnosed with a serious condition, howthrough direct interaction or merely a glimpse ever. in his or her peripheral vision.

Senior Emily Harris suffers from an immune However, the average high school student may not be able to detect the issues beneath the deficiency called hyper-IgE, which causes her surface of his or her fellow student, namely the to be especially susceptible to disease. Usually this means she is plagued by colds and health deficiencies a person may be grappling ear infections, but she is also with on a daily basis. affected by a few more serious Junior Madi Layo, for conditions. example, has struggled Harris is asthmatic, and this with Type I diabetes combined with her weakened since she began showing I went to the immune system led her to symptoms of the previdoctor for acquire a condition called ously dormant genetic allergic bronchopulmonary disease over this past antibiotics and aspergillosis, or ABPD. summer vacation. they immediately “It’s environmental,” Har“If you have the gene, ris said. “It can be a fungus a normal everyday virus hospitalized me somewhere in the environment can trigger (the sympthat affects me because of my toms),” Layo said. weakened immune system.”

– Madi Layo, Some common sympABPD allows the fungus to toms of Type I diabetes, GBHS junior take up residence in a person’s as listed by the American lungs and cause a severe allerDiabetes Association, gic reaction. In 2009, ABPD include frequent urinacaused Harris to be hospitaltion, unusual thirst, ized for a collapsed lung durfatigue, extreme hunger ing the second half of her freshman year. and weight loss.

One might think this would be academically Layo began to experience her first symptoms detrimental, but Harris managed to keep up. while vacationing with her family in France.

“When I was in the hospital I got behind She believed her unquenchable thirst was a really badly on homework,” Harris said, “but side effect of medication she was taking at the I caught up and made sure it didn’t affect (my time and that she was developing a bladder grades).” infection as well.

Since then, Harris travels to San Francisco “I went to the doctor to get antibiotics,” Layo every six months to see a specialist. She also said, “and they immediately hospitalized me.” gets regular immunizations and takes precauAccording to her doctors, a healthy blood tionary medications daily. sugar level is between 90 and 150. Layo’s Harris, who plays recreational soccer as well blood sugar level upon hospitalization was 480. as water polo, notes that her breathing probLayo ended up spending five days in the lems do make it more difficult to play sports. hospital hooked up to an insulin drip to bring She uses an inhaler before doing any physical her blood sugar level down. Since being discharged, she has had to adapt her lifestyle to activity.

Sophomore Jane Lockhart has also spent a account for her new limitations. good deal of her life grappling with breathing “I have had to change my whole diet, and difficulties, but for a different reason. Lockhart I (give myself) about five shots a day,” Layo was born with a hole in her diaphragm. said. “It’s definitely been an adjustment.”

As an infant, Lockhart was hooked up to a Layo is on the varsity cheer team at GBHS machine that assisted her breathing for 10 days. and must be sure to eat before practice or any The machine removed her blood and added other physical activity so that her blood sugar oxygen to it as a substitute for the oxygen she levels don’t get too low. She must also pay wasn’t getting through conventional breathing. attention to how much insulin she administers Because her young body was still fragile, the at a time.

Many diabetics use an insulin pump to moni- machine caused her ribs to cave three inches into her chest. Her ribs stayed in that position tor this. The pump is programmed to perias she continued to grow odically inject insulin into the body through a catheter to keep a person’s glucose levels See SICKNESS, page B6

BY KELSEY KNORP

Rachel Harris “I play soccer, I’m on the U16 Eureka Flame and we win a lot of games.”

Alex Chesebro “You would know that double Dubliner cheese is amazing.”

- Compiled by Nicole Bales

Foreign perspectives on the alcohol age restriction

BY OLIVIA CORNELL

 Foreign exchange students Bastien Sturm and Charles Viceriat take a ferry tour around San Francisco Bay, above. Connor Puhala, left hugs French foreign exchange student, AnneLaure De Fornel goodbye at the end of summer.

GBHS students talk about long-term illnesses and learning to cope with the side effects

Drinking age around the world ocornell.gazette@gmail.com

Gazette photo /Riley Mac millan

them),” van Hal said.

“If you look old enough, they will She said that most people in Holgive it to you. Here, they ID you evland have consumed ery time,” he said. alcohol by the time they Roberto Maggio, are 15 years old. the parent of a GranDiego Garcia, also a ite Bay High School senior at GBHS, has a student, lived in Italy different perspective. He until he was 16, when lived in Mexico until he he moved to London. was six when he moved He moved to the U.S. to Nicaragua. He came to when he was 28. The the U.S. at the beginning drinking age is 18 in of last year. The drinkItaly and England. ing ages in Mexico and He believes the Nicaragua are 18. drinking age is betHe thinks the United ter at 18 rather than States age limit is good 21 because the age because drinking at a restriction doesn’t Gazette illustration/LENA EYEN young age can have a make an impact on major negative effect on underage drinkers’ your life. decision to drink.

“I think its better (for the drinking Maggio said, “(Having the drinkage) to be 21,” said Garcia. ing age at 18) gives (people) less time He thinks of it in terms of sports to break the law, first of all. Second because he, himself, is an athlete and of all, between the ages of 18 and loves many sports.

21 every kid around drinks, they say “Down there, good athletes get they don’t but they do. So, they for involved in (drinking) and here, three years, they break the law.” because it’s illegal, people don’t get He thinks that if kids start drinkinvolved in it as much,” he said. ing at 18 they will get it out of their He also thinks that kids here aren’t systems by 19 and it’s no longer more rebellious then other countries exciting. because of the age limit.

If the drinking age is 21 it will con“Over there, people still drink tinue to be exciting until they are 18. younger than 18,” said Garcia.

Maggio believes it’s like an adrenaAlso, the laws are not enforced as line rush or something if it’s illegal. severely in either of Garcia’s home To Maggio, having the drinking age countries. at 18 just makes sense.

T

kknorp.gazette@gmail.com

B4 Lifestyle

Friday, September 16, 2011

ways to save a parking space in the Gbhs parking lot

Get a ninja.

Purchase a Japanese robot to guard your space.

Buy caution cones and use them to border the space of your choosing.

Come to school two hours early.

Have your friends block off a section of the parking lot with caution tape.

Student drums to a different beat

GBHS graduate takes unique path towards dreams of music education

BY RILEY MAC MILLAN

W

rmacmillan.gazette@gmail.com

ake up. Off to Granite Bay High School for zero period, helping students in the Emerald Brigade. Then to Dirt Busters cleaning cars for a few hours. Stop home, and eat dinner. Then its time for Symphony practice, the final destination of the day. This is a typical day in the life of Mackenzie Sato.

Sato graduated a year early, completing her high school education with the class of 2011. Rather than going off to college, however, she made the decision to stay in the area.

Between three jobs and being part of three local symphonies, Sato stays busy despite living at home.

“No one really influenced me to graduate early, I just decided that I needed to do this for my career,” Sato said in an email.

She has hopes of someday sharing her musical knowledge with others, and is taking this year to focus her life on music.

“I’d like to be teaching in a school as a music educator,” said Sato when asked about her future plans.

This dedicated graduate has invested much of her time into pursuing her passion.

“I play in the Sacramento Youth Symphony, Camellia Symphony Orchestra, and the Folsom Lake Symphony Orchestra,” Sato said. “I love classical music more than any other genre, and now that I’m out of high school I’ve had much more time to focus on that, and not ‘band music’.”

In her freshman year at GBHS, Sato was recognized for being the only female percussionist in the Emerald Brigade drum line. Her sophomore year she was a drum major, and her final year she was head drum major of the band. These are just a few of the dozens of accomplishments she has made over the course of her musical career. “(Sato) intends to use her year off to enhance her musicianship so as to improve her chances of acceptance into a college music program,” said her father, Reed Sato in an email. “Mackenzie has been goaloriented her entire life so we were confident that she would follow through with her plan for this year off and not otherwise be distracted or slack off.”

Sato has continued to work towards her goals, in a responsible manner. Instead of abusing the freedom of a year without school like many others would do, Sato continued to work hard and keeps her life moving.

Gazette photo /riley mac millan

Graduate Mackenzie Sato takes advantage of some rare free time to practice on the snare.

“My goals are simple- practice and make money,” Sato said.

Sato has been working hard at her three jobs to make money and try to support herself as much as possible.

“We have provided basic financial support and have paid for some career-oriented activities such as music lessons and memberships in various music or-

BY SYDNEY KAHMANN

Buy the rights to own a parking space. Maybe if you pay extra you can get your name on it.

Drive a bulldozer to school; use it to shove all other cars out of your way. You’ll probably need more than one space.

G

skahmann.gazette@gmail.com

ranite Bay High School’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program has a new coordinator this year, Duane Blomquist.

Blomquist took over the IB program from Sharry Colnar following her retirement after 15 years at GBHS. Blomquist now has a few new plans for the program, which he hopes will improve and expand what Colnar started.

But, as Blomquist discovered, running IB is no easy feat. As a teacher of 26 years, the math department’s head, and the new IB coordinator, Blomquist is the busiest he’s ever been, doing two to four hours of additional IB-related work a night.

“If I wasn’t pretty organized, I’d probably be dead,” Blomquist said.

Fortunately, Blomquist’s work has not gone unnoticed. IB students, like senior Nima Miraliakbar, appreciate the work Blomquist is doing. “(IB) seems to be a lot more structured, the class structure works out a lot better and there are (fewer) mistakes in the emails,” Miraliakbar said.

According to students, Blomquist is also more against cheating than pre-IB policies.

“With Blomquist, they put a lot more emphasis on (preventing) cheating and plagiarism,” junior Johnson Khor said.

IB juniors and seniors both had to re-sign their anti-plagiarism agreements after a bout of cheating

last year.

Now that Blomquist has gotten the basics under control, he wants to work on developing personal relationships with the IB students.

“I’m their support,” Blomquist said. “I’m their counselor, I’m their parent, I’m their cheerleader, I’m their crying towel and I want to be the person they can come and talk to.”

Pre-IB students (freshmen and sophomores) who have signed up for IB), should also feel welcome talking to him.

Blomquist plans to talk to current sophomores about their plans for next year, helping the students decide which courses are right for them.

“Sophomores are really important,” Blomquist said. “And I will probably be sending them call slips so … I can just ask them ‘How’s it going?’”

As for any major changes to IB, Blomquist isn’t quite ready to completely makeover the IB program.

“I’m just trying to keep this ship sailing, and I want it to have a direction to go,” Blomquist said.

Despite his desire to keep the IB program relatively the same, Blomquist plans to introduce new classes to the program.

IB Business and IB Film Analysis Higher-Level (HL) are being looked into as well as adding of more career certificates and Project Lead the Way (PLTW).

IB Business would provide students with hands-on experience in accounting and marketing, as well as internship options with major corporations.

“I’m really excited that we’ll have IB Business,”

The Get a transformer car that will use its human like qualities to throw cars to the opposite side.

CollegeBoard SAT

Match the words in the first column with the definitions in the second column. Each chalkboard is its own separate game. Answers can be found on B5.

Chalkboard 2

Chalkboard 1

2. Isochronus

-Riley Mac Millan

Blomquist said. “(Students) will have internships with major corporations and they’ll really get into accounting or economics (through it).”

IB Film Analysis HL would serve as a niche for the more creative students at GBHS, opening up more classes for them to find their passions. “(The IB Film Analysis HL class) has connections with Pixar, (and) with Intel, and the idea is that if you want to be a movie producer, check it out,” Blomquist said. “From writing to directing to producing, I want it in action as an HL offering for next year.”

PLTW would be an entirely new addition to GBHS’s IB program.

Students enrolled in PLTW classes would take all of the required classes for high school graduation while focusing mainly on their area of interest.

The PLTW program has led to great achievements in places it has been adopted. For example, students focusing on engineering and biomedical sciences from Pike Central High School in Indiana developed a disaster relief shelter last year that was produced and distributed to victims of the Japanese tsunami for under $500 each.

If Blomquist’s plan to adopt PLTW classes comes through, not only will he be adding a prestigious program, but GBHS will be the only school on the West Coast with IB and PLTW classes.

With new classes and the possibility of PLTW, IB definitely has a lot in store for GBHS. But Blomquist isn’t all about the changes coming to the IB program.

“I’m just trying to get in here and keep this thing flowing, (while starting) to do some new things at the same time,” Blomquist said.

un- Official SATpractice guide 1. Gregarious

Have your friend double park for you, thus making all other students hate you because double parking is not cool.

ganizations,” Reed Sato said. “(Mackenzie) however, has several jobs to provide her with income so that she is not completely dependent on her parents.”

“She’s pretty much an adult even though she not in college, and she’s our age,” Sato’s friend Brianna Matheus.

Friends and family have enjoyed the opportunity See SATO, page B6

IB program under new management Blomquist takes over for Colnar after 15 years

Build a laser that will zap any car other than your own.

w The Granite Bay Gazette

3. Misanthropy 4. Pertinacious 5. Subterfuge

a. Hatred of mankind b. Relating to or denoting equal intervals of time c. The demanding for the use of money as a load, a rate of interest beyond what is allowed by law d. Empty e. Evasion

6. Usury 7. Cavort 8. Harrowing 9. Munificence 10. Elicit

f. To make more keen or eager g. Shameless viciousness h. Not habitually solitary or living alone i. To heap or pile together j. Persistent or unyielding

- Compiled by Kelsey Knorp

Replenish your thirst for the Gazette.

Read it.

Friday, September 16 2011

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Lifestyle B5

B6 Lifestyle

Friday, September 16, 2009

Random facts

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Random club of the month

A list of facts you will never need to know but always find interesting

One of 2,100 GBHS students is randomly selected every issue

Racquetball Club President: Sam Holzer

The first non-human to win an Oscar was Mickey Mouse.

Gazette: What is the purpose of your club?

The purpose of the Racquetball club is to expose people to a sport that not many people know about.

I feel like racquetball is a really fast-paced kind of (sport) that’s like tennis on steroids. (We want) just to get (the members) engaged in the sport, to learn about the sport, to try something different, and also to just have a lot of fun with it.

Every time you create a text message you increase your chances of arthritis.

How often do you meet?

Hopefully, we will try to set a date for once a week.

The aorta of a blue whale is big enough for the average grown man to fit inside it.

Prince William and Kate Middleton got married on the same day as Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.

The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

Statistically, you are more likely to be killed by a cow attack than a shark attack.

The largest toy distributor in the world is McDonald’s.

The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table is the letter “J”.

A cat’s urine glows under a black light.

Sources: http://www.allrandomfacts.com/

Paige Lee, junior

Gazette photo /rachael vasquez

1. What is your favorite animal noise?

Bark of a dog

3. What is your favorite word?

Kumquat

2. If you had to pick a food to live off of for the rest of your life what would it be?

Pasta

–Compiled by ShinEui Park

4. What is your favorite shampoo brand?

Herbal Essence

6. If you were an animated cereal character, which one would you be?

The Toucan from the Fruit Loops box

5. What are your favorite frozen yogurt toppings?

Fruit and Caramel

7. What word do you text your friends most?

Lol

–Compiled by Dorien Johnk

STOP: Club president makes strides towards ending modern day slavery Continued from page B2

give aftercare to girls rescued from the trade in Cambodia, the sex trafficking capital of the world.

Schmidt herself has plans to go to Cambodia next summer for two weeks with A.I.M. “I will be traveling to Cambodia with a team of about eight or nine other people,” Schmidt said, “and I personally would work every day in a kids club with students in Svay Pak, the capital of Cambodia.”

According to Schmidt, Svay Pak is actually the number one city in the world for sex trafficking. This means that most of the children she will be working and playing games with during the day will go home and be trafficked at night.

“I know she is really disturbed when thinking about the girls who are affected by (trafficking),” Miller said.

Regardless, Schmidt is not altogether unprepared for this kind of ordeal.

Over spring break of 2011, Schmidt went with Bayside Church on a mission trip to Mexico where

she came in contact with the ugly reality of sex trafficking in a very personal way. She was on team and spent the week working with young children.

Over the course of the week she became very close to two young sisters. When the week was over, her adult leader told the group terrible news: he had just found out that the two girls Schmidt had grown so close to had an older sister who, at age 13, had just given birth because her mother was trafficking her at night. “(It) really made the issue so much more real to experience it at a personal level,” Schmidt said.

With time she was able to cope and managed to turn one of the most horrible moments of her life into a source of motivation.

S.T.O.P. has reached unprecedented levels of success over the last year largely due Schmidt’s efforts.

“I’ve seen her passion really drive where the club has gone,” Miller said. “I think (S.T.O.P.) is something that is going to have longevity to it and so I’m excited to see how far it’s progressed in just a few months.”

As club advisor for S.T.O.P., GBHS English teacher Tino Guzman has seen Schmidt’s dedication first-hand and has watched the club grow from a few members to a large following in the greater Sacramento area.

According to Guzman, S.T.O.P. is beginning the year with a series of charter clubs at seven local high schools including Woodcreek, Oakmont, Del Oro and of course Granite Bay. “It shows me that younger teenagers are more aware of the world than I thought they were, and that inspires me,” Guzman said of the club’s growth.

While impressed by what she has been able to accomplish, Guzman says he is not at all surprised by it.

“Rebecca is one of the most dedicated students I have ever met,” he said.

Schmidt hopes to continue her efforts throughout the coming school year and inspire other students to join the cause.

As Schmidt said, “Never think that you are too young to make a difference.”

SATO: Stays home to focus on music career Continued from page B4 for Sato to stay home for one more year.

“We are lucky that Mackenzie is still at home during this time as we are able to help her develop some life skills apart from academics,” her father said.

Staying home, while a positive experience, has not been easy; the experience has taught her independence.

A perfect example of this newfound

independence was when she went to two musical camps this past summer.

She made all the arrangements, stayed by herself in hotels and planned all transportation.

“I think she matured quite a bit from the summer experiences and she continues to be inspired,” said Sato’s mother, Lisa Trankley. “It’s very fulfilling for me to watch Mackenzie focus on her goal of making a career in music and take steps

to achieve that goal. I’m very proud of her.”

Overall, the biggest change for Sato has been the way her family and friends have changed their expectations concerning her.

As Matheus said: “She still lives at home, but her parents see her as an adult now, so she has to live up to that expectation (now) that she’s not in high school anymore.”

Continued from page B4: The un-Official SAT practice guide answers; Chalkboard 1: 1. h, 2. b, 3. a, 4. j, 5. e Chalkboard 2: 6. c, 7. d, 8. f, 9. g, 10. i

What will you do at your meetings?

We are going to try to set up a couple of different racquetball tournaments throughout the year as well as some racquetball camps. I know that parents of other individuals in the racquetball club have been nationally ranked in the racquetball circuit. So, hopefully, they can come in and talk to us about how they play and different tips and tricks.

How many people are you expecting to join?

Hopefully, we’ll get about 20 people.

I have 10 potential members right now with just friends and the people I know who already play the game.

Where will you play?

Johnson Ranch and California Family Fitness are the two places in the area with racquetball courts.

–Compiled by Sydney Kahmann

ECONOMY: Students struggle to find work in Granite Bay Continued from page B2

actually hired more people recently.”

Certain industries continue to thrive as their services are always sought after. Cafes such as Shady Coffee and Tea, which has been in business for a little over a year, provide an area to work and a commodity precious to the working class.

Senior Hailey Israel, a veteran of several professions, has learned most of what she knows about the economy through her work experience.

“I’ve never been paid over minimum wage, which says a lot about how the employers are struggling,” Israel said.

The BLS census states that the average unemployment rate for 16 to 19 year olds nationwide is at an average

of 25.4; over one million teenagers lost their jobs over the last year. With many experienced adults also out of work, the positions are most likely going to be filled by them.

“Working at Subway, I’ve also (talked to) employees who say they haven’t gotten a raise (above minimum range) when they’ve been working there for ten months,” Israel said.

In regard to the housing market, Placer County foreclosure rates have been increasing month-to-month consistently, although more populated areas such as Los Angeles are currently setting the standard for the foreclosure crisis. Simply driving down East Roseville Parkway gives a glimpse of the vast bank repossession.

“I don’t think (the economy) is going to get better anytime soon,” Israel said.

SICKNESS: Young people with serious health issues Continued from page B3 and eventually hit adolescence.

In the meantime, Lockhart underwent seven surgeries, six of which occurred before she was four and targeted the hole in her diaphragm.

“They patched the (hole) with a silicone patch twice, and (later) they took my lat muscle and weaved it through to make it into a diaphragm,” Lockhart said.

This past April, Lockhart finally had the necessary procedure done to construct her body normally. Her ribs and sternum were removed and reconstructed; they are now flat instead of inverted.

During recovery, Lockhart found attending school difficult but still manageable.

She feels fortunate that her second and third periods were her only solid classes.

“I’d go for those two and try and sit in a chair for as long as I could, and then I’d go home,” Lockhart said.

Overall though, Lockhart was grateful that she was able to have the surgery.

“I hadn’t been able to do any exercise,” she said. “I ran a mile and a half last week for the first time in two years.”

All three students have managed to stay positive and keep their afflictions from inhibiting their lives.

“It could have affected my life, but I haven’t really let it,” Harris said.

www.granitebaygazette.com

Friday, September 16 2011

Lifestyle B7

w The Granite Bay Gazette

SENIORS: Class of 2012 tries to level out their Class of 2011 competition

ABROAD: Students traveled the world for their summer vacation more. For example, there are people actually wearing kimonos and there are people there who have a different attitude towards life than Ameri- make their livings by training pelicans to catch cans. fish.”

“Everything is just so relaxed there,” Smith Kreeger claims that modernsaid. “They seem to just day Chinese culture is very do everything at a leisurely different from what Americans pace.” imagine it to be.

Everything is “Our Chinese food is not NATALIE KREEGER just so relaxed an adequate representation of China” Kreeger said. “There there. They Natalie Kreeger, a senior is no orange chicken there, seem to just do at GBHS, explored China and they haven’t even heard of this summer with her famfortune cookies. But then there everything at a ily and family friends. are McDonalds, Starbucks, leisurely pace.

She spent over two weeks and KFCs on every corner.” traveling through many of Another thing Kreeger the major cities in China, noticed about China was their – Bradford Smith, including Shanghai, Beilack of law enforcement. senior jing, Xi’an and Hong Kong, “It is a Communist country, but she took a special interso it’s like (George Orwell’s) est in a smaller city called 1984 in that they are all conGuilin. stantly surrounded by surveil“(Guilin) was just so different than the other lance,” Kreeger said, “but at the same time stopplaces we went, which were mostly large, inlights are just suggestions and they lack stringent dustrial, developed cities,” Kreeger said. “(It) laws. People have no liability or responsibility as seemed to show the true Chinese culture a lot far as accidents.”

Continued from page B2

Gazette photo /rachael vasquez

After winning their first rally, the senior Class of 2012 expects their last year to be just be just as eventful and memorable as the last year’s Class of 2012. The two classes have been compared quite often.

Continued from page B1 “(The) Class of 2011 was one of the best classes I’ve seen... they were just thoroughly amazing in academics, sports, ASB support and spirit. But even though I think of them as (being great), I still believe that the Class of 2012 has the potential to be equally as good as them,” Assistant Principal Cathy Raycraft said.

Though there are many different views on this class, not all of these views are of praise. The current senior class president, Danielle McFarland, regards this moment as a moment of improvement in contrast of the previous class.

“I can agree with everyone that they were a really good and spirited class, but I think all the success of winning inflated their heads a bit. When the Class of 2012 wins events this year, I want to do it with good sportsmanship,” McFarland said.

But as the year goes on, the Class of 2011 waves their goodbyes as the new senior class of 2012 realizes they have roles to fill.

Brie Shimada, a Class of 2011 graduate who also participated in many school activities and was part of Student Government, said, “The Class of 2012 has some really inspirational and hard working leaders leading their class… I cannot wait to see how this class improves school spirit and culture.”

Although they are two different classes and are in two different school years, seniors will always be seniors.

Except has the Class of 2011’s legacy set the bar too high?

The Academic Merit Awards (AMAs) are given to the senior and junior class at the end of every year.

The medals are for recognition of students who have excelled in school work. Last year, 322 seniors were given the AMA while 303 juniors were given the same award. With a 19 student gap, new opinions form between the two classes.

Raycraft said, “Every class is different, but the standards stay the same. Maybe Class of 2011 was just more competitive with one another.”

This competitive incentive is what people often think drives this graduated class to perform highly in academics. Although this does not mean the Class of 2012 aren’t as hardworking.

“I don’t think that the class of 2012 is a bunch of underachievers. I just think that class of 2011 had a lot of overachievers,” Mendoza said.

Senior Alex Nacht thinks there is another reason for this gap, however.

“I remember going to the junior AMA ceremony and a lot of classmates being there. I don’t think there’s any reason for having fewer

students receiving the award besides the previous seniors having more people in their class,” Nacht said.

Not only was there a difference in the amount of students who received the AMA, but there are differences in the amount of students signing up for certain senior courses as well.

As required courses, seniors need to take government, economics and English 12. Instead of taking College Prep courses, there are alternative choices in taking higher leveled academic courses such as the Advanced Placement (AP) Government with AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics and Law and Justice block course, and AP Literature and AP Language.

Last school year signaled the introduction of the new all-year AP Government block, and the estimated number of seniors from the Class of 2011 that signed up for this block was around 135. With the second year of the block progressing, only an estimated 90 students from the Class of 2012 are enrolled.

“As a whole, I think it’s harder for kids to fit it into their schedules because it’s hard to keep one period locked in for the whole year,” AP Government teacher Jarrod Westberg said.

Having less students signing up for a course does not necessarily imply anything about one class being more intelligent over the other. But what about when a whole block class becomes cancelled altogether?

For the 2011-2012 year, seniors from the Class of 2012 had the option to sign up for AP Literature, AP Language or the AP Literature and Language Block. There were 36 seniors enrolled in the block the previous year but due to having only 23 students’ sign up this year, the block was gotten rid of.

There was one point where the block class could have passed and gone through, but while looking through other classes with 40 students enrolled, Ramona Drury, English teacher and last year’s AP Language teacher for the AP Literature and AP Language block, felt it was unreasonable to run a class of such small size and cancelled it altogether.

“I credit that year long block for being phenomenal,” Drury said. “I did a lot of work last year in creating the curriculum for that course. I really liked what I did and I would have been excited to improve what I did.

But I’ll teach almost anything.”

Even though the English block class was cancelled, Drury’s thoughts about the Class of 2011 and 2012 are still unaltered. “(The) Class of 2012 seems like any other class I’ve always had… and I enjoyed the Class of 2011 immensely. But in truth, at the end of every

year (once) I have got a little distance, I find that I enjoy every class anyways, so I kind of suspect that I just like the kids here,” Drury said.

If enrollment in courses do not mean anything at all, whether they are canceled or not, then perhaps test scores can show many aspects of a class.

Last year, the AP test score results for AP Government, AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics were some of the highest percentages the school has seen. An estimated 80% of students passed the AP Government exam itself, and the numbers of fours and fives were almost half of all the scores. “(The) Class of 2011 is one of the hardest working senior classes I’ve ever seen,” Westberg said. “They also had one of the biggest drop-offs I have ever seen in terms of once the end of the year rolled around.”

As their last year of high school starting heading closer to the finish line, they were struck with the infamous disease: senioritis.

“I think they just realized that they could ease off a little bit and it wasn’t going to hurt them too much,” Westberg said.

Studious, yet lazy. No class can actually be perfect, right?

Besides the academic aspects, there are other impacts that the Class of 2011 left behind.

Nacht, who is involved in media and producing the morning bulletins, has grown close relationships with some of last year’s graduates who have played a key role in media such as John Holway, Jimmy Jack and Priti Donde. But even though they have departed, he still expects the bulletins to be just as good, or even better.

“I looked up to them and they did well, but I think we have really talented people this year who definitely have some unique qualities,” Nacht said. “The difference between this year and last year is that the expectations are set and everyone knows what to strive for.”

As for the Class of 2012, they still have a long way until they reach the end of high school. There are many events to come and many opportunities to make lasting memories.

Getting involved and living out senior year to its fullest potential is what makes every senior class memorable, whether it’s Class of 2011 or 2012.

“Hang out with the people who make you the happiest and bring out the best in you as much as you can.

Don’t sweat the small stuff because in the end, everyone ends up exactly where they’re supposed to be,” Shimada said. “Senior year goes by fast, so enjoy it.”

College of the Month: Randolf College Who: 488 undergraduate students Where: Lynchburg, Virginia Tuition and Fee Cost: $29, 254 Acceptance Rate: 81% U.S. News Ranking: 114 (National Liberal Arts Colleges) Athletics: The Wild Cats wRandolph hosts a great horseback riding program with teams for men and women. wTeams play in the NCAA Division III Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

Mascot: Wanda the Wild Cat Academics: wRandolph has an impressive 8:1 student faculty ratio. wThe average class size at the college is 12. wRandolph’s professors were ranked in the top 20 in the Princeton Reviews 2011 Edition of the “Professors Get High Marks List.” wOver the summer, students have the opportunity to do hands-on projects with professors.

wStudents at Randolph enjoy extensive study abroad programs.

Fun Facts: wRandolph was founded in 1891 as a women’s college. wRandolph is by Lynchburg’s Snow Flex Center which has synthetic snow and is open all year round. wLynchburg is home to Blackwater Creek and is minutes away from the Blue Ridge Mountains. wRandolph’s intramural program offers frozen turkey bowling. wStudents at Randolph can board their horses on campus. wRandolph College offers fencing classes to students. wOne of the alumni from Randolph went on to be a director of Sesame Street. wAnother alumnus was the judge of the 1994 case involving former President Bill Clinton’s supposed sexual harassment of Paula Jones.

–compiled by Sydney Kahmann

CYBER BULLYING: The internet is the new playground for bullies Continued from page B1 “We just hope they feel good enough walking out of here that they won’t want to,” Healy said.

“It’s never going to be perfect but, again, if we know the kids and know who they are, we know what to watch for.”

As Olympus stressed a personal community of caring and considerate administration and peers, GBHS followed suit with the Ripple Effect campaign that started last year as well.

Kupershoek said, “We should really take the things we do here, like the Ripple Effect and all those campaigns, seriously and not just mock them because it really does happen to people.”

While the shock is still wearing off after seeing a small glimpse into the world of cyber bullying, there is something to be learned from this incident.

“I definitely think that we should take something away from that and realize that it can happen anywhere; it happens in our own community,” said Kupershoek.

Awareness is spread through the programs the school creates, but in the end the masters of this terrible beast are the students of GBHS and its fellow schools.

“It’ll never stop,” said Conklin. “As long as there is the ability to do it, it will be there.”

This “Mystery Blogger” was the first experience many students had ever had with cyber bullying but it may not be the last.

“It’s not good that they were already exposed to it,” said Kupershoek. “But it’s important and it could shape them and change them and hopefully make them realize that they need to watch out for each other and take care of each other.”

B8 Lifestyle

Friday, September 16, 2011

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Creative classrooms spark more motivation Teachers’ unique rooms provoke inspiration in students

BY LENA EYEN

leyen.gazette@gmail.com

Gazette illustration/JESSICA REESE Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ

Scott Braly’s Room

Shannon McCann’s Room No matter where a student begins his or her trek to class at 7:35 in the morning, the 900 building appears to be pretty tricky to maneuver.

Junior Kristin Kurpershoek feels that the 900 building is inconveniently far away from her other classes.

However, despite the location, the 900 building has unique characteristics as far as its architecture and design.

English teacher Shannon McCann loves her second story room in the 900 building.

“I like the vaulted ceilings because there is more air flow and a feeling of having more room to breathe, think and function,” McCann said.

In comparison with some of the other classrooms on the GBHS campus, many agree that more size is a blessing, especially with the added stress on teachers to squeeze even more students into their already cramped classrooms.

“The taller ceilings help feel like you are not as closed in,” Kurpershoeck said.

McCann’s classroom also has the added benefit of sky lights embedded in the already vaulted ceilings.

“I love being able to play with the natural light because the fluorescents sometimes seem to be daunting,” McCann said.

McCann said that she sometimes even adjusts the skylights depending upon the mood of her class. If a class is more rambunctious one day, she can dim the lights to help calm them, or she can open them and let the sunlight through in order to help keep them engaged.

McCann feels that, all in all, her classroom is an absolute luxury, and she dreads even the thought of ever having to leave it.

One may be startled as he or she walks into a room filled to the brim with everything from deer heads to taxidermy ducks.

Science teacher Scott Braly adorns his room with specimens that help inspire his students.

“I teach science classes,” Braly said, “so I want it to be a classroom that represents that, and gives students things to look at and wonder about and think about, science wise.”

It is not only the types of creatures that are impressive in his room, but the quantity as well.

“Most of the things in here have been given to me by parents and taxidermist friends over the years,” Braly said. “They are such nice gifts and I have a hard time saying no to people when they offer me something, so I accept it and then find a place to put it.”

Besides decorative purposes, the animals serve an instructional purpose in the classroom. “(The animals) stimulate a lot of conversations, and in the Fish and Wildlife classes especially, I refer to these specimens a lot,” Braly said. “(The students) know what the specimens are and they can identify them when the class is done.”

Rather than simply referencing a poster or watching a video, Braly uses his classroom to get students more engaged with the help of their surroundings.

“It helps to have (the animals) where they can see them and touch them and be around them all of the time,” Braly said.

Junior Andy Carr-Hall enjoys the environment that Braly has created in his room. “(Braly’s room) keeps me more entertained than a boring classroom would,” Carr-Hall said. “A deer is much cooler than motivational posters.”

Most students agree that Braly’s room allows students to engage themselves into what they are learning, more than simply reading a book ever could.

“You can use all of your senses rather than just your vision and hearing,” Carr-Hall said.

Brandon Dell’Orto’s Room Fresh paint, posters of past presidents and historical figures adorn the walls of room 151, also known as the home of history teacher Brandon Dell’ Orto.

After moving across the campus to his new room over the summer, Dell’Orto decided that it was time for an upgrade.

“I’ve always felt that it is my job to make the room as helpful in the act of teaching as I can,” Dell’Orto said.

Instead of putting up the traditional motivational posters, Dell’Orto painted the walls with green and gray stripes in order to give a facelift to the plain-colored walls.

Dell’Orto’s seven to ten hours a day spent in his classroom are just another reason why he wants it to be an enjoyable space to spend time in.

“I was just sitting there thinking one day, while moving books and boxes, and decided that I can’t look at that every day for hours,” Dell’Orto said in reference to the former color palette.

In addition, Dell’ Orto added rows of pictures of historical figures that he will be addressing throughout the year in his class.

“Because four-fifths of the students I teach are (AP United States History) kids, the posters are all visual reminders and supporting reinforcements of stuff we are covering in class,” Dell’Orto said.

Dell’Orto’s hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Junior Laurel Stokes appreciates the additions to Dell’Orto’s room.

“There is a lot of stuff to look at,” Stokes said.

“Especially having the list of all the presidents, in order, is really helpful in class.”

Myron Stephens’s Room It is the only classroom where the trend is wearing jumpsuits.

Myron Stephens, one of the art teachers at Granite Bay High School, is known for the absolute explosion of creativity not only in his curriculum, but in his classroom.

“I didn’t want (the room) to look like a cafeteria,” Stephens said.

The minute a student walks into room 512, he or she is engulfed by nearly a hundred different pieces of artwork, ranging from acrylic paintings and graphite sketches, to sculptures crafted with wire.

Every piece of artwork on the wall was handcrafted by either former or current students.

“A little extra zip in a classroom when creativity and imagination needs to be fueled (helps) so that students can kind of (be inspired by) the classroom and get a vision or idea,” Stephens said.

Even Stephens admits that sometimes during a lecture or PowerPoint he will find a student’s eyes wandering around the classroom rather than looking at what they are supposed to be focusing on.

Junior Chloe Pan, one of Stephens’ long-time students, agrees that room 512 has an environment that is far more creative than most other classrooms.

“Walking into the classroom is comparable to entering a different world in a completely different dimension,” Pan said.

Sports

Granite Bay Gazette

C Section

Friday w September 16, 2011

Varsity boys’ soccer set to dominate

Commentary

austin downs adowns.gazette@gmail.com

Getting that “W” is not the only thing

“I

play to win, but I don’t care if I lose.”

That quotation best sums up how I feel about my sports’ career, and my younger brother has never understood why I feel that way. All that he cares about is how his amount of wins looks to other people.

I’ve been on plenty of winning teams in my life: undefeated Granite Bay High School freshmen soccer, undefeated Roseville West Little League baseball and so on.

But on the flipside, I’ve been on plenty of losing teams. The first time my dad tried coaching my Little League baseball team, we didn’t win a single game (but I do think we tied one). We would be up by four runs in the very last inning and, somehow, in all of my team’s unmatched skill, we would lose that game.

No matter what team I was a part of, no matter what the win-loss record was, my attitude and outlook always remained the same. I would be positive and strive to be the best that I could be, not what the team could be.

I know that coaches stress about teamwork and how there is no “I” in “team,” but, I mean, if my team is either the greatest athletes ever to touch a ball or a bunch of drooling klutzes, I think I’m going to focus on improving my own skills first.

Whenever game day came, my mindset was always on winning. I would give my best effort and, when the game was over, I would be proud of my accomplishments, regardless of a win or loss.

If we won — great! Way to go!

But if we lost — oh well. Just as long as we gave it our best, we can’t really lose. (OK, that sounds cheesy, but I assure you I mean that in the non-cheesiest way possible).

I suppose that, in all of my rambling, I’m trying to get across the point that winning truely isn’t everything. It shouldn’t be the only thing you have on your mind when playing a sport.

Strengthening one’s skills should be an athlete’s main focus.

When that time comes to look back upon our childhood sports’ teams, wouldn’t you rather remember your improvement rather than a number that tells you how many victories you earned? I would.

There is an analogy that goes like this: Would you rather be on a losing team, but you receive a lot of playing time, or would you rather be the player that doesn’t play at all on a team that wins a lot?

While there are some areas in life in which scores matter, such as in test taking, sports is just one of those things in which the score doesn’t depict a person’s full effort.

I truly believe that if people, who are concerned about the amount of victories they earn, focus more on improving, the wins will come more easily. *** Austin Downs, a junior, is a Gazette sports co-editor.

Varsity player J.C. Nichols, junior, dribbles the ball up the field in a game against Rio Americano High School. The Grizzlies won the match 2-1.

Gazette photo /OLIVIA cornell

Team looks to build on last year’s successes by adding strong new players

BY BRAD WONG

brwong.gazette@gmail.com

With the graduation of the class of 2011, the Granite Bay High School boys’ varsity soccer left behind a nationally successful legacy, along with a stellar team of athletes, which means this year’s varsity soccer team has some big cleats to fill.

The 2010 team managed to win a section title and finish fifth in the nation.

“Last year’s team was not only the best team that I have ever coached; it was the best high school team I have ever seen”, head coach Steve Fischer said.

However, the team lost 12 talented seniors who were vital to their success.

With this loss, some may begin to wonder if the new varsity athletes can replicate such a successful season.

But, expectations don’t need to be so grim when looking at some of the progress achieved last summer by a few GBHS players.

“It’s always not a good thing to have 12 seniors graduate, but I feel we have replaced our graduates fairly well. It should still be a good year despite our losses,” junior Tanner Thompson said.

Eight players moving up to varsity this year were part of the Blues competitive boys’ U16 soccer team during the summer, and certainly had many accolades worthy of recognition.

The Blues went from 48th in the nation at the beginning of the season to the second best team in the nation by the end of the season.

With their coach, Mike Linenberger, also the Sacramento State University head coach, the Blues managed to sweep the nation convincingly with an overall record of 16-1-2.

The Blues beat the first place team twice to win national tournaments in Davis and Modesto. Also, the team reached the final at the Surf Cup in San Diego, the second most prestigious soccer tournament in youth soccer.

All this success didn’t go unnoticed by college coaches, who are already conferring

with a few of the Blues’ members.

In addition, five Blues players received the Player to Watch award for the region of Hawaii and all of Northern California from topdrawersoccer.com, a website that rates teams and their players throughout the nation.

If their summer success is any indication of what their season will be like this year, the new varsity team can still be expected to perform at a national caliber.

“This season will still be full of exciting games and everyone should come out and See SOCCER, page C5

Football juniors seeks to keep their flawless record

A varsity coach and Jacob Erickson warm up before the Grizzlies first home game against St. Mary’s High School.

Varsity team sees rise in starting juniors

BY CHASE EVANS

cevans.gazette@gmail.com

Gazette photo / rachael vasquez

Coaches bringing new style to GBHS

Soccer, water polo see leadership change

BY JOEY PUHALA

jpuhala.gazette@gmail.com

Each year, Granite Bay High School tacks on a few new coaches to its athletic staff and this year is no exception.

Varsity girls’ soccer coach Chris Roberts left GBHS at the end of last school year in order to pursue a new job as assistant principal of Lyman Gilmore Middle School.

Last season, Robert’s team won section championship, leaving high expectations for this season.

Fortunately, Social Science teacher Mark Broers seems to be the right fit: he was Robert’s assistant coach last year.

“I really wanted the GBHS girls’ varsity soccer coaching position,” Broers said. “We have intelligent athletes, great talent and a tradition of success.”

Broers’ coaching history traces back to the ‘90s. He has coached Rio Americano High School and Oakmont High School as well as the San Juan Soccer Club.

Year after year, people look forward to what many regard as Granite Bay High School’s most popular events — varsity football games. This year that is especially so due to the potential that this year’s team has to offer.

For a variety of reasons, the team has many key players that make attending the games worth while.

“We have a lot of starting juniors, maybe more than we have ever had in the history of the school,” Mark Broers Social science teacher at GBHS steps up as head coach for girls’ varsity soccer.

varsity defensive backs’ coordinator Mike Valentine said.

The junior class is the first class to go undefeated in both their freshmen and JV football seasons. This is an indication of how much potential and drive the varsity team has this season.

“We are all stepping up (this year),” junior defensive lineman Tyler Arneson said. “There is a very small senior class, so there are a lot of open gaps for the juniors to fill.”

The juniors went 9-0 in their freshman year and 7-1-0 in their sophomore year, with only one tie to Nevada Union High School.

Water polo’s high focus Girls’ team at GBHS has great attitude and determination

BY MAT FUKUHARA

mfukuhara.gazette@gmail.com

He also has a United States Soccer Federation National “C” license in order to coach.

With experience as the assistant coach last year, Broers is ready to carry the team to victory.

“I think each coach has their own unique style,” Broers said. “I focus on the strengths of my individual players and try to organize them to create See COACHES, page C5

See FOOTBALL, page C5

She blows the whistle and makes a splash into the pool.

This isn’t an accidental fall or display of frustration, but a commitment to each girl on this year’s girls’ varsity water polo team.

The commitment is made by head coach Genna Masters. Her coaching philosophy is mainly about learning the sport rather than having a perfect season this year.

“I want us to come together and build the team because not very

many of us have worked together before,” Masters said.

In an effort to bring the team together, some of the players attended a summer water polo clinic where they were able to learn their positions and have a chance to get a feel for how each player responds to challenges in the water.

“They’re pretty close as it is, but they’re not quite playing cohesively yet,” Masters said. “We’re strong on defense, but we have to See POLO, page C5

inside sports Grizz Quiz

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Rising Star Sports Briefs

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Summer Camps GBHS athletes spend their summer at various summer sports camps.

Fan of the Month One passionate “Tribe” fan has his dedication regognized and explored.

Fall Sports Preview GBHS athletics are looking forward to a successful season.

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C2 Sports

Friday, September 16, w The Granite Bay Gazette

Summer isn’t a break for athletes

Players for different sports train, practice and bond in summer camps

BY BECKY MASSIL

what to bring and loading, as well as sorting, equipment.

On Saturday morning, Aug. 7, a The Blood and Thunder soccer band of Granite Bay High School camp was held on campus and had runners gathered together and trava much different arrangement for eled to a camp in Soda Springs. At 5 handling costs. p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 8, they returned Each day at camp cost $17 with an exhausted from an activity packed estimated total of around $70 for the adventure at Camp Winthers. whole camp. However, since soccer However, the runners aren’t the only players weren’t required to attend all team that enjoyed a summer camp. five days of camp, costs varied from The varsity boys’ football and the athlete to athlete. varsity boys’ soccer are among other Cross country summer camp Camp teams that attended sports camps.

Winthers cost $60 per camper, Although these summer sports covering the van transportation, an camps prepared athletes for the overnight stay and meals. upcoming fall season and acquainted Possibly the biggest difference them with their between the teammates, each summer sports camp had their difcamps were the ferences in training actual activities and purpose. and events.

While also serving For the as a way to build up school’s footthe football team’s ball team, camp skill during prewas mandatory season, the camp at – there wasn’t a Fresno State Univerfootball player Photos courtesy of TRENT BRENDEL sity was useful for that didn’t go if the team to distribhe could. Over- GBHS cross country runners spend a weekend together; getting to know each other and preparing for the new season, in ute uniforms and all, the football the forest of Camp Winthers, located in Soda Springs, Calif.

– Alec Pritchard, equipment out to the camp was junior football player players before it was nothing but It’s activities included strengthen“We were all trapped in the forest officially allowed. exactly that – a ing yoga, pranks, a talent show, a for two days so that kind of builds The boys’ varsity football camp camaraderie,” said junior Jason Semisoccer team’s fivewith no time for scavenger hunt, yarn dodgeball and hikes. ner said. day summer camp, anything else.

Above being Cross country Blood and Thunder, focused more “There (are) three practices a camps full of coach Carla Kehoe on learning how to play on a varsity day – one in the morning, one in mid vigorous acbenefited too. team. afternoon and one at night,” defentivity, the most “You get to know “It’s a really good camp if you want sive backs coordinator Mike Valenimportant asthe individual to try out for high school,” senior tine said. “Each practice is about two pects of these athletes (and) see Stephen Smith said. “For athletes that and a half hours, so when you get to three camps them in different don’t know the varsity coach, I would that night one you’re pretty doggone are sportsmanenvironments,” recommend them going.” tired.” ship, team Kehoe said.

On the other hand, cross country Players agree. building and Camps were a reaped slightly different benefits from “You get up, you eat, you practice, positive and emCamp Winthers. you go back and eat then you practice acquaintance between both powering experi“We go up there to run in the eleva- again,” junior Alec Pritchard said. athletes and ence for athletes tion in hopes that we get our butts Likewise, Blood and Thunder, coaches. during this past kicked by the altitude,” senior Kelly being an optional on campus camp, – Jason Seminer, “It’s usually summer, and many Greco said. mirrored a typical soccer practice. athletes, such as junior cross country The camps also differed in cost and “We had just a bunch of basic drills a get-together for me to Greco, are planning organization. Some camps took a lot and we went on to scrimmage at the runner meet with my to return to camp more work and money to fund and end,” Smith said. friends that I next summer. organize.

While football and soccer camp haven’t seen “I’m going to There was an estimated cost of both lasted about a week filled with for a while,” go back (to Camp $250 dollars per football player. The pure football and soccer, cross counSmith said.

Winthers) after senior year – I’m Cross country campers take a break from runcoaches were in charge of receiving try’s Camp Winthers had a variety of As for Camp Winthers, it had a going to be a fifth-year, so let’s see ning, conditioning and training to enjoy a day in the money from players, telling them activities to do other than running. team-building aspect of its own. what happens (next),” Greco said. sun and water at Camp Winthers. rmassil.gazette@gmail.com

you get up, you eat, you practice, you go back and eat then you practice again.

We were all trapped in the forest for two days so that kind of builds camaraderie.

Grizz Quiz

Dominic Scotti Boys’ Soccer

Zak Lilley Football

Megan Klingler Girls’ Water Polo

Jenny Gilbert Girls’ Golf

Trent Brendel Cross Country

What is your favorite color?

Blue

Purple

Blue

Teal

Green

What is your favorite food on a hot day?

Ice Cream

Hot Dogs

Popsicles

Mango Juice

Watermelon

What is your favorite sport to watch?

Basketball

Football

Basketball

Football

Track and Field

Mr. Valentine

Mrs. Bacharach

Mr. Laughrea

Mrs. Givens

Mrs. Krishnaraj

Being #1 in the nation

Hanging with friends

Camping with friends

Boating on Folsom Lake

Talent show at cross country camp

Who is your favorite teacher?

What was your favorite summer memory?

Composed by Chase Evans

Your names. Your faces. Your games.

The Gazette Sports.

Friday, September 16, 2011

w The Granite Bay Gazette

Sports C3

Rise in ticket prices could mean less boarding Students look for alturnative locations for winter recreation

BY JOEY PUHALA

To Pink, the odds of anyone getting much use from the ColoWith Tahoe just a short hour and rado Mountains are slim; therefore a half away, skiing and snowboardpeople shouldn’t be forced to pay ing has become one of Granite Bay for them.

High School’s favorite pastimes.

Sugar Bowl, who used to be It shouldn’t come as a surprise considered a slightly less expensive that our wealthy community has a alternative to Northstar, raised their large amount of annual season pass teens’ season pass price by $130. holders to various resorts in the The extra costs for these passes Tahoe region. seem to put a significant dent in the Northstar and Sugar Bowl, two pockets of students who might have popular resorts for teens at GBHS, to pay for their pass themselves. have drastically raised the prices of “The increased pricing of these their season passes. Because of this, resorts really grinds my gears,” passionate skiers and snowboarders sophomore Myles Slattery said. “It are being forced kind of defeats the to reassess their purpose of going They actually winter plans for skiing when you the upcoming raised the price and have to worry about season. all this money.” gave the pass access In the eyes of Northstar has raised the price to resorts in Colo- many teenage skiers of its teen season and snowboarders, rado and to me, this it’s not only about pass price $80 from last year and is a ridiculous way riding, but a social raised the price as well. to justify the price experience of their Fast Pass “You can’t really season passes have that good of a jump. (passes that offer time if you’re just – Austin pink, shorter waits for chilling by yourself Sophomore the various lines riding,” Slattery at the resort) said. “When your from $100 to $200. That’s a $180 friends see you land a trick, it feels increase in price when purchasing ten times better.” the two passes together.

It’s common for friends to synchroThis price increase can most nize where they buy season passes. likely be traced to the fact that it is “It makes it more convenient for under new ownership this season. getting rides if everyone is headed Despite the fact that the new to the same place, Slattery said. pass offers access to other resorts “But these price raises are making located in Colorado, many students some of my friends fall behind and agree that the inflated cost is quite have to look at cheaper mountains ridiculous. to go to.”

“It makes it hard for a lot of locals Many students are looking to in Northern California who just shange their favorite mountain want the Northstar and Heavenly spots. pass,” sophomore Austin Pink said.

“I was excited to go to Northstar “They actually raised the price and and now I’m just looking for moungave the pass access to resorts in tains that have the cheapest prices,” Colorado and to me, this is a ridicu- sophomore Michael Geraghty said. lous way to justify the price jump.”

On top of the raised pass prices, jpuhala.gazette@gmail.com

Courtesy photo /Squaw valley ski resort

Squaw vally ski resort ski lift passionate winter sports enthusiasts take the ski lift to the top of the mountain during the busy winter season. skiing and snowboarding is a relatively expensive sport, so when there is a considerable amount of money added to the ticket, it affects everything else riders can buy.

“It’s all connected,” Geraghty said. “If you decide to go to a different and cheaper resort, that effects the gear you buy, like your snowboard, bindings and boots.”

These price raises seem to cause quite a stir in the riding community. Students are trying to continue riding with their friends, but the prices make it that much more difficult for them to chase their passions.

“It’s really making this whole experience difficult,” Geraghty said. “It shouldn’t have to boil down to whether or not you can afford it.”

Courtesy photo /SQUAw Valley Ski Resort

Fan of the Month

Hunter Christian reignites the Tribe

BY KELSEY KNORP

kknorp.gazette@gmail.com

Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ

GBHS senior Hunter Christian carries on the tradition of the “Tribe.”

There are some new chiefs in the village this season. New “Tribe” leader senior Hunter Christian is ready to start this year off with a bang.

He and the other leaders have already created a Facebook page for the “Tribe” which they encourage everyone to “like” in order to build support and encourage school spirit.

“I want to get more people out there than last year,” Christian said.

Christian, as a junior, was almost as equally involved with the “Tribe” as he is now.

“The seniors last year told me about (the “Tribe”),” Christian said. “We decided to start doing it with them”.

After already being a big part of the “Tribe” spirit, he is prepared to come back at full speed this year.

This young, but energetic fan is determined to exceed last year’s spirited inaugural tribe gathering at the Granite Bay High School vs.

Reed High School football game of Aug. 27, 2010.

Christian already has some new

plans up his sleeve to make this year’s “Tribe” bigger and better.

“Before the Nevada Union football game there is going to be a tailgate that everyone can come to,” Christian said.

The plan is to bring the fans together and get them ready to head into the game to cheer on their Grizzlies to victory.

Christian also plans to be cheering his heart out with his fellow “Tribe” members at many soccer games this season.

“Painting my face and my chest and being loud and supporting the football players,” said Christian, describing his favorite part of being in the ‘Tribe’.”

Christian is excited to start leading this cheering group that has become key to Grizzly pride at GBHS. It is GBHS “Tribe” leaders, such as Christian, who are already hard at work to make this year great for Grizzly fans.

“Everyone go,” Christian said. “I want to see a lot of people.”

Keep a look out for Christian in the stands, screaming with his fellow tribe members as GBHS defeats everyone in its path.

SPORTS BRIEFS GBHS varsity boys’ soccer loses to Jesuit wAlthough GBHS senior Will Harkin scored the first goal, it was called offside and was not counted in the final score. Harkin came back, however, with a header assisted by junior Tanner Thompson. wDespite a back-and-forth battle through out the game and an occurance of two red cards (one on GBHS and one on Jesuit), GBHS lost 3-2.

GBHS cross country attends Del Oro High School Invitational w The varsity girls runners placed second while varsity boys runners placed sixth during the Invitational. wFive varsity girls’ runners earned a Top 20 Medal, including sophomore Katie Mersereau (sixth), senior Natalie Hassna (tenth), junior Allison Daly

(thirteenth), sophmore Rylee Mckeon (ninteenth) and junior Megan Barnett (twentieth). wJunior Trent Brendel placed second in this particular invitational for the second year in a row.

GBHS football wJunior J.R. Colton recovers a fumble during the Clovis East High School game at GBHS. w During the Clovis East High School Game, senior Michael Bertelino and senior Arik Bird lead the Grizzlies in touchdowns. wSenior Adam Wagner was recognized by the GBHS Athletics Commission in the bulletins for extrordinary perfromance in the St. Mary High School game at GBHS. -compiled by Mat Fukuhara and Meghan Carlsen

www. granitebaygazette.com

Your fans. Your sports. The Gazette.

C4 Sports

Friday, September 16, 2011 w The Granite Bay Gazette

Granite Bay Fall Sports Update Boys’ soccer “The team is looking solid and I think we will do fine.

Jesuit finally agreed to play us after three years of requesting a game. Right now, we are just building as a team and our season should be exciting.”

“The season is looking pretty good and we are currently ranked sixth in the nation. We got a lot of new kids, especially a lot of sophomores that played for the Placer Blue’s club team. We got all the Thompson (brothers) again. The team has great players and this year should be a good year.”

Senior Cody Giddings

Coach Steve Fischer

Girls’ water polo “Our preseason is going well. The girls are playing really good defense and we are now working on our offense. We’re trying to get our offense up to par before we start playing some of our tougher opponents this season. We have a lot of younger girls this year.”

“Our season is going to be difficult because last year we had a really good team and we lost 10 seniors this year. So it’s going to be a building year. Getting to sections is going to be harder and we are going to have to work harder than we ever have if we want to get there.”

Sophomore Grace Reego

Coach Genna Masters

Boys’ water polo “Our season hasn’t started yet. We are just practicing.

Practices are going OK, but we are a little behind right now. As for how the season is looking, I don’t know how it’s going to be. This is the most parody that we have seen in the SFL in many years. A lot of people graduated last year and it is going to be tough.”

“We have high expectations for our first league game. We are playing Rocklin. We think our season is going to go well and most of the players are improving as the season goes on.”

Senior Will Lewis

Coach John MacLeane

Girls’ golf “(Our season) is going amazing. We already won a tournament. This season should be pretty good. We have a lot of girls coming back from last year.”

“We have a good team this year. A lot of players are returning so that really helps. (Our season) is going to look good. Our goal is to win all of our matches so hopefully we can do that and have a great season.”

Junior Paige Lee

Coach Jason Sitterud

Cross country “Varsity girls’ will do fine. It’s a long season and three of our top runners graduated, so (a section title) will be hard. The boys’ are young and we moved a lot of freshmen and sophomores up to varsity.”

Coach Carla Kehoe

Girls’ volleyball “We have a pretty strong core and I can see the girls already working together, motivating each other and supporting each other. They have already set high goals for themselves. It’s nice to see that we don’t have to motivate them.”

Coach Jamie Ingram

Girls’ tennis “(Our season) is going very well. We’ve got an extremely talented team with great depth along with the Forlini’s and Kecki’s. We just played down in Fresno and our singles won 14 out of 16 games.”

Coach Rory Woods

Football “We are currently 3-0. The record doesn’t mean anything because we still have a murderous schedule.

We got Vacaville up next and they are darn good.

After that, we play Pittsburgh and than we start league.”

Defensive backs coach Mike Valentine

“I feel like the team is actually doing well this year. We have a lot of young members who are competent athletes and doing their best. We don’t have a whole lot of upperclassmen, but the younger athletes are making great progress and are catching up to the juniors and seniors.”

Senior Alex Niu

“Our team is mostly juniors and we only have three seniors this year. Our coach Jamie Ingram is a really good coach. Her energy and supportiveness really helps out the team.”

Sophomore Taylor Nelson

“We won our first preseason match against Davis. I think we are going to be pretty successful. (My twin sister) Lily and I are doing great and hopefully we make it to sections this year.”

Junior Chloe Forlini

“I think it’s going to be a great season because we have a lot of good guys. Our starting quarterback is going to get it done for us. We have a lot of junior starters, not a very strong senior team, but the seniors we have are really good.”

Senior Robert Bell

Gazette photos /Austin Downs and Rachael Vasquez

-Compiled by Rachael Vasquez and Austin Downs

Sports C5

Friday, September 16, 2011 w The Granite Bay Gazette

Granite Bay High School junior Nathan Pinkney excels at varsity boys’ water polo

BY BROOKLYN KLEPL bklepl.gazette@gmail.com

Gazette photo /Rachael Vasquez

Nathaniel Pinkney, a junior and starter for the varsity boys’ water polo team at Granite Bay High School has been playing water polo for four years.

He has lived in Granite Bay his whole life and has participated in basketball and swim. Both sports have helped him in his experiences with water polo.

Pinkney won four records last year for swimming. The awards were a spectacular achievement that encouraged Pinkney to keep up the hard work in swimming and go out for the varsity boys’ water polo team. “(Basketball is) a visual sport and with water polo, it’s pretty much the same,” Pinkney said.

Many of Pinkney’s fellow teammates can see his hard work.

“Nathan is basically a boss at water polo and also swimming (because) last year as a sophomore, he was on varsity, which is really hard to do,” sophomore Frankie Cervantes said. “Now he’s on varsity water polo and he’s a starter and for most sports that’s really hard to do.”

Pinkney was on the boys’ JV team his freshman year, but has been on varsity for his sophomore and junior year.

His main position is set, which is one of the most important positions in water polo.

The position of set is in front of the opponent’s goalie and is usually heavily guarded by the more aggressive players.

This is the easiest shooting position to shoot the ball into the goal.

The set also needs to make accurate pressure passes and make fouls when necessary.

Varsity boys’ water polo coach John MacLeane knows that there are four characteristics that are critical in being successful

at high school water polo and Pinkney has them. The characteristics include a player’s speed to get to the ball, strong legs to get up and out of the water, great blocking ability and excellent passing under pressure.

“If you can do those four things, you are going to play,” MacLeane said. “If you can’t, I’ll find someone else to play.”

MacLeane trains his team to work to be a better water polo team and better individual water polo players and people.

When playing in a game or at practice, Pinkney always encouraging his teammates to work hard and keep up the hard work because only then can the team improve and put its best foot forward.

If Pinkney keeps up his great attitude, he will surely be a starter on varsity next season.

“The only way to get good at something is to practice, practice, practice!” MacLeane said.

GBHS junior Nathan Pinkey prepares to pass the ball to his teammate during a water polo practice.

SOCCER: Year two of national achievments Continued from page C1

watch,” junior Andrew Erbland said.

Besides a few starting seniors, Ty Thompson and Will Harkin, the rest of the team, including the eight Blue’s club players, is completely new to the scene of varsity soccer.

“The biggest change is getting used to working together with all the different players,” junior Noah Tooley said.

Despite the new challenge, Tooley maintains high expectations to be repeat Division II Section Champions and win a national tournament in St. Louis.

The varsity team has already made a positive start, winning its first game and the first tournament in Santa Rosa without the leading scorer, sophomore Tommy Thompson.

It may be too early to tell, Fischer believes that the team should be pretty good. Although the team have six wins and a tough loss to nationally number one ranked Jesuit High School, several top notch players haven’t been able to play.

Once they return, the team should be much better.

With such optimistic expectations and an initial ranking of sixth in the nation, the team seems perfectly capable of establishing itself as a national soccer powerhouse yet again.

“We always have high expectations and we’re not that concerned with winning championships, though that is the goal,” Fischer said. “We just want to get better and try to play with passion, courage and dignity.”

POLO: The season will be a rebuilding year for the team Continued from page C1

work on our offense.”

To better the offense, instead of pointing and pacing on the pool deck, Masters dives in and demonstrates exactly what she intends the play to look like and the opportunity it creates for success.

Senior Jolie Rogers believes Masters’ involvement is more effective and creates constructive criticism rather than bringing the team down.

“It’s definitely a better experience for her to be getting in the pool to show us because I think it motivates us,” Rogers said. “Plus, everyone can also see how it’s done rather than having the inexperienced players get yelled at from

the sidelines and swim laps.”

Rogers believes there’s a lot of talented individuals who have the ability to become pillars of the team, but the focus is still to bond the team by building on top of each other’s talents rather than becoming disconnected due to the lack of experience and skill.

“I see a lot of potential in the team because there isn’t any team drama which allows to us work together in the pool,” Rogers said.

Junior Sara Northam who has played two seasons, also sees potential this season through talent and team oriented motivation.

“We had a lot of girls graduate last year, but I think it’ll be better in the long run to have younger players who

can build the team,” Northam said. “We veteran Juliana Rowe believes the team motivate each other to do better and has what it takes to contend with the congratulate each other when we do a strength of previous rosters. good job.”

“The team isn’t as strong as last Outside the pool, players motivate year’s team at this time and because of each other and build bonds through the loss of seniors a lot of people are “Secret Buddies.” This is when players having to step it up this season,” Rowe are paired and they go to each other’s said. “But there are a lot of motivated classes and leave gifts on game day. underclassmen.”

All team bonding efforts come down This year may be a rebuilding year to the final moments before the game for the team, but with the strength and when the team’s energy starts to build. determination of the players and Masters, “We’re all about the pep talks where there’s hope for a section title. we gather around, eat and hangout “I’ve been with the team since my before the games,” sophomore Grace freshmen year, so I care about the team Reego said. a lot and want to see it get better,” Rowe It’s still too early to determine whether their efforts so far have been said. “My goal is to build it up this season successful but senior and four season so Granite Bay will continue to have a great program.”

FOOTBALL: A tough schedule jeopardizes great record Continued from page C1 While this year’s seniors were forced to play the same players on offense and defense during their JV season, the junior class had over 60 players to choose from in their freshmen year.

After earning victories in its first two games against St. Mary’s High School and Clovis East High school, the team still has a lot of hard games to fight through. “(The juniors) are going to have to learn the speed and the different complexities of varsity football,” Valentine said. “We are going to have to continue getting better from game to game.”

Ironically, going undefeated in the first two years of their high school football career does provide the juniors with a challenge.

“If anything, (head varsity football coach Ernie Cooper) brings up (our undefeated season) to discourage us from being cocky,” Arneson said.

Even with such success in the past, having inexperience varsity players is problematic. However, many remain optimistic about their circumstance.

“Because our team is so young, we get better with every game because all the juniors are getting more experience,” offensive lineman Koki Arai said.

Valentine agrees.

“If we can catch on, we will be able to hang on with any team in the league,” Valentine said.

By winning its first two games of the year, with both games being decided by a touchdown or less, the team has solidified the promise of having a great season.

With each win, the team celebrates the victory, puts it behind them and looks forward to improving in the following weeks’ practices and games.

This year, the team is looking to bounce back from last season’s devastating playoff loss against Monterrey Trail High School and become a serious playoff contender in order to bring the section title back to GBHS.

COACHES: New ideas bring potential success to school

Continued from page C1

the best possible team.”

Last year, the team was quite successful, having an overall record of 15-4-2.

“I learned a lot assisting former head coach Chris Roberts last year; about the team and GBHS’s soccer traditions,” Broers said. “I’m excited to work with Steve Fischer, Frank Gemignani and Liz McCuen this year as a staff for the girls’ program.”

Sophomore Makenzie Brito feels that the change in soccer coaches will only be beneficial for the girls’ team.

“Broers clearly knows the game and will definitely

make a good impact on the team this year,” Brito said.

“He’s got a unique coaching style... and I think it’s going to be an all-around great experience.”

Also new to the coaching scene is Genna Masters, the new head coach for the varsity girls’ water polo team.

“I took the job because Granite Bay is a great school, with great athletes and great dedication. It was just a great opportunity,” Masters said.

Masters is a coach for the Sacramento Club Water Polo team and coached the Oakmont JV boy’s water polo team last year.

“I really wanted to coach girls at the varsity level,” Masters said.

Two-sport sophomore star Will Greenwood

BY MAT FUKUHARA

mfukuhara.gazette@gmail.com

The pressure is on in cross country to be the most competitive team this year as last year’s star athletes move on to the collegiate level.

Of the handful of contenders, sophomore Will Greenwood is a name to follow.

This year isn’t his first on the varsity team as last year he competed as a freshman.

“I ran last year for varsity, but for smaller meets,” Greenwood said. “Being an underclassman on the varsity team was really intimidating.”

From his experience last year, Green-

wood knew what he wanted to be as well known as graduates Brooke Holt and Christine Zavesky.

“They had a lot of success at Granite Bay High School and are now running in college, which is where I want to be,” Greenwood said. “Through their success, they really motivated me to be competitive.”

Greenwood took his goal to heart and into action over the summer.

“I ran about 200 miles this summer training for this season and I also swam laps in my pool,” Greenwood said.

He finds it valuable to also incorporate friends with his training.

“I train with my buddy Andy Moudakis and Weston Holt, who is Brooke Holt’s cousin, on a regular basis,” Greenwood said.

To him, practices this year are more rigorous with new coach Carla Kehoe.

“This year, there are a lot more intense workouts,” Greenwood said.

“Which is better, because it makes me work harder to get better.”

One of his most important training routines is performed right before he has to run.

“I find a shady spot and listen to music before my meet to get ready,” Greenwood said. “‘Secrets’ and ‘Good Life’ by One Republic get me ready to run.”

To Greenwood, cross country is an important balance of intensity and enjoyment.

“Cross country is both a sport and passion,” Greenwood said. “Not a hardcore passion, but I enjoy it.”

After the depature of previous coach Sarah Norton, Masters wanted nothing more than to coach GBHS girls’ water polo.

“I think it’s nice that I’m a female coach coaching female athletes,” Masters said. “I think that I can relate better to them.”

Sophomore Grace Reego easily adjusted to the new water polo coach “She is really nice, and she has a lot of good ideas,” Reego said. “She works really well with players of all skill levels. Sometimes she even brings us breakfast to morning practice. She just is really supportive, nice and encouraging.”

Will Greenwood practices his distance running after school during cross country practice. He runs for the varsity team as a sophomore.

Gazette photo / Riley Mac Millan

C6 Sports

Friday September 16, 2011 w The Granite Bay Gazette

AT A GLANCE

Stats at a Glance Football Upcoming Games: w9/16 @ Vacaville w9/30 @ Pittsburg w10/7 vs. Nevada Union w10/14 vs. Woodcreek Record as of 9/13/11: 3-0 “I look forward to winning the SFL Championship this year,” Beau Hershberger said.

Girls’ Water Polo Upcoming Games: w9/20 vs. Nevada Union w9/22 @ Roseville w9/27 @ Bear River w10/4 @ Del Oro Record as of 9/13/10: 0-1

Gazette photo /Rachael vasquez

Gazette photo /Riley Mac Millan

Boys’ Water Polo Upcoming Games: w9/20 vs. Nevada Union w9/22 @ Roseville w9/27 @ Bear River w10/4 @ Del Oro Record as of 9/13/10: 3-2 “We are going to beat D.O,” Connor Soares said.

Boys’ Soccer Upcoming Games: w9/23 vs. Nevada Union w9/28 vs. Woodcreek w9/30 @ Del Oro w10/5 vs. Rocklin Record as of 9/13/10: 0-1

Girls’ Volleyball Gazette photo /rachael vasquez

Upcoming Games: w9/27 vs. Nevada Union w9/29 vs. Woodcreek w10/4 @ Del Oro w10/6 vs. Rocklin Record as of 9/8/10: 9-1 “We have a pretty good team this year so I’m looking forward to hopefully making playoffs,” Kristin Kupershoek said.

Girls’ Tennis Upcoming Matches: w9/20 vs. Nevada Union w9/22 vs. Woodcreek w9/27 @ Del Oro w9/29 vs. Rocklin “At the end of the year we go to sections and that’s always really fun,” Cami Kecki

Cross Country Upcoming Meets: w10/5 SPL Meet #2 w10/28 League Championship

Girls’ Golf Upcoming Matches: w9/20 @ Del Oro w9/22 vs. Rocklin w9/27 @ Roseville w9/29 @ Nevada Union

Gazette photo /Rachael Vasquez

GBHS girls’ Karolina Kecki begins a point at practice with a serve.

Top right, Jen Wild and her fellow drill team members watch from the track as the varsity boys’ football team play St. Mary’s High School.

Above, senior outside linebacker Jacob Erickson and defensive end junior Tyler Arneson prepare to charge after the St. Mary’s High School’s snap. Left, junior Julia Periolat and Carly Flajole reveal to the football audience their cover on Cheer magazine. Above right, sophomore Dominic Scotti dribbles toward Rio Americano High School’s goal box before completing a cross.

“I’m really excited for the team this year. We have some great girls on the team,” Annie Spargo said.

Gazette photo /Riley Mac Millan

green screen.

The Gazette’s art and entertainment guide September 2011

F

all ashion ocus

Get a taste of this season’s edgy fashion, including combat boots, Levi’s and headbands.

Paying Tribute

Former students write a single in honor of the late Adam Johns and Courtney Parker.

New Year, New You

Explore this year’s new trends, consisting of activities such as leisure diving, hot yoga and cake pops.

Page 2

September 2011

Contents.

In this issue...

Assassin Page 5

New Year, New You Pages 14 and 15

. s v n Amazo a i n r o f i Cal

Page 6

Fall Fashion Focus Pages 11 and 12 Gazette illustration/SAMANTHA SPARGO

September 2011

SUNDAY

Page 3

Calendar.

TUESDAY

MONDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

September

3

1

Labor Day

11 P a t r i o t

5

9

T a l k like a PIRATE day

Sports-A-Rama Practice

13

23

21

Sports-A-Rama

International Day of Peace

D a y

Too much, Gaga

Gazette illustration/HAYLEY MCAVOY

Lady Gaga takes “unique” to a whole new level

W

hen does it get to be just too much?

When Lady Gaga first began to bloom in the music industry, I remember hearing the new single “Love Game” blasting on the radio as I was driving to school. It was a new sound that many people loved, including me.

But after the first few singles, it went downhill.

The quality of Lady Gaga’s music has not disappointed me as the months pass by, but her eagerness to always come up with a new way to stand out in the crowd has.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is a time and a place for everything. Gaga just takes it too far most of the time.

On this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, she felt the need to dress up as a male, twitching in character as she handed Britney Spears her award.

Not only was it an unnecessary attempt at being unique, but also made the millions of people watching cringe at the awkward tension as Spears hurried off stage.

Lady Gaga’s music videos prove to be extremely intriguing with all of the various themes and outfits, but

Commentary

ari black

ablack.gazette@gmail.com

what is the message underneath all of this? Does it really take this amount of effort to succeed in the media world?

Lady Gaga themes her songs around staying true to yourself, so why is she not living up to her lyrics? The fact that she is so needy for attention draws questions from her fans.

The music she writes should reflect the person she is. Staying true to beliefs is crucial in the media. As she continues to venture further away

from her values, her reputation will continue to decline along with her fan base.

She will gain more attention for her obscure actions in public places but the media will only hurt her in the end. The more insane she looks on the covers of magazines and on TV shows, the less reliable she becomes as an influential figure in the music world.

Gaga has definitely contributed to the music industry by using her fame to promote her beliefs and push the progression of pop music even further, but it seems as though she is beginning to push the envelope just a little too far.

It seems as though the music industry is venturing away from its roots. It is becoming a competition about who can have the best or most outrageous costume.

Instruments have been replaced with computers and DJ’s. The morals are all changing.

True talent isn’t about millions of dollars spent on outfits and stage setups. Gaga continues to corrupt the authenticity of music as she pushes this idea into the youth.

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Music.

Lil Wayne Sorry 4 the Wait

L

BY BRAD WONG

bwong.gazette@gmail.com

il Wayne released his most recent mixtape, Sorry 4 the Wait Aug. 29, the first since No Ceilings, back in 2009.

Sorry is an interesting mixtape as Wayne grabs instrumentals from recent hits, such as Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci,” Big Sean’s “My Last,” and many more.

With borrowed beats, he throws his own lyrics on them in a sort of mash-up that overall, only achieved mediocrity.

The main problem with the album is how Wayne raps on music that already has a certain mood and feel to it and, when he doesn’t match

A-

T WARNER BROTHERS RECORDS

I’m With You was released on Aug. 29.

Skip to: Ethiopia

it, he creates an awkward combination.

For example, Adele’s, “Rolling in the Deep” is a very unlikely song to successfully combine dirty south rap with pop. In this freestyle, it is no different.

Adele’s guitar rhythm is awkwardly cut by the profanities and lyrics of Wayne that account for nothing in the song.

His freestyle of “Gucci Gucci,” by Kreayshawn, is very catchy and is one of the better songs of the album. Wayne matches the upbeat rhythm with energetic lyrics that will get your head bobbing.

My absolute favorite song was the “Sure Thing” freestyle, originally done by Miguel that truly showcased Wayne’s true potential.

Lil Wayne is unique in that he is so synchronized with the guitar and trance-like beat that he perfectly complements it with equally relaxed and soothing lyrics.

I would recommend this album to others who would be interested to hear a new side of Wayne with all sorts of different beats. However, be prepared for some offensive language and a different feel of what you’d normally expect from Wayne.

Certainly not a stand-out album, Sorry 4 The Wait, will remain another of Wayne’s many albums that lay in the shelves of mediocrity. So Wayne, no need for the apology.

So Wayne, no need for the apology.

YOUNG MONEY ENTERTAINMENT

Sorry 4 the Wait was released on Aug. 29.

Skip to: Sure Thing Freestyle

Red Hot Chili Peppers I’m With You

BY CROSBY ALLISON

callison.gazette@gmail.com

he hiatus is over.

After a tumultuous history with a multitude of guitarists, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have gotten back into the studio to record I’m With You, released by Warner Brothers Records.

Since the mutual separation with John Frusciante in 2009, RHCP has employed Josh Klinghoffer as the band’s new guitarist.

Klinghoffer’s method of playing is similar to past RHCP guitarists, yet slightly more effect driven.

Michael Balzary, better known by his stage name “Flea,” and regarded to be one of the best modern rock bassists, played piano for several tracks on I’m With You, including “Ethiopia” and “Happiness Loves Company.”

“The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie,” a single released before the rest of I’m With You, has already reached the top of the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, the 12th RHCP song to do so.

Overall, the new album is an interesting direction for the band, given their past debauchery involving illicit substances.

However, The creativity is not at all lacking and the classic RHCP rhyme schemes and emotions can be heard in each track, notably “Brendan’s Death Song,” an elegy for club owner Brendan Mullen, who helped the band in their formative years. Mullen had just completed the band’s autobiography before his death. Other stand out tracks include the first track, “Monarchy of Roses,” “Look Around” and “Police Station.”

“Monarchy of Roses” seems like a medley of clashing guitar and drums at first, but the

Breathe Carolina Hell is What You Make It

BY BECKY MASSIL

rmassil.gazette@gmail.com

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September 2011

reathe Carolina a duo notorious for mixing two of my favorite musical characteristics – electronica and screamo. Never before had I seen such a wonderful blend of the two.

I remember having, at one point, their single, “Hello Fascination,” on repeat on my iPod. This band is master of electronic rock.

Now, Breathe Carolina released a new mediocre album over the summer, Hell is What You Make It. Unfortunately, upon hearing it, I wished that I had not heard it at all.

The tracks sound slightly different from one another, but there isn’t very much that catches your ear.

Crucial to every album are tracks that make you want to hear the whole album over and over again, though Hell is What You Make It lacks this feature.

All of the songs sounded unique enough to be differentiated from one another, but few of them stand out as a catchy or an exceptionally entertaining song. The songs were all sufficient, but few were what people might list as

one of their favorite songs.

The lyrics haven’t changed much, except for an increased concentration on the subject of partying and adrenaline rushes. The band is moving further away from the dark background it had before.

The new themes haven’t harmed the band, however, I don’t think Breathe Carolina chose the right song for its first album single.

The single for the album, “Blackout,” doesn’t strike me as anything special. I don’t hate the song, but out of all the songs on the album, this one doesn’t make the best statement.

There is also an imbalance between rock and electronica in this release. There seems to be more singing and electronica than screamo, which causes a sort of redundancy throughout the whole album.

I would still say that this album did have a few exceptional songs despite the let downs.

Although very repetitive, “Edge of Heaven” had great bass, especially around the last two minutes of the song.

“Lauren’s Song” is also a great track – its softer, more toned down, making it a lot more unique.

At the same time, it also has some aggression and a

composition of the chorus immediately redeems it with a well-used bass line.

The sound of “Look Around” is a melancholy version of classic RHCP style, with sparse guitar and rhythmic clapping.

“Police Station” is a much mellower song in the likeness of “Strip My Mind,” with a different time signature.

Members of the band traveled to Africa during their nine-month period of writing, which influenced the song “Ethiopia,” an interesting mix of RHCP and cultural music styles.

This album is perfect for diehard RHCP fans that will enjoy anything the band produces, but a new listener may want to listen to older albums before I’m With You.

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divergence from the redundant musical structure of the other songs on the album.

It made a great conclusion, ending the album with the same line that was in the introduction – “Every shooting star reminds me that THE ARTERY FOUNDATION Hollywood lost the brightest.” Hell is What You Overall, the album was Make It was released just okay. It wasn’t comon July 12 pletely disappointing but it just failed to make a statement.

Skip to: My hopes for Breathe Lauren’s Carolina, however, have not Song been diminished. They’ve still got skill, they just need to put it to better use.

Page 5

September 2011

Play.

Assassin Game will be a Killer Success Online Facebook game connects students through competition.

BY HALEY MASSARA hmassara.gazette@gmail.com

For some Granite Bay High School students, the next few weeks may be a struggle for survival.

The game of Assassin has made its way onto high school grounds, and in turn, GBHS’ campus.

Erik Englund, a GBHS alumnus, organized a small-scale game on campus two years ago. Since then, Assassin has grown in popularity and a mass GBHS game is being orchestrated on Facebook.

Senior and organizer Nima Miraliakbar said, “A lot of people seem really stoked. Over 200 students are slated to play and there should be a large turnout.”

According to the Facebook page, Miraliakbar’s game Sept. 12, and is open to all students. Those interested would have to join the page as quickly as possible.

The game itself is essentially a more strategic, campus-wide version of Cops and Robbers.

Players secretly receive names of individuals to “assassinate”. When a player successfully nabs a human target, the killer moves on to the next round. This continues until only one person is left alive.

Assassin is designed for play on college campuses and, as such, no real weapons are allowed. Instead, “kills” take a variety of forms, which vary somewhat from game to game.

Common methods of elimination include: the “time bomb,” or rigging a timer of some kind to set off near a target, “stabbing” a victim by poking them with a plastic spoon or adding “poison” hot sauce to the victim’s food. Getting a target wet (via squirt guns or water balloons) is also frequently accepted as an assassination.

The best players of Assassin are those which eliminate their targets creatively, quickly and without disrupting bystanders. A degree of healthy paranoia is often necessary to avoid assassination, particularly in college-intensity games.

For the GBHS variant of Assassin, the rules have been altered slightly to make the game practical for high school students.

Unlike the college version, which is continuous until all players are eliminated, the GBHS game will be paused during school hours and the GBHS campus will be considered a “safe zone.” Also, GBHS players will form teams to work

hot sauce

together to assassinate other teams, rather than working alone.

Alumus Austin Frizzel has played several rounds of an Assassin variant in which water is the only permissible assassination method, and said in an e-mail that it can become very intense.

“If I’m not mistaken I was the first one out,” Frizzel said, regarding his first time playing the game, “I was invited over to my friends house and promptly had a bucket of ice water dumped on my head.”

Later on, Frizzel organized a larger, more tactical game with a group of paint ball and air soft enthusiasts.

“In one assassination attempt, a player repositioned his target’s lawn sprinklers to face his front door and sidewalk,” Frizzel said.

“When the victim came home from work, he was eliminated by the sprinklers spraying him.”

Frizzel believes the necessary tools for success is to be strategic and cunning.

To Miraliakbar, strategy involves rigging timers to go off in a target’s backpack once off campus.

Aside from honing a player’s critical thinking, the game serves a social purpose, as well – players on a team bond and targets and assassins are introduced to each other.

“Imagine 500 people playing and you only know 150 of them,” Miraliakbar said. “Now you know another 350 people’s (contact information)...so it makes the whole campus closer.”

Gazette illustrations/LENA EYEN

Page 6

Controversy.

September 2011

vs. California

BY SAMANTHA SPARGO sspargo.gazette@gmail.com

The recent wrestling match between Amazon.com and the state of California came to a close when a settlement was reached on Sept. 9, leaving Amazon.com with a one year “grace period” until they will be forced to charge sales tax in Sept. of 2012.

The struggle began when California legislature passed a law, as part of the state budget, forcing internet retailers that make over $500,000 to collect sales tax from their California customers.

As part of the deal, Amazon.com agreed to refrain from proposing a referendum that would oppose the taxation.

Immediately following the passage of the preliminary tax law, Amazon. com broke ties with their affiliates in California, in total around 7,000, in order to avoid paying up.

Senior Jessica Reese was formerly an associate of Amazon.com, advertising its books on her blog and receiving a small commission for all those she referred to the site. In an e-mail from Amazon.com, Reese learned that her ties to the company were severed until further notice. Unlike Reese, whose blog use is more recreational, many of these 7,000 have lost their source of income.

This is not the first time Amazon. com has taken these steps , nor is it

the first company to do so in order to avoid taxation.

In May of 2008 Overstock.com let go of 3,400 of their associates from New York when the state announced it would implement an 8.75% sales tax on the business, and other businesses of a similar size, like Amazon.com.

In the 1992 Quill vs. North Dakota case the Supreme Court ruled that merchants cannot be forced to collect sales taxes in states where they lack a physical presence. Attempting to employ this law, Amazon.com filed a lawsuit in 2008 against New York State, pleading that they did not have enough “nexus,” or presence, in the state to warrant taxation. Their appeal however, was rejected.

Once Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill, California will join a growing list of states which have laws or laws pending that impose a state sales tax on Amazon.com.

“I have a gut feeling that California is trying to launch something bigger, and this is a starting point,” government teacher Jarrod Westberg said.

There is little mystery behind why the state legislature has chosen to target these retailers. While most businesses are hurting as a result of the floundering economy, Amazon. com announced in July that its sales were up 51% from the last quarter to a staggering $9.9 billion.

With the tax, California projected

that it would raise around $200 million in tax revenue, an opportunity for income that the state legislature, which has been strapped with the task of dealing with California’s debt problem, does not have the luxury of passing up.

Amazon.com’s main draw for local residents is its low prices, made possible in part by its lack of a sales tax charge.

“I used Amazon last week and I probably paid about $17 less for a product than I would have at Best Buy, because it wasn’t taxed,” history teacher Mike Valentine said.

But with sales tax, buying a good from Amazon.com priced at $1,000 would end up costing $82.50 more, plus any additional charges for shipping, removing the competitive edge in the pricing arena that has been the company’s key to success.

Amazon.com representatives claim the tax burdens trade; brick and mortar retailers say it’s about time.

“As a California business person who has had to pay sales tax for the last twenty years, I do think it’s only fair that Amazon be forced to pay sales tax because it does give them an advantage over any California businesses that has to pay taxes,” said the owner of local used book shop the Almost Perfect Bookstore, Kelley Ulmer. “Fair is fair.”

September 2011

Page 7

Culture.

Hayley Por ter

COMPILED BY LENA EYEN leyen.gazette@gmail.com

Gazette: What types of mediums do you use, and which one is your favorite?

Porter: “I’m currently working with acrylic and I have worked a little bit with oil but oils don’t dry as quickly so it is kind of a challenge and it kind of drives me insane.”

Gazette: What is the current theme of your paintings?

Porter: “With the current theme I’m trying to look back and reminisce (about) my childhood using chalk in a landscape, going back to my greatest experiences with the chalk medium. So I’m kind of trying to incorporate chalk drawings into what I’m doing now.”

Gazette: Do you see yourself incorporating art in your future career/life?

“I’m considering doing a double major with studio art and graphic design because I think that would be really fun. I’m not sure job-wise how well I would do but I think it would be worth the risk.”

Gazette photos /OLIVIA CORNELL

Hayley Porter works on a painting in her Art Five class above. At right she displays two of her completed pieces.

Teacher Playlist

Upcoming Concerts

BY CROSBY ALLISON

callison.gazette@gmail.com

COMPLILED BY ARI BLACK ablack.gazette@gmail.com

1. Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin “Number 3 song of all time. I was a Zeppelin fan. Saw them play a few times and just love them.”

2. Free Bird- Lynard Skynard “That was high school. That was like an anthem.”

3. Lines on My Face Come AlivePeter Frampton “The live album was the all time best seller. Everyone likes all the popular songs that were on the radio, this one wasn’t on the radio. I just came to like it.”

4. Aja- Steely Dan “One of my favorite bands; different music. They’re more of jazz type music and they’re really fun to watch because of their amazing musicians.”

5. Let There Be Rock- ACDC “Let’s go gonzo! Saw them twice in a

Mike Valentine month: Head pounding music.”

6. Everybody Wants You- Billy Squire “Pretty much like Led Zeppelin; had the same kind of sound. Even teenagers hear it on the movies and like it.”

7. Born in the USA- Bruce Springsteen “This song just put him off the charts.

It’s a Vietnam protest song about the way the veterans were treated after the war.”

8. For What It’s Worth- The Buffalo Springfield “One of the essential 60’s songs.”

9. Cheeseburger in ParadiseJimmy Buffet “I go to Maui a lot, and his music is just kind of a “let’s kick back” song.”

10. In This Place- Robin Trower “The blues-rock in roll that we were listening to in the 70’s.”

Although anyone who missed the Taylor Swift concert at the Power Balance Pavilion on September 3rd is at a loss, have no fear, there are more entertainment opportunities to attend this month.

Voodoo Glow Skulls, a native Californian ska band and veterans of the local music bar The Boardwalk located in Orangevale, will be performing on September 22, along with Dogfood and Gundown.

The band formed in the late eighties, and performs an often-combined mix of the punk and ska genres. Like many ska bands, Voodoo Glow Skulls shows may be a bit too rowdy for those expecting a relaxing evening of contemporary music—think mosh pits and ear-blisteringly loud music.

The band has performed twice for the Ska Is Dead tour, and has played at the Van’s Warped Tour as well.

“The energy that is contained and distributed between musicians, the audience and everyone in-between in ska music is infectious… I got my time’s worth and my life’s worth,” said Tim Beckman, ska aficionado and former GBHS student, of his experience seeing the band.

In Beckman’s opinion, listening to the optimism in the music of Voodoo Glow Skulls, or any ska band, is an investment to those who seek it.

The show costs $12 in advance, and $15 on the day of the show. Tickets can be purchased at the Boardwalk’s website or the establishment itself.

(Artist – Venue) wUFO and Spiritual Octane, Boardwalk, Sept. 16 wJamie’s Elsewhere, Scarlett O’hara, Secrets and more, Studio 21, Sept. 17 wGrab Your Torch and Pitchfork, Opposition and more, Club Retro, Sept.

17 wKC and the Sunshine Band, Thunder Valley Casino, Sept. 18 wThe Golden Cadillacs, The Torch Club, Sept. 21 wVoodoo Glow Skulls, Dogfood, Gundown and more, Boardwalk, Sept.

22 wThe Secretions, The Carbonites, Ashtray and more, The Fire Escape, Sept. 23 wPolar Bear Club, Fireworks, Balance and Composure, Victory or Death, Boardwalk, Sept. 24 wThe American Scene, Troubled Coast, Josiah James, Streetlight Fire and more, Club Retro, Sept. 24 wBuckcherry, Papa Roach, puddle of mudd, Power Balance Pavilion, Sept.

25 wReckless Kelly and more, Boardwalk, Sept. 26 wEl Loma Prieta, Street Urchinz and more, Boardwalk, Sept. 28 wCalifornia Medication, Nothing But Losers, NBC, All Names Taken, Boardwalk, Sept. 29

Page 8

September 2011

Eat.

! a t s Fie Gazette staffers sample local Mexican cuisine Gazette illustration/SAMANTHA SPARGO

Lorenzo’s

BY HAYLEY MCAVOY

hmcavoy.gazette@gmail.com

W

henever students or citizens of the Granite Bay or Roseville area think of Mexican food, their minds automatically go to Chipotle.

So when I was sent to review a Mexican restaurant, my aim was to steer away from the mainstream dining.

This started my lunch at Lorenzo’s, which is located on Sunrise Avenue off of Douglas Boulevard. I must say, I didn’t give it much of a chance. The outside appearance was basic, to be optimistic.

However, the moment I walked through the door, I was immediately seated, given chips, salsa and a glass of water.

I like spice in my salsa, and I don’t like it to look like it just came out of jar. This salsa was perfect, with just enough kick to it to keep me eating.

After my love obsession with the salsa, I took some time to look over the menu, and I realized just how many different types of tostadas, tacos, burritos, and enchiladas there are.

Lorenzo’s knows its Mexican food.

They even included a section on the menu for those who are more health

conscious.

After ordering, I decided to take in the environment of the restaurant, but there was one small thing buzzing around my head that wouldn’t go away - a fly had decided to come eat with me.

However, through distractions and conversation, I was able to ignore it until my food came.

The food came in large portions, the shell of my taco was bigger than my face, and it tasted amazing.

I love simple flavors, and that’s just what I got: perfect, classic Mexican food.

As the check came I was trying to finish Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ off my meal and almost overlooked an extra charge for sour cream, but overall the price was fair for the amount of food I received.

Even though the outside of Lorenzo’s wasn’t very promising and my extra dinner guest was a bit of an annoyance, I would go back simply because of the great service I received there and because I haven’t stopped thinking about the salsa and taco salad since.

La Placita

BY KRISTIN TAYLOR ktaylor.gazette@gmail.com

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eans, beans the magical fruit… the more you eat, the more you’ll want to come back to La Placita, especially when you’re starving on a Thursday night after soccer practice.

La Placita is located off of Greenback Lane. From the street view, the washed out cement walls don’t catch your eye, but the inside environment is much more appealing. The indoor décor is very fun, colorful and, as it should be, Mexican-themed.

There is a fountain in the center of the restaurant surrounded by flowers in terracotta pots, a well in the corner and sombreros hanging along the walls.

The seating area is one big room, making the dining experience slightly less cozy. Seating choices are either a booth against a wall or one of the tables in the middle. They also have a separate party room which can be reserved.

My family and I chose a window booth. However, with a view of busy Greenback, it was not the greatest.

When we arrived, a waiter told us to sit wherever we wanted. Within seconds of seating ourselves, we were acknowledged quickly by another waiter who brought us chips, salsa and water. I hogged and devoured them within minutes. The salsa was delicious and they gave us both a hot and mild bottle.

The second we ran out of chips, the waiter refilled our basket and constantly topped off our water glasses.

I then ordered a bean and cheese

burrito - I like keeping it simple.

Luckily, there were only 5 other families in the whole restaurant so we waited only 20 minutes for our food.

My burrito was smaller than I would have liked, but it nevertheless filled me up. I finished it within two minutes because it was so good. It was warm and I could tell it hadn’t been left sitting out.

On the downside, the other food on my plate was just lettuce topped with an orange slice. Also, my dad didn’t find his meal quite as tasty as mine. He ordered a pork burrito, which he swore tasted like cat food.

He blamed it on the particular chef that had made it and said the food is usually great.

My only other complaint was that they only served two kinds of beanspinto and refried. Also, it was so cold in the restaurant that when we walked out to the car, I felt like my body was thawing.

On the plus side, the three of us ate for under 20 dollars.

La Placita is definitely my family’s favorite restaurant when we’re craving Mexican food.

Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ

September 2011

Page 9

Eat.

El Sombrero

BY RACHAEL VASQUEZ rvasquez.gazette@gmail.com

I

t’s been a while since I last paid a visit to a local Mexican restaurant. Being of Mexican decent, I’ve had my fair share of different variations and qualities of Mexican food. I decided to visit an old favorite spot of mine — El Sombrero Taqueria on Sierra College Blvd.

Upon arrival, I recognized right away that I hadn’t eaten there in quite some time. A second billboard menu had been added above the cash register and creative Mexican and Southwestern artwork was displayed throughout the dining area, rather than on the one wall I remembered from my last visit. Most noticeably, the tables and chairs had changed.

I know many people don’t find a change in furniture to be out of the ordinary, but the chairs definitely changed the atmosphere. It was as if the designers took the celebration of the Day of the Dead a bit too seriously.

After I stopped admiring the furniture, I finally decided to order and it only took the waiter a minute

or so to ask for my order. This was surprisingly better service than the next customer who arrived 10 minutes later and had to walk behind the counter and into the kitchen to ask to order.

Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ

Immediately after serving myself chips and salsa, my main course arrived. I took the time to try the different salsas before I dug into my Super Carnita Burrito.

I admit that I haven’t always been a fan of runny salsa, but I decided to get over my obsession with

chunky salsa and try the green tomato salsa instead.

The adjustment did take me a while to adapt to, but El Sombrero made me realize that my Mexican food preferences can always be altered.

I soon found myself pouring the rest of my salsa on top of my burrito. The smooth texture, acidity and cilantro after-taste counter-balanced the pork amazingly.

The burrito itself wasn’t the healthiest item on the menu but I adored the saltiness and fattiness of the pork in contrast to the green salsa. Before I knew it, I was at the last bites of my massive burrito and I needed more napkins and green salsa to devour the rest.

In the end, I never refilled my salsa cup because I was too fixated on my burrito and the television screen, which was showing soccer.

The benefit of going to a local, low-key Mexican restaurant is that it engulfs you with their culture, especially soccer.

It’s refreshing to know that a restaurant doesn’t always maintain the same ambiance and this can sometimes change your perspective on the food no matter how many times you revisit it.

Más

BY MARY HANEY

mhaney.gazette@gmail.com

L

ocated on Eureka Road near Century 14 theaters, Más Cocina Mexicana is one of the best Mexican restaurants around, with great deals to top it off.

I walked into the relatively small, brightly lit restaurant still in my swimsuit after water polo practice.

The hostess took down my party consisting of myself, my mom and two friends.

When I arrived back at the front of the waiting area after a quick trip to the bathroom, we had already been seated and served fresh corn chips with both salsa and bean dip.

The chips had a slightly salty flavor and were obviously fresh. The first salsa that was brought to us was made with juicy tomatoes, jalapeños and other spices.

Next was the bean dip. It had an almost sweet flavor as the pinto beans were cooked to perfection with slight hints of the melted cheese and cilantro on top of them.

Soon after I sat down, the waiter

brought over the specials menu and ice-cold waters. He informed us that on Mondays and Tuesdays they have a great deal: For 20 dollars they provide one appetizer, two entrees and one dessert- plenty to split with friends or family.

My friend and I decided to go with the special and ordered quesadillas, tacos and a churro with ice cream to split.

The quesadillas were filled to the brim with seasoned chicken and cheese, and they came with dipping options of guacamole, salsa and sour cream.

Next we had our tacos, which were just as full of delicious ingredients.

The chicken was tender and tasted great with the fresh produce that sat on it.

Finally, perhaps the best part, our churro with ice cream arrived. Filled with sweet vanilla cream, the churro was warm and went perfectly with the cold vanilla ice cream.

Filling enough for two, the Monday and Tuesday 20 dollar deal at Más Cocina Mexicana is perfect for a cheap night out.

Gazette photo /MARY HANEY

Carmelita’s

BY BROOKLYN KLEPL bklepl.gazette@gmail.com

C

armelita’s Mexican Restaurant is set back on a little block on Riverside Ave. in downtown Roseville.

This Aztec-style restaurant is a seatyourself, relaxed atmosphere with crazy, flamboyant colors throughout the restaurant. The bathroom is even bright pink!

I could not stop looking around at all of the blinding colors. But even better than the astonishing and fun surroundings was the food.

We started out with chips, salsa and the restaurant’s homemade guacamole.

The chips had the perfect crunch, but the salsa looked and tasted strangely like taco sauce.

However, the guacamole was the

Gazette photo /BROOKLYN KLEPL

best I have ever had. It had juicy tomatoes on top and was mixed with delicious spices that I could not even identify.

I decided to order the tamales. They came with a giant mound of Mexicanstyle rice and pinto beans and were topped with spicy salsa verde. Inside, the tamales were filled with tightly wrapped pieces of shredded chicken.

My mom had the chicken tortilla soup. In it, there were avocados, rice, black beans and spices. It all smelled fabulous.

A friend of mine got a huge stuffed pepper and a side of rice and beans.

The pepper had chipotle style chicken, jalapeño peppers, rice and melted white cheese on top.

The rice had red spices and pepper in it and the beans were topped with the same white cheese on top.

Later, the waiter came out of the kitchen with some bad news. My mom’s dish had accidentally been overcooked and the chef did not want to serve it like that.

Luckily, there was another, similar soup that was cooked to perfection!

The waiter was very nice about the whole thing and even gave us free taquitos!

Throughout the meal at regular intervals, the waiter filled up our waters and was always asking us if we needed anything.

My overall grade for Carmelita’s Mexican Restaurant is 10 out of 10. It had a great date atmosphere and was extremely cheap!

Pages 10 and 11

fall in love.

September 2011

Fashion.

By Ari Black aublack.gazette@gmail.com

Be bold this season with edgy, downtown styles fit for any type of weather.

High-Rise Levi Shorts

Levi’s are back. Originally worn decades ago, high rise shorts are now worn with pastel crop tanks and cropped band Tshirts. These can also be worn with a thin braided belt for a “hipster” look.

Bulky Stone Necklaces

Finally, something other than turquoise!

Necklace designs for this fall season have expanded to a variety of emblems with pouches, feathers, and various stones on light chains.

Combat Boots

Combat boots continue to be often worn with anything from a pair of jean shorts to a flowy dress. Ankle boots have also become increasingly popular, perfect for wearing with your favorite pair of stockings and skirt.

Page 12

Remember.

Paying

BY BECKY MASSIL

rmassil.gazette@gmail.com

It has been a few months since the death of Granite Bay High School student Adam Johns and over four years since the death of Courtney Parker, who was the victim of a hit-and-run.

Since then, local band Smelling Colors has written and produced a song devoted to their memories.

September 2011

Tribute

The band’s lineup includes four GBHS alumni: vocalist Jonathan Beach, bassist Riley Unverferth, guitarist Robbie Lynn and drummer Mickey Keeley, as well as a Jesuit High School alum, keyboardist Shane Clarkson.

Recently, the band self-released an album called Dream Clouds, a compilation of seven of their best songs, including “Tribute,” a song devoted to Parker and Johns.

“Both of them really impacted the community when they passed, so I thought that it would be a good idea to put them together on a song,” Beach said.

After making Dream Clouds, Smelling Colors began working with a Grammy award-winning record engineer and producer.

“We’ve had demos in the past, but we think that this is our best work,” Clarkson said.

Beach and Unverferth have tried to write a song for Parker since 2007.

However, they found that they had trouble writing the perfect song.

“We tried to write songs about her, but they never really seemed to work,” Beach said. “They just seemed too corny

and they just didn’t get the right emotion across.”

Eventually, Beach and Unverferth began to think that writing a song for Parker was a lost cause.

After the death of Johns, Beach began to write a song for him and soon realized that the song related to Parker as well.

Both Beach and Unverferth knew Parker and Johns and described them as remarkable people.

“There was never a dull moment with Adam - he was hilarious!” Beach said. “I was never really good friends with (him), but the thing about Adam was that it didn’t really matter whether you’d known him for two years or known him for five minutes – he treated you like he’d known you all his life.”

Beach also said that on the first day of his culinary class in which Johns was also enrolled, he and Johns barely knew each other but were already getting along.

Unverferth also remembers Johns’ humor. “(During) junior year, Beach drove me home every day from school,” Unverferth said. “We took Adam home a couple of times, and I was laughing the entire time –

he was just the funniest kid.”

Just as with Johns, Unverferth and Beach remember Parker fondly.

Unverferth and Parker had been neighbors since they were five, when Unverferth moved into the Granite Bay community.

“Their household and our household were pretty much intertwined,” he said.

Sadly, he and Parker grew slightly apart before her passing.

“Sometimes I regret not talking to her more, but you don’t know how short life is,” he said. “At times I regret that, but on the other side we had so much fun as kids.”

Beach had an even more interesting story to tell about Parker.

“We were in fourth grade and I liked her, so in order to get her to go out with me, I brought my stuffed animal from home and put it on her chair for her to find,” Beach said.

Then, Parker sent Beach a love letter with perfume sprayed on it.

“It was the best-smelling perfume that I’d ever smelled,” Beach said.

Beach tried to reply, but he forgot to put a stamp on it, so when the letter was returned to sender, he was too embarrassed to send it a second time.

“I always felt bad about that because I wanted her to know that I didn’t just ignore her the whole summer,” Beach said.

These memories have helped the band produce the song, which is strongly sup-

Shane Clarkson

Robbie Lynn

Riley Unverferth

ported by the family and friends of Parker and Johns.

“Nancy (Parker’s mother) heard the song and she loved it,” Unverferth said.

“She said that her heart was full from it.”

Senior Jessica Harter was also close friends with both Johns and Parker, and was greatly impacted by their deaths.

In an email, Harter said she lived with Johns for a year, and the two were as close as siblings.

“He would always take me back after our brother/sister fights because we would just see each other way too much,” she said. “Adam looked after everyone down here (and) now he is just looking after us from up there.”

Harter and her family are also very close friends with the Parker family. Harter has known the Parkers since she was eight months old.

The song, “Tribute” helps Harter remember and cherish the moments that she had with Johns and Parker.

“The song really touches my heart because it makes me think of both of them,” Harter said. “When I really want to think about them, I take the items I have left of them and listen to the song.”

The song, a gentle, peaceful-sounding tune, reminds Harter that although they passed away, her two friends will forever remain by her side.

“I know they are both looking down and watching me,” said Harter. “They helped me become who I am today.”

Jonathan Beach

Gazette photo /RACHAEL VASQUEZ

September 2011

BY BECKY MASSIL

bmassil.gazette@gmail.com

For those people that are already familiar with this show, yes – there is slicing in this video, but in this video there are more fruits getting blown up than sliced.

From the very first second of this video, the viewer has no clue as to what the actual plot line is – all we know is that there are some stereotypical movie scenes going on. Yeah – it’s a pearody.

Let’s just start by saying that Pear, for once, is more useless than Orange. Well if Pear isn’t going to help Orange fight off mini action figure creatures, then

BY BECKY MASSIL

bmassil.gazette@gmail.com

In addition to being an internet celebrity, the Annoying Orange also has an iPhone gaming app called Kitchen Carnage – the real fruit frenzy.

Here’s how it goes: there’s a blender sitting on the table, and there’s a terrified-looking fruit placed on a cutting board, with Orange sitting on the side yelling some fruity puns at them. The point of the game is to gain the highest amount of points within a time limit by slicing fruit.

Believe it or not, it takes practice because it’s harder than it looks. To fling the fruit, use a finger to swipe the screen in the direction you want to fling the fruit. The length at which the fruit flies depends on how hard you swipe the

Page 13

Culture.

Youtube Video of the Month he probably really should get out of the kitchen – it’s too hardcore for him. Get it, hard “core”?

Meanwhile, we have some sort of Godzilla reference going on – except there isn’t a Godzilla; instead, there’s a Godmallow, or a Marshzilla.

A good question at that point was why marshmallow was upset about something not being “cherry-flavored”? Does that make him a cannibal?! (Gasp!)

It’s most definitely obvious – Grapefruit’s the bad guy, again, but this time he has an airship.

The point at which the video takes a real random spin is on the Jet Ski. This is the part where one starts to feel bad for pear – who wouldn’t if they were on a Jet Ski with an orange wearing a green leprechaun hat stolen from the leprechaun that’s on the Jet Ski behind them chasing them and the orange down? Think about it.

There’s no hint as to how they got off the Jet Ski and all landed on a canyon somewhere, but they have mustaches and jet packs and trolls are stalking them.

Once again, Grapefruit makes a grape mistake and crashes his ship into a canyon at the exact spot where everyone’s fruity friends are standing.

Sorry Passion lovers – she doesn’t confess her love for Orange in this episode. But do not despair – more exciting things happen, exciting things like a sudden return to the boring old kitchen scenario. Yep – boring like a bucket of balls on a balcony, according to Tangerine, who, by the way, plays the most important role in this whole episode.

iPhone App of the Month screen and it’s hard at first to get it just right.

The player also has the burden of time limits. There’s only about a minute to get as much points at possible. However, there are chances to gain extra time.

Occasionally a cabinet in the kitchen will rattle, and to open it, shake the iPhone. Once it’s open, extra time can be gained by hitting the fruit that’s in the cabinet; usually it’s a friend like Pear or Grandpa Lemon.

However, Orange’s fruity friends aren’t the only ones that are worth points. Each player starts out with the standard apple and banana, which are 50 points and 100 points respectively.

As the level increases a larger

variety of fruits worth higher points become available to massacre, such as strawberries, pineapples, even cantaloupes, and their point values increase by around 200 points with each new level. (The strawberry’s worth around 1000 points, for example.)

As the levels progress, more blenders worth more points appear and they’re usually far away on a different side of the screen, meaning that in order to hit them, the player would have to angle their shots and increase their distance.

In addition, the blenders that show up on the previous level start to move from side to side, so that now there’s also a moving target to focus on.

Frustrated with the blenders? There’s

BY MICHAELA MONAGHAN mmonaghan.gazette@gmail.

Gazette photo illustration/ALISON SALE

“The Rose of Tralee,” a nineteenth-century poem written by C. Mordaunt Spencer, was the inspiration for a yearly pageant-style competition in Ireland.

The poem is about a “lovely and fair” woman who is nicknamed the “Rose of Tralee.”

In 1957, in an effort to promote tourism, the town of Tralee, Ireland began hosting a pageant at the end of every August in which women competed to be crowned the “Rose of Tralee.”

Eventually, the festival expanded to become a country-wide pageant featuring women of Irish descent. The “roses” are judged on personality and their similarity to the woman from the poem.

Other regions of the world also send their “roses,” including the United States.

Culture Corner

The Rose of Tralee Festival

another alternative. Occasionally somewhere off to the side, a cutting board will appear. It doesn’t sit there for long, but manage to sling a fruit onto the board while it is there, and double the points the fruit was worth.

In addition, the vent above the stove will open up, and they’ll be heavenly light and music.

Any fruit sliced inside is worth quadruple the amount of points! It’s incredibly hard to get it in the vent, but it’s worth it.

This game is perfect for any Annoying Orange fan – it’s slicing fruit for goodness’s sake!

Page 14

new

September 2011

Improve.

new

YEAR YOU Seven trends to try this school year

BY HAYLEY MCAVOY

hmcavoy.gazette@gmail.com

start a

With the new school year up and running, now’s the time to try new and interesting trends. Some people at Granite Bay High School have already started these, and have inspired others to change up their lives with their newly found activities.

The world of social networking continues to grow with the addition of Tumblr.

Tumblr is a website devoted to micro blogging.

It lets the user focus on the topic of their blog, which can be anything from Pokèmon to gardening, by making Tumblr as simple as possible in order to express their thoughts.

For users with Twitter accounts, Tumblr can connect the two; so whenever their Tumblr is updated, so is their Twitter.

Almost anything can be posted on to a Tumblr page: a picture, video, quote, link or even a voice recording.

Starting a Tumblr allows students to express the things they love in life and share them with others who love it too, all in an easy way.

GO

Leisure Diving Gazette photo used by permission /MICHAEL AUSTIN

From the internet sensations like ‘planking’ and ‘parkour’

comes leisure diving.

Leisure diving takes the normal idea of jumping into a pool to the extreme by having the participants pose as they jump.

It combines skill, creativity, luck and the ability to snap a picture at the exact, right moment.

Two seniors, Michael Austin and Daniel Sutherland, at GBHS have already started experimenting with this new trend, and have had some of their pictures put on leisuredive. com.

The dives range from jumping with a wedding gown on to jumping with cereal and milk.

wear a

maxi-dress

Although wearing a maxi-dress is often seen as being too formal and overthe-top, even as a swim cover-up, it is a trend many girls are sporting around campus.

It is a bold trend that can elongate any figure and leave her looking lean and sophisticated.

This look is easy to achieve while still being comfortable and cute.

Maxi-dresses themselves are light, loose and breezy, and can easily be dressed up or down.

Even as the weather gets colder and the season starts to change, adding a jacket or cardigan will keep it looking chic and pulled together.

September 2011

BE

Improve.

vegetarian for a week Giving up food, especially an entire food group, is hard to do.

So why not try to do it for just a week?

Being vegetarian is hard, but testing it out for a week isn’t. It’ll change up the normal, ordinary schedule, change daily eating habits, and help to adopt a healthier way to eat.

Freshman Shelby McPhail was a temporary vegetarian.

She said being a vegetarian made her feel healthier.

McPhail eventually gave up on living without meat because of the limited selection at restaurants.

But being a vegetarian for only a week can open up the opportunity to try new foods and accept a healthier lifestyle.

It may be hard, but it’s only a week.

make Cake pops

While everyone else is stuck on the cupcake craze, be one step ahead and make cake pops.

Cake pops are, simply put, cake on a stick. Simplicity aside, they are slowly but surely making their way into the light of popularity and now are being sold at Starbucks.

Gazette photo /HAYLEY MCAVOY For those who don’t know, cake pops are a combination of a cake and frosting mixed together, formed into balls and then dipped in chocolate.

According to junior Sara Northam, the cake and frosting combination mimics a taste similar to the batter of the cake.

So, what else makes them different than normal cake, or cupcakes for that matter?“They’re more fun to make, (because) I get to use my hands,” junior Alison Sims said.

Cake pops are a different way to satisfy a sweet tooth with something new and interesting.

try

Page 15

hot yoga Take yoga to the next level, by doing the same moves, but adding heat.

Hot yoga incorporates 26 different pose, done in a 95-100 degree room, usually over a span of 90 minutes.

Though rigorous, the class offers numerous benefits, one of them being burning anywhere from 600-1000 calories per session. The heat also releases any toxins within the body.

Alexa Lara, a junior admits hot yoga,is hard work but, afterwards, she feels good, and it helps her to go on with her day.

According to Lara, hot yoga also helps her to relieve stress.

With excitement of the start of school over, the stress of classes, sports and extracurriculars is setting in.

Hot yoga can be an outlet to relieve some of this stress.

party at

School dances are only held a few times every semester and, even then, only the students from that school can attend.

That’s not the case with Klub Kaoss, a nightclub for high school students and high school students only.

The club has parties once a month at one of their two locations in Cameron Park and Roseville.

Many GBHS students already have discovered this and go on a regular basis.

“It’s a chance to (get to be) with people from other schools,” sophomore Megan Klingler said.

Gazette illustrations/HAYLEY MCAVOY

Page 16

September 2011

Culture.

Marketing to the masses

BY CROSBY ALLISON callison.gazette@gmail.com

Hipsters: they’re those 16 to 30 year olds sitting in nonchain coffee shops who are obsessed with non-conformity.

Hipsters have slowly started to penetrate mainstream culture and so companies have adopted new tactics in order appeal to this edgy demographic. Modern marketing has turned to popular culture in order to make a profit.

In order to know how to market to hipsters, companies have begun employing people to work as, “Social Media Investigators,” whose task is to visit every site from Tumblr to Friendster searching for lucrative social markets. Tumblr and other similar sites are outlets for twentysomethings to show their personal interests, and can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection.

“I would be honored [to have a company use my blog]… I’d be excited to see what they’d

create from the gathered info,” Granite Bay High School junior Malivai Chiles said.

Corporations may also hire photographers to capture hipsters in their natural environments; parties and the streets of urban centers.

Clothing brands like American Apparel hire youthful models to pose as hipsters in their advertisements, in order to market their avant-garde fashions.

With these methods, businesses can market to hipsters products they will want By this manipulative enticement, companies control the mainstream styles.

“Yeah, I dislike the way media has a choke hold on the general public, but that just means better chances for artists, less competition,” said Chiles.

This profiteering should create a conflict with fundamental hipster principles; if big business is steering the development of their uniqueness, then hipsters have lost the self-

The

produced, originality-seeking that characterizes their culture. However, if hipsters are still continuing to be popularized, perhaps they don’t mind being pandered to by corporations.

Although the number of hipsters compared to the total population is relatively low, marketing companies continue to focus their efforts on this demographic. This could be a ploy to coerce other, less hip majorities to purchase the same goods in order to continue to appear relevant.

“I don’t think that advertisers truly understand the majority of consumers. It seems like they care more about young people,” GBHS junior Alexis Snyder said.

Social media has been one of the defining apparatuses of the new age, and a mainstay of hipster culture. It provides

Power

of Youtube

BY BRAD WONG

bwong.gazette@gmail.com

Social media has become increasingly important in our lives as a source of entertainment and a form of communication.

It seems recently, that the appeal and power of Youtube, a video-sharing website, has begun to rival the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Youtube is unique to the web: there is no other site able to share such a wide variety of videos, every day. As a result, Youtube is a useful tool for musical promotion.

With the recent developments in online technologies, it is

possible to convert a Youtube video to a music file. New artists and genres can promote themselves to the entire Youtube community and gain online attention.

Senior Wade Graves promotes his musical talents on Youtube. He recently won KCRA 3’s Sacramento’s Got Talent contest and received a callback from the popular TV show The Voice. “[Youtube] is a way a lot of people started their careers who are not talented, Justin Bieber would have never been heard of without Youtube,” GBHS senior Wade Graves said, tongue-in-cheek.

Hate her or hate her,

Rebecca Black has received national attention from her first viral Youtube music video entitled Friday. Black sells her music and videos on iTunes and receives lots of patronage, both positive and negative, as a result of her Youtube stardom.

“If I was not talented, I would want to make money like that,” Granite Bay High School sophomore Brandt Misik said.

Now, Black can thank Youtube for the success she is now enjoying.

Another unique aspect of Youtube is the video-gaming community, known as Machinima.

People often joking about

a reflection of persona, and allows them to connect with like-minded

people.

Most modern companies have adapted to social media because of its communicative applications making a living from being a coach potato, but that is exactly what some are doing.

Youtube personality, Whiteboy7thst is able to play video games, record himself discussing his strategies or his life, and then upload them to Youtube, where hundreds of thousands will watch them.

This web star started with nothing as a child, but through his popular channel on Youtube, that currently has around 680,000 subscribers, has become well off, all with the help of Youtube.

Besides being used as a path to stardom, Youtube can and has been used to set trends during the summer.

A more recent and ongoing trend, “planking,” was started as the result of a popular, borderline viral, video that three friends posted of themselves “planking.” This fad has risen to become a trend of national interest.

In fact, “What is planking?” is the second most searched “What is…” question on Google and “Why do people plank?” is the most searched “Why do people…” on Google.

People have gone as far as

and the sense of democratic rights and involvement it gives its users. Since a large portion of a hipster’s time is spent on the internet, they’re constantly barraged by hip-seeming products for which they may have been the inspiration.

“Social media is a way to expand your company’s sphere of influence to encompass the younger generations, which the hipsters belong to,” a junior girl in the Business Concepts class said.

Levi’s jeans and Adidas have launched a campaign of commercials displaying youth and revelry synonymous with the hipster movement. Other brands have employed these tactics as well, from Honda to the more obvious Apple.

Much like the indies of the 90’s, once something is debased by its own popularity, though, it becomes, “so last month.” creating a planking website called iPlanking, which is a database of the most outrageous planking around the world.

“I think it’s weird how people waste their time in awkward positions,” said GBHS junior Charlie Gunn. It’s obvious, though, by the rising number of participants that the generally public doesn’t agree.

Another Youtube-based trend that GBHS students often imitate is Epic Meal Time. Started in Oct. 2010

by Harley Morenstein and a few of his friends, Epic Meal Time focuses on the creation and consumption of absurd amounts of calories, mostly in the form of bacon.

Gunn was inspired to imitate the Youtube giant and recently created his own Epic Meal Time with two other friend.

“We made a smorgasbord of fun and then we ate it,” Gunn said.

Youtube’s versatility is one of the many reasons for its popularity and power.

Page 17

February 2011

Enjoy.

Sidewalk Style 

Stylish Granite Bay students show off their look.

COMPILED BY SAMANTHA SPARGO sspargo.gazette@gmail.com

Trending

BY RILEY MAC MILLAN rmacmillan.gazette@gmail.

Owls are the hot new trend this fall and they are overthrowing the nation with their extreme popularity.

These fine birds of prey can be found on Juicy Couture lunch boxes, printed T-shirts at Forever 21, and in accessory form as rings, necklaces, earrings, brooches and headbands.

For the film lover, owls can be seen in the Harry Potter films and the Legend of the Guardians movie. In Harry Potter, there are a wide range of different types of owls from Snowy Owls, like Harry potter’s beloved Hedwig, to Grey Owls, and even Eurasian Scops Owls. Recent release Legend of the Guardians tells a story of two brother owls and follows their travels through life.

Soren, one of the owls, inspired by stories of owl warriors, begins a journey to find them, while his brother Kludd joins an evil clan of “Pure Ones.”

For the owl extremist, owl noises and sounds can be found on Youtube. The average owl lover can stick with popular band Owl City for their owl fix.

Local ceramic shop Petroglyph recently began stocking owl banks, ready to be painted. These little guys will keep a watchful eye on the money they hold.

Athletes may be intrigued by the hobby people are calling “owling.” In this daring sport, people find random places to perch like an owl, and then post a picture online. Owling can be done in a tree, on a bench, or on the floor for example. Extreme owlers may consider wearing feathers as well.

Buying your own feathery friend may be the next logical step for the owl obsessed. Just remember; permits are required in order to keep them as pets.

Whether in one’s hair, on a Youtube wall, or in a movie, owls are a must have for the ultimate trend setter. And besides, they are just plain cute.

Earrings and Necklace worn by senior Aurora Gaumer Gazette photo /Riley MAC MILAN

C

September 2011

Film.

RELATIVELY MEDIA

A

20th century fox

Rated: PG-13

Rated: PG-13

By: Kristin Taylor ktaylor.gazette@gmail.com

By: Becky Massil rmassil.gazette@gmail.com

rise of the planet of the apes: A-

s soon as I saw the trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I had mixed feelings about whether or not I should see it. I didn’t think I’d like watching a movie that showed animal drug testing and genetic engineering.

However, when I saw the movie, my opinions about it changed. I began to think that, although taken quite harshly, the movie was impacting and had a purpose.

For starters, the plot, although very fresh and vigorous, has so many elements that it would be impossible to explain in one column or less, but here it is in a nutshell: Chimpanzees are taken from the forest and kept in a center that is currently trying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, a study conducted by Will Rodman (actor James Franco).

They then are used to test drugs and as a result, a chimpanzee inherits the resistance from his mother.

However, the drug not only reproduces brain cells to cure Alzheimer’s, it also increases intelligence. Thus, the young chimp, which Rodman calls “Caeser,” is smarter than the average ape, which leads to an eventual uprising of apes.

The movie had some good action, obviously enhanced by computers and graphics. At some places, the chimps didn’t seem real.

In other places there are small glitches in the sequence of events. It would look too dramatic in some parts and that made it slightly ridiculous.

The movie, through its violence and harshness, reveals to the public the extremes of animal testing and cruelty.

As a result, the theme and message that animal testing and cruelty is wrong was very strong and clear throughout the movie.

The acting was alright. Although they did well, Freida Pinto and Franco’s acting didn’t impact me very much.

Overall, it was a good science fiction movie.

Although there were a few hiccups here and there concerning the plot’s drama and the acting, the movie had a great theme, which I think is very important. .

shark night 3D: C-

ollege kids at a lake house with no cell reception: the perfect setup for an incredibly cheesy horror film. That’s basically what Shark Night 3D turned out to be.

The friends were killed off one by one and the nerdy guy was trying to get the girl way out of his league to like him.

Although the overall feel and subplots were very generic, the story line was actually pretty intriguing.

But, in the end, everyone died.

Literally, every single person in the movie died except for the extras in the college scene.

The movie depicts sharks as soulless bloodthirsty monsters and whenever someone was in the water, a shark would appear in moments and viciously maul them.

Even though it’s supposed to be a thriller, the only parts that were really scary were the three times a shark jumped out of the water and attacked. My favorite part of the movie was when a shark jumped into the air and bit a guy’s head off as he was riding on a jet ski trying to reach the mainland for help.

And even though the cover is sprayed with blood, the movie actually isn’t that gory. The part that got me was when the bad guy threw a bucket of blood into a girl’s face.

Sara Paxton was in her bikini the entire movie.

Clearly, the intended audience is guys.

The male lead role wasn’t very attractive, so there’s no hot guy to gawk at.

The movie was very unrealistic, almost laughable. In one scene, a guy gets his whole arm bit off but miraculously, they manage to keep him alive and conscious with a first aid kit The director tried to create emotional scenes, but it didn’t work.

The acting wasn’t convincing and the characters were barely introduced to the audience. I couldn’t even remember any of their names 20 minutes after watching it.

The movie was cheesy, but see as I’d expected it going in, I actually really enjoyed it. There was some pitiful comedic relief that was so corny it was funny.

D

LIONSGATE

irected by Gavin O’Connor, Warrior stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as they climb their way to the top of mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting. Unfortunately, this movie is less than original.

This film tells the story of wrestling brothers Tommy (Hardy) and Brendan (Edgerton), and their journey from washed up MMA fighters to stardom.

The story begins by separately following the lives of the two brothers as they begin to get their careers back.

Sadly, the background information gets supplemented in slowly throughout the movie.

This is effective for building suspense, but is unnecessary and confusing to the viewers, because it leaves you in the dark for the first two hours of this seemingly endless movie, all the way up until the last three minutes.

You could hear the occasional gasps of other viewers who had just put the plot together in their head.

And, as far as the plot goes, you might as well have just taken clips from The Fighter and The Wrestler, mixed them into a random order, and republished it under a different title.

In other words, this film was terribly unoriginal in addition to being unnecessarily confusing. From five minutes in, without even knowing the back story, one could’ve successfully mapped out the entire movie.

Maybe this plot would have been somewhat original ten years ago, but the fact that it has already been done in so many forms takes a lot away from its appeal.

This movie is confusing and imitative, but that’s not to say that there weren’t some clear positives.

The cinematography of this film was wonderful.

I was pleasantly surprised with the unique shots that managed to demonstrate the mood of the scenes quite well throughout the film.

As far as the suspense goes, let’s just say I was riding the edge of my seat through the last 45 minutes of lead up.

Granted I had no idea what I was excited about, but my pulse was racing nonetheless.

The action packed scenes provided enough violence to keep any guy at least moderately satisfied.

The acting in this film was also done fairly well.

The emotion in a lot of the scenes was spot on.

Overall, this two and a half hour movie is just okay. It’s your basic fighting movie, only slightly more stereotypical and confusing.

Rated: PG-13 By: Joey Puhula jpuhular.gazette@gmail.com

warrior: B-

Page 18

Page 19

Film.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

F

A

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Rated: R

Rated: PG-13

By: Chris Pei cpei.gazette@gmail.com

By: Kyle Pawlak kpawlak.gazette@gmail.com

apollo 18: B

pollo 18, a sci-fi horror/fauxdocudrama about a secret mission to the moon, was an unusual movie that looked like it was filmed in the seventies because, well, it was supposed to be created from live footage shot at that time.

True to its documentary style, the beginning moves very quickly, covers the bare facts and incorporates interviews to introduce the characters instead of having any back stories.

The lead, up to the launch, is very brief, which was probably for the best, as the meat of the story, the reason people came to watch it, was the mission.

After the rocket took off, I expected the story to pick up, but it continued to be dry and factual, I quickly got bored, and that feeling lasted a while, as the astronauts carried out routine tasks even after landing on the moon.

The suspense picked up as the equipment malfunctioned and the astronauts began to explore their surroundings, finding a dead Russian astronaut and his trashed lander.

The fun really starts when the astronauts are about to leave the moon and something damages the equipment necessary for take-off.

Forced to leave their lander to repair it, the astronauts come into contact with an even greater threat than their limited supplies: indigenous creatures.

It is from here that the story really kicks off and becomes interesting.

There were plenty of sections of the movie that caused audience members to jump and cringe in revulsion, and those moments kept my heart racing almost the whole time.

Fans of horror movies and/or conspiracy theories who are willing to wait through the dry beginning find this movie interesting. However those looking for much else, might want to look elsewhere.

our idiot brother: C+

rom the co-producers of Little Miss Sunshine, Our Idiot Brother tells of an ingenuous, gullible, middle-aged hippie named Ned( Paul Rudd) whose good intentions lead to entangling conflicts within his amusingly dysfunctional family.

The conflict starts off when Ned, the socalled “idiot brother,” is released from prison, ironically enough for soliciting illegal substances to a uniformed cop, and returns home just to be kicked out by his girlfriend. Having nowhere to stay, he seeks out his three sisters for help.

His siblings, one of whom is played by Zooey Deschanel, live secretive lives, which slowly fall apart as their brother inadvertently pulls at the strings of their relationships.

The film’s cast also consists of Adam Scott and Rashida Jones from the popular TV series Parks and Recreation. All the actors managed to pull off veritable, charming performances. The quality of humor though, was quite disappointing.

From strictly a comedy stand point, there was a lack of originality and witticisms that one would expect from a comedy.

The film relied on stark clichés and stereotypes to create a sense of absurdity in the characters’ dialogue and actions.

There were only a few worthwhile one-liners and quirky scenarios that forced a chortle or two out of the audience.

The plot line, for the most part, was painfully predictable. As soon as each conflict was introduced, it was simple to see how they would resolve it. Even the ending was glaringly deflating in its creativity.

Despite these cons, the film wasn’t entirely a letdown. Although Our Idiot Brother is indeed a comedy, its redeeming quality is not in its humor, but in its portrayal of an imperfect, but inseparable family.

In this aspect of redemption, Our Idiot Brother is a movie that anyone looking for an honest, heartfelt story should consider watching.

WARNER BROS PICTURES

T

he idea of a mutated virus that infects the entire world has been overused in movies.

Just Google it and hundreds of titles will pop up.

Despite all this, Contagion was a surprisingly successful movie based on the outbreak of a deadly disease.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh with a cast of award–winning actors such as Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon, Contagion showed the progression of a mutating virus that kills millions throughout the world and the reaction of humanity.

The movie is catalogued into “days” and begins with Day 2, in which Mitch Emhoff (Damon), greets his wife, Beth Emhof (Paltrow), who unknowingly has the disease.

The plot suddenly picks up the pace as Beth Emhof dies in a fit of seizure and is the first official casualty of the disease.

After her death, more follow around the globe as the disease spreads and causes a world-wide epidemic.

People began to stay in their homes due to fear of contamination, and thus order is lost. Banks and supermarkets are abandoned. People break in, steal and in one case kill their neighbors for extra resources.

I was surprised by how this subtle subplot was weaved in the movie as it reflected a glimpse of movie genius.

The whole time during the movie, I was absorbed in the plot and the anticipation of what was going to happen and if the virus could be cured.

Another theme in the movie was government cover-up. In the movie, the government does not want to release any information on how truly bad and deadly the virus is.

The two themes of the selfish nature of man and governmental control, create a sense of reality as these two concepts are so easily relatable to everyday life.

Furthermore, the ending tied a neat ribbon on the entire movie and explained the cause of the virus, which I was mystified by from the beginning.

Overall, Contagion, was a well thought out movie that diversified itself far beyond the concept of a deadly disease.

Rated: PG-13

By Brad Wong bwong.gazette@gmail.com

contagion: A-

September 2011

Page 20

September 2011

Movies.

RELATIVELY MEDIA

Shark Night 3D

C-

20th century fox

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

A-

LIONSGATE

Warrior

In Theat ers

C+

Our Idiot Brother

WEINSTIEN PICTURES

B

Apollo 18

WEINSTIEN PICTURES

A-

B-

Contagion

WARNER BROS STUDIO