Nonsense Publications: Under Construction

UNDE CONS R TRUCT ION PAGE 6

ABOUT THE S T A F F NATHAN WILKINSON ‘19

LEAD WRITER & REPORTER I like to watch movies, fish (preferably in Minnesota or Wisconsin), play baseball, and play videogames with my friends. I really like Iowa State and I like to go to their football and basketball games.

HOLDEN LOGAN ‘21

PHOTOGRAPHER & DESIGNER My hobbies are crying and playing video games. My favorite videogame series is Fallout. Also, my greatest achievement is playing LA Noir for 12 hours straight. I’m lonely and single. Hit me up at (319) 321-7196.

EDDIE WILSON ‘19

REPORTER & DESIGNER I enjoy watching anime and playing games. My favorite anime is Lucky Star and at the moment my favorite games are anything from the Hyperdimension Neptunia series.

RAIN RICHARDS ‘19 LEAD DESIGNER & EDITOR IN CHIEF I love to write, play video games, and procrastinate. My favorite game is Terraria, and my favorite book is currently Hyperion. I have ADD and will talk your ear off about anything.

COVER & CONTENTS DESIGNED BY RAIN RICHARDS

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SPORTS COLUMN ON BASEBALL

THE JOURNEY TO STATE OPINION ON WEST’S RENOVATIONS

UNDER CONSTRUCTION REVIEW OF A FORGOTTEN GAME

DEAD ON ARRIVAL SEARCH FOR A TIME CAPSULE

LOST TO TIME A TEST OF YOUR VIDEO GAME KNOWLEDGE

CROSSWORD PUZZLE OPINION ON CORPORATE ACTION OF HALO DEVELOPERS

HALO ONLINE: SHOT DOWN

ENTERTAINMENT & OPINION ON JAPANESE CARTOONS

ANIME RECOMMENDATIONS

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SPORTS

MAY 25, 2018

THE JOURNEY TO STATE

BY NATHAN WILKINSON

DESIGN BY RAIN RICHARDS

Jason Strunk ‘19, at the state tournament in July of 2016

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SPORTS

MAY. 25, 2018

T

he baseball team has been preparing for the 2018 season since October. 2017. They had a great season last year, but when they played Dowling in the semifinals game, they lost and it unfortunately ended their season.

The Trojans have made it to State three times in the past three years, but they have never won it all. This year they hope to turn that around with a state title. Players have been practicing by throwing and lifting on their own. Players really want to win a state title. They want to give Coach Stumpff his first state title. Every year they get so close but can never win it all.

Tyler Stern ‘18 says “I think 2018 is going to be a good year,” said Tyler Stern ‘18. We have a lot of talent this year and a lot of experienced players. It was disappointing last year losing in the semifinals and not even making it to the state championship game but I think we can turn that around this year.” Stern is a first baseman and pitcher. “Being a junior on the Varsity team is hard because Juniors don’t get to play much. “I got some opportunities to pitch last year but not that much.” “My goal is to go on to play in college.” Stern said Jason Strunk ‘19 is the starting left fielder for the Trojans. He’s been playing baseball ever since he was five years old. “I grew up playing Trojans and travel ball.” Strunk said. “I played football, basketball, and baseball in junior high but baseball and football were the two best sports I was good at so I decided to pursue those,”. Strunk said. “I’ve been playing West baseball since eighth grade when I made it on the Sophomore team and although I think we had a good season last year, I think we can have a better season this year. I hope 2018 is the year we get Stumpff his title.”

Strunk said, “I’ve become a great baseball player because of West High’s program and I’ve made a lot of good friends here. West High is a place that allows students to succeed in academics and sports. The reason for this success is the motivation that the athletes and coaches bring to the game. Without our amazing baseball program West High wouldn’t be such an enjoyable place to be. Strunk said, “I wouldn’t want to play for any other High School.”

Trevor Byers ‘18 is the second baseman for the Trojans. He’s been playing baseball ever since he was six years old.

“Baseball was the only thing I was good at growing up. Growing up, I would always go to baseball camps to try to improve. I really liked the Iowa baseball camp because we got to scrimmage every week and it was really fun.” Byers said. “I really started to take baseball seriously when I made the West team. I realized I was good enough to compete at a high level and if I continue, I can be even greater.” Byers is now a Senior so it’s time that he shows again that he can compete at the next level.

“I can’t wait to get back out there and give it everything I’ve got. I’m ready to get this season going and hopefully I can go out with a Championship ring.” Byers said.

The season officially started May 22nd as the Trojans will face Bettendorf in a doubleheader here at West. Strunk said, “We’re excited to get back out there and compete. I love the summer because we can focus on baseball without school being an issue and getting in the way of things. The goal each season is to win state and hopefully the Trojans can do that this season.

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N EWS

Under Constr uction

MAY 25, 2018

By: Nathan W il

kinson

Design by: Eddie Wilson

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N EWS

MAY 25, 2018

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magine being in a class taking a test then all of a sudden BANG! A construction worker on top of you starts pounding at a wall. This is what’s happening at West. School construction at West High has affected students in many ways. The loud noises that the workers make during school hours is very distracting during the school day. For example, the construction noise is the loudest in the math classes. Math is a topic that is hard for a lot of people, and having distracting noises during the class may hurt people’s grades, as they may understand math less. West high is working on putting in a new gym and also a new cafeteria. Since the construction workers take up a lot of space, the lunch staff had to move out of their usual spot. This is causing a backup in the lunch line which is also causing some students to not even be able to eat lunch. Most students who are in C lunch say that by the time they get to the front of the line, it’s already time to go to their next class.

The construction is also causing visitors and athletes to walk a longer way than usual to get where they need to go. Students have to go through the art hallway to get to the gym rather than just going through the gym

doors because that area is all blocked off from construction. This is really inconvenient for people currently in P.E, and in spring and summer sports such as soccer and baseball. The construction will affect baseball players the most, as their season goes well into summer break, and that’s when construction work will intensify even more. The construction noise is also a little distracting to baseball players at practice. This distraction could be the difference between West beating teams like City and Dowling and not beating them.

Although there are many negatives to school construction during school hours, there are also some positives.

School construction takes a while so they have no other choice but to start while school is still in session. The new gym that the workers have been working on will be all done by next year as well as the new cafeteria.

Overall, even though there are more negatives to school construction than positives, the students will just have to deal with it for now. I think next year everything is going to run smoothly and the students will appreciate what the workers did for West high and how hard they’ve worked to make a new gym and a new cafeteria.

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OPINION MAY 25, 2018

DEAD

ON

BY HOLDEN LOGAN

You walk down the empty, snow-covered streets of a previously busy Manhattan. The cold wind feels like knives on your face. The eerie quietness keeps you alert as you grip your gun harder, not knowing what may be around the corner. You are ready to fight as the heavy backpack you have on makes it difficult to run. Gunshots erupt from down the road and instead of running away, you run towards them. Someone is in trouble, and it’s your duty to help them. This is the world of Tom Clancy’s “The Division”, a game set in a ruined New York City, ravaged by a deadly virus.

DESIGN BY RAIN RICHARDS

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n “The Division”, The game is about a member of The Strategic Homeland Division. This is a unit of highly trained, self-supported agents, who are deployed when all else fails. The game is a third person, open world, role-playing game, set in a mid-crisis Manhattan after a man-made virus is released on Black Friday. The goal of the game is to restore order by taking down large gangs, such as escaped convicts (Rikers), a militia (LMB), New York’s Sanitation department (Cleaners), and Looters that thrive in the anarchy. Along with restoring and maintaining order players are also tasked with finding the source of the virus. In order to complete these tasks players can either work with up to 3 other division members or by themselves.

The game was already having problems in early development. Its development was filled with delays, broken promises, lies, and many other problems. When the game finally came out on the March 8th, 2016, two whole years after it was supposed to release, people had high expectations. It became Ubisoft’s best selling game with the first months average player count being 65,065. When people’s expectations weren’t met, people quit playing and soon the game lost around 85% of its average players. Complaints started rolling in about glitches, lack of innovation, and many other things. It was considered dead on arrival, but Ubisoft never lost hope as it tried to keep their game alive with constant updates and announcements.

When I first heard of the game it was around 2015 or 2016, and I was immediately interested. I got the game in April of 2016 and I immediately fell in love with it. However, my love for the game soured as I soon found it hard to play by myself. The game was made to be played with 3 other people and I had no friends with the game. I would get frustrated as I kept dying over and over again. This is still a problem but not as much as the more levels I get the easier the game gets. Around a year after buying the game I bought the season pass and I was a bit disappointed to find out that you needed to max level to play the expansion missions, but for the most part, I had a great time.

Overall it’s a great game, the story is great, the game looks amazing, there are constant updates, the soundtrack is amazing, etc. The game has improved since launch and I would consider it in a state of bliss currently, the game’s sequel was just announced and the game has fixed near all of the original’s launch problems. The game may no longer be my favorite game, but I love the concept.

The game may never reach the number of players at launch, and it may never get out of its dead state, but it’s still a great game with an interesting plot and I would recommend you try it.

BY TH E

N U M B E RS

85% 9,751 1,972

decrease in average players within a mere two months of release of the original 65,065 players were left players remained

by September of 2016

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OPINION

MAY 25, 2018

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F E AT U R E

MAY 25, 2018

LOST TO TIME EDDIE WILSON’ 19 INVESTIGATES ALLEGATIONS OF A TIME CAPSULE BURIED WITHIN WEST HIGH.

BY EDDIE WILSON’19

PHOTOS BY HOLDEN LOGAN’21 DESIGN BY HOLDEN LOGAN’21

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F E AT U R E

MAY 25, 2018

“Numerous articles are enclosed within the cement chamber, not to be removed for a number of years. A microfilm copy of West High’s blueprints, information on the bond issues that financed the school and a written history of the Iowa City School District are all contained in the cornerstone.” - West Side Story Dec 20, 1968 This is an excerpt from the third issue of West Side Story.

Buried among other gems such as “Bus Driver Replaces Mom,” and “Mustache That Was,” there’s an article titled, “2018: Who’ll Be Back?” It has an informative nature whilst speaking on the contents of the time capsule and how West High had finally been complete. However it ends on a joking note, speaking on how the editor of West High will be the governor of Minnesota. It’s not too clear whether this article is speaking of a real time capsule or not.

Jeff Conner, a teacher here at West speaks on the validity on the time capsules existence, “I’ve heard some lore of time capsules but I don’t know if I’ve heard of this one specifically. We’ve found thing similar to this with a note in some sort of pocket of the wall from the 70’s. I think it’s possible it exists.” Even though Conner thinks that it’s possible for the capsule to exist, he thinks it’s very unlikely that it will be extracted, “Even if we confirmed it’s existence I think it’s unlikely that we would extract it due to the cost. The school district doesn’t have a lot of money to do archeology digs.” What Conner says here is true, for the capsule to be extracted most likely a majority of the front entrance would need to be destroyed and rebuilt, the school doesn’t have the time or money to commence a project such as this.

Even if the time capsule extraction was given the green light by higher-ups, other challenges still lie in the way: The exact location of the said time capsule isn’t known. All that’s said in this old article is that it’s contained within the “cornerstone” of West High. It’s most likely somewhere around the entrance of the building due to that being the first thing built in West High, however a large amount of the front entrance would likely need to be demolished to even have the chance of finding the capsule.

“ EVE N I F WE CO N F I R M E D IT ’ S E X I STE N CE I TH I N K IT ’ S U N LI K E LY TH AT WE WO U LD E X TR ACT IT DU E TO TH E COST. TH E SCH OO L D I STR I CT DO ES N ’T H AVE A LOT O F M O N E Y TO DO A RCH EO LOGY D I GS.” -JEFF CONNER

Gary Neuzil, a long standing teacher at West High has some insight as to the existence of the time capsule. “I don’t think there is a time capsule, I never heard of such a thing.” He doesn’t think it would be worth it at all to try to extract the capsule in the first place. It can be seen where he comes from, as such a thing a time capsule being in West High would most likely be a widely known thing, especially if it was meant to be opened this very year. It’s likely the capsule does not exist.

Near the end of the article it mentions, “Perhaps when West arrives at retirement age, rickety and condemned, the contents of the cornerstone will be revealed at a ceremony.” Although the article mentions 2018 as this time, it’s fair to say that West High has not become condemned in the slightest just yet. However, something is in this piece that holds true. Perhaps when West truly is retired and being deconstructed for a newer school, the time capsule will be found and contents revealed.

Danny Rompot ‘19, a student at West High has something to say on the school being “condemned,” as the article puts it. “I mean no, not really. It’s not in the literal sense but the educational system has abandoned a lot of values it held in the first place.”

Although Rompot thinks it may have been abandoned in some sort of way, it’s not abandoned in a physical sense. Rompot believes that West High will be destroyed, “Whenever Iowa City is abandoned or destroyed. It’ll probably be around a really long time. I can really only see it growing as technology advances.”

Though the opening of a capsule could be an interesting development, as the title of the article even suggests it should be opened on the 50th anniversary, there is almost no chance of the time capsule coming to light. The damage to the front of the school would be too great. If it is to be found, it will be far in the future when West truly has become decrepit and condemned.

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VIDEO GAME TRIVIA

E N T E R TA I N M E N T MAY 25, 2018

12 C R E AT E D & D E S I G N E D

BY RAIN RI C HAR D S

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ACROSS

DOWN

5. Name of Wario’s partner 6. Name of Fire Emblem character who made first appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee 7. An early arcade game, based upon table tennis 8. Holden Logan’s favorite game franchise 10. Name of Portal’s main antagonist 11. The first game in the Elder Scrolls series 13. Game in which you kill hordes of demons 14. Game series set in a dystopian 20th century, focused mainly around the fictional city of Rapture 15. Game in which time only moves when you do 18. Game well known for its shady DLC practices 19. Protagonist of Metal Gear series 21. Game named after a Pro Football Hall of Famer

1. Famous XBox exclusive SCI-FI first person shooter franchise 2. Color of a Mettaur’s helmet 3. Not a word, but gamer abbreviation for “Good Game” 4. Name of CAPCOM’s most famous character.

Hint: He’s a blue robot 9. This symbol appears on the chest of Gordon Freeman, the protagonist of the Half Life series 12. Game series in which you can create an object by writing it in a notebook 13. Extremely difficult role playing game series 16. The Legend of Zelda: _______ of Time 17. Popular “battle royale” style game 20. Japanese conglomerate with an infamous cheat code

HALO ONLINE:

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OPINION

MAY 25, 2018

SHOT DOWN

BY RAIN RICHARDS

Corporate action alters the relationship between Halo fans and Halo developers

The plan was to keep on updating and improving the game, until it became the perfect version of Halo. Fans of Halo’s classic multiplayer-- which is free from the ridiculous enhanced mobility and weapon ranges of modern Halo --soon began to find the mod.

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n April 24th, 2018, 343 Industries, current developer of the Halo franchise, released a statement on the Halo Waypoint website.

Entitled “ElDewrito & Community Content”, the statement was an explanation of the crackdown on fanmod “ElDewrito”(Named for ElDorado, Mountain Dew, and Doritos) and other community projects.

What is ElDewrito, you ask? As I mentioned before, its a community made mod, but it’s based upon an abandoned project known as Halo Online. In turn, Halo Online was a free, PC version of Halo 3 which was developed by Saber Interactive and planned to be released to the Russian market around 2014. Clear as mud, right?

Anyway, a group of Halo fans aquired and modified the unfinished Halo Online in an attempt to create the best possible Halo 3 multiplayer experience on their PCs. The mod included essential Halo multiplayer elements such as “Forge” and Capture the Flag, but also incorporated adjustable field of view and viewmodels.

By the time of ElDewrito’s point 6 update, popularity was at an all time high. News of the game spread like wildfire. Halo youtube channels released videos about the mod, where to get it, and how to install it. This sudden increase in popularity may well have turned out to be a death sentence, however.

In their statement about ElDewrito, 343 Industries mention that their primary concern is the protection of parent company Microsoft’s assets. While understandable, this decision still hurts.

As a PC gamer who grew up on Halo, I was really itching to play the mod.

Unfortunately, I may never get that chance.

The future of ElDewrito is currently uncertain. While the creators of the mod aren’t able to give away Microsoft owned assets from Halo Online or Halo 3, the mod itself isn’t owned by 343 Industries.

Whether ElDewrito is forgotten or is rebuilt from the ground up, one thing is for certain. This corporate action is a lesson that fans aren’t likely to forget any time soon.

DESIGN BY RAIN RICHARDS

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Anime

OPINION MAY 25, 2018

Eddie Wilson recommends various types of anime from different genres to begin on

Slice of Life: Lucky Star Slice of Life is a genre in which there is no plot development, no real action, and has an open ending.

If you’re looking for something to watch and just relax rather than being engaged, I would say Lucky Star is the perfect thing to go to.

Romance: Love, Chunibyou, & Other Delusions This anime is about two characters named Rikka and Yuta, Rikka believes she has supernatural powers, and the story follows how this plays out with these two and how they’ll get together

Action: Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure is just that, a bizzare adventure. It has quite a bit of comedy mixed in with the action, and it follows Jojo Joestar, who ends up needing to take down a supernatural being that was once his adopted brother.

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Recommendations

OPINION

MAY 25, 2018

Article & Design: Eddie Wilson

Fantasy: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood This follows the story of the Elric brothers in a world where rather than Science being advanced Alchemy was. The story kicks off with them attempting to transmute their mother.

Drama: Death Note This follows the story of Light Yagami, who finds something called the Death Note. Whoever’s name he writes in the Death Note will end up dead. This leads to him attempting to create the perfect society in a race against L.

Comedy: Nichijou Nichijou is an anime witha lot of crazy situations with a lot of characters, that mostly derrives it’s humour from the absurdity of everything around them. A fantastic choice if you want to watch a comedy

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Can you solve this combination of games and Japanese culture, the Sudoku puzzle?

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