Panther Press: Spring

PANTHER PRESS OAK HILL MIDDLE SCHOOL Issue 4 WHAT IS COMMUNITY? By: Peter Klapes

You have probably already noticed that on a particular Thursday, each month, there is a particular event that takes place to “build community” throughout Oak Hill Middle School. According to a newsletter sent

by Ms. Thompson, school principal, “’community’ is a one-period occurrence each month. The purpose is: to offer students a sense of belonging, a sense of connection to a team of peers led by at least two teacher partners…offer a break from ‘traditional’ academics…and to let it be: full of possibilities: open-ended enough so teacher partners can match student needs and interests…” This year’s community theme is “Panther Pride” and respect. Below are some of the events occurring in the “Panther homerooms” during those Thursdays.

Grade 8: The eighth grade is running of the Community program in a unique way in relation to the other grades. Firstly, the eighth grade has come-together as a grade to enjoy the Thursday afternoons. According to Ms. McCann, eighth grade English, at the beginning of the year, the teachers asked the students what they thought community was and what they think should happen during this time. The final result: the eighth graders have split-up into separate groups such as: Student government/student council, recycling team, crochet crew, math tutoring, community-service, painting and cleaning and school spirit groups. McCann articulated that she was the co-chair of the cleaning and painting group along with Mr. Timmons, math teacher. So far, the painting and cleaning club has only gotten around to the cleaning aspect, although the club plans on painting a mural somewhere in the building.

In the student council, the students have been brainstorming things that the students of Oak Hill want, as they would also like to bring the community together.

The most recent event held by the group was the faculty Foul-Up Benefit event for Haiti. Faculty members participated in taking 10 foul-line shots; as many shots as they made, the more money students donated for Haiti. This event took place during the April 15th community afternoon. According to student council member, Joe Odvarka, they put the event into action so that they could bring together the community at an event that would please everyone, and while doing so, helping Haiti. Another club within the eighth grade is the service to the community group which has done much to help the general public come together as a community; which is chaired by Ms. Mayrand, Ms.

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Beckerman, and Ms. Ames. This group is comprised of 29 students which have done activities such as: a food-drive, Haiti relief bake-sale, and a field trip to a special-education school to assist students with significant disabilities. Ultimately, the eight graders have really been able to come together and form clubs that will shape the community, both in-school communities and public communities.

Spring 2010

as they devote the early-release days to ‘community’ instead of cramming everything in on a Thursday with a Tuesday schedule.

Ms. Turner’s, Ms.Bobroff ’s and Ms. Matera’s panther-home: Ms. Turner’s panther home has been busy; each meeting brings a new activity. They have done: math games, getting-to-know-you activities, letters-to-self, collages and more. She hopes to enhance community with the events by seeing how the students can govern themselves, seeing that everyone has different strengths and revolves around the theme of ‘identity.’ She likes the current community program and thinks that the students have enjoyed all of the activities done this year.

Grade 7: The community theme for the seventh grade is “Who am I, as part of a community?” Most of the seventh grade classrooms have been doing their events with just their community class. They have had many community-oriented activities which are geared to strengthening the community, both in and out of Oak Hill Middle School. Here is a look at what Grade 6: The sixth grade panther-homeroom have has been going on… operated in a similar way to the seventh grade, as they have stayed within their respective teams. The theme Ms. Sacks’ and Ms. Bennes’ Panther Home: for the sixth grade is, “Who are we, as part of a comstudents in Ms. Sacks’ room have: written letters to munity? What constitutes a school community?” They the school committee regarding the possible termi- have left community for a time of various activities nation of cafeteria workers, played Clue which went which will bring the community together, as some of with their study of Agatha Christie’s mystery novel, the activities revolve around common sixth grade isAnd Then There Were None and enhanced team- sues. Here is a look at what is going on… building. They have also completed get-to-know-you surveys and they have prepared a retirement scrap- Team 6-3: Ms. Sweet, Mr. Wood, Ms. Mulligan, book for mid-year retiree, Ms. Szeto.

Ms. Izrina, and Ms. Cohen. As a whole, the team has done extensive activities such as: great egg chalMr. Lass’ and Ms. Olivar’s Panther-Home: For lenge, cartooning, Halloween relays and many other Mr. Lass, a new seventh grade math teacher, com- fun activities. According to Ms. Sweet, the students munity was a new event for him, which he has only have provided her with positive feedback and look experienced once. Mr. Lass’s focus was “Who am I?” forward to community. She thinks that ‘community’ from an international perspective. During his first is a great activity as she has learned a lot about her community, the class got together and had a discus- students and colleagues. sion with a guest speaker. The speaker, Mr. Lucina is of Venezuelan ethnicity. According to Lass, this event Team 6-4: Mr. Massar, Ms. Sullivan, and Mr. was to bring the students together and to expose the Bunting: Team 6-4 has looked at common issues students to diverse cultures. Mr. Lass believes that throughout their team and has found bullying to be the students enjoyed the activity. When asked if he the most common. The teachers participated in rolebelieves the community program is beneficial, he en- playing about bullying and then performing them to thusiastically responded, “yes!” the students on their team. Then the students analyzed the scenarios and observed what went wrong. The stuMs. Belamarich’s, Ms. Scheller’s and Ms. Ali- dents enjoyed watching the skits and collaborating as a aga’s homeroom: Ms. Belamarich thinks Commu- team to analyze them. Mr.Masser articulated that the nity is a benefit to students and that students enjoy community program is beneficial. the activities. Ms. Scheller and Ms. Belamarich have done two events together. One of the events was Team 6-1: Mr. Lyons, Mr. Hunt, Ms. Gibson and they went to the field and picked-up garbage and the Mr. Drinan: from AccordingMCAS… to a student, the team has A break other activity was that they hung-up census maps and sold ‘Oak Hill Panther’ sweatshirts for $25, as a way studied them as a class. Both of the activities were to raise money for the school community.

By: Peter Klapes thought of by Ms. Scheller. Ms. Scheller expressed that she thought that the community event would be beneficial, but wishes that it would be set-up a dif- The gym was a war zone on March 25, 2010. The dribferently. Presently, she believes that the community bling of basketballs, the screams of cheering, the yelling event is okay, but needs some enhancing. Firstly, she of score arguments, and the spark of competition was thinks that Brown Middle School operates it better, present. As the March Madness competitions were taking place, students from all grades were competing in a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. According to Mr. Drinan, the event is a great way in which students get to enjoy time competing against their peers. The teams are student-chosen, as this year, there were nine teams signed up in the seventh grade. Drinan also stated that after the 9th round of tournaments, there would be an elimination round, during which the teams would be eliminated from play as two teams would then play, as that tournament would declare the winning team for the seventh grade for the year of 2010.

Around our world THE Math Team

The Community Service

By: Bayo Akinwande & Matt Lu

By: Johan Thomas

Do you like to do math? If you do, go to the math team after school on Thursdays. If you don’t, go to the math team anyway. Full of nerds, geeks and even more geeks, the math team is full of people who love to do math for fun. One might think that I’m the only one there, but amazingly, there are at least thirty people.

“WOW, THAT MANY PEOPLE LIKE MATH?” Yup. We also had a very good season. We won four out of the five meets this season between Brown, Bigelow, Day and Heath, but we lost by two points to Bigelow on our last meet. Yes, we were crying, but that’s okay. We felt better after some cake and pizza at the epic party. The math team is a competition where people do math in five categories: Mystery, Geometry, Number Theory, Arithmetic and Algebra. In each math meet, ten people are chosen to represent the team and do three of the five categories, also known as the regulars. The other people at the meet just do the math for fun while hanging out with their friends. There are three questions on every test and they each count for two points. After that, there are team questions, where all of the regulars do six questions, each worth six points. They add up the points to get the total score. The highest score possible is 216 points. If you’re lucky enough to get a perfect score in the three categories in which your scores counted, you get a diploma (and it’s shiny). There are also some chips and drinks at the end which actually taste good. The misconception of the math team is that there are people hunched over their desks saying “ MATH MATH MATH MATH “ while they are writing random equations on the page. Most people there come to hang out with their friends and for the food (mostly for the food). We also get some delicious math problems from Mr.Marks, our evil overlord. The bottom line is the math team isn’t fun just because it has the word “math” in it. Most people who come in say they had a lot of fun, even if they don’t like math. This is because Mr.Marks has the uncanny ability to do something so amazing that no other teacher can do it like he can. He can make math as awesome as your head can comprehend.

Community Happenings around Oak Hill By: PetertheKlapes •• Through months of March and April, Ms.

The eighth grade Community Service group has had a great year so far! We had a lot of fun doing activities, organizing bake sales and going on field trips. We always have something to do at every meeting and we are always proactive!

Shortly after the beginning of the year, we started off with a wonderful food drive, donating tons of canned and dried foods to families who can’t afford a Christmas dinner. One member was heard to say, “After this, it really makes me feel like I am making a positive difference in someone’s life.” Later in the year, following an earthquake that devastated Haiti, we knew we had more work to do. We planned a bake sale to help the Haitians and we were successful yet again. We raised over two hundred dollars! Another member of the Community Service Group said, “Instead of just watching others, we can actually help people ourselves!” We were proud of what we were doing. Actually helping, we got more and more enthusiastic with our group.

We voted on what next to do next and decided on a trip to St. Coletta’s Day School, a private school for students with severe disabilities. We were excited for this trip and when we got there some of us were pretty surprised. We usually think about what these kids can’t do, but after the day we spent with them, we started to think about what they could do. They were funny kids with great personalities. We were having so much fun with them, we were all extremely disappointed when we had to leave and so were they. The principal of the school told our community teachers, “Oak Hill students have been wonderful and fantastic with our students. They are welcome back anytime!” ! Overall, this was the best field trip we have had all year and we are all really glad that we chose to join this group.

Chmielinski and Ms. Aliaga collected handbags for the Dress-For-Success Association which collects business attire for needy women who want to get back into the work world.

•• Ms. Aliaga, teacher-in-charge of the lost and found donates any unclaimed items to a battered women’s shelter.

Citizens take part in serving their community

The sun was boiling the hose water; sweat was dripping down the backs of a handful of volunteers that came onto school property (legally) on Sunday May 2nd.

There were two projects going on. They included: paining the hallway outside of the auditorium, and forming a garden in the front of the school building. Congratulations to Oak Hill faculty, Ms. Sweet and Mr. Trunk who attended the event and prepared Oak Hill’s new garden. Ultimately, many members of the community have helped out in this event and should be greatly appreciated as the school has a great new “touch” to it.

New Oak Hill garden, front of the building

8th Grade 101: NINE Parting Tips on How to Survive 8th Grade 1.

STOP PROCRASTINATING. Have you ever had two assignments due Friday and when you get back to them, it takes you six hours to finish and you pass out on the desk at 2:30 at night? Your Thursdays shouldn’t suck that much (considering that there are a lot of good TV shows on).

DO YOUR HOMEWORK 2.

JOIN A SCHOOL ACTIVITY whether it’s the musical, newspaper or a sports team. You’ll end up making new friends and meeting new people and find something you like doing.

3.

COME TO CLASS PREPARED! There’s nothing worse than listening to a teacher scream at about you for not having a pencil or not having homework in class.

4.

DON’T LOOSE YOUR BINDER. I lost my binder and I was unable to do any homework until I found it. Plus, I had to deal with angry teachers that pop your eardrums.

5.

DON’T USE WIKIPEDIA or if you do, don’t let the teachers’ know about it because they HATE Wikipedia. Personally, I think it’s a fine source and Wkipedia has safeguards for false information, but teachers disagree.

6.

COME TO CLASS ON TIME. It’s not that hard to take 30 seconds to get to your next class and teachers know when you’re just standing around in the hallways talking to your friends. It also makes it harder for everyone one else to get to class when your sitting in the middle of the road.

7.

DON’T CHEW GUM. Teachers aren’t blind and if anything their eyesight is comparable to a hawk. It’s also disgusting to reach under the table and find fresh gum stuck to your hand. EAT GUM LATER. 8.

STUDY. If you think you’ve studied, study more until your head is leaking with Science, Social Studies, ALGERBRA, and ENGLISH. Just because you have an open notes test, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t study.

9. TEACHERS AREN’T BLUFFING. There is a lot of homework in 9th grade and 8th grade will prepare you for it. Trust me, I visited another high school and the teacher gave their students about six hours worth of homework.

Around our world Pirates Misunderstood

Buyer Beware

By: Dennis Phan

By: Matt Lu

On Thursday, April 1, 2010, around Kenya at midnight, Somali pirates attempted an attack at a huge ship, trying, as usual, to get ransom money. But unfortunately for them, they were just like a soldier armed with a sword that tried to fight another soldier that had a machine gun. The ship they had fired at was a U.S. warship.

The guided missile frigate, called the U.S.S. Nicholas from Norfolk, Virginia, was searching for the pirates when they were attacked. So, the Nicholas responded to the attack by firing back, and they disabled the pirates’ boat. Later, the Navy boarded the boat and captured three pirates. Then, they captured two more pirates from another ship nearby.

Pirates have been attacking ships around the Horn of Africa. Last year, Somali pirates attacked a U.S. vessel and captured their captain and held him hostage for several days. On a usual attack, at night, pirates would choose a big ship and board it. They would attack the crew with guns and hold the crew hostage. Then they would demand a ransom for their escape. Until the pirates get the money, they would not be willing to let go of the crew.

Pirate attacks are considered to be dangerous and inconvenient, but it is not like that for the pirates themselves.

The pirates do this for a living.They have to make money for their families because of the poverty in their countries. Aside from that, they also use the ransom money they get to buy better weapons and faster boats to capture more ships.

Pirates are very dangerous, but they sometimes do their jobs for good causes. Even though, do not take any chances with pirates, for they are unpredictable.

Cont’d SERVICE ARTICLE from pg 2 We pigged out on food and bought donuts by the dozens!

We soon after spotted the candy stall and used the rest of our money there. Overall, this was the best field trip we have had all year and we are all really glad that we chose to join this group.

Have you ever walked into a video game store and see shelves upon shelves of unfamiliar games? I have, and boy, do I make a HUGE mistake of buying a game that I’ve never heard of. Here’s a hint, DON’T buy a game unless you 100% know what it is, otherwise forget about it. A few tips that I can give to you is: -Check the price, anything that’s under $20 (NOT including sales) should be scraped.- Think of all the possibilities about the game’s claims on the back cover. (For example: “Over 20 different weapons!!” Or is it just 5 weapons with 2 variations of each?) – Ask around in the store. This works best in Game Stop stores.You can ask the employees about a certain game. If they’ve never played or heard about it, don’t even touch it. In fact, don’t even look at it, it will burn into your retinas and leave you with no money and no satisfaction that you bought a game sent directly from the deepest darkest reaches of the underworld. First of all, if you want to buy a PC game (and assuming that you want to spend $1000 on a new computer and a graphics Card.) buy the games that you can at least recognize. If you ever had any experience with buying and game, would you want to buy a game called Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing? Dear lord, I hope not. That game has had gotten a 0.4/10 for the critic review score at GameSpot.com.

But here’s the catch: The rating system only goes down to a 1. Another example is Anubis II for the Wii. So, you mean there was Anubis I?! Oh boy, can’t wait see what that was like if its predecessor had received an average of 1.5/10. The main reasons for this is the abysmal camera, music, sound effects, graphics, gameplay and finally, (and thankfully) it’s only about 3 hours long. But if you play that god-forsaken game, you will never get

How to defend yourself against a killer chair

by Julian Montagut

Diseases, old age and many other things in life can be fatal. But there is no greater danger than the killer chair. Chairs have feelings too, and sometimes, if you sit on them for too long, they could turn against you. And trust me, from someone who has defeated a thousand chairs in single combat, it is not a pretty sight.

This is the #1 leading cause of death in Madagascar. So what should you do if a chair bites back?

First, let us discus the methods of attack employed by killer chairs. When a chair turns psycho, it sprouts spikes on its legs and its seat turns into a giant mouth with razor-sharp fangs. From there on, it will try to stab you with its legs or devour you with its mouth.

So how can you defend yourself against a killer chair? Well, the first device to use is a sword. Being made of wood, chairs are extremely vulnerable to swords. If a sword is handy near by, try to chop off the legs of the chair first, and while it is writhing on the ground, gnashing its teeth, you can deliver the final blow.

Another item that is effective against an angry chair is a flamethrower. We all carry around flamethrowers in our daily life, right? Chairs, whether they are made of wood or metal, will ALWAYS be vulnerable to flamethrowers. And I know we all have flamethrowers, so if you happen to irritate a chair, just use it and destroy it in five seconds flat.

However, I’ve saved the best for last. If you anger a chair, and don’t have a sword or a flamethrower on you, for SOME reason, the best item to have is another person. When the chair attacks, the strategy is easy and simple; just throw your friend at the chair and run for it while it is distracted with your friend. Why fight it when you don’t need to? In just a quick push and a little bit of a jog, you can deal with a killer chair without even clenching a fist. Also, if you have a kind heart, (Unlike me.) but still don’t have a weapon, the next best strategy is to pick up the other guy and use him as a weapon. What I’m trying to say is, just lean down, pick the guy up by his feet and repeatedly hit the chair with the other person. According to recent statistics on www.dontgotothiswebsiteitiscompletlyfakeandimadeituponthespotjustnow.com, the percentage of this strategy working is about 1%. Which is EXACTLY why you should just throw the guy at the chair and get out, but I realize not all of us are capable of such cruelty.

So, if a chair attacks you, just grab the nearest sword or flamethrower and show that chair who’s boss.

If not, just use your friends. I’m sure they will be only too happy to help. That’s why they’ll be screaming so much. Killer chairs are a very prominent threat in this country, and we all need to know how to defend ourselves against angry chairs.

P.S. If you actually believed all this, I’d just like to say IT’S NOT REAL. Now, have a chair-free day.

Around our world The Leper King

New Moon Book Review Before you make any assumptions, let me say this: yes, I am a guy. And yes, I have read New Moon AND Twilight. I’m sure you’re going to hunt me down just to make fun of me because of this, but I’m not quite sure it makes much of a difference now.

With that said, let’s begin.

Recently, I’ve finished reading New Moon and I can safely say it was no better than Twilight was. And Twilight was awful. I’m not going to put this lightly; both books are horrendous and I wouldn’t recommend them to even my worst enemy.They’re that bad.What problems did I have with this bore-fest? Well, there were a lot of things…

First of all, let’s talk about the plot. In Stephanie Meyers’ first book, Twilight, the plot went something like this: Bella Swan, the new girl in Forks, Washington, falls in love with Edward Cullen, a handsome and aloof vampire… and that’s about it. In New Moon, Meyers stepped the plot up a little bit. In this book, one of Edward’s bloodthirsty brothers attempts to attack Bella, prompting Edward to become worried for her safety and to persuade his family to leave Forks.

Bella then goes running like a coward over to her best friend of a werewolf (whom, I might add, is madly in love with her) so that she can still have a boyfriend.

That’s about as far as the plot goes. As you can see, it’s not a substantial upgrade to the plot of the prequel and half the time while reading this, I found myself bored to death by how uneventful the book was. Near the end, it eventually gets vaguely interesting (Bella runs away to Italy to stop Edward from killing himself after he realizes that he cannot live without her), but I found that then it was too late for it to redeem itself.

Now, on to the characters. Bella Swan seems like a confused teenager just trying to adjust to the fact that her boyfriend is a vampire in Twilight. But in New Moon, she becomes no less than a psycho. After Edward leaves her, she becomes extremely depressed and becomes so desperate to hear Edward’s voice again that she decides to engage in life-threatening activities, at which point she “hears” him speaking to her inside her head. Eventually, she does more and more dangerous activities until she finally jumps off a cliff into the ocean in the middle of a hurricane. Just by doing this, it proves she is crazy and suicidal, but it is proven even more when one considers the fact that she is doing it in a desperate attempt to hear her boyfriend’s voice once more. Her boyfriend Edward I’ve never liked too much either. He has so many mood swings you would think he was the teenage girl. He’s really bipolar but Bella still treats him like he is a god.

Also, he watches Bella in her sleep. Stalker? Naah…

Another thing to note is that he’s 117-years-old or so, while Bella is 18. Don’t worry, that’s how all relationships are right? The man is 99 or so years older than the woman, yeah? The other minor characters are not

By Jack Lovett humans are portrayed as regular people without much of a personality, while the vampires are either bloodthirsty monsters or emo people who whine about how they can’t drink human blood.

Finally, because I know if I continue this for too long, Twilight fans will hire a SWAT team to “dispose of me”, let’s talk about the writing. I’ve never read a book so horribly written in my life except for maybe Bridge to Terabithia (awful book too, don’t read it.). No explanation of my own can even come close to describing what the writing is like so I’ll just imitate it.

Here we go:

I looked at him. He was beautiful. He took a step towards me, looking like a god. He was still beautiful. I put my face against his chest. He was still beautiful. “I love you,” he sang. Did I mention he was beautiful?

Did you laugh? If you did, just know that I’m not making this up. That’s what the book sounds like, to me at least. It’s funny for about two chapters and then it just gets painful to read. If you don’t agree with this, that’s fine.You can continue to defend the integrity of your little book series, and I can’t do anything about that (unfortunately).

I recently saw the New Moon movie. I had no idea it could be worse than the book, but it was. It wasn’t even so bad it was funny. It was just so bad it was bad.

But still, the books are so bad that I’d venture to say that they are the worst books I have read in my life.

I realize that I’m playing with fire here (a very, very, VERY big fire), but I just couldn’t resist getting all of my emotions about this tedious book published. It was just so satisfying. With that note, I’d like to end this review. Goodbye. I’ll start running right away.

The Battle of Montgisard, 1177 by Charles Philippe Larivière. The painting glorifies the battle and its prestige. In the painting, Baldwin IV is shown here without the scars of his leprosy which would have been visible by 1177, and he would have been on horseback not on a stretcher at Montgisard. Baldwin IV, even though he was right handed, would have had to have fought with his left because his right was left incapacitated by his leprosy

Everyone knows Richard Cœur de Lion, or Richard the Lionheart, of Robin Hood fame. King of England, Duke of Aquitaine, leader of the Third Crusade, and known as the “Crusader King.” What people seem to forget, though, is that he ultimately failed. He was able to secure a coastline in present day Israel but failed in his quest to restore the Kingdom of Jerusalem and put the city back in Christian hands. On the other hand, his not as well known first cousin once removed, Baldwin IV, should be known as the true “Crusader King.”

Baldwin IV was born in the early summer of 1161. Son of the king of Jerusalem, Amalric I, he was destined to rule over the great Christian kingdom of Jerusalem.

He was smart, well-read and exceptionally patient.

The kingdom was lucky to have such a boy who could continue the greatness of the kingdom, though Baldwin was soon to discover a tragedy that would ultimately claim his life. At the age of nine, Baldwin was playing a game with some other boys. The game was that you would pinch the chosen boy’s arm as hard as you could and get him to scream. Baldwin stood there as the other boys continually pinched him, but he never screamed. His tutor, the famous William of Tyre, admired his bravery. But Baldwin wasn’t being brave.

He couldn’t feel his arm, and by his adolescence his disease was revealed. He had leprosy, specifically the worst kind, lepromatous leprosy. Leprosy is a disease that damages nerves and the skin and because there was no cure at that time, Baldwin was not expected to live a terribly long life. His future seemed bleak. But Baldwin knew he was going to be king, and he needed to live up to his responsibilities. Before the main part of the disease would affect him, Baldwin practiced horseback riding and sword fighting until he was better than most people without his disease. Baldwin was going to try to be the best he could be. On July 11th, 1174, Baldwin’s father, Amalric I, died. Baldwin was 13 and was crowned on July 15th.

Meanwhile, a ruler named Saladin had now become Sultan of Egypt and Syria and ruled the area surrounding Baldwin IV’s kingdom. Over the years, Saladin had been uniting the Muslims that surrounded the kingdom. The Muslim groups had become splintered after the First Crusade. With factions developing in Baldwin’s kingdom and the fact that the king had leprosy, Saladin underestimated Baldwin and invaded the kingdom in an attempt to conquer Jerusalem. Saladin made the worst mistake of his life.

At the time of the invasion, King Baldwin IV was 16, and at this point, was so sick he couldn’t use his right arm. He knew that if he fell off his horse, he wouldn’t be able to get back on. Now most incapacitated, sickly kings left military matters to other people. Anyone with leprosy like Baldwin probably would have stayed in bed feeling forlorn and wallowing in self-pity. But not Baldwin IV. As a teenager, he led an army of only a few thousand infantry and 500 knights against Saladin’s 26,000 soldiers. The chase was on. Baldwin IV would march to meet Saladin’s army pillaging across the countryside. Baldwin IV marched to Ascalon in an attempt to stop Saladin. When he got there, though, Saladin boxed him into the city, while the main part of

Around our world Leper King Cont’d By: Jack lovett Baldwin was in a hopeless situation. His capitol was vulnerable, and the only army he had to defend it with was stuck with him at Ascalon, and compared to the force marching to the Holy City, he was severely outnumbered. Because he had already faced so many challenges with his morbid disease, Baldwin wasn’t one to give up. He was able to defeat the Muslim forces at Ascalon and began the pursuit of Saladin. Saladin thought that with such a small force of only 500 knights and a few thousand infantry, Baldwin wouldn’t dare attempt to fight him.Well, he was dead wrong. Baldwin IV surprised Saladin at Montgisard, a city only 45 miles away from Jerusalem. Saladin was in complete shock and his army in disarray. Baldwin IV prayed to the relic of the True Cross (part of the cross Jesus was supposedly crucified on), picked up his sword with his bandaged hands, and led a charge across the desert sand. Baldwin IV, fighting in the thick of battle, obliterated Saladin’s army. Saladin barely even escaped himself. Saladin was forced to return home, and of his 26,000 soldiers, only 1,000 were left standing. Baldwin IV’s teenage victory would be hailed as inspiration to the rest of the kingdom and stand as one of the most legendary medieval battles of all time.

Baldwin IV continued to live after the battle and successfully saved his kingdom from Muslim harassment many times after. For example, in 1183, Saladin, who was sick of a noble named Reynald of Châtillon for continually attacking his caravans, decided to march on Reynald’s castle, Kerak, with 22,000 men when Reynald’s stepson was being married. When Baldwin heard this, he commanded a force of 8,000 men to march to the castle to defend it against Saladin. Baldwin IV was now so sick from leprosy that he was carried on a stretcher to the battle. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to fight the army and sustain the siege at the same time, Saladin fled. Unfortunately for Baldwin IV, the trip had severely weakened him, and only two years later, he died blind and lame. He was nearly 24. Sadly for Jerusalem, Baldwin was the last of the great kings of his family. Baldwin V, his eight year old nephew, who had co-ruled with Baldwin IV for the last two years of his reign, now ruled with Raymond III of Tripoli as his regent. Baldwin V, also sickly, died in 1186 and was succeeded by his mother Sibyl and her husband Guy du Lusignan. Because of the weak rule of these kings, Saladin was able to obliterate the Christian army on July 4th, 1187 at the Battle of Hattin. Later that year, Saladin was able to take control of Jerusalem, and the kingdom was reduced to only a couple of cities. Jerusalem was not to be seen again in Christian hands until the 20th century, with the exception of the 6th Crusade, which saw Jerusalem in Christian hands between 1228-1244.

Baldwin IV, already known as the “Leper King,” definitely deserves the title “Crusader King” as well. Although he lost a father at the age of 13 and had a horrible

disease, he was able to successfully defend Jerusalem many times and was able to severely damage Saladin’s forces throughout his reign. Even though Jerusalem fell shortly after his reign, Baldwin IV became the “last hope” for Jerusalem and became one of the only men capable of defending the Latin East and Jerusalem. A feat even the man referred to as the “Crusader King,” Richard the Lionheart, couldn’t accomplish. Even though Baldwin IV was stricken with a morbid disease and was only a teenager for the majority of his reign, he was able to again and again repel the conquest of his kingdom by Saladin, one of the most skilled tacticians of the Middle Ages, and therefore should go down in history as one of the greatest kings who ever lived.

Mewtwo and Roy, suggesting the two characters were going to make a return in Brawl. But alas, I digress. The Melee characters have something from everything: sword fighters, plumbers, dinosaurs, giant monkeys, and pokemon are all playable in Melee, sometimes after one completes a certain objective and defeats the character in single combat. While there is some imbalance between characters, the game rarely seems unfair: if you lose, you deserved to lose. From Melee to Brawl, many things changed. For example, while Mario was a decent fighter in Brawl, and Luigi was only OK, in the jump from Melee to Brawl, Mario became extremely underpowered and Luigi became the cheapest character in the entire history of the series. (I’m not exaggerating; an attack that does 40% upon impact is ridiculously overpowered.) However, the Melee roster is mostly balanced and very diverse so as to assure a fun experience to any who plays it.

Finally, let’s discuss the single player modes. While the All-Star and Classic modes are nearly identical in Melee and Brawl, the adventure modes couldn’t be more different. In Brawl, the adventure mode had a story and lasted about 20 hours with characters one obtains along the way, both in and out of the story mode. The Melee adventure mode is a bit dumber; just go from one stage to another, the entire journey lasting about 15 minutes. The Melee Baldwin IV knocks a Muslim warrior off adventure mode is often referred to as pointless, his horse at the legendary battle of Montstupid or senseless for its lack of a plot as compared gisard. to Brawl.While I must admit that I prefer the Brawl adventure mode, the Melee mode deserves to be Super Smash Brothers Melee commended for, above all else, being fun. The only other notable difference is the Target Test modes. In this mode, one picks a character to navigate treachBy Julian Montagut erous terrain, so as to break ten targets. The differ ence is that there are five set levels to choose from These days, almost everybody has played Super Smash in Brawl while in Melee, each character gets their Brothers Brawl, but do you remember a time when Maown Target Test. I strongly approve of the latter of rio was decent and Luigi wasn’t cheap? Do you rememthese two; not only are there, in the end, more Tarber a time when he legendary pokemon character didn’t get Tests, but their own unique layout helps keep speak in grunts? Do you remember a time in which evthem from getting boring. While Brawl has the betery character each had their unique and fun target tests? ter Adventure mode, Melee has the better Target If not, I’m talking about Brawl’s predecessor; the nowTest mode, which makes it, in some ways, as good disliked Super Smash Brothers Melee. as Brawl.

The mechanics of Melee are nearly identical to that of So now for the final verdict: is Melee a good game?

Brawl and well known to anybody who has picked up Absolutely. It may not be better than Brawl, but a video game. A control stick controls one’s movement there are some things that it really 1-ups Brawl in. of the character while one of two buttons can be paired So if you ever have the strong desire to run the old together with a direction on the control stick to use difadventure mode as Mewtwo, or just really want ferent combos. The Final Smash concept was exclusive to clear Roy’s Target Test, pull out the GameCube to Brawl, but surprisingly, I didn’t miss it when I picked controllers, (Unless you’re using them for Brawl, up Melee again. They were flashy, very cheap moves that which, if you’re good at it, will already be doing.) were almost sure to kill you’re opponent: they imbalinvite some friends over and enjoy some old fashanced the game. In Melee, there was no such concept ioned Nintendo fighting in Super Smash Brothers and, while some items were a little cheap, there was no game decider such as the Final Smash.

Now, about the characters. The roster of 35 Brawl characters made many additions to the Melee selection and cut five characters: Pichu, Roy, Mewtwo,Young Link and Dr. Mario.While most of these characters can be considered “clones”, there is no excuse for cutting Mewtwo from the Brawl roster. He was an amazing pokemon and a very good fighter. Instead, he was replaced with Lucario, a somewhat generic pokemon who is only capable of speaking in grunts, a severe downfall from the awesomeness that was Mewtwo. However, it is rumored that upon hacking the disc of Brawl, one can find files for

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Peter Klapes Matthew LU Jack Lovett Julian Milkey Dennis Phan Julian Montagut Johan Thomas Yoelena Tkebuchaua Monica Cipriano