Issue5

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the 2

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ERASING AIDS A closer look at the AIDS epidemic throughout the world and how AHS students can help.

An inside look at the tricks of the trade for the popular game of poker.

Force used on a student who did not have his ID at the UCLA library.

Today’s Weather Sunny Low: 32

Today’s Lunch Hamburger on Bun Cheeseburger on Bun Fish Fillet on Bun Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Yogurt w/Pretzel

Today’s Flex Tues., Dec. 5— R1/R5

This Day in History 1933— Twenty first amendment to the American Constitution ratified 1955— Rosa Parks began famous bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama 1974— NFL’s Seattle Seahawks forms

NEWS BRIEFS AHS establishes schoolcommunity partnership program

AHS recently established a SchoolCommunity partnership to help connect the home, the school and the community. the purpose of this is to ensure that the growing immigrant population at AHS can achieve academic success.

The coordinator of the program will be Vida Sanchez. Sanchez will work closely with school personel and parent liasons to ensure that this program is successful.

Classes, workshops and activities will be held for teachers and parents to help enhance cooperation between diverse cultures.

This is designed to help parents understand the culture and structure of the school.

Additionally, this will serve to inform parents on their roles in students education.

Sanchez will also manage the parent resource center at AHS. This center contains numerous resources for parents of students at AHS.

59%

Undecided 20%

21%

Yes

No

Has the the war in Iraq has been worthwile?

This survey was distributed on Nov. 28 during B, C and D lunch. Of 500 surveys distributed, 427 were completed and returned for inclusion in this graph.

“Black Friday” shopping reveals the popularity of the latest Playstation game system.

Renovations for Ossian Hall Park begin, student parking not affected

BY KRISTA SILANO Managing Editor Many students, staff members and visitors ofAHS have noticed in recent weeks, a drastic change on the corner of Heritage Drive and Four Year Run. The majority of the trees have disappeared, and big white trucks and orange cautionary barriers have replaced them.

These changes are part of the long process of renovation to Ossian Hall Park. The renovation was first suggested five years ago when board members and supervisors decided that the overgrowth of the park, which caused difficulty to monitor student activity, as well as the lack of parking, needed to be changed.

The process began with “Phase One” in late October, which Safety and Security Specialist Cliff Cornwell said includes clearing out the trees in the front of Ossian Hall Park, paving the parks paths, adding additional paths, removing the welcome sign at the intersection of Heritage Drive and Four Year Run and replacing it with a nicer, stone one, and paving a space for a new batting cage. According to Cornwell, “Phase One should be completed shortly.”

While in recent weeks, the park has been inundated with construction trucks and numerous workers, Cornwell says there has not been anything to complain about.

Senior Christina Valez, who has a purchased parking space in the Ossian lot, agrees with Cornwell about the smooth renovation thus far.

“When the renovation first started and all the construction was going on, I got nervous about whether or not my parking spot was going to be affected,” said Valez.

“Ossian” continued on page 5

Ossian Hall Park has been in the renovation process since late October. Recently, many of the trees throughout the park were cut down. Two multi-purpose courts, a rectangular field, a performing arts center, a community plaza and new playgrounds will be built in the renovated park. No date has been set for the completion of the project.

Drama performs Dracula

Weather cancels two performances of play, hurting profit, reviews

COURTESY OF SAHAR ATAYEE

BY LUCAS HIGGINS Staff Writer

E. Faye Butler

War in Iraq Survey

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PLAYSTATION 3 PANDEMONIUM

Ossian gets a makeover

Tonight, “The Wicked Witch of the West” performs at Artspeak!

Tonight Artspeak! will present wellknown performer E. Faye Butler. She is often regarded as one of the most popular local musical theater stars.

The performance begins at 7 p.m. in the lecture hall at Poe Middle School. No reservations are needed for the show, and it is open to the public.

Butler has performed in many local shows, including Dinah Was, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Polk County at Arena Stage; as well as The Gospel According to Fishman at Signature Theater. Butler has been nominated for three Helen Hayes awards.

In her next role, Butler will make her Broadway debut as the Wicked Witch of the West in the musical The Wiz. The goal of the Artspeak! program is to excite students about the arts. Butlers performance is one of a series of Artspeak! events which will be held this year.

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2006

ALL DEUCES ARE WILD

POLICE TASER UCLA STUDENT

High: 42

700 Medford Dr. Annandale, VA 22003

DAVID SHERMAN

VOLUME #52 ISSUE 5

ANNANDALE HIGH SCHOOL

Junior Paul Mathis starred in the annual Fall Play: Dracula. The show was hurt by the cancellation of two performances.

“Dracula is so out of the Annandale Theater Department’s comfort zone. It’s extremely different from the kind of stuff we usually perform,” said senior Evan Milberg, who played the part of Dr. Van Helsing in the 2006 fall play, Dracula.

“Most of the plays we [perform] have something to do with royalty, or is along those lines.”

Not only was Dracula a challenging play for the students, the success of the play was not helped by the rescheduling of opening night and the cancellations of the opening night and a Saturday matinee performance, which many students had planned to attend. These performances were cancelled due to high winds which caused county-wide school closures.

Between a Friday night show and a Saturday night show, which had to compete with the “Dracula” continued on page 5

AHS receives $45,000 grant nities at the school and increasing immigrant parent participation.

This is the third grant AHS has received from WAPI, and the third year AHS has been accepted by the organization. The school has been a consistent participant in the WAPI program because of its vast diversity and unique programs for immigrant parents.

“The Parent Resource Center here is the first ParBY MICHELLE RISSE ent Resource Center at a secondary school in all of News Editor Fairfax County Public Schools,” said Mpras. Not only Three years ago, Dr. Fay Mpras was given the op- is AHS the only public secondary school in Fairfax portunity to work with the Washington Area Partner- County with a Parent Resource Center, but it is also ship for Immigrants (WAPI) by applying for a the first school with a School-Community $25,000 grant. Little did she know thatAHS Center in FCPS “and possibly the nation,” would be chosen for the grant, and three said Mpras. more to come in following years.

Javaid Khokhar, a parent liaison This year, AHS was awarded $45,000 for AHS, spends his days speaking with grant from the Community Foundation for immigrant parents and participating in the National Capital Region and Washingseminars. ton Area Partnership for Immigrants orga“I speak three languages, so I am nization (WAPI) for a school and community able to speak with students and parents partnership to reach out to the greater comfrom India, Pakistan, and South Asia,” Mpras munity of immigrant families. said Khokhar. Currently, AHS has six “For the past two years, 13 teachers have been parent liaisons, but with the WAPI grant, it hopes to involved in teacher research which raised the ques- employ more. tion, ‘How can we help our immigrants students?’ “ “I’m very excited about this grant,” said Khokhar. said Mpras.

“Now we can expand the activities beyond the building “The information found [from the teacher research] and reach the parents.” will hopefully be implemented in a plan for the school The main goal for the money is to establish better this year and in future years, so we can help immigrant communications between immigrant parents, their parents help their students achieve academic success,” students, and the schoool. said Mpras. With this grant from WAPI, AHS will be expanding the immigrant youth leadership opportu“Grant” continued on page 5

Money will be used to further develop AHS’s Parent Resource Center

Immigration stories at AHS This is the first of a three part series on stories of immigrants coming to AHS

BY MICHAEL CRAIG Academics Editor Imagine going to a whole different country on the other side of the world. Not knowing anyone except your family. Not being able to understand the language of country, the culture, or the country’s history. Feeling clueless and wanting nothing more than to fit in.

Some of these feelings are familiar to AHS freshman Bewketu Tamir, who completed his journey to America a little less than 11 months ago. Tamir, who traveled from his old home in AddisAbaba, Ethiopia to Virginia, is quickly learning to adapt to AHS. The first thing that Tamir noticed after arriving in The United States from his home 8,000 miles away in Ethiopia is the level of technology in the U.S. “The United States is more technological and advanced,” said Tamir.

The school environment in the U.S. is also a new change for Tamir.

AHS proves to be a different atmosphere when compared to Tamir’s old school back across the Atlantic.

“There are definitely more available materials in schools here,” said Tamir.

He is enjoying his first year at AHS and especially takes interest in the subject of history.

“I enjoy learning about the history of this nation, it’s interesting,” said Tamir. “History and Math are my two favorite subjects, but I enjoy history the most.”

Both of Tamir’s electives at AHS, Journalism 1 and Theater Arts 1 are intended to help Tamir improve his writing and speaking skills. As well as the subject of American History, Tamir also enjoys playing the sport of soccer with his friends near his house.

“I’m choosing not to play atAnnandale because I want to improve my academic performance,” he said.

Tamir’s family decided to travel to the United States from Ethiopia because they wanted to avoid the political corruption of their old country.

“Immigration” continued on page 5

To all of those people who don’t flush toilets or throw away their trash at the lunch tables and leave beverage cans in the desks, all I can ask is why?

What do you gain from makingAnnandale High School, your home, a mess?

It is only a few years after the end of the renovation and our school already seems to have signs of wear and tear.

Often times, how a place looks reflects on the people who occupy that building. So all I ask is take some pride in your school.

Is it really that much of a burden to reach down and press the lever on the toilet? Would carrying your tray or lunch bag to the trashcan on the way out of lunch really pose that much of a problem? Imagine the janitors, finding the same messes in the same spots every day. They aren’t our personal maids, after all. They do much more than clean up the messes that many of our students are too lazy to clean up.

Besides, doesn’t it feel much better to use a clean bathroom, to have a desk that doesn’t have ants crawling throughout it and to be able to sit down at lunch and not have to move a halfeaten burrito out of the way?

Responsibility, after all, is contagious. The more we all keep Annandale tidy, the more others will pick up their end of the slack.

So, I request this of all students: show some respect to the building, show some respect to the janitors, and most importantly, show some respect to yourself. Flush that mess, pitch that trash and clean your table.

As Mr. Ponton says, sometimes all we have is our reputation. Let’s make that reputation a clean one.

– Tim Yuskavage

Tim’s Take Opinion

By Tim Yuskavage

The United States is seen as the “exporter of democracy.” Going back to the days of Woodrow Wilson, on the whole, a key component of U.S. foreign policy has been to send democracy to places where it did not exist in the past. It has been assumed that from the former Soviet Union to the Middle East, the U.S. has been rather successful in that goal. However, taking a closer look, the facts say otherwise.

The former Soviet Union, the “evil empire,” supposedly grand enemy of worldwide peace and democracy, technically operates under a republican democracy. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has, among other things, gradually limited free media, consolidated government power, and changed policy to help his friends in fields such as the oil industry.

In addition, it seems that Putin has revived the old tactic of, literally, poisoning his political opponents, as seen by the Litvinenko affair in London. Fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it seems that Russia once again reverted to the one government they can do right: a quasi-dictatorship, in which the people of Russia are (rightly) scared of their own government.

And what has the U.S. done in this

On pg. 13, the photo caption was mislabeled. The Congressional candidate featured is named Andrew Hurst.

On pg. 4, in the article titled “Car crashes affect teenagers,” the car model was mislabeled.

The car was a Nissan.

On pg. 13, the photo with the dancers was mislabeled.

The dancers are from a Bolivian dance group.

On pg. 12, Andia-Claure’s name was misspelled.

Asia and Eastern Europe, there are only a handful of nations listed as free. Those nations, like Japan and India, are the exceptions, not the norms.

What does this mean ultimately? It means that the U.S. is taking the wrong approach in trying to “free” the world from tyranny and oppression. Why is that? It could be a number of things. Democracy is a creation of the West, born in Greece and resonated during the Age of Enlightenment. Most of the West, with a few exceptions, is democratic and free. As FreedomHouse.org indicated, the absence of freedom and legitimate democracy in second and third world nations is the norm, not the exception. It would not be hard to come to the conclusion that, as sad as it may seem to America, democracy simply might not work everywhere.

If that were the case, then a more practical strategy would be to, on a country-by-country basis, determine which form of government is best for U.S. national interest. Take Iraq, for example. There is a reasonable chance that a fundamentalist government could run the country with close ties to Iran and groups like Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda. From the U.S.’ standpoint, is it better to allow that to happen, even if it was democratic, than to put in place a strong, moderate, single-party state which would be more favorable to our foreign policy? Seeing as fundamentalist nations have either now or in the past harbored or supported terrorism ( i.e. Afghanistan, Iran), perhaps democracy is a risk the U.S. cannot simply afford in this case.

The ideology of “making the world safe

situation? President Bush has more than once expressed his support for Putin. Is this result worth all the blood shed and U.S. money spent in Vietnam, Korea and throughout the Cold War? Iraqi democracy, which close to 3,000 Americans have fought and died for, seemed to be doomed right from its inception. Depending on whom you ask, Iraq is in a sectarian civil war, with the U.S. watching from the sidelines. The distinguished Henry Kissinger said that democracy is unattainable in Iraq for now.

The potential for failure is quite evident.

ASunni government could take power and rule through force and coercion, similar to Saddam Hussein; more likely, Iranian influence could support fundamentalist Shiites, in which Iraq might become the next Iran.

Whatever the outcome, democracy in Iraq seems more like an unreachable goal than reality.Again, did we sendAmerican boys to fight and die so that a civil war could break out and a potential takeover by fundamentalists could occur?

Since end of the Cold War and U.S. intervention in the Islamic world started, members of the former Soviet Union and parts of the Islamic world supposedly had been “liberated.” Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Afghanistan were all the focus of attention by the U.S. at one point or another.

The U.S. invested its blood and money in the hopes of bringing democracy to these nations, yet true freedom has not made its way there. If you look at a map on FreedomHouse.org, a public policy group dealing with rights and liberties worldwide, you will see a disturbing trend. In Africa,

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, things in Iraq have taken a turn for worse.

for democracy” is fine, but in the end it is just that – ideology. 100 years from now, if things continue as they are and go as predicted, historians will look back and see the Iraq war as a meaningless loss of men and money so that perhaps a radical fundamentalist government took place over a more moderate dictator.

Again I ask, why send Americans to die for a concept that won’t necessarily work, or might not be in our national interest?

Ultimately, the United States should only be bound not to a commitment to exporting democracy worldwide at any cost, but to taking the necessary actions, whether or not democracy is involved, to makeAmerica a safer, stronger, more prosperous nation. author’s email: tim.yuskavage@theablast.com

Religion needs to be separate from politics They use God to defend their unwillingness to accept other cultures, other religions, and different ideas.

Another problem with the religious right involves their lack of willingness

BY GREG YOUNG to listen to other people Staff Writer and other opinions. For It was recently announced that the a religion that preaches new leader of the Christian Coalition, Joel tolerance, the religious Hunter, would be forced to resign because he right seems unwilling had ideological differences with the leaders to acknowledge that of the coalition. Unfortunately for Hunter, another side even exists. these “ideological” differences were based They believe that God is on his insistence to move away from the pritheir justification for their mary issues of the Christian right. He did not beliefs and that they are want to focus on being pro-life and anti-gay infallible, twisting the tramarriage. Rather, he wanted to focus on the ditional Christian belief of more centralist issues of the environment and Prominent right winger Pat Robertson, the acceptance of others. host of the religious show The 700 Club. world poverty.

One cannot simply say Hunter tried to balance and moderate an they are tolerant of other organization that seems to be incapable of accepting the opinions and ideas, yet continually believe that they are differences of other people. right because their arguments are supported by “God.” The Christian Coalition was founded by Pat Robertson, And here is a thought, God never directly mentions aborone of the most mentally incompetent people in U.S. politics. tion in the Bible but mentions poverty in almost every For example, he once accused the ACLU, gay people, and reading. Focusing on issues besides poverty because they Islamic terrorists as being some of the causes for “God’s” are not politically beneficial is not just wrong, it is morally hatred towards America. Whether you believe this or not, reprehensible.

Robertson and the rest of the Coalition are clearly far The Christian Right has an unfortunate tendency to right wing and unwilling to accept other peoples’ opinions. imitate the very people they oppose: the Islamic Fascists. In

The religious rights is focusing too greatly on political issues

MAking the GrAde

Issue 4, Nov. 9 corrections The information given on pg. 12 about the Jeff Smith Karate School was incorrect.

That Annandale school is now closed, and the school closest to Annandale is located at 5884 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041.

Dec. 5, 2006

WWW.UPLOAD.WIKIMEDIA.ORG

Let’s clean up this act: A simple proposal

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EDITORIALS A U.S. fails at exporting democracy

The new seven wonders of the world

A B D F

More than 20 million people have already started participating in the vote for the seven new wonders of the world. Candidates for the new seven wonders have been narrowed down to 21, including the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, and the Taj Mahal. This campaign was started in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, and will end in July of 2007. Anyone can vote for the new seven wonders by going to www.new7wonders.com.

Secret Santa?

Don’t be surprised if a needy person around you is handed bundles of cash by a white haired, santalike figure. Larry Stewart, a 58-year old millionaire, travels throughoutAmerica giving to the needy and poor. In total, he has given about $1.3 million, with the largest gift at $10,000 and the smallest at $5.

Stewart prefers to remain anonymous in his giving and is often referred to as the “Secret Santa.”

Stricter bans placed on dancing Don’t be too outraged,Annandale High School, by the attempt of the school administration to curb your dancing rights at Homecoming. Schools across the United States have cracked down on students dancing in apparently suggestive ways; “grinding” or “twerking.” In an effort to control sexual behavior at school, school administrations have placed strict bans on the type of dancing allowed; basically, no touching or moving your lower hips. A sort of a flashback to the Elvis Era, no?

Police on taser binge These days police officers don’t seem to need a legitimate reason go around tasering anyone.

At a City Council meeting, 22-year-old Charles Littleton was dragged out and tasered for refusing to remove his Los Angeles Dodgers hat. Littleton was unaware about the rule that prohibited hats inside the building. Littleton argues that the police are making it seem like he attacked and was violent with them, when really he got tasered just for refusing to part with a hat.

the recently released movie, Jesus Camp, the kids are seen being talked to by a counselor, saying that they are being prepared to fight a “war for Jesus.” This seems remarkably similar to the radical Shiite extremists, who are constantly describing their war againstAmerica as a jihad (an Islamic word that roughly translates to “holy war”).

The biggest problem is that in American politics, these religious fanatics (such as Robertson and Ted Haggard, who was recently arrested for illegally soliciting gay sex and using crystal methane) have a lot of money and a profound influence on American politics. These fanatics constantly influence the political landscape of Congress by providing politicians with money to pass laws that are beneficial to their own beliefs.

Often the bills that legislators propose are not even written by the congressman, but by the lobbyists that are influenced by the power of the dollar. Obviously, all groups are guilty of doing this: it is simply that the religious right has a reputation of using money more than most.

So then the question is: How do we fix this problem?

The solution is neither easy nor short. Essentially, the religious right needs to stop focusing on politics and focus on issues that do not directly tie to the American political system. If the money stops flowing from the churches, it is likely that politics inAmerica will stop focusing on partisan religious issues and more on issues where they can work to find a bipartisan solution. We need more people like Joel Hunter, not less.

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author’s email: greg.young@thea-blast.org

t Annandale High School 4700 Medford Dr. Annandale, Virginia 22003

Vol. 53 No. 5 Dec 5, 2006

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Editors in Chief, Print: Alyssa Navarrete David Sherman Editor in Chief, Online: Erick Vu

Photography Editor:

Managing Editor: Krista Silano Copy Editor: Tim Yuskavage Online Editor: Bryan Krzywicki Design Editor: Matt Camilli Kevin Leach Graphics Editor: Adam Kasdorf Circulation Manager: Kyle Knoche

Sports Xtra Editors:

Margaret Crowley Julianne Simpson Sports Editors: Avery Adcock Greg Rosenstein Jeff Dean Matt Johnson In-Depth Editors: Paul Mathis Chrissy Osipchak

Weekend Editors: Kate McCormack Tim Shadyac Online Staff: Amy Steinbuechler Ad Manager: Amy Stevens Marisa Tordella Academics Editors: Michael Craig Matt Camilli Cason Kynes CJ Sidener Taylor Hobson Emily Vincent Videographers/Editors: Gus Nielson Spanish Consultant: Antonio Rivadinera Drew Wildes Staff Writers/Photographers: Ben Hendrickson Bud Ireland, Daniel Fishman, Arts Editors: Lyndsay Jacobs Rachael Burnett, Ebony Chambers, Charlie Laura Simpson Winters, Lucas Higgins, Lea Nicherson, Cultures Editors: Vanessa Cerro Meredith Rutherford, Julie Tumasz Waliha Gani Brandon Williams, Greg Young, Nathalie Editorials Editors: Shriya Adhikary Cladera Carrera, Claire Bui, Nicole Swiger, Mohamad Elbarasse Aya Saed, Caroline Merz, Cristian Roldan, Laith Abu-Taleb Entertainment: Layluma Hotaki Adviser: Alan Weintraut Jenny Jacobs Health Editors: Becca Grimsley Sarah Waiter Trophy Class News Editors: Michelle Risse Pacemaker CSPA Virginia High Emily Sample National Scholastic Silver Crown School People Editors: Julie Baker Press Association 2005-2006 2004-2005 Lindsey Downen 2004-2005 The A-Blast is an award winning newspaper that strives to inform, educate and entertain the student body and community. Published every three weeks, The A-Blast will not print any material that is obscene or libelous; or that which substantially disrupts the school day, or invades an individual’s right to privacy. The A-Blast is an independent, open forum for discussion that is printed at the Springfield Plant of The Washington Post. Signed letters to the editor of 250 words or less may be submitted to room 262 or mailed ot the school. The A-Blast reserves the right to refuse advertisements. All submissions become property of The A-Blast, Copyright, 2006.

EDITORIALS

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Dec. 5, 2006

UCLA student tasered Mindset Opinion

By Mohamad Elbarasse We live in such a candid age. One in which all of society’s biggest mistakes and slips of the tongue are caught on camera. Be it George Allen losing the election by way of “macaca,” or Michael Richards flushing away what little he had left of his career in a tirade against blacks. But with all these celebrities and public figures screwing up, we sometimes miss the smaller more important things caught on camera—like police brutality and malicious abuse of power.

With the help of Youtube.com and other video sharing services provided by Google, these videos can be seen daily by millions of viewers. Technology has vaulted freedom of the press and freedom of speech to a new level.

One of the greatest moments in amateur candid camera was when a bystander caught the Los Angeles Police Department beating and tasering Rodney King on camera during a traffic stop. King had been ordered to lie down on the ground with his hands behind his back but refused. The LAPD used what they called “necessary force” to subdue King. In 1992, when the officers who were involved in the Rodney King scandal were acquitted, Los Angeles erupted in riots that lasted for three days. The National Guard had to intervene to end the riots.

Fast-forward 15 years. Mostafa Tabatabainejad, an Iranian UCLA student, was studying in Powell Librrary when he was asked to show identification. Tabatabainejad refused because he believed he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance. While on his way out Tabatabainejad was continuously harassed by

How do you feel about South Korea killing off its livestock to prevent the spread of bird flu?

“They got to do what they got to do. If it means that they have to kill animals for people’s health, then they should do it.”

WWW.TIMESUNION.COM

Mo’s

responsibilities to its citizens are explained. If the governthe police.

Campus police handcuffed Tabatabainejad for no ap- ment fails to protects its citizens, a coup or overthrow is in order. parent reason and Tabatabainejad I am not calling for a coup, but simply sat down in protest of their actions. for resistance against unjust authoritaTabatabainejad was tasered a total of tive officials. five times while being dragged out of The officers of the police department the library kicking and screaming, all are municipal workers. Therefore, they while he was handcuffed. are workers of the government. If these Luckily, in this great age of techpolice officers grossly misuse power nology, a fellow student had his camand fail to protect their citizens, they era ready and recorded the majority of are theoretically disenfranchised and the incident. The seven-minute video, hold no power over the citizens of that which has exploded on the Internet government. with over half a million views on After a thorough investigation has Youtube.com alone, shows Tabatabeen completed and the abuse of power bainejad being tasered repeatedly by has been proven, (as seen on the video,) campus police. the officers should be stripped of their His screams echoed in the halls authority as “keepers of the peace,” and of the library “I said I would leave!” should no longer patrol the grounds or officers commanded him to stop libraries of UCLA. fighting and leave, but his only reply It truly is disgusting to see a college was, “Here’s your [expletive] abuse of student sadistically tortured for not havpower . . . I am not fighting you!” A After the videoʼs release, students ing ID after he agreed to leave. To see crowd of cowardly UCLA students at UCLA and across the nation held the past so eagerly repeated. To see offigathered around and watched their rallies protesting the actions of the cials that are trusted to keep the peace so peer being tortured and the most they LAPD officers. blatantly abuse their power. And worst had to say was, “Officer, we would like of all, to see a crowd of educated students stand by and your badge number.”

Tabatabainejad is now in the process of filing a lawsuit watch a peer’s rights be so severely violated.

It is incidents like these of Rodney King and Mostafa against the campus police, claiming that he was a victim of racial profiling. This is the very same campus police that Tabatabainejad that shed a foul light on law enforcement. won the “Taser Award” for effectively subduing a patient People must remember not to generalize but also not to who had threatened campus faculty with a pair of scis- succumb to authority in the face of hypocrisy. Authority sors at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital. The “Taser means nothing if it is not supported by a fair and equiAward” is an award that is granted by the company that table system. manufactures the defense weapon for effective use. With author’s e-mail: mohamad.elbarasse@thea-blast.org the help of attorney StephenYagman, Tabatabainejad will file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the officers who participated in the tasering.

In John Locke’s “Social Contract Theory,” one of the founding principles of the United States, the government’s

3

—Kevin Williams sophomore “I think its necessary to stop the epidemic.

As long as they are being compensated for their loss.”

—Sean Huynh sophomore “I think that if they compensate them adequately, I agree with it.”

Campaign reforms needed for ’08 Opinion

By Shriya Adhikary

With the money used to finance the last U.S. election campaign, you could feed all of the people in a third world country. With the money used for the 2006 Congressional elections, you could pay for a week of the war in Iraq.

Close to $2.6 billion. That’s a lot of cash. An unimaginable amount to most of us, and more than most of us will make in our lifetime.Yet this is the amount of money that was spent in the 2006 Congressional elections. During the last Presidential election, $4.7 billion were spent to finance both George Bush and John Kerry’s campaigns.

In the midterm Congressional elections before that, $2.2 billion were spent.

And this money does not come simply from the candidates themselves. The campaign financing system is a large and complex one, with many tangents that all feed into it.

Although political candidates do utilize their family’s fortunes to pay for their campaigns, most of the money comes from Political Action Committees (PACs) and individual donors. PACs are fund-raising organizations that are allowed by federal law to participate in federal elections. People have a legal way of providing candidates with money by forming PACs with a so-called “common Senator John McCain was the leader of the campaign reform interest” that relates to the candidate’s platform. laws of 2002, which made stricter laws for campiagn financing.

Although there are limits on how much money an individual, or PAC, can donate to a candidate, regulated to influence the candidate and possibly make him or her by federal laws, people have found an easy way around feel obligated to help their cause and organization. Even the standards by simply forming numerous PACs. if PACs cannot completely influence candidates, they can As if it is not enough that all of this money is being control who receives entry into our government by only wasted on campaigns when it could better be used to providing money to candidates of their choice. actually do something for the citizens of our country, Furthermore, look at the tremendous amounts of think about the implication of the PACs donating all of

WWW.GAURDIAN.CO.UK

Shriya Says

this money to candidates.

PACs are interest groups, thus they have special interests that they want to act on. The reason that PACs give money to a candidate is not just because they want to exercise their freedom of political speech, but because they seek something in return. By giving a candidate vast amounts of money, PACs control the political process. Political candidates, nowadays, cannot run for public office without a considerable amount of money, and by donating to particular candidates, PACs are keeping others out of the race.

With no money to invest in the campaigning field, it is impossible to even consider participating in an election.

By providing candidates with money, PACs also are able

—Jocelyn Winkler sophomore

money that the candidates themselves pour into their campaigns. They will certainly need a way to regain all of this money and make more profits. And here come the PACs and individual donors once more, to save the candidate and serve their own interests as well.

Yet, knowing all of this, we are shocked when we hear reports of bribery and corruption in our government.

When our own government indirectly endorses these misconducts, it becomes hard to resist the lures.

With no limit or spending cap placed on our election campaign finances, our political candidates are abusing their financial rights, and special interest groups and individuals are misusing money by calling it an expression of their freedom of speech. If we actually had unlimited amounts of money to spend on election campaigns, this issue would not be a problem. However, we do not. We have greater problems and more pressing matters that need to be dealt with by using this money.

Our candidates should care more for issues like the war inIraq, immigration, and health insurance, than they care to create ads that cost millions of dollars but share no actual view and only seek to defame their political opponents.

Political campaigning has ceased to be about real issues and candidates, and has changed into a race of who can exhaust the largest amount of money. Nowadays, when people vote for a political candidate, they are really aiding the PACs that donate money to the candidate, and their views are clouded by the green glint of bills that have taken over our nation.

When election time rolls around, our leaders spend billions of dollars to try to fool the citizens of America.

The next election cycle is the Presidential elections of 2008, and according to the current money trends, the amount of money used will be even greater than last time. However, time and again, it has been proven that money cannot create ideas or cover up the issues. Political campaigning needs to return to being about the candidates and real issues. author’s e-mail: shriya.adhikary@thea-blast.org

In the 1980s, a detective from New York tracked down a suspect that allegedly took part in a series of rapes. The man had claimed he was above the law, yet the detective proceeded to take him into the police station, where he was positively identified by two of the victims.

In spite of all the evidence against him, the police were forced to let him go because he was the son of a diplomat from Ghana. According to the detective, as the suspect walked out of the station, he sneered and said, “I told you I had diplomatic immunity.” He then proceeded to smile at the girls, and walk back to his home.

Things have not changed much in the past 20 years.

Recently in early 2005, Virginia State police closed in on a suspected child predator. The 43-year-old suspect drove over four hours to meet a 13-year-old girl that he had met on the Internet. He was extremely surprised when it turned out that the girl was actually an undercover police officer intending to bust child predators.

Officers arrested the suspect at a nearby shopping

“As long as they are being compensated for it, it’s OK. More beef for us.”

—Mike Stavenjard senior

“I think it’s wrong because they don’t know if the livestock is really the reason its spreading. I am against animal killing.”

—Shaunte Bethea senior

—Greg Reed history teacher

All photos taken by Meredith Rutherford

WWW.LICENSEPL8S.COM

BY LAITH ABU-TALEB Staff Writer

mall, but the tables were suddenly turned as the officers got a little surprise themselves. The suspect was a diplomat, and therefore was covered by diplomatic immunity.

He had to be released, and ended up leaving the country a few days later, never having spent a night in jail.

These “diplomatic immunity” laws were put into effect by several treaties around the world. They are mainly for protection; for diplomats of warring countries not to be sent to jail for political reasons.

However, some diplomats have used this shade of immunity to commit petty crimes, such as incurring hundreds of parking tickets. This is exemplified most in New York City where there are constantly diplomats of other countries working in the heart of the city.

The U.N. might have accomplished more in recent years if it had not been too busy racking up parking tickets.

During the span from 1997-2002, foreign diplomats had over 150,000 illegal parking tickets that went unpaid. The total of all those tickets? A staggering $18 million. Nevertheless, the city has no power to collect the money.

The vast majority of diplomats are honorable and are hand-picked to represent their government in foreign nations; yet a small number takes advantage of the protective diplomatic immunity.

Even American diplomats in foreign countries are immune to the law, and a few aren’t in perfect behavior either. In the treaties signed by respective governments,

—Skylar Leslie junior

“I think its an important step for them in their country. If that is the problem, it may help stop the spread of the disease.”

A simple game of catch and release Diplomatic Immunity Hinders Federal and State Law

“It makes sense.

It’s safer to kill it off now than waiting until people die.”

Diplomats have license plates that identify them as diplomats to inform people around them of their status.

there should be footnotes, allowing public hearings to shame diplomats away from wrong, or even a trial in a United Nations court.

From the story in the ‘80s about the son of the diplomat who allegedly raped numerous girls, to the story in early 2006 in which a drunk diplomat took to the wheel and struck and injured a New York police officer, things do not seem to be getting any better. author’s e-mail: laith.abu-taleb@thea-blastorg

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Bands are busy for the winter

NEWS BRIEFS

Culinary LEAP program The AHS Culinary program was accepted for the LEAP program on Nov. 16. LEAP (nutruring Leadership, Excellence, Acheivement and Passion in young culinarians) is a program instituted by the Culinary Institute of America.

Being accepted for the program is an honor because it states that Chef Christine Gloninger the culinary education program offered at AHS is at the best level.

“This program allows our students to enjoy a streamlined application process with no application fee,” said Chef Christine Gloninger.

The AHS culinary program exemplifies the values behind LEAP.

SGA Blood Drive The SGA is holding a blood drive on Dec. 13 in the Lecture Hall. Sign-ups will be during all red day lunches. Participants will receive a free iTunes song download card, a free t-shirt, a wristband, and light refreshments. Students must be at least 18 years old and weigh 120 pounds.

Join the PTSA and win a lucheon Join the PTSA and win a free luncheon at the AHS bistro. Parents, students, and teachers who join the PTSA between Nov. 27 and Jan. 4 will be entered, along with current members, into a drawing for the luncheon. Memebership forms are online at http://www.fcps.edu/AnnandaleHS/ PTSA/Membership.pdf or receive them from any faculty member.

Wizards Ticket Raffle The athletic boosters are raffling off two tickets for the Wizards vs. Houston game at the Verizon Center. The drawing will be held on Dec. 8 at the AHS Boys’ basketball game during half time. The tickets are worth $100 each and are for seats 20 rows from the court.

You can buy a raffle ticket for $5.

Raffle tickets are available in the activities office.

PTSA Fundraiser The PTSA is hosting a January fundraiser, collecting old cell phones, ink cartridges, and cell phone batteries. Participating in this fundraiser is an easy way to raise funds for the school year round.

Contact Cary Vu at (703) 978-8092 or email her ar caryfvu@cox.net if you have any questions.

MICHELLE RISSE

Honors Choir Four senior choral students were chosen to be part of the Virginia Honors Choir. The Virginia Honors Choir is made up of seniors from the state of Virginia.

They are selected through a rigorous Erika Rodden audition process and only 126 students are chosen out of over 800 students. Erika Rodden, Lucia Schafer, Ellen Beste, and Evan Milberg were the four AHS students chosen to be part of the choir. Madeleine Mejan was chosen as a first alternate.

Each year, the students come together to hold a Virginia Music EducatorsAssociation (VMEA) conference. This year, the conference was held on Nov. 18 at The Homestead resort in Hot Springs, VA. “The conference is attended by prominent musicians Lucia Schaefer from throughrought the state as well as representatives from all over the United States,” said choral director Carleen Dixon.

Dec. 5, 2006

Junior Dylan Volk and sophomore Daniel To rehearse with the Jazz Band. The band members are preparing for District band auditions and the winter concert.

BY EBONY CHAMBERS AND BRANDON WILLIAMS Staff Writers The fall marching season is over, but the AHS bands are all but finished with the year.

With the winter season approaching, the students are working hard to prepare pieces for concerts and auditions.

“I have never been [to Districts], and I am kind of excited about auditioning,” said

senior Luis Gamarra.

District 10 Band auditions are on Dec. 9. It is an all day event at that will take place at JEB Stuart High School. All symphonic band students are required to the audition for the All District Concert Band; however anyone in band is welcome to audition.

“Districts require a lot of hard work and focus and it takes a lot of time, but in the end it is worth it,” said junior Elise Miles, one of the students who has made the All District Concert Band for the past 2 years.

Students auditioning for Districts, students are required to play a prepared piece, have all major scales memorized, play a chromatic scale, and sight-read a piece of music. Students were given prepared pieces to play at the auditions at the first part of November “It is challenging because when you are auditioning percussion you have to play three different prepared pieces on three different instruments and sight-read music for each instrument as well,” said senior John Koussis.

The auditions are blind, so students will go into a room and play the required music, and they will be judged and scored without being seen.

“It is a good way to see how you compare with other people in your district,” said senior Kelsey Grant.

Students from different school in the district go and audition, and the students with the highest scores are accepted into the All District Band. It also depends on how many chairs are available for each section.

“I really enjoy going to districts, it is pretty fun once you find out that you made it,” said sophomore Carson Wahl, another student who made the All District Concert Band last year.

Last year in 2005, 25 students were chosen from AHS to go and play in the All District Concert Band. The year before in 2004, 32 students were selected to go.

Aside from the concert bands, the Jazz Bands are also busy preparing for upcoming performances. Jazz Band is a group of students that practices after school, two days a week. They practice on Mondays and Thursdays from 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

“Jazz Band has improved because we have two practices [a week] this year because we can do a lot more with jazz than in the pervious years,” said senor Dana Hardbower.

There is also a Combo Class that rehearses one day a week. The combo class rehearses on Wednesdays from 2:30pm to 3:30pm. The Combo Class is also called the Chamber Jazz, which is a small group of students that go to work on different pieces in small groups such as quartets and quintet.

The AHS bands will be performing their Winter Concert on Wednesday, Dec, 6. in the auditorium at 7:30 p.m.

Mentoring program gets underway Teacher-student mentoring program helps students achieve academic goals

The core aspect of this program is simply convenience, as it allows students to meet with mentors once a week, usually during FLEX periods. and request assistance in homework or advice in any way most comforting to them. This method allows students to obtain On Dec. 11, just before AHS will be kicking off this year’s MentorWorks program guidance while still being able to attend their regular classes.

Students are not the only ones to benefit from this partnership. Sylvia Schwind, anAHS with a ceremony for the unique guidance, parent, teacher, and student collaborative administrator who mentored a student two years ago, found the satisfaction of helping a association. student rewarding, and considers it to be a “worthwhile endeavor.”

The guidance department and the Parent Teacher StudentAssocia“I would like to help someone with personal issues who just need tion (PTSA) cooperate not only to assist students academically, but also someone to talk to,” said Schiwnd. “to provide students with a positive role-model who can offer advice, as “I like the concept of the program where it allows students to have an well as help with goal-setting,” said counselor Lisa Foliaco. adult role-model out side of the building to meet with them and talk with MentorWorks was founded approximately seven years ago, and them,” said Foliaco. since then, the program has slowly gained appeal over the years, and “One of the comments we hear often from mentors is that they feel has now achieved status as an esteemed program among the few. The that they benefit so much from working with a student that they feel primary goal of the program is to assist each student in school and guilty,” said Sobel, a six year veteran of the program. “This program prolife, providing support in reaching their potential. Consistent with the vides the opportunity for adults to share and give back to our community mission of AHS, the program focuses on the individual, adapting to through supporting one student. At the same time, the student benefits the needs of the student, with mentors available to provide support from a one to one relationship with a caring adult. Some of our mentors at any time. The mentors are usually adult volunteers, from both the in the past have continued to mentor their student after graduation from community and the AHS faculty, and are affiliated with students who Annandale.” are recommended by their teachers or counselors. Anyone is eligible to In past years, the number of students involved in the program has become a mentor once they submit an application, pass a background Lisa Foliaco ranged anywhere from ten to twenty. Four students have applied so far check, and participate in an orientation session. this year.

“The mentoring program at Annandale provides the opportunity For additional information, students and parents may contact any guidance counfor a student to meet with an adult on a regular basis,” said Andrea Sobel, MentorWorks Co-coordinator. “It is a one on one relationship where a student can share interests or con- selor. cerns with someone each week. A mentor can serve as a role model, advocate, guide, and motivator. They can provide the little bit of added support that a student may need.”

BY JOSEPH HONG Staff Writer

New book club open to teachers and students

BY DANIEL FISHMAN Staff Writer “This is the first attempt to actuate a book club in all my years,” said head librarian Janet Pfeiffer.

The club’s first meet was Nov. 30 , with a turn out of eight students. Pfeiffer hopes to reach 15 members by the next meeting. Helen Silberminz, a business teacher, is participating in the group and bringing along more participants.

Godless, by Pete Hautman was the first novel read and discussed by the group. The next book is going to be How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff.

“The club is meant to be for people who love to read and want to challenge their minds with different types of books,” said Pfeiffer. Any students interested in joining should at-

tend the meeting is on Dec. 20 in the library. Even though the two first books were chosen before hand by Pfeiffer, the plan is to give the members a chance to discuss which books they would be interested in reading next.

When the book club meets, they don’t analyze the book for literary techniques and discuss the author’s biography.

“The idea isn’t to use academic observations, it is to discuss personal thoughts and ideas, or to talk about why you liked or dislike the story,” Pfeiffer said.

If you think of book club as work, or as a gossip circle of ladies sipping lemonade, you have the wrong idea. It is quite the contrary. If you happen to enjoy reading, a book club meeting is a relaxing occasion, to just be social with fellow students and discuss good literature.

Students not “stompping” violence

“Stomp on Violence” week did not reach students as due to improper awareness ads

BY CHARLIE WINTERS Staff Writer On Nov. 11, the Peer Mediation students kicked off AHS annual Stomp on Violence Week. Each day of the week is designated to promote a message dealing with serious social issues in the United States. Monday was World Peace Day, Tuesday was Domestic Violence Day, Wednesday was Bullying and Sexual Harassment Day, Thursday was Victims of Violent Crimes Day, and Friday was Child Abuse Day. The aim of “Stomp on Violence Week” is to promote general awareness of the violence issue in our country today.

Though the Peer Mediation students had good intensions, students weren’t receiving the message.

“Isn’t it sort of an oxymoron to call it Stomp on Violence Week?” said junior Claire Welling. “I thought the ‘I Messages’ were fun, but I didn’t really learn anything about how to prevent violence.” This seemed to be a common theme in the responses of students.

Peer Mediation has a response for these questioning students, however. “We didn’t come up with the name, we just adopted the effort to promote social issues, and the name came with the week.” said Francisco Benitez Gomez. “We are currently considering changing the name for next year.”

The effectiveness of the week depended not only on the Peer Mediation students’efforts, but also those of the teachers at AHS. The guidance department is required to present information to students regarding sexual harassment and bullying. They took advantage of the situation and presented the information as part of Stomp on Violence Week, which they felt was least disruptive to the learning process. Many teachers feel that this obligation is a burden on them and takes away from the time they need to teach.

Because of this, many teachers tried to get through the information as quickly as possible as to not disrupt their lessons. Students can only learn about issues of violence if they are taught about them. Of course, this does not apply to all teachers at AHS. Every lunch period the Peer Mediation students were helping to promote Stomp on Violence Week. They used techniques such as ribbons, which color coordinated with the days, to get their message out. Many students who wore the ribbons were in the support of the week, but didn’t really know anything about it. “We were supposed to watch a video or something, right?” said senior Will Wade, which conveyed the attitude of some of the students.

Peer Mediation students were positive about the results of Stomp on Violence Week.

“I definitely think [Stomp on Violence Week] was a success”, said Gomez. “We got a lot of good feedback from teachers and students.”

Though a majority of students felt that “Stomp on Violence Week was not effective, the participation of students told otherwise. On Nov. 11, over 120 AHS students played a part in a soccer tournament and peace vigil, starting in the morning and continuing to the afternoon.

“I think the most successful day was Friday, which was Child Abuse Day.” continued Gomez.

The Peer Mediation students gave away small toy babies if students answered questions about child abuse. “We had tons of people come to our table and answer questions.”

All in all, Stomp on Violence Week gave students trite information about the social issues that af- AHS students participate in the soccer tournament fect everyone. With more enthusi- that was held on Nov. 11. The tournament was held asm from the teachers and a more to promote ‘‘Stomp on Violenceʼʼ week. Although effective way of presenting the some of the students did not think ‘Stomp on Violenceʼ week was successful, Peer Mediation students information to students, the mes- thought the week was productive. sage of Stomp on Violence Week could absorbed more students.

“Remember, don’t hate, mediate.”

COURTESY OF FRANSICO BENITEZ GOMEZ

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NEWS

NEWS

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Dec. 5, 2006

Seniors apply to colleges early Senior Jolleen Tran cannot believe her ears. Her best friend, senior Luisa Cruz has just told her that she has already been accepted into Virginia Tech.

Cruz is part of the College Partnership Program (CPP) whose purpose is to increase the number of students, particularly minority and first generation students, that enroll in college. Students in the CPP traveled to Virginia Tech where they met with admission counselors and enrolled extra early. Students get an extra boost when applying with special early applications including EarlyAction, Early Decision, Rolling Admission and advantages with CPP. Robin Roth, College advisor and founder of the CPP, guesses that about “Five percent of the senior class participates in early action or early decision.”

She believes that these early admission techniques are “all part of a strategy that increases your chances for getting into college.” In a professional view, she prefers Early Action because the student does not have to make the final decision until May. Senior Rory O’Connor has applied EarlyAction to Boston College, Villanova, and St. Joes. “I really want to go to Boston College but with Early Action I was able to apply to multiple colleges at once. So,

why not do more that one?”

Early Action is non-binding while Early Decision is binding. When applying Early Decision, a student can only apply to one college. O’Connor believes that Early Action is the best strategy because “you don’t have to apply to as many colleges because if you get into one of the ones you’ve applied to with Early Action then you’re good to go,” O’Connor said.

Senior Stephanie Alexis applied Early Decision to UVA. Looking back, Alexis said she would rather “take it back because it’s limiting.” After you apply Early Decision, there’s no going back. Alexis doesn’t recommend Early Decision to the rising seniors next year because right now she “keeps changing her mind.”

“If a student is looking for scholarships or money, Early Decision is a bad idea because a student doesn’t know about what financial aid packages there are yet,” said Roth. She assists seniors in searches for scholorships as well as colleges.

The last type of Early Admission available to students is Rolling Admission. Rolling Admission, like Early Action, is non-binding. There is also no set deadline between the opening and closing dates of RollingAdmission. Roth believes that like EarlyAction, “RollingAdmission is a great thing!”

NEWS BRIEFS Yearbook still for sale

The Antenna yearbook is still for sale!

The final date to guarentee the purchase of the yearbook is Jan. 5, 2007. Orders placed by this date will also receive a free Filament literary magazine and a free Signal DVD yearbook. Yearbooks are $65 and nameplates for are $5.

Seniors: To have your activities listed in the yearbook, visit blackboard account to list your activities. The link can be found under the newly added “Senior activities” on every seniors main page. This must be done before Dec. 13. No exceptions.

Questions? E-mail Niki Holmes at Niki.Holmes@fcps.edu.

Teacher depression and suicide prevention training EMILY SAMPLE

BY JULIE TUMASZ Staff Writer

College advisor Robin Roth helps senior Lauren Cordova find scholorships in one of the several books Roth keeps in the career center. Roth is available to help individual students during the school day and after school, as well as at night to meet with students and parents.

The Parent Resource Center here is the first at a secondary school.

”

Dr. Fay Mpras Assistant Principal The WashingtonArea Partnership for Immigrants was established in 1998 to support immigrants trying to obtain United States’ citizenship. The program has evolved over the years into a regional leadership group that supports the development of emerging immigrant leadership and protection of their legal rights.

“A team of at least a dozen people have been working with WAPI for three years, and we are hoping that this grant will help our immigrant parents connect with the school and other parents,” said Mpras.

With the continued support from WAPI, AHS hopes to reach out more to its vast and diverse population. Fifty-four percent of the AHS population speaks English as a second language, and the immigrant students come from over 84 different countries and speak 49 different languages.

“Many school leaders talk about wanting parent participation, and in a school with such great diversity, we want to make sure to open our arms and welcome all parents,” said Mpras.

you hear about shootings and murders on the news but back in Ethiopia you could see it.”

Another reason Tamir’s family traveled to America was because of his father.

“My dad was already a citizen in the United States,” said Tamir. “We moved to come live with him.”

Tamir likes America but still misses his old country and the family members that live there.

Dear SEC, My friend was at the mall with me and she really wanted these little clips from the store. I told her to buy them and she said “Eh.” Later, when we walked out of the store, she pulled those clips from her pocket. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t like what she did, but how could I? It’s her choice.

Sincerely, Friend with Trouble

“I miss my uncle. I haven’t written to him yet but I will in the future.”

Tamir is quickly learning about America and its history. He is becoming more and more fluent everyday in the English language and is glad to be a part of AHS. “I think thatAnnandale is a good school because of its teachers and school spirit,” he said.

Paul Mathis, as Dracula, plays opposite Natalia Schwien, who played Lucy Westerna. Dracula only had two shows this fall, one of which was the Cappie show.

Dear Friend with Trouble, I understand your concern with how to approach your friend. I can see that you are afraid of what to say, or how to say it because it can cause a rift between you two.

I suggest that you tell her that you were not comfortable while she was stealing.You may not be able to prevent her from doing it again because that’s a personal choice, but you may be able to let her know that you aren’t comfortable with her stealing while shopping with you. If she gets caught and you’re with her, you also have the chance to get in trouble. Let her know in the least offensive way. Good luck!

Sincerely, The SEC Dear SEC, I have a girlfriend who is extremely jealous of when I talk or even mention other girls when she’s around. I saw an old friend of mine that’s a girl and I gave her a hug when I saw her.

Someone saw it and had told her.

When she confronted me, I was very surprised and didn’t know what to say. Should I have told her or not?

Sincerely, Clueless Boyfriend

SAHAR ATAYEE

terrible. Scene changes took a really, really long time.

They played music like they were trying to offset that but it really did not have any effect,” said senior Caitlin Callahan.

Dracula is, in face, a long, difficult but enjoyable piece of work. Some students question whether it was the correct choice for a high school play and if it was, why not try to shorten it or spice it up a little bit?

“It would have been better if they could have changed some big parts of it,” said senior Vic Jain. “The scene changes were a big problem. It just seemed to sap the energy from the play. I would have had more fun staying at home.”

Scheduling conflicts damaged the plays opportunity for high success. After all was said and done, there were only two performances, which leaves a small window for rave reviews. The problem with the play was that it had to compete with football on what should have been its best night.

The play had to compete with communication problems due to inclement weather, as well as the Friday night football game—a problem that had been avoided before the weather mix up.

When asked for a final comment on the process of putting on Dracula, Milberg simply stated, “This one was a stretch for us.”

Ethically Speaking

By Layluma Hotaki

Cancellations hurt Dracula ticket sales

“Dracula” from page 1 playoff football game between AHS and Westfield for an audience, Dracula pulled in an early estimate of about 350 to 400 ticket sales.

The reaction of those that did attend was varied.

Many of the performers felt that an audience reaction was far from definite.

“Some people thought it was slow, others liked it a lot,” said sophomore Natalia Shwien, who played Lucy Westenra.

“The reaction was definitely mixed,” said Milberg.

“It seemed the majority of people liked it, but it was obvious a few of the audience members thought the play was stagnant and unentertaining.”

The play is based on the classic novel written by Bram Stoker. Stoker’s Dracula is considered a literary masterpiece but does have places where it goes “stagnant.” Taking this into account, it is understandable that the stage version would suffer from the same problems, especially when you consider an audience made of primarily high school students looking for something to do on a weekend night.

While most of the people who attended enjoyed the play, despite the inherent slow pace of the performance, a few audience members were not at all happy upon leaving.

“I do not want to be mean, but I thought it was

Those hoping to be on either the girls or boys Varsity tennis team this srping are expected to attend a meeting Wed., Dec. 6, at 2:15 in the Lecture Hall. Coaches and players will discuss requirements, the tryout schedule, practice times, match schedules, uniforms and equipment. Questions?

See Coach Scott or call Coach Kishiyama at (703) 820-2844.

Ethics Advice

Immigrants adapt to AHS

“Immigration” from page 1 “Ethiopia has a lot of violence and political problems,” said Tamir. “It used to be a military junta and many people think of the government as unconstitutional.”

Currently, Ethiopia is going through a civil war. This is the reason Tamir’s family decided to leave.

“It wasn’t safe there, there wasn’t total destruction, but there was still shooting in the streets,” said Tamir. “In America

R1 classes that were the first to turn in all their federal impact aid survey forms were granted a breakfast. This breakfast will take place during R1 flex on Dec. 11.

Classes recieving the breakfast are: Bentley Davis Desio Erickson Evans Farish Landon Litwinetz Lusby Maglisceau Miller, Sean Saladino Scott Sengstack Sholders Tomisato Watlington Wilson, B. York

Mandatory tennis team meeting

DAVID SHERMAN

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“Ossian” from page 1 “There has not been any problems yet, and the contruction seems to be slowing down.”

Despite some students’ beliefs that after “Phase One” is completed, the parking spots in the Ossian lot would be taken over, workers promised that they will not be effected throughout the renovation process. The lot itself, however, will be extended with the addition of at least 100 spots.

“The additional spaces in Ossian Hall Park will help us a lot with after-school events,” said Cornwell, who believes that the new parking lot will be part of “Phase Two,” which most likely will not be completed this school-year.

The progress of “Phase One” has been promising, and the same success is expected of the next three phases. In addition to newly paved paths, a batting cage and an extended parking lot, there will be a new park entrance, two new multi-purpose courts, Downed trees litter the ground where a forest once stood. Ossian Hall Park construction is nearing a rectangular field which can be the end of phase one of a four phase project. The project currently does not have a set end date. used by various schools sports, new paths surrounding the The big question of when the renovation of Ossian Hall Park existing softball fields, a pathway to the Heritage apartments, a will be complete is yet to have been answered. If the renovation performing arts center where summer concerts can be held, and continues to be as smooth as “Phase One,” the whole process a community plaza in the center of the park with an updated should not take too long, but this is highly unlikely. playground on either side.

“I’m not sure about the phasing,” said Cornwell, who guesses “I think the renovation of Ossian Hall Park is going to be re- “Phase Two” might begin next year. “It all depends on the money ally good once it’s finished,” said senior Tiffany Disbrow. “I think and I don’t know what they have money for.” more kids will use it with the new additions. The performing arts Cornwell said that he will be attending a meeting about the center is a good way to bring in more people from the community Ossian Hall Park renovation soon, so he will know more about to our school.” the phases and timeline then.

Every teacher in Fairfax county is required to receiving training in student depression and suicide prevention. Presentations will be given during planning periods on red Dec. 12 or white Dec. 15 fulfill this requirement. Presentations start 10 minutes after the bell of each period, and last about 30 minutes.

Impact aid federal survey breakfast

AHS Ossian Hall reconstruction begun awarded grant

“Grant” from page 1 The grant money will be spent to continue parenting seminars held in different languages addressing topics identified by immigrant parents throughout the year.

These topics include adolescent parenting strategies, school and career resources, the IB program, gang participation prevention, expanding youth leadership activities,and connecting the parents and youth leaders.

In addition to the parent seminars, the grant money will also benefit the partnershipAHS has with the Neighborhood Center, which is scheduled to open on the school’s campus in 2007.

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Dear Clueless, I see why you would be hesitant in telling her, but ethically speaking, the best way is to be honest. Especially for yourself and for her trust in you, you should be able to tell her the truth and let her know the hug was innocent and did not mean anything.

Hopefully you have a mature relationship and she will believe you.

Sincerely, The SEC If you have an ethical dilemma and would like advice on how to handle the situation, submit your questions to layluma.hotaki@thea-blast.org. All submissions will be confidential.

ACADEMICS

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Dec. 5, 2006

How to break the news

It’s an awful feeling. It’s a feeling that many AHS students are consumed with as the end of the quarter arrives. Your teachers distributes the dreaded grade printouts on Friday, the last day of the quarter. The ‘F’ on the test you did not have time to study for appears, even though you wished somehow your teacher had forgotten to enter it into the computer. The homework that you “forgot” to do adds a couple more zeroes to the overall percentage. You see the miserable 75 percent on the top of the printout as your quarter grade, and that’s when that terrible feeling arrives.

“How will I explain this to my parents?” is the tormenting question that so many high school students wish they never had to ask themselves. But the question must be asked as there are only a few days to come up with the answer. The report cards will arrive in the mail in less than a week and you will return home from school to find that horrendous expression on your mother’s face as, with your inadequate report card in hand, she says, “Just wait ‘til your father hears about this.” How will you respond?

Denial? Excuses? Pleas of forgiveness or promises of improvement? Whatever the response, no execution of persuasive genius seems to grant a pardon from the inevitable lecture on the importance of your education and your failure to live up to your parents’ standards.

If this situation is familiar to you, then you may be asking yourself, “What is the best way to ‘break the news?’”

A healthy dose of “buttering up” often seems like a good idea. Buying your mother flowers or washing your father’s car could be useful in cushioning the blow of the confession.

You could also tell a dramatic story about a near death

M KA SDO RF

BY CASON KYNES Academics Editor

What are you rewarded with for receiving good grades?

—Hope Stadulis freshman

Salpini. “They probably will find out, but I’m really good at making excuses.”

Unlike Matt Beamer and Kate Salpini, junior Chase Briggs takes a different approach. “I’m just going to tell them,” said Briggs. “Or if they see the grades first, I’ll just explain it the best I can. It’s not worth hiding it, my parents will find out anyway.”

This straight forward, no excuses, honest approach, to Briggs, is the safest and most effective. “They may ground me anyway, but at least I won’t get into more trouble by hiding them,” said Briggs. Each student may have a different strategy on how to wiggle his or her way out of a grounding, but perhaps the most effective way to get out of a punishment is to work hard to avoid a situation where excuses or schemes are necessary.

Breaking 2.

4.

1.

3. the news: step by step AHS A/B Honor Roll—1st Quarter Formulate a plan.

Know your parents’ expectations and know if you meet them or not.

9th Grade

Adams, Richard Akhavan Malayeri, Mahrokh Amibukh, Nomin Arevalo Villarroel, Claudia Athey, Monica Ayala, Gerardo Jr Bae, Byung Soo Baluch, Shapnam Batool, Raazia Bermingham, Mar garet Best, Lisa Bui, Christina Caero Ugarte, Fabi ana Campbell, Victoria Candia, Jose Chan, Vivian Clarke, Emily Coquelin, Daniel Davila Prado, Pablo Del Signore, Kellie Dinh, Nicholas Ejigu, Michael Espinoza Tapia, Luis Fields, Kevin Flint, Elizabeth Frimpong, Mame Fuller, Christopher Fuqua, Claire Geele, Qadra Geele, Hamdi Gull, Sanaa Hartley, John Hassan, Sabrina

Hill, Patrick Huynh, Tan Anh-jenn Ismail, Fariha Israilova, Madina Jabari, Rami Jennings, Aimee Jessen, Annika Johnson, Alexander Johnson, Danielle Jones, Tamika Jurenas, Juliana Kaur, Mandip Kennedy, Gwendolyn Kim, Byung Hun Kim, Jihee Kinch, Lauren Kyeremeh, Jennifer Lazar, Michael Lee, Desmond Ly, Jason Mann, Natasha McGarey, Kelly McKinney, Sean Mendez Leon, Miriam Moeller, Julia Mohamed, Salma Mwanakitata, Clara Ngo, Henry Nguyen, Thao Thanh Nikolic, Aneta

O’Neill, Timothy Oakes, Jennifer Ovando Torrico, Ana Park, Jin Gam Pavon, Sofia Potts, Gregory Rajagopal, Prashan thini Ramirez Daza, Cris thian Savino, Maria Simpson, Charles Singh, Harjot Solomon, Semone Song, Min Gon Spita, Nathalie Stadulis, Hope Stough, Matthew Tran, Karen Tran, Jade Tran, Nhung Trinh, Delphine Vadakoot, Rahmath nissa Venkat, Aishwarya Volk, Connor Wallage, Ashley Weaver, Matthew Whitmyre, Emma Yim, Eugenie Young, Samuel

10th Grade

Adhikary, Shriya Ambrosio, Laura Appiah-Knudsen, Alex Avary, Alex Balcha, Eyob Berg, Stephanie Brick, Ryan Caceres, Diana Calderon Quintanilla, Margie Callahan, Eileen Carter, Tess Castro Bustos, Jimmy Chang, Simon Chau, Emily Chauca, Stephanie Chua, Navid Chung, Michael Dagne, Tsega Dahab, Alaa Davis, Anna Emam, Raghad Featherstone, Shaina Fishman, Daniel Garney, Claire Ghanem, Bilaal Grimsley, Rebecca Haidari, Mahboo Hepburn, Timothy Huynh, Sean Ibrahim, Isabel Inarra Rojas, Luis Intaraamnuay, Kath erine Jaffarani, Shoaib Kasdorf, Adam Khongpool, Pattama Koppelman, Parker Kumari, Pooja Kynes, Cason

Koppelman, Emily Lam, Francis Lee, Gina Lee, Ariel Lee, Irene Lee, Bum Hee Lord, Amelia Loris, Alfredo Lume, Louis Maan, Twinkle MacMillan, Imran Mahmoud, Ahmed Mai, Amy McDermott, Kath erine McLeland, Claire Medmim, Helen Nguyen, Michael Nguyen, Catherine Oh, Teddy Omer, Tamir Orellana Melendez, Roxana Orosco Ordonez, Jhudy Orozco Ramirez, Sayda Pak, Arielle Perel, Benjamin Perez, Matthew Pham, Que Anh Pineda Reyes, Ervin Quimby, Ella Reinert, Corinne Renteria, Pamela Rogers, Emily Romano, Samantha Romero, Edwin Roth, Stephen Rutherford, Meredith Saavedra Rosales, Jose Saed, Aya Saeedi, Shahrzad Salpini, Kate Samuelson, Leah Segovia Benavides, Suleyma Shah, Syed Suhaib Sharma, Mukul Simpson, Laura Sloan, Elijah Soun, Rachny Stevens, Amy Takele, Rebecca Tatby, Najwa To, Daniel Tordella, Marisa Valle, Travis Wahl, Carson Welch, Cheryl Wieser, Anna Wilkins, Samantha Winkler, Jocelyn Winters, David Yonas, Beelan

11th Grade

Don’t be afraid to show your parents’ your report card. Telling them ahead of time is a good idea. Telling them is better than having them find out on their own.

Aikin, Ross Ainsworth, Emily Arauz, Dyasha Argueta, Jacqueline Bell, Tevago Black, Grant Camilli, Matthew Clayton, Rebecca Conrad, Christine Cruz Ulloa, Fredy Dallas, Emily El Barasse, Mohamad Epley, Peter Etherly, Erik Featherstone, Derric Fleming, Amy Fredericksen, Alicia Garada, Mohammed Hertel, Bethany Hoang, Ngan Hsu, Jeremy Ingberg, Joseph Jang, Han Janssen, Kathryn Jung, Hyun Woo Jurenas, Eric Khadraoui, Wafa Kim, Ah-Ram Kim, Stephen Kinch, Ashleigh Knoll, Andrew Lallande, Rebecca Latif, Mehwish Leslie, Winston Lim, Sang Mi Lord, Benjamin Martin, Kevin Matthews, David Mavlian, Leon Mayassi, Omar McCarthy, Chelsea McRae, Jenna Meek, Karen Mian, Mohammad Miles, Kathleen Naz, Reema Ngo, Kathy Nguyen, Justin Nguyen, Linda Nguyen, Linda Thanh Nguyen, Tyler Nguyen, Vu Nguyen, Vy Nielsen, Robert Noor, Rahiba Pack, Margaret Phung, Jenny Pineda Garcia, Brenda Popal, Tahimina Rahmanyar, Abdullah Rashid, Navila Reach, Kathryn Rodriguez Osorio, Luisa Roldan Nunez, Mari ela Ruiz, Stuart Santamaria, Chris topher Savanh, Wattana Schaedel, Ryan Sengmany, Anousith Shimu, Sharmin Smith, Victoria Smith, Walter

“My parents give me $40 if I get mostly As. If I get all As, I’ll get more.”

ADA

experience, until your parents are simply happy your alive, briefly before making the announcement. You could also soften your parents up by tell them about a friend of yours who is heartbroken by her parents’ disappointment with her grades. You could tell how hard she tries but her classes are just too hard for her and approvable grades are simply unachievable.

Perhaps you could take a different approach. You may claim that your teacher is out to get you. You may claim that your teacher will give you a poor grade no matter what you turn in. Or you could say that there was some mistake in the computers that resulted in the printing of “D’s” instead of “B’s” on the report cards. However, the hope for success for these techniques seems rather bleak.

“I’ve actually burned my report card,” said sophomore Matt Beamer when asked abouthow he goes about breaking the news. “I get home before my parents so I see my report card before them. I’ve thrown it away a couple times.”

Beamer certainly feels pressure to achieve so he can escape a “two hour long lecture about how I’m never going to get anywhere in life,” as he described it. Beamer believes his parents set their standards too high.

“Anything below a ‘B’ and they will say, ‘You can do better.’ A ‘D’ is, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ And an ‘F’ is, ‘You’re already dead.’”

Matt Beamer’s news breaking strategies are running low. “This time I’m just going to wait until they find out.

I should probably work on sucking up to them though.”

Sophomore Kate Salpini also feels that her parents’ bar of approval is set too high. According to Salpini, her news breaking techniques, as well as her grades, could use some improvement.

“In the past it hasn’t gone very well,” said Salpini.

Salpini plans on hiding her report card from her parents and concealing the grades that did not reach her parents’ expectations. “I’ll only tell them the good ones,” said

Students break the news of bad grades to their parents.

7

Tells your parents how you plan to improve your grade the next quarter so that you can meet their expectations. Promise them improvement.

Song, Jee Hyun Suchar, Danielle Taing, Henry Tamir, Bewketu Tan, Shih-lung Tran, Vinh The Tran, Anh Vergel Paredes, Ka linina Vu, Bich Lien Welling, Claire White, Kyle

Whitley, Kathleen Williams, Jonah Wirdzek, Daniel Witmer, Nathan Yosuf, Kowser Yusuf, Nausheen

12th Grade

Adeel, Mohammad Adem, Amina Aguirre, Raquel An, Jai Hieong Armstrong, Sean Avary, Nita Berrios, Josephine Best, Derrick Beste, Ellen Bhatty, Jon Brick, Lauren Caballero, Brenda Calderon, Nestor Callahan, Caitlin Chambers, Ebony Chan, Larissa Chaplin, Paul Choi, Ji-sun Choudhry, Sadiah Chung, Anthony Chung, Jenny Clark, Whitney Cooke, Andrew Costas, Rodrigo Counihan, Caitlin Cregge, Crystal Daza, Andreina De Souza, Chrystine Dinh, Nhung Duff, Alexander Es-haq, Mustafa Farooq, Ribaha Fields, Brendan Frank, Rachel Gani, Sahar Gibson, William Gonzalez, Jennifer Grant, Kelsey Hampton, Jenna Han, Marie Hardbower, Dana Harge, Jasmine Henderson, Sarah Hernandez, Frank Hobson, Taylor Hossain, Asaduzza man Hyltoft, Elise

Improve your grades. Work harder in the next quarter to do all your homework, get better test scores, and meet your parents’ expectations.

Jacobs, Jennifer Jo, Han Eoyl Jojic, Anais Kargbo, Ramatu Kasdorf, Stephen Kay, Catherine Kim, Young-Ki Koussis, John Krzywicki, Bryan Lagdameo, Daniel Langel, Theodore Le, Johnson Le, Khang Lin, Wei Mahen, Jennifer Mauer, Brendan McCoy, Luke Mejean, Madeline Mewborn, Grover Milberg, Evan Morris, William Nguyen, Amanda Nguyen, Anh-Thu Nguyen, Peter Nguyen, Philip Nguyen, Richky Nickerson, Lea Nigussie, Maheder O’Connor, Rory Osei-Kwarten, Kwaku Ottenheimer, Lisa Paterson, Helen Pham Nguyen, Trang

“My mom says, ‘Good job.’ I would be motivated by money but, I don’t get any because I’ve been getting good grades my whole life.”

—Jennifer Oakes freshman “I get $10 per A, but money doesn’t really motivate me. If I got a huge drum set I might be motivated.”

—Michael Pion sophomore

“I get some money and my parents buy me dinner for As and Bs.”

—John-Paul Garces junior “I got A’s and B’s and my parents gave me a car.”

-Jin Lee junior-

All ‘A’ Honor Roll First Quarter Susan Al-Suqi Ryan Bates Yohan Calcuttawalla Abigail Cummins Trevor Daggle Daniela Guevara Abu-hassan Hassan Cassady Keller Ian Mostrom Yussef Mustafa- Zeballos Mariam Nadri Rebecca Pelkey Johhny Du Son Duong

Phung, Vicky Prosch, Scott Pugarelli, Timothy Rana, Sohail Rivera, Sergio Rosenstein, Greg Ruf, Emily Sample, Emily Santos, Justine Sass, Elizabeth Schaefer, Lucia Sherman, David Shim, Seong Hee Silano, Krista Siler, Robert Simpson, Julianne Sobel, Eric Tewodros, Michael Thomas, Kimberly Tran, Julie Tran, Dinh Tran, Bich Tram Tran, Khoa Tubb, Hannah Un, Matthew Valentin, Luis Vincent, Emily Vivero, Sofia Watsky, Henry Winters, Charles Word, Denay Yoza, Suzanne Yuskavage, Timothy Zambrana Arias, Carol

Bao-Ngoc Le Glenda Ngo Jane Rabinovitz Seemal Awan Thoai Phuc Le Paul Mathis Eun Young Park Jennifer Patton Nicole Randolph Angela Soler Yamen Hama Tigist Tamir Margret Cromwell Menlee Domigpe Lindsey Downen Matthew Kishiyama Kevin Leach Diem Thanh Nguyen Christine Sass

ACADEMICS

A

t

Dec. 5, 2006

How to break the news

It’s an awful feeling. It’s a feeling that many AHS students are consumed with as the end of the quarter arrives. Your teachers distributes the dreaded grade printouts on Friday, the last day of the quarter. The ‘F’ on the test you did not have time to study for appears, even though you wished somehow your teacher had forgotten to enter it into the computer. The homework that you “forgot” to do adds a couple more zeroes to the overall percentage. You see the miserable 75 percent on the top of the printout as your quarter grade, and that’s when that terrible feeling arrives.

“How will I explain this to my parents?” is the tormenting question that so many high school students wish they never had to ask themselves. But the question must be asked as there are only a few days to come up with the answer. The report cards will arrive in the mail in less than a week and you will return home from school to find that horrendous expression on your mother’s face as, with your inadequate report card in hand, she says, “Just wait ‘til your father hears about this.” How will you respond?

Denial? Excuses? Pleas of forgiveness or promises of improvement? Whatever the response, no execution of persuasive genius seems to grant a pardon from the inevitable lecture on the importance of your education and your failure to live up to your parents’ standards.

If this situation is familiar to you, then you may be asking yourself, “What is the best way to ‘break the news?’”

A healthy dose of “buttering up” often seems like a good idea. Buying your mother flowers or washing your father’s car could be useful in cushioning the blow of the confession.

You could also tell a dramatic story about a near death

M KA SDO RF

BY CASON KYNES Academics Editor

What are you rewarded with for receiving good grades?

—Hope Stadulis freshman

Salpini. “They probably will find out, but I’m really good at making excuses.”

Unlike Matt Beamer and Kate Salpini, junior Chase Briggs takes a different approach. “I’m just going to tell them,” said Briggs. “Or if they see the grades first, I’ll just explain it the best I can. It’s not worth hiding it, my parents will find out anyway.”

This straight forward, no excuses, honest approach, to Briggs, is the safest and most effective. “They may ground me anyway, but at least I won’t get into more trouble by hiding them,” said Briggs. Each student may have a different strategy on how to wiggle his or her way out of a grounding, but perhaps the most effective way to get out of a punishment is to work hard to avoid a situation where excuses or schemes are necessary.

Breaking 2.

4.

1.

3. the news: step by step AHS A/B Honor Roll—1st Quarter Formulate a plan.

Know your parents’ expectations and know if you meet them or not.

9th Grade

Adams, Richard Akhavan Malayeri, Mahrokh Amibukh, Nomin Arevalo Villarroel, Claudia Athey, Monica Ayala, Gerardo Jr Bae, Byung Soo Baluch, Shapnam Batool, Raazia Bermingham, Mar garet Best, Lisa Bui, Christina Caero Ugarte, Fabi ana Campbell, Victoria Candia, Jose Chan, Vivian Clarke, Emily Coquelin, Daniel Davila Prado, Pablo Del Signore, Kellie Dinh, Nicholas Ejigu, Michael Espinoza Tapia, Luis Fields, Kevin Flint, Elizabeth Frimpong, Mame Fuller, Christopher Fuqua, Claire Geele, Qadra Geele, Hamdi Gull, Sanaa Hartley, John Hassan, Sabrina

Hill, Patrick Huynh, Tan Anh-jenn Ismail, Fariha Israilova, Madina Jabari, Rami Jennings, Aimee Jessen, Annika Johnson, Alexander Johnson, Danielle Jones, Tamika Jurenas, Juliana Kaur, Mandip Kennedy, Gwendolyn Kim, Byung Hun Kim, Jihee Kinch, Lauren Kyeremeh, Jennifer Lazar, Michael Lee, Desmond Ly, Jason Mann, Natasha McGarey, Kelly McKinney, Sean Mendez Leon, Miriam Moeller, Julia Mohamed, Salma Mwanakitata, Clara Ngo, Henry Nguyen, Thao Thanh Nikolic, Aneta

O’Neill, Timothy Oakes, Jennifer Ovando Torrico, Ana Park, Jin Gam Pavon, Sofia Potts, Gregory Rajagopal, Prashan thini Ramirez Daza, Cris thian Savino, Maria Simpson, Charles Singh, Harjot Solomon, Semone Song, Min Gon Spita, Nathalie Stadulis, Hope Stough, Matthew Tran, Karen Tran, Jade Tran, Nhung Trinh, Delphine Vadakoot, Rahmath nissa Venkat, Aishwarya Volk, Connor Wallage, Ashley Weaver, Matthew Whitmyre, Emma Yim, Eugenie Young, Samuel

10th Grade

Adhikary, Shriya Ambrosio, Laura Appiah-Knudsen, Alex Avary, Alex Balcha, Eyob Berg, Stephanie Brick, Ryan Caceres, Diana Calderon Quintanilla, Margie Callahan, Eileen Carter, Tess Castro Bustos, Jimmy Chang, Simon Chau, Emily Chauca, Stephanie Chua, Navid Chung, Michael Dagne, Tsega Dahab, Alaa Davis, Anna Emam, Raghad Featherstone, Shaina Fishman, Daniel Garney, Claire Ghanem, Bilaal Grimsley, Rebecca Haidari, Mahboo Hepburn, Timothy Huynh, Sean Ibrahim, Isabel Inarra Rojas, Luis Intaraamnuay, Kath erine Jaffarani, Shoaib Kasdorf, Adam Khongpool, Pattama Koppelman, Parker Kumari, Pooja Kynes, Cason

Koppelman, Emily Lam, Francis Lee, Gina Lee, Ariel Lee, Irene Lee, Bum Hee Lord, Amelia Loris, Alfredo Lume, Louis Maan, Twinkle MacMillan, Imran Mahmoud, Ahmed Mai, Amy McDermott, Kath erine McLeland, Claire Medmim, Helen Nguyen, Michael Nguyen, Catherine Oh, Teddy Omer, Tamir Orellana Melendez, Roxana Orosco Ordonez, Jhudy Orozco Ramirez, Sayda Pak, Arielle Perel, Benjamin Perez, Matthew Pham, Que Anh Pineda Reyes, Ervin Quimby, Ella Reinert, Corinne Renteria, Pamela Rogers, Emily Romano, Samantha Romero, Edwin Roth, Stephen Rutherford, Meredith Saavedra Rosales, Jose Saed, Aya Saeedi, Shahrzad Salpini, Kate Samuelson, Leah Segovia Benavides, Suleyma Shah, Syed Suhaib Sharma, Mukul Simpson, Laura Sloan, Elijah Soun, Rachny Stevens, Amy Takele, Rebecca Tatby, Najwa To, Daniel Tordella, Marisa Valle, Travis Wahl, Carson Welch, Cheryl Wieser, Anna Wilkins, Samantha Winkler, Jocelyn Winters, David Yonas, Beelan

11th Grade

Don’t be afraid to show your parents’ your report card. Telling them ahead of time is a good idea. Telling them is better than having them find out on their own.

Aikin, Ross Ainsworth, Emily Arauz, Dyasha Argueta, Jacqueline Bell, Tevago Black, Grant Camilli, Matthew Clayton, Rebecca Conrad, Christine Cruz Ulloa, Fredy Dallas, Emily El Barasse, Mohamad Epley, Peter Etherly, Erik Featherstone, Derric Fleming, Amy Fredericksen, Alicia Garada, Mohammed Hertel, Bethany Hoang, Ngan Hsu, Jeremy Ingberg, Joseph Jang, Han Janssen, Kathryn Jung, Hyun Woo Jurenas, Eric Khadraoui, Wafa Kim, Ah-Ram Kim, Stephen Kinch, Ashleigh Knoll, Andrew Lallande, Rebecca Latif, Mehwish Leslie, Winston Lim, Sang Mi Lord, Benjamin Martin, Kevin Matthews, David Mavlian, Leon Mayassi, Omar McCarthy, Chelsea McRae, Jenna Meek, Karen Mian, Mohammad Miles, Kathleen Naz, Reema Ngo, Kathy Nguyen, Justin Nguyen, Linda Nguyen, Linda Thanh Nguyen, Tyler Nguyen, Vu Nguyen, Vy Nielsen, Robert Noor, Rahiba Pack, Margaret Phung, Jenny Pineda Garcia, Brenda Popal, Tahimina Rahmanyar, Abdullah Rashid, Navila Reach, Kathryn Rodriguez Osorio, Luisa Roldan Nunez, Mari ela Ruiz, Stuart Santamaria, Chris topher Savanh, Wattana Schaedel, Ryan Sengmany, Anousith Shimu, Sharmin Smith, Victoria Smith, Walter

“My parents give me $40 if I get mostly As. If I get all As, I’ll get more.”

ADA

experience, until your parents are simply happy your alive, briefly before making the announcement. You could also soften your parents up by tell them about a friend of yours who is heartbroken by her parents’ disappointment with her grades. You could tell how hard she tries but her classes are just too hard for her and approvable grades are simply unachievable.

Perhaps you could take a different approach. You may claim that your teacher is out to get you. You may claim that your teacher will give you a poor grade no matter what you turn in. Or you could say that there was some mistake in the computers that resulted in the printing of “D’s” instead of “B’s” on the report cards. However, the hope for success for these techniques seems rather bleak.

“I’ve actually burned my report card,” said sophomore Matt Beamer when asked abouthow he goes about breaking the news. “I get home before my parents so I see my report card before them. I’ve thrown it away a couple times.”

Beamer certainly feels pressure to achieve so he can escape a “two hour long lecture about how I’m never going to get anywhere in life,” as he described it. Beamer believes his parents set their standards too high.

“Anything below a ‘B’ and they will say, ‘You can do better.’ A ‘D’ is, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ And an ‘F’ is, ‘You’re already dead.’”

Matt Beamer’s news breaking strategies are running low. “This time I’m just going to wait until they find out.

I should probably work on sucking up to them though.”

Sophomore Kate Salpini also feels that her parents’ bar of approval is set too high. According to Salpini, her news breaking techniques, as well as her grades, could use some improvement.

“In the past it hasn’t gone very well,” said Salpini.

Salpini plans on hiding her report card from her parents and concealing the grades that did not reach her parents’ expectations. “I’ll only tell them the good ones,” said

Students break the news of bad grades to their parents.

7

Tells your parents how you plan to improve your grade the next quarter so that you can meet their expectations. Promise them improvement.

Song, Jee Hyun Suchar, Danielle Taing, Henry Tamir, Bewketu Tan, Shih-lung Tran, Vinh The Tran, Anh Vergel Paredes, Ka linina Vu, Bich Lien Welling, Claire White, Kyle

Whitley, Kathleen Williams, Jonah Wirdzek, Daniel Witmer, Nathan Yosuf, Kowser Yusuf, Nausheen

12th Grade

Adeel, Mohammad Adem, Amina Aguirre, Raquel An, Jai Hieong Armstrong, Sean Avary, Nita Berrios, Josephine Best, Derrick Beste, Ellen Bhatty, Jon Brick, Lauren Caballero, Brenda Calderon, Nestor Callahan, Caitlin Chambers, Ebony Chan, Larissa Chaplin, Paul Choi, Ji-sun Choudhry, Sadiah Chung, Anthony Chung, Jenny Clark, Whitney Cooke, Andrew Costas, Rodrigo Counihan, Caitlin Cregge, Crystal Daza, Andreina De Souza, Chrystine Dinh, Nhung Duff, Alexander Es-haq, Mustafa Farooq, Ribaha Fields, Brendan Frank, Rachel Gani, Sahar Gibson, William Gonzalez, Jennifer Grant, Kelsey Hampton, Jenna Han, Marie Hardbower, Dana Harge, Jasmine Henderson, Sarah Hernandez, Frank Hobson, Taylor Hossain, Asaduzza man Hyltoft, Elise

Improve your grades. Work harder in the next quarter to do all your homework, get better test scores, and meet your parents’ expectations.

Jacobs, Jennifer Jo, Han Eoyl Jojic, Anais Kargbo, Ramatu Kasdorf, Stephen Kay, Catherine Kim, Young-Ki Koussis, John Krzywicki, Bryan Lagdameo, Daniel Langel, Theodore Le, Johnson Le, Khang Lin, Wei Mahen, Jennifer Mauer, Brendan McCoy, Luke Mejean, Madeline Mewborn, Grover Milberg, Evan Morris, William Nguyen, Amanda Nguyen, Anh-Thu Nguyen, Peter Nguyen, Philip Nguyen, Richky Nickerson, Lea Nigussie, Maheder O’Connor, Rory Osei-Kwarten, Kwaku Ottenheimer, Lisa Paterson, Helen Pham Nguyen, Trang

“My mom says, ‘Good job.’ I would be motivated by money but, I don’t get any because I’ve been getting good grades my whole life.”

—Jennifer Oakes freshman “I get $10 per A, but money doesn’t really motivate me. If I got a huge drum set I might be motivated.”

—Michael Pion sophomore

“I get some money and my parents buy me dinner for As and Bs.”

—John-Paul Garces junior “I got A’s and B’s and my parents gave me a car.”

-Jin Lee junior-

All ‘A’ Honor Roll First Quarter Susan Al-Suqi Ryan Bates Yohan Calcuttawalla Abigail Cummins Trevor Daggle Daniela Guevara Abu-hassan Hassan Cassady Keller Ian Mostrom Yussef Mustafa- Zeballos Mariam Nadri Rebecca Pelkey Johhny Du Son Duong

Phung, Vicky Prosch, Scott Pugarelli, Timothy Rana, Sohail Rivera, Sergio Rosenstein, Greg Ruf, Emily Sample, Emily Santos, Justine Sass, Elizabeth Schaefer, Lucia Sherman, David Shim, Seong Hee Silano, Krista Siler, Robert Simpson, Julianne Sobel, Eric Tewodros, Michael Thomas, Kimberly Tran, Julie Tran, Dinh Tran, Bich Tram Tran, Khoa Tubb, Hannah Un, Matthew Valentin, Luis Vincent, Emily Vivero, Sofia Watsky, Henry Winters, Charles Word, Denay Yoza, Suzanne Yuskavage, Timothy Zambrana Arias, Carol

Bao-Ngoc Le Glenda Ngo Jane Rabinovitz Seemal Awan Thoai Phuc Le Paul Mathis Eun Young Park Jennifer Patton Nicole Randolph Angela Soler Yamen Hama Tigist Tamir Margret Cromwell Menlee Domigpe Lindsey Downen Matthew Kishiyama Kevin Leach Diem Thanh Nguyen Christine Sass

SPORTS XTRA

BY JEFF DEAN Sports Xtra Editor

—Edgar Ravas freshman “My favoritre part [of poker] is winning and taking people’s money.

Poker is fun to play but even more fun to win.”

—John McErlean sophomore “I only started two years ago.

I was one of the last three people.

I lost $5.”

—Tyler Nguyen junior “I started in the 9th grade with some friends, we’d go to his house after school and play.”

—Reid Runolfson senior Compiled by Matt Johnson and Jeff Dean

Famous Poker Players Phil Hellmuth

•He has won 10 WSOP bracelets •Has written books on how to play the best poker you can play •Youngest player to win WSOP in 1989 at the age of 24 •Has won over 8 million dollars in poker money

•5 WSOP bracelets •Commonly known as Jesus for his long brown hair •Can throw a card fast enough to cut fruit including bananas and melons •In 2006 made about 5.7 million dollars in his career

Johnny Chan •Has won 10 WSOP bracelets •He won the WSOP main event in 1987•’88 •Was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2002

Whether it be on a felt green surface in a “happening” casino, or tucked away on the computer, poker is one the most popular and addicting games on the planet. The lure of money, risk and luck is a powerful combination that has dug a hole in many participants’ wallets. Poker, though being popular for the possible “hit-it-rich” winnings, has also become popular in small games between friends and family.

“I play poker with my cousins when they come to town.

When they visit us we play just for fun, no money,” said junior Debbie McCoy. “I started playing poker in middle school, and my cousin Jacob taught me how to play five hand draw and it went on from there.”

The furthest back that poker and cards have been connected to is in Asia a few years before 1000 A.D. Playing cards and betting can then be traced into the Middle East and Europe where more concrete facts about poker in the 17th Century are known. The game called “pocque,” “pochen” and “primero,” depending where you were in Europe, involved three card draw and betting. The game then traversed across the Atlantic with the French where it found itself in New Orleans, and it spread itself up the Mississippi River and across the United States.

The gambling game became popular on riverboats and replaced the betting games that were usually fixed. Poker officially became a staple in American culture as it spread west into numerous bars and homes.

“I love to play poker,” said junior Jin Lee. “I always play with my friends and I watch poker on ESPN sometimes. I just like chilling with my friends and we always play for $10 or $15 sometimes $20 because we need the money.”

From 9th Century Asia to present day, poker has evolved into a large industry whether it is featured in tournaments and on the Internet. Many AHS students have recognized and embraced the newest aspects of poker industry.

“I play Party Poker online every night and I like to watch poker on ESPN because it helps me learn new techniques,” said junior David Waiter.

The industry and its success can be observed as poker programs now air on TV, including the prestigious World Series of Poker. The WSOP and its popularity have greatly aided the spread of poker.

The allure of competing against the best poker players in the world for a huge amount of money has made the WSOP the most important poker tournament in the world.

Despite the grandiose elements of the tournament now, the WSOP started as just a simple game between some of the elite players in the world 37 years ago.

Jack Binion decided to expand the small poker game that was held in 1969, and wanted to create a large scale event where all the best players would come to play an-

1. Cards are Dealt 2.

Chris Ferguson

Scotty Nguyen

Poker has grown exponentially in popularity over the past couple of decades

• Each player is dealt two cards that only he/she can see

•Moved from Vietnam to the U.S. to play poker in 1979 •Has won 4 WSOP bracelets •Famous for his flashy style and sayings •Has on about 6.7 million dollars in his career

• Following the cards being dealt, players have the option of betting, folding (giving up on the hand) or checking (passing and waiting for others to bet

nually and succeeded in doing so in 1970, with the first official WSOP. The first winner of the WSOP was Johnny Moss, but the news never spread and the WSOP at the time was still just a poker game featuring the poker elite. It was determined that to make the event more popular a fee of $5,000 (which would go towards the winner’s pot) for each contest would be paid in order to compete, but only six players entered, leaving the winning pot at only 30,000 dollars.

After the first two years of low popularity, the WSOP grew continuously and by 1980 the winning pot had grown to just under $400,000. The event finally grew into what it is today because of the lower prices of buy-in fees and the spread of poker and the WSOP over the Internet and the media. In 2005 WSOP winning purse was over $56 million, and the WSOP bracelet, which is given to the elite few who win, is now coveted across the globe.

Texas Hold’Em has become the main event of the WSOP and the most popular poker game in the world.

Texas Hold’Em offers more chance and scenarios than other games of poker. Other than Texas Hold’Em, Blackjack has also rose to popularity over many of the other numerous types of poker. Blackjack is structured much differently than the other types of poker. While the goal is to beat the opponent’s or the dealer’s hand, it is not whomever has the best combination of cards, but whomever has the closet combination of cards to 21 without going over.

Blackjack was first played in the U.S. in 1870 over 70 years after the first games of poker had reached the U.S. Before Blackjack was played in the U.S., it was played in Europe, specifically in France where the game was called vingt-et-un, simply translated in English as 21. The name 21 also developed into the name Blackjack because in a 19th Century casino, if a player were to receive the jack and ace of spades then they would receive a bonus amount of money alongside their other winnings.

While anyone can go and enter into the WSOP, an AHS student will likely only see their great hand show up while playing a friendly game at home. Poker has become a way for friends and family to spend time with one another and sneak away with an extra $10. “[My friends and I] basically play when we have extra money. I’m trying to get richer so ‘hey lets play poker,’ because they are not very good,” said senior James Velazquez.

That need for money has often overshadowed and become the total focus of many poker games, especially in large casinos where lots of money is to be had if a lucky player were to “hit-it-big.” Cheating in poker has increasingly become a problem for casinos.

While taking a peek at your friends’ cards while they go to the bathroom may never be prevented, there are many legal and

WWW.SAVAGETOURNAMENTS.COM

“I play once every two weeks. I started playing because I was bored one day and I saw a commercial.”

Hold ’Em or Fold ’Em?

The grand prize awarded to the winner of the main event at the WSOP has helped increased pokerʼs popularity.

illegal techniques that have left players rich and casinos frustrated.

Many innovative techniques such as spy cameras have been used in the attempt to cheat in casinos. The cheating in casinos has led to large scale surveillance systems that have even became the basis of network television shows, such as NBC’s Las Vegas.

By far, the most successful and legal technique is counting cards. The idea and system was developed by students in such schools as Yale and MIT and their system worked to perfection as they made lots of money before card counting was exposed to casino security. Although card counting is legal, many casino kick out card counters before the casino loses too much money.

Poker has developed a great deal in the past century, and the industry that now exists is a far cry from the simple card game that the ancient Chinese once played. The game has become a way of not only having fun, but of also fluctuating money in and out of the pockets of its players.

The sky is the limit for the poker industry and forever will be a staple of the American, and soon global culture.

How to Play Texas Hold ‘Em: The Flop 3. The Turn 4. The River

• Three community cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table • Each player may use these cards to make the best possible hand • After the flop, players have the same options as after the cards were dealt

5.

• Another card is dealt onto the table

• This is the last card that is dealt on the table

• This card is also used by each player

• After this card is dealt it on player has the best hand

• After the turn, players have the same options as after the cards were dealt and the flop

• After the river, players have the same options as after the cards were dealt, the flop and the turn

Cards Up

• After all the cards are on the table players use the best 5 card combination on the table to make their hand • Who ever has the best hand wins the game

AHS students play weekly poker games Juniors Zach Flynn and Jonah Williams are self proclaimed ‘poker-maniacs’

BY MEREDITH RUTHERFORD Staff Writer Poker has flourished and developed in the United States more than anywhere else in the world. It has become more and more popular throughout the U.S. as one can spend time with friends playing the game, watching it on TV and even playing it online. Poker takes skill, a fair knowledge of the game and the ability to bluff. Poker has become especially popular among high school students because it is a fun way to hang out with friends.

Junior Zach Flynn enjoys playing poker with his friends. He likes playing even though he does not consider himself the best player.

“I taught myself how to play, which is why I’m so bad,” said Flynn. “I enjoy playing poker because it gives me the opportunity to

be with my friends and win some money.” actually play with him he was at college, so One aspect of the game which makes I only get to play poker really sporadically. playing poker so fun is the money. “We I play whenever I can find time and people play in Zach Flynn’s basement with at least to play against,” said Williams.

William’s most successful night was four people. It makes it really easy to win because Zach is not very good,” said junior at his brother-in-law’s house where he won over $100. “I had Jonah Williams. this hand once, pocket “My favorite hand rockets [two aces], and that I’ve ever played was I hit another ace on when I got a full house on the river and I made the river, which beat my a full house and won friend’s hand and I won $20 in one hand,” said $20,” said Flynn.

Williams.

Poker is becoming so Another popular addictive that some people way to play poker is can not go anywhere withonline. It allows one to out it. Flynn says that he play anonymously and has the World Series of inexpensively. The sites Poker video game on his target superior players Ipod and plays it whenever to enter into small tourhe is bored. naments. Whenever Williams has been Flynn plays online he playing for about three plays at the popular years ever since his 21 year Junior Zach Flynn enjoys playing old brother, Josh, got him whenever he can, sometimes even PartyPoker.com. Those who do exceptionally interested. Williams finds on his Ipod. well in the tournaments it hard to play as much as can go on to play in events like the World Sehe would like.

“My brother played poker and he got me ries of Poker or the World Poker Tour. The into it, but by the time I was old enough to sites can also be dangerous for new play-

ers, because many skilled competitors use online poker.

Poker has turned into a worldwide “sport.” It has become very popular to play with friends, watch Junior Jonah Williams on television dreams about being dealt or play online. “pocket rockets” again Poker champions are becoming more like celebrities as poker’s reputation increases. As long as poker is played cautiously and wisely, poker offers a fun time with both friends and competitor.

Additional reporting by Jeff Dean and Matt Johnson

MATT JOHNSON

Why and how do you play poker?

Dec. 5, 2006

MATT JOHNSON

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HEALTH

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Dec. 5, 2006

Addicted to the Web The Internet can be as addictive as drugs and hard to quit

BY BECCA GRIMSLEY Health Editor

“

to respond because she is busy on the computer Why is it a problem to be on the computer all day? Surely the Internet can’t hurt your health, right? It can’t be the same as taking an actual drug, can it? Wrong.

There are both physical and psychological problems related to Internet addiction, just like there are physical and psychological problems related to drug use.

It can be hard to quit an Internet addiction, too.

One example of a physical problem is sleep loss. More com—BrookeBarlow puter time equals less time for sleeping. Then sophomore the body has less time to recover from the trials of the day. This can cause sleepiness during the day, and can make it hard to concentrate during class.

Another result of this is that quality of work drops and grades can suffer. An A student might drop to B’s if he or she starts using the Internet for long periods of time.

Addicts who are also employees may indulge their habits at work. 4 billion dollars in productivity is lost because of employee Internet abuse, according to www.netaddiction.com.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), a type of Repetitive Strain Injuries, commonly results from using a computer keyboard too much over a period of time. “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is at best an annoying condition, and at worst, one that is painful and capable of causing significant disability,” said Dr. Charles Booras in a June 1997 internet article. CTS is characterized by burning pain or numbness in one or both hands.

Dry eyes and strained necks can also occur from staring at a computer screen for long periods of time, according to Nancy Dickey, M.D. To help keep this from happening, it is necessary to look away from the monitor every once in awhile working on the computer. Also, the monitor must be level with the eyes and not higher or lower.

John Suler wrote an article about Internet addiction in the International Journal ofApplied Psychoanalytic Studies. Some of the more drastic problems that can arise are losing a job, flunking out of school, or getting divorced by your spouse. These happen when so much time is spent on the Web that other aspects of life are neglected.

Addicts often ignore their social lives in the real world while spending more time talking to online friends. As a result, they may have few “real” friends. They would rather stay inside on the computer on a Friday night instead of going out to party or hanging out with others.

Just like any other addiction, people who feel they are suffering from Internet

I can juggle being online and doing homework at the same time... most of the time

”

SARAH WAITER

People used to get addicted to marijuana, or alcohol, or cigarettes. They still do, but with the rise of technology and good computers, there is something new to get hooked on: the Internet. But like the wide variety of drugs available to use, there are also different aspects of the Web that Internet users are so obsessed with.

First, there are those who can’t stop using instant-messaging programs like AIM. Then there are people addicted to Facebook or MySpace. Maybe they log on every day after school and just can’t get themselves off it until the early hours of the morning.

A third category is the gamers, those who use the Internet exclusively to play games-

for hours.

These are just of few of the different things people can become addicted to. There are more uncommon examples too, such as a business man constantly checking stocks each couple of minutes.

Brooke Barlow, sophomore, has a computer in her room.

She also shares a laptop with her family. Brooke confessed that she is usually online in case she needs to check her messages or talk to a friend on AIM, a common instant messaging program.

However, she claimed that her time online does not interfer with her schoolwork, and that she is able to multitask, working on a paper and talking at the same time. She said her parent have gotten mad occasionaly when she is slow

9 Tips For Exercising In The Cold

addiction can go to therapy or counseling.

The ironic side to this is that there are sites for addicts who want to stop using the Web so much on the Internet. One such site for people who think they have a problem is http://www.netaddiction.com/. It is directed towards people who think they have a problem or people who know someone with a problem.

This site has treatment sources for people who have problems with cyberporn, online affairs, online gambling, online gaming, compulsive surfing, and eBay addiction. It also has recovery resources with helpful things such as self tests and reccomended readings.

Visiting a website for addiction treatment will add to time spent on the Internet rather than decreasing it, but it may help out in the long run.Other options available are either reading a book on the subject or seeing a therapist for help.

1. Wear layers instead of one big article of clothing. That way layers can be easily removed if it gets too hot.

2. The layer closest to the body should be able to wick moisture away in case of sweat. The next layer should be a thermal layer, then a water/wind-proof layer if it is precipitating or windy.

3. Wear a hat. About half of the body’s heat can be lost through the head.

4. Drink plenty of water. Perspiration can still occur in the cold. Do not think that because it’s not hot dehydration cannot occur.

5. Warm up, stretch, and cool down inside, out of the cold.

Source: www.rd.com

Signs of Internet Addiction

Fast Facts About The Body

•Staying online longer than you intended.

•Neglecting household chores to spend more time online.

•Having your school work suffer because of the amount of work of time you spend online.

•Forming new relationships with others online rather than in real life.

•Having others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend online.

•Becoming defensive or secretive when someone asks you what you do online •Snapping, yelling, or acting annoyed if someone bothers you when you are online.

•Finding yourself anxiously anticipating when you will go online again.

•Fearing that life without the Internet would be boring, empty, or joyless.

•Losing sleep due to being online late at night.

•Trying to hide how long you’ve been online.

•Spending more time online over going out with others.

•Toxic house plants poison more children than household chemicals.

•More calories are burned sleeping than are burned watching television.

•The U.S. tops the world in plastic surgery procedures. Next comes Mexico.

•Coca-Cola used to contain cocaine when it was initially introduced.

•Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in the ear by 700 times.

•Apples are more efficient than caffeine for waking up in the morning.

•A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.

•There are more bacteria in the mouth than the human population of the U.S.A. and Canada combined.

•Leather has enough nutritional value to sustain life for a short time.

•In a year, the heart can beat up to 40,000,000 times!

•Most lipsticks are made with fish scales Source: www.stunning-stuff.com

Sophomore Brooke Barlow sits on her bed with the laptop that she shares with the rest of her family. Barlow also has a computer in her room that she uses for homework and for fun.

Chew your way to success

Test Your Knowledge

Chewing gum has been proven to help the performance of students during tests and quizzes

1. How many servings of fruits and vegetable should you have a day? a) 1-3 b) 2-6 c) 5-9 2. Orange juice has a lot of which vitamin? a) A b) B c) C

BY LEA NICKERSON Staff Writer

LEA NICKERSON

3. What is the most important drink to have everyday? a) milk b) water c) gatorade

Senior Esther Adeluwoye chews a piece of her favorite peppermint flavored Dentyne Ice gum to help her focus on taking notes in IB Environmental Systems class. Studies show that students who chew gum consistently score higher on tests.

ers recently found that chewing sugarless gum for 30 minutes can be an effective remedy for times when a mild heartburn strikes.

Gum chewing, however enticing it may be, is not something that should be done compulsively because there are some negative consequences that may result from cronic gum chewing. If too much gum is chewed, the chemicals may excite the neurons in the brain to the point of cellular death.

In addition, disorders such as Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder, and emotional behavioral disorders, can be triggered by too much gum in a daily diet. Over three packs a day have to be chewed for it to be considered dangerous. Some oral surgeons and orthodontists believe chewing gum can lead to problems with the tempromandibular joint, which is the joint that connects

the jaw to the skull.

Although these problems are all very likely to occur from gum, the most common issue is the increased tooth decay caused from chewing sugary gum on a daily basis. Doctors recommend people not to chew gum if they experience headaches, muscle fatigue, or pain in their jaw.

Even though gum is bennifical to students, it is still banned from most schools. This is not because of the chemical reactions it causes, but simply because students are not good at throwing it away in an appropriate trash can. If students were considerate by not sticking gum in inappropriate places, perhaps they would be allowed to chew gum and improve their test scores.

Despite what some teachers may believe, it is scientifically proven that chewing gum while taking tests will improve your test scores. Many juniors and seniors experiment with this by popping in a piece of gum before taking the SAT to help them to focus on the test. This vital exam is over four hours long and chewing a piece of gum has helped many students to stay alert for the entire ten sections of the test.

4. Protein can be found in which food? a) broccoli b) meat c) pie 5. How many eggs does it take to fulfill one serving of meat? a) 1 b) 1-2 c) 2-3 6. Excerise burns what? a) proteins b) calories c) nutrients 7. How many servings of the bread/cereal group should you eat a day? a) 1-3 b) 4-8 c) 6-11

Answers: 1)c 2) c 3)b 4)b 5)c 6)b 7)c

Does gum chewing really help people perform better on tests? Studies have shown that chewing gum is an easy way to help relieve stress and tension, as well as increase focus and concentration. Researchers have discovered that it stimulates certain areas of the brain, which may have a relationship to reducing tension.

Senior EstherAdeluwoye says that she chews gum constantly through out her school day to help her concentrate and to keep her breath smelling fresh. “It helps me to think and to focus on what I am doing and it really helps me to relax. I probably chew about five pieces during school,” says Adeluwoye, “but I have to buy a pack a day since everyone always takes some.”

The teachers from the ESOL department however, are skeptical about these claims. “I am tired of fighting against the rule against students chewing gum, but I don’t think it helps them to improve test scores but they must chew it for a reason; it might help them to relax,” said ESOL teacher Meredith Hedrick.

Gum is used for many beneficial reasons including quitting smoking, whitening teeth, getting an energy boost, and helping concentrate to improve test scores. Chewing sugarfree gum is proven to stimulate saliva production, and helps to neutralize the acids that develop after eating.

According to various studies, aside from improving concentration and relieving stress, chewing gum has also been identified with improving memory. It is known that gum-chewers scored 25% higher than the control group on immediate word recall tests (a memory test), and 36% higher on delayed word recall tests. Scientests believe that this effect is due to the increased blood flow to the brain which is caused by an increase in heart rate from chewing. In addition, research-

Source: http://www.doj.state.wi.us/ kidspage/quiz/health/health.ht

—Meena Rahmany freshman “The Democrats have new plans for America and hopefully will do a better job than the Republicans. Republicans just got us in a lot of trouble. ”

—Mohammed Kamara sophomore “The donkeys, or the Democrats, will now persue new goals, instead of just getting oil, like the Republicans. ”

—Galen Dunbar junior “In general, I think the Democrats are more against the Iraq war, but they are going to make efforts to try to bring troops home quickly and end the conflict soon. ”

—Yamen Hama senior “The Democrats will probably screw it up as much as the Republicans because politicians have lost contact with the American public and generally serve their own vested self-interest. ”

—Cliff Hickman Guidance Counselor

World News AFRICA

For three years, the Darfur conflict between the Sudanese government and the tribes residing in the region has only grown worse. In a recent meeting this month, six African leaders discussed resolutions to improve the performance of the African Union in the region. The meeting focused on the need to increase the current 7,000 men to the 17, 000 men.

Student response: “I personally feel, we as the United States, should refrain from doing anything about the genocide because we would just make it worse. If the U.N. isn’t taking any action, we should just stay out of it too.”

- Martin Miller

ASIA Ever since the first nuclear test launched

by North Korea last month, some members of the Japanese government have suggested Tokyo should re-examine its non-nuclear policy. China and the U.S. strongly oppose Japan building nuclear weapons. According to a poll in a Mainichi newspaper on Monday, 78 percent of Japanese citizens are also opposed to the country acquiring nuclear weapons.

Student response: “I think that Japan should go ahead and create nuclear weapons.

Japan’s neighboring countries are armed. China has weapons and Korea just keeps building onto their nuclear program, and they’ll continue it.

- Michelle Soontornpatee

Several Middle Eastern students express their views on the challenges facing the Democrats as they take control of Congress

BY AMINA MOHAMED Staff Writer The Democrats have taken Washington by storm. As the newly elected members of Congress savor their victory, they now have to face up to the challenge of the morning after: what to do with the United States War in Iraq.

“I can’t wait to see what the new Congress is going to do about the conflict in the Middle East. Considering the overwhelming violence that has erupted, we definitely need to change our policy,” said sophomore Sahar Jamailahmadi. She is an Iranian living in the United States. Her family has been deeply affected by the violence and terror occurring in the Middle East.

The Bush administration has begun some change, seen by the departure of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, which also served as a welcome concession to the Democrats. In addition, with the death toll of American troops increasing, Bush is willing to talk change of tactics.

Freshman Maleeki is an Egyptian who has recently come to the United States in an effort to escape the corruption in her Egyptian city. “I think that with the turmoil increasing in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, the Bush administration must start working with the Democrats to lessen violence and destruction. I wish I could see change in the Middle East,” said Maleeki.

Nevertheless, Democrats have agreed on a plan for the Middle East, particularly Iraq.

The new majority of Democrats prefer a quick, preferably bi-partisan exit strategy. The rhetoric is no longer “staying the course,” nor is it “cut and run” either. However, all sides recognize that a phased withdrawal of the 150,000 US troops is inevitable. The question is how soon, and what can be done to contain the damage, not just in Iraq, but also in the wider Middle East. The U.S., its regional alliances and Bush’s war on terror thus face a daunting task.

“Even though there is turmoil throughout the Middle East, I believe Democrats will focus on the unrest in Iraq,” said junior Ahmed Faris. Faris was born in Iraq and came to the U.S. with his parents when he was eight. “My family in Iraq has been suffering ever since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, I really want the situation in Iraq to change and I hope this can be achieved through the new Congress.”

The legacy of the U.S. war in Iraq is dismal. It did not take long for the tug-of-war to start between Bush and the newly elected Democratic legislators. Leaders of the new majority that will assume power on Capitol Hill in January have made no secret of their intentions. These are comprised of a change of Iraq policy direction, and the phased withdrawal of U.S. troops, due to begin in the next four to six months. Bush has proclaimed no change of strategy and no timetable for withdrawal until the Iraqis are able to take charge of their own security.

“I think it is going to take 12 to 18 months by the time Iraqis are able to take control of the situation, and end their reliance on the U.S.,” said sophomore Iyan Mohammed.

It has been rightly noted by analysts that in dealing with the contentious war in Iraq

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“I think that the Democrats will be able to address our nation’s problems at home, like better schools and social security, more effectively than the Republicans had.”

Dec. 5 , 2006

As the Democrats won the elections on Nov. 7, Jim Webb, won for senator in Virginia.

Like many democrats, Webb faces many challenges with the conflict in the Middle East.

issue, both sides are posturing for the 2008 Presidential elections, for which campaigning will start next year.

“The War in Iraq will have a huge effect on the presidential elections in 2008.

Presidential candidates will have to have a decisive strategy for the future of Iraq,” said Jumailahmadi.

Thus a fundamental review of U.S. policy in the Middle East will need to be undertaken. Since there are new partners, players, allies, and enemies, an international conference on the Middle East needs to be organized. International and regional powers including Iran, the Arabs, the Israelis, and the Palestinians, will have to be represented on equal footing.

China: one child, one dog China enforces a law putting regulations on pet dogs

BY AYA SAEED Staff Writer With a population exceeding one billion, China is not only limiting the number of children a family can have, but also the number of dogs. On Nov. 14, the Chinese

Authorities in Chinaʼs capital, Beijing, have created a one-dog policy for all households. Anyone caught of keeping unlicensed dogfaces prosecution.

government announced a plan that would protect people from a sharp rise in rabies by limiting each household to one dog.

Dogs taller than 14 inches are banned. Since then, pet owners have expressed resentment and fear about what might happen to their dogs.

These laws are not new to China. They were previously enforced. However, the terms were much more lenient.

“Dogs are not always bad. How can the Chinese government accuse all people of being bad pet owner’s. I think people should be free to do what they want, that’s just their personal freedom,” said junior Roger Smith.

The ban on large dogs originally applied to the city center, but it has been extended to the surrounding suburbs, including several wealthy residential compounds.

Fines for violating the regulations on dogs are typically around $650.

“The government’s job is to protect the people, but at the same time allow the people to understand the risks they are taking, so by charging so much money, they are just making the people more and more angry,” said senior Fatima Ali. As many as 500 protesters gathered near the Beijing Zoo on Nov. 14 for more than three hours, surrounded by three cordons of police. They carried stuffed animals and signs saying: “Stop the Indiscriminate Killing.” There have been many more protests since the policy was passed.

“More and more people own dogs. It is pointless to restrict dog-raising. The stricter the government is, the more people will love to own a dog,” said sophomore Sean

Huyenh. “People have the right to raise dogs, but people who don’t have dogs also have rights. People are worried about two things, dogs wounding them and dogs harassing them,” said Huyenh.

There are about 550,000 registered dogs in Beijing and perhaps just as many unregistered dogs, according to Chinese news agencies. This makes the task of reducing the number of dogs more difficult for police officials.

“The country is becoming more and more developed, the people can now send e-mails, and talk on their cell phone with someone miles away, and when they start to realize how people in other countries are free to do what they want, the government will have a huge problem to face,” said Huyenh.

“I love my dogs. I can’t imagine people just taking them away and killing them,” said sophomore Huan Song.

The rabies threat in China is extremely dangerous. In August, tens of thousands of dogs were killed in The Yunnan province in southwestern China after three people died of the disease. For this reason, the police have begun to go through neighborhoods, seizing unregistered animals and killing them.

“They already limited the number of children, and now dogs, that is just not fair. I see people here that have large families, and many dogs, while my family in China is so small,” said Song.

“I had four dogs in China, and now that the government is being so strict, I wonder what would have happened if I was still there. I would never give up my dogs,” said Song.

Robots helping humans Restaurant in Hong Kong revolutionizes with the invention of robots as employees

BY VANESSA CERRO International Editor What seems to have been in the movies for decades is finally coming alive: Robots.

Robot Kitchen, a diner in Hong Kong that opened in July, consists of two different types of robots. Robot Waiter One and Two, which do not resemble the human body, appear to be boxes on wheels that have a shiny covering and an illuminated bulb as the head.

The robots move without bumping into things via camera that is inside the robot, which guides the robot around objects. The computer chip inside each robot can tell the differences between different voice patterns, take orders and send them back to the cooks.

Robot One takes the orders, while Robot Two makes sure to deliver the steaming rice to every table.

Throughout time, robots have been in many movies proving to be helpful to the human race. But to many, it seems like such gadgets could soon backfire on society. Students express what they think of the new usage of robots in China.

“I don’t really think robots are a good idea, and I don’t think they should be brought to the U.S.,” said junior Nicole Richey. “I would rather talk with people rather than a robot.

Plus, the fact is that robots would take jobs in the U.S. and a lot of people would lose their jobs. There would be more homeless people,” said Richey.

To other students, it seems as though much progress made with the help Robots. “The technologyistheretogetrobotstodoverycomplicatedtasks,”saidMarkTildenwhoisaformer NASArobotics expert, and known creator of the toy robot says but the problem is the people, they expect robots to do so much more than people can do.”

The restaurant owner of Robot Kitchen states that because of the robots lack of certain abilities, they had to hire extra staff to take up what the robot could not do, such as the cooking.

“I think robots are good to produce things,” said senior Adam Shahaltough. “But I do not think they should be taking orders because they can only do what they’re programmed to do and nothing else. It is not really easier to deal with than people because a waitress can recommend things and do more than just give u a menu. And people will not tip a robot so it would lose money for the restaurant.”

To other students, the start for robots in restaurants is a good idea. “I think it’s fine if

the robots do not mess up the order. And I don’t think that that it will matter about the emotion factor,” said junior Erik Cabellos.

Other robots have also been invented, but are not yet on the market. A robot known as The B.E.A.R, which short for “Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot” has the dangerous job of carrying soldiers out of dangerous areas when the soldier is injured. The B.E.A.R is able to carry a human for at least 50 minutes. The B.E.A.R also balances out on its hips, knees and ankles.

“It’s really going to help save lives, and I don’t think their will be any problems with the B.E.A.R,” said freshman Zouhairo Fadde.

The future for the B.E.A.R is to work in hospitals, assisting people who are unable to walk from their bed to the bathroom. Robots such as the B.E.A.R would be placed in homes to help people who have a hard time getting around their homes.

Another robot named RIDC-01 does floor cleaning. RIDC-01 can notice different voice patterns, speak and play DVDs. RIDC-01 weighs 220 pounds and costs $85,000.

“I think that it is going to create less job opportunities, but it can be more helpful towards the helpless people,” said senior Julio Javior.

Overall, robots are being built for many reasons to save lives and make life a little easier to some.

WWW.VECNA.COM

How do you think the Democrats’ control of Congress will affect the turmoil in the Middle East?

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Storm clouds on Capitol Hill

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INTERNATIONAL

The Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot are designed to assist soldiers who are injured during war. The B.E.A.R is able to carry a human for up to 50 minutes.

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Annandale’s Got

Talent

How the Night Went: 1. Songs from their album “Sailway” — Adam Wirdzek, Danny Wirdzek, Colin Webb, and Drew Wildes (The Newloves)

Over 300 students, parents, and staff members packed into the auditorium for the first annual AHS Talent Show on Nov. 30. Acts ranged from hip-hop dancers to beat boxers and rock bands. The atmosphere was energetic and it was surely a night to remember.

JULIANNE SIMPSON

3. “Dangerously In Love” by Beyonce —Tyleakia Sorrell 4. “Imagine” by John Lennon — Kat Elliot 5. Bolivian Dance — Rafael Rios and Andreina Daza 6. “Star Spangled Banner” — Carlos Galicia 7. “Fantasie Impromptu IV” by Chopin (piano) — Natalie Spita

JULIANNE SIMPSON

JULIANNE SIMPSON

Left: Rachel Navarette and Linda-Lee Slesinger go over the schedule before the show began.

Right: The band Convalescence performs their song, “The Red Rose,” halfway through the show. Their performace was a big hit.

MARGARET CROWLEY

10. Beat boxeres —Han Jang and Hyeong Kim 11. Songs form their album “Sailway” — The Newloves 12. “Sola” by Brenda K. Starr —Sidney Jimenez

JULIANNE SIMPSON MARGARET CROWLEY

Above: Senior Teresa Pham works the curtains backstage and waits for the signal to pull them open for the next performer.

MARGARET CROWLEY

8. “The Red Rose” — Jon Molina, Chris Knight, Michael Pion, Martin Miller, Hocque Figueroa (Convalescence) 9. “New York State of Mind” — Ms. Linda Lee Slesinger, Eric Jeranus (Pianist)

Right: Junior Natalie Delgado sang a duet with Junior Kimberley Palacios. They sang “Stay With Me,” by Danity Kane.

Below: Senior Robert Ortiz streches in the chorus room before his Tae Kwon Do performance, which included back flips and high jumps.

JULIANNE SIMPSON

2. “Unfaithful” by Rhiana — Grace Vinda

JULIANNE SIMPSON

Left: Singer Jennifer Hernandez sang “No Me Querda Mas,” by Selens for her performance. Singing was a popular talent with 14 of the 20 acts being singing acts. Far Right: Singer Kat Elliot performed “Imagine,” by John Lennon and had a costume complete with a peace sign necklace and tie-dye to match. Near Right: sophomore Martin Miller and [junior] Josh Monroe listen to instructions. Miller sits with his guitar and reviews cords before the show.

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13. Hip Hop Dance— Reggie Williams, Lashay Andrews, and Dana Grey

Above: Senior Samantha England looks at a program of the nights events.

Bottom left: A packed house cheers after the performace of Grace Vinda, while the comical emcees interview the singer.

14. “Stay With Me” by Danity Kaine —Natalie Delgado and Kimberley Palacios 15. Cuban Dance — DC Casineros (Ms. Carey) 16. “Big Time” —Caitlin McIntosh

JULIANNE SIMPSON

Left: Senior Brandon Williams talks with the Newloves after their second set. A crowd favorite was their song “Never Seem to Know.”

JULIANNE SIMPSON

Above: Senior Hyeong Kim creates his own beat and sounds with his impressive beat boxing skills. He performed a five minute set with Senior Han Jang.

17. “Surf Wax America”

by Weezer —Eskimo Joe and the Ice Picks Band 18. “No Me Querda Mas”

by Selena — Jennifer Hernandez

JULIANNE SIMPSON

20. Martial Arts — Robert Ortiz and Moe Al-Afrangy

JULIANNE SIMPSON

JULIANNE SIMPSON

Right: Seniors Brandon Williams and Geoffrey Jospitre prepare to be the Masters of Ceremonies. Their witty jokes provided constant entertainment for the crowd that waited anxiously for the next act. Left: Seniors Suzy Yoza and Betty Teshome, SCA Sentors for the class of 2007, wait at the entrance of the auditorium and hand out programs as people arrive.

Below: Seniors Robert Ortiz and Moe Al-Afrangy step out onto the stage and take a bow before they begin their martial arts routine. This was the last performance of the night and proved to be a crowd favorite with their unique stunts and pulsing music.

JULIANNE SIMPSON

JULIANNE SIMPSON

Above: Senior Colin Webb talks with Juniors Chris Knight and Hocque Figueroa of the band Convalescence about what to do once they hit the stage. Right: Danny Wirdzekʼs guitar glistens as he waits offstage.

MARGARET CROWLEY

JULIANNE SIMPSON

Above: Bolivian Dancers practice their steps in the chorus room before their performance.

“We were really pumped to play because this was the biggest crowd we had ever played for,” said Adam Wirdzek about his band The Newloves performance.

JULIANNE SIMPSON

19. “From Georgia to Virginia” — Matt Flowers

Atoms who matter Most Spirited Senior John Derrickson is part of the group of spirited boys who paint their chest for every football game. “All of my girlfriends always want to paint my chest [for the games],” said Derickson.

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Dec. 5, 2006

Finding ‘Newloves’

from r $10 ble fo rs a il a . Av membe t now nd ay ou of the ba w il a S any

After a year and a half of work, The Newloves see the rewards of dedication. With one CD already released and another in the works, a bright future awaits this lounge-rock band

Senior Sam England shows her spirit by dancing on the dance team at half time and being wild during the game. “I love going crazy at football games because I sack Trevor Daggle,” said England.

—Sam England senior Junior Omar Mayassi creates his own spirit at the games. “At my private tailgate I become so spirited because I’m the VIP,” said Mayassi.

—Omar Mayassi junior

—Bianca Temple sophomore Freshman Michael Lazaar not only has spirit for the Atoms but supports his other favorite teams as well.

“The Eagles fans inspire me to be awesomely spirited for the Atoms,” said Lazaar.

—Michael Lazaar freshman Complied by Lea Nickerson and Julie Tumasz. Surveys were given to 300 students during B, C and D lunches.Winners were also chosen by editor selection.

Who am I? •I have taught at Annandale and Holmes Middle School for 11 years.

•I attended Radford University •I majored in Physical Education •I enjoy going to the beach •I am a huge Dallas Cowboy Fan •I like to travel, and I recently visited Egypt •In my spare time I like to watch sports, I watch a lot of football games •I have lived in Germany, Texas, Massachusetts and Virginia •I grew up in a military family, so I was born in Germany.

•I am married • I am right handed If you know the answer to “Who am I” come to the Publications Lab to claim your prize.

LINDSEY DOWNEN

Sophomore Bianca Temple lives by a popular AHS mantra: “PEACE UP, ATOMS DOWN,” said Temple. “I love it when everyone starts making the A-TOWN symbol at the games.”

The first place that The Newloves performed was at senior Tim Shadyac’s house in May of 2006.

“The basement of doom” is the nick-name for Wirdzeck’s basement where the band’s equipment is stored

BY MEREDITH RUTHERFORD Staff Writer —JonDerickson senior

Fast Facts on The Newloves

What do three seniors, one junior and a lot of musical talent equal? One great new band! The Newloves is a new band that consists of four talented Annandale students. Seniors Drew Wildes, Colin Webb, Adam Wirdzek, and junior Danny The Newloves practice every Sunday for Wirdzek have recently started a band that everyone is talking about. Each member of the band brings a lot to the group recording and practice more on weekends, by his own musical talent. holidays, and breaks.

Webb, Danny and Adam started playing together in the summer of 2005, but their individual musical interests started when they were much younger. Webb got a guitar from his dad when he was seven and he has been interested in music Most of the songwriting is done by Webb and ever since then. He plays the rhythm guitar for The Newloves as well as sings and comes up with ideas for new songs.

Wirdzeck.

Adam has played the bass guitar for six years and he is the lead singer for the band. His brother Danny plays lead guitar and has been playing for almost seven years.

Their most recently written song is “Television’s Although Wildes was the last member to join, he brings a large amount of talent to the group through his four years a Lonely Man,” which Webb wrote. of playing the drums. Each of the friends play a key role in the success of the band. The idea of starting a band was in no one’s mind when the Wirdzek brothers and Webb “jammed” together over the summer of 2005. The guys first realized They send their songs to a publishing company their full potential in the Wirdzek’s basement where they would practice together. in Texas to make the CD’s.

“We would hang mics from the ceiling and record whatever we played using a karaoke machine,” Adam remembers.

They have sold about 300 copies of their first The three guys bought recording equipment in the fall and started to get serious. They officially CD, ‘Sailway’. started their band in Jan. 2006. Wildes brought his talent to the group in April. Since then, The Newloves have been improving and expanding their horizon.

The “Basement of Doom” is stocked with fruit The Newloves started out as a group of four friends who liked to hang out and play their instrusodas and energy drinks consumed by the ments together. They have moved on to become a well-known band with one CD out and the second group while practicing. one coming this winter. Their first CD was finished in early June, and was one of the most exciting moments for the four band members.

Hidden in the CD insert, in a picture of the “We ordered 500 copies of our first CD and when it came we were really excited,” basement, are four cans and a bottle, so you recalls Danny Wirdzek. can play I -Spy. The Newloves first CD was titled Sailway and contained 12 songs including “Walk to the Rhythm” and “Black Maria.”

“Most of our songs were about love, girls, and other random stuff, “ said Webb. The four guys laugh as they recall how much they have improved since they first started recording.

“You can tell that we got better as we practiced more. The difference in the first song and the last song is huge because we improved so much,” said Adam.

The Newloves first debuted in the back yards of classmates’ houses like seniors Tim Shadyack and Charlie Winters. They had their first real gig at Jam-n-Java. Webb describes their music as “Lounge Rock” because people can relax or dance to it.

With college in the near future for Webb, Wildes, and Adam Wirdzek, the Newloves are a little apprehensive as to what will happen to the band next year. They all say that they would like to stay together or at least play together when they are in the area.

The Newloves will be playing in the Battle of the Bands at the 9:30 Club on February 18.

Checkout The Newloves at www.myspace.com/thenewloves and at www.thenewloves.net

The Newloves (clockwise from top: Adam Wirdzek, Colin Webb, Danny Wirdzek, and Drew Wildes) practice for the senior class talent show fundraiser, where they performed on Thursday, November 30.

Top 30 most influential rock and roll artists

1. Elvis Presley 2. The Beatles 3. Chuck Berry 4. James Brown 5. Bob Dylan 6. Buddy Holly 7. Jimi Hendrix 8. Ray Charles 9. The Beach Boys 10. Little Richard 11.Aretha Franklin 12. Led Zeppelin

13. Sam Cooke 14. Stevie Won der 15. Pink Floyd 16. Clyde McPhatter 17. Bill Haley & The Comets

18. Fats Domino 19. The Velvet Under ground 20. Bo Diddley 21. The Rolling Stones 22. The Who 23. Johnny Otis 24. Black Sabbath 25. The Byrds 26. The Kinks 27. Prince 28. Neil Young

29. The Everly Brothers 30. Sonny Til & The Orioles

Information from www.digitaldreamdoor.com/ pages/best_influential.html

Students find their unique musical voices AHS students broaden their musical horizons with less “typical” instruments NATHALIE CLADERA-CARRERA Staff Writer While many students choose to play instruments that are more common to the listeners and more familiar to people, juniors Chase Briggs and Kathleen Miles have decided to extend their musical boundaries this year.

Both students have decided to “learn a different tune” than other band players. Briggs and Miles have taken this challenge in stride by learning to play the bassoon.

Although Briggs has an instructor that played I keep playing and don’t the bassoon in the past, he give up... besides, I love does not view this as an ad- [playing the bassoon] now. vantage over Miles, who is —ChaseBriggs self-taught. junior “We are [both] at the same level really,” said Briggs. However, Briggs has hired a private teacher who will help learn to play with more precision than before.

Both Briggs and Miles are members of the AHS symphonic band, and are presently the only bassoon players.

Playing an instrument whose sound and exceptional look enables them “bond” more than other band members are able to do.

Though the official definition of a bassoon states that it is a low-pitched woodwind instrument with a double reed, which has a long wooden body attached to a U-shaped lateral tube that leads to the mouthpiece.

As both students just started playing the bassoon at the beginning of this school year, there are some dif-

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ficulties that both Brigs and Miles have come across. They require more time to figure out some new methods of their fingers and the thinner reed.

Briggs began his career of playing the bassoon through accident. At the beginning of the year, there was a schedule conflict and he was placed in the lower level band. Thus, he was, in effect, forced into picking up his newfound hobby. However, Briggs now says that he wishes to continue playing the bassoon throughout the year and until he graduates.

“I keep playing and don’t give up,” said Briggs. “I don’t play just to pass the class, but also so I don’t get anymore schedule conflicts. Besides, I love it now. It’s a hobby of mine now.”

His dedication and passion to play in the AHS band will indeed pay off someday. As for now, however, Briggs is graded on attendance, having his instrument and, among other things, attending concerts with punctuality and readiness every single time.

On the other hand, Briggs and Miles are not the only ones that have had to adapt their musical tendencies and surroundings this year. Junior Luis Garcia, who arrived in the United States about five months ago, recently brought the beat and rhythm of his country to his new home.

“I used to rap in my country,” said Garcia in Spanish. “My brother would be making the beat without any instruments and I would [rap along to his beats].”

Luis still enjoys his pastime now by listening constantly to his favorite tunes, and whenever his brother is not busy he lets him rap with him.

We rap together, of course in Spanish, we’ve done it for quite sometime now,” said Garcia. “We like to do it for fun and I like it a lot because I also really love music in general.”

Throughout his lifetime, Garcia has learned to also enhance his melody to the boundaries that somewhat limit him. He let’s nothing prevent him from “blowing his own

tune,” yet rarely minds the opinions of others because he is always optimistic about his music. As he learns the culture and the language of the U.S., and as the barrier of limited language decreases, his devotion towards his passion increases too.

NATHALIE CLADERA-CARRERA

14

PEOPLE

Junior Chase Briggs is one of the few AHS students who choose to play the bassoon.

ARTS

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December 5, 2006

Photography awards

Other featured photographs

The Smithsonian Natural History Museum kicks off 2006 Nature’s Best Photo AwardsNATUREʼS BEST PHOTOGRAPHY, COLLECTORʼS EDITION

memorial is set up in honor of Sandra Windland Smith Rice, which includes some of her most famous photographs of nature. The size of the photos range from 3’x 4’ to 4’x 5’.

Each photograph has gripping allure that shows the beauty of nature. It is almost hard to believe that this type of beauty exists in the world.

While exiting the museum, the main hall is scattered with winning photographs from the past year’s contest. Viewers are invited to go to the museum gift shop to subscribe or buy editions of the Nature’s Best Photography collector’s edition magazine. The magazine shows winter, summer, spring and fall editions “Grey Squirrels” was taken in for each year.

Quebec, Canada by All photographers Montreal, Robert Ganz. are invited to enter in the 2007 Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice InternationalAwards. The editor offers friendly advice on making the pictures vivid and unique in order to stand out to the judges. More than $10,000 of prize money will be awarded, including $2,500 to the Grand Prize Winner. The “Rose-Ringed Parakeets” First Place win- was taken in Bharatpur, India by Pradeep Saxena. ners and Highly Honored winners will be shown in the annual exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. All photographs must accurately reflect the subject and nothing should be added to the photo. The photographs can either be digital, or on film, no prints will be accepted. Only one category is an exception, which is the Creative Digital category.

There is a $25 entry fee and it must be submitted with an entry form.Applications can be sent as early as January 8, 2007 and no later than April 28, 2007 to Nature’s Best Photography International Awards PO Box 10070 McLean, Virginia 22102.

Students can visit the exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History through March 19. The museum is located at 10th Street and ConstitutionAve., NW in Washington D.C 20560. The admission is free and the museum is open from 10AM to 5:30 PM. Photography is allowed in all exhibits unless otherwise noted. For any additional information students can call 202-633-1000.

ATTENTION

SENIORS! It’s time to write up

your senior activities!

JustlogontoYOUR blackboard.comaccount, clickonthesenioractiviteslink, andtypeinyouractivities!

All activities lists must be posted by Dec. 13!

—————————— Don’t forget, senior ads are due by January 5!

NATUREʼS BEST PHOTOGRAPHY, COLLECTORʼS EDITION

Walking into the exhibit, the viewer is immediately blown away by the magnificent colors in the exotic pictures lined up along the walls, the photographs shown have been determined as the ‘Winner’, ‘First Place’, and ‘Highly Honored’ photos. There are 15 categories offered to photographers including “Backyard Habitat,” “Wildlife,” “Birds,” “Zoos,” “Oceans,” “Plant Life,” and many others. The contest is held every year around the world and this year, is dedicated to Sandra Windland Smith Rice, a noted nature photographer who died in May 2005. The contest in the future will be titled Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards.

The contest launches a new program alliance in order to invite photographers from all levels of experience to explore the natural world through the art of photography. This year there were over 24,000 entries whose goal was to document beauty, variety and the importance of the earth’s wildlife and wild places. Only 120 photographs were selected for this year’s edition. Professional photographers took the majority of the first place photographs, but there were a few highly honored photos taken by amateurs and youths.

The most capturing photos were the “Animal Antics” and “People in Nature” pieces. They showed wildlife in humorous or surprising situations and people enjoying the outdoors. Laura Crawford Williams of Tuthill, South Dakota, took the winning photo titled “Rockhopper Penguins.”

The photo has three penguins running and jumping along wet sand and was taken in The Neck, Saunders Island, Falkland Islands.

Charlie Borland is the winner of the “People In Nature” with the photo “Extreme Kayaking.”

The photo was of his three friends kayaking down a 45-foot waterfall in Celestial Falls, Oregon.“It’s always thrilling to produce a great action photo that leaves people in awe!” said Borland. He set up many cameras to capture as many frames as possible. Borland has been a professional photographer for nearly 30 years and his favorite thing to take pictures of is people seeking adventure in wild places.

The Grand Prize Winner of the entire contest was a photograph titled “Snow Monkey and Baby” taken by Toshio Hagiwara of Nagano, Japan. His photograph captured a remarkable look from a snow monkey and her clinging baby covered in snow. “As I laid on the frozen ground I was drawn to the powerful look in their eyes that reflected the hardship of living in such an unforgiving environment,” said Hagiwara. He got his passion of nature and photography from his grandfather, and he has been practicing photography for over 15 years. He works at the JigokudaniYaen-koen, a snow monkey reserve in Japan, and is the caretaker for the monkeys. He enjoys taking The grand prize winner was Toshio Hagiwara of Nagan, Japan.

“Snow Monkey and Baby” was taken in Jigokudani Yaen-Koen, pictures of them in his spare time.

The exhibit is set up with white walls and hardly Japan. “Snow swirled through the air as I laid on the frozen any decoration. This fits very well with the photographs ground to create this unique perspective of a mother snow monkey with her baby clinging for her warmth...A powerful look drawing the attention of the viewer to the photographs in their eyes reflected the hardship of living in such an unforand leaving no distractions. “Experience Nature Through giving environment,” said Hagiwara. the Art of Photography” is painted on the wall. A small

Arts and Crafts Club

“Canned Fish” was taken in Near Izu Peninsula, Japan by Tai Kondo of Akron, Ohio. “While it is true that we must keep our environment clean and not throw our trash into the ocean, it was interesting to see that at least the old can had been put to good use,” said Kondo

“Hippos” was taken in Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

by Manoj Shah of Bushey, England. “ The courtship of hippos in the pool lasted for ten minutes. There was some nibbling and playing before mating took place in the water,” said Shah

“Pre-Wash” was taken in Walmea Beach Parl, Hawaiʼi by Phl Uhl of Honolulu, Hawaiʼi. “The greatest technical challenge was overcoming the significant salt spray that the wave generated as it crushed the Shore. Freezing the movement in the scence was also difficult,” said Uhl

Held every Wednesday, students make a variety of scarves, lanyards and teddy bears always varies. Even though it changes, all the students are thrilled to learn something new every time we have a new project.”

The Arts and Crafts Club uses hands-onTheArts and Crafts Club opens their doors activities to teach members about the different to everyone who has any interest whatsoever in art of any shape or form. This group of AHS techniques to use and different styles of art that students gather their patience, sociability, are out there. On another note, it is never a and kind individuality, and with a needle or bad thing to be greeted as you are when you perhaps a piece of thread, prepare to make walk into the club meeting: with warm smiles from all around the room. However, one must different types of amazing art.

“The club meets every Wednesday after have enough patience and perseverance to school… members must pay a small fee [of continually work and complete projects. Not many people posses the five dollars] to get in,” patience to keep on trysaid junior Vice-Presiing to create the scarves dent Nausheen Yusuf. the club made and then Yusuf’s job consists of Sometimes you get to keep donated to the needy. helping people to work The club appointed and improve on their whatever you make...while officers earlier in the art skills after they have year. The officers ingiven up after numerous other times we donate clude junior treasurer times. Yusuf also stays Sharmin Shimu and sometimes after school senior secretaries Fa—Nahed Elias on Mondays to devote Junior rina Zeb and Kathleen her time into working Choi. These officers were on the “Project of the chosen in a vote by the Month.” members of the club.

Although you may think it is an easy job, Anyone who attends for only one meeting Yusuf must use much patience to explain, step-by-step,47 the process of some of the could really learn something new that may smaller, yet essential, projects, such as sew- become useful later in life. Not only does the ing a simple botton on or maybe even how to club teach you something very entertaining thread a needle without poking your fingers. that may come in handy down the road in From artwork such as longneck lanyards to life, it provides community service to those teddy bears and crochet, the Arts and Crafts who are in need.

Club has done it all.

“Sometimes you get to keep whatever you make… while other times we donate the things we make to a foundation,” said junior Nahed Elias, President of the Arts and Crafts Club.

“Many people decided to join and have come off and on since. But no matter what [they choose to do] we are always open. It really doesn’t matter when you come at all, because [we] are always open to new and returning members.”

Additionally, sponsor and ESOL teacher Evelyn Hsia said that attendance in the club has been sporadic but that this is no cause for concern.

“Around 2:30 people begin showing up and most bring friends that are interested in Arts and Crafts club treasurer being part of the club, said Hsia. “Some people Sharmin Shimu works on a knitting project after come after they are done with other clubs or school. teachers, and that’s why the size in members NATHALIE CLADERA-CARRERA Staff Writer

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NATHALIE CLADERA-CARRERA

BY LAURA SIMPSON Arts Editor

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“Juvenile Snow Monkeys” was taken in Jigokudanih Yaen-Koen, Nagano, Japna bye Tashio Hagiwara of Nagano, Japan.

“Juvenile snow monkeys enjoy playing in the snow like children. I liked how happy hey looked as they chased and tackled each other,” said Yaen-koen

“Brown Bear” was taken in Kamai National Park, Alaska by Dee Ann Pederson of Houstan, Texas. “I have been photographed this specific four-and-a-half-old coastal brown bear, Each time I see this mischievous juvenile, his silly antics provide me wih humorous photographic opportunies,” said Perderson

All photos were extracted from the Natures Best Photography, Collecters Edition

Football players receive honors

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Basketball loses to rams “

AVERY ADCOCK

What is your favorite winter sport?

Junior Erik Etherly goes up for a rebound against a Marshall defender on Nov. 27. The Atoms lost their first regular season game against Robinson on Dec. 1 with a score of 51-39.

—Andrea Quezada freshman “Wrestling is the best to see because it’s such a random sport that I wouldn’t be able to see unless i saw it at the school.”

—Hope Stadulis freshman “Basketball, because I always watch it on T.V. so I really like to see the differnt styles of play.”

—Jeremy Hsu junior

“Basketball, because I don’t really like any of the other sports at all. None of them are actually fun to watch in a game. ”

—Madina Adil freshman “I enjoy watching swimming, because there are somany hot guys in bathing suits to see.”

—Cam Nguyen junior

Wrestling takes second place

BY AVERY ADCOCK Sports Editor Boys varsity wrestling is really starting out roaring. Not only do they have a host of senior leaders, but they placed second at one of their first big duals.

“We are looking to improve on sending ten guys to the regional tournament and two guys to the state tournament this year. We have a good core of kids.

We are led by seniors Oscar Santos, Baha Awadallah, James Godbout, Wade Ackridge and Bud Ireland,” said coach Keith Sholders.

Not only seniors stepped it up at the recent tournament at Forest Park in Manassas. Kruse, Ackridge and Santos all finished undefeated in five matches.

Kruse won MVP honors of the tournament and Ackridge won the Coach’s Award “We have a lot of potential on the team this year.

We do have a lot of younger people that will need to continue to step it up in order for us to be successfull,” said Kruse, a junior.

The strategy for their success this year has not only been relying on games to step it up but also in practice. “Since we have so many great players, I believe we are capable of great things this season. It will just come down to how much we want it,” said sophomore Steven Kay. TheAtoms have won four of the last five meets and are looking to show people what they can really do.

Sophomore Michael Martinez thinks there is much potential on the team that they could send many to regionals and states.

“We are definantely going to have a great season if we keep everything up. Our coach is really helping to push us,” said Martinez.

If these past few matches are signs of the future for the varsity wrestling team then they will sure face success. With the help of many players such as Kruse and Ackridge there is nothing that can stand in their way.

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Girls face recent tough loss

BY AVERY ADCOCK Sports Editor The tallest person on the girl’s varisty basketball team is only 5’11, but do not let that fool you. Just ask that person herself. “ It’s the begginning of the season so we are still really just getting used to each other. We are a really small team but we make it up with our quickness. We are also getting used to the new coach. It’s hard when you have to adapt to a new coach’s style of play. We were really close to winning the game and it could have gone either way.” said junior Jenna McRae. On Dec. 1 the Atoms faced the Robinson Rams but could not pull out the win with a score of 54-53. The Atoms dominated the entire game but could not come up with the victory in the end. It was simply the engines in the girls that ran out and not their heart.

“They’re playing really hard and working to improve every practice,” said assisant coach Tim Taber. “We are taking baby steps to make sure we are improving. I am impressed at all the girl’s efforts.”

There are six returning players this season that are hoping to capatilize on their leadership. As always, the district hold tough teams especially for girls basketball, so the Atoms will have to rely on each other for support.Tori Clark is one of these players.

“At first the season wasn’t looking good for us. We had a lot of downs, but we really came together as a team in the end. We are working on our flaws to make them better. We don’t have much height this year, but we make up for it in our speed,” said Clark.

Even though there are not many younger unexperienced players, there are many new additions. Mary Bermingham is one of these new additions, but hopes to bring something new and different to the team. “ We played really well in the game but there simply wasn’t enough time to win. If there was just ten more seconds I am sure that we would have pulled it out. All you can do is learn from it and move on even if it was a heartbreaker,” said Bermingham.

The Atoms hope to end with a victory against W&L at away this Friday Dec 8.

Junior Kamilla Stevens guards freshman Tamika Jones.

The Atoms are preparing for their next game against W&L

The Rundown:Varsity athlete profiles Wrestling Key Players: Jesse Kruse, Oscar Santos, Baha Awadallah, James Godbout, Wade Ackridge, Bud Ireland

ALL MUGSHOTS TAKEN BY AVERY ADCOCK

powerhouses.

“We have a lot of new players and a lot of things that we need to work out.since we don’t have a lot of size our key will be to score on fast breaks rather than halfcourt offense. It was just the first game of the season so we will definitely get better as we learn to work better as a team,” said senior Graham Prosch.

BY AVERY ADCOCK One of the problems the team will face Sports Editor is adapting to a new head coach.

Many would say that the boys var“If we come out with the same intensity sity basketball team has a lot up against that we have at practice and we get on them this season. the glass and rebound then I think we A new coach and countless new will have a prouctive season.” said coach additions to the Anthony Harper. team are only some With lots of of the obstacles they tough opponents, will continue to Since we don’t have a lot of the Atoms will face. However, ask have to work hard any of the players size our key will be to score to make up what what they think they do not have in about these issues on fast breaks height with what and you won’t hear they have in heart. any grumbling.The “We have a lot of —GrahamProsch senior starters gone question is: will they senior from last year. Tim live up to their own expectations? On is the only starter Dec, 1 they lost in a from last year so it hard fought game ending 51-39 against has been hard to develop good team chemRobinson. istry,” said sophomore Alan Stalp.

Many players feel they played a hard game but still have a lot of things they need to work on before they will be successful against some of the big patriot distinct

Boys basketball faces an uphill battle with a new coach and young team

District Honors: 1st team: Nate Cartadena QB Trevor Daggle DL Shane Doty DL Antwaun Broxton LB Andrew Lewis LB Will Morris LB R.J. Pearson DB Erik Cabellos DL 2nd team: Jesse Kruse C Trevor Daggle OG Antwaun Broxton TE J.P. Zambrana DB Honorable mention: Eric Vu OG Wade Akridge OT Matt Johnson WR James Velasquez DL Cason Kynes DB Defensive player of the year: Antwaun Broxton LB All-Region Team: Antwaun Broxton LB

“Basketball is definetely my favorite to watch because I get to watch my siste rplay and go with my family.”

Dec. 5, 2006

AVERY ADCOCK

16

SPORTS

Player’s Outlook:” We have so many senior leaders that are really helping us to improve,” said sophomore Hasim Hasim.

Must See Match-Up: Varsity Duels at Mt. Vernon Dec. 22 Coach’s Comment: “ We are looking to improve on sending ten guys to the regional tournament and two guys to the state tournament. We have a good core group of kids. We are led by seniors, Oscar Santos, Baha wadallah, James Godbout, Wade Ackridge, and Bud Ireland.” said coach Sholders.

Boyʼs Basketball Key Players: Tim Shadayac, Erik Etherly Player’s Outlook: “ I think this year we are going to be really different than last year because we have a new coach. We will try new things so that we can do better.” said junior Rahman Bhatti.

Must See Match-Up: Jan. 5 vs. T.C. Williams home Coach’s Comment: “If we come out with the same intensity that we have at practice and we get on the glass and rebound then I think we will have a prouctive season Last year’s record: 8-10

Last year’s record: 5-6

Girlʼs Basketball

Junior Jenna McRae sets up a freethrow in practice.

Key Players: Jenna McRae, Denay Woods, Kelli Muchmore, Tiffani Turner Player’s Outlook: “At first the season was’nt looking good for us. We had a lot of downs but we really came together as a team in the end. We are working on our flaws to make them better. We don’t have much height this year but we make up for it in our speed” said senior Tori Clark.

Must See Match-Up: Jan. 5 vs. T.C. Williams away Coach’s Comment: “I am really proud of how they are working so far this season. We are taking baby steps to play harder and harder. We are learning from our mistakes.”said assistant coach Tim Taber.

Last year’s record: 10-6

Winter Track Key Players: Omar Mayassi, David Winters, Scott Prosch, Ryan Schaedel, Lien Vu, Peter Flint Player’s Outlook: “ It is really differnt than last year becasue out coach got much better and we have a much jumping team and we have a lot better chance of winning our touraments. We also really look like we are getting into great shape.” said junior Omar Mayassi.

Must See Match-Up: Friday at Thomas Jefferson Coach’s Comment: Not available

SPORTS

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Dec. 5, 2006

The one....

Information compiled by Sports Editor Greg Rosenstein

The Greg Rosenstein Show with Jim Larranaga 11/16/06

GREG ROSENSTEIN

According to Coach Harper, the one...

AHS player to watch this season: Eric Etherly “Eric because of his versatility. He can play inside and outside. His flair will bring a lot of excitement for boy’s basketball.”

Toughest opponent on the schedule: T.C. Williams (Jan. 5 ) or West Springfield (Jan. 26) “We played West Springfield the last three years and each game we lost by only a few points. The games always come down to the wire.”

Must-see Home game: T.C. Williams (Jan. 5) “They are a tough District opponent and the game should have a lot of excitement.”

Coach I admired growing up: Win Palmer “He was my high school coach at St. Stephens/ St. Agnus.”

Player I enjoy to watch: Dwayne Wade “I love his mental toughness.”

Player I idolized at a young age: Magic Johnson “I just loved the ‘Showtime’ feel with Pat Riley and Magic.”

Best piece of coaching advice received: “ ‘Take everything one day at a time.’ That was said by Coach [Pat] Hughes.”

Coach set to take charge

BY GREG ROSENSTEIN Sports Editor “Growing up, I used to go out at night with my dad, a police officer. Seeing the type of job that he had and his dedication to it had a big impact on me,” said new boys Varsity head basketball coach Anthony Harper.

Like father, like son, he has taken this work ethic to the hardwood in guiding the 2006-2007 Atoms.

Harper grew up in Alexandria and started playing basketball at the age of eight. But his first true calling was played on a field, rather than a court.

“Football was more of my sport than basketball,” said Harper. “I played one year at Edison High School, then switched to St. Stephen’s/ St. Albans and played Varsity each year.”

The transfer from Edison to St. Stephens was made “for the opportunity of playing [sports] at the collegiate level and a better academic situation,” said Harper.

Once the fall season was completed, Harper began to concentrate solely on basketball. Beginning his junior year of high school, he started at small forward for Head Coach

Win Palmer. At St. Stephens, Harper helped guide the Saints to two Virginia State Independence League Championships and a top-ten ranking by The Washington Post.

Following graduation, Harper played basketball for two years at the Northern Virginia Community College, where he competed against other Junior College teams.

After working with a government contracting firm, Harper came to AHS to work with security and help with the basketball program. As Junior Varsity Head Coach (and an assistant Varsity Coach) in 2005, he led the JV team to a successful season, and as a result, was chosen to fill the vacancy left by Pat Hughes, who stepped down after ten seasons at AHS. Hughes decided to relinquish the position in order to spend more time with his family.

“I wanted to take a year before my daughter got into high school to do some things as a family that I have not been able to do because of coaching,” said Harper. “My daughter will most likely be playing high school basketball, and if I was coaching boys I would not get to see her play. I felt the time was right for the program instead of holding on for a year or two, because we have a young group of

2006 Final Four Head Coach of the George Mason Patriots Greg Rosenstein: Can you touch briefly on the team’s success and what impact it had on the university?

Jim Larranaga: The first thing is the national media exposure that we received during the run made George Mason a household name. There were more clicks on the website than ever before in the history of the school. Also, a public relations firm estimated that the media exposure was worth about $100 million dollars. In addition, we’ve had more and more quality students apply to the university and we’ve had more people world wide become familiar with the university and this is so important in terms of marketing.

players that can be very good in the future.”

Harper takes over a team that went 10-13 last season and lost its top three scorers to graduation. Despite having a much smaller team than in recent years, Harper is not too concerned.

“We are pretty small, but we are faster and can shoot better than most teams we have had in the past,” said Harper. “I think going zone and having kids that are intelligent basketball-wise, we will be fine. The basketball IQ is probably better this year.”

So what should we expect from Harper this season?

“I would characterize myself as fiery. I am always yelling at the kids, trying to get them to improve in practice,” said Harper. “In terms of coaching style, I would say I am most like [Former L.A. Lakers and current Miami Heat Coach] Pat Riley. He was more up and down the floor and fast tempo.”

“The first and most important thing is that he cares about the kids,” said Hughes. “Coach Harper has a good understanding of the game and has a good sense of how to put players in position to succeed.”

GR: How did your Final Four success help with recruiting this year?

JL: I think the exposure we got in the Final Four certainly made more student athletes at the high school level aware of our success, and they had a chance to see us up close and personal as to how we run our George Mason basketball program.

And that familiarity, and that recognition really, really does help when you pick up a phone and call a young man or coach and say “Hi. I’m Jim Larranga from George Mason” and they answer, “Hey coach.

Great run in NCAA tournament.” So the exposure and recognition for our basketball program has helped tremendously.

Swim team starts season off strong

BY CLAIRE BUI Staff Writer The Atoms Swim and Dive team jumped into their season this past weekend with “strong performances that led to two new school records and five Regional and two Virginia State qualifying times,” said coach Bruce Fisher.

Despite the team’s close loss to a strong West Springfield team on Dec. 1, the Atoms went on to regain themselves the following night against Hayfield, with a decisive score of 236 to 77 for the boys, and 241 to 71 for the girls.

With these finishes, theAHS Swim and Dive Team hold high expectations for the remainder of the ’06-’07 season.

The goal of the team this year is to win a majority of their dual meets against district opponents and to prepare for both the Regional and State Swim and Dive meets.

Thus, to increase the chances of a successful year, the team practices throughout the week at the Audrey Moore Center at Wakefield Park. Dive team trains three days a week from 3:00-4:20 pm, and swim team trains Mon. through Thursday from 3:30-4:30 p.m. In addition, both teams do dry land training and conditioning.

“Comparing from this time last year, I think our team is stronger and faster. Many of our older swimmers have improved and we have some excellent freshman,” said coach Meghan Saladino.

A key swimmer returning to the girl’s team this year will be Sophomore Rachael Burnett, sophomore, who placed 5th in the 500 free and 9th in the 200 IM (individual medley) at last year’s State meet. This past weekend, she broke her own records in the 200 and 500 yard freestyle

and qualified for both the Northern Regional and State championships in each event. Burnett is joined by freshman Annika Jessen, who qualified in the 100 yard butterfly and almost broke a 31-year-old school record by nine one hundredths of a second. Nick Alvarez, senior, and junior Walter Smith, are both coming back for the boys’ side and freshman Sean McKinney is an acquisition to the dive team, as he easily qualified for this year’s Regional meet.

Competition for this season’s swim and dive team will be Lake Braddock Secondary School.

“Lake Braddock will be a tough opponent because they’re second in the state. They’re definitely the deepest and the strongest,” said Fisher.

“Unlike some other schools like Lake Braddock, AHS lacks depth in the quality of each event for strong performers. For example, a team may have five strong performers in one event, while Annandale may only have one or two,” said Fisher.

Another drawback to the Atoms’ team is the fact that many of the athletes are only high school swimmers or divers, as opposed to year-round athletes, who train on a more constant basis. ”Regional and state meets are geared toward those types of swimmers, but we are improving.” said Fisher.

Regardless of the shortcomings, both the varsity coaches and Swim and Dive Team are not discouraged.

“I’m working with a great group of kids. They’re strong and have a tremendous amount of character and sportsmanship,” said Fisher.

Senior captain Chris Fitz sees eye-to-eye with Fisher. ”We really have a lot of team unity and spirit. I think this year’s team is dramatically better than last, and we have the potential to go far,” he said.

The next varsity swim and dive meets are this Friday, Dec. 8 at 6:30 p.m. against South County High School at South Run Recreation Center.

GR: What do you expect from a more inexperienced team this year?

JL: Right now, it’s really too early in the season to tell how good we are going to be come February and March. We’re not where we want to be, but we are making progress. We have a strong contingent back from last year. It’s going to take a little while to blend the new with the old and become very comfortable in our new roles. With our three senior leaders graduating, we have new leadership at the top – Gabe Norwood, Folorin Campbell and Will Thomas – and they are going to be directing the traffic and running the team.

I think it’s a great group and I think they are going to do very well. How soon they come together is anyone’s guess.

GR: With the listeners of this show living so close to the George Mason campus, for the casual fan, which home games do you think will bring the most excitement?

JL: Well I hope all of the games will be exciting. We have Mississippi State coming in over the Christmas break. All of our conference games—especially Hofstra, which is the preseason favorite to win the title, is going to be nationally televised.

That should be a tremendous game at the Patriot Center as well.

EMILY SAMPLE

New records set and qualifiers achieved at meets against West Springfield and Hayfield

17

To catch the rest of the podcast interview, as well as a discussion with The Sporting News College Basketball Columnist Mike DeCourcey, tune in next week only on www.thea-blast.org

Coach Meghan Saladino instructs the swim team at practice last week. Swim team practices four times a week at Audrey Moore Rec Center. The team won their meet last weekend against Hayfield, but lost to West Springfield. This weekend, the Atoms take on the South County Stallions at South Run Rec Center.

Gators vs. Buckeyes? The BCS got it right The

Extra Point Sports Column

By Greg Rosenstein You can criticize College Football’s Bowl Championship Series all you want. “Why would you allow a computer to determine who should play for the National Title?” “We absolutely NEED a playoff system.” But you have to be realistic here. Sports in the larger picture, is a business.

The championship game itself is worth $315 million! So as of today, we are stuck with it. And you know what?

The match-up between Ohio State and Florida is actually correct.

There is no doubt that Michigan has had one of the greatest seasons in the history of its celebrated program.

They ended with an 11-1 record; its only loss coming to topranked Ohio State on Nov. 18 by three points. Their offense is potent and their defense is stifling. But do they really deserve to be in the BCS Championship game against the Buckeyes over the 12-1 Florida Gators? Absolutely not.

Here’s why.

Strength of Schedule: The Gators had the toughest schedule in college football. They beat teams currently

ranked fourth (Louisiana State), 12th (Arkansas), and 17th (Tennessee) in the country. Florida also beat seven teams with winning records (Michigan only four) and nine that are bowl eligible (only six for the Blue and Gold). In terms of true competition, who have the Wolverines beaten? Only number seven ranked Wisconsin and number ten-ranked Notre Dame. If any of those SEC teams played in the top-heavy Big Ten, no question their ranking would have been higher. And how With a 12-1 record and the SEC Title, the Florida Gators were good really is Wisconsin? selected to face Ohio State in the The best team they beat BCS Championship game. all year was a 6-6 unranked Iowa. Hmm… As an overall conference, the Big Ten is a flat out joke.

Michigan didn’t even win its conference: Should the best team in the toughest conference be left out in favor of the second place of a mediocre conference? That is preposterous. Michigan had their chance to win the Big Ten against Ohio State on Nov. 18 and they blew it. “It was only by three points!” Well if you actually watched the match-up, you would have realized that Ohio State controlled the entire game. A couple of fluke plays towards the end of the fourth quarter allowed the Wolverines to claw back into it. The game really was not as close as the score shows. Second place of a conference should not be playing for first place

of the nation. Period.

The Gator’s offense doesn’t get the credit it deserves: Going into the season, critics were questioning their offensive abilities and the play of quarterback Chris Leak. But this past weekend, Florida went against one of the top teams in the country in Arkansas for the SEC Crown. How did the Gators do? Nearly 400 yards in total offense, including over 200 on the ground. Percy Harvin, one of the most explosive wide receivers in football, returned a kick 67 yards for the score. Their offense could stand with anybody in the country. Another critic is that they have been involved in many close games and not enough easy victories. How does this really matter? A win is a win.

Should there really be a rematch? Michigan wants the chance to take on the top-ranked team in the country, Ohio State, for the National Championship. Didn’t that already happen? Didn’t Michigan already show that they were not good enough to hang with the Buckeyes? I would like to see what Florida could do. I mean, isn’t that what sports is all about!? Anything can happen. Look at the way Ohio State defeated Ken Dorsey and Miami in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl. There is always a chance for something magical to happen.

Everyone knows that a playoff is in order. Doing so would end any controversy and pin the top two teams in the country against each other without any doubt. But until a system such as that is in place, we have the BCS to determine who plays for a national championship.

And for once, they got it right.

Football Scoreboard Virginia Northern Region Playoffs ANNANDALE: 14 WESTFIELD : 28 Nov. 18, 2006 AHS (6-5) 7 7 WHS (11-0) 7 7

0 7

AHS Rushing Leaders: Cartagena: 26--96, 2 TD’s Lewis: 11-60 Passing Leader: Cartagena: 6-10, 65 yds Receiving Leader: Johnson: 4-48

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18 What was the last movie you saw and how did you feel about it?

“I saw Borat. I thought it was extremely funny, but it’s not a good movie to see with your parents.”

—Nathalie Spita freshman “The last movie I saw was Happy Feet. It was interesting but I didn’t like the plot because it could have been more action-packed.”

—Morgan Williams sophomore “Saw III was much scarier than the first one.

I had to watch it with the lights on. It was really scary.”

—Rashad Beam junior “I loved The Departed. It was spectacular because there were lots of twists to the plot. Also, the actors were really hot.”

—Jolleen Tran senior

ENTERTAINMENT

—Anthony Maniatakis Driver’s Ed teacher

Newest CD Releases

Dec. 5, 2006

From Ali G to big screen

BY LAYLUMA HOTAKI Entertainment Editor “Hello, my name is Borat Sagdiyev. I am journalist from Kazakhstan,” is how Sacha Baron Cohen, lead role in the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (also known as Borat), introduces himself. Borat is said to be a “mockumentary” in which Cohen goes cross country in costume creating a documentary that is meant to be mocked.

Within the first weekend of limited release, Borat, shown on 837 screens, raked in $26.4 million. The character of Borat originates from Da Ali G Show, shown on HBO, and is widely known as a satirical television personality. His full background is provided by Cohen, describing in full detail, the biography of Borat.

Borat has been married several times, twice to his half-sisters.

He has three children, one with his sister (the number four prostitute “in all of Kazakhstan”), as well as 17 grandchildren. Previous jobs of Borat include a Gypsy catcher and ice maker, among others.

When representing his country, Borat portrays Kazakhstan as a third-world nation with outrageously offensive performance (of course, he isn’t aware of it). This has ignited a flame of controversy, mostly with the government officials of Kazakhstan for his poor characterization of the country.

“When I saw the movie, I only thought that it was funny,” said senior Andrew Awadallah. “I still think it is funny, but I can see why the country would be mad. If it was about my country I would be mad.”

Not only does Borat portray Kazakhstan as a third-world country, but he also says many racist, sexist and prejudice remarks throughout Borat. He clearly presents his anti-Semitic views. For example, in the movie, Borat describes how his town celebrates and chants a ritual – “the running of the Jew.” The chant goes as follows: “Throw the Jew down the well/So my country can be free/You must grab him by his horns/Then we have a big party.”

Jewish health teacher Gabriel Romano has not yet seen the movie, but it is something on his to-do list.

“I’m curious to see what all the kids in my classes are talking about,” said Romano.

These anti-Semitic comments have sparked great controversy, but it is ironic due to the fact that Cohen himself is Jewish.

Cohen states that the comments made are simply a “dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry.” It is not supposed to be a display of racism on Cohen’s part.

“Even if you are Jewish and are bashing Jewish people, or and other race, it

Quick Facts •Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakh journalist is played by British actor Sacha Cohen.

• The movie raked in $26.4 million on the weekend during its limited release.

• Second longest movie title in American cinema history.

• The appearances in the movie are real people in real situations with Borat.

• Borat isn’t actually speaking Kazakh in the movie.

It is a mix of Polish and Hebrew spoken incorrectly. is not justified,” said Romano. “[Cohen] is walking a thin line.“This is the opposite of what I am trying to teach. I am battling with the media.”

English teacher Meghan Jones thinks otherwise on the subject. “Everyone is complaining about how it is prejudiced, but in reality he’s only exposing the prejudices that other people have,” she said.

Aside from the harsh criticism given by the government officials of Kazakhstan, Cohen himself, is also facing lawsuits regarding the movie. Two anonymous plaintiffs are suing 20th Century Fox claiming members of their college fraternity were interviewed to become part of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The plaintiffs were assured that the film would not be shown in the U.S., and thus, this would not reveal their identities.

Both plaintiffs were selected to appear in the movie, and were allegedly taken to a “drinking institution” where after they “loosened up” and drank heavily, were then asked to sign the movie releases.

The movie features a scene in a mobile home where Borat shares drinks with three fraternity boys. After being provoked, the boys go on a racist rant about how they wished they had slaves and how minorities in the U.S. “have all the power.”

“I am not looking forward to seeing it, but when I do, I can have a legitimate conversation with my students,” said Romano.

McCarthy gives readers a ‘road’ to take Paul on Prose Book Review

By Paul Mathis “I saw Santa Clause 3, and I didn’t feel to good about that movie.

I saw it with my kids. I thought it was boring and so did they.”

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What will the world be like after mankind reaches one of its many possible ends, whether it be nuclear war, worldwide volcanic eruption or global warming disaster?

Cormac McCarthy tries to answer this question in his new, 256-page book, The Road (Knopf, Sept. 26).

McCarthy tells the tale of an unnamed father and his boy as they traverse what was once the United States after the world has met its own near destruction, due to what McCarthy calls a “long shear of light and then a series of low concussions.” The book, as dark as many of McCarthy’s former novels, is just as powerful, and just as eloquently told with McCarthy’s tell-tale, Hemingway-esque style of writing.

The novel focuses on the man and his son as they cross the barren lands on which they used to live. The man’s wife has committed suicide, and all his other relatives are dead.

Cities and forests are burned; birds and fish are dead, and

the earth is continually wrapped in gray clouds of ash. The boy and his father carry blankets and scavenged food in a shopping cart, and their only means of protection is the man’s revolver loaded with his last two bullets. The two set out on a journey to find the sea, where they might find food and other forms of civilization.

However, cannibalistic passersby and other vicious vagrants continually threaten their journey. The father constantly tells his son that they themselves are good guys, while the others are bad guys.

But moral complications arise when the father begins to treat other survivors with disdain, as he ferociously tries to sustain both his life and his son’s.

McCarthy is best known for his Border Trilogy, which many renowned critics have called the greatest literary achievement of the 1990s. The Trilogy was a collection of novels focusing on the simplicity of life around the Mexican and U.S. border, the dark life filled with death, darkness, and that last ray of hope.

The Road, similarly, is dark and simple, but it loses none of McCarthy’s original power. Though many people thought that The Road would simply be an experiment, considering

McCarthy usually takes three to five years to write a novel, and not, as in the case of The Road, only one, the book is perhaps an even greater manifestation of McCarthy’s talent than his last novels, due to the ever-creative setting of his story: namely, the world at its brink of destruction.

It is easy to become unraveled in McCarthy’s short, fragmented, and poetic sentences. The Road, at times, even takes McCarthy’s style to a higher level, because, being it the world at its near destruction, McCarthy is able to speak out on many moral, human issues. Again we see, as we have seen in most of his other novels, the traditional battle between the good and evil, light and dark.

And though the world is enshrouded in darkness, the love between father and son is so endearing and so strong, that there is still room for hope.

One of the only maladies of the novel is its plot development. Though there are many encounters with vicious vagrants and bloodthirsty enemies, the boy and his father do not engage in any traditional battles for survival. This is partly because McCarthy wanted to keep The Road realistic, or as realistic as any science fiction novel can be, in order to give an accurate portrayal of the world at its near end.

However, as with basically any of McCarthy’s other novels, if the reader cannot adapt to the slow and simple beauty of the novel, it may turn out boring, and thus, lifeless. author’s e-mail: paul.mathis@thea-blast.org

Look who came blowing in the wind...

Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me Nov. 21

Jay-Z Kingdom Come Nov. 21

Ciarra The Evolution Dec. 5

Gwen Stefani The Sweet Escape Dec. 5

Bob Dylan performed at Patriot Center with opening act, The Raconteurs

BY DREW WILDES Videographer When one of the most recognized musicians of our time goes on tour, people notice. In fact, this time around, thousands of people noticed.

Fans from all over the area packed the local Patriot Center located on the campus of George Mason University to give their ears a treat and feast their eyes on one of the greats.

Over-the-hill hippies, well-to-do yuppies, young couples, and even teenagers took the journey to see the idol. All these types of people, who normally wouldn’t be caught dead with each other, became common spectators at the concert.

Bob Dylan has been writing music since 1960 and has compiled over 30

ADVENTURES OF BREW

studio albums, thousands of songs, and even more fans.

The musical talent has been a constant fixture in popular culture, but not always on the road. He tours around just as much as the other multi-million artists do, but something has happened to him which sadly happens to all of us, he is getting old. Yes, it is true, even Bob Dylan ages. The 65-year-old man is amazingly still getting up and out of bed in the morning only to fly around the country to make these tours possible.

His latest masterpiece, Modern Times, was released this year and hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts almost as fast as he rose to the peak of the music scene. His fall tour was for the promotion of the album but listeners got plenty of the classic Dylan that we have all grown to love.

Dylan has been on the road with the same back up band that he used in the studio, the same back up band that Dylan himself has claimed is “the best band I’ve ever been in, I’ve ever had, man for man.” They all had chances to show off their skills and they did so successfully as Dylan stuck to the keyboard and sadly, only a little harmonica because of arthritis.

The crowd exploded as the lights first hinted they were going out and there was no

BEN HENDRICKSON & DREW WILDES

turning back. Dylan and his band took the stage after a deserving introduction and performed the classic “Cats in the Well” from his 1990 album Under the Red Sky. Fans got what they wished for and also were pleasantly surprised with an energetic opening act from The Raconteurs. Excellent versions of “Store Bought Bones” and “Steady As She Goes” from their Debut album Broken Boy Soldiers stunned the sold out Patriot Center and solidified their position in the Northern Virginia music scene after performing in the Virgin Festival in Maryland in October earlier this year. The Raconteurs led by front men Jack White and Brendan Benson flashed guitar solos and old fashioned rock n’ roll as the jam packed arena continued to prepare for the feature presentation.

The climax of the night was Dylan’s encore during which the crowd never stopped clapping. He began with his hit song from Modern Times, “Rollin and Tumbling” and then moved on to two of his classics. After an unforgettable rendition of “Like A Rolling Stone,” Dylan offers a unique version of “All Along The Watchtower.” This left the audience with their mouths wide open and begging for more. Dylan’s guitarist brought the music lovers in front of him back to the days of rock n’ roll while pulling off Jimi Hendrix’s famous solo for the song.

Dylan came to the Patriot Center and left behind a trail of once again satisfied customers, just like old times.

ENTERTAINMENT Freshman first to get PS3 for free A

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Dec. 5, 2006

Freshman Sean McKinney scores the highly sought after PS3 through raffle CAROLINE MERZ Staff Writer Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is known as the busiest retail-shopping day of the year. Millions wake for 5 a.m. sales and early bird specials identified with full parking lots, massive lines, stores letting only certain amount of people in at a time, and people fighting over products. This year, people were not just flocking for DVD’s and hand soaps, but Sony’s latest release, the Playstation®3.

While stampedes of eager gamers hoarded Best Buy and raided EBay, freshman Sean McKinney was able to avoid all of that completely.

“My dad went to a raffle at [Fort Meyer],” said McKinney.

He was one of the lucky few to snatch a system… and for free.

Sean McKinney holds his PS3 that his father won him in a raffle at Fort Meyer.

Prices for the Playstation3 are going for $499-599 here in the United States and up to $780 in Australia and $925 in Denmark.

The raffle at Fort Meyer took place on Nov. 18, the day after the system’s release in the United States and days before it was available in most stores (Nov. 24, Black Friday).

Having already played his new system, he has it set up on an LCD 26” television in his room.

McKinney only has two Playstation3 games, Call of Duty 3, and Resistance. Under much speculation of the system’s capability to play all Playstation2 and original Playstation games, McKinney reassures people that his system is compatible with all older games.

“It’s a Blue-ray player that can hold 60G of memory.

It’s the cheapest blue-ray player you can get, most start at $1000,” said McKinney, “I like the PS3 controller because it is 6-axis.”

With a simple tilt of the controller, the player is able to dodge bullets, swoop around objects, and maneuver in and out of the action like never before. Each reflex is transmitted via Bluetooth technology to simulate the action on the screen.

There are two versions to the system; 60G and a 20G version.

McKinney got the 60G version.

This is not his first video game system.

He also owns a Playstation2, and a Sony PSP, which he says is “a wireless remote for the PS3.”

The original plan was not to keep his PS3.

“I tried selling it on eBay, but it didn’t work, I only had it on a one day thing. I really wanted to play it.”

PS3 Fun Facts • Play Strategize and compete with friends and opponents with the new feature of online capability.

• The built-in Blu-ray Disc player means you can enjoy next-generation high-definition entertainment, including games and movies.

• Delivers “always-on” online connectivity offering a multiplayer gaming, text and video messaging, voice chatting, downloading content and browsing the Internet.

• Provides an array of multimedia activities, all without even inserting a game.

While on his eBay quest, he found systems ranging anywhere from $1000 to $9000.

“If someone offered me $3000 I would’ve sold it, plus all of my friends wanted to play it.”

After not wanting to sell it, he went over to a friends house to play his friend’s PS3 before actually opening his own. He loved it and went out and bought some games.

The secret of McKinney’s new possession was not kept long.

Close friends, senior Nick Alvarez, junior Omar Mayassi, and freshman Logan Miller were the first ones to know.

“They were shocked I got one the day after [it was released],” said McKinney, “They thought they all sold out.”

Sony is not the only company stirring up consumers.

Competitors are right up there with Sony, eager for a spot in the limelight. Nintendo just released the Nintendo Wii, an interactive gaming system that physically involves the player.

McKinney already has an Xbox (Microsoft) and a Playstation2 (Sony). He prefers the Playstation3 over the Wii because, “it is more interactive, I like to be lazy. I’d rather watch the sport then have to play it.” With the Wii, gamers have to “throw” a football, or “swing” a tennis racquet.

One million systems are reported to be in the United States by the end of the year.

CAROLINE MERZ

Redeemer redeems and Country evolves with improves their sound Urban’s latest release torted guitars and especially difficult time signatures, and Christian metal, which is fairly self-explanatory.Yes, Norma Jean, is “Break out the shotguns we’re going to a Christian rock band. Plug Redeemer into town” is quite a lyric to open up an album iTunes, and it is qualified as “gospel” unwith. For Norma Jean, it is not just some- der the genre bar. Ironically, many, maybe thing to say, but it is a promise to their rabid even most, of their fans don’t know it. The fan base that their new album, Redeemer, lyrics (which are borderline indecipherable to the ear) are subtle enough not to turn will not disappoint. Indeed, it does not.

After your first listen to the album off someone who is not of the Christian (which must be done on full volume, there persuasion.

Besides, each and every song is delivis simply no other way to do it justice), take some time to stop the blood flow coming out ered with such energy and emotion that you can easily look past of your ears and prepare for the lyrics if they do not another go around. particularly appeal to The thing about you. “Blueprints for Redeemer that will put Future Homes” is three Norma Jean about as minutes of beautifully close to mainstream as a crafted head banging. metal band can get, is that The second strongest it accomplishes something track, which directly most hardcore albums fail follows “Blueprints”, is at doing: it manages to be titled, “A Small Spark irresistibly melodic and vs. A Great Forest,” apocalyptic simultaneand has one of the best ously.

Norma Jeanʼs new release, In past albums, Norma Redeemer, and accomplishes an buildups in a hardcore song that I’ve heard in Jean seemed to be trying improved sound. years. only to make as much noise Whether Norma Jean took guitar as they possibly could. They sounded like a bunch of bored, angsty teens with no tal- lessons or they just became considerably ent, given guitars to just wail with. Norma more talented in a considerably short Jean has transcended this stigma with period of time, Redeemer is a benchmark Redeemer. Everything from production for metal bands to meet in the next few value to songwriting has improved since years.

Download this: “Blueprints for Future 2005’s “O’ God, the Aftermath.”

Norma Jean is not just an average Homes,” “A Small Spark vs. A Great Formetal band. They are one of the staples est,” “Songs Sound Much Sadder.” of a mixture of two new, emerging genres of rock: mathcore, which is known for disBY LUCAS HIGGINS Staff Writer

Sudoku

then hit “skip” on track nine. This song is honestly nothing—lyrically at least— like any of the other songs.

The other songs on the album are eerily similar. The other 12 offerings all have one thing in common: women.

Entertainment Review Urban describes his love, devotion, the occasional apology, his encouragement,

By Emily Sample and utmost desire of the entire female As Shakespeare wrote in 1594, race in addition to his personal Venus. “that which we call a rose, by any Literally, on the subject of women, Urother name would smell as sweet.” ban discusses the love, the pain, and the As it is with Keith Urban. His music, whole crazy thing.

Urban’s lyrics range from “When you no matter what it is labeled, smells can’t find a way to shine/ Baby I’ll find sweet.

Urban is officially country, but he a way to shine,” to the opposite support seems to blur the lines to rock. His system, “She believes in me like I’ve been tryin’to do…Ever since you came into my country boy image is selife I’ve been a better cure—cowboy hat and man.” He even does boots intact—but his a remake of Phil lyrics, melody and beat Collins “I Can’t have strayed towards Stop Loving You.” that bad ol’ rock ‘n’ roll His plaintive voice on his newest album, blends well with Love, Pain, and the the song, creating a Whole Crazy Thing. believable, but trite Ok, I take that back. argument.

He is in the process Country is evolvof straying, but the ing, something that transformation is not Keith Urban releases his newest complete. One song out album, Love, Pain, and the Whole is patently clear with this new album. As of the albums 13 is seri- Crazy Thing. for Keith, his career ously, painfully country. is far from over. His Really, it is hard-core, 1930’s back water country. Just check music is both realistic and heart-felt.

Though it may become repetitive out the title: “Raise the Barn.” Barn!?

Really? Unless you are looking for through a whole album, his content is “‘square-dancing, toe tappin,’ ‘we’ll be both wholesome and enjoyable. This is kickin’up our heels to cotton-eyed joe,’ an album to share with the family, es‘laughter is gonna raise the rafters,’ pecially the cousins from Nashville—if ‘boot sliding across the floor’” music, you’re into that kind of thing.

Sample This

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WWW.DAILYSUDOKU.COM

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WWW.DAILYSUDOKU.COM

Fill in the blank spaces in the grid so that every vertical column, every horizontal row and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9, without repeating any. There is only one solution to each puzzle. This puzzle is based upon reasoning and logic. It does not require any arithmetic.

19 Horoscopes Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb.18)

You realize that things that you thought were important have lost their value to you. Take the time to figure out what you really want and how to get it.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)

It’s no wonder that you can’t get anything done. Get your head out of the clouds and start living in the here and now. There’s no use thinking about “what if’s.”

Aries (March 21-April19)

Do you feel like having an adventure?

Today you’re more likely to have an adventure when you go on?

Taurus (April 20-May18)

You trust easily, and it may come as a flaw at times. Follow your instinct when it comes to matters of the heart and use your observational skills to figure out the people around you.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Your happy disposition and fun-loving carelessness catches the eye of someone that you never would have expected. Don’t read into it, just enjoy yourself!

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

The stars are in your favor even though you encounter numerous obstacles this week. Be optimistic and don’t worry, a surprise comes your way when you least expect it.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)

You have gotten in over your head as you prepare for new challenges. Take a step back to re-evaluate what is really important to you.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sept. 22)

You feel slighted by someone you felt was close to you. Don’t take it personally, but learn from the experience. A pisces offers you useful advice.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Tend carefully to your relationships this week, as the people around you are feeling the wrath of your unhappiness.

Make an extra effort to appreciate those around you.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

You run into a friend from your past and can’t remember why you went your seperate ways. It’s time for you to make amends and rekindle your friendship.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Make sure you let that special someone in your life know how you feel. It’s time for you to take the initiative and open up to your true feelings for your partner or crush.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

You’ve been pushing the people away from you lately and they can’t seem to understand why. Take control of your actions and accept the help that others are offering

20 What’s your favorite kind of ethnic food and why?

“Sushi is awesome. It’s the only nonspicy Japanese food that I like.”

WEEKEND

A

t

Dec. 5, 2006

Ethnic Restaurants Affordable ethnic restaurants with food from all around the world are close by.

—Julia Moeller freshman

CLAIRE BUI

—Yenil Syi sophomore

“Colombian food, because I’m Colombian and it’s a part of my culture.”

—Ashley Pardo senior

French style bakery Type of Food Served: French Style Bakery What’s on the menu?

Lattes, hot drinks, cold drinks, smoothies, frappucinos, Special Bing Soo (snow cone), ice cream Korean special Tea, daily special soup, baked goods pastries bread, cakes, sandwiches.

Range of Prices: Drinks all under five dollars pastrie cakes $23.99-43.99 Pastries/ baked goods under six dollars Location: 7326-A Little River Turnpike, located close to Fuddruckers and Little River Shopping center Interior: Funky, fresh, nicely lit.

Exterior: Blue awning Most popular dish ordered: Coffee is most popular in the mornings and cakes are ordered frequently. In the summertime Bing Soo (a type of snow cone) is very popular.

Restaurants “specialty”: sweet pastries Busiest day(s): the weekends

Korean Bar and Grill

Vietnamese Noodle Restaurant

—Bethany Hertel junior

Le Matin de Paris

Sorak Garden

Pho Hot “I like Thai food because it’s yummy. My favorite is Pad Thai.”

CLAIRE BUI

KATE MCCORMACK

“Chinesefood because it tastes good. I like Kung Pow chicken the most.”

Type of Food Served: Korean What’s on the menu?

Beef, Chicken and vegetarian Korean style dishes Range of Prices: Appetizers range from $3.95-10.50 Entrees range from $11-20 Desserts range from $2.95-3.95 Location: 4308 Backlick Road, Annandale VA, 22003. Located Acrosse from the CVS Pharmacy.

Interior: Elegant dining room, suitable for both casual and formal dining.

Exterior: Blue awning Most popular dish ordered: Chicken or beef teriyaki, Seafood Pancakes, Kalbi (short ribs) Restaurants “specialty”: Lunch buffet, sushi, seafood pancakes, Kalbi.

Busiest day(s): Lunch hours, Friday and Saturday evenings

Type of Food Served: Vietnamese What’s on the menu?

Noodles and soups Range of Prices: Appetizers range for $3.25-4.95 Entrees range from $6.95-7.95 Location: 7442-A Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003 Interior: Lage, open area setting with bright yellow walls Exterior: Flashy, well lit, inviting to customers.

Most popular dish ordered: Vietnamese noodle soup with chicken or beef (Pho Ga/ Pho Tai) Restaurants “specialty”: Pho Busiest day(s): Saturday compiled by Claire Bui

compiled by Claire Bui

compiled by Kate McCormack

“I like all types of food. Japanese, Thai, Indian, Greek, Chinese,.

I like it all.”

Upcoming Concerts `

9:30 Club Lupe Fiasco Tues., Dec. 5 Copeland Wed., Dec. 6

The Dan Band Thurs., Dec. 7 Ray Lamontagne Mon., Dec. 11 Matisyahu Wed., Dec. 13

Edy’s Chicken and Steak Peruvian style foods Type of Food Served: Peruvian Chicken and Steak What’s on the menu?

Baked Chicken: whole, half, and quarter of a chicken, steak, fried bananas, rice, and salad Range of Prices: Most entres range between $10 and $15 depending on the size of the meal and the number of side dishes added on Location: 5240 Leesburg Pike, located in Falls Church near Skyline Interior: Fast food restaurant feel with booths, but also a more private room on the opposite side Exterior: Most popular dish ordered: Baked half chicken with rice, and fried bananas Restaurants “specialty”: Baked Chicken Busiest day(s): week days around lunch time

Chicken Pollo Peruvian Style Chicken Type of Food Served: Peruvian chicken meals, fast food style What’s on the menu?

Roasted Chicken 1/2, 1/4 and whole Alfa jor Maisena Alfajor Pervano Rice, beans, fries, yuca, plantains, salad Sopa De Res Original Peruvian Pastries Range of Prices: 1/2 Chicken is $6.90 1/4 chicken is $4.90 whole chicken $12.20 Sides are all less than two dollars Location: Interior: Run down, fast food like.

Exterior: Yellow awning, easy to pass by and miss.

Most popular dish ordered: 1/4 chicken Restaurants “specialty”: roasted chicken Busiest day(s): The weekends for lunch and dinner compiled by Kate McCormack

compiled by Timothy Shadyac

KATE MCCORMACK

KATE MCCORMACK

TIM SHADYAC

—Mr. Jepson History Teacher

Pilin Thai Restaurant and Lounge Thai Food Type of Food Served: Thai What’s on the menu?

Noodles, meat dishes, all distinctively Thai food.

Range of Prices: Appetizers range from $4.95-9.95 Entrees range from $7.95-11.95 Desserts range from $2.95-3.95 Location: 116 West Broad St, Falls Church, VA 22046 Interior: Cozy, inviting, mod and colorful setting with a quiet and relaxed atmosphere.

Exterior: Hidden, shady, hole in the wall restaurant, concealed to many customers.

Most popular dish ordered: Pad Thai, 3 flavor chicken, shrimp panang curry, drunken noodles Restaurants “specialty”: Pad Thai Busiest day(s): Friday and Saturday evenings.

Lyric Opera House Clay Aiken Wed., Dec. 6

The State Theater Sister Hazel Thurs., Dec. 14

The Ottobar Bayside Fri., Dec. 8

Sonar

Lupe Fiasco Sun., Dec. 10

Chow Down Restaurant Guide

By Kate McCormack and Tim Shadyac “All modern people like something classic. Welcome to Da Vinci’s Family Restaurant . It’s a masterpiece,” said Katie Jabro. This quote is shown on the menu at Da Vinci’s and it is definitely not a lie.

Da Vinci’s is an Italian, Greek Mediterranean eatery. The menu is full of every kind of food you’d be craving from those countries. There are Italian house specials, seafood, Greek Specialties, pizza, pasta, baked spaghetti and for lunch there are subs and strombolis.

Everything on the menu is reasonably priced and most entrees come with a house salad which contains fresh crisp fixings and tasty dressings. The menu’s varying dishes give customers more options, making Da Vinci’s a restaurant that one could eat at many times without being bored with the foods.

KATE MCCORMACK

The Bravery Thurs., Dec. 14

Although the exterior appearance of the restaurant is less than impressive, the food makes up for it.

The food is all nicely presented and tastes just as nice. Pizzas are what Da Vinci’s is known for. There is the option of creating your own pizza and there are many toppings to choose from. Pizzas are either nine inches, 12 inches or 16 inches. The larger sized pizzas are easily big enough for two people. The appetizers are equally as pleasing with the array of dips and breads available.

Service was mediocre, upon arrival it took a couple minutes for the host to notice and seat us. It could’ve been because the restaurant was fairly crowded and there were only two people working, but either way this detracted from the dining experience. We were seated for 15 minutes before our drink orders were even taken and refills weren’t given due to the slow service. Meals came 15-20 minutes after ordering, but they were well worth the wait.

Da Vinci’s is known mostly among people living in Falls Church because of it’s location next to Harris Teeter on Columbia Pike, however it is not a far drive for anyone looking for a fresh and delicious stromboli.

The restaurant itself is split into two rooms, both are painted with pastel peach and pink tones and mosaics cover some walls. The Italian theme enhanced the Mediterranean feel. The restaurant’s size makes it just big enough to give customers the space and privacy they need. The lighting is dimmed making it a romantic place to have a date. The music selection has something for everyone with artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to the Spice Girls.

Da Vinci’s is a great family restaurant and a great restaurant to go to whenever you’re craving some Mediterranean food. The upkeep of the restaurant is excellent with a fresh smell and clean atmosphere.

KATE MCCORMACK

compiled by Claire Bui

Da Vinciʼs pizzas are suitable to be shared between multiple people. Pizza sizes range between 9-16 inches.

For directions or more information visit www.dav incifamilyrestaurant.com 6347 Columbia Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041 703/916-1147

Food: Service: Decor: out of 4 stars