A little girl’s heartbreak…

The young girl opens the shop door with a trembling hand.  Her nerves are mounting.  She succumbs to the rush of emotions that fight a silent battle behind those bright blue eyes.

She turns toward her mother and asks her to hold her hand.  The girl is embarrassed to see that she is one of few wearing a costume.  On her blonde head sits a tall, pointed witch’s hat; She wears a T-shirt emblazoned with a bolt of lightning.  A long black cape flows behind her.

Her mother, sensing tension through the touch of her daughter’s hand, says “Don’t be nervous, Blair.  It’s almost midnight.”

The young girl is ushered into line along with her mother and teenage brother.  Gradually, the line creeps out the entrance door.  Excitement runs high throughout the crowd.

With an eruption of cheers, the clock strikes midnight.  Eager readers, with their very own hardcover copy in tow, rush out the doors, preparing for a long night. 

As Blair and her mother reach the counter, the eight-year-old girl gently hands the cashier two 20 dollar bills.  With a smile, the clerk presents Blair with the thing she has waited for all summer: the conclusion to the tale of Harry Potter, the little girl’s best friend.

The girl, all fears subsided, rushes her mother and brother out the shop doors.  They pile into the car and head home.

With her face alight with awe, Blair listens as her mothers reads aloud.  The hours roll by.  Crisp pages turn by the hundreds.  The girl knows the end is near.

As the final chapter comes to a close, she bursts into tears.  That cathartic moment of understanding is sheer bliss.  The joy of it all overwhelms to her.  But she cannot help but mourn the loss of a friend.

Unsettling change

I tend to be uneasy person, I’m not going to deny it. Once things are at a comfortable spot, thats it. No altering the situation, I’m fine where I am. Once things get a little bit out of that comfort spot, I start to get anxious.

I have never been one for change. I dont’ see the point of allowing things to be different when I’m happy they way things are already.

I’ve always dreaded the beginning of the school year. Not for the obvious ‘I heart summer’ sort of thing, but for the changes.

I liked last years teachers, my classes with all my friends, and my well organized schedule of who I saw when, in between what classes, and for how long.

But, with the start of a new school year all of that changes. Who knows if i would be able to stand my teachers, or if my classes would be tolerable. I had no idea if I would have plenty of friends in my class, or if I would be all alone in the corner.

When the topic of college comes up, I can’t take it. The thought of leaving the comfortable Midland bubble for an unfamiliar college campus makes me sweat. How will I get by without my parents always being there to have my back? Is there any way I’ll stay in touch with my friends?

I don’t want to enter the real world. I want to stay in my sheltered world, where everything can be comfortably familiar.

If it was up to me, I would stay in Midland forever, and never worry about the scary changes that come with adulthood.

Of course, speaking of changes brings up the subject of new experiences. Sometimes I shy away from trying something new just because it could be hard or scary, or even just a little unfamiliar.

I assume that I could just be a crazy, overly nervous person. But I’m curious to find out if i’m not the only one who feels this way about new experiences at least slightly.

So you tell me. Are new experiences something to enjoy and take part in as much as possible, or something to avoid at the chance of change?

—Ruth Leibfritz

The Internet: the gateway to spoilers; Harry Potter: the ULTIMATE target

 

Since its creation, the Internet has been a tool of immense power and information. Anything that anyone would possibly want to know is probably on the Internet. It is a resource that it within the entire world’s reach, and as such, the Internet is subject to both good and bad things.

One “bad thing” that seems to be cropping up more often every day is the internet spoiler. It seems as though there are people with nothing better to do with their lives than sit around and collect stolen information and leak it to the public.

The most recent subject of spoilers that I have come across are internet leaks of the new book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As a fan of the books, I was both shocked and angry when I discovered how many people were publishing information on the book weeks before its release date (July 21).

While some of these “leakers” were posting false information, there were also those people with valid, factual leaks. One man, for instance, had illegally obtained a copy of the seventh Potter book about a week before the release, scanned all 752 pages, and posted them on the Internet.

I simply cannot understand why someone would do this. Attention? Any attention received from this act would certainly be negative, seeing as he stole a $40 book and all…not to mention the millions of fans who would be in an uproar if they stumbled upon these pages without the desire to ruin the book.

It’s not even the fact that this Internet leaker stole the book that make me upset. It’s the fact that there are people out there who want to get people all riled up just for the fun of it.

In addition to the Internet, Harry found himself subject to spoilers in newsprint. In “The New York Times” book review, the entire plot of the book was printed two days before the release of the book.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling had a thing or two to say about this review: “I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children.”

I think that quote pretty much sums it all up: SPOILERS = BAD.

 

the most ridiculous thing all week

i think last night was a big waste of time. i mean sure there is a time and place for everything but why are we having a seminar for teenagers about using cell phones? do they realize that having this seminar on how often we text and how we text at inappropriate times is just like saying go ahead text away? honestly i looked around yesterday and it seemed like there were only a few people who were actually listening. most of us were sitting there quietly texting friends in various other locations. i know that both me and ali were sitting right next to each other texting people and at times we were actually texting each other just because we felt that it was less rude then talking. as i sat there drifting in and out of the conversation i heard betsey talk about how she sleeps with her phone under her pillow so that she can answer if someone texts. this was one thing i could actually agree with. there are many mornings where I’ve woken up just minutes before i should be walking out the door because i fell asleep and rolled on my phone muffling the sound of boys like girls singing at 6 when i should have gotten up. there are mornings where due to my horrible texting obsession i feel like I’ve gotten no sleep and usually i haven’t due to people such as adam texting me until 4 in the morning. or people feel the need to wake me up in the middle of a great dream to ask me something stupid or tell me about whatever horrible thing they may have done at a party that night or even just to see if i had to work in the morning. is it really necessary to call me so late? why don’t u just text its easier and then i have a little more time to figure out what i am trying to say at whatever the heck time u called me. i don’t know about most of you but I’m not the most awake person at 3 in the morning so trying to string together sentences on the phone is a lot harder then being able to wait a minute and figure out what I’m texting. all in all i realized that the little bit i did manage to hear in between each text was mostly betsey telling her text stories that i can relate to. sure i heard a little bit of advice from Mrs. Price of Mr. Gude but when i did start to hear something that might be useful my phone would just vibrate in my lap and i would forget what they are saying. so sure i have a texting problem but does the fact that so do all of my friends say something. i don’t think that it is so much teenagers have a texting problem i think it is more adults have a not texting problem. if they took the time to really look at their phones and understand how QWERTY of iTap work the world could just eliminate cell phones minutes. instead of paying extra to add texting to your contract it would be extra to add talking. then we wouldn’t have people in movie theaters talking on their phones or being loud in the subway. maybe texting isn’t the problem maybe the problem is talking.

Rachel

cell phone nazis

-Ali =]

Cell phones have feelings too.

I watched as hand after hand shot into the air, each grasping a cell phone many of the phones were slick and brand new looking, others clunky and probably a few years old, ones that did not get the advanced technology of a camera phone or color screen. After the picture was taken the cell phones were immediately clutched back to the owners chest already being put back to use by through answering text messages and playing games. Waiting for the cell phone seminar to start i wondered what it would be like if these cell phones have feelings too. Would there be cell phone cliques where the newer version it was the more popular the phone was? If so the apple iPhone would undoubtedly be the leader of a popular click. That is until a cooler phone would come out replacing it. As every year passes cell phones age, they will get scratches and broken antennas then after so many years they get discarded, replaced by a newer version of themselves left behind to never make a call again. The color and accesories the phone has also must make an impact on their lives, how would it affect your life if you were always the color gray? depressing right? Are there overworked phones, the ones that constantly get texted on or connecting to other phones across the country so their users can talk? Then there are the phones that barely get any use at all, the only for “emergency” phones, they must be so bored with life. Just keep this in mind next time you drop your phone on the ground, tell it sorry and it will never happen again. Keep it in mind just because cell phones have feelings too.

 Katie Buschke.

To all my homies at Haslett High.

Laugh out loud.

Being That Guy.

Kyle T. Snarski 

Its often that people have sat back and watched other’s do something courageous, intelligent, or just plain stupid. Its just as often that those same people sit back and say things like “Man, I wish I would’ve done that. Or ” I can’t believe he did it, that’s  awesome”. Well comrades, I’m about to tell you a tale of when I Was That Guy.

-PRELUDE BEING THAT GUY-  

As legend has it, it was a week after the premiere of the third installment of the “Pirates” films, and my mother and I went to go see it together. Yeah, I went with my Mom. Back off, I’m writing this from J-Camp! What do you really expect? Anyways we figured that it would be less crowded this way. We we’re mistaken. Regardless, we paid the standard 8.50 (cringes), and we sat in the theatre. I had already been having a bad day that day, so the following events have been watered down for the  concern of the readers.

– FRUSTRATIONS of BEING THAT GUY-

It was a part in the movie in which Jack Sparrow is  found alive but is caught in Davy Jones’ Locker and it’s all quiet*. Some higher power had it against me to have a horrid day for two reasons. 

1.  Because events like this don’t happen in the loud explosion scenes of a movie

2. I bumped into a couple of freinds from school in the lobby before the movie and they seen me with my mom. 😦

– The Actual event in which it took all of these previous words to lead up to in order to properly tell the story of BEING THAT GUY-

Like I said it was the absolute quietest part of the entire film when then it happened:
” Haaaaaaay girl, what’s up. No I’m in pirates three right now, its really good,  yeah Johnny Depps hot! Are you kidding?” This conversation went on continuously for two minutes after it.She had to be kidding.  was furious. More furious than 12 modern day feminists brought in a time machine and forced to live in 1919. It was that one brave moment in my life where I triumphantly went from being a boy to a man, because something inside me changed. I was a man who said

“Hey, you’re in a movie!”

She looked at me  confused.

“You see all these people here, yeah they payed for this movie”

Still not quite grasping it, she was said “Yeah?”

“Get off your phone or get the hell out of here, because I really don’t care about what you and your freind could ever say. She better be in a car accident or something. Because that guy in the back corner of the theatre doesn’t care either. So just talk about it outside because I really don’t have the patience for this kind of thing anymore”.

Like a 80’s film, the crowd behind me cheered and clapped. First she looked frustrated, then she looked like she was going to cry. And finally Hung up her phone. And I believe that constituted as a win in the books for Kyle T. Snarski.

-After Being That Guy-

Three words

It

Felt

Good.

XXX

Some 300 word features

When you see the heading “300 word features”, you’ll know you’re reading some great examples of 300 word feature stories done by students in the “Taking Your Publication to the Edge” class at the 2007 MIPA journalism workshop. This assignment is based on a series of stories that ran in “The St. Petersburg Times” and won their author, Brady Dennis, the Ernie Pyle award for short non-fiction.

Cell phone useage… there is a time and place.

I agree with the people who say that there is a time and place to be engaging in a conversation or a text. Like the time at school that I was in math class and this girl’s cell phone blared out ringing. So what does she do? She picks it up and answers it right in front of our teacher. Then she says the whole thing about how it was her dad, and that what if it was something important, and she needed to answer it simply for the fact that it was him. To me that is a bit insane. I’m sure if it was something that important he would call the office and wanted to talk to her about it. Or how about instead of answering it right in class, you wait until some sort of break at lunch, and go to the office and tell them that you need to call your dad for whatever reason it might be. Or even text him or something saying hey whats up I saw that you called me but I was in the middle of class and couldn’t obviously pick up the phone. How much more ridculous can people’s excuses be? And I’m not saying that I don’t believe that it wasn’t her dad, but come on get real. And then another thing is that the teacher blantly saw her doing this and he just simply raised his voice a bit and say what are you doing, then told her to put it away. I don’t know but if it was me in the teacher’s situation I would have at least taken her cell phone away, which is what the teachers are soposed to do in my school, and made a parent come up and get it, which is what you’re also soposed to do. What do you think on this whole there’s a place and time for your cell phone?

~Emily~