Minooka Arrowettes 2010 AAA Hip Hop

Minooka Arrowettes
2010 AAA
Hip Hop
Peace Pipe Chatter
Special Edition
State
March 24, 2010
Champs
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
State Champions
by
Designed by Melissa Magnus
Minooka Arrowettes bring home
State Championship
Melissa Magnus Features Editor
form in the open-pom division
was no surprise, considering that
it has always been a Minooka Arrowette
tradition.
On the other hand, we decided to venture out of our comfort zones for our second routine, and take on the challenge of
competing in the most difficult division
in TDI, which is AAA Hip-hop.
“It was really scary, and a huge risk to
choose hip-hop but it was totally worth
the risk,” said
junior Lindsey
Nagel.
At the first
competition,
when we performed
hiphop for the first
time in Minooka Arrowette history, and took first
place, along with the Artistic Excellence
award, we knew that the season was going to be a good one.
“Our first competition was really exciting, and we did really well considering
it was our first time out on the floor,” said
junior, Michelle Targonski.
Competition season progressed,
and the Arrowettes continued to
bring in first place
victories
raising
excitement and the
chances of giving Minooka their
second ever, state
champions.
Our final regional competition
took place at Prairie
Ridge High School,
where we took 2nd
place in hip-hop,
Arrowettes won 1st place and 3rd place at the TDI State and 3rd in openChampionships. Photo by Kelly Thompson.
Everything leads down to this. The eighthour practices, the tears, the hard work.
All that we have been working for as a
team for the past 11 months has come down
to the next three minutes of our final performance at the TDI State Championship
competition in Peoria.
A large booming voice echoes through
the stadium making my heart seem as if it
was going to pound through my chest, “Minooka! You
may now
begin your
performance!”
shouts the
announcer.
As
I
step onto
the floor with my team, and look above me,
only to see thousands of people staring back
with anticipation, I think to myself “everything leads down to this.”
It only seems like yesterday, when we sat
as a team for the first time at our first summer practice, and brainstormed ideas about
our upcoming competition season.
Making the decision as a team to per-
“It was really scary, and a
huge risk to choose hip-hop but
it was totally worth the risk,”
said junior Lindsey Nagel.
Arrowettes pose after the award ceremony at one of their regional competitions.
Photo by Kelly Thompson
pom.
For the next two weeks up until
state, we were told to eat, breathe and sleep
poms. Making final changes to the routines,
and perfecting every second of the dances
was hard work. We knew that this was the
time to leave everything on the line and give
everything we had into the routines.
Finally it was the weekend of
March 6, the weekend of the TDI State
Championships. The Arrowettes were going into state ranked in 2nd for hip-hop, and
3rd for open-pom, and we were more determined than ever to take home the state
title.
After a long emotional day of competing, we gathered together as a team on the
stadium floor awaiting the results during
awards.
“It was one of the most intense moments
of my life,” said sophomore Rachel Vidano. As the announcer came to the AAA hip
–hop division, we bowed heads and held
each other’s hands, praying for the win.
The announcer reads the list of winning
teams and the suspense builds. Fifth place,
fourth place, third place, second place, our
team still hasn’t been announced. The excitement builds as the announcer pauses for
a brief moment, which seems like an hour,
and shouts through the microphone “First
Place, and taking home the state championship, Minooka!”
Overall, the season was a huge success
and it is an honor to be a part of such an
amazing team.
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
State Champions
Designed by Jacki Kaluzny
2009-2010
Accomplishments
Hip Hop and Open Pom
1st - Stagg, Oswego East,
Minooka, Plainfield East
2nd - Prairie Ridge
SPC Conference Champs
AAA State Champs
The photos on this page were taken at the Arrowettes state finals in Peoria on
March 6 by Kelly Thompson. The Arrowettes include seniors: Sydney Trepel,
Taryn McCoy, Jenna Simotes, Callie Gliwa, Kristianna Kunz, Chelsea Cambell,
Jaclyn Kenyon, and Tiffany Hills, juniors; Melissa Magnus, Michelle Taragonski,
and Lindsay Nagel, sophomores Kelsey Kunz, Paige Gliwa, Sammy Boehm, Rachel
Vidano, and Mallory Keck.
Peace Pipe Chatter
Volume 95
Edition 11
March 24, 2010
Specia
l
Theme
Issue
t
a
h
W ou do
y
n
a
?
s
c
y
a
d
5
in
2
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
‘Meet Melissa’ continued from page 6
even though I’m not very familiar
with his music, and I don’t like his
music that I do know.
After school, she had poms practice again. She was getting ready for
the state competition the next day.
Day 3
Melissa and the poms squad
headed down to the state competition
in Peoria. In the evening, they went
to a party where the team dressed up
like Lady Gaga.
Day 4
Melissa and the poms squad won
the state championship in the hip-hop
competition, the first time MCHS has
ever done so. This was Minooka’s
second team state championship title,
just a week after the wrestling team
won theirs.
About the poms squad’s victory,
Melissa said, “It was probably one
of the happiest, proudest
moments of my life.”
Melissa had an interesting experience on the
bus ride home. She said,
“I fell asleep on the bus.
When I laid down there
was a cup of ice tea next
to me. I woke up with ice
tea spilled all over me. I
had to stand up the rest of
the way home.”
I made the horrible
mistake of sitting at Melissa’s lunch table that
was full of poms girls that
were exhausted from the
weekend. My conversation with Melissa was
going well until one of
her tired, irritable friends
decided to take her exhaustion out on me. Most
of my sentences that I
spoke to Melissa only got
half finished because her
angry friend kept interrupting me. By the end of
it, I was really glad that
I was leaving Melissa’s
table.
Day 5
Melissa went to what she called a
“shady” store to try on prom dresses
with her friend Kacy Rogers. According to her, all of the dresses were
tacky. Then they went to a Taco Bell
in Ottawa and bought an ice tea. Then
she went to the Minooka Taco Bell to
refill her ice tea. Then she threw said
ice tea at the house of someone she
didn’t like.
My final lunch with Melissa was
much less stressful than the previous
one. Her irritable friend was there,
but fortunately she didn’t say a word.
Melissa wanted to find me a date
for prom. This included a few of her
friends at the table.
I also learned at that lunch to
never insult the Jonas Brothers in
front of Melissa. It all started with a
discussion about me playing guitar,
which turned into me telling Melissa
that the Jonas Brothers don’t actually play their guitars. Melissa never
actually denied this, and I pointed
that out to everyone at the table. This
caused Melissa to suddenly yell,
“David Tibble, shut up!” at the top of
her lungs.
“I didn’t mean that to echo,” said
Melissa as I recovered from the shock
of being screamed at out of nowhere.
Melissa apologized for yelling at me,
and I apologized for insulting the
Jonas Brothers (I’ll still insult them
anytime, anywhere).
Overall, my experience with Melissa was interesting. I learned many
things; like that she really likes ice
tea. “I drink ice tea every day,” Melissa said. This experience has shown
me that taking five days to know
someone is actually a good idea.
Designed by Melissa Magnus
Peace Pipe Chatter
Minooka Community High School
301 S. Wabena Avenue
Minooka, IL 60447
(815) 467-2140 Voicemail: ext 264
mthomas@mchs.net
Editors-In-Chief
A&E Editor
Jacqueline Kaluzny
D.J. Valera
Sydney Trepel
Aubrey Aspan
Erick Klank
Cover Design
Editorial Editor
Sydney Trepel
Iman Bradley
News Editor
School News Editor
David Tibble
Taylor Roop
Features Editor
Assist. Sports Editor
Melissa Magnus
Jake Hoffman
Elliott Johnson
Sports Editor
South Editor
Mike Noe
Journalism I
Interactive Editor
Chatter Room Editor
Jacqueline Kaluzny
Ryan Miller
Copy Editor
Sports Photographer
Ryan Miller
Taylor Roop
David Tibble
Elliott Johnson
A&E Photographer
Aubrey Aspan
News/Features
Photographer
Susan Bahret
South Photographer
Journalism I
Journalism I:
Adaue Ajiere, Elaina Bartoli, Alexa Bowen, Cody Conaway, Baylee Dibble, Nicole Eberhard, Christopher Evans, Brandon Fierke,
Ashley Groll, Elizabeth Guldenbecker, Samantha Harer, Austin
Hough, Jamie Huff, Catherine Jostes, Mallory Keck, Joseph
Koenig, Shannon Lawlor, Danielle Luttrell, Michael Naszkiewicz,
Dutch Nave, Liz Purcell, Carrie Rickmon, Paige Toepper, John
Walsh
Submission Policy:
The Peace Pipe Chatter strongly encourages suggestions
and/or responses to material printed on its pages.
Letters to the Editor should be submitted to Mr. Thomas’s
mailbox or to a Peace Pipe Chatter editor.
While submission does not guarantee publication, PPC
staff members will do their best to respond to all
admissions. Submissions will not be returned. All submissions are subject to editing and will not be printed if they are
considered to be inappropriate. They must be signed but
may be printed anonymous upon request.
3
SURVIVOR
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
Story, Design, and Picture by Soozie Bahret
How to live without your cell for 5 days
mouse traps. Once you get caught, you’re
never getting out.
How strange is it that new technologies
quickly become necessities. Number one example: the cell phone. What used to be a new
business tool in the Nineties quickly became a
lifeline to millions by the 21st century. Kids
these days can hardly go 20 minutes without
frantically checking their phone to see if they
have received a text. It makes you wonder,
how did our old fart parents live without cells?
Time to experiment: Survivor; Land of the Lost
Cell phone.
Day 4:
Day 1
The suspense is killing me. Someone could
be texting my cell some insanely important
message right now and I will not get it.
From the start I knew if I heard my ringtone
shoot off, “I love it when you call me Big
PaPa,” that I would not be able to resist. So,
reluctantly I shut my eyes, held Brucy in my
arms (that is the name of my phone), and held
down that power button. It took all the strength
I had. It will only be five days, I told him.
And there I sat. With out Bruce, how was
I supposed to contact my friends for hang out
time?
I decided that the best way to avoid thinking
about my long lost Brucy would be to watch a
movie. So I headed down to dungeon, aka, the
basement. I decided I should find a movie in
which there are no cell phones involved, and
so the obvious choice was Lord of The Rings.
For the next two hours and 58 minutes of my
life, I was lost in the mountains of Middle Earth
on the way to Mordor; thus not thinking at all
about who was texting or calling my cell phone.
Nighttime was the worst. Instead of talking
to my boyfriend, I had to resort to facebook
messaging. Honestly, it felt like sixth grade.
You know, like before we all had unlimited
texting, we would chat by aim on our ridiculously lame screen names. I think mine was
iheartcheez99.
Facebook status: Living without my cell
phone is the closest I have ever come to near
death. I can see the light.
Day 2:
I guess not having Bruce during school
hours was sort of helpful. I gave maybe 58%
of my attention instead of the usual 33%. Yet I
still could not help wonder what I was missing.
At least four times already I performed
the classic “freak-out search” for my phone.
You know, where you think you left it
somewhere, and so you look, and it’s not
Living without my cell was like sitting alone on an isolated island.
there. And then you start to freak out because
you cannot find it, and panic takes over. Eventually, I would remember that Bruce was tucked
safely under my pillow at home and not half
way to a pawn shop.
At lunch, my friends made me feel rather
awkward when they began talking about weekend plans without invlovling me.
I was about to to try and slip away from the
table when one of my pals asked me if I was
coming.
“Didn’t you get my text?” she asked.
And so I then explained to them the horrors
of life with a cell phone.
“Well,” replied my friend, “At least now you
won’t have to worry about dropping it in the
toilet.”
I replied with my sarcastic laugh: “Ha. Ha.”
She just had to remind me. I have dropped four cell phones in toilets
during my lifetime. Stupid jeans and their
stupid back pockets.
But more important, she opened my eyes to
the glass half full.
So rather than stress about the cons of a
Bruce-less life, I would have to find all the
pros.
Facebook Status: Life without a cell
phone is like living on a different freaking
planet.
Day 3:
I woke up thinking about the previous
night’s activities. I drove over to my friend’s
house and then we met some others to see Alice
and Wonderland (which I thought was fantastic
by the way). After the movie, we all just hung
out. This may sound uneventful, but what
made it a spectacular night was actually not
having my cell phone. Simply, because there
was no mother constantly badgering me.
I did not have to receive the annoying messages from her saying, “Hey Sooz, where are
you? What are you doing? lol”
These irritating messages usually come
twice an hour, and she would always insert
“lol” when it was unnecessary. I honestly don’t
think she knows what it means.
So while I did feel a bit out of the loop, I
also felt a new sense of freedom.
Being Saturday, I had my eight-hour shift at
the Mac Shack.
Not having my cell at work was painful at
first, but after a while I found that I indeed got
more work done without the distraction.
Eric Klank strolled through McDonald’s
doors twice that day, each time asking me how
I was surviving without a cell phone.
My answer was becoming clear.
Facebook Status: Cell phones are like
It was Sunday morning and instead of sleeping in and enjoying the first beautiful day in
four months, I was forced to wake up early and
go to church. Fortunately, my alarm is on my
phone, and my phone was turned off. So I received about an extra 30 minutes of sleep until
my mother barged in hollering and such.
Now I must tell you, I am not fond of
church. I hear hour lectures at school, and I
do not want to spend my weekend sitting there
being bored to death all over again.
Usually I have Bruce to keep me entertained. The games and text messaging can keep
me entertained for the whole hour the pastor is
talking. This morning, I unfortunately had to
resort to playing hangman with my twin brother
Danny. If you didn’t know, he is very annoying. I missed Bruce.
When we finally got home, I thought about
going on facebook to make plans with people
for today. Then I realized something: I don’t
have to hang out with anyone. I can just go out
on this lovely day, and ride my bike. I rarely
have any alone time, and without constant
texts from friends, I can actually get away for
a while.
Facebook Status: Cell phone or bicycle.
I’d pick the bike.
Day 5:
Monday morning brought rain, which sets
the perfect mood: back to school. It is the last
day of life without Bruce, and I am doing great.
I have not had one thought about my cell yet
today.
The day flew and by the time I got home, it
was thunder storming outside. And so I shot
back to years earlier when my brothers and me
were young and loved to run around in the rain.
So I did it. I went out and danced like a
complete moron in the rain.
Thus I decided right then and there, the best
part of not having a cell: Hakuna Matata. It
means no worries.
I do not have to worry about work calling,
or my mother trying to be hip with her lol’s. I
do not have to worry about making or breaking
plans with my friends. I have more time to be
alone, to focus and do what I want.
Facebook Status: No cell means I can
dance in the rain without worrying if I am
getting that stupid phone wet.
4
Peace Pipe Chatter, February 17, 2010
5 Days
Designed by Jake Hoffman
Xbox detox
By Jake Hoffman / Sports Editor Learning to do something in five days would be
a little bit difficult; therefore, I decided instead
of learning how to do something. I would learn
how not to do something. Staying off Xbox for
five days was my goal… and I accomplished
it. I wanted to stay off Xbox because I am a lot
more productive when I’m not on Xbox. Xbox is
like crack, once you start playing you can’t stop.
However, it was a lot easier then expected. I basically just kept myself busy by doing other fun
- filled activities.
Day 1
March 4, 2010, the day I was going to begin my
journey of no Xbox. On this glorious day I was a
bit nervous. Sitting in journalism I couldn’t think
of an idea, so I thought of something I love to
do… XBOX! I decided that would be my best bet.
Ok, I know some of you are like “What?!? That is
so easy to do!” But you have to understand that
I play Xbox almost everyday ranging from two
hours to who knows how long. You can’t just play
one hour of Xbox by the way, like I said before it
is addicting. I got home from school and decided
I would watch TV to pass the time. Thank god
for On Demand! Watched a bunch of CSI Miami
episodes, and came to the realization that they are
really cheesy. Without that I think I might have
failed on my first day. Luckily, I got through the
day without any thoughts of my Xbox.
a pretty good movie, although the plot was a bit
lackin. After the movie I ended up staying at a
friend’s house; therefore, it was not a problem
once again because I was keeping myself busy.
Day 3
March 6, 2010, I arrived back at my house
around noon. Then a problem popped into my
head: I do not have any thing planned on this fine
Saturday evening. When I do not have anything
to do I play Xbox. Well now I was in a bit of a
pickle… so I broke out my Seasons of The Office.
Watched season’s 1-3 then took a nap. I woke up
at about 11p.m . and once again was struggling
to find something to do, to keep me busy. I went
to the kitchen and cooked a pizza. The pizza was
good, it was a four cheese, I am a fan of sausage, but it only took up half n hour of my time.
I forced myself back to sleep… it only took me
two hours of tossing and turning to fall asleep,
but that’s beside the fact.
al-Qaeda makes new threats
Day 2
March 5, 2010, I am starting to hallucinate; my
hands will not stop twitching… Just kidding today was another fairly easy day. I can’t believe
I am saying this but school saved me today. If I
wasn’t in school it would have been a lot harder
not to play. Once I got home from school, I just
sat around and waited to go to the movies. I went
to see Alice and Wonderland. By the way it was
Day 4
were sitting at home the Xbox would be staring
me down and just begging me to play it. After
school got out, I had a dentist appointment. By
the time I got home it was already pretty late. I
had practice in a bit so I just sat around and spent
some time with my family. This was another plus
to my detox because I actually was spending time
with my family, normally I would just be playing
Xbox in my room. Once I got home from practice, I just dozed off… Ending the final day of my
Xbox Detox.
The End!
Waking up the next morning was a nice feeling
because I knew that I completed my goal. It was
fairly easy. I didn’t experience any withdrawal
symptoms; it just made me a little more bored.
I passed my time the best I could by keeping
busy, the only times it got tempting was when my
boredness took over. If you play Xbox, I would
suggest trying this to see some of the other opportunities that will open up for you when you
are away from your Xbox.
March 7,2010 I dreamed of Xbox all night
and woke up sweating… once again I am just
kidding. I slept fine and woke up to the day being Sunday. My first distraction of the day was
homework for any of my classes. Now normally
if I had Xbox I would not be doing my homework. Once the homework was completed I decided a nap would be nice to pass the time. After
I woke up, I watched some more TV. Eventually
I fell asleep again and got a goodnight sleep. If I
had my Xbox I would be up till 3 a.m. playing,
I suppose that is a positive for my detox, better
sleep.
Day 5
March 8,2010, I woke up enthused to have
school. Yes, I know I said enthused to have
school… It just makes the whole process of
staying off Xbox so much easier. If I am at
school then I cannot be tempted to play but if I
Happy after I returned to playing my Xbox 360!
5
Facebook Detoxification
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
Design and Photos by D.J. Valera
5 Days, 1 Goal
by
D.J. Valera / Editor-in-Chief
Day 4
Everyday, millions upon millions of people log onto
Facebook various times a day. For some, only a few minutes at a time, and for others, sometimes for hours. Facebook has easily become one of the biggest and prominent
things in our society this decade; it’s a little difficult to
imagine life without it sometimes. So, I decided to take up
the challenge, to see if I could successfully detox myself
from Facebook in just 5 days.
Day 1
First thing I did was purge all Facebook related things
from your mind, I forced myself to lose the need to update my status, check up on the latest gossip, and tending
to my imaginary crops on FarmVille. This is probably the
first step in this whole process. To do this is simple, you
have to keep yourself occupied with other things so you
are directing your focus on other things. Personally, I did
my homework, which probably is one of the best options
here, since Facebook usually is the result of not doing your
homework. Just keep cleaning up your mind so that Facebook lowers in position of importance.
Facebook should be almost completely out of your
mind, you should also find yourself doing other things besides checking your news feed every few minutes or so. At
this point, I found myself getting away from the computer
more and getting out more. In all honesty, just continue
what you have going really, keep resisting the temptation
named social networking.
Extra-curriculars keep you at school and away from your
computer.
Day 5
Day 2
If you made it this far without so much as a wink at it,
congratulations! In just 120 hours you have successfully
detoxified yourself from Facebook.
The only thing you really have to do is continue what
you have started on Day 1: continue cleansing your mind
and start thinking of other ways to spend your time other
than logging onto Facebook. Like, maybe getting involved
with an extra-curricular activity or picking up something
new. Being involved with the musical, it was easy for me
to focus on if I’m getting my lines, songs, and dances right
instead of seeing who is potentially posting on my wall.
Whatever you do, avoid going on other social networking
sites. Try not to get into something that you’re also trying
to kick out of your life.
Facebook has taken its spot so high in today’s world
that it’s substituted a lot of things that we used before.
I honestly wasn’t too sure of this challenge when I first
started it. I didn’t think I would be that successful and actually almost caved in a few times. However, the day after
I started this ‘experiment’ of sorts was over and I didn’t log
onto Facebook, two words came to mind: it’s possible.
Day 3
Homework is a great way to distract yourself from Facebook, and a great way to keep your grades up.
At this point of the detox process, you should find yourself thinking of Facebook minimally and not be thinking
about who is now Facebook official, what to become a fan
of, or what group to join. Also, you should be keeping in
contact with your friends through other means, likely calling or texting. Another thing, you should also be keeping
track of important dates with a day planner or even just a
calendar. Facebook has given the luxury of keeping track
of all your friends’ birthdays, events you plan to attend,
and so on. By having your schedule and important dates
somewhere else just as easily accessible than Facebook,
you’re more likely to stay off of it since you won’t have to
check it to see if anything is going on.
Getting friends together to play ultimate frisbee is definitely
a fun way to get away from the computer.
6
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24 , 2010
5 days
Designed by Melissa Magnus
5 Days to meet someone newMeet David Tibble
by
Melissa Magnus / Features Editor
Comfort Zone. We all have one. The
limit within our daily lives that most of us
know, we will rarely cross.
“Okay, so Melissa, I’m going to try
and make this as awkward as possible,”
said David Tibble, as he approaches the
lunch table.
Right then and there, I knew that I had
stepped out of my comfort zone.
One Day Earlier
It was an average day in 3A Journalism, and the class was shouting out story
ideas for the special edition issue. I was
having a hard time trying to think of what
I wanted to write about. Suddenly Mr.
Thomas asks the class who had B lunch
on B days, and when I raised my hand a
devious smile spread across his face as he
glanced to the other end of the room in
junior David Tibble’s direction.
“How would you feel about getting
to know David for the next five days?”
Thomas asked me, and the class started
laughing. I wasn’t sure what this
“challenge” would entail, but I agreed
to take it on, figuring it couldn’t hurt to
step out of my comfort zone just for five
days…or could it?
I never knew who David even was
until this year, and even then, I thought
of him as the odd kid who has something
to say about everything in my journalism
class.
From that day on, for the next five
days, David and I were assigned to get
to know each other at lunch, almost like
becoming new best friends.
Even during the weekends, it was
required that we called each other to catch
up on how our days were going.
“This is going to be interesting,” I
thought to myself as I handed David
Tibble a piece of paper with my phone
number on it, “very interesting.”
Day One-
I was sitting
at the lunch
table that I sit
at everyday.
But today, and for the next five days,
it would be much different than usual.
When David sits down, everyone at the
table gets quiet probably wondering
why he was there. I kindly introduced
him to my friends
“David will be sitting with us for
the next 5 days.”
Everybody stared in awkward
silence. I could tell that this was
going to be more difficult than I
had anticipated.
“So David, what did you do
yesterday?” I asked as he sits
down at the table, trying to
avoid as many awkward silences as possible. “Well I don’t
live a very interesting life, I
pretty much just play video
games and go on Facebook,”
said Tibble. “That’s
pretty interesting if you ask
me,” I replied.
Day Two and Three-
It was Saturday and
Sunday, and I had a very
busy weekend. I’m on
poms, and that morning
we left for Peoria to
compete and gain the
titles of State Champs.
David had a pretty exciting day as well. He
informed me that he
went to “the worst
DMV in the state of
Illinois,” in Morris
to finally get his
liscense.
“Meet David” continued on pg. 13
Photo By Soozie Bahret
Meet Melissa Magnus
by
David Tibble News Editor/ Copy Editor
Is it
possible to
get to know
someone
completely
in five days?
Probably,
not but I was
tasked by Mr.
Matt Thomas
to get to know
Melissa Magnus in five days.
This came about
because I couldn’t
come up with a
good story idea,
and I didn’t want to
do any of the ideas
that were listed. The
staff of the Peace Pipe
Chatter really wanted
to know what five
days of my life were
like even though I told
them my life was boring.
Melissa had to write the
story about me because
she had the same lunch
as me on B days. I had to
spend brief chunks of five
days with her and learn
every detail about her adventures during those days.
Before continuing on, it
is important to learn some
important information about
Melissa. First of all, she is
on the state-champions poms
squad. Secondly, Melissa loves
the Jonas Brothers. Supposedly,
she has actually met them. As a
warning, never insult the Jonas
Brothers in front of her (no matter
how tempting it is).
I had to have lunch with Melissa
so I could learn everything about her.
In my experience with Melissa, I had to
pester her frequently in order for her to
go into detail about her experiences. It
was worth it because I now have a better idea of what it is like to be Melissa
Magnus.
What a person has for lunch can tell
you a lot about them. Melissa brings
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,
applesauce, pretzels, and a juice box
to lunch every day. What does that say
about Melissa? It means that she likes
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
applesauce, pretzels, and juice boxes.
Day One-
Melissa went to school. She had
poms practice after school until 7 p.m.
Later, she argued with Gina Magnus,
her mom. Then she went to see the
midnight showing Alice in Wonderland. She kept her 3-D glasses and
purposely popped out the lenses so she
could wear them on a daily basis.
Day two-
Melissa would not stop quoting
every line from Alice in Wonderland,
complete with accents. One such quote
was, “What’s the difference between a
raven and a writing desk?” I asked Melissa to stop spoiling the movie because
I hadn’t seen it yet. She said, “I’m not
spoiling the movie. I’m just quoting
from it.”
At lunch, I sat by Melissa and
her friends stared at me in awkward
silence. I did promise Melissa that
I would make our conversation as
awkward as possible. One of Melissa’s
friends recognized me from speech
class last year but I didn’t recognize
her. I’m not good at remembering
faces. One of the things I discussed
with Melissa is that I am learning how
to play guitar. Melissa insisted that
learn how to play John Mayer songs
“Meet Melissa” continued on pg. 2
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
IV Days
Story & Design by Iman Bradley
7
Get Those Messy Grades
Up in only 5 DAYS
It is almost the end of the quarter and you have 5 days to raise your grade. If your parents see a D or an F you are grounded. What
can you do in the next five days to get your grade up? Most high school students ask this question toward the end of the quarter or
semester. Don’t worry because here is your five-day plan you should follow to bump your grade up.
Day 4
Day 1
Turn in all the work you finish on day 3 to your
teachers. This shows how serious you are about getting
all your work turned in. It also shows teachers that you
also care about your grade. Check on Powerschool periodically to make sure your missing assignments have
been graded. You will see a sudden change once those
assignments are put in to Powerschool.
Once you are one with your current homework do
all those easy work sheets that were due a while back.
They may seem like they do not affect your grade but
not turning in a small homework can bring your grade
down a letter grade.
If you know that you have a bad grade
but you are not sure in what classes you
have them in, go on Powerschool to
check all your grades. At the same time
look for all the classes they have grades
lower than a C. Once you find the classes
you want to improve in click on each
grade to find what assignments you are
missing and what tests are coming with
in the next 5 days so you can raise your
grade.
Day 5
Day 2
Go to your teachers to see if they accept
any late work. Most classes except for JJC
classes accept late work, but it’s always
smarter to ask your teacher just in case they
don’t. If they accept late work then make
sure its not too late to turn in some of your
assignments. Usually, while I’m in class I
don’t even have to ask because when the
quarter is almost over, most of the teachers will let their students know when the
deadline to turn in late work is.
Day 3
Gather all your late work and decide what assignment you can do
right away. Separate them according to which assignments you can start
on now and which ones you want to do on day 4. It’s easier to do all the
harder work first and the easy work last. Once you decide what you can
do now, sit at a table and do as much work as you can today. This process
was easy for me because I leave all my work into folders. If you are
organized it shouldn’t take long to find all of your make up work because
everything is where it’s suppose to be.
Turn in the rest of your work to your
teachers and go on Powerschool and watch
your grade improve.
In the end, my grades improved. This five
day process can help your grade a lot if you
have a lot of make up work or absent work.
This doesn’t mean don’t do your work for the
whole year and then at the end of each quarter do all of it at the last minute. You should
always try hard to just get your work in on
time because it takes away a lot of stress. But
if you are one of those students that are so
busy that you sometimes forget to get some
homework in, tryout this 5 day process, you
will be surprised at the end result.
8
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 days
5-day chef
Day 3: Time for dessert. This one was a
piece of cake (metaphorically, not literally) for me.
You see, I’m a chocolate girl at heart so anything
One of my biggest fears in life is being around chocolate worked just fine for me. After doing a little
sharp objects, and when I say sharp, I literally mean bit of research, I found out that molten chocolate
anything—scissors, knives, tables with sharp edges, lava cakes are one of the tastiest yet easiest desserts
and even the little tools that are used to slice hard to make. Finally, my meal planning was finished.
boiled eggs into perfect portions. If it was up to me,
Day 4: So I’ve accompanied my parents to the
food would come in precut packages and knives grocery store plenty of times, but that doesn’t mean
would be obsolete.
I took notes on where everything is supposed to be.
Needless to say, I’ve never felt exactly at home I never realized how easy it is to get lost in Jewel!
in the kitchen. Sure, I’m great at throwing a pot of I was running around the aisles, scrambling to find
water on the stove and boiling up some pasta or the surplus of items on my list, continually getting
putting something frozen in the oven, but that’s c o n f u s e d
on if I had previously been down
about it. So when I decided to plan and prepare a
that aisle or not. While looking for
three-course meal in five days, I wasn’t really
peanut oil, I could not believe the
thinking about all the time—and sharp
variety of different oils stacking
objects—it would take me.
the shelves and how difficult
Day
1:
it was to find a single, small
Planning out a full
bottle of the stuff. A half an
dinner isn’t exactly
hour and a headache later,
as easy as it sounds,
I finally had everything I
and I found this out
needed to actually prepare
the hard way. I thought
the meals the next day.
I’d just sit down at
Day 5: On the final
my computer, Google
day of my goal, I came
some recipes and be
to the realization
xe
done—WRONG! I spent
n
that tomatoes, bell
a
r th A&E
e
d
r
y
over an hour just looking
peppers,
basil,
ha
nb
was to take
l
a
for a decent recipe for an
and
green
onions
me
Pho
.
ntire rth it. Trepel
appetizer. Finally, I decided
all had one thing in
e
n
o
y
a
w
e
l
g
n
l
n
e
d
i
y
w
on crab cakes, one of my
k
common—knives.
One time
Coo d, but ditor S
e
E
t
personal favorites, and even then
too
many
I
found
my
fingers
dangerously
pec
it took me another 15 minutes
too close (at least for me) to the blade of a large
just to find a recipe that I thought
I
knife. It took me probably over 15 minutes to chop
could trust. After getting frustrated with the lack up six tomatoes into 3/8” pieces. Not my idea of a
of information I was finding, I decided to give it a fun time.
rest and try the next day for an entrée.
Once I finally got everything cut up and mixed
Day 2: “Okay, what goes good with crab into their designated bowls, I started preparing each
cakes?” That’s the question I asked myself course one at a time. First came the crab cakes—
repeatedly as I searched everywhere for an easily mix the ingredients together, form them into patties,
prepared entrée to accompany my appetizer. After and fry them in a skillet for 4 minutes per side.
looking at just about every reputable cooking
website, I finally found Red Lobster’s original
“Chef” continued
recipe for lobster pizza on their recipe homepage.
on pg. 13
It sounded easy enough to make, and it was another
one of my personal favorites.
by Sydney Trepel /
A&E Editor/Cover Design
Designed by Sydney Trepel
Do it
yourself!
Crab Cakes
(foodnetwork.com)
Ingredients:
-1 lb. crabmeat, no shells
-1/3
cup
crushed
crackers
(recommended: Ritz)
-3 green onions, finely chopped
-1/2 cup finely chopped bell
pepper
-1/4 cup mayonnaise
-1 egg
-1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
-1 tsp. dry mustard
-1/2 lemon, juiced
-1/4 tsp. garlic powder
-1 tsp. salt
- dash cayenne pepper
-flour (for dusting)
-1/2 cup peanut oil
Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients together in
large bowl, except for flour and
peanut oil. Shape into even patties
and lightly dust with flour.
2. Heat oil in large skillet over
medium heat. Once oil is hot, place
crab cakes in pan and fry 4 or 5
minutes until browned. Flip crab
cakes and fry on other side until
browned. Serve warm.
Lobster Pizza (RedLobster.com)
Ingredients:
-1 flour tortilla (per pizza)
-Land O’ Lakes Roasted Garlic
Butter Spread
-2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
-4 oz. drained roma tomatoes
(approx. 2-3 tomatoes) diced 3/8”
-2 tbsp. fresh basil cut into 1/8”
julienne strips
-2 oz. lobster meat cut in ½” – ¾”
chunks
-1/2 cup Italian six-cheese blend
Directions:
1. Heat over to 450 degrees.
2. Lightly brush entire topside of
tortilla with garlic butter
3. Sprinkle Parmesan over garlic
butter
4. Drain diced tomatoes and
sprinkle over Parmesan cheese
5. Sprinkle julienned basil over
tomatoes
6. Portion lobster meat evenly over
basil
7. Sprinkle Italian six-cheese blend
over lobster.
8. Place on pizza pan and cook for
approx. 4-5 minutes
Chocolate Lava Cake
(Kraftfoods.com)
Ingredients:
-4 squares Baker’s Semi-Sweet
Chocolate
-1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
-1 cup powdered sugar
-2 eggs
-2 egg yolks
-6 tbsp. flour
-1/2 cup thawed Cool Whip
Directions:
1. Preheat over to 425 degrees.
2. Microwave chocolate and butter
in large bowl on high for 1 minute
or until butter is melted. Remove
and stir with whisk until chocolate
is completely melted.
3. Stir in powdered sugar until
blended.
4. Blend in eggs and egg yolks with
whisk. Stir in flour.
6. Divide batter among cups.
7. Bake 13 to 14 minutes or until
sides are firm and centers are soft.
Remove and let stand for 1 minute.
Invert cakes onto dessert dishes.
9
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
g
n
i
t
t
i
Designed by Jacki Kaluzny
Kn for dummies
by
Jacki Kaluzny / Editor-in-Chief
When the Peace Pipe Chatter staff discussed ideas for
this issue, one of the topics that come up was to become
good at something. I thought I would take on this challenge. I wanted to think of something I had never tried
before so my topic was obvious, knitting.
Now when it comes to my sewing abilities I have never
been too great. I can sew a button onto a shirt…but that’s
pushing it. I knew the knitting idea would be a definite
challenge.
Day 1
The first thing I needed to do was learn how to start off
the knitting. My first attempt was to make a long tail cast
on. This is the stitch that edges the outside of your scarf
and keeps it all together. My lack of knitting background
didn’t help my situation. It was asking me to press and pull
and loop things that I just could not comprehend. After
about 20 minutes of going under the left loop and pulling
over the right I decided to call it a day.
Day 2
Day two was a bit more successful. Now that my
frustration had settled I was determined to master my
long tail cast on. After a few test runs, I finally got it!
I was finally getting somewhere but didn’t want to
push my luck for one day so I ended after that. I
decided to text
Sydney
Trepel to
complain
about
my frustrations. I told
her how hard knitting turned out to be
and all she did back was
laugh at me. Once again I
received no help.
When I got home from school after choosing my topic
I tore through our linen closet to find our sewing supplies.
Luckily I found an unused knitting kit fully
equipped with needles and green yarn.
My first instinct was
to ask my mom for
some guidance but I
could tell by the dust
on the box that she
would be of no help.
It was time for me
to take matters into
my own hands. To
start out, I did what
anyone else would
do when they want
Now that I had learned
to learn something
how to make my cast on I
new, I googled it. I
could actually learn how
came across many
to knit. I thought the first
instructional
vidpart was hard but that was
The knitting process was a long, frustrating task but was a
eos which saved me.
nothing compared to this.
They told me that the great expierence in the end.
The videos made it look
easiest thing I could
so easy but that wasn’t
make would be a scarf,
the case for me. I now had to pull the needle through my
so that’s what I tried for.
Day 3
already made stitch, wrap it around the loose piece of yarn,
and then pull it back through the stitch. This process made
my head spin which then lead to the end of day three.
Day 4
By day four my finger tips were beginning to get
sore. I was getting sick of all the little steps I
had to take but I knew I only had one more
day after this to master my knitting. I
decided to go into day four with a
more positive attitude and it
worked. When I finally
focused on what I
was doing (after
a good 30
minutes) I
started to get
the hang of my
knit stitch. I now
understood why it
looked so easy in the
videos.
Day 5
Finally, my last day. I sat
down in my room and began my
whole routine all over again. I
wanted
to start from the beginning to make
my
scarf.
The cast on came easily but the knitting started out slow. It was harder than I thought to get
back into my rhythm. I finally succeeded and made my
way stitch by stitch, row by row…until I got tired. I had
been knitting for an hour and a half and just couldn’t bring
myself to pull and loop and longer.
Working on my knitting made me appreciate all the
blankets my grandma has made me over the years. It was
not easy. I may not have finished my scarf 100% but I did
complete my goal, I learned how to knit. Maybe one day
I’ll gain the patience to sit down and finish my scarf.
10
By Aubrey Aspan/
A&E Editor
With Spring Break arriving in two days
many people have plans to go some and
others don’t. But even if you don’t, who
says you can’t go somewhere anyway?
Having a mom that’s a flight attendant
definitely has it perks. Because my family
and I fly free, and we often find ourselves
jumping on an airplane to wherever we
feel like a change of scenery, I have also
been to pretty much the entire east coast
and as far as the west coast goes, I have
been to California, Texas, Utah and some
other fun states, but who really wants to go
to Montana anyway.
These vacations in my opinion happen
to be the most exciting and interesting
family vacations that I have ever taken.
Now I know that not everyone’s mom is a
flight attendant but instead of going on the
annual family vacation to the same place,
talk your parents into taking a Spring
Break vacation little bit out of the ordinary.
Day 1
The first thing when planning a lastminute vacation is figuring out where you
want to go. Considering the absolutely
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
Designed by Aubrey Aspan
e
e
v
h
i
T
F
n
O
s
y
a
y
D
l
F
horrible weather that the Midwest has this
time of year, I would consider somewere
down south where it is at least a little
bit warmer. Or if you’re feeling really
adventurous, you can take a map close
your eyes and randomly point, wherever
you finger lands you go. This is also pretty
similar to Yes Man the movie when they
jump on a plane that’s leaving next. I have
actually done this and we have ended up
in San Antonio, Texas, Miami, Florida,
and New York City, New York. New York
City was one of the most interesting. We
got on a flight in the morning visited my
east coast family, ate, went to the Empire
State building, and flew back later that
day. Because this vacation is a five- day
one, driving abroad isn’t an option, unless
you want to end up driving for two days,
staying at your destination for five hours
and getting back in the car and driving
right back.
Day 2 Once you get to wherever your going
you should definitely rent a car. Trust me,
you never want to end up walking around
some random city without a form of
transportation. As far as a hotel room goes
I would make sure that it’s a good hotel
and can be trusted. In my experience hotels
such as Holiday Inn and Best Western can
be some of the scariest hotel rooms that I
have stayed in. I’m not saying that all of
these are bad but if the place looks a little
shady don’t stay in it, trust me. If 10 extra
dollars a night means nice pillows and
a bed I’m not afraid to sleep in, it’s well
worth it.
Day 3
Don’t spend all day cooped up in
your hotel. Seeing the sights of city is
probably the best thing about a vacation,
and as boring as it sounds, going to see
historical sights is actually some of the
most entertaining places to go. To prove
this in San Antonio, Texas, there is an area
called the River Walk. It is one of the most
interesting places I have ever visited. From
the boats to culture and food it was one of
the most fun places have ever been to, and
you guessed it, we jumped on a plane and
landed in one of the most fun vacations I
personally have ever had.
Day 4
Shopping is always a must when going
to a different place. Another word of
advice: don’t buy to much stuff, you never
know how much or how little you can fit
into your suitcase. Even if you can fit it in
your suitcase doesn’t mean that it will fit
into the overhead bin of the airplane. Who
wants to pay the extra money to check
bags. Shopping at places you can go to
back home isn’t a good idea either. If you
can get it in Illinois, why travel somewhere
and waste valuable suitcase space on the
way home for the more valuable things?
If you’re not into shopping, which I know
many of you guys aren’t, doing something
adventurous is always fun too, snorkeling,
renting a wave runner, or going to an
amusement park is always fun, and then
you don’t have to worry about fitting into
your suitcase.
Day 5
On your final day of your vacation
don’t forget anything. Scope out your
entire hotel room, even if you think that
you’re sure that you have everything look
again because the last thing that you need
is to find out you forgot something in
the rental car as your sitting in your seat
during take-off.
Even though a last-minute vacations
seem pretty hectic when you look back
at it and realize how fun it was. And who
wants to sit at home this spring break when
you could be traveling around the country
and having fun.
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
Becoming
by
Ryan Miller/Copy Editor
After a long day at school, you get
home and may begin your homework
or a project that’s due tomorrow second
hour. You work on it for 15 minutes, and
then notice that your computer seems to
be a little lonely. So you abandon your
after school endeavors and get on your
Facebook or Myspace, just to see what’s
going on in the world. And as soon as
you log in and scroll down a bit you
see a video, a video from the one place
where videos are made by amateur
Stephen Spielberg’s post their videos so
that one day they too can become stars.
The site of course, is Youtube.
First founded in February 2005, the
beginning of the internet era, Youtube
became one of the biggest video sharing
websites to hit the internet. Since
then it has been bought by Google for
1.65 billion dollars and has gone from
standard quality to High Definition, all
within a five year time span.
In my observation I have seen that
the most movies that have been popular
involve parodies of music videos,
television shows, and movies. Another
type of video that I have seen have a lot
of hits are of people who go on blunt
rants about anything. But the one thing
that people mainly look for on Youtube is
comedy. Comedy is probably the biggest
genre on Youtube to search for.
So for my story idea, I had proposed
that I become a Youtube sensation, and
knowing that this wouldn’t be an easy
task, I would need the help of a reliable
production comapany.
Designed by Ryan Miller
A
Sensation
upload to become popular, it has to be
memorable. Along with this insightful
advice, he also said that parodies are
among the most viewed as well. So I
took us all day, so it wasn’t until 9 p.m.
that we went back to Tyler’s house and
start editing the movie. We had only got
about 20 seconds of it done by the time 11
11
get by the end of the night. When I
finally returned home after my physical
endeavors at Cinemark, I immediately
logged onto Youtube to see how many
views my video had gotten. On its first
day it had gotten over 300 views! I know
it’s not an impressive number compared
to the millions of views some videos have
gotten, but it felt like a great start. I also
had three comments from my friends on
my video, one of them saying “I loved the
scene with the car chase, loved it!!!”.
Day 4: When got home from work
on Sunday I again checked my video to
see its progress. I stunned to find out that
it got over 2,000 views in such a short
amount of time. I had even gotten more
comments such as “impressive work” and
“How were you able to do this??”. All
from people I didn’t even know and, like
the two above, they were pretty positive,
except one who just stated that Ford was
better than Pontiac.
Day 5: On my last day of becoming
a Youtube sensation, I spent the day
looking at other videos that enticed
comedy and parody. There were some
decent ones, along with the ones that no
The picture above is from the original “Green Police” commercial that aired during Superbowl
one found impressive at all. By nightfall,
XLIII. Picture obtained from google.com.
I checked one last time on how my video
was doing: I had over 3,500 views in just
a matter of four days. In the end, I had to
thank
my friends and Neptune Productions
p.m. rolled around and everybody decided
thought to myself and finally came up
for
helping
me get some views on my
to leave. Tyler assured me that by the next
with the idea of making a parody of The
video.
day it would be edited fully and be posted
Green Police: Audi commercial that
Although I hadn’t become a complete
played during the Superbowl. I figured that by at least 3p.m. The creation of The
Youtube
sensation, I had in fact gotten a
because the commercial was short, it could Green Beret, the title of my movie, was
certain
amount
in such a small time span.
Day 1: For my video idea, I thought be remembered specifically, so I was going beginning to come to life.
Some
tips
are
to
remember that you have
to make my video about a minute as well.
Day 3: Because it was Saturday
long and hard of what to exactly make.
to be original, that you should do it with
Day 2: On this day, I was filming
I had to work during the day and most
Coming up with nothing, I went to my
a group of friends instead of individually,
my video with fellow Neptune Production
of the night. But sure enough Tyler had
friend Tyler Kretz, President and founder
and that comedy is like gold on Youtube.
actors. Filming was good and got in most
done what he had promised and I was
of Neptune Productions, a Youtube
The experience was exciting and the
excited to see how many views I would
channel. He said that in order for my video of my scenes that I wanted. It basically
accomplishment felt great.
12
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
How to Become the Coolest Kid in School
Elliott Johnson /
Sports Editor
Over the past five days I attempted to become the most popular kid in school. Now
grant ed, it is VERY hard to bare such a title,
but from my experience, there is a very slim
possibility that it could be done. I went in to
the task at hand with a winning attitude and
a second to none game plan.
dler, science teacher, came up to me asking
if I was “that kid in the picture,” and telling
me that now my picture is posted up in her
classroom.
I didn’t know what to do so I just laughed.
She wasn’t the only teacher that put me up
in their room. Mr. Brian Petrovic, sicence
teacher also has the picture posted up in his
room.
I sent out a post on Facebook on March
4, 2010 that stated, “Dear Facebook,
The next few days I will try to become
the coolest kid in Minooka. It strictly for
journalistic purposes though.”
This was a key part just so that my fellow students would not catch the wrong
vibe. I took a picture with two of my
friends who seemed to be in a higher social class then I. They were T.J. Condon,
and Tony Velasquez. The picture had the
words “Elliott Johnson…he’s trying to be
the coolest kid in school”.
I was well aware that it would be extremely difficult to be “the most popular
kid in school” at both South and Central
campus, so I just stuck to my own: south.
When I got home, I talked to a few other
people about my plan and asked if they
would help me on my ridiculous quest
to Minooka stardom. They said that they
would help.
Days three through five I didn’t do much
by
Day 1
Days 3-5
because all of my results and reactions came
in the first two days.
It was a crazy week and my plan went
better than I expected it to. This was a pretty
fun experience, but all the wild things aside,
I learned something very important; there
is no way someone can become the most
popular kid in their school in just five days.
Here are some tips: make yourself as
noticeable as possible. For me, the picture
was easy to make but reproducing it was
Designed by Elliott Johnson
the hardest thing to do. Also don’t try too
hard. The harder you try the cornier you become. You don’t want people to think you
are flakey or weird.
I learned to be gracious for the friends
that I already have and not to strive for
popularity.
I am glad I got the opportunity, but that
lifestyle just isn’t me. For anyone who
wants to try, and learn from their own mistakes…….Good Luck.
Day 2
That morning of day two I had one of
my helpers mass produce the picture that
I made. I passed out about 30 to each of
the five that agreed to help. For all you
“math whizzes” out there, that’s about
150 copies.
Throughout the day, I had multiple
students approach me and acknowledge
what I had done. I even heard a lot of
people say “Hey, that’s the kid in that
picture.”
A lot of people saw it and some didn’t
like it judging by the ripped up pictures
on the ground. Throughout the day, I felt
like some kind of star. Mrs. Jamie Chan- Sophomore T.J. Condon, sophomore Tony Velasquez, and sophomore Elliott Johnson in the Central Campus library taken pictures to start
their grand master plan. This picture was one of the two steps taken to get to Minooka Community High School stardom.
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
“In the life” continued from page 16
Next came the lobster
pizza, which was the easiest
of all to make: spread garlic
butter on a tortilla, sprinkle
on tomatoes, parmesean
cheese, basil, and lobster
and put it in the oven for 4
minutes. Lastly, the molten
chocolate lava cakes. After
mixing the all of the ingredients together, I poured the
mix into cupcake containers
and put them in the oven for
14 minutes.
Once all the preparation
was done, the cooking really
only took about 25 minutes
at the most. As everything
was coming off the stove
or out of the oven, I had my
family sit down to be my
taste testers. The crab cakes
were a definite hit, especially
with ranch as a side dipping
felt a terrible pain in my leg from
earlier. I didn’t even realize how
bad it was till then. I didn’t want
to say I couldn’t fight and back
out, so I went up and pretty much
gave little effort because I had
already won what I came for and
it wasn’t worth risking more injury. The guy pulled guard on me
and armbarred me within the first
30 seconds of the match, but it
didn’t matter too much. I quickly
went off to talk to my parents and
what not, completely forgetting
to get my medal. After that, we
pretty much just watched other
people compete for the rest of the
day from the bleachers because I
couldn’t walk.
Day 3
I got up hoping that my leg
would be in good enough condition to compete in No-Gi today,
but it was not my lucky day. It felt
just as bad as before, so we just
headed to the convention center to
watch some of the No-Gi matches, along with the judo and muay
thai tournaments. We watched for
sauce, and my mom even
went so far as to call them
“superb” and “the best” that
she’d ever had. The lobster
pizza shockingly won everyone over as well, although
they would have been slightly better and crispier had
they stayed in the oven for a
minute or so longer. To top
it all off, the lava cakes were
an instant success, especially
with a topping of cool whip
or ice cream.
Overall, I really enjoyed
making dinner for my family. It was really worth it to
see the finished products of
the courses I had prepared
and to see my family’s reaction and pride. As for the
continuation of my cooking
skills…well that’s another
story.
“Meet David Tibble” continued from page 6
“5-Day Chef” continued from page 8
out, which is a technique used to
escape from the bottom, and got
me in his closed guard. He went
for an armbar, but my arm was
almost out anyway, so I stacked
him and got side control.
Once again, he shrimped away,
and I got him in a front headlock
and changed to a arm-in guillotine
real quick. It wasn’t very tight because the gi was in the way again
so I fell back into my guard.
I got his arm out of the way,
but the choke still wasn’t tight.
After about 45 seconds of holding
it, he slipped out. At that point,
there was 30 seconds left and I
was up 6-2. He tried passing my
guard so I got grips on his sleeves
and sunk in a triangle choke. He
fell on to the ground and tapped
just as the matched ended.
I had won first already, I was
extremely happy, but also disappointed that it was only one
match. I didn’t feel fully worthy
of it.
After that, they put me in the
150 lbs. division to get some more
matches in. When they called my
name again to fight, I got up and
Jump
Designed by D.J. Valera
about three hours, then I limped
around for a bit checking out all
of the booths that people set up
to advertise their products and
companies. I got a bunch of free
samples of all the bodybuilding
and magazines. It was about 1
and I decided it was time to head
home so we didn’t get home too
late because it was a school night.
After another five hour nap and
some staring out the car window,
we finally arrived back at home
sweet home. All I did was unpack
and go to sleep. I was pretty exhausted from the weekend.
kimuras, a darce choke, and an
Ezekiel choke from knee on belly,
also. We ended with three rounds
of five minute sparring which
I did fine in. It was nice returning to the relaxed environment of
the gym. At competitions, I get
to compete with people near my
weight, at the gym, everyone has
at least 40 pounds on me. Which,
in the long run, helps a lot when
tournament time comes around.
I headed home, ate, and went to
sleep.
Day 4
My weekdays are pretty much
repeats. Wake up, go to school,
go to practice, come home, eat,
sleep. Practice wasn’t until 6 so I
at least got to get a meal in before.
Today was practice with my main
instructor, Mark Turner. We went
through the rigorous workout that
he likes to call a warm-up, which
ended in me not being able to
feel my arms, and began learning
some technique. He went over
how to transition from butterfly
guard to snake guard first, which
It was Monday, and time to
go back to school. I can’t say it
was very exciting, just another
day. After school, it was time to
head to practice already. My leg
felt pretty good, just slightly sore.
Today was just an hour of No-Gi
with Mark Vujovic. We did some
basic drills, and setups that he
likes to do. First it was swinging
armbars, then switching side to
side from knee on belly, and then
Day 5
lesson to all, informing everybody to not go to
the DMV on Saturdays,” said David. It was very
crowded in there, and “the size of a small pizza
place.” Unfortunately, he was not able to get it because “the computer system was very confusing”
and he chose the wrong category to wait for in line.
On Sunday Tibble attended a family party. “It was
one of those not so cool parties, for family friends,”
informed Tibble. “Later I watched Oscar nominated
movies like Hurt Locker, and District 9” said David.
“I watched the Oscars, and I was glad that the Hurt
Locker won Best Picture. It was really good movie.
I was really glad that Avatar didn’t win, because it
was really overrated. It’s Dances With Wolves with
blue aliens. The movie I wanted to win Best Picture
was District 9. That movie was legendary.”
Day Four- The weekend was finally over, and I was
extremely tired and irritable. Sadly, I decided to
take it out on David. Maybe it wasn’t such a good
idea to invite him to sit with a table full of Poms
girls who had just gotten back from State later than
midnight the night before.
“David if you do not shut up I will punch you in
the face,” said Lindsey Nagel, as he continued on
13
was pretty easy once you got the
hang of it. After a couple drills,
we continued on. Next thing we
did was transitioning from snake
guard to 50/50 guard and doing
the basic heel hook from there.
That took a little longer to figure out, but it was pretty fun to
do. Heel hooks are illegal in Gi
competitions so the lesson wasn’t
very useful but it’s always a good
tool to have when it comes to NoGi.
We ended with a couple more
rounds of sparring. As I was heading out, one of my teammates noticed my hoodie that I got from
the tournament and asked about
it.
I had totally forgot that I didn’t
tell them I was going because I
was sick the week before. So I
spilled the news that I had gotten
first, and got a big congratulations
followed by a bunch of handshakes. That put me in a good
mood and on that note, brings an
end to the adventure. All in all, it
was a good turnout for the weekend, minus the injury and not being able to compete Sunday.
and on about his weekend.
I was perfectly fine listening to David’s stories,
until he started insulting the Jonas Brothers.
“David, shut up!” I screamed in response to his
rude remark about the Jonas Brother’s guitar playing skills.
Day Five- The last and final day of this “adventure.” At lunch, David and I caught up on what we
did after school the day before, and once again he
informed me that he played video games and went
on Facebook.
“David do you stalk people on facebook?” I
asked jokingly. “No, but I do stalk people in real
life,” Tibble responded.
At first I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but
it made me laugh pretty hard.
We go through our everyday lives talking to the
same people and never really going outside of our
“clicks” to meet new friends at school. Overall this
experience was pretty interesting, and I learned a lot
about somebody that I hardly knew anything about
five days ago. Step outside of your comfort zone.
You never know, you might meet somebody new.
14
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
Designed by Michael Noe
How to watch
five trilogies in five days
by
Michael Noe / Sports Editor
Entertainment has always been part of the
human culture. Whether it’s movies, plays,
books, or games, people always need to find
a way to pass the time. One of the biggest
and most popular forms of entertainment
is to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. A
good movie can take you inside the action,
and can relieve your stress
by bringing you to a whole
new reality. Some movies
have such an interesting story
to tell that it can span from
one feature film to a trilogy
that keeps the viewer on the
edge of their seat. A few of
the most popular trilogies are
The Matrix, The Lord of the
Rings, and Star Wars, which
consisted of two separate
trilogies. The first told the
story of Luke Skywalker
and his battles against the
Empire and his father Darth
Vader. While the second
was a prequel trilogy telling
how his father became Darth
Vader, and how the Empire came to control
the galaxy. Back to the Future is also another
popular trilogy that takes you all over the
timeline.
Have you ever wondered what it would
be like to watch one of these trilogies all in
one day? How about all five of them? Now
here is your chance to find out how to watch
all five of these trilogies through a span of
five days.
Assuming that you already have the
trilogies, the first thing that you have to do
is figure out how long each movies running
time is. The original Star Wars trilogy will
take approximately 6 ½ hours to complete,
while the prequel trilogy will take about
seven. The Matrix also takes about seven
hours to watch all three movies. The Lord
of the Rings will be the biggest struggle to
watch all three films, as that lasts almost
10 hours for the original version, and a
staggering twelve hours for the theatrical
version. The Back to the Future trilogy
will take the least amount of time, as it will
consume just under six hours.
The next step will be to decide what
trilogies you want to watch on what day. With
The Lord of the Rings taking up the most
was cool to see how the story unfolds all at
once instead of individual intervals across
months.
Day 2: On the second day, I watched the
original trilogy of Star Wars. It took me about
eight hours to complete with the breaks I had
in between. By the time I was finished with
the second film, I was really getting tired of
the whole Star Wars saga. But by the time
time, you will
want to pick
a day that
you
have
nothing going
on to watch
that trilogy,
whether it be
the original or
extended version. Also, it would be a smart
move to pick your busiest day to watch Back
to the Future, as it is the shortest of these
five trilogies.
Day 1: On the first day I watched the
prequel trilogy of Star Wars. I started
watching it about 1 p.m, and finished with
the final movie at about 7 p.m. I took a small
break in between the first and second movie
to grab some Totinos Pizza Rolls to eat. It
Star
Wars
was over, I
was
ready
for the next
day, when I
would begin
my journey
t h r o u g h
Middle Earth.
Day 3: Day three was the toughest to
sit through because I had to stay in one
spot on my family room couch and watch
over 10 hours of the same thing non-stop.
Good thing that I believe LOTR is one of the
best trilogies of all time, because if it were
anything else I don’t think I would have
made it. My family and I ordered Giordano’s
pizza to eat while we watched Frodo battle
his way through Middle Earth and throw
the ring into the volcano. It was the longest
series of movies I have ever watched, and
it will be a long time before I ever try that
one again.
Day 4: I switched gears back to the
scientific world again when I took on the
three movies that made up The Matrix
trilogy. This one seemed like a breeze after
what I went through the previous day. It
took just under seven hours
to complete, and was a relief
from the bow and arrows. By
the end of the third movie, I
couldn’t wait for the last day
to come and go.
Day 5: The morning came
way to soon, as I was still
tired form the countless hours
of cinematic footage from
the previous days. But it was
time to finish the last trilogy,
Back to the Future. The only
good thing about starting this
trilogy was the fact that it was
the shortest one. I was sick
and tired of being cooped up
inside, and couldn’t finish the
last movie because I had to
go to a family party. Unfortunately, I was
not able to complete the task at hand in five
days, but one must realize that it is much
harder than it sounds.
This experience taught me a couple
things about watching so many trilogies
in a short amount of time. Make sure that
you take breaks in between movies to walk
around, because you will get real tired, real
quick if you sit in the same place for such
a long period of time. Also, be sure you
pick the right trilogies to watch. If you pick
something that you don’t particularly like,
then it will be excruciating to sit through.
Finally, know what you are getting into
before you jump into a long cinematic
adventure. It may seem like a breeze at first,
but you will soon realize the patience it takes
to complete this near impossible task.
15
5 days of McDonald’s:
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24 , 2010
5 days
Designed by Eric Klank
by
And I’m not loving it.
Eric Klank/ A&E Editor
14,260
14,260 is the amount of calories I consumed
in less than five days thanks to McDonald’s.
For five days every meal, every piece of food
I ate was from the home of the Golden Arch.
But why? Well, in an average teenager’s
life, fast food is one of the main food groups
for them. Fast food is convenient and good.
Most teens have it a few times a week, and
although it can be unhealthy, most just avoid
the warnings. So I decided, why not see how
my body reacts and how “great” the food ends
up tasting by the end of the whole ordeal.
Day One
The five days spanned from Thursday,
March 4 to Monday, March 8. The first day
I started out with the original Big Mac. The
Big Mac meal is my personal favorite, so I
decided to start on a high note. Later that
night, I stopped by McDonalds again, this
time getting a 10-piece Chicken McNugget meal with barbeque sauce. Day one,
complete, and still feeling not too shabby.
Day Two
I started out my Friday classy, with a
gourmet Egg McMuffin. I’m not a breakfast-sort-of-guy to begin with, and the Egg
McMuffin wasn’t the thing to persuade me
to eat breakfast more often to say the least.
Later that day I ate a 5-piece Chicken Select
meal. My taste buds still allowed me to not
get sick of McDonald’s food yet. That night
I then had a McDouble meal to finish things
off. That’s when it first hit me, things are going to get rough. My stomach after finishing
up the meal was not agreeing with me, and
I knew more McDonald’s for the next three
days would not allow things to get any better.
Day Three
How do you start out Saturday mornings
McDonald’s style? With hotcakes and sausage of course! The hot cakes weren’t bad
as they don’t have a “McDonald’s” taste to
them, but the sausage, well
it was not too enjoyable. For
lunch, I went big, two Mc
Chickens with an order of
French Fries. Poor choice. I
did not feel as energetic and
up to par as I usually do.
For dinner, I had the Angus
Deluxe. Quite possibly the
worst thing on the menu,
this sandwich had a total of
760 calories alone. That’s
almost half the calories you
should have in an entire day!
That’s not even including
the fries and drink, which
I had with it. The Angus
Deluxe meal easily pushes
1,300 calories on it’s own,
how good is that for you?
Wished it was empty.
Day Five
Monday came along, the last day of an
expedition that turned quickly sour. I had
hot cakes for breakfast, they tasted fine
ald’s classic drink, a Coke. Well, it was
big, but tasty? At this point, no. I grew
sick and actually disgusted of McDonalds.
Conclusion
Over these five days expedition I learned
something that is pretty much
known, too much of a good
thing (good in it’s own way)
is a bad thing. McDonald’s
food started out good to me,
and it quickly turned sour.
I also did not get anything
healthy, obviously. I was
pretty much constantly tired,
and the last two days of the
expedition I had a dull headache, both of which I’m pretty sure came directly from
the lovely food I had eaten.
I also gained two pounds of
the five days. So, if that pace
kept up I would have gained
about 140 pounds over the
course of a year of the McDonalds diet. That would
have me almost doubling
my weight, in a year! I’ve alDay Four
ways been a once or twice a
Sundays are holy days.
week consumer of fast food,
God surely did not care to
and didn’t think much of it.
make fast food good for
But after realizing the crayou. Still not feeling good
zy amount of calories you
from the night of McDonconsume, along with other
ald’s before, I skipped
things, I think I’m going to
breakfast. For lunch I had
make a lot of changes to my
what anyone else would
I drink my McDonald’s Milkshake at the Channahon McDonald’s.
diet. The whole experience
have on such a day, another
was pretty interesting to do.
Big Mac meal, and for some
I felt it was something worth
reason it didn’t taste half as good the sec- considering they were from McDonalds. doing, and it definitely made me realize a
ond time around. I wonder why. That night I
I then had a Big Mac snack wrap. I think lot more about how bad McDonald’s food is
was pretty hungry, but I was quickly getting they took the rejects of Big Macs and put for you and how it can even affect how you
sick of McDonald’s food. I decided to just them into a wrap. Oh boy, was it terrible. feel. My fair warning to anybody: don’t eat
eat one hamburger. I still needed to fill up My last meal of this 5-day expedition was nothing but McDonald’s for any time span.
my stomach. Ate one more.
a Big ‘N Tasty with fries and the McDon-
16
Peace Pipe Chatter, March 24, 2010
5 Days
Designed by Taylor Roop
..In the life of a submission grappler
Taylor Roop /
News Editor
by
Five days in the life of a submission
grappler and Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor…how to explain?
Most people who hear submission or
Brazilian jiu-jitsu automatically think of
a UFC fight, which is no surprise because
that’s how the two got popularized back in
the day. Submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are essentially the same competition except you wear a Gi(a traditional
martial arts uniform) in BJJ and you wear
fight shorts and a rash guard in grappling.
The closest thing I can explain it to being
is wrestling or what you see the UFC fighters doing while they are on the ground. The
goal of the sport itself is to make your opponent tap out (give up) via a submission
which would be a choke or a joint lock.
Three months ago, I immersed myself
into the sport and have been doing nothing but that. I train anywhere from four to
six times a week with the Demian Maia
Jiu-Jitsu team at Overtime MMA in Naperville. The team is headed by Mark Turner, a
brown belt in BJJ under Demian Maia who
is the current UFC middleweight title contender with a 12-1 record and five World
BJJ championships under his belt. Over the
first weekend of March, I headed to the Arnold Classic BJJ & Grappling challenge in
Columbus, Ohio, one of the biggest annual
Midwest tournaments. I was entered in the
Under 130 lbs. teen divisions in Gi and NoGi.
Day 1
The first day of my adventure was not
so exciting. A day that consisted of sweating, sleeping, and starving. I woke up like
normal and got ready for the day. We were
leaving for Columbus around 1:30, and I
wasn’t going to school so it was time to run
some errands. The day began with a trip to
Joliet Junior College to take the Compass
Test to get into the dual-credit classes. I
did good enough to qualify for everything
but math. After JJC, I took a trip to Inwood
Athletic Center to run and sweat off some
pounds. I paid for my pass, ran for a bit,
then proceeded to the extremely, extremely hot sweat room. After a while in there,
I stepped on the scale and weighed at 128
lbs. so I was good to go for the day.
I headed home, and
it was time to go. We
packed everything in
the car and began our
ride. I plugged in my
iPod and took a nice 4
hour nap. Fast forwarding, I wake up and my
dad says that we might
not make tonights
weigh-ins because we
didn’t account for the
time zone change (they
are eastern time, an
hour ahead). Not making Friday night weighins meant not eating for
At, my first match of the Arnold Classic, I took his back soon after
he took me down and began to work for the choke.
at least another 16 hours, and
it had already been a good
24. After an hour and a half
of worrying, we made it to
the Holiday Inn where they
were taking place at 8:57
and the cutoff time was 9. I
ran inside as fast as I could
and was one of the last three
people that got weighed that
night.
I was excited to finally
be able to eat. We headed to
our hotel, checked in, and ordered a couple pizzas. I was
pretty satisfied, and on that There was about 30 seconds left in the match and I locked in
a triangle choke to win the match.
note, I went to bed to make
sure I got a good night of
the ground, he did not control anything but
sleep.
my head, so I easily took his back, and got
Day 2
It was 10 and I hopped out of the bed
excited as ever. I was extremely pumped to
compete. After my whole family got ready,
we headed out to get some breakfast real
quick before heading to the convention center. I had a couple pancakes from McDonalds. I arrived at the convention center, and
was in shock. It was extremely packed, and
there were more bodybuilders than I had
ever seen before.
We headed into Hall C where the tournament was and I changed into my Gi. After a
bit of sitting around, they called my division
at noon and we went over to Mat 6 where
we were assigned. Strangely, there was only
one other person in my division, but over 10
in the next weight class up. I stretched out
for a couple minutes and they called my opponent and I to the mat. The referee talked
to us for a minute to make sure we understood the rules. The timer started, and the
match began.
We tied up immediately and he shot for
a single leg. My standup is not impressive
whatsoever, so I got taken down immediately. He scored 2 points. After we got to
my hooks in and held him for a couple seconds.
I was now up 4-2. He immediately started protecting his neck to prevent chokes as
I started to go for a rear collar choke. Suddenly he let go, and started pulling at my
leg, so I went for a rear naked choke. It isn’t
something I normally do with the Gi, but it
was there so I tried. I couldn’t get it tight
because the Gi was in the way, and right after that I felt a terrible pain in my ankle and
knee. He did an ankle lock which I didn’t
expect at all because they usually aren’t allowed for teen divisions, but in this tournament, they were.
I was about a second away from tapping
and he let go. Unfortunately, that loosened
up my grip, and he reversed me. Luckily he
didn’t get the two points because he didn’t
land immediately in side control, it was a
few seconds of scrambling after. I quickly
shrimped out and got half-guard. Almost instantly after that, I swept him and got another two points and top control. He shrimped
“In the life of a submission
grappler” continued on Pg. 13.