06 January 2009 - Santa Margarita Catholic High School

Santa Margarita Catholic High School The Blueprint
Friday, January 30, 2009
Blueprint@smhs.org
VOL.21 NO.5
INSIDE
Twin Sister Helps Brother By Starting a Charity
By Samantha Toth
World News pg. 2
President
Obama
By Camille Del Carmen
Health pg. 3
Mononucleosis
Opinion pg. 4,5
Alex Travels
Blair and Ross Kirkbaumer with Blair’s cards. Photo courtesy of the Orange County Register.
Sports pg. 6
Boys Basketball
Features pg. 7
Horoscope
Em/Liv pg. 8,9
Seniors vs. Freshies
Special Section
pg. 10,11
2009-New Laws
Entertainment
pg. 12
Ross: look at
this page!
Campus Ministry
pg. 14
Reverend Weling
Opening a book, picking
up the phone, and opening a door
are just some of the typical activities people do in their daily lives.
However, for Ross Kirkbaumer
these are difficult tasks that hinder
his everyday lifestyle.
When pain began to inflict Ross’s daily habits to where
walking and getting out of bed became the biggest obstacles of his
day, hope was no where to be
found. For years, Ross had been
through immeasurable amounts of
doctors that claimed he was just
going through a tough case of
“growing pains”.
Finally, when Ross was in
eighth grade, a new doctor discovered the correct diagnosis.
Ross has ankylosing
spondylitis, which is a form of arthritis that affects the spine. It
causes inflammation of the spinal
joints which can lead to severe pain
and tenderness. Ankylosing
spondylitits can sometimes travel to
other parts of the body such as the
shoulders, hips, ribs, and joints.
Ross and his dad went to
classes to learn how to give Ross
the shot that he needs every ten
days. At first, Ross’s dad gave him
the shot, but now Ross is able to do
it. The shot is called Embrel, which
is injected into the leg.
Blair, Ross’ twin sister,
watches her brother experience this
disease while she lives a normal and
healthy life; this made her want to
do something about the situation.
However, she had no idea what to
do.
“I never knew what I
could do to help him,” said Blair.
“Now that he’s better I just want to
help spread the word about this disease.”
Since Blair is a zealous
photographer, she came to the conclusion that she could intertwine her
passion with raising awareness
about ankylosing spondylitits.
So Blair began a charity
in the fall of 2008 called Cards That
Care. She creates greeting cards
from photographs she takes, and
sells them on the internet at her
website. For $10, a package of
three may be purchased. There are
four categories from which customers may choose their cards: flowers, californication, western, and
americana.
Blair has raised almost
$1500. One hundred percent of the
proceeds go to the Spondylitis Association of America, which is a
nonprofit organization. It works to
advance research, education, and
treatment for ankylosing spondylitis and related diseases.
Ankylosing spondylitis affects at least one in every two hundred adults. It is as common as rheumatoid arthritis, according to the
SpondylitisAssociation ofAmerica,
who works with physicians so doctors can recognize the disease and
help those who have it get better
treatment.
Blair says, “I want to continue
Cards That Care when I go to college in a few months. I don’t want
to stop. I would love to make people
aware of ankylosing spondylitis in
college, too.”
For more information and the
ability to see Blair’s cards, go to
cardsthatcare.net.
POPS Concert Coming Soon
By Clark Taylor
Schroeder Family
pg. 15
Choir Conductor, Mr. Francisco
Calvo. Photo courtesy of Mr. Calvo.
Campus Life pg. 16
MUN Takes on
Edison and
Mission Viejo
February 6, 2009.
Save the date. SM will be
having its annual POPS
Concert in the dome, you
can buy tickets at the door
for $10.
All levels of choir will
be performing modern
songs.
If you enjoy Disney
classics and watching your
friends trying to embarrass
themselves then forget
about your Friday night plans
and come to the dome.
The whole year students of choir learn classical songs and when the
POPs concert comes around
it gives them the freedom to
sing whatever they like.
Songs like “A Whole
New World” from Aladdin,
“With a Little Help from My
Friends” from Across the
Universe and many more
sing-alongs.
Cody Webster stated,
“This is the best concert of
the year, hands down. Seriously what could be better
then watching myself, Cory
Diaz, and Austin Macenena
sing My Girl? I’ll tell you
what. Absolutely nothing!
Come and support.”
That right there says it
all, enough said.
This past month, our
MUN program attended two conferences and as usual, did a great
job. On January 17th, 48 freshman attended the Edison Novice
MUN conference. Seventeen
students won awards for participation in the conference, and
Kathleen Baluyot and Steven
Holcomb won the best delegate
award.
Meanwhile, sixty-three
sophomores, juniors and seniors
attended the Mission Viejo High
School MUN conference.
The conference was over
a period of two days, on the Saturday the 17th and Sunday the
18th. Forty- eight of the delegates
walked away with an award and
a ground- breaking, sixteen students won the Gavel Award. A
special congratulation goes to:
Nella Abusamra, Jacob Kureh,
Kevin Jain, Kate Powers, Jamie
Azdair, Chloe Manese, Will
Tomp, Mike Kim, Doug Blaalid,
Megan Kang, Michael Adame,
George Moll, Anastasia Gillen,
Justin Lee, Robert Tungate, and
Adam Lawicki.
For the first-time ever our
MUN program will be participating in the Duke MUN Conference at Duke University in
Durham, North Carolina.
The following students
have the great opportunity to be
attending the conference;
Amanda Haynes, Lauren Vargas,
Nicole Johnson, Allison Pulley,
Adam Lawicki, Andrew Reiger,
Rutger Choquenhaunca, Brian
Maurer, Omar Ascha, Blake
Tyler, Kayla Saadeh, Natasha
Peterson, Amanda Rooth, and
Erin Scola.
Also
attending
is
Mr.Remmel, the head-coordinator of the MUN program and
everyone’s favorite teacher
couple, Mr. and Mrs. Kretzmer.
They will be leaving February 15th and returning the 23rd,
but first they will be stopping at
Capital Hill.
MUN kids after receiving their
awards. Photo courtesy of Mr.
Remmell.
2
WORLD NEWS
Barack Hussein Obama: The Cure-All for the US?
By Lauren Vargas
Nearly 50 years after
the Civil Rights Movement,
an African American took
an oath to serve as president
of the United States of
America. As millions of
Americans
hopefully
watched on Inauguration
Day 2009, Obama swore, “I
do solemnly swear that I will
faithfully execute the office
of President of the United
States...” He delivered inspirational words as the 44 th
president, “Let it be said by
our children’s children that
when we were tested, we
refused to let this journey
end, that we did not turn
back, nor did we falter; and
with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us,
we carried forth that great
gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.” American citizens
and the international community witnessed this passionate inaugural speech as
Barack Obama replaced
George W. Bush.
After all ten inaugural
events had passed and the
media had attacked the oathflub, Obama’s agenda was to
be revealed. Such a faltering
economy has many Americans looking to the new president for an all-curing plan.
His agenda encompasses numerous topics, including domestic and foreign policy,
public healthcare, and innovative approaches to cleaner
energy. In an attempt to restimulate our downtrodden
economy, Obama and Biden
offer a plan that will create
jobs for Americans, provide
quick relief for struggling
families, and “an aggressive
response to our financial crisis” according to Obama’s
webpage, Change.gov. Hopes
of tax cuts and affordable
healthcare had some Americans shedding tears on Inauguration Day. Among the
many projects on his agenda,
it’s imperative to examine his
plan for Iraq. After eight
years of toiling unsuccessfully in the Middle East,
Obama is bringing a new outlook to the situation. “Barack
Obama believes we must be
as careful getting out of Iraq
as we were careless getting
in” says Change.gov. He has
openly opposed the War in
Iraq since 2002, and has already given his Secretary of
Defense a new mission to end
such an atrocious “war.” A
phased withdrawal of troops,
diplomacy with Iraqi leaders,
and preventing humanitarian
crisis will allow the new
president peaceful relations
with Iraq and other Middle
Eastern nations. For people
all over the globe, Obama’s
agenda seems like a prevailing, foolproof plan.
For the last eight years,
the international image of the
U.S.A. isn’t quite the starspangled-banner type. So will
Obama’s newfound popularity and ideals be enough? In
17 countries polled by BBC
World Service, 67% of people
think that Obama will
strengthen America’s relations overseas. More than
50% of people in Islamic
countries like Turkey, Indonesia ad Egypt felt the same
way. Ghana, Nigeria, Mexico,
Italy, and Spain all show more
than 70% support for Obama
according to the poll. Many
Obama critics counter this
hope by assuring that such
high expectations will only
cause the new president
even more struggles in the
office. However, many citizens feel that this nation
can’t get any worse. And
with Obama’s leadership
skills and unprecedented
plans for a new future,
one can only hope.
Will.I.Am’s new song titled, “It’s a New Day” helps show the
optimism of our nation and new President.
History Repeats Itself Again, and Again, and Again
By Nella Abusamra
Since the year of 1948, Israel and Palestine have engaged
in horrid conflict. According to
BBC reports, Israeli strike fighters launched a series of air strikes
against targets in Gaza on December 27th, 2008, breaking the
ceasefire agreement. Hamas
fired rockets back, and the “war”
began. This war lasted for about
22 days, but great atrocities occurred in these short three weeks.
During this time, the Israeli
military used White Phosphorus
against Palestinian civilians,
which goes against international
law. Palestinian civilians were
burned and scarred due to the potent chemical. In the early days
of the war, an Islamic University
was bombed. On January 3rd, the
Israeli military attacked a
mosque, holding about 200 worshippers. On January 11 th, a
Catholic group clinic known as
“Caritas” was destroyed. About
20 nearby homes were affected.
Israeli jets destroyed a mother
and infant Christian clinic as well.
According to BBC Network, two
UN Workers were announced
dead because of the Israeli military on January 8th, 2009. Reportedly, because of these deaths, the
UN refused to send relief-aid into
the area for the civilians.
On January 16th, a hospital
was bombed by the Israeli military. On January 17 th, a UN
school and compound was
bombed, killing about 55 children.
Humanitarian aid sent on boats
from Greece and Cyprus were not
admitted into the strip due to the
Israeli military’s fear of smuggled
weapons. Israel claims that
Hamas lies within the areas that
were bombed, and that their main
priority is defending themselves
against Hamas. According to
BBC news, about 1,330 Palestinians were killed during those 22
days. Two thirds of these people
were women and children. About
5,450 people were injured and left
in a critical condition. About 5,000
homes, 16 government buildings,
two churches, and 20 mosques
were destroyed. About 25,000
homes were damaged in the Gaza
strip.
In an interview with BBC
news, Cardinal Renato Martino
said “Look at the conditions in
Gaza — more and more, it resembles a huge concentration
camp.” Pat Buchanan, a famous
politician and active spokesman on
the show, The McLaughlin
Group, also accused Israel of
turning Gaza into a “concentration
camp”. In an interview with BBC
News, British member of Parliament George Galloway and British artist Brian Eno compared it to
the “World War II Warsaw Ghetto
where Jews were being held before sending them to extermination camps under Nazi rule”. According to the Vatican Radio, the
Pope “Prays from the depths of
his heart and from the altar of St.
Peter’s Basilica he appealed not
to let hate and violence have the
upper hand in the Gaza Strip.”
On the other side, about 13
Israeli were killed. In addition, the
fear of being attacked by Hamas
resonated throughout the people
of Israel. As of today, BBC News
states “Israel agreed to a unilateral cease-fire while insisting on
holding its positions, while Hamas
has vowed to fight on if Israeli
forces do not leave the Strip.” Due
to the hostility and foolishness of
Hamas and the Israeli military…
Churches, mosques, schools, UN
workers, hospitals, clinics, and a
population of innocent children,
men, and women have paid the
price.
A young boy in the middle of conflict shares a common fear with the
other people in his homeland. Photo courtesy of Google Images.
3
HEALTH
Can Kissing Someone Really Kill You?
By Amanda Rooth
Did you ever think you
could actually become sick
all because of one kiss? Well
its true, the kissing disease
or mononucleosis is taking a
large toll on our younger generation teens. People between the ages of 15-20 are
most vulnerable to being infected with mono. A recent
study showed that an average of 5 out of 1000 teens
are diagnosed with mono.
Mononucleosis or
mono for short, is an extremely infectious disease
caused by two viruses:
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)
and
cytomegalovirus
(CMV). Mono affects the
blood, spleen, throat salivary
glands, liver, and lymph
nodes. EBV is part of the
herpes virus family, along
with other viruses such as
cold sores and chickenpox.
EBV is the more common
cause out of the two viruses.
As a matter of fact, over
half of the children in the US
are infected with EBV, but
since they are at such a
young age, symptoms are
barely noticeable and do not
take any affect on their ac-
tual health. After you have become infected the virus never
leaves your system, even if you
don’t have any symptoms or
feel perfectly fine, the truth is
you could have the mono virus
hiding in your bloodstream that
has been there for years.
The trick to avoiding mono
is simply to avoid any contact
that involves saliva. Besides
kissing, mono can be spread
through sharing straws, toothbrushes, food from the same
plate, and even sleeping on the
same pillow as the infected
person. The biggest and most
obvious tip is if you know of a
friend that has mono then try
to keep a good distance from
them for at least a good couple
of weeks.
There are various symptoms that can identify a case
of mono and several ways to
go about treating it. Symptoms
of mono include: sore throat,
swollen lymph nodes, fever,
Be careful of that kiss! You could
contract mono! Photo courtesy of
Google
doctor may prescribe you some
type of medication as well, however drinking fluids and rest is the
most successful treatment.
Now I’m sure many of you
are wondering right now if you will
ever be able to kiss anyone again.
Well don’t worry! Even though
mono never leaves your system, it
comes and goes in flares. This basically means that you may have
mono and be considered contaminated for a few weeks, but it will
sure enough go back into hiding
soon, allowing you to be the perfectly normal healthy being that you
are. So if you do have mono don’t
throw away that chap stick quite
Laura Austin and Emily Schmeltzer are unaware of that fact that sharing chapstick and water bottles could yet, you will be able to return to your
kissing crazy self in no time!
lead to mono! Photo courtesy of Lindsay Mortenson
Keeping Your Head Above Water
By Adam Enochs
Teens today are facing
more stress than ever before.
Doing well in school, dealing
with parents, juggling your
social life and of course colleges are common stresses
for your every-day teenager.
Stress has more negative effects than people realize.
While all of us have dealt
with short term effects, such
as loss of appetite, difficulty
sleeping, paying attention,
and fatigue, most people
don’t know that overstressing can have a major impact
in the long run. Chronic headaches and weakened immune
systems lead to people that
are stressed a lot and feeling
sick most of the time. An onset of clinical depression is
possible as well. And now
that we’ve all dealt with finals in the past few weeks
(a sure cause of stress) think
back; how well did you deal
with stress?
There are both good
and bad ways to deal with
stress. Bad ways include alcohol/drug abuse, shutting off
social interactions and self
harm- many of the same
symptoms as depression. For-
headaches, sore muscles, fatigue, and enlarged spleen or
liver. Many of these symptoms
are considerably similar to strep
throat and the flu, so it is important that if you do show any
of these symptoms to see a doctor as soon as possible. If you
do have mono, don’t freak, the
common treatment is lots of bed
rest and relaxation. This may
mean no sports or running
around for a month, but you will
heal much faster this way. Your
tunately there are a lot better
ways to deal with stress than
bad. Obviously planning ahead
for stressful situations, like finals, is key. Imagine how much
better you could have done if
you started studying weeks before the final, instead of two
nights before. Studying hard and
studying often and taking short
breaks helps to keep you motivated and prevents you from
getting burnt out during school.
Exercising and eating regularly
is another important aspect to
staying efficient. Eating properly keeps your body fueled and
your energy level up; while
regular exercise keeps your
blood flowing to your brain and
helps you stay focused. Going
for a quick jog can give you just
the pick-me-up you need to
keep you going when you are
just sick and tired of school.
Now that finals are
over, I bet you’re wishing that
this article would have been
published in time to motivate
you to begin studying earlier.
Just keep in mind that you can
use these techniques year round
to de-stress; in every aspect of
your life.
4
The Blueprint
January 2009
The Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
OPINION
ALEX TRAVELS:Airplane Edition
By Alex Worthen
ately.
I love to travel.
I love airports. I love going
through security. I love the boarding gates; but for one reason…
because these places are prime
real-estate for people-watching.
On a recent trip up north I decided to chronicle the entertaining
events and turn them in to a short
memoir for your reading pleasure.
Enjoy.
My journey
starts at the baggage check line
for Southwest (aka SouthWORST) airlines. Every time I
check a bag I instantly replay the
scene from “Meet the Parents”
where Ben Stiller berates “chopstick lady” for taking so long with
his check-in process.
The person in front of me
looks like he is coming from
some kind of rodeo- clad in cowboy boots, a black button down
(complete with little leather and
silver pedant in place of a tie) and
jeans. The teenager behind me
looks so miserable that I want to
give her a hug. With her iPod
headphones in place and her perfect brooding face, she looks as
though she is about to travel to
the end of the earth. And I am
pretty sure Southwest does NOT
go there.
I approach the
desk and say hello to chop-sticks
lady. I proceed to check my bag
and do the annoying thing where
you have to confirm with them a
hundred times that your bag is indeed going to reach the destination to which you are traveling.
“So that says Oakland right?”
“Wait why does it only say
‘OAK’?” “Will the ear-muffs
guys know what that means?”. I
digress.
After I leave the
check-in desk I precede to the
security check-point, possibly one
of the worlds most frustrating and
stressful places- no matter how
short or long the line is. On this
particular occasion, the person in
front of me was very behind in
the de-robing process.
Because his stress level
was so high, my stress level began to rise. His right shoe frantically comes off; I am wrestling
the zipper on my jacket. He is
making sure everything is in plastic bags; I have a panic attack
about whether or not lip-stick is
considered a solid or a liquid.
Luckily, I
am in much better traveling
clothes than FranticTraveler. You
know what I am talking about-
From the classic traveling movie, “Airplane”. My experiences were some what similar. Phote courtesy of Google.
everyone has their special “traveling outfit”. Mine consists of
practical jeans, a comfy t-shirt
and a lightweight jacket.
My dad’s traveling outfit contains the most horrific shirt I have ever seen in my
life (Rest in Peace Mervyn’s 1987
sale shirt). My dad ALWAYS
travels in the same short sleeve,
button down puke green and lavender PLAID shirt. Don’t ask me
why, I have never been able to
elicit a logical answer from him.
For how much I hate this
shirt it does have one positive thing
working in its favor- neither my
brother nor myself have ever been
lost in an airport from the time
we started traveling to this day.
Why? Because it is near to impossible to miss this shirt among
a crowd of people.
Unfortunately,
this shirt mysteriously disappeared a couple years ago. There
may or may not have been
matches involved. And I may or
may not know something about
the location of its remains.
Anyways, I make
it through security with only a
minor rise in my stress level and
begin the journey to my gate. 76B,
67A, 12 and ½ Z… Seriously, no
wonder people miss their flights.
Anyone who has flown Southwest airlines knows that you have
to line up in numbered order to
board the plane.
For some reason, the other
passengers seem to think that the
numbers on their boarding passes mean nothing at all and that
this has suddenly become “The
Amazing Race” in jockeying for
airline boarding position.
The pleasant flight
director calls for “All guests with
A one through sixty please line
up”. “One through sixty please
line up”.. “Calling all A boarding
passengers”. “The one’s, thirty’s
and sixty’s”…. STOP REPEATING YOURSELF!!!!! Does she
realize that she is dealing with
jumpy, anxious, stressed out travelers and that we probably assumed our positions about an hour
ago? Obviously not.
I make my way to
the front of the second line, as I
am “A 31”. I am suddenly accosted by one of the other passengers waiting to board the
plane… “Hang on a second,
what’s your number?”. “Uhhh
A31…” “Can I see your boarding pass please?” “Uhmm
sure…”. I show Rent-A-Cop my
boarding pass and he looks rather irritated that I am indeed, one
space in front of him.
Having
graduated from the University of
Critical and Sarcastic comments
(school mascot- the middle finger), I fight the urge to say “Hey
Buddy, whoever knighted you as
part of some secret society airport regime was probably just
catering to your irrepressible need
to feel authoritative. Congratulations! You’ve successfully completed your first task!- “Operation BIG JERK”.
I am walking on
the plane and since there are no
assigned seats I instantly go into
scan mode. Who looks the least
annoying? Who won’t ask me
what I am reading? Who won’t
want to unload their life problems
on me?.... Definetly NOT
WeepyMcWeepy in Row 4. I
settle for a window seat next to
a 20-something blonde girl. She
is in the aisle seat and her bag is
in the middle seat, perfect separation. I then add my bag to this
barricade- you can never be too
careful.
I sit down, take out
my book (faux reading of course)
and spy on all the people entering the plane. Some have sheer
looks of dread on their faces for
they must not see their ideal seating situation. I snicker because,
we, people of this country, really
do hate each other.
Irony at its finest;
Rent-A-Cop boards the plane
shortly after me and I notice that I
do not see him sitting in the very
front of the plane, something that
would seem characteristic to his
anal personality. Rent-A-Cop is in
THE VERY BACK OF THE
PLANE. Really? All that business
with the numbers on the boarding
passes so you could solidify you
seat in the back of the plane. This
is why I don’t like people.
The plane is almost
full when I see a rather portly man
in a suit enter the aircraft. He
scans, re-scans and then locks eyes
on my row… No. No. No.
NOOOOO. “WEEELLLLLL IF
I HAVE TO SIT IN BETWEEN
PEOPLE IT MIGHT AS WELL
BE BETWEEN TWO PRETTY
LADIES!!!!”. Oh God- Barfbag?
Barfbag?
I glance at him and
politely CLOSE LIP smile. Very,
very important detail so he does not
get the idea that we could potentially be conversation buddies. I am
only in minor physical pain when
the flight attendants begin their ascension up and down the aisle taking drink orders.
Side note- What’s
up with the airplane cups? They
are the most odd-shaped, un-functional beverage containers I have
ever used. They are almost half
circle shaped and hold exactly 2.7
sips of beverage. SIPS, not gulps.
Anyways, I receive
my water and when asked “Peanuts Miss?” I respond with, “No
thank you, I am fine”. I then look
up to meet the flight attendants
face and she seems to have taken
this rejection rather personally.
She looks offended that I did
not accept her make-shift peanuts
in the tiny silver bag. I then wonder if she had some traumatic event
that involved peanuts, rejection,
childhood, ex-boyfriend, and a broken heart in her life… If so, I would
suggest she quit her job immedi-
I manage to make
it through the flight relatively annoyed but still able to control
myself from saying something
sarcastic and rude to WallStreetCreeper. Barely. As I am exiting
the plane, I hear PeanutsRejectionAttendant giving off nice farewells to all the passengers deboarding. “Welcome to Oakland
“. “Thank you for choosing
Southwest”. “Fly with us again”.
As I exit… Nothing. Just a cold,
hard stare. My pace quickens.
LA Times headline the next day reads “ORANGE COUNTY TEEN
MAKES IT THROUGH
FLIGHT BUT IS BRUTALLY
MURDERED IN THE TERMINAL BY ENRAGED FLIGHT
ATTENDANT: ALWAYS ACCECT PEANUTS!” Just kidding.
I make it to baggage claim and am greeted by my
snazzy boyfriend, who shall remain nameless. We exchange
hellos and I start rambling on
about the events of my trip as we
are exiting the terminal. “And
then chop-stick lady wanted to
strangle me, and then the guy in
front of me in security was moving so fast I couldn’t really see
him, and then some creepy guy
hit on me on the plane… and I
almost died via angry flight attendant”.
Well trained, he
nods and smiles at the appropriate times and says he is glad that
I didn’t get killed by the flight attendant. Then he starts to smirk…
Never ever a good sign. “What,
what’s so funny?” I ask.
“Where’d you park?”…. smirk
gets bigger. “Seriously, where’s
the car, my bag is heavy”. (Why
he isn’t carrying my bag never
bothered me until I started writing this).
As we pass the
pedestrian parking entrance I
start to feel the same stress as I
felt in the security line. We are
approaching the bus-line that
reads”TO BART” (Bay Area
Rapid Transit System- think subway but above ground). I stop.
He smirks. I turn towards the cab
line…. Get yanked towards the
bus line. Stamp my foot like a two
year old. Get yanked harder
(shoulder starts to hurt). I board
the bus.
And this is where
my memoir ends. Stay tuned next
month for, “Alex Travels- On
BART”. New faces and annoyances guaranteed.
5
The Blueprint
The Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
January 2009
OPINION
You Know You’re a 90’s Baby If....
By Morgan Brutocao
Anybody under the age of
17 shouldn’t bother reading this...
Just because you were born in ’92
doesn’t mean you are a ‘90’s kid.
After all, it’s not like you could remember the original Simpsons...
SO THAT MEANS, SENIORS
THIS APPLIES TO YOU!
You know you’re a ‘90’s
baby if…
1. You watched the TV
shows: The Magic School Bus,
Wishbone, Reading Rainbow,
Doug, Ren & Stimpy, Pinky and
the Brain, CatDog, Rugrats, Rocket
Power, Gumby, Pee Wee
Herman’s Big Adventure, Duck
Tales, AHHHHH! Real Monsters,
Rocko’s
Modern
Life,
Anamaniacs, Inspector Gadget,All
That, Figure it Out, The Amanda
Show, Kenan & Kel, Bananas in
Pajamas, and Gargoyles.
2. You also watched the
original: Carebears, Barney,
Sesame Street, My Little Pony,
Batman,Aladdin, Dumbo (all those
Disney movies), and Ninja Turtles.
3. Gas really used to be ¢95
a gallon.
4. Silver dollars and $2 bills
were cool to have.
5. You were king/queen of
either the handball or tetherball
court.
6. “Bubblegum, bubblegum
in a dish, how many pieces do you
wish?”
7. You remember having
slap bracelets… and then the banning of them.
8. (GIRLS) You wanted to
be a member of the Baby-Sitters
Club.
9. Light-up sneakers,
HUGE DVS skater shoes, and
wheelies were in style.
10.
You were given
a sheet of homework for the entire week.
11.
(GIRLS) You
listened to Bewitched, Jump 5,
NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Spice
Girls, and S-Club 7.
12.
You always
said, “If you love it so much, then
why don’t you marry it!?”
13.
Shaq
and
Michael Jordan were kings of the
court.
14.
You bounced on
a pogo stick just for fun.
15.
Everything was
settled by rock, paper, scissors. No
questions asked.
16.
(GIRLS) At
some point you would do anything
to live in Beverly Hills 90210…
And due to the remake, still do –
embarrassing!
17.
You went to
McDonald’s just so you could play
in the Playplace.
18.
You learned how
to rollerblade.
19.
You couldn’t listen to Eminem around your parents.
20.
Your mom wore
a fannypack.
21.
You put dish
soap on your slip’n’slide for that extra boost of speed.
22.
(GIRLS) You
collected Polly Pockets.
23.
You accumulated, bought, and traded Pokemon
cards, especially those holographic
ones… hey, you gotta catch em’ all.
24.
You had a
Tamagotchi or Furby. I tolerated my
Furby for about 2 days and then it
conveniently found its way to the
trash can.
25.
You always
wanted to send in a tape to
America’s Funniest Home Videos.
26.
You played
Power Rangers with friends and
every time would fight over who got
to be who, even when you still all
ended up being the pink one. Not to
mention that you were absolutely
convinced that the pink and green
one were destined to be together.
27.
You stayed up a
little later just so you could watch
Teen Nick, but you never made it.
28.
You listened to
the then “AM 710” radio Disney.
29.
You can sing the
entire rap to The Fresh Prince of
Bel Air – Seniors, I believe Jordan
Bello is living proof of that…
30.
You owned a pair
of overalls and not because you lived
in farm country.
31.
You looked forward to going on AOL Instant Messenger and choosing from your 7
new screennames that have accumulated over the past couple weeks.
33.
(GIRLS) You
hand-made those little paper fortune
tellers where you had to pick a series of numbers and colors which
eventually predicted your life.
34.
You loved going
to Chuck E Cheese’s.
35.
You set up a lemonade stand on your street corner,
collecting ¢25 from strangers that
bought it out of pity.
36.
You played
‘ZAP’ with friends at school.
37.
You played
MASH to get a glimpse of your future life, along with all the details.
Somehow I always ended up living
in a shack, married to the garbage
man, had my wedding inAntarctica,
wore a brown wedding dress, drove
a mail truck, and had a pet sloth. It’s
okay if you’re jealous; I know this
is the type of life all you girls have
been dreaming about since diapers.
38.
You know the
Macarena by heart.
39.
You woke up
early just to watch ‘Cartoon Saturdays’
40.
(GIRLS)
“Loser loser, double loser, as if,
whatever, get the picture, DUH!”
41.
You remember
watching Home Alone 1, 2, and 3
like it was yesterday.
42.
You collected
Beanie Babies like it was your job.
43.
You ate Ring
Pops and Wonder Balls.
44.
(GIRLS) You
wore stick on earrings, not only on
your ears but at the corners of your
eyes.
45.
You ended the
bulk of your sentences in “NOT!”
46.
Slinkys were
the absolute coolest toy you owned.
Along with your yo-yo too.
47.
You ate Warheads until your taste buds had gone
completely numb.
48.
You
read
Goosebumps, Nancy Drew, and
Highlight magazines.
49.
Your fastest and
most convenient method of transportation was your razor scooter.
50.
You played Super Mario Brothers on a Nintendo64
ORIGINAL.
51.
You owned a
portable CD player/Walkman.
52.
(GIRLS) You
wore a mood ring.
53.
You were completely stoked when you discovered
they had made pizza and taco
lunchables!
54.
You bought every single NOW! CD that came
out.
55.
(GIRLS) 7th
Heaven and Buffy the Vampire
Slayer was a part of your life.
56.
(GIRLS) You
wore jelly shoes.
57.
You played with
your Skip It and Bop It.
58.
You played red
light, green light at recess.
59.
You played
‘Heads Up 7-Up’ whenever you
had a substitute teacher.
60.
You played hopscotch.
61.
You hummed
the theme song to The Wonder
Years over and over.
62.
You relied on
‘eenie meenie miny moe’ to settle
difficult decisions.
63.
You drank those
plastic Kool-Aid bottles that had the
twist off caps.
64.
(BOYS) You
put forth all your effort while playing Dodgeball, Steal The Bacon,
Capture the Flag, and Flag Football.
65.
You sat in a
circle with a bunch of friends and
played, “Down by the banks of the
Hanky Panky, where the bullfrogs
jump from bank to banky, where
the eeps, ops, sodapops, hey Mr.
Lilypad and went kerplops.”
66.
[Then hit your
partner in the head; whoever hits
first, wins.]
67.
You played
‘Butts Up’ outside when you had
nothing else to do.
68.
You came home
30 minutes past curfew (when it
was dark outside) and thought you
were such a rebel.
69.
There was a
time in your life when roller-backpacks were awesome… and then
there was a time when you
wouldn’t be caught dead with one.
I will never forget the day that Kerri
Hall strolled into my 6th grade classroom as a transfer student, trudging behind her a roller-backpack. J
70.
(GIRLS) You
wore stick-on nails with all those
fancy designs. Remember how
badly it hurt when you would rip
them off?
71.
(GIRLS) You
wore beaded-socks that rolled
down just above your ankles.
72.
Double double
this this, Double double that that,
Double this, double that, Double
double this that.
73.
(GIRLS) You
memorized the handshake from
The Parent Trap and used it among
your friends.
74.
(BOYS) You
sported the famous ‘bowl cut’ hairstyle.
75.
Your first cell
phone was the Nokia cell phone
with literally hundreds of covers you
could swap on and off as you
pleased. And how obsessed were
you with that snake game?!
76.
You owned a
pair of pants that conveniently converted into long shorts by simply
unzipping the pants just above your
knee.
77.
(GIRLS) You
loved getting hair wraps, and then
hated it when you had to cut them
out of your hair.
78.
(GIRLS) You
wore spandex bike shorts under
your skirt and thought it was in reality, fashionable.
79.
You tied your
sweatshirt around your waist if it
got too hot.
80.
“Coca-Cola
went to town, Diet Pepsi knocked
him down, Dr. Pepper picked him
up, now your drinking 7-Up. 7-Up
got the flu, now your drinking Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew fell off a
mountain, now your drinking from
a fountain. The fountain broke, that’s
no joke, now your back to drinking
Coke!”
81.
Titanic was your
favorite movie.
82.
“Lemonade,
crunchy ice, blend it once, blend it
twice. Lemonade crunchy ice blend
it once blend it twice, OH YEAH!”
83.
You cleaned up
your toys singing, “Clean up, clean
up, everybody everywhere, clean
up, clean up, everybody do your
share.” I was always the kid who
just happened to need to go to the
restroom at that time…
84.
(GIRLS) “Say,
say, oh playmate, come out and play
with me, and bring your dollies three,
climb up my apple tree, slide down
my rainbow, into my cellar door, and
we’ll be jolly friends, forever more
more more more more.”
85.
(GIRLS) You
wore butterfly clips in your hair.
86.
(GIRLS) You
played with your Sky Dancers. Remember those little dolls with wings
and a draw string in the back, forcing it to fly a short distance…
87.
“Inka binka
bottle of ink, the cork fell out and
your stink, not because your dirty,
not because your clean, just because
you kissed the boy/girl behind the
magazine.”
88.
You played jump
rope and chanted, “Cinderella
dressed in yellow went upstairs to
kiss the fellow made a mistake and
kissed a snake how many doctors
did
it
take?
1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...(number
of times you jump rope)”
I am sure there are thousands more little 90’s characteristics that you can remember.
These were some of my favorite- correction, still are. The 90’s
marked a time when being a kid
did not involve having a
cellphone, TeeVo or the latest
new adolescent fashion. In ten
years, I’d like to see the article
titled, “You know you’re a
millenium baby if...” The 90’s will
always be better, arguement
closed :).
6
2009
N O V E M B E R
MONTHLY
Boys Basketball UPDATES ON
Girls Soccer OUR FELLOW
SM TEAMS
Girls Basketball SPORTS
Girls Water Polo Boys Soccer Wrestling Left:
Boys basketball team
photo.
Photo Courtesy smhs.org
Right:
SM is kicking the ball
away from the opposing
team.
Photo Courtesy of Karsyn
Kraft
Boys Basketball Tips Off the Season
All Song Ladies
By Melissa Zornig and Denise Fernandez
Santa Margarita students may not know what
songleaders do, they may not
even know who they are, and
unfortunately do not know
what a songleader is. They are
at every football game trying
to get the crowd and students
involved as much as possible.
They may appear as additional
cheerleaders, there are two
main reasons why they are not
the same. First they wear different uniforms and second,
they have pom-poms. See all
the girls at the Basketball
home games, which are right
around the corner.
The team is led by senior captain Nikki Nelson and
junior captain Emily Haines, almost every weekend the team
travels to different schools to
compete. On December 13th,
the SM songleaders won first
place in the Varsity Song Team
Performance Division at the
National Dance Association
Classic Championship in San
Diego. This win qualified the
team for Nationals which is
held in Florida in mid March.
On Saturday January 17th, SM
hosted a songleader and cheer
competition, which was a huge
turnout and great success.
After asking Emily
Haines what her favorite thing
about song is, she replied, “I
love working with such a talented and goal oriented group
of girls”. Sarah Mixon added,
“We are kind of a big deal”.
There are 10 girls on the
team, 6 of which are underclassmen. In the years to
come, SM song will be one of
the best in the country because
they put in a tremendous
amount of hard work and effort. If you see a member of
the team do not hesitate to congratulate them for their success.
The boy’s varsity basketball team has been working very hard to be one of the
top teams in Orange County
and in the Trinity League.
Competition this year is very
tough but they are prepared
to take on every team.
Last Friday, on Jan. 9,
the boys took on St. John
Bosco at their home court, in
their first league game of the
season, to a 56-46 victory.
Daniel Munoz was the high
scorer with 23 points. This
was a great victory to kick off
the season.
Over Christmas break,
the boys went to Las Vegas
to play in a very competitive
tournament against teams
from all over the country. In
a tough game verses Bishop
Gorman, the Eagle’s came 2
points short of beating a
highly ranked team. The boys
ended up finishing the tournament with two wins and
two losses. Playing in this
tournament helped them to
prepare for the real competition coming up in league.
After losing a strong
starting line-up last year, the
boys have a lot of shoes to
fill in this year. The Eagle’s
should do well in the Trinity
League against JSerra, St.
John
Bosco,
Orange
Lutheran, and Servite. Their
main competition this year is
rival, Mater Dei. On
Wednesday January 14, the
eagles defeated Servite at what who you represent.” –
DeBusk
home and the final score was Coach
6
3
4
5
.
D & M: What are some of your
We had the opportunity to ask rituals or superstitions before
a
m
e
s
?
some of the players some fun g
facts about themselves: ”Potato Shoot.” – Matthew
B
o
c
k
Dee & Mel: What is favorite
meal before a game? D & M: What is your favorite
movie?
”Whatever Mr. Dupre basketball
”Space
Jam
and
Coach
makes.”
–The
team
Carter.”
–Alex
Dupre
D & M: What is your favorite
pump
up
song? D & M: Who is your favorite
l
a
y
e
r
?
”Move Your Feet” – Gavin p
E s c o b a r ”Klay Thompson.” –Pat
M
o
r
a
n
D & M: What is the team
motto
this
year? D & M: Favorite college team?
”Know who you are and ”Syracuse.” – Chase Johnson
Cheer Dominates Competition Girls Soccer Kicks Off
By Karsyn Kraft
By Dean Navarro
Many of the students
at SM have witnessed the
varsity cheer team practice
after school and seen bits of
what they do. Jogging a lap
around the track with chips
in your hand doesn’t seem
so bad, but what many
people don’t realize is the
effort that goes into their
competitions. After talking
to a few girls on the cheer
team they said that they enjoy bonding with each other
in the midst of their season
and taking pictures with
each other. Their routines
take an abundance amount
of time and focus to learn
and perfect.
Many might say that
their routines might take as
much skill as the call on me
music video. The Cheer
competition team has had
fortunate results so far this
year and is expected to continue is growing with suc-
cess. All fifteen of the girl
competitors contribute a
great amount to the team.
The four captains of the varsity cheer squad are the seniors Maggie, Quinn, Megan
and Cassie and they continue to lead the girls. Their
latest competition was on
January 25 th and although
they did not win, the girls
competed great and were
happy with their result.
Back-flip veteran Nicole
Borden explains, “We hit
everything and were really
clean and sharp. This competition was good practice
for Florida next week.” During the football games and
basketball games, the squad
has definitely boosted our
confidence and support for
our teams. For the next upcoming competition, make
sure you all come and support their routines that no
one would ever expect.
The Girls Soccer
2008-2009 season is under
way! This season varsity has
grown to having 25 players on
the team. There are 9 graduating seniors, two of them already committed to playing
college level soccer. This
year the team captain is Senior Parris Wells, who has
committed to St. Louis University. For the weekend of
December 5-6, the girls traveled to San Diego to play in
the prestigious Cathedral
Catholic Soccer Tournament.
The girls tied to Cathedral
Catholic and Bishops, and
won against Point Loma.
Back at home, the varsity
team has won against
Trabuco Hills High School
and tied against the competitive Los Alamitos team. Every year, the team sets aside
a day to play with alumni that
has played at the college
level, and sometimes profes-
sional level.
This year, the varsity
team successfully won two of
the three bracket games at the
Excalibur tournament. When
league games started, the girls’
team came out on top against
Rosary, dominating 6-2. The
second league game brought
the eagles to a brutally physical game against the Mater Dei
Monarchs. At the end of the
first half, the eagles were
down 1-0. As the second half
began, the eagles came out
with huge tenacity, wanting revenge, but were defeated..
Unfortunately, the outcome left
the eagles with a 1-0 loss.
Most recently, the lady eagles
soccer players defeated the
Orange Lutheran Lancers 1-0.
Junior starter, Alexandra
“Sparky” Trenary describes
her feelings for this season in
the phrase “Believe in yourself,
believe in the team! Defense
’09, no regrets!”
By Cody Webster
7
The Blueprint
January 2009
The Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
FEATURES
We Can Tell the Future...
2009 Horoscopes!
By Kenna Crouse
Virgo : Aug 23-Sept 22
The planets have exciting
things in store for you this
month. This good fortune may
cloud your good judgment so
don’t forget to appreciate the
things you have and don’t lose
track of what is important to
you. A friend could really need
your support and valued advice, so don’t pass up a chance
to just get some coffee and
talk. Who knows maybe you’ll
find some insight into your own
life.
Leo: July 23- Aug 22
You have lost something
that is important to you because of your poor decisions,
but don’t worry it can be regained. It is something you
know you need, so work on
making yourself more complete and show genuine care
for others and you should have
no problem finding what you
have lost.
Aquarius: Jan 20-Feb
18
This upcoming month
could prove a challenge for
you if you do not realize you
have to work for things you
want. Not everything is supposed to be easy but once
you figure out what you want
and how to get it, the rest of
your life will fall into place.
In your case, mistakes will
help you to learn so don’t be
afraid to take a risk and
make a change.
Taurus: April 21May 21
You have just gone
through a life changing experience and things are starting
to come into perspective.
Family is suddenly very important to you and you might
find yourself filling your time
with fun adventures and experiences with parents and
siblings. Don’t forget to give
your friends some of the
TLC you are craving from
them.
Sagittarius: Nov 22-
Dec 21
You are growing as a person and realizing you can make
decisions for yourself. Be sure to
acknowledge that the people who
care about you are trying to help
not hinder your growth. This is a
good month to try something new
and form some lasting friendships
in unexpected places.
Gemini: May 22-June 21
This month brings change
and happiness for you. A new interest will spark creativity and
help you to learn more about
yourself and your friends. You are
a great listener and someone in
your life could really use your useful advice and compassionate spirit.
Aries: March 21-April 20
This month is all about fitness for you. Try joining a gym
and eating healthier, not only will
you feel great about yourself after this hectic and over-indulgent
holiday season, but you will be in
a better mood. Your happiness is
contagious and you will find that
your kindness will be returned
to you in due time.
Scorpio: Oct 23-Nov
21
Reoccurring trust issues
with a friend may cause some
trouble at the beginning of this
month. Try spending some time
apart and by the 13th you will
have resolved your differences and come out of your fight
being even closer than before.
Cancer: June 22-July
22
Planning on making a big
decision right now? The timing around the 11th is perfect,
you are clearly seeing all aspects of your decision and no
matter what decision you make
you will be happy with the outcome.
Libra: Sept 23- Oct 22
Family obligations seem
to monopolize your time right
now but soon you will seem to
have abundances of free time
to spend with your friends.
Don’t forget about your fami-
ly, they might start to feel left
out of your life and try to reel
you in by controlling your activities. To prevent this, talk to
them and make them feel included in your life.
Pisces: Feb 19-Mar 20
One of your best friends
may be depending on you for
something important, don’t let
them down. Right now it might
seem like a major burden but
you will end up really appreciating the time you spend together and the experiences you
have.
Capricorn: Dec 22-Jan
19
Listen to the advice you
receive but take it with a grain
of salt. The person giving it
might have ulterior motives that
you are unaware of, don’t be
afraid to ask a family member
for some help. You will surely
find peace in their helpful advice.
What Started Valentine’s Day? 38 Things to do Before You Graduate SM
By Lauren Hundley and Kelsey Hummer
Why is Valentine’s Day
the day when everyone
spends money buying something for the ones the love?
This arose years ago, when
there was a Roman named St.
Valentine. Valentine’s Day
started with Valentine actually sending the first ‘valentine’
greeting.
While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in
love with a young girl — who
may have been his jailor’s
daughter who visited him during his confinement. Before
his death, it is alleged that he
wrote her a letter, which he
signed ‘From your Valentine,’
an expression that is still in use
today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legend is
murky, the stories certainly
emphasize his appeal as a
sympathetic, heroic, and, most
importantly, romantic figure.
By the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints throughout England
and France.
From that day forward
the day of February 14th
was named St. Valentine’s
day. This day today, is
shown by people who loved
one another around the
world. By buying things for
their loved ones, making
their loved ones feels important. Valentine’s Day is
not only for couples but
from parents to children and
friends and family. It is a
day that the world shows
affection for the ones they
love. Just because someone
isn’t married, or they are
not in a relationship does not
mean they cannot share the
holiday by sharing their love
with their friends and family.
Share your Valentine’s Day with someone
you love, in a relationship or
not. Let the ones you love
know you care this Valentine’s Day.
By Allison Le and Alexa Kosco
1. Get to know Mr. Dunne
2. Stay off Facebook for a
whole day (yeah right)
3.Start a Club
4. “Talk to a boy…” – Sarah Mixson, 10
5. Visit the Chapel
6. Talk your way out of a
detention…”Ace I swear I won’t
ever do it again, I’ll clean tables
for a week!!!”
7. Run for ASB officer
8. Pull an all-nighter
9. “Chew gum in class and
not get caught” – Daniel Jones, 9
10. Actually wait in the lunch
line for once
11. After the first time, never wait in the lunch line again
12. Have a one-on-one with
Father Butters
13. Host a study sesh
14. Get kicked out of the Library, or actually stay in it
15. Join a sports team
16. Go to the wrong lunch
on “accident”
17. Become Mr. Holloway’s
BFF
18. “Have my first kiss”
– Anonymous
19. Get a job!!
20. Skip a day of
school…for “educational” purposes
21. Attend the formal
dances
22. “Swim in the new
pool!!” – Kaila Shimawji, 9
23. Go to the football
games!!
24. Have a cameo in an
ETV video…without permission
25. Go a day with wearing absolutely no uniform apparel
26. Chat it up with the
lunch ladies
27. “Parachute off the G
building” –Cody Webster, 11
28. Go to an SM football
game and actually watch it
29. Come to school at
7:30 on a double late start
30. Get a driver’s license
31. “Get into a college
that I like” –Alli Jung, 10
32. Be mentioned in The
Blueprint
33. Have more than fifteen pictures in the SM yearbook
34. Try out a ridiculous fad
diet that ends up lasting a good
day
35. Go on a retreat
36. Help a freshman
around school.
37. “Actually graduate…” –Anonymous
38. Meet Alexis and
Laura!! Hooooray!!
Most importantly, meet
Mr. Dunne! Photo courtesy
of smhs.org.
8
The Blueprint
The Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
January 2009
Second Semester Seniors vs. Fresh Faced Freshmen
By Emily McCartney and Olivia Staffon
Considering we’re starting
the second half of the year, we
thought that it is about time to compare the life of a second semester
senior to a fresh faced freshman.
Let’s start with the most
obvious comparison: The Backpack. With the exception of Cassie
Mazolewski and her “hiker’s backpack”, it’s safe to say that the seniors have a small backpack, or no
backpack at all. The freshman, on
the other hand, have that 9 compartment giant Jansport with cupcakes or butterflies on them. When
you’re running to class, the seniors
totally know you’re a freshman.
You’re the first ones up from the
lunch table and the first ones on
your way to class. Bah, and you
wonder how we can tell you’re a
freshman.
Sometimes when you’re sitting in class and “glance” out the
window, who’s more likely to be
walking by the door wandering the
halls?Yeah, a senior.You little freshmen are better off to stay in class,
learning algebra and geography
anyways.
When comparing the “Attendance” on Aeries (which seniors
don’t check anyways…) of a senior to a freshman, you will find that
the days missed of the senior is quite
more numerous than that of the little
one. Senioritis apparently includes an
increase in classes missed.
Dress Code. Need we say
more? Well yeah maybe…it only
applies to the freshman. There’s a
reason the dean’s surround the freshman tables like hawks. They just wait
for the moment when a freshman
stands up so they can nail them for
any dress code ish. BAM. It happens. However, they deserve to be
put into shape because they think they
are way too cool with those short
skorts and illegal jackets.
Another big difference is
height. The seniors of 2009 sprouted
around the end of sophomore year.
So freshman, don’t be worried! Your
time will come to grow from 5’1 to
6’2. You must be patient and enjoy
being able to not touch the ground
with your feet at the lunch tables.
As for school dances, Seniors
have the privilege to go to Homecoming, Winter Formal, and Prom.
They can also go to the Spirit Dances,
but many don’t. Wonder why? It’s
all freshmen! I’m sorry little ones, but
you know that those class color
dances are basically a sea of yellow
doing the robot and sprinkler and such.
Although, we, Olivia and Emily, will
Diary of a Teacher
By Becca Caraveo and Michelle Loftus
Ahh well I wake up
looking forward to another
day of cheerful teenagers,
in hopes that my parking
spot is not taken by a student. So I dress for success, fill up my cup with the
finest Folgers in town and
hit the streets, praying that
I avoid student drivers on
the road.
I’ve made it to Antonio and Banderas safe without spotting a student in the
car next to me who appears
to have just eaten a bowl of
sugar.
So I’m making my way
into the parking lot and oh
what do you know, someone
took MY parking spot. The
license
plate
reads
NORGT09; it must be a senior. Having to park in a different spot, I took a nice
journey from the Dove gate,
but I luckily saw my favorite students on the way.
The day passes ever
so slowly, lecture after lecture, yawn after yawn, complaint after complaint, cell
phone taking after cell
phone taking, disruption af-
ter disruption, I finally make
it to the last period with the
little energy I have left. My
last period seems to be running smoothly until the horrendous noise of the fire drill
fires off. The kids are as
happy as can be to not have
to endure the pains of my lecture anymore. Making sure
no one is looking, I sneak in a
grin as well. I could use
some fresh air about now.
We w a l k t o t h e 1 0
yard line southeast. My students create a massage train
as I take attendance, taking
full advantage of this practice
drill. I spot my colleague Mr.
John McTeach in the distance
and decide to strike up a conversation. He flashed me a
rather large stack of detentions from the day, and we
shared a nice chuckle. I collected my students back in
order and we trotted back to
class. At the end of the day
I always realize why I love
coming to school and overcoming the obstacles, because as the last bell of the
day rings, I know I enhanced
the lives of many students.
fully admit that we attend these spirit
dances packed to capacity limit with
freshman or not. They’re still entertaining! Seniors: if you haven’t been
to a dance since the cowboy dance
freshman year, I suggest you hit the
next on up. Dance with the freshman, they love it...
Facebook, facebook, oh
facebook. We all have one whether
it’s checked seven times a day or
once a week. For freshman, your
eyes wander to the bottom right corner of your screen to “notifications”.
You click on it to see who compared
you to someone else, and see that
“so and so” (the hot upperclassman)
has accepted your friend request!
“Yay! They recognize me!” is what
goes through your head. Well for a
senior, facebook goes a little bit differently. As the “second semester senior”, you log on and your eyes focus on the top right of your facebook
window. You have three new friend
requests and immediately click to see
who wants to be your friend now.
“Woah, 3 freshmen today. Same as
yesterday and last week. Awesome…” is what runs through your
mind. Freshies, we know you love
us. So thanks for the friend requests.
Keep them coming!
This is specifically
aimed towards the freshman
girls. Most of you wear make up
and straighten or curl your hair
every day. Enjoy having the mascara, perfect complexion, and
pretty hair now youngins. Three
years from now you’ll be sick of
the extra 25 minutes you spend
perfecting your eyelashes and
hair for the school day. It’s going
to get old, trust us. Have fun now,
but enjoy your sleep later!
It’s lunchtime and a freshman zooms by you. You fresh
faced freshman who run to the
lunch line every day know who
you are. It still doesn’t make
sense that you run there every
day at 10:51 or 11:53, because
you’re still out of luck no matter
how quickly you get there. You
have to realize that seniors don’t
wait in line. We don’t wait for
you to politely excuse yourself
with your slice of cheese pizza.
If there isn’t already a senior in
line to buy our food, it works like
this: you, freshman, get in line and
“hold our spot”. We’ll catch up
with you and give you our money
to by food when we get there.
Thanks for all your help little ones.
If one were to head back
near the girls locker room and open
up a locker, they would find a inside: six or seven books, a binder
labeled for each class, a book shelf
to separate the top and bottom of
the skinny locker, some may have
carpet (and I, Emily, will admit I had
lime green carpet in the bottom of
my locker freshman year), and a
relatively new calculator with backup batteries. Then, walk on over towards the back of the lunch shelter. Open up a locker and you will
be sure to find: 2 or 3 books, old
papers thrown in that were never
studied, and possibly a few detentions. Keep in mind everything in
that locker is stacked on top of each
other with no means of organization.
Freshmen, we can only poke
fun at your freshie ways because
we all experienced freshman year
as well and know how it goes. It’s
understandable that you act in the
ways you do because you are freshmen and we love you even though
you may act annoying at times.
Sooner than you think, you will be
in our spot, able to make fun of the
new fresh faced freshmen! And for
the seniors, it’s second semester.
Enough said.
Can You Keep Your Resolution?
By Karlie Borzansky
Another year gone and
a new one freshly on our minds,
what will be in store for us in the
year of 2009? Bringing in the
New Year has always been a
time to say goodbye to the past
and say HELLOOO to the upcoming year. Many people will
be thinking about how to make
this approaching year better than
the last, and possibly come up
with a resolution or two. Trying to change old habits, and
create new ones, focus more
in school, be the “hot ticket”
on campus, lose five pounds,
and so many more goals that
will probably be forgotten
before the second month is
over. Many say to aim low,
because if you set the bar too
high, you’re doomed from
the start. Others claim to “go
big or go home” and they test
themselves on an almost impossible resolution. So I ask myself, are the students of Santa
Margarita truly committed to
achieving their New Year’s
resolution? Or will they only
last a good 20 minutes? ….
You tell me :)
“To beat Paul Connor at SOMETHING!” – Patrick Farley (Senior) “To remember what lunch I go to” ‐Nicole Dellamaggiore (Freshman) “To stop speeding on Antonio!!” ‐Keely Humphrey (Junior) “To be less beautiful” ‐Stephen Gould (Sophomore) 9
The Blueprint
January 2009
The Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
Information for YOU on Infomercials
By Kevin Witt and Derek Smith
Early Sunday morning, you find yourself awake
and unable to go back to sleep.
All of your friends are asleep
so you turn on the TV in hopes
of entertaining yourself. But
you realize there is absolutely
nothing on TV other than useless infomercials. Comedy
Central, USA, and many other
channels are running half-hour
long ads for stuff that looks
like it took a minute to think
of, and even less to realize
how stupid the idea was in the
first place. Don’t get us
wrong, some infomercials actually sell real products (think
Bowflex and Smash Ballads),
but the majority of the items
are quite ridiculous.
The
wondrous journalistic team of
Kevin and Derek has decided
to review the absolute worst
infomercials that we all hate.
The first on our list is
the Shamwow! infomercial.
Even though some people may
have received a Shamwow!
kit, the infomercial is just
looney. First of all the guy
selling it has a headset on for
no apparent reason. The pro-
duction value makes it seem like
it was constructed in a basement.
And for only five payments of
$3.99 Shamwow! can be yours!
That really bugs. Why don’t they
just say one hundred dollars? Do
they think we’re stupid? Not to
mention, there is already an item
all of us already use that does the
same job (*ahem*…a towel), so
what’s the use? Honestly, just
keep your money and spend it on
something a little more worthwhile (a yo-yo?).
Next we’re going to talk
about the king of schlepping useless junk. No not a similarly
named hall of fame baseball
player, but the hated Billy Mays.
Remember the guy with the loud
annoying voice on those OxiClean commercials? Yep, it’s Mr.
Mays. He sells more useless junk
than a garage sale. Lately, he’s
been selling Mighty Putty, another useless piece of junk. It’s
expensive, and once again you already have something that can
do the job (glue? Hammer and
nails?). Mays has also recently
been selling Mighty Mendit, basically glue for fabrics. People,
why spend money on this junk
when you can just use a sewing
machine?! Folks, Billy Mays lives
in a $1.8 million dollar home and
did not even go to college
(Wikipedia). It does not reflect
well on society when someone
who sells complete garbage like
Mays can not only make a living,
but make millions of dollars.
Another
hilarious
infomercial is the Snuggie. What
the HECK were the inventors
thinking? A blanket with sleeves?
The infomercial claims that it allows people to now be able to
wear a blanket and do things like
answering a phone at the same
time. Really, if you can’t wear a
blanket and answer the phone at
the same time there is something
really wrong with you. Also, the
commercial says they are great
for sporting events. We wouldn’t
be caught dead in a Snuggie in my
house, let alone outside of it. Plus,
if it’s cold outside, why wouldn’t
you just wear a sweatshirt? It is
the most ridiculous infomercial in
the history of infomercials. Anyone who owns a Snuggie should
try and get their money back fast,
because Snuggie Inc. isn’t going
to stay in business for long.
You Go Here?...
In conclusion, we
would not touch any of these
items with a mile-long stick.
We suggest that you buy legitimate stuff instead of buying cheap rubbish that supposedly will make the job
easier. It is quite ironic because
these items will most likely complicate and frustrate you. So, if
we were you, we would save
our money for a college education, instead of ending up like
Billy Mays.
Billy Mays: the info guy with the brain to cook up ANY idea! Photo courtesy of
google images.
THE BLUEPRINT
By Lauren Meech and Kristen Pons
1. What’s your name
and grade?
Will Tomp, 12
2. Favorite taste?
Sour
3. Would you rather be
a Muppet or a Teletubbie?
Teletubbie
4. What’s your New
Year’s resolution?
To get huge.
5. Do you have a girlfriend?
Single
6. Who’s your dream
date to Winter Formal?
Jessica Alba or Adriana
Lima
7. Aquafina or Arrowhead?
What’s the difference?
8. Cool Whip or RediWhip?
Redi-Whip is more fun.
9. Have you ever killed
a mockingbird?
Sorry what? What does
that even mean?
10.
Blonde or
brunette?
Brunette
11.
Princess
Leah or Princess Fiona?
I don’t know who either
of those people are.
12.
At what age
should girls stop wearing bikinis?
70
13.
Would
you
rather go stag or with a date you
don’t like?
Stag
14.
How do fire ants
have babies?
They mate.
Faculty Advisor
Ms. Rhodes
Rhodese@smhs.org
Campus Ministry Editors
Lauren Giudice
Kyle Richter
Editors in Chief
Emily McCartney
Olivia Staffon
World News/Health Editor
Gaby Duva
Co-Editor
Lauren Vargas
Managing Editor
Samantha Toth
News Editor
Samantha Toth
Features Editors
Alexis King
Laura Schmeltzer
Entertainment Editor
Ross Kirkbaumer
Sports Editor
Allison Acevedo
Co-Editors
Ryan McGuire
Brian Sanvido
Opinion/Editorial Editor
Alex Worthen
Co-Editor
Niki Genthe
The senior Will Tomp who is totally into
brunettes. All you brown-hair girls
better keep an eye out for him. Photo
courtesy of Lauren Meech.
Campus Life/Photo Editor
Lindsay Mortenson
Special Section Editors
Parris Wells
Alyssa Wolpin
Beginning Staff Writers
Kevin Avjian
Aria Bendix
Karlie Borzansky
Kevin Clark
Camille del Carmen
Caitlin Doud
Adam Enochs
Denise Fernandez
Amanda Figueroa
Katelyn Finneran
Paige Glasser
Kelsey Hummer
Lauren Hundley
Ross Kingsley
Alexa Kosco
Allison Le
Lauren Meech
Dean Navarro
Elizabeth Pinner
Kristen Pons
Jackie Pritzl
Caroline Rivera
Polina Romashkova
Amanda Rooth
Derek Smith
Karenna Soto
Noelle Sumner
Cheyane Swarbrick
Clark Taylor
Cody Webster
Jake Whelan
Kevin Witt
Melissa Zornig
Advanced Staff Writers
Julia Boyle
Morgan Brutocao
Becca Caraveo
Caroline Christ
Kenna Crouse
Spencer Feldmann
Nicolette Fernandez
Kerri Hall
Amanda Kiepe
Ashley Kotero
Karsyn Kraft
Michelle Loftus
Melissa Merrill
Lauren Rodriguez
*Comments and editorial opinions expressed in The Blueprint are
the staff’s and do not represent the position of the school, its
administration, faculty or students.
The Blueprint welcomes your comments and questions at
Blueprint@smhs.org.
10
The Blueprint
The Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
2009
2009
2009
January 2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
Special Section
2009 Fashion
Ross Kingsley & Clark
Taylor
Students of Santa
Margarita, the 2009 year has
come, and with it, new technologies and ideas. Of course,
every New Year there are new
appliances, car models, etc…
However, every New Year
there is always one thing we
die for but is truly unimportant:
Fashion! Every year, Americans spend millions upon millions of dollars buying things
that either they already have
or probably just don’t need. We
all grow out of our clothes and
are forced to buy new ones.
So why not get clothes that are
up to date and actually fit? We
are here to give you all the
lowdown on what is “hot” for
the New Year and what is,
“not”. So sit back and self-indulge upon the newest and hottest fashions of 2009!
NEW LAWS
of
2009!
Katelyn Finneran
January 1 st not only
marked the day of a new year,
but also marked the day of new
laws in the state of California.
So while you are celebrating
the New Year, remember the
2009
2009
Ladies, lets start with
you. For this New Year, one
of the most popular items on
the list for you women are
sweats (with juicy and cupcake written across the
back). Also, the bob and
fringe haircuts are a must.
When we asked what the
bob was someone told us that
Rhianna had that haircut. At
that point we realized we
have never looked at her hair.
Of course, with the sweats
you must have uggs in every
single color of the rainbow.
For the top, colonial jackets
made out of civil war wool
and topped with African
beads are perfect. With this
new sensation, the boys will
be eating out of your hand.
Let’s just say, hypothetically,
you are not in a mood to hang
out with friends or remain casual. Let’s say you are more
in a mood to go dancing and
partying with your friends.
For this occasion, you will want
some ridiculously expensive
and totally ridiculous fur
rimmed, hot Christmas socks.
But what to wear for your feet?
Try a pair of crocks or rainbows.
These things are only your basic list of ensembles. This will
be a good year indeed.
Now lets move on to the
men. For the boys this year in
2009 parachute pants and du
rags are a definite must. Also,
there is still nothing wrong with
rockin’ the jeans or sweats
with a t-shirt and a purple SFSU
jacket. Girls, continue to sport
the poodle skirts and leopard
tube-tops and boys continue to
wear the simple clothes that are
comfortable and never go out
of date. We aren’t going to
deny it we know absolutely
nothing about fashion, but the
people that do don’t really either. So, take our advice and lets
get this year started out right.
laws that are now enforced.
Most teen drivers are
affected by these new laws,
especially no texting while
operating a motor vehicle. In
2008, a law of hands free cell
phones came into place, but
many said, “It’s only talking
on the phone, not texting”.
Well, as of January 3, 2009,
it is against the law to text
while driving! This means no
writing, reading or sending
text-based communication on
electronic wireless communication devices. Also you cannot
send emails and/or instant messages from your phone while
driving. Even if you are at a stop
light it is still prohibited. The first
offense is a $20 fine and $50
fine for each subsequent offense. However, kids under the
age of 18 should not even have
their phones out while driving,
that’s been the law since July
1, 2008.
According to AccidentAttornys.com, State
Superintendent of
Public Instruction Jack
O’Connell states the
following about the
new law, “All it takes
is one mistake to
change a young life
forever, I cannot
stress enough how important this new law
is, to help students stay
safe and healthy, so
they will be ready to
learn when they go
back to school”.
I’m sure everyone in their life will
eventually get a traffic ticket. If you do, be
sure to know that the
price of traffic tickets
have
gone
up.
Whether you have
The Law, photo courtesy of Google images.
New Movie Releases
for 2009!
Parris Wells
1. Bride Wars (January)
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (January)
3. The Pink Panther 2 (February)
4. Friday the 13th (February)
5. The Lovely Bones (March)
6. Monsters vs. Aliens (April)
7. Angels & Demons (May)
8. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May)
9. Hannah Montana (May)
10. Fast & Furious 4 (June)
11. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (June)
12. Terminator Salvation (June)
13. 2012 (July)
14. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (July)
15. G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (August)
16. New Moon (November)
gotten a ticket before or never
have, this will affect you. This
also makes traffic school rise in
price from $24 to $49 to attend
and get the ticket off your
record.
People, who have been
convicted of DUI before can
now have their license suspended for a year and have your
car impounded if you have a
BAC of 0.01 and above. Lesson of the law, never drink and
drive, and if you do don’t do it
more than once!According to
the DMV (dmv.ca.gov), mouth
wash, breath strips, soy sauce,
white bread, and cough syrup
get you up to a BAC of 0.01 or
higher. Be smart, and drive safe!
Restaurants in California
with a chain of 20 or more are
not required to post nutritional information. This law will take
place from July 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010 with dinners
and must be on each menu in
2011. Each facility must have at
least total number of calories,
total number of grams of carbohydrates, total number of grams
of saturated fat, and total number of milligrams of sodium. It is
a good way of knowing exactly
what you’re consuming.
School officials are now
able to suspend or recommend
expulsion for pupils who engage
in bullying by electronic means, including over the Internet. Any student who bullies over the internet
or texting needs to watch out for
the consequences at school. If any
school official sees or hears about
bullying by electronics has the authority to act upon it. So watch out,
and do not bully!
Everyone has make a prank
call in their life before, some call
9-1-1 for a prank, thinking nothing
of it. Well people who knowingly
use 911 emergency lines for calls
other than emergencies are now
at penalty. The penalty is a written
warning on first offense, $50 on
second, and $100 on third.
A law is a law and we must
follow them. It is for the safety of
us and those around us. Be sure to
remember when you’re doing
something wrong consequences
will follow.
Happy 2009 Santa
Margarita! I hope you have a
great year. For you underclassmen, stay strong and power
through these next couple of
years; for the seniors... We’re
almost done, enjoy your last
months of High School!
Love Your SS Editor,
Parris Wells
11
The Blueprint
The Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
January 2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
The New
Music of
2009!
Amanda Kiepe
I have to be honest: the
music I have been hearing
lately is pretty lame. Radio stations seem to be getting desperate, playing music from
new artists that remind me of
The Wiggles. I haven’t heard
any good music since the beginning of last year, and if you
ask me, the only noteworthy
artists of 2008 seemed to be
Katy Perry and Britney
Spears; now that’s just plain
sad. I think we can do better
than that. So where is everybody? Where are all the
GOOD bands? In recording
studios, that’s where. Here is
a list of what we get to look
forward to and impatiently wait
for in 2009:
1. Green Day is busy
recording the follow-up to
2004’s multi-platinum and
multiple-Grammy-winning
American Idiot. The new
album will be political and will
be the boldest release of
Green Day’s 20-year career.
The album is tentatively set
to be released in the spring.
2. Muse has been
working since this past summer on their follow-up to
2006’s Black Holes & Revelations. There are many
rumors surrounding the new
album, but I think it’s safe to
say that it will sound like an
epic rock opera. The band
hopes it will be released in
the later half of 2009.
3. Paramore has
moved on from the success
of last year’s Riot! and are
busy working on their third
album. It’s too early for de-
2009
Special Section
tails, but frontwoman Hayley
Williams says the album will be
recorded in Nashville so that it
will have a “raw” sound. Expect it sometime this summer.
4. Saosin expects to have
their much-anticipated sophomore album out this April.
Frontman Cove Reber says
there are at least three “punksounding” songs and that the
album will hopefully contain a
number of guest vocalists.
5. Panic at the Disco is
set to release a new album this
spring. Expect it to have a
strong Beatles influence like last
year’s Pretty. Odd. The band
hopes to record it at the famous
Abbey Road recording studio in
London.
6. Recently, AFI has revealed that they have finished
writing the follow-up to 2006’s
Decemberunderground. The
band has also invited six lucky
fans to provide backing-vocals
on one of the new album’s
tracks. Currently, there is no
official release date for the new
album.
7. 30 Seconds to Mars
are busy recording the followup to 2005’s platinum-selling A
Beautiful Lie. Judging from
new songs and videos floating
around the internet, the new album will have a strong Pink
Floyd influence. Expect it to be
released in late spring.
8. Taking Back Sunday
expects to have a new album
out this spring. Frontman Adam
Lazzara says the album will
have a more aggressive sound
than 2006’s Louder Now and
will also have many three-part
harmonies, thanks to the addition of bassist Matt Rubano’s
voice and new guitarist Matt
Fazzi.
Electric Guitar, photo courtesy
of Google.
12
January 2009
Are you ready for some football?! MOVIES
MUSIC
& MORE
Guitar Hero or Rock Band? …take your pick WF?
Entertainment What’s Hot this Month Take Me To Haven
By Paige Glasser
Rosskins, From Eva to Walle, It would make me so jolly, if we went to formal together without any folly. It would be tons of fun, and a good time too, so from Eva to Walle, I want to go with you! Love, Sarah Da Super Bowl
By Ryan McGuire and Brian Sanvido
On February 1, 2009
Tampa Bay will set the stage for
an ultimate battle of sophomore
head coaches. It’s the Steelers
vs. Cardinals, or Tomlin vs.
Whisenhunt. The roads they took
to reach the Super Bowl on Sunday were paths different, yet intertwined. The teams are stellar.
A Steelers’ defense, full of enthusiasm, will clash with the high
powered Cardinal offense. The
big story though is the rebirth of
Quarterback Kurt Warner. Cardinals vs. Steelers. Whisenhunt
vs. Tomlin. Steelers defense vs.
Kurt Warner. This has the elements of a battle of epic proportions.
Football all starts with
the coaching. Argueably one of
the biggest story lines of the Super Bowl is coaching, Ken
Whisenhunt vs. Mike Tomlin. In
2007, when long-time tenure Bill
Cowher left the dynasty that he
produced, the Steelers, there was
a huge debate. Who is going to
be the next coach? It primarily
came down to two, Mike Tomlin
(the current Head Coach of the
Steelers) and Ken Whisenhunt
(the current Head Coach of the
Cardinals). Obviously, Tomlin got
the job. The position wasn’t that
easy however. At the time, the
Cardinals were in need of a head
coach, and since the Steelers
were very slow and delayed with
their selection, Whisenhunt impatiently took the Cardinals. And
thus the default winner: Mike
Tomlin. Giving that little drama
piece, that alone is a great piece
for the Super Bowl, but that’s not
even the half of it.
Super Bowl XLIII is
filled with great storylines.
Coaching is great, but how about
an inspirational piece? Kurt
Warner. Warner went from rags
to riches and back again. In 1999
Kurt Warner led his St. Louis
Rams aka “The Greatest Show
on Turf” to Super Bowl XXXIV.
Three years prior to that, he was
a bag boy at a local grocery store.
Warner’s first story was great,
but to say there is a second is legendary. Warner had three and a
half great years with St. Louis,
but all good things have to come
to an end. After five years of being on and off with the league,
being cut by three different teams
Warner found his niche, again.
With the Cardinals this year, this
37 year old “geezer” has put up
insane numbers. He is the third
oldest Q.B. to start a Super Bowl,
and may be the first to win two
with different teams.
Super Bowl XLIII features teams with one having the
hottest offense, the other with the
dominant defense. To quote John
Madden, “It is an unstoppable
force meeting an immoveable
object.” Larry Fitzgerald, arguably the best receiver in football,
meets with Troy Polamalu. How
about Anquan Boldin lining up
across the N.F.L.’s Defensive
Player of the Year, James
Harrison? This Super Bowl has
all the ingredients for an amazing
game. Our pick? Final score: 2723 Steelers. And to mention one
thing, the Steelers have only given
up 300 total yards once this season; the Cardinals will THROW
for that much in a losing effort.
As we have said at nauseam, this game has spectacular
storylines. Whether you like inspiration, or pure brute hitting, this
one has it all. It’s the granddaddy
of them all, Super Bowl XLIII.
Hidden talents are everywhere at Santa Margarita. Did
you know that two juniors from
our school have been in a band
that they started over a year
ago? These two young men are
in a band called Take Me To
Haven.
Members Justin
Abarquez and Chase McGuire
from our home, Santa Margarita
Catholic High School, Parker
Henderson of Tesoro High
School, and Luke Wilson of
Trabuco Hills High School, combine their talents to put on an exciting show.
On Friday, January 2 2009,
I had the opportunity to watch
and listen to Take Me To Haven
play at The Pesticide in Irvine.
Lead singer Chase McGuire involves the crowd while on stage
and shows his emotion and connection with the lyrics that he and
Abarquez have written. Justin
Abarquez strums the lead guitar
with his own, original riffs and
displays his enthusiasm. On the
bass, Luke Wilson also shows his
love for the music while on stage
in the way he plays his guitar like
no other. Drummer Parker
Henderson plays like no one is
watching, and after a show was
surprised he didn’t break a drum
while playing on stage. Watching these boys play was fascinating because this is their passion
and they are so good at what they
do.
Later I took the opportunity to interview Justin
Abarquez and Chase McGuire:
Paige: What motivated you
to start your band?
Justin: Well my friend Dan
(the previous lead singer of Take
Me To Haven) and I wanted to
do a Set Your Goals or Circa
Survive type thing. We were set
on that, then I was introduced to
more hardcore and fell in love. I
then met Chase and then introduced him to my set of friends.
Then it happened, I guess. Dan,
unfortunately, had just left us a
few weeks ago.
P: How did you come up
with the name, Take Me To Haven?
Chase: Well when we were
coming up with names I really
liked the word “haven”. This
world is in a state of depression financially and a
state of struggle socially
and I thought to myself that
I want to get out of this
place. Take me somewhere
else. Take Me To Haven.
P: What is your favorite song, and what does
it mean to you?
C: My favorite song
right now that we open
with at shows is “Visions”.
It’s about how humanity
has plunged our world into
a state or violence and mishap. Look around us, you
know what I see? Gang
violence, AIDS, wars, the
sick, etc. The song is about
these things and how the
next generation, us, need to
do something about it.
Enough of the talking, you
can say all you want, but
who’s really out there doing something about it? “Visions” is about how this
world is in an obviously unstable position and we have
to do something about it.
P: When and where
is your next show?
All the young men
of Take Me To Haven
work hard to put together
music that they love. You
can find their music at
w w w. m y s p a c e . c o m /
takemetohaven where you
can listen and show some
support to our fellow
Eagles. You are guaranteed to have fun watching
Take Me To Haven live,
and I will be seeing more
faces of Santa Margarita at
their upcoming show. You
can find Abarquez and
McGuire around campus
for more information on
their band, or just to chill
with them!
Members of TMTH. Photo
courtesy of Chase McGuire.
14
The Blueprint
The Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
January 2009
Campus Ministry
Introducing Our New Coordinator of High School Chaplaincy: Reverend John Weling
By Lauren Giudice and Kyle Richter
We recently had the chance to sit down with our Before that I spent 5 years at Loyola Marymount Universchool’s new Coordinator of High School Chaplaincy sity.”
Father John Weling. We asked him a few questions so What do you hope to accomplish with your new posithat we could get to know him and his position better.
tion?
Your title is “Coordinator of High School Chaplaincy. “There are two main things I would like to accomplish. I
What does your job entail?
would like to do whatever I can with my priestly ministry to
“Primarily through the diocese of Orange, I work out of
the office of Faith Formation. Last June, Bishop Brown
assigned me to this job. Unfortunately because of the need
for priests, we cannot be assigned to permanently to any
one school. I work with the schools planning religious
activities and masses.”
What other schools do you work with?
“I also work with Mater Dei and Rosary.”
How long have you been ordained?
“I have been ordained since 1981.”
What inspired you to enter the priesthood?
“When I was young I went to a small Catholic Church in
Santa Ana and the connection I had with the priest and
that church inspired me greatly. Getting to know the priest
really showed how I could be a normal man, but also a
man of faith.”
Photo Courtesy of Lauren Giudice
What were you doing before you took on this job?
“Six years before this I was president of Verbum Dei High support all the great things our faculty, staff, and students are
School which is an all boys High School in Watts. Before doing at these three Diocesan schools. I see my role as one
that, I spent three years in New Orleans as dean of Uni- that supports the great work going on in these schools regardversity Ministry at Loyola University of New Orleans. ing religious and spiritual formation working with faculty, staff,
and student leaders. Being involved with these three schools, I
Our Generous SMCHS Community
By Ms. Hanley
November and
December were generous
months in the terms of
SMCHS giving to the
poor and the homeless.
Through the agency of
Corazon, the Senior class
raised thousands of dollars in gifts and goods in
support of 48 Mexican
families living in Tijuana.
The Junior classes provided Christmas gifts for
over 100 children of
striking hotel workers living in Anaheim, as part of
the effort to earn a living
wage. This was sponsored by the non- profit,
multi-denominational
group CLUE (Clergy and
Laity United for Economic Justice). The
Freshman and Sophomore classes collected
over 800 bottles of shampoo, over 800 bottles of
conditioner, and over
1,200 socks for the homeless
and working poor served by
Loaves and Fishes in Santa
Ana. School-wide, over
1,000 dollars worth of fast
food coupons were donated
for the homeless served by
Loaves and Fishes. Many,
many lives were blessed this
season because of the
SMCHS community.
Equally generous has
been the families who donated strollers and wheelchair
strollers. Most of them were
delivered to Loaves and
Fishes. The response was
amazing. The SMCHS community has become heroes to
the working poor of Santa
Ana. Some of the wheelchairs
and strollers are being donated to Wheels for Humanity, an outreach of the Southern California United Cerebral Palsy group. These
wheelchairs will be going to
children outside of United
States who would be other-
wise hidden away or forced to
drag themselves around, depending their isolation, diminishing their cognitive development and worsening their
physical disability. These
“special” chairs have a profound impact, not only in the
child’s life and the family, but
the entire community.
hope to create a bridge between the schools. We
need to connect more with our companion Diocesan Schools.”
How do you like our school?
“I love it! I am an eagle at heart. My time here has
been very exciting and inspiring. Mr. Ray Dunne
has done an excellent job in his short year and a
half here. I really admire the image of God uplifting us on eagle’s wings. There is a great spirit on
campus. You have a great community here.”
Will you be working with Father Butters, and
how do your positions differ?
“I work in coordination with him. He is still officially the Chaplain of this school, but I coordinate
school events with him and the Campus Ministry
team.”
Will you be saying any of our Masses, and
will we be seeing you around school?
“Yes, and you will see me around school. I will be
here as much as possible. Being involved in three
schools is difficult, but I want to be around this
school as much as possible.”
What is the most fulfilling part of your job?
“The most fulfilling part of my job is helping others, especially young people. I tried out many different jobs that were meaningful in the lives of young
people. I love helping young people find their faith.
It is an incredibly fulfilling job.”
Inspirational Quotes
By Cody Webster
“When the power of love overcomes the
love of power the world will know peace.”
- Jimi Hendrix
“A small body of determined spirits
fired by an unquenchable faith in their
mission can alter the course of history.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
“He who has not Christmas in his heart
will never find it under a tree.”
-Roy L. Smith
“We may encounter many defeats but
we must not be defeated.”
-Maya Angelou
“In the End, we will remember not the
words of our enemies, but the silence of
our friends.”
- Martin Luther King
Photo Courtesy of google images
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every
opportunity; an optimist sees the
opportunity in every difficulty.”
-Winston Churchill
A Message from the Schroeder Family
From the bottom of our hearts, we would
like to thank the Santa Margarita Catholic
High School families, teachers, and staff for
all of your help, prayers, and kindness in our
time of need.
We are Truly Grateful,
John, Sherri, Robert, Geoff,
and Sam Schroeder
16
The Blueprint
The Official Student Newspaper of Santa Margarita Catholic High School
September 2007