Concert With Camberwell HS

The Minarets Music Program is hosting the Camberwell High School Wind Ensemble from Australia this week.  The students are arriving at Minarets on Thursday, March 19, where they will meet their host families.  They will be staying until Monday the 23rd.

On March 20th, their band will play in a combined concert with the Minarets band and choir.  The concert will start at 7 pm, and end around 8:30.  It is free admission, and anyone is welcome to come.  It will feature a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber, performed by both bands and the choir.

The Australian students will spend all day Saturday with their host families. They will then go to a Wind Festival on Sunday. On Monday, they will leave on their bus for Morro Bay, continuing on their tour of the United States.

This is an excellent opportunity to connect with students from another country and work with some amazing musicians. Please try to make the visitors as welcome as possible, and come support the music program at the concert on the 20th.

Article by Danielle Johnson

Why Diet Soda is bad for you. – Brianna Roland

The reason why Diet Soda is bad for you is because it has a lot of artificial sweeteners. It could also lead to weight gain but not weight loss. As though it may seem diet soda is really bad for you. It is actually worse than regular soda itself. It is associated with an increased risk of type 2 Diabetes.  It has no nutritional value what so ever.  The sweetener in Diet soda is the cause of more headaches. It’s because the artificial sweetener causes the headaches. The more you drink diet it slower the more it slowly kills your smile. Using as a low calorie cocktail mixer has the dangerous effect of getting you drunk. Diet soda also confuses your body, so over time products like diet soda dull our senses to naturally sweet foods like fruit.   google.com

Community college – Dakota Scharnick

Attending community college first can be a great way to save money and adjust to more harsh academic life of college, PLUS you save tons of money. At a community college, you are able to take general requirement classes like math and history and get those out of the way. When you transfer to a University, you can focus all your energy on your specific area of a study. Go to a community college, get good grades, an then transfer to a university, you’ll be set and save a lot of money. 

Advantage of going to a community college in your hometown

• You can still live at home. It saves a significant amount of money in your first few years of school
• You might know people who are also going to the same college as you, which makes going from high school to college less intimidating

Advantage of going to a community college in a new area

• You’ll expand your career options
• You can get out and see a whole new world

The pros of community college

• Gives students the chance to prepare for the financial demands of a 4-year university if you plan on transfering
• Flexible schedule
• Gives students an opportunity to explore major options
• Smaller classes
• Qualified professors
• Transitional
• General requirement classes
• Basically gives you a second chance if your grades weren’t all that great in high school

How to apply to a community college

• Keep a list of application and supporting material deadlines near your admissions forms
• lay out your short and long term educational goals in a personal statement to a community college
• Fill out request forms for official transcripts from past schools to complete your community college application
• Prepare to provide proof of income for your community college experience to show your reliability
• Show your academic aptitude

Disney Music (Into the Wood )

When music was inserted into Disney:

 

They use it to keep the movie going. It like if you take a song out you lost a chunk of the story.

 

How the music is composed:

 

Disney Hires 4-8 Writer used in the passes movies. They then work together and use the plot as a idea of the movie. They make the Instrumental part of the song. They use all kinds of Instruments. They then have them write Lyrics that can use in a way of tell the story. The Strong are important part in the process of the Disney movie process. They use the songs to tell the story so if you miss a song, your miss a chunk of the story that is being told.

 

How music is chosen:

 

The movies producers chose the song that best match the story flow and that keeps the movie story going. They have 25-30 songs made. They go carefully through the songs. They have a big seach made of the story and they tell them how many of the songs fit. They have them make more and tell them they need to fit in this part. They them save the songs that didn’t match

 

How much money did it make:  

$126,969,892

Into the woods made $126,969,892 in the time shown In the united states. This did not include The United Kingdom results. They had the heart of many people ,children and teen the most. The movie had took 50$ million to make and had close to 173.4 million has an outcome to the movie.

Written by Vanessa Sanchez

Why I stopped buying plastic water bottles

  

They’re destroying the ocean

According to Integrated Waste Management Authority, it is estimated that over 86% of the ocean’s debris is plastic.

Eighty.. Six… Percent… Let that sink in…

It is absolutely terrifying to realize just how much we are directly affecting our environment with the waste we produce.Right now, there are 46,000 of plastic per square kilometer of the World’s oceans. This in turn kills over a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals per year. That is a lot of animals that never got to live out their lives, or one might say a lot of food lost to plastic.

They never go away

Every second there are 1,500 water bottles being consumed in the US alone. (source) Every single one of those plastic water bottles will stay on the earth forever. 80% of water bottles are NOT recycled. Plastics do not biodegrade, they only break down smaller from exposure to the elements. These smaller plastic pieces are unfortunately mistaken for food to our marine life. This is not only a tragedy to their life, but ours as well. As our food chain becomes poisoned by the plastic pollution in their environment, they come back to us in the form of toxic food. Scary.


They’re bad for our body

Bottled water (and all other plastics) contain BPA and/or phthalates, endocrine disruptingchemicals that interfere with the hormones are body naturally produces. These disruptions can be linked with irregular hormone function, reproductive problems, neurological difficulties, low sperm count, and even several forms of cancer. 22% of water bottle brands have chemical containtments that are at levels above state guidelines. Not only that, but they’re not required to provide a source, be tested for e. coli, or are required to produce quality reports like tap water is. So in all honesty, we don’t know what potential harmful chemicals are within plastic water bottles or plastic in general.

They’re costing us 
 
50 billion water bottles are purchased in the US alone. Worldwide, more than $100 billion dollars are spent towards bottled water. (Source) Bottled water is 2000x MORE expensive than tap water.

 Recap 

• Water bottles (and all other plastics) are destroying the ocean
• Water bottles (and all other plastics) do not ever go away, they just become smaller.
• Water bottles (and all other plastics) contain hormone-disrupting chemcials that cause a host of issues.
• Water bottles (and all other plastics) are costing us A LOT of money.   

What can we do?  

Instead of using water bottles, tote around a stainless steel water bottle or a mason jar. Mason jars have water-tight lids so you can be sure they won’t spill, if you’re afraid of them breaking don’t worry. They are stronger than you think, I have been carrying my 32-ounce mason jar in my backpack for two years, hasn’t even cracked. Take baby steps and remember that the less plastic you use the better!

Works Cited

“Education Database Online.” Online Education Blog. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://www.onlineeducation.net/bottled_water&gt;.

“Plastic Free – 21 Ways to Reduce Plastic in Your Home.” DIY Natural. 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://www.diynatural.com/plastic-free-home/>.

Tsiattalos, George. “Plastic Pollution.” Everything Connects. N.p., n.d. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.everythingconnects.org%2Fplastic-pollution.html>.

Schriever, Norm. “Plastic Water Bottles Causing Flood of Harm to Our Environment.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norm-schriever/post_5218_b_3613577.html&gt;.

“The Plastic Water Bottle Effect – Homegrown & Healthy.” Homegrown & Healthy. 28 May 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://homegrownandhealthy.com/the-plastic-water-bottle-effect/&gt;.

Article by Emily A. Ward

Back Stage – All Access Chuck Otero

Minarets High School is a one of a kind school, with activities to suite close to any needs. MHS has a brilliant music department, so many dedicated musicians who spend hours rehearsing and performing. But some of us perform for the Minarets Music Department in a different way, some of us are Stagehands, Lighting Engineers, Sound Engineers, or just helping out. These people are who make any show come alive, from building stages, pushing carts and amplifiers to rolling out cable. Minarets High School is a great place to learn the basics of working the theater/rock style Stagehand business. A few individuals to recognize would be Charles Otero, Cody McNaught, and Jake Fiske. Mr Otero has been working as the Head Stagehand/Engineer since his freshman year 2011, Mr McNaught has been assisting since 2014, and lastly Mr Fiske has been assisting in stagecraft since the past 2014/2015 school year. If you are interested and would like to get involved in becoming a Sound Engineer, Lighting Engineer, or Stagehand contact the Music Director; Brett Moglia.

Jv Baseball game against Farmersville – Savannah Castro

Highlight? We kicked BUTT! 14- 2!! and a special highlight to our Jv Pitcher (Hunter Thompson) Played a great game. The amount of teamwork in this game was unbelievable. although there wasn’t much of a crowd they played with their all. Farmersville was short on water, and our boys were required to walk across the street to the district office just to use the restroom.

Dont miss out on the next game, These boys are worth watching.

Review on Michael Vaughan

I have spent quite a lot of time in Mr. Vaughan’s Classroom. I am in his class anytime, except when I’m supposed to be. He is an all around great person with great respect for others. He is a very quiet person at first, but once you get to know him he’s not so quiet. He’s a great teacher, though I love nothing more than to push his buttons and complain about every assignment he gives. I normally always get them done, even if they are weeks late. Mr. Vaughan is kind of a nature freak, literally every assignment involves nature somehow. If it’s not nature then it’s the environment. Aside from his ‘nature freak’ side of him, he has a great personality to him. He never has a foul word to say about anyone. He is a loving father and husband to his kids, sometimes, I don’t think he notices it, but he talks about them quite a bit. He’s an awesome person in so many ways, I know I can talk to him if I need to and we goof around a lot. With all of this said, sure, Michael Vaughan is a big pain in my butt sometimes, he also has a big heart. Now, this is only my opinion, not anyone elses. Someone else may come along and think the COMPLETE opposite, but it’s their word against mine. Believe me, he is one of the worlds best people.

Technology By Ashley Worgull

Technology

Ashley Worgull

Here at Minarets we are commended for being technologically advanced among other schools. When it comes down to it, technology is going to become more and more advanced as past actions have proven. Whether or not people will be able to keep up is another situation all together. I used to go to another high school before I moved here and transferred schools. In respect of my former school I won’t mention the name. At my former school we had computer classes that were called “information technology” or “careers”. I took these business classes as often as I could and, thought I was “technology oriented”. After coming to Minarets, I realized I was very wrong. I found it odd that no one used paper, or books, or pencils for that matter. After coming to school and finishing my junior year here, I was forced to take a break due to a major family emergency. over the past 10 months, i’ve spent a great amount of time at the childrens hospital, and while there (out of pure boredom) I noticed the machines and technology all around me. As I looked at these machines with great curiosity I began to wonder exactly how they worked, sure one may have monitored blood pressure while another monitored heart rate, but how? These questions usually got the better of me and often led to my interrogation of the nurses. I remember a few months ago, after sitting in the hospital for about 6 hours that day, I looked over to my mom, pointed to a heart rate monitor and asked “how do you think this works?” She simply responded “I don’t care, as long as it does it job”  That statement made me think about how many other people think that way, “I don’t care how my cell phone works, as long as it keeps working” The point is, here at minarets you could take a few steps in any direction and bump into an individual who knows exactly how your laptop works, although if you ask someone at another school or an individual over 40 years old, your answer will most likely be “who cares?” Which naturally prompts me to wonder if people will still be all knowing and passionate about technology after high school, when technology is different and more complex. Technology is not just computers and cell phones, it’s in science and medical advances, security, entertainment, government, school,and work. Technology is everywhere and almost everything and what good will come from knowing how to build a website, when you need to rewire a circuit board? other schools don’t seem to realize this, but im glad minarets does.

A sons’ revenge

He was near Eleventh street and Brooks in a dark ally when the cars headlights hits him, not physically, just surprised him. He wasn’t expecting the car to arrive until twelve…it was 11:30, he was wondering why they showed up so early. His name was John and as far as anyone who would like to know he had no actual last name, a made up one yes but his real one must be kept secret. By the time the car showed up he was dialing his girlfriends number to tell her he loved her and to tell his son, dart might not be home tonight and if he wasn’t, she would find out why later but he never got the chance to even dial the first three digits of her number. John turned his phone off and placed it back in his jacket pocket and looked at the car as three men came out of it, all three holding Colt Carbine M4’s, a highly dangerous gun used only by the military….well is supposed to be used only by the military anyway. John had supplied them with these weapons and many more for years, he had hoped to have gained their trust, but the Russian’s are unpredictable and thats what makes them dangerous. He watched the russians as they walked towards him, slightly sweating he looked back at the case of guns he had behind him knowing what was inside, 70 MSBS Radon, 80 L85 assault rifles, and 187 m16,s; all of them military grade weapons, very dangerous in the wrong hands.

“What do you have for us today John? I hope to be surprised and you know the consequences if I am not” a thick man wearing all black except for his snow leopard fur coat on his back.  John looked at the two men standing next to the Russian, both men carrying M4’s and sidearms. “I do not think i have disappointed you Serge I have many weapons to help you with you’re Revolution in Vakuda”. The russian goons went over to the boxes behind John and began inspecting them. “What Serge? you don’t trust me or something?”

“Why would I not trust you my friend? it’s not like you’ve failed us once and are lucky to be alive.” Serge smiles and points a gun at John, “no no it would not be a first for you to fail and bring us the guns we really needed but it would be the first time for you to slip and let us find your transmitter…” John turned around to see one of Serges goons holding up the small box that was taking in all of what they were talking about and sending it to an FBI van 2 miles away from where they were. “Now then john you have either two choices call it off or get shot….well actually only one choice..”

Inside of the van three FBI agents were listening to the conversation worries about John and when to rush in they knew they should leave now and save john but something was holding them back. The agents were so busy on what the party on the other side of the radio  were saying they didn’t notice the back door open and a man walk in with a SAR-21. “which is what Serge? Get shot? If you shoot me you won’t be able to get weapons anymore” and than a sound blast of gunfire came through the microphone as they sped off before the man who didn’t have permission to enter the van fell and hit the side of the van making him pass out and trapped in the car.

 

 

please leave comments this is the beginning of my own story hoping to make it a book