With the message of, “A dead letter is a letter that has never been delivered because the person to whom it was written cannot be found and it also cannot be returned to the person who wrote it,” on the back of The Rasmus’ CD case I could already tell that this album was going to be one that I wouldn’t be able to walk away from without buying.

Dead Letters is said by Lauri Ylölnen himself to be an album filled with letters, letters to appologise, confess or even cry out for help. Each track a different letter of sorts.

Captivated by Ylönen’s rather feminine voice I literally listened to the ‘letters’ for hours on end. It didn’t take me long to realize why so many people loyally follow the band.

It is quite obvious that The Rasmus would be classified as rock/alternative but you can clearly pick out pop influences in the music, although their lyrics are ghoulish and meloncholic.

Having released two new albums since Dead Letters, soon to be three, I’m quite positive that they’re doing something right. With over a decade of experience making music, there’s no doubt in my mind that this group is  going to be around for quite a long time.

Official Site

Art and writing are not the only talents that senior Lara Kinne has firmly grasped in her hands and under her belt. To add onto the rather long list of skills that she’s been blessed with is her knack for creating music.

     Having stumbled across Lara’s page on myspace, I took a gander and saw a link titled ‘Octopus Owl’ and like any normal human being, I had to see what it was. I wasn’t expecting to find out that this girl that went to my school had so much talent and she was only a year older than me!

     While a variety of the songs on VIVA MEXICO do not excede two minutes long it does not make them any less great. It only further proves the point that she excells at what she does, not needing to put together some eleven minute song to try and dazzle people. All she needs is her guitar and her voice that makes you feel as if you’re being pushed into a sea of satin sheets and cotton balls, (i.e. very soft and comforting). 

     If I go on anymore I’m sure I’ll start to gush like a creepy teenager that just saw her favorite local band yet another time. Unless you’re deaf there is no excuse for you not to visit the sites below and be in awe over the sheer genius that is going to attack your ears when you click play.

Myspace
Last.fm

     Teetering on the edge of being disturbing, Michael Hussar from Long Beach, California, produces some of the most mind numbing art I’ve ever had the pleasure of gazing upon.

     While not much is known about Hussar, it is known that he was taught by artists such as; Richard Bunkall, Dwight Harmon and Judy Crook. He also taught at a private college in Los Angeles for ten years teaching others how to paint portraits in much of the same way he does and now travels all over the U. S.  and Europe  giving  people the chance to learn some of his unusual technique.

     Hussar cranks out oil painting after oil painting of wicked characters and scenarios that no ordinary man could conjure up.  A vast amount of Hussar’s paintings portray women that are borderline demonic, taking the liberty of morphing common subjects  into something so evil and captivating that you just cannot help but stare  a second longer. 

Official Website-Proceed with Caution-Content may vary in appropriateness.

                 Life for the citizens of Haiti  has been very hard  since the earthquake hit earlier this month . About 200,000 of Haiti’s  6.97 million people were killed. This natural disaster has caused  much controversy about how relief should be distributed . The reason this for this is perhaps because Haiti has been known as one of the most corrupt country in the world.
               Some people are hesitant to donate what they can to Haiti is because of the things they hear,  such as Haitian-American pop star Wyclef Jean being accused of stealing money from donations. In one accusation he was suspected of taking $100,000 out of a $150,000 donation! After  the accusations, Jean denyed allegations and explained how he felt in a press conference. He cried for people to  to have a heart and help heal Haiti. And he made sure that the world knew he had never condoned stealing money from the relief funds and from those who needs it the most.

            We know we can’t believe everything we hear.  Haiti needs all the help they can get. If the tables were turned and America was in need we wouldn’t want negative publicity to stop the flow of international aid. It’s time to stop thinking about ourselves for once and help. One dollar can do more than you think.  Many Haitians have  lost their families and their homes and others have lost their lives.  It’s time to step up and make a difference. Our school was  very helpful and donated up tp one thousand dollars to the Help for Haiti program.

With all the Twilight obsessed fans out there these days, I’m positive that one of them is going to stumble upon this horrid movie released in 2006. Not only is the plot line ridiculous but Robert Pattinson’s acting is extremely mediocre, just as it is in Twilight. While you cannot compare these two movies, they have one similar trait in common. They both suck, for lack of a better word.

The Haunted Airman’s plot is pretty simple, yet still manages to be unclear. The main character, Toby something or other (honestly I can’t be bothered with remembering), is a post-war veteran, injured when the plane he is flying is hit and crashes. Sadly, he loses the ability to use his legs altogether. Really he should have lost the ability to talk, maybe making the movie just a bit better.

Yes, I must admit I do find Robert Pattinson an attractive man, but no looks can make up for this role that he has decided to play. There is simply no excuse.

Halfway through the very short movie, you come to find out that there are shadows haunting him, hence the title of the movie, as well as these nasty spiders that somehow manage to find him whereever he is.

Over all, I wasted a good hour of my life watching this film that the producers packaged so beautifully it fooled me into renting it, which proved to be the biggest mistake I’ve possibly ever made in my short sixteen years.

 Paramore is that band, that you either want to stalk on tour or want to shove into the Hudson River wearing cement shoes. Personally, I loathe them and their entire being. Yet some love them. Cast your opinion below.

Everyone knows how bad public school lunch can be. There’s always something to complain about, but we have to eat it because it’s the only thing we have. It seems like with all the tax money that we give they could at least give us some decent food.

Almost every kid loves junk food and sugary carbonated drinks, but a few years ago JCPS took colas and fatty snacks out of the schools. They replaced them with ‘healthy’ alternatives, like baked chips and granola bars; and cokes with juice and water. But have the students really gotten any healthier?

They can take away calorie ridden food but we are only at school for half the day, and only nine months out of the year. Changing one meal at school isn’t going to improve anything. Kids will just go home and stuff their faces with bad food.

School lunch is rather inedible. Even if you do drench it in ranch and hot sauce it’s not going to mask the cold, soggy, rubbery chicken patty flavor.The only good thing is maybe a roll if you are able to snatch up a warm soft middle one before everyone else does, or you’re stuck with the edge pieces.

Pizza day is a great day for students and everyone rushes to the lunch line to get there first and get their slice of pizza. It’s kind of ridiculous but if you want a good piece and ranch you have to hustle to beat everyone else. Even though it’s Papa Johns it can still be dry and flavorless.

Other days, when there isn’t delicious pizza to eat, school offers a $3.25 lunch.  It’s much better then the regular lunch because it has different selections like pop corn chicken and warm fries and you get a caned drink with it. So I guess you can say that for a school lunch it is at the least decent food.

Some people, but not many, bring their lunches to school. For one, if you have something cold you need to put in a fridge, or if you have something you need to heat up, you’re usually out of luck. Unless you’re friends with a teacher that will let you use their appliances. Then when you get to the lunch room everyone is trying to pick off your lunch, just because it’s so much better than what they have.

Private schools, on the other hand, almost always have nice lunches. Sometimes they even serve tasty breakfast, chicken tenders, cheesy tots or get Arby’s. The seniors can get soft drinks and there are no lunch numbers to deal with, so you can go up to the line as many times as your little tummy will allow. It may be more expensive, but we should have choices like this, so that kids can decide whether they would want to spend their money on it.

We can all agree that lunch at school just plain isn’t good. There’s probably not a lot that we can do about this. But it’s been an issue since the dawn of time and might even continue to get worse. At the very least they could put back in the “garbage” so we could have something real to eat, and as for sodas, yes they do have a lot of sugar, but there is a thing called diet and low calorie.

     With the start of the ’09 – ’10 school year, NFL season and every other start possible, some begin to criticize those who do wrong. With the start of the school year, people are looking at the stupid things people have done during the summer and what they have already done this school year. With the NFL season, some people are looking toward Michael Vick, former Atlanta Falcons quarterback/current Philadelphia Eagles back-up quarterback. Vick was convicted of felony conspiracy in interstate commerce and aid of unlawful animal fighting venture in 2007/2008. Vick was sentenced to: 

• Federal charges:  23 months in prison, three years probation following release
• State (Virginia):   fine and prison time suspended upon condition of good behavior for 4 years beginning November 2008.

     Now, do you think Vick deserves a second chance? NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave Vick a chance and so did the Eagles. On August 27, 2009, Vick took to the field for the first time since December of 2007.  As he walked on the field there was no booing, jeering or anything like that. Instead there was a standing ovation for Vick. As he walked off the field there was jeering, but it wasn’t about him and the dog fights, it was because he left the field.  During the game, Vick was 4/4 and had 19 yards with one touchdown.

     Doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance? Vick received his because he was honest and sincere about his apology.  Of course,  now football fans hear the saying, “Hide your beagle, Mike’s an Eagle,” but that’s beside the point. People make mistakes; everyone in the world has made some that people looked down upon, but even then, some got a second chance. Isn’t it possible that people change and they will take that second chance and try to make things better?

     Second chances are a powerful thing to give someone. The only thing is, you have to believe in them and believe they can change for the better. Just make sure that you don’t give to many second chances.  As the saying goes, “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me three times. . .  that’s not going to happen.” Don’t people want a second chance to prove themselves and don’t people want to try to forgive and forget? 

Students at J’town have a daily routine  and they look forward to lunch time because it is when they can eat to replenish lost energy and talk among their friends. There are basically two choices students have when it comes to lunches:   the packed lunch or school lunch. If you’re lost about this whole issue and need questions answered,  then listen to what students say firsthand.

A survey showed that a greater percentage of students ate school lunch while  roughly around 8 to 10 percent packed lunch. Now this was very surprising . There are so many different reasons why students would eat school lunch and so few of them would eat a packed lunch. Some reasons are that most families would rather pay a small amount each day for their child to buy a school lunch to avoid the trouble of packing a lunch each day, some students can get a free/reduced lunch, or parents don’t like to have their child pack a lunch each day due to finances.

Reasons why some high school students pack a lunch are they can eat something that they like, they don’t have to risk not being able to pay for school if they do not have money that day, and maybe to eat light so as not to waste any food served at the school. Some students who don’t like what is served in lunch don’t eat and wait until later when school is over to eat at home.

The other choice is that students would get a school lunch and eat whatever looks and smells good to them. After trying a school lunch for one day and packing a lunch the next day, this reporter got an understanding of how the average student feels.  Happy when good lunches are served and disappointed, tired, and lethargic when it comes to work in classrooms afterwards when lunches they don’t like are served. 

If school lunches are not changed to fit students’ tastes then parents can just imagine what would happen as the school year go on. Packed lunches might become the new trend of the high school lunch hour competing with not getting a lunch at all.  The percentage of students choosing high school lunches may change and the percentage of packed lunch may increase. 

When students choose not to buy a lunch the result will be a decrease in the money received from students each day in lunch.  Paying for high school lunches is an experience that students should be able to speak up about.   It costs $3.35 for a lunch for only one day, multiplied by the number of students in the school, and then multiplied by 20 days to get the total income for that one month of school lunch. So if that amount surprises you think now about how  a packed lunch will save you money each and every day.  Make an informed choice on lunches throughout this school year.

It was a Thursday morning.  The time was 6:30 a.m. I was standing at the airport in Bodø, ready to leave my city. I had thirty minutes left to say goodbye to my family and my boyfriend.  Thirty minutes left of an old chapter of my life.  It was time for my American dream to begin!

 Hi, I’m Cathrine. I am a seventeen-year-old girl from the northern part of Norway, from a city named Bodø. I live here in Louisville with my two host-parents and my German host-sister Lena. I have now been at J’town High School for almost  four weeks. I started to play with the volleyball team when I first arrived, but it wasn’t something for me, so now I am going to try cross country. I am really looking forward to it. I would also love to be a cheerleader, but unfortunately I’m not good at tumbling.

The reason why I wanted to be an exchange student this year was to improve my English, to get some new experiences and to get some new friends. I was thinking about other English-speaking countries, but I decided to come to the U.S. because I have heard about this country every day since I was little, so I was curious about how life was here. People told me that Americans are very outgoing, wild and easy to get to know, and to be honest- a little bit stupid sometimes.
Lots of things in Norway have their origins in America. We do have McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, donuts, brownies etc. We listen to the same music as you. Mostly I watch American TV-shows like Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and many others. Some people even celebrate Halloween, but it’s not as big as here.

Norway is the blue country in the nothern part of Europe.

Four weeks ago I set my foot, for the first time, in America. During these four weeks I have experienced that the United States is totally different from Norway or any other place I’ve been in the world. The first thing I noticed when I came to the U.S. was nothing different from what other Europeans have said before: Everything is so big here! The buildings, the cars, the roads, the food, and the malls- you can get everything in XXL.  There are  so many opportunities here! In Norway we don’t have stores like Meijer and Walmart. I was in Meijer some days ago to buy my mom a birthday card and I used 20 minutes to find the perfect one because I had to look through every one. There was so much to choose from!

However, the biggest difference is the school. In Norway we stay in the same classroom the whole day and the teachers come to our rooms. We have ten years in the school where everyone has to go and after that we are free to do whatever we want, but most of the students choose to go to “high school.” In my school there are about 1000 students. That’s when the difficult part comes; instead of choosing our own subjects, we can choose  to specialize  in sports, music or just take basic subjects like math, history, science, English and foreign language.You can also take subjects that prepare you to start working. Their syllabus is for two years and the students can specialize  in design and art, electronics, industry, hairdressing or health studies, farming and plenty of other opportunities. They have easier subjects. This really seems to work out well for the people who don’t like school so much or are having problems with learning.

In Norway we start school at different times from day to day. Sometimes at 8: 00 a.m., other times at 10: o0 a.m. We are normally finished at school at 3:20, but some days we  finish earlier. Thus, we have thirty hours a week, spread over five days. We have ten to twenty-minute breaks per day plus lunch in 30 minutes, and we usually have one hour once a week when we can do whatever we want to do. It’s lovely because then we get to socialize with friends.

A major difference is that we use computers in every lesson at school. We get about $700  from the school to buy our own laptop which is our private computer. We can decide by ourselves which brand we want to buy. There are many positive sides to being able to use the internet in classes, but I think it has more negative sides. It’s easy to get distracted by other things like facebook, games, other computers, msn ect. Of course, we are not allowed to do this stuff, but the teachers are standing in front of us so they can’t see what we are doing.

In our spare time in Norway we play sports, hang out with friends, go to cafés, go to the cinema, go to concerts, watch soccer-games, do some shopping, go swimming in the summer or mountain hiking, and do some skiing in the winter. We like to be outside in nature. On the weekends we sometimes meet other people at parties. We dance and have a lot of fun.

 
Norwegians love to be outside in nature.

I have to admit that I feel very homesick right now. I really miss my family, my friends and my boyfriend. It’s hard to imagine being away from them for nine more months. After four weeks at school here in America I have started to get used to all the differences. I like the subjects very much. They are really interesting and I couldn’t be happier with my teachers. I’m looking forward to homecoming week, Halloween, Thanksgiving, prom and other American traditions. I really hope that this school year will be great, not just for me, but for everyone!