Summer Vacation

          As we move along the school year, where summer always seems to be just around the corner, we question if the set up for our past agricultural life is appropriate. The summer we've all come to love is not very organized for kids educational development. If we broke up the long three month summer vacation into separate vacations throughout the school year, the possibilities for improvement would be endless. Over the summer, months of education is lost simply because the skills are not practiced. Yes summer classes are offered in most states- but the less privileged a child is, the more likely the child is to loose even more education.  If we broke up summer and allowed a week off (or even more) every month, children would not only be less stressed out because they know there is always a break coming, the educational development would increase steadily without a decrease. Although our generation is accustomed to summer, its not the best thing for our society.

My Album Review

Parkway Drive- Atlas
Rating- 5/5

           Parkway drive is a Australian metalcore band similar to Underoath and Nine Inch Nails, but Parkway Drive is not comparable to any other band. The talent each band member has carries the band to a level of their own. Lead singer, Winston McCall is the mastermind behind the structure and creativity that Parkway Drive has lived up too- and Atlas is no let down. With new instruments, new sense of organization, and a whole new point of view- Parkway Drive's most recent album's uniqueness makes it a pure peice of art.
      Atlas focuses on the album as a whole more than each individual song- they didn't just make a bunch of songs, they created a story. The acoustic intro "Sparks" causes some controversy within many fans- they miss the extreme heaviness the band has drifted away from, like in the album Killing With a Smile and Horizons- but the rest of the album is not far from their old flare. the next song to play is "Old Ghosts/ New Regrets" which not only has heavy drops that all original Parkway fans love, it has meaning to the band. The song is straight forward, angry, heavy music with meaningful lyrics relating to human detachment with the enviroment. Throughout the album there are many more heavy and acoustic song that carry huge meaning to the band and how they feel towards the world. The band even goes a step father to create a movie off of on of the "most important", says Winston,  songs to the whole band- Home is For the Heartless. Atlas was an album that Parkway Drive worked on for a very long time, and put a lot into, and created a whole new image that they deserve recognition for.

Holiday Spending

Its obvious how much we spend towards each holiday is a huge amount of money, but I do not think it is a problem. People are spending how much they feel comfortable spending, even if at the end there is 127.87 billion spent on Christmas alone, no one will buy their way into debt. It is terrible to think people are suffering from homelessness, disease, and hunger in the world and we are spending billions on decorations only for seasonal use, novelties/gifts, and excessive amounts of food- but people are accustomed to this way. Holidays are a time for the family and togetherness and basically just something to do. Lets face it, America would not have the same culture if we did not celebrate Halloween or winter holidays. The decoration, costly as they are, brings happiness to people. Its amazing to imagine what would do if we took Christmas off and donated all that we could to every organization and donation fund possible, but we cannot change all of America's close nit traditions.

Album Reviews

Brand New- The Devil and God Are Raging inside me
Reviewed by: RamInGoreville (01/04/09) 
rate- Positive 90%
"Following their 2003 sophomore attempt Deja Entendu, Brand New finally released their well anticipated third album, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, at the end of 2006. Fans were expecting something remarkable after the success of the last album, but were in for a surprise."..."Despite the dark and incomplete feel, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me somehow managed to still become a simply beautiful album, which is definitely expected from Brand New."

Brand New- The Devil and God Are Raging Inside me Reviewed by: Iain Forrester(11/27/06) rate- Mixed 50%

"The songs don’t quite stack up. The looser structures and reliance on instrumentals give Jesse Lacey less room to maneuver and his biting lyrical insight is often missed. He still conjures up arresting images (“drop me a line with a hook and some raw bleeding bait” in “Luca,” “Limousine”’s chilling “It's your day to wed / We found your man / He's drinking up / He's all-American / And he'll drive”) but they rarely add up to coherent songs—and nothing consistently cuts to the bone like Deja Entendu’s highlights."


Bring Me the Horizon- Sempiternal 
 Reviewed by: UG Team(4/1/13)
rating-Positive 8.2
"Now with the release of "Sempiternal" I'm really enjoying what I hear, but not everyone will. They no longer have a rhythm guitarist, though Lee Malia does remain on lead guitar. There is much more keyboard/synth thanks to the addition of Jordan Fish. They still have a predominantly "metalcore" sound, but they have added in a lot of ambient passages in their songs and have minimized the heavy breakdowns. The vocals don't get anywhere near a death metal growl on this new album. There is actually occasionally a little bit of melody (just a touch) in their songs which hasn't really been there before now. To me, this release is so far away from where Bring Me The Horizon started you have to listen to it fresh to really appreciate what it is and what they're doing." 


Deadmau5- 4x4=12
Review by- Dave SImpson (12/2/10)
Rating- Mixed 6.0
"His third production compilation again shows that he is a master at doing simple electro house music very well: humongous beats and basslines blend with straightforward chord progressions and, when interest may start to lag, sonic diversions. "

The Dirty Heads- Any Port in a Storm
Review by- Unknown (4/8/12)
Rating- Negative (not an exact number rating)
"But instead of focusing entirely on reggae infused rap, The Dirty Heads gets distracted by rock music, more specifically mainstream rock music. In turn, they become dull and boring, too afraid to experiment"..."For the first 14 tracks, Any Port in a Storm disappoints, wasting opportunities by writing mainstream rock songs. "

Black Veil Brides- The Story of the Wild Ones
Review by- Grace Duffy (1/4/13)
Rating-Negative 6
"Well, this is obviously not Social Distortion meets Metallica. Not that we ever expected it to be. I don’t mean to imply that I approached this album with anything other than an open mind, but I will admit that as a band Black Veil Brides puzzle me. They’ve deliberately manufactured themselves to be the ready targets of hatred and ridicule from that calibre of fandom that insists on one looking and sounding a certain way in order to be taken seriously."...". One could applaud their imaginations or their ideas if they actually offered anything new or interesting, but they don’t, which makes them somewhat doomed to be known as that band put together from the leftovers of Eric Draven cosmetics and Aiden’s discarded wardrobe. I’m tempted to praise the idea for Wretched and Divine, if only because few bands in their genre seem to have hit upon something as wantonly grandiose as this, but the sad truth is that there’s nothing worth celebrating here. "

2 truths and a lie

Laser beard trimmer

 In Berlin, an engineering and electronic company, Philips, has changed the future of men shaving. Recently they introduced the Beard Trimmer 9,000. It has a built-in laser guide for precise shaving. The reversible trimmer is also water-resistant, which allows for easy cleaning.

Nasal Ranger

Resembling a telescope in shape and purpose, the Nasal Ranger is used to detect and measure smells. It allows the operator to compare the odor to fresh air through the help of a carbon filter. The odors are measured in a ratio called dilution-to-origin. For people who want to visualize their odor data, the creators of the product include an ODOR TRACK'R to map out the smells.

Mood Lenses

It has been announced that a childhood favorite is being merged with a new trend. Did you ever have a mood ring when you were young? Maybe a mood necklace or potentially even a bracelet. You've probably stopped wearing them by now. But if you want to put a classic twist on your new and older look, Heat sensitive color-changing contacts are scheduled to be sold on coolglow.com, a large seller of novelty contatcs. The same substances found on the surface of mood rings is being thinned enough to put onto contact lenses, providing a stunning effect that is both subtle and bold at the same time.

Dear Ken, 11/13/13

          My personal view is that bullying is bullying- in the office, the school, or even the supermarket- if you harass someone, it is harassment. I think Richie Incognito was using his excuse as a scapegoat. Bullying can be brushed off as jokes, but if the bullied is actually offended, then is it still a joke? There is no way to put a physical line on what is "bullying" and what is "kidding". The locker room may indeed have their own culture, but we would hope that they follow the same norms that we share in our everyday culture. I do not think bullying varies between office to school locker rooms (harassment is harassment)- I do believe there are more important things going in our world today, and Incognito should not be as publicized and famous as he has been.

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Reasons to support vegan-ism

Ethos- "When you add up the damage that the meat industry does to workers, the environment, and animals, the question isn't really 'Why should I go vegan?'—it's 'Why wouldn't I go vegan?'" PETA does a great job at convening; not only do they speak and act with integrity ad knowledge, they write with power and awareness. They share their years of knowledge with points like, "end world hunger" and "mechanized killings"

Logos- Its obvious by now that what we are eating isn't always what it seems (example- McDonald's, the mystery hot dog). The by products added to the feed for the animal's is not good or them and, in return, not good for us.

Pathos- Peta is loaded with torturous videos of animals... and people. In some meat industries; immigrants, children, and poor workers are exploited and beaten along with the animals. The adorable video of baby cows looking at the camera with " sad-eyes" that s later beaten and killed is pretty convincing. 

Sources: 

Ethos- http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/more-reasons-to-go-vegan.aspx

Time for technology crackdown on teens

I agree that there is a need for technology crackdown on teenagers around America. If people, not only teens, limit there use of phone, computers, ect., our whole world would benefit. People are so involved in social media and what celebrities are doing that they are oblivious to what Earth is trying to tell us. There are warnings around the world that it is time for change, yet our younger generations have no idea whats going on.  If technology time was limited, teens may go out side and do more activities than they would have with hours of tech-time. There is nothing wrong with knowing what is going on around our planet and getting outside, but there is more harm than good with the overuse of technology.

High interest question

There has been many disputes between religious believes and scientific theories about the origin of earth, nature, and the soul. What do you believe happens to the soul once the body passes on?

Sport Fishing Magazine

         People who read Sport Fishing magazine have one common interest- fishing. The audience of mid-aged men shouldn't have a difficult time reading one of these magazines considering it was written at a 12-year-old's reading capacity (according to the fry graph for Estimating Reading Ages.). Adding to that, there was a ratio of 5 to 3 for advertisement versus content space. More than half of each page was tying to sell or promote something. these ads were not irrelevant, though annoying, they all added to the content of the magazine. My magazine choice seemed low on the Reading Ages graph, and my predictions were correct. When I asked my fellow classmates how there research went, most magazines were at higher reading levels. Sports Illustrated and 17 Magazine had up to a 4 years greater difference than Sport Fishing. This could be true because fishing is a sport that doesn't involve a higher economic statues to play- therefore the people who buy these magazines must not be among the most intelligent people. To read The Sport Fishing magazines it does not require much knowledge to read, only interest in fishing.

Norton Lunch Report

                   Everyone in the town of Norton knows about the vast renovations the high school is under. Although it is "educationally sound, while being very realistic and conservative’’ as Kevin O'Neil, building committee chairman, said(Legere), do the students and faculty fully agree? Kevin states, on his own project update page, that they are working to update every part of the school: "The project scope includes the full repair/renovation of: windows, heating/ventilation, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, roof, accessibility, ceiling/flooring tiles, asbestos, fire/safety, classrooms, science labs, technology, gym space and locker rooms, storage, cafeteria/kitchen, auditorium, general space needs, music/bands, and restrooms. An addition will be included."(O'Neil). Everything on his lengthy list is very important- although they will all be noticed, the cafeteria and kitchen department are the most crucial part of a students day: "school meals supply 30–35 % of daily energy intake and provide an important contribution to nutrient intake. School meals are a part of the educational process in the life of the school."(Bartrina,Pe´rez-Rodrigo) To be able to garner what the students are receiving they need to be fed fulfilling, healthy lunches. Most of the students agree with their fellow student, Nicole Lacouture, that the new lunches are "better than the cold gross lunches" that were previously served, but "definitely still needs improvement". The majority of the students brought lunches from home, but their opinions on what they see their friends eating is not settling- Sean Mathew's view related to many other students: “I don’t eat it because almost every lunch someone asks ‘what is that?’”. Not one students wholeheartedly said they enjoyed eating lunch from school. Mr. Kefor, a teacher at Norton high, believes over the long term its improved, but it needs to keep moving forward. Another problem that is presented, that he also understands, is that there are “restraints against budget”. Although there is a  21 million dollar budget on our school, most of those resources are already used up. The school has done alot to improve their menu, from more vegetable options to whole grain, but sadly the most student cannot agree that the lunches were improved up to their standards.

 






Work Cited:Kevin, O'Neil. "Project Overview."  Kevin O'Neil, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2013.
"High School Renovation Considered." Http://www.boston.com/. Ed. Christine Legere. N.p., 27 Jan. 2011. Web. 
Bartrina, Javier A., and Carmen Pe´rez-Rodrigo. "Resources for a Healthy Diet: School Meals." British Journal of Nutrition, 2006. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.

Carli Arcaro

   Carli Arcaro is a 15 year old  Norton native. Along with the basics of loving high school sports, like volleyball,softball,and basketball, and professional sports, like the Red Soxs, shes a very interesting girl. She loves all types of music and describes herself as "spontaneous", shes always up to something random. She would like to go to Italy after schooling for the site seeing and authentic pastas. In her life, she wants to go sky diving, travel to Paris, and go on a cruise; " I want to see the world from all points of view". Carli is not only spontaneous, she is logical and passionate too. When I asked her what she would take if she was rushed out of her house in an emergency, she did not say things she would want, but things she would need; "a phone, money, and a sweatshirt... and food, you can't do anything without food." Also, when I asked her what she would want to do for the rest of her life if she knew she could not fail, she responded with a doctor.
She could have said anything possible yet she chose career that helps people.I can tell Carli is very passionate.Whenever I asked her opinion about something sports related she would get excited- in fact, most questions she asked me were about sports. I can see that Carli Acaro is a kind, intelligent, care-free girl.