Powderpuff Power

October 5, 2015 aatiq001

A powderpuff game is a flag football game formed by a group of junior and senior girls, to determine which class is better at football. The same rules apply as regular football, just no tackling.

The females that joined the powderpuff football team this year were: Dominic Estrada, Titania Thao, Marine Nystrom, Jennifer Ibarra, Carli Webber, Daisy Lor, and Allison Kavanagh.

Juniors chose to be a part of the game because they wanted to be a part of an activity that involved team work, and to show that juniors are better than seniors.

The reason the seniors joined this activity is because this is their last year to prove that seniors will always have the win, and that they are the strongest class.

Before the game we asked each player on the junior and senior team a few questions about the game and how they felt about it. We asked them their name, grade, position they wanted to be, what their thoughts were about the game, and why they chose to participate in the game. For example, Allison Kavanagh, a fellow 12th grade student, wanted to be a receiver and was pretty pumped about the powderpuff game. Allison said: “The reason I joined the powderpuff football game is because it’s senior year. Go hard or go home.”

The game started at 9:00 AM on Saturday morning, before the homecoming football game. The teams were set and ready to go in 3…2…1 game time. Due to the number of participants, it turned into a 3 on 3 football game. The coach gave each team three possessions.

After two possessions each, they were tied with one touchdown and they each had one more possession. So the seniors were up first and the juniors had a chance to get up first. The juniors needed the score to tie and the seniors intercepted it to secure their victory. Seniors had their last possession, they scored, and the seniors won! So, even with only having 3-4 people it was a lot of fun.

News, World

To Infinity and Beyond

October 5, 2015 foxmorral1

A new and rising company Celestis offers the chance to honor the deceased in a new and unique way. Celestis gives families a chance to send the cremated remains of their loved ones into space. Celestis offers multiple services ranging in prices from $1,295 to $32,500. Celestis has an “Earth Rise” service, an “Earth Orbit” service, a “Luna” service, and the “Voyager” service.

The “Earth Rise” service gives families the opportunity a chance to launch a symbolic portion of their cremated deceased into space, which will then return back home to the family.

“Earth Orbit” offers families the option to send the cremated remains of the deceased into orbit where it is estimated to stay anywhere from 10 to 240 years, after which it will reenter the atmosphere where it will harmlessly vaporize like a shooting star.

The “Luna” service will be sending cremated remains to the surface of the moon.

Lastly the “Voyager” service will send cremated remains out of Earths orbit and onward and outward to the depths of space.

Like Celestis, a company called Elysium Space offered more affordable plans for the same concept. Elysium Space sends the created remains into orbit for months or years, and like Celestis’s “Earth Orbit” service, the remains will eventually reenter the atmosphere, and vaporize. Elysium Space’s service is a low price of $2,000, where as Celestis offers the same service for $4,995. $2,000 is a great deal compared to the average $6,000 it cost to host a funeral, according to the National Funeral Director’s Association.

Elysium is working closely with commercial space flight companies, and soon hopes to widen their variety of services, much like Celestis. Much like Celestis, Elysium hopes to allow families the choice to send their deceased family to the moon, deep space, and even the sun.

As space funerals are gaining more popularity, other creative forms of spreading cremated remains are surfacing. Entrepreneur Steven Mitchell is developing a service to launch the cremated remains into the sky, using mini rockets, which it will then explode, scattering the ashes. Mitchell is working on developing a “do it yourself” version, along with a more advanced version that should travel the speed of sound.

School Life

Showing Highland Spirit

October 5, 2015 Wendy Vo

Near the end of September, trees have already begun to change into varied hues of red, orange, and yellow. Speaking of red, remember seeing the sea of red during pep fest? Fall is the season of high school homecomings, corination, and senior class elections, but this is also the opportunity for students to show their school spirit.

Highland had been reserving Friday of the spirit week for the class color day, up until 2013-14 school year when they changed it to red out. As you all know, red and white are our school colors, therefore it is perfect way to be true to our school. The purpose of this is to create the sense of community and unification of our student body, instead of the typical division of class bodies to encourage rivalry.

This year’s Homecoming week began on the third week of September. The following were the themes for this year’s spirit week: pajama day, tie dye day, wacky hair, class colors, and red out day.

We recently created a survey revolving around the theme of homecoming spirit days, sharing it through Twitter, Facebook, and text messages. As of Friday September 25, 2015, about 83% of the 59 students who took the survey had said that they did not like this year’s spirit theme days. However, 63% of the surveyors admitted that they stilled participated in the spirit week events despite not liking the spirit days.

Why don’t people like these spirit days? Several people complained that student council continues to repeat the same themes every year and should think more creatively. Many commented on how much they despised the wacky hair day. Below are some of responses received:

“The spirit days would be way more interesting and things that even the annoying people that occupy this school would actually want to participate in.”

“Teenagers thrive on incentive, give them something worth being embarrassed over.”

“Things that are a little easier to wear…..crazy hair day is not something that’s fun and easy for me to do….nobody does it really because it takes too much effort and is too uncomfortable.”

Themes that students suggested for the future:

Togo Tuesday
USA
Disney
Throwback
Hawaiian/ Tourist
Jersey
Cultural dress
Cartoon
Superhero
Camo

While most people continue to rant about how much they hated the spirit days or what theme day they should have, a few people have provided helpful feedback to add more activities to spirit week. Such advice included things like, giving out awards for the individual who portrays the best outfit for that particular spirit day, or play music during passing time.

What do you think about spirit week? Feel free to take this survey and provide your insights on the themes!

Survey Link