Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Have you heard the hype about the new movie Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice? Well we can’t stop talking about it.

Based off of trailers, the new movie is about Batman (Ben Affleck) going head-to-head in combat with Superman (Henry Cavill). To learn more about the movie, here are the links to a few of the trailers:

https://youtu.be/0WWzgGyAH6Y

https://youtu.be/NhWg7AQLI_8

https://youtu.be/fis-9Zqu2Ro

Based on the premise of the movie, let me ask you a question, who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman? Each have strengths and weaknesses that would both help and hurt them in this fight. Here is a list of their strengths and weaknesses:

Batman

Strengths – Weapon master, skilled in martial arts, high level of human strength and intelligence.

Weakness – Batman has no known weakness with the exception that he is mortal and can die.

Superman

Strengths – X-ray vision, super strength, heat vision, super speed, and he can fly

Weakness – Kryptonite is Superman’s biggest weakness.

Now that you know about each superhero, Who do you think would win in a head-to-head fight, Batman or Superman? We asked a few of our Highland students and teachers who they think would win.  There results were:

Batman won with 51 votes while Superman received 31.

So, we know whose side Highland Park is on, however, if you want to see who really wins go see the movie which is 2 hours and 31 minutes long, rated PG – 13, and comes out on March 25.

Curling irons: How to achieve the curl you want

The Curling Iron

This has been used as the primary heated tool to create fake luscious curls since the 1800’s. Many people have these but don’t know the different techniques that can be used to achieve the kind of curl you desire.

Size

The smaller the iron, the tighter the curl.

Styles based on size:

2” barrel
Relaxed Waves (Best for medium/long hair)

This is a nice look for a casual everyday on the go vibe.

1.75” Barrel
Loose Waves (Best for medium/long hair)

Perfect for everyday wear or even casual dress wear

1.5” Barrel
Voluminous Curls (Best for Medium/Long Hair)

This is a loose curl but produces a lot of volume especially if you have longer and thicker hair. This is a good hairstyle when trying to spice up your look.

1.25” Barrel
Medium Loose Curls (Best for Medium/Long hair)

This is more of an elaborate curl. It can be more time consuming than some of the other styles but is worth it for special events or when you want to enhance your look.

1” Barrel
Full Curls (Good for short to long hair)

This is a sleek put together look that gives you a sophisticated or a sweetheart exterior depending on what outfit you match it with.

¾’’ Barrel
Vintage curls

This look in a voluminous alternative for people with bobs or shorter hair. However, if you have longer hair than shown in the picture it will give you ringlet curls that give you an extra bubbly, youthful look.

⅜’’ Barrel
Tight, spiral curls (best for short/medium hair)

This is the tightest kind of curl. It will work on all lengths but lasts the longest on people with thinner and shorter hair because the hair will hold it the best.

Beats vs. Bose

In the world of audio and headphones, it’s all about Beats and Bose, the top dogs in the industry. Which is better? Is there even an answer to such a question? As with everything else, they each have their pros and cons. Let’s go over them here.

Beats is the marketing master in the headphones industry. Having professional athletes wearing them in public and in their commercials. Beats are recognized world-wide as a high end brand for audio products. A reputation any of its competitors would do anything for. For this reason, people perceive them as “the best” instead of seeing them for being simply the most popular.

On the other hand we have Bose, the main rival competitor to Beats. They may not have the best appearance out there for headphones (gray, white, silver) but they’re still as good as Beats. Their brand has literally become synonymous with quality, especially for those audiophiles that care for highs, lows, frequencies, and the like. While their bass and volume are more leveled (less dramatic), keen ears will be able to recognize a quality that screams quality and is worth every penny spent.

So in the end, overall Beats and Bose are very similar, however, I would choose Beats over Bose as they are more comfortable and have a better sound, overall, in my opinion.

When to plan for prom?

Prom here at Highland is in about 8 weeks, on Friday, May 6th, at the Landmark Center downtown St. Paul. This year the theme of our prom is “Great Gatsby.”

When’s the right time to look for your dress? Your tux? Find your date?

In my opinion, if you know you are going for sure then it’s definitely not too early to be planning for prom. If you aren’t sure if you’re going this year, then you still have a lot of time to make your plans, just make sure you have enough time; planning last minute is never a great idea and will most likely cause you to be stressed out because of so much you have to do in such a little amount of time.

Girls, the sooner you get your dress, the more options you have when choosing your dress. It’s not too early to find your date either. It’s good if you know who you’re going with, so girls when you’re shopping for your dress who can try to accommodate the colors with your date’s preference as well.

Making hair appointments now would also be a great idea because around the time of prom your salon will most likely be getting packed with hair appointments.

If you’re wanting to get in better shape, or possibly tan for prom, it’s never too early to hit up the gym or tanning salon to get the best results for prom. Now that does mean you might change sizes, so if your plan is to lose/gain weight for prom maybe you’d prefer to wait it out a little longer to get sized for your dress.

Boys, you don’t have nearly as much to do as us girls. Getting a tux isn’t as hard as picking out a dress. Usually, teen boys who only wear a tux occasionally will rent their tux for prom.

Maybe, you would like to get in better shape for prom, it’s never too early to go to the gym. Of course then you could still pick out your style and colors of your tux, but sizing, you might grow or change sizes so maybe you would want to wait it out to get sized for your tux.

It’s not too early to ask a girl to go to prom with you. Girls that are already wanting to plan for prom now are probably worried about not having a date. You should try and plan out who you are wanting to go with, considering the boys usually ask girls.

I asked 5 boys and 5 girls if they think it’s too early to start planning for prom, and if so why is it too early in their opinion.

4 out of 5 of the boys said it’s too early. The one boy who said it’s not too early is the only one out of the 5 who has a set date already. The other 4 said it’s too early simply because prom is too far away and they don’t need to worry about it yet. They have more than enough time to get everything together that they need.

3 out of 5 girls said it is too early to plan for prom, but 2 out of those 3 said if they knew they were going for sure they would be planning this early, but they don’t have dates yet and don’t want to go as a single to prom this year. The other one said it’s too early because there’s plenty of time. They don’t think they need to start planning until a month or even a few weeks ahead of time, and “What if I get fatter or skinnier?” she said.

There are many pro’s and con’s on planning ahead for prom. You will have more than enough time to make sure your plans are set and ready, and you will have many more options if you plan now. Plus, if you get your prom tickets early, usually they go on sale the middle of April, your ticket will be cheaper.

If you plan now though, things might not go as planned as well, you might change sizes and have to get your dress hemmed or change sizes last minute, and your choice of style might change. Also, your date might not follow through and you might have to find a last minute date.

Jamba Juice

The idea of selling Jamba Juice once a week during lunch time has been around for a few years now. The idea originally came from Dr. Tucker, which he had done before at Southwest High School. Dr. Tucker then mentioned the idea to James Farnsworth at a meeting.

What will happen is, they will ask the Jamba Juice store on Grand Ave. to bring and sell pre-made smoothies once a week during our lunch time. Then the new Scots Cafe will take 20% of the proceeds to use for operating the cafe.

Right now, they are still working on a time to meet with Jamba Juice to set up the plan. This is all the information I have on the Jamba Juice, but keep checking back for updates. Hopefully the idea will go through sometime this year.

MLBaseball is right around the corner

With spring training starting up mid-way though February we know baseball season is right around the corner. The 2016 Major League Baseball season is tentatively set to begin on April 3, 2016. The season is going to start with a Sunday night World Series rematch between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. The regular season is scheduled to end on Sunday, October 2, 2016. The schedule was released in September 2015.

At the start of spring training, there’s been movement in the World Series futures as the Toronto Blue Jays now have the best odds of any American League team to win the World Series. Slow down though before placing a wager on the Jays, as history isn’t on their side. Over the last 20 years, only two teams who’ve lost in the ALCS or NLCS went on to win the World Series the following year. That’s only two of 40 teams, giving the Jays a whopping 5% chance based on the results since the Wild Card era began in 1995.

Plane spotting

Don’t you just hate getting stuck seated next to that guy on the plane? The person who can take one look at a jet and knows right away which company manufactured it and which family it belongs to, but can also throw in some random facts about its performance. With so many online resources allowing aviation fanatics to track planes and share their favorite photos and experiences, plane-spotting has become a more alluring hoby than ever. Ready to grab your binoculars?

Here are some tips and tricks to get you started.

Identifying an airplane from a distance is a skill that comes with familiarity and the only way to gain that is to be around airports and ogling at airplanes as regularly as one could. According to planespotting.com “There is of course the overall shape of the airplane to note, but there comes a point where one plane looks like another. So there are other details that one could look to for clues.”

Where to begin?  

Matt Falcus, founder of the web site airportspoting.com, and author of World Airports Spotting Guides, says it can get tricky because many airliners do indeed look similar, especially those built by Airbus and Boeing, the two main manufacturers. However, you can start to distinguish airliners by the number of engines they have, or by whether they are a large long-haul aircraft which travel long distances, or a short/medium haul aircraft which travel on domestic or regional fights.

There are also clues in the shape of the nose, tail position, wing shape, number of doors, the landing gear, the position of the horizontal stabilizer near the tail and even the shape of the cockpit windows.

If you’re close enough to see the registration number, located on the side of the plane near the tail, a quick online search will give you plenty of details on the aircraft, including when it was made and by which manufacturer, which airlines have flown it and the type of engines it’s fitted with.

At the end of the day plane spotting is an interesting hobby, and I feel as if everyone should at least try it and see if they like it.

Pep fest

What is pep fest ?

Pet fest is an event in high school were all the grades (9,10,11,12) come along to celebrate the activities and sports students have participated in during the fall, winter, or spring season depending the time of year. What happens at this event is that the captains of the sports, or clubs, come up front and speak about each of their groups and encourage kids to join them later on.

After that, what usually happens is that the sports that just finished their season goes and presents some type of dance or routine.

What pep fest is really about is that kids get to have fun and look and what’s been happening in school, and it encourages them to try out for those sports or clubs.

In order to find out about how people feel about the pep fest, I decide to go and interview some people at Highland Park Senior High.
This is what one of the freshman cheerleaders, Sophia Vasquez, said when I asked how did she think pep fest went? She responded “good.”

After that, I asked how did she feel about being a part of pep fest? She said, “I didn’t really think about it until that day. I got really nervous and then after a while into the dance it felt natural.”

The next question I asked was what did you think stood out the most in all of the performances? She responded, “The cheer performance of course especially when Vanessa got thrown in the air that was really cool.”

My last question was what did you think pep fest is really about? She answered, “It’s about making more people exited about this activities,” and as she said to “pep them up.”

The second person I interviewed was Sophie Cocchiarella.

The first question I asked was what did you think of pep fest? She responded, “It was fun and really good.”

After that I asked her how did it feel to be a part of such a big event like the pep fest? She responded saying, “She felt very nervous about it because there were so many people around watching but exited at the same time.”

Next I asked what did she think stood out the most from all the performances?

She said, “I felt like it was the gymnastics team and skiing team because they don’t usually do those things they did in the pep fest.”

Then there’s me. What I thought of pep fest was that it was one of the most amazing memories that I’ll have from this year.

Who did I think stood out the most you ask? I honestly think it was the gymnastics girls because they don’t usually go and perform in front of the entire school, only on this occasion.

Last, what did I think pep fest is really about? It’s about people getting together to watch their friends who are in sports and support them. Also, to make friends, enjoy the show, and make them want to join those teams, clubs, etc.

Busing

I am a junior at Highland Park Senior High School and I have something to say about the school’s busing. Why is it that I don’t have access to a school bus for transportation to and from school when my friend that lives roughly 5 minutes away from me has access to a bus?

One day I took the school bus to her house from school and noticed how close the bus route is to my house. That got me thinking, especially since there was only like 10 students on her bus. Given the location of my house, and available room on the bus, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to add another stop to the bus route.

The way I get to school is by getting dropped off by my mom, and I get home from school by taking the city bus. I don’t have to just take 1 bus, but 2, and riding the city bus is not free. I know the school sells bus cards, but who has $80 to buy a bus card?

My overall point of writing about this topic is to make it known that a few changes should be made to the busing routes to make it more convenient for students and their guardians to get to school.

Foreign exchange students

There are a number of foreign exchange students here at Highland hailing from countries as diverse as France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. I interviewed a couple of these students wanting to know about their experiences here so far.

Screen Shot 2016-03-04 at 9.55.25 AMWhat is your name ?
Julien.

What school did you go to back in France?/Grade?
Jeanne d’Arc./Junior.

How are your schools different from Highland?
Highland is bigger. Culture difference. Finishes earlier here. Better teachers. Cool. Different grades depending on your age.
The school start in December.

What things do they teach, or do, differently?
Subjects are different. You can choose more classes here. You get the same schedule every week but it’s a different classes each day. Took classes in French but took an English class.

What are some experiences that you enjoyed most/ least?
Food. Culture. It’s like another world. Early wake up for school. Everything is far away from each other.

What made you want to study abroad?
Learn English. Discover the culture and have new experiences of another country.

What fun and exciting things you’ve done so far?
Valley fair. The sports. Food is totally different.

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking of studying abroad?
To come it’s a superb experience. Meet cool people.

Screen Shot 2016-03-04 at 9.55.48 AMWhat your name?
Alessandro

What school did you go to back in France/ Italy?
Virglio High school

How are your schools different from Highland?
You can’t choose your subject, you don’t change class every hour

What things do they teach or do differently?
They teach philosophy and Italian literature

What are some experiences that you enjoyed most/ least?
I have enjoyed the school and the cities

What made you want to study abroad?
Learn a new language and discover the culture of a different country

What fun and exciting things you’ve done so far?
I’ve been to Chicago

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking of studying abroad?
Be ready for big changes in your life. It’s such an amazing experience.