U-15 Girls Basketball- Sara

This week were the tryouts for the U-15 girl’s basketball team. Every year, there are a bunch of sports you can try out for and try to get into either the U-15 or U-13 teams. Tryouts were held on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. The reason why the U-15 girls tryouts were this week and not next was because Mrs.Rockey, who is going to be the coach, is going to go on Operation Starship so that is why she need to make up the teams so that there is time for the girls to practice and get better before she leaves. Throughout the couple of months that Basketball is going to be held, there will be games between other schools. Schools that participate are International School Bangkok (ISB), Bangkok Patana School (BPS), New International School Thailand (NIST), Harrow International School (HIS) and Ruamrudee International School (RIS). There are a couple more teams which I’m not sure of, but all the teams are well experienced and up for a challenge. Practice for the teams is always after school to 3:15P.M. During practices, the girls practice doing lay-ups, learning new skills and different plays they can do during the games. At the end of the end of the BISAC Basketball Season, there is a tournament. This year it is going to be held at ISB. There will be different foods and drinks there which you can buy from like Starbucks and Subway. The girls’ tournament lasts for three days. There will be a couple of games each day. Be sure that when the tournament is going on, you come to watch and cheer on the ISB team!

Thunderstorm By: Afek & Robbie

Rain; lightening, and flooding, those are the factors that we dealt with last night.

There was a huge storm and power outage. The streets were flooded and people’s trashcans were floating in the street. We saw people driving golf-carts with people dragging behind on knee boards.

Tommy said, “When I was driving my motorcycle through Natakorn, my bike barely made it. The water was up to my waist.”

Tim said, “When I went home yesterday, the water in Natakorn Park was up to my knees, and I was on my bike. I took off my shoes and put them in my bag. It was horrible, the fear of being swept away by a single wave.”

Nolan said, “My power did not come back on until 8pm. It was so hot and boring.”

Matt said, “Well, I just had a power outage for a moment and then my whole compound got power, internet and reception.”

(Robbie said) “I was driving in my car to school because I forgot something, and I saw a car stall as it was exiting Natakorn. People were pushing the car to where it would not block the intersection. I was hoping there wouldn’t be any school.”

(Afek said,) “It was crazy off the chain. I arrived home at the nick of time. I was walking home and I was telling my friend Alex to go home already, I finally hitched a ride and bam it was pouring all over him. So I was lucky but no power until 8:30 and we were forced to eat at Que Pasa for dinner.”

Apparently lightening hit the school pool and we could see the actually lightening much more than usual. Many kids rode around on their bikes to check out the floods.

In conclusion, the storm was deadly but luckily no one was injured.

The London Olympics Stadium by Margaret

The Beijing Olympics just finished on Friday and most people said the Olympics and the end was fabulous with all these fireworks. So, aren’t you concerned about the next 2012 London Olympics stadium and how it will look? I think everyone will be interested in it.

As you can see, the second picture is how they say it will look. They have already started building the stadium. The first picture is a picture of how they are trying to build it.

The stadium is going to be more than 100 enormous columns, each more than 5 meters, and will also form the lower ground floor which includes the changing rooms and the facilities. Also, the foundations are almost complete.

I think the new Olympics Stadium will be awesome and it might be better than the Beijing Olympics.

Information from: http://www.london2012.com/ and http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYcTUdf2Z0IWExatOzykUHKDmtXA

PAD Protest - Toey

The People’s Alliance for Democracy is protesting again. On Tuesday, August 26, 2008, about 80 PAD members went over the gate and broke into the state-owned NBT premises on Vibhavadhi Rangsit Road and destroyed some of their property. If you were watching TV, you would’ve definitely seen some footage of the takeover. When they got in, they demanded the NBT staff and newscasters stop broadcasting. Somkiat Pongpaiboon was one of the 5 People’s Alliance for Democracy leaders and he said that the TV station was only being used as a mouthpiece for the government though being funded by taxpayers’ money so he was motivated by anger. At about 8.55 am, police escorted a number of NBT staff out of the premises in fear of being attacked by the demonstrators. The police found, after a brief search through the protesters, 11 handguns, 1 shotgun, golf clubs, and several knives of various kinds. It would be reasonable to say that the People’s Alliance for Democracy break-in at the NBT station was not successful, and it gave the people watching TV a very negative impression of them. However, this made the NBT look like heroes because they kept on broadcasting from various locations at the protest. The adults can be fined up to 10,000 baht. If this keeps on going and the demonstrations become violent, ISB will probably have a day off to protect the students, teachers, and staff. However, this has already affected some schools. A Thai school called Mater Dei already had a day off on Wednesday for its students because the school was on the same road that the demonstrations were at, which would cause even worse traffic. Luckily it hasn’t reached ISB yet.

Bad Video Games by Vignesh

There are many bad video games in this world which have already been made and or are still on their way. One of them is GTA San Andreas. This world is all not bad and nasty! There are always more good things than Bad. Always! I heard my friend saying that He read in the news paper that a mental guy who played the game GTA went out to do the real thing! He stopped a cab and stabbed the driver 6 times! Well, poor cab guy. People should not play these games. Maybe about 5% percent out of a hundred do these things. There are more games which are better. I play pro soccer evolution 2007 in my play station portable. You can play sport games, racing games and many more. You can also go to miniclip.com in there are good games. When you play bad video games you get addicted to it. The latest games are very expensive, about 40-50$ each. They may also break friendships. Like First you hang out with your friends a lot, then suddenly you find a bad or cool video game. After some days, you get so addicted that when your friends come to call you to play you tell them to go away. The next day they come again to call you and you get angry and shout at them because you got killed or busted in the game. Your friends shout at you and the friendship breaks. This has happened to a lot of kids. I advise you not to get influenced by these bad games. Play other games for a while and then go out to play so you don’t break your relationship.

Two Golds and Silvers for Thailand -Win E.

Thailand added three more medals to its tally in the last few days of the Olympics to sum up a total of four medals. Thailand now moves up to 31^st, tied with Mongolia with two golds and two silvers. The first of Thailand’s medals came on the second day of the Olympics when Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon lifted a 90 kg and a 120 kg for a total of 210 kg and the gold medal in the women’s 53 kg weightlifting. Later in the Olympics, Buttree Puedpong, got the silver medal in taekwondo women’s 49 kg. She lost to China’s Wu Jingyu by 1 to -1 points.

As for Thailand’s prime sport, boxing, Thailand claimed gold and silver. It was a great final performance from both boxers in the final, but an “OK” Olympics for the Thai boxing team. Light-welterweight defending Olympics champion Manus Boonjumnong had to settle for silver after losing to Dominican Republic’s Felix Diaz. After defeating first- seeded Kazakh Serik Sapiyev in the quarterfinals, many expected that Manus would have an easy time for the gold, but things didn’t go his way and he lost 12-4. He will have to challenge for gold in London 2012. Elsewhere, flyweight veteran Somjit Jongjohor defeated Andris Laffita Hernandez of Cuba 8-2 in the final bout for his first ever Olympic gold. Prior to this he has won all major boxing competitions but the Olympics. Somjit Jongjohor has now won it in what many people presumed to b e the last fight of his career.

I think that Thailand has performed pretty well in the Olympics. Even though I’d like one or two more boxing medal; it has been a great Olympic. How do you feel about Thailand at the Olympics? What do you think that Thailand should achieve at the London 2012?

Why can’t we have an unexpected Holiday? By Benedict

Last year, a huge storm hit Nichada Thani and damaged our own school ISB. The library flooded, floor tiles broke, and the ceiling tiles fell down too. The next morning, school was canceled because of all the damage. The year before, there was a coup and people were protesting against Thaksin. We had no school that day too. Both of these days were exciting and fun because we didn’t know for sure what was happening downtown on the coup and the storm was exciting because there were broken trees everywhere. There were even electricians all over the place. This week we had a cue and a storm but no day off. A lot of kids were praying for the cue to become bigger of the storm to hit the electricity hard so we won't have school the next day.

Tim said “I want another storm”

Christian said “I want a storm big enough for the power to go out long enough for there to be no school the next day but not strong enough to destroy the power for a long time.”

With one day off we will be able to get rid of some of the frustration and just relax. We also will be really excited to come to school the next day to tell everyone about what they did. It also is fun to run around Nichada when we’re supposed to be at school doing a test. With another unexpected day off, we will be able to concentrate more hardly in school because we won’t be put on as much pressure. One day off is exactly what we need.

WALL – E by Tim

My sister came running home one day to my mom and said she wanted to see WALL – E. The movie is about the only living thing left on Earth who only wants to fall in love. WALL – E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter-- Earth Cleaner) falls in love with EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Examiner), a vegetation examiner brought down from outer space to find some sort of life. WALL – E finds the only life source on Earth, but hides it from her. After EVE finds nothing, WALL – E takes her to his home and shows her the plant, the only life source on Earth. Finally, her search is complete and she can go home. Unfortunately, there is one problem. WALL – E doesn’t want her to go, so he jumps onto her spaceship and follows her into space. After the loss of food and vegetation on Earth the humans were forced to evacuate and live in outer space. After eating food all the time and never getting any exercise the humans have all turned fat. After EVE brought back the plant, it was planned that whenever EVE brought back a life source they were supposed to go home, but when they opened EVE, the plant was gone, so the order was canceled. WALL – E had the plant all along and eventually gave it back to EVE. When they went to return the plant the co – captain and robot programmed to guide wherever they go wouldn’t allow them to return back to Earth, so they had to deactivate it. The captain of the ship is their only hope, after not walking for over 20 years he falls to the ground. He gets up and deactivates it. After plunging down towards Earth in a spaceship the humans flee the ship crushing WALL – E in the process our only hope for WALL – E is EVE. If you want to know the ending so badly you’re going to have to see it yourself.

WALL –E is a breakthrough in movies all over the world. In my opinion, this was a pretty good movie. But I don’t think it would be good for a middle school student. I think it would be better for an elementary student. If you ask me it would have been rated a three out of five stars. In conclusion, it wasn’t horrible, but……… it wasn’t great.

Loud music is bad for your ears- by Grace

Recently, music has become a part of people’s way of lives. Many people probably cannot live without their iPods, or mp3 players. However, when you listen to music, do you watch the maximum volume you turn it up to? Have you ever wondered what loud music can do to your ears?

In June 2008, the results of an Australian governmental study revealed that the higher the volume of music people listen to (especially with earphones or headphones), the higher their risk of developing a permanent hearing problem. The study also shows that an alarming two thirds of Australia’s population suffer from inner ear damage, brought about by listening to loud music.

Almost three quarters of these two thirds are aged between eighteen and thirty-four, and have tinnitus, a condition where those afflicted hear ringing sounds in their ears. It is a problem that is associated with permanent ear damage.

This may be because of the lifestyle people are developing more and more each day- listening to loud music everywhere, like in bars, pubs, in buses or trains, or at home, usually with headphones or earphones.

But how can you tell if your music is too loud? Professor Harvey Dillon of the Hearing Australia organization (one that is government-funded) says that as a rule of thumb, if people have to raise their voices or shout at you to make themselves heard, then sorry, your music’s too loud already. Also, he warns that most people don’t realize that the damage inflicted by listening to music that is too loud is permanent.

So, please watch the volume of the music that you listen to, and don’t make people have to raise their voices so that you can hear them. Best of all, if you’re in a noisy environment and can’t hear your music, don’t turn it all the way up- just turn your music player off and wait till it’s quieter, so you don’t have to turn up the music volume. This is better for you, and for others.

Information taken from http://news.softpedia.com/news/Loud-Music-is-Bad-for-The-Ears-87686.shtml.

Image taken from http://www.maryhaydavis.com/images/listening_to_music.gif.

Life in the Middle - Toey

This year like the ones in the past, there is ‘Life in the Middle: Publications’ again. Some of you are taking this class and the ones that aren’t will have it as an elective choice for the rest of the year. It is a quarter-long class that allows you to write and publish articles to a blog. The current blog is at http://isblifeinthemiddle.blogspot.com but the older one was at http://isbmiddleschool.blogspot.com, while Mrs. Drahman was here. However, now that she has moved, Dr. Everett is the new teacher. LITM started out as a newspaper about ten years ago. In the beginning, it was only published once or twice a quarter, but it slowly turned into a weekly middle school newspaper, handed out every Friday at the end of the day. In January 2006, however, Life in the Middle turned into an online blog, a place for people to come read and comment on the articles. This saved a lot of paper and was more efficient and simple, with not having to hand them out at the end of every Friday. This made it become a daily publication like it is now.

Paralympic By: Shawnie

The Paralympic Games are held for athletes with mental and physical disabilties. The Paralymics are held on September 6-17. The athletes are divided in to five groups depending on their handicap. The categories include: spinal cord injuries, amputees, visual impairment, cerebral palsy and those who don’t fit others. There are 20 main events this year, other sports like wheelchair rugby and goal ball are also included. The visually impaired compete in separate events. The deaf compete in their own competition called the “Deaflympics”. The next Deaflympic will be held in Taiwan next year.

The Paralympics started when a German- born Jewish doctor, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, was working in a hospital and thought that sports could help patients to recovery. In 1948, Guttmann organized a competition, which was the first official Paralympics.

China is hoping to win the most gold medals this year. When China won the rights to hold the Olympics, China’s government donated a whole lot of money to the disabled athletes. In the Beijing Olympics, China won: 51 Gold; 21 Silver; 28 Bronze; 100 Total, making China first place in the Olympics, this shows China’s outstanding determination to win. This determination should carry over the Paralympics as well.

After School Dance- Sara

Last Saturday was the registration for the After School Dance (ASD) program. Many people at ISB love dancing and showing off their skills. There are many different choices of dance classes you can join. Some of them include Hip-hop, Jazz, Ballet and Tap. A couple weeks before the registration there were try outs to see what class you would best fit in. You’d have to sign up right outside the Activities Office and go to the MPB the day the sheet of paper stated. The ASD is for all different grade levels ranging from K-12. At the end of the year, there will be two performances at the Chevron Theater. The ES show is at a different time than the MS/HS because there are too many performances to fit into one time slot. The students are not the ones who make up the dances though. The credit goes to the dance teachers who have to make up the choreography and design an outfit that best fits the theme set for the end of the year show. It takes a lot of hard work and determination to do such a thing. The After School Dance production is a great opportunity to make new friends, become better dancers, and of course to have lots of fun!

Argentina Win the Soccer Olympics-Christian

Argentina vs. Nigeria. That was the final of the Olympics in men’s soccer. There was only one goal. And it was in Argentina’s favor. Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0. The Argentineans went crazy. I thought that it was a tight game even though Argentina was attacking more. Even though Argentina was winning, the Nigerians never gave up.

Do Students want a new subject? Raimy & Oda

Don’t you think it would be fun to have a new subject? Some students are bored of the having the same subjects each year. The 8^th graders have been taking the same subjects for three years already, and the Middle School students that we surveyed mostly said they would love to have a new subject.

Six students out of ten said yes, and the other four said no. These are some of the students' opinions.

“A soccer class for me because I like soccer, and I know that other people do too,” said Christian in 7^th grade, and Tim, 6^th grade, agreed with him.

The last subject that was added to ISB Middle School was Visual Messages, about two years ago. The way the teachers choose to add a new subject is they first see if students want a new subject, and the principle asks the teachers if anyone is willing to teach that subject. If everything works out, and they have a room to teach it in and a teacher to teach it, they put it on Powerschool for students to choose from. If lots of students sign up for it, they keep it. If not, they take back the subject.

The change that was made this year was that PE and Health are together. Before, we had Health in one quarter and we didn’t do any PE. Now, they’re mixed and sometimes it’s pure PE, sometimes it’s pure Health, and sometimes, it’s both together.

If you feel that you are bored of the subjects, just think of a new subject you want, and put your idea in the Think Outside the ‘Box’!

Classic in the Library: The Phantom of the Opera- by Grace

You’ve probably heard of the Phantom of the Opera. It’s been made into a Broadway musical AND a movie- but way back in the beginning, it started as a novel by Gaston LeRoux. This classic can be found in the library- I first read it there. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the best, I would definitely rate this classic a ten.

It starts at a Parisian opera house, where there have long been rumours of a Phantom who ‘haunts’ the place. Mysterious things start happening when Christine Daae, a very talented singer, first performs at an opera. As it turns out, the Phantom –who is in reality an actual person named Erik, who is the master of ventriloquism and other skills which he uses with craftiness- is in love with Christine, and wants her to marry him.

Determined to stop this plan are the Viscount Raoul de Chagny –Christine’s childhood friend, who is in love with her and to whom she is secretly engaged- and a mysterious person called the Persian, who once saved Erik’s life and is doggedly trying to get Erik to stop his evil ways. When they find out that Erik has given Christine two decisions –each as horrible as the other; one to marry him, and the next to decline and let the whole of Paris be blown up with gunpowder- they are devastated.

What will Christine choose, and how will this classic end?

The Phantom of the Opera was very well-written, and I just couldn’t put it down. The characters were well-developed, especially the character of Erik, who was driven by what seems like pure madness, and whose upbringing and life made me pity him. I also like how everything is described in great detail, so that you can already sort of imagine the scene that’s taking place, and find yourself going along with the story.

You have to check out this awesome book of mystery, suspense, romance and adventure, especially if you enjoyed books like The Prisoner of Zenda, Agatha Christie’s famous mystery novels, or Lemony Snicket's The Series of Unfortunate Events.

Picture from the Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera, taken from http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLG_en___TH288&q=phantom+of+the+opera.

Argentina beat Brazil in Olympics-Christian

A few days ago, Argentina beat Brazil 3-0. The two first goals were scored by Sergio Aguero and the ball was crossed to him the both times. The third goal was scored by Juan Roman Riquelme. Ronaldinho almost scored with a free kick but it hit the post. A Brazilian then scored but it was offside. I thought that Argentina deserved to win because they were trying very hard. 3-0, an embarrassing defeat. I think that the Brazilians gave up.

The Lockers By Tim and Ben

Do you think the lockers are getting pretty old? Well, we think that they are getting too old to be usable. For one reason, I was walking to class, and I saw someone opening their locker and the door just fell off. Another reason is because on every door there is rust and dents. With all that rust, anyone could break through a locker door and with all the dents, the locker door doesn’t even fit inside the space. Since they don’t fit, kids try to bang the locker door shut. The lockers are also too small for the big bags we bring to school. With bigger, better, and stronger lockers, there won’t be as much sound in the halls and kids won’t be taking their bags to classes. Bigger lockers also mean more organized lockers because there just isn’t any space inside lockers we have now.

Here are some students opinions:

Ethan complained “The lockers are filled with lots of rust”

Vignesh said “The lockers are too scratched up”

Win said “The lockers are too old.”

Sasha said “The lockers, though not being there for what we call a ‘long time’, seem to have reached their expiry date.

They are rusting beyond repair, and sometimes when you close the door, you end up getting your door bent outside of the lock. Those have lost the benefit of their use. What I believe is that if we can incorporate the gym’s locker into the third floor (with a larger size), we could finally get something better than what we currently have.”

As you see, most people said that the lockers are too old and bent out of shape.

We went to talk to Mr. Souza. He said “The high school would be getting some of the lockers we use in PE in December and hopefully we will be getting them next year.”

Hopefully we won’t be getting any trouble with the new lockers when we get them next year.

Mac vs. Pc by Robbie

Many people have PCs and many people have Macs. I have a PC, but I want a Mac because Macs rarely freeze, and they have all the programs that a PC has, plus you can download games from the apple website. Whenever I use a Mac it seems so much faster than a PC, but I really hate how there is no right click in Macs. I interviewed some of my classmates on what they preferred and why.

Ethan stated, “I like Macs because they’re just awesome.”

Tim said, “I agree with Ethan, Macs are awesome.”

Afek said, “I like PCs for games, but when I do work I’d rather have a Mac, and I just love Macs, Shazzam!”

Matt said, “I prefer Pc’s because they’re original.”

Sasha said, “I like PCs better because Macs don’t have the programs that I want. If they get them, maybe I’ll like Macs better”

Pranav said, “Macs because they’re higher class.”

Christian said, “PCs because I grew up using them.”

PCs also have its advantages and disadvantages. Pc’s have many shortcuts which make using one much easier than a Mac. In Macs to do something you have to go up to file, or edit, while in PCs you just right click and click copy, much faster and easier. The major thing about Macs is that you can download Vista or Xp for Macs, but on a Pc you can’t download Mac software.

So, what do you think?

Losing Items in I.S.B.-- Anurag & Pranav

Have you ever lost anything? I think may have or you might because it is really easy to lose Ipod’s, Iphones and cell phones. Since you might lose something someday, it would be to your benefit to be honest and turn all lost stuff into Mr. Straub.

Mr. Straub is the SOAR center guy. He takes care of the announcements, lost and found, dances, photography, student council, synergy, and ROAR!! He is a polite gentleman who helps you out whenever you ask him for help, like information and where to go. Also, he tells you what is going on in the school, and he can also tell you the upcoming events.

If you find a lost item, you can turn it in, and if you lose something you can go to him and he will write it on the announcements so people can search for it. The person who finds the item gets a treat like: a Mars bars, a key chain, or other treats. The teachers will give you more respect since you are doing all this kind stuff. They will also have a better point of view about your reputation.

You get your treat at the Friday Hooha’ in the pit. Have you heard of this policy? HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY. So turn in items and you will get a reward.

Current Events at ISB

ArtNOW*

Currently, ISB is having the ArtNOW art exhibition and sale at the Gallery in the Chevron Theatre. The show is called “You & Me” and features ceramics, sculptures, and printmaking. It will be held from August 19 to September 13 and had already had their opening reception to meet their artists on the evening of Friday, 22 August, 2008 at 6.00 pm. The ArtNOW show is an ISB community initiative to support art education and appreciation throughout the families and students at our school.

U-15 Girls’ Basketball

U-15 Girls’ Basketball will be starting this Monday, August 25, 2008. All girls that have already had their PPE’s should make it to the Rajendra Hall by 2:15 to meet with Mrs. Rockey to try out for the U-15 BISAC team. This team is starting first because Mrs. Rockey will be gone in October for Operation Starship. The other BISAC teams will be starting soon.

MS Open House

Middle School Open House is going to be this Thursday, August 28, 2008 beginning at 6.50 pm. Here is the schedule for the MS Open House, which will be held at the Chevron Theatre.

6:50 MS Slide Show (Opening of School)

7:00 Welcome & Introductions – Jim Souza

MS Activities/Athletics – Peter Straub

PE/Health – Peter Johnson

Performing/Visual Arts – Brent Poling

Modern Language – Gabriela Jimenez

7:30 Grade 6 remain in the Chevron Theatre

Grade 7 move to MPB 1

House 8A move to MPB 2

House 8B move to MPB 3

8:30-9:00 MPB 1 - 3

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince coming next summer by Steven Chang and Nino S.

Harry Potter’s sixth movie is coming out next summer! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is written by J.K Rowling and directed by Steve Kloves. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released on July 17^th, 2009 in public. However, the date may be changed because the studio is still discussing the release date for three or four weeks.

No matter what the date is, the story seems very thrilling! As Harry Potter begins his 6^th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry he discovers an old book marked mysteriously "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.

So far all the Harry Potter movies have been big successes and we all hope that this will be too!

Christian: I’m quiet excited, because I read this book already and I want to see if the movie is going to be as good.”

Benedict: I’m too~ EXCITED!

Cross Country by Steven C & Nino S.

Cross Country is a popular afterschool activity that helps you get fit, in-shape and looking good. And by joining cross country, you learn to take pleasure in running. Joining cross country can help you with the BEEP test, the 12minute run, sit-ups, pushups and it will make you more comfortable with your body. However, many students don’t enjoy running, so the friendly coaches Mr. Huttner; an 8^th math teacher, Dr. Everett; 8^th grade humanities teacher and Mr. Tague; a 6^th grade humanities teacher are trying to make running enjoyable.

Mr. Huttener’s plan is to provide students with a good opportunity to exercise and socialize with other students. He also supposes that cross country can help students build their upper body, abdominal muscles, strength, and endurance. He leads this program with a variety of games, which of course, are related to running.

By the way, on September 20^th there will be an inter-school competition, a 2km race with other school such as Bangkok Pattana, ASB, and Shrewsbury. The race will start at 9.a.m and everyone can join- U13 and U15. Anyone who finishes the race will be rewarded with medals.

Let’s hear some opinions about cross country.

Vigdesh: “I think it will be very tiring.”

Nino: “Cross country is like P.E, it’s not just running. You also play games.”

Trevor: “When you join cross country for the first time, you’ll think it’s hard and boring, but, after a few sessions, you’ll feel like it’s a breeze and P.E. will be even easier!

Cross country is 30 minutes of fun and easygoing workouts. Come to cross country, it’s still open for you. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, come and have fun!

10 Healthy Foods by Tim and Ethan

As we go through our everyday lives we eat, of course! But when you eat, do you even know what is in the food you’re eating? Many times people THINK they are eating healthy foods, but in fact they are eating foods that are high in fat. For those of you who are constantly eating fattening foods and want to improve your diet, here are a few tips on what you should eat. This is our healthy food countdown:

10. Spinach

Remember Popeye, the sailor with no hope for a 6-pack, until he ate his can of spinach? As appetizing as it looks, it is actually a really healthy vegetable for your body because it is loaded with all kinds of Vitamins and other minerals such as potassium.

9. Squash

NOT the sport, but the yellow odd-shaped vegetable. Squashes are rich in Vitamins just like spinach, but are also rich in Fiber which keeps your digestive tract healthy.

8. Citrus fruit

We are talking about fruits like oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines, and mandarins. These sour-tasting circular joys of wonder keep us living our everyday lives because they are packed with minerals like Vitamin C, folic acid, and the most famous fiber.

7. Brown Rice

Brown rice is natural rice that is unrefined. Without refinement the rice is much more nutritious. The brown rice has fiber again, magnesium, vitamins, copper, zinc and an abundance of other nutritional minerals.

6. Whole grain crackers

FIBER AGAIN!!!! And you know what that means. Crisp crackers are usually fat free due to the all natural grain wheat.

5. Wild salmon

The Omega 3 fats in wild salmon help reduce the risk of sudden heart attacks. Wild salmon is also known to be more nutritional than farmed salmon.

4. Broccoli

Also known as the mini tree, it has a load of Vitamin C and folic acid. Since broccoli is a plain vegetable you can add a pinch of pepper and maybe a drop of lemon juice, but it hardly affects the broccoli’s nutrition facts

3. Fat Free Milk or 1% milk

This milk is jam-packed with calcium which is good for your teeth and bones. It also has protein. This milk also has less fat than normal milk. If you enjoy drinking soy milk, it is also nutritious like fat free milk.

2. Grape tomatoes

These small baby-like tomatoes are sweeter and firmer than regular tomatoes. They are perfect for whole bites rather than bite by bite. Grape tomatoes are also packed with Vitamins such as vitamin C and A. And again you can obtain fiber by eating grape tomatoes.

1. Sweet potatoes

These orange tubers are packed with potassium and vitamins. And in the end sweet potatoes come with a free package of the most important mineral, FIBER!!

We interviewed some students about what they think is good for your health

Matt states, “Carrots are the bomb”

Tim said, “Salad is the greatest.”

Win said, “Fruit is awesome.”

Sasha exclaimed, “Crème Bruleé”

“I love and think that vegetables are a good source of vitamins,” Robbie stated

Not all these foods are unappetizing, but they are also at times tasty. You don’t have to eat these food items just by themselves to have a healthy diet, but you can add some tasty yummy delicacies that are also healthy to make your meal tasty and also heart healthy

Sports Bash by Sara

Ready. Set .Sports Bash! Coming up on September.5 2008, it will be the first dance of the year. To all our new comers this year, the Sports bash is basically a dance split in half. For about an hour, there will be sports and activities to do, and the other half will be dancing! The Sports Bash will be from 3:00 to 5:30 P.M. The dance bit of the Sports Bash will be in the MPB above the Zigzag and the athletics will be held in the ES Gym. Some of the sports that are going to be held are Soccer, Basketball, Ping Pong, Swimming, and Volleyball. If you’re confused on what to wear, find something sporty, like a soccer or basketball jersey with a pair of shorts. Permission slips are being handed out now until the 3^rd of September. More information will be on the slip. The dance costs 300 baht. If you live downtown and need transportation back, there will be a couple buses’ there, but you will have to pay an extra 100 baht. You will need your parents’ permission to go, otherwise, no Sports Bash. The PTA organizes the dances most of the time with the help of the student council. The money is used for the little snacks there will be at the dance. For the past years I have been going to the dances, they usually serve pizza, pop, and sometimes cupcakes and cookies. Yum! The Sports Bash will be a great time for everyone to get together and have some fun! Hope you all can make it because if you don’t go, you won’t know what you’re missing out on.

Artemis Fowl: A Series Review By Sasha

Anyone ever heard of the book Artemis Fowl? No? Well it isn’t too late to read it, as it is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and even though it has been seven years since its release, it is still available in Emporium’s Kinokuniya, for anyone who’s interested. Anyway, the book is all about a young Irish criminal mastermind named Artemis Fowl. He is desperate for a certain book, and that book turns out to be the fairy People bible. He gets into a whole mess up with the fairies when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short so he can have a large ransom: Fairy Gold. But I won’t ruin the ending for you. You can do that yourself.

Anyway, there are six books in total: Artemis Fowl, Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident, Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code, Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception, Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony, and Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox. I would give this series a 10/10, simply because of the mixture of crime, magic, and smarts. This combination gives you a feeling of strange giddiness whenever you read the books in this series. The series’ author is Irishman Author Eoin (pronounced ‘Owen’) Colfer.

IPod Nano Fires by Margaret

Everybody knows what an iPod is because a lot of people have it as an mp3 player. Because it’s very expensive and it‘s popular, you think it might be safe but it isn’t as safe as you think.

On August 19, 2008 Japan warned consumers over the iPod after receiving 3 calls about iPod fires which were caused by the iPods overheating. Also, the ministry of economy said that there were 14 other similar problems with the iPods.

But, Apple said that this was a “very unusual case”. And these problems can happen with the iPods sold between September 2005 and December 2006.

These iPod nanos use a rechargeable battery which you need to charge through your computer. There were reports that these fires happened because people tried to charge the iPods on Sony’s laptop. Also, there were some reports that other cases happened because of the LG Electronics’ laptop.

Finally, I think we should beware not to make fires because of charging the iPods for a long time. And, I think that the companies should beware making electronic things so it doesn’t make fire.

Information from http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2211798/ipod-nano-fire-japan-reported and http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cd9f2e40-6e4f-11dd-b5df-0000779fd18c.html

Photos from http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2008-24,GGLG:en&q=iPod%20nano&um=1&sa=N&tab=wis

Disney film gets 'Enchanted'- by Grace

Image comparing a scene from Enchanted to a scene from Snow White, taken from http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3832976896/tt0461770.

Over many, many years, Disney has charmed the world with many films that have, by now, become classics- like Cinderella (the girl who left her shoe behind), Sleeping Beauty (the girl who just refused to wake up until her Prince Charming arrived) and Snow White (ditto Sleeping Beauty, except replace the enchantment with a rotten apple).

Some time ago, Disney released yet another film set to charm us: however, unlike its predecessors, ‘Enchanted’ is a modern spin-off of classics, containing bits from various tales, such as the ones listed above. The film also cleverly finds a way to turn its slightly clichéd 2D animated characters –you name them, you have them; the evil power-hungry queen, the charming handsome prince and the princess in distress- into 3D, real-life people.

The evil power-hungry queen comes in the form of Susan Sarandon, whose greediness has caused her to hide her son Edward (James Marsden) away from all women whom he might fall in love with (which, following their marriage, would cause her to lose her throne). To the voice of narrator Julie Andres, the tale opens up with Edward on a troll-hunting trip.

He comes across Giselle (Amy Adams), a pretty young woman who sings of her desire for a ‘true love’s kiss’. Despite knowing each other for only a day, (as is typical Disney fashion) they decide to get hitched the very next day. However, on the day of their marriage, the queen tricks Giselle into visiting a so-called magic well which would make all her dreams come true. Once Giselle’s eyes are closed, she is pushed violently from behind- and thrust into the crazy, un-fairy-tale-like world that is New York City.

She makes friends with a pessimistic, lawyer named Robert (Patrick Dempsey) whose wife died, and his cute, innocent daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). The tale goes rather obviously from there- Edward appears in pursuit of his damsel in distress, with the aid of a chipmunk named Pip (who is unsuccessfully silenced by the queen’s follower Nathaniel), finds Giselle eventually- and discovers that she’s actually reluctant to leave NYC.

They have a ball, where the queen appears –furious that Edward has found Giselle, unknowing that Giselle’s trip to NYC has turned their destiny upside down- and poisons Giselle with –yes you guessed it- a poisoned apple. I shan’t disclose the ending, but I can tell you it involves the tip of a very tall tower, a dragon, a princess wielding a sword, and some wet people.

The only problem with this film is that it’s rather predictable, a la Disney happy endings. However, it’s also a very cheery and cute film with catchy songs, so if you like modern romantic comedies, you might want to catch ‘Enchanted’.