By Brandon

May is here. Also, hopefully to stay is the nice weather. Add these two things together with the fact that thousands of students across the country are graduating in about a month and what do you get? The answer is a bug that has even bitten this blogger, senioritis.

I would first like to apologize for the lapse in time since my last post. With baseball season in full swing (ha ha, no pun intended) I rarely even had time to do my own homework. Speaking of homework, I am reaching the shut-down-zone. Graduation is almost upon seniors — myself included – and with the dwindling school days (23 to be exact) and a wide variety of senior trips, it is hard to stay focused. It is challenging to try to focus in school with trips to Hershey Park 

 and Baltimore coming up.

Not to mention, there is also prom right around the corner with a few other barbeques and gym trips thrown in the mix. I have been motivated in high school for most of my four years. It is just too hard to stay interested with the nice weather and great times. It is easy to understand why thousands of kids deal with senioritis. The time is ours seniors– so enjoy the spring and best wishes for the future. Oh and try to get around to your homework.

I know I will. Look forward to more posts in the near future.

By Diana

Whoops… I forgot to do a music review preview for Tom Morello/The Nightwatchman. Eh… maybe next time.

Anyway, here’s another photo of graffiti I took downtown. (Anyone care to guess what it’s in response to?) Not sure if it’s the same person who did “The poor are dying” message. Personally, I think graffiti like this isn’t that bad. It’s not quite art, but it has a good point.

So what’s your opinion on graffiti? What about the police brutality investigation going in Los Angeles? I’d like to hear it.

By Diana 

I’ve always been an art kid, I think. It was mainly drawing when I was younger. Now it’s photography.

Currently, I have a Nikon Coolpix S4. I bought it for the 10x optical zoom and it has never let me down. Now if only it had the vibration reduction the newer S10 has, I’d be set. I’ve been thinking of getting a DSLR — Nikon D40 to be exact — for either my birthday nine days from now or for graduation. Who knows… But I’ve been looking around online and asking Mr. Andy Blackburn (New Era photographer) for his opinion/advice.

Anyway, back in early April, I decided to start a series of photos taken in downtown Lancaster. So far, it’s been all black and white photos.

Today, I was studying at the public library when I decided to take a break and head over to my favorite coffee shop… (Speaking of coffee shops, I think Teen Weekend will be starting a series on them in late spring.) …when I noticed some graffiti. I also got a shot of a fancy SUV parked beneath it for a little irony. So that was my day. Stay tuned for more photos!

By Diana

Hi all! Happy Earth Day!

I’m sure you’ve heard of at least a few ways to help save the planet – recycling, cleaning up the community, use florescent light bulbs, shorter showers, drive less, etc. – so I’m not going to go through all that. I’m kind of busy this weekend, so I’m putting off my environment-saving duties for next week. Hey, better late than never.

Earth Day 2005, I became a vegetarian. Earth Day 2006, I planted some bushes. (I know, how lame.) This year, I’m going to fix up the front garden, though I don’t have much of a green thumb, and replace some light bulbs with florescent ones I have yet to buy. I also need to recycle the many newspapers I have piling up in my room. I’m going to get a new bike too. Okay, that’s all I can think of right now…

Here are some links to my favorite environmental organizations:World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Greenpeace International and National Wildlife Federation.

Have other great environmental Web sites you want to recommend, or ideas for Earth Day you want to share? Feel free to comment.

Again, Happy Earth Day, Teen Weekend readers. Take care. Peace.
-Diana

By Diana 

I’m not sure what else there is to say about the shooting at Virginia Tech. It was certainly shocking and sad.

AP photo

SWAT team members head to Norris Hall.

To be honest, school shootings, no matter how many are killed or injured, never quite wake most students because they seem so far away. I know the Amish schoolhouse shooting hit home for me. I could tell it was the same for the rest of the Vidette staff because of the silence that filled the classroom when we found out.

I was speaking to a friend in Virginia today and he said he felt the same – that when it’s in another state, you don’t think about it too much, but when it’s close to home, it’s scary.

With twice the number of fatalities of the 1966 shooting at University of Texas at Austin, it is now the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

I still don’t understand why a person would do something like that. But I sympathize and hope the best for the victims’ families, friends and classmates facing this tragedy.

By Diana 

After a month long hiatus, much-needed break from McCaskey’s student newspaper, I’m back into the swing of things and hitting the ground running with a good story about a McCaskey East student awaiting a heart transplant. Whether or not I’ll need a translator is yet to be known because no hablo espanol y no se si hablan ingles .

Yesterday, I did an interview with Stephen Christian of Anberlin. It took some perseverance to get a hold of him, but it’s nothing new. Musicians on the road or somewhere with bad cell phone reception are hard to get a hold of. He was a cool guy and it was a good interview. If you’re an Anberlin fan, look for that article/interview sometime in late April.

Tom Morello (a.k.a. The Nightwatchman) will be releasing his debut solo album April 24. I’m excited to hear and review that for an early May Teen Weekend.

I’ve also been preparing for the trip to Biloxi, Miss. a group of McCaskey seniors and teachers are making in June. (You may have read the article in Lancaster New Era…) I’m excited. My main concern would be how hot and badly burnt I’ll be. I’m not a fan of hot weather. Oh, but what an aspiring journalist will do for a good story…

Yesterday, a group of us (four teachers, four students and two of one of the teachers’ kids) went to the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg to see Hurricane on the Bayou. It’s an IMAX movie about Hurricane Katrina. It was short, but good.

When we drove past the Whitaker Center, the teacher’s son saw the Hurricane on the Bayou poster and said that he saw the poster for “Hurricane on the Balcony.” Ha ha ha. Kids…

By Diana

What do you think of when you hear (or read) “anti-tobacco video”?

Personally, I thought of those boring, repetitive videos shown in health classes. Every year, it’s the exact same thing: outdated and scripted videos featuring struggling actors, bad music, flashy colors and facts about tobacco flying across the TV screen. By the time kids reach high school, many of these videos, if not all, become predictable and ineffective.

So when Teen Weekend editor Diane Bitting asked me to come in and preview an anti-tobacco video, I wasn’t too excited. It turns out, however, that the video is a lot better than I expected.

In “A Talk with Your Kids about Smoking,” anti-tobacco lobbyist Patrick Reynolds addresses a large, teenage audience about smoking and tobacco.

Interestingly enough, Patrick Reynolds is actually the grandson of R.J. Reynolds, a tobacco giant whose name is printed on the boxes of products such as Camel, Kool and Pall Mall. The fact that he is the grandson of a tobacco giant and is speaking against tobacco makes for an interesting perspective. [Read more →]

By DIANA LE
Special to the New Era

Modest Mouse is back again with a vessel full of songs on their latest “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.”

The alternative indie rock band attributes its unique, funky sound to frontman Isaac Brock who, according to the Rolling Stone’s Rock & Roll Daily blog, described their lengthy fifth album as a “nautical balalaika carnival romp.” Now I’m not quite sure what a “balalaika” is, but I have to concur with the nautical carnival part.

The album begins with the rough “March into the Sea.” It was a surprising opening because of how different it is compared to other Modest Mouse songs I’ve heard. The singing sounded forced and choppy and the “A-ha-ha’s” are so rough that you would think the singer is laughing really hard while choking on something. I didn’t like the song at first, but it grew on me…

By Brandon

Today the term ‘blockbuster’ is thrown around loosely and often where not deserved. In the case of the movie 300, there is no better description.

I recently saw this thrilling tale of 300 brave Spartans led by their king, Leonidas, to their selfless slaughter at
Thermopylae who would rather face insurmountable odds than see their people become slaves of the Persians.

Without giving too much of the movie away, I can honestly say it was the single best movie I have seen in recent history, and I have seen some good movies (V for Vendetta, for example). The action scenes are incomparable to anything other than Lord of the Rings, but the directors added a new effect to take the combat to the next level. It is incredible to see what can be done to movies now, to say the least.

The movie runs about two hours in length, which typically leads to a loss of interest and attention from this blogger. However, I hardly even noticed the time fly by, as I was captivated by the story line and history of the Greek warriors. It also helped that I love a good battle scene.

I strongly recommend seeing this movie, and I plan on paying a few extra dollars to see it again myself…only this time in an IMAX theatre.

For anyone else who has seen this, feel free to add your opinion to mine.

By Diana 

So Brandon plays hockey? Cool. I’m not into hockey as much I was before, but still. I also noticed New Era’s online journalist, Corey Clayton, is a Penguins fan. Now how about Teen Weekend editor Diane Bitting?

Anyway, today was Senior Community Day at McCaskey. (For those unaware of the tradition, it’s a day when seniors do volunteer work in the community.) The morning was a little unorganized because many volunteer sites weren’t open yet. Students were basically being dropped off at random, shabby places throughout the city. My friend Talia and I joked about it being the school’s version of Survivor: Can McCaskey students make it out of the city alive?

My group was at the Arbor Place Community Center. The job description said painting and cleaning up; however, I did none of that. I was given secretary duties because the teacher knew of my journalistic background. I spent about three hours entering data into a computer and every time I typed in that an applicant was from McCaskey, I got a flashback from when I was working on an article about a homeless student – not that community centers and homeless shelters are the same thing.

After the first floor was cleaned, we cleaned the second floor, where there were doors that lead to nowhere, and doors that lead to where you started. The highlight of my day was when Josh scared Talia and me into believing one of the doors came to life, but that’s another story…

Ask any McCaskey senior why they sign up for Senior Community Day and they’re most likely going to say it’s a great way to get out of class. In the end though, it’s all about having fun volunteering with friends and helping others in the community. So let’s hear your volunteering stories.