Rough Rider Off Track

The school year is over for Track C, and so the Rough Rider Blog will mostly be on hiatus until July. I may post the occasional event announcement or commentary, but for those of you seeking the latest news on Roosevelt High School, your best bet is to go to the school’s official website.

This was my second year as adviser for the Rough Rider and the first year we had a blog. It’s been a great experience to have alumni and other friends of Roosevelt send me emails, comment on blogs, and even come visit the class. The big issues that have come up include:

Salvia Divinorum…strive to make it “ILLEGAL”…

As i sat in my living room watching the news about the fire and people dieing or other horrific things there was a story that caught my attention. the story was about a legal drug that not many knew about, well at least i didn’t. It’s called “SALVIA DIVINORUM”.

Salvia divinorum(click to web page) is a plant used for its psychoactive effects. Given the right dose, individual, set and setting, it produces a unique state of ‘divine inebriation’ which has been traditionally used by Mazatec healers. This inebriation is quite different from that of alcohol. Salvia divinorum is both similar to, and different from, other drugs that affect the brain and behavior. In many ways Salvia divinorum is a unique ‘magical’ herb. Salvia (and the salvinorin it contains) is very difficult to categorize pharmacologically. It does not fit well into any existing pharmacological class. Louis Lewin, the father of psychopharmacology called vision inducing drugs ‘phantastica’. Let us dust off this venerable term and recycle it by calling Salvia divinorum a ‘phantasticant’.

dRILL tEAM!!!!

Drill Team is sponsored by Joy Lee, a math teacher on B track. Ms. Lee became the drill sponsor in 2006 and this is her second year coaching. The team consists of three captains, Natalie Valencia 12A, Maria Leon 12A, Cassandra Alvarez, and two guards, Adriana Loera 12 and Yaricel 11A.

There are different strategies used to choose the captains but this year these young ladies had to choreographing a routine, give a speech of why they hope to be given a higher position, why they deserve it, and they also had to learn and teach the try out routine to the new group of girls attempting to be a member of the team.

These hard working girls meet Monday through Friday in the gym or the football field from 6:15 am to 8:15 am. But its not over yet because they also meet after school from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm and when they are preparing for football season they even come in on Saturday mornings usually from 6:15 am to 2:00 pm. During practices they learn routines taught by their captains and once they learn them they continue practicing to perfect them.

GO GET ‘EM TIGER!

As a senior, Joel Calderon or “Joey”, has many aspirations and goals, but one of his main priorities right now, and every time this season comes around, is baseball. Joey has been part of the outstanding baseball team for the past four years. He has brought his enthusiasm and incredible talent to the team, which adds up to their respectable and honorable success.

Carlos Montes, one of the baseball coaches who has been coaching for the past nine years describes Joey as a “fiery and animated” player who “plays with his heart”.

Joey agrees, he says, “I bring intensity, I have a never give up attitude and I have a lot of heart”.

18…is that good or bad???

Omg!!! Yesterday was my B-Day…I turned 18, what the majority of teenagers look forward to, including me… but honestly I feel scared… I have gone through several different life changing experiences in the past two years that I have not been able to take advantage of my last underage teenage years.

Now im labeled an adult, but im not sure if I want that. It makes me sad to realize that im never going to be seventeen again and rely on my dad and my sisters for most things, im never going to be considered a minor again which actually isnt very pleasant if i really think about it.

There are many different advantages that I do gain and they’re quite nice, biut for some reason on Friday midnight I culdnt help but think about all the different things that made my kind of sad, I thought about all these things that I mentioned plus the several people I wished to have with me at that exact moment. But my the events that have a great impact in my life continue, the day right after my b-day, one of my sisters who I have been unseperable from is moving out too.

Well I guess all I can do is think positive and look at the bright side, everything is for the best and we simply have to learn have to cope with these things.

2008 so far

Well this year in music is shaping up to be a great one especially for new artists or people looking to break through in the music biz. Already we have seen the emerge of Vampire Weekend and new bands just keep coming.

Times New Viking isn’t just your typical post-punk garage band it’s something much more because they are from Ohio and well who knew anything came from Ohio that wasn’t sports related.

Well expect to hear much more from this band somewhere in the new future because well they’re just plain awesome with a sound that resembles a horrible hangover but with a Sonic Youth bass line in it, Times New Viking has a room in my iPod and should have one in yours if they keep releasing quality records like Rip it Of.

Now Times New Viking aren’t the only ones making noise this year, there’s this band from San Francisco creating quite the buzz, The Dodo’s, with a sound that one can describe as happy hardcore-folk music. Or if you me an like to simplify things you can call them a combination of Zach Condon from Beirut on vocals and Animal Collective’s awesomeness.

Night

Recently I read a novel called Night. This novel is one of the most moving novels that I have ever read. It is about named Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the holocaust.

He is still living and is a professor now. Something that this book thought me is that we humans are savage. We will do anything to survive. We will eat ourselves, kill each other and strive to live so much to the point of going against our own blood. We are not born evil but other people make us evil. We hate that others are in a higher or better position than us and we will do anything to bring them down to our level.

It is so sad that we always have to fight to survive because people are always being little jerks and they will not let us go up the latter of success they just keep pulling on your legs from under you so you will not get higher.

I just wish that everyone would think not like me because I am a psycho but more like my close friend Jenesis. Then we would all help each other and well there are to many things that people would have to change about their ignorant and jerky ways. One day we are going to make a difference the only thing that is left is to wait…..wait and see.

Elie Wiesel Bio

Elie Wiesel’s Night

Solely my Opinion

Well as most of you know, four of us went to the journalism convention on Friday.

While we were there we couldn’t help but notice that we were in fact that we were the minority. As alienated as we were, we tried our best to fit in and take advantage of all of the workshops that they had. We went to a few and found an interesting one that deals with magazine publishing-as it’s something that I want to look into professionally. We also went to one that taught us about the law and how it protects us.

As it turns out, we have a right to print whatever we want because we are protected by a code that covers all of California and four other states. The first amendment was on our side after all.

new type of food

On Friday April 18, 2008 four students went to Anaheim to the Convention Center. Many schools around the world attended it. Those students were either in journalism or in year book.

It was a three day thing and we had to fundraise to stay at the hotel near Disneyland. The hotel was the Marriott. I was surprised because students traveled from Denver or from Washington.

Well the whole point was to attend some sessions and learn new things to bring back to journalism. It was fun and interesting and we got alot of feedback and now we can fix some problems we had in our classes.

The sessions kinda convinced me to major in journalism. It was a great experience and there’s lots of things you can learn and would make you want to major in journalism.

Anyways it was time to leave and we went to this place to eat called Kareem’s. It was a whole different type of food but it was good. It tasted like Mexican food, but looked totally different.

But hey, there’s always a time when you have to try new things.

My Article that never got Published!

Grindhouse

I Am Legend

 Fox Searchlight – Juno – Official Site

For 2007 there were a lot of great films released. Millions of people attended these films and from those millions of people a big percentage were High School students. So which films were most popular amongst the teenage group, which sold the most tickets, and what type of films do teens prefer?

Every month released a couple of movies. January 2007 release a lot of films but the most popular amongst the teen group were; Freedom Writers, Stomp the Yard, and Epic Movie.

Freedom Writers a Paramount Pictures Film made 42 Millions dollars. Stomp the Yard a Sony Pictures Screen Gems film made 75 Million. Epic Movie a 20th Century Fox Film made 120 Million.

February 2007 released Hannibal Rising, Norbit, Ghost Rider, and The Number 23. Hannibal Rising a MGM (Weinstein) Film made $13.4 million, barely one-third of the $33.7 million opening of Norbit. Ghost Rider a Sony Columbia Pictures film made $228 Million. The Number 23 a New Line Cinema Film made $35 Million.