Currently Browsing: In-Depth
A year of transitions
.
Written by Levi Brown, The Eagle Staff Columnist
As the school year comes to an end, I’d like to reflect on what has happened over the course of the year.
First things first: The first senior class of Obama Academy will be gradating this year. Congrats to all you guys. Second, many of the athletic teams such as the wresting, football, swimming, track & field, soccer, cross country, volleyball, baseball, softball, and tennis that have showed determination over the year. Lastly, the school will be relocating to the site of Peabody High School.
This year has been fascinating, not just for me, but for everyone. Let me start by saying the transition from Montessori Middle School to Obama Academy was quite difficult. I say it is difficult because being with the same people and teachers for years, you know what to expect. When I started my year here at Obama, I knew none of the teachers, I only knew a couple of people, and I had to adjust to my surroundings. As the year went by, I joined the Obama cross country team and had a fantastic experience. I joined the Eagle staff as a writer and started writing about games. I made sure that I got to know my teachers so I could be familiar with them. Over the year, I got to see what our school is capable of doing, like holding the Snow Ball dance, The Footloose Musical, and the amazing Pep Rallies. I got to take classes (Electives) such as ceramics and journalism, in which I made ceramic pots, and wrote many different articles about many different things. As a sophomore; I’m going to look back at my freshman year as one of the best years in my high school life.
In a matter of time, our school will be relocated to the site of Peabody High School. Many students may have to adjust to the class locations once we have moved there. For me, this will be easy to navigate the school because I’ve been inside the school three times already. Many students will find this transition difficult because some students walk, some students catch the school bus, and some students catch the public bus. Students that catch the public bus will be affected the most, due to the bus cuts and the different bus routes. Next school year, there will also be a new school start time. School will start at 7:10 a.m. For those who don’t know, Peabody has a mini courtyard in the front of the school for eating, hanging out, etc. I look forward to the new environment that will be our school next year.
Overall, I look forward to the future about my transition to the 10th grade, and the transition to Peabody.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: In-Depth
A young person’s view of politics…and why we like Obama
.
Written by Aneesah Shealey and Sophia Kachur, The Eagle Staff Writers
It seems like every time I turn on the TV, a new political advertisement is on. Usually these ads scream, “Look at me, I’m a good guy. Don’t vote for my opponent because they are evil!” Why can’t these people running for president, senate, or even just mayor talk about what they do or might do when elected? Why do these politicians always have to put people down to try and raise themselves up?
For example, an ad that was supported by Mark Mustio shot down Raja by saying he sent jobs over to India, he was a liar, and tied in the fact that Raja happened to sue someone who had a mother with cancer. All throughout, there was never even a shred of support for Mark Mustio himself, even though it was supported by him. All the ad ever did was blame Raja. Whatever happened to supporting yourself, being honest, and keeping a clean political campaign?
Not all hope has been lost though. Recently, Barack Obama started airing a couple of ads to keep up in the presidential race. When the commercial started playing, I thought, oh wow, another crazy political ad putting another politician down. I can’t believe Obama is doing it though. Last election season he kept it fairly clean. Well, after I saw the campaign ad, I was extremely surprised. No talk about liars or people being mean, only about the future. The clip talked about how employment levels are raising and how tough times may not be over, but we can power through them! It was even saying things about how Obama has tried to end raging conflict over terrorism and how wants to pull our troops out of Afghanistan.
Think back, if you’ve ever watched an Obama-Biden campaign ad, then you know that Barack Obama has never slammed an opponent. He is always encouraging others to do things that they believe in. Obama also never has a bone to pick with Mitt Romney. But Romney, on the other hand, always has a negative thought about Barack Obama’s campaign. Also, he has always said and done the right things and has never slandered another opponent. Is it the republican goal to make others fear them in the race? I have no idea why they do that, but it’s clear that they need to get that edge to succeed in the race. It also reigns clear that even though Romney has a strong tie to the wealthy, he does not do anything to support the middle class. It seems like his ads are always centered towards wealthy, imposing lower taxes, better healthcare, and less worries for them. That is messed up. It’s also unfair that he will ban gay marriage if he becomes president. So, overall the better president will be Barack Obama because he is open minded, smart, and the better man for the job.
After seeing this ad, I knew that all my hope about the world being a good place, with at least a few good people out there, was rational. Don’t you think it is a refreshing change to have some clean competition?
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: In-Depth
Levi Brown: Minecraft? Who cares?
.
Written by Levi Brown, The Eagle Staff Columnist
Editor’s note: In this rebuttal to Walter’s tribute to Minecraft, Levi poses the question, does anyone really care about the game? Let the debate begin.
Minecraft is an independent sandbox video game that was created by Markus “Notch” Persson. He is a Swedish. Notch founded his company Mojang in 2009 and created the international sensation Minecraft. Minecraft has received positive reviews from Gameformer, IGN, Metacritic, etc. However, I disagree with the reception that Minecraft has received. In my opinion, Minecraft is horrible and unrealistic. I have two strong reasons why this game needs to be discontinued.
My first reason for why this game is horrible is because of the graphics. Graphics on Minecraft are pixels. Yes pixels! If they wanted the game to appeal to 3-6 year olds they should keep it. As someone who has played Minecraft once, I have to say that this game’s graphics hurt my eyes. I mean it felt like an optical illusion looking at my laptop screen. As of right now “Notch” is looking on fixing the PC version of Minecraft graphics to match the Xbox 360 version claiming “Unlimited Detail” in the game’s creation.
My second reason for why this game is terrible is because the gameplay. When playing any genre of a game rather it be RPG (Role Playing Game), FPS (First Person Shooter), or even strategy you want to play for a good two hours. In Minecraft, all you are doing is swinging a pickaxe mining for minerals to build with. In Minecraft, you can only build, and not even kill. When I play a game, I at least want it to have two different genres like Fallout: New Vegas, an RPG and a shooter.
Overall, if you think about getting Minecraft, think about what you want to be doing. Playing with pixels and pressing one button, or playing a high res game where you have to press multiple buttons.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: In-Depth
Walter’s Gamers Corner: Minecraft still rules over the gaming world
.
Written by Walter Robinson, The Eagle Senior Columnist
Minecraft is a game that is just about the 8th wonder of the world. Minecraft is adored by millions of people so much that the game came to Xbox Live Arcade May 9th, 2012. The game was fully released November 18, 2011 at the event in Las Vegas known as Mine-con. To this day the game is still adding content to it with sells speeding up instead of slowing down. In the game of Minecraft, the world can be randomly generated or have a seed name to it allowing others to have the same experience. A seed is what the specific world is known as, such as a person who creates a name for their Minecraft game may be on a mountainous terrain and give it to others to have the exact same terrain. It’s pretty cool because the other person can have the same experience as the other person. Though all of the worlds have seeds, each seeds have different things to find and explore. Another thing is the fact that Minecraft is a game that is infinite. This means someone could go in one direction forever and have unlimited resources if they drain their original area dry.
To add to that there are also biomes to explores that have their own uniqueness to them. Biomes are areas with different terrains such as a Taiga which has snow and pine trees, Jungles has massive trees with climbable vines and leaves covering the ground, Swamps have an abundance of mushrooms, clay, and lily pads, Mushlands are areas that are covered in mushrooms small and large, that are so bad the cows there have mushrooms covering them giving them the name Mooshrooms, Deserts, Forests, and more. With that there are also cave systems that can be extremely dangerous. In Minecraft there are mobs, which can be hostile, passive, passive-hostile (which means if provoked they will attack the provoker), tamable, and creatable mobs. The passive mobs are mostly animals and the villagers, hostile mobs are zombies, spiders, skeletons, silverfish, ghasts, slimes, magma cubes, blazes, cave spiders, and creepers (creepers explode when they get close to a person and usually sneak up on people very quietly) however some of these mobs burn in sunlight and run to water or areas without sunlight, tamable mobs are wolves and ocelot/cats, passive-hostile mobs are zombie pigmen, untamed wolves, endermen, and iron golems (that are found in villages with villagers), and the creatable mobs are Snow Golems and Iron Golems (both of these requires a pumpkin or jack-o-lantern).
In Minecraft there is a multiplayer mode for both the Xbox edition and on the computer known as servers. Servers have different things to them and are a lot of fun compared to single player. Most if not all servers have rules to them, such as don’t build houses out of dirt, don’t cuss, no building without permission, it’s usually something like that. To add to this, peoples experiences may vary from person to person on the server. Some will help a person out with various tasks, some will attack the player for no reason, and others will grief a player. Grief, usually griefing, is the act of irritating a player through various means such as destroying their house, having hostile mobs follow them, and having him attack the player when there doing certain tasks. All servers are an interesting part of the game called Minecraft.
In Minecraft there are different dimensions, the normal world (which is where the player spawns), the nether (a place full of lava that is accessed by building a nether portal out of obsidian), the end (which can only be accessed by finding the end portal, which is in a stronghold, using eyes of ender to fill in the slots, has an abundance of endermen, and has the final mob the enderdragon that has to be defeated to leave the end and beat the game), and there’s word of more dimensions to be built in the near future.
Minecraft also has mods and texture packs that change the way the player experiences the game and the graphics. These can have more items, more blocks, ores, weapons, etc. Mods add a little more flavor to regular Minecraft. A texture pack for instant Adventure Time makes different mobs look like characters from the show, such as a wolf will look like Jake from Adventure Time. Mods can add pretty much anything to the game like werewolves, horses, castles, even the ability to change the game mode from survival to creative.
In Minecraft there are different game modes in a person to choose from: Survival, Creative, and Hardcore. In hardcore the difficulty is permanently on hard and if the player dies once the game is over, the world gets deleted, and whatever was made goes away for good. With Creative mode activated, the player has unlimited resources, the ability to fly, break anything with one hit, and can only die by the void (the void is past the deepest level which is bedrock). Survival mode is just regular Minecraft, the player works for what they got, can change their difficulty, and try to beat the game fair and square.
Minecraft is just flat out amazing, having a survival sandbox theme to it. The ability to do just about anything, just about anywhere, and do it with friends in this game is amazing. From making a small house to a massive castle, making a farm or a mineshaft, making a library or a club, the possibilities are infinite. Minecraft is a game that keeps on giving, with new updates expected to be coming soon. There are tons of views on Youtube, a lot of impressive builds, different ways to accomplish tasks, and a lot left that can leave people speechless.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: Sports
Nice start, bitter end for Eagles baseball
Photo Credit: Abner Roberts
.
Written by Elaine Wilson for The Eagle
What started as a bright, sunny and promising day ended in bitterness for the Eagles baseball team. The boys had arrived to Herb Field in Ross Township with a spirit of enthusiasiasm for their semi-final game against Brashear, but that spirit faded quickly. 18-3 losses can do that to a team.
Mr.Kocur had talked about being the hot team prior to entering the playoffs, and fresh off of wins against Langley (twice) and Perry, the team looked to be gathering momentum.
But there are few Brashears in the city.
Kocur was “feeling optimistic” and added, “Brashear is number one in the city, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play with them.” To their credit, the Eagles jumped out to a 1-0 leadin the 1st inning, but that was about it for Obama highlights. A couple hits, a couple errors, a pass ball here, a wild pitch there, and the lead was gone. For good.
After the game, Kocur reflected about the loss.” MIke Noftz, our pitcher, didn’t deserve that kind of game. The defense has to make plays behind him–especially against a team like Brashear. We just didn’t today.”
Horace Pope, adding, “We could have had them in the beginning bhut we just fell through. Brashear played good ball. I just think we have to play more wisely.”
With a final record of 9-4 and a semi-final finish, the boys can hold their heads high.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: In-Depth
Yassmine Kelly—North Carolina, Land of Tolerance
.
Written by Yassmine Kelly, The Eagle Columnist
There is a huge controversy brewing in North Carolina over gay marriage. North Carolina has people voting to not only strengthen same sex marriages but also have people voting to ban homosexual marriage and have approved a Constitutional Amendment to help define marriage as a civil union between one man and one woman. However, before the this amendment was created, North Carolina already banned gay marriage but legal experts within the state say that this legal impact may create complications for other people who are not married homosexually or not.
”The proposed language is problematically vague, untested, and threatens to upend years of settled law,” wrote a four-person legal team from the UNC School of Law.
“In prohibiting state recognition or validation of domestic legal unions, the proposed Senate bill would introduce into the constitution a phrase that has never been used in any prior statutory law in North Carolina, never been interpreted by its courts, and never been interpreted by courts in any other state.”
The lawyers argue that its scope is “significantly unclear” but that it might, for example prevent the courts from enforcing private agreements between unmarried couples, complicate custody agreements and invalidate domestic partnership benefits.
However, I believe that another person’s sexuality is no one’s business and if they don’t like it then they need to adopt the policy that the military has taken. The don’t ask/don’t tell policy is simply if no one asks if you are gay then you don’t have to tell people that you are. But I will agree on the side of PDA (personal display of affection) where I think it is a little awkward and uncomfortable for two guys or two girls to be randomly making out in public. I just feel that straight or not, there is a time and place to do those things and school or outside/ public places should not be any those places.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: In-Depth
Caz’s Column: Marvel Comics vs DC Comics
.
Written by Lewis 'Caz' Tidrick, The Eagle Senior Columnist
Now let’s make things clear…there are two major competitors in the comic book/super-hero industry: Marvel Comics, who own characters like the Avengers, Spider-Man, and the X-Men, and their competitors DC Comics, who own characters like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Green Lantern. For years, comic fans have been arguing a famous argument: Which one is better?
The Movies and TV
Okay, sure, in the past 10 years or so, Marvel has put out many more movies than DC has, and many of them have become modern-day sci-fi classics, like Spider-Man, Iron Man, and, most recently, the Avengers. But they have also put out some very poor movies like the two Fantastic Four movies and the two Hulk movies. At the same time, DC has put out very quality Batman movies in the past couple of years from Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale: Batman Begins, Dark Knight, and Dark Knight Rises (which is coming out in July). But on the flip side, the Green Lantern movie was completely awful. Both companies have quality movies, and they both have bad ones. But the only reason that people know Marvel more than DC is because they have put out more movies than DC. Is that a bad thing? No, not necessarily, but it might be time for DC to go out on a limb and start setting up for a Justice League movie beginning with next year’s Man of Steel Superman reboot just like Marvel did in the first Iron Man movie when they mentioned the “Avengers Initiative”. On the TV side, DC has actually had more long-running shows than Marvel has. In the 90’s, DC had Batman: The Animated Series and a series starring Superman and in the early 2000’s, they had Teen Titans GO!, Justice League Adventures, and later Justice League Unlimited. Currently they have Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice both on Cartoon Network on Saturday mornings. Marvel has had many successful TV shows as well, but none as good since the 90’s with Spider-Man & X-Men. Currently Marvel has two shows out as well in the forms of Ultimate Spider-Man & Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. And those are just the most popular shows in the last few years.
The Characters
So…you should all know who Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor are, right? But are you able to tell me who is owned by which company? (Without reading the first or second paragraphs of this article, of course) Most people get it wrong somewhere along the way, which isn’t too bad; it’s just kind of frustrating for someone like me who has been reading comics for about four or five years now and knows which character is which and by which company they’re owned by. Just for the record, DC owns Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Cyborg, the Teen Titans, the Justice League, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and many others who have been featured on their own in other media besides comics. Marvel has a core set of characters that will consistently be in movies or TV shows but hardly ever dip into the more risky characters. The characters that are usually shown include Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Wolverine, and the X-Men…and that’s about it.
The Comics
In the comics, Superman has been around longer than any other super-hero. He was created in the late-1930s and has become one of the most iconic heroes of all time. Batman was created in the 1940s just like Captain America. Many other heroes soon followed in the trend, most fighting against Hitler and the German’s in World War II. In modern day comics, the continuity has become very convoluted and confusing for those people who want to start reading. But recently Marvel and DC have pushed initiatives to gain new readers. As of September 2011, DC Comics rebooted their entire line of comics by ending all of their series and re-launching with 52 new ongoing series. It honestly makes a lot of sense from a publishing stand-point because how scared would you be to look at a series and see #900, which Action Comics hit in April 2012? Wouldn’t you much rather walk into a store and see Batman #1 or Green Lantern #1 instead of Batman #700, which it hit in 2010, or Green Lantern #67, which was the last issue before the re-launch? It just makes sense. But due to the outcry that fans created, Marvel has steered clear of the re-launch and their head editors and staff have even poked fun at DC about it. But you know what? In September, DC held about 8 of the Top 10 comics for that month, and that continued for a good few months until just recently when Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men story started coming out. And honestly, I could care less about the numbers…if it’s a good story with good art, I’ll read it whether it gets the greatest sales or the worst. And of course DC has made a lot of mistakes involving their line of comics recently, but as far as I can tell, Marvel has too. I just happen to follow DC more than I do Marvel.
In General
While the last thing I want to do is say that your favorite characters suck, whether it be from Marvel or DC, or that your favorite company sucks or anything like that… I have to say that I’ve always preferred DC’s storylines and characters more. Maybe that’s just because I grew up with Teen Titans GO! and Justice League Adventures but that’s just how it is. So if this column seemed to lean in favor of DC, that wasn’t my intention. But really, comics are very interesting and entertaining and many more people should be reading them than actually are. I hate to be stereotyped along with old, fat, bald guys who live with their moms. So if you can spare a good $3 or $4 a month, find a local comic shop and buy a comic. Even just one issue of Batman or Superman can get you hooked for years. It’s what happened to me!
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: Student News
May-June Student Focus: Imani Milliones-Roman
.
Written by La'Nia Latimer, The Eagle Staff Reporter
I got a chance to sit down and talk to Imani Milliones- Roman, recently selected for May/June’s Student Focus Feature. Before coming toObamaAcademy, she attendedFrickInternationalStudiesAcademywhere Dr. Walters was the principal. It’s strange that she has had the same principal for her last 7 years of schooling, but she’s smart enough to understand that it must be strange for Dr.Walters, too.
“I enjoy that he has put up with me,” says Imani, fully aware of the changes that she and her classmates have gone through since the 6th grade.
Being that she is a senior now she will probably attendSpelmanCollegeorLincolnUniversityin the fall. She appreciates that she has been able to get a good education that has prepared her for college, a continuing theme throughout high school.
In her four years of high school she did cheerleading for the school for two years. But she had to stop cheering because of an injury with her knee. She misses cheering a great deal.
She later got involved in a pageant outside of school and won Ms. Jabberwock. During her school year she was an MC for Music Monday and Throwback Thursdays, a member of the AACAS Council and a volunteer cheerleading coach for Obama’s Middle School.
She has some interest in coming back to Obama to visit someday. We can only wonder if Dr.Walters will still be the principal.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: Top Stories
Top ranked Brashear ends Eagles’ baseball season
.
Written by Markia Freeman, The Eagle Staff Writer
The Obama Eagles baseball team made it to the City League Semi Finals on Monday, but any doubts about the differences in play between Division 1 and Division 2 were quickly erased during an 18-3 rout at the hands of the Bulls. Brashear, the odds 0n favorite to win the championship this year, used the long ball, base bits, aggressive baserunning and solid pitching to beat Obama.
Coach Kocur was disappointed in the loss, saying, “Anytime you play a team of Brashear’s caliber, you have to play aggressively and avoid making mistakes. We didn’t do either today, and the game got away from us quickly.”
The team wasted a decent pitching performance from Mike Noftz, something that Kocur was not happy with. “We had short pop-ups dunking in, ground balls going through, throwing errors, pass balls…all wrapped around a few hits and a long blast. Mike has been solid for us and didn’t deserve this type of performance.”
The team finished at 8-4. It will lose seniors Cassell West and Jerod Brown of U-Prep next year, and will be the odds-on favotire to win the new City League, one which will be missing Brashear, Allderdice and Carrick.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Currently Browsing: Sports
Baseball team beats Langley 13-3, moves on to semi-finals
.
There’s an old saying in sports that goes, “It doesn’t matter who is the best team, come playoff time, it matters who is the hottest team.” Right now, the hottest team in the city baseball playoffs just might be the Obama Eagles.
Today in the west end, Mike Noftz scattered 5 hits to lead the Eagles to a 13-3 1st round win over Langley. Dan Wimer hit a tape measure triple that knocked in three runs and Joel Akrie’s double scored three more to pace the offense.
Next up, Brashear, the team that has been arguably the city’s best throughout the year, and a team that has lost the last three city finals. Mr.Kocur knows that this is a difficult match-up but remains positive. ” We have a nice team that is maturing. Brashear is a real challenge, but our kids will battle, I promise you that.”
The game will be played on Monday at 12:15 at Herb Field in Ross Township.
Email This Post
Print This Post
