Mattoon High SchoolM AY 2 0 1 3

V O L U M E 3 | N o . 7

M A T T O O N H I G H S C H O O L M H S M I R R O R . O R G

“Striving to ref lect the MHS community”MHS Mirror

How to sign upRegistration: Saturday, June 8

Custom Smoke House, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.The run will be held on June 8.

By Sarah Foster, Features Editor

The final bell of May 23 represents Mattoon High School’s student’s favorite: summer vacation. It symbolizes a vacant three months that is dying to be filled with enjoyable plans for a memorable summer. For juniors Ben Righter, Kadie Gentry and Maddison Thomason, that’s exactly what it was; Righter and Thoma-son, before their junior year, and Gentry, before her sophomore year, took the ulti-mate summer vacation: a trip abroad.

However, these students didn’t travel out of the country as the average tourist; their trip’s commitments did not consist of seeing the Eiffel Tower.

Each student travelled out of the country to share America’s compassion. Pleasing the citizens came first, and with that, came pleasing Righter, Gentry and Thomason.

“The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Righter.

“I will never forget this trip,” said Gentry. “I learned so much from it, and it changed my life so much. I came back as a different per-son than when I had left for the trip.”

“This was definitely something that I will never forget because of the people that I met there,” said Thomason. “I wouldn’t have

had such an enjoyable experience without them.”PREPARATION

Two years ago, Todd Black, MHS director of bands, thought in his office’s swivel chair. Black was required to nominate students for an am-bassador program that he has worked with since 1996. Illinois Ambassadors of Music is designed for nominated Illinois musicians who fill seats of an orchestra, choir and band for 16 days as they travel and play concerts for European civilians.

One of those students was Righter, and af-ter his freshman year nomination and sophomore year preparation, Righter told his peers, family and

America, “Bon voyage,” the summer before his junior year. The group visited seven different countries—England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Austria and Ger-many.

“[I decided to go] mainly because the chance to go to Europe is a once-in-a-life-time opportunity, and to be able to play music for the citizens of those countries [was] an added bonus,” said Righter.

After the 16 days finished, Black witnessed complete transformations in students like Righter who travelled abroad through the program.

“Kids have changed for the better—in personality and musicianship,” he said. “You’re teaching them America through music. When they hear your group, they’re expecting America. That’s where the ambassadorship comes in.”

Throughout nearly 17 years of cooperation with the leaders of the program, Black explains there has never been a negative experience.

“We’ve sent several students, and we’ve never had a student say ‘I wish I’ve never done that.’ They al-ways say, ‘I want to go again.’ We’ve sent all dif-ferent types of personalities, and they’ve all had a blast,” said Black.

Gentry travelled with a student ambassador group called People to People Am-bassadors; this organization is helping travelling teens immerse themselves in the culture of other countries through volunteer work.

“I chose to be an ambassador because I wanted to help spread the idea of peace through understanding,” said Gentry. “I also wanted to learn more about the differ-ent cultures and lifestyles of the people who live there.”

According to the People to People Ambassador’s website, some activities student ambassadors could potentially participate in include reforestation, construction of homes, relief aid, or as Gentry did, the preparation of peat for various homes in the overseas communities.

“Our group of ambassadors did some service jobs for the area,” explained Gentry. “In Cahersiveen, Ireland, we cut peat for the elderly. Peat is a source that is used to heat homes [in Europe]; it’s also a good moisturizer for hands.”

The entire trip Gentry experienced lasted 19 days; in her stay, she visited the Nether-lands, Belgium, France, England, Wales and Ireland.

Not your average tourist

Dice Run raises college money

By Kaylie Homann,Editor-In-Chief

Losing a parent could be one of the hardest events anyone could go through. Not only do people who experience the death of a parent lose a loved one, but they also have a piece of their support system taken away. This is true for many, but the community of Mattoon has come together to be that support system for Mattoon High School ju-nior Brody Philabaum and his younger brother Cameron, who goes to Mattoon Middle School, by holding an annual Dice Run to help raise money for their college education.

The Run was created by a club made up of men who enjoy play-ing poker together; Philabaum’s father was the president of the club before passing.

“The Dice Run started last year right after my dad passed away,” said Philabaum. “It was more out of respect for my family to make sure me and my little brother have enough money to go to college and get an education.”

The decision to help the Philabaum family came naturally to the club.

“Right after Brody’s dad passed away, in a day or so, we all were

Students enchanted by ‘Masquerade’

By Riley Trotter,Design Editor

For many students at Mattoon High School, prom is the last major event before graduation. Between the dresses and tuxedos, music and dancing, dates and dinner, although there were some negative com-ments about the music, 2013 prom lived up to the hype. This year’s theme was Enchanted Masquerade and was held on April 27 at MHS.

“I’m glad I went because I got to have fun with friends,” said MHS senior Austin Owen. “If some-one asks me next year, I would say ‘yes’, so I can go back again and see all of my friends.”

All of the time and effort spent for prom was worth it for many stu-dents.

“I loved the preparation; it was my favorite part,” said junior Hay-ley Boehm.

Owen didn’t detest the planning, either.

“It was worth the preparation be-cause everything good has to be prepared for,” said Owen.

Out of the span of high school and all of its dances, most students have one school dance they con-sider the best. For some it could be their first, or maybe their last.

“For me, the best one was when I went to prom my freshman year,” said junior Will Kearny. “There was music that people could actu-ally dance to. If there isn’t, it makes it boring.”

There was also one specific dance that Owen preferred also.

“My sophomore homecoming was the best because it was my first dance,” said Owen.

Although some have one spe-cific dance that was their favorite, Boehm has multiple favorite danc-

es. “All of the dances with Andy

[Bell] were the best,” said Boehm.For some students, there were

many interesting occurrences at prom.

“I witnessed two girls start fight-ing in the middle of the dance floor. One girl slapped the other, then the guys broke it up, and they were best friends again,” said junior Rhi-annon Douglas.

While it was someone else that made prom fascinating for Doug-las, for senior Jeremiah Pugh, he made prom interesting for himself.

“I dislocated my shoulder while doing the Harlem Shake,” said Pugh.

Though many students thought that this year’s prom was a great experience, Kearny didn’t agree.

2013 prom lives up to hype, with some reservations

TOURIST/2

“I will never forget this trip.”Kadie Gentry,

MHS junior

MHS students take life-changing trips

DICE RUN/2

PROM/2

PHOTO COURTESY OF K ADIE GENTRYGentry and Arthur stand in front of the Eiffel Tower on one of the trips.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MHS RIDDLESeniors Gavin Lewis and Austin Sherman dance with their dates during a slow song.

sitting around and had the collective idea,” said Cory Francis, new presi-dent of the club. “We wanted to do something for Brody and Cam.”

Francis reflected on what Bro-dy’s father offered to the club and gave a reason to help his children. Brody’s father served as a role model for the decision and the cur-rent club members.

“He was our fearless leader,” said Francis. “He was the first one to help someone out. He was a broth-er to all of us. If I passed on, I know he’d help in any way he could.”

When the Run raises enough money for the Philabaum brothers’ education, they have another way to spend the money.

“If they still do it after we have enough for college, they’ll donate to the American Heart Association or stroke research,” said Philabaum.

Because of this, a set goal for profit is not present.

“Last year we donated $7,000 to

their college fund,” said Francis. “We’re going to raise as much as we can.”

Although this Run is made by the club, the Mattoon community offers a helping hand, too.

“A lot of the planning is done by us as a club; people from the com-

munity help who aren’t part of the club, too,” said Philabaum.

The Run this year will be on Sat-urday, June 8. Registration is $10 per participant and starts at 10 a.m. until noon on June 8 at The Custom Smoke House. The Run will take place regardless of the weather.

T H E M H S M I R R O RMAY 2013 From onePage Designer

Riley Trotter2

The MHS Mirroris produced by the students enrolled

in the Journalism II and I courses at Mattoon High School.

Kaylie Homann Editor-In-ChiefJustin Gordon Managing EditorEmma Diltz Business ManagerRiley Trotter Design EditorMolly Dotson News EditorSarah Foster Features Editor Destinee Anderson Opinion EditorPaige Jordan Entertainment EditorJacob Harris Sports EditorSydney Edwards Advertising ManagerLane Plummer Online EditorWyatt Jones Multimedia EditorAlbert Henderson Multimedia EditorJarett Martin Distribution/Promotion ManagerFancie Lewis PhotographerJenna Butler ReporterMacie Drum Contributing ReporterAmanda Bright Adviser

Mission Statement:We, the staff of the MHS Mirror, strive to be a public forum that evokes individual

high-level thinking and sparks conversation in a way that defines high school journalism, while maintaining a high ethical journalistic standard.

The MHS Journalism Program2521 Walnut Ave.

Mattoon, IL 61938(217) 238-7877

mhsmirror@gmail.comVisit us online! mhsmirror.org

Thomason found her way abroad through Teens Mission International.

“I decided to go on this trip be-cause I considered being a foreign exchange student, and my grand-parents recommended I try this first,” said Thomason.

The trip is organized similar to a mission’s trip. However, accord-ing to Teens Mission Internation-al, the program is more intense and rigorous than that of a normal mis-sion’s trip.

“While I was there, we built a chicken coop, brick wall along the side of the property [and] gate to open the property. [We also] add-ed some water-filter systems that would cleanse and heat the wa-ter and poured concrete as a pave-ment,” said Thomason.

Thomason and 30 others found themselves working in Latacunga, Ecuador, for most of a three-week period. On one condition: Thoma-son was restricted from bringing or using any technology to communi-cate. Despite its difficulty, Thoma-son feels transformed.

“I feel like I matured a lot from this. Having no contact with any-one other than through letters really changed me and how I look at tech-nology now,” said Thomason.

THE TRIP In order to travel as a student

ambassador, Righter found himself selling raffle tickets, Little Ceasar’s pizza kits, and preparing tickets for a 50/50 drawing.

As preparation for Thomason’s ambassadorship, a thorough, three-week training period in Merritt Is-land, Fla. was required to be of good assistance to those abroad.

The city was used as a home base for the ambassadors. After the trip ended, Thomason said the team of ambassadors “flew back to Mer-ritt Island for debrief.”

All explain the tedious prepara-tion was worth it. Righter, Gentry and Thomason found themselves amazed with the cultures they were immersed in.

“In most of the countries, it was really fun to watch [the audience’s] reactions [during a concert,]” said Righter. “Some would stand up and cheer and wave flags, but in other countries, the people just sort of sat there.”

“The people were very nice, and the culture is just so different that it makes for a wonderful experience,” said Thomason.

“In Amsterdam, we watched some people make their own clogs by hand, and [we] also rode horse and buggies in the mountains for the view,” said Gentry.

Gentry was particularly impressed with Europe’s unique culture.

“Many of the countries were re-ally big on their history and with keeping the country clean. Many also still have traditions that are centuries old or use different meth-ods of transportation for different activities,” said Gentry. “They also

go out more and play. I remember that all the parks and areas were filled with people.”

Gentry found a new discovery when she was able to speak to po-litical leaders in England.

“When I spoke to a former mem-ber of the Parliament in England, I learned that members consid-er themselves to be conservatives, rather than what everyone else con-siders them,” said Gentry.

Righter agrees that Europe puts an emphasis on its history; one of his favorite countries was England, specifically because it has “interest-ing history tied to it. The scenery and history is amazing.”

Righter found Europe’s conti-nent-wide low drinking and smok-ing age unfamiliar, and Thomason admitted that road laws were some-times unfollowed.

“Nobody stopped at stop signs or anything,” said Thomason.

Despite the differences, Right-er and Gentry were still able to find the common bond that links America and Europe across the Pacific Ocean.

“We have fun, we use technolo-gy [and] we have our history that we like to show in museums just like them,” said Gentry.

“In some of the countries, every-one was very kind and generous, but in others [specifically France and Italy,] no one really seemed to care about anyone but themselves,” said Righter.

THE MEMORIESRighter and Thomason retain

several memories of the trip deep in their hearts; however, Righter has a favorite.

“I’ll never forget the second day we were in Switzerland. We were given the first half of the day to do whatever we wanted, so a few oth-ers and myself went on a hike,” said Righter. “I’ll never forget the view of the mountains and just how far you could see.”

“My favorite place was Qui-to, where we got to go sightsee-ing,” said Thomason. “I liked going shopping and seeing all the hand-made crafts.”

Gentry still remains awestruck.“I can’t say that I had a single fa-

vorite place. There were many plac-es that were amazing,” said Gentry. “I loved going on the London Eye. I also loved going to Omaha Beach and oth-er battle grounds of World War II be-cause I got to see firsthand where the men were and got to see the American cemetery in Normandy.”

No matter what aspects the stu-dents found rewarding, all exclaim ed the same phrase: “I want to trav-el abroad again.”

“Especially as a student ambassador because I learn so much more than an average tourist,” Gentry added.

“I think it would be cool to be able to plan out my own trip so that I could see what I wanted to when I wanted to, but I’m actually con-sidering going with the same group

again the summer after this coming one,” said Righter.

“This was the best first trip out of the country that I could ever ask for,” said Thomason, implying that there will be more trips to come.

If a student is contemplating travelling abroad, the former am-bassadors have words of advice. For those students who do not wish to spend their summer in the con-fines of Mattoon, let alone The United States, there are profitable experiences.

“It was definitely worthwhile, and there are so many benefits to going, but I think one of the main ones would be experiencing the dif-ferent culture and new places,” said Righter. “Before the trip, Europe was just a place I had read about in textbooks, but being able to see it for real is unforgettable.”

“My trip to Europe as a student ambassador was definitely worth-while. It was so much fun and ed-ucational,” said Gentry. “It also helps in the long run in schooling because it gave me a school credit, and it makes it easier for me to get into the college or university that I want to attend.”

“It was definitely worthwhile because I met so many wonderful people, and I’m such a better per-son now. I still keep in touch with almost all thirty people who went along with me. I also have a bet-ter understanding of what life’s like outside the U.S.,” said Thomason.

“I’m not glad I went; there was too much grinding and no good music to actually dance to,” said Kearny.

Other students agreed that there was one common problem with prom this year: the music.

“More classic music would have made it better,” said Boehm.

Owen also agreed that a wider variety of music would have im-proved the dance.

If students are looking for a chance at change, perhaps a new theme would make prom more ide-al for students.

For Kearny: it would be space, for Boehm: black and red and for Owen: Star Wars.

TOURIST From 1

PROMFrom 1

DICE RUNFrom 1

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BEN RIGHTERLeft: During the Changing of the Guard, guards march along the streets. Right: While on a bus ride through Switzerland, nice views are seen throughout.

T H E M H S M I R R O R M AY 2013 News

Page Designer Molly Dotson

By Jarrett Martin, Distribution/Promotion Manager

Mattoon High School has had Lincoln Trails for years, but now we have a new li-brary system. This year, the Illinois Heart-land Library System combined all the library systems in Illinois, creating Share and Polar-is Library Systems. Doing this will help pro-vide a more advanced library system.

Executive Director of the Illinois Heart-land Library System Leslie Bednar said the systems were merged due to the budget.

“The four regional library systems were merged in July 2011 due to severe restric-tions placed on the funding we receive from the state of Illinois,” said Bednar. “We merged to continue the core library services of resource sharing (includes the online cat-alogs and delivery of library material) and Talking Books programs.”

Mattoon High School Librarian James Sledge said he likes that they merged all the library systems together.

“So far, Polaris has become much easier to search items,” said Sledge. “It became more advanced and accurate.”

Bednar said by having the new library sys-tems it would help students have more op-tions to choose from.

“We merged our automated groups, LINC, elCat, GateNet, and SILNet, to provide li-brary patrons more opportunities and access to materials while at the same time reducing, in a small way, the cost of providing this ser-vice to our SHARE member libraries,” said Bednar.

Sledge agrees with Bednar saying it does give more options, and it has more items than Lincoln Trails ever had.

“Right now there are 90 million items on Polaris ranging from music, books and

DVDs,” said Sledge.English teacher Ashley Wiberg hopes that

having more information will give students more access to materials for research pa-pers.

“In English, students would be able to

get more sources, and they would be able to compare their sources,” said Wiberg.

Not only does Polaris have more items to choose from, but it has the most updated technology to help it make updates by not

having to shut down the entire website. “We are using the latest available technol-

ogy in integrated library systems (ILS). The Polaris system server runs inside a private Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS) Cloud. This cloud is a fully redundant scal-

able platform that is designed to be upgrad-able without ever interrupting service to our libraries,” said Bednar.

Sledge hopes Polaris is a lot better receiv-ing books, unlike Lincoln Trails.

“When we had the old system, it took a week and a half to get a book. So far, I haven’t seen how long it takes yet because not many students have ordered books, but I think that it would be much faster than Lin-coln Trails was,” said Sledge.

Wiberg’s goal for the new library systems is to develop a much quicker routine.

“My goal for the new library system is probably to get books from other schools and get access to them and get them quick in a timely manner,” said Wiberg.

Bednar said Polaris has some main goals for this year and hopes that these main goals will help Polaris be better than the old library systems.

Wiberg said the new library system will give more information like colleges have.

“In college, you have huge access of stuff to sniff through, and that I know hav-ing a new library system I think that students would be able to access more information,” said Wiberg.

Sledge hopes that students and teachers will check out Polaris sometime because he knows many have not checked it out because it is so close to the end of the school year.

“Students are already done with their re-search papers and haven’t use Polaris yet, and once they get back to school, it will still be new to them,” said Sledge.

MHS library gets new book system

By Jenna Butler,Reporter

Many teenagers mention want-ing to get away and leave this little town of Mattoon, but only a hand-ful act upon their words.

Ariel Grisius-Sullivan, soph-omore at Mattoon High School, joined the Rotary Program to es-cape to a better opportunity by ex-tending herself educationally, so-cially, and culturally. She has now been given the opportunity, by the Rotary Program, to stay in Santia-go, Chile for 11 months.

“I never actually wanted to go to Chile. I’ve always wanted to go to Japan and foreign exchange seemed to be the only way to do that. We can’t pick our countries, though, so I took what I got. I de-cided it didn’t matter where I went as long as it was away,” Grisius-Sullivan said.

Randy Krepel, MHS Spanish teacher, believes being a foreign exchange student is very beneficial.

“It’s a better opportunity to learn the language. You will not only be surrounded by language, but you will also be immersed in it,” Kre-pel said.

For Grisius-Sullivan, leaving won’t be difficult considering this is something she has been looking forward to.

“I have no reason to stay in Mat-toon, so it’s not going to be a sad goodbye. I’m just glad I can leave

sooner rather than later. When I have to come back, I’ll probably be more emotional,” Grisius-Sulli-van said.

As Grisius-Sullivan travels to Santiago, Chile, she is still unsure of what to expect exactly.

“It depends on the program. Some programs put you in a dorm while others put you in a family. What else involving the exchange like trips or what classes you will take depend on the program,” Kre-pel said.

Rendi Hamilton, MHS sopho-more and friend of Grisius-Sul-livan, will be affected by her ab-sence.

“I’m going to miss just not hav-ing her there as a friend and locker buddy. We talked about writing lit-tle letters, like actual letters, if I get her address. Depending on if she has internet, I’d Skype her,” Ham-ilton said.

To prepare herself for Santiago, Grisius-Sullivan gets help with her Spanish from Krepel.

“Right now she is coming in the morning. I’m teaching her new vo-cabulary and the structure of it. We also do conversing back and forth,” Krepel said.

Grisius-Sullivan has a set goal to accomplish before she returns home from her trip.

“I want to become completely self-reliant and fluent in Spanish,” Grisius-Sullivan said.

Grisius-Sullivan to visit Chile, broaden horizons

PHOTO COURTESY OF ILLINOIS HEARTLAND LIBR ARY SYSTEM

INFOGR APHIC BY MOLLY DOTSON

3

“I want to become completely self-

reliant and fluent in Spanish.”

Ariel Grisius-Sullivan,

MHS sophomore

4 T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013 News

Page Designer Fancie Lewis

By Lane Plummer,Online Editor

In an economy as shifting and bustling as the United States’ very own, the strongest way for citizens to boast better numbers for the government to work with is start-ing small businesses.

Adults yearn to provide their children with the money they need to obtain successful education in the large world, sheltering them from the big, bad world until they are tossing their graduation hats in the air.

By today’s standards, though, times have rapidly transformed, where the hefty responsibility of job maintenance is beginning to be handed down upon the children. Students at MHS are some of the many following this new standard.

Raven Jackson, MHS junior, is the first example.

“It’s just a firewood business with no name yet. My father and

I started it in seventh grade, so I guess this would be the fifth year,” said Jackson. “My dad helped me a lot; he’s the one who invested in me.”

An interesting twist in the busi-ness’s fortune was how the eco-nomic downfall helped Jackson’s business more than ever before.

“The downturn actually helped me. People wanted to burn fire-wood instead of paying for elec-tricity in their household,” said Jackson.

Another example of high school students opening up to the larger world of business early is MHS senior Colton Anderson.

Colton founded Right Path Landscaping and Lawn Care back in February of 2013.

“The business skyrocketed the first month. Right now, we’re ac-tually booked until June 15,” said Anderson. “We’re planned to be landscaping Jimmy John’s in

May.”Working with Anderson is MHS

sophomore Jacob Wagner. Wagner has just recently been hired by An-derson to help. Wagner explains how he became involved in An-derson’s business.

“Colton and I were just friends. We started helping his grandma landscape, and it just sorta caught on,” said Wagner.

Both Anderson and Jackson shared some words for individuals on-the-fence with starting a busi-ness.

“You’ve only got your own act to build on. You’ve got to follow up on opportunity. There’s an op-portunity in everything,” said Jackson.

Whereas Jackson finds opportu-nity in his work, Anderson strug-gled to find sleep in his.

“If you’re looking to start a business, be prepared not to sleep much,” said Anderson.

Students act upon ambitions“You’ve only got your own act

to build on. You’ve got to follow up on opportunity. There’s an

opportunity in everything.” Raven Jackson,

MHS junior

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JEANNE DAU

MHS senior Colton Anderson and Oakland senior Michael Strader speak with potential entrepreneurs about what it is like to run a business. Strader and Anderson are the own-ers of Right Path Land-scape and Lawn Care.

ACTs: Now juniors can breathe

TURNING DREAMS INTO BUSINESS ACHIE VEMENTS

By Fancie Lewis,Photographer

The ACT is the biggest test of a student’s high school career, and it’s the test Mattoon High School prepares students for the moment they come through the doors their freshmen year. It determines your col-lege readiness as well as college acceptance.

According to Craig Graham, MHS junior, the ACT prep he was given did not truly prepare him for what the juniors endured on test day.

Some students may have felt unprepared; however, others felt like they were very prepared and ready for the test.

“I felt very prepared for the ACT, especially because of my Algebra teacher, Mrs. Talbert. All she did was give us ACT prep for like two weeks straight,” said Breanna Davidson, MHS junior.

Most teachers give students the material and iden-tical problems to the test. However, students have the choice to use these materials.

“I took surveys to find out what the students needed or wanted to learn. From there, I made Problem of the Days and mini lessons. We did this all year long,” said

Jessica Bartlett, MHS math teacher. “I feel like the ju-niors did a good job, at least I hope so, anyway.”

Testing is over for juniors, and now it’s the soph-omores turn to go through ACT prep papers and ten minute reads every week.

“I’m not that worried about the ACT; I will mainly start to worry about it next year when it comes closer to time,” said Allie Gonzalez, MHS sophomore.

The teachers focused on ACT prep and taking the test for so long, the students were elated when they walked out the front doors on the last test day.

“We have spent so long doing prep stuff for this test when in reality, most of that stuff didn’t really help, be-sides maybe the ten minute reads. I’m just glad it’s fi-nally over, so I can stop stressing about it,” said Brean-na Rhodes, MHS Junior.

Now, it’s about deciding what everyone will do with their scores and what will become of the future.

“I honestly wasn’t sure what my score was go-ing to be, part of me thought it was going to be really good, and part of me was not confident about it.” said Rhodes. “I made the score to get into all the colleges I wanted.”

5T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013Features

Page DesignerSydney Edwards

Petals of Imagination Paint Your Own Ceramics & Gift Shop Now Open 1516A & 1518 Lake Land Blvd 11am to 8pm Tue-Sat Mattoon, IL 61938 Noon-6pm Sunday (217) 235-5150 There are several different items to choose from to paint.

Don’t want to paint? Visit our Gift Shop for pre painted items, embroi-dered and hand-painted shirts, quilts, place mats/table runners, bingo bags, and misc. home decor, and photo quilts. We can also personalize a wall hanging by transferring your favorite photo to fabric, or add a name to per-sonalize a stocking. We can even host birthday, bridal, and graduation par-ties, too!*Bring this ad into the shop and it will count as a 10% off coupon!

By Albert Henderson,Multimedia Editor

When the halls of Mattoon High School are abandoned and students make their way home on a Wednes-day afternoon, a select group of people get together to appreciate the fun and nostalgia of video gam-ing.

“They are what I have grown up with. I played them when it was raining out and when none of my friends wanted to play,” said Alex Jones, junior at MHS.

Growing up with video games is something almost every member in this club has in common and some-

thing they appreciate. This appreciation is partly due

to the consoles they have grown up with and loved.

“My favorite system is the Play-Station 2,” said Jones. “It has all of my favorite classic games and can play PlayStation games too.”

While some members enjoy old-er systems such as Jones, some, like sophomore William Bryson, enjoy the new generation of games.

“Xbox 360,” Bryson said de-lighted, “[I like] all the download-able content, and it’s relatively cheap.”

Along with the systems they

cherish, they all have one game that will always be special to them: the game that got them hooked on vid-eo games forever.

Jones’ was “Final Fantasy VII” “It was the first time I ever con-nected to a story like that as an eight-year-old,” said Jones.

Bryson shares similar feelings for a very different game: the first “Mortal Kombat” ever on the Play-Station 2: “Mortal Kombat: Dead-ly Alliance.”

“I played it with my brother a lot, and it was really fun killing him with Kung Lao,” said Bryson.

While a big part of Gaming Club

is the video games, it’s not all gam-ing club has to offer; camaraderie is another important value demon-strated in this club.

“It seems like you and a friend having something like this in com-mon really boosts that friendship,” said Jones.

Freshman Daimien McGuire also believes that gaming club doesn’t just boost friendships, but creates them.

“When you get a bunch of peo-ple in the same room who don’t know each other and like the same thing, it forms a bond,” said Mc-Guire.

The ability to create and boost bonds is part of Gaming Club’s in-dividuality; the other part is derived from the devotion of its members.

“The uniqueness is based on per-sonal opinion, but I like it because I play games all day every day,” said McGuire.

Gaming Club shows talent in videogames

Physics Class Blast:

PHOTOS BY MOLLY DOTSONTop Right: Matt Haeger, Caroline ZuHone and Megan Ran-dolph, seniors, watch as their rockets fly into the sky. Above: Katilyn McDevitt, senior, and Jim Sparks, physics teacher, get the rocket ready for take off. Left: Senior Jordan Anderson catches his rocket as it falls from the sky.

MHS SENIORS LAUNCH, C ATCH ROCKETS

FYIIf you are interested in joining gaming club for the 2013-2014 school year, contact Ms. McRob-erts in room 217

PHOTO BY K AYLIE HOMANNMHS gaming club member plays the Play Station in the com-mons with fellow members.

6 T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013 Features Page Designer

Sarah Foster

kcsummers.com

Buick GMC ToyotaHyundai Scion

117 S. 19th StreetMattoon, IL 61938

(217) 234-8863

Nissan Mazda2404 Lakeland Blvd.

(S. Route 45)Mattoon, IL 61938

(217) 235-4136

Proud to SupportThe Green Wave!

Project4_Layout 1 9/28/2011 4:27 PM Page 1

Making the foreign choice

French: A unique, interesting cultureBy Sydney Edwards,

Advertising ManagerMattoon High School students who take

French as an elective enjoy the diversity and differences between French culture and Amer-ican culture. They also revel in the challenge of the language, which is not common at MHS or around the Mattoon community.

José Lira, MHS sophomore, has been in French for two years.

He said he wanted to take the language because he wanted to learn another besides Spanish.

“To me, French is easy because a lot of the words sound like words in Spanish,” said Lira.

Anissa Swearingen, senior, has been in French for four years and said she thinks the language is difficult to learn.

“There’s a lot of conjugating. I can’t fluent-ly speak the language, only put a few sentenc-es together,” said Swearingen.

Sarah Burke, French teacher, said in Span-ish the conjugating is the same, so French isn’t

any harder.“There is the same amount of conjugation;

there’s a lot of changing the stems of the word to the match the subject,” said Burke.

Burke has been in French since high school. She said she took the language to be differ-ent, like a lot of students do today. Burke also traveled to Canada; she said the French she learned in high school helped her with her stay.

“I was able to speak enough to get my point across. I knew what to say to get to the bath-room and to get food,” said Burke.

In French, the students not only learn the language, they also learn about the French cul-ture.

“We spent a section learning about the cul-ture,” said Swearingen.

Lira said he enjoys the differences between the French and our everyday lives.

“We’ve learned some about the French cul-ture this year. I like that a lot of their restau-rants aren’t like ours,” said Lira.

Spanish: A developing U.S. languageBy Paige Jordan,

Entertainment Editor

Many incoming freshmen are confused about what classes to take, let alone the classes they need to take to graduate. Span-ish, French or art are some of those required classes and each class has meaning.

To Mattoon High School Spanish teacher Amber Behrends, Spanish can be used for so much more than an available class to take.

“I think that our country is moving toward being bilingual, so people that know Spanish have an advantage,” said Behrends.

That is why several students at MHS have taken Spanish as a course.

“I find it helpful because I will be able to talk to more people,” said Owen.

MHS sophomore Alyssa Hudson also finds Spanish to be helpful for her life after high school.

“I think it will help me because I plan on

going on mission trips,” said Hudson. Even though senior Austin Owen dislikes

some things about Spanish, he also finds it useful for his life.

Even though Behrends didn’t go to col-lege for Spanish at first, she still took it all throughout college.

“I took Spanish all four years of high school and all when I was in college,” said Behrends.

Hudson likes many things about Spanish class, but there is one thing in particular she likes a lot.

“I like to verbally talk in class,” said Hud-son

Hudson chose Spanish over French be-cause she can use it more because of the countries everywhere that use Spanish.

“I took Spanish because there are a lot of countries around us that use it. It is wide-spread,” said Hudson.

PHOTOS BY SAR AH FOSTERAbove: A French book lies on a desk waiting for a student to study.Above Right: A Spanish book is opened to one of the several activities inside its binding.

Last day to buy a yearbook is May 20!

PHOTOS BY SAR AH FOSTERAs students transition into the new year, they are asked to decide between a number of classes that are recommended for high school or college. Foreign language courses are among them. Deciding between French and Spanish is difficult for many students.

green to bluego from

in just 15 minutes

Choosing the right college can be a tough decision.It’s easy to find a school that offers the major you’re interested in.

The hard part can be finding the perfect fit for you – a place where you can achieve at your greatest potential.

Sometimes, what you’re looking for is in your own backyard.

Discover why students from near and far choose EIU.

EIU offers a private-school experience at one of the lowest tuition rates in the state. Choose from more than 48 majors and minors taught in small classes

where professors actually know your name; find opportunities to connect your life in the classroom with your life outside the classroom; and discover ways to get involved so you can learn about who you are and where your life will take you.

When you’re ready to go from green to blue, come visit us. We’re less than 15 minutes from home. And, we’re pretty sure some of your

friends are already here.

Summer Visits: Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. til 2 p.m.Summer Open House: Thursday, July 18

Visit our website at www.eiu.edu/admissions for more information.

congratulationsClass of 2013!

8 T H E M H S M I R R O R Page DesignerKaylie HomannM AY 2013 Centerspread

2012-2013

PHOTO COURTESY OF DARIEN HARVEY

1.

PHOTO BY K AYLIE HOMANN

3.

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMBER DIAMOND

2.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIANA NE VIUS

4.PHOTO BY

K AYLIE HOMANN

5.

PHOTO BY K AYLIE HOMANN

6.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DEBBIE FOCHT

7.

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMBER DIAMOND

8.

1. Michael White prepares for the soccer ball coming his way. 2. Watching over his sheep, Austin Sherman enjoys FFA. 3. U.S. military veteran Stanford Sharp accomplishes his lifelong goal by receiving his high school diploma from MHS. 4. Waiting for a tennis ball to come his way, Jeremy Woodyard focuses. 5. Sam Mitchell watches his team during the Coles County Clash. 6. Winterguard performer Kalee Kasey smiles to the crowd at the Coles County Clash. 7. Graphic Arts student Ali Vang presses a shirt. 8. Megan White and Dalton Manning hold hands while walking down the 200 hallway.

2012-2013Se

nio

rs:

pa

st &

fu

tu

re

Se

nio

rs:

pa

st &

fu

tu

re

9T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013Centerspread

Meghan McCainK ASK ASKIA COLLEGE, BUSINESS MARKETING

AND GR APHIC DESIGN“I’M REALLY EXCITED TO CONTINUE SOFTBALL

BEC AUSE IT ’S JUST A BIG PART OF MY LIFE.”

Grant SpeerSTERLING COLLEGE, UNDECIDED

“I KIND OF KNE W ALL ALONG I WAS GOING TO GO THERE TO PLAY BASKETBALL.”

Melinda HolmesUNIVERSIT Y OF ILLINOIS, CHEMIC AL ENGINEERING

“I’M GOING TO BE ON THE ILLINI DANCE TEAM.”

Amber DiamondLAKE LAND COLLEGE, CULINARY ARTS

OR METEOROLOGY“I’VE ALWAYS LOVED THE CONCEPT OF

WEATHER AND STORMS.”

Lacey SolomonUNIVERSIT Y OF ILLINOIS, BIOLOGY AND PREMEDICINE

“I HAVE ALWAYS DREAMED ABOUT BEING AN ILLINI CHEERLEADER.”

Todd ReardonLAKE LAND COLLEGE, POLITIC AL SCIENCE“IT ’S ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF MY FAVORITE

TOPICS TO DISCUSS.”

PH

OTO

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

AM

BE

R D

IAM

ON

DP

HO

TO C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F M

HS

RID

DLE

P

HO

TO C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F M

AC

IE D

RU

M

PH

OTO

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF M

EG

HA

N M

CC

AIN

PH

OTO

BY

KA

YLIE H

OM

AN

NP

HO

TO C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F PAT

GA

INE

S

PHOTO ILLUSTR ATIONS BY K AYLIE HOMANN

10 T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013 Feature

Page Designer Jenna Butler

By Kaylie HomannEditor-In-Chief

Throughout one’s high school career, approximately 30 classes taken may all seem to blur togeth-er. However, this year, the 2013 Mattoon High School seniors sug-gest their favorite, most memorable classes to upcoming underclassmen and next year’s seniors.

Katie McNamer, MHS senior, suggests “biology because of Mrs. MacDonald. We didn’t do notes ev-ery day; we did labs also, so it’s more hands-on.”

Other seniors also suggest taking a class taught by MacDonald.

“Zoology,” said senior Allie Diltz when choosing one out of three of her favorite classes. “I love MacDaddy [McDonald], and she teaches you a lot of information, but you can keep up.”

Other science classes taught by other teachers are suggested, too.

“Chemistry II is hard work but well worth the dual-credit and working with Mr. Sparks,” said Diltz.

If one is looking for less of a sci-ence class, other interactive classes are suggested as well.

“I like taking foods; I like Ms. Hartbank a lot,” said Diltz. “You get to eat; who doesn’t like that? And if you have left overs, you get to make a teacher’s day.”

Foods class is popular for MHS because of the love for food.

“Foods is easy, and I like to eat,” said Ryan Paige, MHS senior.

The interactive trend seems to be favored by MHS senior students.

“Graphic Arts is my favorite just because it’s hands-on,” said Dulc-ey Weaver, MHS senior, “It’s my learning style.”

Students suggest hands-on classes

By Macie Drum, Contributing Reporter

Juggling two sports in one sea-son seems like a lot to put on a highschooler’s plate.

However, sophomore Samantha Thompson does a pronounced job of making it look easy.

Thompson has been playing sports since she was young.

Always competing, she made her way onto varsity for basketball and softball during her freshman year, but that wasn’t enough.

With Thompson’s talent and

speed, she thought about running track during her sophomore year, which is during the same season as softball.

When she finally made her de-cision to compete in both sports, she talked to her coaches and got the OK.

“It actually hasn’t been that stressful,” said Thompson. “My coaches have made it a lot easier on me and so have my teammates.”

Teammates and friends of hers are doing their best to keep her motivated and trying her hardest.

“We cheer her on and support her through both sports,” said sophomore track teammate Lauren McCain.

Her coaches also agree that she’s doing an exceptional job balancing and improving in both sports.

“I think she’s done a great job balancing the two sports. It’s very difficult, not only mentally but physically,” said Coach Troy Haacke. “She’s been able to help both sports and helped both teams be successful.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MHS RIDDLEMHS students participate in both Graphic Arts and Bio-chemistry classes. These classes were recommended because they were interactive, hands-on and the students liked the teachers.

“I love MacDaddy, and she teaches you a lot of information,

but you can keep up.”Allie Diltz,

MHS senior

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRENDA JEAN

Samantha Thompson sprints in a relay for the Mattoon girls track team.

Student participates in multiple athletic roles at MHS

Last day to purchase a yearbook Monday, May 20 at jostens.com!

11T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013EntErtainmEnt Page Designers

Paige Jordan & Destinee Anderson

By Lane Plummer,Online Editor

I have had little to scratch my itch for a good fighting game in the past few years. The last time I ever fell head-over-heels in love for one was NetherRealm Studios’ “Mor-tal Kombat” back in April 2011. It only made sense to me to build anticipation for the second release from the talented developer, “In-justice.” While I never saw some-one’s head fly or a character’s ribs ripped through his back, I realized that I didn’t need excessive gore to enjoy a solid fighting game backed by hours of replay value and made by a team that truly cares about its source material.

The first noticeable lacking as-pect from the developer’s last fight-er is the relentless bloodshed. The game has been drastically toned down to a T for Teen rating, so for those who came in wanted to see Wonder Woman’s eyeballs gouged, there isn’t much to satisfy that hun-ger. However, I see gore merely dis-tracting the player from the goal that was achieved with “Injustice,” which i s t he f ac t tha t you’re pitting one DC hero against another DC hero from another uni-verse! This concept reigns throughout the game and clear-ly presents the fun that the developers had in making it.

T h e s t o r y s u r -rounds the roster of 24 characters set against each other as they’re split after Superman kills his wife and son from a plot Joker set upon him, leading to the mass destruc-tion of Metropolis. The player is placed in the shoes of several he-roes as they fight against the bad guys and girls to reach Superman

and stop his almighty kingdom from ruling the world. The plot plays on the idea of parallel uni-verses plentifully, which doubles the amount of heroes and villains present. Moments where two cop-ies of the same hero are talking to each other (sometimes resulting in a brawl) are also scattered around the story. The idea of parallel uni-verses is really tongue-in-cheek, implemented just so it could exist. I really have no problem with it, be-cause the story is so outrageously unpredictable and impossible that I just threw my hands up and sur-rendered the idea of plausibility. This is great because I don’t have to worry about it when I jump into the well-tuned gameplay.

The fighting in “Injustice” has been tweaked and adjusted to fit the comic book feeling that glues together the game. Most changes have been centered on the new su-per meter. As you throw punches and chain combos, you will slow-ly fill up the meter this super me-ter. There are three tiers within the

meter, and the options open up as it is further packed. You can wait to either fill up your meter to unleash a devastating super move or burn the meter down using the charac-ter’s unique set of special moves. It adds depth to the fighting, more so that the X-ray attacks did in “Mor-tal Kombat.”

All fighting which takes place in a variety of backgrounds and are-nas ripped out of DC’s large ven-ue of cities and mansions. Plen-ty of detail have been added to the background around you, which is hard to appreciate when you’re busy chaining together 14-hit jug-gling combos on-screen. The great graphics extend beyond the back-grounds, as it’s apparent that mas-sive amounts of detail have been used to bring the characters to life. The animations are smooth, and the game never falters in framer-ate. Clashes that light up the screen are dizzyingly marvelous to watch blow up. Basically, there are no is-

sues that will pop up with the graphic fidelity that “Injustice” comes swinging out of the game strongly with.

Unfortunate-ly, some chang-es brought are for the worse. The aforemen-tioned clash sys-tem, essentially built to level the battle for a play-er in low health

with a large su-per meter, is just outright annoying. The game is slick and fighting is never broken up, all until a random clash occurs, where if you see his meter is higher than yours, you’re finished with no chance but to bet your whole meter to avoid lending him too much health. It is cumber-some when AI save theirs up only

to unleash it right after I unleash my hard-earned super move only to be dodged by merely crouching, the largest problem with the game. Blocking is pretty broken, as the only way to block mid-attacks is by walking backwards, and crouch-ing blocks low attacks, yet they block super moves. It’s incredibly frustrating to notice that some su-per moves aren’t blockable (such as Superman’s), which is infuriat-ingly unbalanced. Playing through the entire cast of “Injustice” on one health bar in one of the hard-est “Battle Mode” modes, I reached the 23rd and final fighter, Superman, only to be defeated after lowering his health to 1/4th of its normal ca-pacity because he executed his su-permove and destroyed my body. Smaller issues aside, these are the glaring issues that plague “Injus-tice’s” better aspects.

I would be kidding myself if I said I didn’t have a blast with this game. It not only bests “Mortal

Kombat vs. DC Universe” in ev-ery way, it sets a standard for craft-ing comic-inspired fighters with apparent care with the material. Ed Boon and company designed one of the greatest fighting games ever made two year ago with “Mor-tal Kombat,” and they’ve repeat-ed it with only slightly lower of an impact. With a background knowl-edge of the characters, I felt proud to consider this a game that speaks to comic fans and gamers alike. So much heart and creativity was used here, and it speaks great lengths for the end product. It’ll easily take me over 200 hours to three-star every S.T.A.R.S. mission, complete every battle, and unlock all concept arts and alternate costumes, not to men-tion the insane amount of unlock-ables for the customizable player card. This will last me throughout the long summer ahead and stay in my head long after it. “Injustice” is the practical masterpiece the fighter genre needs more of.

‘Injustice Gods’ serves justice to fighter genre

New album saves rock and rollBy Paige Jordan,

Entertainment Editor

From announcing that they were coming off of hiatus to releasing iTunes No. 1 album months later, “Fall Out Boy” amazed fans with their comeback.

“Fall Out Boy” is a rock band from Illinois who started in 2001 and went on a break in 2009. The day they came off of hiatus, they released a new song with a mu-sic video: “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark.” It was im-mediately on the radio, and “Fall Out Boy” was bigger than before. Now that the CD is out, they are making music videos for all of the songs. The videos are all about the same events. They got kid-napped and their girl kidnappers are pretty much torturing them. So far, there are also music videos for “The Phoenix” and “Young Volca-noes.”

The song “Young Volcanoes” has a great vibe to it. It can change a mood just by the beginning tune. It is a very catchy, upbeat song that I find myself listening to over and over.

“The Phoenix” was the second song that was released before the

album came out. This song was another shocker. Even though it didn’t sound like old “Fall Out Boy”, it was still something new and great. There is a part toward the middle of the song where lead singer Patrick Stump held a long note, and it sounded perfect.

The last song on the album is called “Save Rock and Roll” fea-turing Elton John. This song has a lot of soul from two of the best singers with great soul in their voices. When i found out that El-ton John was going to be in a “Fall Out Boy” song, I knew that it was going to be good.

I was expecting a solid album from my favorite band, and I was not let down one bit. “Fall Out Boy” took a whole new angle with “Save Rock and Roll” with more of a pop rock feel and succeeded greatly.

If you haven’t heard of “Fall Out Boy” already, I would rec-ommend to check them and “Save Rock and Roll” out.

Reviewer’s Rating

PHOTO COURTESY OF NETHERREALM STUDIO

PHOTO BY PAIGE JORDAN

Fall Out Boy makes great comeback with new music

Reviewer’s Rating

T H E M H S M I R R O R Page DesignerLane PlummerOpiniOnM AY 201312

By Justin Gordon,Managing Editor

It’s that time of year where movie audiences cheer in glee and Oscar judges turn their noses up: summer blockbuster season. What better way to kick it off than a “sequel” to last summer’s kick-off movie “The Avengers” in “Iron Man 3”?

“Iron Man 3” takes place after the events of “The Avengers” where Tony Stark (played once again by Robert Downey Jr.) is suffering the effects of the attack on New York, becoming a workaholic and insomniac. However, when a terrorist known as The Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley) starts making his presence known and reeking havoc on Tony’s life and psyche, Tony must separate himself from his suit and save the world.

Shane Black, who replaces Jon Favreau, is the new director of the franchise and crafted himself a little gem with this movie. It’s very much a person-al tale of Tony Stark and less of an action fan which will confuse many movie goers’ expecting a gigan-tic action sequel to “The Avengers” and even the other “Iron Man” movies. I actually liked this di-rection, personally; it wasn’t what I had expected and that was a welcome change of pace. I wanted something new and unexpected, and I got just that.

The fact that the movie is mostly dealing with Tony’s realization that the man makes the suit and not the other way around was a treat for me. I liked that in this grand universe with gods and super soldiers that “Marvel” was able to scale back and focus on the most re-latable of “The Avengers” team as a human being.

The acting was also a step above just being some oth-er popcorn flick an audience can expect from the summer movie season. Robert Downey Jr. is out of this world as Tony Stark. There honestly could be a study on how perfect he is in representing the comic

book character and how much charisma he brings to this role. It is Downey’s role, and I dread the poor soul who ever tries replacing him. Gwyneth Paltrow also has much more to do in this movie than the previous entries as love interest and business partner Pepper Potts. Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley both play great and entertaining vil-lains, and Don Cheadle steps it up as Rhodey Rhodes after

the misstep he had in “Iron Man 2.”

Now, while this is a much more person-

al and scaled-back film, that does not mean there is no action to speak of, it is just far and few be-tween. However, when there is action, it is a sight to be seen. It’s done in spectacular fashion and is the most suspenseful of any in the “Iron Man” franchise. The ending battle kept me guessing and made every punch and blast all that more mean-ingful.

Shane Black also adds his own sense of humor to the movie in the same way Joss Wheadon added his to “The Avengers.” This is by far the funniest of the Iron Man movies. The banter Tony Stark has with a 12-year-old boy is worth the price of admis-sion alone. I was laughing the entire movie.

Now, with saying all of this, the movie is not without flaw. There is a twist at the halfway point of the movie, which I will not spoil here, that will leave fans of the Iron Man comic books in furious rage. I personally liked the twist and rolled with it because I did not see it coming and what the twist meant added to the movie. However, I would be ly-ing if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed with how the buildup was, only for this twist to ruin it.

“Iron Man 3” was the not the movie audiences will be expecting after the colossuses that was “The Avengers.” However, that does not make it a bad movie; I dare say it made it even more engaging. The biggest detail I take away from this movie was its ambition. From the story to the action to even a few unexpected surprises throughout, this movie is loaded with ambition, which is admirable. It’s another good and ambitious time with the world’s fa-vorite narcissistic superhero- Iron Man.

‘Iron Man 3’ proves iron is still hot

By Wyatt Jones,Multimedia Editor

Stay out of the dark, craft tools to ensure survival, and most im-portantly, don’t starve. These are the main objectives in indie devel-oper Klei Entertainment’s newly released game, “Don’t Starve.”

In “Don’t Starve” you play as Wilson, a gentleman scientist, who was teleported to a strange world by a spiffy looking demon named Maxwell. Maxwell’s intentions for Wilson are at first unknown, but is seemingly trying to bring Wilson to his demise.

The game starts you off in an infinite and randomly generated

world, and gives you no instruc-tion as what to do or where to be-gin. This may seem harsh but it adds to the overall mystery and in-trigue that the game offers. To sur-vive, you need to gather supplies and build a fire by nightfall. If you are out at night without a source of light, you will die within sec-onds to a brutal onslaught of hid-den creatures.

Another huge part of “Don’t Starve” is, well, you guessed it, not starving. You need a constant food supply and if your stomach goes empty, your health begins to deteriorate and you will soon die. Food can be obtained in a vari-ety of methods, such as animals, monsters, plants and farming, with cooking providing the most ben-efits. Don’t Starve is unforgiving, and at times can frustrate you, but proves very rewarding once you learn the ropes.

A good couple weeks in the game without dying and you truly begin to see what “Don’t Starve” is all about. Wilson will come

across a variety of environments, characters and items. From villag-es in the forest inhabited by pig people to a sandy desert roam-ing with mammoth-like creatures, “Don’t Starve” is truly a unique game and experience.

The art style in “Don’t Starve” is among the best I have seen in a two-dimensional video game and looks as if you are play-ing in a hand drawn environ-ment. The developers truly went out of their way on the presenta-tion. The gameplay is reminiscent of “Minecraft,” “Diablo” and old-school horror survival games, and it comes together in its own bril-

liant way. The longer you survive in

“Don’t Starve,” the more you are rewarded when you die. When you die, the game accumulates all the days spent alive and uses them as experience to increase your overall level and unlocks new characters to play. There are many new char-acters to unlock and each comes with its own unique perks, such as Willow, who ignites fires in the dark.

Overall, “Don’t Starve” is a dark and beautiful game whose ad-dicting gameplay and mysterious story make it into an indie game you should check out.

‘Don’t Starve’ gives plenty for players to digest

PHOTO COURTESY OF FANART.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF KLEI ENTERTEINMENT

Reviewer’s Rating

Reviewer’s Rating

You can find the following stories:Pain and Gain

The Great Gatsby

May 2013: This Month in Media

and more on our news website, www.mhsmirror.org

13T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013 EntErtainmEnt

‘Django Unchained’ is off the chainBy Justin Gordon,Managing Editor

Editor’s note: This the fourth part of a four-part Quentin Taran-tino retrospective.

After “Kill Bill” slashed its way to success, Quentin Tarantino so-lidified himself as one of the great-est directors working in Holly-wood today. For his next film, he teamed up with his good friend Robert Rodriguez and made a throwback to old 70’s drive-in double feature exploitation films with “Grindhouse.” It moderate-ly successful and was well re-ceived by fans of that genre. Af-ter “Grindhouse,” Tarantino took a new direction in his style by mak-ing a movie about World War II with “Inglorious Basterds,” is a highly enjoyable and well-made movie that showed Tarantino has a far bigger range than most expect-ed. It was nominated for Best Pic-ture at the Oscars and greatly de-served that nomination.

Tarantino’s next project would be in the same vein as “Inglorious Basterds” by taking a historical el-ement in time and taking an odd spin on it. The question was could Quentin Tarantino catch lighten-ing in a bottle a second time with “Django Unchained?”

Part IV: “Django Unchained”Racism and slavery have been

serious issues America has faced since even before its birth. In “Django Unchained,” Taranti-no truly captures the cruelty and horrific nature it was for African Americans during those times, while also creating a beautiful tale of friendship and the pursuit of vengeance.

“Django Unchained” is basical-ly three stories in one movie of the travels of the freed slave Django

(Jamie Fox) and the bounty hunt-er that saved him Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz). The first is the story of murdering slaver brothers that sold both Django and his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). The next story is the deception of plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who also is in procession of Broomhilda. The third story is Django’s revenge.

Each story Tarantino tells in this movie is fantastic and gripping,

mostly due to the fantastic charac-ters he created for this movie. The audience roots for Django because you know the struggle his wife and himself are going through. The audience also roots for Dr. King Shultz because despite starting out as a bounty hunter perfectly ok with killing a man in front of the man’s own son, he is probably the most likable Tarantino character ever devised This is most part to Christoph Waltz’s Oscar winning

performance, who brings a soft-ness and charm to an already sol-id character.

The villains are undeniably memorable, whether it’s Leonardo DiCaprio’s greatest performance of his career as the sadistic south-ern gentlemen Calvin Candie, or Samuel L Jackson knocking it out of the park yet again in a Taranti-no flick as the sinister handyman to Messier Candie, Mr. Stephens.

The direction in this movie left

me awestruck. The attention to de-tail for the time period is spectac-ular. There is a scene in this mov-ie where the house slaves are pre-paring the big climatic dinner ta-ble scene. It is done with no dia-logue to a of-the-time music tune and shows the strict procedure’s they had to endure at every dinner. They had to fold the napkins a cer-tain way and do it in unison. This is the example that sticks out the most to me, but there are plenty of others during this near three-hour movie.

This movie also has gener-ated up a ton of controversy on the word “nigger” being used 67 times. However, I felt it kept in tone with the rest of the movie and stayed true to the time frame the movie was taking place in.

“Django Unchained” is an amazing homage to the spaghetti westerns and Blaxploitation flicks of the days of old. The characters are likeable and menacing; the plot is a solid three-act structure of an unlikely bromance and is the true gem of 2012. For any other direc-tor, “Django Unchained” would have been his masterpiece. For Quentin Tarantino, however, this was just another day at the cinema.

Quentin Tarantino has created a legacy of great films and has done so by staying true to what he loves and making the way he wants to, not what anybody else wanted him to do and by creating an atmo-sphere that movie-goers will nev-er forget. Love his movies or hate them, there is no denying the im-pact one Quentin Tarantino has had on film.

Reviewer’s Rating

ART COURTESY OF DAILYZOMBIE.COM

EPIC CONCLUSION TO THE QUENTIN TAR ANTINO RETROSPEC TIVE

Page Designer Justin Gordon

T H E M H S M I R R O R Page DesignerJarett Martin OpiniOnM AY 201314

By Wyatt Jones,Multimedia Editor

This is it. The end of the last 12 years of my life. It has taken up more time than any other thing we as students have experienced thus far, and in its own sense has helped create our dearest work of art, our magnum opus, and that is ourselves as people. Ever since the first day I was forced to attend school, I was never fond of it, at times even hat-ing it with a passion, but I made it through, sometimes just barely, and here I am today, typing this paper and wondering what to do next.

Although school can at times seem like the definition of evil, through its experience I have learned that it is a necessary one, and without school we wouldn’t be the same. We started with basic skills and worked our way up. Al-though the rewards were not imme-diately evident, we eventually be-gan to form interests and hobbies, new processes of thinking and skills needed for the society we live in. We were introduced to the social circle and gained friendships, ene-mies and love.

Every day we would go to this place, some days with anticipation, others with dread, waiting for that last bell to ring. Now that it’s al-most over, I sometimes wish that ring would never come. With this year coming to an end, it is now time to give up much of what we know and have known for the bet-ter part of our lives and begin a new one, a rebirth of sorts.

School helped destroy a certain innocence we all had. That inno-cence, although comforting, kept us from growing into a more com-plex person. With it gone, we have a whole new world to face: college, jobs, children of our own, an array of things we’ve never experienced, a new innocence to lose, and school has prepared us for it.

All these things it taught us, not limited to the subject taught in it, but most importantly the experience of school as a whole. It gave us the things we needed to evolve, it gave us the things that make me, me, and make you, you, it gave us the things that define us. As kids, we made plans, we wanted to be astronauts, to be rock stars, to be scientists, and as this new life that soon faces us, we know that things change, we lose many of the things we used to hold dear, and life’s plans aren’t the ones we originally wanted.

By Kaylie Homann,Editor-In-Chief

Journalism is the most stressful, time-consuming, hair-pulling and chair-throwing activity that I have ever participated in.

I’m head over heels in love with it.

When I was a sophomore, strut-tin’ my young stuff in the news-room, I thought it was all about me, all about seeing my name in print, all about being the top of the staff’s totem pole.

I was so, incredibly wrong. It’s about telling amazing, ac-

curate, true stories we tell through words, photos or even design.

It’s about helping your staff members become helping your staff members become great jour-nalists too, and as a senior, and Ed-itor-In-Chief, seeing my name in print is the least of my worries.

When I was Managing Editor my junior year, I started to mature and realize this newspaper is big-ger than I realize, and I’m only a tiny part of it.

What really matters is the fami-ly created in these four walls. Ev-ery staffer has gone through a hard time, and none of the staffers have ever paused to give a hug or offer a helping hand.

We’ve given rides home to oth-er staffers, bought them their lunch or even edit pages for their English class. We’ve always been a helping family.

I walk into the newsroom ev-ery day seeing Lane and Justin dis-cussing the new movie coming out, Emma and Sarah helping each oth-er with their English assignment, Paige and Riley talking about their new favorite band, and Molly and Wyatt making fun jokes at each other.

This staff is what made my se-nior year the greatest experience possible by being the most wel-coming, comforting group of peo-ple I have ever met.

In the end, it wasn’t about me or even the journalistic side of it all.

It was about the way the whole staff encouraged each other, helped each other in classes, hugged and cried when one of us were hurt-ing and teased each other about the nasty Katy Perry or pushing each other down a flight of stairs.

This was the best experience I’ve ever had, and it’s because of you, MHS Mirror staff.

Thank you for everything.

By Destinee Anderson,Opinion Editor

All through my years at the Mat-toon High School there have been many friends, teachers and classes that have influenced me to be who I am today. I would like to thank those remarkable people for teach-ing me so much.

High school has definitely been like a crazy roller coaster ride. Who knew these four years could fly by so fast?

Choosing a career, preparing for college and having to work hard to make good grades in every class can be a handful. I just remind my-self that I will soon be moving on to a bigger and more challenging place and suck it up.

Like most students, I never real-ly found high school that challeng-ing. As long as you deal with your homework and pay attention, it’s not really that bad. Life is how you make it. I feel like as long as you have some friends in school who can relate, we can all complain to-gether and do it all over again the next day.

For the most part, you have the choice to pick classes you’re inter-ested in and then gain new experi-ences. Some of my favorite class-es have been Intro to art, Sculpture, Ceramics, 2D, Graphic Arts and Journalism. I am a huge art person, so of course I managed to squeeze as many classes related to that as I could.

The class that has truly taught me a lot this last year has been Journalism. I wasn’t really sure about it at first.

Honestly, I just figured it would be a writing class, and I enjoy writ-ing a lot.

However, that wasn’t the case. I learned how to capture life in a new perspective by catching the beauty about every little angle, with sim-ply a photograph or an interview. Interviewing people, making pag-es, for our school newspaper and distributing to different places has shown me a diverse responsibili-ty. These were new experiences for me.

I truly ended up loving every bit of it. I struggled with anxiety for quite some time, but Journalism taught me how to push it aside and live. Not only the class itself, but the people involved in it have made a gigantic impact on me.

It’s changed my view, and I am grateful.

By Jarett Martin,Distribution/Promotion Manager

When I joined Journalism I, I never imagined that it would be what I thought it would. It only be-came 10 times better. When I joined Journalism I everybody was nice, warm and welcoming. I became really close to everyone. I experi-enced what it would be like once I was in Journalism II. We helped out on distribution day when we gave out newspapers to each class room and drop points. We did that be-cause Journalism 2 was a lot small-er when I first joined Journalism I; we stepped in and helped out as much as we can.

When I did join Journalism II, everyone was really friendly. Every-one helped; I became a better jour-nalist by others showing me how to use InDesign and capture photos. When I started off, we would work as a group and help each other out. Today we have expanded so much that it has made us become a better newspaper and group. We all have improved so much together.

Just this year, I started to write much longer stories. I was inspired by Sarah Foster who writes long, well-written stories.

By writing my stories longer, I was able to put more sources in my stories and give more angles. I would have never written my sto-ries that long without seeing her amazing, lengthy stories. Kaylie has helped me improve taking pho-tos and ranging my word choices for my stories. I really appreciate her friendliness and being the EIC for Journalism II.

Journalism has improved a lot since I first started. I am glad to be a part of it. I never imagined I would be able to do a lot of things that I am able to do now.

Mrs. Bright has helped make journalism a true place where you are a family and know the true meaning of being a journalist.

I am so glad that I joined Jour-nalism and now have experienced many events since. I have made some awesome friends who I will be close with after I leave high school.

I will never forget what I all did in journalism and hope that next year they keep up the good work, and know there is always room to and by doing that, it will give more people a reason to read our newspa-per and show that we are a profes-sional newspaper.

Journalism II seniors take time to reminise over the years

Mirror reflects on Cyber BullyEditorial

By Justin Gordon,Managing Editor

During the course of these se-nior columns I believe the readers of The MHS Mirror will read about the impact this class and newspaper has had on each of us, I am no ex-ception. As I walked in my sopho-more year to Journalism one I had only taken it because it was an English class and I loved to write. What I discovered was a new path my life would take and learn the value of teamwork.

I had a bumpy start. Now, as I am typing this column as the Managing Editor and second-in-command of the staff I felt I have grown both as a journalist and as a human being. However, none of that would have been possible without the expert mentoring of Amanda Bright and the continu-ous staff I can proudly claim to be a part of.

My junior year on staff was probably the most fun, having a legendary rivalry with Austin “Trekkie” Keating and connect-ing with my future partner in crime Kaylie Homann by fighting over the integrity of Katy Perry. How-ever, the most important year I had on this staff came my senior year where the amazing Amanda Bright had a brief loss of sanity and gave me a position of power on this newspaper.

It was also important because this has turned out to be the most crucial and hard year of my high school career where I faced incred-ibly hard times by giving up on my dream of being an actor and various other personal problems. However, I found a new passion and dream to become the next great film critic and the unbelievable love and sup-port this staff has given me honest-ly keeps me smiling and writing. I owe this staff and Amanda Bright more than I can put into words.

So, as I stand upon the top step on the high school flight of stairs, looking down at my past on this staff, my perspective is enlight-ened. I would not be the man I am today without this newspaper and this second family I have devel-oped. Whether it be my partner and fantastic boss Kaylie Homann or the Gene Siskel to my Roger Ebert in the astonishing Lane Plummer or my new random rival in the love-ly Riley Trotter, I adore all of you, and I thank you for every step on this flight of stairs.

Over the years, social networks such as Twitter have become pop-ular websites among several teen-agers, adults and even business-es. These sites have a multitude of uses such as: communicating, adver-tising, inspiring, coping and much more.

However, recently an issue with these networks has been brought to the attention of the MHS Mirror and staff at Mattoon High School.

Bullying is an age-old problem that some people cannot seem to wrap their heads around. Although discussing this concern could be seen as beating a dead horse, a new method to accomplish this form of cruelty has recently developed.

For those who are not informed, students are creating Twitter pag-es under false identities dedicated to

the slander of other Mat-toon high schoolers. This takes cyber-bullying to a new level of cowardliness because now anyone can post rude tweets on these pages anonymously.

These pages contained “MHS” within their name, and some of these ac-counts were created on the school’s premises. The ad-ministration interfered in order to resolve the issue with a hefty consequence.

The punishment for as-sociation with these pages can be suspension and even jail time. Although this many seem extreme, the nastiness spewed on these pages damaged the esteem of students and also had the potential to

damage the school’s reputation. Indeed, these accounts were

erased, but students still did not change their thoughts on this hurtful behavior. They simply put these ac-

counts under a name that did not contain MHS, but instead ‘Mattoon’.

This reflects on Mat-toon in a poor manner. Many people who see this account would be aston-ished at what “the entire town” has to say about trivial matters, such as whose butt looks nice in yoga pants and who stuffs her bra.

These types of pages are not only immature, but they could affect a per-son’s future.

For example, when a student gets in trouble for affiliat-ing himself with an account that pro-duces slander, it could appear on his permanent record.

This will make him stand out neg-atively to a future employer and even make it more difficult for him to get accepted into certain colleges.

Although the punishment will affect a student’s future, students should have the discretion to not partake in such activity, and we, the MHS Mirror agree with the adminis-tration’s decision of punishment.

C ARTOON BY K AYLIE HOMANN

The MHS Mirror Editorial Policies

Opinions in editorials reflect the consensus decision of the

newspaper staff and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Mattoon High School. Opin-ions expressed in columns are

solely those of the author.

15T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013

Page Designer Emma Diltz

By Destinee Anderson,Opinion Editor

At Mattoon High School, the journalism program has proved to be very successful by winning nu-merous awards. This year, the pro-gram has continued its succcess. Four students, junior Emma Diltz and three seniors, Briana Nevius, Justin Gordon and Jarett Martin, participated in Illinois High School Association for journalism state competition.

“To qualify for such an event, the participant must place in the top three of the category at sec-tionals’” said Nevius. “There were seven different sectionals across the state, so 21 people qualified for each category at state.”

Nevius was awarded second place in state, which tied the high-est placement of an MHS journal-ist ever. To prepare, she was gift-ed with help from her best friend, Kaylie Homann, who is involved in journalism, and Amanda Bright, adviser of journalism and year-book. “Kaylie Homann taught me the basics of copy writing, and Mrs. Bright gave me examples of past state winners,” said Nevius.

Journalism has diverse mean-ings to both Diltz and Nevius.

“Journalism means being able to say what other people are too afraid to say themselves; it means freedom of speech and that goes a lot deeper than what people under-stand,” said Diltz.

“Since I’m in yearbook, I don’t really know a lot about journal-ism, but I definitely want to learn more about it and possibly be in-volved in it in college,” said Nev-ius after experiencing placing sec-ond in state.

The students concentrated hard for the competition and then got see the results of how well their work paid off.

“We were given a prompt and had to write a story based off the information given and then a pro-fessional journalist judged it,” said Diltz.

Journalism celebrates state-bound staffers

PHOTOS BY DARIEN HARVEY

Above: Junior Kara Brand and senior Allie Diltz work to keep the ball in favor of the Wave. Above Left: Senior Hunter Worthey battles for posses-sion of the ball.Below: The team gathers around as Coach Ryan Ghere further instructs them on what to do in the next play.

By Jacob Harris,Sports Editor

Mattoon Green Wave girls soccer team has competed in Charleston’s Red and Gold Tournament for sev-en years. This tournament has proved to be a challenge, but the Green still showed their strengths through the games.

“We played well, and it was a good experience for us,” said Allie Diltz, senior at Mattoon High School.

Even though they lost all three games, Rendie Hamilton, sophomore at MHS, agrees with Diltz.

“We played well together as a team,” said Hamilton

With playing good as a team, there were still some weaknesses.

“We needed more commination on defense,” said Hamilton.

Coach Ryan Ghere said, “We played well together as a team, but we played really good teams.”

When asking Ghere what are their weaknesses he said. “Our defense wasn’t too good.”

“Journalism means being able to say

what other people are too afraid to say themselves.”

Emma Diltz,

MHS junior

Girls soccer team perseveres SportS

4 journalists take experiences to next level

T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2013 SportS

By Molly Dotson,News Editor

As the daylight increases, schedules become in-creasingly busy as well. Although this occurs every spring, there are ways to cope with the stresses of ev-eryday life.

One of these techniques many find effective is yoga.

“It calms the nerves and helps people gain control of their mind and body by simply teaching them to relax and take deep breaths,” said Vickie Nevius, a hatha yoga instructor at the Mattoon YMCA.

Although Nevius finds this method to be useful for relaxation after a lengthy day, others do yoga to stay lean. One of these people is Mattoon High School Spanish teacher Amber Behrends, who began doing yoga in college in order to stay fit.

“I wanted a way to exercise, but I didn’t want to lift weights, and yoga is a great way to strengthen the core and keep me fit,” said Behrends.

Behrends does cardio yoga in her classroom after school every Monday and Wednesday.

“Sometimes it’s a little awkward when people pass by the classroom, but oh well,” said Behrends.

MHS bookkeeper Carla Dufford also does yoga on Mondays and Wednesdays, but instead of performing in a classroom, she prefers to go to the YMCA.

“I look forward to relaxing at yoga, but I also en-joy the days where it’s not as easy. The challenge is

fun,” said Dufford. Nevius also believes relaxation is a major benefit

of yoga, and went on to say it has changed her entire thought process when she feels stress.

“We all have stress in our lives, especially around the holidays, but when that time comes I find it help-ful to relax, take deep breaths, and I even encourage my yogis to put their legs up the wall when they get into those stressful situations,” said Nevius.

Nevius also encourages doing yoga when going on a long trip because sitting in one position can get un-comfortable.

“I tell my yogis to get out and stretch at least ev-ery two hours when they travel long distances,” said Nevius.

Dufford, a student of Nevius, said this advice has been helpful to her in the past, and said she even practices at home while doing everyday tasks.

“I like to do the tree when I’m brushing my teeth, and I often put my legs up the wall when I need to re-lax,” said Dufford.

Dufford is not the only yogi who practices poses at home.

Behrends also does stances in front of her 3-year-old daughter at home, and she has picked up on some of the positions.

“Maya loves yoga. A few days ago when we were at the grocery store, she told the cashier ‘I do yoga’ and got down right there to show her,” said Behrends.

16Keep calm: Do yoga

PHOTOS BY MOLLY DOTSON

Above: Vickie Nevius, hatha yoga teacher, reads to the class during shavasana. This is the “asana” or pose where yogis relax. According to Nevius, this is the most important pose because it provides time to re-flect. Below: To prepare for yoga, many streteh.

Carla Dufford does a pose called ‘Warriar 3’ the at her YMCA yoga class.

PAGE DESIGNER Jacob Harris

Teachers and community members relax with yoga

“It calms the nerves and helps people gain control of their mind and body by simply

teaching them to relax and take deep breaths.”

Vickie Nevius