Leyli Beims Top Ten List

Top Ten Best Things About Having Older Brothers

1.     You have built in body guards.

2.     Their cute friends always come over.

3.     You learn what NOT to do from their mistakes.

4.     They scare away icky boys.

5.     You never get yelled at for your room being messy because theirs is 1,000 times worse.

6.     They understand how annoying your parents are.

7.     You have automatic respect.

8.     They get in trouble for everything.

9.     You always have a ride.

10.  You learn how to fight for what you want, because once the food is on the table, you have to do serious work if you want to eat.

by Leyli Beims

Suzanne's Taco John's Top Ten

Top Ten of the Dumbest Things People Do or Ask Me at Taco John’s.

1.     A customer asks very angrily, “Where are the napkins? I can’t find any!” For those of you that find yourself saying this, we have two napkin holders each over two of the three trashcans and one napkin holder next to the lids.   

2.     When you’re the cashier at the front counter and the customer owes $19.31 and the customer gives you a twenty dollar bill to pay for their meal. So the cashier takes the money. Then the customer ignores the cashier. So when the cashier is ready to give the customers change back to them they say. “Oh! Here’s fifty cents,” and then demand that you open the cash register to give them back a different amount of change.  Ugh!!!!!

3.     The Lobby person has to take out the trashes in lobby as part of their shift. But here’s what irks me. While changing the trashes at least one trashcan will not have a trash bag in it for a minute at most. At that moment it seems like at least two people need to throw their trash away, and they can only locate the one trashcan that the lobby person is changing. So they either throw their trash in the bin without a bag (so annoying) or stand there and stare at you until you put a trash bag in(which is awkward and creepy).

4.     When a customer walks in the door the cashier must ask whether the food is, “For here or to go”. The diligent customer answers the cashier right away. Others may say, “I don’t know what I want yet!!!!” and yell at the cashier because obviously they did not hear the cashier, or they may order because they though you asked them what they wanted. Then there are the customers who hear the cashier perfectly but ignore the cashier for several minutes and then they order like the cashier never said anything to them.  

5.     If the customer says that they want their food “to go” the cashier is still supposed to give them a table number so the lobby person knows exactly where to find the customer. Some customers act like you didn’t hear them say, “to go” and say even louder, “My order is to go.” Then when the cashier gives them the table number they look at the cashier like they’re deaf and dumb.

6.     The lobby worker is not your personal maid! If you leave the restaurant with trash on your table then they have to clean it up. Management puts four trashcans in the lobby so the customers can throw away their own trash.  Yes, sometimes if the lobby worker is nice they might ask elderly customers if they are finished and may throw their trash away. But unless the lobby worker asks to through your trash away, it would be very courteous if you would throw away your own trash.

7.     If a customer orders a burrito in drive-thru the first drive-thru person may not know if they want a grilled or non-grilled burrito or whether it is beef, grilled chicken or crunchy chicken.  Please specify exactly what you want when you order.

8.     When customers come to the counter and want another food item because they claim that the person who took their order did not get it correct. Yet the cashier knows that the customer complaining just wants another food item for free.

9.     When customers pee on/in something other than the toilet or urinal.

10. When a customer spills a drink, salsa or food on the floor and does not tell the lobby worker.

by Suzanne Carlgren

Kadin Zimmerman's Tech Top Ten

Top Ten Tech Stories

            While working in the tech room at CHS, there are many interesting people who come in with laptop problems, which brings me to the top 10 tech stories.

10.) I was sitting in the tech room waiting for something to do, when a student came into the room. She had a beaten-up laptop in her hands, and continued to tell me that her mom had accidently run it over. The first thing that ran through my mind was how it mistakenly found itself underneath the tire of a car?

9.) Numerous people come into the room saying they have computer problems. When they turn their computer on to show me what the problem is, it ends up working. Wouldn’t you think they should have the problem up when they come in?

8.)  A student came in saying he had a big problem. I asked him what the problem was, so he pulled his computer out to show me. “I just can’t keep the screen clean and I don’t know how to clean it. Should I come in here when it gets dirty or what can I do?” I told him to use a soft cloth. He asked if he could use his shirt, and I said sure…

7.) Last year a student came in saying their internet wouldn’t work at their house, but it would work at the school. I looked at it, and it was working fine, so I asked who their internet provider was. They said they didn’t pay for internet and that her brother said she should be able to get onto the internet. I told her to go knock on the neighbor’s door and tell them that she wasn’t able to steal their Wi-Fi anymore… 

6.)  A teacher said that their students couldn’t connect to the wireless internet in their room, and that they had to walk into the hallway just for it to connect. I walked up there to test it out, and it seemed to be working fine. I asked the teacher what the deal was, and they said, “Hmm well I guess it’s working now…”

5.) A former student came into the room on a daily basis, saying his laptop wouldn’t work. Multiple screws were missing as well as a few components. We took his laptop away and said he wasn’t qualified to take his computer apart, which was why it was always broken.

4.)  A staff member came in asking if he was able to send an email from his Yahoo! account to a USD333 school email address.

3.) Numerous teachers ask why they can’t get on facebook.com or espn.com.

2.) A teacher came in and asked if I could unblock an email address for them. When I looked at the email address they had written down, it was for fantasy football…

1.) Kids come in asking if I will put Windows 7 on their laptop, or if I will just give them the wireless internet password. It doesn’t work that way.   

by Kadin Zimmerman

Courtney's November Blog

The Top Ten Worst Things about Cross Country

By Courtney Monzon

            Cross country is great but I have a love/hate relationship with this crazy sport. Here are some of the worst things about cross country.

1.     Running.

2.     When people ask, “ARE YOU GUNNA GET FIRST?!?!”

3.     Meets where the grass is wet.

4.     Running up steep hills, or any hill for that matter.

5.     Going at a dead sprint near the end of a race.

6.     That awkward moment when fans are yelling at you to run faster, when they could never run that fast. 

7.     Getting side cramps.

8.     Having cotton mouth.

9.     Not having water when you need it.

10.  Getting a Charlie horse at the beginning or end of a race.

Trent Tholstrup's Top Ten List

Top 10 Most Hated Athletes

10. Ty Cobb- The original bad boy of baseball. Spiked players, attacked fans and whipped his son after he flunked out of Princeton. 

9. O.J. Simpson-Any athlete who thinks they have a right to steal their own memorabilia deserves to be hated.

8. Charles Barkley- Whether it was spitting on little kids or talking about hating white people, Barkley never was liked around the league. If you’re looking for a laugh, look up his golf swing on YouTube.

7. Terrell Owens- A man with an ego the size of San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Dallas combined. (Hm no wonder why he couldn’t fit on any of those teams). His mouth annoyed fans to maximum hatred levels.  

6. Kurt Busch/Kyle Busch- Two NASCAR brothers who have had various run-ins with the media, police, and fans. They also get the most boos at the track on Sunday.

5. Ron Artest (Metta World Peace) - Suspended 86 games in 2004 for running into the stands and starting a brawl. He then changed his name to Metta World Peace in 2011. Fighting with fans is a major no-no.

4. LeBron James- A one hour TV special to announce that your leaving the city of Cleveland in shambles…classy LeBron

3. Tiger Woods- Cheated on his wife and hasn’t been able to keep his game up since. Disappointed millions of people and left many fans searching for a new role model.

2. Brett Favre-Retiring, then unretiring, then retiring, then playing for the rival Minnesota Vikings can’t possibly make the fans happy. Sending pictures of your junk gets you bad reviews as well.

1. Barry Bonds- Committed the number one no-no of athletes: took steroids. He also broke the all-time homerun record while using steroids. Cheaters are hated. Bonds was a cheater who lied. Liars and cheaters go to the top of the list of the most hated athletes.  

By Trent Tholstrup

Cody Schmitz's Sophomore Top Ten

Top 10 Best Things about Being a Sophomore

Congratulations! You’ve survived the infamous Freshman Year! Now onto oblivion in the umbra that is sophomore year. You’re no longer special, so get used to it. But you do learn cool words like umbra. You won’t be special again until senior year, fourth nine weeks when everyone is crying over you’re departure, so get ready for a fun 36 weeks.

1.     No longer at the bottom of the food chain

2.     Allowed to coast for one more year before things get serious.

3.     No college crap yet (see number 4)

4.     No scholarship crap yet (see number 3)

5.     There’s a super-secret spelling of the word sophomore that most sophomores don’t even know. (We have a silent O!)

6.     You still have so much time left in high school!

7.     You have so little time left in high school!

8.     Legal. Driving.

9.     People don’t look down on you anymore!

10. People don’t look up to you yet!

So enjoy it; junior year will sneak up fast, and research papers and planning prom will make you want to crawl back in the dark, fun hole that is sophomore year.

by Cody Schmitz

Brittany Randall's Drama Top Ten

Top Ten Drama Mishaps

1.     With so many costume changes, it is impossible to be “modest”. There is always a possibility of getting “flashed” by someone else.

2.     Losing your pants…and finding them pushed in the back of a locker when doing stage cleanup the Sunday after the play.

3.     “Do Me Secular”. Making up new phrases that make no sense.

4.     Everyone teaming up to steal your pants again. Resort to locking your pants into your locker.

5.     Stepping on everyone’s feet. During practices, everyone goes without shoes, better for dancing.

6.     Running into people while coming off stage. Crowding around trying to see two people do their kiss can be very dangerous.

7.     Getting your costumes mixed up. When your pants are way too big and someone else’s are way too small, you know something’s wrong.

8.     Make up. Freshmen and new guys don’t understand that EVERYONE needs makeup. Otherwise, you’ll look too white or shiny. It’s part of drama…get over it.

9.      Drawing on the backstage walls. Not cool. Mr. Stiles will rip you to shreds. You’ll be the one all nice and snug under the stage in the coffin.

10.  Shut up. People pay to watch the show. Not listen to some catfight (about hairspray) backstage.

By Brittany Randall

Top Ten Things That Irk Mr. Morris

Ten Things That are Guaranteed to Irk Mr. Morris

·        Leave a debate tournament with another team to go to Sonic. If you really want to get on his nerves, follow the example of a former debate student and don’t tell him or anybody else that you are leaving.

·        Claim that the zombie apocalypse will never happen. Bonus points for claiming that he would not survive a hypothetical zombie apocalypse.

·        “The Truth” commercials. Insist that without these wonderful commercials, nobody would know the truth about anything. 

·        Sit in his rolling chair. You are guaranteed to get a solid reprimand if you so much as touch the fibers of his beloved throne.

·        Pull pages off of his one day at a time calendar. “It’s October 20^th? Not anymore! Hello October 21^st!”                                                                                             

·        Bring food into his classroom. Pro tip: bring Nutella.

·        Draw on his whiteboard. The hard part is finding his Expo markers.

·        Comment on how often he changes his computer backgrounds. Though he doesn’t change them often, commenting on it every time you enter his classroom is sure to push a button.

·        Complain that his room smells because of him.

·        Draw on his sticky notes and note pads. Pro tip: make a flip animation short using his “I Love Jim” note pad.

by Siri McGuire

Top Ten Best Things About Being a Drum Major

Top Ten Things Best Things About Being Drum Major

1.     I get to wear a cape.

2.     I get to crash the cymbals.

3.     I am able to verbally abuse band members all the time.

4.     Without a uniform top on, I look like an Oompa-Loompa.

5.     Always criticizing freshmen.

6.     The potential (and perpetual) power to stop a football game.

7.     I get to use a VERY loud whistle.

8.     I get a cool, white plume.

9.     I don’t have to march the drills.

10.   I get to wave my arms around a lot instead of playing an instrument.

by Ike Uri

Top Ten Driving Pet Peeves

Top Ten Things I Hate While Driving

            There are many little things that irritate me when I’m driving. Here are my top ten pet-peeves.

1.     Following someone who is going 10-15 mph under the speed limit in town.

2.     Trying to pass someone on the highway and they speed up while you’re passing them.

3.     Hitting every red light while driving through downtown.

4.     Always having to drive 20 mph on 11^th Street even when there is no school.

5.     Having to wait at the stoplight by Wal-Mart.

6.     Always having to drive through the construction on the highway.

7.     That awkward moment at a stop sign when you and another driver decide who will go first.

8.     People almost backing out into me on 6^th Street.

9.     People trying to drive in a foot of snow with two-wheel drive cars.

10.  Driving around the block to get to a parking spot, and once you get there, someone has already taken the spot you had your eye on.

by Blake Woellhof

Tunnel of Fun

When I was in elementary school I lived in a little town named Coloma, Wisconsin. Coloma was a town of 400 inhabitants. There were only two restaurants in the town, if you can even call them that considering one was a bar and the other was an A & W. There was one church and one elementary school with grades Kindergarten through sixth. There really weren’t very many activities for kids. So one summer morning my brother and Laura, one of his friends, decided that we should start digging. I really don’t know where we were digging to, but we ended up making a huge tunnel. The opening of the tunnel was eight feet in length, four feet in width and seven to eight feet deep. Looking at the tunnel from above ground and from a little kid’s point of view it was like a cave or a fort. Only children could enter our tunnel. I don’t know if that was necessarily the rule or if adults just couldn’t fit past the entry way. After expanding the tunnel we filled it with water and made our own mud bath. The mud bath was fun until we realized that we had to rinse off before going in the house. My mother sprayed us all down with freezing cold water…Brrrr. We finally convinced my mom to let us rinse off in the little pool we had in the back yard. Ugh…why didn’t we think of that sooner?

By Suzanne Carlgren

Peeing My Pants

By the time I reached elementary school, I was potty trained. I hope everyone is. But when a teacher says, “You can’t go to the bathroom until this time,” you hold your bladder until that time. Well, I wasn’t a very good listener.   

During 3^rd grade, my P.E. class had to do some kind of running test out on the playground. I really had to pee, but I had thought my P.E. teacher told us we couldn’t use the bathroom until AFTER the running test. I really had to go, but I figured I could hold it. We had to run in pairs, and my best friend, Liz and I paired up. I knew I wouldn’t beat her, since she was a BEAST, but I tried hard. We had to run the entire length of the blacktop and back in under a minute. We did it three times. I was being beaten badly by Liz every time.

Right before we did it the third time, I really had to go “relieve” myself. Looking back, I’m glad we were the last pair to run, especially after what happened next. Someone on the sideline was talking about how thirsty they were, and I was straining to control my bladder. Suddenly, Liz leaned in and told me some joke about someone running in front of us, and I start laughing. I laughed so hard that the flood gates opened. I start crying, and the P.E. teacher rushed over. Liz just laughed.

I knew I called Liz my best friend for a reason because she helped me into the building and waited with me until my mom came to the nurse’s office with a clean pair of shorts and underwear. That is when I learned what a best friend really is, and Liz was a best friend. Sticking with your friends, through thick and thin, or even through urine-soaked pants, that’s what a true friend is. Liz and I are still close, and I’m glad for that.

By Brittany Randall

Stuck in the Mud

It was a cold rainy day in Concordia. I was a first grader in Mrs. Walters’ class. We were not allowed to go outside for recess that day because the playground had turned to mud. When the bell rang and we stepped outside the rain stopped and I took off on my journey to the babysitter’s. I was walking on the black top when I saw all the kids standing around the big mud puddle on the soccer field. I walked over and asked what was going on. They told me that they were going to walk across it because the mud wasn’t very deep. I told them I would cross it too because it would make my walk shorter. They told me to go across it first and they would follow. I started across the mud and immediately started to sink. I tried to move, but I felt like I was in quicksand. I fell to my knees. I turned around to see all of the older kids staring and laughing hysterically at me. I tried my hardest to get unstuck but my boots came off, and I had to pick them up and crawl out of the mud.  As soon as I was out of the mud, I ran as fast as I could to the babysitter’s knowing that I was about to be in huge trouble!

By Trent Tholstrup

Church Fainting

Fainting can be a traumatic experience. It can be especially scary when it involves cemeteries, nuns and a priest’s tombstone.

            I was about twelve years old. It was Memorial Day, and as we had every year before, my family went with my grandma to the Catholic Cemetery for mass. I woke up as late as possible, and didn’t have any time to eat breakfast or even get a glass of water. This particular year an aunt and uncle were also around for Memorial Day. When my parents and I arrived at the cemetery there were not enough folding chairs to go around, so I ended up standing. As mass began I noted that it was a particularly hot and humid morning. I was fine until right after communion, when I experienced the strangest sensation. It sounded like a train was rushing by me, and my vision began to blur. I was rather bemused by these events. However, I wasn’t bemused for long. I promptly keeled over.

            When I opened my eyes and blinked a few times to clear my vision, I saw a nun leaning over me. I didn’t know where I was or why a nun happened to be leaning over me. Her head was about a foot from my face, which, to say the least, was a rather disturbing sight to regain consciousness to. When I was helped up I realized that when I fainted my head landed about three inches away from a priest’s headstone.

            Now this fainting spell wasn’t so bad. It was a decent way to get out of church; though it could have been much worse if I had succeeded in cracking my head open. So the moral of the story is, if you ever want to get out of church in a dramatic fashion, stand for your knees locked for long periods of time until you faint.

By Ike Uri

Tank Trouble

One hot summer day, I was at my friend’s house playing in her stock tank. (Pretty hick huh?) We were having a good ol’ time until I decided to run up her slide that was connected to her tree house right beside the stock tank. If you can believe it I wasn’t the smartest cookie in the jar, so I ran up the wet slide. This ended with me tripping up the slide, falling on my chin, and biting all the way through my bottom lip. I saw blood running down my face, and my friend freaked out and went and told her mom. Soon after they took me to the emergency room and called my mom telling her what I had done. Turns out my mom wasn’t surprised, since this would be my second time getting stitches. Everything went fine in the ER, and I was proud of my battle wound like any child would be. To this day I still have my scar. So next time you see me, ask me and I’ll show you.

By Courtney Monzon

Drew Has a Scare

I have a lot of memorable childhood moments. One memory that sticks out in my mind is when Drew Erkenbrack had a scare. Recess was a big deal back in elementary school. For my friends and I, our plan was always to eat lunch as fast as we could so that we would be the first ones to go outside and get a swing. There were only three swings, and everyone wanted one. One day, Drew and I were the first two people to get outside for recess. As we were sprinting to the swings, Drew suddenly stopped and took off back into the school. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, so I proceeded to get a swing. Just as I sat down, I noticed that Colton Odette was running towards me laughing hysterically. I asked him what was so funny, and he told me that Drew ran past him saying, “I think I crapped my pants!”

            About ten minutes into recess, we noticed Drew was just making his way outside. All of my friends were pointing at him and laughing. Once he got to us, we asked him, “What happened?” Drew then said, “I was so excited to get a good swing, that I thought I crapped my pants.” He had not soiled his pants after all, but my friends and I will never let him live it down.

By Blake Woellhof

Jealousy

If you can believe it, back in the fourth grade, Leyli Beims and I weren’t best friends. Well, we were for a while, but for some unknown reason, the two of us had a falling out and drifted to separate friend groups. Now remember, we were ten at the time. So of course, my friend group and I decided we would make Leyli jealous enough to come crawling back crying on her knees. Or something like that. So, being the great planners we were, all of us walked past Leyli and her cool friends: Olivia Leif, MaKayla Nelson, and Jaden Spear. We were at recess and they were playing on the jungle gym. We stopped, and without looking at Leyli, began to laugh like we were having literally the best time of our lives. We nonchalantly looked behind us to see if Leyli had that jealous look of despair on her face. Actually, it was more a face one makes when watching a dying bird. So, we took it up a notch, and what do you do when laughing doesn’t make someone jealous? You sing. You sing your little faces off. So we sang our favorite theme song to our favorite T.V. show - some Japanese cartoon - this time not hiding our blatant manipulation. We checked again and saw Leyli and her posse ignoring us. The rest of the memory is fuzzy;  we may have resorted to name calling or physical violence. I’m not sure, but this story has a happy ending because the next week Leyli and I became best friends again over sugar cookies. And I know that for a fact.

by Cody Schmitz

First Grade Confusion

My father works outside constantly during the summer; he relishes the sun and the heat. As a result, he gets very tan during the summer and my mom always says, “Goodness, Bill, you’re almost turning black!” I understand this figure of speech now, but when I was in first grade, I took it literally.

One day during Mrs. Ball’s class we somehow got on the topic of the Civil War and slavery. As Mrs. Ball tried to explain what slavery was to us in the most delicate way possible, I remembered my mother’s comment and shouted, “My daddy’s black!” Mrs. Ball just looked down me, a very blonde blue eyed little girl, and nodded her head. She murmured, “Mmmhhhmmmmm” and resumed her lesson. Sure enough, Mrs. Ball found out for herself at the next parent-teacher conference that I might have been confused.

by Siri McGuire

Bloody Rocks

Bloody Rocks

            In first grade, Dylan Moore and I were in Kristin Peltier’s class. Dylan and I were troublemakers when we were together, which probably explains why we were not in another class together until high school. Every day the routine began. Come to school, talk to Dylan, flip a card, go to recess, talk to Dylan, and possibly flip another card by the end of the day.

     One particular cold day, he and I were playing at recess when someone got a bloody nose so there was blood on some of the rocks underneath the blue and white jungle gym.  Martina Gieber warned us, “No one to touch the rocks,” before she escorted the nose bleed victim into the building to get help. Of course there was a big huddle of kids around the jungle gym, and before I knew it, Dylan was crawling underneath the playground equipment and grabbing the bloody rocks. Right as he was crawling out, Martina was coming back and she yelled at Dylan. He threw the rock down and acted as if he had done nothing wrong. Martina proceeded to tell him that he could have contaminated his gloves, so Dylan figured he would solve the problem by removing his contaminated gloves. It didn’t dawn on him that in order to remove the last glove he would have to use one of his bare hands. Dylan was then escorted into the building to wash his hands. Perhaps they should show the Blood Borne Pathogens video to first graders? 

By Kadin Zimmerman

Tooth Trauma

                It was a rainy day, and I was in the first grade. Like every other day when the weather was less than amazing we had recess indoors. But instead of watching an episode of Scooby-Doo or playing board games, we went to the gym. I met up with my crew and we decided to play a game of tag. In the midst of running around and screaming our heads off, I ran into Kira Krause. She must have been extremely focused on running away from whoever was “it”, because she shoved me out of her way with impressive strength for a six-year-old girl. I face-planted it right into the hard wood floor. When I came back up, I had a weird sensation in the front of my mouth. I inhaled and felt a sharp pain resonate from my front two teeth. When one of my friends looked at me in horror and starting screaming for the teacher, I got pretty concerned.  I glanced down at the floor and saw a white speck. I picked it up, and realized it was a piece of a tooth. My tooth. My teacher came and I was rushed to the nurse’s office. My mom was called and she showed up to take me to the dentist. Unfortunately, he did a terrible job. For years after the incident my classmates constantly asked me what was up with my teeth. It annoyed me and I usually end up yelling at them. Needless to say, elementary school wasn’t my best time.

by Leyli Beims

Cracks! a blog by Suzanne Carlgren

CRACK!!!

It starts with one and the next thing you know they are everywhere! I’m talking about the cracks on the tennis courts in our public park. The courts have taken a brutal beating throughout the years and will probably only hold up for two or three more.  But until the city repairs them tennis players have to deal with the cracks. But in tennis, cracks kill or at least kill the point.  When a ball lands on a crack it curves or twists tricking the receiver into believing the ball will go one way when instead it goes another. Therefore the receiver loses the point because the racquet was on the wrong side of the player’s body. The player was expecting the ball to come from one direction when the trajectory of the ball suddenly shifted due to hitting a crack. Now that’s all fine and dandy if you hit the ball on the crack and win the point, but if you’re the receiver the rerouted ball is difficult to recover. Even on the tennis courts, JUST SAY NO TO CRACKS!!!

Suzanne Carlgren

Foreign Visitors by Siri McGuire

Foreigners in Our Midst

                As most of the student body as probably already noticed, we have been lucky enough to host four foreign exchange students this year. So far they’ve come from Norway, Denmark, China, and Slovakia to experience the day to day life of an American student at Concordia High School. In light of this situation, I have thought of some everyday occurrences at our school that might seem odd or out-of-place to a visitor who is not well accustomed to our culture yet. For example, Mr. Morris throwing a fake temper tantrum and tipping a chair or stool for no apparent reason might seem a bit confusing or even frightening at first. It might take weeks or months to figure out that this seemingly erratic behavior is not driven by actual rage, but by a desire to amuse his class. Also think of the number of times you’ve heard Mr. Berger break out suddenly into song, mutter angrily in German, or shout “HUGE E.C.!”  A visitor might be confused by this occurrence until they realize and embrace Mr. Berger’s quirkiness and brand of humor, as we all do. Lastly, what would a guest in our school make of the slang and idioms in our everyday conversations? The phrase “Don’t worry, he won’t bite” suddenly sounds a lot more disturbing when you forget to not take it literally. So as we spend the coming months with these guests in our school, consider what you say and do and ask yourself “Could this be taken in a weird way?”

Siri McGuire

Food Aversion by Courtney Monzon

My love/hate relationship with food.

I love certain foods so much that I end up hating them.  Normally they start off tasting heavenly, and then I end up never wanting to eat them again. Whales is a perfect example. This cheesy, salty snack is at first delightful; then it turns quickly into a nasty nightmare. Another case of my bittersweet experience with food is Sunkist fruit snacks. When I first tried them, they were like a big ball of scrumptiousness. Then they unexpectedly drifted into just another dull snack. The worst one of all is probably Kellogg’s Strawberry Special K bars. Every morning I would eat this as a satisfying breakfast, but now I would rather eat dog food. Ugh. This happens so often... am I the only one who this happens to?

Courtney Monzon

New Jerseys: Not as good as they look.

New Uniforms

                In the age of Nike Pro Combat Uniforms, and brand new Maryland Terrapin Under Armour jerseys, football coach Tim Lambert decided to get the football team new uniforms of their own. When coach announced that the new uniforms were in everyone was excited to get them on and show them off. The new uniforms are very sharp, all red with white lettering on the home jerseys and all white with red numbering on the away jerseys. When Concordia walked on the field against Beloit the fans were thinking, “Man those are some nice looking jerseys.”  But looks can be deceiving. The uniforms are completely uncomfortable. Most are a size too small and can barely be tucked in. Also, you can’t raise your arms very high to get them on because they don’t stretch very far. So as far as these jerseys go, don’t judge a book by its cover.

--Trent Tholstrup

Brittany Randall's September Blog!

Facebook FAILS

People do some really stupid things on Facebook. Seriously, I don’t care that you’re bored, I’m not going to text you. Or I will totally prank call you at two in the morning. I’m serious. It will be something stupid like “Is your refrigerator running? Well, you’d better go catch it!” You like your own status? Obviously you do, because you wouldn’t have written it if you hadn’t.  Uploading pictures of yourself and adding the caption “OMG, I look soooo ugly in this!!! LOL.” Not cool. Instead of that, maybe you shouldn’t upload that picture AT ALL.  And if your relationship is over within 2 days, maybe it wasn’t worth the effort of updating your “Relationship status” and spreading your lovey-dovey stuff all over your walls. Its degrading. And perhaps the whole “Taking a picture in front of a bathroom mirror” thing should stop. I don’t want to see what your toilet looks like, what conditioner you use, or the fact that your little brother is waiting in line to use the toilet. Colleges and employers can look on facebook, so many of their decisions are made on what you act like outside of school. Long story short, don’t be stupid.

Student Council Lock-In

At the beginning of each year Student Council holds a lock in at the high school. It begins with a meeting to discuss the homecoming theme, dress up days and goals for the year. After the meeting is wrapped up a game of "sardines" is played. This is essentially hide and seek, but when the hider is found the seeker quietly joins him until only one person is left seeking. Though it sounds a little corny for high school students, it is surprisingly entertaining at 2:00 in the morning, especially when the whole building is free game. This year the game didn't go as smoothly as in years past. Instead of all the seekers splitting in to small groups, they tended to form one large glob; defeating the general purpose of the game. Also, a few of the young ladies found the dark high school to be a little unnerving. This resulted in an abundance of screaming that persisted through the night. Even with these not so ideal circumstances it still proved just an entertaining night as it always is.  

--Ike Uri

Woellhof's Football Awards

CHS Football Awards

This will be my fourth year on the Concordia high school football team. There are many qualities in my teammates that stick out. As a senior, I have created a list of awards that I would give to my teammates. Here are some of the awards:

Hardest working freshmen: Shea Crum

Toughest freshmen: Zach Kyle

Most picked on freshmen: Russell Dethloff

Loudest: Jordan Brown

Loudest coach: Bryce Wachs

Fastest player: Aren Coppoc

Slowest player: Colton Odette

Person who gets his butt chewed the most: Tyler Snavely

Most laid back coach: Ryan Mortimer

Worst hands- Brentin Hake

Biggest airhead- Derick Nordell

Shortest fuse- Zak Romo

Facebook vs. Twitter

Facebook vs. Twitter:

The age old question, which is better? Facebook, or Twitter? Many swear by one, and others another, but which is truly the king of social networking? Like apples and oranges, sharks and bears, Facebook and Twitter are hard to compare because of their parallelity. Facebook, the king of status updates, boasts a large and expansive playground for it’s users to work with, while Twitter is just as proud flashing a streamlined and small interface for its subscribers.

The basic idea behind Facebook is its one stop shop-yness. (That’s a phrase, right?) It mixes together people’s words, pictures, videos, messages, notes, and anything else social into one great big blue website.

It’s large and easily related message makes Facebook a great platform for people jumping on the social network bandwagon. It’s easy to learn and we know why we use it: To connect with people.

Facebook is unique in the sense that it’s social aspect is limited to the people closest to you. You request a friendship, and someone can confirm and deny you as a friend. Thus, we create more personal connections with the people in our world. Sorry, but you probably won’t be friends with LaQuisha from the Netherlands here.

Facebook’s expansiveness creates a vast land in which people, including myself, can get sucked into for extended periods of time. I mean, who hasn’t looked through hundreds of pictures of so-and-so’s vacations? Willingly too! Remember when it was a chore to have to sit with someone and have them flip through their latest photo album of Cancun? Not anymore, thanks to FB.

Twitter on the other hand, is Facebook’s cousin. He’s the kind of guy who wants to stay in touch, but wants just the bullet points, when it’s convenient for him. He’s not being a jerk, don’t worry. Twitter’s just got a lot on his plate, but still wants to be a part of everyone’s lives.

Twitter is, at its very core, pure communication. You get your information, and get out of there. Back to the real world.

It’s easily mistaken as shallow, but think of Twitter as more of a micro-blog. Twitter is a soapbox for the common man who just wants to get his voice out there. Even if his voice is just saying “Going to lunch.” -- Well that’s fantastic.

The idea behind Twitter, “following” other people to see what they tweet about, makes an opportunity for you to reach out far past your circle of friends into something much deeper. On Twitter, you really can follow and connect with LaQuisha from the Netherlands! Athletes, musicians, celebrities, writers, businesses, they’re all here! Tweeting away about who knows what.

Problems do arise with your followers on Twitter, though. Getting a higher number of followers seems to be a majority of people’s goals - through whatever means. It’s a silent competition that will undoubtedly rage on through Twitter’s lifespan. And tweets like, “100 followers!!!” Don’t help the cause.

Twitter is a bit of a smaller vessel than Facebook, mainly due to the fact that it’s not as immediately appealing as Facebook. People get Facebook, and Facebook gets them. It’s a mutual relationship that works. Twitter, however, is the woman you have to work for. It can be viewed as a bit of an insiders club and its perceived exclusivity can drive many away. But the many who look past that, and get through the learning curve, (Believe me, there is a learning curve) find that Twitter is just what they want in a social network: pure connectivity, no frills.

Twitter definitely feels more like a community. It’s hard to explain, but when you’re tweeting, you get the feeling that we’re all in this together. Many tweeters have described this as, “The old fashioned water cooler, where people can gather to shoot the breeze on whatever topic is on their minds.”

If you don’t “get” Twitter, the problem may be that you’re treating it like a second Facebook. Believe me, this is a whole new machine. You may have to re-learn a few things if you want to make the switch. But for a great majority, it’s worth it.

If you want to compare the two, think of about this analogy:

“Let’s say you go to a wedding or other social gathering where lots of people know each other. The style and tone of communication there will be more like using Facebook; you chat with old friends and acquaintances, mixing and mingling in an intimate manner. In this setting, people tend to feel more relaxed and ‘in their element’. Conversations are familiar and center on shared experiences and connections.
Now, when you go to a party where you don’t know most of the people in attendance, you will use a very different style of communication, more like Twitter; you want to meet people and somehow make yourself known, stand out from the crowd, make an impression, self promote and make new connections.”
Facebook is a tool. It’s used to communicate with those in your life. On the other hand, Twitter is a stage. You either speak what you want out loud or fall back into the crowd.
Hopefully, my unnecessarily long explanation helped you see what separates the two social networking giants. They are both great at what they do, and they aren’t changing for anyone. In a battle like this, there is no winner. Both sides bring something different to the table, and in that sense, neither can win. Facebook and Twitter will just continue to do what they do best - separately. Now, it’s up for you to choose, Facebook, Twitter, or both?