The story starts out as an abandon baby and his mother float up to a ship in a box. The fisherman inside the boat takes the child and raises him as his own son. When Perseus grows up his parents, sister and himself taking a fishing trip to Argos where they discover soldiers of Argos tearing down a statue of Zeus. When the statue falls Hades appears and kills off multiple soldiers before destroying the ship that Perseus and family are on. Perseus is the lone survivor on the boat. Perseus is brought before the King and Queen of Argos who almost immediate start insulting the gods, enticing Hades to return and as punishment to the King and Queen condems the city to be destroyed at the hands of the Kraken, or sacrifice there Princess Andromeda. As Hades is leaving he notices Perseus and immediately recognizes him as a demi- god. Later Io appears to Perseus and tells him that he is in fact the son of Zeus. He then tries to find a way to kill Hades, defeat the Kraken and save Princess Andromeda.

Along the way he meets and often fights giant scorpions, a mutant- king, the Gorgan Medusa, the stygian witches, harpies, Zeus, the Kraken and Hades.

The movie is designed to be fun but it has deeper messages asking us if we have the power to throw off the shackles of oppression, the ability to know right from wrong and madness, and whether the life of one is worth an entire city. The character of Perseus is the main draw for the movie, his struggle to use his power to do good with actually becoming like then gods themselves, is truly inspiring.

This is a good movie to go see on a boring weekend for fun. Fans of action, adventure and fantasy movies will find plenty to enjoy. I give the movie three and a half stars, it’s a good movie that’s worth carrying the title of a summer blockbuster even it is the spring.

The actors, Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, star as a couple of average joes trying to make a living, by harvesting peoples’ body parts that were owned and overdue from the major corporation known as The Union. Both men enjoyed their job and found the simple surgery to retain the organs easy, even with a mouth full of food but things change after Remy (Jude Law) finds himself in the same situation as the customers of The Union. He then begins his own journey running from everything he’s ever known: his job, his family,  and his friends.

The movie sets the creepy level at high when it explains the 1954 case that U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels and his partner Chuck Aule are sent out to solve. They head out to Shutter Island, a mental institution for the criminally insane where only the baddest of the bad go. A patient, Rachel Solando, is reported missing from her cell, which is locked and supervised at all time.

That isn’t the only mystery.  Soon, very bizarre things begin to happen to make you question who is really sane at all.

Shutter Island will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time and will keep you thinking throughout the movie and a long time after it ends. I would recommend it to anyone that likes to be scared, and likes mystery, suspense, and confusion.

Before and immediately after the Affordable Health Care for America bill passed, the news polls were showing about 60 percent of Americans did not want the health care bill. Republicans are hopeful that these numbers will continue until November, the next election period for the House and the Senate, hoping to gain back ground that they lost a year ago. And they have good reason to be excited, after the presidential election in 2008 it looked like the Republican Party was on a steep decline, but that wouldn’t last long, thanks to a lackluster Democrat- controlled congress, which hasn’t delivered on at least one-fourth of the promises Obama made in his Presidential campaign.

President Obama and the rest of the Democrats, especially the ones in congress that look like they might lose there jobs, (which appears to be just about everyone.); hope that the current numbers don’t last. President Obama is starting a campaign to bolster support for this bill.

But why is the bill so deeply opposed by some people? Because any change isn’t always good change. Many practicing doctors have sent letters to congressmen that say they’re going to take an early retirement because they are afraid that this new health care bill is going to cost them money, which it will. Indeed many groups of people are going to feel the pinch. Insurance companies (obviously), small businesses (because of increased taxes, now there’s a shocker… not), and last but not least is you. One would think that when the government was thinking up this “sweeping” health care re-form, that they would think “Hey! How are we going to pay for this?” Well, apparently at the end of it all, they did.  It turns out that pretty much everyone is going to see an increase in their taxes, and everyone’s wallet is going to be a little lighter. Oh and for the record, if by chance you don’t want insurance at all, then that’s okay, as long as you pay the government for not making you purchase health insurance. By the way the price for having government run insurance and the price for not having insurance is almost the same.

The scariest part about the health care re-form issue is not the senseless way they’re going about getting the money to pay for it (scary), it isn’t the fact that the government is reaching out for even more control in your daily lives (really, really scary), it’s not that congress has yet to actually pass a major bill that has the support of the majority of the public (which is extremely scary in its own right), the scariest part is the fact that the government now owns or has direct control/ influence on over half of our economy.

Since the multi- billion dollar bailouts the government has been rapidly increasing its control. From owning AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they now have direct influence on the banking and loaning sector of the stock market. And now with the expansion of Medicaid and Medicare, and all the other things the new health bill adds, the government will have a dominating influence over all health-related fields. It’s an expansion of government influence that has never been seen before in the U.S. and many people (including myself) are concerned about it.

This nation was founded on certain principles, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This health care bill threatens all three. This health care bill takes away decisions about your health care from insurance companies, but instead of giving you more freedom and choice to decide how you want to receive health care, it merely serves to make the government more powerful and controlling of your life. Don’t you have the right to decide what is best for you? It should be your choice, not the government’s or insurance companies. The pursuit of happiness is all about deciding what makes you happy and pursuing it. This bill rips out all of the decision-making, and it is essentially the government telling you what will make you happy. That isn’t what the U.S. is supposed to be about. There is a way you can change the government from its current coarse, vote out the current Congressmen that threaten your freedom and elect a new, more efficient and better Congress.

Students are extremely busy; they are busier and have more responsibilities than the generation before. With school, sports practices, then another practice of some sort, possibly even work and then homework, students’ after school hours are tightly packed.

Holton High has a very diverse group of students. There are dancers, football players, soccer players, baseball players, softball players, indoor track athletes, hockey stars and so many others. With ten-minute break and late start diminished, students have already felt the beginning of a rocky change. Now, with the possibility of losing a very preferred schedule, and more staff members, students are wondering about other solutions. Why not eliminate a plan time for teachers? Instead of having a plan every day, they can have one every other day. It might be a little bit harder, meaning they’ll have to do more work outside of school, but it would free up more teachers to teach the classes and enable students to keep their block schedule.

Lectures take up approximately forty-five to fifty minutes when learning something new in a class. If seven class periods a day goes in to effect, the lecture will take up the entire class period, leaving students to do their homework outside of class. It’s possible for the students to forget what they learned in class and have to guess on their homework late at night when they finally get some time to do it. With block scheduling, students can take more classes and they have more hands on learning, time for more one-on-one help with the teachers, and two days to do homework, instead of just one. Block scheduling is more ideal in preparing students for college classes and it teaches them more time management skills.

Another possibility for saving money is to not give every student a laptop. The FFA, journalism students, graphic design students and other students that may need them every day can have one. But is it truly necessary for every student to have a laptop? Some students don’t use their computers at all, and when there is no need, there is no care taken. This is why they get damaged and broken. The teachers who need the computers should have a cart in the back of the room. Then the computers could be used when they’re needed.

In conclusion, block scheduling and smarter computer usage is better for the students at Holton High School. Please take this into mind when considering the current situation. Decisions made will not only affect 318 students, but also 27 teachers, 5 paras, 3 aides, 3 cooks, 3 secretaries, and 2 counselors.

There are certain things that girls automatically look forward to no matter what, like birthdays, Christmas, Valentines Day, and the anniversary of the first date. If you forget your woman’s birthday or your guys’s anniversary, fits gunna hit the shan! It’s crucial to remain in sync with priority events as such.

Men, manly ‘ol men… We like flowers, candy, and sweet things that you can get off movies. Text her “I love you”; it’s simple and cute. However, “I love you, you mean everything in this world to me, I can’t imagine going on without you”… CREEPY, you cannot. . .  I repeat can NOT say that stuff if you’re just dating. It’s obsessive and makes us want to pretend we never got that text to begin with!

Which brings me to other issues.

If we ask you, “Honey do I look fat?”

You should always say, “No, Sugar Bear, you look wonderful!”

It’ll make your life much easier J Guys never ever for as long as you live with the female, ask her if she is tired or what her problem is! It makes us angry. You also cannot talk about your ex- girlfriend… way super duper horribly off limits! It makes us want to kick you in the throat.

Speaking of personal issues, guys, I would also suggest not passing gas while on a date because it causes for an awkward situation; you don’t know if you should say something or try to blame it on her or something outside and it would be more awkward if she asked… “Umm did you seriously just do that?”

So just hold it in!

Ladies, I understand we get mad easily and sometimes over stupid stuff, but you can’t blame everything on “that time of the month!” I understand that sometimes you just have to be mad for a while. But you can’t stay mad over something so ridiculously small that you actually forget what you were mad about in the first place. All guys make a few mistakes and so do we, but you can’t keep getting mad and hanging on to all of their imperfections.

Valentines Day is a day to be all lovey-dovey and kiss and smooch with out having someone yell “Get a room

Be sure to keep the love alive even after the day of love has past by keeping these small words of advice in your back pocket.

Missouri students are protesting to buy a live tiger for their mascot.  They want the tiger to be at the field for their football games.  This proposal made me think of some of the stranger mascots in college.  I decided to compile my top five worst mascots.

1. Evergreen State- Speedy the Geoduck tops my list of the worst college mascots.  A geoduck is defined on dictionary.com as “a very large edible clam.” Talk about intimidation.
2. Delta State University and Scottsdale Community College- These two tie for the number two spot because they both have food as a mascot.  The Fighting Okra and Artie the Artichoke, respectively, help inspire these two teams.
3. University of Irvine- Peter the Anteater is their mascot, enough said.
4. Xavier University- The Blue Blob sounds more like something from a children’s book.
5. Stanford University- The Stanford Cardinal is a tree.

Everybody is wondering “Who Dat” Haley’s Comet is.  Well, here is his take on the Super Bowl.

Who Dat nation was celebrating as the New Orleans Saints won their first ever NFL Super Bowl. The Saints organization has been around for 44 years, and has never reached a Super Bowl. They defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 to win Super Bowl XXXXIV (44). Drew Brees grabbed the MVP award and tied the NFL record for completions in the Super Bowl game with 32. I’m happy to see the Saints pull off this victory after all the tragedies from Katrina, and the effects on the city.
Talk to Barb Kathrens, Holton Custodian, around March Madness time for your bracket. She entered the Holton Recorder Super Bowl contest and guessed the right score earning her 50 chamber bucks.

Take advantage, this month is Plant the Seeds of Greatness Month.

That’s what is happening to students, now that the new security system has been installed. The students who ride the bus get to school a little later, so they have to deal with this problem quite often, while students who drive get to school earlier so they don’t have to deal with this problem. I am a student who rides the bus occasionally, and I have had to deal with it a couple times before.

Open lunch for seniors has also contributed to the problem. When seniors go out to eat during lunch, they have to buzz in to get back inside.

The installment of the security system has changed school life for me because if I end up sleeping in, then I don’t get to school until it’s too late, then I get locked out.

There are some things that students can do to help prevent this problem, however, such as getting to sleep earlier. I do martial arts every Wednesday night, and by the time I get home, it’s 9:00 pm and I’m exhausted, and not to mention musical rehearsal every night for 3 hours, so getting to bed is not a problem for me.

But the security system also has some benefits, such as preventing intrusions.

Like Mr. Hundley once said, “If your school’s easier to get into than Wal-Mart, then you’ve got a problem.”