Big 33

"2011 PNC Big 33 Football Classic will mark the 54th year of outstanding football. The game is known as the “Super Bowl of High School football. Each year the game is shown on national TV and provides a great opportunity to showcase the best graduating seniors from Pennsylvania and Ohio. (Big 33)"

I was lucky enough to be nominated by my cheerleading coach to tryout for the Big 33. I didn't really know what to expect, but once I arrived I realized there was about 30 other girls just like me there to tryout for a spot on one of the squads. Our day consisted of learning a cheer and dance, tumbling, jumping, and some stunting. We were taught a dance and cheer and then evaluated on it about an hour later; talk about pressure. We also were evaluated on our jumping and tumbling skills. Lastly, they wanted us to do a few one-legged stunts, mainly to see what the flyers could do. Being a flyer, I had to show off my best one-legged stunts, flying on a group of girls who have never lifted me before. I always find it humorous when someone lifts me for the first time because I always get the same reaction, "You're so light!" Now I'm definitely not the smallest 18 year old, and sometimes people in this sport don't always look at me and think flyer; but I've been flying since I was 6 and I've learned to hold my weight so I feel lighter than I am. Needless to say, they were a strong group and very sturdy to fly on; so I hit my heel-stretch and scorpion with confidence. I really hope I make the squad. If I do I will get paired up with a Special Needs child and he or she will cheer along side me at the big game. This year the kids have a big surprise waiting for them; they get to wear cheerleading uniforms, just like ours. We won't find out the results till December but I really hope I get the opportunity to experience an event like this one.

Tis The Season

The 2010-2011 cheerleading competition has begun. Today my squad competed in our very first competition of the year. We hosted this competition and pulled out a first place in the small varsity division and an award for best dance. We dedicated our performance to Averie. Averie, a sister of one of my teammates, passed away last week at the age of one; she had had a terminal illness since birth. We went out on the floor as a team and gave it our all. We tried our best and the crowd gasped in "awe" when I did a front flip dismount out of our pyramid. We started off on the right foot and now next week we'll travel to our next competition. We'll be fixing up a few things and working on tumbling this week at practice; hoping to make next weeks performance even better than today's.

Success!!

The opening night of "Masterpiece Theater" was a huge success. The auditorium was nearly filled and the crowd seemed to enjoy our twists on some of the classics. Our skit got many laughs; mostly do to some hilarious costuming but also due to our book being the most familiar to the audience, no matter what age. All the vocalist did great and everything went as planned. Everyone did a great job memorizing their lines and adding themselves into the characters. Hopefully tonight goes just as well and if you attended last night, think about attending again. Many of the skits were going to change things up a bit for tonight's performance so maybe you'll find tonight's show more entertaining.

Opening Night

Tonight's the opening night for the Class of 2011's senior show, “Masterpiece Theater”. We'll put on a performance tonight and tomorrow, starting at 8 o'clock. The skits featured include: The Great Gatsby, Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter, Green Eggs and Ham, Benjamin Franklin's Virtues, and The Raven. Each skit has a modern twist to it and most contain modern day music; either being performed by a vocalist or lip-synced.

I unfortunately didn't make it to dress rehearsal due to having cheerleading practice, so the costumes and final performances will be a surprise to me. My group actually had one of our members drop out due to an illness in his family and we've been trying to rework our skit. Hopefully tonight it all comes together. I hope all goes well tonight and everyone performing has a great time. After Friday night, I can check senior show off my list of things to participate in my senior year.

The Information Age: Ruining Today's Youth?

"All that texting and social networking by teenagers could come back to byte them. A new study by the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine links poor health behaviors -- including smoking, drinking and sexual activity -- to hyper-texting and hyper-networking. The study defines hyper-texting as sending more than 120 messages a day. Hyper-networking is spending more than three hours per school day on social network sites like Facebook, it said. (Hyper-Texting Teens)"

While I can believe this, I don't think it's entirely these forms of communication's fault. While texting and Facebook does make it easier to communicate to more people privately and therefore, gives teens more of a chance to talk about and plan these kinds of activities, I don't think we can solely blame this behavior on the ways we communicate. Our society and what it values must also be taken into consideration. Our society has put good values on a back burner and what teens today see is Hollywood stars that are their age that are engaging in these activities and they look up to them and want to do these things themselves. I think these bad role models and the easiness of communicating with other teens privately have caused this spike in this kind of behavior.

Human Skin to Blood

"Researchers at Canada's McMaster University report that they've figured out how to make blood out of human skin. The breakthrough could eventually mean that patients needing blood for surgery, cancer treatment or treatment of blood conditions like anemia will be able to have blood created from a patch of their own skin to provide transfusions, the university said. (From Skin To Blood)"

This is a huge breakthrough for medical science. The thought of taking your own skin and turning it into blood that could be used in a transfusion for yourself, is astounding. This could help so many people and provide a safer way to get blood. If you're making blood out of your own skin that cuts the risk of getting a disease from a blood transfusion to zero percent. Now as amazing as this discovery is, it'll still be a long time before this process is commercialized and used in hospitals all around the country. However, once this does start to become a part of everyday medical practice, the medical world will never be the same. If this proves to be as great a discovery as it sounds, there might never have to be another blood drive.


"The scientists were able to convert the cells directly without first converting them to pluripotent stem cells - the kind that can grow into any type of organ or tissue - and then converting them again to blood, Bhatia said."

This in itself is remarkable. From my knowledge, this is the first cell they have been able to convert from one type to another without wiping it free of its DNA first and then inserting new.

Half Days of School...

My school adopted this new program this year, where once a month the students get a half day of school; they’re called Act 80 Days. We get to come in at the regular time, classes are shortened, we eat lunch early, and then we get to go home by one o'clock. The teachers, however, have to stay the rest of the school day and have a meeting about how they can improve their teaching style. For us students, these days are the greatest thing our school district could have done for us. I mean what high school student doesn't love to get out of school early. We have one this Thursday and then we have off Friday for a teacher’s in-service day, so this weekend will be a nice long one.