By Christina Miller
Book Editor
Christy.miller@msn.com

    Wake up late? Well, you’re basically doomed. When you come to school late all hell seems to break loose. First of all, you get marked tardy and if you are marked tardy or absent a total of five times or more then you officially have a no grade (NG). Second, your teacher gives you zero participation points even though you literally participate in every activity/assignment in class. Third, you’re not allowed to do the starter, which means you lose more points on your grade… yay! Fourth, you have to actually walk in late in front of your entire class; it’s embarrassing and incredibly awkward. So after enduring all of this you would think the punishment would end, but no, the painful process continues… 
    So what’s next? Well, after receiving your NG because you were late or absent more than FOUR times out of the quarter then you have to attend tardy school, also known as Hawk Study Hall. So what’s so bad about spending a half an hour to two hours after school to make up your tardies/absences? It seems like a reasonable punishment at first, but to attend tardy school you have to pay for each individual tardy and absence. It’s ridiculous and completely unethical. Essentially, students are paying for their grade. The point of grades is to measure a student’s work ethic and intelligence. But instead Alta is now having students pay for their grade rather than earn it. Also, most parents end up paying for their child’s attendance school fees so students don’t even feel the intended punishment.
    So if the goal is to teach students that it’s okay to pay for your grade, then the administration has indeed succeeded.
posted 2/21/12

 
Kaylen Thomas
Seasons Editor
krazee_kay@hotmail.com

Don't get me wrong, guys are fun to hang out with and everything but shoes are just that much better. Here are just a few of the many reasons why.

1.They're reliable- Shoes won't ditch you for another girl
2.You can have as many as you want- and the other pairs won't become jealous
3.Variety is an option!- This way you can get the best of both worlds
4.They easily adjust depending on your mood- If you feel like getting dressed up, a nice pair of heels can make you feel all the prettier and nothing says easy-going like the $2.50 flip-flops from Old Navy
5.You can use them without feeling bad- Shoes LOVE being used it's what they are made for!
6. They are a perfect fit- You get to pick the size and choose what brand and what they look like; sometimes it's difficult to get that dreamy boy in your English class to pay attention to you so you settle.
7. Shoes don't question why you didn't put them on the day before- Unlike guys, shoes won't ask why you didn't bother to return their call/text.
8. Shoes don't come with past "girl-friends"- New shoes don't have a history and can't compare you to all the other feet they have been with
9.They will always love you and make you feel fabulous
10.Shoes support you, all day, every day, no matter what
11.Shoes go anywhere you want them to- no complaints
12.Relationships with shoes last longer- I still have a pair of boots that I got when I was 14, and I love them.
13. Shoes require little to no attention and don't get on your nerves
14.You can hang onto old shoes in case you decide you like them again
15. Lastly, a good pair of shoes is much easier to find
Don't you agree?
posted 2/21/12

By Nicholas Lives
Music/Movie Reviews
undeadmoose@yahoo.com

    The ancient Greeks had Hercules, Perseus, and Achilles. Hero worship was common then, and these heroes were looked upon as being not just mere men, but as something far greater. Half god, half human, these heroes were figures of such great importance, that no mere mortal could ever hope to achieve the same level of importance as these larger-than-life figures of lore. Some of us may gawk and laugh at the Greeks for having so blindly worshipped such nonsense, but some of us may not realize that not a lot has changed since those ancient times.
    While the Greeks humbled themselves to these mighty half-god heroes, today we as a society do very much the same thing, but instead of mythical heroes, we worship our celebrities.
    They don’t call them “stars” for nothing. People like Johnny Depp, Daniel Radcliff, and even Justin Beiber are often viewed as something more-than-human in our culture. It seems that once a person reaches “celebrity” status, they not only become famous, but they become something akin to demigods in our eyes. These are not just mere mortals; these are “celebrities.”

    Whenever a normal person or a “mortal” posts an update on their twitter feed, most people could care less about what they posted. On the other hand, when someone like Mike Tyson posts an update on THEIR twitter, not only do people care, but it becomes National News. Why do people care so much about what a celebrity wears to the Oscars? Why do people care when a celebrity starts dating another celebrity? Why do people care what celebrities do in their free time? Because celebrities aren’t just people, they are our demigods.
    So what do you think? Are celebrities really worshipped in our society? Is this kind of worship healthy behavior or is it simply in human nature to find things to worship? You decide.
posted 2/21/12

PERSON A: “Hey you know that guy Benny?”

PERSON B: “Um…Who’s Benny again?”

PERSON A: “Benny, you know, the short black guy in our math class-“

PERSON B: “That’s RACIST!”

No, no it’s not. Conversations like these happen all too often here at Alta. Whenever I hear someone yell out “That’s RACIST!” in the hallways or in the lunchroom, it serves as a constant reminder to me that most people at Alta don’t know what the term “racist” actually means.

For those of you who fall asleep in your history classes or simply didn’t care to learn about it earlier, here’s a friendly reminder on what the term “racism” actually means:

rac·ism: noun

1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races  determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race  is superior and has the right to rule others.

2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.

3. hatred or intolerance of another race  or other races.

    Now tell me, where in the definition does it say, “People who refer to a person’s skin color in order to describe their appearance?” Having trouble finding it? That’s because DESCRIPTIONS aren’t RACIST. Descriptions are descriptions.
    Now, to be fair, some people actually DO use descriptions like these to carry their racist messages, but I believe that in order to achieve a tolerant and intelligent society, that it’s important to know how to make the distinctions between describing someone to describe themdescribing someone to belittle them.
    The easiest way to find out whether someone is being racist or descriptive is to read into the CONTEXT of their sentences. To illustrate my point, I will present to you, the readers, with two sentences, and I challenge you to tell me which one is the racist one and which one is the description.

1.       “That black girl over there is on our swim team. She’s the fastest swimmer.”

2.       “That black girl over there is on our swim team. She’s the fastest swimmer because she’s black.”

If you answered correctly, you should have come to the conclusion that sentence 1 is the description, whereas sentence 2 is the racist comment. The important thing to remember here is that number 2 uses the term “black” as a DEFINITION; i.e. the user uses the person’s race to tell us WHY she is fast. This is known as stereotyping, and it is generally frowned upon to use in the modern world. The girl being fast and the girl being black are two different things. Cases in point, just always remember the following rule:

Race is a DESCRIPTION, not a DEFINITION.
and
posted 2/2/12

Ciara Blankenfeld
Opinions Editor
ciara.blankenfeld@gmail.com

5. Gamble Chocolates and anti-acid candy hearts- Nobody wants to get a box of those chocolates that you have no idea what is hidden in the middle of them. Awesome! I just bit into the toothpaste filled one! Awesome. Also, conversation hearts are gross. Chalk flavored candies in the unrealistic shape of a human organ with stalker like messages printed on them is just plain weird. Hug me. Kiss me. Email me? What? Are we in the 90's? Please just get better candy Valentine’s Day.

4. Flowers- “I just want to give you a representation of our love, with this rose.” Uh, thanks? I’m glad that you think our love will live three days, get all gross and shriveled, and then prick me on the finger with a thorn when I throw it away.

3. Valentine’s Day cards… from my parents- Oh look I got a card! A secret admirer maybe?! “You are so beautiful and intelligent.” Aw, that’s so nice. “You are becoming such a wonderful young woman.” Wow, Thanks. “We are so proud of you.” Oh no. I see where this is going. “Love Mom and Dad.” NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

2. Sending Suckers and roses at school- So you already know how I feel about the traditional Valentine’s Day candy and rose, but sending them to people throughout the school brings on an all new set of issues. Only a select few actually get them, "Four for you Glen Coco, you go Glen Coco!" we all wait with hope until we hear our reality, "And none for Gretchen Weiners." The rest of us, the 99%, sit there wishing people loved us enough to get us overpriced, creepy lip suckers.

 1. Anti- Valentine's Day activists- There are those people out there that take hating Valentine's Day to the extreme. These people are easy to identify: they vocalize openly their hatred towards the day, they are bitter the whole month of February, and they throw anti-Valentine's Day bashes to get others in on their hatred. To these people I say, it's just another day. Sure, all of us single people are made to feel pathetic about the whole "being single" thing. But if you are single, don't waste your energy hating it, because the day will come when you are able to spend Valentine's Day with your significant other, and you won't even remember why you hated this day at all.  

posted 2/10/112

     It’s the first day of the New Year. So what do we do? We make New Year’s resolutions of course! Or in most cases, an unrealistic set of goals that we will only stick to for about a week and a half. I’ve always had a problem with my New Year’s resolutions. The goals I make are really just setting me up for failure. Eat healthier, exercise more, watch less T.V; all the ghosts of my resolutions past.
"Eat healthier, exercise more, watch less T.V; all the ghosts of my resolutions past."
    I know I would be a better person if I actually had a little will power and stuck with my goals.  But I have come to the conclusion that the reason I am so unsuccessful in keeping these goals can be attributed to the fact that underneath it all, I don’t care to change.
     Most people have trouble keeping their resolutions. Why? The answer is simple: Because of our deep rooted lack of ambition. We know that we are going to give up these goals soon anyway; we don’t even want to make them in the first place. We make these resolutions because we have always been told that it is just what you do when the new year begins. 
   

    Making goals is important in life; but making yourself empty promises just because it is January 1st and everyone else seems to be doing it, isn’t the right way of going about changing. Make goals that are reachable and that you want to work towards whenever you have the ambition to do so, instead of making resolutions at the beginning of the year that you don’t intend to work on anyway and that will just make you feel like even less of a person when you fail.  
"Here's a simple solution to New Year's Resolutions- stop making them."
    Here is a simple solution to New Year’s Resolutions- stop making them. It’s not going to work out. Let’s just do away with this obligation all together and enjoy being overweight and inactive all the way into January.