Category Archives: Columns

Columns, Derek Hanke, Forum

Columnist discusses dating standards

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By Derek Hanke

In high school, there are three types of daters: those who date with standards, those who date without standard, and those who choose not to date at all.

Each type has its own set of merits and pitfalls. Understanding the three types can help a student know what to look for and what to avoid, and also to help them form their own dating standards.

Dating with standards

In some instances, dating with standards can be overly pretentious, but in others it can save you from a lot of trouble down the the road if you are looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend you are compatible with. There are two personalities of those who date with standards: lonely hopefuls and happy moderates.

Lonely hopefuls are individuals who have too strict of standards to successfully find a boyfriend or girlfriend due to either an inability to accept the shortcomings of others or a falsified vision of reality.

For example, Suzie Twoshoes is looking for a boyfriend who will be a future athletic star, is a strict vegetarian, and will make her happy every moment they are together. There are several problems with these predispositions.

Not every guy you meet will become a professional athlete, and those who do may not be strict vegetarians. The same applies with strict vegetarians. Also, relationships will always have issues at some point or another, and you must be able to respect that and take them in stride.

Suzie Twoshoes will be a very lonely girl unless a miracle happens and she finds exactly the boy she wants, which the chances of are slim. It is important to learn that people like Suzie have too high of expectations, and may want to lower them in order to find a boyfriend or girlfriend they are happy with.

Happy moderates are people who date with a less strict set of standards, leading them to date others who they find agreeable and have relationships that are much more fulfilling.

The example here is Johnny Appleseed. Johnny wants to find a girlfriend who shares the same faith as him, dresses properly, and is truthful and honest. These standards are rational, and finding a girl who meets them will not be that difficult if he puts his mind to it.

Within the right social circles, finding a girlfriend who meets Johnny’s standards will not be hard because Johnny is aware of social functions which are filled with people just like her. These functions could range anywhere from church to charity events.

Johnny Appleseed will most likely find happiness in his relationship search as his standards are reasonable and he is not harshly judgmental. People like Johnny are prime role models of what to do in high school if you desire to date others.

Dating without standards

If you decide to date without standards, you are opening yourself up to a world of possibilities, both positive and negative. You could find yourself with someone completely original who you share some things in common and are compatible with. On the other hand, you could end up in a relationship with someone you have little to nothing in common with.

If you are exceptionally lucky, you could find yourself in a happy relationship with someone you have chosen to date without standards. When this happens, there is a large measure of leniency involved, as with no standards almost anything can be considered acceptable.

One thing to keep in mind is that dating someone without standards does not last for long periods of time, and the resulting heartbreak from when you become discontented with your relationship can last a lot longer.

When students first start dating they usually have little to no standards. In these initial stages, they tend to go for whoever is appealing to them at the given time.

Although it is good to date someone who is attractive to you for whatever reason, you must keep in mind that your preferences may change with time and you could wind up regretting your decision.

This would only lead to a breakup and awkward feelings between you and your ex-hubby. So as to avoid this, it is recommended that you choose not to date without standards.

Not Dating

For some, dating another person in high school is too bothersome or time consuming to pursue. This path is understandable, as many high school relationships are plagued with drama and hardship.

However, even though they may have their own measure of difficulty, high school relationships help pave the path to more serious relationships later on.

Choosing to not date in high school is preventing yourself from a lot of grief, but also prevents you from gaining valuable relationship experience.

How will you ever know what kind of person you are compatible with if you never get out and see what kind of personalities you appreciate? Even with the adversity you may face, it will only add to your relational maturity and provide you with more experience.

Experience can help you treat your future girlfriend or boyfriend better, stop you from becoming too emotional in the face of drama, and make you stronger and more better equipped for future relationships.

On the other hand, perhaps you have dated before and decided to stop. This decision could be due to bad experiences or motive to wait until later to date again.

For those who have had bad experiences, it is important to not give up. Giving up now could ruin your chances later because of insecurity and self-isolation.

A dater must remain optimistic that one day he or she will find the right person to have a relationship with. Optimism is essential to being happy down the road. If you have decided to stop dating in order to wait, this question is important. When do you intend on starting to date once more?

Life is a constant journey, and once you stop doing something, it can be hard to start again. Dating is no different, unless you have set for yourself a specific time to start again such as after high school or college.

For those who have not, it is better to start now than wait until later. Don’t risk a relationship with someone you are happy with for someone you haven’t found yet.

Columns, Forum, Jared Hinderer

Harlem Shake provides fun for all

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By Jared Hinderer

Coming from the generation that basically pioneered the viral video, we as high school students have grown to love (or hate) them as they progress and morph from one form to another. We’ve seen planking, flash mobs, and outlandish dances; I’m looking at you Gangnam Style. But the best type of viral video genre is the one that gets everyone involved; something that everyone can do and have a good time doing. The most recent: The Harlem Shake.

Everybody, it seems, has been doing Harlem Shake videos and posting them on Youtube. Sports teams, office staffs, and students. If you own some crazy headgear and can flail your arms, you can do the Harlem Shake.

But some of you may not know what a Harlem Shake is. The song, “Harlem Shake,” that is featured in the videos was created by an artist known as Baauer in 2012, but has only recently come into light with these videos. The actual Harlem Shake dance traces it roots back to hip-hop of the early 1980’s, according to knowyourmeme.com and was originally just motions of “popping” your shoulders in a side to side motion, but today’s pop culture definition of the term, reported by urbandictionary.com is  “An eccentric upper body dance move that involves the shaking of the upper torso and shoulders.” You basically flail your limbs wildly while moving your head around.

However, Harlem shakers have adapted the moves to fit their own style, and that is why I like this viral sensation so much. Generally the videos start with one person, usually wearing a motorcycle helmet or other strange headgear, gyrating their hips among a group of individuals that seem to not notice them at all. After about fifteen seconds, there is a heavy bass drop in the song with the words “Do the Harlem Shake” with which everyone else that was previously uninterested is now wearing outrageous clothing or costumes and flailing themselves about the room.

The reason I enjoy the Harlem Shake so much is the freedom to be creative with it. No two Harlem Shakes are alike, and it gives you an opportunity to have fun and be silly with friends.

Next time you have a group of people together, I want you to bring a video camera, set up a Harlem shake and have a great time. This can provide a bonding experience, and possibly get you your fifteen minutes of Youtube fame.

However act quick, because this craze’s days are numbers, like all other viral videos, but in the meantime, have fun, and keep shaking.

Blake Dykes, Columns, Forum

Columnist reflects wasted time

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By Blake Dykes

6 a.m.: Take a shower, blow dry hair, put on makeup, eat breakfast, brush teeth, and get dressed.
7:18: Leave to go to school.
7:35-2:26: School.
3 p.m.: Homework, pitching/hitting drills and or lessons.
6-8: Softball conditioning.
8:30: Eat dinner.
9: Any additional homework and watch TV.
10: Go to bed.
Next day: Repeat.

For the most part, I am fairly content with my life. I am a creature of habit and have to have things certain ways. Lately, though, I’ve just been itching for a change. It just seems like I wake up every day, go through the motions, just to do the exact same thing the next. Granted, there are always occasional things that get switched around, but for the most part I lead a pretty boring life.

In the past I’ve always blamed my boredom on the state, saying things like, “As soon as I’m old enough, I’m leaving Indiana and never looking back. It’s so boring.” Although, later I began to think and came to the conclusion maybe it’s just me, I’m the problem. I mean I go to school with hundreds of other people, and most of them seem to be having a pretty good time. Their lives can’t be that much different than mine.

I decided to ask one of my more cheerful friends that always seems to be in a good mood how she stays so happy all the time, doesn’t she ever get bored or sad? She simply told me this: “Life is just what you make it. It can be full of unforgettable memories that you relive over and over again in your head, or you can just get by, doing what is expected of you, but never enjoying it.” This made me think a little bit. I decided that I was going to start trying to make the most out of everything, any situation that came my way, I was going to look on the positive side and always try and stay upbeat. I suppose for a few days it worked, but faking happiness doesn’t get you too far. I then just decided to accept the fact that my life was boring and there was nothing really I could do about it.

About a week later I found out that my aunt had cancer. Not just in one spot, but cancer throughout her entire body. I was of course shocked, and instantly felt terrible. I assumed that she would be extremely upset and probably lock herself in her bedroom, sulking in fear and sadness for the short time the doctors had estimated that she would live.

However, it turned out to be just the opposite. When Thanksgiving rolled around, all of my relatives came over to my house. My aunt was sitting in a chair, chatting with all of my other family. I had imagined that she would be horribly sad, possibly thinking that this could be her last Thanksgiving, or even her last holiday ever. Shockingly enough, she was smiling, laughing, and just having a great time. I learned that she insisted on going to work and kept up with her daily routine.

This awful disease may have taken over her body, but she wasn’t going to let it take over her life. I thought it was rather odd that such a sick person was so happy. It then struck me that she was happier than I had seen her in a long time, and no doubt much more happy than me.

I was able to draw the conclusion that sometimes we take life for granted, but that it’s not until our life is in jeopardy that we really live out each moment, enjoying the simple things.
Don’t wait until your days are numbered to start living your life.

A&E, Columns, JT Samart, Weekly Playlist

N.O.T.E: Fleet Foxes, Rihanna

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By JT Samart

Music is an ever-changing art, and what will become popular in the future might be completely different to what we listen to now. The possible combinations of notes are almost infinite and the growing amount of possibilities with different instruments is mind-blowing. So to celebrate these musical resonances is the biweekly N.O.T.E.

N.O.T.E is an acronym which is stands for N: New and Popular, O: Old, T: Try it, and E: Enough.

New and Popular will cover current popular hits or your radio hit. Old will cover the popular songs of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Try it is a section dedicated to an obscure or “indie” artist. Enough is a about the song we have all heard and just been sick of. It is the song you hear too often and it just gets annoying. I will ask one student or staff member their “Enough” song and let them share their opinion.

New and Popular:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-fA-gBCkj0]

This week’s billboard chart topper is Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out Of Heaven”. Mars has been on the appearing on the charts since his break out hits “Just The Way You Are” on his first album Doo-Wops & Hooligans.  Now with this new album, “Unorthodox Jukebox,” Mars has brought another well done album with a more refined, atmospheric songs. “Locked out of Heaven” has a very familiar upbeat, bass-heavy sound that now has become ubiquitous with Mars’ non-ballad songs. The guitar and drums remind the listener of  The Police  and compliments Mars’ rhythmic voice. The reverberated echoes and voices add an interesting dynamic to the song.

Old:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDXT7wC9jrc]

From December 4, 1954 to January 21 of 1955: This number one hit was by a quartet by the name of The Chordettes and their song “Mr. Sandman.” “Mr. Sandman” has a skillfully done introduction with a “bum” coming from every single member to give a very capsulating sound. The tone is very nostalgic and very 1950’s.

Try It:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZTvGIzeGg]

“Fleet Foxes”

Genre: Indie Folk

Label: Sub Pop records

Albums: Fleet foxes, Sun Giant (EP), Helplessness Blues

Website: fleetfoxes.com

One band that embodies indie folk is the Fleet Foxes. The Seattle- based band provides very deep lyrics with a chorus of voices and “these broad and open questions” as Robin Pecknold, lead singer and guitar player, put it in at 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival interview. All of their songs embrace an echoey feel and tend to have multiple parts. Their technique is extreme diverse each song has different instruments or different uses throughout each of their albums. My personal favorite song is “He Doesn’t Know Why” from their first album, Fleet Foxes, because of the expert lyricism, and its ability to pick me up when I am down.

Enough:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWA2pjMjpBs]

Rihanna disappoints in her hit single “Diamonds”. It has something about the tone of her voice and the repetitive nature of the lyrics. The instrumentation is uninspiring and really does not have anything extremely dynamic maybe except the brief breakdown. At least it was a change of pace.

That is all for this N.O.T.E. Join us next time to see what four Liverpool boys wanted to hold. Also, we will also try some indie psychedelic rock that has possibly the strangest music videos in the world.

Columns, Forum, Jared Hinderer

Auto auction provides fun for car enthusiasts

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By Jared Hinderer

My phone’s alarm rings at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 15, and oddly enough, I am wide awake. I quickly get ready as my friend’s black Saab rolls into the driveway and my dad finishes getting ready to go. Around 7:00 we all load up in my car to go meet my uncle at Waffle House for breakfast. As I turn the key and my V6 roars to life, I think to myself, “This will be awesome; my first auto auction.”

But, first, let me back up about a week. I was shopping in Louisville when I came across an advertisement for a Goodwill auto auction. This piqued my interest so I went to a worker at Goodwill and asked for a list of cars if they had one. The clerk told me I would have to go online, so as soon as I got home (their site didn’t like working on my iPhone) I went to the site to if they had anything interesting.
As I scrolled through the myriad beat-up Mercurys, Hondas, Chryslers, and Fords, I found it: a beautiful 1997 BMW 528i. That’s more my style. Since my two friends that I detail cars with and I are looking for a car to be our “company car” I called them up to see if they wanted to try to get it. They both agreed and we set a price and if it looked as good did in the pictures, we would buy it.
When I got to the auction lot, the BMW looked great from the gates, and there was nobody there, so I was optimistic. I went in and started taking a look at the car I hoped to bring home that day. Let me be the first to tell you: don’t trust one picture online. As I did my inspection I tallied up about $4000 in hail damage, totally bald rear tires (someone had some fun before they donated it), there was a failed rear window regulator that was letting the interior get soaked, and I regret even opening the door. The interior had the same aroma one might find in the everglades in Florida. Oh, and to top it all off a worker at the auction told me it had “strange electrical problems that makes the alarm go off all the time.”
A little dismayed, I started looking at other cars as it began raining and even more people started showing up. At this point, my uncle who hates rain (on top of the fact that his All-Star Breakfast from Waffle House that wasn’t settling well with him) quickly retreated to his Escalade and went home, leaving me his debit card and the instructions to go no more than $850 on a 1979 Ford F150 he wanted.
I continued looking with my friend and finally found what we really wanted: a 1991 Mercedes-Benz 300SE with 181,000 miles. This car was beautiful. The paint was good, the tires were good, the interior was relatively clean and to top it all off, they said it ran and drove. I was pumped; this is the car we really wanted. I called my other friend that was going in on it with us and asked if he wanted to go for it. He gave the go ahead.
By the time the auction started, the little showers of rain had turned into a complete downpour, but that didn’t seem to bother anybody. When the auction began I knew it was going to be awhile before we got to the truck or the Mercedes (lot number 60 of 67, so it was nearly last) I wanted to bid on, and I contemplated taking a seat in a 2002 Ford minivan to get out of the weather, but decided to stay outside and watch the proceeding.
When the first six cars would not start and were bought by scrappers for a little over $500 each, the hopes of me getting a running and driving Mercedes looked slim. After a wrecked PT Cruiser sold for $3600, two Camrys with over 300,000 miles brought about $2000 each, and a van with a bad rod knock went for somewhere around $2000, along with about 35 other cars I didn’t pay any attention to, we got to the BMW, the original car we went there for. The auction workers finally got its 266,000 mile motor to start while the alarm siren was wailing. Expecting this very poor condition car to bring $700 at the most, I was shocked when the auctioneer yelled “SOLD” at a price of $1600.
After a few more cars, we came to the truck my uncle wanted. I thought, “This is it, my time to shine.” I worked my way up through the crowd to get next to the auctioneer. The bid started at $500 but before I could even yell out “600!” it was already there, so I franticly throughout a “750!” followed by an “800!” then “850!” each time my bid was immediately beat by someone else. That truck went for $2200.
Finally we got to the Mercedes. I could already tell by the way they looked the car over; some Russian men were going to be my main opponents. The Mercedes fired up at the turn of the key (well, once they put it in neutral, since the neutral safety switch was shot) and the bidding started out at $500 again. The bids quickly shot well past my spending limit and I was only able to get in a $600 bid. At each increment the auctioneer would look at me, waiting for a nod of the head to signify a bid, which I desperately wanted to give him, but I didn’t have the money to back it up. The car sold for an absolute steal to the three Russian men for $1500. We were defeated. We left the lot threw our soaked jackets and umbrellas in the trunk of my Saab and went home with the same number of cars we had when we left.
There are a couple morals to this story. 1. Scrap values are much higher than I thought they were and 2. Don’t let your first time doing something keep you from doing it again. I had a blast getting up at 6:30 on a Saturday to eat at Waffle House and stand in the rain around some crappy cars for three hours, and I plan on going back; just with more money next time. But, alas, like an old fishing tale, that Mercedes will always be “the one that got away” to me.