Daily Archives: June 4, 2012

Different . . .

About a month ago, my language arts class was sharing poems and stories in front of the class. One student went up and presented her poem. Her poem was about her and her “smarts” and how she is always confronted by other students about her grades. The other students would say, “Oh, you are so lucky!” or “How did you get such a good grade?” and she was tired of the same thing over and over again. She then stood tall and spoke clearly saying, “I am not born with a brain, it did not come to me, I worked for this brain.” I then thought to myself, that is exactly what has happened to me.

Students have asked me, “Are you a . . . you know . . . a nerd?” I would reply with a “Yes” or something like that, but I would get so frustrated because they don’t realize that I worked for my brain and my grades in hopes that it will pay off in the future and that I may be one of the only people who likes to learn. I study, I do my homework, and I get (in my opinion) good grades. Although, I am proud that I am not a nerd that is bullied physically and I can ignore rude comments if I have to. Instead of a “Nice job!” from my friends on the handback of tests, I get a “Lucky!” or a “Nerd!”. I understand that people are lazy and stuff (I am physically lazy myself), but a little extra hard work can get you a long way. I put my full effort in school, knowing it has a full effect of my future. Has this happened to anyone else besides me?

~Cameron O’Connor

Hockey

Have you ever picked up something and just went with it?  Well, over the summer my friend convinced me to play ice hockey with him.  At first it was tough, and some things were annoying to learn, but as I got better and better it became one of my most favorite things to do.  I love the feeling of waking up so early in the morning, tying up my skates and getting out onto the cool rink.  Warming up is always the best, we all get to take shots; but the real fun is when we get into the drills.  We do wind sprints and push ups on the ice; then we scrimmage against each other, I love playing against my friends its just a fun time.

Scrimmaging is fun, but game time is when you really start to take everything seriously. I remember my first game, I was so nervous, but once I faced the other teams center it was on. I slapped the puck in between the kids skates, jumped around him and scored the first goal in 25 seconds.  It was a great feeling until I tried it again and got blind sided by the right wing. I got a penalty shot because of it. I took the hardest slap shot I could take, but the goalie dove and caught it right before it went into the right  top shelf.  It was a great game, our team won 8 to 0, and ever since that moment I couldn’t wait to just get back on the ice.

Next year I plan on playing for the CT Whalers. Which is a youth hockey team out of Cromwell make sure you visit their web site.

~Dylan Walsh

2012 College Softball

I’ve been watching college softball since I can remember and softball has been part of my life since I was 5. I would rather stay home and watch college softball then go to the movies or go to the mall, that’s how much I love the game. Every time I watch a game it pushes me to get better and be better because I know that someday I will be there and nothing can stop me. I’ve been to some of the Uconn Huskies softball games because I know some of the girls on the team and every time I watch their game I can see myself out there. It makes me want to get out there and play the game I love.

The college softball world series right now is heating up. My favorite team is Alabama because everything they do I like. Just the way the play the game and you can see their chemistry together, it’s awesome to watch. They had the opening game yesterday (May 31) which they came out with a win against their SEC rivals Tennessee 5-3. They play Oklahoma tonight (June 1), But I hope they win it all for the Crimson Tide Alabama softball team this year.

~Megan Hodgdon

Dodd Middle School Baseball

The Dodd Middle School Baseball team is currently 6-5 on the year. They have beaten Moran, Lincoln twice, Depaulo twice, and DAG once. But they lost to Washington twice, DAG once, Moran once, and a Scrimmage game against North Haven Middle School. The two remaining games left in their season are both to Wilson a hard hitting team from Middletown. Also they possibly could have a makeup game from the best team in the league Kennedy. In this game they played 4 innings and then it got rained out before they started the 5th. They were down 3-1 in the start of the 5th with Kennedy at the plate.

I believe this year Dodd is having an ok season. The previous records from Coach Lopez have been much better like 13-1,12-2, and 14-0. But most of the games we have lost have been close. Only one was a complete blow out, this game was the most current one and it was against Moran Middle School of Wallingford. This team has always been a rival with Dodd because they always have a great team. The first time that Dodd played Moran Connor Davey threw a no-hitter against them resulting in a 4-0 win. But the next time Dodd played them Luciano Gaudio and Dylan D’Addio threw and unfortunately didn’t throw as good as Connor. Although, the umpire was squeezing the life out of our pitchers and had a very tight strike-zone which was hard to throw many strikes. But when we did throw strikes they hit the ball very well resulting in baserunners and eventually scoring runs defeating the Dodd baseball team. As you can see, Moran is a great baseball team and has been a rival for many years with back and forth wins and losses.

~Nicholas Strollo

Written In The Stars

The moment had finally arrived. It took a long time to arrive but it was here at last.  So often in Bayern Munich’s glory era of the 1970s, it was Muller who always came through and carried the golden moment. This time it was Thomas and Bavaria’s hero who was given a standing ovation as he left the field. Home field advantage had definitely been an asset. Yet just a hour later, it was Chelsea who were European champions and not Bayern Munich. Muller had left the field to celebrate his moment of glory with the fans. Perhaps it  was presumptuous, as no one had taken the talent of Didier Drogba into account.

Drogba’s crashing headed equaliser on 88 minutes had ruined a night’s celebrations. It was his penalty that sealed Chelsea’s destiny, and fulfilled the  dreams of his  team-mates, their fans, and the owner who had invested the GDP of a small country into the club. The city of London was jubilant. It had its first continental championship, the European Cup, after 57 years. Written off, unloved, underestimated against supposedly superior opponents in each round, they had battled their way to primacy, embracing the drama along the way. Down 3-1 to Napoli in the Round of 16 led to the firing of their manger, placing  Roberto Di Matteo in charge of the club. Under new leadership, Chelsea jumped on Di Matteos counter attacking strategy and beat the powerhouse and defending champion Barcelona with 10 men in the semi finals. The finals against the German powerhouse Bayern loomed in their near future. The match was a combination of Chelsea’s will to win and the Bayern Munich players inability  to sustain their performance on the big stage. Bayern may have often undermined Chelsea but their skillful defense, consistent play and  Ashley Cole having  the greatest performance of his career,kept them in the game. It also helped Chelsea that Bayern’s frontline was faltering. Mario Gomez once again failed to prove that he is a top caliber striker, blowing both of Bayern’s best first-half chances. This was compounded by  Arjen Robben’s failure in missing an extra-time penalty, awarded  for a foul on Franck Ribery by Drogba. His nerves had  failed him yet again at the most crucial of times,  just as they did when he lost the golden opportunity to win the 2010 World Cup for his country.

As Chelsea repelled wave after wave of Bayern attacks, the deciding factor was to come in penalties. Drogba had his chance at  redemption. His track record with penalties hadn’t been the greatest. He had lost Chelsea the chance to defeat Manchester United in Moscow in 2008, and he had also missed a normal time penalty in this year’s African Nations Cup final. This time, he delivered and converted with a flourish off a short run, with what may be his last kick  as a Chelsea team member.

Chelsea was triumphant and after years of leadership changes and frustration Drogba had come through for his team. Chelsea is the undisputed champion of Europe.

~Sidharth Subramani

Is Nintendo’s New Release a Mistake?

Pokemon Black and White 2 are the 21st and the 22nd games to be released in the well known kids series Pokemon by Nintendo. They are set to be released in the Fall of 2012 in America and Europe, Spring 2012 in Australia, and June 23 2012 in Japan where the games for this series are created and designed. However by releasing these two games it will break the pattern that Nintendo has had for over 10 years now. This pattern was the order in which Nintendo released these games. Which was two versions then a middle version, two versions then a middle version, then a remake of two perviously made games then start the process over again. What older fans of the series are saying about this release is that they should have stuck with the middle version for the games instead of breaking their pattern that they have held for over 10 years.

From being a fan of Nintendo’s work for as long as I can remember and still playing and enjoying their games today my thoughts are as follows.  I think the fans are right in that Nintendo should keep their streak going by continuing their pattern that I stated above. However from various trailers, images, and gameplay footage that Nintendo has released about the games I think that the games themselves will be an excellent addition to the Pokemon series. Also I know for a fact that fans will still buy these two versions to enjoy the story and to participate in the wi-fi community.

~Phillip Bodurtha

The New Egyptian Government-or is it?

On January 25th, 2011, a wave of revolts started in major Egyptian cities against president and self assigned Prime Minister, Hosni Mubarak. After 6 days of demonstrations, on February 1st, 2012, Mubarak announced that he would not be running for another term in September, 2011, and promised constitutional reform. However, protestors were not satisfied with this and began violent demonstrations, which caused some protesters’ deaths. On February 11th, 2011, Mubarak resigned. Mubarak, his sons, and a family friend currently in the run were acquitted of corruption, and all except Mubarak, including 6 high up police officers, were acquitted of charges of killing peaceful protestors. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison.

Through all this, what does the government actually look like now? El-Adly, the head of the security forces who imposed Mubarak’s will was sentenced to 12 years of prison so far, with up to a death sentence coming, but the rest of the security forces remained untouched, and the government who served Mubarak still remains the same, and leaving this government to the military who may have been, and still may be more loyal to Mubarak than to the Egyptian people. So what’s in the future of Egypt? A democratic government with power to the people? I doubt it highly. More likely, the revolt will be in vain, and a high ranking military officer will take over the government and run something very similar to the Mubarak Era, maybe treating the people either better or worse to keep them in line and not follow in the footsteps of Mubarak. And the people will be powerless to take the power back again. Therefore, either the current justice system begin to purge the system while they still can, or there will be a really bad ending…for both Egypt and the world.

~Shangda Xu