December 2012 edition

Page 2: Opinions and CommentaryPage 3: EntertainmentPage 5: Entertainment

Lights in the Landing

Two months ago, the Edwards Landing Light Show became nationally recognized as a can’t miss oppor-tunity. This December, the show is back yet again for a Christmas special. See Page 6 for the full story.

Seniors and StressBy: Meghan kolcum As another year begins, seniors’ stress rises due to the pressure of AP classes, college applications, and maintaining good grades. Senior year is supposed to be one of the best years of your life. It’s supposed to be fun and easy, right? Un-fortunately for many, the first semester of senior year is stressful, and underclass-men should have some sort of understanding of what the crazy, hectic year has to offer. This guide and senior opinions should make stu-dents’ senior year as stress- free as possible. Long hours of sitting down in a desk and taking a three hour test is not some-thing anyone looks forward to. The SATs and ACTs do not have to be a nightmare for anyone, though. Some people just don’t have that great of an experience with the test. Senior Sana Ama-do says, “I did not have the best experience when I first took the SAT. My calcula-tor ran out of batteries.” If you’re a good test taker, then chances are you’re not worried about this section. “The SATs and [subject] tests are scoring how hard you’ve studied for the test; [they’re] not there to mea-sure intelligence, but how well you’ve studied,” says senior Caely McHale. On the other hand, for those who are worried about test taking, you may want to keep a few things in mind. The SAT sections include Critical Reading, Mathe-matics, and Writing. Each of the sections are scored on a scale of 0-800. Please see Stress page 6

The Unexpected Consequences of CheatingBy: Meilan Solly “There’s other people get-ting better grades than me, and they’re cheating. Why am I not going to cheat? It’s kind of almost stupid if you don’t.” So reads the mental-ity of most high school stu-dents, including the anony-mous “Joe” who supplied this quote for ABC. Over the past few years, you have probably noticed an increase in the amount of cheating happening around you. Perhaps you see your peers cheat; perhaps you are the one cheating. Please see Cheating page 8

There are two types of people in this world: those who are innate athletes and able to actually flex their non-inflatable muscles and compare calf sizes with one another, and those who

Page 6: FeaturesPage 7: SportsPage 8: Features

Page 10: SportsPage 11: FeaturesPage 12: The Pulse

DisClaimer: DON’T WORRY. THERE ARE NO REQUIRED LAPS OR PUSH UPS PAST THIS POINT.

can do neither and if they try, they hurt themselves. It’s not a bad thing—some people are sporty and oth-ers are not; there are kids who are just as talented in theatre, art, academics,

and playing video games as the star high school football player is at playing football. But sports are a large part of American culture. Please see guiDe page 10

By: Danielle Matta

Photo Credit: Breanna Shiflett

Photo CourteSy of Brandon BulliS

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StaffMegan Ford...............................Editor-in-ChiefMeilan Solly...................Assistant Editor-in-ChiefJack Minchew.................Assistant Editor-in-ChiefSean Cassar................................Layout EditorForest Langhorne..........................Sports EditorShalom Montero.................Entertainment EditorDanny Sedlazek..................Entertainment EditorDominic Gavan....................Advertising ManagerErica Walker.................................Art Director

Staff WritersMegan Cohen Abdullah ElqadriKatie Forcade Claire FrankDaniel Friend Tyler Garling Meghan Kolcum Danielle MattaBreanna Shiflett

The Husky Headline is written, edited, and designed by students from Tuscarora High School. All opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual writer. The views published in this newspa-per are not necessarily those of the Tuscarora High School administration, faculty, staff, or student body. We are committed to delivering relevant, accurate news - which means we want to hear from you! We wel-come your opinion. Opinions may be expressed in letters to the editor and can be sent to the staff at [email protected]. Please include your name and class standing in all letters to the editor.

Ms. Sara Symons1953-2012

Ms. Symons received her BA from Mary Baldwin College. She later received her MBA from the College of William and Mary and her M.Ed. from the University of Virginia. Ms. Symons was an inaugural staff member of Tuscarora High School, where she taught 9th grade English.

“Good morning, Tuscaro-ra…” Every student in Lou-doun County hears some slightly modified version of these words every morn-ing. They are not only a greeting from the principal, but mark the beginning of a new school day. Those in-dividuals that attend a Lou-doun County high school or middle school understand that their schedule for the rest of the day varies. The school is not only made up of cinder blocks and cement. Within the social structure that defines the school, block scheduling is at the center. The thought of having four classes a day instead of eight seems to create a cloud of positive thoughts that blind people from the ever important negative results this sched-uling can engender. Four classes a day doesn’t sound that bad at first, but when you realize that every class is an hour and a half long, your grand illusion seems to fade away. Most students see these longer class periods as a hindrance to their learning. Junior Ben Fuhrman says, “A lot of time is wasted in classes be-cause teachers can’t fill up the whole block.” He also states, “You really lose your attention span after the first 20 minutes go by.” How can a student learn if they tune out after 20 minutes? Another student has a simi-lar opinion on block sched-uling. Junior Alex McKenna noted that the constant in-terruptions of all classes ex-cept for 3rd and 7th block creates an unequal amount of knowledge. In his words, “[the scheduling] is very unfair in that you are not getting an equal amount of time for your academic classes.” He uses P.E. as an example: he concludes that

you lose the opportunity to gain more understanding in knowledge-based classes if you spend the majority of your time in classes that are non-academic. Mr. Burnett, the Social Studies Department Chair, created a well-worded sum-mary of these thoughts. In his opinion, “it’s a poor model for teaching.” He feels that block schedul-ing “is an inefficient use of [the teacher’s] time.” He believes that for successful teaching of the subject, the student needs to be taught the material every day. Oth-erwise, he says, “We have to spend more time re-teaching the material.” As a teacher, Burnett’s main pri-ority in life is teaching stu-dents to the best of his abil-ity. If he spends all his time re-teaching material, then kids are not going to absorb knowledge. Some students sit on the other side of the opinions scale. Sophomore Noah Anderson says that block scheduling allows him to focus on just four subjects a day. He argues that in tradi-tional scheduling he would “feel swamped by fourth block.” Junior Austin Crom-well had similar ideas. He argues, “I would not be able to focus all day, and I’d be more talkative because of the constant movement.” Though these opinions seem to glorify block sched-uling, the negatives are too important to outweigh the positives. If these personal opinions aren’t enough, studies have also been completed about the subject. A Comparative Study of Block Scheduling and Traditional Scheduling on Academic Achievement by William W. Lawrence and Danny D. Mcpherson concluded that traditional-ly-scheduled students had higher mean test scores in every subject than those who participated in block scheduling. These results are enough to dethrone block scheduling from the public school system.

Opinion: Build-ing Blocks...or a Weak Foundation?By: Sean Cassar

Political Analysis: Falling off the Fiscal CliffBy: Jack Minchew For most political ob-servers, and indeed politi-cians themselves, late No-vember and December are a time for licking wounds (Mitt Romney and the Re-publican Party) or celebrat-ing your victories (Barack Obama and the Democratic Party). While it is appro-priate for Gov. Romney to disappear from the politi-cal scene (at least for now), newly re-elected President Obama is likely coming to the realization that, at least in Congress, the balance of power has not really shift-ed. And before the 113th Congress even takes office in January, the President and the “lame-duck” 112th Congress will have to deal with their self-imposed budget sequestration, com-monly known as “the Fiscal Cliff.” In August last year, Con-gress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011, which established the (relatively) well-known “SuperCom-mittee,” a bipartisan group whose goal was to compro-mise on a solution to our national debt. Needless to say, the committee failed

miserably, leading to the present condition. Included in the bill was a provision that if Congress couldn’t compromise by the end of December 2012, automatic budget cuts and tax in-creases would be triggered that would hurt the main demographics of both ma-jor parties. Fast forward to December 2012, when “the Seques-ter” that looked far off in 2011 now seems inevitable. Democrats seem unable to cut social programs, and Republicans have sworn to prevent new taxes or cuts to the military. In other words, both parties are willing to compromise, as long as they don’t have to give anything up. If the se-quester does hit in January, the consequences could be dire. Deep cuts could po-tentially hurt our area. In addition to the expiration of the Bush Era Tax Cuts, which would raise taxes on all tax brackets, budget cuts

would mean cuts in the gov-ernment workforce, cuts to government contractors, and cuts to the military and veteran’s benefits. So is there any hope of averting the “fiscal cliff”? Yes and no. Some Repub-licans have indicated that they would be willing to increase revenue (raise taxes) if Democrats will al-low cuts to social programs. House Speaker John Boeh-ner, House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Ma-jority Leader Harry Reid, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all gath-ered to discuss compromis-es recently, and they are set to release one that should appeal to both parties. The question is whether Boeh-ner and McConnell will be able to deliver Republican votes, or whether they will face mass defections from Tea Party supporters, and whether Democratic lead-ers can control their far left wing members.

Photo Credit: JaCk MinChew

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Nintendo is, in many ways, the George Lucas of the video game industry. The company was extreme-ly innovative, creative, and beloved for their initial blockbusters. Then as time went on, they stayed deci-sively behind the curb. Yet their early opuses had built up such a large following of devoted fans who will buy anything with the Nintendo name slapped on it that they were able to remain successful enough to sol-dier on. The his-tory of video games is di-vided into eras defined by the c o m p a n i e s that battled for d o m i n a n c e . Nintendo was u n d e f e a t e d until Sony, a company not exclusively de-voted to pro-ducing games, jumped into the market. That marked the beginning of a 12 year slouch for Nintendo; they were no longer the alpha. 2006 was the beginning of a new console genera-tion, and while both Sony and Microsoft produced upgraded versions of their previous machines, Nin-tendo burst out of left field with the Wii. Throwing joy-sticks and buttons out the window, and opting for an unheard of emphasis on motion sensitive controls, Nintendo caused the entire industry to look inquisitive-ly in their direction. No one could’ve pre-dicted the Wii’s success. It destroyed the competition because it drew the inter-est of people who weren’t a part of the traditional “hardcore” audience , and it came prepackaged with one of the best party games in existence. Moms, senior citizens, and children were the primary buyers because everyone who didn’t work at Nintendo was equally mystified by it. Previous consoles tried so hard to

appeal to the gamers that they effectively alienated everyone else. The Wii cre-ated an equal playing field, and “casual” gamers bought it up like hotcakes. Yet this last quarter, Nin-tendo reported its first loss in 50 years as a company. What happened? A trifecta of shortsighted-ness, that’s what. The first, and probably most important factor in Nintendo’s fall from grace, is the explosion of Face-book and apps. When the

Wii debuted in stores, no one could have foreseen the multi-billion dollar suc-cess that Facebook would become at launch time, or even comprehend what apps would mean to Ameri-cans, but Nintendo never adjusted to what was con-stantly becoming abun-dantly clear: Mark Zucker-berg and Steve Jobs were stealing their audience. That casual gaming audi-ence enjoyed the novelty of the Wii, but had little desire to drop $60 on a new game because they weren’t gam-ers. So when smartphones and Facebook offered ex-tremely cheap and conve-nient ways to play games that also appealed to them, they locked their Wiis away in the closet and haven’t seen them since. The iPhone represents another antithesis of Nin-tendo’s poor judgment: their choice to not focus on developing technology. The Wii doesn’t support HD. When YouTube streams and flash games are more tech-nologically advanced than your expensive console,

you have a problem. At the same time, TVs are slowly becoming obsolete in the face of the Internet. The only thing that really keeps people parked in front of their TVs is video game con-soles. So Nintendo must be in the clear, right? While constantly trying to appeal to a casual audi-ence, Nintendo stopped making games that hard-core gamers wanted to play. Normally, this wouldn’t be such a big problem, as third party game developers,

which are not owned by the same compa-ny that makes the console, would fill this void. However, the Wii’s tech-nology was so different that third party de-velopers had a very hard time making games for the

platform, and they weren’t getting enough money from what efforts they did release to justify continued experimentation. When the only games you release for your console are party games, traditional gamers aren’t going to want to pay for them. So while the video game industry was constantly expanding, Nintendo com-pletely ignored the audi-ence that allowed Micro-soft and Sony to prosper, placed their emphasis on gimmicky technology rather than innovations with prac-ticality, and lost whatever audience they had to more convenient and cheap al-ternatives. To make matters worse, Microsoft and Sony have come out with devices that can replicate the gim-micky appeal of the Wii, so Nintendo has even less of a market to work with. So how does this failing giant try to save themselves? They create the Wii-U, the only device more gimmicky than the Wii itself. Some people never learn.

By: Danny Sedlazek

It’s time to begin, isn’t it? The beginning of the chorus from “It’s Time,” the hit sin-gle from Imagine Dragon’s new album, is an appropri-ate start to the article, but it also expresses more about the bands and its members than one may think. The song itself focuses on change and growth, and the Las Vegas-based band knows more about these concepts than most. Front-man Dan Reynolds, guitar-ist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, and drummer Daniel Platzman have un-dergone a lot of change in the past, going from playing late night shows in casinos, releasing a few EPs, exten-sively touring, and grow-ing a grass roots following along the way to releasing their debut full-length al-bum earlier this year. The band broke into the indus-try with a bang, with their album entering the Bill-board Top 200 chart at #2 and having the best first week sales for a new rock band in over six years. Right from the start, it was clear that Imagine Dragons was bringing something new to the industry and revolu-tionizing it. In the spirit of their hit single, it’s time to begin… it’s time to begin the Imagine Dragons revo-lution. From the first beat of “It’s Time,” you can tell that the band is something different. Right from the get-go, the song incorpo-rates many elements that are unique for the industry but perfectly routine for the band. The song is up-beat and catchy, but at the same time is powerful with its great message—this last part being another thing that is constant in Imagine Dragons’ music. On top of having songs with actual significant meanings, the electronic sounds mixed with acoustic layers make the band’s music stand out from all the rest. I knew this was something different, and I had to get more. I definitely was not disap-pointed. Imagine Dragon’s debut album Night Visions has 11 tracks of greatness,

Time to Begin the Imagine Dragons RevolutionBy: Breanna Shiflett

with 2 bonus tracks from Best Buy that are just as good. While the songs are not all the same and vary in tempo and mood, they do certainly all have an Imag-ine Dragons “feel” to them. From the strong and pow-erful “Radioactive” to the feel-good sounds of “On Top Of The World,” almost each track on the album has the same unique feel that I fell in love with when listening to “It’s Time.” The balance of songs on Night Visions is great. The songs can be pretty easily separated into two catego-ries: the first including rock songs that are hardcore and empowering, and the sec-ond showcasing the more alternative and slightly pop-like songs that are more up-beat and catchy. Some of them do fit into both cate-gories, but it’s fairly easy to hear the difference in most. The album bursts out of the gate running with a song that fits into the first cat-egory. “Radioactive” is an extremely powerful song, one with great emotion and imagery where you can re-ally envision the band play-ing in a rundown city that has been destroyed by the apocalypse. Similarly, the fourth track in the album, “Demons,” is intense and even slightly chilling with its tale of a man and his past demons haunting him when it comes to finding love. The theme of power continues with songs such as “Bleed-ing Out,” “Amsterdam,” and “Tiptoe” that all make you want to headbang and do a little air guitar solo. The other side of Imag-ine Dragons can be seen on Night Visions just as clearly. The feel-good song “On Top Of The World” accen-tuates the band’s ability to balance the genres of their songs, while still keeping the signature ID “feel” to them. Likewise, “Under-dog” showcases great elec-tronics, a beat that easily gets stuck in your head (but won’t prove as an intru-sion), andPlease see imagine page 5

How Mark Zuckerberg is Killing Mario

Photo Credit: danny Sedlazek

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Bowling has, and always will be, regarded as an “easy” sport. What can be so difficult about rolling a ball down a lane and hitting 10 pins? Though some see it as a simple little game, there are plenty of people out there who take it very, very, seriously. One of them is The Dude. In 1998, Joel and Ethan Coen wrote one of the fun-niest movies ever: The Big Lebowski. Jeff Bridges plays the main character of the film, a slacker who goes by the name “The Dude.” The Dude and his best friends, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and Donny Ker-abatsos (Steve Buscemi) are all part of a bowling team. The three amigos are usually found lazing around the bowling alley, but things start to get very interesting when The Dude gets involved in an identity mix up. Next to his love for bowl-ing, The Dude’s only pas-sion is his rug that “really tied the room together.” When The Dude arrives at his house and is beaten by two thugs, the only thing he truly cares about is when one of them disgraces his lovely rug. However, the two thugs realize that they got the wrong guy who has the same name as that of their actual target. After telling his friends about the incident, Wal-ter tells The Dude that he should talk to Jeffery Leb-owski (David Huddleston), the “Big Lebowski,” about getting compensation for his rug. After he meets with Lebowski, The Dude comes across Jeffery’s wife, Bunny (Tara Reid), soaking it up in the sun. A few days later, The Dude gets a call from Jeff Lebowski saying that Bunny has been kidnapped and The Dude needs to be the courier for the million dollar ransom tied to her name. The conflict in the film is pretty serious, but it is executed in a very cre-ative, comical way.

Movies You Need to See:

The Coen brothers have one of the most impres-sive track records in Holly-wood. Along with The Big Lebowski, the two brothers have made movies such as Miller’s Crossing; Fargo; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; No Country for Old Men; and True Grit. While their filmography is mostly seri-ous dramas, The Big Leb-owski is a shining moment for the two because it’s a terrific comedy. Scene after scene provides laugh after laugh. No matter how many times I watch it, my laugh-ing still brings me to tears when Walter decides to teach Larry a “lesson.”The soundtrack to the film is also very enjoyable. Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and Creedence Clearwater Re-vival are a few of the art-ists who are featured in the film, not to mention the Gipsy Kings cover of the Eagles’ classic “Hotel Cali-fornia”…in Spanish. The Big Lebowski features some great actors, and all of them give a terrific and hilarious performance. Jeff Bridges is The Dude, and no one else could have cap-tured what makes The Dude “The Dude.” Goodman is also hilarious as his Viet-nam vet character that will, literally, pull a gun on some-one who isn’t following the rules of bowling during a league game. Bridges and Goodman work perfectly together in the film and are a major source of laughs. The Big Lebowski is a cult film, which means it has a specific set of fans. Upon its release, many critics had mixed views of the movie. However, critics now say that The Big Lebowski is one of their favorite Coen brothers’ films and one of their favorite movies of all time. The acting is great and hi-larious, the writing is quick and witty, the dream se-quences are fantastic, and the movie is just incredibly enjoyable. The Big Lebows-ki is easily one of the funni-est movies of all time, and it will make anyone laugh. The Coen brothers created a masterpiece with this film, and it cannot be missed.

After reading this novel, the following conclusion can be reached: this book is not recommended for people who do not wish to experience emotions. Published on January 10, 2012, The Fault in Our Stars has not only been a #1 New York Times Bestseller, but has also remained on the list for the past 46 weeks as of November 25, 2012. It is the fourth solo novel of John Green, the 2006 win-ner of the Michael L. Printz Award. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Green’s novel this year, and for good reason. Green has readers laughing and cry-ing throughout the novel as they follow the developing relationship between ter-minally-ill Hazel Lancaster and one-legged Augustus Waters. The novel is fast-paced and well-balanced, with both serious and hu-morous parts intertwined throughout the story. The dialogue is witty and leaves the reader with a wide se-lection of both funny and contemplative quotes to share with friends or incor-porate into tweets or blog posts. Despite involving cancer,

the tone of the novel is light and, even though it occasion-ally uses big words like “self-aggran-dizing” and “hamartia,” it speaks to reader in an easy-to-understand manner. This is extremely impressive considering that Green discusses some of the big ques-tions in life, yet he doesn’t overwhelm the reader with the heaviness of the actual topics. Hazel, the narrator and main character, is extreme-ly relatable, and the inner-most thoughts she shares with the reader voices many of the thoughts and feel-ings running through the minds of the average teen-ager. Hazel is a dynamic, mature character who con-templates a variety of seri-ous topics throughout the book. She isn’t obsessed with what adults think typi-cal teenage girls are into: shopping, boys, etc. One of the best features of this novel is that although the main character has can-cer, the story isn’t solely

about cancer. Hazel’s illness doesn’t define who she is or really limit her actions. While it does physically limit her (she has to wear a cannula and lug around an oxygen tank wherever she goes), she doesn’t let it keep her from doing what-ever she wants. One final note: as men-tioned above, the book does make people cry, and it is about a young girl with cancer. Please don’t make either one of these facts stop you from reading The Fault in Our Stars. It is an incredibly well-written and enjoyable novel. While it can be sad, it can also be entertaining and very up-lifting. You will not regret reading this book, and I highly advise that you do.

The Fault in Our Stars

imagine from page 3 sarcastic lyrics that are ex-tremely relatable. “Selene,” one of the exclusive bonus tracks from Best Buy, is a different kind of love song, and has great rhythm and good lyrics to match. While there are many great hits on this album, that’s not to say that it’s pure musical genius. Almost every good record has a few songs that simply don’t meet the expectations that the rest of the record has, and Night Visions is no ex-ception. There’s always a song that, when you’re jamming out to the album, makes you automatically hit the “next” button as soon as the first identifiable beat plays. “Every Night” is the song that gets the infamous “skipper” track title of the album. The song is very

clearly the outlier of the re-cord, being a lot slower and much more ballad-like than the rest. Although it has de-cent lyrics, it just doesn’t have the key elements and the signature feel that have become so prominent and important to the rest of the album, and makes it fall just short of being a rare cre-ation where you can listen to an entire record without skipping a single song. Despite their musical dif-ferences, all of the songs on Night Visions come togeth-er to create an album that is truly spectacular. The rock-ing forces and the upbeat rhythms combine to blend into an awesome sound that is new to the industry but completely common-place for the band. Night Visions has brought with it a lot of change, from the type

of music to the lives of the band members that created it. And, the creators hope, it will make a change for you too. “We feel that we have finally created something we are all truly proud of,” says Reynolds, “and that can hopefully inspire others and help them feel a little less alone. That’s what mu-sic is about. It’s the greatest communicator I know.” He also hopes that it will in-spire other people to create and get through their own struggles. With the release of their new album, the members of Imagine Drag-ons are starting a revolu-tion, not just in the music industry, but throughout the world, causing change in people’s entertainment and lives alike.

By: Tyler Garling

The BigLebowski

ReviewBy: Claire Frank

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Stress from page 1

The best possible score you could obtain on the test is a 2400. Meanwhile, the ACT tests students on Eng-lish, Math, Reading, and Science. Scores range from 1-36. “For those who strug-gle with tests and are ner-vous: Take them early, study for the sections you don’t feel comfortable with, and then retake [them],” says senior Kylie Ritz. Many seniors have their eye on numerous colleges and universities, ranging from Virginia Tech, NYU, and even colleges out-side of the country. Senior Lori Kostka is looking at a school in Ohio, Franciscan University of Steubenville, due to its amazing religious programs and well-known professors from around the world. So, shat makes college ap-plications so difficult? “The most difficult part about working on college [ap-plications] would have to be deadlines,” says senior Kristen Lewkovich. The vast amount of essays that students have to write can also be challenging. “The essays are difficult [be-cause you’re] writing about [yourself] and trying not to sound pompous,” says McHale. The stress can be limited depending on when you start the application process. “I would recom-mend starting college appli-cations over the summer so that you have lots of time and a relief [from] stress,” says Ritz. Senior classes can be difficult, but it depends on how stressful you want your senior year to be. Many end up taking a ton of AP classes, but that’s not for everyone. The amount of APs should vary by who you are as a person. Ama-do says, “AP classes aren’t nearly as hard, so I would recommend taking as many as possible, since an A in an AP class is better than an A in an academic class.” “Senior year can be a very fun time. Just be mindful of your time and you’ll have a great year,” says Jenny Klug.

The holiday season en-tails many different tradi-tions. Some wear scratchy sweaters, and others take pictures with Santa. Bran-don Bullis creates intricate light shows that garner at-tention across the country. Using approximately 8,500 lights, Bullis turns a normal house into an ani-mated Christmas special.

Lights in the LandingBy: Sean Cassar and Megan Ford

The house will be up and running early next week for anyone and everyone who wants to take a peek. It will be live from 7:15pm to 10pm every night throughout the month of December. Just tune your FM radio to 98.1 and enjoy the show.

Using the program Light-O-Rama, he gives his house a life of its own. It tells clas-sic Christmas stories, plus sings and dances to Christ-mas carols. Obviously, this is not a normal hobby, and it takes up most of Bullis’ time. However time con-suming this pastime may be, the electric bill at the end of the month makes up for it. The LED lights use much less energy than their

incandescent counterparts, without any loss of func-tion. “It would be horribly expensive [to use incandes-cent lights]. The LEDs run, I would guess, less than $40,” comments Bullis. When he lived in Texas, Bullis saw someone else doing a similar light show, and it sparked his interest. “Part of it I made up in my

head, and part of it I saw somebody do about ten or twelve years ago. I wanted to do it ever since. I just fi-nally sat down a couple [of] years ago and decided I was going to do it,” says Bullis. Most people know about the house because of the Halloween show Bullis put together in October. The show drew attention from all over the country, even making the Yahoo! News

front page. Many elements in the Christmas show are re-used from Halloween, making setup easier, fast-er, and cheaper than one might expect. Each strand of lights is divided into sections called elements. “Every element that you see out here is wired back to a controller,” Bullis explains. These con-trollers act like giant on and off switches that tell each element when and what color to flash. Each element is individually programmed to each song by fragments of a second. This is evi-dently time consuming, but Bullis says, “I love it. I abso-lutely love it.” Bullis is an electrical en-gineer who found himself in need of a hobby a few years ago. He states, “My wife wanted me to get a bit more into the decorat-ing spirit, so I combined the two and came up with this.” His three children, ages 12, 10, and six, love to watch the show, as does his wife. “She likes it when it’s all done. She likes to watch it,” Bullis jokes. Bullis’ wife and kids aren’t the only ones who enjoy the show. One little boy came right up to the house and asked Bullis, “Are

you going to test the train?” while practically falling out of the car trying to get a look at the display. Besides the fanfare of lights, the show also incor-porates songs and stories about Christmas. From the “Ukrainian Bell Song”

to The Polar Express, this show will keep you enter-tained. The light show will be up and running the week of December 9th. For those in the mood for an extraor-dinary holiday treat, head over to 1826 Woods Edge Drive, Leesburg, VA, 20176 between 7:15 and 10:00pm and tune your FM radio to 98.1. The house doesn’t ac-tually project music, but it is synced with a radio sta-tion. So tune in, then sit back and enjoy the show.

Using approximately 8,500 lights, Bullis

turns a normal house into an animated

Christmas special. Us-ing the program Light-O-Rama, he gives his

house a life of its own. It tells classic Christ-

mas stories, plus sings and dances to Christ-

mas carols.

Photo CourteSy of Brandon BulliS

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According to a recent survey by the National Fed-eration of State High School Associations, participa-tion in high school sports is at an all time high. That means more teens partici-pating, which entails less individual attention. At the same time, according to the American Association of Or-thopedic Surgeons, student athletes get injured just as often as the professionals. This create a perfect storm of injuries. Getting hurt will affect your performance in the game, but can just as easily impact your everyday life. Junior Greg White broke his fibula playing football against Briar Woods this year, and his five week stint on the bench was felt far from the field. “I missed three days of school to have a splint put on. I had to do a lot of makeup work.” Make-up work is never easy, but Greg said that “everything takes so much longer…I was on painkillers, I was con-stantly distracted [by my in-jury]. It dominated my life.” Sophomore Courtney Cambell, who got a bone contusion on her right an-kle playing volleyball last year, presents a similar con-sensus to White. “I was on crutches for four weeks. The crutches hurt really bad. They were very embar-rassing and very stressful,” she said. Cambell’s injury,

also like White’s, affected her education. “I missed a lot of school. I fell behind. [My injury] hurt my grades and [caused me] to fall be-hind in difficult classes.” But White and Cambell both instantly knew they were injured and were therefore able to get help quickly. Junior Jeffery Man-gold wasn’t as lucky. “I got two fractures in my lower fourth vertebrae two years ago after I landed funny while long jumping,” said Mangold. “I thought it was just something minor –it took me a couple of days to notice a problem.” Mangold said it “took over a year” to fully diagnose his injury. “I was always hurting,” recounts Mangold. “It was hard to get up from sitting, sleeping. [My in-jury] restricted walking, stretching –everything. It was really hard to focus.” While troublesome in the short term, these in-juries can have long term consequences. “Whenever my back hurts, I have to get steroid shots. If I ever be-come overweight, I’ll have to get a risky surgery. While I’m not too worried about that, anything is possible,” Mangold grimly said. Cam-bell said her “ankle never healed right . It still hurts and impairs [my] move-ment” in an equally solemn tone. It’s easy for someone to blame their injuries on their coaches, but boys’ basket-ball coach Justin Brown says that most coaches “err on the side of precau-tion. When someone hits the ground, you just don’t know….that’s somebody’s child. It’s all about [his or her] well being.” Mangold admits that “I

didn’t tell the coaches for about a week. When I did tell them, they told me to try and run, but if it was painful I need to go see the trainer.” According to Tuscrora’s athletic director Derek Far-rey, “If an athlete has any injury they are supposed to go see the trainer, regard-less of how severe it seems to be on the field.” While Jeffery’s coaches didn’t fol-low strict protocol, Brown reminds us that “the kids never want to sit out.” All coaches want to help their

Beyond The Bench:A Look at Injuries’ Effects Outside of SportsBy: Danny Sedlazek

As autumn dwindles down, the football season comes to a close. Participat-ing in one of the most brutal and intense sports known to high school students, football players must show intense determination out on the field in order to be the strongest team. The intensity of football games brings all of the Tusky Ter-ror fans closer together. The long training hours over the summer have helped create an incredible season full of passionate fans and an in-tense team. Tuscarora started off the season playing against Mill-brook High School for the second time in our history, soundly beating them 41-21 for a solid start to the season. Throughout the rest of the season, the competition was vigorous and the teams were courageous. Every-one wanted to win. One of the season’s highlights was the Loudoun County game. The football team went out to County and brought down the Raiders with a score of 21-7. Crushing the Raiders on their own home turf was a night to remem-ber. The Tusky Terror was decked out in their Crush County t-shirts and black. They looked like warriors and proved themselves as such. Tuscarora’s undefeat-ed record took a hit when

A Retrospective Look at the Football Season

we played Briar Woods the next week at home, losing 35-7, but the Tusky Ter-ror brought the heat, de-finitively beating the Briar Woods student section in a spirit battle second only to the game against County. During homecoming week when the Huskies defeated Dominion with a high score of 40-26, this allowed for the drastic take-off to a fan-tastic homecoming dance and the great final end of a sensational homecom-ing week. The homecom-ing game signaled another golden winning streak by Tuscarora, which included a game against Heritage at Heritage and went all the way through our first play-off game against Millbrook. For the second time in the season, we defeated Mill-brook (42-28) to advance to the regional semifinals against Loudoun County at home. In a huge blow to the team and the school, County defeated us 30-21. This surprise loss by Tuscarora against Loudoun County ended the playoff season for Tuscarora foot-ball. Going into the game, Tuscarora was one of the top ranked teams in the state, and losing the game represented a major upset in the state playoffs. Due to the rivalry between Tusca-rora and Loudoun County, this game also had special

meaning for many of Tus-caroras students. However, Tuscarora will play Loudoun County in our other stand-out sport, soccer, and will probably turn in more sat-isfying results. Hopefully this will take some sting off what a painful loss this was to Tuscarora. With the 2012 season over, students are now look-ing forward to next season. In the beginning of the sea-son, junior Austin Cromwell was injured by a helmet to

Senior Drew Davidson walks off the field after being injured.

Junior Spencer Hayes reaches to catch the ball at the Crush County game on September 21, 2012. The Huskies beat the Loudoun County Raiders 21-7 in regulation play. Photo Credit: Meghan kolCuM

Photo Credit: Meghan kolCuM

athletes, but due to the large number of athletes, these sort of things often slip through the cracks. When asked to give ad-vice to athletes who believe they are injured, White, Cambell, and Mangold are all on the same page. “Be prepared to sit out,” White warns. Mangold says that “you need to take time off. Don’t push through.” Cam-bell stressed the impor-tance of “seeing a doctor” if you’re suspicious. While no one wants to sit on the sidelines, it’s often in one’s best interest to. If you had to choose between steroid shots, casts, con-stant embarrassment, and a little time on the bench, wouldn’t you pick the lat-ter?

the knee at the first game against Millbrook, sending him out for the rest of the season. “My goal for next year is to start and make it through the whole season,” says Cromwell. Trainer Jack-ie Kuzma, a senior, says, “The intensity out on the field is so powerful; you can see everyone and feel what the players are feeling. It is one of the best feelings in the whole world.” For the rising freshmen who are interested in foot-

ball, they should know that it’s not going to be easy. “The workouts were not that difficult, but for any of the upcoming freshmen or underclassmen interested in joining, I would recom-mend that they start lifting as soon as possible. You don’t want to come into the season out of shape,” ad-vises Cromwell. “The quali-ties that make up a football player include toughness, discipline, dedication, and confidence.”

By: Meghan Kolcum and Forest Langhorne

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Cheating from Page 1

Either way, high school is where cheating really be-comes common, and this is a major problem. Cheating is defined in many ways: letting friends copy homework; “a cheap way out,” according to Jack Williams, a fresh-man; asking people for the test answers ahead of time; or “using other peo-ple’s knowledge,” as junior Grace Pretre phrases it. The difference between how students and teachers view cheating varies. “It depends on if [students] see it as a form of borrowing or what it really is: lying,” says Mrs. Cadang-Kristan, an English teacher. If the definition and con-sequences of cheating are so widely known, why do people still participate in it? Williams thinks it’s because “things catch them off guard. They forget about [assignments] and they’re not prepared or they have no energy.” Mrs. Cadang-Kristan adds, “Students

are overly scheduled , so they re-sort to cheat-ing. [They think] it’s the only way to fit a large number of assignments into a finite time.” A third reason is ex-plained by Kyle Haber-man, a soph-omore. He says that some students cheat because they “didn’t understand the homework and the teacher didn’t explain [well].” Also, many people’s main goal in high school is to get good grades so they can make it into the college of their dreams, which is why, ac-cording to a poll called “Who’s Who Among Ameri-can High School Students,” 80% of top students in the country used cheating as a way to get to the top. The reason why people cheat is fairly concrete: ev-

eryone wants to succeed. The morality behind cheat-ing is not, however, so clear. Do students who cheat think what they’re doing is morally right? Not accord-ing to Williams, who says, “[Students] don’t think it’s okay, but they have to do it anyway” because they’re more scared of their par-ents finding out about their bad grades than getting caught. Results on the op-posite side of the argument are found in the “Who’s Who” poll. Over 50% of students questioned didn’t

“think cheating was a big deal.” Haberman agrees, saying, “It’s not that bad if you do it [because] you needed help.” ABC News reinforces the point, ex-plaining that many students believe “cheating in school is a dress rehearsal for life.” In the end, however, Pretre summarizes the view most people hold: “[Cheating] re-ally is not right. [You] should know the information.” While cheating may re-sult in good grades today, it has negative effects later in life. “[Cheating] leads

to bad habits,” Haberman says. Williams adds it “is getting you nowhere. You haven’t learned.” Also, the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics found in a 2010 study that “people who cheated on exams in high school two or more times are considerably more likely to be dishonest later in life.” Mrs. Cadang-Kristan says, “Cheating is insidious. [You] don’t think it harms you until you’re as-sumed to have mastery and you don’t.” She also explains that once students gradu-ate college and start look-ing for jobs, they don’t ac-tually possess several of the skills necessary to enter the workforce. Many employ-ers want writing samples from possible employees, and “if you’ve been cheat-ing your whole life, you don’t know how [to write well].” Mrs. Cadang-Kristan emphasizes that there are “no second chances. The bottom line is that your life will be exactly what your ef-forts put forth.”

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guiDe from page 1

They are the Ameri-can pastime, a part of the American dream, or some-thing like that. So what do you do if you spent all night watching reruns of Friends or working on Algebra homework when the rest of the student body was busy buzzing about last night’s revolutionary game, and you have no clue what went on? Worse yet, what do you actually DO at a game, and how can you appear to be a Captain of All Things Sporty and not embarrass yourself in front of hardcore fans? Never fear, dear fellow challenged athlete, because you have just stumbled (something you are all too familiar with) upon a guide that will improve your so-cial standing amongst buff jocks and allow you to em-brace your inner sports-man without even trying. Follow these simple rules, tested and performed by thousands of undercover non-athletes, and no one will be able to tell the dif-ference between you and the aggressive guy who’s screaming out strategy and covered in face paint. PREPARE YOUR BODY, MIND, AND PRE-FLAILING ARMS Your preparation for a game is just as important as actually participating during a game. This is your chance for any last-minute research, including know-ing what you are going to wear and mentally ready-ing yourself for a potential two hours of sport expo-sure. Sporting events can be taxing—they require long hours standing on your feet and being bored and hopelessly clueless, as well as having to constantly wipe other people’s angry spit from all the screaming off your face. You are go-ing to want to make sure that when you leave the house before that game, you are not only ready to return half-deaf and with-out a voice, but that you will make the whole experi-ence easier on yourself by DRESSING PROPERLY. Seri-ously, that weather app on your phone that you never use? LOOK at that. Because

when you show up in a re-ally cute pair of shorts or awesome new t-shirt and it ends up dropping to 38 degrees that night, you will wish you had at least brought a pair of gloves. Going along with that, al-most every sporting event

has some sort of dress code…meaning that there really isn’t one, other than the fact that you should probably wear spirit wear or at least the color of that certain game. The point is not fashion, but truly how ridiculous one can look in a single, solitary color while also being able to fight off the elements. It’s a strange world, the sports one, but a practical one. WHILE ON THE FIELD…ER, BLEACHERS This is the big leagues. Being able to give off the impression to all your fel-low classmates that you are in fact a devoted and wise fan is truly a masterful skill. At the same time, you don’t want your friends to start thinking you really ARE the sports guy with all the an-swers, so you have to find the perfect balance be-tween blend-ing in with the crowd and not making a fool of your-self amongst 70 students. Although everyone has their own p e r s o n a l techniques, there are some com-mon factors that really are necessary to pull off the whole façade:

Hop on the Bandwag-on- You are just another Generation Y teen feeling the pressure of, well, peer pressure. Don’t let sporting games stop your urge to do whatever the person next to you does. If one person hoots or hollers, you should

probably hoot or holler. If a whole bunch of people hoot, you should be an owl. Even when in 9 cases out of 10 you will have no idea in this whole sweet world what part of the game brought on such a re-action, it is safe to say that as long as you are quick to spot chanting or whooping trends (and aren’t shout-ing “YEAH!” 8 seconds af-ter everyone else, resulting in blank stares) and follow along, your secret is safe. Plus, look around. There is at least a guaranteed half of the crowd there franti-cally scanning the field or getting whip lash from try-ing to see what everyone else is doing too. It goes back to the greatest phi-losophy: If the fans at a sporting event told you to

jump off a bridge, would you? Of course you would! Be a Copycat- Even if you are cheering at all the ap-propriate times, there is no way you will fool anyone if you don’t pick up some sporting lingo and shout it randomly. Since you are probably not really watch-ing the game, eavesdrop on the conversations near you. Only tune in on the aggres-sive-sports-mutter, and ig-nore the gossip, otherwise you’ll be accidently shout-ing “JESSIE IS CHEATING ON BOBBY BOY,” which not only will result in many odd and possibly shocked looks, but also a beating from Bobby Boy. Listen out for other kids explaining game rules or mumbling insults at the other team. Once you’ve heard a phrase you feel comfortable enough to re-peat, turn to the person next to you and let it loose. They will be so impressed they will crown you Best Fan Ever right then and there, or at least mentally categorize you as someone who is Not Completely an Idiot. Be careful what you copy, though. Saying some-thing too complex or spe-cific will make others ask questions, and then you may be tempted to actually try and explain your com-ment…a recipe for disaster, no doubt. Always Blame the Ref- This may or may not work in your favor, but it seems that enough hardcore sports fans do it already, so what harm could it do? Shouting things like “That dang-um

ref!” and “He’s been paid off!” will only really get you in trouble if you are stand-ing next to the referee’s son or spouse. Or, of course, if the ref called an action that helped your team. Use this one wisely, and you may get some appreciative grunts or head-nods, which is all we can ever ask for in this life. Don’t just take this guide’s word for it though. Three sophomore girls– Becca McHale, Shannon Romutis, and Jenny Sami-os– have sound advice for anyone still struggling to be accepted within the sport-ing event fanclub. McHale says, “Go with friends and dress up re-ally spirited like you know what’s happening. Then ask around and find out who’s playing so that you can just shout out obscenities about the other team until you win.” “I’m a pro at this,” says Romutis. “You always make sure you’re not right in the middle of the crowd, be-cause then it will be obvi-ous when you have no idea what you’re doing.” And finally, Samios says, “Eat lots of food” to help ease the pain, and to go through the mental check-list: “That person has the ball. He’s on our team. Good.” Indeed, that is good. Never forget: worst comes to worst, you can always not go to the game and say you did, and then look up the scores online once it’s finished. Who wants to be spat on that much anyway?

Photo Credit: danielle MattaPa

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“I’d give my first born child for some Pinkberry right now.” – Senior Jannen Hermann There’s no doubt about it. Kids love frozen yogurt more than disobeying their parents, and in a county with almost 100,000 mi-nors, it should come as no surprise that there might be one or two rival loca-tions battling to control kids’ taste buds. You’d think something as delicate as frozen yogurt would be magically immune to the American tradition of gut-busting extravagance. You’d be wrong. Recently, the fro-yo em-porium Sweet Frog opened a new location in Leesburg, right off of route 7. Now there are three eateries that serve exclusively frozen yo-gurt within the town, which barely covers 12 square miles, and three others who sells it alongside ice cream. That means the average person, who jogs roughly a 10 minute mile, could can-cel out an entire workout as it happens by eating frozen yogurt every 20 minutes. Local hero John Dooney could sample a new breed of sub-zero fermented milk every 10 minutes! If you were to estimate the number of fro-yo dis-pensaries across Loud-oun County, you’d guess six, maybe seven, right? Wrong. But don’t feel bad, you and 100 other surveyed students made the same error. In fact, the average Tuscarora student believes there are 57% fewer lactose delicatessens than there ac-

tually are. From the tip top of Virginia to the foothills of Reston, there are 21 dif-ferent locations in Loudoun County, 12 of which are so new that they haven’t been listed on Google Maps. This ridiculous quantity of yogurt raises quite a few questions: Why is this icy form of dairy so popular? Is this trend a threat to the local economy? Will anyone resist this onslaught of in-tolerance...lactose intoler-ance? Whenever one notices a fad growing at an alarm-ing rate, whether it be “Call Me Maybe,” frozen yogurt, or fascism, it’s only natural to glance at it over one’s shoulder in curious fear. When, according to a re-cent polling, the students of Tuscarora prefer frozen yogurt to ice cream, which is as important to American culture as baseball, apple pie, and Fox News, true patriots can’t help but be more than a little uneasy. America is a land of ex-cess; we’re proud of our Double Gulps, Hummers, and large population below the poverty line. But more importantly, America is a land of fatties. More than one third of the adult popu-lation is obese, and almost half of the US will be obese within two decades. But of the leading cause of this fro-yo epidemic stems from a deadlier virus, one which has gripped this nation by its love handles and male maternity pants: health consciousness. According to our crack team of researchers, 90%

of all frosted yogurt ba-zaars are located within a five block radius of either a gym, health center, or a hospital. But why are young and intelligent Americans be-coming so disillusioned as to worship this “health con-scious” substitute as god’s gift to the blood-clot? One serving of generic brand of vanilla ice cream averages 130 calories per serving, so logically, frozen yogurt must have roughly -20 cal-ories, right? In reality, the equivalent generic brand of frozen yogurt has only nine fewer calories and two more grams of sugar per serving. America began its love affair with health crazes in the 1950s, presumably af-ter Prohibition was lifted and alcoholism took center stage. Old fashioned clips had liberal smatterings of mustached men curling free weights in short shorts. The health euphoria lasted un-til people…got tired? (You have to remember, there were wars, the space race, disco, the ‘80s, and, worst of all, boy bands.) People gave up on trying to grow wheatgrass in their living rooms, and opted for a si-multaneously more realistic and naïve approach: gorg-ing on Antarctic lactose, not realizing that it builds love handles like Frank Lloyd Wright. But this scourge of a des-sert not only aims to bloat our figures, but to do the opposite to our wallets as well. Local economics ex-pert Michael Burnett says

that the frozen yogurt in-dustry in Loudoun County “could be [an economic] bubble.” An economic bub-ble is when an industry ex-periences rapid growth and artificially inflated prices, ending with an inevitable and “dramatic” crash. A bubble in the real estate market was one of the pri-mary causes of the current recession, the worst since the Great Depression. According to The Husky Headline’s top researchers, the frozen yogurt industry represents roughly two per-cent of employment within Tuscarora High School. Ac-cording to Burnett, a healthy economy has an unemploy-ment rate of between three and four percent. On top of that, the collapse of this industry could cause Tusca-rora’s economy to shrink by eight percent. Empty your savings ac-counts, stock up on canned foods, build a well; it’s about to be 1929 all over again. Senior Onslo Parker re-members the great Silly Bandz recession of 2009, the last great blow to the lo-cal teen economy. “Life was an everyday struggle. Hours of slaving away were spent just trying to put measly scraps on the table. I can’t imagine anything worse.” Don’t worry, Onslo, you won’t have to imagine it. Frozen yogurt will soon make it a reality. This dev-astating crisis is already vis-ibly taking root, with iconic Leesburg landmark Razzel Dairy Bar being its first vic-tim. But this cultured lactose won’t just explode your fig-ure and drain your wallets, now it’s hitting where it hurts: our stomachs. There is only one gastro-enterologist in the Loudoun County area, yet the same county has an immeasur-able number of saintly citi-zens afflicted by “Loving Americans who Cautiously Tip-toe Over Sweetened El-ephants In the Noticeably Tiny, Open, well-Lit and Empty Room And Never

Caved to Eating Syndrome,” which is more commonly known as L.A.C.T.O.S.E. I.N.T.O.L.E.R.A.N.C.E.. We employed every jour-nalistic tool at our disposal, but we could not find one Tuscarora student whose life is plagued by this epi-demic willing to share their side of the story. Most ex-perts theorize that there is collusion in the fro-yo industry, where major con-glomerates pay off any whistle-blowers under the table, or blackball them in the media. Hitting dead end after dead end, we ul-timately had to take off our Sherlock Holmes deerstalk-ers of investigation and slide on our trucker caps of shame and return home. Our efforts, though, were far from fruitless. Oscar Wilde once said, “By giving us the opinions of the un-educated, journalism keeps us in touch with the igno-rance of the community.” If that’s true, then we might as well be Scooby Doo, be-cause we just unmasked frozen yogurt.