I can’t say that school is an enjoyable thing for everyone, including myself, but I can say that there are things at school we should be thankful for, even when we don’t have the most positive attitude on a Monday morning to notice. Let’s start from the time when you get up in the morning to when the last bell rings to dismiss us for the day.

Every day, there is a bus driver who wakes up early to pick us up. Even if you don’t ride a bus, the bus driver still comes around to offer a free ride to school every day. That’s free transportation right there. Once you get to school, there are five principals who are ready to start a new day with us, whether it’s just throwing a smile at us, giving us words of encouragement through the announcements or even just giving us a fist bump as we walk through the doors. Then, you have about 1700 other students of different races and backgrounds to socialize with, while other schools can’t say the same. Our school has the honor of having a huge amount of diversity in our student body because being different is good.

Next, you have teachers, one of the main components of school. As soon as you walk into your first block class, you have someone who is willing to teach you and do whatever it takes for you to succeed. A teacher’s salary isn’t the highest thing in the world, but based on the ways our teachers are here at HHS, that’s one of the last things they worry about at the end of the day. We walk into class everyday, and we don’t notice the little things our teachers do for us. We don’t know how many hours they spent grading the papers we didn’t try on, or how they could’ve had a whole lesson planned out that we never completed because the class was talking. Teachers play a big role in our lives, and it’s something we shouldn’t take for granted, but instead be thankful for.

If it’s anything we can all agree on here, it’s that school lunches aren’t always the best, but at least they’re something. We have six lines to choose from for lunch every day with different options. Our lunch ladies make so many meals for us every day, and we should be thankful for that. HHS also has a high percentage in free or reduced lunch, which means our lunch ladies are cooking meals every day that aren’t being paid for. Shouldn’t we be thankful for that?

Last of all, we have the classes and clubs we should be thankful for. Our school has a wide variety of classes, clubs and different opportunities to choose from, and once again, most schools can’t say the same. We even have an Academic Academy after school every week to help students in their classes. That’s basically an extra couple of hours teachers stay at the school to help us.

By the end of the day, there are still many more reasons to be thankful in our school. Even the hallways. Have you ever stopped to notice how clean they were? We have custodians who work late in the evenings just so we can have a clean floor to walk on the next day. It’s the little things that we don’t notice that we should be thankful for. School can definitely be a hassle for students, but it’s also something that has given us so much, enough for us to be thankful for.

On Sept. 7, Apple released their new iPhone 7 and 7 plus along with a new IOS software update on Sept. 13. Like many others, I decided to update my phone, which I later on regretted doing. I updated my phone when IOS 10.1 came out. Those who had IOS 10 experienced a lot of malfunctions. Some people’s phones became really laggy and glitchy. Within two days, Apple released IOS 10.1, which helped solve those issues but not all were fixed.

Like thousands of others who still suffer from the malfunctions, the continuous new updates haven’t done much improving. It’s been more than a month since I’ve had IOS 10.1 and the update has ruined my phone. A glitch that I’ve experienced is a frozen phone when more than four messages pop up at the same time. The consistent freezing has made me mute group chats or other things that cause excessive notifications. In most occasions, the keyboard takes a couple of seconds for it to appear or at times the keyboard doesn’t appear at all making it difficult to use. Also, like many of the previous IOS updates, the battery life has been a huge issue. With IOS 10 it seems almost impossible not to charge your phone more than once every day. Since the irritating glitches haven’t been fixed, some people have gotten new phones that either haven’t been updated or are not from Apple.

Although there are many downsides to the update, there are still some good aspects to it. For instance, the change in format in the lock screen is convenient because it gives you more things to view without having to enter a password. Also while using iMessage, you can now play games such as Battleship with others who also have iphones. The bedtime option located in the clock app is helpful because it lets you figure out how much sleep you want to get that night.

29 students from Harrisonburg were chosen to represent the school at the 2017 VMEA District 5 Chorus Event after auditioning at East Rockingham High School on Tuesday.

The students selected for representation are as follows:

Even though we are in November now and Thanksgiving is right around the corner, we don’t promote Thanksgiving as much as we do Christmas. For example, Walmart, Target, Costco and tons of other stores start bringing their Christmas decorations out in the beginning of November or sometimes even sooner. Christmas has so many other tactics to get people in the spirit from decorations in stores worldwide to music playing on its own radio station. Not only does Christmas have the beautiful decorations and soulful music every year, Christmas also has their own movies airing every day. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas; it’s one of my favorite times of the year. I just feel that Thanksgiving doesn’t get celebrated as much as it should. Since people are always wrapped up in making their Christmas so great they forget about making their Thanksgiving great too.

Thanksgiving is all about being together with your family and friends to celebrate everything you’re thankful for. Especially since the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today was first celebrated by the Pilgrims after the first harvest in the new world. So we should really show our appreciation on this day by thanking everyone for everything that we have recognized over the years. From thanking parents, siblings and friends to thanking your doctors and teachers really goes a long way.

Not only do you have your family and friends to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. You have tons of other reasons to be appreciative on this wonderful day. Such as your health, one that you are both physically and emotionally healthy, your freedom despite the frustration with politics. I’m thankful to be living in the U.S here where the men and women and their family members serve in the military. Finally, we have our parents and siblings to be thankful for on this day. Although you might fight with both of them over the years, nothing could ever replace anything what they have taught you threw all of those tough times.

U2’s album, Songs of Innocence, is definitely one of my favorites. This album is like wine, it gets better with age. All the songs have stories behind them, giving them more than just a great sound.

For example, Iris (Hold me close) is my personal favorite for a multitude of reasons. One, Bono wrote this song about his mother, Iris, who died when he was 14. He dedicated it to her because he felt he didn’t have very many memories of her and wanted to keep them all somewhere. In the song he says, “The ache in my heart is so much a part of who I am.” I interpreted that excerpt as his mom’s death has stayed with him and it contributes to who he is today.

Another great example of a story within a song is in Cedarwood road. That song is about where he grew up, specifically the street, Cedarwood road. In that song he says, “The hurt you hide, the joy you hold, the foolish pride that gets you out the door up on Cedarwood, Cedarwood road.” I translated that as Bono explaining the people he grew up with, their personalities and how everyone was different.

Songs of Innocence has a follow-up album that has yet to be released: Songs of Experience. This album will be to complete the journey that Songs of Innocence started. I look forward to the release and have high expectations, although I am certain U2 will go above and beyond as always.

I’ve always hated the NFL for as long as I could remember. It always had to butt its head into every holiday, every family event and every Sunday of my life. The team I “like” is purely based on the fact that they’re the rivals of my family’s favorite team because of how much I resented them sucking up the attention of my family and their merch/pictures/presence being all over my house; I was plain sick of them. I could take high school games, they were an opportunity to hang out with my friends, but NFL games were a different story. And then I joined the Newsstreak fantasy league.
My family had played fantasy as a competition the year before, and I was mystified as to why they liked it so much; they talked about it constantly. Naturally, I was curious. Shout out to Lil Stew for helping me out with that. Long story short, I ended up loving fantasy football.
First of all, I’ve learned a lot. When I started, I barely knew the positions in football and the big, big names I had picked up from my family. Now I know many more names, all of the teams fairly well and more. I’m still a little sketchy on the point system, but I’ll get back to that.
Secondly, I actually care about football. It’s more fun for me to watch the high school games, and I actually enjoy the NFL ones besides finding out that the Cowboys won.
Thirdly, extensive knowledge of the NFL wasn’t required. There are a variety of ways to play it, whether basing your starters on who is projected highest, or trusting in the teams you believe will deliver. I went the first way because of how little I know concerning the league, but it sort of worked out. Sure, I’m currently 4-5. Not great, but I’m not absolutely, positively terrible. Plus, it’s basically luck (and no, I’m not saying that because I’m salty about my ratio). Yes, it’s strategy, but everything depends on injuries and bye weeks and just plain performance. I remember my starting defense one week was rated at a 10 and they ended up giving me negative four points. Negative four! And then other times, I’ve made it less than 10 away from 200 points. That’s really good. There are so many variables, and you’ve just got to play it right, but you’ve also got to be lucky.
So is football my new favorite sport? No. Do I know every single player on every single team and their position? Not even close. I didn’t even pay attention to what they get points for…yeah, I should probably learn about that. Regardless, I’ve had a lot of fun, and I didn’t have to know a lot about football to participate. Whether with family or friends, I’m certain I’ll be playing in the years to come.

Sparked by Trump’s comments about minority groups, students and families took to the streets to protest racial, gender and sexual inequality. They marched from the high school down to court square, aided by a police escort. The group then took to marching around court square and eventually stood on the steps of the courthouse itself with their signs and chanted cheers such as “build love not hate.”

Under the current system the NFL operates on, penalties are non-reviewable by the referees. It is up to their naked eye to determine whether to make a call or not, and at full speed, the game of football is fast; too fast to be 100% accurate. The referees go through extensive training to become qualified, but week after week, we see missed calls that determine the outcome of games. It’s painful to see a team lose not because they were beaten by their opponent, but because the refs didn’t do their job.

An example of this happening was near the end of the week 6 matchup between the Seahawks and the Falcons. A clear pass interference that was not called would have given the Falcons the ball deep in Seahawks territory, but the yellow laundry never hit the turf. The Falcons turned the ball over on downs and that was the game. The Seahawks won by playing dirty. In week 10, the Patriots were on the one yard line of the Seahawks (seeing a pattern here?) with a few seconds left to play. That one play was going to determine the game. Tom Brady threw a fade to Rob Gronkowski, but the ball fell incomplete. The safety in coverage clearly held Gronkowski’s arms, which would have been a holding penalty. The call was never made. The game was again decided by inconsistent judging by the refs.

The argument against making penalties reviewable is that it would ruin the integrity of the game, and there would be no need for refs at all, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The integrity of the game would be upheld if the right calls were being made. Fans are starting to lose faith in the referees. Reviewing penalties would only act as a backup to the referees. There is no shame in having a fallback in case a call is missed.

Not only that, but the referees employed by the NFL don’t even work full time. It is a part time job. Making the job full time would mean more dedicated and better trained referees. The NFL owns a day of the week. There is room in the budget to pay the salaries for full time refs.

Enough of the bad calls and the non-calls. It’s time we let the teams decide who wins the game, not the refs.

Madison Varner is a sophomore and it is her second year on staff. She is the advertising manager. She runs track in the winter and spring. Outside of school she enjoys shopping and spending time with family and friends.

Kyle Brown is a staff reporter for HHS media Newsstreak staff. He is a sophomore at the high school and in his second year of Newsstreak. He enjoys all the new places his stories might take him. His favorite things to cover are sports stories and infographics. Outside, of Newsstreak he swims and runs track for the high school, and just enjoys playing sports in general.

Audrey Knupp is a sophomore, and she is an advertising manager this year. This is her second year on staff. She has three sisters, three cats, and a dog named Bella. In her free time Audrey enjoys being outside, playing soccer, and hanging out with friends and family. She plays on the U16 girls travel team for Shenandoah Valley United (SVU). Her favorite color is pink glitter, and her favorite food is watermelon.

Edgar Sanchez Bautista likes to play soccer, his favorite position is forward. He also wants to go to college for at least four years and wants to be a police officer or an interpreter for spanish. Edgar’s biggest wish is to go to Paris and is hoping to do so one day. He also would like to learn to speak french.

David Gamboa is a senior at HHS and is a third year student in Journalism. He is a photographer and a staff writer. He is a captain on the varsity football team and he enjoys sleeping and hanging out with his friends.

Like I am sure many of you are, I am looking forward to essentially every aspect of the looming Christmas and and Thanksgiving breaks. I say essentially, because, in short, there are certain aspects of that “quality family time” that my parents and grandparents always talk about, that maybe I’m not looking forward to so much.

In large part, that is because I’m not too happy about the inevitable political cross fire this Thanksgiving and Christmas. But is that an excuse? In some ways, yes. Being a five year old, watching your parents and grandparents argue about the political mumbo jumbo you scarcely understand, let alone care about, has never been fun. In fact, it sticks with you, and every time politics is brought up you find yourself biting your tongue, not voicing your opinions as to not repeat the scene from when you were five.

This season, it will only be harder. I would love to say that I can’t imagine a situation where I break, finally giving up on the peacekeeping tradition that has, more or less, been upheld since I was five. But that’s not an option. It never has been and never will be. I should know; I watched the argument before I cared about the subject matter and understood nothing about what was going on. Why was this happening? What made them so passionate as to be at each other’s throats over the breakfast table? Those were the questions I asked in my head at the time. Now I understand, and I have to prevent myself from falling into the same trap.

If your family is like mine, divided by politics, then you know what all of this is like. Unfortunately, I don’t have a magical device that will glue your mouth shut to make sure you don’t explode and expel the hard-won peace. Wouldn’t that be amazing? But that’s not what I have. I just want to remind you all, despite the fact that this year’s election is even more traumatic than all those before it, that keeping the peace over Thanksgiving and Christmas is worth it. You may not enjoy feeling as though you need to sew your lips shut, but when it all came out, when you were five, that was even less fun. If anything, maintain the peace for a younger sibling or cousin, so they, at least, don’t have to endure it before they understand what the arguing is about.

The magical device that there actually is, however, are cars, and feet, so that we can escape the situation and cool down before it becomes a repeat of the catastrophe of ten years ago. At least, that’s what I’m planning on doing. Going on a walk and maybe yelling at the neighborhood as a whole what I wanted to yell at my right-minded family members. That is my plan, however imperfect it is, it doesn’t result in fighting over the dinner table. I suggest you do it too. And remember that they are still family, despite your constant urge to sew your lips shut.

City-county band is an ensemble full of students throughout the local schools that have auditioned to be in. The ranks which are called chairs are based upon how well the student did throughout the audition. A total of 18 students will be participating in this year’s ensemble.

Junior Bo Boisen, who has been playing the flute since the second grade, managed to get first chair for the flute section.

“The main thing that motivated me to audition is that it’s a calm audition, “ Boisen said. “It’s a good trial audition before district band because it’s the same audition process and pieces.”

In order to audition, all your major scales, chromatic scale and the prepared etude that has been given out must be known. While in the audition room, no talking is permitted, unless it’s from one of the judges, or you’ll become disqualified. It’s a blind audition, so the panel of judges can’t see you and vice versa.

“Usually before an audition my hands get shaky or get clammy from nerves, but at this audition I knew I had a really good shot at first or second, so I didn’t feel as nervous,” Boisen said.

Although this is just Boisen’s second time being in the City-County band, she has learned a lot through the auditions.

“My advice to anyone who wants to audition is to start by practicing early and not leave it until last minute. Also, if you work yourself up beforehand, you’ll be more nervous, so just relax and not worry about the outcome.” Boisen said.

Sophomore Ronal Gomez, who landed seventh chair trumpet, has been playing the instrument since the fifth grade.

“I was motivated to audition because I want to get better at my instrument and to become more experienced,” Gomez said.

His motivation prepared him for the best and for the worst. Gomez went in ready for critique.

“Before the audition, I prepared both mentally and physically for what the judges are going to ask of me,” Gomez said. “There is always something that I can work on improving.”  

The city-county band concert will be held at East Rockingham High School on Saturday, Jan. 28.

Here are the results from the auditions: 

Boroka Boisen Flute, 1st Chair

Irene Liu Oboe, 1st Chair

Alice McNett Oboe, 1st Alternate

Rachel Everard Clarinet, 4th Chair

Noah Pope Alto Sax, 1st Chair

Lucy Moss Alto Sax, 3rd Chair

Anahi Bravo Alto Sax, 1st Alternate

Ronal Gomez Trumpet, 7th Chair

Jerome Li Trombone, 2nd Chair

Kervin Lopez-Rojas Trombone, 3rd Chair

Nathan Ringle Euphonium, 3rd Chair

Andrew Ely Euphonium, 1st Alternate  

Jaden Graham String Bass, 1st Chair

Joshua Jordan Percussion, 1st Chair

Nick Burzumato Percussion, 2nd Chair

Benjamin Blake Percussion, 3rd Chair

Sam Schaeffer Percussion, 4th Chair

Cary Hardwick Percussion, 8th Chair

Results courtesy of Daniel Upton

Like I am sure many of you are, I am looking forward to essentially every aspect of the looming Christmas and and Thanksgiving breaks. I say essentially, because, in short, there are certain aspects of that “quality family time” that my parents and grandparents always talk about, that maybe I’m not looking forward to so much.

In large part, that is because I’m not too happy about the inevitable political cross fire this Thanksgiving and Christmas. But is that an excuse? In some ways, yes. Being a five year old, watching your parents and grandparents argue about the political mumbo jumbo you scarcely understand, let alone care about, has never been fun. In fact, it sticks with you, and every time politics is brought up you find yourself biting your tongue, not voicing your opinions as to not repeat the scene from when you were five.

This season, it will only be harder. I would love to say that I can’t imagine a situation where I break, finally giving up on the peacekeeping tradition that has, more or less, been upheld since I was five. But that’s not an option. It never has been and never will be. I should know; I watched the argument before I cared about the subject matter and understood nothing about what was going on. Why was this happening? What made them so passionate as to be at each other’s throats over the breakfast table? Those were the questions I asked in my head at the time. Now I understand, and I have to prevent myself from falling into the same trap.

If your family is like mine, divided by politics, then you know what all of this is like. Unfortunately, I don’t have a magical device that will glue your mouth shut to make sure you don’t explode and expel the hard-won peace. Wouldn’t that be amazing? But that’s not what I have. I just want to remind you all, despite the fact that this year’s election is even more traumatic than all those before it, that keeping the peace over Thanksgiving and Christmas is worth it. You may not enjoy feeling as though you need to sew your lips shut, but when it all came out, when you were five, that was even less fun. If anything, maintain the peace for a younger sibling or cousin, so they, at least, don’t have to endure it before they understand what the arguing is about.

The magical device that there actually is, however, are cars, and feet, so that we can escape the situation and cool down before it becomes a repeat of the catastrophe of ten years ago. At least, that’s what I’m planning on doing. Going on a walk and maybe yelling at the neighborhood as a whole what I wanted to yell at my right-minded family members. That is my plan, however imperfect it is, it doesn’t result in fighting over the dinner table. I suggest you do it too. And remember that they are still family, despite your constant urge to sew your lips shut.

Danny Dombrowski
Skyline Paintball, located in Strasburg, Virginia, about a forty minute drive, is one of the best paintball places in the state of Virginia. The business is tucked away in the woods, down a gravel road. As you pull up to the check-in area, you pass endless fields with different designs from castles and buildings to trees and pallets. Not only is it a fun place to play it, but it is also very affordable.

This past weekend I headed down with seventeen friends to play. We were all very impressed with the layout when we arrived. The check-in process and getting gear can take some time, so I would recommend arriving a solid twenty to thirty minutes before your time slot begins. For two hours and all of our gear, it ended up only being $20 a person, however you will run out of paint and it is pretty costly. We ended up spending another $180 on three more cases of paint which each contain 2,000 paintballs. 8,000 paintballs may seem like a lot for two hours, but they will be gone before you know it. Other than the cost of paint, I had no other negatives.

The other cool thing about playing there is that each group is assigned a ref to officiate their games. Our ref was laid back and fun to be around the entire time. Also, you get to move around from course to course throughout your session. Skyline Paintball has over ten fields to choose from compared to most local places that only have one or two. All the fields are pretty in-depth as well. My favorite was the town, which sort of had a Walking Dead feeling to it since it was an abandoned town. During our session we got to play on four fields, but I plan to play on the other ones the next time I go.

For $20 and being with a group of friends, I don’t know what could be more fun then getting to shoot each other for a couple hours. It was definitely one of the funniest things I have done, and we have already started talking about going up again to play soon. If you want more information, you can head over to their website, http://www.skylinepaintball.com/home.html.

I have wanted to own a pet fox ever since I was about five years old watching “The Fox and the Hound” (I still cry every time she takes Todd back into the woods). The fad stopped for a while until recently when I was cutting down my extensive bucket list to just about 100 adventures. As I was doing this I came across a bullet point from a while ago that read, “Own an exotic pet.” It only took me about two seconds to remember the inspiration behind that aspiration.

I decided to keep that as one of the 100 list. I finished all of my work in class recently and started to think about the different exotic animals I could own. I thought about foxes first, of course, but decided to continue exploring the topic for a bit, first looking at legality in the state of Virginia. As it turns out, not only can you own a fox (of any kind), but also an otter, a hedgehog or even certain types of bears.

I do want an exotic pet very much, but at the same time it must be somewhat attainable and manageable to take care of; that strikes off bears for a number of reasons including morality. Hedgehogs are extremely cute and loveable but that raises the question, are they capable of loving you back? The answer is unclear so that knocked off hedgehogs. Now it’s between two of my favorite animals, fox and river otters (sea otters have scandalous relationships with baby seals that’s why I only have interest in river otters). Both are playful; foxes are smart and otters are funny. Then all at once my decision was suddenly made clear.

My classmate introduced me to the instagram account @juniperfoxx. Let me tell you, if you have ever thought even for a second about owning a fox, this little girl will eliminate every doubt you’ve ever had. I immediately fell in love with Juni and the idea of having a fox. The account does not promote this mentality because foxes are a bit of a handful but YOLO it’s already on the bucket list. And rule number one of having a bucket list is what is put on the list, stays on the list. No chickening out is permitted.

Foxes stink, they are far too rambunctious and they will dig inside your house. Yes, they are wild animals, but more specifically they are domestic wild animals. If they were to be put back in the wild they would not survive because they are too tame. With that said, if you are planning to get one you have to make sure your breeder is actually selling domesticated foxes. Taking a wild fox and putting it in your home just won’t work, and furthermore it isn’t ethical. Juniper is a red fox, which are not always domestic. To be sure you are getting a domestic fox, the marbled ones are not found in the wild, so that is a sure fire way to know you are getting the right fox.

They are the perfect mix between a cat and dog. They are extremely smart, meaning they are easily trained and further easily trained to use a litter box. If they are socialized as kits (baby foxes) they will attach to their owner and become the fluffiest cuddle buddy on the planet, laying in your lap and willingly going on walks.

All of this might make me sound crazy, but I swear I’m not. Foxes are the perfect pet and I fully intend to have one. As soon as I have my own house that is.