By Afton Johnson and Jessica Brandt

Trojan Tribune Staff

Photo courtesy of macworld.com

Technology can be a blessing and a curse. Here at West Central, we experience it both ways. Coming into the second quarter of the school year, the West Central staff came up with a new computer rule. Many students among us have had their laptop privileges revoked due to poor grades. Due to the large number of students failing, the staff decided to put a new rule into effect as an incentive to help students realize that they need to work hard while they are in school, and not to just waste their time. There are also students that have been using their computers for the right reasons. The West Central staff is not trying to punish every student as long as the students can keep their grades up. Continue Reading

By Afton Johnson and Jessica Brandt

Trojan Tribune Staff

Photo Courtesy of Kasma Magazine

Many movies nowadays have been based on popular books. The Hunger Games, which comes out in March, seems to be anticipated by people all over. Previous hits were Harry Potter, Twilight and The Help. Many people have their own opinions on which is better, the book versus the movie. “The books, definitely the books. They are way more in-depth. You can use your imagination to play out the book,” stated junior Brennan Ensz.

Compared to the movies, the Harry Potter book series received numerous awards, including, but not limited to, Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998, The Booksellers Association, The Bookseller Author of the Year 1998, Newsweek Best Book of the Year 2007. The movies received just as much accreditation as the books. They received the Teen Choice Award–Choice Summer Movie: Action Adventure and numerous others.

The Twilight book series gained recognitions on a national level, but never received an actual award for the publications. However, the movie series won an MTV Movie Award, People’s Choice Award and a Teen Choice Award. The Help was on the New York Times bestseller list and won the Indies Choice Book Award. The movie was nominated for an Oscar, Won a Golden Globe, and was nominated for a People’s choice award. As for The Hunger Games, the book was on the New York Times bestseller list, the USA Today’s bestseller list, New York Times Notable Children’s Book of 2008 and many other accreditations.

About 64 percent of the people interviewed said they liked the book better than the movie. “The book leaves so much up to your imagination and you can picture the characters how you want to,” stated Heather Craig. Another 27 percent disagreed. “I like the movies better because I don’t have to read,” said senior Adam Hentges. The remaining nine percent said they were very excited to go see The Hunger Games when it comes to theaters. “I am extremely excited to see the movie; my whole family has read every book,” stated Pam Titus.

By Jessica Brandt and Jacey Jira

Trojan Tribune Staff

Photo by Jacey Jira

Have you ever thought about making a video? During Maty Skinner’s sophomore year she had an idea to make a video using students and teachers around the school. She videoed them lip syncing to Justin Bieber’s “Somebody To Love”. “I got the idea from the Today Show,” Skinner explained. “One morning they were showing videos of kids just lip syncing different songs and I thought that would be cool to do with a lot of people.”

When asked about the difficulties of recording, she stated, “Honestly, it was easy at first, but the hardest part was trying to get people to actually do it. They would say yes at first, but once the camera started rolling, they’d be all shy and that was hard to deal with.” Skinner stated she tries to pick songs that are fun and entertaining. When asked what this year’s song will be, Skinner told us, “I’m planning on “Yeah” by Usher. I’m going to do “Party Rock Anthem” with the whole community.”

Skinner plans on switching up the videos this year. “I plan on involving the whole community in one of my videos; I think that would be fun. For the “Yeah” video, I want more than one person singing in the video at a time.” Skinner says it takes about a month to put a video together, depending on how committed she is. “I’d have to say the best part is getting to go around the whole school and watch how excited everyone gets when they see the final project.”