A day in health class can really teach you something.  Last week’s topic was portion control and a discussion of how a lot of Americans are now overweight or obese.  It really makes you step back from the table and look at your dinner plate.

Serving portions grew a lot in the 80′s.  A bagel back then was 140 calories and 3 inches wide.  Today, a bagel can be about 350 calories and 6 inches wide!  That equals half of the grains a person is supposed to have in one day.  Scary, huh?  The scariest part for me is that kids are even at risk for conditions like heart disease.  It’s made me focus even more on regular exercise, although just a walk can reduce the odds of becoming obese.  I think it’s kind of silly for people who are at risk and are being affected to do nothing about it.  Exercising and eating smaller portions aren’t hard.  It’s for their benefit; for a better, healthier life.   Why not?

So walk your dog, ride your bike, or dance like nobody’s watching.  Because it will be for a better tomorrow.  And thanks to my health teacher, who taught me what I’m telling you.

Miss Lori

“With the economy as it is, unemployment at an all time high, violence in schools and H1N1 on the minds of everyone who sits next to someone who is coughing or sneezing, stress levels are high for parents. But it’s also high for kids too. What is stressing you out these days, and what do you do to deal with it?”

Abi age 10~
I stress about schoolwork a lot. I deal with it by asking my parents for help and practicing things that I have trouble with.

Sinead age 17~
As a high school senior applying for colleges, I am most stressed out about preparing for the future! It becomes very surreal when you start seeing deadlines for college applications. I never thought the day would come, but here I am applying for college, deciding what I’ll be majoring in, and getting ready to leave my family and venture out into the “real world,” all on my own!! I began questioning whether I am ready or not to make my own dinners, or make sure I’m up on time for classes every morning, or do my own laundry! I know most 17 year olds won’t agree with me, but if it were my choice, I’d take my mommy and daddy along with me to college in a heartbeat! It doesn’t help that all my friends talk non-stop about college; where they’ve applied so far, and where they’ve gotten in or been rejected! Every high school senior across the nation that is preparing for college feels the same way right about now! As an aspiring performer, I will also have to complete auditions for programs at different schools, which will ultimately decide whether or not I am accepted, and whether I am granted scholarships. Which is also very important. (Hey! College is expensive!) The future holds a lot for me right now, and I’m just trying to prepare myself… if it’s possible!

Tess age 9~
Sometime I get stressed—like when our school was giving out vaccines. I was trying to decide if it was good because I am scared about needles. The economy stresses me out because my family doesn’t have money for things, and I worry about that because sometimes I want things, but those aren’t needs.

McKenna age 11~
Well, I feel scared sometimes when I know my parents are spending a lot of money on me with dance. I get scared that they’re spending a little too much sometimes. I also am scared that with the flu going around that I’m going to get sick. I’m starting the new school year out great; good grades, making a great impression on all my new teachers. I don’t want to get sick and get loaded with makeup homework. I’m not as scared about getting H1N1 though. It seems kind-of weird, I know, but I’m just not as worried about it as anything else. I’ve heard H1N1 isn’t the nastiest flu around, so I’m not as scared about it. Also one of my dance instructors and her son just had H1N1 and they’re fine. So, I’m not that scared at all. One thing that’s been on my mind is cancer. You see one of my favorite, youngest teachers I ever had just died of breast cancer. She was diagnosed with it just as soon as school got out, so I had no idea that she had cancer until a couple days before she died. I saw her a couple weeks before she died, after her Chemotherapy I later found out, and she looked and acted fine. Apparently she was feeling fine until a couple days before she died. She went to the hospital Halloween weekend and then, November 1st, she died. She was so healthy when school got out and then that happened. So I ‘m afraid of getting cancer, (even though it’s very rare), or getting really sick.

Elita age 9~
I, as a girl, am going through troubles with friends, siblings and growing up in every way; maturity, achievements, and other places

Kyra age 11~
Plenty of things are stressing me out, and some of them are the same things that concern my parents, such as H1N1 and business. But a lot of them are more related to girls my age, especially things like being embarrassed. I deal with troubling issues in plenty of different ways, by praying about it, asking my parents and youth group leaders about it, and reading books about it.

Jaedyn age 6~
Not feeling well, and my brother and sister fighting stresses me out. So I cuddle with my Mommy.

Ava age 11~
Everything that I’m doing, including homework stresses me out. To help me calm down I just take it one day at a time.

Everyone knows the word “twilight”.  But to most girls that word doesn’t refer to the time of day when it’s light out and you can see the moon.  Twilight is a best-selling book series which has led to super-hyped movies!  But what IS all the hype about?  Sometimes even I, a faithful Twilight fan, cannot understand it all at once.

The Twilight saga actually is a great, romantic, adventurous, and mysterious series.  There are even some guys who have read the books and actually enjoyed it, like one of my friends at school.  Most guys write off the  phenomenon, including the novels, because the whole thing seems so ridiculous.  But, it’s just the movies that really are changing their minds, not the books.

Of course, for us a girls, a huge appeal to the movies is the eye candy.  All the guys of  Twilight are extremely hot, all of us know that.  Whether you’re loving Robert Pattinson’s famous “Edward” hair or Taylor Lautner showing off his rock hard six-pack abs, it’s pretty tempting.  Though, the story line isn’t as much concentrated on.

The movie follows the book for the most part.  But like any adaption, it skips scenes, it adds scenes, it shortens important scenes and changes others. Like, in the first Twilight movie, Bella admits she knows Edward is a vampire on a car ride home from Port Angeles.  In the movie, she tells Edward what she knows in a clearing in a dark forest, in a dramatic, intense scene.  Sure, it’s a good scene, but to faithful Twilight readers, it takes away from the true roots of the story.

The hype over “New Moon” is a combination of many things.  For readers, there are great expectations for it to live up to the book.  For the girls who are “gaga” over the guys, they’re hoping to see a lot of skin.  And for the people who saw the first movie and thought it was “just okay,” they’re hoping the second will be better.

I’m excited to see what the new director will bring to the table.  But I’m not expecting much more than the first movie.  I’m definintley going to see it, but I probably won’t stay up all night for the midnight showing.

Some critics who’ve already seen “New Moon” say it’s pretty bad.  But I don’t think that matters.  Most Twilight fans are pretty faithful and won’t care about the reviews.   I’m not surprised the critics don’t like it.  The people who love the movies aren’t the adults or the parents, but the screaming teenage girls.

So, maybe the hype over Twilight isn’t about how good the actual movie or plotline turn out to be.  Whether you love the books or love the guys, everyone will be drawn to “New Moon” differently.

I’m not sure how I’ll like it.  But I have new hope since a different director is shining a new light on the movie series.

This website provides the girls of Chicago a place to call their own — to connect with their peers from the North Shore to the Far South Side and out to all of our suburbs. I will simply guide their coverage of the Windy City and cultivate their interest in journalism and web technology.

The Beatles revolutionized music within their nine years as a band, and even over forty years later, they continue to be a chief influence to musicians around the world. Within a decade, they went from being a local English band to a legendary icon worldwide. Not only are they appealing audibly but visually. For these particular reasons, it only made sense to Drake to dedicate an entire game of Rock Band to them. The process, as you can imagine, was not easy. The creative developers worked with the Beatles’ own Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, as well as Yoko Ono to represent the late John Lennon and Olivia and Dhani Harrison on behalf of George Harrison. They were meticulously involved in the entire process of creating an experience that allows other people to stand in their shoes, play their music, and belt out their beloved hits. Drake admits that it was very hard to please all five members of the Beatles’ party, but in the end all the criticism only made the game better. The project was evidently successful, as over one million copies of the game have already been sold.

As any Beatles fan knows, the British foursome was deeply into love and charity. Stone Chin (PR for Xbox) helped make it possible for The Beatles Rock Band users to follow in their footsteps. Unlike most video games, this game is beneficial globally. Any time someone purchases “All You Need is Love” at the online Xbox store, proceeds go to a Charity called “Doctors Without Borders”, which provides assistance in nearly 60 countries to people threatened by

violence, diseases, etc. Perhaps you’d like a hand painted Beatles Xbox console. Fifty exquisite consoles have been made, and each will be auctioned off for “Doctors Without Borders” as well. The last hand painted Xbox 360 was auctioned for $18,000.

The Beatles Rock Band for Xbox 360 captures the very essence of all that is The Beatles. It is full of their greatest songs, gives money to charity, and educates children in music appreciation, inspiring them with the hits of the greatest band of the yesterday, today, and surely of tomorrow.

For more information on “Doctors Without Borders”, go to www.doctorswithoutborders.org.
John Drake is also the drummer for The Main Drag, a Boston-based band in which all five members are employees of Harmonix. You may recognize their song “Jagged Gorgeous Winter” from Rock Band 2.