The Continuing of the Baccalaureate Tradition

Feature 

By Trevor Lumpkins

Husky Herald Reporter

   This spring Port Huron Northern and Port Huron High are coming together to create a special ceremony to acknowledge seniors who are Christians. The Port Huron City class of 2014 has a lot of potential to help this area grow and prosper.

   This ceremony is called Baccalaureate. This is a ceremony to recognize the accomplishments that these soon to be graduates have completed.

   These students believe that without God in their lives they would not have been able to complete this journey. These four years would have been a lot harder without the good Lord helping them along the way.

   Ted Harvey is one of the leaders helping to set up this special night. Ted has been a part of Baccalaureate for over 20 years.

   “Every year we do this event it gets better and better. Each year is different and amazing in their own way,” said Harvey.

   Also helping out with Baccalaureate is Gordy Farnsworth. Gordy has been helping out with this night for many years.

   “This night is all about the students and we want to keep it that way. Whatever the students have to show, whether it be a skit, a song, dance, or even digital design, they will have a chance to show how the Lord has worked or blessed them in their lives,” said Farnsworth.

   Already there has been a lot of interest in students being involved in Baccalaureate. Emily Torres has already said she would like to sing in ceremony.

   In past years Baccalaureate has been a great success. The building is packed and there has always been a great turnout.

   Even though each year is different “we like to keep at least a little tradition” says Harvey. One thing that Ted likes to keep the same is having a pastor come and be the key note speaker.

   This speaker is not picked by being the “best speaker” or the “best pastor”. This person is picked by the students.

   If there is a senior that is involved with the event that has a parent who is a pastor, that is the person who is picked to be the speaker.

   Baccalaureate has been a great success in the past and “we hope to keep it going strong for future generations. We don’t want this to HAVE BEEN a great event; we want it to continue to BE a great event,” said Farnsworth. 

Students Misusing Resources, Are Cheating Their Selves

Opinion 

By Thomas Saura

Husky Herald Reporter

  I can’t think of a better feeling than walking into your classroom and seeing you’re going to the computer lab. Oh man, comfortable seats with internet access in a different environment, plus there’s a good chance of no boring book work!

   Teachers go out of their way to come up with interesting and engaging lesson plans to make their extremely dry and plain subject a bit more intriguing. Whether that’s a simple flash game on the internet or some lengthy web quest, it’s all in good intentions to make your lives a little less dull.

   So I do not understand when some students get mad or upset that their teachers expect them to actually work. Too many students that are scheduled in the computer lab waste time by goofing off on the internet playing games, watching videos on YouTube, rolling around the computer lab to visit with friends, etc.

   It seems like some students heavily take advantage of the situation, treating it as an hour of “fun-time”. Last time I checked, you come to school to get an education, not to look up last week’s episode of your favorite web series.

   I am not saying it’s wrong to socialize and that everything needs to be consistent work, because there is time to socialize and catch up and do things you enjoy, but assignments come first. If most the kids in the class are working on their assignments and you decide to goof off with two or three friends, not only are you distracting the other students and wasting the time your teacher is giving you, but you’re cheating yourself.

   Now you’re going to have to work on your project on your personal time, when you could be doing things you actually enjoy, not some lame project you’re cramming in at 10 pm Sunday night. Now I can not write this without any blame, I have been there too, I think we all have.

   No one likes to do things last minute truthfully, it just stresses you out and gives you that much more of a burden on time. Just use the time appropriately so you d not tick your teacher off and irritate yourself later, it is not that difficult.

Career Day with the Tigers

Sports

By Dallas Chicone

Husky Herald Reporter

   The Detroit Tigers hosted The Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, April 2.

   Attending the game were students from Port Huron Northern part of the Tigers Career Day. The students got to attend the game and were talked to by some of the Tigers front office about their careers before the game.

   Mrs. Peattie the Marketing teacher at PHN set all this up. “This a great way to show the kids possible jobs they might be interested in after college,” Peattie said.  There were a total of five speakers, Jordan Fields from the Detroit Tigers Foundation, Christy Hammond,  the Community Relations manager, John Rehm, who is in charge of Sponsorships, Keri Galagher, the Sponsorship Service Coordinator, Lindsey Hayes from Broadcasting, and Joel Bienenfeld, from the marketing Campaign “Who’s Your Tiger?” “They were very informative,” said Peattie.

   “The career stuff was informative,” said Keaton Sprotberry (’15). “It was nice hearing some info on how to be involved in professional sports even if you aren’t playing them.

   In the game itself, Max Scherzer took the mound for the first time this season along with Jason Vergas for the Kansas City Royals.

   The Tigers got a strong start from Scherzer as he went eight scoreless innings allowing four hits and striking out seven.  He would take a no-decision in the game.  Newly-acquired Ian Kinsler supplied the offence as he got his first hit as a Tiger, a solo homerun in the bottom of the 4^th to give the Tigers an early 1-0 lead.

   Jason Vergas put in a solid start for the Royals going 7 innings, allowing one run and striking out six, also getting a no-decision.

  The Royals tied the game in the top of the 9^th as Tigers closer Joe Nathan blew his first save of the year.  The Royals loaded the bases on Nathan and scored the one run on an Alex Gordon sac fly.

   In the bottom of the 10^th Kinsler struck again as he singled home the winning run and the Tigers walked off to victory for the second straight time.

   “The game was exciting!” Sprotberry said. “A 10^th inning walk off! It doesn’t get much better than that!”

   “The game was great!” Andrew Silver (’14) said. “The highlight of the day was not only the walk off,  but when the building outside the park caught on fire.”

   Mrs. Peattie said that she will be doing Career Day again at Comerica Park. So if you want to go to a Tigers game next year, sign up for Marketing!

  

  

  

  

   

April Fools Day, Fooling People

Feature

By Jon May

Husky Herald Reporter

    April 1^st is a day that lets all pranksters run free. It lets them roam and place jokes on people as much as they want.

    On April 1^st 2014, YouTube; a popular website that lets you upload videos, decided it would be funny to pull a prank on the world. What prank? Well, by making up a fake trends video of 2014.

   These fake trends are either parodies made from actual trends that have occurred over the years, or just random trends that would never catch on. Or would they?

   These trends would include: Clocking, Kissing Dad, The Glub Glub Water dance song, Chicken High Five,

Flash Sobbing, and Guitar Tricking.

   I wanted to know what the student body thought of these fake or un-fake trends. “I thought that all of them were stupid, I don’t like when YouTube does their April fools jokes” said Paige Byrnaert (’14). “The only one that was actually worth my time was the Kissing Dad trend”

   YouTube isn’t the only big corporation to pull a spoof video this April fools. Another big company that  

pulled a joke video was Google.

   Every year Google takes one of their many features and adds a special feature that is so bizarre it drives people mad. “That’s awesome the way they created it, but as for it not being real that makes me angry” said Tom Coop (’14).

   This year they came up with the idea for a Google Maps spoof, involving catching Pokémon. They would have people, open up their Google maps application on their smart phone, and then Pokémon would show up. Then each person would move their Google map around the world until they caught every Pokémon.
   Reddit was another corporation to also pull pranks on the world. “It was fantastically stupid” said Brendan Maxwell (’14) a student who regularly uses Reddit.

   Reddit also decided they would play jokes on their subscribers by showing a new way to up vote, down vote, and scroll through their pages. “I wish they wouldn't play jokes like that, it would be cool if they were real.” Maxwell said.

   The question that still needs to be answered is if these supposedly “fake trends” will catch on or if these massive companies actually do have the capabilities to turn these virtual fake jokes into reality. I guess we will have to wait until next April fools to be posed by these same exact questions.

No Longer Underdogs: The Black Keys

Entertainment 

By Mike Horsey  

Husky Herald Reporter

   They are anything, but an overnight sensation. It took ten long years for their success to slowly climb for ‘The Black Keys.’ Suddenly, with the release of their last two albums, ‘El Camino’ and ‘Brothers,’ they have become one of the hottest rock bands in the world.

   After their most recent album, ‘El Camino,’ which was released in 2011, they debuted as the 2^nd hottest album on the 'Billboard Top 200' list. They powered their way to win two Grammys and the hearts of MILLIONS for their hard blues, smooth rhythm, and brilliant compositions. It was so successful that after their tour schedule was released they had sold out back-to-back Madison Square Garden in less than fifteen minutes.

   One common thing someone that claims to be a ‘Black Keys’ aficionado at our school will almost always hear from other people, like Connor Stager (’16) say, “I have no clue who that band is.” However, the great thing is, even if you have never heard their name, almost everyone has heard their songs plastered in comedy movies, Victoria Secret commercials, and blasting in the background of sporting events.

   ‘The Black Keys’ consists of Dan Auerbach with an everyday trademark beard, who mans the vocals and the guitar in the band, and Patrick Carney who shreds the drums with his extremely silent persona and Buddy Holly type glasses. When you listen to these two men humbly speak about their music you realize they’re two quiet friends from the small town of Akron, Ohio who like to shake the entire world with a mountain of noise.

   Connecting in high school, Patrick and Dan have always shared their love in music. To start off, they began playing music in Patrick’s basement. Bailey Watson (’14) says “…Ever since I began listening to their music…I always thought they were a long shot, but they’re coming out from under.” There’s no doubt that the thought of a two man band from the basements of Ohio have always been placed low on the totem pole.

    From the guys’ first old fashion fan base building by touring in a van with no air, which is the picture on the front of the ‘El Camino’ album, to their wild success headlining around the world. We now wait, after three years, for the debut of their new album ‘Turn Blue.’ The world seems to be confident with the two kids from Akron, Ohio; however, one can only imagine that it’s still all syncing in for them. Regardless, ‘The Black Keys’ are not underdogs, anymore.

If you could change one thing about PHN, what would it be?

Chatbox

By Molly Capadagli

Husky Herald Reporter 

Riley Snowden (’15)

“If there was one thing I could change about PHN it would be probably be the way everyone treated each other because like you can tell, some people that just act like they’re better than everyone else and there is some people who are kind and would help anyone who needed help in the school. I wish there were more people like that, because all those little acts of kindness count.”

Emily Gates (’14)

 “I would change off campus lunch because I feel like everyone does it anyways and food locations are right by the school. Not only would I want that to change but also longer lunches. The line at lunch is so long you only have like 15 minutes to eat and chat.”

Hannah Middleton (’16)

“If I could change one thing about Port Huron Northern it would have to be how people think about sports. Everyone thinks football is the number one sport, when in reality tennis, girls’ basketball and boy’s baseball has the most talent. I really don’t think people realize that.”

Jordan Tomlinson (’17)

 “Longer lunches because we can have more time to mingle and eat our lunch. “

The Monuments Men not so Monumental

Opinion

By Alyssa Ayers 

Husky Herald Reporter

   The Monuments Men hit the box office February 7, 2014 earning $127,919,000. The film had a star studded cast among them being; Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, and George Clooney, who also directed the film.

   This movie is based on the mission of allied forces of art historians during World War II tasked with protecting artistic masterpieces from Hitler and the Nazi before the famous art and other culturally important things get destroyed by Hitler and his forces. This was going to be no easy task as the pieces were behind enemy lines in the thick of the war.

   This was not a bad movie, but I would not put it in the top favorites either. There were some good parts to the movie, most were too short for most liking, and then the story line was sort of boring.

   There were also some scenes that are comical whether on purpose or not but they were still silly.

   The acting from the cast was good too, but viewers just didn't feel the urgency or importance of their mission during the movie. One of viewer’s favorite scenes from the film without giving any spoilers was when George Clooney’s character was interrogating a Nazi.

   Also a downside to this film was they never really made the audience care about the characters, to make them feel invested and see this band of brothers going to war to rescue this super important art work for future generations, but that just did not really come across the screen.

   It could have gone more in depth with the story line and all of the details of what truly happened in real life. This was a shorter film than some, being 118 minutes long. 

   Although there are downsides to this film, it was generally liked that this was about a true story. This film is educational as well because it described different situations that happened in the history of our country.

   Overall I would recommend The Monuments Men, it was a decent film, and it may not be a must see, but it’s a good one if you haven’t seen it yet. The overall rating of this movie is a 3 out of 5.