 Don’t drop that volleyball, aye! That was one of the many posters made by the middle school ASB to support out Mesa volleyball team at this week’s game. The game started with Mesa falling behind and losing the first game 23-25. They came back in the second and fought hard. The scores climbed and, towards the end, Mesa got many good serves in that finished off the second game. They won it 25-18. It all came down to the final game: the first one to 15 won the game and the match. The game started off with many great serves and Mesa got ahead fast.
Although they were ahead by many points, the last point is always the hardest point to get. It took two Sowers serves to score the final point. Instantly, Mesa players Jacob Roman, Jacob Peterson, Francisco Ruiz, and Antonio Leal, celebrated their victory by hugging it out.
When the seventh graders got ready to play, they were happy to be playing at home and hoping to win like the eighth graders did. Once they started though it was a completely different story. They got killed. They lost both games and sadly lost at home. Although the seventh graders lost, they had fun and their friends got to see they play and try their hardest. It was a good game and Mesa players can practice and at least beat Tewinkle.
 Courtesy of imdb.com Pitch Perfect is not as much about singing as you would expect, although it plays a key part; it’s more about college actions. In other words, this movie is typical and more like a rip off of Glee, the actual high school setting. However this movie does take place at a college and is definitely the movie of the season! Pitch Perfect is definitely worth the two hours and the ten bucks.
It’s filled with mixed emotions, laughter, and the goose bumps you get from the singing. The cast is full of phenomenal actors that fit the “perfect” part. The definite star would be “Fat Amy,” played by bridesmaids actress Rebel Wilson. The movie is by no means obscene like many comedies such as “The Watch” or “Crazy Stupid Love.” Some of the humor is completely unusual. This movie gets two thumbs up!
 Courtesy of imdb.com In the movie, Beca is an incoming freshman at Barden College who is forced to go to college by her father, who happens to be a professor there. However, Beca wants to be a DJ and producer in Los Angeles. While avoiding a conversation with her father, Beca takes to the quad to check out the clubs on campus. Here is where she meets Chloe (Brittany Snow) and Aubrey (Anna Camp), the two senior members and captains of the Barden Belles, an Acapella group on campus.
 Courtesy of imdb.com After a horrible miss-hap of Chloe’s at the Nationals last year the Bellas are back too prove themselves! But another a capella group on campus the Treblemakers, who win every year. To pursue her DJ-ing career Beca takes a job at a radio station on campus where she meets other intern Jesse, who happens to be a new Treble. But, sometimes a friendship turns into something else… Will they make it too the Nationals or even the Semi-Finals? You’ll have to see the movie to find out. If you are easily offended, then please stay away.
PITCH PERFECT
PG-13 1HR 32MIN.
MUSICAL & PERFORMING ARTS,COMEDY
DIRECTED BY: JASON MOORE
WRITTEN BY: KAY CANNON
Written by:
Cassidy Crandall
Edited by:
Holly Reiland | |
 Makena: How was it like in Middle School?
Mr. Rick Thuma: “This was way back in between 1958 and 1960; the world was a much different place… Middle School, a lot of it was the same as it is now, you took the same kind of subjects, you took your math, your took your science…but the world was much different we didn’t have the technology that you guys have today, we actually had to go to libraries and check out encyclopedias and do research out of books and things like.”
Makena: What was the funniest thing that happened in Middle School?
Thuma: “…You're asking me to remember back many many years ago…well the most interesting thing was that I was in an accelerated program and was never an eighth grader. Middle school to me was called Junior High School and it was seventh, eighth, and ninth grade and I actually did seventh and eighth in the first year and eighth and ninth in second year. So I technically was never an eighth grader, I was in what was called seven SP… and nine SP… so I think the funniest thing now since I’ve had so many eighth grade students over the years here at Mesa, that’s my punishment for never having been an eighth grader in Middle School, now I have to deal with eighth graders all the time…”
 Makena: Were there bullies?
Thuma: “I do remember… there were people in my Middle School that would hustle other people for money, bullies… I was the manipulator, I would go to them and say hey you want a dime, I would give them money so the next day somebody would come over and shove me and they want money and I would have three people behind me saying don’t mess with him. So you could actually say I bought protection.”
Makena: Who was your Favorite teacher in Middle School?
Thuman: “In Middle School, my favorite teacher, I can honestly not remember his name, happened to be my English teacher and I will never forget we had to write an essay… and it was supposed to be an essay on the greatest living American and everybody wrote their essay on whoever was president at the time or whoever was the famous astronaut at the time. I wrote my essay about my father, and to this day I can remember I got that essay back *tears up* A+, It wasn’t the greatest essay ever, but when he handed it to me he said I would’ve written about the same person… It still brings tears to my eyes to this day.”
 Makena: How has food changed over the years?
Thuma: “Well, some of it hasn’t, my favorite food when I was going to Middle School was White Castle hamburgers but we didn’t buy them, we didn’t get them frozen in the market, we had a White Castle hamburger place on the corner, well almost on every corner. There was pizza… the spring ups of McDonalds had not come up yet… I could actually get 6 burgers and a coke for 50 cents for lunch, fresh... six hamburgers and a soda for 50 cents was a pretty decent deal…”
Makena: Has the candy changed?
Thuma: “Not much… Baby Ruths and Snickers bars, but I will tell you one thing I’ve noticed is to keep the price the same they had to make the candy bars smaller, but they charge you they same thing… “
Makena: Who was you first girlfriend?
Thuma: “Her name was Carrie Ann Glick. It was in high school and I heartbroken when her family moved to Texas and cried.”
Makena: What about Prom?
Thuma: “I had a date to prom… with Barbara Jean Cannon… [she] was Catholic and I am not Catholic, I am a Protestant … the day before the Prom she called me up and said I have to break our date for the Prom, I said why and she said her mother’s priest told her that she will be sent to Purgatory if she kept going out with a Protestant… so her mother said she can’t go to the Prom with me… I did go to my Prom with my cousin Rosemary because I already had a corsage and I already had the tuxedo we went to the Basin Street East afterwards… we watched a band called Benny Goodman and he had a new singer in the band, nobody had ever heard of and her name was Barbara Streisand.”
Interview By: Makena Seal
Transcribed by:
Holly Reiland
Photos by:
Sarah Bordelon | |
 Photo taken from PiccoloNamek This question rages inside of skittles lovers and people everywhere. Which is better sour skittles or regular skittles? Which type will make your taste buds roar with excitement and run like a wild cheetah? First, we take a look at the nutritional information to see just how different they really are.
In one 2 ounce package of original Skittles, which is about 54 pieces, there are 240 calories, 25 of which come from fat. There are about 2.5 grams of fat, 54 grams of carbohydrates, and 44 grams of sugars. However, in a pack of sour Skittles there are only 200 calories, 18 calories from fat, 2 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbohydrates, and 37 grams of sugar. So, the original skittles contain more calories and sugars than the sour skittles variety. But the question is: which is better?
Eighth graders Michelle Vu, Evan Decock, and Catlynn Nguyen all think that sour skittles are much better. Michelle says, “They’re sourly awesome”. Catlynn likes playing “chubby bunny” with her Skittles and the way she has to squint her eyes when she gets overpowered by the sour is really funny to watch.
People who think opposite of them and strongly oppose those sour lovers are eighth graders Anysa Mugica and Ezekiel “Zeke” Seccombe. The both think that regular skittles are “the bomb digity.” Anysa says, “Regular tastes way better and they don’t leave your mouth tingly.”
I personally think that Sour skittles rock and they have more flavor and depth because you never know how much sourness you will get with each skittle. But everyone has their preference.
Written by:
Makena Seal
Edited by:
Holly Reiland | |
This year, the 2012-2013 school year, is only the third year that we’ve had an organized Middle School ASB here at CMHS, but they’re already planning away for what they hope to be an exciting and spirit-filled year. We’re having the first rally this Thursday with an “Under the Sea” theme. In addition, the first dance is the following the rally on Friday with a theme of “Aloha, Welcome Back”. A Hawaiian dress up day is scheduled for Friday too. But, we ask, what’s new, exciting, and important this year?
Our ASB Vice President, Makena Seal, grade 8, says that “Yes,” she’s really excited for ASB this year, especially for “the meetings, the eighth grade dance, the Blacklight Dance, and Suicide Prevention week because it’s a really important topic.”
Hannah Bodenhammer, the Eighth Grade President, is excited for “being a school leader and preparing rallies!”
Cassidy Crandall, the Community Service Commissioner, says, “I’m most excited for our first rally because it gets the school pumped up and excited about the school year! And because me and Regina are hosting.”
Makena Seal says she’s really excited about the rally because of “the really bad jokes that are funny because of the way we say them.” Cassidy Crandall and Regina Ranieri, both in eighth grade, are hosting the rally as Nemo and Dory from the film Finding Nemo. There is going to be lots of sea-related humor and games.
Regina Ranieri, the Athletics Commissioner in ASB and also the first co-host of our rally, says, “Yes, it seems fun to be the MC and learn to speak in front of people, but also scary.” She also says, “In ASB I think it will be fun to draw things and come up with ideas to get the scool involved.” Regina, along with Ziyah Jordan and David Ceballos, is one of the artists in ASB who created lots of the posters that are going to decorate the walls of the gym for the rally and be reused for the dance, but everyone did their part.
The welcome back dance has an “Aloha” theme because it means “hello” in Hawaiian. It will be from three to five after school on Friday. Students who are new to the school will get in free, as will people with an ASB sticker. To everyone else, the dance is three dollars. Everyone in ASB is excited for the dance, however Makena Seal is more excited for “the Blacklight Dance because we sell the most tickets and make the most money.” That dance will not be until December and does not have a theme yet.
However, there is a new dance that is scheduled for this year: a Halloween one. It will be next month with a costume dress-up day that same day. It’s something new, but ASB is excited for it.
Also, the most popular rally is the Battle of the Sexes in spring. There is also probably going to be a Hippie Dance, according to Makena, because last year it was cancelled. There’s still lots more to plan, but it looks like a promising year from the middle school ASB.
Written by:
Holly Reiland | | |
 Photos by Sarah Bordelon What are the dirtiest, most crowded and revolting places in all of Costa Mesa Middle School? You guessed it: the bathrooms.
Basic cleanliness and hygiene are a huge issue with bathrooms all across Mesa. Locks are even missing from the stalls. Combine this with wet floors and no paper towels and you have a terrible place to be.
 Photos by Sarah Bordelon When asked about the bathrooms, Christine Tran stated that they are, “Smelly, wet, gross and crowded.”
Andrea Cerros has a similar opinion. “They’re disgusting. They smell bad.”
Despite the rancid conditions of the bathrooms, the school is not doing anything about it.
 Photos by Sarah Bordelon Students have a few ideas as to what to do to fix the state of the bathrooms. “[The school should] have someone come clean them and least put locks on the stalls,” says Juan Zavala.
Eli Lemna has a different solution. He thinks there should be bathroom rules.
Students should not have to deal with these horrible conditions. Hopefully, these will soon be changed.
 Should middle school students date? Yes or no? There are three types of answers for this question.
Being broken up with usually makes a person not like it. For example there is James Barton. He has been broken up with four times in the past eight months. Barton said, “It’s stupid. Its fun at first but it sucks when you get dumped, especially just before Valentine’s Day. Relationships suck!” Poor Barton.
Then there are people like Anysa Mugica who think middle school dating is not all that bad, but can be done for the wrong reasons.
“Well, I think middle school dating is okay because if you like someone and they like you back, then they should go out if they want to. But at the same time its dumb because people are always getting hurt by love and it makes our students sad,” said Mugica.
Then there are people like Hannah Bradford who are for dating in middle school.
“People in middle school are okay to date if you really like them but if you just date them to have a boy/ girlfriend it’s stupid and means nothing,” said Bradford. Personally, I think she makes a good point.
So obviously, if someone is dating someone else their perspective will be positive, but if they are not, they are probably going to have reactions more like Barton.
 Photo by Casey Campbell
A karate assembly was put on for all 7th grade students by Mr. Center’s karate dojo and the school’s karate club on January 6.
This event took up two periods, and went along with the history unit the students were learning in class on Japan. Students learned the origins of martial arts, background knowledge about Japanese weapons, and got to watch martial artists in action.
Many of the participants in the assembly were in the karate club as well as the dojo. A typical meeting for the club starts with an introduction of bowing while lined up in seiza position, or kneeling. The class then breaks into groups and works on various katas, which is a sequence of predetermined attacks and sparring.
Mr. Center, who is a 5th degree black belt, explained what he thinks about learning karate.
“[It's] not hard but it takes practice like everything else. Some people are naturally gifted while others have to work at it,” he said.
7th grader Jianna Folek, a red belt, was also among the people who put on the assembly. She believes others should also join the sport.
“They should definitely try it. If they don't like it, they can at least say they tried it. Its extremely fun.”
_ Many times when we are having our pitch meetings, when we suggest stories, the high school journalism students have taken them already.
We, as middle school students, do not have as many events, and usually do outside of school events for stories. However, high school has plenty of school events and still does other stories.
We asked some other middle school journalism writers what they thought about the issue.
“Because high schoolers don’t like us,” said middle school writer Sarah Bordelon.
We also asked the high school students why they kept stealing the stories.
“Because we’re before you guys,” said high school staff writer Niki Stanborough.
“I wasn’t aware we were stealing them. Maybe we should collaborate more,” high school editor and chief Brooke Morrow said.
We also asked Mr. Abuel, the advisor for the journalism class.
“Because they’re bigger than you, and they can,” he said. Thanks for making us feel better, Mr. Abuel.
So basically, we cannot stop them from stealing our stories because they have journalism in their zero-period. They are not exactly stealing them either. But we still need more stories to choose from.
*This is purely a facetious opinion piece. We did not mean for readers to take this serious*
 The heroine of The Legend of Zelda, Zelda herself. _Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the latest game in the LoZ (Legend of Zelda) series.
It introduces Link as a knight in training. The knight school is nearing their graduation test. When the game begins, Zelda, Link’s childhood friend, sends you mail by Loftwing, which are flying creatures that mostly come in purple. Only Link’s Loftwing is a crimson color.
Basically, Zelda is forcefully taken into the surface land and Link tries to follow her, but is forced away. The next day, Link gears up to go and find Zelda. But before he goes, he must get a better sword than the training sword he was given by the sword trainer.
When Link finds the Skyward sword—which is also where he finds out he and Zelda are the chosen ones—he meets a fairy that goes into the sword. The other information Link finds out is that Zelda is being pulled to the surface land faster than he is and that is what is keeping them apart.
 The capture of the statue in the race. _In this game, you get to control Link’s Loftwing, which was actually much better than I anticipated. You turn the Wii remote down to dive, up to rise, (with enough speed) and tilt left or right to turn in the chosen direction. Your first flying test is a short one with Zelda, where she teaches you how to fly. Then you take the real test where you compete with three other opponents in getting a miniature statue that falls from another Loftwing. This is a skill you need to learn because you fly the Loftwing in the surface land.
Statues that have not been around since LoZ: Majora’s Mask have returned to Skyward Sword. These statues let you teleport to places you have already discovered, go back to the sky world, save, or quit.
The sword fighting in this game is pretty good, but does have some flaws. For some enemies, they decided to add some difficulty, and require a certain swing to the sword to hit them. Others you can just swing aimlessly to kill them. It is nice because it is not too easy nor too hard, but the biggest problem is the Wii motion plus when swinging the sword. If you try swinging like a madman with the Wii remote, the remote will lose tracking and have you recalibrate it. The good thing is, there is a button you can press (down on the directional pad) that re-centers it.
Overall this game is better than I expected, which says a lot considering I already thought this game would be pretty good. I would rate it a 9.5/10. The sword problem is still annoying.
 Groose AKA the guy who stole Link's Loftwing. |  Flight with Zelda after a successful race. |  The spirit of the Skyward Sword. |
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