LINK TO 2008-2009

Check out the 2008-2009 Online edition of The Mirror.
norwoodmirror.blogspot.com

Mountain Gorillas

Taylor Wellman

The mountain gorilla is the largest of all primates. It lives in the forests of tropical africa. They are becoming extremely endangered. The ones still alive live in four different national parks split into 2 regions that are 28 miles apart. In 2003 340 gorillas live in a national park in Uganda.

Even though these monsters are strong and powering they are a pretty shy animal. They average about 11 gorillas in a group, each led by a dominant male. They have a slow reproduction rate which makes it even worse for their population. In a 50 year life span a female gorilla may only have 2-6 offspring. Newborns are very weak weighing about 4 pounds. They are much like us coming out of the stomach. Weird and awkward.

School comes to a close

The 2008 school year has come to a close but in the last two weeks, there have been three different assemblies recognizing the seniors and underclassmen.

The first of the three assemblies was senior solos. Many seniors participated and sung songs such as: Hero, She Thinks My Tractors Sexy & a piano version of Party Like A Rockstar.

The second assembly was for senior scholarships and tons of seniors won money towards college. Michael Bush won a full ride to UC.

The third assembly was for academic awards for all grades. Many people were honored for there academic excellence.

Congratualations to everyone on the terrific 2007-2008 school year.

My Senior Reflection

As I sat in class on the last day of my senior year, i thought to myself; Where did it all go? It seems to me that it was just yesterday that I was starting school. Now i'm graduating. It is truely amazing. Along the way I have had some great experiences, and have made a lot of great friends that i will hold close to me for the rest of my life. The past 12 years have come down to this single moment in time. As they say, it's now or never. This chapter of my life is now complete, and i am about to embark on an entirely new one.

I have only one wish for the class of 2008. That is for all to do their absolut best in life. Many jokes have been made about our senior class being stupid as well as being apathetic. Well it is time to prove them wrong. Our time is now, it is our time to shine.

With all of this being said, I simply have several things to say. I care about each and every single one of you, weather we were friends or not. I wish everyone the best in life. And that no matter where life takes us, or whatever path we choose to take, we will always be the Norwood Class of 2008.

Songs from Seniors Bring Tears to All

Thursday May 15 some our seniors sang what to their class, kind of like a good-bye song from them.

Alex was the first senior up as he plays 3 songs on the piano. The first one was a song from his church then Party like a Rock Star and lastly Don’t Matter. The seniors were touched on how well he played. Next was Aaron and he sang She thinks my Tractors sexy. And the seniors filled the room with laughter and sadness. Ben sang a song from the band Secondhand Serenade and it was just so smoothing that everyone was so into it. Travis sang this song from the artist Jack Johnson. The audience was quite as he did he best. Mike shocked the whole school when he grabbed the guitar and started singing. No one would expect him to sing how he did.
Afterwards was Marissa as she sang her heart out to Hero. Tears began to fall down out of the seniors’ eyes. It was noticeable that she had touched some people. Gwen was up and sang Impossible. The way she sang brought chills and sadness to people. Last but defiantly the best was Matt Mike and Rob. They sang a song they wrote the night before auditions. It was called Four Years, which talked about the four years of high school. As they reach senior year everyone began to cry. It wasn’t like a tear it was like bawling crying.

All songs that day were memorable, but that song was a great way to end the solos and won’t be forgotten by the class of 2008.

MACHO VOLLEYBALL

This year the macho volleyball game was very interesting. The first game was against the Juniors and the Sophomores. The Sophomores ended up winning and moving on to the final game. The Freshman and the Seniors played in the second game. There was no suprise there when the Seniors won. The Seniors and the Sophomores played in the final game. It was a good game with two good teams. The Seniors came away winning. Congradulations to the Seniors and good job to all of the players and coaches!!

Janish Gets The Call

By: Tyler Sluder

The Cincinnati Reds called up AAA short stop Paul Janish (pronounced Yanish) for Wednesday game against the Florida Marlins, and maybe the rest of the season. The reason for his call up is becasue the current short stop Jeff Keppinger could be out anywhere from 4 weeks to the rest of the season with a broken knee. Keppinger was injured on a foul ball that he hit off of his knee. However in the same atbat he drew a bases loaded walk that gave the Reds a two to zero lead. He played the next two innings in the field but then was taken out.

Janish made his Major League debut in Wednesday nights game in the eigth inning against the Florida Marlins. The Reds were up six to nothing at the time. In his first inning he made two putouts. He got out on his first at bat. In the top of the ninth the Reds gave up six runs and the lead. The game had to go to extra innings. There were no outs with men on first and second base and Janish came up for his second bat of his Major League career. He hit a ball down the line that scored the winning run for the Reds. A perfect way to make an immediate impact and to get your first hit.

On Thursday May 16 the Reds were rained out. On Friday May 17 the start a series with inter league rival the Cleveland Indians.

TTYL

Nikole Picklesimer

TTYL by Lauren Myracle is about three teenagers who are sophomores in high school. Anglea, Maddie, and Zoe are three totally different girls that are somehow best friends. It shows what the life of a teenage girl is all about. The girls deal with many problems including fights and boy drama.

What's most interesting about the novel is that it is written in all instant messges. With a new style of writing and a storyline all teenage girls would love, TTYL is a great read for just about anyone. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books about friendship.

TTYL is only the first out of three books! The sequels to TTYL are TTFN and L8r, g8r. These two books also explore the world of Angela, Maddie, and Zoe while they go through high school and encounter more difficuties along the way.

To high?

Rising gas prices are affecting more than the family budget. More pain at the pump results in more employee stress on the job.
The information by surveying more than 800 full-time employees this spring when gas prices hovered at about $3.50 per gallon. All of the people surveyed work in a wide range of occupations, primarily in the southeastern United States. All drove personal transportation to work and had an average commute of 15 miles each way. Survey respondents said gas prices were foremost on their mind, including a disgruntled factory worker who wrote. Since gas prices has rised some effects come on into play.
- 52% of people have reconsidered taking a family vaction
- 45% had to cut back on card payments
- 30% of people had gone without the basics such as clothes, food, medicine, ect.
- 45% have gone behind on payments
- 33% say they would quit there job for one close to their homes.

Many employees report that gas prices rank as the No. 1 water-cooler discussion topic, ahead of family, sports or work, he said. He found little difference in responses among different ages, gender, work tenure and occupations.
As gas prices rise, so does the stress.

Top of the charts

This week on the billboard charts the top ten albums are:

• Hard candy by Madonna
• E=MC2 by Mariah Carey
• Spirit by Leona Lewis
• Lyfe Change byLyfe Jennings
• Songs from the Sparkle Lounge by Def Leppard
• The Roots by Rising Down
• Portishead by by Third
• Mudcrutch by Mudcrutch
• Now 27
• Greatest Hits by Tim McGraw

The number one song in America is bleeding Love by Leona Lewis. Bleeding love was originally written by Jessie McCartney.