CONFIRMED: Video of Interest (from Boston Marathon Bombing) to be Released by Mikayla Halsell

CONFIRMED: The FBI will be releasing the video that they've been looking at to find the persons of interest around 5:00pm ET. Tune in to watch the story unfold and to hear what the FBI will reveal in regards to their investigation.

Click the link below for more details.

FBI to Release Marathon Bombing Video of Interest

Hair Styles for Prom by Mikayla Halsell

       So, Prom, as I'm sure you're all aware, is approaching. Most likely, by now, you've either borrowed a dress from a friend or bought a brand new one and have acquired shoes and accessories to go along with it. But have you put any thought into what you're going to do with your hair? If you're like me at all, you're probably saving that decision for the day of. Well, here are a few styles that you can consider when that day comes. At least you'll have an idea of what you want to do.

For those who want to put their hair up:

 *Click here for the Fishtail Tutorial
*Click here for the Swirl Turorial


For those who want their hair down:

       Well, I hope you liked some of those styles. Or if not, hopefully they sparked some ideas for some other styles that are more you. Either way, have fun! And I hope you have an awesome time at Prom!

Spring is Upon Us by Emily Cote

       Well it's that time of year again. The craziness that makes your head spin, the last few days of being able to have your windows down in the car without getting heat stroke (if you live in Texas anyway) and of course, it's graduation time. All of these things will be here before you know it, so let me give you some helpful tips on how to survive.

1. Don't wait to buy a bathing suit until it's so hot you can't stand it and then you get invited to go to the lake with these super awesome people and you don't have anything to swim in besides your four year old "mom" bathing suit that you'd be completely mortified if anyone saw you in it.... Wow, that was a mouthful. Just....go buy a bathing suit.

2. I'm not sure what happens after graduation. If it's weird right away or if you get to next September and you feel strange that you're not going back to school, but I can tell you that I'm in the midst of graduation madness and you can't procrastinate. I don't care about the blog post I wrote a few weeks ago about Senioritis (it's still a real thing but don't let it consume you), there are deadlines to be met and you won't graduate if you don't meet them. So write things down. Make a check list. Get organized.

3. Wear sunscreen. Like all the time. If you're as white as me, then wear sunscreen all day, everyday. Otherwise you'll look like a lobster. Like all the time.

4. Make sure you buy enough graduation invites because if you don't there will always be that one person you didn't think of and the whole world will fall apart. Seriously.

5. If you're getting a summer job, make sure you start thinking about where you want to apply so you can beat the summer rush of eager high schoolers. Also if you'll need any time off during the summer for vacation or anything, think about it and speak up. Bosses don't like it if you don't let them know ahead of time.

6. Make time for friends and family in your spare time. It's easy to get caught up in your own schedule and forget about the awesome people in your life. They care about you and you shouldn't let graduation or a new job or anything else get in the way.

7. Is your air conditioning in your car working? Yeah...didn't think of that did you? You might want to do something about that before it gets so hot out that you can't breath and you feel like you'll melt right onto the sidewalk.

8. Last but not least...Make a summer/spring music playlist on your ipod, Spotify or whatever special music thinger you use. Music sets the mood for whatever you're going through so, pull out those songs that remind you of summer and road trips and the beach and put them together in one happy place and get stuff done! For this season, put away your depressing, angsty music that you listen to when you're trying to study for a test, or you just broke up with that one guy. Just do us all a favor and listen to some up beat music, you're almost done.

      I hope this was encouraging enough to get you motivated to get some things done this Spring! But don't forget to put your windows down and blast some music.

Much Ado About Nothing by Mikayla Halsell

There's much ado going on in the city of Manhattan and these two hippies are caught up in the middle of it... 

You won't want to miss out on this exquisite production!! To purchase tickets, contact any Journalism member or anyone on the Theater cast. They're only $5 each and going quickly. So be sure to get them before they're sold out!  

Dates: April 26-27 

Time: The performances start at 7:00 and the doors open at 6:30

DIY Map Envelopes by Grace Barbettini

Feeling crafty? Here's a fun idea for your next letter-writing-adventure. Print out a map from your house to your friends' house and fold into an envelope!

For instructions, click the link below.

CLICK ME!

Useful Facts by Caleb Warren

1. Chocolate syrup is not made, but is actually just cocoa in its purest form. We get it by drilling near large patches of cocoa bean plants. It is then refined and bottled.

2. The trilogy of Star Wars prequels was actually just 20th Century Fox’s decade-spanning April Fool’s joke on the rest of us.

3. Literally no one actually enjoys watching golf. Anonymous studies have proven this.

4. James Franco is not a bad actor, he’s actually just been asleep since 2002.

5. Apart from humans, dolphins are the only species known to be able to grow mustaches, but they shave them because dolphins are very self conscious.

6. There’s no such thing as reindeer, just really fancy regular deer.

7. Blind people smile when they’re happy, despite never having seen anyone else do so. Blind people also know how ridiculous you look when you do duck face.

8. Although many point to The Sopranos or Arrested Development as the best television series of all time, a newly developed algorithm has determined that the greatest tv show ever was actually Mental, a Fox medical drama that ran for eight episodes in 2009 and focused on a British psychiatrist who doesn’t play by the hospital’s precious rules.

9. Life used to be a musical; in Eden, Adam and Eve would often break into song, complete with choreography that they and all the animals inherently knew. This aspect of human life was in The Fall.

10. No one ever spoke Latin. Its a myth made up by academics to make themselves sound smarter when they use it in emails.

11. Navy blazers are so 1990s. You look absurd.

12. Iguanas are chameleons that aren’t trying hard enough.

13. If you’re in a hot tub with a cigarette you can get lung cancer even if you don’t smoke it.

14. Even owls are over the owl jewelry trend.

15. All celebrities are part of a secret cabal bent on taking over the world. There is no escape.

16. If you’re writing a play and need a monologue for a heartless villain character, go pick out anything said by one of the protagonists in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It’s just what you’re looking for.

17. Global warming is God punishing us for letting Two and Half Men run for this long.

18. Superheroes are real, they’re all just really lazy.

19. Clocks spin counterclockwise in Australia.

20. The harp is the easiest instrument to play. It’s just a bunch of strings that you pluck and strum.

21. The title of this post is a lie, there’s actually 21 useful facts here, including this one.

Sedona, Arizona by Emily Cote

      This week I spend two days in Arizona assisting my wonderful Photography teacher while she took one of my good friends senior pictures. This trip was everything we hoped for and more! It was amazing and crazy all at once. So let me recap.

The adventure started out before we even took off. We were set to take off at 6:30am on Tuesday morning, but late Monday we got a text from Southwest Airlines saying that our flight was cancelled, so we took off for the airport at around 4:30 and caught a flight forty-five minutes later. We got to the airport and didn't check any bags because we were only going to be there for two days, so me being the airhead I am, didn't bring travel sized bottles of shower stuff. They pulled me aside and told me to "Read the fine print next time." They ended up throwing away my shampoo, shaving cream (that was expensive, I might add) and mouse for my hair. Not a super fun start, but from that point on, we decided our motto for the trip was, "Just go with it!" And we did.

      We finally made it Phoenix Arizona, we got our rental and got on the road. We got lost once and then found our way, but never forgetting our motto! Our first stop was a random exit we took to see what we could find in the Arizona wilderness. We ended up in Black Canyon in a neighborhood looking for a bathroom, but instead ended up finding an old 1950's truck a midst a sea of junk in someones yard. Mrs. Purkiss, being that outgoing person that she is, marched into their yard and knocked on the door. Grace and I stayed in the car waiting for her. When she came back she was smiling and laughing with the owner of the house, they looked like old friends already! That's when we met Chris. She was such a genuine, sweet, rough around the edges person, and we loved her. She let us shoot pictures in her yard for an hour and a half. We couldn't believe how fast time went! She even gave us a new saying that we'll be using often in the future. "Oh my cow!" she said when Mrs. P showed her some of the shots she got.

     We stopping at any and every place we thought would look good for portraits, we would jump out of the car, help Grace find something to wear out of the suitcases in the trunk and shoot for as long as we wanted. The red rocks were absolutely incredible. I have never seen anything like it before. I'm not even kidding, I think Grace said, "I'm so happy!" about 1000 times over those two days. Sometimes would just all look at each other and start laughing because we couldn't believe what we were surrounded by. God's creation takes my breath away. We kept thanking him for making these scenes for us to enjoy, because when we were standing at the base of those mountains, you feel so small, but in the most humbling way.

      One of our favorite spots was our last stop at River's Edge with Cathedral Rock in the background  We had a pretty cloudy day and we were running out of sunlight but we decided to go anyway. We got some excellent shots of Grace with her feet in the river, which was probably 30 degrees or less. Then Mrs. P put me in there and we couldn't feel our feet for the rest of the night! But it was so worth it.

After we lost sunlight, we searched for a place to eat and we chose, Red Planet Diner that was outer space themed. The food was great. The service, not so much. BUT! We "Just went with it!" We found our hotel at around 8:30 or so, uploaded photo's, washed the red dirt off of our feet and completely crashed. We couldn't have asked for a better or crazier day.

      Day two started a little slower so we could recuperate after our long first day. We had a free breakfast at the hotel and took off.  We stopped and climbed up some more red rocks and photographed some fun pictures in our dresses, even though we were freezing! Our last stop was downtown Sedona where we took more urban looking photo's. We reluctantly got on the road and headed to Phoenix to catch out flight. Little did we know, our flight filled up and we wouldn't actually catch it because we were on stand by. So we got comfortable in the airport, editing pictures, eating delicious sandwiches and making friends. We eventually got a flight and got back to San Antonio at around 12:30am. 

     It was a whirlwind of a trip but so SO worth every second.  If you even get a chance to go to Arizona, you have to check out Sedona, it had so much beautiful scenery and lots of fun things to do in town. Hope you enjoyed my recap of our trip, hope I didn't bore you too much! Here are a few photos I took while I was there...

Mish-Mash & Various Ramblings by Grace Barbettini

     Ready for a lovely blog post full of random ramblings? Well, even if you aren't, better try and prepare. Why, you say? Because that is exactly what this post is going to be about. Ramblings. Unimportant nonsensical facts. Mish-Mash.
   
     Today, I am sunburned from helping out at the FEAST Middle School track meet. I thought to myself, "Hey, it's not that hot out, and there are tons of clouds! Who needs sunscreen?" Welp. I did. And now guess who looks like a tomato. Oh well... next time, I won't let those clouds fool me. Want to know something interesting? Apparently the history of the invention of sunblock is controversial. There are believed to be four inventors who may have invented it. Who knew? The names of the alleged inventors are Franz Greiter, Benjamin Green, HA Milton Blake, and Eugene Schueller.  The dates vary from early to late 1930's, and beginning 1940's. However, Coppertone developed the first UVA/UVB sunscreen in 1980. Whoaz.

    Changing subject a bit, here. Where would you go if you could go ANYPLACE in the whole entire world? But don't say the world...that doesn't quite count. I think it would be pretty cool to go to Egypt and see the pyramids, among other magnificent sights that it holds. I mean, it's basically the oldest civilization in the entire world. I can't imagine walking around in such ancient cities, knowing how many millions of people have walked those same streets, how many stories have been unfolded, lived out, and how many iconic figures have owned homes so long ago in that same area that you may be standing. Things like that, I can't even start to comprehend. It is simply mind boggling. But a good kind of boggling. Like if you think about time really hard, and the idea of immortality. It's hard to fathom. That's how I feel when I start to think about all of the people before me who may have stood where I stood. It's another thing altogether if I know that they stood there. So cool. Anyways, that's my little schpeeel about one of the places I personally think would be awesome to see.
  
     Hmm...this post looks like it needs some cats in it. Cats are always a good choice. As I'm sitting here writing this bit of pointlessness, my kitty-cat Friskie is on the bed next to me, giving herself a nice little cleaning. What a life, right? It must be great to just sleep and eat and sleep and eat...and wake up your owner in the middle of the night to come open the window. Man, I can't imagine having TONS of cats though. I mean, I guess it wouldn't be thaaaat bad. It may be kind of fun! But what if you ended up growing up and becoming the "cat lady"? I wonder if they have a phobia for that. It's probably called "catalliadofia" or something of the sort. As much as I've always wanted to have a dog, cats are great. They're pretty low maintenance, actually. And they're fluffy. Who doesn't want a walking fluffball? Seriously, people. Too cute.

      I was in our kitchen the other day and BAM! All of a sudden there are tons of gnats. Bleck. Like, where do they even come from? Are they just outside of our house, waiting until we buy fruit? They're probably just buzzin' through life and all of a sudden...they get a giant whiff of banana. I can see them turning into drones; "Must get inside. Must get banana. Must...Must...EAT." I feel like they just appear in mid-air. I just don't understand how they get where they are. Maybe they're secretly aliens. Yup. I like that theory better. Maybe I won't be as grossed out if I think of them that way? You know, foreigners or something. Always makes it more interesting.

     This is getting long...which is what I need it to be, but it's pretty absurd. In the words of Dr. Seuss though, I can defend myself;
"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities."


     Well, to end this ridiculous post that I hope was at least a tad bit entertaining, I'm going to say three words: Peanut. Butter. Fluff. The combination of these two things is simply wondrous. If you haven't tried that on a sandwich, you are simply missing out on life. Please do yourself a favor and drive like a crazy person to your local grocery store and acquire these two simple yet incredible items and make the best tasting sandwich that you will ever put into your mouth.


Happy Almost Sunday!

Vintage! Retro! Old Stuff! by Robyn Scott

People! I have recently discovered a treasure in San Antonio. The name of it is Montage Vintage. It is perhaps the best Vintage clothing store I have ever come across. They have it all, from 60’s Go-Go Boots, to cut-off 80’s rock t-shirts. Seriously, I’m in love. 

Here’s the link to the website!

http://www.montagevintage.com/

Traveling Tips For Money Savers by Robyn Scott

Love traveling, but don't think you have the funds? Well, you could be over estimating the costs! Here's an article about a man who has been constantly traveling for 11 years, and he's no millionaire!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8jV5dM/www.wanderingearl.com/how-i-can-afford-my-life-of-constant-travel/