Internet Meme

A girl is sitting in a computer chair, her face inches from the video camera. She has long brown hair that looks like it needs a good brushing, brown eyes surrounded by oval glasses, and buck teeth. In the background, a video of Taylor Swift singing Should’ve Said No is playing. As you when guess, when you press play, she’ll start singing along. She seems to enjoy singing; she has a slew of other videos of her singing. Unfortunately for her, everyone else hates it.

The video was posted December 24, 2008 and currently has 7,775,770. It’s a mystery why this video is popular at all. The girl’s singing is absolutely horrible. She’s constantly off-pitch, doesn’t even know all the words, and can’t pronounce half the words. Seriously, her teeth must prevent her from speaking correctly, and it’s just weird.

Even though the singing is horrible, you’ll most likely find yourself feeling sorry for her. She puts up all these videos, thinking she’s a great singer, and she’s just not. It’s painful to watch, because you even find yourself feeling embarrassed for her since she doesn’t realize she’s bad. Some people say comment things like I feel sorry for her but wow! or I’m convulsing and on the verge of tears. Heelp, anyone. Other, more negative comments say things like when you sing… the birds die, I would rather be involved with a head on collision with a train than watch this again, and some people just get straight to the point and say you suck.

Surprisingly enough, comments for the video have not been disabled yet. Not surprisingly, the girl keeps making videos since she thinks she’s great at it. However, hopefully someone’s comment gets through to her someday and this girl can finally stop embarrassing herself.

A Family Affair

A Husband and Wife selling local produce at Farmer's Market



Husband and wife, Jim and Sylvia Thomas, come from a small town named Decatur, NE. Farming was all they knew growing up.

This is a story about a family starting a tradition and interacting with people from different cultures. It’s about gaining new experiences and meeting people that you never thought you’d meet, and having them share their whole life story in a matter of seconds.

Although farming has been a part of their lives as long as they can remember, Casey Thomas, their daughter, got them started with going to the farmers’ market. It all started with Casey selling pumpkins for Future Farmers of America, (FFA) a club for high school students that are interested in farming.

The Thomases saw an opportunity with the farmers’ market to sell more pumpkins, and decided to pursue it. Now they have been selling their produce for six years, even though their daughter does not sell with them anymore.

Just walking up to them, they invite you in, not only to purchase but to talk to them. Their voices are what catch you; you’ll hear something like good morning miss, is there something you need? This will be followed by a smile. They are the kind of people you want to talk to, even though you don’t know them.

For Jim and Sylvia hearing peoples’ life stories is one of their favorite parts of the farmers’ market. Socializing is also a big reason why they come back every year, but they say the money is nice too.

From being at the farmers’ market so long and talking with the customers as they walk by they get a bond with the usuals. Sometimes as people pass by Jim or Sylvia will stop one of them and talk to them because they recognize them from years past.

Jim and Sylvia are welcoming to everyone they come across, greeting everyone that walks by their booth. If you watch them for awhile you’ll notice that every person that stops in front of the booth is quickly welcomed, told good morning, or asked what they need to be helped with.

Jim talks about how especially unique it is to have customers from a different culture. Of course, there is a language barrier. Jim says he does not let that stop him from selling to them, it just makes it more interesting.
Due to the community of people, Lincoln’s farmers’ market is one of their favorites out of four other markets they attend. Another reason they say they prefer the Lincoln farmers’ market over others is the fact that it is more organized.

Part of the organization includes having to pay for your spot in the market. Most spots have to be reserved in advance to make sure you get one. Jim and Sylvia rent their spot for the entire season since they have produce to bring from mid-summer up until fall. In the summer they have corn, peppers, and squash. In the fall they have lots and lots of pumpkins. They say that pumpkins are their main product for the farmers’ market, as they have about 22 acres of them.

Most of the space that is available at the market is filled with other venders; some selling produce like the Thomsases, others selling clothing; the booth right next to the Thomases’ was even selling cat toys.
This is another thing Jim and Sylvia like about the Lincoln farmers’ market; there’s a lot of variety. During their downtime, they enjoy exploring the other booths and say they find something new and unique every year. It is ever-changing they say, and even slowly growing.

Despite the increase in competition for a space, there are a few open spots. If you want, you can rent one of these spaces for a day. It may take up to a few years for your booth to really take off though, so Jim and Sylvia recommend being persistent.

And in the end, the persistence pays off. You can see it in the fact that a particular man comes up, and Sylvia calls him by name because he comes back every year for their sweet corn. You can see it in the fact that the back of their truck is almost empty because most of their produce has been bought. Most of all, you can see it in the fact that when customers walk away from the booth, they have a satisfied smile on their face.

The Story of Me

This is Sami. She has two older brothers, a younger brother, and an older sister; though none of her older siblings live at home anymore. She’s a junior at Fairbury Junior-Senior High School, the home-away-from-home to a whopping 400-or-so students. It’s the type of school where they say everyone knows everything about everyone, but it turns out that isn’t always true.

The first thing that strikes you about Sami is how small she is. Technically at 5’4” she’s absolutely average in height for a girl, but she seems shorter than almost everyone around her, possibly because none of the shoes she wears have heels. It isn’t just her height though; she’s what many people would call a twig. She’ll grudgingly point out to you the fact that she can take her thumb and middle finger and wrap them more than all the way around her tiny wrist. She says she went over to her new neighbors’ house one day, and they thought she was twelve. The irony is she’ll be 18 in less than a year, and people still think she looks like a little kid. She’s the kind of person that people look at and think of words like delicate and breakable.

This is a story about perseverance. It’s a story about moving on when someone who knew everything about you and meant the world to you just suddenly isn’t in your life anymore. It’s about facing the mirror every morning when part of you seems to be missing, and eventually even learning to get over it. Underneath it all, it is also another story that goes to show you can’t judge a book by its cover.

Who is Sami? At first glance she looks like a typical teenager; her summer wardrobe consists of shorts, flip-flops, and a tank top or T-shirt. She goes to school by day, and by night she does homework and chores. Ask her about her sister and you will get the whole story.You will find out that this one little person, no matter how “delicate” she may look, is pretty darn tough. She’ll tell you about the fights that lead up to her sister leaving; the arguments, the yelling, the ugly name-calling. She’ll tell you that now, her sister lives 20 miles away, but there’s a lot more than just distance keeping them apart. She’ll tell you about how even though she doesn’t like it, she’s learned to live with it because it’s just the way things are.

It is a summer night in late June or early July. Sami, 13 at the time, and her mom have just gotten home, and Sami heads downstairs to the room she and her sister share. She flicks on the lights and is shocked to find that her sister’s bed is completely bare, most of her clothes are missing, and she is nowhere to be found. Now she’s starting to get panicked. She didn’t know whether to go upstairs and tell her parents her sister was gone or sit down and cry about it, because she says she inevitably knew that her sister had moved out. Sami’s parents and her sister fought a lot, so she says she kind of anticipated her sister moving out, but when it actually happened it still shocked her. She says she remembers how hard it was to not have someone to talk to, since she and her sister were close.

Of course, what makes Sami most interesting is that she is what you would call adaptable. Because of the fact that she has gone through some major and rather sudden changes, she has had to learn to get used to the way things are. Even though some of the changes that happened were negative, she says it has helped her learn to accept that life isn’t always perfect.

Editorial

Recently in Oregon, a high school newspaper adviser’s contract was not renewed because of criticisms about enforcement of the school’s dress code that were published. It did not become a problem until a parent complained to the principal about some of the article’s content. After the incident, the principal apparently decided to start reviewing the school’s paper before it could be published. However, the school board still decided not to ask the adviser back next year.

The irony is though, that because Oregon law places control of the newspaper in the hands of the students, neither the adviser nor the principal legally had the right to remove the content. It is entirely unfair that the adviser was removed when taking action to remove content from the article could have resulted in far bigger issues.

The actions taken seem to imply that the school board would rather have a lawsuit on their hands than have one of their students’ parents be upset. However, the two are not even comparable. The effects of a lawsuit would be much more devastating to the entire school than simply an unhappy parent, a point which the school board should have considered.

The school board also needs to look at how serious the issue of the article’s content really was. The article does not promote sex, drugs, alcohol, or anything illegal. It was simply a statement of opinions about the fact that the dress code needs to be better-enforced, and that some of its policies are unfair. It seems they let a rather petty issue get turned into a huge deal.

Considering the adviser was not free to remove content from the students’ newspaper, it would seem fair if the teacher were offered her contract back. Also, it would be a good idea to have the principal continue to review articles. If an issue were ever to come up, the principal could discuss it with the students. Ultimately though, the adviser, principal, and school board should leave the responsibility to decide if the content is appropriate or not to the students.

For the Student Press Law Center article, click here.

The Story of Valerie

This is Valerie. Valerie attends Hastings High School in Hastings and will soon enter her junior year there. At her high school, Valerie is involved in various activities and sports from journalism to cross country. Valerie also has a twin brother, as well as five other siblings. This, however, is not the only thing that makes her different from some other people.

The first thing you notice about Valerie is her smile. It’s the kind of smile that makes you feel comfortable around her even if you don’t know her and maybe even makes you want to get to know her more. It’s the kind of warm smile that makes you feel important; like she cares about every word you’re saying. The truth is she does care about other people very much, which is part of the reason she uses some of her spare time to help others in need.

This is a story about helping people you don’t even know, people from a whole different country, people that you can barely even communicate with. It is about barely knowing them, and yet finding it within you to care about these people. It is also about venturing out of your comfort zone and doing things that you never saw yourself doing. It is a story about being a better person for the good deeds that you do. In the end though, this is merely a story about human beings helping other human beings and the world being a much better place for it.

Who is Valerie? In many ways Valerie is a normal teenage girl. She enjoys shopping. She is outgoing and involved with activities within her school. However in some areas she goes above and beyond what many teens do. One of the things Valerie enjoys most is going on mission trips, and she even traveled to Mexico for one mission trip.

It is Valerie’s last day of her mission trip. She has spent many hours with the kids at a Rio Bravo school for deaf children, and she has had quite an impact on some of them. Valerie and her church helped build a wall around the school to help keep the children from being endangered by violence. They also got to know many of the students quite well. One little boy even warmed up to Valerie so much that he gave her a keychain and signed to her that she was his girlfriend. The little boy was so attached to Valerie that he even tried to follow the van as they left. Valerie says she was so sad to leave all the children behind because they had all come to care about each other a lot in the little time that they spent together.

Of course what makes Valerie interesting is that she is full of so much compassion for other people. Many people choose not to help others because they do not feel that they can possibly make a difference in the lives of others, but for Valerie, caring for other people seems to come so easily.

Lunch

So, first of all, my friends and I got a little bit lost on the way to Selleck. We ended up going in sort of a u-shape when we simply could have walked in a straight line to get to the cafeteria, but it didn't matter to me too much as long as I got food. As soon as we got into the cafeteria, there were people everywhere with their different-colored name tags. The lunch line was more of a glob of people, all anxious to get something to eat and the cafeteria workers got angry at us for "not starting at the right end" or something.

My friends and I sat at a table near the entrance, so we could see when people came in. We saw one girl come in the doorway, touch the fake flowers as she came in, and say "Aw, they're fake!" We also saw people come in a lot later than us; I wondered if they got lost too.

A lot of the tables around us were full, and everyone was talking and laughing, including at our table. One of my friends, who shall remain unnamed, ended up with part of her sandwich stuck to the roof of her mouth, which lead to even more laughter. She tried to tell us it wasn't funny, which only made us laugh more because she sounded absolutely hilarious.