news
DECEMBER 2011
Chili cook-off raises funds By Brooke Yarrington Staff Writer
Photo by Ange-Elise Venet
Students pick up leaves during Campus Beautification Day 4.
The first ever LivermoreGranada Chili Cook-Off was held Thursday, November 10th before the varsity football game on the Livermore High blacktop. All proceeds from the event, which will likely become an annual one, will benefit Team KC, an organization that was set up to honor Korrine Croghan, who passed away in 2008. Team KC donates the money it raises to help other families
who are dealing with diseases. According to Dana Croghan, Korrine’s mother, proceeds from this year’s cook-off will be donated to the family of social science teacher Mrs. Newkirk, who is currently dealing with a serious illness. Cooks from both schools, as well as from around the city, competed in the event. Awards were given out for “2011 Best Overall Chili,” “Best Presentation” and “Most Unique.” Some Granada entries included “summer chili” from
Mrs. Rangan and Ms. Schmidt. “It has a secret ingredient from the Caribbean,” said Mrs. Rangan. “It’s for Mrs. Newkirk, our dear friend and coworker. We miss her and want her back.” Senior Kristina Blum described the chili that the leadership class entered: “Our leadership class made it for Mrs. Newkirk. We named it bull’s fart because that is what she wanted.” And as Mrs. Bailey, mother of junior Kelsey Bailey said about her old family recipe, “There is nothing better than chili.”
Students volunteer for clean sweep of campus By Jack Kovacich Staff Writer Students and teachers worked together several weeks ago to clean up the school on Campus Beautification Day 4. Roughly 150 people showed up for the event, which according to math and FIT teacher Mr. Hahn “went very well.” Most of the participants were freshmen who had come to fulfill their FIT class’ community service requirement, said Hahn. Other students participated as well, some to log community service for their college applications or churches and some came just to help out the community. FIT students that showed up were required to work at least 1-2 hours, and some stayed even longer to make
sure all tasks were complete. Mr. Hahn said students pulled weeds, sanitized and mopped both gyms, painted safety poles, cleaned windows, picked up garbage, cleaned desks in almost every room on campus, dusted cobwebs in the overhangs of every building on campus, planted daffodils, cleaned windows and removed old fliers, among other things. Tasks were accomplished in several teams led by adults, which, according to Hahn, “were done rather quickly and the students and adults did a great job.” Staff members plan to hold another Campus Beautification Day in the spring where students and teachers will again be working together, this time focused more on painting and general pick-up around campus.
Photo by Brooke Yarrington
Senior leadership students (from left to right) Brandon Mori, Kristina Blum, Jaimeson Cortez and Jennifer Guan cooked up some chili for Team KC and Mrs. Newkirk.
iPhone 4S: upgrade worthy? By Heather LeCon Features Editor People always want the latest and greatest gadget; so when the iPhone 4S came out, everyone rushed to make their next purchase. Though for those who already have the iPhone 4, is it really worth the upgrade? Apple is constantly finding new ways to improve their products. It’s basically a continuous cycle of remastering the original iPhone. They started with the iPhone 3G and that turned into the iPhone 4, which had many distinct changes. “The iPhone 4s looks exactly like its predecessor,” according to www.mashable.com. The iPhone 4S does have some cool new features; it has an A5 dual-core processor, and an 8MP camera compared to a 5MP camera on the iPhone 4. This means the quality of your photo is almost twice as good. The iPhone 4S also has Siri: The Intelligent Assistant. Siri lets you ask your phone any question and it will have an answer. The biggest change between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S
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apple.com
The iPhone 4S includes new software and a new processor and camera.
is iOS 5. With the iOS 5 you can now iMessage. According to technobuzz.org, “iMessage works well. Getting unlimited free MMS and SMS with anyone else using iOS 5 is a nice feature.” Even though the iPhone 4S has iOS 5, anyone with the iPhone 4 can simply plug their phone into their computer and upgrade to iOS 5 for free. You get all the same features included with iOS 5, such as iMessage, a new notification
widget, and the ability to edit photos right from your phone. Another reason why you might not want to upgrade to the iPhone 4S is the lack of battery life. Due to all the new changes on the iPhone 4S, like the dual-core processor and Siri, battery life dies a lot faster than on the iPhone 4. Never owning an iPhone before, junior John McIntyre recently just purchased the iPhone 4S. He said “It’s worth the upgrade because the camera is a lot better and Siri is really cool.” It makes sense that he bought the new phone since he previously didn’t own an older version, but for people who do have the iPhone 4S, going out and buying Apple’s most recent iPhone may not necessarily be the smartest thing to do. If you’re just looking to buy a new phone, or dying to have an iPhone for your network, then choosing the iPhone 4S would probably be the way to go. However, if you already own an iPhone 4, then upgrading may not be worth the money, and you may want to keep your iPhone 4 and just upgrade it to iOS 5 if you haven’t already.