Prom with New Visions!

Over this past weekend, my New Visions classmates and I attended Sharon Springs' prom!

Here are a few pictures of us!

Maddie, Me, Desirae

George, Lindsey, Julianna, & Myself..Getting Jiggy with it!

Smile Ladies

Maddie & Myself

The Girls
We Look Pretty!

Making History..One Play at a Time!

This is the first year the Cohoes Varsity Softball Team are playing into June. In fact, it is the first time the team has worked together making history in their school. The team including myself, won Section II, Class B Sectionals, and are now moving on to states. It is the farthest any softball team has made in Cohoes history.

The team consists of 14 athletes; 3 seniors, 7 juniors, 3 sophomores and one lucky coach. Coach Frank Ryan has coached other sectional winners such as girls track and boys basketball for Cohoes and now he can add girls softball to the list. He pushes us to improve and all of the girls including myself feel that if it were not for him, the team would not have succeeded to become Class B champions.

The softball team didn't expect to reach the final game, our goal was to make it to the second round. The farthest a Cohoes softball team has made was the first round. The first team the Tigers played was Broadalbin- Perth, the second round Schuylerville, and the team cleared the path to the championship by crushing the seventh seeded Greenville 13 to 2. It came down to the first seeded Chatom against the almighty sixth seeded Cohoes. After 20 hits by the Tigers and no strike outs, we won 14 to 1. It was an amazing game and will go down in history.

My team will never forget the feeling of winning a title for our school. We will always remember the hard work and sweat we put into that game, and the warm hugs we received when the last out occurred. The white patches will never go out of style, along with the banner that will be hung in our school gym. We will know that the 2007, the only year on the banner, is there because we put it there; and when we are old and are at our children's games, we can tell them that that number is ours.

Will Jordin Sparkle; or will it be Blake?

There is only two finalists left in the sixth season of American Idol. The 17-year-old Jordin Sparks and the beat boxer Blake Lewis. Both have an equal advantage to win the American dream.

Jordin is young and gorgeous with an amazing voice. Blake is studly with more of a alternative voice. He is more of an entertainer.

American Idol show is about the singing voice, if Americans voted solely on the tone and how well the songs were sung, Jordin would be the next American Idol. However, if Americans voted mostly on stage presents and entertainment purposes, Blake would take the cake!

So who will it be? The girl who gives everybody goosebumps when she sings? or the guy who beat boxes into everyones heart?

The Shingles Effect.

Herpes Zoster Virus also known as shingles, is a painful skin rash that adults get after having a mild case of the chickenpox as a child. In about 1 out of 5 people, the virus "wakes up," often many years after the chickenpox infection. The virus then travels along a sensory nerve into the skin causing a painful rash known as shingles.

Anyone who has had the chickenpox infection or vaccine can get shingles and the majority of people that get shingles are healthy. Nobody knows the causes of shingles or chickenpox however it is known that stress, fatigue, weak immune systems, cancer, radiation treatment, and injury to the skin where the rash occur are factors for the activation of the virus.

The first symptom of shingles is extreme sensitivity of the skin, itching, and burning. After 1 to 3 days red bumps and blisters appear where the pain occurred and will fill with pus and scabbing will last for a couple of weeks. Scars may also erupt.

Shingles can be treated with antivirus medication if caught early, and sometimes pain medication. There is no way to prevent shingles, a person can not contract the virus from a person with shingles only if that person has not yet had the chickenpox. The chickenpox vaccine can reduce a person from getting shingles by strengthening the immune system to fight off the virus or inactivate it.

Naming the Baby Already?

A new method of determining the sex of a fetus has been produced. It is now capable for couples to take a home test to reveal the sex of a fetus at only 6 weeks. The fear of many is the idea of more abortions occuring because of an unwanted gender.

The normal period for determining the sex of an unborn baby is 20 weeks; four weeks before the legal limit for abortion. The Pink or Blue Early Test Kit, launched on the internet by DNA Worldwide, is claimed to be 98 per cent reliable.

The procedure of this test is getting a small blood sample on a filter paper from the mother, the mother then sends the sample to science labs followed by scientists looking for the Y chromosome found in males only. This test works because an unborn baby’s DNA is present in the mother for six weeks.

This gender test is absured, why would the parents of the unborn baby want to know the sex so soon? Do they need the time to paint the babies room this early? I'm sure the parents could wait an extra month or so to find out the sex. During the first six weeks they should just be celebrating the idea of having a life to care for.

Dolls are too Sexy?

The wildly popular Bratz Dolls owned by MGA Entertainment now have a new fashion sense. The fashionistas are now sporting low rise jeans and halter tops targeting girls from ages 7 to 11 years old. Many critics argue its not what young girls should be looking at because girls as young as 4 are harping on their parents for the dolls. These children are getting ideas to wear on their first day of kindergarten, trying to look older, similar to the teen girls.

On the older hand, the company states that children don't see everything as sex similar to adults. It says girls will see the dolls as beautiful, unique, and creative.

Experts have their own opinion, stating that when girls play with generic dolls they have the ability to be creative yet with the "sexy" Bratz dolls their creatively is altered and they develop the idea of what the dolls are about and the roles they should carry.

With the high- fashioned celebrities and the media portraying what the average person should look like, different perspectives are taken out of context. Young girls view celebrities and band groups with the belly-showing, low-cut outfits and see what they need to look like and act. With the growing number of provocative clothing being produced, girls will have a greater idea of what to wear and create a negative effect on their lives.

Heros Today

Everyone heard about Virginia Tech and the mass shooting by a psychotic loner. We heard all the batter about the way it was handled and what occurred. But there isn't much talk about the victims or what they saw in the few moments before death, and the heroes that arose from this tragic massacre

Liviu Librescu76, an engineering science and mechanics professor at Virginia Tech was one of the heroes on that day. He used himself as a shield to prevent the gunman from coming into the classroom. His students jumped out the windows to survive while he stood in front of the door. Librescu died that day, April 16, 2007. He survived the Holocaust in Europe, and he became a hero in the biggest school shooting in America.

Heidi Gather, her son Nick 12, and two of Nick's friends, crashed into a guardrail on a remote road. The guardrail collapsed, firing the car and its passengers into a icy waters. Gather was trapped in the submerged car with no likelihood of surviving in the cold waters. While Nick's friends tracked down someone for help, Nick was in the frigid waters with his mother, lifting her head above water. Finally, the friends came across an EMT who helped. The mother only suffered with hypothermia and Nick is a hero who saved his mothers life.

Incidences like these are seldom reported on. People today are less likely to make these gestures toward other people and risk there life for others. The acts are greately apprieciated and more occurances should be reported on more.