The Hoot
Through the eyes of an owl
FAU High Student Newspaper
PAGE 2
THE HOOT
Table
of
Contents
Pg 3 Stay Open and Stay Excited
Pg 4 What Do They Think? FAU Professors’ Views on FAU High
Students
Pg. 5 Driver’s Education
Pg. 6-7 Voices of a New Era: Meet the Vocaloids
Pg. 8 SuperHero Showdown: Iron Man Vs Batman
Pg. 9 One Direction: This Is Us
Pg. 10-11 The Prisoners: A Movie Review
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1
PAGE 3
Stay Open
Stay Excited
By Jonathan A. Lu
H
ello fellow FAU High School Students! I hope that your semester is
going awesomely! I know that
most of you are probably going
through midterms around now.
And yes it can be stressful… especially for all
of you sophomores! But I encourage you to
stay open and excited about your college experience! College life is an exotic experience
to all newcomers. Whether you’re an incoming sophomore, junior, or senior, college life
is probably very different from what you
would usually experience in a regular high
school. Many of these differences are positive, like making your own schedule, and
joining collegiate sports and recreational
clubs. However, I admit that college classes
tend to be more rigorous and challenging than
regular high school ones. The course load can
be stressful at times, especially during finals
week. I remember repeatedly going to Dunkin
Donuts during finals week to buy their largest
cup of coffee so that I could stay up to study
for a test. It is true that college classes are
more challenging than your average AP high
school class, but it is also much more enriching as well.
One of the most important things I have
learned during my two semesters at FAU
High School is that staying open and positive
about school is the key to academic success. I
know it is tough to be positive about that 2000
word ENC paper that’s due this Friday, but trust
me, it’s better than moaning about it. One of the
things we need to remember is that although we
need to work much harder to achieve academic
success, we are also given many more opportunities to enjoy and relax compared to regular high
school students. I was talking with one of my
friends over the summer and I said that I rock
climbed at my high school. My friend was so surprised that my school had a rock wall. He was
even more surprised that my school had a food
court where I could choose whatever cuisine I felt
like eating. There are a lot of perks to being an
FAU High School student - you can join recreational clubs, you can longboard, you can participate in high school sports teams, you can eat at
the food court and in my opinion, the best perk
about being an FAU High School Student is
EVERYTHING IS PAID FOR! You don’t have
to pay a single dime for your college tuition; now
isn’t that something to be happy about! So the
next time you are feeling stressed about an English paper or physics test, just remember a few of
the benefits I mentioned earlier.
Being a FAU High School Student is a great opportunity! I encourage you to take full advantage
of this wonderful time in your life! Stay open and
stay excited!
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F
AU High School is a place where the line
between high school and college is blurred.
As students, most of us desire to hide the fact that
we are in high school from both our peers and professors. However, this might not always be a wise
decision. I took it upon myself to ask two of my
professors for their opinions regarding this unique
program. You may be surprised at the results.
Both Professor Low of the English Department
and Professor Greenberg of the Mathematics Department had considerably similar views on the
high school program. Both saw it as a tremendous
opportunity. "It allows students to not be held
back, and to be able to use their full potential,"
said Greenberg. Both agree that its zero dollar
price tag is a positive as well. Low believed that
this program, being free of charge, allows for the
less fortunate students to still be able to rise to
their full potential.
Perhaps the most important question at hand is
whether or not high school students should be in
college classes. Both Greenberg and Low had very
positive responses. They both encouraged students
THE HOOT
to take their courses, and went on to declare that in
most cases, the high school students excel further
than those at the actual university. Both praised the
high school students for being leaders of class discussion and having very strong work ethics.
However, there is one subject to which the two professors disagree. I asked if they had the opportunity
to attend a program like this one when they were in
high school, would they have done so. "Yes, definitely. High school didn't have any classes for me
to take that were at my skill level," responded
Greenberg. However, Low had a different opinion
on the matter. She believed that she would have
preferred a regular high school experience, for college fails to provide the comfortable social environment that four years of high school can bring.
In summation, two professors from two seemingly
opposite departments support the high school greatly. They encourage high school students to take
college courses, and continue to challenge themselves academically. Don't be afraid to tell your
professors that you are a high school student; you
never know what their opinions could be.
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1
Driver’s
PAGE 5
Education
By De-Shaunah Dixon
Driving is probably one of the most exciting
events in a teen’s life. We have all dreamed
of that moment when we would first place
our hands on the steering wheel without our
parent’s assistance on the gas pedal. Driving
can be a very exciting and life- changing
event, as long as all drivers on the road are
following the rules. Many people don't understand the importance of road safety and rules.
Before you drive. with or without someone in
your car, make sure you are familiar with
road signs, road safety procedures, and the
streets you will be travelling on.
For those of you who are looking into getting
your learner’s permit, you should know that
you are required to complete a 4-hour
Drug/Substance Abuse & First Time Driver
Class. FLVS (Florida Virtual School) offers
this course for free on their website, so you
should definitely take a look and plan on enrolling in the course. The FLVS course also
gives you more information on how to obtain
your permit and the restrictions in place while
you have a permit.
So when you do get your permit just remember, driver safety comes first. Follow the road
rules.
Some Driver’s Test Advice:
 Steer smoothly at all times.
 Accelerate smoothly. Don't race the engine or make it stall.
 Stop the vehicle gently. Start braking well ahead of where you must stop to avoid sudden “jerks.” Know
where to stop. Be aware of crosswalks. If your view is blocked at a crosswalk, move forward carefully and
look both ways before entering the intersection.
 Be sure your vehicle is in the correct gear. Don't grind the gears. Don't coast to a stop.
 Always obey the posted speed limits. If needed, reduce your speed to adjust for existing weather, road,
and other traffic conditions. Remember to turn on your lights if you need to use your windshield wipers in
poor weather conditions.
 Follow at a safe distance. Use the three-second rule. Increase your following distance in bad weather or
poor visibility.
 Know what the traffic signals mean and obey them at all times.
 Always use the proper lane. Turn from the correct lane into the correct lane.
 Signal for all lane changes and turns.
 Always look for potential hazards (scan). Check your mirrors frequently. Always look over the proper
shoulder before making lane changes or pulling away from the curb.
 Drive defensively. Anticipate another driver’s errors.
PAGE 6
THE HOOT
Voices of a New Era
Vocaloid
By Melanie Norberto
What is Vocaloid?
Who are the main Vocaloids?
Vocaloid is a popular voice synthesizer developed by Yamaha. With this technology, people
can produce realistic, human-like singing from the
voice banks of Japanese singers. The software allows you to alter the breathing, the vibrato, and
many other qualities to create distinct voices. Since
the release of the voice software in 2004, Vocaloid
took off, and Yamaha has produced specific characters that are symbolic of Vocaloid as a whole.
Hatsune Miku, the lead Vocaloid, was created in
2007. Since then, hundreds, if not thousands, of
Vocaloid videos have been released onto Youtube
and other video sharing websites. Vocaloid fan art
can be found on every pop cultural website, including DeviantArt, DollDivine, Pinterest, and Tumblr.
The characters have not only developed multiple
songs, duets, and performances, but they have also
developed personalities.
I can tell you from personal experiences of
reading fanfiction, watching music videos, and
browsing fan art, that the most popular Vocaloids
include (B=boy; G=girl) Hatsune Miku(g), Megurine
Luka(g), Shion Kaito(b), Kagamine Rin(g), Len(b),
and Meiko(g). There are some Vocaloids that sing in
English, such as Sweet Ann, Sonika, Lola, and Leon.
Each Vocaloid also has a specific item (usually food)
that is used to represent them. For instance, Miku's
item is a leek, or a green onion. Kaito is always seen
carrying a tub of ice cream; their specific item carries
over into fan art and fan fiction. The main Vocaloids
even have concerts. In fact, it is tradition in Japan for
at least one Hatsune
Miku concert to be held per year. This year, on
March 9th, the concert took place in Wakayama's Big
Whale Sports and Recreation Center.
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1
PAGE 7
Because of the way the software is programmed,
you can use multiple 3D models and make all of
them dance simultaneously.
What else can Vocaloids do?
The Fanbase:
Besides programming Vocaloid voice
banks to sing, you can also manipulate the characters into something called MMD, or Miku
Miku Dance. Miku Miku
Dances are just as popular as the singing software, and they are often combined.
Pictured Above: Left to right
Hastune Miku, Kagamine Rin
and Len, Meiko, Shino Kaito,
and
Megurine Luka
Vocaloids have a massive fan-base. To
give you an idea of the fandom’s popularity, on
fanfiction.net, there are over 14.8 thousand fanmade stories, written in dozens of languages. On
deviantart.com, when you type in the word vocaloid, you get over 630 thousand results in less
than a second. The fan-base is gigantic, and they
not only support this fandom, but also manipulate it. One example is how they have created
gender-reversed characters that are now included on fanfiction.net under character options.
Hatsune Miku's gender-bent counterpart is
called Hatsune Mikuo. Volocaids’ fans have
more influence over their fandom than most fan
bases.
PAGE 8
THE HOOT
Batman
Iron man
Battle
of
The
Greats
By Nadia Sial
When given no topic of writing, my mind tends
to wander to the deepest chasms in the back of
my head, and brings upon a vast new world full
of strange and obscure topics to write about.
Given that insight, Iron Man is a much better
superhero than Batman.
First and foremost, Batman's backstory lacks the
finesse that Iron Man's past consists of. Tony
Stark, an arms dealer, transformed himself from
someone who basically sold violence to the
world, to an amazing superhero rarely ever terminating anything that isn't an evil robot. Batman lost his parents and traveled the world developing skills. There isn't much of a change in
character for him. He is good for the majority of
his life, and stays good. He doesn't ever go
through the satisfying realization that he is not
who he wants to be, and is forced to change himself. Also, Batman is ridiculously secretive,
making a hideout cave and masking his identity.
Iron Man gets recognized as the amazing hero he
is, and his confidence could eventually inspire
other future heroes out there. He carries himself
with confidence, and that ever-present aura of
such outgoingness would make anyone feel awesome.
Batman has a sidekick - Robin. Iron Man lacks one
of those, due to his high levels of awe-inspiring independence. Iron Man doesn't need help from anybody, he can save the world by himself; in fact, he
has, like four times already. Batman, on the other
hand, lacks the ability to do things properly on his
own. Half of Batman's life is wasted away wallowing in regret and it could quite possibly just be a
mid-life crisis, whilst Iron Man is getting stuff
done, like building suit after suit after suit. Batman
also didn’t have such a great escape from the cave
prison, or hole, or wherever he was. All he had to
do was jump out. Iron Man had to pretend to build
a missile, but design and build a suit instead, all in
a cave surrounded by men with guns. He had to
make and execute an escape plan, and survive
through all of it. If he didn't do half of that, it would
still be impressive.
Don't get me wrong, Batman is a cool guy, but he
has nothing on Iron Man. Now, if they combined
their abilities to make the Iron Bat, that would be a
whole other story. I posit that a movie about that
would make billions of dollars. You’re welcome,
Marvel and DC. Basically what I am trying to say
is, Iron Man is not only the greatest superhero, but
he is the smartest, most intuitive, hilarious, and
overall the most awesome hero out there.
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1
PAGE 9
One Direction
This is Us
by Heather Walker
The British-Irish boy band that has dominated the world, in a short three years, has yet again accomplished something that most musical artists will
never accomplish in their careers. The five boys of
One Direction embark on a journey around the world
like no other, documenting every second of it in their
motion picture, “One Direction: This Is Us.”
One Direction tells their story starting from
their early beginnings as a newly formed group on
the British show The X Factor, thanks to music mogul "Uncle Simon" Cowell. After coming in third
place, it was only up from there. The movie continues with the preparation for their Take Me Home
Tour, performances of select songs from select dates
on the European leg of their tour, behind the scenes
and backstage footage from the tour, interviews with
the tour crew, fan interactions, and positive feedback
from fans and the music industry. The film gets more
personal when the film crew documents each of the
boys visiting their hometowns, the boys raising over
5 million pounds for Comic Relief, and interviews
with each of their parents.
The film is showing in theaters across the
globe in 3D and as a regular movie. It was released
in America on August 29, one week after being released in the United Kingdom. Only two short weeks
after the original movie was released, an extended
fan cut with twenty extra minutes of footage was released. The extended fan cut was released in both 3D
and 2D.
With a documentary directed by the amazing
Morgan Spurlock, made famous by his documentary
Supersize Me, it's no question that it will be a hit.
Millions of girls, in countries around the world, have
gathered at movie theaters or cinemas to see “One
Direction: This Is Us” with fellow members of
the "Directioner" family. I've seen the film three
times, the original twice and the fan cut once,
and I plan to watch the original cut again. Everyone that I've encountered that has seen it has
loved it. I dragged my mom to a showing and she
absolutely loved it! It was very well documented
and their story is very inspiring. By watching the
movie, you get a certain understanding for the
members of One Direction; Niall Horan (20),
Harry Styles (19), Louis Tomlinson (21), Liam
Payne (20), and Zayn Malik (20). The boys don't
see themselves as famous. Niall said in the movie, "We are normal guys, we just have abnormal
jobs." This sums up One Direction perfectly.
They take their job very seriously, but at the end
of the day they are still five normal rowdy boys
that enjoy every second of their lives, spending a
majority of it with their four best lads. In the extended clip of the movie, Liam said, "I've always
wanted a brother. Now I've got four." Even if you
don't particularly like One Direction's music,
you'll definitely gain respect for them after
watching “One Direction: This Is Us.”
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THE HOOT
The
Prisoners
By Eman Rahman
Score:
We finally get an emotionally heavy movie this
year to rival The Hunt, and this one's in English! If you
didn't know, The Hunt is one of my favorite movies this
year and it happens to be a foreign language film. I loved
it so much though because it was so emotionally tense
and real; I could really sympathize with the characters
and get engrossed into the situation. Thankfully, Prisoners delivers, essentially, the same thing. More people
will be able to experience it, too, thanks to the fact that it
is an American film!
To start off, this movie is incredibly demanding. It puts a
lot on your shoulders, so to speak, since it really takes
you on an intense, emotional ride. You will be on the
edge of your seat, biting your nails! Prisoners is a story
about two normal suburban families that live on the
same street and have Thanksgiving dinner together one
year. That night, the families’ two little girls decide to go
outside; they never come back. From then on, we have
an extremely deep and dark film, filled with great cinematography, immaculate editing, top-notch performances, amazing dialogue, and some of the most intense emotional aspects of any movie in years.
If you wanted to see Wolverine go more berserk
than he did in an X-Men movie, you've found it,
because Hugh Jackman's portrayal in this movie is
astounding. He plays the father of one of the little
girls that gets kidnapped, and he does a great job at
conveying the disturbing depression and rage of the
situation. He actually feels like a real father who
would just do anything to get his daughter back.
He's one of those fathers who think, "The cops
aren't doing enough, I need my baby girl back. Let's
see what the hell I'm capable of." There are so
many layers to the character that you understand
what this situation is really doing to him, and yet
you're questioning whether or not you should be on
his side. One of the best parts about this movie is
the layering and diversity of its characters. Terrence
Howard's character, the other father, is a little more
timid and is sometimes scared of how far Jackman's
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1
character is capable of going, yet you still know that he
wants his daughter back. The moms are also played well
(by Maria Bello and Viola Davis, respectively) in that
one wants to forget the event and move on, whereas the
other is trying to hide all of her sadness. Another great
performance in this movie is Jake Gyllenhaal's Detective
Loki. It's a great plus that Gyllenhaal went through real
police training for his last movie, End of Watch, and that
he's proven himself to be able to act characters like this
in prior movies like Zodiac. It all pays off because his
performance in this movie rivals that of Hugh Jackman's, since he's the guy who's actually trying to keep
everything under control and is the only one who is really trying to practically put together the pieces of this
puzzle. Rounding out the cast is Paul Dano, who plays
the prime suspect of this whole tragedy. His performance is controversial, but I side with those who admire
his acting. His character is chilling and mysterious, yet
has an innocent look as well. This leads you to never
know if he really did the crime or was just some random
unlucky guy.
While the acting in this film is top-notch, so are the
technical aspects. The directing of Denis Villeneuve is
very David Fincher-esque (which is a huge compliment
since Fincher has directed some of my favorite movies
of all time) mixed with a little bit of Clint Eastwood's
flair from Mystic River. Just watching the movie makes
you feel cold and your jaws feel worn out. It really gets
you into the mood of this movie, as does the cinematography. Also, the editing of the movie is something to
appreciate, since most movies nowadays just incorporate
quick cuts into all of their scenes. This movie takes its
time with its scenes, which helps add to the intensity of
the final product. And this movie would've fallen apart if
its writing wasn't good, but thankfully, it's great. The
PAGE 11
dialogue seems natural and fits the situation, adding
to the realism and intensity that this movie has. Plus,
the story and plot elements all fit together great. The
crime is shaded and complex enough to keep you
intrigued, yet accessible enough to understand it all
when it's resolved.
All of these great elements make me believe that this
movie is one that's easily watchable, since it has so
many great perks and aspects. However, it's a tough
film, to say the least. The story and themes are very
dark, cold, and incredibly depressing. Watching this
movie is observing a family who's had their beloved
daughter suddenly and seamlessly stripped away
from them and then witnessing how much that seriously affects them. For the two-and-a half-hour
runtime, I wasn't bored at all. The movie throws so
much emotion at you that you feel like you're a part
of this all. You're always anticipating what's gonna
happen next, while at the same time not even wanting to know. When a film can so masterfully engross
you in such a tragic experience, it's quite amazing
and quite exhausting. I can say that I really loved
Prisoners because it is such a beautifully crafted film
and it's so realistically and emotionally intense. It's a
heavy experience and a depressing one, but it's ability to keep you locked in during this emotional ride
makes it worthy of its 9 out of 10 Noodles. Oscar
season has started early this year.
For more relatable and accurate reviews of the latest
movies, check out noodlesmovies.blogspot.com,
Eman Rahman's movie review blog.