#mayissue2018

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Lion’s Roar celebrates 2017-18 school year!

Here we are at the end of the school year... and it’s time for your Leacock CI e-Newspaper to celebrate! 

We’re looking forward to a great year in 2018-19 with a promising staff of Grade 9 writers. Please join our team in September to have your voice heard by the students and staff of SLCI.

This issue, our feature article is written by our Grade 12 writer, Daniel Cheng. Read on to check out his unique perspective on the May ritual in our feature article: Til Kingdom Prom.

See you in September!

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Feature Article: ‘Til Kingdom Prom

By: Daniel Cheng (Grade 12)

Hello there, fellow prisoners of education. A new day, it’s almost the end of the semester and there’s loads of new information you must nosedive into. This entire particular article is about prom, so if you’re not a mushy mushiry musher mush kinda mush-less person, feel free to mush-lickity split to the next article. If you wish to read this article, you’ve saved your finger the effort of scrolling too often, so mazel tov to your #FingerLivesMatter efforts. Without further ado, please proceed to read the rest of this article in a British accent.

Prom is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The one night of your life to celebrate the end of your high school days… Unless of course you’re also being dragged by someone to another school’s prom, then that’s two nights of your life and one of them’s free, you lucky beef jerky.

If you’ve yet to go to prom, then this article should surely help you. I, for one, can tell you this. It’s NOTHING like the movies. Believe me when I tell you this. There’s been years of an endless cycle of people not believing that and discovering that it’s true. The movies have lied to you, my friends. There is no prom king or queen, there is no huge fight that’s recorded with the potential of haunting someone in the next 20 years, nobody is spiking the punch, and if anybody’s getting pregnant, it’s definitely not during prom.

Point is, it’s not what you expect. But let me tell you what to expect. Have you ever been to a wedding before? No? Then, you’re absolutely lost. If yes, then imagine that… but everyone is literally your cousin and there’s no alcohol. You know what that is? A funeral. A funeral with a dance floor containing a bunch of dudes wearing bright colored suits because the funeral was last minute, and they wanted to look like they cared and the deceased had passed away just yesterday. But bless the soul of the passed that in their will, they bequeathed to thee a playlist of really bad songs that I’m still waiting to see the English versions of. Yes, only 3% of God’s Plan is in English. No wonder so many people failed the Literacy Exam.

Moving back to the topic of prom, there’s not much to do at the event. You go in, get some picture frame thing you’ll probably never use unless you partake in some Cheech and Chong activities. You spend 10 minutes looking for a seat only to realize that saving one for later is pointless when an entire group of people you hate takes over the whole table.  

You pray to whichever God you believe in that the food doesn’t kill you, and then use the photo booth with a bunch of people like it’s a teen drama where you wanna set up some sort of emotional connection (before a character you didn’t care about gets killed off in some cheap attempt to save production budget money). You pretend you’re at a rave so you don’t look like an idiot who can’t dance, so you brood in the corner to the point you realize that the myth about being the mysterious dude in the corner who attracts dance partners is a lie. You take the occasional cigarette break outside while having a chuckle to yourself about the fact a certain nicotine addicted teacher watching the students is unable to have his own cigarette break as you pop out your second one because you can.

I mean, hey, at least I bought a suit for a couple hundred bucks and I’ll probably never wear it again. Call that pointless, but my mom has a closet filled with dozens of purses she bought and never used, but tells me video games are a waste of money when I actually play them. My advice for prom would be… well, only do it if you want your instagram to look pretty. I’m not that good at math, but I’m definitely sure you’d be spending around 400 bucks (includes ticket, clothes, shoes, and gas for your car) to make your instagram look like you’re hiding Victoria’s Secret under all that “I have an addiction to kissing frogs and making talking snowmen”. But heaven forbid you don’t doll yourself up, lest you be Pandora’s Box.

Seriously, the prom myth is alive and well. Also, I’m the one who put country music on the song request list.

Catch me if you can. Yippie ki yay, mother fruit bruce willis loopers.

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Leacock-Buchan Fun Fair

By: Gimasha Perera (Grade 9)

From 10 AM to 3 PM on Saturday May 12, 2018, Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute and John Buchan Senior Public School hosted their fourth annual Leacock-Buchan Fun Fair. This year, the Fun Fair featured various inflatables, a dunk tank, an antique car show, and a rock climbing wall.

With the assistance of volunteers from both Leacock and Buchan, it was possible for the younger generation of the community to enjoy over twenty games and activities, such as bowling, tic-tac-toe, ring toss, plinko, pin the tail on the Buchan bee, and pin the tail on the Leacock lion. Children were also given the opportunity of unlimited use of the inflatables. As well, volunteers held a face painting and henna station where they painted incredible designs on the faces and hands of both the younger and older generations.

The craft show in the Cafeteria displayed outstanding handmade and homemade products for sale. These products ranged from lovely homemade scented candles to beautiful handmade keychains. The crafts of the show also included colourful scarves, dazzling headbands and hair clips, handmade Harry Potter wands, magical fairy wands, delicious almond cheese, scrumptious homemade pies and treats, gorgeous hand-knitted products, stunning handmade jewelry, and classy sunglasses embedded with exquisite jewels.

Delicious food was provided to the community by numerous food trucks. These food trucks allowed locals the chance to savor the sweet, sour, and spicy of the food world.

The community found the Fun Fair to be quite extraordinary. Many of those who were not able to attend found themselves wishing they had shown up after overhearing their friends discussing the spectacular day.

“It was fun!” - Taylor Edmond

“I didn’t go but it sounded cool.” - Ivy Zhao

“The food was the best part!” - Rasikka Ramesh

“I didn’t go but it seems like it was really fun.” - Judy Nguyen

“It was legitness…” - Breanna Larmond

This event was made possible with the assistance of the parent councils of both Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute and John Buchan Senior Public School, the student volunteers of both schools, and the companies and businesses that provided the fair with the equipment they needed to ensure a full day of fun for everyone.

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Movie Review: The Avengers Infinity War

By: Laksana Suthahar (Grade 9)

Main Cast of Characters:

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man

Chris Hemsworth as Thor

Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange/Dr.Strange

Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine

Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider- Man

Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther

Paul Bettany as Vision

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon

Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier

Tom Hiddleston as Loki

Karen Gillan as Nebula

Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer

Zoe Saldana as Gamora

Vin Diesel as Groot

Bradley Cooper as Rocket

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord

Josh Brolin as Thanos

There’s no surprise that for its tenth anniversary, Marvel Cinematic Universe released a blockbuster film in the Avengers series titled Avengers: Infinity War. Currently, it has grossed over $1.8 billion at the box office and broke the record for the world's highest film opening with $640.5 million. It’s the sequel to 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and 2012’s The Avengers.

Synopsis:

Since the Civil War, the Avengers have broken off and many of them have not been in contact. Meanwhile, in space, the Guardians are trying to do their duty to protect the galaxy. 

Trying to emerge through this advantageous opportunity is Thanos (the immortal villain from Titan). As a result of his failure of an attack on Earth in the first movie, he decides to collect the Infinity Stones (a group of stones that when used all together, can control the fate of the universe) along with his extraterrestrial crew. To him, collecting the Infinity Stones and destroying half of the universe will help him avenge the destruction of his home-which ruined due to overpopulation. Previously, he captured the Power Stone from the planet Xandar and slowly starts to capture the others. At the beginning of this film, he captures the Space Stone from the Tesseract (an energy cube) that Loki had stolen when the planet Asgard fell. Moving a bit further into the movie, Thanos creates a series of attacks and searches all around Earth and other planets to find the other Infinity Stones. Now, it’s up to the Avengers to reconcile and join forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy to fight their most powerful enemy as the future of reality is at stake.

Review: (*WARNING: SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD*)

The Avengers: Infinity War is a film that is not only action-packed, but an emotional rollercoaster with outstanding performances by the entire team, incredible special effects, and one that has an exhilarating storyline.

It’s a movie where different audiences are trying to be reached and form an emotional connection with the characters. The actors and actresses pull off their characters so well that you can sense, relate and feel the pain they were going through. For instance, when Thanos killed his adoptive daughter, Gamora, you could just feel the sadness and anger of the audience. As well, the purpose of each character seems to interconnect with each other (despite being distanced from one another). This to me, is very impressive because over 60 characters had to cooperate in this film to achieve a story that thrives to bring fiction to reality. Thus, the characters play a big role in me enjoying this movie as a whole.

Additionally, the CGI of this film is stunning! Most of the film took place in space and you actually felt you were there. The special effects artists perfectly embedded an unseen universe of countless planets that contained unique biological and extraterrestrial life on them. Therefore, the special effects in this movie take it to a whole new level and made it spellbinding to watch.

Infinity War’s storyline is extremely creative and mind-blowing as it has a solid foundation and a climax that just keeps growing. It’s amazing how there are many events happening at once in the movie, but are not confusing (if you have watched the previous two movies in the series of course⌣). The bigger picture is that the story consists of heroes that are at different places at different times and yet they work together coherently. In the end, the storyline comes to work out beautifully as it has a strong foundation that leads to an untypical climax and conclusion.

Overall, the film was constructed well (which includes acting, CGI, and the story) and it takes you on an exceptional ride into Marvel’s world of superheroes and mythical creatures.

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What a Trumping Good Year

By: Daniel Cheng (Grade 12)

That’s right, this is an article about the President of the United States. It’s 2018 and people still refer to Obama as President for some messed up reason when it is Donald J Trump. Anyway, this is a political article and if you hate Trump, skip it. If you’re right wing, stay and read. Although, I’ll be surprised if this article gets published because anything that’s not liberal these days is considered hate speech and cause anyone responsible for its creation to be ridiculed or shamed to utter nothingness… But that’s already happened to me because everyone thinks I’m a jerk, so what can this article do to me?

This past year, Donald Trump has made great strides as President. With a few bumps along the way and a golf course on the odd weekend or so, he still ranks a better world leader than our own Justin Trudeau. Trump may not be the best world leader in history, but he’s certainly on the list of being one of the most effective. This year, President Trump had become a major factor in ending the long drawn out conflict between the two Koreas. He pulled the U.S out of the Iran deal, which made Iran less dangerous to America. Say what you will, but if I ran a country that was giving nuclear weapons to another country whose citizens were screaming death to my country, I would also stop all transactions of nuclear weapons.

He has installed right wing judges in courts. I know what you’re thinking. “Oh Dan, you right wing biased jerk who hates good things”. And you’re wrong. Believe it or not... right wing judges, unlike left wing, aren’t biased and won’t immediately say guilty because the suspect fits into a category which that particular political wing hates.

We’ve reached the point of the article where you probably rolled your eyes about 27 times plus privilege tax. So, let me say one thing Trump has done that I really don’t like. Even though people in America can join the military at 18, Trump went against the NRA and decided to raise the age limit of buying firearms to 21. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for restricting certain people from military service when they use military funds to pay for surgeries they should pay for themselves, but this is a rick roll to the American people. Sure, you can be 18 to die for your country, but 21 to defend your home. That’s like if I’ll eagerly walk 2 hours to the nearest Walmart, but I’m too lazy to get to my mini fridge for a Dr Pepper when it’s literally a 3 second stroll from where I am as I type this. But nonetheless, we are in Canada.

So what good things has our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, done? 

Uh…. hmm, hang on, let me look. Huh…. Yeah, absolutely nothing. He just lets his wife sing about herself at formal events and cares more about people from other countries. People from other countries instead of homeless citizens from our country and underappreciated veterans who come home from protecting our country, only for us to treat them like dog poop that got stuck under your shoe. Jeez, the least Canada could provide for us legal citizens who were born here is the opportunity to buy Marlboro Red.

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2018 Billboard Music Awards

By: Majuri Gnaneswaran (Grade 9)

On May 20th of this year, the ever-so-waited-for Billboard Music Awards 2018 were held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and was hosted by Kelly Clarkson. With so many talented and stunning artists and performances, these music awards were one to watch. There were to-die-for fashion statements, many well deserved winners and speeches, and extraordinary performances.

When you enter on a red carpet, one of the moments everyone is looking forward to is the wardrobe choices. Ariana Grande killed her look with a simple black dress along with a big bow on her ponytail, high black heeled-boots, and a sparkly choker. Other celebrities such as Hailey Baldwin went for an elegant look by wearing a gold, tight fitting wrap gown. She looked gorgeous as it complimented her short, blonde hair. Camila Cabello, one of the winners of the night, embraced her Latin American heritage by wearing a dress that has a black top with a bow and a white fringe skirt. However, the female artists weren’t the only ones who made great fashion statements. Nick Jonas wore a maroon shirt with his tie loosened to one side and he paired it with black dress pants. Shawn Mendes wore a black shirt with a grey plaid suit and a striped undershirt to make things unique. These were just a few of the stunning looks we received on the Billboard red carpet.

There were so many artists who received well-deserved awards and gave heartwarming speeches. Taylor Swift, who hadn’t been on the red carpet in nearly two years, took home two Billboard awards and gave an empowering speech for women.

She said, “I wanna thank all the female artists who paved the way for us to get to do what we do the way we get to do it. All the new female artists who are killing it out there right now-we’re so inspired by you and I don’t know, shout out to the future female artists who just picked up a guitar or learned how to play the piano...”

She was so sweet and inspirational while accepting her awards for the Top Female Artist and the Billboard Music Award for the Top Selling Album. Next was Janet Jackson, the first black woman to receive the Icon Award. And who can forget about her speech when she addressed the #MeToo movement by saying, “It's a moment when, at long last, women have made it clear that we will no longer be controlled, manipulated or abused. I stand with those women and with those men equally outraged who support us in heart and mind.”

Nevertheless, the award winners of this night left their mark on the viewers with their inspiring speeches.     

It’s not very often you get to see some power-packed performances like the ones at the BBMAs. For instance, the South Korean boy band, BTS, debuted their first Billboard stage by performing their new song Fake Love with some killer dance moves. 

Another rare performance seen by the audience was Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” alongside Kelly Clarkson.

 It was no surprise as the host performed a variety of songs along with a variety of artists. Other artists, such as Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato shook us with a riveting performance of “Fall in Line” that had a medley of a dark and bright side to it. 

Norami gave the audience a charismatic dance break when performing with Khalid for “Love Lies”. Debuting her new song “Dinero”, Jennifer Lopez gave us a flawless performance that followed a gold theme and brought continuous applause from the crowd. 

One of the most iconic and emotional performances of the show was when Khalid and Shawn Mendes performed “Youth” with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School choir. It brought tears to the audience and brought an influential message speaking out about the recent tragic events in the world, including the recent school shooting. 

Thus, all the performing artists at the BBMAs proved quite well to astound the crowd with their show-stopping performances.

The 2018 Billboard Music Awards were one to remember as the host Kelly Clarkson kicked things off in Las Vegas. Performances were not just filled with singing, but dancing, tears, laughter, and just a whole lot of fun. There’s no surprise that this award ceremony brought breathtaking outfits, speeches, and performances to bring a great night not only just for the artists, but the audience as well.

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Exams!!! (sigh)

By: Gayasha Perera (Grade 9)

It’s that time of year again! Well... almost anyway. Exams are coming up, and we all know what this means. Studying! How fun. But honestly, how many of us are truly going to study? Most of us will, but some of us presumably will not. Why? you might ask? Maybe it’s because of all the other priorities we have. Maybe it’s because you don’t have enough time. Or maybe it’s just because we don’t want to. To all of those who will study, good luck! And to all of those who have the courage and bravery not to study and potentially disappoint your parents and teachers, also good luck!

Now we all know that when most people are studying, they suffer from boredom, tiredness, more boredom, and sleepiness. Many individuals also experience stress. Stress is one thing that everyone goes through at different points in their life. It is the body’s response to both emotional and mental tension. Stress can be the reason behind why you did not study enough or did not study at all.

So you may be wondering, how can students overcome stress caused by exams? If you wants to prevent getting stressed out during exam season, you could start studying long before exams begin. Perhaps now will be a good time. But truly, who’s going to do that? Most of us are going to push back studying until the night before exams and that is the key to getting stress during exams: procrastination.

Procrastination is something that we have all presumably done before. Do not deny it. Deep down, like deep deep down, you know you are going to procrastinate while studying. Don’t do it. Do not procrastinate. Ever. Procrastination will result in more issues to worry about, and that will lead to increased stress. Do not leave all your studying to the last minute-- start studying well before exams begin. Make a study plan so you know exactly what you need to go over each day.

Exams will begin soon so don’t fall into the trap of procrastination. Make a plan, talk to your teacher about what is on the exam and maybe even form a study group with friends. Exams don’t need to be stressful!

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Book Review: Red Queen

By Laksana Suthuhar & Majuri Gnaneswaran (Gr. 9)

Red Queen is an exceptional book, so we would give it a 9/10. It is a book that we would recommend to many, especially those who are interested in exhilarating dystopia. This novel goes to prove to us that in our lives, experiencing those heart-wrenching moments is what’s going to prepare us for the big picture. Thus, Red Queen is a novel worth reading.

Victoria Aveyard takes us on an insightful journey to a world divided by blood: those with red, and those with silver. In the kingdom of Norta, silvers are believed to be Gods because they possess unimaginable powers-each one more intriguing than the other. On the contrary, reds are poor beings who are seen as demeaning because they are incapable of having such power. Aveyard hooks us into the story of Mare Barrow, a teenaged girl from the Stilts who’s a red making a living for her family through her strength: stealing. However, her life takes a turn when she earns powerful abilities-despite being red-blooded. The King has turned her image into a lost silver princess, in fear of the rising red rebellion gaining more power. Even though Mare’s life has become a lie, she secretly holds onto her true identity through joining hands with the rebellious group, The Scarlet Guard. Red Queen is the tale of a girl trying to fight against such a discriminative and sickening world while learning about where her loyalties should lie and staying true to her heart. Her fragile heart.

 There are countless ways to describe Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen, but we would sum it up in these 3 words: thrilling, electrifying, and treacherous. The book was thought-provoking and kept us wanting to read it until we dropped. It’s a well-thought out combination of The Selection’s royalty and The Hunger Games’ selectiveness and injustice. Even though, the beginning of the story was slow, it started to get more interesting as the book proceeded. We were able to get a better understanding of Mare’s emotions and struggles with the characters around her throughout the story and were able to visualize the bond or rivalry between the characters. Red Queen perfectly set off the series for us as we see the bigger picture towards the end of the book. This novel made us connect into Mare’s world filled with sorrow. We were able to feel what she felt when there were twists and turns in her life, but the most exhausting part was the love drama. Mare has 3 love choices, but all three are so good that it’s even hard for us readers to decide who we want her to be with. Therefore, this YA novel is such a phenomenon to read, as it gives us a intoxicating and perceptive view about how a girl’s life changed overnight-to shape her into her fate. It’s not your classic “Cinderella story” or a “winner’s story” because here you learn that you have to fight if you want change and that change can end up being for you or against you.