The Insider is an ALC student publication. The articles reflect the

opinions and views of ALC students and do not necessarily reflect

the views of either the ALC or of Independent School District 518.

The Worthington ALC Insider
Volume 2, Issue 21 March 17, 2005
It’s St Patrick’s Day The person we know as St. Patrick was born in Wales about AD 385. His actual name was Maewyn Succat. He was sold into slavery when he was about 16. His owner took him to Ireland where he was a shepherd for 6 years. While a slave Maewyn studied and turned to religion. He escaped slavery and went back to Wales. He later returned to Ireland as a missionary with the goal of converting all Ireland to Christianity. He took the Irish name “Patrick”, and used the three leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. Patrick was so successful at winning converts that he angered the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but always escaped. He traveled everywhere in Ireland, establishing schools, monasteries and churches everywhere he went. Patrick’s work in Ireland went on for thirty years. Patrick then retired to County Down where he died on March 17 in AD 461. That day has been celebrated as St. Patrick's Day ever since. (Continued à)	Animation by Millan.net A lot of folklore is associated with St. Patrick's Day. Not much of it is really true. Some legends claim that Patrick raised people from the dead and drove all the snakes from Ireland. Though originally a Catholic feast day, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into a holiday that many folks like to celebrate. The holiday, March 17th, is remembered with parades in many cities across the United States. The largest of these is in New York City. This parade, held since 1762, draws a million spectators each year. Here in Minnesota, the biggest St. Patrick’s Day parade is held in St. Paul, a city where many Irish immigrants once made their homes. Click here to take the St. Patrick’s Day on-line quiz

The Insider March 17, 2005 Page 2

A weekend at drill By Sergio Chapparo This past weekend on the fifth and sixth of March, I (Sergio Chaparro) went to what the ARMY calls "DRILL." It is a weekend of running, push ups, sit ups and a lot of yelling. It’s fun if you make it fun. I had fun because I made it fun for myself by listening and not getting in trouble. When you get in trouble at drill, they "DROP" you. Getting dropped sucks. They make you do pushups until they think you've had enough. If you fall they tell you to get back up and keep going. You have to memorize certain things that our "specialists" or team leaders quiz us on. If you get it wrong they give you a set amount of push ups to do then you rejoin formation.    On the second day of drill you do what they call a PT Test. In a PT test you do as many sit ups and push ups you can do. Then you go and try to run a mile in less than 8 min. 35 sec. I can't even do it. It's good for you. It gets you into shape and prepares you for "BASIC TRAINING." Anyone reading this should maybe think about joining the ARMY National Guard. Its fun like I said. You get a lot of money. And if you plan on going to college, they will pay for a lot of it for you. This whole thing was written as I thought it up. I want to get back to my other things now. But seriously, anyone reading this should think about joining the Guards. If you don't want to, then you’re passing up something good. Just think about it.

Animation by Millan.net Sergio says, “Join the National Guard” What’s the deal with the school’s internet connection? Students in ISD 518 know the feeling of the term “slow internet traffic.” We have all had the experience of researching a topic when, all of a sudden, the internet connection slows to the speed of a very slow snail. In order to keep you informed, we at The Insider decided to get to the bottom of the slow internet speed issue. This is what we found out from the district computer folks. With the addition of the 2nd T1, the district has monitored throughput and found internet traffic almost immediately doubled, utilizing the 2nd T1.  The district has worked with the guys from Windom who program our router and firewall, and they are trying to determine where improvements can be made.  They have come up with a couple of ideas which they tested and are working on. The computer folks want you to know that they are working on the problem daily.  They ask that we please be patient.  We at The Insider hope this clears everything up.

The Insider March 17, 2005 Page 3
$800 Coin? By Manuel Garcia Is this title true?? Well yes it is. Some of the new Wisconsin state quarters are worth about $800. Now, who in their right mind would pay that much for a quarter regularly worth 25 cents? The answer is coin collectors. People are looking at all the new Wisconsin quarters they get. Why? Because some are unique, and that makes them valuable. Where exactly would you get $800 dollars for a new quarter? The answer is on Ebay. When would you get $800 for a Wisconsin quarter? The mint only intended to make one type of Wisconsin quarter, but there was an error in the mint and a few mistakes got past the inspectors. This makes the misprinted quarters one-of-a-kind items. That makes them worth a lot of money!	Above is a picture of what your $800 quarter should have – an extra leaf such as the picture on the left, or an extra ear of corn such as the picture in the middle. If your quarter looks like the picture on the right (or the one below) it is worth only a quarter.

The Insider March 17, 2005 Page 4

Videogame Violence: Hated and Adored By Sergio Chaparro Have you ever played a gory game and thought that you might actually do the things that you did in the game? You might have just said "yes" but so would I. But then we say no and don’t do those things. Duh! Videogames should not be blamed for actual violence. Did you hear about the parents that wanted certain games to be pulled off the shelves all because they didn't like them? Well that's dumb. They think that their kids will go out and commit crimes at the age of 4. In my opinion that seems impossible. There has yet to be recorded cases were a child has killed someone due to a game. I mean come on. In the game Grand Theft Auto 3 you are able to hijack cars, run over and shoot any living person in the game and practically get away with it. You can even ‘have relations” with a female of the professional kind, then kill her to get your money back!  But that doesn't mean that a young teen would want to go out and actually do that. In my opinion, it’s better that they do it in the game rather than real life. It could actually be considered therapeutic. There are gorier games than GTA: 3 out there right now, like Manhunt. It is definitely a very gross and bloody game, but that is the point. It has a “mature” rating right on the front cover. The only reason for the game is gore and violence. (Continued à)

A typical not-so-no-nice scene from the videogame Manhunt In my opinion, games with a "mature" rating should not even be sold to adults with children with intent of letting them play the game. I have just shed light on a touchy subject for some people and an interesting one for many people. Video game violence should not be blamed for real life violence. There is no reason to make that connection. If you want to test my theory, then go and rent GTA: 3 and Manhunt this weekend and see if you go out and commit vicious crimes on Monday. If not, stop crying. Create your own urban chaos in the video game Grand Theft Auto 3

The Insider March 17, 2005 Page 5

Why I Hate the World By Alie Paine I’m just going to go off on a rant here so try to stay with me.  First off, I kind of want to clarify what I mean by “hate the world.”  Basically I hate everything besides plants and animals.  Plants are okay because they give oxygen to the animals and the animals are okay because they are just cool and not like people.  The plants don’t need to give oxygen to humans because we all just need to die.  Now, you could get all technical on me and say that humans are animals too. But really, I don’t care.  It’s not your opinion, its mine and in my opinion people are not animals and there is no point for people to inhabit the Earth. I hate technology, countries, religion, races, and gender… basically everything that has to do with people, myself included.  I don’t hate all of these things just because they are something to hate.  I actually have good reasons even if you don’t agree with me.  I think I’ll start with technology.  The reason I hate it is mostly because it never works.  Also, because it’s the cause of a lot of hostility between countries.  Everyone is trying to get more advanced technology than everyone else.  Better weapons, better computers, blah, blah, blah. That’s also why I hate all of the countries.  Canada is okay but I still kind of hate it.  (Click here to read more about Canada) Every country thinks it has to compete with all the others. (Continued à)

Animation by Millan.net Sometimes countries even compete over the silliest or most insignificant things.  They all treat each other like crap. Some of the reasons countries treat each other like crap have to do with race.  Everyone is racist.  Even if you don’t think you are, you better think again because you are.  Everyone is, even if it’s just a tiny bit.  Almost everyday I hear someone use some kind of racist comment.  It never stops.  Countries also fight because of religion.  Everyone thinks their religion is the right one.  I just think it’s better off not to believe in any thing so you’ll never have to be let down. I also hate gender.  From personal experience, I’d say that it pretty much sucks to be a girl.  And I hear some guys think it would be easier just not to be guys.  So basically gender sucks.  It would be so much better if there were no gender because no one could ever be sexist, or say that one sex has more strength or weakness than others.  No one could be oppressed just because of their gender. So basically I think it sucks to be anything or anywhere and if you don’t like it, then you have just wasted about three minutes of your oh so very precious life attempting to read and make sense of my pathetic little article.

ALC Insider March 17, 2004 Page 6

Dropped, Modified And ready to Roll

By Korey Stinehart

What do you think when a Honda that’s dropped and looks like a toy car pulls up to the stop light right next to you and glances. Well if you’re a teenage kid, you probably rev your engine and when the light turns green you take off. Correct? But nowadays, maybe kids should think it out a little bit more. There are so many consequences that come along with racing and exhibition driving.

Let’s start out and talk about the tickets you can get with a reckless driving offense. My friend got a ticket for reckless driving on Oxford Street and it was a $165.00. I would rather go play Need for Speed Underground at my house then get one of those tickets. But that is also a problem that a lot of people talk about. People say that ever since the first Fast and the Furious movie came out, street racing has been a really big thing for teenage kids and young adults.

(Continued à)

After the movie came out, the market for racing sales went up 53%! It just proves that it does influence young teenagers. A lot of parents say that they would rather have their kids playing a racing game then a game where you can shoot people and hit people like in Grand Theft Auto. So it’s like a choice of “do you want your kid doing a 140 down the highway”???

Nowadays there is a lot of violence and death and sexual content around you all the time. You can’t rent a PG 13 without seeing a sexual scène in it and you can’t see a movie without a gunplay in it. There’s no stopping all the violence that is out there. We just have to know what’s right and wrong. So next time a Honda pulls next to your ride, prepare to get smoked. HA HA HA HA

This week’s separated at birth…

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