WATCH OUT FOR DOUBLE DATERS !

The following teams qualified to go on to the next rounds for the free tickets to The Hobbits: The Desolation of Smaug. Congratulations to all who participated. It was fun getting to know you and the varied talents you all have. Putting 104 Lego pieces together under 8 minutes is pretty awesome. !

In the next three phases you will need to come make an appointment and sign up as before so that Miss Mayne can get you set up with the phase you are to do next. If you want the tickets before Christmas Vacation, you need to show up by end of school Monday. That's today folks!

                                1.  7:08------------- Double Daters

                                2.  7:44-------------Cocaisn Invasion

                                3.  7:57------------- Eye of the Dragon

BIG guys, little Lego pieces

Legos appeal to girls too; they assembled 104 pieces

SMAUG LEGO CONTEST OFF TO A QUICK START!

THE FIRST TEAM TO COMPLETE PHASE 1

First Team Sets A High Standard

If you really want to make an adult feel inferior, challenge them to a timed Lego build contest. These two young men were the first, and so far the fastest, team to complete the first phase of the Smaug Lego build contest sponsored by LPHS's Media Center. The reward (besides humiliating adults) is two free tickets to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at a local theatre. Due to privacy laws we cannot list their names, but their team name is Cocaish Invation. (Their handwriting is not as good as their Lego skills.)

                        You Need To Sign Up Again!

Because there was such strong interest in this contest (14 TEAMS) we are doing qualifying rounds which should be done by the end of the week. We are trying to winnow it down to three teams, so that the next three phases can be accomplished before Christmas Break. Please come sign up for your timed qualifying round, even if you signed up on the original sheet. This is a different sign up. 

SO WHO IS SMAUG ?

Any of you who have read J.R. Tolkien's fantasy series knows who Smaug is - - - the biggest, meanest, darkest, most arrogant representation of evil, EVER! The next book of Tolkien that movie makers have deigned worthy of their millions has been entitled The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Wanna win some free tickets to this new movie, listen up ---

 A four phase set of Legos and the race to get them put together will be the drama unfolding in the LPHS Media Center. The contest rules are listed below. Enter with a friend or wanna be friend by the end of school, Friday December 6. The actual contest starts this Monday. By the time you finish putting together all phases of the Lake-town set, you'll either hate each other or want to go to the movie together. Did I mention, there are 470 pieces to debate over? They who win will get a gift card for two to go to the movie. Mixed gender teams are also encouraged, it will build/test your relationship. You can work on your phase before or after school, or during lunch.

Sign up with a friend by Friday, Dec 6 on this clipboard.

SMAUG LEGO ENTRY RULES

Objective: The first team to assemble all four phases in the least amount of time will win a 2 ticket gift card to the movie house of their choice

•  All four phases must be completed before Christmas Vacation 2013
•  Participants must work in teams of two at all times.
• Teams must sign up by Friday, Dec 6, 2013.
•  Competition begins Monday, Dec 9, 2013.
•   Library personnel will disassemble parts as soon as a phase is completed so as to prevent piece hogging.
•  Instruction books may be used for Hobbit Lego assembly.
•   Further rules may be added if something comes up that gives someone an unfair advantage.

You have to complete all four phases of the Hobbit Lego set

Happy Winner of Free Catching Fire Movie Tickets

Congrats to Alex B. who won two tickets for being the best
estimator in a tough contest !

Just when you think the day couldn't get any better, (Yay, for Thanksgiving Holidays), you become the lucky winner of a Cinemark gift card to go to a really hot movie!
By the looks of the Media Center Counting Board, most students grossly underestimated how many matches were really in the fish bowl. Our winner was within 271 matches of the total of 2650.

Come see how you did on the counting board,
right outside Miss Mayne's office.

Stay tuned for more movie ticket contests in the future; we like to promote reading by giving away tickets based on books.

MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR !

CATCHING FIRE: Win Tickets for Two!

THE WORD IS OUT, CATCHING FIRE IS HOT !

Wow! That's alot of matches, and some of them are in books.

I spoke with someone this morning who attended an early release of CATCHING FIRE, the movie, and she was very impressed with what she saw. Had she read the book, of course. Do we have the book in the Media Center, of course!

 Come to the Media Center and make your best guess about how many matches are in the fishbowl, sign up and put your guess in the Hunger Games bag, and you may be a winner!
You are allowed one guess.  (Scroll down, there's more).

Both guys and girls are very interested in this series, and though the main character is female, it is far from a chick flick. Oh, and did I say, these are IMAX tickets! The contest will be closed by the end of Monday 2:15 and the winner announced the next day at lunch. The tickets are in gift card form so you can go when you want; the time is not designated.

It's In the Bag

HUNGER GAMES, CATCHING FIRE TICKET CONTEST

ACTIVE NOW ! COME MAKE YOUR BEST GUESS NOW !

TICKETS FOR TWO, BE LUCKY,
 BE HAPPY !

MACGYVER MEETING #2: Paracord Fast Ropes

He learns paracord is tangle prone!

Was MacGyver OCD? Not hardly, but he did respect order. He always had duct tape and a Swiss Army Knife neatly tucked away to get out of any tricky situation. It would kind of ruin his flow and timing if he didn't know where everything was for immediate use. I'll bet he had that pin he used to stop a bomb detonator stuck in the tweezer hole of his Swiss Army Knife. He knew just where it was. He would have loved paracord ; ten bucks to the kid who finds a MacGyver episode or movie with proof he used paracord way back when.

Figure eights on your fingers make it happen

It's the Japanese Samurai who made an art of winding up and quickly whipping out a strong, thin cord as a means of prisoner restraint. They stored the cord up their sleeves as a bundled fast rope or around the sheaths of their Samuri swords.

As far as the MacGyver club members are concerned it is a great way to store paracord then deploy it without knots to work on projects. Other people like paracord for a number of reasons, but tangled paracord can be a bummer.

They most assuredly are magic, come see!

The anchor knot in the cord is the newest innovation in the fast rope. Pull the cord bundle by the knot as fast as you can and it's a done deal, you're ready to create!

MACGYVER CLUB MTG #1 DUCT TAPE SUPER SKILLS

MACGYVER CLUB MEETING A SUCCESS !

The world through the eye of a ductigamist. 

Hey everyone, there's more skill to ductigami than meets the eye! In our first meeting we learned how to make flat duct taped sheets that can be turned into 3D wallets. No one finished because they decided they already wanted to depart from the pattern provided by the book Ductigami: The Art of the Tape by Joe Wilson. Some members wanted secret chambers in their wallet, some coin holders, others side pockets.We also talked about the mission and goals of the club and what direction the members want to take it. More discussion on that later. (See MacGyver Club tab on this blog site.)

Not as easy as it looks; this stuff is sticky!

Club members decided it would better to meet after school on Thursdays at 2:30. The reason we meet after school is to have more time than a short lunch period to work on projects. There is no charge to join; it's never too late to catch up with projects. Our members are going to become expert at this skill and many others that will help us to think outside the box and problem solve all kinds of quirky issues in real life. We are also connecting these skills to books we are reading. Next: Paracording - - -  but that will be awhile yet. Contact Steve Song for further information.

A wallet waiting to be born :)

MACGYVER CLUB MEETS THIS MONDAY 1:30

When was the last time you looked at your wallet, backpack, or inside the skinny door of your locker and thought, "I've got to get organized, but this thing isn't built the way I want it to be." Come learn some basic duct taping skills to recreate your world and make your life and the life of others easier. 

Macgyver got around many difficult situations with duct tape and a Swiss Army knife. Come create what you need , become a MacGyver thinker who learns how to use your own ingenuity to fix or remedy a problem using only the tools (or skills) at hand. The next Macgyver skill that we'll learn is paracording.

 For more info on club philosopy and activities, go to the MacGyver Reading Club tab on the Media Center blog at lphsmedia.blogspot.com. Contact Miss Mayne or Steven Song for signup and meeting info! You must be signed up to start a project. There is no fee to join.

MIA: Where Have All the Chess Players Gone?

"I'm gonna kill you," One player says to another, and means it.

It all started about three years ago; a golden king chess piece came up missing on one of the expensive chess boards in the Media Center. Someone found it in the Baseball Armory and told Miss Mayne about it. He promised to bring it back but made the mistake of putting it on the metal ledge on the front window outside the Media Center after hours, where it was stolen a second time.

MIA King

The chess sets bought for the Media Center are hand-made, heavy, and highly decorative. It took years to buy them; they are pricey and difficult to replace. We had no choice, they have to be checked out now, and held in the Periodical Room when not being used. Miss Mayne loved the convenience of leaving them on the table and letting kids just "drop and play" whenever they wanted to. But alas, as is typical, one person ruined it for everyone else. Now, the chess players have disappeared too.

Should we put the sets out again, hoping nobody will lift pieces and take them for a permanent walk? They're here if you want to come play. (Look around, see if anyone has a golden king like the one in the photo sitting on their bookshelf at home. It could even be a person who has already graduated.)

YEARBOOKS AS OLD AS YOU ARE 

Homecoming means a lot of things to a lot of people, but until I pulled out all the yearbooks to give to Mrs. Bromley for a nostalgic faculty display, I honestly didn't realize how much time had gone by. I have been so focused on getting this library built up for student and teacher use, the time when by in a hurry. So to me, the student theme this year IT'S TIME really hit home. IT'S TIME, because that's all we've got that really matters, IT'S TIME because this particular point in time will never come by again (so ask the girl or guy out you want to be with on Homecoming night, don't stand on ceremony), IT'S TIME because noticing the people around you, not the things, is really what is important. "People first, then things," as Suzie Orman says, trying to get us to focus on the most important elements in this span of time. So be brave! Have courage! Even if the person you ask is stupid enough to say "No", you have tried and used your time well. No regrets. IT'S TIME!

That's 16 yearbooks, going on 17.
Miss Mayne and Mrs. Bromley are both amazed at how
many years are reflected by the yearbooks that LPHS has
been around .  You can find these yearbooks at the Media
Center in the Archive cupboard for viewing.

WHAT'S THAT---- Seeing Double?

What does Halloween and the Girl With the Pearl Earring have to do with the Media Center--- and what about that weird looking spider in his web, is he a jumper or not ? Where did Halloween come from and why do we celebrate it? What kind of scary books are out there for you to read to get you in the mood for that one last, dark night in October? Come to the Media Center to answer all of these questions in less than a minute.

THE KITES ARE DOWN &

 IT'S BACK TO BUSINESS AS USUAL!

Welcome back to LPHS Media Center and to all of the things we offer you! We're hoping to see much more reading this year since more English Teachers are becoming involved in the Thirty Book Challenge with their classes. Our current book count is over 16 thousand books---there ought to be 30 books of interest to you somewhere in here!

A CANOPY OF KITES !

Just as soon as the daffodils break through the snowy earth, chemistry teacher and kite nut, Rachel Wentz comes to the Media Center and hangs over 40 kites for student enjoyment and information. If you haven't been in yet, even if you have seen them in years past, it's time to become acquainted with the new additions, the fighter kites --- read on my friend, there is more.

Students study quietly beneath a canopy of kites

Fighter kites have been around for centuries, particulary in Asian and East Indian cultures. All ages fly them. Contests abound and the winners are considered a type of hero.

Fighter kites may look pretty harmless when you first look at them, but just like in real life, it's the little guys you have to watch out for. In the hands of the right handler they can be lethal in a battle of" winner take all. " Yep, the winner walks away with the loser's kite.

"I suck at kite fighting," Wentz comments, remembering a kite she lost last year in battle , " but I really like the challenge of developing my skills."

There are a couple of ways to prevent your competitor from winning: You can block the wind by  his kite and cause it to drop, or "slice and dice" it with a ground glass impregnated string attached to your kite. 

Miss Mayne has samples of the ground glass string on a large spool on the counter in her office, "I'm not apt to give out samples, but it's real cool to carefully run your fingers on the line and imagine the damage it could cause."

It's not the cotton kite string of your childhood. Miss Wentz calls the string "the old tendon cutter" referring to the finger damage experienced by fliers who don't properly protect their fingers.

There is a great deal to know about kites and we have plenty of the best kite books available in the Media Center for your use. Thanks for all your hard work Miss Wentz!

FINI !

Finally, the Media Center painting project has come to a close. In reality, it was painted three times in some spots. When the school was first built they painted it with oil-based paint, which yellowed over time. In order to put latex paint on oil based it had to be covered with a white primer first. That's why Joe the Painter became somewhat of a fixture here - white base, color, second coat.
Miss Mayne really threw a complication in by asking him to paint dark grey on ductwork and columns to turn them into architectural features. (Lotso taping on Joe's part), Given grey and white as her only choices, it was her version of jazzing things up a bit.
 Next step wall hangings in the form of a Pottery Barn hanging system for the photo and ceramics classes above the backpack cubbys. Stay tuned! The Media Center is an evolving place! 

New Media Center Paint Job Adds Sophistication

ALMOST DONE ! 

In spite of lots of interruptions, side jobs, family events, and illness, Joe the Painter is just about done in the main area of the Media Center. Most teachers and students haven't let the paint racks, equipment, smell, or misaligned furniture divert them one whit. 

Mrs. Jarvis shows students how to analyze an author's life to extract
meaning from their works

They continue to do research, check out books, and meet each other in the Media Center for group work. Students especially have adapted and learned how to live in the most workable space available at the time. We thank you for your patience and perserverance. Hang in there, it's almost done!

IT WILL BE LONGER THAN ANTICIPATED . . .

So when will the Media Center be back to normal? Good question. There's an old adage that "Life is what happens when you are making other plans."  Joe the painter isn't AWOL, he has had a death in his family. As soon as he is back we will push forward with the Media Center painting and renovation.

 Meantime, 15 PCs and 2 laptops have been reconnected for your use. We still have the DVD and CD carrel open for movie viewing, and the conference room is completely painted and ready for use. Oh yeah, when was the last time you checked out a book? We just put over 200 new books on the shelves!

There are still ways to get your studies done if you are persistent!