RRHS Arrowhead: January 2015

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Recipe: Blondie Brownies

Since this past Thursday was National Blondie Brownie Day, I thought it would be perfect to share my recipe for the best Blondie you will ever try.

Your ingredients are-

A greased 9x9 baking pan
1 Cup all-purpose flour
1/2 Teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 Teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 Teaspoon of salt
1/2 Cup chopped walnuts (If you really like nuts, feel free to throw some more in, if not you don't have to add nuts.)
1/3 Cup of butter (Melted)
1 Cup of Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon of Vanilla
2/3 Cups of Chocolate Chips

Maple Butter Sauce-

3/4 Cup of Maple Syrup
1/2 Cup of Butter
3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup of Walnuts(If Desired)
Vanilla Ice cream

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Put all the ingredients together besides the chocolate chips; you want to save those for later.

3) Put the mixture into a greased pan and pour the chocolate chips over the mixture. Bake from about 20 to 25 minutes.

4)While the blondie is in the oven, you can make the maple butter sauce. Cook the maple butter sauce on low heat, and pour over the blondie when it finishes baking.

5) Enjoy!

-Karlee Daniel

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Review: Tammy the T-Rex and Forensics February

As some of you may know, the forensics team is avidly practicing for their upcoming forensics competition on February 14th, but what some of you may not know is what forensics even is. The best way I know to explain it is that it is dramatic reading with more memorization.

There are multiple categories in forensics, from serious interpretations to humorous duos, but they all share some common rules: performers aren't allowed to use props, they must stay in a hula hoop sized circle, they must not look at any other participating members in the eyes (in the case of a duo), and in most cases, they are required to have the entire piece memorized. The poetry category, for instance, allows the person competing to have a copy of the poem in a small binder.

Sophomore Emily Dix has an especially good forensics piece this year. She is in the category Humorous Interpretation, which is where one person must memorize and act out a funny skit, and her piece is about being a teenage T-Rex named Tammy. Tammy has a crush, just like any other teenager, and desperately wants to be recognized by him.

Overall, the piece is very funny. Playing as a dinosaur requires Emily to give a series of dinosaur squawks and pretend to have a tail and talons. Not only does Emily act out the main character Tammy, but also a cast of other supporting characters, including Tammy's crush, Cliff. Emily does an excellent job distinguishing between all the characters, and as the season progresses, keeps adding more to their individual personalities. Even after watching the piece multiple times, I find myself laughing every time.

If you haven't had a chance to see Emily's forensics piece, then try to find the time to watch it. It will certainly make you laugh, and could possibly be a state-worthy forensics piece later in the season. Way to go, Emily Dix! Squawk!

Dylan Crigger

Alumni Spotlight: 2012 RRHS Graduate Becomes a Marine

2012 Rural Retreat High School graduate Justin Endicott, current senior Casey Endicott's brother, has just recently graduated from Marine Recruits Training Corps. Justin Endicott had spent an extended two months in the training corps, because he had a stress fracture on his foot, but finally was able to finish. Justin Endicott now has to complete the School of Infantry, which will take two more months, and began doing that yesterday, Tuesday, January 27. After he completes the School of Infantry, he can be deployed. In six months, it is possible that Justin Endicott will be in Iraq.

On Justin's graduation day, he was only expecting to see three members of the family, but instead he was surprised by sixteen of his closest family and friends, one of them Casey Endicott, his little sister. "He's really big," Casey said, referring to Justin's new muscle, "He can't put his arms down." It is true that training for the military can be strenuous, and Justin excelled in some areas. For example, he shot an expert-level rating on the shooting range with an M16 rifle.

With the new military life comes new military food, which Justin was ready to give up. Casey said Justin begged for "real food," so the family and friends all decided to take Justin out to 5 Guys Burgers and Fries, where they paid for Justin's meal.

Justin is on his way to becoming a Marine, ready to serve our country in the most humble ways, in my opinion. To fight for your county is to sacrifice yourself to its survival. Thank you, Justin, for deciding to become a Marine. Thank you for defending our freedom.

-Dylan Crigger

OpTic NaDeSHoT: A Gamer's Story

Would you ever think someone could make a career out of playing video games? Neither did Mat Haag, but over his five years of competing he went from making $13.50 an hour at McDonald's to making over $700,000 according to (NYtimes.com) a year for playing Call of Duty, but it wasn't always like this. Mr. Haag has worked hard to get where he is today. Let's start at the beginning: Mat started playing video games when he was about three years old. He didn't get into competitive gaming until he was six, when he tuned into a Halo 2 match on the USA Channel. Shortly after, he received an Xbox for his birthday and an internet router.

After the release of Call of Duty 4, Mat made the switch from participating in competitive Halo to Call of Duty. At this point in time, the competitive scene in Call of Duty was really small and LAN tournaments were uncommon, but Mat managed to convince his parents to attend MLG Anaheim in 2009, where he placed in a disappointing 4th-place finish. Shortly after the tournament, he made his now famous gamer-tag, NaDeSHoT.  Mat's competitive career would be inconsistent (with him constantly being on different teams) until 2012, with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, when he was drafted to the Optic Gaming Competitive Team, where he still plays to this day.

Though winning tournaments can bring about a great payout, Mat's main source of income is YouTube and live streaming. Starting in 2010, after he sold his laptop and saved up his money from McDonald's, Mat bought a computer and started his YouTube channel. "It takes patience," he recalled from his interview with The New York Times, "I didn't actually make much money." That was until early 2013 when his channel exploded with subscribers (it took only six months for his channel to reach from 200,000 subscribers to 700,000). Mat's channel currently stands at 1,584,893 subscribers. Now, with myself being a fan of NaDeSHoT, I'm happy to see how far he has come, and I look forward to seeing how far he'll go in the future.

-Thomas Brown