The Smoke Signal

By: Catherine Ho While school lunches may be something juniors and seniors shy away from, it remains a must for underclassmen. As freshmen enter high school, they may be hoping for better tasting and a greater variety of food than was sold at Hopkins Junior High. Indeed MSJ food is better, varying from Chinese to Mexican to traditional American food. Our school provides pizza, burgers, salads, burritos, Teriyaki chicken rice, pastas, and many other types of entrees. However, instead of buying a single item, most students choose to purchase a box lunch, which includes a fruit, drink, salad, potato wedges,…

The Opinion of the Smoke Signal  Editorial Board Two years ago, the Smoke Signal conducted a front-page investigative report regarding MSJ’s “Ventilation Crisis”. The purpose of the report, featuring a school-wide survey as well as district involvement, was to raise a red flag about MSJ’s various general equipment failures. These malfunctions ranged from issues concerning classroom heating and air conditioning (AC), to broken clocks, intercoms, and doors. The most prominent concern was with the “temperature lockout,” or the implementation of district control of central heating and the AC. This seizure of control was to be seen as a “more efficient…

By: The Editorial Board Following up on the closure of local Barnes and Noble at the end of last year, the Borders in the Fremont Hub, along with ten other Borders in the Bay Area, is shutting their doors in the coming weeks as part of a bankruptcy filing, leaving no major book stores in Fremont. It’s another case of survival of the fittest. The mom and pop bookstores were displaced by superstores like Borders and Barnes and Noble, and now the superstores themselves are falling victim to the growing popularity of eBook readers and online retailers like Amazon. The…

Take a look at our graphic opinions on a congressman’s response to the Giffords Arizona shooting and recent changes to the Zodiac. Click on the image to enlarge. By: Cassie Zhang By: Tina Tseng

By: Anthony Chen We have often heard about being shielded from the “harsh realities” of the world outside MSJ by the bubble of relative affluence we live in, but one aspect that most people fail to point out is that we’re not the only ones sitting on this academic throne. There are many other high schools that are of equal or higher caliber, and there are countless individuals who are just like the students at MSJ. The Mission Bubble has created a false sense of superiority and complacency. We continuously receive boosts to our collective ego in the form of…

By: Vaishaal Shankar Apparently in order to fit in at Mission, I must practice this art called “Sprezzatura” (you know, trying to be effortless). The concept was simple enough, whatever I do, whenever I do it; I need to act like I don’t care. The “act” was emphasized which allows me to work hard on the inside but seem effortless on the outside. And the more effortless I seem, the cooler I’ll become. It was a lot harder to execute than I thought it would be.  I had to fight my inner Asian tendencies, for example whenever the teacher would…

By: Ravneet Kaur According to Urban Dictionary, “bandwagoning” is “when someone adopts a popular point of view for the primary purpose of recognition and/or acceptance by others”. Sounds familiar, right? The term is usually a reference to those not so cool kids that “jump on the bandwagon” for the latest fad. A prime example of “bandwagoning” was evident in the Bay Area when the San Francisco Giants were crowned World Champions. Numerous people who didn’t previously support the Giants rushed to join the growing number of fans.However, think back to early December when your Facebook newsfeed was invaded by profile pictures of…

Julian Assange. Possibly the most Googled two words in the last month or so. His story in itself is fascinating: a hacker turned programmer turned Internet activist, he’s been on the move for the last several years, bouncing between countries as he decides where to hunker down for the next installment of WikiLeaks. The Guy Fawkes of our age, he sets kegs of gunpowder around the Internet and lights the fuses as wake-up calls to governments around the world. Some of the leaks have provided remarkably transparent views of otherwise classified material: from the release of the Scientology “secret bibles”…

By: Andrew Han I remember back in 2005, a friend of mine sent me a link to this quirky new site called “Facebook.” Little did I know that I would be joining perhaps the largest bandwagon in human history. Time Magazine recently chose social-networking guru Mark Zuckerberg as the 2010 Person of the Year. Widely known as the founder and CEO of Facebook, a Harvard dropout, and the world’s youngest billionaire, Zuckerberg was chosen above WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange, President Barack Obama, pop artist Lady Gaga, and countless other influential individuals in Time’s list of nominees for the 2010 Person…

By Ginger Werner Many people have seen the “I Heart Boobies” bracelets on the wrists of their peers. But other than eliciting a few giggles from friends, the bracelets mean much more. Fifty percent of all the proceeds go to the Keep A Breast Foundation, and they come in a wide variety of colors. They serve as a fashion statement, are cause for a good laugh, and help support breast cancer. But in dealing with such an important matter, the Breast Cancer Society seems to be starting a trend among teenagers and not accomplishing much more than that. “I think…