The magazine will be accepting submissions February 1st through March 2nd. Essays, song lyrics, photographs, short stories, drawings and other artistic works are all available for submission.

You can submit online at MHSlitMag@misdmail.org or in person in room R-14. A signed submission form must accompany all submissions.

Winter is a season dedicated to heavy coats, strengthening personal relationships, and cold weather. However, now that it is getting cold out, here are some tips to stay warm.

Stay nourished and keep your body temperature rising with these delectable foods. Soups and chowders make for steaming and delicious meals. For an extra hardy meal, chili is an excellent choice because it is more filling, and consists of a delicious soup-like nature. Avoid foods like sodium-filled chips and carbonated sodas. White bread and cucumbers are also chilling and won’t help in maintaining a warm body.

Incorporate cinnamon into your hot drinks, such as coffee and hot cocoa. For a break from boring, pre-packaged hot chocolate mixes, try looking up a recipe for exquisite homemade hot cocoa, such as this one. Tea is a good alternative for those who do not like hot chocolate or strong coffee, providing fellow drinkers with a rejuvenating substitute. Also, try adding honey instead of sugar for a rich texture, but the same sweetness.

Another way to stay warm is to layer clothing. Scarves are a foolproof way to add warmth to an outfit, and they are easy to find. You can purchase scarves for low prices at local stores like Target. Sweaters and coats are also a staple for winter clothing, as sweaters and cardigans are easy to layer under thick winter coats. This is a great way to stay warm because if you don’t feel like wearing a coat all day, sweaters and cardigans that have been layered underneath carry the potential for warmth while still being fashionable. A really simple way to stay warm is to wear warm socks. You can easily find fun, festive holiday socks this time of year, and you won’t have to sacrifice warmth for style, because chances are- these socks can easily be concealed under pants and a pair of boots.

More vital tips to stay warm include getting a full night’s rest of at least eight hours of sleep and surrounding yourself with contained fire. Sleep will give you the energy to endure the brisk winter weather and fire will keep you warm enough to be able to enjoy the other pleasures of life- good food, hot chocolate, and fuzzy socks.

The number one gift to not give someone would be a gift card. Gift cards say, ‘I know you enough to get you a gift, but I don’t care enough to find out what you would actually like,’ so giving someone you’re close to a gift card seems kind of insensitive. Although gift cards are a good scapegoat when you are shopping for that person that is impossible to shop for, you should try your hardest to find them a gift that would mean something to them; and if you are planning to give them a gift card, do not give them one to a restaraunt. Gifts are supposed to be meaningful, and giving someone something that will go in and out of their bodies within a day will be forgotten as soon as the food is digested. Give them a gift card to a special shop they love or a cash card that they can spend anywhere, that way they can definitely find something they love.

Another questionable gift to give is clothes. There’s an abundance of clothing stores out there, but finding someone that perfect shirt or those perfect jeans is really hard and it would be really embarrassing if you got them a size too big or a size too small. Also, it’s hard to find something that will fit perfectly with that person’s specific style. Nothing is worse than getting an ugly shirt or plain socks on Christmas; and even though they will have it longer than the gift card, every time they see the gift, it will be a reminder of that time you failed at gift giving or that time you got them a shirt that was too big and made them feel fat. If clothes is the way you want to go, though, try to get them a funny shirt or some cool socks, that way they can wear it ironically or you can both laugh at the joke for years to come.

If you want to do a sweet gesture for a member of your family or your significant other, make sure not to get them flowers. They may be pretty and they may be good for various other occasions, but the holidays are hectic and people are always busy. The receiver may not have time to tend to the flowers every day or may not even be home to receive them, so your flowers will just end up dead and droopy. A sweet alternative would be a mix tape filled with songs they love. They can listen to it on the go and nothing is better than finding good new music.

Although it will be easy to find bad gifts season, there are plenty of awesome ones out there, too. One of the hottest gifts this season is definitely the iPhone 4S. Despite the fact that it looks exactly like the iPhone 4, it comes with a higher quality camera, various internal improvements, and Siri, the most popular new feature added. Siri is a voice-activated assistant with incredible capabilities. The iPhone 4S may not be very different from the regular iPhone 4, but that didn’t stop Apple from making it more expensive. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, it might be better to just go with the iPhone 4, which is $50 cheaper and basically the same.

For the video-gamer in your family, a good investment might be one of the various videogames that have come out in the past couple of months, the biggest one being Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Everyone and their mother plays it (including my mother); and the receiver will be sure to love it on any console. Uncharted 3, the third video game in the critically acclaimed Uncharted series for Playstation 3, came out in early November and is the perfect game for any adventure-lover that wants to stay in for the holidays.

The list goes on, from brand new movies on DVD (the final Harry Potter installment, The Hangover Part 2), new technological gadgets (the Kindle Fire, the aforementioned iPhone), and even other random, but meaningful gifts that you can find this season. Do not be lazy and resort to lame gifts that give only a hint of satisfaction. All it takes is a little hunting and you can always find the perfect gift for someone that they will undoubtedly love.

“A couple years ago, I noticed that my mom stayed up wrapping presents, and she was really tired the next morning. That’s when I knew Santa wasn’t real, it was kinda a harsh realization for me,” Sophomore, Jackie Fisher said.

No matter how a child finds out, weather it be by a friend, seeing his parents with the presents or having his parents tell him, the truth comes out eventually.

“In 7th grade, my dad sat me down and told me Santa wasn’t real. I already had an idea that it could be them putting the presents under the tree, but I wasn’t for sure until my dad told me,” Sophomore, Garrett Johnson said.

When people are younger, they do not take things as well as they do once they are older. As a kid, finding out something this big may sting a little, but for Sophomore, Allyson Frizzel it only lasted for a while.

“I was ten, and I bugged my mom about it until she finally just told me he wasn’t real. I kind of already knew he wasn’t, but it still hurt finding out. I got over it pretty quickly though,” Frizzel said.

As kids get older, they may not believe in the things they did as kids, but even though they may not still believe in Santa like they used to, it doesn’t hurt to pretend.

“Even though I’m 15, and I know Santa isn’t real, I like to think that it’s him putting the gifts in my stocking. It reminds me of being a little kid again,” Sophomore, Sami Arevalo said.

Hanukahh also know as the Festival of Lights, an eight day Jewish holiday commemorating the redediction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt in the 2nd century B.C.E. Hanukahh is observed for eight days and eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev.

“I’m not fully Jewish, so I celebrate both Christmas and Hanukahh,” Sophomore, Tyler Kirkland said.

Some people have noticed how chain grocery stores primarily showcase Christmas decorations over others, such as Kwanzaa or Hanukahh, which some find offensive.

“I don’t find it offensive at all, it’s not like the stores are pushing Christmas on anyone. I believe their decorations are for all of the holidays in general not just one,” Kirkland said.

Christmas, or Christmas Day, is an annual holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ celebrated on December 25. It is a feast central to the Christian liturgical year, which closes the Advent season, and initiates the Christmastide, which last for 12 days (which is what the Christmas Carol “the twelve days of Christmas” is about). The holiday in many nations is a civil holiday, and is an integral part of the holiday season.

“I celebrate Christmas, and I think it’s good that stores say ‘happy holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’ since some people don’t celebrate the holiday.  I also believe that having different decorations for different religions is good as well,” Sophomore, Blake Benton said.

There is only one World, with many different cultures and Religions, and however you celebrate, Happy Holidays.

If this change is put into action, then students will not get out of school until 4:15 pm. This would put working students at a disadvantage. Students with jobs would lose more than an hour of valuable time that they could use to work. This means that they would spend more time at their jobs and less time on their homework. Consequently, students with jobs could have higher stress levels, and they could potentially sleep more during class. Not only will working students face difficulties, but students in extracurricular activities will as well. With this time change, after school practices will start later, which will leave a burden on parents who have to pick their children up afterwards. This is a difficult situation for parents because most do not get off of work until 6:30. Also, students will not have enough time to do their homework after practice. For instance, band currently practices from 3:30 to 6:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If school ends at 4:15, then those students will potentially practice until 7:30 or later. Furthermore, the district is debating changing the A-B schedule, making students take all eight classes, for 45 minutes each, everyday. This proposal would put a strain on students because they would have to do all of their homework for every class in one night. In the end, having extra time to sleep in the morning will not help students because they will stay up later to finish all of their homework.

Granted, not all students work or participate in extracurricular activities, and some would prefer extra time to sleep in the morning. According to the American Psychological Association, adolescents need about 9.2 hours of sleep each night, compared with the 7.5 to 8 hours that adults need. By changing school’s starting time, students may focus and learn better with more sleep. On top of this, Assistant Principal, Reginia Crane said that the school district would save about $7 million per year by changing school’s start time. Ultimately, the change is good for the district’s budget, but not for it’s students.

Honestly, time is the most important aspect that students possess, which is why the district needs to keep the current bell schedule. The school board needs to consider how this proposal would affect the student population, and not worry solely on saving money.

The sounds of angry cries and shouts are heard by American citizens across the country as the Occupy movement spreads. The movement originated on Wall Street in New York on Sept. 17, but it has spread to cities across the country, including Dallas.

“Middle class Americans are upset with the way our government has bailed out Wall Street and the big banks,” Government teacher, Jennifer Haltom said. “They believe that corporate America is greedy and not doing what they can to help average Americans.”

The groups goal is to raise awareness about the issue and receive support from other citizens in order to make changes to our government; however, the group does not have a clear set of demands.

“I think, right now, our government is monitoring the issue; hopefully they will take the views of both sides into consideration, and do what’s best for our country,” Haltom said.

Haltom believes that it is going to take an election for the government to take action.

“I think, right now, there have been so many negative things that have happened in our government that it’s going to take a little bit of change, and it’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the way the two parties have reacted to each other,” Haltom said. “I think we need change in Congress. The political parties need to work together a little more, and hopefully we’ll get somewhere if they do.”

The protests have generally been peaceful, but some protestors have been arrested despite their first amendment freedoms, which include speech, press, assembly, petition and religion.

“The first amendment will protect any of the five freedoms as long as they’re not infringing on the rights of somebody else or that they’re not breaking any laws,” Journalism teacher, Stacey Dudzinski said.

However, some protestors have been arrested for starting fights and trespassing on city property.

“Sometimes protesters have to get permits in order to protest,” Dudzinski said. “They should look to see if there are any city ordinances that prevent them from doing that.”

Dudzinski teaches her photojournalism students the five freedoms of the first amendment, and then she details how it affects them as students.

“Although [students] are Americans in this country, a lot of times their freedoms are different because they are underage,” Dudzinski said. “For example, a student can’t just wear any shirt to school that has provocative sayings or promotes drugs and alcohol because it is against dress code policy. If offends somebody, then the school can get them in trouble, and students are not protected under freedom of speech for this.”

Despite the number of citizens that do not agree, the protests against the government will continue.

“I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the structure of our government,” Haltom said. “I think it’s worked for as long as it has, and I think we’ve got some people in Congress who are unwilling to work together; our government is based on compromise, so if they don’t work others, then our system will not work.”

Horror is defined as an intense feeling of fear, shock or disgust. In the midst of the Halloween season, from the middle of September until the first week of November, pop culture is suddenly over-flowing with things designed to instill fear in people. Haunted houses, new releases of horror movies, re-runs of horror classics on TV and even Halloween-themed television episodes are all breathed in heavily by the pop-culture audience.

One thing that has changed, though, is horror movies. They’ve gone from finely crafted films that build suspense and take it to a shocking and frightening conclusion, to movies that studios seem to throw out into theaters to simply make money. They’re hardly even scary any more. Most of the jumps and screams in theaters are from a main character coming out from behind a door or something falling off a shelf, followed by a loud pounding of music. The music seems to only be there to wake people from the disconnected stupor movie-goers fall into as they watch these movies.

Instead of crafting real fear-inducing scares, the movies are flooded with blood and gore and chopped off limbs, followed by copious amounts of unnecessary nudity. Today it seems to be more about how far a director or writer can push a person until they are taken to their shock-limits.

The in-your-face quality that horror movies have today attract audiences nonetheless, but most horror-buffs have become numb to this type of fear, and thankfully, a select group of directors and producers have found a solution to the problem- Paranormal Activity.

The series of handheld camera films that show a particular family haunted by malevolent spirits may not seem scary to some people, but in each screening of the three films there seems to be a tense atmosphere as people wait for something to happen- and when something doesn’t happen, the people relax, before jumping and screaming in their seats, laughing afterwards, all in unison.

These movies seem to be made with a different formula than the cookie-cutter slasher films that seem to be abundant in amount today. There’s no music, the only score being the natural sounds of the house, the people living in it and the ghosts haunting them. The scares are not created by something popping out of nowhere and into the audience’s face, but rather by the lack of action.

Due to the handheld, ‘found video’ plot, the cameras are limited in movement and the audience can only see what the cameras capture. When something happens in the living room and the man leaves the camera in the bedroom, the viewer can only hear what is happening and just wait. That is not the only type of scare though, for there are the commonplace ones and shock ones, but they seem to be different too. It all looks real and feels real and it pulls viewers into the film. For this reason, it feels like it reallycould happen.

The most recent installment of the Paranormal franchise is the third one, and this time it is a prequel- the ‘found tapes’ document what happened to the little girls from the previous movies when they were younger. The movie ties the mythology of the franchise together, explaining why the girls are haunted into adulthood and explaining what happens in the first two films.

What’s different, though, is it is more extreme. The ghosts are angrier and scarier and stronger and the filmmakers have taken the liberty of no-holds-barred chills.

One addition to this installment that is different from all the other films is the ‘Fan-Cam.’ The man in the film attaches a camera on top of a rotating fan and, as it pans back and forth between the foyer and the kitchen, what is going to happen in the next frame is always unknown.

Paranormal Activity 3 is one of the scariest original horror films that have been released in a while. If more filmmakers followed their formula on how to scare and tell a story, then horror films would vastly improve, but sadly, they don’t. Movies like that are not guaranteed to make money, so studios play it safe and crank out a remake or a formulaic rehash of some story told years and years ago. It’s sad, really, as a horror-buff to see the genre disintegrate in the way it is, and one can only hope that studios see the need for improvement.

“I love going to haunted houses and getting scared with my friends, but I never thought of the work that goes into it” junior, Khoa Le said.

Many of the volunteers at these haunted attractions are young high school students.

“ I work at Chaos and most of the volunteers are teenagers. I would say, and this is just estimation, that around 80 percent of the volunteers are ages 12- 19,” senior, Alex Burk said.

Research shows that people enjoy being scared while in a safe environment such as attending a movie, riding a thrill ride or attending a haunted house; and they are willing to pay for the experience. So, the typical haunted attraction averages around 8,000 guests.

“We see lots of people there. Both as patrons, ready to be scared, and as the volunteers, ready to do the scaring. It can get really crowded. Especially on a busy night, which is usually around Halloween,” Burk said.

Actors go through a lot when setting up and working in haunted houses. They take the time to get their make-up done, and they work late hours. Most don’t even get paid; they are all volunteers strictly there for their love of acting and scaring people to death.

“The hardest thing [about the job] is dealing with patrons that stroll around the place like they own it. It is okay though because I get to scare them off their self made perch, but I tend to lose my voice that way,” Burk said.

Make-up artists also contribute a great deal to the attractions, they are responsible for each actor and making sure they look their scariest.

“I’m a make-up artist at Chaos, which I love. I’m always mixing my make-up on my arm trying to figure out what mixes best so everyone will look great,” sophomore, Bri Davis said.

All of the people contributing to the haunted houses do so for the sole purpose of entertainment and the spirit of Halloween. To them, it doesn’t matter if they get paid or not and the result is always a unique success.

“I do feel that it’s completely worth working in the haunt,” Burk said. “I could care less if I got paid; scaring people gives not only the patrons a thrill, but the volunteers as well.”

In Africa, lions are dying off rapidly. 2,000 years ago, more than a million lions roamed the Earth. Since the 1940s, when lions numbered an estimated 400,000, lion populations have disappeared across the continent. Now they may total as few as 20,000 animals. Scientists connect the drastic decreases in many cases to growing human populations. The Big Cats Initiative program aims to halt decreases in the lion population by the year 2015, and to restore population to sustainable levels.

Also, according to the international union for conservation of nature, the Amur leopard, one of the most endangered of the big cats is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild due to habitat loss. Yet, these are not the only big cats in danger. Even now, there are more tigers in captivity then there are in the wild.

National geographic has come up with some creative ways to bring in donations. To support the cause, parents can dress their children up as a big cat for Halloween, collecting change while they trick-or-treat. Also, if participants make a donation of $5, National Geographic will post a picture of their kitten on their website.

Whether participants are dressing up, posting a picture, donating or just sharing the issue with others, every little bit helps in the effort to save these endangered animals.