Title

The title would be "When I Grow Up...." (linked to the previous article). I would work it into the end by elaborating that we could always invent the things that haven't come true, but I still have to edit the begining.

Article

I may add on bits and pieces later, but this is my rough draft. I'm thinking of a way to work the title into the begining, then I'll add the end.

Almost daily, there are theories published about what is to come, about what lay ahead of us. There are predictions about transportation, – bubbles and flying cars – about clothes, – tin foil – and so much more. Sure, half of these are logical predictions factoring in the progress of the past. But, if you think about it, the other half is fed by Hollywood.
Our picture of the future is very clear: robots, flying cars, tin foil, metal, and things appearing out of thin air. It’s always been the same; never changing, even as time passed by and so many futures were gone. Our predictions should be getting more complex and our visions should change as time goes by, right? They don’t, though.
Hollywood, even as the future is destined to change, keeps refueling that image we all have. Hollywood movies from the 1940’s have portrayed tin foil, too. Except their future was the new millennium… year 2000. Now that it has gone, do we really have a world like the Jetsons? Have we come close?
The Jetsons had roving sidewalks and teleports that magically gave you food. When the show came out, everything all looked so new, shiny, and impossible. It was like we could never have that. While we may not be ‘shiny’, we have developed devices close to the complexity of the times of the Jetsons. What about the moving walkways in airports? Are those any different from the 1960’s hit TV show? And we may not have fancy teleportation/food makers, but I think that microwaves come pretty close. All these comparisons really make you wonder if our predictions haven’t already come true….
In Back to the Future Part II, one of the most popular items was the car with doors that opened up. You may not see many of those cars on the road now, but believe it or not, they have already had their hay-day. The 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, was actually made before the movie. Our parents know that, but not many middle school students do. Also, in this movie, Doc and Marty travel to 2015, and the world already looks like a tinfoil bomb has gone off. Will we have all of that technology in 6 years?
With all of the space movies combined, like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lost in Space, there are a lot of ‘future’ items. In Star Trek, which took place in 2151, they had computers and communicators before we had cell phones or desktops. But, in a different sense, we are ahead of their predictions. About 110 years ahead. However, we have yet to create a space ship that can travel that far away from Earth. The same goes for Star Wars. Also, I’m pretty sure that deadly beams of light (a.k.a. light sabers) haven’t been invented yet.
So, if you really think about all of the past future guesses, you’ll ask yourself: Are we there yet? Yes, Hollywood has made up a lot of it, but that has helped us to grow and accomplish (most of the time) so many new things.
It doesn’t even take a calculator or dictionary to predict the future. It just takes kids with a dream. Kids are our future, the people who make the future happen. We are the ones making the new clothes, and the ones developing new modes of transportation. It’s always been that way. Maybe you can tell your parents that, and ask if you can stay home from school one day to watch past future movies. After all, it could help you develop the upcoming world and exceed the expectations of your peers and elders.

Layout Double Checks

· All By-lines must be the same: By Name Name
· All ‘body’ font must be Calibri
· Except for features, all headers (article titles) must be the same per section. For instance: The opinion editor decides that she likes Arial, so all of her headers would be Arial. If News liked Times New Roman, all of their headers would be TNR.
· All font colors must be the same and black.
· The layout should be the same.

Please double check these before turning in layouts.

New Marking period, New Paper

Okay, the issues got out today and everyone is so excited! First off, I wanted to say that everyone in 7th (and 8th) did a great job.

TO ALL EDITORS

I am going to make a list of things to double-check with the layouts. We had a few minor differences with by-lines and what not, so this is just a pre-caution. ALSO, as soon as your writers say they are done, edit the article. Please don't wait until deadline! Please edit it and send it off to Sam S. ASAP. That would be fantastic and get our paper out sooner. Also, check with your writers frequently to see about article progress and to make sure they are working. That would help. If not, we'll have to send Darian out there....

TO ALL WRITERS

Please, please, please write your articles first thing, so your editors will have an easier job.

Overall, great job guys!

Reilly

Updated Article

“I will never say that when I grow up.” How many times have you said this to yourself? Do you roll your eyes? Do you give a sigh of resignation? Or do you simply plaster a smile on your face in a wait of what you are sure you have already heard a million and one times? When your parents sit you down, and start the sentence with, “You don’t know how easy you have it, when I was a kid…”, take a minute to listen. Because they aren’t wrong. Let’s face it. Have you ever turned on the TV manually? I mean, when the remote wasn’t lost underneath the couch cushion. And even then you run around the entire house searching for it, instead of crossing the room and changing the channel. I know what you’re thinking: If I don’t find it now, I’ll be without a remote forever! So I’ll admit it: Yes, having a remote control is much easier than getting up at every commercial.

Google; a multi-million dollar search engine otherwise known as: The Info God. It has every answer to any question, ranging from services, to history, to games, to your science report. So who wants to hop in the car, go to the library, look up whatever subject through the Dewey Decimal System and search through hundreds of pages of hundreds of books. Why, when you have The Info God in your living room? Not me. I don’t even know what the Dewey Decimal System is let alone how to use/see/get it. Thank God for Google.

I think the biggest thing I take for granted, and am just now realizing, is… microwavable popcorn. We stick a package in the microwave, press the popcorn button, and watch as it pops. It’s pre-salted, pre-buttered and effortless. Yeah. No such luck 20 years ago. “When I was a kid… it was different.” start my parents. It wasn’t just about not having a popcorn button on their microwaves. They didn’t have microwaves period. Our parents had to take out a frying pan, put oil in the bottom, and heat it up. Then, they put in Orville Redenbacher’s kernals, put the lid on, and shook the pan. A lot. Plus, there was no such thing as pre-salted and pre-buttered. It was all manual. We have life easier in many ways, especially in the microwavable popcorn area.

We live in a class of people that have never been without a remote control, never lacking a cellular phone. Our generation has never been without a Seinfeld reference. Schools have always been concerned with multiculturalism and Pepsi and Coke have always used recyclable bottles. There is no attendant asking you “Want me to check under the hood?” Times have changed since your parents were little and they will keep changing. From technology, to clothes, to limits, change will happen. Good, bad, or indifferent.

So do all these changes make our lives easier? What about when your parents say, “When I was a kid, my parents never had to worry about me riding my bike along to the ice cream shop.” In a different respect, life was easier back then. They walked to school, rode their bikes whenever and wherever and, if they stayed out after dark, parents wouldn’t worry. They could be free and have fun without worrying about being kidnapped or hurt. I’m not saying that danger was any less then, but it was definitely underestimated. People say childhood is carefree, but now… it has limits.

Ever heard the saying, “Find a penny, pick it up…”? If older generations saw a penny, you’d bet your allowance they’d pick it up. With a penny, they could buy a piece of candy, and if they saved… they could buy quite a lot more than we could with that amount of money. Now, if we see a penny, great. Save a hundred and you can buy one cheesy plastic ring. The cost of living is just so different; a middle class person today could be a high class person a generation ago. It was definitely easier, in this sense, back then.

This is a time of change, the whole kit and caboodle. Yes, technology, along with other things, is more advanced. Yes, life can be much easier nowadays. But, in other ways, such as the cost of living, or the amount of freedom and worry, life was easier back then. So I say again: Change is happening, and it will keep happening. Our class has CD’s, what will our children have? Microchips? We have cars, they may travel in bubbles. When our parents say “When I was a kid…” I don’t believe they ever thought they would be saying it either. They never thought they’d have remote controls and Google, so they weren’t going to be caught dead saying “When I was a kid…” when they grew up. But they are, and, believe me, we will too.