This final 2015-16 issue of the Middle School Messenger was completely created and constructed by our 8th-grade newspaper staff members. Thank you for being a loyal reader this year and have a good summer!

IMS Newspaper

8th Grade Newspaper Staff Bios

Bio: Alex Chitsazzadeh Age: 1 4 Gender: M ale Grade: 8 th Likes: A nime, Academics, Specific Video Games, Magic: The Gathering Zodiac: Capricorn Alignment: Neutral Good Favorite Color: Green Favorite Video Games: Final Fantasy VII, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Smash Bros., Fire Emblem: Awakening, Pokemon White Personality Type : I STJ “The Logistician” Bio: Alex Chitsazzadeh, or “Chich,” as his friends call him, spends most of his time with his neighbor. When he‛s not hanging out at his neighbor‛s house, he‛s at home watching anime or playing video games. Chich also spends a lot of time online talking with his friends. Chich enjoys anime like Fullmetal Alchemist and D. Gray-Man.

Bio: Henry Hunter Age: 14 Grade: 8 th Grade Gender: M ale Likes: I ndie Pop Music, Sandwiches, Procrastinating Zodiac: Virgo Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Favorite Color: Orange Favorite Video Games: Pokemon, Pokken Tournament, MarioKart Personality Type: E NFP “The Campaigner”

Bio: Henry Hunter, or “Ginge,” as his friends call him, spends a lot of time chatting online with his friends. However, in the times that he is not doing that, he can be found playing video games, procrastinating, or even, at times, watching anime. He also enjoys taking naps, but he has been quite busy in his 8th grade career, thus not allowing him the time for the taking of naps.

Bio: Patrick May Age: 14 Gender: M ale Grade: 8 th Likes: V ideogames, music, computers, Magic: The Gathering, astrophysics Zodiac: Taurus Alignment: Chaotic Good Favorite Color: Blue Favorite Video Games: LoZ: Skyward Sword, Brawlhalla, Smash 4 Personality Type: A dvocate (INFJ-T) Bio: Patrick is an energetic 8th grader who is a part-time gamer, part-time academic, but a full-time nerd. He is a small 14 year old that can usually be seen spouting something unintelligible about nuclear fusion and the makeup of the universe. He also tends to become engrossed in whatever project or thing he is doing at the moment.

Bio: Edric Craven Age: 1 3 Gender: M ale Grade: 8 th Likes: V ideo Games, Animation, Getting involved in internet drama Zodiac: Libra Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Favourite Colour: Neon Orange Favourite Video Games: H otline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Bioshock: Infinite, Kirby: Superstar Ultra, Pokemon Y Personality Type: INTP “The Logician” Edric Craven is a 13 year old 8th grader planning on going into the field of Sound Design. He spends most of his free time playing video games and talking to his friends. He is more disturbingly opinionated than the average child should be. He has a hard time being motivated on most school projects.

Name: Margaux Browning

Age: 1 4 Gender: Female Grade: 8 Likes: pixel aesthetics, the unknown and supernatural, and music Zodiac: Scorpio Alignment: Chaotic Evil Personality Type: INFP “The Mediator” Favorite Color: Any colour! Favorite Video Games: Bioshock series, To The Moon, Corpse Party, Subnautica, Hotline Miami Bio: Margaux Browning in a 14 year old 8th grader who spends her time working in a haunted house, playing the piano, and reading about space. She enjoys reading, writing, drawing, watching cartoons and horror movies, and sleeping. She is very quiet and shy, but is also very loud. She's very protective of people close to her. She also likes listening to music called synthwave, and is obsessed with pixel aesthetics.

Poetry Café Retrospective By: A lex Chitsazzadeh The IMS Poetry cafe event is, single-handedly, one of the most exciting events that our middle school has featured, thus far! I actually volunteered to read a poem for this event last year. Now I‛m regretting the fact that I missed the opportunity to present this year. However, I still attended the event, and I have to say: It was incredible! I‛ve never seen so many different and diverse types of poems or other works of art in one place before. The Poetry Cafe had it all, ranging from, Poems about very deep topics, to light hearted, quirky, and humorous poems. On top of that, some students even played very impressive works of music. I know I could, and never will play on a keyboard that well! Also, the poetry cafe event is a time to let your talents shine. Let the world know what your strengths are! In the end, it really was a fun time, and I‛m sad to know that when I go to highschool, I will not be able to witness another one of these. However, 7th graders still have next year, and if you did not partake in it this

year, then I highly recommend that you volunteer to read a poem or even play a song next year!

Miitomo By Henry Hunter

Miitomo is a free app for IOS or Android. If you have a Wii, Wii U, or 3DS system, you probably already know what a is. But if you don‛t, here‛s a bit of clarification: are supposed to be you, hence “Mii.” Because it‛s “Mii” as in you. Anyways, you customize this “Mii” character to resemble you, or not. If you wanna make your Mii different, it‛s up to you, but since they‛re called “Miis” I‛m guessing they‛re supposed to represent you. But on a side note, if you‛re willing to spend the time, you can look up some pretty “neato” tutorials on how to make Miis look like different things. I, personally, once made a Mii look like a hamburger, but that‛s beside the point. So, now that you‛re up to speed with what exactly a “Mii” is, you can fully understand the app, considering the whole thing revolves around these avatars. When you first get the app, you design your Mii character and then after that… You answer questions. It‛s not like questions you find on a test, it‛s like personality questions, or just random questions about your life. For example, one time I was asked what I had for dinner last night. It‛s not really intruding, entirely personal questions, it‛s just light stuff. Some questions can even get really random… Like “If you were expecting a new brother or sister in your family, what kind of person would you hope they‛re like?” I‛m not even joking, I just copied that from the app. Luckily you can skip answers and answer them later. That‛s not all you can do in the app, though. Which is good, because if it was it would be a pretty boring app. When you answer questions, you‛ll sometimes be rewarded with money! What do you buy with money? Clothes for your Mii! Clothing your Mii will also bring up your Style ! You‛ll get rewards for leveling up your Style level. You also have a friendship level. This goes up whenever you add friends! Adding friends will let you hear their answers when they answer questions. The more friends you have, the more rewards you get, so the more the merrier! If you don‛t have any money to buy clothes, you can use game tickets to play drop games and win special costumes! Also, you can your Miis up in different poses in “Miifoto.” You

can also add your friends and other Miis you create in the app to your “Miifotos” (yes, you can make more than one Mii.) The app isn‛t perfect, though. Adding friends can be a bit of a hassle. They only recently added a feature where you can now add friends through text or e-mail. Another thing is the app isn‛t all that big. It‛s a small app, but fun. It‛s a fun little trinket and definitely worth getting just to fill some free time you have. I would recommend it. And if you do get it, make sure to message me so I can add you to my friends list. ;)

Upcoming Pokémon Events and S&M Release Dates Certainly those of you who play Pokémon games have heard the release dates for Pokémon Sun and Moon, which were released in the early morning on Tuesday. You also might know that there are a ton of events that get you free legendary Pokémon, that you can't find anywhere else! If you'd like to know the dates and upcoming events, you've stumbled upon the right article! Here are all the North American Events for 2016, and the Sun and Moon release dates!

NOTE: EVENTS WORK ONLY IN ALPHA SAPPHIRE, OMEGA RUBY, AND X AND Y. Pokémon Sun and Moon release dates: November 18th (both games are to be related on the 18th) Upcoming Internet/ WiFi Events: May 1st- 24th: Darkrai (To get this Pokémon, you can go to your local GameStop and pick up a code card. Once you have your card, start up your game. Go to “Mystery Gift,” click “Receive Gift.” NOTE: YOU MUST BE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET!!! This will open the communication channel. Click “Yes” when asked if you would like to open it. Click the option “Get with Code.” You must connect to the Internet, so click “Yes.” Once you've been told to enter the code, enter the code on the back of your card. Voila! You now have your very own legendary Darkrai! Just follow the instructions on-screen and you're golden!) May 12-17th- Shiny Xerneas (This event is for this time period only, so hurry!) (Follow the same instructions as the ones for Darkrai, but instead of “Get with Code,” click “Get via Internet.” Give it a while, and there you go! All other events will be received this way unless stated otherwise.)

May 20-26th- Shiny Yveltal (Same as the shiny Xerneas, this event only lasts 6 days, so hurry and get one before time runs out!)

June 1-24th- Manaphy

July 1-24th- Shaymin

August 1-24th- Arceus (GameStop Event. Follow the rules from the Darkrai event)

September 1-24th- Victini

October 1-24- Keldeo

November 1-24th- Genesect (GameStop Event. Follow the rules from the Darkrai event)

December 1-24th- Meloette

So far these are all the scheduled 2016 North American events, and if you'd like to learn more about events going on here and in Europe and Japan, check out this list! http://www.serebii.net/events/2016.shtml

- Maggie Browning

A Short Tutorial on Photoshop Note: Due to Windows 8, I am unable to take screenshots. We use Photoshop Elements in both 7th and 8th grade Tech Ed, but there‛s a lot more to the software than what we know. I‛ve made a few things in photoshop, like my terrible soundcloud images, so I‛ll use those as an example.

This image may look weird and moderately difficult to make, But it really only involves a few simple steps.

Step 1) Create a new image. Make it 500 X 500, and set the background colour to solid black.

THE GRADIENT: To create the gradient edge, start by creating a rectangle that surrounds the edge of the image. Set the fill to be empty, and select “stroke”. Find the tab that sets it to be a gradient. The gradient I used was a combination of neon Magenta and neon Cyan. “But Wait! The line is all solid! How do you make the blur?” Well, sir and/or ma‛am, have I the trick for you.

Go under the options for the rectangle, and change the size of the stroke to something a bit larger. Then, up the “feather” value. The feather makes the line blurred and fade. Around 25-40% is good for most lines, as most things above that cause the image to be completely covered by a really light gradient.

The Text: F irst off, create a new text layer. Make the size large enough to take up a good bit of the screen. Change the font to whatever you want to, I think I used either Terminal or one of the various Power fonts. Change the color, preferably to something matching your gradient.

To make the fade effect, copy the text layer, and organize it to be under the first text layer. Then, move the layer so it is diagonal from the first. They layer will still be fully solid, so go under “layer options” and make the layer more transparent. Do the same thing for the next layer, except make it more transparent.

So there you have it. One home-grown photoshop image, fresh for the using in whatever you need. There are a lot more things you can do with photoshop; the best way to find out is with the google machine.

-Edri