Despite all the competition going on to make the final spots, many college basketball analysts are saying that this could be one of the weakest pool of teams in the tournament in recent history.  The major difference between this year and last year is the lack of powerhouse, dominating teams.  Last year the Carolina Tarheels were the heavily favored team to win the championship and proved this by pounding their competition in every game they played in the tournament by having double-digit wins in each victory.  This year, there is no dominating force.  There are plenty of good teams out there, but there is no “great” team this season.  Last year, power house teams like Connecticut made it to the Final Four with ease, but this year they have fallen into a very surprising slump season by performing unsatisfactory in their conference play in the Big East.  The departure from the tournament of great teams like UNC and Connecticut has made room for other teams to make appearances in the tournament.

This year every team has shown both their strengths as well as their weaknesses and due to this, there is no clear cut projection to win the championship.  All the top teams in the league have had major losses and because of this, many analysts are expecting for many upsets in the tournament this year.  Will there be a Cinderella story in the big dance this year? The NCAA tournament starts on March 16th and it’s time to fill out your brackets and make your own predictions.

As most people know, the original deals with a young girl, Alice, who falls into a well after following that famous little white rabbit with his rather large pocket watch. From there, Alice encounters various prances through Wonderland, and later returns home, the same young girl marveling her imagination.

Tim Burton’s sequel, starring the nineteen year old version of little Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska), takes Alice and viewers on a trip that is quite a spectacle. You should be intrigued by the returning and even nuttier-than-ever characters. The plot is, well…. you’ll find out.

I would personally suggest seeing it in 3-D. The illusions and picture that Burton creates should best be enjoyed in an enviroment fitting the mind boggling sequences originally brought to us by Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, as well as The Hunting of the Snark, and Jabberwocky.

Also, I would check out the music inspired by the movie in stores now, called Almost Alice. It includes big names like Avril Lavigne, Shinedown, Pete Wentz, All American Rejects, and more.
For showtimes, visit www.fandango.com

Some of the characters that will be returning in Super Street Fighter 4.  Such as Dee Jay the Jamaican musician who is looking for his next new style of music.  Thunder Hawk the Indian looking for revenge against the people who terrified his people and destroyed the village that he lived in.  Also Adon the prodigy of Sagat who is looking to dethrone his master and take his place as the Muy Thai master.  Cody the prisoner who does anything to win the fight. Guy will also be joining the cast of returning characters, Guy is a ninja who looks to try and avenge his dying clan in anyway that he can.  While Juri is the new character to the Street Fighter Series. Juri is a taekwondo expert is like a rival to Chun-Li.  One interesting thing about Juri though is her eye which is powered by the Feng Shui engine.

There will also be some new and returning features added to Super Street Fighter 4.  One of the returning features is the incorporation of bonus stages (usually involving your character destroying something in the amount of time allotted).  Also there will be a network battle system, in which you can battle with anybody in the world, but you can do it with your best friends.  So you can gather up some of your friends and then you can go and challenge other people in the world who are playing as a group.  There will also be new beginning and ending videos for each character in the game.

So if you are a long time fan of the series or just starting to get into it.  Super Street Fighter 4 is a great place to start with in this fantastic series of video games.

The girls junior varsity team wants to have a better season this year. I asked one of the members of the team, Rebecca Long, what she thought about the start of the season. Long said, ” I am really excited that our season is starting over again. Our team has been practicing very hard. I know that we will have a great season.”

On March fourth  the girls had a scrimmage again the Pinewood  girls team. I had asked Long how the scrimmage went, she told me that “Our team played very well, we beat Pinewood, four to zero. Our team worked together, and we know that our couch was very proud of us.”  I also asked Rebecca if she thought that there was anything that her team needs to work on. Long responded by saying, “Our team works fairly well together, but I believe that we all need to work on being more aggressive with the other team. We have been practicing on being more aggressive with each other.”

If you are interested in watching some other their games, you can visit the schools website to find the game schedule.

“I expect him to make it a day I’ll never forget”, stated junior Candice Brubaker.  We girls know what we want.  Even though we seem hard to please, we appreciate the little things.  Of course roses, chocolates, and a romantic dinner would be charming, but a single rose is all it takes for us to be impressed and happy.

In the end, Valentines Day is mostly an enjoyable holiday, like they say there is someone out there for everyone.  So don’t throw in the towel on love, keep loading those arrows.  Love is an emotion no one should miss out on.

There are some wonderful features about the game that really help it to stand out from the rest of the games similar to it.  The graphics on the game are extrodinary considering the amount of data space and the amount of people there are on each map.  Also, one of MAGs biggest features are the factions in the game, the high tech Raven,  the rebels SVER, and the rough and tough Valor.

There are some drawbacks to this game though that have some people aggravated.  One is that there are only 8 different game modes.  Also, the regular deathmatch team vs. team style is only reserved for people in the same faction as you.  Also during the matches there is a 20 second wait to respawn.  Now you can get lucky and up dieing with about 5 seconds left on the countdown, but more often you end up waiting about 15 seconds.  When you are wanting to get back into the fight, it can feel like an eternity.  Another one of the big complaints is about the experience and leveling up difficulties.  Since you only get 5 experience points per a kill, you end up having to get 10 kills to grow one level.  It can end up taking a heavy toll on your nerves especially since upgrading your weapons and getting new skills requires skill points and you only get one every level.

Overall MAG still has some work to do in ways of making this a great game.  This game will most likely be for more hardcore gamers that are willing to put in the time and effort to reach that goal of getting the last skill point to buy a brand new gun.  Hopefully in the future, the game company will help to correct some of these errors and help bring the game to a new group of gamers.

The Seacoast Summerville Student Leadership team, made up of 8 high school students and 3 leaders from the church, is planning a 80s prom to raise money for WMI.  The dance will be on Friday, March 12^th and the dance will be held at Seacoast Summerville, located off of Highway 78 across from the Captain D’s from 7:00-10:00 p.m.  Childcare will be provided from 7:00-9:00 p.m.  There will be a contest for the best dressed 80s King, Queen, Princess, and Prince.  There will also be a cake walk, dance contest, free refreshments, and other planned events.  If they are bought in advance tickets are $20 each or $30 for a couple.  At the door tickets will be $25 each or $35 for a couple.  Donations will be happily accepted, and it will be a great night to have fun and raise money for clean water.  You can learn more information by going online to Seacoast.org, clicking on Summerville, and then clicking on “Events”.

One of the things that Americans take for granted every single day is the availability of clean drinking water.  Every day around the world, in nations some Americans have never even thought about, people are waking up thirsty, living the day thirsty, and going to bed thirsty.  These people long for sources of clean water and for someone to give it to them.  Water Missions International, or WMI, is a Christian based organization dedicated to eradicating this problem.  According to the WMI website, over 5,500 people die from a lack of water, unclean water, or diseases that stem from it; this number is higher than that of AIDS, world hunger, and even natural disasters.

WMI’s goal is to provide safe drinking water to some of the most remote areas in the world.  Water Missions International goes to hurting countries and provides water purification systems that will not only provide clean water, but give that water a safe container that will keep it from contamination.  WMI has, in the past few years, partnered with a local church, Seacoast Church, and together they are working to change the world.

Seacoast Church is one church with many locations.  It is an interdenominational church with campuses in West Ashley, Mount Pleasant, Summerville, Irmo, Asheville, Savannah, and six other campuses spread across South Carolina.  Seacoast Church and Water Missions International’s relationship started at Seacoast’s West Ashley Campus, when the two groups shared the use of an old Food Lion building.  In October, Seacoast Summerville started a project with WMI to raise as much money as it could for the cause.  In December, the entire Seacoast network of churches joined in with the Hope Epidemic, raising money for WMI and other water related projects.  One of the Hope Epidemic fundraisers was to fill empty water bottles with change and see how much could be raised.  According to Phil Strange, the pastor at Seacoast Summerville, the total will not be exactly known until all the change is counted, which is a large task when you collect 3400 pounds of coins.  As of now, the Summerville Campus has collected $16,400 for WMI and about $8000 for Hope Epidemic.  As a whole, Seacoast Churches will have collected a total greater than $210,000 dollars.  To find out more about WMI or help the cause, go to www.watermissions.org.  Though these numbers are outstanding, there is a never-ending amount of funds needed to raise all the money needed to end this water epidemic.

The last game, against team Greenville, marked a new accomplishment for the team. It was the final win to put them at the top of the brackets. The tournament begins on friday night with the lower ranked teams.

The real action starts on Saturday morning at 8:00 am. The Patriots will either take on the Wando Warriors or their rivals, the Summerville Greenwave. The next round will be an even tougher test. The winner of the morning game plays either Lexington or Florence. The teams will finish it all up at 10:30 Sunday morning with the final game. Hopefully it will be a rematch of the last game the Patriots played against Greenville North. Awards will continue right after the final game and the All Star game will kick off at 2:00 pm.

Come out and support your Patriot Hockey team like you have been all year. This is the last stop before the Windy City for nationals.

The FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which tracks stolen property nationwide, currently lists 200 stolen dogs, according to Steve Fischer, FBI Spokesperson. According to Fischer, “Dogs listed in our database must have permanent owner–applied serial numbers, such as those from embedded microchips. Unfortunately not all dogs have permanent ID, so we know this is only a fraction of the number of missing dogs.”

According to a local survey, only 1 out of 7 dogs are correctly micro chipped, while 4 out of 7 are purebred, which is the primary target for dog thieves.

Morley Crook, associate deputy administrator of regulatory enforcement and animal care at the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), says, “Dog-nappers seldom keep the dog for themselves. More often then not, they take the dog to a research facility and and sell it. They can easily make between 50-300 bucks depending on the breed, size, and health of the dog they steal.”

Dogs that are taken to research facility’s are only found 3% of the time, and the thieves are seldom captured.

Dog thieves are clever they know where to look. I f you want to keep your dog safe, follow these tips from the American Kennel Club (AKC):

-Keep your dog on a  leash. A dog that wanders off from it’s owner is more likely to fall into the hands of a thief than ones kept close by.

-Don’t leave your dog unattended in your yard. This is especially important if you are going to e away from home.

-Avoid answering prying questions about how much you payed for your purebred dog. It’s hard to know if a stranger’s questions are an indication of innocent curiosity, admiration, or something more sinister.

-If you are a breeder, be alert to the danger of thieves posing as puppy buyers and burglars who may be trying to target your facility.

-Microchip your dog. The practice of micro chipping increases the likelihood of your dog being returned to you if it gets lost or stolen.

Now that you know the risk, you can prevent the loss.