Ted and Marshall were the perpetrators of this harrowing night that I’m sure Barney will never forget.

To get back at Barney for all of his manipulating ways throughtout the show, his friends decided to take a tip from the master of deception and plan the worst night of Barney’s life.

To start off the hotel they arrived at was far from Atlanic City, where they had originally planned to have the party. Barney’s ex fianace also showed up making it quite awkward when he revealed his engagement to Robin. The night was full of a lot of surprises; including a guest appearance from Ralph Macchio, Barney’s least favorite character from the popular movie The Karate Kid.

The terrible night ended with Robin ‘leaving’ Barney, leaving him  crushed. However, when Barney retreated up to his apartment his friends were all there to tell him that all of this was a joke.

Barney initially pretended to be mad but couldn’t hide how much he actually loved this prank.

While the trick was pretty mean, I found it to be absolutely hilarious. Barney has constantly manipulated his friends throughout the years so this was the perfect payback. Barney hating Ralph Macchio for defeating the villian in Karate Kid was perfect for his character.

Stay tuned for more reviews! The season is almost over.

As a long time fan of the show, I’d have to say that I am beyond happy with the way the writers have decided to finish up the series.

However, I did say that this episode was almost perfect.

That is because when Andy (Ed Helms) went on his audition for an American Idol-esque reality show, he failed miserably. Andy is generally one of the less popular characters among fans, but he seems to be the only one not getting a happy ending.

All of that aside, this episode was amazing. (SPOILERS AHEAD)

To start off, as I predicted, Angela and Dwight are engaged. As Jim said, “You love Angela, Dwight. I think you always have.”

That quote really resonated with me. Throughout all nine seasons, I have been dying for Angela and Dwight to get together. Now that they finally are it really feels like the series can end on a high note.

Secondly, after basically begging Jim to return to Philly out of guilt for ruining his dream, Pam learned that she means more to Jim than some silly job.

Jim proved to Pam that she was everything by having the documentary crew produce a montage of clips from their relationship. The clips ended with Jim’s gift to Pam in the first Christmas episode. In addition to the gift, Jim had written a note to Pam confessing his feelings. At the time, however, she was still engaged to Roy and Jim chickened out at the last moment and didn’t give her the note.

Now, a normal person would have thrown the note away, especially after all of these years, but not Jim Halpert who is perhaps one of the best television characters around today. He kept the note because he knew she would have a day where she needed reassurance of his love.

The last episode of the Office will air on May 16^th and will undoubtedly make me cry.

DomoNation.com: Careys Comix by rbhsclarion

It seems as if the writers are going with the ‘everyone gets everything they’ve always wanted’ ending.

With Dwight (finally) becoming regional manager, and Andy leaving Dunder Mifflin to pursue his dream of acting, every character seems to be getting their own happy conclusion.

Dwight finally getting his dream job was a great moment for the show. The look of pure happiness on his face showed how much he wanted this and really made me very happy. In addition to his reunion with Angela, this is what I wanted for him. While him and Angela are still not together, I really do think (and hope) that they will end up getting married by the finale.

Andy finally pursuing his dream is also a very great moment for the show. Ed Helms always does a great job at portraying Andy; and when he sang ‘I Will Remember You’ as a way of saying goodbye to his co workers it was a very emotional moment and really let the idea of the show ending sink in.

Developments in the relationship between Jim and Pam have continued to be positive. Jim has taken time off of his job in Philly and now says that his marriage is the only thing that matters. While I feel bad that Jim has to give up his dream job, this is the best way for them to have a happy ending.

Stay tuned for more reviews! There are only two more episodes left before the series finale.

I can feel better, though, because I’m sure you are too.

As it turns out, though, economics can explain why you procrastinate! (It can’t, unfortunately, ensure that you’ll get everything done on time!) However, due to poor time management skills, the explanation will have to wait until tomorrow.

Tomorrow here. We’ll start off with a brief review of Marginal Benefit and Marginal Cost, last seen in The Economics of School Lunch Lines, but used to different effect here. Marginal benefit (MB) is all the extra good stuff you get from each extra minute you spend on something; Marginal cost (MC) is the reverse. When MB is greater than MC, it’s worth it to spend the time that way since you’re getting more than its costing you. When MC is greater, it’s not an efficient use of your time. When they’re equal, that’s where you want to stop. What you put in is exactly what you get out.

Now, let’s apply this to some real-life procrastination.

Homework first. Think about all the factors you unconsciously consider when you contemplate your  assignments. There’s how long it will take, how hard it is, how interesting it is, when it’s due, and how big an impact it will have on your grade in the given class. Depending on the answers, each facet will contribute either to the MB or MC of doing the homework.

I’ll now make up a ludicrous example. Suppose you’ve got to write one three-word sentence about anything at all for English. Already it’s looking worthwhile. It’s THREE WORDS, so it won’t take up much time. It may not be interesting, but it’s not tedious. Suppose it’s due tomorrow, and it’s worth 1,000 points toward your final grade. Marginal Benefit is way higher than Marginal Cost there. You’ll probably spend the minute and a half maximum on that homework assignment.

Now suppose on the same night you have to do 5,000 addition problems for Math. That will take a very long time, although it hopefully won’t be terribly hard. It certainly won’t be interesting, though. And suppose it’s due tomorrow and is worth exactly .005 points toward your final grade. In that case, it might be worth it to say “Nope!” and do something else with your time.

So that’s how you might choose which homework assignments to do. Seems fairly simple, right?

Here’s where the procrastination part comes in.

What if you have two assignments, like a large chunk of reading with questions AND a math worksheet? They’ll both take comparable amounts of time in this scenario, and are mostly equal in other aspects.  The only difference is the reading is due at the end of the week, while the math is due tomorrow. So the MB of doing the reading is less than the MB for doing the math.  Then, once you’ve done the math, it seems too late to do the reading, so you put it off.  Imagine in this scenario that you prefer math to reading, and it becomes even more obvious.

The next night you still have the reading, but you also have a science worksheet for the following day. So you do the science, and leave the reading. Since there’s never a night with no homework, the reading gets put off more and more until Thursday night when you’re scrambling to get it done.

Or maybe you do little homework at all. Maybe the MB of doing a worksheet is really small compared to the MC of effort, whereas the MB of playing video games/watching TV/being on the computer/reading/writing/going out with friends/whatever teenagers do these days is greater than the perceived MC. It’s certainly easier to watch TV, and much of the time provides more immediate benefit.

But what about non-homework things, like clubs, AP studying, college searching, chores, etc.?  Often times these will get put off because you’ll face immediate negative repercussions for not doing your homework. For me, at least, this is the most common problem. The Marginal Cost of not doing my homework is greater than the Marginal Benefit of doing something else (up to a point).

So there is a simple explanation of why procrastination happens. If it sounds suspiciously like a justification for why this column took me so long… well it might possibly be one. But that said, can Econ be helpful in decreasing your amount of procrastination?

Well, sometimes the problem lies in not accurately judging the MB and MC, because it’s simply easier to turn on the TV and have done with it. Perhaps a moment’s consideration will work some of the time. Perhaps, instead of going for the extremes, you’ll find the place where MB equals MC. Or maybe not.

Another thing that might assist you is forcibly altering the MB/MC scale. If you add additional benefits or costs onto your homework, you might be able to force new behaviors on yourself! Or maybe not. (I am well aware that this is, in most situations, lame advice. But it’s worth a shot if you haven’t tried it yet!).

Well, this column has gone on long enough. Time to get back to AP US history homework. Good luck, procrastinators out there!

He has been struggling with insomnia, anxiety, and fear of losing his loved one, Pepper Potts, (Gwenyth Paltrow). He starts to create more suits, with different designs, including one that he can control with his mind, which has the handy ability to fly from elsewhere and form on him. Also the corporation AIM and the leader of it Aldrich Killian, (Guy Pearce), is coming back from the past to make another offer to Stark with his new experiment. A terrorist on the loose on top of that, the Mandarin, (Ben Kingsley). He has been terrorizing cities and causing trouble. Stark decides to take it into his own hands and threatens the Mandarin. A lot of action ensues after that and leaves Stark alone and heading towards the deep end of the water.

I enjoyed this Iron Man a lot for many reasons. First off, I liked how he expanded on the suits. In the first Iron Man, it was this suit that was difficult to get out of and not portable at all. In the second film, he creates a suit case version that is much more portable. In this movie, he creates one with the ability to move to him wherever he is. This is not a spoiler if you have seen the preview. He creates a plethora of more suits he can control with his mind and can jump in or out of easily in a fight, which he does.  The flip side of this is that the suits seemed much more flimsy or weak. This may have been due to the strength of the enemies he faced, since they were strong and had some pretty sweet powers, which I don’t want to spoil for you. Maybe it was just my nerd side kicking in as well to notice the weakness of the suits. Plus, the War Machine is now revamped as the Iron Patriot, a less threatening but still pretty cool name. The suit oozes the American Flag, with a very patriotic design. The action that came along with the new and maybe improved suits was fast paced and stellar as well.

Secondly, I liked the idea behind this film. It has more of a mystery aspect and isn’t just about some guy building another suit to kill Tony. It connects with the first film, but not really the second at all. Stark is shown how weak he is and how he has met Nordic Gods and flown through a wormhole into other galaxies, but hey at least he can make a metal suit with some gadgets! He clearly struggles with that weakness, which Downey Jr. plays incredibly. In the film he is out of the suit and physically fighting and making makeshift weapons. While it was very cool to see that he can take care of himself, the film still emphasizes he is just a man.

I also liked the plot line. There a few twists you would never see coming. While there are a few obvious parts, there were times when I found myself having to double take. I can’t tell you what they are, since I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, so it looks like I’ll be leaving a cliff hanger. A semi spoiler alert! Pay attention to the terrorist group in the first Iron Man and this one, and the name of it, and how it connects with the Mandarin. I did not get that until a friend pointed that out.

I would give this movie a 9.5 out of 10. The only thing that threw me off was the ending and a single plot twist.

John Matthews, (Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock) does just that. His son Jason (Ravi Gafron) recieves drugs from a friend who set him up so his time in jail may be shorter due to certain laws. Matthews feels bad because he was never there for his son and decides he will do something about it because his time in jail could be at minimum ten years. Jason certainly would not last that long either. After brushes with small time drug dealers, Matthews decides to look deeper and get in contact with the cartels. He soon establishes a high rank with them, and he is also working with the government to catch the cartel. After he gets in deeper than he intended, Matthews must ask himself how he can help Jason if he cannot even help himself.

I thought Snitchwas a good movie for the most part. The one part that disappointed me the most was the fact that there wasn’t as much hand to hand action. I was walking in there with hopes of seeing  the Rock just annihlate some guys. Come on, this guy is a professional wrestler! Instead, in one of the scenes he gets laid flat by a couple of thugs. Even though that’s what the plot entailed, given his enormous size and fighting, it was just sad to see. There were definitely action scenes, but it was not your typical Dwayne Johnson fighting movie where fist fights and wrestling are a highlight.

I really enjoyed the plot of the movie however. It was pretty well put together. You had to think about what he was going to do, like when he was setting up different drug deals and who he was talking to. It was also interesting to see how the deals work, and how the cartels use people who help them a lot and then get rid of them. It was also informative to know the laws on drug selling. Of course I will never have to worry about getting caught for selling drugs, it is still useful to know what laws are what however. It was also gratifying that, while this is based off of sad but true events, the father went to such great lengths for his son and would risk his life for him. That is what love is.

I walked out of the theater thinking that a father’s love for his son is incredibly powerful, and that the lack of action in this movie wasn’t a terrible thing.

I would give Snitch a 7 out of 10.

The team has a great work ethic and tries to improve with every day that passes. Tough practices and competitive meets help to strengthen the team. Sophomore Marvin Mckenzie, has big goals in mind.

“We’re going to practice hard and win at least a couple medals at state,” said Mckenzie.

It’s obvious that just like in any other sport the coaches are just as important as the players and they help to mold highschool kids into great athletes. Head coach Tim Olson hopes to have a lot of state caliber competitors this year. He knows that it will take a lot of conditioning and practices to achieve this goal. He plans to improve the team greatly this year.

“We have a lot of talent this year and I think we’re capable of achieving great things,” said Olson.

Everyone on the team needs to work together to make each other better. This teamwork was on display as the team recently hosted the 46th Annual Gary Johnson Bulldog Relays and took first place overall. Some key performers from Riverside Brookfield were seniors David Swon who took first place in the triple jump and Mike Hornung who took first place in shot put, and junior Dan Curtin who placed second in the 1600 Meter Run, losing first place by just two seconds.

On April 30th the team hosted a Metro Suburban Conference tri-meet. The team ran admirably but the meet was used as a practice meet to help the athletes work on form. Even though it doesn’t count as a sanctioned meet, it helps with the runners performance throughout the season.

This ranking was decided by US News and the American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research organization based in Washington, DC. These organizations used a three step process to compile the Best High Schools list, analyzing high schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The first two steps were based on state proficiency tests. These benchmarks evaluated how well each school served all of their students. For the 2011-2012 school year, 75% of RB students met or exceeded state standards in both math and reading.

The third step was aimed to determine how well schools prepared their students for college. This was based off of Advanced Placement participation among students (62% of RB students took an AP class last year, with a 71% passing rate on the exams). Based on their College Readiness Index rating of 48.5, RB was one of the 500 schools nationwide to receive a Gold Medal ranking.

“RB is consistently recognized by colleges as a top school for recruiting outstanding students. This ranking from the U.S. News and World Report will help us to continue to place our students in the colleges of their choice, as well as retain and attract the best educators,” said Superintendent Kevin Skinkis in an April 26 press release.

Despite this good news, it is important to note that this ranking is based off of data from the 2010-2011 school year. It is not yet known what effect the last two years’ bigger class sizes and other changes may have on next year’s rating, but the administration is hopeful that the school will maintain its high academic standards and continue to rank well on lists in the future.

Not only was the episode funny, but it made me cry tears of joy at the same time.

One of the plots revolved around the employees having a paper airplane contest with a grand prize of $2000. Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) was so determined to win he bought his plane off of Craigslist. Kevin is yet another one of my favorite characters and every plot involving him has always been hilarious.  Things also seemed to heat up between Dwight (Rainn Wilson) and Angela (Angela Kinsley). Dwight tried to throw the competition for Angela to win and I think this foreshadowed a bigger upcoming plot for the two. I predict that the big wedding that creator of the show Greg Daniels has been mentioning in interviews will be Dwight and Angela’s. If proven true, it’ll be a very satisfying end for them and delight the fans.

In another subplot of the show, Andy got his first acting gig in a science safety video. He was accompanied to the shoot by his agent played by Roseanne and Darryl (Craig Robinson). All of these scenes were absolutely hilarious and all of the actors did a great job. I also really hope Andy gets a legitimate role in a movie soon because that’s where he belongs.

In what was probably my favorite moment of this season, it seems like Jim and Pam’s marriage will be okay.

As Jim went to leave for Philly, he left his umbrella on his desk. Despite it being a bright and sunny day, Pam ran out to give it to him. Before she went back in side, Jim ran up to her, kissed her and the scene flashed back to their wedding with Michael and and the rest of the staff watching.

This flashback made everything that’s been wrong seem right. It was a very satisfying, emotional moment for fans and it made me weep for exactly 12 minutes. (Yes, I counted.)

Stay tuned for more reviews! There are three episodes left before the series finale May 16.