It's inevitable that when students try to use what should be the most profitable vending machine in school, something goes horribly wrong.

How can a food source that is so conveniently located be so inconvenient? The machine in question is the greedy, gluttonous, gobbling chip dispenser right next to the trophy cases by the main gym.

While the food quality has increased, including Doritos and Cliff Bars, the price and the promise of actually receiving this food is not so beneficial or hopeful.

I don't know too many students who are willing to shell out two dollars for a snack smaller than their palms. Also, so many times when students are attempting to grab a snack in between classes, the vending machines are turned off or do not deliver the product. If they're only turned on during lunch, students venture away from the nutritious school lunches, and the school is still losing money.

It's also disheartening witnessing teachers buying soda cans for fifty cents in their lounge, and knowing that we have over priced Gatorade, juice, and milk. Note the lack of caffeine for students, which could be considered a good or a bad thing.

There are no real complaints about the vending machines in the cafeteria, except for the fact that those are the ones that work, and they're located right next to the real food.

My advice: bring snacks from home bought inexpensively from Costco, or be prepared to spend all of your allowance for an empty stomach.

Naturally, it would seem ideal for the genres to collaborate for one grand effort, which is exactly what Nas and Damien Marley did. Both men are amongst the most renowned and respected men in their respective genres, so a collaboration between the two made perfect sense. The two made a track entitled "Road to Zion" for Marley's 2005 album "Welcome to Jamrock," and the response to the track was so positive, the two felt they could make an entire album with each other.

Five years later, that idea came to fruition, as the two finally released their long-anticipated "Distant Relatives." The album combines Nas' lyrical prowess; he's one of the best rappers alive, and Marley's production, which are reggae with a heavy hip-hop influence. The result is a very good, bordering on great, hybrid that provided the best hip-hop release of the year so far.

As the album title, cover, and liner notes would imply, the subject matter of the album revolves heavily around Africa, both its roots and its current state. Although there are a couple of exceptions ("Strong Will Continue" is Nas talking about his divorce from Kelis, a bit of an oddity for an album like this), the album sticks true to the concept through and through.

The biggest reason the album works as well as it does is because Nas is still fantastic on the microphone. While he's not quite as stellar as his 2008 solo album "Untitled," where he gave one of the best rap performances of all time, Nas is still at his lyrical peak, which is impressive for someone who released his debut album back in 1994. His wordplay and flow are crystal clear, and even when the beat is a dud (there are a couple) Nas redeems the song with his vocals.

It also helps that, with a couple of exceptions, Marley does a good job behind the boards. The beats may be comprised largely of reggae sounds, but they fit the tone of the album perfectly, and many of them ("As We Enter," "Friends," "Dispear," and "My Generation") would be fantastic songs even if there were no lyrics attached to them. Marley also raps on the album, and has an impressive flow, which is a benefit, because half of the time his lyrics are incomprehensible.

The guests on the album are limited, but fit just as well. Rapper K'Naan, fresh from his performance at the infamous Easter 9:30 Club show, lays vocals on "Tribes At War" and "Africa Must Wake Up," and his own personal history (he grew up in terrible conditions in Somalia) adds another layer of depth to the songs. The other major guest on the album is a shocker: Lil Wayne. While the inclusion of Wayne on an album centering on an album about Africa may have originally induced groans, he not only doesn't suck on the song, but his verse is actually REALLY GOOD. Perhaps the decision to actually talk about the subject of the song, instead of make his 900th poop metaphor, benefited him, but his inclusion on "My Generation" is the icing on the cake for the great song.

The only problem with the album is that, except for the penultimate and final tracks, all of the songs after "Dispear" are merely pleasant songs. With the possible exception of "Nah Mean," none of those songs are memorable ones. Also, starting the album off with "As We Enter" may have hurt the album, because it can only go down from the best song on the album. Still, "Distant Relatives" is a great collaboration, and whether your preference is rap or reggae, this album is a must-listen.

The usual Mason athlete has about three games per week. For every game, parents pay five dollars to enter. That is fifteen dollars every week. After an entire season and for teams that make it to state tournaments, that five dollar fee really adds up.

For the girls basketball team, parents that attended every game spent a colossal amount of 125 dollars just on games alone. When the cost of shoes, spirit wear, bags, travel meals, team dinners, "little sisters," etc. are all thrown into the mix, it becomes quite costly.

This is not even mentioning buying the equipment. For the boys lacrosse team, the school only provides helmets, shoulder pads, and arm pads. This still leaves out gloves, lacrosse sticks, rib pads, and cleats, all of which can be extremely costly.

Parents basically allow the school to borrow their children and without complaint pay for everything that goes along with sports. It only seems fair to let parents in free to the game after all of their commitment to the school.

For parents like Judy and Tom Lubnow, who have three kids who all actively participate in Mason athletics and a fourth child who attends all of their games, the cost is even higher. Their oldest sons, Brian and Stephen Lubnow, combine to play for five sports a year. Their eldest daughter, Emily, participates in two sports. The cost of all the equipment for each sport and each game is tremendous.

Athletic Director Tom Horn puts the fees for spectators into perspective, "If there was a way to run a program without having to make up $35,000, I would be the first to go for it."

Eliminating the gate fees into athletic events for parents would cause a huge deficit that would be difficult to compensate. Horn says if anyone can come up with a way to get rid of the gate fees, while making up the lost fees to let him know.

Editorial cartoons are meant to provoke thought and sometimes to persuade. Enjoy.

Note: The following cartoons express the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Lasso Online or George Mason High School. 

By Danielle Agress

By Filipa Amaro

By Sam Atkeson

By Tyler Back

By Luke Bailey

By Sam Dittmar

By Amani Farooque

By Hannah Leopold

By Eddy Marshall

By Kelly Ready

By Nick Smirniotopoulos

By Abby VanBuren

Despite its well earned reputation as being one of the most culturally renowned, and oft-funny, shows for years, "Saturday Night Live" has had a bad string of luck when it comes to parlaying their successful sketches into watchable full-length feature films. Other than "Blues Brothers" and "Wayne's World," virtually all of SNL's movies have proven to be proverbial punching bags for critics (although, admittedly, I somewhat enjoyed 2000's edition of "The Ladies Man").

So considering their recent string of luck, SNL's decision to make their MacGruber sketch into a 90-minute film was a bit peculiar. While certainly one of the funniest sketches on the show, the premise is the exact same every time: MacGruber is trapped in a bad predicament, and his own stupidity inevitably leads to his death. Fortunately though, "MacGruber" goes a different route, giving the eponymous protagonist a backstory, an antagonist, a love interest, and terrible, crippling self-esteem issues.

The film is also smart in its humor, which heavily relies on bad puns, visual gags, and raunchy language. The wisest thing the producers did was avoiding a PG-13 rating and instead going with a hard R. The characters use language unthinkable on network television, and the funniest moments in the movie revolve around Will Forte's (who plays the title character) insane and profane dialogue, the best of which involves him describing in graphic detail the lengths he will go to in order to get Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) back on his side.

Phillippe and Kristen Wiig, who plays assistant Vicki St. Elmo, join Forte's quest to take down Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) the man who killed MacGruber's wife at the alter, after accidentally killing his original army, which consisted of a group of professional wrestlers. Aside from them, the film also has a great one line cameo from Phoenix Suns forward Amar'e Stoudemire, who appears in a club early in the film.

The plot itself is surprisingly good for a film of this nature, and the action is cartoonishly gory (MacGruber's finishing move is to literally rip his opponent's throat out). This makes the decision to go with an R rating even better. It's Forte though that steals the show, giving his all for every scene he appears with his absurd dialogue and seeming willingness to do anything to get a laugh.

If watchers are willing to laugh at immature jokes and grown men yelling at each other like children, "MacGruber" can easily be an enjoyable experience. If they're just going to dismiss any and all attempts at an SNL film, this won't be a fun time. But it seems fairly safe to say that "MacGruber" finally does "Saturday Night Live" justice.

She spends her days selling houses and trying to convince people that N.J. is the best place to buy a house, since it is right next to "the big city." As the years go by and the kids grow up, they stop having excitement in their lives. They get home, go out for dinner, go to bed and fall asleep right away because of their tiring day. They lose interest in each other, their best friend is getting divorced and they start thinking about how maybe being marriage isn't so great anymore.

One night they decide to dress up and go out on an exciting date in New York City and have dinner in a fancy restaurant to cheer up their relationship, but because it is full they decide to take a reservation from a different couple who is missing.

During dinner they are pulled outside because apparently the couple that didn't show up was involved in some criminal activity and now they are accused of being responsible for it. They spend the night trying to figure out where the criminal couple was and solve the crime.

At the same time, they are reviving their love in a hilarious way and end up having a romantic night. Because Fey and Carell have similar comedy careers and the have great chemistry, the movie is fun and interesting; there were people laughing out loud the whole movie. The actors turned any normal activity like eating dinner and walking down the street into something extremely funny, just with the looks on their faces.

This movie was a success not only because of the great acting but the music and costumes worked well and made it funny and interesting, also the New York, Times Square setting was very familiar to everyone, which makes people relate more to the movie. It is definitely worth watching, if you are looking for a funny movie, not too intense but a good comedy; this is a good one.