As I aged along with the others in my circle of peers, life got a little more stern and serious. The memories slowly changed into significant reminders of the times in which we grew the most in our youth. Lessons learned, laughs shared, and conflicts resolved, the teenage years became a time to savor who you are and where you were going. That said, one would expect that a high school year book is full of insightful, honest and intelligent reminders of love and life from peers who truly care about the book’s owner. Unfortunately for the future of our generation, our high school years will be remembered with insincere scribbles filled with false promises and exaggerated hype. It’s time we change the way yearbooks are signed.

     Although exceptions do exist, it is a sad reality that the majority of society has lost touch with their creative side. Looking back at yearbooks from freshman and sophomore year, it seems like everyone has the same thing to say: “I’m so glad we became good friends this year/ have been friends for so long! I luv u so much! You’re super duper awesome!”   Next time, at least try to be original. Write something that you really mean and get rid of the text lingo and the cliché, exaggerated statements. The words love, best friend, and favorite are a bit much to describe a relationship you developed with the person who sat next to you in math. And as for the people you really do love, get creative. There are thousands of words to express gratitude and appreciation for someone; choose wisely. An honest, sentimental saying will go a lot further than the one quoted above when someone looks back at your legacy. Before you scar your own image with a blatantly fake and outrageous profession of your friend’s “awesomeness,” think about what you want to say to him/her 20 years from now.

     As if it is not enough to have someone vandalize your yearbook with a meaningless jumble of false love, a handful of other yearbook no no’s linger out in the world of yearbook evil. Things like excessively large writing and abbreviated messages like HAGS and HAKAS are incredibly irritating. Huge letters which take up entire pages are like slaps in the face, dying to get your attention and be noticed. No one likes people who constantly cry for attention.

     HAGS, on the other hand, may be one of the most insincere and downright atrocious things to scar in someone’s yearbook.  Having to abbreviate an already pointless saying is like telling the person whose yearbook you’re signing that they are not worth for your time and that they don’t give two hoots about the happenings of your summer.

During the Vietnam War, (and later reprised to be the Afghanistan War) Tony Stark is kidnapped in the hopes that he will be forced to build weapons of mass destruction for his captors.  Instead, he builds a suit of armor, and it has turned into the superhero many know as Iron Man.  Standing as the symbol for all technologically based superheroes, Iron Man is a keeper of world peace, piloted by one of the world’s most unstable man, and ultimately, a much more powerful and efficient superhero than his counterpart, War Machine.

For those of you who don’t know who War Machine is (which is just about everybody) he’s the silver Iron Man featured most recently in Marvel’s movie Iron Man 2.  War Machine is strong, heavily equipped, sluggish, and built for mass combat against inferior models of Stark’s Iron Man.  Where Tony Stark’s “Hot Rod Red” Iron Man is built for speed and versatility, War Machine lives up to its name as being the ultimate in fighting armies.  In one on one combat, and against a model superior to its own, War Machine doesn’t have the equipment or abilities required to take down Iron Man.

Iron Man uses a vast array of energy based weapons, most notably, the repulsor ray.  Firing levels of highly concentrated energy, the repulsor ray launches a deadly beam which can destroy targets on impulse.  As it is an energy based weapon, its ammo capacity is virtually unlimited, whereas War Machine bases its weapons off of bullets and explosives, both of which have a limitation.  The repulsor rays are not the best of what Iron Man has to offer either.  Geared with some of the best technology has yet to offer, Iron Man also holds in his arsenal a uni-beam projector in his chest,  a weapon known as pulse bolts which essentially pick up on kinetic energy as they travel, (meaning the farther it flies, the harder it hits), an electromagnetic pulse generator, a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees, an  ultra-freon, (a “freeze-beam”), sonic blasts,  and a set of high-powered lasers which can cut through enemies from the top surface of his hands.  Needless to say, the versatility in Iron Man’s arsenal vastly outweighs that of War Machine.

But most importantly, the advantage that puts Iron Man on a far higher pedestal than War Machine is the man behind the mask.  Tony Stark is the multi-billionaire genius who managed to build the first model of the Iron Man out of scraps and spare parts.  Being the greatest mind of his universe, he created both the Iron Man and War Machine models, and as such, he has the greatest knowledge of both.  While building the War Machine to initially be more powerful than Iron Man, as he was the creator, he constantly instills newer designs onto his own Iron Man as well.  Anything that War Machine throws at him, he built, but anything he throws at War Machine may be completely new and unique.

War Machine is a total B.A. in every which way (contrary to Iron Man); War Machine portrays a tougher, better, and cooler looking suit. War Machine is James Rhodes’s suit in the Marvel Universe. Unlike Stark’s hot rod red suit, Rhodey’s suit is a sleek and cool metallic black, making it harder for enemies to spot him. Rhodey is a skilled pilot and experienced marine in combat and tactics. He uses a more physical fighting style compared to Iron Man and has a more weaponized arsenal. Throughout his history, Rhodey’s suit evolves over time, but the basics still linger. His weapon arsenal is also in contrast to Iron Man’s. War Machine’s armor is a more heavier and dense version. Along with the mini-gun, missile tracers, and propulsion beams, the suit is already heavily armed. As his armor has evolved, so have his weapons. For example, his computerized weapon tracking system becomes more advanced as his suit evolves. His vast array of weapons also is impressive and changes over time. This includes but is not limited to: plasma blades, flamethrowers, pulse-bolt generators, double-barrel cannons, and particle beam discharges. For his defense, the battle suit includes a force shield, stealth technology, and boot jet propulsion. He also has a number of non-lethal weapons to disengage enemies, such as rubber bullets. His earlier suit depended mainly on armor penetrating bullets, which later transformed into energy pulses, which is similar to Iron Man’s. Later his stealth version of his armor was capable of intercepting and hacking into enemy military weapon bases, which enabled him to use at his will.