1 2 3Start with the scarf placed around your head. bring the longer side towards your op-posite shoulder.

4Pin one point of the longer side to the scarf portion cover ing your head. leave alittle space near your neck.

Repeat the same step on the other side of your head. Then take the rest of the scarf and wrap it around your your neck.

Congradulations! you have learned one of the many ways to wear a Hijab!

Every thought about mastering one of the many technique of wearing a hijab? here is your chance!

How It’s Done

Rainbow

wearing a Iffat Junaid watched her mother prepare to leave the house. “I saw her wear her shoes, and then put on the hijab. I wondered, why the heck am I not wearing one?” Junaid, a freshman at Monta Vista High School, has been wearing the Hijab for almost a year now, along with her twin sister, Ismat Junaid. “I’m really happy that wearing the Hijab was my choice,” she says, “I feel better about it everyday and I’m sure my parents and family are proud of me for choosing this path.” Many Middle Eastern religions believe that people should be able to see the inner beauty of women before their appearance. The Hijab is a basic portrayal of the concept for Muslim women. “I guess hair is a very important thing to girls, so by covering it, people don’t judge us by how we look, but who we are inside. We can take it off when we are in front of other women though.” says Ismat. There are many explanations as to how the Hijab’s concept originated. Most say that wearing the Hijab was a high status symbol for women, and slowly became a symbol of the modesty and purity for Muslim women. Jacia Mim, a junior at Monta Vista, has been forced into wearing the Hijab since she was 12. “It’s supposed to make me fit in better with people, but that’s not always the case,” she says, “I feel like I’m excluded because of it. I feel like people look at me weirdly and judge me by it. Even though I understand how important it is, it’s not something I enjoy wearing most of the time.” The way Muslim women have carried out this tradition for so many years is very reputable. The Hijab is a highly respected symbol that can be seen all over the world, and it will hopefully be continued on in the many more years to come.

Goodbye bikini, hello Burkini!

Put away that bikini and make way for the burkini! Due to religious reasons, many women have been held back from swimming, wear-ing dresses, etc. But now, a handful of designers have introduced spe-cial clothing lines that cover the entire body, opening new doors for women who were restricted from such activities before. “I think its quite clever,” says Ismat Junaid, “ I hope they keep making such cloth-ing so we get more choices.”

Muslim women may choose to cover their hair, but it doesn’t mean they can’t do it in style. It started off black, but now a days, colorful head-scarves can be seen anywhere you go. “Its like how I wear cloths,” says Jacia Mim, a junior at Monta Vista High School, “I wear whatever color I feel like.”Hijabs have recently started cover-ing every shade of color, along with various prints, designs, and textures. “I think it’s great,” says Ismat Jun-aid, a freshman at Monta Vista High School, “Its fun to play with colors and its just like choosing clothes.”

SCARFA

EVERY SEASON

How religious tradition is carried out even today by muslim women all over the world.

COLORS of the

FORBy Anushka Varhadkar

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We buy the ticket, wait for the day, find our seats, watch, leave, and nothing else. Most of the of the students do not even have a thought of how much effort those Monta Vista drama kids put in to prepare for a 2 hour play, and how much time they all have to sacrifice each day. A junior at Monta Vista Highschool, Karina Fathi has performed in 4 school plays for these 3 years and also currently participates in PYT and The Music School where she has performed many more plays. As for the most recent one, The Odyssey, she performed one of the main roles, acting

as Athena, and her and her stage-mates surely did practice many many hours for this. “Well we have rehearsal until 5:00 [and] until the last 3 weeksand then we had rehearsal until 8 or 10 most nights. We rehearse 4 days a week.” If you calculate it, it is approximately 90 entire hours for the first two and a half months. Practicing until 5 most days, means no participating in any after-school activities such as high school sports, no hanging out with friends, or even just less time for homework. And the days where they practice until 8

or 10? Well this is how Karina sees it in an optimistically way, as she always is, “When you're doing a show you learn to manage your time so you're not up all night working. We do homework when we're on breaks, or if we have a little bit of time before we go onstage and when we get home we do the rest.” That’s great, as some students can practice their time management skills, but whereas others just slowly plummet to the ground, along with their grades… So as for the Odyssey that was just performed 4 times in the span of 2 weeks, the crew had

Drama

Homework has now become the second or third priority, competing with sleep, as these 50 hard working Monta Vistans practice for 7 entire, com-plete hours during school days as they put every-thing together and finish up their final touches. So what exactly do they do during all these hours? You would think they get off topic and fool around but these well rounded students surely know when is the right time to focus and work, of course, also throwing a little play here and there. The crew members are there memorizing their lines, and of course there are the very important cast members, who are practicing moving the objects on and off the stage , adjusting the lights after each scene, play-ing certain sound tracks at the right time, and much much more. As for dinner, there is always a parent who volunteers to bring food for the entire cast as well as all the other helpers. What do they eat? It var-ies time to time, sometimes it is Chipotle, and other times it can be delicious pasta. As the last few days before the showing roll in, many days, they stay for 2 more hours than usu-al, which would be 9 entire hours of drama. That would mean on an average day, 4 hours of sleep. Well, anything for the play, as these devoted workers try their very best to make it as professional as it can get…

Goddessat Work

Tech Week

The Insides.

That is a grand total of 84 hours for three weeks!

Get To It!

Lights!Camera!

Action!

already started to practice in the very beginning of January, all the way to March. During the short 3 months, they had to memorize their lines word for word as they didn’t want to perform it differ-ently from the actual book, figure out everyone’s costumes with the help of a professional costume designer, and work on the set. Don’t forget, there were also many background workers that had to do the lights and sounds and other technical work. As for Karina, she doesn’t mind all this hassle and time spent on drama as it is one of her pas-sions. She is even thinking of majoring in Theatre Arts, “It is something that really interests me and that I am passionate about. Not just acting but all aspects of theatre are interesting to me. I directed some of the Shakespeare scenes that Advanced Drama students performed for Lit classes ear-lier this year.” So perhaps even becoming a director? Nevertheless, the next time when you and your friends go and enjoy a play, remem-ber that it was pieced together with the entire crew’s effort and appreciate it!

By Christine Wang

REDLINE

REDLINE. Fuel for the engine, and the soul. Fast cars revving past their limits to impress and to shock.

Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche. The list drives on to foreign names such as Bugatti and Gumpert. All these names roll on rubber and feed on petrol. Their glossy paint shimmers like quartz, and their engines play a specific tune. They were built to impress. Super-cars. Pure precision machines of perfection. They are a pleasure to the main senses. Beautiful to look at, music to the ears, and smelling leather is a pleasure as well. But why are they so great to look at? Staring at a painting, smelling a flower, or listening to Chopin is just as pleasing. What separates them apart? Redline. Also known as adrenaline, Redline is what die-hard car fans like Freshman Omar Naguib live for. “Cars show what amazing engineering feats have been achieved. They are also ridiclulously awsome.” Omar also states that he would like to get his liscence as soon as possible, and wishes to drive a nice car. They fuel his pas-sion. Sophmore Alan Dai, also agrees that cars show how far humans have pro-gressed throughout techonology. “Back in the day, cars couldn’t even hit 60mph. Now they hit that speed in less than three seconds.” Alan, a die-hard carfan, loves super-cars because they are ridonculous. His favorite car the Zonda F built by Pagani, is a spaceship. It has controls that replicate the lunar module, sharp sleek designs, and a V-12 Monster engine in the back, ensures a constant flow of blow-ing eardrums out. Alan also includes, “Cars are my passion because they are freaking fast. You can use them to show-off, to get girls, and to go nitro.” Cars are an Icon, and people use cars as a sign of dominance. The leader of the pack has to have the fastest, sleekest, and most shocking car. A car is used to judge social-class and personality of a person. Redline fuels these die-hard automotive fans as they wait for the day when they get to drive these beautiful machines. Screams that can shatter ears, looks that can kill, and speed that keep ris-ing, make Supercars the best of the best.

The Perfect Car. Defining the perfect Super car. It is a difficult process that takes balance and proportions in to account. Taking five vari-ables: Speed, Style, Comfort, Price, and Maintenance, and blending them together is complicated. Cars that scream speed, Prove to be Pricey, and cars that maintain maintenance lack style and comfort. Speed is straight-forward. The more ponies, the more speed. Cars that rev to 8000RPM, and contain 200MPH speed-ometers are the boasters of this brawl. Exquisite Italian demons such as Lamborghini and Ferrari excel in this class, and prove to be the heavy-weights in this match up. Price is where many cars struggle and fail. Buying a fast car means emptying your wallet faster. Price ranges for Lamborghini’s and Ferrari’s average in the $200,000, competing with most houses. However, cars that are cheap and af-fordable, lack speed and comfort. Everyone wants comfort. The ability to relax and day-dream. Luxury costs money, but allows for more comfortable driving. German car brands such as Mercedes excel at producing bulky two-ton giants filled with a variety of technology and pleasures. These pleasures include climate-control, DVD/Video players, and sun-roofs. The problem with luxury is that it doesn’t come cheap, and neither does the gas money to fuel those giants.

A customed tuned Ferrari Enzo stands out in this parking lot.

Test: Ask people which car they would have as their dream car. By looking at evidence, the majority of the sub-jects agreed that they would perfer the sleek style and speed of the Ferrari and Lamborghini, over the rest of the group. May other subjects wish to drvie a car that is suitable for everyday, such as the BMW M3. Few dreamed of living a lifestyle of comfort in aluxury Mercedes, and the smallest majorty wishes to drive a standard Toyota. That one fellow said, “I want to drive a Toyota because it gets excellent gas milage. Look-ing at these statistics, the attraction to sleek fast cars is clear. People want a car that can show off, and the adrenaline of putting your foot down.

The BMW M3 is a perfect blend of all five variables. Decently priced at $60,000, comfortable interior, and a 420 HP V8 under the hood give this car the beans. Plus, how can you go wrong with the look of the ride?

Image credited to sxc.hu

The teachers we love... Everyone has had one of those teachers. You know, one of those laid back teachers who jokes around with the students and not only is an entertaining person, but get this--they can actually teach. Which is the kind of teacher students generally want. In addition to being able to teach, students decreed that teachers must also be clear, concise, know and be passionate about their subject, grade fairly, give challenging but do-able assignments, make the those same assignments exciting and fun, and on top of it all, have a sense of humor. That’s a tall order. No wonder those kinds of teachers are few and far between.

Freshman Baris Demirlioglu can recall having a teacher like that in the fifth grade. “He always would give us these prob-lems, and there would be this one really hard one. And who-ever got the hard one right got to shoot[a ball] into a hoop.” Whoever made the shot got a can of soda. “I never made it,” Baris admits. He hasn’t had a teacher like that since. “I don’t really like my teachers right now,” he says, “At Harker, all my teachers made everything fun, like in Japanese, we would play kanji games and stuff and here[at MV] its more like, memorize this by tomorrow! And there’s no point to it.” Ellen Do, also a freshman, begs to differ. She likes the teach-ers at MV. In fact, she says her current math teacher is one of her favorite teachers she’s ever had. “He’s just so...chill. I like the whole atmosphere of the class.

Oh, and he teaches really well too. He actually explains stuff.”

...And the ones we don’t Yet, for every good teacher, there are some bad ones. Really, really bad ones. Baris affirms that he’s had a few of these. Any student you talk to has multiple horror stories about teachers, and are all too willing to share the qualities they loath in someone who’s supposed to be helping them learn. The list goes from boring, creepy and old..all the way to wasting classroom space and not teaching at all, only commanding the classroom because ‘’they have five years until retirement’’. “I had this one teacher in eighth grade, and she was strict as hell. And since I never had my shirt tucked in, she would think I was a trouble maker. One time, the president of the school, and this is like the smartest girl in the school, locked her in her own classroom.” Baris says.

“And when she finally got inside she blames me, and it took the entire period to convince her that it was really that girl.” Students mostly hate those teachers who don’t respect them. “One of my teachers actually told us she doesn’t like freshmen because we’re immature and don’t listen. But we do, and it’s kind of her fault that she doesn’t give clear directions.” Ellen says. Another complaints are that many teachers are not competent enough to teach their own subject. Shubham Pahadia claims he once had a teacher who knew less than he did. Another one of his teachers punished him for studying her subject in his free time in class. And of course there’s always that one teacher who grades military hard. Priscilla Chung once had a teacher who took

points off her math test because the variable was not exactly in the middle of the fraction. There are always the good teachers, and the bad ones. Dealing with them all in one day is the really hard part.

1 I’m sorry, what was that?Unfortunate students had a teacher who spoke in illegible mutterings the entire year. Sadlythestudentslearnedatotalofze-rothingstheentireyear.

2 Rounding up the cattle A teacher decided it would be a valuble les-son to tie up his students in a closet. Supris-ingly enough, they did learn something.

3You’re so talented....oh, you thought I was serious? A poor student was told he would be a great addition to the track team by his teacher. Then she laughed at him for think-ing it was true.

4 I lost it-oh, I mean, its all your fault! A student spent weeks working on a 50 point project, only to have his teacher lose it, and give him a zero.

5 You are all pathetic This teacher has informed the class that the homework average is a grand total of zero percent. And that they are unable to follow directions. Strangely enough, this curious phenomena only happens to these ‘worthless’ students in the company of this teacher.

6 It’s naptime! Students spent the entire class period waiting for their teacher to come and enrich their minds with knowledge. He never showed up. He had fallen asleep.

I’m never wrong....even when I’m wrong A pair of student were feverishly working on their tests. One of them held up his paper in order to check his answers. The teacher assumed both were cheating, and refused to accept the fact that rechecking is, in fact, encouraged by most teachers.

Drama Teacher Holly Cornelison isn’t just a drama teacher. She’s a director, a pro-ducer, and even used to be a Lit teacher. Cornelison has a special relation-ship with her students, since she’s not just another teacher who comes in the morning, teaches her students, and leaves. When pre-paring for productions, you will always find her working hard alongside her students for countless hours after school, dedicating her time to make to make each show perfect. “In Advanced Drama, students come in, they know what to do, and they get it done. We even have two student produced shows in May-directed, produced, preformed by the students. I just watch. I think they by now have the knowlegde to get it done.”

Cornelison teaches two types of drama classes, Beginning Drama and Advanced Drama. She says beginning Drama is largely a class where students are told what to do, while Advanced Drama is mostly application. In the Director’s notes for Monta Vista’s recent production of The Odyssey, it is shown just how much Cornelison cares about her students, and how she wants the-atre to impact them in their lives. “The true labratory of theatre allows students not just to study a play in a classroom, but to LIVE it.”Fitting words from a former Literature teacher.

10 Terrible Teacher Tales7

8Because all Laker’s Fans are fat....During a conversation with her teacher, and average sized girl was called fat. Then he calledher stupid for liking the Lakers.

9What nice circles you have...all the better to punish you with!A teacher was drawing perfect circles on the bard without a compass, when a student told her that her circles were realy circular. The girl was punished for saying innapropri-ate things in a classroom setting.

“He hasn’t had a teacher like that since...” Students mostly hate the teach-

ers who don’t respect them.

Not your Average TeacherDirectorProducer Friend..

I love schoool. . . But teachers?

Image credited to sxc.hu

10I don’t forget things...One teacher promised to post homework and a test date online for her students, and failed to live up to her promise. When the entire class showed up without their homework the next day, she blamed it on an unfortunate coincidence that everyone happened to be irresponsible on the same day.OH, and they failed the test too.

Worlds Best Teecherz.. . .Or not.

It looks like a Seurat painting; splotched

bits of green and a faint suggestion of

red speckling the blur. On. Now it looks like a tree.

The green sharpens into leaves, the red into flow-

ers. So this is what normal 20/20 people see…

But for that kid who forgot his glasses sit-

ting in the back, or that kid who lost his contacts,

they see the Seurat painting. 20/20 is no longer

their eyesight. They can’t just glance at a street

sign and know what it reads; they put on their

glasses for that. They can’t just go sleep at night;

they still have to clean their contacts.

These are the near-sighted,

far-sighted, or both.

Kristen Wang is used to it

by now. Ever since 3rd grade when

her teacher noticed her scamper-

ing constantly to the front of the

room to squint at the board, she

has been wearing glasses. 500

on both her eyes, this near-sighted

sophomore sometimes wishes

she wore contacts. “I wear glasses all the time,”

says Wang. “Yeah, I wish I had [contacts] but my

parents don’t like them. You can get infections and

stuff.”

But that didn’t stop 10th grade Priyanka

Ravichandran from wearing contacts. “Con-

tacts are a lot better for a lot of things,” explains

Ravichandran. “ I wear contacts in dance. I wore

[glasses] sometimes, but they kept slipping off.

It was hard, and if I took them off, I couldn’t see

well.”

Contacts certainly made life easier for

Ravichandran. So for her, making the switch to

contacts in 7th grade was the right choice. Even if

her first few attempts at placing her new contacts

on took 15 minutes.

However, wearing contacts has its risks.

Ravichandran blinks. “If dirt gets in or if [the con-

tacts] go off course, it hurts, a lot.” Even so, Ravi-

chandran still supports wearing contacts.

Dr. Stephanie Chan, an optometrist,

agrees. “There’s a little bit of risk. But so many

people now wear contacts. If you get an infection,

it’ll cause a little problem here and there, but it’s

easy to resolve.”

Even so, when she forgets her contacts,

the world looks like one big Seurat painting. “I

have to squint to make out things like five feet

away from me; I get tired and sometimes I get a

headache without them,” says

Ravichandran. That’s true for

glasses too though.

“Sometimes when I forget

my glasses I can’t see a few feet

away from me,” comments fresh-

man Calley Wang.

For Kristen Wang though,

remembering is the hard part. “I

think the most annoying part of

wearing glasses is forgetting them,” she nods.

Whethver it’s sun, clouds, rain, or snow, they all

need to remember their lenses.

“Oh! But when it rains you can’t see any-

thing,” she adds, glancing up at the sky.

It seems inconvenient to wear glasses or

contacts, and it is, but you get used to things. The

blurry letters, cleaning the lens, or dirt in the eye

for contacts and raindrops for glasses, all become

part of the day. Though they are used to it by

now, they still long for the days of normal vision.

“Yeah, I wish I had normal vision,” says

Calley Wang.

“Normal vision would have made every-

thing a lot simpler,” agrees Priyanka Ravichandran.

Do you wish for normal vision? “Yes,” re-

plies Kristen Wang.

Seeing BLUR She always wears her glasses. Wheth-

er it’s in at school, at home, or in the pool freshman Priscilla Chung is rarely seen with-out her lens. Her eyesight requires her to do so, with 700 on the right and 650 on the left. Both far and near-sighted, Chung needs them 24/7. Her first pair that started it all was in 3rd grade. Chung needed an eye exam because she was “in danger of getting bad vision.” All her family members also wear glasses. This bespectacled family all wear glasses. Not contacts. Since her vision is so bad requiring the use of glasses all the time, why not switch to contacts? It turns out that some people just can’t. For her, it is because there are no con-tacts with a high enough degree. Her poor vision stands unmatched for contacts. However, during PE she notes that having your glasses slip off be-cause of sweat is annoying. But what can she do about it? And during the swim unit, Chung recalls, “I would just go blindly around, but I do have like goggles that have vision on them kind of.”

Not being a perfect 20/20 doesn’t have to hinder people. LASIK, laser eye surgey, is a method where people can correct their vision without having to wear any sort of lens. However, it doesn’t stop the impending future of reading glasses.

Dr. Stephanie Chan says, “LASIK is good for some people who can’t do glasses or con-tacts. But really, it’s a matter of preference.” Her cousin underwent LASIK for water sports. But that’s his preference. Chung’s preference still lies with wearing glasses, even if she broke who knows how many of her previous six, to getting special contacts or LASIK.

Reading, watching TV, studying your textbooks, or busting up a new high score all put stress

on your eyes. To relax them, take an occasional break from your cramming to stare out the window and focus on faraway objects. After speaking with optometrist, Dr. Stephanie Chan, I’ve compiled a list of things you could do:

1) Do more outdoor activities/sports. Instead of staying cooped up with a laptop on your bed, stretch your neglected legs outside and look around you. Life is, after all, the game with the best graphics you can get.

2) Don’t sit so close to the TV. Your mom has probably nagged you with this line plenty of times. But it’s true, don’t sit too close and you should be fine.

3) No reading after lights out. Ducking under the covers with a flashlight and your book probably isn’t a good eye-dea.

4) Study in a well-lit area. Don’t go cave man and barricade your self in your dim, cavern like bedroom. Stretch your limbs and expand your territory by walking to the living room where sunlight filters through the windows. Those panes of glass aren’t there for no reason, you know.

5) If you have contacts, listen to the optometrist. That set of instructions the doctor gave you after scaring you with all the risks wearing contact has? Well, follow them to the ‘t’ because if you don’t, those nightmarish risks will come true.

Blurred R e a l i t y

Looking Away Keeps the Otometrist

a t B a y

5 Tips to Relaxing Your Eyes

I’m On My 7th

G l a s s e s

“ Normal vision would have made everything a lot

simplerer.”

Eyes of the Matador

Nothing : 38%Glasses : 28%Contacts : 20%

Both : 14%

A survey of what’s on the eyes of Monta Vista kids.

Cupertino Family Eye Care: 10118 Bandley Dr. Suite C, Cupertino, CA 95014

Living in a

© Kari Ding

By Kari Ding

2010 EARTHQUAKE BANANZA

List of Earthquakes with a magnitude above 7.0 this past year.A SHAKY CITY

A Ticking Time Bomb The Bay Area is packed with hustlin’ and bustlin’ cities like San Jose and San Francisco where tower-ing buildings are the everyday scenery and crowds of people on is an everyday phenomenon. But the area lies on a land mine that is ready to explode at any minute. The San Andreas fault. It is one of the largest fault lines in the world and has caused some of the most devastating earthquakes in the past century.

But the United States Geological Survey states that the likelihood of a serious earthquake (magnitude 6.7 or higher) coming to the Greater Bay Area in the next thirty years is sixty three percent! An earthquake of that size has the power to collapse almost any building and the potential to cause a repeat of the catastrophic 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (magni-tude 7.8). Arvind Rao, a sophomore at Monta Vista High School understands the possibility of an earthquake

and the damage it can cause. “There were a few just recently so I’m pretty sure a big one will be here soon” he predicts. During his childhood, when he was still living in Japan, he experienced a magnitude 5.8 earth-quake in the city he lived in. “It was really chaotic and I didn’t understand what was going on” he states as he reflects upon the event. Fortunately, he himself wasn’t hurt, but a few of his acquaintances weren’t as lucky. “Some of my friends got injured and it was kind of scary because I could’ve gotten injured too”.

safer knowing that I will be ready if something like an earthquake comes to Cupertino” he exclaims. A serious earthquake may seem far out in the future, but in reality, it is closer than most people think. It is just a ticking time bomb that is ready to blow up and shatter expectations. Arvind’s experience makes him believe the same. “You can never know when it can happen and I think all families should be prepared in some way”.

A HELPING HAND Community service clubs aren’t a rare sight at Monta Vista. Some names come to mind such as Interact, Key Club, and of course, Octagon. These clubs which are overflowing with mem-bers overshadow the smaller hidden gems of the school. HSFBC, or High Schoolers for a Better Community is a club with only about fifteen mem-bers, but in no way is their passion to benefit the community any smaller than the other clubs. HSFBC’s main project is disaster pre-paredness; earthquakes in particular. “It is very important to be prepared for disasters, because they come unexpectedly and cause some of the worst physical damage possible and for us living in the Bay Area, earthquakes are a major concern” warns Kranti Peddada (12), president and co-founder of HSFBC. “Our goal for the HSFBC club is to raise awareness about disasters in the com-munity and help citizens get prepared” he says.

In order to achieve their goal, members of the club work with the block leaders of the city of Cupertino to give presentations to educate the residents about disasters and how to prepare an emergency safety kit. They have also created a system with the city for the ordering and delivery of emergency supplies for those who are too busy. “The disaster preparedness project is very benefi-cial for our community because not many houses are adequately prepared for serious disasters like earthquakes, where people could potentially get injured” states Arif Hasan(10), a proud member of the club. However, persuading people to prepare for a potentially life threatening disaster isn’t a walk in the park. “In general, convincing people to prepare for disasters is quite difficult because disasters are something you cannot predict and people will tend to procrastinate the effort” Kranti states. But despite the hurdles they must overcome, Kranti is still dead set on reaching the club’s ideals. “We need to convince them that they must get pre-pared immediately, even though we don’t know when the next earthquake will happen”. HSFBC is a small club, no doubt, but their hard work and dedication to prepare Cupertino residents for disasters shows their substantial de-termination. Instead of simply wanting to get hours on their college applications, HSFBC members strive to help and fortify the people of the commu-nity from inevitable natural disasters and it’s nice to know that they got your back.

CHILE

HAITI

Northern Sumatra Indonesia,

April 06, 2010

7.7 magnitude

Average of 62 people injured

INDONESIAMost Cupertino residents are oblivious to the possible consequences or even occurrence of a serious earthquake. People generally think “even if there is one, it probably won’t affect me”. San-ath Mullapudi (10) is one of those dis-believers. “I’m not really worried about earthquakes because I’ve never really experienced one, even though I’ve lived in the Bay Area for a long time

In just a brief period of time, an earthquake can knock down dangerous furniture and objects, which can cause severe physical damage to the human body. They are also radical and unpredictable, so it is important to be prepared at all times. Now, Arvind is ready for any disaster. His household is fully equipped with sturdy desks, bottled water, a fire extinguisher, a safety pack, and instructions in his mind if anything is to happen. “I feel a lot

safety kit photo by ashpags, flickr

“Our goal for the HSFBC club is to raise awareness about disasters in the community and help citizens get pre-pared”

photo by Frank’s Images, Flickr

photo by HSFBC

photo by IFRC, Flickr

photo by United Nations Development Programme, FLickr

photo by United Nations Development Programme, Flickr

Haiti Region Earthquake

January 12, 2010

Magnitude 7.0

222,570 total fatalities

Offshore Maule, Chile

February 27, 2010

Magnitude of 8.8

507 total fatalities

by Michael Lu

Our coaches say it, our teammates say it, even the military says it: Pain is weakness leaving the body.

Medicine.com,atrustedsiteregulatedbyprofessionaldoctors,definespainas“anunpleasantsensationthatcanrange

from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components.” So what is it about pain that

actually motivates people to work out?

“IgetmotivatedtoexercisebecauseIneedtostayfitandalsobecauseIlikeexercise,”explainsfreshmanEricLin.“I

sometimesexercisejustforthefunofitortorelievestress.”

Whenoneexercises,whetherforthefunorthefitness,theywilloftentrytopushthemselvespasttheirbody’slimits.Thephysicalresultismuscle

fibersoreness,ashorttermdiscomfort,butalwaysapositiveimpactinthelongrun.Athletesandtrainersalikeviewmusclesorenessasasignofpotential

improvementpastcurrentphysicalboundaries.Afterall,youwon’tknowhowfaryoucangountilyoutry.Onceyoudotry,youwillfindthatinthelongterm,

your muscles will be able to withstand much greater pressures.

MichaelAllen,theauthorofFatLossFactor,agrees.“Whilealotofpeoplethinkthat[nopain,nogain]isamyth,Ihavefoundthatsuccessinany

partoflife,includingfitness,requiressomediscomfort.”Thosewhoconstantlystrivetopushtheirlimitswillnodoubtexperiencesomesortofpain.Looking

back, however, many of them say that the gains are worth the pain.

NickChen,anotherathlete,agreesthatnopainmeansnogain.“Mostthingsyouwant

togetneedsasmallsacrificefromyou.”

Without realizing that, many people will never reap the goods of hard work, which includes

healthbenefits,aleaner,moreattractivebody,andplainsatisfactionfromknowingthatthehard

exerciseswillpayoff.

Of course, it is important to recognize the difference between normal soreness and

dangerous injuries.About 30million kids under the age of 18 participate in some form of

organized sports in theUnited States, andmore than 3.5million injuries occur each year.

Almostone-thirdofallinjuriesincurredinchildhoodaresportsrelatedinjuries.

Mostfitnesscentersrequirepeopleworkingouttobeatleastovertheageof16,andforagoodreason.Almost270,000peoplewereinjuredonexercise

machinesorwhileusingexerciseequipmentlast

year as a result of tripping on treadmills, falling

backwardsoffexerciseballs,andevenspraining

anklesfromjumpingrope.Ifyouthinkthecurrent

rateofinjuriesinchildrenisbadenough,imagine

letting kids working out by themselves in a room

full of heavy metal weights.

Althoughthegainswillbeworththepainsin

the end, we must consider: is it sane to allow

ourselves to push past our limits until our muscles

aresearingwith lacticacid?OneACLtearcan

endeventhebestathlete’swholecareerinone

moment.Wemustbecarefulnottoexercisesofar

astoforgetwhatwe’reworkingtowards–gains.

Thepainsofagoodworkoutarewhatshouldbe

driving the weakness out of our bodies, not the

painsofinjuries.

Thenexttimeyouhoponthepullupbar,be

sane and remember the difference between the

two and choose the pain that will end in the best

gain.

“Pain is weakness leaving the body,” is her motto.

AllisonYu,afreshmanatMontaVistaHighSchool,firmly

believesinthe“pro’s”ofbeinginshape.“Evenifyoudon’treally

haveaparticularneedtoworkout,youstillshouldjustsoyou

stayhealthyandfit.There’snoharminexercising,anyways.”

It’seasytorattleoffthebenefitsofphysicalfitnessatthe

topofyourhead.Youcanjustifyallthejunkfoodyoueat.You

canloweryourmedicalrisks.Youcanbuildupagreat“beach

body” for the summer. But besides the obvious, what other

motivations are there to work out?

Yuisonanextremelycompetitiveclubvolleyballteam.

Standing at a mere five feet two

inches, she knows she is at a huge

disadvantage on the court with the

other players towering a foot over her.

She even happens to be playing the

position of the outside hitter, which

especially requires the height factor

forsuchcompetitiveplayerslikeYu.

“To still be able to compete with my fellow outside

hitters, I need to jump higher, play smarter, and hit harder. I

needtobemorefitthanthemtostillgetmyplayingtime,”she

says. By constantly pushing her body to handle the strains of a

constantlyactivesport,Yuisstrivingtobecomea“fitter”athlete,

inside and out of the volleyball court.

Havingbeenonthejuniorvarsityvolleyballteamather

school last fall,Yuhopes tomake thevarsity teamnextyear

while also being a useful asset. “My prime inspiration is my

team.Idon’twanttoletthemdown.”

Forthat,Yu’steammateEmilyVu,sophomoreatMonta

Vista, is glad. “Especially since

she’s a freshman, she knows

she has to work harder, and she

followsthroughwiththat.”Vusees

Yuputtingpassionanddedication

into every practice.

When Yu is in the mood,

shedoesn’t let a preciousminute

flybywhenshecouldbeworking

out. She has even pushed herself

to do sets of pushups in between homework assignments,

which led her through an astounding 71 pushups during her

mostrecentfitnesstestinherPhysicalEducationclass[which

shepassedwithflyingcolors].Workingouthasallowedherto

clearhermindandsleepeasier,Yusays.

“I work out on and off. Every once in a while, I’ll be

particularlymotivatedtodojumpingexercises,usuallybecause

I had a particularly bad practice or something like that,“ Yu

explains.Herbackyardpoolwasevenfilledinandreplacedwith

grassylandscapingcompletewitharegulation-sizedvolleyball

net so she could practice at home too. Wherever she has space

– inherbackyard,aroundherneighborhood,orevenonher

living room floor – she iswilling to push through the pain to

become the best she can be.

AndYuknowsshestillhasworktodo.

“I need to be more fit than them to still get my playing time.”

Yu Got Work To Do

by Michelle Chan

No Pain, No Gain: Is It Sane?

P A I NIS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY

“Triumph is just try with a little umph.” -Unknown

“Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness.” – Earl of Derby

“A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time - pills or stairs.” - Joan Welsh

ìYour attitude, not your aptitude, determines your altitude.î ñ Zig Ziglar

There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.” -Beverly Sills

“The mind will always give up before the body.” - Toraino Singleton

“ T h e d i c t i o n a r y i s t h e o n l y p l a c e w h e r e s u c c e s s c o m e s b e f o r e w o r k . ” – V i n c e L o m b a r d i

by Michelle Chan

About 30 million kids under the age of 18 participate in some form of

organized sports in the United States,

and more than 3.5 million injuries occur each year.

S E V E NMOTIVATIONAL QUOTES

DEFININGyour stylefashion Cardigan

blouse

Overalls

basics

overcoat

pullovertracksuitsweaters

sandals

beretdenim

silk

suede

jewleryearrings

floral

hairband

vintageboho

ringsnecklaces

sunglassest-shirt

In Vietnam, stitching your own clothes was customary. Sisters, Aileen, senior, and Kimberly Le, freshmen, are now following their family tradition and bringing their own style to the students of Monta Vista. Aileen is president of fashion club on campus and is sharing her bril-liant designs and worthy opinion to her peers. She not only sketches for the yearly fashion show the club holds, but she finds time in her chaotic schedule to design dresses for herself to wear. Kimberly is slowly following her footsteps as she tries to decide her true passion within fashion. With a slow start, and several of her sister’s dresses to look up to, she is increasing her designing talent one day at a time. “It’s like a legacy…it’s in our blood.” Aileen ex-plains. You will never catch Aileen wearing the same dress as anyone else. She had made

her own Sweet 16, Junior Prom, and Homecom-ing dresses. Her inspiration – the red carpet. Le looks through catalogs, online, and award shows to find the special dress she wants to re-design for herself. She makes her dresses from her favorite shiny silk fabric that flows well. “I love looking through dresses and finding the perfect one!” Aileen says. “I remember my first dress. It was a replica of a BCBG dress.” Aileen smiles remembering that special feeling after finishing your first dress. “You made this with your own two hands…it’s your baby.” Many would assume Aileen and Kimberly to have special tools to make their clothing. But the opposite is true. They use their grandmother’s sewing machine. This ancient but sentimen-tal machine was used by their grandmother to make her own clothes in her youth. This makes their clothes unique knowing that it had sewn their ancestor’s clothes, parent’s clothes, and their baby pajama pants. As Aileen leaves for college this fall, Kimberly is left alone to design an entire wardrobe her-self. “She had really helped along,” Kimberly explains “she got me interested in making clothes myself…[but] I like to make ‘everyday’ clothing instead of formal dresses.” With one shirt already made, a replica of an out-grown shirt, she is working her way to more pieces. “With my busy schedule it’s hard…this takes time and a lot of thinking.”

Sewing Sisters

Hunter Gatherer

Frantically looking from rack to rack. Shuffling through blouses, pants, and feathered headgear. Nothing is going to stop Sherry Roohi, freshmen, from getting the best deal. “When I am shopping I am on a mission. I hunt down those clothes.”

Roohi isn’t your everyday shopper. Influenced by Selena Gomez’s style, Roohi like to shops at second hand and thrift stores. Finding that special outfit that brings out her personality is her goal. She goes through Goodwill, Lohmens, Target, Forever 21, and Sprinkles, a little boutique she discovered in Santa Cruz, to build her diverse closet.

Roohi likes to discover new stores not only within the local mall but all over the bay area. “Once I here about it, I grab my friends and that’s the first place we hit.” Being an often shopper, Roohi get’s lucky in finding “god-praising” deals. With a closet already filled to the brim with vintage, 80s and preppy clothing, there is no stopping this fashion diva.

peat coat

preppy Peter Pan Collar

tie-dye

layers

ballerina flats

doublet chiffon

gowns

by Neha Simon

Kimberly’s First Aileen’s Homecoming Le’s Sewing Machine

Sherry Roohi - freshman

DressShirt

photos by: Neha Sim

on

phot

os b

y: N

eha

Sim

onph

otos

by:

Aile

en L

e

taken from: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/?id=11873708&refnum=2719387&source=sxchu04&source=sxchu04

by Patrick LeeRight Hand, Left Hand

Left-handedness is a very strange phenomena. At a prevalence rate of approximately 10-13% of the world’s human population, despite its uncommonness modern society moved along with it. For a strange trait that appears harmless, left-handedness has actually been strongly looked down on in many cultures. This opposition is in many forms, spanning from stereotypical think-ing to the bias being incorporated in language. For example, take the keyboard term “mano sinistra,” which means “play with the left hand. Doesn’t “sinistra” sound a lot like “sinister?” Actually, that’s what it really means in Italian! Even when cultures grew along with left-handedness, many families still force their left-handed children to turn “righty.” This was the case for Freshman Preston Yeung, who experienced a fortunately painless “switch” because his parents caught this at an early age. “When my parents taught me how to write, they noticed that I was trying to hold my pen in my left. I guess they made me change so that it was easier for them to teach [me],” Yeung said. Now he wants his left-handedness back. Actually, a little more than that. “I want to be ambidextrous,” he proclaims. He even adds, “I kind of think of this as a little goal in my life.” He has been actively practicing this day by day, even now. “On Facebook, there’s this typing game. I’ve learned to use both hands on separate keyboards, so I’ve always been getting higher scores than a lot of others,” he said. Yeung describes the reason behind all of this. “I think that it’s good have to have equilibrium in both halves of the body. So far,

Popular Products (Left Handed)-Scissors: since a left-handed person using a righty's scissors won't be able to see where they are cutting (the blade obstructs the cutter's vision), the blades are switched in reverse so that the obstruction would be removed.-Rulers: Same function, same wood. The only difference is that the order of the numbers is reversed.-Guitars: of course, one could just make a left-handed gui-tar from a right-handed guitar by reversing the strings. But doesn’t anyone want a “true” left-handed guitar? Though in much smaller availability and priced slightly higher than

right-handed guitars, these are still popular among those willing to pay for it. -Knives: some brands of kitchen blades are sharpened at an angle that only lets the right-handed cut comfortably. Thankfully, most brands have their knives sharpened so that they can be used at any side.-Pens with Grips: there are some pen brands where the grips are triangular shaped, and some fit comfortably for the right-handed, only. To combat this problem, most manufacturers make circular grips (Dr. Grip, A-gel, etc.).-Can Openers: Opening cans can be tricky. Opening cans with your weaker hand is just plain hell.-Notebooks: These are basically the same as the right-handed variety, except that it is opened the other way, from right to left.

Causes of Left-handedness-LRRTM1: This is the first gene that has been found to be correlated with left-handedness. However, this correlation is just as probable as genes linked to heart disease and lung cancer. This gene is also known for increasing mental illnesses and disorders like schizophrenia.-Testosterone*: A theory by Norman Geschwind suggests that above-average testosterone levels of a pregnant mother would affect development of the brain in the fetus. Here, more neurons would be developed in the right side of the brain (remember, the right side controls the left side of the body). Therefore, when the baby is born, it will be born left-handed.-Bodily Injury: Sometimes, when one is injured in the right side of the body they would naturally switch to using their left side. Only when the left side has been used long enough that the person would permanently use that side.

-Signs in Later Fetus Development*: Evidence suggests that in a human fetus, whichever hand is held closer to the head would likely be the dominant hand.

*hypothetical causes that have not been completely proven

Famous Left-handed People

Real-Leonardo da Vinci (artist, supposedly wrote with his left and trained himself to paint with his right)-Aristotle (philosopher)-Ringo Starr (drummer of the Beatles who played a right-handed drum set)-Bill Gates (president of Microsoft, one of the richest men on the planet)-Barack Obama (current president of the United States)-Henry Ford (started a major car manufacturing company)-Jimi Hendrix (guitarist who played

the left-handed guitar)-Shigeru Miyamoto (president of Nintendo, “father of modern video games”)-Barry Bonds (baseball player)-Larry Bird (basketball player)-Michaelangelo Buonaroti (painter, better known as just Michaelangelo)-Hugh Jackman (actor)-Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons)-Robert Crumb (cartoonist)

-Albert Einstein (physicist)-Alexander the Great (world conquerer)-Helen Keller (inspired the blind)-Lord Baden-Powell (founder of the Boy Scouts)-Paul McCartney (a member of the Beat-les)-Stefani Joanne An-gelina Germanotta

(aka Lady Gaga)-Justin Bieber (singer)-Marie Curie (chemist)-Joan of Arc (French heroine)

Fictional-Link (protagonist of The Legend of Zel-da video game series)-Bart Simpson (the Simpsons)-Bob Ewell (To Kill a Mockingbird)-Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter series)-Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto manga series)-Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist manga series)-Spongebob Squarepants (protagonist of a cartoon of the same name, in one episode he claimed he had two left hands)

Which is the left-handed guitar?

Answer:The one on the right. Try imaging how the guitar would fit on your thigh if you sat with it.

Being Left-Handed vs Intelligence Though controversial, there is some evi-dence that suggests left-handed people are in certain ways more intelligent than their right-handed counterparts. The secret lies is in the brain.

The Brain and Handedness The brain is an extremely complex organ; in fact, it just may be out of all other organs in the human body. Since the brain is divided into two halves, it is logical to say that each controls one half of the body. It turns out that in the anatomical position the right side of the brain controls the left side, and vice versa. Also, while the left side of the brain controls logic, calculation, and speech, language, and writing ability, the right side con-

trols imagination, creativity, dimension, music, and spatial awareness.

So What? Right-brain thinkers (left-handed people) are more often visual learners than left-brain thinkers. This is because left-hander’s brains use the right half more, which is responsible for creativity and visualiz-ing. As a result, they are often naturally better at imagining 3-d objects and visual arts, as well as having some degree of outside-the-box thinking. This is supported by surveys showing that despite the left-handedness prevalence rate (1 in 9 or 10), there is a much higher percentage of left-handed people with jobs in music, art, architecture, and ball sports (they have overall a better ability at imagining where the ball goes). In fact, some art colleges report that almost half of their student population is left-handed. In addition to these correlations, since left-handed people appear to think in ways different (some-times in a wider range) from the right-handed, there has been an exceedingly high number of left-handed Nobel prize winners and famous scientists. Left-handedness also seems to be prevalent in the history of US presidents. From 1929, out of the past fourteen presidents five were left-handed and two were left-handed who switched, therefore being ambidextrous. Strangely, this disproportionality isn't found in the politicians from other nations.

Since left-handers would smear their writing when they write, it is not uncommon for most left-handers to write in a “hook.”

Photo by El_Sol, Flickr user

Photo by ell brown, Flickr user

photo by Linday Evans, Flickr user

Photo by Basspunk, Flickr user

Photo by beatlesfan94, Flickr user

Photo by socio-tard, Flickr user

Photo by koka_sexton, Flickr user

Photo by ThomasT-homas, Flickr user

Photo by EUSKALANATO, Flickr user

Photo by Jeff the Trojan, Flickr user

Photo by lunar caustic, Flickr user

Photo by Duncan Brown, Flickr user

Photo by maury.mccown, Flickr user

Photo by morecoffeeplease, Flickr user

I can hold my chopsticks with both hands.” The next step, he describes, would be to learn how to write at the same time. Michael Nguyen (9), like Preston, was an ex-left-hander. “When I was really young [before start-ing school] my mom taught me the alphabet,” he said, “when she saw me hold my pencil in my left, she made me change, telling me that doing things left-handed in a right-handed society

would be difficult. So I followed [my mom’s instructions], and soon I lost my left-handedness. I do hold my toothbrush with my left though.” But unlike Preston, Nguyen doesn’t feel very strongly about his left-handedness. “I don’t really care a whole lot,” he admitted. “I’m fine being right handed. Ambidexterity sounds cool, but I don’t mind if I’m not.” Whether left-handedness is a good thing or bad thing, after so-ciety became modernized it has become more accepted in many societies, especially in America. Here, there is an official “Left-hander’s day,” which is celebrated annually on August 13.

The Modern Conception of Lefties

Wanna sign up for some thing “special”

Alex, a senior at Monta Vista high school was startled from playing his game online by a

phone call. He casually walked off and answered the machine, from it came the voice of a gruff

man, who said.

“Hello there, my name is Sergeant Joseph and I represent a special college that would like to have

you.”

Alex looked at the phone number and wondered if this was a prank call. Sergeant? he

thought, that doesn’t sound like a college… None the less he answered the man on the phone with.

“You mean the army right?” Alex had hoped to sound cool with it, but he found he’d said it

in a more incredulous way instead.

“Errr, no it’s a uhhh…,’ the voice of the Sergeant stuttered, but he rallied well and said, in

a more matter-of-fact tone. “ Yes, the military is looking for more people to recruit and it just so

happens that what we want in a soldier is someone with your portfolio. Would you like to hear

more?”

This is the same type of phone call that many seniors and juniors receive in the second se-

mester of high school. The army always trying to recruit the already stressed out students and lure

them away from school with promises of excellent education. Though it may be good education,

the army asks a high price. To do service for at least three years. The education you get from the

army is mostly stuff you must know for combat, something teenagers should no really need. But

many teenagers are actually recruited after they hear more information, wih the name “special col-

lege” becoming army most students are already caught in the trap laid by the army.

Alex had already wanted to join the army, but when he had heard the lie of the “special

college” he had quickly changed his mind and said “No thank you, I don’t think I really want to

anymore.”

Every year the army has at least one promotional fair at every high achieving school in America. This year they did it amongst the ìNo Drugs!î promotional fair. Hidden behind the great cycling ring they had a push up and pull up stations set up to make a student try it for a prize, generally a shirt and/or sticker, this year was no different. Many students gathered around the back of the skateboarding ring to show off how strong they are, and when they got there, people who at

Frances Wu - “Theres nothing wrong with the army recruitment.

Sasha Chin - “I don’t see why the army needs to lie to recruit people.”

Sakash Aigner - “The armies recruitment is pretty legit, I don’t see a problem.”

Looking FitterŰąĆć úÿôāöø ĆøøĀø÷ öĂĀăÿøćøćÿČ Ăą÷ü-nary, were bviously army men. Jeffery Ying, a feshman, says ìthey looked at you encouragingly to get onto the stuff.î And they did this for almost ev -erybody, to make people se there own attributes, the army men would then say something like ì Ya know, the army is in need of some strong men.î That isnít a obvious sign of recruitment is it? However like all the years before it, the army always looked at the high-est scorer and smiled, as if trying to invite them to join the army.

Easy to Fool

Pictures taken by: Beverly & pack and speric.

Ceated and written by Paul Lewis

Work Hard

“When I come backhome from a swim meet,I’mtired…likedeadtired.Iusuallyjustsleepforhalfanhour,starthomework,andstay up really late.” Sand-hya Bodapati, a freshmanat Monta Vista, strugglestokeepthestraightA’sshehadbeforejoiningtheswimteam. She not only hadto stop volunteering, butalsosleepthreehours lat-ereachnight,quitSpeechandDebate,andcutdownonweekendactivities.“I’mnot sure if being on theswimteamisworthalltheeffort I’m putting in. I’mnot getting enough sleep,Icouldbedoingbetterontests, it drainsmyenergy,andIcouldbedoingthingsthataremoreproductive.” Another freshman,Ryan Khodi, has no timeshortage from his after-school sport.Beforemak-ing theJuniorVarsityGolfTeam, Khodi spent atleast five days out on thegolf course each week.He practiced with someclose friends, consistent-ly improving his game.

He tried out for VarsityGolf and made the team;however, as a freshman,couldn’tstayonit.AsaJVgolfer, Khodi gets homeby 5:30 after practices,finishes homework andsleeps enough to get afresh start to a new day. “Fencingdoesnotpullmygradesdown. In fact, Ifeelmoremotivatedtofin-ishmyhomeworksoIcangettopractice.”StephanieWang,afreshman,playsasport that most wouldn’tthinkof:fencing.Sheprac-tices four days a weekandoftenskipsschool forher tournaments. She iscoached by Jay Choi andEric Dew at First PlaceFencing.Herskillshaveim-provedover the last threeyearsshehas fenced.Hermedalsandtrophiesinherroom show off her manywins,mostimportantlythefirstplacewininnationals. Students’ gradesare often affected by thesportstheyplay.Some,likeBodapati,haveahardtimekeepingupintheirclasses,whileothershavenoprob-lems, like Khodi. There isalways the exception, likeWang,wherestudentsusetheirsportastheirimpulseto stand out in school.

The average day of a

Swimmer

or Work OutWork Out

Swimmer

Eat, Sleep,

PlayPlay

Morning Practice

6:00 AM - 7:00 AM

Somestudentsbelievethetimesofthepracticesareveryinconvenient.Mostschoolsportshavepracticesfromthree-thir-tytofive-thirty,andgamesfromtwotoseven.Thesetimescanbeveryinconvenient.Somestudentshavetomisstheirseventhpe-riodtogototheirgame,andsomedon’tstarttheirhomeworkuntileighto’clockonthosedays.Travelingtootherschoolsalsotakesupmuchof their time.Practicesarealsovery timeconsumingbecausetheylasttwohours,andmostsportspracticeeveryday.

What should be changed?changed?

practice time?practice time?

When 100 Monta Vista athletes were asked if practices should be one hour, rather than two they had different opinions.

NO67%

Thepeoplethatdidn’twantanychangesthoughtthatashorter

practicewouldbepointless

YES33%

Thosethatwantedashorterpracticehaveahardertimebalanc-ingtheirtimebetweensports,school,andother

extracurriculars.

School After-School PracticeFreshman EricaFerng has manyyears of experi-ence.She is dedi-catedtohersport,swimming. Shemade the Varsityteam for swim-ming. Her day is

7:30 AM - 3:00 PM 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM

Homework

3:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as

many days in the year as you make use of.

-Charles Richards

muchlikeothersontheteam.

ByPriankaSingh

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zgchurch/3767023285/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ni-colep72/3273753268/

http://www.flickr.com/pho-tos/45087280@N02/4244546414/

http://www.flickr.com/pho-tos/45087280@N02/4244546414/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mizuarashi/3210648961/

”“

AS ‘PAIL’ AS DEATH: StudentS ShAre their bucket liStS

Towards

The

LighTby racheL beyda

PicTure by TexasTiger

When your entire past flashes before your eyes, some-times all you can think about is your future. One might think that having a near-death expe-rience would cause a person to try to start doing all of the things they want to do before they die, all of the things on their bucket list. According to Monta Vista students, near-death experiences only some-times have this effect. Nathan Faciolla’s dad left him in a car with the en-gine on when he was a little kid. Faciolla started to play around a little bit, and the car ended up rolling down a hill. He probably would have died if it wasn’t for a few cars at the end of the road that broke the car’s fall. Instead of creating a bucket list of crazy things to do before he dies, this experience actually made Faciolla more careful not to be dangerous. Ahmit Dingra’s near-death experience had the oppo-

site effect. When he almost died in a surfing accident, he realized how easily life could slip away, and decided to live life to its fullest. Near-death experiences can of-ten create this sort of a philosophy, causing people to create wild bucket lists. Not always though. Aneesh Prasad, who was threatened to be shot when his grandmother wouldn’t give a robber her jewelry, doesn’t think that it’s near-death experiences that shape people’s bucket lists. “It’s life experiences, being inspired by people. As you get older you start to realize the legacy you want to leave behind, and you base your bucket list off of that.”

IF TODAY WAS YOUR LAST DAY

[I would] donate all my money, donate my organs, write my will, say good bye to everyone, and watch comedy movies to take my mind off impending doom.- Jonathan Huang

I would say things I’ve wanted to say for a long time to people, that I keep in my head now because it’s too risky to say them out loud.-Michelle Tsai

I’d do something I’ve always wanted to do before I die. Not like robbing a bank or something, but something good like going to an orga-nization and giving a large sum of my life savings to them.-Preston Yeung

I would have a giant party and spend lots of money and have talks with my friends.-Cathy Ang

Poetically, yeah I would think about the sig-nificance of my life. Realistically? I would prob-ably sit and scream in a corner.-Murahd Shawki

I would just have fun, be with people, and do really crazy things. Not stupid crazy, just fun crazy. I would spend the day distracting myself from any regrets or things I could have done.- Constance Robinson

I would probably just tidy everything up, ar-range things, tie up as many loose ends as possible like this was a denouement of a plotline.Jessica Koe

PLANNING AHEAD Michelle Plouse shares that her bucket list includes everything from learning Gaelic to talking to a serial killer.

Rachel Beyda

“ ”“ ”“ ”

”“““

””

“

by Rachel Beyda

“We live, we die, the wheels on the bus go round and round.”-The Bucket List When Monta Vista students hop on that bus, some are focusing on the ride. Others are thinking about the next stop. The rest are wondering what will happen when they walk down those black stairs and step off into the world of unknown. Whether it’s mental or written, realistic or fantasy, these students all have bucket lists. A bucket list is a list of things some-one wants to do before they “kick the bucket”, or in other words, die. Although death may seem far off to many high school students, life be-fore death does not. Bucket lists are a way of making it the best life possible, or even a way of distracting yourself from the unpleas-ant thoughts of dying. “I try not to think about death,” says 9th grader Michelle Plouse.Instead of focusing on death, she focuses on life. Some of her bucket list is what would be expected of a normal high school stu-dent’s. It’s full of countries she wants to visit, pranks she wants to play, and languag-es she wants to study. But at a closer look, her list is anything but ordinary. Plouse also wants to spend a week in a mental asylum, complete an archeological dig, and talk to a serial killer. She’s dead serious.

No matter how much someone tries to con-vince her that she will never catch a leprechaun or be able to fly, Plouse assures them, and her-self, that she’ll find a way. Her goals may seem ambitious, but she seems to have everything figured out. “The whole point of life is to be able to smile on your death bed and say ‘Hey, I had a good time’.” Freshman Chetan Kopalle couldn’t agree with her more. His philosophy is to live life

to the fullest. As similar as their viewpoints may be, the only common item on his and Plouse’s bucket lists is to learn Gaelic. Kopalle is looking at his life from a different perspec-tive. He’s a firm believer in the world ending in 2012, meaning that he thinks he

has less than three years left before he himself kicks the bucket. Unlike Plouse, he admits that he probably won’t be able to join the marines, hula in Hawaii, or fight a shark before then. He still wants to live a thrilling life, going skydiv-ing and taking risks that he confesses are stu-pid. Teens’ bucket lists all seem to have one thing in common. And no, it is not learning Gaelic. It’s the way that they all want to do something crazy, something they’d probably never do. They want to kick the bucket with a foot that’s done the hula in Hawaii or stepped in a mental asylum. They want to walk off the bus think-ing, “Wow, that was quite a journey.” Because even if the wheels on the bus will always go round and round, they won’t always be there for the ride.

the whole point of life iS to be Able to

Smile on your deAth bed And SAy ‘hey, i hAd

A good time’.

Filling the Bucket to its Fullest

”

On Friday, March 26, Career Day was held at Monta Vista. From 10:50 to 12:45, students, teachers, and parent volunteers all participated in the event. The purpose of Ca-reer Day was to introduce students to various careers and answer their questions about education, getting the job, and about the job in general. Thestudentshadchosentheirtopfivechoicesofcareerintheirfourthperiodclasson January 7th, and on March 26 received a schedule telling them where to go. The selec-tion list included a variety of professions such as actor, marine biologist, farmer, etc. Some students found exactly what they wanted on the list. Freshman Chavi Checker said, “My favorite part about career day was going to see the career of a vet because I really love animals, so I thought it was the best part.” Each student went to three different classrooms to hear three speakers inform stu-dents about their careers. Teachers remained in their own classrooms and supervised, ask-ing some conversation inspiring questions to the speakers. The speakers gave a speech to inform the students about a career and also answered questions such as, “Which college majors can lead to this type of job? What is the work en-vironment like? What particular skills would be good to have?”. In addition, they answered questions about salary. After each presentation, the students rated the speakers on a sheet of paper which they dropped off in the rally court at lunch. “I liked the speakers that I went to since they helped me organize and focus my thoughts on a career,” said freshman Indira Purushothaman. Some of those speakers will return to Monta Vista for next year’s Career Day. Students had different opinions at the end of the day. Some thought Career Day was fun while others thought it was a waste of time, and many found it useful to learn about careers that they are interested in.

Libby Kao has experience teaching pre-school. Kasie Wong is considering scholarship programs. Franchesca Yamamoto owns a compa-ny, and freshman Manasa Gurumoorthi has wanted to be a doctor since she was four years old. “I want to make a difference,” says Manasa, inspired by ElizabethBlackwell,theworld’sfirstfemaledoc-tor. Although many have no idea or too many to choose from, these students at Monta Vista High School have already decided what they want to be when they grow up.

Franchesca Yamamoto, freshman, is al-ready working. In fact, she started a business when she was in middle school. Called the Bleu Umbrel-la Company, it is an international fashion compa-ny, and her house is a store. Franchesca designs her own fashions and has other Monta Vista students

At the end of the day, students at Monta Vista had different opinions about Career Day. Out of the students surveyed, 40% said it was useful, 44% said it was fun, and 16% thought it was a waste of time.

Students at Monta Vista High School were asked whether they know what they want to bewhentheygrowup.20%ofthestudentssaidyesdefinitely,54%ofthemhavesomeidea, and 26% are not sure what they want to be. Clearly, the majority of students kind of know what they want to be when they grow up.

CAREER DAY

CONSIDERING

What jobs does our future hold?Matadors make career choices

ing a research scientist is because she feels more comfortable with a career that doesn’t involve in-teracting with people. Kasie is considering schol-arship programs and colleges that are good for a science major, such as Davis where her sister at-tends. Libby Kao, freshman, has wanted to be a teacher since she was eight years old. Libby is in-terested in this career because she loves kids and has been impacted by some of her special teachers in the past. She has always had a life of love for learning. Libby’s grandmother, who was a teacher, used to tell her, “When you teach you’re interact-ing with people and you impact their lives.” Libby has experience teaching preschool kids, and she babysits a lot. Since she loves chil-dren, she would prefer to teach elementary school if she had to choose. Libby’s favorite subjects in school are English and history, but she would like to teach art. “Art and music really gets to littler kids,” says Libby. These students are passionate about their career choices and have made plans to achieve their goal in life. Although they’re all at different stages in terms of planning, they have one thing in common,whichistheconfidenceintheplansfortheir future career.

working for her. Franchesca has aspired to be a fashion de-signer ever since her life changing trip to England in the summer of 2008. She says the “peaceful countryside”, “mature kids”, and “polite people” influenced her, aswell as the new feeling of in-dependence she acquired from traveling with her school. In addition, fashion runs in the family; her mother used to work in the industry and her aunt is a former designer. Starting work at such a young age gave Franchesca a head start. She says that twenty years from now, she might have an advantage over others inherfield.Franchescasaysherfavoritepartaboutbeing a fashion designer is “seeing the dream come to reality.”

FreshmanKasieWongisconfidentthatshewants to be a research scientist. She has always wanted a career in science, and the main reason why she wants to become a research scientist is because her cousin is one in a selective research program. Kasie has heard that a research scientist has the freedom to research anything he or she wants, and that not too much time commitment is involved. Another reason why Kasie is keen on be-

CAREERS

“I want to make adifference.”

“seeing the dream come to reality.”

“...you impact their lives.”

Photo by Libby Kao

Photo by Franchesca Yamamoto

Photo by sxc.hu

Monta Vista students plan ahead for their future careers

Green: Sentamental

Pink: Other

Purple: Never had a chance to throw it away

Blue: Cant get rid of them for some personal reason

years. That means she hasn’t even touched them since she as fifth grade!So why keep them?She holds on to them for one reason only. Memories.Those memories of being with the family, alto-gether, unlike how life is now.Her parents are divorced, and sometimes Kalie just wants to escape. Escape to a place when everything was okay. A place where every-thing is warm soft gentle and of course fuzzy.

[Having a stuffed animal] doesn’t remind me of what I

did; it reminds me of who gave it to me and how I felt in that

momentKalie is protective her little friends. It is like she is a mama bear protecting her cubs. Well in a sense. She never wants to rid herself of them. Not ever. If that means having them buried with her, she would do it. Actually that is pretty ex-treme and she would only do that if her chil-dren would take them, but still!“[The stuffed animals are] something you had from when you were little and when I look at them I have that feeling of comfort knowing someone is there that will sit down and hug me when I’m sad, listen to me when I have drama, and just be there to comfort me. They are like my portable best friend.”Kalie’s stuffed animals are symbols of happy moments in her life. Basically they are her happy place”. You know like those places in movies people go to in order to become re-laxed and at ease.

Monta Vista High School’s Writing for Publication

The Story behind those Furry Pals

Little items from the past. Items that tell a whole tale just in once glance or one prick of the fuzz. You know these items, and you probably have some. They might be tucked away somewhere hidden or they might b out in the open for the public to see but I bet you have them. For some they show how life used to be so innocent and certain. Those little items from the past that you keep for some reason. That reason that makes you let them keep gaining dust because of you be-coming older and more mature. Yet what reason is that?What’s the reason people have for why they keep stuffed animals?Kalie Hayes, a freshman at Monta Vista High school, is an expert with stuffed animals and has a total of ten herself.Hayes hasn’t played with her pals in over 4

The WHY for Holding on

Juanita Torres is a freshman at Monta Vista High School. She has many stuffed animals, but for her they don not show her past memories. They remind her of her childhood and loved ones. “You know when someone dies, what do you have left of them when they are gone? I have stuffed animals to remind of the people in my life or used to be.”

Jordan Denoce is a freshman at Monta Vista High School. When asked about his collection of stuffed animals he laughed. Jordan is one of many that just have stuffed animals for..well just because. He has a “whole bed of them”, but he does not count his stuffed animals as him keeping them. “I don’t keep them. I just throw them all in my garage” he says. But yet why does he keep them? Answer is: He doen’t know.

Michael O’Dell is a junior at Monta Vista High School. He explains that he does not really have a reason for keep-ing all his stuffed animals. “I guess I keep them ‘cuz they look cool, but I really don’t actu-ally know” he says. Michael is one of those people that just keep them just ..because.

Sentimental Value

The Reasons of Why People Still Have their Old Stuffed Animals.Memories

of “Good” Times

They are always that one special friend

Never had achance to throw them away.

“

.”

Will always have a Friend

To adorable, and can’t part with it

Decorattions in room

Reminder of home

UnderDeskthe

In the back right corner of Mrs. Johnson’s first period art classroom, miscreantry runs ram-pant. Wedged elegantly between the airy windows and superhero adorned cabinets, the corner is a per-fect microcosm of the classrooms of Monta Vista. Leaning against the messy cabinet at the back of the room, the hands and ears of every student in the table are visible. Unknown to Mrs. Johnson, students are listening to iPods, surrepti-tiously doing homework, even racing animated cars on PS3’s. “A PS3?” Johnson says, shocked at the idea. “Someone’s gonna die...” It’s hard, Johnson says, with the corners of the room. When an area is more difficult for a teacher to see, students lose focus. Art is one of the subjects most thoroughly impacted by short atten-tion spans, because, as Johnson explains, there is always more work to be done, always potential to push. “Most of the time, when I catch a kid not paying attention, it’s with iPods or cell phones.” The most contradictorily productive dis-

traction, though, is not quite as interesting as most electronics. Many students rely on their inconspic-uous seats to finish homework. Johnson has caught senior Harrison Reiss at work more than once. “I’m in math analysis,” he says. “I try to finish it at home. That day, I had work, and I had just broken up with my girlfriend.” Shuchi Gaur, a freshman, remembers her Lit class as the period to goof off. One particular day, in Ms Andersons class, she and her friend San-keerti Haniyur, also a freshman, turned their desks together and played slide with their feet. “We got a point off of participation,” she says, then laughs, belatedly remembering the ac-tual assignment the Anderson allotted to the free time. “We were supposed to be working on some-thing. We finished early, I think...” While the impact on learning was minimal, Gaur is certain she will remember her fun distrac-tion longer than the material she was supposed to be focusing on. When freshman Kayla Wong remembers the best moments of middle school, she doesn’t

remember history projects, clubs, or even lunch time. Her eighth grade Lit teacher, Ms. McNair, was infamously lenient regarding the kind of tangents Johnson refused to tolerate. Wong gushes about McNair, reminiscing and praising her classes, us-ing words like “awesomest,” “amazingest,” and “incredible.” “We did absolutely nothing,” she adds. Most of her memories are from the stretch-es of time given to work on grammar packets or silent reading. “We played random videos and messed with her powerpoints!” she almost sings. This year, in Mr. Coy’s Lit classroom, Wong continues to multitask, and continues to receive A+ grades in the class. One day, in November, she crafted a makeshift bow to decorate a friends locker using a stapler, two ribbons, and whiteout as glue in a parody of a logic puzzle. “I also count, in my planner, the number of days until important events, and write song lyrics.” Her planner is indeed filled with highlighted numbers, embel-lished days, and the entire lyrics to Taylor Swift’s Love Story. “It makes me happy.”

“Once, during a bio lecture, I plugged my iP-hone into the wall and charged it.”

“Music is definitely my distraction.”

“I used to play video games under the desk. On my game-boy. Specifically, Pokemon.”

“I usually stare off into space and either play random music in my head or think.”

The literal underside of a school desk is an inscrutable treasure trove of guilty pleasures. Stuck between the metal legs and the wood, play-ful, treacherous, once colorful splotches of bubble gum are a mark of previous occupants, as are the carefully scratched, cryptic messages to future generations, testaments to teenage boredom. The most im-permanent monument to short attention spans, though, are the elec-tronics hidden just below the surface. Cell phones. The most frequent distraction to high schoolers is texting- texting quiz answers, texting pictures, or just tex-ting to text. And, according to school policy, any phone out in class has to be confiscated; teachers have no choice. “No one likes taking away phones,” says Mrs. Renee Fallon, a Biology and AP Bio teacher. “No teacher likes being the bad guy.” But it is school policy, so most teachers turn in the phones to the office. “Teachers are paranoid,” Fallon says, explaining the teach-ers point of view. No one wants to end upon Youtube, and unfortunately, it has happened to teachers before. A phone could be used to humiliate in-structors, another reason the school policy bans phones from classrooms. But how many phones are actually con-fiscated?

“This whole year,” Fallon adds, “I’ve only taken two phones.” Without a doubt, more than two students have used a phone in her classroom. So the extra conversations disappeared either due to Fallon’s oversight or leniency, and the high, narrow lab tables in the austere room makes oversight unlikely.

Fallon is not the only teacher with a low con-fiscation rate. Crystal Coppel, a secretary in the Monta Vista office, sees the entire system when she returns phones to students through the office. “On average, I’d say I get about 6 phones a week,” she says. “But some times, I have 6 in a day. There are two phones in my desk right now.” The cell phone trade is clearly not as plentiful as the popularity of texting during class would indi-cate. The school policy regarding cell phone use is stringent, but the enforcement is not so definite. When asked if she has ever given back a phone without turning it in to the office, Mrs. Fallon nods. “Sometimes, if it’s a little thing like ringing in a backpack.” Nikitas Kanellakopoulos, freshman, has firsthand experience with the gentle nature of the cell phone confiscation policy. “It’s happened to me before,”

he says, remembering a teacher who took his phone, only to return it before submitting it to the office. The underside of the desk seems a mysterious, rebel-lious, place, but teachers often understand the gum bits and graf-fiti even better than the students.

Under the Desk, Over Your HeadWhat do Monta Vista studentsdo...

Texting, Daydreaming, Listening to Music.

Text No Evil

“Nikitas Kanellakopoulos, fresh-man, has firsthand experience with the gentle nature of the cell phone confiscation policy.”

See No Evil,Hear No Evil,

Todd Bridges, Freshman

Reeti Banthia, Freshman

Grant Menon, Freshman

Charlotte Yuan, Sophomore

Sagaree Jain

DifferentDistractions

“You don’t leave elementary school thrilled that you learned grammar, but because you’ll be

remembered.”

TechnicolorMemoriesMisty,

“I came here for soccer practices on the field, but I don’t think I’ve ever really reminisced like I am right now,” says Hadar Sachs as surveys the empty campus. Well, almost empty. A dad and his two sons bike near the primary graders’ lunch area. Hadar is one of many Mata-dors that attended Lincoln Elementary School, right next to Monta Vista High. Despite our proximity, many of Lin-coln’s former students haven’t returned to visit. Elementary school is not far away; it’s just a ways down memory lane. And if we take the time to look, most of our memories are alive, thriv-ing and in color. Memories are interesting things— you can’t touch them, you can’t experience them— they don’t even technically exist. Yet, memories are very much real. What brings them to life in the minds of people? “My favorite memory of Lincoln was probably the 5th grade play… We would sit in class and the practice the songs over and over again- I don’t even re-member them now. It was a good environ-ment to be in.” Hadar remem-bers her days as one of the “History Police.”

So is it the environment that makes a memory memorable? There are a lot of places at Lincoln that Hadar remembers as she squints out over the grounds- the Reading Garden, the Library. “It was so open,” Hadar says of the Lincoln li-brary. “Anyone could go there- it was just a great environment.” But perhaps the best place of all for Hadar was in Ms.West’s room. Ms. West’s room is messy. Pa-pers are strewn around on desks— the good old-fashioned kind where the in-dividual desk is detached from the seat, and has a cubby. “I apologize, we just had a little bit of crazy around here. It’s not usually like this.” And it isn’t. Ms. West is reputed for being strict. “And my students know that,” she adds. But it’s one of those things- you have to be in her class to really know. “We still had normal rules, like ‘treat people the way you want to be treated,’ but you wouldn’t feel obli-gated to do anything right. You were just obligated to try. And when you did something right, it would feel so much better,” recalls Hadar. Among Lincoln’s many tradi-tions, Hadar’s favorite is the Halloween March. “It was a chance to parade how cool we were.” The colors are painted forever into her memory- that’s all she remembers, just looking around and seeing all the costumes. She hopes that, if she comes back to visit on Hallow-een, that she’ll see the costumes again, parading around under the ripening leaves like all the years before.

So is it the traditions that make great memories?

Picture Day is the one date we have to re-member, because our mothers scrubbed our faces until they shone more than our spit-polished shoes. Giggling nervously at the photographer’s jokes, we stood in line, comparing combs and fidgeting. And when it was our turn, we stepped up to the lens with our game face on, be-cause this picture- this moment- was go-ing to be in the yearbook. Yet, we don’t know half the other dates of yearbook production. Once the camera clicks, all we know of the photo is that it will be in the yearbook. In mid-dle and high school, a team of students is usually in charge of this publication. But in elementary school, how does the pho-to go from the camera to the page? Su-san Satya, head of the Lincoln Yearbook Committee, takes us through yearbook production as it progresses throughout the year. Fall brings the first day of school. Parent volunteer requests are already sent home in the students’ folders. The first picture day usually happens around then. The team gets into action. “We give them a few guidelines, like to take the head and shoulders in a student’s picture,” says Mrs. Satya. The most experienced help-ers are given priority in the process. Then the helpers are sent off. Mrs. Satya herself takes pictures: “I love to take pictures, so I always have my camera on me.” Octo-

They list all the teachers they’ve had since kindergar-ten, ticking them off the fingers of their left hand. It’s like sec-ond nature to them by now: the people they’ve met, the things they’ve done, the places they’ve gone. Fifth graders Kurumi Ota, Amanda Lam, and Margarita “Margie” Schwiebert have been there, done that, and are ready to move on. Are they? “Kinda,” says Margarita uncertainly. “Ehh,” say Amanda and Kurumi. The latter two are nervous about being pixies at Kennedy. But they are all curious. The jump from elementary school to middle school is one of the biggest events to happen to them since the time they became friends. And these three have known each other for a while. “I knew you from second grade,” Kurumi points to Amanda, “but I knew you from fifth grade,” she says to Margarita. “Really? I knew her from third grade,” replies Amanda. “I’ve been here since kindergarten,” volunteers Marga-rita. The point is that they’ve been friends for a long time. And all of them are moving into Kennedy together. They’re lucky to make the transition together, considering that part of the Class of 2010 sections off into Lawson. That’s what these 5th graders are- the Class of 2010. Except they’re graduating from Lincoln. They’re more or less the seniors of elementary school- just like our seniors, they’re stepping out of the nest next year to move on to the next great adventure. And, give or take, they’ll all graduate together- again- in 2017.

Except from high school.

Will they miss their teachers? All three nod yes. No mat-ter how distant the future seems, Lincoln- and everything else they know- will be with them as they venture into the future. For now, they wait until the fall, when the three of them will start all over again.

Class of 2010

by Smitha Gundavajhala

“The playground, probably.”

Margaret Schwiebert

“The field trips.”

Amanda Lam

“The teachers.”

Kurumi Ota

Apple Pages and the Scrapbook Factory manage the pages on a large scale. How did we ever get by without computers?

This is still your traditional yearbook... and and what yearbook is complete without Picture Day pictures?

Each classroom gets a 2-page spread, and another two for the entire grade. That adds up to a lot of pages.

Everything is digital this year... a combi-nation of Picasa, Adobe Photoshop, and sheer brilliance help breathe new life into the pages.

Wh

at

I w

ill

rem

ember

bes

t abou

t Lin

coln

...

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/939459

Image taken from the 2008-2009 Lincoln Yearbook

Lincoln’s greatest tradition, Ms. West says, “is teachers that care.” People that care. Students that take the time to come back and visit. “Hadar would come and visit every year since she graduated in 2006,” said Ms. West. In fact, a lot of Ms. West’s students come back to visit. “If they’re alumni, then they usually do.” When they come back to visit, they are usually greeted by her collection of Mr. Potato Heads. They’re not present in her class today. Ms. West scoots back in her swivel chair and picks up a puzzle of an elephant. “This is what one of them made for me in Woodshop,” she says, picking it up. One of her former students visits often, and each time he brings with him an elephant. “Now I have a collection of elephants because elephants never for-get and I rarely forget.” In fact, she remembers almost all of her students. “[While they were my students], I could tell you every one of their best friends, their favorite col-ors, where they shop.” That’s how she forms bonds with her students, makes memories. It’s the little things that she does with them- teasing them, talking

to them, reading to them outside on the grass on sunny days. And it’s the little things students remember. “Now in high school, I still carry with me some of

the stuff I learned while Ms. West was my teacher. She was strict, but not too strict, and she was the one that really encouraged me to run. She was a run-ner, and in the book Bridge to Terabithia they ran barefoot, so we’d run out here, and she’d run with us barefoot. Yeah, she’s definitely part of the reason I be-came so into running.” Hadar is now part of the Track team at MV, and she agrees that her days at Lincoln have re-ally made her who she is- helped deter-mine her friends and lifestyle. “Traditions and memories make you who you are,” Ms. West stated. And while she concedes that a lot of people remember Hadar for her athletic ability, Ms. West remembers Hadar for her per-sonality. “What do I not remember of her? She had an incredible enthusiasm, a different take on things, and wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion. She’s just one of those students you can’t forget.” What makes memories memo-rable? It’s the people that bring them to life in full color. You’re remembered for who you are. “I want my students to remember that I loved them,” says Ms. West. “Hopefully, I’m one of the few things that doesn’t change in a world that’s constantly changing.” Traditions and memories aren’t made to be passed down. They’re meant to be lived. They live through people. Memories are kind of strange like that- you can’t touch them, you can’t experience them- they don’t even technically exist. But you can make them. “You don’t leave elementary school thrilled that you learned gram-mar,” Ms. West laughs, “but because you’ll be remembered. 0

What makes a memory?

ber is a big month. “Halloween is a huge photo op. A lot, a lot of pictures,” says Mrs. Satya. So it’s only logical that photo-taking begins this month. Winter is perhaps one of the most sen-timental times of year. Everyone’s excited for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and others- and glad for the accompanying break. Moms snap shots eagerly, hovering over their children like the paparazzi. A good third of these pictures goes to year-book. The yearbook cover contest (“No other school does it this way… it’s a Lin-coln tradition,” adds Mrs. Satya) happens around this time. The only rule is to have a leopard on the page, and then it’s up to the teachers to judge the entries. There is only one winner. Well, two. But only one gets the front cover.Spring is almost the end of picture-tak-ing… last-minute pictures and individual shots are collected for collages. Then it gets really busy- the assembly begins. The shots are collaged, the class photos la-beled, and final touches in layout and de-sign are added. “Ask anyone how stressed I am this time of year,” laughs Mrs. Satya, “And they’ll tell you. I keep saying, ‘Give me the pages so I can put it together!’” 6 weeks before the end of the year (mid-April) the yearbook is submitted for print-ing. A week later, a proof comes back,

and that proof is the last they see of the yearbook until the end of the year. After it’s approved, they wait. Summer has the school buzzing with energy. Summer vacation’s nearly here, and while some can’t wait to begin their vacation, others cling tenaciously to the good times. The yearbooks have arrived. “At that time a lot of people are curious: ‘What does it look like?’ But we can’t tell you. It’s a secret,” Mrs. Satya mock-whis-pers. “Lincoln has a tradition always to hand them out on the second-to-last day. When the yearbooks come out, [the kids] love it, they are so excited- it’s like a cel-ebration.” Thanks to the consideration of the teachers, those who haven’t ordered a yearbook still get the front and back cover, class photos, and of course, empty pages to sign on. The students look for fa-miliar faces within each teacher’s 2-page spread, and on the grade spread. Mrs. Sa-tya enjoys the process of yearbook mak-ing, but it’s seeing the students’ reactions to the yearbook that makes it worthwhile. “It’s the best,” she says.

Snapshot in Time A look at the Lincoln Yearbook

Hadar revisits Lincoln- and her memories of Lincoln.

photos by Smitha Gundavajhala

photo by Smitha Gundavajhala

Parents have a variety of reasons for only having one kid – health problems, traditions, superstitions. But who’s ever heard of the law banning you from having children? Only in China. The population stands at 1,338,612,968 (July 2009 est.) making it the most populous country in the world. In the “best interests” of the country, China has restricted the number of children per family to sim-ply one, except in the case of ethnic minorities and

parents who are only children themselves. The policy has been in play since 1979 and has prevented 250 million births. Officials think this is a good thing. But is parents from having the joy of a child and preventing children from having a life really as good as they think it is? Freshman Angela Lin was born an only child in China thanks to the only child policy. Surprisingly enough Lin supports the policy that prevented her from having a sibling. “I do support the policy,” Angela confirmed. “It doesn’t kill babies, and it helps. It’s the best and only way to go without killing people.” Her parents do not quite agree. Her father wishes for a bigger family, yet was turned down by the law. “[The policy is] not fair to the parents who want kids,” Lin reflected. “According to Chinese custom, the more kids you have, the better. But this is necessary to decrease the population.” But in the long run, does Lin really like the way the policy affected her? “I like being an only child...Once I met all my friends’ siblings, I knew I didn’t want siblings of my own.” A mischievous grin played on her face.

Why A lo n e?

Happiness A lo n e

A l o n eHHome

In life, we tend to run across more people with siblings than only children. The question of the matter is “Who is happier?” Researchers found that there was a higher level of happiness in the only child of the family or the youngest child rather than children in the middle (Park & Peterson, 2006). But why? Think back to your childhood (if you have a sibling). Didn’t you have more attention than your older sibling? And if you were the older sibling, didn’t you have a great time being in the limelight 24/7 before your sibling was born? Happiness is linked hand in hand with love and care. Bhide agreed, saying “I love being an only child [because] I get all the attention.” A baby who is given more focus and care is more likely to be happy than one who was ignored. Likewise, a child who is given more attention is happier. And who else gets all the attention but the only child? It makes sense. And the statistics agree. Out of 125 students at Monta Vista, 15 out of 25 only children were happy being an only child. 16 out of 100 students with siblings found themselves wishing to be an only child, with attention around the clock and no parasitic siblings.

Are you an only child? Are you happy as an only child? Are you happy with siblings?

Sophomore Alex Lin lightly pants as she pedals home. Pulling the remote from her pocket, she presses the button. With a rumble, the pink door slides up and over her. She parks her bike to see her dog, Pepper, greeting her. Lin throws her bag down, and goes to the fridge to pick out strawberry Yoplait. She gulps it down, eyes on a Peanuts comic. Baby Blues, For Better or For Worse, and Zits follow. Lin then dutifully starts her French III homework. Meanwhile, a car pulls into the driveway of the Bhide residence. Freshman Saee Bhide

waves to her carpool before her footsteps fall towards the door. A key turns; Bhide is inside. Socks tread to the fridge. Throwing it open, Bhide finds a sandwich and kiwi. Kiwi in hand, she flops onto a couch facing the TV. After some recorded House, Bhide takes up her math book. Chavi Checker comes home from diving at 5:15 in a silver Toy-ota. Mom asks the usual: How was your day today? What home-work do you have? Any tests? A chicken mayo sandwich and an apple await her. While watching missed episodes of American Idol, Chavi starts her Spanish II homework. These three girls have different homes, different courses, and different snacks. But they all have one thing in common; they are home alone. Bhide, born in Pune, India, revels in being home alone as an

only child. “I love being an only child,” Bhide said. “I get all the attention.” Checker, from New Delhi, India, begs to differ. “It’s boring as an only child. You have no one to talk to!” Lin is neutral. “I’m fine being an only child.” She was born in Winipeg, Canada. “I don’t know how it feels to have a sibling,” Lin says as she ponders about her childhood. “[Siblings] should be happy [to] have someone to talk to.” Her little brother is Pepper, an amiable black Miniature Schnauzer. Bhide finds siblings in a 16 year old “sister” and 11 year old “brother.” “We’re close” Bhide said. “...[but] I don’t need to deal with them every day. I don’t have any stress from them through the week...It’s like a mix of both worlds.” A younger Bhide had wished for a sibling. After moving to America, she realized she was glad to be an only child. “There’s no other kids to disturb me and my family,” Bhide stated. “[If there were,] my activities would be cut in half, and I’d need to make sure there’s enough time for [siblings’ activities].” Checker still dreams of having a sibling, unlike Bhide. A twin brother to be precise. Someone to talk to later in life. But there’s no question that all three to some extent rely on other sources for comfort

and conversation. “Friends are important,” Bhide commented. “It’s good to have good friends when you don’t have someone to come home to.” Friends have helped all three through the years. Checker and Bhide stick to a friend most of the time. Lin spends time with friends at school, then reaches out to them through chat at home. Checker agreed. “Friends are really important; almost as important as having your parents helping you ev-ery step of the way. They’ve helped me through all my hard times, like when I lost my dog. And they helped me cheer up.” Relieved of homework, Lin cheerfully heads over to the microwave at 6 PM to heat dinner. Salad and veg-gies. Her parents wait at the table as she nears them, her hands bearing two dishes. The TV blares in the Checker household, an indication of dinner time. Checker settles down on the couch with her mom and dad. Sinking her teeth into roti and cabbage, she is washed away in a new episode of American Idol. Bhide also takes roti and heads over to the couch for 24. Her parents are already intently watching the screen. Bhide takes her place between them; and everything seems as it should be.

Say Cheese: The Bhides grin in the kitchen (left); The Lins beam on Hawaii’s sunny beaches (center); Checker smiles sunnily with her friends (first from right).

Only children

Have siblings

Unhappy

Happy

Unhappy

Happy

Woof: Pepper greets the camera.

Photo by: Alex Lin

Family Reunion: Bhide and her “siblings” huddle for a group photo.

Photo by: Saee Bhide

Courtesy of sxc.hu

Courtesy of sxc.hu

Courtesy of sxc.hu

Photo by: Saee Bhide Photo by: Alex Lin Photo by: Soumya Kurnool

By: Soumya Kurnool

With the two of them perched next to each other, you wouldn’t have

guessed. Their wings are orange and black, like a stained glass window of a tiger. One eats toxic milkweeds. One sips sap from willow trees. One is a Monarch butterfly, one is a Viceroy. They two species look so similar, they could’ve been twins. Twins. Shared from a single egg, seperated into two. They harbor the same genes, the same ap-pearance, the same age. They share everything together. But are they close? Do they hold hands as they cross the street, never wishing to be apart? Or do they run away from each other, hating their mi r - rored reflection of themselves?

Whitney and Priscilla Chung, freshmen, are a pair of identical twins. They do not get along. “I don’t like [being a twin] that much,” says Whitney. They are

constantly facing off with dis-agreements and bickerings. Priscil-

la Chung, her twin sister, nods and adds, “It’s annoying having

a twin. We fight a lot, but it’s a sibling relationship, [fighting]’s only natural. But since you’re a twin, you will fight more.” “Studies have shown that [twins] can be quite

Act I We all play different roles in life. Whether it’s the student, the friend, or the friendly neighborhood nemesis, we all have somewhere to go, someone to be. Scene 1: you’re in the classroom, the straight-A student, the slacker in the back, or an ordinary Joe or Jane.Scene 2: you’re oustide, chillaxing with some friends. You’re either the life of the party, or the death of it.

And the saying goes:Once a student, always a student. Once a friend, always a friend. Once a sibling, always a sibling. Scene 3: you’re at home. Are you the older sibling, or the younger? Are you the sun that nurtures, or the

light that irritates? May you be the flowers that arches towards the light, or are you the weeds that grow along the way, stunting growth? ACT 2: The Younger Sapling What’s it like, looking up at the lighted skies? Is the view nice? Are you bending towards the sun, or away from it? Norie Omiya, a sophomore, reaches towards the sunshine. “I like having an

older sister. And even though she’s far away, I can call her or text her and she would respond. She’s always there for me,” says Norie. “But when she’s back here, we do sister stuff and bond. Since she’s a girl, she can drive, and has a credit card, we go shopping and have fun. It’s really great.” Or occasionally, maybe not so great. “Sometimes when I’m walking on the street with my brother, people mistake us for father and daughter,”

says Janani Natarajan, a freshman. Janani has five older siblings, ranging from the ages of 30 to 38. “I felt like an only child a lot when I was growing up, since they were all at college.”

But to Janani, having siblings that old is like having five more parents and friends that aren’t as strict. “They help with everything. From aca-demics to curriculars to life. They look out for me. They’re part of me, my family.” ACT 3: The Sun In The Sky What’s it like, hanging in the sky? Constantly nurturing, always bonding, consistently bringing brightness to the black and white shades. “Having a younger brother really stresses me out,” says Norie. Besides having a 23-year-old sister, Norie Omiya also has a younger brother, who is 11. “I have to be the role model, and that kind of frustrates me, because I’m not perfect. Every little thing I do wrong is my fault. It’s hard.” It’s not easy. There are responsibilites to carry, images to keep. Sometimes, you might have to play the roles of both a parent and a sibling. “I love my brother,” says Julia Guo, a junior. She has a baby brother, who is two. “But I have to babysit him a lot, and he can be annoying. He comes into my room and messes things around. It can be troubling.” Regardless, Julia wouldn’t have it any other way. “I love [my little brother],” says Julia, laughing. “He’s always saying, ‘Sister is really cool!’ and he gives a cute thumbs up sign. I love him.” ACT 4 It’s never easy growing up, especially with siblings. They share part of the house, and part of you, as well. Sometimes, they suck. They might eclipse your time to shine for a while. They might hurt you with their harsh rays of words. But it’s not the same without them. “[My younger sister] bothers me constantly,” says Emerald Ip, a sophomore. “I love my [older] sister very much,” says Dennis Su, a junior. “Without her, the house just seems like it’s...lacking something.” Playing the role of the sibling...isn’t all that bad.

connected, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they get along. We’ve had twins that fight all the time. They don’t want to be associated with their brother or sister because they’ve been as-sociated with them their entire lives,” says Sarah Brown, a counselor at Kennedy Middle School. “On the other hand, I’ve seen some twins who are best buddies. It depends, but twins are usually much more connected than normal pair of [siblings].” On the other hand, Cindy and Nelson Jung, freshman, share a neutral friendship. “For the most part, we’re friends,” says Cindy. “We share things in common. We understand each other.” Besides his role as a younger brother, Nelson provides a comfort zone for Cindy. “He and my other brother, Jason, are both very protective of me,” says Cindy. “I don’t feel so alone with him around.” But just because they look iden-tical, it doesn’t mean that they’re the same person on the inside. Just because a vice-roy butterfly looks like a monarch, it doesn’t mean that they’re the same. They’re different, once you take a look at who and what they are on the inside.

A r e M y

“But it doesn’t feel right if she doesn’t burst into my room every five minutes, asking me about what to do next.”

Mimic Me

“Since she’s a girl, she can drive, and has a credit card, we go shopping and have fun.”

Norie Omiya (10)

Pooja Pandey (9)

sisters

“[Having an older sister let] me knowa lot aboutMontaVistabefore cominghere. IknewwhichclubsIwasgoingtodo,andIknewwhichstandardsandexpectationstoexceed.”

a vine of

Stuti Pandey, 20

Preston Yeung (9) and Claudia Yeung (7)

Playing Pretend. Shopping. Bonding. High fives, fights, wrestling matches. Hugs. Banter. Gossip and news. Lessons learned, memories saved. Siblings.

twins

“Once, this guy in my gradethoughtmysisterwrotesomething[nas-ty]onawhiteboardlastyear,andhewastryingtotackleherforquestioning.Shedidn’t[write]itandIgotsoangryattheguy,Iwantedtoriphisheadoff.”

Vincent Huang (9) Spencer Huang (9)

“I know that at any given time, I have somebody to look for help if I get in trouble. I’m rarely lonely.”

“It’s annoying having a twin some-times, but I know that [Vincent] will always be there for me.”

by Stephanie Chang

Priscilla Chung (9)

Photo by Warm n’Fuzzy on Flickr.com

Photo by Temari on Flickr.vcom

Photo by Benimoto on Flickr.co

m

Photo by brother_sister on sxc.hu

siblinghood

SunshineY o u

Obsessed with

Obsession

Scrubbing away at the germs on your hands, counting your every step, repeatedly checking to see whether your car door is locked or shut, or even arranging ob-jects in certain angles before exiting a room.If any of the above applied to you then you might just be suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or “OCD.” The dictionary definition of obsessive compul-sive disorder is “an anxiety disorder and is character-ized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions).”OCD is a disorder which can affect the lives and day to day relationships of many and about 1 in every 50 americans shows symptoms or is a victim to it. Victims of OCD are likely to undergo stressful mental chal-lenges as they deal/cope with their unwanted thoughts through rituals of some sort. Even the noteworthy soccer player David Beckham has faced his fair share of battle with this disorder as he has reportedly has an obsession with counting all his clothes, rearranging hotel rooms, and is addicted to getting tattoos because of the needle pains.Savannah Thompson, a sophomore at Monta Vista High shared her compulsion: “I have to always, always order my colored pencils in a rainbow before I begin color-ing, otherwise it feels weird.” while freshman Gisella Joma on the other hand feels the need to dance for 5

minutes every single morning in hopes of feeling good throughout the day, “Its this crazy thing I do in order to feel better. Its like a motivational tool for me, I just have to do it.”While these compulsions are mild, there are implications for other rituals. “I once over washed my hands to the point where I had to go see a dermatologist because my hands just stayed red and blotchy. It was so gross.” Tammy Pak, a sophomore of Cupertino High School reveals, “I got bumps and there was a lot of skin inflammation.. all because I was obsessed with cleaning the nitty gritty.. it taught me a huge lesson.”In recent years scientists have even classified sufferers of these symptoms into two groups – the standard, and the other nicknamed “pure O.” The standard group goes through com-pulsion as well as unwanted thoughts/obsession(the whole deal) while the “pure O” group is strictly obsessions only. This means that they only undergo mental trauma and tend to avoid the situations in which contact with the unwanted may arise. For example, a germa-phobe who would strictly avoid germs in order to minimize the mental burden or feeling the need to wash hands.The roots of OCD are quite a controversial topic as every single culture seemed to have different variations but the earliest recorded were practices done from the 14th to 16th centuries. During that period people with abnormalities and eccentricities were thought to be under possession of the Devil so a banishing ceremony or exorcism was performed. Exorcism when defined by a dictionary is “the practice of evicting Demons/other spiritual entities from a person or place that they are believed to be possessed by making the entity swear an oath.” This practice may have branched from the belief that Jesus encouraged his followers to ‘cast out’ the devil within themselves. In the Roman Catholic church exorcism is ritualistic and not a sacramental occurrence. Surprisingly Mother Teresa underwent exor-cism later on in her life as she was reportedly suffering from insomnia.However, from a more scientific viewpoint OCD has been said to be caused by the neu-rotransmitter serotonin which was then recently supported by the fact that many people’s symptoms got better after taking serotonin supplements. Scientists also believe that OCD can be taught. If parents are highly particular about certain things then it is probable that

their children will go out into the world with similar or even stronger abnormalities. For example if the sanitation of hands was stressed in one household it is likely that future generations will also share the same aspect of lifestyle as it was taught repeatedly.There are many treatments for this disorder, how-ever. Some might include other medications, phsy-cosurgery which involves an incision in the brain, electroconvulsive therapy and cognative therapy. However the most common treatment sought after in Americans are the medications.The bottom line is that Obsessive Compulsive Dis-order is on the rise, and while there are many many preventatives.. you probably still have it or will know someone who has it.

“PURE O”

a story by Sumi Pidaparthi

Howard Hughes was best known for almost everything – from being one of the first aviators, his big budget and controversial films, and being a world class philanthropist but underneath all the layers of success he suffered from OCD which even-tually led to his demise. The tragic story of his illness was later portrayed in a 2004 biographical film starring Leonardo DiCaprio who was cast as Howard. The roots of his mental illness began to show as early as the 1930s when he was 25 – some of his close acquaintances reported about his pas-sionate obsession for peas (his most loved food) and that he would use specific types of forks to sort them by size. Many of his close friends also said that he was eternally fix-ated on small trivial details that most would overlook. For example, while he directed the movie “The Outlaw” he couldn’t stand the way the lead actress’s (Jane Russel) blouse would scrunch up during takes. This upset him to the point that he drew out a detailed plan to help fix that problem.However in 1947 his biggest bout of mental illness broke out as he locked himself away in one of his movie stu-dio’s for nearly 4 months. He survived on chocolate bars and milk and went to the bathroom in the empty bottles and containers. He also was reported to have surrounded himself with Kleenex and exclusively picked up items with the aid of it. Hughes wrote detailed messages to his housekeep-ing telling them to not speak to him

unless asked and he often sat naked watching movie after movie. By the time he came out of the studios his sense of hygiene was gone and he was severely malnourished. But it didn’t stop there.Hughes moved to the Beverly Hills Hotel and spent approximately 11 mil-lion dollars executing a similar routine and watching the film Ice Station Zebra on a loop over and over again.Unfortunately, for the remainder of his life he failed to get the help neces-sary help and he disappeared from the public eye – reported dead, murdered, in a mental institution, and even termi-nally ill.Howard Hughes died on April 5th 1976.

exhibit Aa look into the life of a noteworthy victim

fact reel1) ocd is associated with higher IQ. “very nature of the disorder necessi-tates complicated thinking patterns”

2) OCD cost the U.S. $8.4 billion in 1990 in social and economic losses.

3) after adolescence ocd isn’t able to be completely erased from a person’s mindset - they are still likely to show symptoms even with therapy.

4) less than 10% of sufferers are in treatment.

5) can worsen due to stress or illness.

the scoop

Quote Reel“Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to destroy.” -Henri De Lubac

“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Too much to do. Too little time...

Music

AP US History - 4 hoursAP Biology - 2 hoursAP Calc BC - 2 hoursAmerican Lit - 1 hourJournalism - NAComm. Lead. - 0 hours----------------------------Total: 9 hours!

“Omg! I have so much homework today!” or “Dude... I’m going to be up all night doing so and so’s homework”. These are both some of many commonly heard phrases from overworked Matadors who stay up until after midnight to finish their homework daily. Matadors often complain about the immense amounts of homework that are assigned to us everyday, and how everything is due so soon. But during the midst of completing this overwhelming load of homework, are Matadors using their time to its fullest potential?

Most students are easily distracted by minute things such as creaking floors, other people in the house going around making noise -- even a siren in the distant background. However, the most addicting thing of all is Facebook. A survey done showed that Facebook distracts 4 out of 5 students from their homework. 75% of students admit to checking Facebook daily, and 80% say that it is distracting. According to University of Adelaide media expert Dr. Rob

Cover, the issue is not that social networking sites are addictive, its that they are “outlets for procrasination”.

This website has been a popular hit among people of all ages - especially high schoolers - and has spread over Monta Vista. Students easily lose track of time, reading everyone’s statuses, looking at newly posted pictures, and sometimes even peoples’ wall-to-walls.

Doing homework really shouldn’t take that long. Indira Purushothaman, freshman, goes to sleep at 9 PM, every night. She can’t stay up any later, or the next day she “looks like a zombie”. She manages to finish her homework at 9 PM, even though she gets home at 6-7 PM due to badminton practice. She also usually wakes up at 4 or 5 AM, giving her enough time to finish whatever is left over.

“[Not finishing my homework] has never happened before,” Indira says.

But how does she pay attention? She has a Facebook and a Gmail. The deathtraps of most teenagers.

“I just can’t live with telling the teacher that I didn’t do my homework,” she explains. “[I do my homework on the weekends] if I know it in advance.”

Wei Cui, a sophmore at Monta Vista, leads a slightly different life. When getting home, turning on the computer is the first thing he does. Right after putting his backpack down and getting a cold drink. “Its the first thing I do when I get home,” he says, “and I’m on until I sleep.”

The results?

He usually sleeps at around midnight, even on days where he doesn’t have as much homework. It’s not that there’s too much homework, it’s that too much time is wasted on focusing on chat, then homework, then chat again.

Right now we’re in a ‘electronics’ generation, and many parents think that the problem is that students nowadays have TV and game consoles in their rooms. A survey done by Kaiser showed that about half of kids have a video game player in their rooms; more than two-thirds have TV sets. What better way to be dis-tracted?

There are always reasons CONT..

Other than the kids that waste time while they do homework and therefore have to sleep late, there are the kids who sleep late because of after-school/extra-curricular activities. Something that everyone knows we need to get into a good college. People without extracurriculars sleep at 12 or 1AM. How about the kids that are immersed in after school activities? Take Daniel Baeg for example. He’s a fresh-man at Monta Vista who is just simply violin-obsessed. He’s 3rd seat in 1st violin in the school freshman orchestra, he’s in the San Francisco Youth Symphony, he teaches children violin, and he practices violin 2-4 hours a day. Everyday.

After getting home at 3:15, Daniel gets comfortable and makes a beeline for his violin. He starts practicing, and how long he actually practices depends on how far he gets. After all his violin practicing, taking a shower, etc., he sleeps at around midnight. However, how much of this time is used for home-work?

“It takes me on average 30 minutes [to do my homework] be-cause I tend to do things extremely fast,” Daniel says.

30 minutes?! And he still gets almost straight A’s. With a B

Students also say that another distrac-tion is when your turn on chat to ask your friends about home-work, but as soon as you sign in, your friend sends you a message reading ‘Sup?’. Then you guys go on to chat about something totally unrelated to home-work.

Freshman Rohit Saharoy commented, “When I go on chat I try to just ask about the homework that I need. However, often I get distracted and have side conversa-tions which makes me lose track of time. Then I take longer to finish my hw.”

Even things like books, which are supposedly ‘good for you’, can distract people from homework. In some ways, it can be even more distracting than the internet.

How?

“Cause I can lock myself out of the internet, but that book is just up there... [lying] on my desk,” freshman Fangfei Li says. Being considered very talented by many of her peers in her grade, even Fangfei gets distracted from homework... just by different things.

Now with electronics, there are so many things to get distracted by. Especially when your parents work every-day, and can’t reign you in all the time. So the problem isn’t that we have too much homework. According to many experts, parents, and teachers, we just aren’t expedient enough.

Alg 2 Trig- 1 hourChemistry- 1 hourDance - 0World Lit - 1 hourWorld History 45 minAP Music Theory - 45 minChinese 3 - 40 min----------------------------Total: 5 hours and 10 minutes

or two mixed in. According to most Monta Vista students, this would be impossible. But Daniel does it. How? By go-

ing on chat for 4 or 5 minutes at most, and only asking about what he needs for homework. Nothing more nothing less. If someone chats him just to talk, he ignores them. A strat-egy proved effective by both him and Indira.

35.35%

37.37%

7.07%

20.2%

The BIG players

The

BIG Players

Facebook

Chat

Video Games

Other

20.2%

37.37%

7.07%

35.36%

What distracts Monta Vista Students the most?

Geometry - 30 minLiterature - 1 hourFrench - 20 minBio - 1 hourPE - 0Band - 0-------------------------------Total: 2 hours and 50 min.Ashley Tu

Freshman

GRADE vs. HW LOAD

How does the home-work load vary de-pending on the grade you’re in?

NOT

3.66%

14.63%

8.54%

9.76%

28.05%

10.98%

4.88%

2.44%

9.76%

7.32%

And then there are the runner ups...

Volunteer Work

Non School HWNon School Proj.

Quicklys

Phone

Manga/Anime

MusicStaying at School

Working Out

Taking Pics. Also, only taking 30 minutes to do homework must mean that on weekends he does everything in advance that he knows about, right?

Wrong.

Daniel doesn’t do any of his homework on the weekends or at school unless he’s given time specifically for doing home-work. And on weekends...

“I practice every time I get on Saturdays because my lesson is at 9:45 [and] I have to practice like crazy for it. Sundays are usually a day of rest and I only give lessons to little kids for an hour, and the rest I play sports or something of that sort.”

Daniel shows that leading a life like this is possible. It doesn’t take a grand total of 9 hours to finish homework (espe-cially for freshman). This reinforces the point that we just are not using our time wisely enough to cope with the homework that is assigned.

Shannon Lin Sophmore

Jiyoon Park Junior

There are ALWAYS reasonsHobbies

HOGHomework Time

By Tiffany Lian

Life is disregarded. Thoughts of life are disregarded more. And yet, breaths descending are still taken. And a breath did ju-nior Leon Chen take, and an encoun-tering did he make. He says of life as “making wrong decisions and even-tually understanding how to make right decisions.” He made a right one nonetheless last, last summer so he thinks. “Yesterday is history. To-morrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present” Babatunde Olatunji once quoted, but oftentimes, and but

oftentimes more, a present is of the reminiscing past. That last, last summer in Li-jiang, China, a county of which he is from, but never before visited, was his reminiscing of the past. He had wanted to go before last, last sum-mer. He was going to go before last, last summer. But he didn’t. “SARS”, he laments in reference through the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome prevalent in 2003, “don’t take any-thing for granted, and respect every-thing.” And respected was travers-ing translations to orphanages in the Yunan Province that “seemed out of place” that last, last summer. It had lows of poverty, and highs of mountains and mountains

to be ascended. Tutoring as the sun ascended, ascending mountings oth-erwise. He climbed, and he climbed higher one night on one of the many that “was really bad for (him)”, he says of panting hard. And yet, it was good in another, more so important way. He pauses. “It gave me perspec-tive on people in general.” “I don’t think about it.” He pauses. “Lately, college application preparations are making me think.”He pauses, irrelevant loquaciousness follows. He turns back, murmuring. Life’s a climb.

It starts with decisions in-comprehensible. Manasa Gurumoorthi, fresh-man, wanted Java. Or Writing for Publication. She wanted Java more. She didn’t get into Java. She got into C++ Computer Programming. And it ends with more cogni-zant deciphering of decisions and de-cisions made incomprehensible yet. Her dad didn’t know C++. Her dad didn’t let her take C++. Life. To live. To live life. To live life in high school. She took Choir. But that was the past. “I live in the present, not the present present, but the present as in today and tomorrow.” And to the tumultuous tomorrow she peers.“You shouldn’t know the meaning of life. If you did now, that would defeat the pur-pose.” Freshman Mihir Patil peers no further. But that further is nev-ertheless there.The pessimistic pulchri-tude of a life past, the dwindling al-lusions precedent of a life pondered, is mere and is coveted to conceited window blinds are not drawn until alarms sounding. They are not drawn until to be closed. The drawing of window blinds next, and then next, is ignorantly, irresponsibly, irrelevantly disregarded- reminiscent of the days of whom they are drawn by. “I like purple,” freshman Ellen Tang says, “but it used to be pink.” “But it probably not going (to stay purple)” she pronounces. “Every-thing changes so you can’t say if it’s good or not.”And she says that little things, such as color preferences are life, and that risks need to be taken on those little things, and that she will “take risks because of the future and not not take risks because of the

Platonism: attaining the highest form of knowledgeAristotelianism: everything is done with a goal and that goal is goodCynicism: living a life of virtue that agrees with nature, mastery of one’s mental controlUtilitarianism: that the good is whatever brings the greatest hap-piness to the greatest number of peoplePragmatism: that the practical, useful understanding of life is more important than searching for an impractical abstract truth about lifeMormon Theology: the purpose of life is to become more like GodIslam: life’s objective is to serve Allah- earthly life is merely a test, determining one’s afterlifeHinduism: the meaning of life is within the concepts of karma (causal action), samsara (the cycle of birth and rebirth), and mok-sha (liberation).Christianity: to seek divine salvation through the grace of God and intercession of Christ

Live.

growing towards the

future.”But that “the present is more important…” That the present is more im-portant in immediate consequences more important is what sophomore Maya Lewis prolongs. She speaks of it, the “it” being past her math ponderings, as “to love God, to go to heaven”- that in strife from Monta Vista inward and outward, she “should try, and that it’s (her) motivation,” - the “should” being imminent thoughts of life - “but (she) doesn’t.” Instead she offers to look of the catechism of the Catholic Church. “It’ll explain it better that I will.” She returns to permutations and combinations, something profi-ciently explained - the concrete over

the abstract.So profound is To Kill a Mockingbird, rep-rimanding of racial segregation, the Kite Runner, reinforcing of aspirations not reached for, the oftentimes face-tiously unfathomable AP United States His-tory’s Brown and Bai-ley- and so conversely

exact are the thoughts provoked from it. “Good grades, good college, good word, good money, and people in impoverished countries will be happy then” Manasa Gurumoorthi continues. It is “to survive, to be positive, and to find someone you love” junior Lydia Chen says, “that’s cliché. Life is cliché. But in high school, if you find someone you love, that would be nice.” Nice, but not necessary. “That nothing is permanent, and that we came with nothing, and that we go with nothing.” Shravya Dindhu continues. It seems that no one thinks any more than that - that there’s still a lot of time left to think. “I do believe in an afterlife,” Ellen Tang concludes, “but that’s after.” LIGHT 55, 000, 000

70.2

75.624475500001831680052.50

35.30

seconds of high school

seconds of life (77.5 years average)

years life expectancy for someone born in 1995

years life expectancy for someone born in 1965

students in the United States in 2006-2007 as estimated by the United States Census Bureau

US population as estimat-ed by United States Cen-sus Bureau

adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19) in 1997

adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19) in 2007

Monta Vista High School-ism:life is life. rlly hard. to explain. how are u doing? how’s life? kinda thingLife is the quality which people, animals, and plants have when they are not dead, and which objects and substances do not have.To live. Live, reproduce, die.I think life is the pure existence of a organism or thing. I think of soul, humans, animals, plants, and biology. This also reminds me of my religion and other’s religions.

Pushing Daisies Past

GOLDENKRANZ”S TEST

first kisses

BIOLOGY

GOD

angstquestions

deathmilestones

tombstones

KPCOFGS

sunlight

spiraling

raining on a sunny day

predidation

startsalbert einstein

effortlessnessthreads

cotton candy

children

spanish oral quizzes

depressioncircles

chronis illness

surrealism

stages of grief

walking first steps

food web

falling leaves

experinces

love

hugs

the lion kingexhiliration

hate cerealnike shoeswatching grass grow

circles heaven

chocolate chipspost it notes

shopping outlets

pushing daises

afterlife

plastic bags

glasses

HIGH

DECISIONS

MEDITATIONSUSHI

iPods

YOGA

ROMEO AND JULIET

SONGS

STORIESSMILES

BROKEN PROMISES

JOURNALS

ASPIRATIONS

NIGHT

TREE of LIFE

308, 944, 000Counting Sheep

colgate toothpasteTo Live Life.

SCHOOL

“Make a decision. Smile. You might as well in life” - Shuchi Gaur

I BELIEVE THAT I CAN FLY bedtime stories

Falling UP

Manasa Gurumoorthi.

By Yanbing Zhu

Other religions, Monta Vista religions

LAUGHTER

biology textbooks

PROM DRESSES

LIGHT

Leon Chen

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“Lol tu n’ai pas un life” the words of a Monta Vista Student

Kimberly Lin’s hands tighten around her computer mouse as she logs onto her Formspring. She pauses for a second when she sees the (4) on her Inbox tab, then tentatively hauls her cursor towards it, and clicks. A few seconds of loading pass before she reads her new ques-tions. Eventually her eyes reach the bottom of the blocks of text, and she hears her own exhale of relief, following by a slight twinge of an-noyance. Nothing entertaining today. Formspring isn’t anything new. It has existed before in the shape of anonymous prank calls, obscene text messages from restricted numbers, and most recently, the Honesty Box application on Facebook. Cyber-bullying has started since the dawn of technology; it’s just never been this easy before. And by easy, we mean easy. There is no prior knowl-edge of HTML needed- a website builder is included. All you need to do is click the victim’s link, type out your true feelings in the box under the bolded headline, “Ask me anything,” and hit send. It’s so simple, even an animal could do it. So, what’s stopping Monta Vista’s own group of fe-rocious vultures from sending hostility to their enemies, and quite possibly, their friends? Nothing. Kimberly knows this all too well. She still remembers her first experience with Formspring. “I wanna know what people wanna know about me,” she ad-mits. And she did. She just didn’t expect this much hate. After all, all her friends’ Formsprings didn’t seem that bad... right? In actuality, they were all secretly hurt on the inside, most of them preferring to not publish their most abusive questions. As a result, Kimberly had no idea what she was in store for. At school, she is known as the confident (by some known as cocky), matter-of-fact, God-fearing Christian who is certainly unique from the rest in a way that no one can really pinpoint. No matter what her hardship, she always walked through school with an unyielding smile painted across her face. Her few haters were glad to finally get the opportunity to break Miss Perfect. “This ***** deserves some Formspring,” Katie Ching* would state every time she visited someone’s profile. Katie’s that popular, easy-going girl that has made every person laugh at some point. But no one knows what she’s like behind her laughter; no one knows how spiteful she can be- not even some of her friends. And hav-ing a Formspring herself, she has personally felt the blow of cyber bullying. She’s an old pro.

We’ll never see the faces behind such comments. They are protect-ed, hidden, by a computer screen. This gives way to huge hoards of harass-ment- many that occur within our own circles of friends. How strong does your friendship have to be... to be put to the test of Formspring? Real friends obviously wouldn’t post intentionally defiling statements. However, everyone has faults, and everyone has friends who in time notice these faults. Sure- we accept them, but every once in a while, when we get our buttons pressed, we need to vent out our frustrations. What’s happening to us? We used to handle things maturely (as ma-turely as 2,400 hormonal teenagers locked up in a confined campus can be). We used to know how to conduct heart to heart discussions in person, that strengthened our relationships rather than the opposite.

the dogs behind formspring

. . . all bark and no BITE Nowadays, it’s a whole new story. As Katie Ching would so boldly put it, “Formspring brought out the sneaky *****- I mean, feistiness in me... anyway, it still made my friendships stronger! Cause, I would write out the things about people that annoyed me, and then they would fix it!” In few hours of the genesis of her new Formspring, Kimberly was

introduced to two options- ignore the demeaning comments, or shamelessly reply. She chose the latter. A lot of people like to be offensive back, but that never helps. You don’t know enough about your attacker, since its anonymous, to cut deep enough. But in the heat of the mo-ment people tend to type out profanities anyway, just for a temporary sense of vengeance. Perhaps the bully will feel some guilt when they see the pain they have inflicted, but usually they walk away with only satisfaction of their “suc-cess.” Kimberly decided to handle things maturely, and deeply consider all the criticism that she got. Sometimes she’d make a joke about it, but usually she was grateful for this new aware-ness and used it to improve her

personality. In ad-dition, she also got

to see which of her friends were actually

loyal to her. So are the rest of the people at Monta Vista mature enough to handle this new weapon? “De-pends- some people: yes. Other people: no,” she says as some guys in the background shove each other into a trashcan. These are the same guys that led Kimberly to question her need for Formspring. Her comments began to establish a pattern of inap-propriate references that didn’t belong in her life. The original thrill of curiosity faded as she grew tired of the repetitive, but still derogatory remarks. When she finally got a comment pointing out that she “wasn’t being a real Christian,” she couldn’t help but agree. So in the end, she decided she had had enough of this cursed, infernal website. Kimberly Lin’s hands tighten around her computer mouse as she logs onto her Formspring, for the last time. A few clicks, then a dialog box comes up. Are you sure you want to inactivate your Formspring? She closes her eyes, then clicks Yes. A few weeks later, her Formspring is back up.

*name has been changed for privacy issues

TWITTER: the word’s the bird Every person has a second voice in them that is just yearning to be heard. Every person has a deeper side that they sometimes wish the world could see. But only few people go the length of writing a blog to broadcast this side to the world. It's not uncommon to own a blog and a Formspring; but most of people opt for one and the other. The intentions are similar- to let your friends (and enemies) get to know more about your present, past, and future. Formspring, in short, is a website that lets people send you anonymous questions, in which you answer for them to check. Tumbler is a blog where you can add status updates about whatever you please. People commonly put in artistic images, favorite quotes, and songs they are currently listening to. Some argue that Formspring is more direct and one-on-one with your followers. You have to answer whatever people ask you, and only have that to work with. But bloggers point out that Formspring allows the user to choose with questions to answer. "It's just like a blog- you still get to pick what you want to publish to the public, but you also get to read the offensive comments as well... I'll stick with my Tumbler," says senior Mike Wang. Having a blog does offer several advantages, as Wang so wisely indicates. You can personalize it and make it what you want, not what your followers want. There is no anonymity, so cyber bullying is usually nonexistent. And as long as the user is appropriate with his/her posts, there usually is not drama. Gmail statuses of Formspring links are quickly getting replaced by corresponding Tumbler pages. Whether or not you think this new era of blogging will take Monta Vista's own studend body by storm, we can all agree that this is certainly safer than our last fad, aka Formspring.

Monta Vista’s ferocious cyberbullies prey by sending anonymous insults over new website

‘‘ Attention *****. . .Nooneac-tuallylikesyou. . .why do you always dress like a ****?. . .Stop

acting like you’re so popular. . . you’re just an ugly wannabe. . . I hope I

never become as fat as you. . . ”

by Alice Yin

sxc.hu

sxc.hu

difficultyPick Your

Most video games start out by dis-playing three choices. Easy, medium or hard? Most people choose easy, a fair amount pick medium, and only the elite or those looking for a chal-lenge pick hard. Similarly, video game players can be divided into three tiers: beginning, moderate, and advanced players. Most of Monta Vista’s population is made up of beginner players. With little to no time to spend on video games, most people just pass them up in favor for textbooks or friends. They spend about an hour a month, if that, playing video games. Madan Mu-kudan, a tenth grader at Monta Vista, is definitely a novice player. Spending only an hour or two once a month play-ing, he likes--but doesn’t love--to play. However, he says, “If I get a new game I sit and finish as much as I can in one day, six to seven hours.” He tends to stick to the more mainstream games, like Halo 3 and Modern Warfare 2. “I personally like the PS3 better,” he says, “It’s a better machine, just... expensive. But there aren’t many nerds out there like me that go for FPs, RPGs and stuff.” A large percentage of players use video games to relieve stress and clear their minds, even for just an hour

a month. “It helps me get rid of what-ever I’m thinking of,” says Mukudan, “and I love kicking the CPU’s ass. It’s like they never get tired of getting owned.” The next largest group of video game players are the moderate play-ers. They spend occasionally binge for six or so hours in a day, usually play

an hour a day, and enjoy screaming at the screen when they lose. Alex Balus, a tenth grader at Monta Vista, says he plays because, “I need someone to yell at.”

Skipping the “childish” Wii, he plays Call of Duty and Halo, all the while screaming profanities. When he’s win-ning, he shouts “WOOOW”, when he’s bored, he says “woooow”, and when he loses, he mutters “wow” and throws the controller on the ground. Moderate players also use video games as a stress reliever, Balus says, “Its interesting to experience things like shooting people but not shooting people.” He enjoys both the XBOX 360 and PS3, saying they both have good graphics and fun games. As a sophmore, he says “Now that I’m mature I play more shooting games.” Moderate players spend longer periods of time looking at their game screens, and Balus’ record is playing for an entire night. He claims he’s not

addicted to video games, but that they can be addicting “when you’re on a roll.” The advanced level of video game players, the gaming “nerds”, are an elite trigger pulling and monster killing force. Spending a few hours per day, some players even go for six hours at a time on their XBOX 360 or PS3. Leo Zhang, a freshman at Monta Vista, indulges in a variety of titles, which he mainly picks based on the storyline as well as graphics, though those are secondary. He can play for six hours a day, though he stops because he says, “I get bored easily.” Zhang says he enjoys the sense of achievement beat-ing a game gives, and the adrenaline rush that accompanies it. He prefers the XBOX 360 over other consoles, say-ing, “Damn, don’t even get me started on the PS3.” He says its not possible to be addicted to video games, though he says, “I can understand how people might get jittery after not being able to release stress on video games for a while.” As the epitome of the advanced player, Zhang claims, “There isn’t much of an age factor” in video games, they can be enjoyed by anyone any-where, provided they have the time and the means. While Monta Vista is divided in three levels, one thing is clear: the playing of video games is universal, stress relieving, and maybe even a little addicting.

confused?Abbreviations of long gaming terms can be confusing if you don’t know what they stand for. Here’s a list of commonly used acronyms:

Do Wii All Like to Play? Apparently, no. In Sean Mahamongkol’s opinion, the Nintendo Wii, “Sucks. A lot. So much.” He, like most people, owns a Wii, a gaming console developed by the Japanese company Nintendo with motion-sensing controllers. After the initial release of the Wii, it seemed like every household had to get one, as well as the “essential” games like Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, and Mario Party. However, Mahamongkol says he only bought his because he was “little and stupid.” He claims that the Wii is childish with no fun games, but his opinion is in the minority on this issue. Most people don’t agree with him. Selma Chang is one of those people. She loves her Wii, loves Mario Kart, and especially loves to make sound effects along with it. Her view of the Wii is that “It’s very interactive and easy to play. For example, with Mario Kart you start to move with your kart because you’re so into it!” She definitely plays like she’s part of the game, with every turn she jerks her body in sync with her character. She says, “When you’re driving in Mario Kart, if you get the speed booster in the start your bike goes like whoosh!” Evidently, the Wii is not universally loved. Those who hate it won’t have anything to do with it. However, as the Wii outsold both the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 combined in holiday sales this year, it is clear that those people are in the minority.

Halo features futuristic suits of armor and weapons used to fight hostile aliens.

Call of Duty is a video game where players can experience combat firsthand.

PS3: PlayStation 3, a gaming console developed by Sony

RPG: a role playing game, in which the player takes on an identity in a fictional setting

CPU: the portion of a computer system that carries out instructions of a computer program

MW2: Modern Warfare 2, a first person shooter game that is part of the Call of D-uty series for PS3 and XBOX

COD: Call of Duty, a series of video games including Modern Warfare 2

“It helps me get rid of whatever I’m thinking of.”

Image by commorancy.

Image by Tamahikari Tammas

Images from crunchgear.com and plastic-army-men.com

“If I get a new game I sit and finish as much as I can in one day.”

-Madan Mukudan (10)

“It’s interesting to experience things like shooting people but not shooting people.

-Alex Balus (10)

“Damn, don’t even get me started on the PS3.”

-Leo Zhang (9)

Levels of Players

by Amelia B. Yang

You’re the Ham to My Cheese Sandwich

A Meal to

Selma Chang and Varun Jain are not your normal Monta Vista High School cou-ple. During brunch on Monday, Varun looks worried as he stands scans the flow of people filtering out of their classrooms. He’s wait-ing near the field house. “Where’s Selma,” he whines. “I wanna get food.” A few minutes pass, he cusses, and then decides to go walk across the open Ral-ly Court to the cafeteria. It’s there he meets Selma, who apologizes, then demands he buy her a cookie. It’s been sort of a routine. At the start of brunch, Varun, a sophomore, and Selma, a freshman, would walk to the cafeteria, get in line, and buy food (usually two ham and cheese sandwiches), then wolf them down like there’s no tomorrow. After they finish, they’re usually thristy. Varun then fishes more money out of his pocket and brings back some Izzy or wa-ter. After school, they spend their time eating more food. It’s a wonder how the pair is incredibly skinny. “Must be the fast metabolism,” Var-

RememberIt’s lunch time.

Students from all corners of Monta Vista High were rushing to the soothers of the awful growl-ing in their tummies—the school lunches.

Back in the Day Shari De’piro, a senior in the class of 1979, headed over to the giant serve-yourself salad bar, where she dumped onto her plate fresh veggies and canned peaches. She was doing a “healthy thing”. Some days she would go back to the same salad bar, only for the de-liciously fresh baked potatoes with cheese, sour cream and bacon instead.

Eating a nutritious diet was something she found hard to maintain. She often found herself indulg-ing in less-than nutritious foods. Early every morning, after Drill Team practice, she would buy doughnuts and milk, or two Maple bars from the cafeteria. But as she remembers, “there really weren’t a lot of choices”.

Sure, there was still the candy bar stuff- Snick-ers, M&M’s, chips, and big huge cookies. During lunch there was pasta, cup noodles, and burgers. But mostly, the snacks and bars were the same, and she was get-ting tired of that, complaining that “everything’s mostly starchy”.

During her senior year, she headed off campus a lot with her buddies. De’piro and her group of friends often stopped at the new frozen yogurt stores, which recently had sprung around the neighborhood. Frozen yogurt was sometimes all they had for lunch. But most of the time, the car would be driven towards McDon-ald’s, which was hugely popular. The place was only a drive-through, so the group of friends would eat in the car.

“The whole building was only about this big,” De’piro points to the length of her crowded office. Not very big, so to speak.

De’piro’s fan-craze for the lunch line wasn’t all that big, either. As she put it, “C’mon, what’s there to ex-

pect from cafeteria food?”Between Two Ages As the brunch bell rang, Brian Dong, a senior in the class of 2000, fell back into a familiar routine.

He neared the front of the line, and came back with a mouth-watering, bean-and-beef, deep-fried burrito.

“Those were the best things,” he remembers. “Sometimes I’d have two.”

Other times he’d get the big, squishy cook-ies. They were only a dollar each. He also frequently bought the one-dollar sodas from the vending ma-chine.

Though the deep-fried burritos often left him full, Dong would still buy spaghetti, or the Pizza Hut pizza during lunch. It was better than what he had at home, anyway. There was no salad bar. But Dong didn’t really care. He never ate healthy.

“And I still don’t eat healthy now,” he shrugs, taking a huge bite from a Girl Scout Cookie.

His streak of unhealthiness goes back to after cafeteria food as well, where as a senior he ate at Boston Market, and more frequent-ly, Carl’s Jr., a fast-food restaurant somewhat like McDonald’s. He had a burger there almost every day.

Dong’s diet is reminiscent of the time before the district requirements for nutritious foods. It was a time where freedom of the stomach was respected, and junk food wrappers littered the floor. It was a wild, wild time.

Every year found the cup noodles from the cafeteria all the more expensive. But like he was with many other things, Dong wasn’t surprised. He knew the food wasn’t going to stay the same forever. “It’s called inflation.”

It was a change, and he just went with it.That’s So Old

Maggie Maser, a freshman in the class of 2013, is hungry.

But she doesn’t have time to buy anything, because by the time she’s done changing from her PE uni-form to her normal clothes, the bell signaling the end of brunch would have already rung. So instead, she goes to Seven-Eleven in the morning, the popular convenience store where teens hoard junk food, hang out, or shoplift. But Maggie’s an honest kid. She cranks out a Slurpie with Coke, cherry, and blue (she doesn’t re-

Selma and Varun’s Favorite Foods:

1 Ham and Cheese Sandwich: “it’s frickin’ heavenly”

2 Nachos and Salsa/Cheese Dip: “it’s sooo good on cold days”

3Yogurt Parfait: “They’re so...fruity. It’s a perfect mix of healthy”

4 Spicy Chicken Burger: “[It’s good] because it’s spicy but it’s not too much spice...it’s just good!”

5 BBQ Chicken Sandwich: “The BBQ stuff...it’s so good. So. Good.”

“C’mon, what’s there to expect

from cafeteria food?”

member the name) flavors, and pays up at the front. “I have [water polo] practice in the morning,” she explains, “so I need the energy.”

Energy for her may also come in the form of a morning cup of coffee, a one-dollar taquito, or 5-gum. As for lunch, it’s usually a spicy chicken burger from the lunch line.

“Those things are so delicious,” Maser croons. The burgers are basically the only food she buys from the lunch line, partly because they weren’t made by the cafeteria ladies themselves…or so she thinks.

The cafeteria menu changed drasti-cally when measures on nutritious foods were installed. Water replaced sodas in the vending machines. Candy bars gave way to low-fat gummy bears and sour worms. Regular chips were replaced by Munchies-

baked, of course. And almost everything else was tweaked for less oil, more protein, and more whole wheat. Most students usually care not about the healthiness of what they’re consuming, but rather how it tastes.

Maser is one of them. She wishes that when she is fi-nally able to drive, she will be able to eat at In-n-Out Burger, even though it is quite awhile from campus. Or maybe just Chipotle, the Mexican grill and restau-rant, “where the food actually tastes better.”

As for whether it’s healthy or not, Maser re-ally doesn’t care.Final Destination

As species, personalities, and physical ap-pearances evolve, so do high school lunch menus.

And this, De’piro, now the choir teacher at Monta Vista, acknowledges the positive change. “The food is definitely a lot healthier now than when I went here,” she confirms.

But whether students decide to healthier is a different matter. Students always have the option of eating nutritiously, but whether they take advantage of the opportunity would be an ever-present chal-lenge.

THENSun & Soil Burgers: Sold “nature” burgers and a signature carrot juice milkshake. Was lo-cated where Mervyn’s is now.

Cheese Zombies: A piece of dough (pork bun) baked brown, containing a cheddar cheese filling. Was dubbed “the best thing ever”.

Cup Noodles: Preserved ramen noodles that were heated with hot water by the cafeteria la-dies. Cup noodles were a very popular lunch item.

NOWQuickly’s: Sells pearl milk tea that is really popular to drink and to use for fundraisers. Their popcorn chicken is a customer favorite.

Cookies: Chocolate chip delights that sell out during most brunches. The big ones are $1 and the small ones sell for 50 cents each.

Cup Noodles: Cup Noodles have been on the cafeteria menu for a long time , and are still a student favorite!

What’s for Lunch?

“The food is definitely a lot healthier now than when I went here”

Ramen Noodles have been around much longer than any student would expect. The only difference from then to now? The price has gotten much more expen-sive.

Pearl milk tea has established a rath-er successful mar-ket. Not only are there many flavors of milk tea, there are many types of tapioca pearls as well!

un points out between bites of ham and cheese. He stares at Selma as she rips off the outer ring of bread on her sandwich, and tosses it on the ground. “Hey, don’t waste food,” he chides. She looks at him, pausing for a moment. Then she continues. This lifestyle is quite liberal for the two, but it’s had its toll on Varun’s wallet. He spends about $7 on food from the lunch line alone. “I’m so broke,” he complains. Selma just giggles. The two have been together for almost half a year. This, Selma credits, is partly due to their love of food. There are no boundaries to what they buy from the cafeteria; they eat what-ever they’re in the mood for. “The food is sometimes really boring,” Selma admits. “We’ve probably eaten every-thing there about once.” They both wished the menu would have a greater variation, and maybe catering from outside restaurants, like Chipotle. Or for Selma, just grilled cheese sandwiches. Yet even though their food may some-times taste bland, they always eat together. And that’s what makes their lunches so memorable. “We’re an eating couple,” Selma an-nounces, “it’s how we bond.”

Flickr.com

Flickr.com

Flickr.com

Angela Wang

Flickr.com

By Angela Wang

works

American Eagle OutfittersSalary: Starts from minimum wage

and can go up to $8 an hour Employee Perk: Get 25% off every-

thing you buy there!

Cold Stone CreamerySalary: Starts at minimum wage and can go up to $11 per hourEmployee Perk: Get one free ice-cream cone for each shift you work

StarbucksSalary: $8.50 per hour

Employee Perk: Discount of store merchandise and one pound of

free coffee a week

Sami Case is playing with the big dogs now. And the lizards, cats and chickens. The economy

may be in a rut, but Case’s pet-sitting is reaching a new high. She makes $1000 a year, $200 or so per pet. “[Having a job] is good. You learn responsibility. And money’s always cool.” Case has been in the business since she was seven. At that time, pet-siting was just a cornucopia of odd jobs. Her first client was the neighbor across the street. A d v e r t i s i n g comes by word of mouth or block parties. “We have a really cool neighborhood,” Case says. “Some-times, we put flyers in out neigh-bors’ mailboxes.” This technique, as simple as it may seem, reaps great rewards. The money Case made from pet-sitting for others was enough for a pet of her own: a golden retriever named Koa, which means “warrior” in Hawaiian. Pay day. That simple idea resonates most with Case, although her mother always tries to talk he out of spending the money. But getting up at eight every morning to feed the animals is always a hassle. Koa, on the other hand, is fed by her mother. “A lot of funny things happen to me when I pet-sit,” Case admits. One time, when pet-sitting a flock of chickens, one of the chickens flew over their fence into their neighbor’s

Grant Menon stands off to the side of the stage. He rubs his

hands together in anticipation. A golden circle of light shines on the

backyard. They hopped the fence and beat the bushes to coax the chicken out. They didn’t find it. When the owner returned and they told him the bad news, he took the matter into his own hands. He found the chicken himself. It was alive. Another time, Case had no way to get into her neighbor’s house to feed their pets since the keys were

locked inside. She broke in through the back window. When the owner returned, it was Case’s mother who told the owner. “He doesn’t hire me any-more,” says Case. Franchesca Yama-

moto, on the other hand, is the one who’s doing the hiring. She and her parents are on the Board of Directors at Yamamoto’s clothing company, Bleu Umbrella Co. The Bleu Umbrella website features clothes designed specifically for teenage girls. The stock includes all the necessities: tops, shorts, jeans, cardigans, tank-tops, coats and tote bags. Yamamoto is the sole founder, owner and designer of the Bleu Um-brella Co. As the boss, Yamamoto not only manages sellers, she’s in charge of model castings. Her models are featured online. They are all Yama-moto’s classmates from Monta Vista. Whereas the requirements to be a seller are simple, Yamamoto looks for models that are various nation-

alities and have a fresh and new im-age, as well as a special trait that sets them apart. “Green eyes,” Yamamoto says. “Green eyes are uncommon.” The idea of Bleu Umbrella Co. took shape during a school trip to the United Kingdom the summer before eighth grade. Being free and inde-pendent in a new environment was a breath of fresh air. “Seeing a different culture inspired me to move forward and start something new,” Yamamoto says. On a scale of 1 to 10, Yamamoto gives her business an 8. “[If I could do anything,] I would get a store.” Currently, the business runs on a catalog, web-site and open houses. “Having a store would just make things easi-er.” Running a new business is no walk in the park. It’s different than simply having a job, especially with the setbacks of a fail-ing economy. “Once you get to a cer-tain level,” Yamamoto says, “it’s not frightening, but there’s a lot of pres-sure and people can get disappointed if you’re not on top of it.” As a busi-ness owner, she is one of the few that are hit the hardest by the economic breakdown. “Yeah, I can feel it,” she said. “You don’t feel it as a consumer, but you feel it as a business owner.” However, students searching for a job at this time may find it more

difficult than in past year, thanks to the economy. There are less choic-es for students, Miriam Taba, who works at Monta Vista’s Career Center said. The bulletin board at the Ca-reer Center features an array of fly-ers that companies send to Mrs. Taba whenever they have openings. She posts the flyers up for interested stu-dents and for more detailed job de-scriptions, she uses schoolloop.

She says the most im-portant thing when looking for a job is to let everyone around you know you’re look-ing: parents, friends, neighbors, teachers, siblings and maybe even your dentist. When her own daugh-ter was searching, her daughter’s dentist overhead her asking the receptionist if there

were any jobs available. He offered her a job right then and there. They weren’t looking for a new employee; one just happened to be there. “I also tell students to think about what they want to do and ap-ply [for jobs] themselves,” Mrs. Taba said. Another time, her daughter drove down Prospect Road, armed with resumes, and stopped at each restaurant she was considering working at. She started looking on Wednesday; she got a job by Satur-day. Even with the lack of jobs

Sami Case with her dog, Koa. She bought Koa with money she made pet-sitting.

Jamba JuiceSalary: $8.20 per hourEmployee Perk: Get one free smothie per shift

Photo courtesy of aladar_d

Photo courtesy of pierofix

Photo courtesy of .imdelda

Photo courtesy of Sami Case

These MV students are on the fast track to success. And who knows? A multi-million dollar corporation might be somewhere down the road.

Get Down to Business Hat Trick dark red velvet curtains. There’s a cardboard box of umbrellas with smiley faces printed on them. Next to it is an empty basket. Menon and his fellow magician, Bren-dan Duffy, are getting ready for Menon’s fa-vorite magic trick: the Sword in Basket. In this trick, one of them sits inside the basket while the other pierces it with the smiley-faced um-brellas. After the um-brellas have been put through the basket, the person inside the basket comes out. Un-harmed. It’s reminiscent of the tricks on TV, where the profes-sional’s lovely assistant is placed into a coffin and then sliced to shreds with swords.

Menon and Duffy performed this very trick last year at Kenne-dy Middle School’s WEB Carnival. Menon volunteers to perform for

free at functions like this. He’s paid $30 to $60 for other parties, like kids’ birthdays at pizza places. For big-ger, more prominent events like the Boy Scout dinner that took place at the Quinlan Center this February, Menon was paid $100. Besides being Menon’s partner for magic tricks, Brendan Duffy was one of the main reasons Menon became interested in

magic in the first place. A couple of Menon’s friends were interested in magic, and that’s how he got started. At the age of five, Menon re-

ceived boxes of magic tricks when he went to visit his relatives on the East Coast. At the age of 11, Menon became more serious about magic. Now that he’s in high school, Menon doesn’t have time for “casual magic,” although he his interest in drama is peaking. He acted in the school’s produc-tion of The Odyssey. His love for acting is, in fact, another one of the reasons Menon took an interest in magic. “Magic involves elements of the theater,” Menon says. “It requires theatric and technical skills.” Menon’s acquisition of these qualities make him a successful magician. He’s known among his classmates for his magic. In middle school, Menon would put on small performances between homework

assignments and class periods; he ran the school’s Magic Club. He has even attended a magic conference in Kerala, India, where he advanced to

the final round of Ju-nior Conjuring. And to him, put-ting on magic shows doesn’t necessarily qualify as a job. “[It’s good to have a job] so you can experiment with what you want to do in life,” he says, “be-

cause if you mess up, you’re still in school.” He has a “lame website” and business cards, which he often hands out to enthusiastic six-year-olds. He also insists that networking and con-nections are necessary to running his magic business. He booked his first

gig with one of his dad’s co-work-ers. People hire him for shows, even though he isn’t actively trying to get booked (in fact, his age on the web-site is two years off). “It’s incredible,” Menon says. That’s what magic is to Grant Menon. It’s a breathtaking, awe-in-spiring legerdemain. It’s truly incred-ible. Menon talks about magic with a passion. He rubs his hands together as he takes his time to answer each question carefully. He wants to make sure people understand what magic means to him. He wants people to be frightfully aware of every trick he performs. “Magicians shouldn’t reveal their secrets,” Menon says, “but at the same time, if the audience finds the answer out for themselves, if they make an effort, it shows that they have an interest in the magic.”

“You learn re-sponsibility. And money’s always cool.”

available for students, Mrs. Taba be-lieves students can be fairly choosy when it comes to where they work. She remem-bers hearing about a CEO who claimed his best job as a student was working at the fast food chain McDon-alds, and Mrs. Taba agrees that working at this sort of place an be beneficial to working in the future. “If you hae skills, you can become a supervisor,” she said. “Someone who works at the mall can move up really fast. It’s working from

“It’s not frightening, but there’s a lot of pres-sure and peo-ple can get upset.”

The Start-Ups

the ground up.” “Proactive students,” as Mrs.

Taba likes to put it, will find themselves with an advantage later on in life. A study showed that college students who worked 12 to 15 hours a week did better in school than students who didn’t work at all or worked too much. “It makes students re-

alize how to manage their time,” she said. “Sometimes, students forget their first job is school.”

Menon performs at the card tables at MV’s Junior Prom.

It’s reminis-cent of the tricks on TV, where the assistant is sliced to shred with swords.

A breathtak-ing, awe-in-spiring leger-demain.

Franchesca Yamamoto with a selection of tops, t-shirts and cardigans from her self-run clothing company, The Bleu Umbrella Co.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Erikson

in the

She started lookng on Wednesday; she got a job by Saturday.

by Cynthia Mao

An insight of teenage overachiers’ lives; what’s it like to be busy all the time? by Diana Liu

Y ou know that kid. Yeah, that kid. The one who’s always run-ning around doing things, who

makes you feel unproductive and lazy as he/she goes to the National Science Awards Fair, DECA business interna-tionals, or another Humane Society volunteer activity. You know what that kid is?An overachiever.That word. Overachiever. The very word that describes so many students at Monta Vista High School. Those that go past the sky, beyond the stars, who try to do more than they possibly can. With all of the peer and family pres-sure on you to do as well as you can, of course there be overachievers at Monta Vista, land of the 4.0-and-up GPAs.What’s it like to be someone who’s busy all the time, who has things to do? How do they manage the stress, the work, the time management? There are three types of overachievers at Monta Vista: the overachievers who don’t even know they’re overachiev-ers, the overachievers who don’t mind working all the time, and the over-achievers who stress out.Just Chillin’ Meet Ishan Kanungo. Let’s start with the basics: he’s a ninth grader at Monta Vista High School.Oh, wait. He builds his own computers, has won a national science fair, and has an internship at Oracle while taking AP Physics at De Anza Community College

and maintaining straight A’s. Not so average now, eh?While Ishan is the classic example of an overachiever, he does not feel the need to be perfect at everything he does, and he doesn’t feel like he’s an overachiever. “I focus on the things that matter most to me. Not everything. Besides, [doing many activities] are interesting. If I had free time, I would probably be sitting at home doing nothing.” That would probably be true, as Ishan

finishes his school homework quickly. Every Wednesday his day is packed with activities. “I go practice tennis from three to four o’clock, straight from school. I do homework for about an hour, and then I take AP Physics class at De Anza from five to seven o’clock. After coming back, I eat din-ner, study some more, and go to sleep. I’m usually pretty tired by that time,” he sighs.Suck It Up, ManWhile Ishan doesn’t think he is an overachiever, Evelyn Ding, also a newbie at Monta Vista, knows she is one, and bears with it. She’s won first at DECA States, a business club’s state-wide competition and passed her CM piano testing with Branch Honors (at the Advanced level!). Her Monta Vista team is going to the Robotics Interna-tionals after taking home the trophy from a statewide Robotics competition held in San Diego just a month ago. Even with juggling all of these activi-ties, she still manages to bring straight A’s home on the report card.How does she do it? “Well, I just try to balance my activities and follow my interests, like robots, business, and music,” she points out. “Another thing you can do is start preparing early. I knew I was going to be very busy in March, so I started studying at the be-ginning of February.” Another good idea, she adds, is to “not procrastinate. It’s not that hard.” Even though other students seem to despise school Evelyn thinks that all of her classes are interesting and she loves school, not just because of her friends but because of how much she learns. As for studying and doing homework, Evelyn has a daily routine. “I make a to-do list and cross every-

A Little Less Than Needed

Revealing gifted-and-talented underachievers by Diana Liu

The very opposite of overachievers, underach ievers , in some’s eyes, are the very bottom of our society, or the crap on the bottom of the rice cooker. However, there is a certain group of u n d e r a c h i e v e r s that draw the atten-tion of teachers and counselors all over the world. Gifted-and-tal-

ented, or GT, underachievers generally do the mini-mum of work they are required to do, such as going to school (it’s required by law). However, they do not think about their future - no planning, no thought whatsoever. Www.appliedmotivation.com says that most GT underachievers are aware of their potential and feel superior to others because of their high abilities. Even though the potential GT underachievers have is high, studies have shown that they usually aren’t confident enough to overcome anxiety, tension, and self doubt. They are afraid of trying something new, such as studying, taking notes, or paying attention. They usually hide these feelings by acting conde-scending toward others. To stop these problems, psychologists have suggest-ed for GT underachievers to take classes that require relationships and understanding other people. A GT underachiever, Thi-vu Huynh (sophomore) says he is an exception at Monta Vista because he is not an overachiever. “[There’s] No need to do anything more than the curriculum. That’s why I don’t fit into Monta Vista,” he explains. “I usually do crap quality homework, or I wing it on the due date.” he confesses. He also procrastinates often, because he believes in “instant gratification”, having fun now, like playing video games. Even without doing his homework cor-rectly, studying, or paying 100% of his attention in class, he still manages a minimum of a 3.5 GPA (grade point average). “Yeah, I did this pictogram thing that was due today in class,” he shrugs. “The teacher gave me an A on it.” Either his Chinese 2 teacher was blind or Thi-vu is a genius; it’s the latter. His regular day consists of playing games on the computer and his Xbox 360 until 7 p.m. - that’s when his dad comes home. That’s when he has to buckle down. What his father doesn’t know is that he’s on AIM, an online chatting system, while he’s doing homework. He finally sleeps at around 11:30, so he still gets 7 hours of sleep. Underachievers are a rather large portion of to-day’s people, but GT underachievers are somewhat special.

According to a study done by collegeboard.com, a web-site focused on getting high school kids into top colleges, there are four negative aspects to being an overachiever.

1 Loss of focus or passion. Collegeboard.com states, “With only so many hours in the day and so much energy and effort to give, you have to divide your attention among a number of endeavors if you overschedule your time.” When you only want to be the best in everything you do, you lose the chance to find out any personal interests you have in one or a few areas. You’re likely to lose sight of what you truly enjoy and draw less happiness from your activities.

2 Poor physical health. The typical overachiever’s workload and time constraints leave little time for sleep. High school kids usually sleep less than six hours per night, much less than the recommended nine hours per night for teenagers. Ishan comments, “I get five hours sleep daily. I feel happier on the weekends, because I sleep about fifteen hours per day then.” Moreover, excessively busy kids usually don’t have good eat-ing habits. For example, Sam Hung says, “In the summer, I’m happy because I don’t have homework. I usually lose about five pounds. Then during school time, I’m stressed, I eat more, and I gain ten pounds!”

3 Poor mental health. “School demands and frustrations” are the leading causes of teenage stress, noted by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Our culture’s clear emphasis on success is creating a generation of workaholics drained of happiness and energy - this especially hits Monta Vista, a tense, high-pressured environment.

4 Unhealthy self-image. Overachievers often base self-appreciation on their accom-plishments, including test scores, awards, and other external indica-tors of success. This way, it’s possible to lose sight of your inner personality - and others’.

sam hung’s schedule: a day in the life of an overachiever

A look inside overachievers’s lives; why and how do they do so many things?

thing off one by one as I finish them,” she explains.I DON’T HAVE TIMESam Hung, a freshman at Monta Vista, does feel like she must do everything right. She maintains straight A’s in sev-eral of Monta Vista’s hardest ninth grade classes, including Mr. Kim’s Algebra 2/ Trigonometry and Mrs. Borelli’s fresh-man Literature. She sighs, “I don’t have time for anything. I just do schoolwork all day long - I have no life. I mean, right now I’m on my iTouch checking

S c h o o l l o o p (Monta Vista’s student ac-count center) for any home-work.”Because Sam

believes in doing her homework thor-oughly and carefully, she takes more time than the average freshman. That means less sleep, less time to eat, less time for anything.“A regular day would be that at 5:45 a.m., I wake up and study for a while. At 7:10 I walk to school and I come home at 3:00. From 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. I do homework, and I shower and eat dinner from 6:00 to 8:00. From 8:00 on-wards, I do my homework again, and I go to sleep between 10:30 to 12:30,” Sam lays out her schedule carefully.You walk at school before class, brunch, lunch. You pass anonymous kids and you think, oh, they’re just people. One more face passing by. Nothing unusu-al. However, investigate a person a bit more deeply and you’ll find that each has their own life - their own activities, their own drama. This is about overachievers and how they choose to live every day.This is their story.

wethe

WORLDtheinall workhave

“I don’t have a life.”

- Sam Hung

“If I had free time, I would probably be

sitting at home doing nothing.”- Ishan Kanungo

(#6)10:30 - 12:30 [go to bed]

(#1) 5:45 a.m. [wake up and study]

(#2)7:10 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. [school]

(#3)3:30 - 6:00 p.m. [homework]

(#4)6:00 - 8:00 [shower & eat dinner]

(#5)8:00 - onwards [homework]?

Source: sxc.hu

Source: sxc.hu

YOU ARE THE NEW KID, and it is your first lunch hour. As you meander about campus, seeking a place to be, you can’t help but feel a little

lost when you notice that the rest of the student population is grouped into obvious clusters. You had heard that this was quite the mathematically-oriented school, but you certainly didn’t expect even the social cliques here to b based on an intricate formulaic patchwork, or what appears to be such. Alas, as you simply don’t understand the theorems dictating how you ought to determine who to attempt to befriend, you’re forced to figure it out the low-tech way: guess-and-check, or judging by appearance.

Your senses must be quite sharp, for you know outright that there are some people you’ll never be able to get along with-- some who’d never tolerate your personality, your clothing, or your GPA. Perusing the school grounds as you might a shopping mall in search of a perfect fit, you’re caught by surprise when you find it: a niche epitomizing everything you idealize in a group of friends. But before pondering how best to approach them to verify your hypothesis, what made you suspect that you’d fit in with them?

No matter how much we all deny it, everybody appraises everybody on sight. At the most basic level, this means acknowledging that, oh, there’s a person there, better avoid collision. But this acknowledgement in itself triggers a series of judgments: as freshman Wen Li puts it, “When you see someone, the first thing you do is see them.” And, though we all love to say that we don’t draw conclusions form appearance, this fact suggests a plethora of unwanted conclusions.

For example, with the adolescent tendency to plaster oneself with brand names, can we not surmise that someone may be of a certain personality if they shop at certain stores. When just glancing at any logo-bearing student leads to opinions being formed, judgments are nigh inevitable. Unless, of course, we went around picturing everyone nude, which would be equally undesirable. And that wouldn’t even solve the problem. What of hairstyle? Makeup? Race?

No, better to give up on the impossible. Rather than trying to prevent shallow opinions from forming, we try to control them. But even so, there are times when the borders blur between a first impression and a generalization: if we assume that the quiet Asian guy in that Calc BC class has good grades, and our assumption proves correct, what will we think next time we see someone of

a similar disposition? Where do we draw the line about stereotyping? Well, debatably, we don’t.

Senior Jessica Yu looks a nondescript enough person, but in truth, her hobbies are unlikely. Even from her surname, we can generalize by race and assume she’s at least somewhat academic, but she has in the past started up conversations about Neopets while simultaneously researching colleges. In pursuit of interesting people, a favorite pastime of hers is seeking enlightening conversations from absolute strangers, which gives her opinions an amount of credibility when it comes to judging those we don’t know. She is aware that, like everyone else, she takes first impressions, but, going an additional step further, she takes into consideration the appearance of others to decide whether they’re actually interesting enough to warrant a talking-to.

However, she has learnt from the early days of her hobby that outward appearance may have little to do with personality. Having discovered that certain people, who she describes as “the kids who listen to weird musical groups” and “the really religious people who honestly believe in God’s grace,” tend to make for good conversational partners, Yu notes that taste in music and religion are not often reflected in clothing. On the flip side, she has found that “drama kids usually dress weird, but they don’t necessarily have anything interesting to say”-- but what, then, would be her methods of finding the insightful ones by sight? “You talk to everybody,” she instructs. “[Or,] if you say something outrageously controversial and dumb,

then you get people to flame on you.”But even with this wisdom in dissociating

substance and style, Yu is not free of judgment: she determines who in general is safe to approach by “if they don’t look like they’re going to beat me up…that is, short, Asian, female…” That’s a generalization, there. Stereotypes will always keep on going. As said by sophomore Nicholas Arquie, “Everyone has their own illusion of the world, so everyone judges others.”

And as for you, the new kid? Of course, you don’t know anyone in that group within which you can somehow envision yourself. Perhaps they wear the brand names you identify with. Perhaps their being in one of your elective classes suggests a common interest. Perhaps you can sense their aura and simply got some good vibe from them. But maybe it’s just that they dared each other to dress differently for a day, or they need to fulfill a certain type of elective credit, or your chakras are out of sync. In any case, it’s just a hunch. A hunch you can’t help but make, yes, but in the end, it’s really nothing more.

“[incorrect assumptions are] understandable...

“They

“Everyone

AS YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF to this clique you’ve somehow ascertained you’ll fit in with, your self-consciousness skyrockets. One of the

group is expressing a look of severe confusion, or is that just you being paranoid? As a hand is extended for you to shake, is the meeting stiffed in formality or do they simply share a quirky sense of humor? Feeling as if you tread on eggshells, you second-guess everything that occurs and watch your step accordingly.

Given our tendency to judge others, conveniently overlooked is the fact that, in exchange for our liberties, others are judging us all the time. But fair’s fair, and now you find yourself worrying about how others are thinking of you. For if things go badly now, your dignity, a clean slate with your new-student-dom, is to be sacrificed...

You’ve dressed characteristically like yourself enough today, however that may be-- after all, you did expect others would take their first impressions of you, and your clothing reflects how you want to appear, be it a trendy Abercrombie top or an oversized obscure band t-shirt. But, oh, you only had one clean pair of pants left, and skinny jeans are so five minutes ago. Or it’s humid and your hair’s doing weird things (I swear, have you never heard the amount of girls that emit a collective cry of despair upon the realization that there’s something of moisture about?), or you’ve buried your nose in a pulp fiction book for the day instead of your typical epic poetry. Whatever the case, you’ve been caught unawares and now worry this group will assume something about you that simply isn’t true.

And you’re panicking.Let’s pretend all the generalizations in the minds

of your everyday high-schooler are correct. Even in this already-idealized situation, there is still the issue of inconsistencies. As described by freshman Thea Miller, “if you’re doing something you don’t normally do, someone might assume you do it all the time.” Usually, you wouldn’t care, but today, you need all the identity you can muster. You’ll have to work to negate false assumptions your mistakes have caused, and what if it proves the tipping point of your acceptance/rejection in this clique?

And, oh yeah, you’ve thus far forgotten about race, and there wasn’t enough time to pull a Michael Jackson as you got ready for school this morning.

Perhaps we never think of racism as a problem in our school, having a somewhat backwards demographic in comparison to the rest of California, but that just implies that our racist remarks can be just as reversed.

Take freshman Wilson Korges, who feels the color of her skin may affect others’ thoughts of her. Musing that, to strangers, she most likely comes across as arrogant and insincere, within her circle of friends, she is kind and often regarded as the trustworthy one to whom bottled-up emotional burdens are divulged.

And then, there is the white male: though usually found in abundance, at this school, in his words, freshman Aaron Latta guesses that others perceive him to be “a slacker that can’t do anything” and who “[has] an easier life.” To his friends, however, who judge him only as an individual, he is often considered a “smart

Oral Comp nerd” who can speak well.Of course, not only the Caucasians have found

themselves victims of judgment (any Asians around who’ve felt their personality will be overlooked just because others might think the ones with the stellar progress reports study all the time and cannot be interesting?).

And even when this isn’t in terms of race, how can it not just hurt in general when others perceive you not as a person, but as a stereotype? We can’t change any

of the annoyingly physical characteristics that betray us to the world, and we can’t stop others from inaccurately interpreting the little they know of us. In short, in a way, there is no hope-- none for the new kid, at least. For that one clique, that ancient adage rears its ugly head-- “do unto others as you would yourself”-- but that’s not especially helpful for those who have led themselves to believe that said others may not be quite so similar.

So, yes, new kid, you had better watch your step.

Sorry.And, oh, but there is always that sliver of

reassurance in pessimism, and for my part, I shan’t be getting anywhere as a writer if I were so depressing. But Latta best phrases this shard of positivity: “I walk up to the person, shake their hand with a smile, [or] crack a joke and hope everything goes the right way...

“And, well, if they choose not to know me, there’s not really anything I can do. In terms of missed opportunities...there are so many chances in the world. But whatever path you take, 99.9% of those chances will go away.”

there are sides of me that no one can see. nobody sees all the sides of me either, and people from different “groups” see me differently, and i act differently. i don’t know why i do it, and now it’s too late to stop to reconcile people’s different images of me. i don’t really judge, but even if i do a little and it forms a negative attitude towards a person, i believe that there is something good about everybody. so i get to know people first. of course, that’s not the case with most people. i’m sure i am judged by first impressions although i would highly advise those people to get to know me first. people can think whatever they’d like of me. as long as i stay true to myself and the people i love, ev-eryone else shouldn’t matter. those who judge are the ones who will be judged the most. it would be silly, however, if i were to say that i have never judged. everyone has. i’ve always thought those who wore brand names had no originality (my judgement has yet to be disproved), but that may not be so. i’ve always thought chauvinists were jerks, and that may not be so as well, though i haven’t been disproved there either. i often do feel uncomfortable in a subconscious sense, while thinking leads me to realize it makes no difference. i act most often on this fear, however, and only in certain times of bliss or energy do i shed it. i always come off not as the nerdy kid, but the creepy quiet kid.

I M P R E S S I O N S*points to scarf* *is judged* yeah... everyone judges people, and there’s very little we can do about it. people can go and complain as much as they want about being stereotyped and judged, but in the end, usually these pre-judgments are fairly accurate.even when they aren’t accurate, if people want others to know something about themselves that isn’t obvious by first impression, then they just have to prove themselves. i hate being fake. no one can expect others to stop making preconceived notions of what that person is like. i do my best not to judge people un-til i’ve really gotten to know them, since my first impressions have so often turned out to be wrong. i believe that i come off different from how i believe i am seen, and that it’s unbelievably hard to get people to change their opinions without really getting to know the person well enough to confirm or refute their assumptions.

it’s natural to judge people, you just have to realize that it’s probably not quite accurate. i want people to think i’m not a loser nerd. i hate gossip. it ruins social environments for everyone. i think those who know me well probably mostly see me how i am/how i want them to see me; i really can’t figure out how those who don’t know me well would judge me. i think that, at least for me, people put on the mask that suits what they want others to see the most. i act like a perverted idiot half the time because i want to entertain people and make them smile. it also gives me an excuse to hide away my weaknesses from others.

1. YOU BE THE JUDGE

how can it not hurt when

others per-ceive you as

more of a ste-reotype than

a person?

2. SMILE! YOU’RE ON CANDID CAMERA(OR FROWN IF YOU’RE GOING FOR “EMO“)

“when you see

some-one, the

first thing you do is

see them, right?”

“[We all] take first impressions,[but we]

constantly revise themjudging by their actions afterward.”

--senior Charling Huang

has more depth than what everyone else

they have.”thinks

--junior Denis Su

seem so interesting... but

they’re always high!”

--anonymous Monta Vista studentabout a certain unspecified clique.

I mean, I don’t blame them, but it’s kind of...

you know, just, like, shudder...”--freshman Karina Schuler

--All articles/data/images are of Erin Tatangsurja, who is in pub fifth.

Followthe Frozen Yogurt now dominates the in-dustry of frozen treats. It comes with a choice of toppings, has a variety of

flavors, and compared to ice cream, it con-tains less fat.

But what really makes it so appealing? Is it the freedom of choice that we feel when we buy our yogurt? Or is it the openness of the store itself? What is the reason for the con-stant fundraisers at Frozen Yogurt stores and the hang outs that frequently occur there?

When and why do people get Fro Yo? What does it really mean to them?

To Cory Low, a freshman at Monta Vista, Fro Yo seems to be a prize or a sense of motivation. He explained that his out-side, club basketball team always celebrates each winning game with Fro Yo at Yogurt-land. His whole team loves it and they look forward to it because they’re confident they won’t ever lose. Low explained that they chose to celebrate at Yogurtland be-cause it’s refreshing, cheap, and fun!

To, Eunice Lee, another freshman at Monta Vista, Fro Yo is a means of spending time with siblings. She said that she and her older sister go to get Fro Yo at Yogurtland whenever they just want to talk. “Talking over a cup full of froyo is just amazing. It really helps us open up and enjoy ourselves.” One of the benefits of having a sibling: sharing a

special moment of FroYo time. Sarah Lee, a freshman from Monta Vista explains that whenever she hangs out with friends at the Valco Mall, they walk across the street to get some Frozen Yogurt at Yogurtland. “Yogurtland is so much bet-ter than Froyo [which is] in Valco; so we just walk over there, it doesn’t take too long and it’s pretty fun.” she said. “The first time I ever got Fro Yo was with a group of my friends. A lot of them had tried it before so they told me what flavors were the best and stuff. We went to yogurtland and I remember get-ting taro because my friend told me that she loved it; it wasn’t even that good..” Her thoughts seem to wander off as she remembers her first day of Yogurtland. As she comes back into focus, she says, “well anyways, I just love Fro Yo

because it takes away my worries, even for just a moment. It’s nice to be able to just focus on the yo-gurt!”

Students spend their time at Frozen Yogurt Stores because of many different reasons. Richard Kwon, a sophomore at Monta

Vista, loves to go to get frozen yogurt with his girlfriend. He says, “It’s the perfect place to chill out with her without it getting awkward. I love it, it works wonders!” He admits to go-ing there about two to three times a month.

Soomin Kim, a freshman at Monta

The Social Manager for the Class of 2013, Britni Chon, is always advertising new fund-raisers on her facebook. Most of the time, the choice is between Tartini or Orange Tree, two well known frozen yogurt places. Students laugh at the never changing fundraiser ideas, but they all agree that a frozen yogurt store is a good place to hold one. The MV freshmen gather at these stores just to hang out and spend money on Fro Yo for our class. Also, the class officers sometimes post up schoolloop discussions asking which location we would rather have our fundraiser in. Getting about 40-50 answers and replies each time, they believe that these Fro Yo fundraisers are a big help in raising funds for our class.

Emily Wong, a freshman at Monta Vista, says that she loves eating Fro Yo, especially with her fellow classmates. “There’s nothing like enjoying some fro-zen yogurt on a hot day while earning money for our class! It’s like, perfect!” she says as she lets out a giggle.

Fro Yo fundraising has turned out to be a huge success because the freshmen just keep wanting more. As the class officers busy their already busy schedules with more plans of fundraisers, the freshmen eagerly await their next Fro Yo day.

“The money we make at these fundrais-ers is used for our rally equipment and will also be saved for our class’ senior ball. I think Fro Yo is a really good way to have fun and bring up the money levels!” Britni Chon says. “We eat, we have fun, we take pictures, and I don’t know, freshmen, please come to our next fundraiser at Pho Min!” She immediately starts to advertise their next fundraiser idea.

“I can make it crunch, choco-late-y or even

juicy!”

FroYo Fundraising

Popular Locations

Nom Nom Nom!

Enjoying the Memories

A few of the Freshmen at Tartini for one of their fundraisers. Keep up the good work Class of 2013!

Vanilla & Original Tart

White Chocolate

ChipsYUMMY!

TASTY!Strawberries

& Cheesecake

Crumbs

Strawberry& Raspberry

Tart

Vista, also expressed her love for Fro Yo one day at school. At a nearby Yogurtland, she cautiously got the exact amount of each fla-vor and skipped over to the toppings stand. “I absolutely love toppings. They make each flavor of yogurt stand out and I can make it crunchy, chocolate-y or even juicy!” she says with a mischievous smile. She then proceeds to pick out all the pink dotted jelly beans. “These ones are the best. They’re called

strawberry shortcake! Yumm.” After taking one big scoop she says, “I’m not sure what it is about Fro Yo that makes me keep coming back, but every scoop I take soothes me.”

Frozen yogurt gives a sense of freedom and individuality because you can pick your own size, pick your own flavors, and pick your own toppings. This is what has drawn more and more consum-ers in. Nowadays, kids even think of get-ting part time jobs at places like Yogurtland because it’s trendy and fun. The self serve policy makes it easier for the workers and a lot simpler for the customers as well. These rules are what differentiate ice cream from froyo. Frozen Yogurt places are places of joy and cheerfulness, which is why everybody chooses to hang out there. Fro Yo has a dif-ferent and special meaning to each and ev-ery person. It’s not just a snack anymore, it’s more. Most people become addicted right away. I mean, who could possible stay away?

Yogurtland

Orange Tree 47% 14% 33%

6% Tartini Red Mango

Swirl“One of the benefits of having a sibling: sharing a special moment of FroYo

time.”

Friends and family enjoy eating at Fro-zen Yogurt Places as a means of bond-ing and spending time together.

Britni Chon

Sarah Lee Flickr.com

By Hanna Kim

will go on

DRESS to deSTRESS “Well,alright,”youmayfindyourselfdubiouslythinking.

“Iplayaninstrument.” “Idance.” “Ising.” “But I don’t have enough time.”

ThisisthesituationofmostMontaVistastudents.Butinthesesameconditions,howareothersabletocope,excellingattheperformingartswhilemaintaininggoodgrades(oftenevenbetterthanthosewithouttheartisticextracurricular).Uponquestioning,manyperformersrevealtheirsecret:Whattakesupseemingmoretimeactuallysavesthemtime.Yes,readthatsentenceasmanytimesasyoulike;that’snogianttypo.Twoverykeycharacteristicofthosewhoregularlypracticetheperform-ingartsareperfectionismandfocus.Together,thesetwotraitsserveastheguidelineinmanyperformers’lives.Thereisnofearofcommitment,noristherethepanicoftimecrunch.“Isometimesendupdancingfiveorsixhoursaday,”confessesTeresaLi(10),oneoftheDanceTeamcaptainsforthe’10-’11schoolyearandarigorousdanceroutsideofschool.“ButI’mabletomaintainmygrades.I’vegottenstraightA’ssofarinhighschool.”Thereareobviouslyrestrictions.MaybecutdownononeortwoAPshereorthere.“Becauseofmycommitmenttochoiranddance,I’velearnedtotakeastepbacktoassesswhetherIreallyneedsomanyAP[classes],”divulgesSabrinaChuang(10).“WhenIknowIhavea3-hourchunkoftimelaterinthedaywhereIcan’tdevotemyenergytomystudies,IunconsciouslypushmyselftoworksomuchfasterthanIdoonaregularday.”Stepuptoit.Beconfident.Don’ttrip.Don’tletyourownknowledgelimityouandyourperformance.Justtakeadeepbreath,andprepareyourselfforyourentrance.

All senses drawn into the inescapablebeauty,yetatthesametime,lost.Aflurryofdoubts hurl recklessly through, mere flashesand snippets of semi-coherent thought pro-cesses.Kindof like that stackofvocabularyyousofuriouslycrammedlastweekonthecarridetothetotheSATexaminationsite. We like to call them geniuses, prodi-gies, deities—those who manage both highlevelacademicworkandmasteryof thefinearts.Withsomuchworkandsolittlesleep,therestofusalreadygrimaceinhorroratthemerethoughtofanothercommitment,whetheritbeintermsoftime,emotion,orenergy.It’sim-possible,wetellourselves.Theoddsofpart-ingtheRedSeaseemsignificantlyhigher. Among the various forms of perform-ing arts, three main groups at Monta Vistaleap out. Variations, Chamber Orchestra,and Dance Team all strive to produce qual-ity performances that create lasting impactsonaudiencemembers.Thenationally-rankedMarquesasDanceTeam, coachedbyHistoryteacherHillaryMaxwell,consistsof22girls,allbondedtogetherbytheircommonpassion.With2-hourlongpracticesatleastfourdaysaweek,thegirlsunanimouslyagreethatexpres-sive interpretation is the key to their perfor-mancebothindividuallyandasagroup.“EventhoughDanceTeamisareallyrigorouscom-mitment,oneofthemostimportantaspectsisstyle,” reveals Senior CharleneChen, a sec-

ond-yearMarquesa.“[DanceTeam]hasreal-lybroughtmeoutsideofmybox.”Likewise,musicalperformingartsarejustasemotional-lyandphysicallychallenging.VariationsandChamberOrchestra,bothwell-knownfortheirdemandingauditionsandhighqualityharmo-nies,bring togethergroupsofstudentsdedi-cated to styling their musical passion. “I’mjust in awe of how [these musicians] maketheirinstrumentssing,”proclaimsJohnGalli,headof theMusicDepartment. “Performingartscommunicatetoeveryhumansense,notjustvisuallyorauditorially.Thisistheentirereason for being in music. Communicationandexpression.” Yet,manyperformersget lost on thewayup,puttingtechnicalskillaboveallotheraspects, therebyeliminatingboth theperfor-mance and the art from the performing art.“Being able to throw up a bunch of techni-cal skills doesn’t nearly define a good per-formance,”saysGalli.“That’slikecomputerprogramming,completelydevoidofemotion-alcommitment.”SeniorRebeccaYin,despitehavingstartedchoiryearslaterthanmostherpeersinVariations,hasbrokenpastthisobsta-cle.Shecitesher laid-backapproachtowardmusicasamajorfactortohervocalsuccess.“I’veseeninstanceswherepeoplearesofo-cusedonhard, solid technique theyactuallyforgettofeelwhatthey’resinging.Goodpitchandrhythmcanonlygetyousofar.”

In reality, excuses inhibit action.Despite itsnotoriousacademicrigor,MontaVistaishometo someof thenation’smost talentedartists.Artists fromVariations, Chamber Orchestra,andDanceTeam serve as proof.Thepeoplewhobreakthrougharen’tthosewhodowhattheydo just tofluffup theircollegeapplica-tions.AsMr.Gallisays,“Youdon’thavetobethebestperformerintheworldtobeacceptedinto these prestigious groups. What standsoutjustasimpressivelyishowmuchyouputyourheartandhowmuchofyourselfyouputinto[whatyoudo].”Thesearelong-distancesprinters, conditioned to withstand and ap-preciate thebalanceofmental,physical,andemotionaldedicationoftheperformingarts.

ART

WORDS fromthe heART“Insteadoftakingjustthe[dance]classesmyfriendstook,Istartedtotakemoreclassesthatwouldenhancemyskillsasadancerandpushmetomybest.”–ChristineNg(10)

“Practicing[theviolin]alotreallymatters,butpracticingproductivelymattersevenmore.”–StephenKim(9)

“Danceandchoirhelpbuildupmyabilitytofocusforlongperiodsoftime.”–SabrinaChuang(10)

“ThetimeIdedicatetochoirreallypaysoffwhenIseehowmuchit’schangedme.”–CharleneChen(12)

“Youhearit,youfeelit,youloveit,andit’llbegreat.”–RebeccaYin(12)

a picture may be worth a thousand words,

but a performance says it all

myby iris liu

StephenKim(9),co-concertmasteroftheMontaVistaChamberOrchestra,hasbeenplayingtheviolinsinceage3.

JoshuaDing(11),MichelleLee(12),andRebeccaYin(12)poseforapictureatVariation’s2010triptoNewYorkCity.

TheMarquesascometogetherforagroupphotoafterwinningthe2010USANationalChampionshipinKick.

Left:Variationssingersbondattheir2010triptoNewYorkCity.

TheMontaVistaMarquesasKickTeamglowattheUSANationalChampionshipCompetition.

The truth is, we worry. As students of Monta Vista, we worry. We worry about teachers, we worry

about grades, we worry about teach-ers not giving us good grades in our classes. And lately, we’ve been wor-ried about not getting classes alto-gether. With financial problems loom-ing above our heads (increasing class sizes, the potential hacking of our favorite classes and activities, etc.), we can’t help but add another worry to our perpetually growing lists. But some of us are just a little bit luckier. For some students, the bud-get cuts are simply another trending topic that will soon fade away. “I’ve heard they exist,” says Nina Behen (9), when asked about the budget cuts in general. “But I don’t really care.” The ninth grader, who’s currently taking Japanese, even says that her modern language isn’t something she’d miss. “I’d feel less nerdy [if it were cut],” she admits, laughing. Despite Behen’s indifference towards the district’s fiscal problems, she has an opinion of Measure B. The parcel tax (a tax on a property that someone owns), will affect residents living within FUHSD’s boundaries. If it gets a positive two-thirds vote of the community, schools within the district will begin receiving the annual $98 per household.

“I’d feel less nerdy [if they were cut].”

“I think it’s good,” she be-gins. “I think parcel taxes are good. I don’t really care how much they cost, ‘cause, I mean, it’s for the future of America. We do need more money for the schools, because there are some people who might need to take the advanced courses.” Behen makes a point. With university applicants more competi-tive than ever, a lack of courses could potentially prevent students from get-ting into their choice colleges. Those who end up with less impressive transcripts and resumes, as a conse-quence of the cuts, are likely to be rejected when pitted against another who was offered more courses back in high school. “I don’t think anything should be cut,” Behen concludes. “We just need to tax more.” While Behen’s definitely picked the pro-Measure B side, some aren’t so quick to choose a team. “The thing with budget cuts is that people don’t understand what the money is allocated for,” says Lucia Lin, junior at Monta Vista, “but right now, my opinion about the budget cuts is that, in a way, there’s always a positive and negative to it, and people should listen to both sides before making a decision about it.” Yes. The truth is that we worry. There’s no doubt about that. School is stressful, homework’s a pain. And budget cuts unanimously “suck”. But maybe we should worry just a little bit less.

Budget cuts. Just saying it is enough to send shivers down the spines of faculty and students across the Fremont

Union School District. While this may lead staff members to worry about if their jobs are in jeopardy, students worry about never seeing their favorite classes or activities again. Whether it’s an after school sport, or an advanced academic, the district’s budget deficit threatens to trash many favorites among students at Monta Vista High School. For those not so familiar with the past financial predicaments, the Fre-mont Union School District is expecting a deficit of up to $10 million in the 2010 — 2011 school year according to FUHSD’s superintendent, Polly Bove, which could force the School Board to eliminate and reduce some of the offered courses at Monta Vista.

This includes things such as summer-school, advanced placement classes, even seventh period classes altogether. It’s hard not to come across some sort of news regarding the budget cuts nowa-days, with students’ academic fate resting so much in the community and administration’s hands. “I’ve heard

about it a lot,” answers Maggie Maser when asked about the recent cuts, “A lot, a lot, actually. And for the most part, it’s like whatever, but if they cut water polo…” she trails off, pounding her right fist into her left palm, “I’ll be so mad.”

Maser, a fresh-man, tried out for water polo earlier this year, and succeeded in earning herself a spot on M.V.’s junior varsity team. But the district’s budget dilemmas, mainly

attributed to “the economic downturn and state budget crisis” may make Maser’s sophomore sports life sig-nificantly lighter— if she has one at all. Extra-curriculars, namely M.V. affiliated sports, are amongst the offered activities that could be on the chopping block. “I made a lot of friends on the team, and if we all don’t get to see each other every day, like at practice and stuff, it’ll suck,” Maser says, “I mean, it’s been so much fun, you know?” Maser’s not the only one who wonders about the upcoming school year. Sami Case, also a freshman, tries to imagine what it will be like without her favorite electives.

“I’m…worried,” she admits, “What can I do next year [if] those things are gone?” Case, who’s taking woodshop and a modern language next year fears also for the future of M.V.’s teachers. “I think that a lot of the teach-ers might get laid off, and that sucks,” she explains. Her solution? “Maybe they should have a student survey and fire all the bad teachers first.” Although Case seems confident in her plan, the board has other ideas— named Measure B. The tax, poised to bring in $98 annually per house-hold within the FUHSD boundar-ies, could allow classes that are currently in danger of being eliminated or reduced to stay put. Class sizes would maintain their relatively small size, and Monta Vista would continue to support the out-standing courses and extracurricular activities— including sports like water polo and electives like woodshop— that it has for the past years. However, the future of the tax is unknown; the economic situation may prove to be an obstacle in its path. And even if it

show me the money(or lack thereof).

“[FUHSD] is expecting a deficit of up to $10 mil-lion in the 2010 - 2011

school year...”

“It’s taking a part away from Monta Vista!”

-- Annie Ho (10)

“...These budget cuts will make my future career in high school

more difficult...”-- Albert Qiu (9)

does pass, Measure B may not be a sufficient resolution to the district’s budget crisis— but there’s no doubt it would help. “I know that whatever hap-pens, something’s [going to] end up changing,” Maser continues, “But I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.”

There’s No “I”In Money

98 the amount in dollars measure b will provide

935 monta vista’s current api

2011 the year that measure b will expire

10,330 the aprox. amount of students in the fuhsd

3 million average mv students think the deficit is

10,200,000 the expected deficit of 2010 - 2011

Annual Expenses per Student

Cut It Out!

$5285

$1462

$923

$708

$50

Instruction(Teachers, Textbooks)

Instruction Related Services (Library, Training)

Plant Services(Maintenance)

Pupil Services(Testing, Guidance, Resources)

Other Outgo(School sponsored activ-ities, Academic achievement)

68%

1%

8%

9%

12%

proj

ect b

y ja

nani n

atar

ajan

, per

iod

five, a

pril

2010

Confessions of a G

od-bashing religio

n.

Is God YOUR Imaginary Friend?

There is no such thing as perfection. (Really?) There

is no life after death. (Then where do we go from here?)

There is no God. (Or is there?)

Or is there?

For thousands of years humans have worshipped

idols. Maybe they actually were drawing closer to

omnipotent beings, or perhaps they were just offering

empty prayers to broken stone, but whatever the case

was, they believed. They had faith and sacrificed stuff

and went totally into that religious-fanatic stage, where

culture and religion merge. Then somewhere in the 18th

century the first non-believers began asserting their views

and making that into a semi-religion, which then went on

to more or less become the semi-religion of the world.

Actually, we shouldn’t call atheism a religion; it should

be defined as a mass collection of criticisms against

religions. It’s easy to explain: THERE IS NO GOD. There

is no such thing as perfection. There is nothing after

death. (And since most atheists are, for some reason,

violently religion-bashing, anyone who disagrees is a

blind blockhead.)

As unconventional as atheism first appeared, it did

make sense. People brought up the problem of evil (why

do bad things happen/exist?), the nonbeliever problem

(why didn’t God just make everyone believe in him in the

first place?), and the lack of empirical evidence (who’s

ever seen God?). Religion itself has too many disagree-

ments with science. The more we thirst for knowledge,

the more we want to prove, and this becomes the biggest

pro-atheism argument of all time: how can you prove that

God is real?

Answer: You can’t.

“There’s no physical proof,” says Alex Wang (9). “The

day I see God, I’ll become a Christian. The day I see

Allah, I’ll become a Muslim. The day I see Buddha, I’ll

become a Buddhist. They day I see aliens, I’ll become a

scientologist!” (We must all agree that there has yet to be

a confirmed sighting of such beings.)

This is the fatal flaw of every religion. Faith is the only

thing they can rely on, nothing more. No one can prove

the existence of some deity. Science makes us stubborn.

We must see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears,

touch with our own hands. We must feel God’s presence

before we believe. We must be sure that there is a God

before we give him our all.

This is where the Christians should start laughing

at me. God isn’t to be tested, they explain. It’s about

indescribable unspoken words. It’s about reaching for

something that’s beyond you. It’s about faith.

And yet, atheists dismiss the faith issue in a ridicu-

lously simple fashion: There’s nothing wrong with having

imaginary friends, they say. Everyone’s had one at some

point. (Remember those blissful kindergarten days?)

You just have to learn where to draw the line. Leo Zhang

(9) explained, “If you look at an adult, say, 30 or 40 or

something like that, and they say that they believe in

Santa Claus, would you believe they’re crazy?” (Followed

by a chorus of “yes”s and “yeah”s.)

On the other hand, “It’s all about believing in some-

thing that’s beyond you,” says Victor Zhang (9), Christian.

In other words, if we knew how God worked, then God

wouldn’t need to exist and we would be God.

Does this make sense? Perhaps. Does atheism have

a point? Of course. Then why did I even take the time

writing this whole thing? (Don’t worry, it wasn’t just to

annoy you.)

(...And it wasn’t just to throw together something for

Writing for Pub, either.)

If there was one thing that people argued over most

besides food and taxes, it would be religion. The fact that

it has no answer (at least, not that we know of) makes

it among the most widely-debatable topics in the world.

(Which, by the way, just happens to include Monta Vista.)

Religion itself is based upon faith. Atheism attacks this

faith with science. Is there a right or wrong answer? No,

not really. But there could be, in the end--at the end of the

world. Or, more likely, just the end of your life.

Religion is a touchy subject. What’s waiting for you at

the end of the road?

Atheism is a complicated matter. What’s really out

there beyond what we know?

Is God your imaginary friend?

When we finally see Death rearing

its ugly head at the end of our lives,

there’s really not much time for long

soliloquies; you only see what is

before your eyes.

What’s before your eyes? Go on.

Close them. Think. Where do we go

from here? “Heaven is like a box,” explains Victor Zhang (9,

Christian). “And there are, like, two metal gates that

are the only way in to Heaven. And every baby is

born with this metal thing, and it’s called sin. If you

just try to pass through the gates with that attached

to you, then you blow up. But there’s one place in the

gate, there’s a hole and it’s called Jesus. And there’s

no incinerator thing inside that hole.”

There isn’t a soul alive who

doesn’t wish for Heaven after death.

(I mean, think about it. Would you

like to go to hell?) But sadly enough,

there seem to be several different

sets of rules in getting there (includ-

ing the theory of not being able to go

anywhere at all.)

Christianity insists on a firm belief in God. Faith, not good deeds, ships you off to where you are in

the afterlife. Granted, there are several branches of Christianity, but they all seem to say that the End

of the World is when Judgement Day comes. Perhaps their souls lie in wait? God knows.

Welcome to the Afterlife

“Everything you do, while you’re living, is going to be

used to judge who you are after you die,” said Arifa Aziz

(9, Muslim).

Stark contrast with Zhang; Aziz believes in judgement of the soul.

Your life, not your faith, sends you to your home for eternity.

“You just die,” said Alex Wang (9). “You decom-

pose into the ground and turn into nitrogen.”

Atheism, being the science-based theory that it is, doesn’t believe in an afterlife. What are souls?

Can you prove that souls exist? No? Well then, they don’t exist. And since they don’t exist, death is

just... death.

Is perhaps the most debate-triggering

phrase in the Bible.

Leo Zhang (9) argues: “Here, let’s run

an experiment. Find the most Christian-y

Christian you know, and tell them to pray

tonight for God to heal every amputee in

the world in a day. Then view the results

tomorrow.”

Don’t even try. I’ll tell you the results.

It won’t work.

Atheism attacks this point. Is it not

written in the Holy Bible that if you “have

but a seed of faith... you will move

mountains”?

The religious answer is: The answer to

a prayer doesn’t have to be “Okay, now

are you happy?” It could just as well be

“No, that’s not what I want you to do.”

And so on and so forth. But ultimately

there is no right or wrong answer. (Isn’t

that what everything in life is like?

Except math, I mean.)

Prayer is the worshipper’s way

of connecting with their omnipotent

idols, the way that they can convince

themselves that these idols exist.

(Not saying that they don’t, of

course. I’m referring to it faith-wise.)

It’s not “let’s get God to grant our

wishes”, it’s “let’s take a chance and

believe”.

We can’t control onmipotent

forces, believers argue. If we could,

we would be omnipotent. Praying is

a nice dose of insanity that warms

the soul.

“Yeah I know those people too,”

Zhang told me. “ They’ll go like, ‘Oh,

well, I was like super depressed and

I talked to a tree and it made me

feel better, is the tree God?’ I mean,

that’s not the point. The whole point

of prayer is so that you can know

that God is there and you can have a

relationship with Him.”

Terrorist Crusades

“Ask and you shall receive”

Before I delve into this subject I must swear to all religious believers

that I DON’T HAVE A THING AGAINST GOD. I LOVE GOD. And not all

Christians are like these crazy people. Don’t come after me. Thank you.

However, even though that I am sure no readers would want to attack

me, there are certainly people out there who will. Tina

Mae and Joshua Matthew Stone, David Brian Stones Sr. and Jr., Thomas

William Piatek, Michael David Meeks, Kristopher T. Sickles, Joshua

Clough, and Jacob J. Ward were recently arrested from March 28 to

March 30, 2010.

These nine people are suspected of involvement in a two-year ploy to

kill various police and prossibly also civilans, by means of illegal explo-

sives/firearms. They are involved in a Christian group who call themselves

the Huratee.

By this time, several murders/massacres had already been commited.

Such misinterpretations of the Bible pop up quite often: perhaps they

had a vision, or heard God’s voice, or had some extremely enlightening

revelation which told them to go out and terrorize people.

...Is it sa misinterpretation of the Bible, or are they just plain stupid?

Then again, what does the Bible mean, anyway?

God knows.

Top row, left to right: David Brian Stone Sr., David Brian Stone Jr., Jacob Ward, Tina Mae Stone

Bottom row, left to right: Michael David Meeks, Kristopher T. Sickles, Joshua John Clough, Thomas Willam Piatek

“Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay

alive using equipment... we, the Hutaree, are prepared to defend all those who

belong to Christ and save those who aren’t. We will still spread the word, and

fight to keep it, up to the time of the great coming.”

-Huratee.com

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uploaded by Leonardini on sxc.hu

Courtesy of wikipedia.org

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Rows and rows filled my eyes. Brown with red hearts, blue with strips, green with polka dots, furry white kittens, and even daisies with little smiley faces filled the covers. Lock and key, no lock and key, button, no button, tie, no tie, lined paper, white paper. Overwhelmed with the amount of choices I could choose from, I grabbed the closest one and started to walk away. Glancing down, rainbow colored dogs streaked my vision. “Oh god,” I thought to myself. Fifteen minutes and eight dollars later I was successfully leaving Target, a plain green diary in hand. Write about how you feel. Write about what happened it your day. Write about the important events. Sitting crossed legged in my bed, I glared down at the empty white page as if it was the diaries fault I didn’t know what to write. Seven minutes later and had written exactly two words, adding up to a grand total of 9 letters: Dear Diary. Giving a short sigh, I decided I needed a break. Walking down the stairs I recreated what had happened in school that day – gone to the usual six classes, had two tests, went to the library, talked with friends. Finishing up the glass of water I trudged back upstairs toward my room. Seating myself back into my bed, I continued to stare at the diary, hoping it would give me inspiration of what to write. Nothing. I reorganized my already clean bookshelf. I cleaned up by desk. I watched the clock turn from 9:42 to 9:43. By my calculations, I had been at this for exactly 23 minutes. Sighing once again, I returned to my bed and sat there. Finally I picked up my pen and began to write. I wrote about my day, ranging from what I ate for breakfast to what I learned in all my classes. I wrote about my family and friends. I wrote about the softball game, and how well we did. Surprising myself I kept writing, filling up almost four pages. By the end my hand was cramped and my back hurt from bending over for so long but I felt good. Smiling, I promised myself I would do this again the next night. Of course, twenty four hours later my green diary was buried under the huge mess on my desk and I totally forgot to write in it. But it didn’t matter. That night when I wrote in it I felt good,

like I got all my emotions out. Not good enough that I would do it everyday, but good enough that I would think about doing every month or so. But for the sake of this column I was going to keep my promise. I was going to accomplish keeping a diary for at least a week.

A few days later, I relearned why I stopped keeping diaries throughout childhood. I can’t do it. I can mentally and physically do it, that’s not the problem. Pulling out my diary and picking up a pen and putting how I feel on paper isn’t hard, that is, it wouldn’t be if I ever remember to actually pick up a pen and start writing. In truth, I have an undiagnosed memory problem. A big one. So big, that I can’t remember to write in a diary for ten minutes, once a day. So, I would actually like to tell you that diary writing is the best experience ever and everyone should do it, but I can’t. Because in truth, I absolutely hate it. Not the writing of emotions (in truth I really enjoyed that) but the constant hassle of having to write in the diary. Having to rethink my day and think about how I felt. Having to pick up a pencil and use energy. Having to take the time out of my life to write - knowing that I could be doing something different, but instead am in my room, writing about something that already happened. Very pointless.

I would like to tell you that I loved writing in my diary and now I write in it eight times a day - but in truth, that would be a lie. I like the thought of writing in my diary and the things it represents but when it comes time to actually write, I don’t. So for now, my thoughts are cooped up in my head. But maybe, someday I will get into the art of writing in a diary. But for now, my thoughts are their own and not filled onto a blank page of a green diary.

1. Getting Supplies .

Find a diary. For this step you have two choices. Choice number one is to find a diary at any of the following places: Staples, Borders, Target, Walgreens or even Office Max. Choice two is to raid your house for supplies and make a hand made diary.

Select a diary of your choosing. If you go with choice number one, once at the store scan all the possible options and think to yourself “Is this me?” Remember this will be your diary for a long time! Choose carefully!

Check out. Find a nearby checkout counter and pay for the diary. Have cashier place the diary in a bag so it will not get dirty.

chamber of secrets

Every girl has one. Maybe during childhood years or even now as your an adult. It starts in elementary school where it’s pink with a lock and (usually very losable) key. Where

“Mrs. Zac Efron” is scrolled in loopy cursive handwriting across the page, surrounded by hearts and kisses. Where pictures of butterflys and unicorns are messily drawn all throughout the twenty pages. Where the words confess your deepest, darkest secrets - how much you hate your little brother for stealing your favorite stuffed animal.

A diary. A place to keep your secrets and hide your feelings.

As you enter high school, many girls have grown out of the diary stage and are moving to more advanced techniques to record their views on life - blogs, facebook, email, aim and myspace have stolen the simple art of handwriting feelings. Now when there is any news to share, a keyboard is always accessible .

However, some still relied on their diaries to get through high school. Now, diary writing is their way out of reality. Kalani Seaver, a ninth grader at Monta Vista High, explains “A diary is writing secrets no one needs to know about” explains Seaver. “I’m more documenting my time in high school.” A documentation she started in early October. Now, almost six months later Seaver has made it to journal entry number 54. Sitting on the top bunk of her bed, her snoopy covered pajama bottoms and ratty old Oregon t-shirt dim in the lamp light, as her hand flashes across the page with a Staples black ink pen latched in it. Finishing up her last sentence she takes a deep breath and slowly leans back into her mountain of pillows, exhaling as she goes. Lying there for a few seconds, it is completely silent. The street is empty, the house quiet and the only sound of the wind rustling is audible. Without opening her eyes Seaver slowly shuts the cover of her abstract, black bedazzled journal - no key in sight.

Ashley Ding, another freshman at MV, also keeps a diary. But unlike Seaver, Ding doesn’t write anything too personal. “I don’t write about anyone I like because I know someone is going to read it,” she explains. “It’s more of a description of my day.”

A Key To My Heart

Right before bed she grabs her number two pencil and briefs her old pal about her day. Her diary is simple, no elaborate designs or colors, just a plain black diary, with no lock or key. “It helps me clear my head and gives me time to reflect on my day,” says Ding. “I like it.” This sense of writing began in the start of the year, fall of 2009. As the frequency in entries slowly progressed so did Dings passion for the activity.

Katie Walker, a sophomore at the local MV high school, is yet another diary keeper. As she sits in the yellow padded stool her diary rests on the counter top. It’s cover is a clear, see-through case and inside is a bunch of doodles Walker has drawn over the two years. Bending down, Walker slowly jots down her thoughts onto the lined paper. “There is no need to rush,” Walker later explains. “I know what I am going to write and my diary isn’t going anywhere, so why rush.” Although rushing isn’t a problem, Walkers dates are all out of whack. Following no specific pattern or structure, her dates of journal entries jump around from January 9 to February 15 to February 26. “I write when I feel like writing,” says Walker. “There’s no reason for it, it’s just when I feel like doing it.”

A diary can be big or small, plain or colorful, locked or unlocked, elaborate or simple, even messy or neat. They are one of those things that help define you. Whether you write in it once a month or three times a day, it’s your choice. Lock or no lock, key or no key, a diary is what you make it to be.

A how to guide on:KEEPING A DIARY

1850s to 1870sLewis Caroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, kept an extensive diary total-ling up to 13 volumes.

1888 Jack Maybrick, also known as Jack the Ripper, is one of the most well known serial killers throughout the world. His kill-ings took place in throughout the year of 1888 The police hunted him down for years as he continued to rape and kill women. In his diary, he tells the story of his killings and rapings of young women.

1942 to 1944Anne Frank kept a very detailed diary she called “kitty” throughout her years in hiding from the Natzis during world war ll.

Throughout the Years

1945 to 1953Harry S. Truman was the 33rd presi-dent of the United States. He kept a diary including his daily duties as the president.

Now Millions of people around the world invest their thoughts on paper

2. Getting Ready.Scan your bedroom. This will be your “diary spot.” After every diary entry you will place the diary in this spot. Opt for a spot nearby your sleeping area for easy access.

Writing device. You have two options to write in your diary with: pen or pencil. Choose one and put it near your diary (which should now be in its spot.) This will be your diary utensil. Choose wisely! A pen is more professional looking, while the pencil has more of a school like touch to it.

3. Getting Started. Headers. Every journal entry should look relatively the same. Each should have a date on the top right hand side. On the left hand side it should have the words: Dear Diary (another variation of this can be used, ex Dear Journal.)

Writing. You can now begin your entry. Talk about how your day went and the feelings behind it. This can have much variation, depending on your own style of writing.

Signing off. Once you have finished your journal entry it is important to have a signature at the bottom. This can either be your name in print, cursive or any other way you would like to write it. Like the diary entry, this can have a lot of variations to it.

Keyless in Cupertino

Yves

By: Megan Jones Period 5

with learning? An odd, but possibly perfect excuse for forgetting to take notes during that last lecture. Or at least a new topic for the debate team. Lisa Zhang, a sophomore, was stunned when she noticed anti-science stool comments on a survey. “Are you kidding?! Chairs in sci-ence are fun to sit on!” Zhang likes the height of the stools, how they make you feels so high off the ground. She does agree that the stand (for feet to rest) on the science stools is a bit too far down for ‘vertically-challenged’ people. Therefore one can only conclude that the stools live to prey on the petite. Still, if you are the type of person who enjoys sleeping, or at least slouching, in class you might be thrilled by the topic of the chairs attached to their desks. Something about their connectivity stops you from sliding too low (though the same cannot be said for your eyelids). However, 10th grader Yu Yao Chang made a point when she added that they were also hard to move around. “It doesn’t matter what kind of chair I sit on. It’s just more annoying to move the ones connected around for

group work.” Thus, the prejudice of this chair comes out: feast on the sleepy, laugh at the hard-workers. Still, there is one unanimously amazing chair in this high school: the swivel chair. “Rolly chairs for the win!” Nina Behen, a freshman, proclaimed. The art and ceramic chairs seem to be the most fun to sit in. Not only are they cushioned, they also spin, causing much amusement. Sneaky Swivel. Real sneaky. We should have known a chair like you would only grace the presence of those artistees. Close to thefloor.High off the ground.Cushioned back rest.Un-cushioned back rest. No back rest. Attached to desk. Covered in gum. Swivel-y. On wheels. Plastic. Metal. Adjustable. Non-adjustable. There are many types of chairs.

• Take Little Breaks. E v e r y o n e talks in class, so every twenty min-utes of hard work, join in the conver-sation while you stretch. Or fake a runny nose and take a refreshing walk to the Kleen-ex box. Better yet, go to the bath-room and enjoy the fresh air while you do your mini-yoga (doing this every 20 minutes is not advisable).• Pretend You’re a Chicken. Not literal-ly—no need to cluck—but puff out your chest a

little. This helps the alignment of your shoulders so you’re not drooping forward. • Glue Your Back To the Seat Back. Try and keep your back as close to the back of your seat as possible. Don’t lean all the way down to stare at a problem. It might seem easier, but you might just need glasses. When you’re working at a computer, have the screen directly in front of you, so you don’t have to crane your neck.• Be Self-Conscious. Do this for yourself though, not others. By staying aware of the position your body is in, you can fixitifitneedstobe.Leaningdown,shoulderstensedup, or back arched—these details can be the key to fu-ture problems. Stay alert so you can avoid them.

0 STAR: You would be better off sit-ting on a bumpy rock. Heck, maybe this is a bumpy rock. 1 STAR: Uncomfortable, and irri-table, your butt will hurt. 2 STARS: Without a distraction, you will be squirming in your seat. 3 STARS: An average chair. The ba-sic‘L’shape,butnotveryfitforyou4 STARS: Pretty comfortable. You could fall asleep pretty easily.5 STARS: The dream chair. It’s like a cloud—comfortable, entertaining, and relaxing.

Cri-i-i-i-ck. Your spine cracks slowly when while you sit up from your hunched over position. As you stretch your overworked arms out, you hear another crack too. You yawn and arch your back, stretching out with an odd feeling that you’ve been cramped up in a box for a few hours. Once the last knot in your body has had a good tug, you take a deep breath. And hunch right back over your in-class worksheet. Sitting is an act that most do quite mindless-ly. Yet the way you sit affects a lot more than you may realize. The position of your back, not to men-tion arms, neck, and shoulders affect your posture

and can raise the likeliness of future back problems. Headaches, back pain, and constant slouch-ing of shoulders are all problems associated with bad posture. Though your regular stance itself can often be the cause, how you sit and work also factors itself in. Your computer for one—it’s a magnet that draws your neck in, but leaves your back slightly arched. Your homework—it’s so low on your desk you can’t help but lean all the way down on it. Even when you’re listening—you sit slumped in your chair, neck to the side as you stare absentmindedly at the teach-er. It’s not too surprising when statistics say that back pain affects 8 out of 10 people sometime in their long lives. It’s actually costs us about 4 billion dol-lars a year. So what should we do at school to avoid fu-ture problems? Obviously some chairs work better for us than others, therefore shouldn’t Monta Vista need to invest in new ergonimically better chairs? Though it seems logical, a few students dis-agree. “The school doesn’t have enough money, so the money should be spent on things like textbooks instead instead,” theorized 10th grader Emily Xie. “Chairs aren’t the most important.” It seems that in the end, it’s a matter of priori-ties. For in a survey of 50 people, though many were quick to complain about their least favorite chair, only 9 agreed we should get new ones (the most common suggestion being beanbags). We shall just have to wait to become one of the 8 of 10 before deciding we’re sick of crick-crack-ing our backs.

Take a SEAT

“Are you kidding?! Chairs in science are fun to

sit on!”

The Sci-ence Stool

Back straight. Back slouched. Back slumped (trying to sleep). Neck back. Neck forward. Neck turning to the side (where the clock is). Legs straight. Legs bent. Legs crossed (need the restroom). Foot jig-gling. Foot tapping (to the beat of the song stuck in head). Foot not doing anything. Eyes focused. Eyes glazed. Eyes looking focused (but really glazed). Hands folded. Hands clenching. Hands playing rock-paper-scis-sors with friend across room (and winning). Fingers drumming. Fingers holding. Fingers reaching (for that pencil that dropped under the desk). There are many ways to sit in a chair. We are making a special dedication when we arrive at school. Yes, there’s the dedication that we will learn and attempt to better our

minds with education, but we’re also allowing ourselves to be placed in the most suitable environment. For at least 7 hours a day none of us have a choice of where to sit. Our heights and weights along with other unique traits are pushed aside and averaged out in order to better our learning. In each class we have a different chair, which means a different posture and a different comfort level. A freshman and his friend walk into a room. The friend looks up and asks the freshman, “How’s the weather up there?” Most people have become accustomed to 9th grader Ziyang Bian’s 6’2” height. Though Bian appreciates his height, he knows that being tall isn’t always the best thing when it comes to sitting in most classrooms. At most desks, Bian’s long legs get trapped under the writing table. “My knees hit the bottom of desks,” he explains. “It’s really un-comfortable.” He accommodates by stretching his legs all the way out, a sitting style he has now gotten used to. Thankfully, that is the only real problem he faces. Bian does not need to hunch over his paper too much, so long as the person in front of him doesn’t mind an occasional foot pop-ping up near him. This is just one example of a height-biased chair. A popular detested chair is the science stool. Most students at MontaVistafindthempainfulanddown-rightirritating.“Ifindithardtoconcentrate in Bio because I’m uncomfortable in the chairs,” ninth grader Emily Vokach-Brodsky mentioned. Could it be? A chair that interferes

The Con-nected One

HOW-TO:Keep Good Posture

A quick list of things you can do to keep your back as straight as a wall

To Sit or Not to Sit

The RATING Guide

Back Pain: The New Black Plague

Back Pain Affects 8 out of 10 people some-time in their long lives.

This is just one example of a height biased chair

The Rolly Chair

The Normal Seat

By Nassim Moallem Period 5

http://www.buckledcranium.com/articles/chair.html

TheShoe

What does it mean when a girl walks down the hall sporting sparkly gold shoes with purple laces? Or that guy in PE with abnormally colorful shoes? How about that girl that never seems to repeat a pair? For many people, shoes aren’t just something thrown on their feet for protection; it has become a whole new line of vision, a whole new way of thinking. Owning many pairs is definitely a must. And more and more, shoes are beginning to reflect the way people think of themselves or what they want others to think of them.

Monta Vista, like many other high schools in this nation, adds a chapter to the tale of two shoes...or maybe forty shoes. Just like purses and hairbands had their time of fame, shoes are the new fad sweeping schools around the nation.

“Nowadays, there seem to be rules to the way we dress”.

But when it comes to shoes, many people follow the same trends; those that spin off of them seem to steal the spotlight.

Rule number one: Try to be unique like everyone else.

Pooja Pandey, a freshman at Monta Vista High School is just one of these students. Pooja uses her shoes to show off her school spirit. Sporting her sparkly gold converses with bright purple races, Pooja is ready for any school sponsored activity or social. Pooja can also be seen around campus in red, black, and white converses with inspirational words embossed on the side like inspi(red) and desi(red). They aren’t just for looks. The fact is that Pooja also takes advantage

of her conspicuous shoe collection to help the world. The shoes are used to raise money for African children with aids. Pooja finds a colorful way to weave philanthropy into her fashion.

Rule number two: Have an interesting story to tell.

When it comes to variety, freshman Namrata Garg knows the way to go. Namrata owns a number of shoes and many different kinds too.

She owns a pair of boots, two pairs of converses, a pair of flats, two pairs of running shoes, seven pairs of flip flops and badminton shoes, just to name a few. She says the abundance of shoes in her closet helps her express herself and “complete her outfit.”

Every shoe tells a story. Namrata and many of her shoes have gone through something special. “…my awe-some puple converses with paint on them from stagecraft-ing in drama…” For Namrata, shoes are just as important as the clothes she wears or the way she does her hair in the morning. And it works these days, because many people seem to take the time to notice what’s on other people’s feet.

When is it appropriate to wear heels? And when is it right to wear something else? Is there an occasion for one or another? Or is it simply a matter of height? People have always had their preferences during formalities. Shoes have always been an important part of the popular culture and will continue to be so. To heel or not to heel; that is the question.

“I like them,” freshman Nam-rata Garg said, “They’re cute and since I’m, like, kind of short, yeah they make me feel better about myself I guess.” Although Namrata finds heels to be the right choice for formal occasions, she feels that they can be uncomfortable. “They’re alright but they hurt, like you’ll get blisters on your feet really easily. So I don’t have that many of them, I think only one, since I don’t re-ally wear them too often.”

For this reason, many people have discarded heels and have gone with another alternative. “At grad in eighth grade,” she says, “I was going to wear heels. But then I was like ‘I don’t want to be walking up and down those stairs hurting, so I just went with flip flops.”

“Comfort comes first.”

For others, heels are the way to go. People like Pooja Pandey appreci-ate heels. “I know I’m tall, but I still like heels,” she says, “people say they hurt but if you get used to them they don’t anymore so I don’t mind them as much.” Of course heels are always hard to wear to school, but for formal purposes, Pooja believes heels are the way to go. “They look nice, like when you go to parties and stuff,” she added, “And they come in many different varieties.”

Freshman Aditi Nataraj has an-other approach however. “I hate heels,” she says, “They are so pointless even if I’m short. The only time you’ll see me wearing heels is for DECA or some-thing; otherwise, it’s sneakers all the way.” The discomfort of heels seems to be the deciding factor for many people.

To heel or not to heel seems to be a question many people are asking. But the opinions of Monta Vista stu-dents seem unanimous. Comfort comes before looks.

1. More women go with looks rather than comfort2. Flip flops are starting to be considered as appropriate for formal wear3. In North Dakota, it’s illegal to lie down and fall asleep with shoes on.4. Sandals originated in warm places where the bottoms of feet had to be closed.5. The first shoes were made of animal hides.6. There were no such things as left shoe and right shoe until the nineteenth century.7. 15 percent of the female population owns more than thirty pairs of shoes.8. 60 percent of women regretted the last time they bought shoes.9. An average American woman spends about 277 dollars on shoes in a year.10. The average female shoe size is eight and the average male shoe size is eleven.

“The way you dress usually shows how much confidence you have.”

Rule number three: Have a lot.

A shoe addict. That’s what Jenny Han, a fresh-man at Monta Vista calls herself. Owning over forty, she never seems to repeat a pair. The collection began with a deal from her parents that she would get a pair of shoes for every A on her report card. The offer perked up Jenny and she began to study harder, earning shoe after shoe. “So I guess shoes kind of improved my education…” she says, recalling the offer her parents made a few years back, “I don’t really mind studying on my own, like, even if I don’t get shoes…”

Shilpa Iyer is also a freshmen at Monta Vista High School with a bit of an edge. But aside from her cloth-

ing, Shilpa likes her shoes to stand out. With glow in the dark rainbow colored laces on her already bright colored converses, Shilpa’s feet are eas-ily noticeable in broad daylight or in the middle of the night.

Shoes and You

In

To

Heel or notto Heel

Image from www.sxc.hu

Image from www.sxc.hu

Heel in on...

Image from www.sxc.hu

The Mall. A place where minds are lost, money is spent, and consciences leave. Then what makes this machine of a wonder so addicting? Do all people obsess with the way they look? An insider to the lives of two very different girls - and the me in the middle. Manasa Gurumoorthi, a freshman at Monta Vista High School has great taste; and a sense of surroundings. Manasa keeps her shopping to a limit and gets what she needs, and a little of what she wants. “It works well for me. I may only have three pairs of shoes but if I wear them with dif-ferent outfits each time, they still look interesting” Freshman Shilpa Iyer, however, has a hard time waiting to spend her regular allowance. “I have a lot of shoes. I can’t help it, but I like them. I don’t consider myself wasteful...yet. I mean, I get it if I want it, but I use my own money.” I on the other hand believe that I am at a healthful balance. Eight pairs of shoes and a faithful conscience.

“I like to be different,” says Shilpa, “It’s not everyday you can meet some-one with shoes like mine.” Shilpa enjoys creating her fashions as well as wearing them.

“I really like flip flops too for some weird reason.” “I got this glow in the dark paint from home depot a while ago. And it was so cool I had to try it on everything, so I painted my shoes…” Creating what happens to catch the attention of many people brings joy to Shilpa’s creative mind. So whether it helps with learn-ing, expresses true feeling, or saves the world, shoes play a significant role in the lives of teenagers these days. Shoes are every day objects most people take for granted. But it takes only few to start a trend. The continuous thoughts of how to make the world a better place with every day objects sparks the atten-tion of many Monta Vista students.

High Highs and Flat Flats

Image from www.sxc.hu

Boot by Shilpa Iyer

By: Rika Kumar

The Final JudgmentApparently, the world’s going to end in 2012. And it just might happen.

Earthquakes. Explosions. Enormous Publicity. Run for your lives!

«It's going to end!» yelled Indira Purushothaman, freshman at Monta Vista High School, while frantically flailing her arms. «The world's going to end!»

Yes, that's right. The world's going to end. On a winter solstice.

21st December, 2012. What's so special about that date? The

Mayan calendar finished a cycle of the

Long Count on that day. The Long Count is a system of numbering days and has many smaller cycles going on within it. Ending this Long Count means the world's going to end.

At least, that's the rumor. Purushothaman isn't the only person

who thinks the world is going to end. Many people do. There are the believers, the disbelievers and the middle guys. It's the end of a cycle. Things start over again. Which means:

We die. «For the ancient Maya, it was a

huge celebration to get to the end of a whole cycle,» said Sandra Noble,

executive director of the Foundation of the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal Lake, Florida, to USA Today. «To render December 21, 2012 as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting is a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.»

But seriously, how realistic is this theory?

«So one race predicted it,» said Vishnu Narayan, another freshman at Monta Vista. «Big deal!»

The amount of attention this apocalyptic event has gathered is tremendous. Countless websites, numerous books, and several Facebook groups have sprung up because of this. There's been movies, wide speculation and so much more. There was the movie «2012» that released last year, a lot of books that either proved or disproved it and even different papers written by professors specializing in Mesoamerican studies.

Leaving the Maya aside, many religions have talked about the end of the world, with the Christian and Islam versions being the most popular. Both refer to a Final Judgment and God destroying all the evil in the world. But they don't specify any date. Using December 21, 2012 as a doomsday date isn't supported by much proof.

«Doomsday just 2012 years after Christ,» said Viktoria Reichova, junior at Monta Vista. «I think that'd be a bit too soon.»

There are still other ways the world could possibly end. One website, www.survive2012.com, run by author Robert

Bast, lists many possibilities for how the world could end. Most of it seems to be right out of a science-fiction book: Alien invasions, rise of machines, and even a

conflict in the space-time continuum. Sounds crazy?

It is. But there are scientific possibilities

as well. The same website lists the more scientific ones such as pole shifts, solar storms and cosmic rays.

However, some people are more afraid of humanity rather than cosmic rays and pole shifts. After all, with biological warfare and nuclear weapons, humans could very well bring the end upon ourselves

«I'm concerned about people from countries with nuclear weapons, like the terrorists and all,» said Viktoria Reichova, junior at Monta Vista. «Because if they believe this, who knows what they'll do. They may blow up the world.»

The amount of publicity the 2012 doomsday theory may lead to people thinking that they can get away with anything because the world's going to end. One Facebook group, «12/22/12---»Where's your homework?»---»Ummm...I thought we were gonna die,» comically demonstrates this on a very small scale. It's funny, and yet, there's

Ju

dgment Day

2 1 2The volcano in Yellowstone

explodes. A gigantic tsunami is destroying the

world. The government is secretly planning your death. Sound familiar to you? Yeah, that's what happens in the movie 2012, that released last year. This movie is based on the 2012 doomsday theory. It's a decent movie. Not extremely good. There were too many things that were added on just to show off special effects. Even the director of the movie said that this would be his last disaster film, so he wanted to fit it all in. As a result, the movie shows a doomsday that's extremely far-fetched and it has a lot of facts wrong. «It's not going to be all those disasters,» said Vishnu Narayan, freshman at Monta Vista High School. «It's probably going to be a gradual thing that will kill few people at a time, leading up to the 21st when everything is gone.»

Distorting REALITY

It was designed to last 5,125.36 years, a period known as a Great Cycle. It has 5 units 1 day= KIN 20 days= UNIAL360 days= TUN7,200 days= KATUN 144,000 days= BAKTUNDates are written in a point form like the following: BAKTUN.KATUN.TUN.UNIAL.KIN

When the katuns reach their limit, it adds 1 baktun and then, it will reset to 0 for all units except baktuns.

The end of the calendar occurs on 13.0.0.0.0 which is December 21st, 2012.

Mayan Calendar

the slight message hidden in the words. People can't just do whatever they want, just because they think the world's going to end.

«But throughout the ages, people have had a tendency to just- I don't know how to put this right,» said Reichova. «But pick dates, and popularize them using media and everything, and just say something was going to happen, just so they'd have something significant in the future.»

Just so they would have something to look forward to in the future. Somewhat pathetic...

True or not true, the 2012 doomsday theory has received far too much publicity to be good. In the end, even if we don't die from cosmic rays, pole shifts, or alien invasions, we could still die from some of them ignorance that exists in our world.

It is our final judgment. Will man be gullible? Or will man be intelligent?

A vector image of the Earth burning down. Image from sxc.hu

Flickr.com. Uploaded by NCReedPlayer

IMDB.com's goofs page on this movie lists a lot of goofs. And most of them aren't continuity errors like other movies. This one has a lot of mistakes on facts.

Much of the public face of the doomsday theory have their facts wrong. But if they got their facts right, maybe it won't make a very good movie or story. «I loved that movie,» said Shravan Radhakrishna, a freshman at Cupertino High School. He has watched the movie several times, just because he liked it so much. «But seriously, it's not true at all. If the world was going to end, it's not going to end that way.» Entertainment. That's what the movies

are for. Sure, people want their audience to be entertained by what they can offer, but how far can you take entertainment? The movies, books and websites on 2012 can easily distort the actual facts about the Maya and their calendar and the doomsday. The Mayans weren't the source of the end of the calendar theory. Their calendar can't really end. The calendar is like a system of numbers to number days. When this «Long Count» set is done, a new one will begin. That's it. But then it was some people who used the calendar ending to promote a theory of the end of the world. Every long count was an attempt to create the world. At the end, it is destroyed. But if it's an attempt, maybe it's a successful one this time, and then it won't be destroyed. Everything can be distorted. People just need to know the actual fact. It's really important.

Image from sxc.hu

Rumor: Albert Einstein's prediction of the end of the world is true.

STILL WRONG!Albert Einstein said that four years

after honey bees go extinct, the world will end. Honey bees were about to go

extinct a some times back, and nothing's happened yet. Yet, how ever smart he was, I really don't think he could predict the end of the world.

Rumor: A galactic alignment of Earth is going to end it.

WRONG!People say that Earth will be aligned with the center of the galaxy. The only problem is that Earth can never be in the center of the galaxy because it's orbit does not go there. There is a time when it's close, which happens twice a year. I don't think we got world destruction last time there was an alignment.

Rumors Proved WrongRumor: The Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012.

WRONG! The Mayans didn't see time as a linear thing. It was cyclic. So it could never end. They saw things in circles. On winter solstice, 2012, one cycle of time is going to end according to the Mayans. It's like a year. Just because January 1st is over, it doesn't mean that we'll never get a January 1st again. We'll get one next year. It's just like a year getting over on December 21st and another one beginning.

«A doomsday that's extremely far-fetched and it has a lot of facts

wrong.»

“So one race predicted it. Big deal!”

- Vishnu Narayana

-Rohan Prakash

Whether it’s a Polio prevention showcase, thirty-hours of fasting, or a cafe to cure cancer,

Monta Vista’s volunteer clubs have a lot to contribute to charities around the world. Food For All, a relativity small club at Monta Vista, is a divison of a national non-profit organization whose goal is to end world hunger. Monta Vista FFA’s main fundraiser is the 30 Hour Famine, where students can opt to fast for 30 hours. This national project helps teens understand how difficult it is living in poverty and hunger. “ P e o p l e think ‘oh, there’s hungry people e v e r y w h e r e , let’s feel sad for a few minutes’,” says MVFFA’s secretary and treasurer, Junior Anusha Koganti. But through the 30-hour famine, she explains, they are able to feel how hard it really is. This year, the club raised $500-$600 through the famine. Students who choose not to fast can take part in the fundraiser as well, by wearing promotional signs around their necks and asking for donations. “People who aren’t even in our club join [the event],” Koganti beams. “It’s really great.” However, giving up food for a day and a half isn’t the only way MV students help others. They have fun at the same time. Interact’s International night, an eventful evening filled with performances by MV students, raises $4000-$5000 each year. The money raised is donated to a charity benefitting Interact’s annual cause.This year, all proceeds will be donated to a charity in an effort to end

FundingBright red, orange, green, and of course, our trademark purple and yellow posters are plastered all over the sullen brick walls

of Monta Vista. BJ's, Tartini, Baja Fresh, Pizza My Heart, Panda Express, and other local restaurant names are advertised in large block letters. Below them is one word, fundraiser. As a traditional source of raising money, fundraising has been adopted by generations of classes at Monta Vista. However, it is evident that the fundraiser hot-spots are always fluctuating. Many classes rest their funding needs in one of the newest crazies in Cupertino, frozen yogurt. Popular froyo shops, such as Tartini, are very popular and are big money makers as far as class offices are concerned. Class of 2012 Vice president Christina Aguila says «Tartini [was] definitely [one of the most popular fundraisers.] S o m e t i m e s , classes hold event fundraisers as well. Freshman Kyle Gheewala says he enjoyed his class's Laser Quest fundraiser. «It's fun, shooting people.» he says. Manasa Guromoorthi, also a freshman, is not as swayed by the fun simplicity of «shooting people.» She has not attended any fundraisers for her class. «I just don't have enough time, too much work and stuff…» she explains. Getting a ride is an issue as well. “[I'd go to] places closer, like Subway.» she says. “Laser Quest is too far.” Few of her friends show interest in the events either. So what are the best ways to include a majority of your class in the fundraising experience? 2013 class President, Cathy Ang, ponders the thought. I think people have to talk. We have posters, but not like all around the school! [They] should pass it on. Whether it's Link Leaders telling their kids, or teachers mentioning it in class. If we had people's emails, we could send them updates [on upcoming fundraisers.] Right now, it's just more conventional methods like Facebook and School Loop.» Communication can make or break a fundraiser. For example, 2012's annual Pizza My Heart fundraiser often results in a room full of hungry kids. In comparison, 2013's recent Pizza My Heart fundraiser had few supporters and ended with slim gain of $100. «We didn't promo it enough,» Ang admits, «That one was our fault.» Class officers are slowly narrowing down their fundraiser ideas as well, learning from what were some pretty poor turnouts. Aguila chuckles in remembering the sophmore's «fail kareoke

night.» Arranging it the evening of a flip-block day, the “Kareoke Kraze” was not a very big success as many students were «probably too lazy to come back to school,» Aguila admits. Senior, and ASB President, Samuel Lui reminces on his fundraising experiences as class President his junior year. They arranged fundraisers with Togo's, Harvest, and many other businesses. «Harvest was [our least successful], I think- just because it wasn't [a] very popular [restaurant].» Lui says.

Instead, both Lui and Aguila agree that both of their classes raised the largest amount of money selling products, versus having restaurant or event fundraisers. «In terms of getting the most profit, our class sweats were definitely [the most popular.]» Aguila states confidently. Lui concurs «selling lanyards earned us a lot.» The sophmore, junior, and senior classes can make big money off selling class paraphernalia, such sweatshirts or lanyards. However, they

have to make money to spend money. A new class starts off with little money in their bank accounts. Their first year of fundraising is essential for future expenditures such as rally decorations, class sweatshirts, and Junior & Senior Prom. By the end of freshman year,» Lui says, «You have about $8000 in your account. And by end of sophmore year, it's about $20,000- on average. By the end of Junior year, it's about $30,000. And essentially, all that money, or at least a huge amount, goes to Senior Prom.» So, until senior year, when the money raised from shooting your friends, chowing down at your favorite restaurants, or just lounging in sweats, is put to use, there's nothing much else to do than read the multi-colored posters on Monta Vista's brick walls.

Fun

Leo Reynolds Mat_BYoshinari

1.Pizza My Heart

- I like pizza. It's close; convenient. It's the perfect place to go.» - Kyle Gheewala (9)

2.Jamba Juice

- «It's something nice to cool down with.» -Owen

Hardee (9)

3.Tartini Frozen Yogurt

- «[I like Tartini] because it tastes good. It has better

texture and taste than the other frozen yogurt places.»

-Thomas Barber

4. Club Day Food

- «[2013] sold Wendy's. But they had vegetarian

choices. [Another class] was selling Chipotle, but they

only had chicken or beef or something.» -Pooja Pandey

(9)

5.Chipotle

- «They're food is SO yummy!» -Aahana Sahai

- «It's a party in my tummy!» -Pooja Pandey

Polio. Larger volunteer clubs on campus, such as Octagon, hold fundraisers which have become a tradition at MV- and a popular one at that. MV Octagon’s Cure Cancer Cafe is a much-awaited night for both students and their families. According to Monta Vista Octagon’s website,

over 300 people attend each year. The night is packed with lots of entertainment, dinner, and a silent auction. All proceeds are donated to a charity focused on finding a cure for cancer. “[CCC] is a good event. It’s an excuse to be out on a Sunday night, I guess.” Freshman commitee chair, Thomas Barber, laughs. “And its a really good cause to raise money that benefits our whole community.” Over the years, the club has raised $90,000 for the Leukimia & Lymphoma society. Freshman

coordinater, Hadar Sachs says «[Donating money] is good. But it's also about the time you can give to those causes that really make a difference.» Koganti agrees. «It's nice [to know] money, that you're probably going to waste goes to a good cause.» Aside our efforts to raise money for our own rallies and proms, groups at Monta Vista are making an effort to help people around the world. Whether it's searching for the cure that could save millions, or trying to feed the hungry, our volunteer clubs have made Monta Vista a proud contributor to making the world a better place.

Charitable Nights Food, Friends& FUNd$

Monta Vista’s Favorite FundraisersTop 5

Club Day Food

Pizza My Heart

Tartini Froyo

Chipotle

Freshman Class Treasure Thomas Barber waves a bright purple poster around the rally court advertising 2013’s upcoming fundraiser.

“It’s fun, shoot-

ing peo-ple.” -Kyle Gheewala

Freshman Diana Liu searches for loose change to donate to Interact’s “End Polio Now” fundraiser made contest held in 5th period classrooms.

By: Srisruthi Ramesh (Period 5)

Don’t

It’s 2009, when this

year’s freshmen

are still young 8th graders.

The students of Lawson

middle school are happily

eating their lunch. In the

midst of a group of Asians

stands a boy commonly

seen in camo pants. He goes

by Leo, but his real name is

Lehao Zhang (pronounced

Luh-how).

He stands there,

quietly, holding a flat

mud-green container with

rice and yam. Then, Julie

Chen, a fellow classmate

runs up behind him and

yells cheerfully, “Nihao

Leeehaoooo!” In Chinese,

“hello” is “nihao”.

Born in Beijing,

Zhang moved to America “a

long time ago, in a galaxy

far far away.”

After moving to

America, Zhang decided

to change his name to

Leo not because of fear

of his fellow classmates

butchering his name,

but because his teachers

couldn’t pronounce it.

However, he did “get a

lot of ‘Leo the Lion’” from

his classmates. Now, as a

9th grader, he is used to

correcting teachers on the

first day of every school

year as they mispronounce

his name.

“I’ve heard a lot of

stuff. Mostly it’s Lee-hoe,

but I heard this one guy

pronounce it Lee-hoi-ya. I

mean, seriously what the

****”, says Zhang

After graduating

from elementary school,

Zhang moved to middle

school, where he would

realize that his real name

wouldn’t be butchered by

teachers anymore.

“I get used to the

teachers, but then my

buddies in my class from

last year who know

my name would start

snickering, so I swear at

them later.”

Apart from

indirectly flipping others

off when they call “Nihao

Lehao”, Zhang responds in

ways that are “not school

appropriate”, with the

more mild being directly

showing his middle finger

or glaring, shaking his

head, and walking off.

After being taunted

by Julie, Zhang turns

around slowly, faces her,

and deliberately pushes his

glasses up with his middle

finger with the other

fingers bunched into a fist.

Uninsulted, Julie runs on,

laughing.

I’m Sorry, What Did You Say

Your Name Was?

Names. Whether it be long, short,

common, rare, we all have names.

Names are meant to be as an identifier,

something used to call others and catch their

attention. They are unique, ranging from three

letters long to as much as twenty letters long.

However, they are sometimes too unique…

in a way that makes it hard for others to

pronounce.

Immigrants make up a part of America’s

population, and when immigrants move to

America, they must choose an English name.

Or they can directly translate their

names to English- vowel for vowel.

However, there is no set list of how to

translate a foreign word into English. Take

the Chinese surname “徐”. In English, it is

pronounced “Shu”. However, there are many

others ways to spell that pronunciation, and

with so many Chinese people with the surname

“徐”, there are bound to be many spellings for

that. For example, “Shiu”, “Xu,” and “Xiu” all

stand for the same word.

What does that mean? That means

that people in the same family might have their

surnames spelled differently in passports

and other important documents.

Translating names aren’t the only

aspects of foreign names that cause

headache, confusion, and quite often,

embarrassment. For example, take the

real life experience of the author Firoozeh

Dumas, author of the book Funny in Farsi,

which talks about her experiences in

America after immigrating from Persia. One

story tells us of her at the doctor’s office.

When it is her turn to see the doctor, the

nurse calls out her name. After struggling

for a few seconds to pronounce her name,

she ends up calling her Fritzy Dumbass.

Of course, these situations occur

here at Monta Vista too. Varchita Alishetti,

a freshman, is very familiar with having

to explain to new teachers and substitute

teachers how to pronounce her name. Born

in the U.S, Varchita’s parents decided not to

give her an American name. They wanted

to give her a “true Indian name so she could

be more, like, an Indian in that sense.”

“I’ve been called Varshana, Varshetti,

Varchata, um, Varshata, and Varsha. Oh,

and I’ve been called Varshita too,” says

Alishetti. “Basically, almost all the teachers

I have had have mispronounced my name. They

always pronounce it as Varshita when really it’s

Varchita like cheetah not sheeta!”

Whether being called a name rhyming

with cheetah or sheeta, names are something

that each person holds dear. People feel attached

to their names, no matter how much abuse their

name has taken, or how…average their names

are. After interviewing Varchita, Yingjia Lee, and

Sai Yerruguntla, all fellow freshmen, separately,

they decided that they wouldn’t change their

names if they had the chance.

“A name is something that people call you

by that is for yourself only. If I change it, I wouldn’t

really feel myself,” Lee says. On Gmail, his name is

Steve Chow.

Lee’s name was directly translated into

English from Chinese, but he was born in America.

Maybe his parents just decided not to come up

with a regular English name for him, or maybe

they just didn’t know they had to.

Not only does Lee have to deal with the

fact that teachers cannot pronounce his name

properly on their first try, he also has to accept

the fact that his name rhymes with Ninja, leading

to new nicknames having to do with Ninja Turtles

(Coincidentally, a while ago, his favorite game was

Ninja, where people try to slap their opponents’

hands).

But of course, having to correct teachers

and subs is also really quite tiring. Pretending to

be angry, Yingjia recalls that back when he was

still in 8th grade, his social studies teacher mixed

up his name with a girl’s name, Yanbing.

Sai Yerruguntla, however, has had quite

different experiences with her name. Perhaps it

is the fact that it had proven useful in the past.

According to Yerruguntla, “In seventh grade, we

made this version of Bill Nye the science guy

called Sai Y. the science guy. People sometimes

call me Sai Y just cuz it rhymes.” Then, with a smile,

she says, “My name rhymes with a lot of things.”

No matter useful, boring, or embarrassing,

names are a part of us. It is ours and ours only but

everyone we know uses it. Whether it be names

translated from Chinese to English or from a

language from India, names give people identities,

makes life easier for humans, and occasionally,

brings a little bit of humor to life.

Throw Pots and Pans DownYour Stairs...

Ni hao Lehao!!!Names For

Your Baby

...To Name Your Chinese Kid

Fun Facts About Names:1: Every Child has the right to have a name: According to Article 24-3 of the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, every child has the right to own a name. This is because children born in war zones and places with poverty might not have regis-tered births.2: There are about 88,000 different last names in America, which has a population of approximately 3,000,000 people. In contrast, China has less than 400 unique surnames, with a population of 1.3 billion people. 3. There are more girl names than boy names (about 4 times more)

Most Popular Boy and GIrl Names in America

Boys: Girls1. Jacob 1. Emma2. Michael 2. Isabella3. Ethan 3. Emily4. Joshua 4. Madison5. Daniel 5. Ava6. Alexander 6. Olivia7. Anthony 7. Sophia8. William 8. Abigail9. Christopher 9. Elizabeth10. Matthew 10. ChloePhoto from Flickr. Uploaded by Karmic Intuition

Unpronounceable

-Tiffany Wang

Photo by Ophelia Ding

Photo from Flickr.com. Uploaded by misterbisson

I blog for myself, you can read if you like.

And so begins Noa Rosenberg’s blog. Her screen name is Noa Rose, but de-spite whatever demureness this title may imply, Noa Rosenberg is anything but.Noa, a sophomore at Cupertino High, has been chronicling her life online for awhile, “I’ve been blogging since I was little. I love to write when I was young-er, now it gives me a sense of order and organization.”Her blog is an account of her days, her emotions, the tiny events in her life. It’s a collage of pictures, quotes, dec-larations of love, hate, and everything in between. It’s a look into the mind of Noa Rosenberg. She never censors herself, every detail of her life is typed out in size 10 helvetica on a clean white screen.The topics and the lengths vary. Some posts consist of only a line: ‘crossing my fingers for tonight xxxxx’ while oth-ers almost encompass full pages. Noa rambles, rants, and raves about every aspect of her world. She writes about her relationship with her boyfriend, the chem labs she spends hours working on and how lonely and isolated she feels from her peers. Her lows and her highs and everything in between are displayed where everyone can see them, but Noa writes for herself.“It’s my tumblr,” Noa explains, “I write

IT’S A BLOG, BLOG W O R L D

in it for my own nostalgic purpose.” Noa writes without obligation. Her posts are entirely selfless and without discretion. “I should be relieved that today is over,” she wrote last week, “but I’m just more nervous for tomor-row, and wishing I had more time…for EVERYTHING.” A few weeks before that she posted, “I just want to go to sleep until this passes. And aside from my anger, I am just really sad. I thought things were better than last year but they’re not. It’s your fault for thinking they trusted you more, they are still dic-tators and still act like dicks. I just wish you had been smarter.”She writes without her audience in mind. Noa is aware of them but does not give them anything or attempt to gratify them in any way. “When people ask me about things that are on my blog and ask me why I would post that where everyone can see it I just tell them off. They don’t have any right to the things that I post and say. People always try to make it about themselves when it’s really just about me and my problems and issues. It’s my life.”We are welcome to take a look into her world but we are not welcome to in-trude. Noa Rosenberg will only allow you a few freedoms when it comes to her life.

M y tumblr is my virtual journal, with the things I’m not afraid to share.

Nicole Berge is a guarded person.She is loud, talkative, and speaks her mind. But she knows when to hold back and if anything, she believes in privacy. Her tumblr reflects this. It’s a collage, a mix of pictures and videos and song lyrics. Posts about her life or her thoughts are rare. And if they are there- they’re hidden and vague.“I feel like posting your entire life on-line is weird,” Nicole says, “I don’t want other people to be able to pick at how I feel and what I do. It’s my busi-ness.”If you want to decipher Nicole’s life, look at the pictures. They’re all taken from other sites, flickr, and various blogs. She hasn’t taken any of them but you can see the difference in choice and the emotion behind them.Three weeks ago she posted 3 separate pictures. All of houses. Similar ones; sturdy with two windows and a white door, brick walls, wooden ceilings and chimneys. One had a porch, the other a rose garden.A week before it was beaches. A girl on a pebble beach flying kites, a couple with their backs to the camera looking at the ocean, another couple sitting on the sand kissing.“I like having my privacy,” she ex-plains, “I like the pictures because they’re really beautiful and they can

explain things when words fail.”

Blogging is appealing to the teenag-ers of today be cause it is a way to be heard, a way to get your words and opinions and feelings out into the inter-net and world. With blogging you can connect with the rest of the world. You are given the means to find a way to be-long to something, to someone. Thus is the appeal of the internet, you can find the one person in the world who has ev-erything in common with you. You are given an outlet to be yourself or who-ever you want to be.

BLAHBLAHB L O G

BLOG BREAKDOWNFor those who are overwhelmed by the choices, here are the 3 top blog platforms broken down so you can start your blog the right way. So, do you want to blog...

for free? for $$$?

as a hobby? as a career?

hosted? with your own domain name?

with html/css?with simple posts?

photos? text?

TUMBLRWORDPRESS

BLOGSPOT

MOVABLETYPE

Created by Yasmin Majeed!

DEAR COKE TALK:The advice column of the blogosphere - Coke Talk is one part Dr. Laura Schlessinger and all brutal honesty. Sometimes she takes pity on you if your question is pitiful enough but more often than not she will provide a big, fat reality check. She tells you everything you never wanted to hear and ev-erything that anyone else would hesitate to tell you. Coke Talk boldy goes where Ask Abby never dared to venture. (www.dearcoketalk.tumblr.com)

MAGIC MOLLY:Molly Young keeps it personal. Her blog is an array of small chunks of writing. She describes her style as, “little things I see during my day.” She cop-ies down conversations overheard in Central Park, descriptions of people on the Subway. Her observa-tions and wit are on the level and always fresh and always. (www.magic-molly.tumblr.com)

FIRMUHMENT: Justin Wolfe breaks all the rules with his new-est blogging enterprise: firmuhment. Named after an ancient Jewish word describing the tilt of the Earth, Firmuhment is un-like any other blog. It is a collection of photo and document scans that are artistically and literally edited by hand, personally by Wolfe himself. “Blog-ging is an artistic outlet for me,” Wolfe says, “It’s a way for me to be me.” (www.firmuhment.tumblr.com)