Read The Voice’s previous Blogs at: http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=1390 and http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=1515
Much praise for Star Testing (May 12, 2004)
For everyone that has ever insulted Star Testing or dreaded it, I just have one thing to say: you are all fools. Star Testing has allowed me to relieve so much of my stress that I can actually stay awake during the last period of the day. Granted, a few years back, during 8th and 9th grade my parents excused me from the test and I was able to sleep in until noon, but going to the tests doesn’t rank much lower. Because of the simplicity of the tests I was able to finish 1 hour before time was up for the first two days and get some more sleep. I look forward to senior year and not going at all, but I am still thankful for the State of California’s decision to give us these surprisingly easy assessments.
–Kevin McCoy
Pointless feedback (May 12, 2004)
As a foreword: when submitting feedback to the site, I can not stress enough the importance of including your information (accurate information, please) in the fields provided. We at the Voice can not take your feedback seriously if we have no opportunity to contact you or to at least attach identification to the comments. If you have spent the time to submit your feedback and voice your opinion on a subject, why not spend 10 seconds to enable us to post it? We will not "tattle" on you, remember the Voice is an open forum for student expression.
On a similar note, I got a piece of feedback, not posted because the author decided not to give us his/her personal information, that was essentially a complaint towards my Prom recap story and a suggestion that I relax and enjoy life. They said that it did not represent Paly’s opinion of the prom, and quite frankly it was not supposed to. It was my opinion, hence my name as the author and its placement in the opinion category. I had a wonderful time at Prom and found it to be some of the best money and time I have spent in high school, but there were certainly some extremely inappropriate goings-on. The advice to relax and enjoy myself more is misguided, because more often than not I do, and my comments were fueled by the extreme inpropriety of the events. FInally, simply because one person condones certain actions, most probably because they were participating, does not mean that the rest of us have to agree. To agree for the sake of being "against the system" and "standing up for our rights" totally defeats the purpose of having an opinion.
–Timon Karnezos
Tired of hearing about stress (May 3, 2004)
I am tired of hearing students whine about stress, and tired of watching the administration spend time trying to fix stress.
Perhaps people forget that the stress we get in school is entirely self-induced. We choose how many AP classes to take, we choose the difficulty of the classes we take, and we choose how much work we put
into each class. In other words, we are the ONLY factor in how stressful our school experience is. Anyhow, school is supposed to be at least partially stressful! It needs to teach us a good work ethic, and part of that is putting a lot of pressure on us to work. The administration should really stop worrying about how stressed out we are, and The Campanile should stop writing stories about our stress.
–Sam Badger
Should boys shave their legs? (April 28, 2004)
I have a friend named Peter who shaves his legs. At first I thought it was kinda weird, but now I think it’s a good idea. But here’s the deal, if you are a guy and you want so start to shave you need to be sure to keep up with it cause no girls wants to see prickly legs, just like no boy wants to see a girls hairy legs. It was really sad the other day because Peter actually had smoother legs than me. And if you are a guy that shaves his legs, make sure that you never make fun of your girlfriend for having pricklies.
–Amanda Dotson
Peter keeps whining about SATs on Saturday (April 27, 2004)
Shut up you senior…you’re already into a college and it’s your second semester and you don’t have any more work. This Saturday I have to get to Paly at seven because I am on standby for the SATs. How much does that suck…I am on standby…After the SAT’s, I have a soccer game at two. Then I have to do my hair and makeup and get ready for prom…Oh wait this is where Amanda comes in.
–Peter Lenke
Whining about self-inflicted stress is unnecessary and annoying (April 27, 2004)
I have a few friends that I shall leave unnamed that happen to whine about their stress and how tired they are because they were up to 4am doing homework. After hearing him talking about sleeping 2 hours and I got my usual 7 I had to ask when he started his homework. He replies that he started at 2am. Now, this is just frustrating because my friend procrastinated all afternoon by talking on aim or watching TV. I don’t know how many of you readers have friends that whine to you about their homework overload and staying up too late, but make sure not to sympathize until you here the amount of hours. Just a warning, if I hear someone whining about staying up past 3am and I find out that they only did one to two hours of homework I will smack them.
–Kevin McCoy
Amanda’s schedule for the day (April 27, 2004)
So while Peter is taking the SAT, I will be doing my last-minute tanning at the pool. I’ll probably take a nap to catch up on my beauty sleep, then I’m getting my makeup done and meeting my five dates at my house to take pictures. Watch for the six hot girls getting out of the ’77 Rolls Royce at prom around 6:45. That’ll be us. 🙂
–Amanda Dotson
I’ll still have fun (April 27, 2004)
After my game, I will struggle to get into my tuxedo and make it over to my friends house to get into our limo…now I am not as cool as Amanda and we have a normal limo, but it will still be fun!
–Peter Lenke
The summer blues (April 26, 2004)
Has anyone else ever gotten a summer cold? They stink! It’s pretty much the same thing as a winter cold, but because it is so hot out, it doesnt feel good to stay in bed and you can’t really eat chicken noodle soup, or drink hot tea to make yourself feel better. All that you want to do is sit in a cold bath all day, but then you start to get the chills, which is horrible! Anyways, this is a stinky way to start off the spring. By the way, in case anybody wanted to know, me and Maggie found dates for the prom (If you have no idea what I am talking about, please read the blog below). Guess who they are? Each other! In fact, we are going with two other couples made up of two girls each as well. We all sat down and talked one night and decided that if the guys at are school didn’t want to ask us, then we would just go by ourselves. We all wanted to go to our SENIOR prom, and we weren’t going to let not being asked get in our way!
–Amanda Dotson
What the heck is wrong with me? (April 20, 2004)
Why hasn’t anyone asked me to prom? Is it because I have a boyfriend that’s in college? Is it because I’m weird? It is frustrating because I really want to go to my SENIOR prom. I am too scared to ask any guy because I’m worried that he would only say yes because he feels bad. Please explain this to me! Am I gross? Is it because I won’t hook up with you at the after party? If you ask me by Friday…I’ll go…but under one condition. My friend Maggie and I come as a party package. 🙂 If you want to ask one of us, you need to have a friend to ask the other. HAHA
–Amanda Dotson
Spring Break is so short! (April 13, 2004)
Wow… away from school for a week. It felt shorter than a weekend (for me at least). The dread of returning to school made every day feel no longer than an hour. When’s summer? When’s senior cut day? When’s the next 3-day weekend? I need a new break! And I bet everyone else in school feels the same way.
–Sam Badger
Making videos (March 26, 2004)
Making videos for econ really sucks. I’ve cut several classes to finish this stupid video. Why is it so excessively hard to make a video? Why do our teachers assign gigantic projects with so many technological liabilities? Can’t we just forget about technology?
–Sam Badger
A luminous addition to Paly athletics (March 26, 2004)
An attempt to incorporate lights into the Palo Alto track and field stadium is under way. The prospect of this exciting addition to the high school atmosphere will without a doubt make the high school sports experience more enjoyable. Additionally the community will have events to come together at each respective sporting event. To appease and make the experience most beneficial to the Palo Alto community as a whole, the lights will be used within the range of 15 to 20 times per year. As an athlete at this school I eagerly look forward to competing in this type of atmosphere. In attempts to make this transition as smooth as possible, a constant effort will be made to please the school’s surrounding environment
–Nabil Balamane
Best of wishes (March 25, 2004)
One of our beloved staff members of the Paly Voice, Greg Walder, is getting surgery on his foot today. All of us on the staff know that everything will go just as it’s planned and we are hoping for the best. Today’s blog is dedicated to the speedy and healthy recovery and return of Greg. Best wishes from us all on the staff.
–Peter Lenke and the Paly Voice staff
Students reluctant to check out rejection letter wall (March 23, 2004)
Twenty-five students have turned in their rejection letters to be posted on the rejection letter wall in the quad. Unfortunately other students seem reluctant to go look at it because they seem afraid to check it out. It seems like other seniors will not look at it for the fear of being embarassed. the whole point of the wall was to not make people feel embarassed! I see freshmen at brunch and lunch looking at it, but no seniors! Hopefully as the wall grows with letters more students will feel alright with visiting it.
–Amanda Dotson