We invite you to read and respond to The Paly Voice‘s ongoing staff blog, where we talk informally about the Voice, campus life, and other things on our minds. Enjoy — and click on the feedback link on the bottom if you want to participate by adding your own comment.

The start of something new (September 14th, 2007)

School has been in session for almost three weeks. That means that most of us have fixed our schedules, made new friends and settled in for a new school year. Many unlucky people have even taken tests.

We at The Paly Voice are enjoying the beginning of a new year. Returning members have adjusted to the change in leadership. We went from five Editors-in-Chief to two, a somewhat drastic change. There is also the implementation of a new managing editorial board, in addition to section editors. These managing editors have more power than section editors and have specific jobs that they do to maintain smooth running of our Website.

In addition to the new editors, we have many new staff members this year. It is interesting to note all the new faces in Voice. We have fewer staff members than we had last year. There are no sophomores this year, a difference from the ten or so we had last year.

We recently chose our beats for first quarter, testing out a new system. Traditionally, the editors-in-chief assign beats based on a list of choices from each staff members. Despite a push from our sports managing editor to have the managing editors assign beats, we attempted a new system that relies less on the staff’s ability to compromise. As usual, the name of each person was listed beside the beats that he or she had stated an interest in, but this time, each staff member was offered an opportunity to remove themselves from beats they didn’t really want. In the end, we culled the original list containing five or more people who wanted a beat, generating a new one with one or two people per beat.

We’re currently working on new stories to put up on the site. Some have gone up already, and many more are in the works. Among those stories are two derived from our first guest speaker, new Paly Principal Jacquelyn McEvoy. Our other guest speaker so far was Mike Lanza, a local entrepreneur and blogger, who spoke to us on Monday regarding his latest enterprise.

Returning staff members are also busy creating a manual to be used by future staffs. Each person was assigned a topic covering a part of the Voice admin section.

This year, Voice is sharing our lab with Viking, the new Paly sports magazine. There have been some minor disagreements in the lab, but we hope to work out these issues soon.

I am excited to see how this year progresses. Look forward to many articles from The Paly Voice.

-Vienna Tran

Following in the footsteps of giants (May 14, 2007)

Well, we’re nearing that time of year again. Before you know it, teachers will start cramming in the few remaining lessons of their courses like crazy, students will start deciding what type of pen they’ll want to use for yearbook signing, and (possibly the saddest part of the end of the school year) our seniors will say their goodbyes and graduate from high school. With almost 15 seniors out of a 29-member staff graduating this year, it makes me wonder what Voice‘s staff will be like next year without them all around. If you haven’t done the math yet, that’s about half of our Voice staff members who won’t be returning for the 2007-08 school year.

The fact that all of our seniors will graduate entails a major change in Voice‘s leadership, personality, and life for next year. Our seniors filled all of the editor-in-chief, section editor and webmaster positions this year. Our seniors wrote the daily agenda on the board and conducted class discussions every day. Our seniors taught the rest of us the undying Voice traditions of “pen tossing” and the unique “Voice high-five.” Without the seniors to help lead the way, I’d hate to imagine what would have happened to us sophomores and juniors if we had been on our own.

Nevertheless, next year, we will be on our own, without this year’s seniors sitting right next to us and pointing us in the right directions. Granted the Voice staff will gain new members, and granted the editors-in-chief have already made decisions regarding who will fill the seniors’ leadership positions next year, but, as the saying goes, “nothing is better than the original.” As talented and hard working as our staff will be next year, there’s no way that our seniors’ empty spots will be perfectly replaced.

I still anticipate being a staff member next year and await working for Voice under a new set of leaders and seniors. Yet, all I can say for now is I hope that the rest of Voice‘s staff will do all of our graduating seniors justice and continue the tradition of an outstanding and distinguished Voice program next year.

-Gillian Lui

One in 26: An interview with Paly “Voicer” Susan Haynes (May 14, 2007)

We at the Paly Voice feel it is important for the public to know a little inside information about our staff members and be acquainted with the real people behind the stories. Based on Campanile’s “1 in 1700, we have decided to hold our own interview section, titled, “1 in 26”, 26 being the number of students on Paly Voice. Today, junior reporter Hallie Kennan will interview junior reporter Susan Haynes.

HK: Hello Susan.

SH: Hey Hallie.

HK: So are you excited about your position on Voice next year?

SH: Ya! Next year should be really fun.

HK: Would you care to tell us a little about your position next year?

SH: Well, along with Emily Brody I will be a Sections and Publications Managing Editor. This basically means we oversee the sections and maintain good relationships with Campanile, Verde and InFocus.

HK: Hm, sounds pretty cool. So I hear the more freckles you have, the smarter you are. And seeing as how you have lots of freckles, does that mean you are very smart?

SH: Ya I’m pretty much a genius. The more time I spend in the sun, the smarter I get.

HK: Well that’s neat, I bet you write really excellent stories on Voice then with all your intelligence.

SH: You know it! Be sure to check out my new video verbatim on Voice’s front page.

HK: Ya I saw the video, its really spiffy. Speaking of Voice, though, what do you like most about the class?

SH: Hm let me think…I like the people, especially Sarah Flamm. No seriously though, I like that Voice enables me to try new things. I’m not just writing stories – I can make a video, a podcast, a photo essay, and much more.

HK: Wow, podcasts and videos, you must be a sav with the technology.

SH: (laughs) I’m definitely technology deficient. I’ve gotten better this year, but I still kinda suck. I can barely turn my computer on. I’m learning as I go, though, and it’s fun.

HK: Alright, well that sounds great. Do you have any parting words for people who will be reading this interview?

SH: Um, no. bye.

HK: Great! Thanks for talking to us today,

-Hallie Kennan

What an elementary school education can do for you (Feb. 27, 2007)

I believe in the old adage “You learn something new everyday.” During Voice on Thursday, Feb. 1, I learned that I am a faster typer than my fellow sophomores Philip Homnack and Dan Schwartz. Philip asked me if I wanted to try this online program that calculated one’s words per minute (WPM) and typing accuracy at http://www.typingtest.com. I said sure, and did it. I retyped as much of a story about various successful companies as I possibly could in one minute. Meanwhile, Philip was moaning and groaning to Dan about how I was “killing” their typing score.

I ended up having a pretty decent WPM speed of 102. Philip never told me how fast he could type, but I’m assuming that the number was less than 102. I’m definitely not trying to gloat here, but I think just knowing that I can type over 100 WPM was pretty cool; I guess those mandatory Walter Hays elementary school typing workshops helped after all!

At Walter Hays, I remember having to meticulously learn the locations of every single letter on the keyboard, memorizing the “best” wrist positions for optimal typing, and then taking weekly tests to gauge our typing improvements. Though I found those workshops to be tedious and dreary as a young elementary school student, today, I appreciate the merits of having completed those typing programs. I think that taking the typing test definitely was a minute well spent during class.

-Gillian Lui

Where did all the Vikes go? (Feb. 8, 2007)

Recently, our teacher advisor, Paul Kandell, assigned every person in the class a successful alumnus to write a profile about for Voice’s new addition, the “Viking Alumni Composite.” He stated requirements for the project – he wanted a distinct profile that concentrates on an alumnus’s life at Paly, such as their favorite classes and activities while attending school. This meant having to contact the alumni and interview them for the article. I quickly grabbed the sign up sheet and wrote my name down next to James Franco’s, one of Paly’s more successful alumni and by far the cutest.

After coming to terms with the fact that Franco has already been interviewed for a Paly publication (twice), and that an international movie star would be extremely hard to contact, I decided to change my alum to Timothy E. Johnson, a 1960 Paly graduate who founded a premier investments council in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although he was slightly less glamourous, I thought he would be easier to contact. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

The “Viking Alumni Composite” really sharpened my skills in online researching. What began as a simple google-search resulted in hours of Yahoo! People Search, nondescript Web sites, and several awkward phone conversations with company secretaries. After countless class periods exploring the wonders of the Internet, I was finally able to find Johnson’s phone number and email address.

Others on Voice weren’t so lucky. Susan Haynes, a fellow reporter, managed to pick Ormond Dale McGill, a 1931 Paly graduate and acclaimed “Dean of Hypnotherapy.” After searching every possible information center and several episodes of banging her head against the keyboard, she began to question McGill’s existence.

In the end, the “Viking Stock Composite” proved to be fulfilling for me, but frustrating for others. While I got the oppotrunity to discuss the differences between contemporary Paly and 1960s Paly with Johnson, Susan got several large bruises on her forehead.

-Emily Brody

Coming soon to The Paly Voice (Feb. 2, 2007)

I’ve never been into comics. When the Pokemon phenomenon hit our generation circa third grade, I never collected one card. Eventually all my friends’ obsessions stopped, and we all moved on to the next “big thing.”

But now, at the ripe old age of 16, comics are back. And this time, I’m jumping on the bandwagon. However, I won’t settle for just reading and collecting. I’ve joined forces with Hallie Kennan and Emily Brody, and together we are going to create our very own comic entitled “Vike Tales.” Dorky as it may be, the three of us are very excited to bring a different form of entertainment to the Voice. This comic will follow the lives of two Paly students, Vinny and Veronica: average teenage students by day, superheroes by night.

However ordinary this comic strip may seem, it is not your conventional, two-dimensional pair of heroes. Something is very different about Vinny and Veronica, something that has (most likely) never appeared in a comic strip before; The Viking pair needs school spirit to function. It is their duty to maintain a healthy level of spirit to ensure the safety of the school and all its students. Be sure to check Voice soon for Vinny and Veronica’s debut!

-Susan Haynes

Point and…shoot (January 17, 2007)

In my short time on staff of the Paly Voice, I have found myself to be a key photographer, taking pictures at many sports games. My main frustration is my camera. It’s semi professional, but it still remains as a point-and-shoot. It’s more than a few years old, and the annoyingly slow reaction time makes it difficult to take the perfect action shot. As well as missing a key burst picture function; it lacks flash-fill and a quick shutter speed.

My first opportunity to take pictures at a major sports game was at the CCS Football semi-finals against the Palma Chieftains. When I first walked out to the field, I felt humiliated by the sheer diminutive state of my camera compared to the other professional cameras on the field. Here I was with a small wide-angle lens slapped onto an out-dated point-and-shoot, and every other photographer was loaded with at least two cameras and a two-foot sports lens. I had no tripod, and the attached flash wasn’t helping me at all. The worst part was the cold. It was so icy that my trigger finger didn’t even work effectively, but the main problem with the cold was the camera’s batteries. I had enough memory for over 200 pictures, but the chilly weather affected my battery so much that I had about 10 minutes of juice left by the second quarter. It was quite ridiculous, I spent the rest of the game constantly turning on and off my camera, and during the quarter breaks I kept the battery warm in my pocket. Well, I learned my lesson: bring gloves and extra batteries.

I also struggled with getting the perfect picture at a basketball game. The flash made for better movement shots, but it gave everything a white fluorescent hue, rather than the natural beige stadium coloring. My dinky lens made it hard to get good shots unless they were close to me. Overall, out of all the good action pictures that I took, they were much too blurry to be used in any of the stories.

-Phil Martin

(Hopefully not) lost in translation (January 6, 2007)

Let me just say I have a huge appreciation for Constance Garnett for her translation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina from Russian to English. Translating a short news story into another language, I have discovered, and maintaining the author’s voice and intentions is very difficult, even when fluent in both languages. I can’t imagine translating an 800-page novel.

I recently came up with the idea of having a new feature on The Voice called “En Espa?ol,” which aims to attract an even larger readership and a different reader population, by hopefully adding native Spanish-speaking students at Paly and their parents who may not speak English. The feature initially involves translating headline stories from English into Spanish. (I have tried using online translators, but have found they are inaccurate, and instead decided to translate stories by hand.) I have grown up speaking Spanish, and speak fluently, but I still find translating hard.

I think the idea of bilingual journalism really interesting. In interviews, being able to speak with people across language barriers without a translator expands one’s options. I am a huge Reggaeton fan. (Hey, don’t laugh.) Listening to La Calle (105.7) I admire the completely bilingual radio DJ “Carmencita,” who switches flawlessly from Spanish to English mid-sentence. She speak both languages fluently, without a trace of an accent.

Well anyways, with “Carmencita” and Garnett in mind for inspiration, I will continue translating stories. Keep an eye out for the “En Espa?ol” logo at the bottom of head line stories in the near future. Hasta luego!

-Sarah Flamm

What’s the difference? (December 11, 2006)

Herbology. Be Blunt. We’re higher than you. Phrases like these, written upon student worn t-shirts, resulted in serious school consequences for those miscreants who dared to stick it to the man. Though the shirts became a childish political statement than a drug joke, the administration punished students for the illegal substance innuendo. So why am I still talking about this more than a year later? Well, (to be blunt?), I’ve only recently noticed the numerous student sport sweatshirts worn on campus. It appears that Paly sports has a tacit tradition of highly suggestive mottos. I believe that if the administration takes action, as it did against Herbology students last year, it needs to take complete and fair action. What’s the difference between the seniors’ “Seniors: We’re higher than you” and track’s “We used to get dirty, but now we use rubber?” What’s the difference between being blunt and badminton’s “We do body shots?” Oh wait, there is a difference: the marijuana shirts only suggest an attraction to cannabis while the badminton sweatshirts can only refer to players’ apparent affinity to boozing. In any case, I find it remarkable that some students can get away with wearing alcohol apparel while others can’t with innuendo.

~Siddhartha Oza

Voice update: redesign, tech projects aplenty (November 28, 2006)

Why, hello again! Whew! It’s been a while since our last Blog entry. We have been focusing on new features and an overall site re-design lately (stay tuned), but we’ll try to keep blogging regularly from now on.

Just a recap of what’s been going on recently on the staff:

We are moving forward with some serious and creative projects. Broadly, we look to create a new look and feel to Voice by doing a full, site redesign. Our refinished site will hopefully include some long-standing projects like the scrolling news ticker and weather box. It will also include our long-desired and recently-created project of putting PDFs of Paly’s print publications online. The most recent copy of The Campanile can be found in the left bar on Voice. This project has once again proven the prowess of Voice’s innovative staff. Moreover, it looks to strengthen the ties that bind us to our paper-copy siblings.

Our beginning journalism “cubbies” (as they’re fondly called) emerged from the 214 cave into the real world computer lab and we’ve already seen some great contributions from them. This Thanksgiving weekend Dan Schwartz filled in for our regular football beat writer, Carey Schwartz, and covered the CCS football game Friday with the help of Michael Bloch taking stats and Philip Martin taking pictures. We are really excited to see our sophomores getting opportunities to cover big events, and experience real-life journalism. Way to go cubs.

Until next time.

-Sarah Flamm and Siddhartha Oza

NSPA journalism convention a fun trip for all (May 18, 2006)

Early Friday morning on April 22, sixty students from beginning and advanced journalism classes gathered at the University Avenue train station to attend the 2006 National Scholastic Press Association journalism convention in San Francisco.

Amidst bleary eyes and yawns, the sixty-something students boarded the train and geared up for an exciting and educational two days in the City. After arriving in San Francisco, the throng of students trooped down the sidewalks of the city to the Hilton Hotel, where the convention took place. Upon arrival at the hotel, ???Home Base??? was immediately established around a cluster of couches where everyone could return throughout the day.

Workshops began at 9 a.m. and the convention catalog outlined hundreds of possibilities, from leadership training to creating your own newspaper layout. The Paly Voice was scheduled to give two presentations on web journalism. Paly students dispersed to their different rooms to learn about the joys of journalism. The classes generally consisted of a speaker lecturing or leading an activity for an hour before dismissing the students to their next class. At noon, groups of four or more were allowed to roam the city for lunch, with a bevy of delectable Indian, Thai, Japanese and Italian restaurants within a block of the hotel. Classes resumed after lunch until 4 p.m., but if one of the countless seminars offered didn???t appeal, the Grand Ballroom had been transformed into a marketplace of booths for advertisers to peddle their wares and give away free pens to student journalists in hopes of sparking an interest in their product. To the delight of teenage boys and girls alike, Miss Seventeen, college freshman Jennifer Steele, was present to take pictures with, having given an anti-drug lecture earlier that morning.

After classes commenced, the Paly journalism students and teachers checked into their hotel. In the heart of San Francisco, surrounded by a gigantic H&M, Urban Outfitters and countless other stores, the free time before dinner passed quickly. For dinner, the Paly group feasted on Thai food, and the 25 family-sized dishes ordered almost seemed insufficient for the 30 students who stayed to spend the night. Of course, the highlight of the evening was the dance at the Hilton Hotel, hosted for members of the journalism convention. Though it had potential, boogying with a few other unknown journalism students from around the country in a room the size of a large house wasn???t that appealing. Paly students created their own party back at the hotel that far surpassed the dance.

The next morning, journalism advisors Mr. Kandell and Woj awoke the sleepy students with warm bagels and orange juice to energize them for the busy day ahead, beginning with a presentation on the Paly Voice. The turnout to the lecture was pleasantly high and audience members were involved and interested throughout the session. The format for the class was a forum of speakers at the front of the room from each Pacemaker finalist website, discussing ideas, concerns and questions. The Paly Voice???s best friend website, Silver Chips Online, was present, and fast friendships were formed between staff members as they discussed the behind-the-scene information of running a website. The trip ended with an awards ceremony in which Voice won the Online Pacemaker award and Verde won ???Best in Show??? award. The journalism convention was an excellent way to fuse education with fun and will hopefully become a tradition for future journalism classes as well!

-Eleanor Byler

Former editor out-tosses champ (April 7, 2006)

He tosses and SCORES! Thomas O’Connell, former co-editor-in-chief of this publication, won in the sudden death round of the Pen Toss Championship after tying with Voicecast extraordinaire and former Pen Toss champion Alex Ochowicz.

After a grueling thirty minutes of competition in which three other tossers were eliminated, O’Connell managed to score one point, which secured him a place in the final round, where he vanquished Ochowicz after nearly ten tosses.

Ochowicz initially dominated the competition, although new
staff member Mia Pond put the reigning champ on the defensive.

“I felt really proud of myself as a novice [at the Pen Toss],” said
Pond, who had no previous tossing experience prior to the
Championship. “It really motivated me to try harder in the dog-eat-dog sport of pen tossing.”

Adam Heeger, a veteran tosser, was the clear loser in the competition. Through all four rounds he lagged behind Pond as well as Ochowicz and O’Connell.

In the middle of the third round, teacher advisor Paul Kandell entered the championship as a dark horse competitor. Though
gaining ground early on and overtaking Heeger, Kandell failed to place among the top tossers.

“He had a lot of good tries,” Ochowicz said of Kandell’s below par tossing. “He rushed a lot and had poor execution.”

In the sport of pen tossing, the objective is to throw a dry-erase pen across a classroom, landing it on the narrow metal three-inch tray at the base of a white board. The exercise requires an immense amount concentration and aim. The best tossing technique involves throwing the pen in an arch, bouncing it off the board, and landing the pen in one of the three groves in the tray.

After four rounds of two tosses for each player, only two were left
standing with any tray landings at all. Ochowicz and O’Connell were the only two players who scored, tying them both at one. They entered a sudden-death round, each competitor tossing one pen after the other. Ochowicz led the lightening round, and intitially seemed the stronger competitor. In a surprising conclusion, O’Connell’s last toss ricocheted off the board and landed soundly in the tray.

The crowd went wild as O’Connell became the new Pen Toss champion, becoming forever a part of Paly Voice lore.

-Aditi Bellary and Sam Sheldon

Previous staff blogs can be found at the following addresses:

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=3758

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=3577

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=3277

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=3106

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=2989

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=2520

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=2204