sebastian6blog

With Black Friday coming up on Nov. 27, people are thinking about the best places to shop. Follow this flowchart to discover stores in and close to Cupertino that offer Black Friday deals, as well as alternatives for those who don’t like shopping or want to avoid the craziness of stores during this day. Check the map for directions to the locations.

Sports, for many, are a form of entertainment. There’s a reason that games get played so much on TV and fans are willing to pay over $100 for tickets to Los Angeles Lakers games. In fact, the popularity of sports has grown so much that we now have Major League Eating and a World Armwrestling League, which hosts 214 competitors. Spectators want a show. They want to see players score unbelievable touchdowns and game-changing buzzer beaters, or, as Matt “The Megatoad” Stonie did in 2014, eat 120 twinkies in six minutes. They want to vicariously experience the intense pressure of the last minute, the unpredictability of it all, the ultimate triumph or defeat of their favorite team. However, this excitement can lead spectators to overlook the more subtle artistic side of sports: the players’ styles. If more of us could learn to recognize athletic style, then we might find a new way to see sports, a deeper appreciation for beauty that can extend into the bigger world.

Style is how the players pull their moves, whether those moves are showy or ordinary. The way an arm snaps when it shoots the ball. The weightlessness of a body as it jumps into the air. The strategic leg movements in an arm wrestling match. Even the sound of the ball swishing through the hoop. While flashy moves still require immense skill to pull, spectators more readily see them as indications of a player’s personality. The more discrete stylistic elements might then better reveal a player’s raw skill.

However, many fans miss that talent presented in less flashy forms because they focus on athletes who put up a show. Physical education teacher Jeff Thomas compared Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs to Shaquille O’Neal: while both are some of the greatest, O’Neal outweighs Duncan in popularity simply because he plays with more flare, more personality. The BMX bikers chosen to participate in the X Games are typically those who do backflips, tailwhips — the flashy tricks; that’s what most spectators want to see. But what looks most attractive is not always the most artistic. A BMX biker can simply air a dirt jump — performing no tricks — and do it with more style than someone who does a double backflip.

Style means the subtleties that do not immediately strike the masses, that only the trained eye might register. According to Thomas, being able to recognize style requires extensive experience in either playing or watching the sport and the ability to appreciate the human body — specifically, the human body in motion — as well as the coordination required to perform such movements. Devoted sports fans and players tend to have developed these skills and can more readily see the beauty that underlies the flash.

“The way Steph Curry shoots is a work of art,” Thomas said. “His shooting stroke, it’s a work of art. It’s perfect. His form is perfect. There used to be a guy named Ken Griffey Jr. [who] played baseball, and his swing was so smooth and looked so effortless, and he hit like 600 home runs. It was a work of art.”

Style can be found anywhere, from the exhilarating moments invincible to time, such as Vince Carter’s “dunk of death” over the 7-foot-2 Frédéric Weis, to the fundamental moves like passing or shooting the ball. However, that style is often either overpowered by flare or unnoticed simply because the play was relatively ordinary. For example, a typical three-pointer during the second quarter won’t receive more than a quick cheer from the crowd. But that style is there. It may not immediately jump out, but it’s there.

The same beauty in the popular sports lies in the more atypical ones. Competitive eating isn’t just about cramming food into your mouth and gulping down water to wash it down. That might be exciting to watch, but there’s an art that lies below. According to professional competitive eater, William “Wild Bill” Myers, a skilled eater must strategically plan when to switch between swallowing and eating more, chewing frequency and which bites to take. These little strategies might be difficult to spot, and are perhaps less exciting to watch for than someone relentlessly gorging himself with food. But if more people can develop the eye to notice such details, then we can learn to see sports as arts, to see beauty in a world plagued with superficiality, commercialism, conformity. We must slow down in this fast-paced world and appreciate the simple elegance behind the chaotic complexities in sports and beyond.

Co-written by Om Khandekar

At the start of each school year, students in physical education are given their own lockers to keep their belongings safe when they’re in class. Over the years, the physical education teachers have noticed an unsettlingly high frequency of personal items stolen from the locker rooms. The reason? According to P.E. teacher Jeff Thomas, many students leave their belongings out on the benches beside their lockers, or sometimes forget to put the locks back on their lockers, making it easy for others to steal.

“The main problem is, kids don’t lock up their stuff and then their stuff gets stolen, or misplaced,” Thomas said. “It could be everyday or every other day, or once a week. There’s no timetable for it.”

Only a small number of individuals comprise the population of thieves. Thomas explained that it is only a couple of students out of the twenty-three thousand that steal. That number, though small, is enough for students to lose belongings every week.

Thieves can be anyone.

“It’s not some sinister guy in a hood stealing your things,” Thomas said. “Sometimes it’s the guy right next to you.”

According to Thomas, thieves typically strike when a class comes in before another one finishes, and one person out of that entire class goes through the backpacks that are lying out. Another common time for theft to happen is during the seventh period classes, when coaches sometimes leave the locker rooms unlocked for sports teams to come in.

He also noted that theft occurs much less frequently in the girls’ locker room. Girls who steal tend to get caught quicker than the boys do, for some unexplained reason.

The P.E. teachers tell students who have belongings stolen to report it to the office. However, this does not ensure that students will have their stolen items returned. Student conduct liaison Thomas Michaelis, who handles most of the theft investigations, states that he has a never caught a thief, and that there is little that the school can do to prevent theft. He is too busy with other duties to monitor the locker rooms. While installing security cameras in the locker rooms would be effective, that would be against the law.

Because theft has been a big problem, and cases typically remain unresolved, Thomas stated that the most effective way to prevent theft is for students to lock up their belongings. This may seem like a simple precaution, but some students do not feel the need to lock up.

“I heard someone crying because she lost like $70, I think,” freshman Katerina Pappas said, “and I went to check in my wallet because I had like $15, but it was gone.”

Pappas and her friend, freshman Karen Sanchez, both said that during their third period P.E. class, many of their peers do not lock up their backpacks like the P.E. teachers tell them to. One day, the girls entered the locker room to a scene of panic and fear as many other freshman discovered that someone had gone through their belongings during the period. Ultimately, when they reported the theft to P.E. Teacher Mrs. Jensen, she merely stated that the kids should have locked up their belongings in their locker like they were told to in the beginning of the year.

Sophomore Steven Ataee says that both “safety in numbers” and “pure laziness” cause him to leave his belongings outside. Even after being stolen from, Ataee doesn’t hesitate to leave his belongings outside on the benches.

“I keep my wallet in the phone pocket of my backpack, which is really obvious, and I have lost money — people have just taken it out,” Ataee said. “For about a week, I did lock up my stuff, but after that, I was like ‘Nah, it’s okay.’”

Whether students lock up their belongings is a personal choice, but because locker room theft has shown to be a big, perhaps once underestimated, problem.

“Lock your stuff up, lock your valuables, even if you’re just walking away to the bathroom,” Thomas said.

Co-written by Amanda Chan

Each year as fall rolls around, a new group of seniors is introduced to the college application process — deciding which colleges to apply to, requesting recommendation letters, and writing the personal statement. But almost as challenging as filling out the application itself is deciding where to spend the next four years of their life.

---

How three seniors are deciding where to apply to college

 

Senior Ameya Pandit

When considering schools, some find the college’s ranking crucial, while others stress a specific environment. Senior Ameya Pandit, who is looking to pursue aeronautical engineering, is basing his decisions mainly on the strength of the engineering programs that colleges offer.

“All the UCs basically have aeronautical engineering, or any engineering. I’m applying to Rochester, which is in New York; it’s really cold, but it’s really good for engineering, which is what I want to go for,” Pandit said. “Purdue, University of Washington, again very good aeronautical engineering schools. They fit the bill.”

Beyond the majors that the schools offer, Pandit is considering location, size, tuition, and, of course, how he is planning to live there without his parents. These, according to Pandit, are the major factors, but he also wants to go to a place which offers extracurriculars and a social setting.

“For example, UC Santa Barbara is next to the beach, so I’d expect to go to the beach, if I get in. It’s a bunch of systematic decisions,” Pandit said.

At MVHS, where there is plenty of competition and pressure to succeed academically, students can often be swayed by the name and prestige of colleges. Top-notch schools such as Princeton and Yale receive an overwhelming number of applicants each year because of their reputation. Many MVHS students strive to attend the high-ranked schools in the country. Pandit believes that the status of a college shouldn’t play a huge role in deciding where to apply to.

“To an extent, yes, [students should care about prestige]. But it shouldn’t be your decision maker,” Pandit said. “It shouldn’t be something that makes your decisions for you, but something that makes decisions easier.”

For Pandit, the name of the university is just a name.

“Prestige doesn’t mean much to me although I know that for some people, it does mean something,” Pandit said. “As long as I have an education that I can use to find a job in the future, I’m better off.”

---

Senior Daniel Lin

Senior Daniel Lin said that he was raised to look for prestige when searching for colleges, listening to his parents’ suggestions of schools such as Harvard and Stanford. However, as he started to do more serious research and gained a better understanding of his career goals, he no longer cared as much for a school’s reputation, and began looking into other factors.

Lin is considering schools with research programs for economics, such as University of Chicago, rather than schools which offer mainly economic classes.

“Since I’m going to business, I’m starting to focus more on the hands-on stuff or the programs that the college has for me to actually explore,” Lin said. “I think that college is time meant for actually starting my career, and I need to start making that transition from being in the classroom to actually going out to do things.”

Lin also stated a school’s location as an important factor. Because he has lived in California for all his life, he wants to experience something different. He said that big cities in the east coast, such as Chicago and Philadelphia, would be enlightening environments.

---

Senior Adhiraj Datar

Senior Adhiraj Datar first cited academics as the biggest factor that he considers when choosing colleges. Datar said that he wants a school with an academic culture and learning environment that suits his interest in computer science.

According to Datar, a school’s cost and location are also important factors. Datar pointed to the University of California in Berkeley as an ideal school, but said that when looking at the the more expensive private schools, he would consider financial aid offered and available scholarships. Because Datar wants to stay near his family, he would prefer to attend college in California.

When Datar was presented with the choice between a fitting but less prestigious school and a high-ranked but less fitting school, he said that he could not decide on one.

“I can see both sides, really. My parents would kind of pressure me to go for the more prestigious school. Honestly, I might take the more prestigious one; another day, I might take the more academically suitable one.”

 

We can’t let community stereotypes prevent Cupertino from building a skate park.

Early Plans

In 2000, Cupertino was ready to build its skate park. There was high demand for one. The city had everything ready — the committee, the money, the architect — but all that was beat into dust and pulp by one factor: opposition fueled by misconceptions of skateboarding.

People not involved in skateboarding culture must stop assuming negative stereotypes about the activity. Only then might Cupertino finally gain the needed support to build that highly-beneficial skate park. The chance to fulfill that plan is here. Let’s seize it.

About fifteen years ago, there was high demand for Cupertino to build a skate park, and the city passionately supported the project. According to Christine Hanel, Cupertino’s Senior Recreation Supervisor, Cupertino had a skate park committee, which was made up of city staff, a councilman and teenagers from the community that wanted a skate park. The city had funding for the park and had even hired an architect. But there was one problem: finding a suitable place to build it. Since there were no vacant city-owned lots, the city had to look at existing city parks to build the skate park.

Finding physically suitable places was not the biggest challenge; getting the neighbors to agree with the plan was.

“We had to try to identify parks that maybe were kind of quieter parks or that have the space to accommodate a skate park,” Hanel said. “Then, once we identified those few parks, to be honest with you, the community was really in an uproar over it.”

The Backlash

Junior Greg Ellis, a passionate skateboarder, believes that those who don’t skateboard often ignorantly assume that skateboarders “smoke pot” or “vandalize property.”

Hanel said that some people believed a skate park would invite certain disturbances.

“There could be loud music, there could be graffiti, there could be profanity, there could be smoking,” Hanel said, “so a lot of the activities that sometimes accompany skateboarding, neighbors were very concerned about.”

With these preconceived notions in mind, neighbors of potential skate park locations began to protest. When city money is used for large projects like building a skate park, the city is required to host public meetings for anyone to attend and voice their thoughts.

“The people began attending the parks and recreation commission meetings, they began attending council meetings,” Hanel said. “We even had a specific neighborhood meeting that was specifically for that topic of the skate park, and lots and lots of people came out, and most of them were against the skate park.”

A Call to Action

The skate park wasn’t going to happen. Sunnyvale got theirs, Redwood City got theirs, but not Cupertino. However, Cupertino didn’t give up there. Hanel and a colleague looked into the idea of mobile skate parks, which are ramps that can be driven around on trailers. In 2002, the city purchased five ramps, which costed about $40,000, and drove them around on their two city trucks to various parking lots for skateboarders to ride. The problem with that, however, was that the parking lots typically had rough, asphalt surfaces, and the skaters wanted smooth ground. The interest in the mobile ramps died out, the ramps themselves began to wear down, and as a result, they were put away forever.

It’s time that non-skateboarders start to question the stereotypes they have of skateboarders and start to see the benefits of building a city skate park. Hanel noted that in the early 2000s, when the city had a larger skateboarding population, many skateboarders were being ticketed for riding around on city property. A skate park would have given them the legal haven to perform their art without damaging property or receiving outside interference.

“If Cupertino had a skate park, it would change the setting to a more positive, a more active environment,” Ellis said. “It occupies kids to do something and have a good time, and it just establishes a really good environment and community.”

The benefits for a skate park are there, but in recent years, Hanel has observed a decrease in the number of skateboarders in Cupertino. Hanel notes that she no longer sees as many skateboarders around the city, and is unsure whether the activity has grown less popular or if the skateboarders are going elsewhere to skate.

“Meanwhile, the demographics of the community have changed, and I just haven’t seen as much of a need for [a skate park], and it hasn’t come up at all,” Hanel said, “I don’t ever get calls about if we have a skate park. And in the early 2000s, we would get calls.”

While Cupertino’s skateboarding population may have grown smaller over the years, the community should still try to help the few who still love skateboarding and want somewhere to do it. Perhaps one reason skateboarding has died out in Cupertino is because the skate park was never built, and so fewer people were getting into it. While building a skate park now might only satisfy a small number of people, it would eventually draw more people into the sport, and Cupertino may one day see the vibrant skateboarding community it once had.

Newfound Hope

Fortunately, there are upcoming opportunities to revive that skateboarding spirit that skate-enthusiasts should now take. According to Hanel, citizens will have their chances to voice their ideas concerning city parks soon.

“The city of Cupertino currently has begun a park masterplan. Basically, what that means is, the city has hired a consultant to come in and assess our park facilities,” Hanel said. “ And so there are gonna be opportunities for the public to weigh in on the sorts of things that they want to see in their parks. So there’s going to be a lot of public meetings that are gonna be coming up.”

Hanel urges anyone with concerns regarding city parks—not just of skateboarding, but of other activities too—to attend these meetings to voice their thoughts. She recommended Teen and Parks and Recreation commission meetings, as well as City Council meetings. The specific dates and times can be found here.

Cupertino has fought a long battle in pursuit of building a skate park—the city had the funds, the fans, the means—but false assumptions about skateboarding destroyed those plans, those hopes. People must stop fostering a community driven by stereotypes, whether based on gender, race, or participation in skateboarding. If anyone wants to see a skate park be built in Cupertino, now is the perfect time to speak up, to break the harmful misconception.

Click here to check out the print story, Skate of Mind for more on MVHS skateboarders.

Attending school in the technology-centered Silicon Valley, students may devote more time to the STEM subjects, focusing less on required fine arts and applied academics courses. However, these classes develop students in less obvious ways, such as building visualization and handyman abilities. Five staff members and students give their opinions on the benefits and disadvantages of the fine arts and applied academics credit requirement, with a general consensus that it helps students become more well-rounded.

Industrial technology Teacher Ted Shinta
Shinta feels that art builds outside skills.

BENEFITS: Art can really help a student develop their ability to visualize and to imagine things. Many studies have shown [that]people who listen to music [or]appreciate music do better in math.

DISADVANTAGES: I guess the disadvantage for the student is that they’re forced to take a class that they may not necessarily want to take.

Senior David Deng
Deng feels that while fine arts classes can benefit some students, they often waste time.

BENEFITS: I feel like you can possibly be more well rounded this way.

DISADVANTAGES: Say someone just absolutely sucks at art and is interested in something related to engineering or business… then I think that doing art related stuff is a waste of time. I mean, you take an art class, you’re not gonna be made an expert from this kind of thing.

Senior Amol Upahdyay
Upadhyay feels that certain fine arts/applied academics classes can turn out to be enjoyable.

BENEFITS: I had to take photography because of a fine art [requirement], and I thought it was going to be a really boring class, but it actually turned out to be really fun.

DISADVANTAGES: I feel like I didn’t learn anything that would have helped me through the future [in an applied academics class I took].

Assistant Principle Mike White
White believes that applied academics courses can be very useful and bring no disadvantages.

BENEFITS: What I learned in my woodshop class [in eighth grade], I still use those skills to build things around my house, around campus, so they were very useful skills. And that’s one that people don’t see the benefit of it; you might not until much later in your life, when you go… “How do I hang the door, how do I route out a piece of wood?”

Art Teacher Jodi Johnson
Johnson believes that art classes teach students to think critically.

BENEFITS: I think for some classes, there’s a lot of critical thinking that goes along with it that you don’t necessarily get other places in school. For example, in the 3D Design class, or in what used to be the ceramics class, there’s a lot of things where you’re actually required to design something and then follow through with that concept.

DISADVANTAGES: [Maybe] students feel like they want to spend more time on their academics, and doing their studying and doing their homework, but I just feel like having that break in your day is so healthy.

photo by Kingsley Wang

This summer, the city of Cupertino painted its bicycle lanes bright green to make them more visible to drivers and safer for bicyclists. The cost was $249,000. While the city certainly deserves applause for making an active effort to make the routinely chaotic trips to school safer for cyclists, more action must be taken. On its own, painting the lanes green simply doesn’t offer adequate safety for bikers.

Of course, painted bike lanes do have tremendous benefits. The vibrant color causes drivers to pay more attention to cyclists. According to an article by Mercury News, a report concluded that after painting select bicycle  lanes in Portland, Oregon, road safety increased significantly—the number of motorists in those areas that yielded to cyclists jumped from 72 to 92 percent, and the number of drivers that then slowed down for cyclists increased from 71 to 87 percent.

As comforting as these improvements may seem, it is still not enough. A study on Portland cyclists found that while cyclists in an urban or suburban street felt a comfort level of 2.2 (on a 1 to 4 scale) riding on painted bike lanes, they felt a comfort level of 3.2 riding on bike lanes physically separated from traffic by curbs. It is important that cyclists feel safe on the road, and clearly, painted bike lanes alone do not offer sufficient comfort. A memorandum from Howard Wolfson, counselor to former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, stated that when bike lanes in New York City were physically separated, accidents for drivers, bikers and pedestrians fell by an average of 40 percent. This study shows that more improvements aside from painted bike lanes make a significant increase in safety.

We cannot settle knowing that there is still a chance, regardless of how small it is, that some drivers will not slow down for bikers, especially during the early morning rush for school. We must strive to maximize safety for bikers, which can be achieved through adding enhancements to the road. Installing Botts’ Dots—plastic, semi-spherical pavement markers that drivers can feel when driven over—alongside bicycle lanes makes for a viable option. If installed, Botts’ Dots would let drivers feel that they are going into the bicycle lane and prevent potential collisions with cyclists. Plainly painting the bike lanes green is only a reminder for where the bike lanes are; it cannot prevent careless drivers from intruding upon the bike lane, but Botts’ Dots can increase the chances of stopping reckless drivers.

As a matter of fact, we already have a plan for installing Botts’ Dots that is ready to use. In the 2014 TED project contest, a team of Monta Vista students designed a $1,000 plan for planting Botts’ Dots around the city. Though people supported the idea, it was not the winning proposal. Now that we are more aware of the importance of road safety, it would be smart and convenient to finally implement that plan.

Solutions besides putting in Botts’ Dots include separating bike lanes with curbs, teaching safe cycling and driving practices, enforcing stricter speed limits around busier areas and fining drivers who are caught going into the bike lane. These changes would make drivers more careful. Individuals must learn to change their mindsets about biking—they should treat bikers with equal attention as drivers, and instead of bikers and drivers viewing each other as dangers or annoyances, they must learn to share the road and accommodate for each other’s busy commute schedules. These mindsets can be taught through school, campaigns and city signs.

The green bicycle lanes are a great start, but we must not feel satisfied enough to stop here. The city should continue to make changes to increase road safety—it’s a never-ending process of improvement.

Reported by Kingsley Wang and Sebastian Zhang