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Trey’s Take on Technology

September 16, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org Leave a Comment

by Trey Lucatero

Have you gotten home late at night and struggled to wrangle your little charger into that tiny little socket at the base of your phone? You’re not the only one; millions suffer every year from this. Recently, Samsung has introduced a stock addition into the Samsung Galaxy S6 which allows for wireless charging. With the one-time purchase of $49.99, you can completely negate this nuisance. UnknownWith this wireless charge, you can stumble home in the dark, drop your phone on the charger, and fall fast asleep–without having to realize fifteen minutes later when you’re contemplating the meaning of life that you forgot to plug your phone in. In Samsung’s new model, they have introduced many quality-of-life additions (e.g. an “edge” display, Unknown-1improved camera, and increase in size for visibility) to this phone, and I think this one takes the cup for the most innovative, helpful, and time-saving addition.

 

Filed Under: Media, Uncategorized Tagged With: Charger, iPhone, Phone, Samsung

Jim’s Fun Camp: “You’ve Got Mail”

September 16, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org Leave a Comment

IMG_0820By Jim Wang

On a lighter note, to help us get through a long week, Jim translated a humorous Chinese story for us.

A couple was going on vacation. But, the wife was on a business trip, so the husband went to the destination first, and his wife would meet him the next day.

When the husband reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email.

Unfortunately, when typing her address, he mistyped the email address and his email was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had just passed away the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

                  Dearest Wife,
                  Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

Unknown

Filed Under: Humor Tagged With: Camp, Email, Fun, Jim, Joke, Mail

Five Fashionable Fantastic Fingernails

September 14, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org 2 Comments

By Ashley Zhou

Although the summer vacation is over, summer still continues at PVS. Walking around on our campus, you will see not only the beautiful sight of Palm Valley, but also bright colors on many girls’ nails. They stand out from the dark uniforms.

( Guess whose nails are these. Below are the nails of Ashley Zhou, Irene Guo, Ms. Lee, Karey Graves, Anna Kleckerova. Which nails belong to whose fingers?)

 

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Filed Under: Visual Arts Tagged With: defiance, dress code, fashion, fingernails, rebellion

Utopia: from an Eagle Scout’s Point of View

September 11, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org Leave a Comment

By Amber Zheng

World Literature class last spring devised their own Utopias. Students drew their ideas from Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia”–agreeing or disagreeing or elaborating upon the model. Of course, “Utopia” translates into “No where.”

Utopia is broadly considered to be the ideally perfect society. However, it’s far from reality. David Kocen, last spring, expressed his own thoughts about Utopia. He believes that Utopia is an idea with flaws. From his perspective, Utopia is not going to work. The following are some excerpts from his World Literature essay.

“I do not condone the creation of a utopian society if it cannot be done without excessive bloodshed and hardship for the people. Since I believe that this is the only way to accomplish the creation of Utopia, we should instead focus our efforts on making what we already have better, instead of completely overhauling all of society.”

David asserts that it is necessary to get rid of people who don’t fit the idea of Utopia. Moreover, certain number of population needs to be removed in order to give all people in the society enough opportunities: “It is my personal belief that the only way to succeed in forming a Utopia is to get absolute support. This would mean exiling or killing those who do not support you.”

Unfortunately, the Utopian society still won’t work even if we remove those who are opposed to it, because: “Humans, by their very nature, tend to be more interested in accomplishing their own goals rather than bettering the whole. We are not to blame for this. It is simply evolution trying to be as efficient as possible in insuring the survival of humans. Sadly, evolution has only one tool and that is survival of the fittest. The fittest could help the week, but unless everyone else helps the weak as well, the fittest will be taken advantage of by those who seek only their own gains. It is sad but true……we are too unstable to create a truly utopian society without negative emotion. It just does not work.”

Having said that the Utopia itself will never be a success, David doesn’t think striving for it is a bad thing: “feelings and thoughts are what make us unique. Everyone responds to different things in their own ways. Without individuality and variability, life would be too bo
ring. What is the purpose of living for eighty something years if it is just false smiles and blissful repetition? …… A Utopia, in the common sense of the word, is just a nation filled with meaningless joy. That does not mean that we should not strive to m
ake the world a better place. One of our main purposes in this life is to create a better habitat for the children that we bring into the world. While complete success is impossible and meaningless, motivation for improvement keeps us going through life. We will never succeed in creating a complete Utopia, but we can strive for it. And, with each success, we will achieve a genuine smile on our faces. If we are lucky, we may even get some other people to smile with us.”

*Introductory graphic by Amelia Wang, for World Literature class.

Filed Under: Letters, Visual Arts Tagged With: Amelia Wang, David Kocen, Sir Thomas More, Utopia

Meet Our New International Students . . .

September 10, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org Leave a Comment

by Gaven Li

TODAY, . . . MEET NIKOLOZ (NICK) TSIKARISHVILI

We have many new international students this year in the Palm Valley Upper School. They come from Georgia, China, Germany, etc. Today, meet Nick from Georgia (and . . . not the Georgia next to Alabama).

Q: Tell us something about yourself, Nick.
A: Hi, my name is Nikoloz Tsikarishvili. I’m a junior, and I come from Georgia [the country off the Black Sea]; now I live in Palm Springs.

Q: So, what do you think about America?
A: I like it here, so far… I think it’s great, and the people are really nice here.

Q: What about Palm Valley? Is there any difference between Palm Valley and the school you went to before?
A: Yes! There are so many different classes, and….Wow, I don’t know. I mean, pretty much everything is different from my previous school.

Q: Okay. Did you join any team or club?
A: Yeah, I joined the football team.

Q: And how’s that going?
A: We haven’t played our first game yet. We are still preparing for it, and we practice very hard. I hope this season will be great for our team.

Q: Great. It’s not easy to get used to a brand new lifestyle, right? What do you do over the weekend?
A: Emmmmm… I do my homework, exercise a little, rest, and get ready for Monday.

Q: Cool! What’s your favorite class? And, the class you find the most difficult?
A: I think Math is really difficult, and AP biology is difficult too, but I like it–that’s my favorite class

Q: Do you have any trouble at school so far?
A: Oh yeah, I had trouble with my locker… I couldn’t open it. And, Christian helped me out.

Gaven: Alright, thanks Nick; let’s go to practice.
Nick: Okay.

Filed Under: Set Up and Welcome Tagged With: international, Nick Tsikarishvili, student, welcome

Meet Our New Teachers . . .

September 9, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org 1 Comment

by Chloe Sweeney

This year we have had an influx of new energetic teachers. These teachers come from all over the country to join the Palm Valley family. Their varied backgrounds are surprising and welcome here in the desert!

Let us introduce you to a few . . . .

Ms. Sweet, the new Spanish teacher, was born and raised in Rhode Island. In middle school, she and her and her family moved to Mexico. She and her sister were both placed in a school where no one spoke a bit of English. This situation forced her to become fluent, and she still believes the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. She returned to the states and attended Georgetown University in Washington D.C. At Georgetown, she majored in Global Health and studied other languages including Portuguese. Though her degree is in Global Health, she decided that she wanted a career that was more hands-on. After college, she got a job as a Spanish teacher for elementary kids in Rhode Island. She had always wanted to teach high school, so when she heard about the job at Palm Valley she decided to pack up and move across the country. She packed up her car and her puppy Logan and drove across country. She is getting settled at Palm Valley, and she is extremely excited to coach Cross Country for middle and lower schoolers.

Mr. Krause is the new AP World History and Geography teacher. Until now, he has lived his entire life in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up playing baseball and is a HUGE Cubs fan. He is really excited to coach the Varsity Baseball Team this spring. He played baseball at Wheaton College where he double majored in secondary education and social sciences. He just graduated college this May, and while looking for a job he stumbled across Palm Valley. He came out for his interview and loved it. He was very excited to escape the Chicago traffic and Mid-West winters.

Ms. Lee is now teaching Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-Calculus in the Upper School. Her previous job was at a public school in the Bronx, a rough neighborhood in New York. She is so grateful to be teaching at a school where the students know how to behave and have a desire to succeed in their studies. She was born in Korea and moved to New York when she was seven years old. She attended the City University of New York, where she majored in math for her bachelor degree and math education for her masters degree. Both of her parents were math teachers so she always told herself that she would never teach. When she was a senior in high school, her mom again mentioned teaching (and the summer breaks!). Ms. Lee started to consider a career in Education. When she went down to Baja California on a mission trip where she worked with local children, she was hooked. This experience helped her realize the value of education and inspired her to be a teacher. After many years in New York, Ms. Lee was very excited to leave the craziness of the city  and move to the peaceful Coachella Valley.

Filed Under: Set Up and Welcome Tagged With: Mr. Krause, Ms. Lee, Ms. Sweet

Maniacal Movie Madness

September 9, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org 3 Comments

by Gaige Griffin

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As an avid moviegoer, I’ve seen a lot of things. Some good, some bad–mostly bad though. However, I’ve been very impressed lately with how good recent horrors and thrillers have been (with the exception of Ouija). Horrors and thrillers are my favorite genre, so I tend to be very critical of them, but movies like Unfriended and The Gift I genuinely enjoyed. So naturally, I was thrilled to see an advertisement for a new horror movie coming to theaters: The Visit. It seemed decent; it had points that seemed to be paying homage to classic possession film–the good ol’ “creepy grandparents are even creepier than we thought” schtick. I was excited to see this with my group of buddies that I go to the movies with. Then I saw it–the most terrifying part of The Visit‘s trailer. I was locked into a mentality of sheer panic: “Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.” I then realized that I no longer wanted to see this movie. I HAD to see this movie! However, not only am I going with my group of friends, I am inviting anyone who wants to endure this atrocity with us. So if you’re near the Rancho 16 theatre at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 12, with nothing better to do, come join us.

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Filed Under: Media Tagged With: horror, M. Night Shyamalan, movie, The Visit, thriller

We’re Back . . .

August 23, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org Leave a Comment

The PVS Upper-School Arts & Letters Blog

Meets 8th period, Room E-7, with Ms. Zachik

All participants will be writers/bloggers responsible for weekly posts to the blog: thebirdonfire.org (go check it out–know what you’re in for).

As well, participants will be responsible for creating new and inventive ways to reach our PVS community audience.

This is a voice and venue and platform for our artists, writers, photographers, dramatists, essayists, illustrators, poets, videographers, satirists, reporters. We compile and promote what’s going on in our PVS artistic/intellectual community, and we contribute to it with original posts. The class will be offered for a letter grade that is not weighted and not part of the UC system’s a-g requirements. We’re looking for–to borrow from Eve Fairbanks’ LA Times Op-Ed piece on writing–posts that are “direct,” that ask “deep questions,” that capture “visceral, accessible scenes and snippets of overhead speech laced with speculation and curiosity.” If you want to speak with a “nebulous and thrilling sense of an audience,” join us at thebirdonfire.org. We’re looking for up to 6 good bloggers.

Filed Under: Set Up and Welcome

Farewell . . . until September

June 8, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org Leave a Comment

: D

            –B.T.W.

Filed Under: Letters

Chances are . . . God Does Play Dice

May 29, 2015 by szachik@pvs.org Leave a Comment

ein1Special Blog Correspondent Birdie S. Caped rants about probability and college-dormitory placement systems.

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I recently received my housing assignment for college. I got my last choice–a classic triple! Three guys in the smallest room with no air conditioning is suffocating beyond imagination, and I have to share a public bathroom, which consists of eight toilets and showers, with fifty of my floormates. Undoubtedly, the Housing Administrators did not even bother to read my housing application and consider my preferences. If they did, they made a mistake while finishing their sandwiches. Either way, I could only believe that I am truly . . . unlucky.

 

Probability was inherently my enemy. Every unlikely circumstance happens, and every likely circumstance does not happen. Plans go astray unbelievably often. Anybody so unlucky would be scared to go out on a stormy night because it is likely that the unlikely circumstance of being stricken by lightning will happen. Betrayed by all odds, or upset about my inability to limit the randomness, I once innocently became a perfectionist. Then, I learned that perfectionism is impossible, which is simply an easy, unchallengeable compromise. I have been fed up with the bad luck successively running into me and the housing situation served as the final blow. Now, I decided to not even care about the probability and its outcome but focus on the process and entertainment. Blaming all shortcomings on luck and trying to induce the best result through calculations, indeed, are tedious and childish. I became a lively, hedonistic corpse, who does only what he yearns, . . . with two roommates in close proximity.

Filed Under: Letters

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About

We are the Palm Valley Firebirds of Rancho Mirage, California. Join us in our endeavors. Venture through the school year with us, perusing the artwork of our students, community, and staff. Our goal is to share the poems, stories, drawings and photographs, essays and parodies that come out of our school. Welcome aboard!