November 7, 2013
Entertainment D1
silverchips
Chips’ declassified hallway traffic survival guide By Naomi Weintraub Make a left down Blair Boulevard and see a large cluster of kids waiting to enter their classroom. Swerve left to avoid the teachers pushing their portable classroom carts. Duck right and run up the stairs, make sure to dodge the cozy couples and students with bulging backpacks running up the wrong side of the stairs. Just a few steps more through these overcrowded hallways and you’ve reached your class, as the bell promptly rings. Almost 3,000 kids swarm Blair’s halls on the pursuit to “just get by,” or “just get to class.” We hear your crowded calls for help and cries of heaving hallway misery, and we present you with your guide to surviving Blair’s jam-packed halls smoothly and wisely.
Back to the basics Let’s start with a key area: Blair Boulevard. Blair Boulevard is the school’s central being, while some might argue that the SAC deserves that high title, the long main street is the stem for budding classrooms that branch off of it. Congestion is bound to occur, since this hallway is a crucial organism in the body of our school building. The infamous lunch transition showdown is the hallway’s legacy. When walking through this junction during the switch from 5th to 6th lunch one may feel like a salmon trying to swim upstream. If you are brave enough to walk the opposite way of the main stream you must brace yourself for a steady current of shoulder hitting. If you dare try to split into the 40s hallway you must be ready to accidentally step into strawberry milk puddles or carrot stick chunks. Only the wise know to wait till the crowd subsides. Once this sea has parted, you can easily glide down the
hallway, passing the kids with prestigious library lunchtime window seats. The security guards are always stationed in this long lane as students push their way past. Security guard Adrian Kelly manages the circulation of students during this time, but claims that a lot of the time the hallway is able to run itself. “The hallway manages itself; sometimes I push the traffic or collect kids who are lagging to walk to class,” says Kelly.
Daybreak lovers to noon elite If you’re an early riser and arrive at Blair in the wee hours of the morning before school has started maybe you’ve strolled through the foreign language hallways. Many have described these corridors as the “Lavish Lovers” halls. Walk cautiously through the narrow halls lined with couples who are comfortable with publicly displaying their affection for one another. Amble through these halls during Valentine’s Day and be sure to dodge the heart shaped balloons floating through the hall. During lunchtime a security guard, Maureen Walsh, protects these hallways intently. She is a brick wall. Only the elite are allowed entrance to these halls, with an occasional exception if you have a good excuse. Walsh believes that many falsely describe Blair’s halls as overcrowded, believing that the word has a
negative connotation. “I don’t like the term “overcrowded” because we manage. The building and staff are able to accommodate to the size of our student body,” says Walsh.
Arts hallway island If you are entering the school from the Colesville entrance you might stumble into a remote corridor, called the Arts hallway. This hallway is the southernmost part of our school, and is its own island in relation to the rest of the school’s classrooms. When attempting to arrive to an art class on time you must give yourself an extra three minutes of walking time due to the large restroom traffic circle. Upon entering
from the rest of the school. Walking down the arts alley you’d expect to be bombarded with explosions of student projects and instruments playing. However, the hallway feels quite dead. Despite the small attempts to showcase some student art the hallway is almost always empty. The usual expected maneuvering and weaving through the Blazer crowd is not needed when walking through the corridor of this desolate ingress.
Surviving these halls
After four years at a huge high school, students learn the tips and tricks to steering these jam-packed halls. Junior Adrian Kombe frequently feels as though he is waiting for students to move out of his way. “You need to move yo!” he says as he explains his frustrations towards clusters of students conversing in the center of Blair Boulevard. Kombe is not the only aggravated student, Sophomore Tsion Biz often finds herself weaving through crowds of students. “Everyone has jumbo backpacks, so you have to bob and weave through the crowd to get by,” says Biz. With caution, care and some Silver Chips tips you should be able to safely roam the halls of this massive, congested buildMAGGIE MCCLAIN ing. Good luck, Blazers.
the arts hallway, put on a sweater. It is almost always freezing, like an isolated icebox
Miss the activities fair? Here are some clubs to share
By Leila Habib
Programmers, artists, managers and more walk through Blair’s crowded hallways every day. Name a hobby or interest, and there’s probably a Blazer who has it. The diversity of interests helps foster many clubs, which can make choosing one challenging. Here are some exciting clubs to help you along the way.
Science & Art Club Walking through the 340s hallway, you might have passed by a skeleton. Maybe you were intrigued by the Double Helix. These many elements make the Science & Art Club’s mural outside the Science office an eye-catcher. The colorful mural’s theme is STEM, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math program at Blair. The club focuses on decorating the third floor’s otherwise bland, white walls with studentproduced murals that depict the “fascinating realm of science,” junior member Paula Nhan explains. In order to make this “fascinating realm” come to life, weeks are spent brainstorming ideas for sketches. Creative ideas don’t always come easily, so senior member Minh Nguyen believes the more members, the merrier. “It
would be nice if we had more people for ideas and to divide up the work,” he said. In addition to imaginative ideas, background knowledge is also necessary as the sketches can’t rely on just a keen artistic eye. “You have to incorporate textbook knowledge into it,” Nguyen said. “You can’t just throw double helices everywhere and be like, ‘Bam, it’s done.’” Despite the lengthy process, the club plans on “busting out” more than one mural this year, according to Nguyen. The Science & Art Club meets every Tuesday from 2:10 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Blair Sports Management Club You see a student selling DumDums for a chance to win a free ticket to a Blair sports game. You painfully hand over the lone quarter you have in your pocket and start walking away, contemplating whether that was worth it. But then you hear a bell signaling that you won. Yeah, it was definitely worth it. Blair Sports Management Club puts these promotions in place to “try to make people come out to the games so the school has more spirit,” junior club member Anne-
Blair Sports Management Club sells lollipops for $0.25 each DIEMPHUE NGUYEN, BLAIR WEBSITE,MINH NGUYEN,PAULA NHAN
Olive Nono explains. It may seem as if Blair has plenty of spirit at football games with shirtless guys on the bleachers with “Blair” on their chests. But for other sports, this isn’t the case, so BSMC wants to help publicize “all types of sports,” Nono says. Planning these enticing promotions and halftime events allows members to be “behind the scenes,” senior Emma RobertsVaurio describes. “It’s fun…to be the ones to organize fun half-time entertainment at sports events and get people rallied,” she says. This intricate planning fosters growth in each member. “I wasn’t an outspoken person,” senior club President Diemphuc Nguyen remembers. “Through the club, I found leadership abilities, organizational skills, and insightful ideas.” Blair Sports Management Club meets in Room 117 every Wednesday at 2:20 p.m.
Public Speaking Club Sweaty palms, pounding heart, and slight dizziness; most of us have experienced these symptoms. Whether it’s giving a presentation or having the lead in a play, stage fright usually gets to the best of us. The Public Speaking Club, also known as the Forensics Club, helps
you “get over your fear of talking to a huge crowd of people,” junior club member Eunice Muchemi says. Of course, this is easier said than done. To accomplish this goal, members participate in extemporaneous speaking during meetings. “We come up with three topics, and you’re given around 15 minutes to prepare. Then, you come up with a speech about why you are for or against one of the topics,” Muchemi explains. For the adventurous, there are several categories within the realm of public speaking including serious poetry, theater, serious prose, where you can read anything from a play to a short story to the audience, and even children’s literature, where you “read a children’s book as if you’re reading it to kids,” Muchemi says. In the past two years, the club has had two members reach the finals in the Forensics Tournament and win trophies. This year, members hope to make it to the finals again. The Public Speaking Club meets every Wednesday in Room 133 at 3:00 p.m.
Computer Club When passing by the “Magnet” lab, otherwise known as Room
There are over 100 clubs at Blair
314, during lunch, everything may seem dark and empty. Yet, the gloomy space is home to the Computer Club. Computer programming is “hotly in demand,” senior member Elias Gonzalez describes. Everything requires a programmer, including games. This involves “an imagination for the plot, programming for making it, and a lot of artistry…to make the game look great,” Gonzalez says. When thinking of programmers, a picture of Wade from Kim Possible huddled over a computer and typing furiously might pop into your head. This may seem intimidating, but the club plans to cater to less experienced members with a new curriculum involving various activities and lessons. Though the new curriculum would focus on the less experienced, the club would have discussion topics for the more advanced. Hopefully, the new curriculum will improve everyone’s programming skills, because the club hopes to win the Montgomery College Computer Programming competition. Last year, the club received fourth and fifth place, “even though many of us hadn’t finished learning Java yet,” Gonzalez admits. Computer Programming meets Thurdays during lunch in Room 314.
Arts & Science Club hopes to create at least two murals this year DESIREE ALEIBAR