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Anthony Castro-Gomez Public Feed

Clear Glass Bottles With Water

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · D Band on Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 7:19 pm
​School was lame today. I participated for the first time because we had to play this one game where we talked  about ourselves. I told my friend I did it for the participation point so that I seem cool cause the cool kids never participate. “My name is Nathaniel. My favorite color is red. My favorite food is pancakes.” The class stares at me silently, and we patiently wait for someone else to participate. Through the window, you can hear people arguing outside, traffic and maybe a homeless man asking for change to spend on drugs, it’s nothing new around here in north Philadelphia. As other students participate and time passes by, the teacher tells us to pack up. I notice everyone has a jacket but me. Why? I asked mama to buy me the red jacket from the store and she always told me that she can’t get it and i’ll have to wait. I did not like waiting because she always lied to me about getting the stuff I want, and when I complain she hits me. Walking down the hallways I see other classes, everyone wearing a coat, some wearing hats and gloves, some wearing scarfs, but everyone had a jacket except me. As usual, she is late to pick me up and I call, nobody answers.  
She pulled up 1 hour late, black trench coat, large black timberland boots, damaged blonde hair with split ends, she walks towards the front entrance where she sees me. She can’t even balance herself, swaying left and right and her long hair covering her face. Through the tangled mess of hair you can see her eyes, bags under them. She is equipped with dark baggy cargo pants. Just as she signals me to come with her, she heads out, I tell her she forgot to sign me out because I been stuck here all day. She signs it, sloppily, and we leave. I enter the car and mama gives me a kiss, and I smell her new breath, Plymouth Gin, I know she’s sad.
“What is that stench?” I say, and she responds in a raspy voice, too nasty for me to make out anything she is trying to say. The mucus in her throat, it makes everything unclear. I look down at my feet and see the white plastic bags with large glass bottles. I don’t understand, it looks just like water and she mixes it with some of the juice and when I ask for some when I am thirsty she hits me. She said I am never allowed to touch it, otherwise I would get beat. She starts up the car, it takes a few tries for the old and beat up toyota to begin because we had this car ever since grandpa was around, and we head down the street.
“Mom are you ok? You’re acting weird. What’s the proble-”
...She shuts me up before I could finish my sentence. She is swerving on the rode. Wait, is she drunk!? It all makes sense, the glass bottles, her breath, and her overall appearance, she’s drunk out of her mind. I am not up for the abuse again, not today. I am so tired of her always going out and being late to pick me up, never answering the phone when I call, always hitting me with anything in sight.
We finally get home, in one piece. She fails to park, driving up to our spot and stumbles her way into the house and collapses on the floor. She yells at me to help her up and she smacks me for having an attitude.
“I’m tired, every day I come home and you are drunk, and I act like I don’t notice, but if you touch me again I swear to God, I will put you to sleep!”
 She throws the house phone at me and I dodge it, it cracks the wall and as it falls to the hardwood floor, the battery comes out of the phone, flying to the opposite direction. 
“I warned you!”
 I yelled at the top of my lungs. My head is sweating despite how cold it is, my anxiety building up and my arm shaking. I gather enough courage to stop her from trying to tackle me, and I smack her in the face. You hear the loud clap sound, her hand on her face and as she slowly drops to the ground to lay down and cry in confusion. I have never been so angry in my life, I finally woke up from this cycle. 
“I am tired of this shit mom!”
 I never felt this adrenaline rush before. She lays down on the ground and begins sobbing. She is saying something, I lean in and she says...it’s all her fault and she never had bad intentions. Today marked the day I hit my own mother, she doesn’t understand how it feels. 
“If you could be sober for once, you would understand how I feel.”
 She lays there crying, and I walk upstairs into my room and listen to music to end this day that feels like it’s lasting forever. 

4 Comments

Emulation Handbook

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · D Band on Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 9:45 am
3 Comments

Emulation Handbook

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · D Band on Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 9:41 am
2 Comments

Picking Between Schools

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · D Band on Monday, September 24, 2018 at 10:25 am

My name is Anthony Castro, I am in 8th grade, and I am the typical teenager. I don’t care about school or anybody, I hate homework and socializing, and I just want to get out of this school and go somewhere different because I hate everyone in it. Pan American is an ok school, but the students are constantly bullying each other including me.

However, today was a different day. As the clock on the classroom wall hits 3:00, the bell rings and I finish spacing out, gather my belongings and the students and I head out the school in a single file line. My dad beeps his car horn which alarms me that he has arrived, and picks me up as usual and we begin to drive home. My dad was asking me questions about what kind of high school I wanted to go to and we usually don’t talk in the car, so I knew something was up. I vaguely answer his questions because I just wanted to go home and rest. We arrive to my house after about 20 minutes of driving around Kensington and reaching Wyoming. As I walk through the small hallway before I  enter my living room, I can feel the heat from the many electrical heaters scorching the area, forcing me to remove my coat before I melt. I make my way to the kitchen to smell the wonderful rice, beans, and chicken my mother usually cooks for our daily diet. I serve myself a hot steaming plate and set it aside to cool down while I make my way to my room to remove my school uniform. I walk up the steps by the kitchen and head towards my mother’s room to greet her on this cold, dark, cloudy winter afternoon. I open her door and I see her with a letter in the grip of her hands.

“Congratulations! You got accepted to PMA, I am so proud of you!” PMA, or Philadelphia Military Academy, is a school that prepares the students physically and mentally for the military At this point, the heat from the room is no longer present in my head. All that I can feel is excitement, the blood rushing, my heart racing. I remove my bag and it slams against the floor, I slowly walk and grab the letter and read it out loud.

“Hello Anthony Castro, I would like to congratulate you for being accepted to this academy...We welcome you to the open house next week on...Sincerely...” In my head I am thinking, what about SLA? My mother is very supportive when it comes to the military because most of her family is a part of the military or they have high positions in their branches. I wanted to continue the legacy, but something was telling me that I needed to pick another school. I knew that I needed to go to Science Leadership Academy because all of my teachers were telling me that it was a really good school and they prepared me really well.

“Que paso? ” My dad makes a confused face and my mom explains to him that I was accepted to the school.

“Mom I have to tell you something. I know you love the military or whatever, but for the sake of my education, I think that Science Leadership Academy is a better option. I know that you are proud of me and I honestly would love to go to that school but I like SLA better.”

The smile on my mom’s face instantly turned into an angry frown. She was getting upset with me and I know that I am growing up, it’s about time I start making my own decisions.

“Unbelievable Anthony, why? How are you going to get there, who is going to buy you more clothes? I am not driving there everyday! Esto es increible!! ” Her voice was rising, and I knew that she was not playing games once she started speaking spanish, her entire tone changes

“Sorry mom, I just think it is best for me. I have enough clothes and I can just take the train. They can provide me with transpasses.” I retaliate with the best possible response I could think of.

“Ok, but if you attend this school you better get good grades, otherwise I am taking you out.” She returns back into her bed and I walk out, dragging my bag and coat in hand, depressed that I am unable to satisfy my parents. I know how much the military meant to my mom and she really wanted me to attend that school. I walk up the next flight of steps heading to my room on the third floor, remove my uniform, put on my pajamas, and went downstairs to eat my food. Felt like a black hole in my heart, my emotions twisting and turning like a stomach ache, confused as to what exactly I should be feeling right now. I knew I made the best decision for me, SLA is a better curriculum in my opinion and nothing was going to change that.

After a long discussion talking about “I am very proud of you no matter what Anthony. Military or not, you have a lot of potential and I will allow for you to attend that school.” Relief is all I feel. Does she actually mean this? As long as she is proud of me, I am happy.

“Thanks mom.”


3 Comments

Negative Space Cut out Reflection

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in Art - Freshman · Hull · d1 Band on Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 10:09 am
Snapchat-1903737009-1
Snapchat-1903737009-1
Negative space is the space around and between an object. I found negative space in my cut out by taking the background paper and outlining my design with black construction paper then did the opposite with orange paper on the other side. Artists need to distinguish negative space because it is as important as the object itself. It helps for us to see the boundaries and how big an object is. Seeing in the negative space helps to enhance drawings because it makes it stand out depending how you use it. 
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Boxes in 1 point perspective

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in Art - Freshman · Hull · d1 Band on Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 8:42 pm
20180213_203446
20180213_203446
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Google Slide

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in Technology - Freshman · Hull · d2 Band on Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 9:27 pm
Final Draft of Google Slide Tech
​Hello, my name is Anthony Castro-Gomez and this is the google slide I have created based off of my research and the critique from my colleagues. My initial design consisted of a hoop and a basketball in the center of the image to set the tone of the slide. I also added in 3 words to explain the slide quickly so that the viewer can glance at it, look away, and be able to gather all of the information they needed. Finally, I made sure I added in a black background and made the words orange so that it pops out to the audience. I kept the original font and had a reflection of each of the words.
After presenting, my classmates suggested that I take out the reflection because it is distracting to the eye. They also recommended that I make sure that all of the words are placed reasonable distances from each other so it looks on point. Someway I decided to implement that was by using the words to follow the basketball as if it was an afterimage to make a more creative way to catch the viewer's attention. I changed the color of the words to match the basketball a little more because my classmates did mention how they liked how the words corresponded with the background and the basketball, so I kept a black background and made the font color dark orange to match the basketball. I was also told to change the font to something more fitting so I used the Lobster font since it looks smooth and pleasing to the eye, and in a sense more formal because it looks like cursive. 
The research helped me create a better slide because it teaches me how to grab people’s attention. With the image “bleeding” off the edge of the slide, it seems more like an ad, which grabs attention. I learned that the contrast between colors is important as well, a light color in front of a dark background is usually what people like. I used a dark color against a dark background so that it creates a more relaxed tone to the slide. Some sources I used to make this slide were http://youtu.be/axj8IedTzfc?hd=1 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (the video you provided us with), https://creativecommons.org, and Elements of Design Defined (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. To conclude, this was the final version of my google slide.

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Media Fluency: Anthony Castro-Gomez

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in Technology - Freshman · Hull · d2 Band on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 8:56 am
Technology Benchmark (1)
Hello, my name is Anthony Castro and this is my 1 google slide. So first, I searched up how to make the slides interesting. Like ads on a billboard, I learned that when the image “bleeds” off of the slide/picture it looks more interesting. I read this on https://zachholman.com/posts/slide-design-for-developers/ So, I took an image from google of a basketball hoop that didn’t show the entire image and used what I learned from http://youtu.be/axj8IedTzfc?hd=1 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to use the image as the background. The reason why I chose a basketball hoop to be my image is because I have a passion for basketball, and I feel as though some people don’t and would never be able to comprehend it as well as I can. Basketball was what linked me to my friends back in middle school, that was the only way of interaction in a sense to get closer to your friends. After this, I wanted to find words that describe me the best in my opinion. I came to the conclusion of putting down ambition, dedication, and success. I am a very ambitious person, I strive to become better at whatever it is that I am doing. Basketball, for instance, is one thing I am always trying to improve in. Dedication describes me because it takes dedication to get to where you want to be in life. It takes dedication to get better at something. Finally I picked the word success because that is what comes out after hard work. I am a hardworking person, therefore success usually comes from my improvements. After picking the words, I added a reflection and changed the color of the font so it stands out and looks pleasing to the eye. I feel like it looks more interesting when I space the words out like that because it make you think about and take into consideration each word. I feel as though the significance of the word spacing is to show that the words are different from each other but they all are connected. The reason why I chose 3 words was so that it looks like an ad sort of, so you can quickly glance at it, manage to gather all of the information you need in like 10 seconds, then look away. This was my google slide based off of my me magazine and thank you for listening.
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Home Network- Anthony Castro

Posted by Anthony Castro-Gomez in Technology - Freshman · Hull · d2 Band on Friday, October 13, 2017 at 1:49 pm
All of the devices connected to my internet connection are: my phone, my moms phone, my ps4, and the family computer.

I learned that a lot of the stuff in my house is connected using wifi. I also learned about the coaxial cable which I actually didn't know about.

Something I would tell someone about having a home network would be that they should take the time to actually learn about their network.
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