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Tom Wallison Capstone

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Capstone · Giorgio/Shagin · Wed on Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 7:14 pm
My capstone involved me going through the process of creating a novel. I learned the difficult research process that is involved in writing something that is realistic fiction. With my specific story, I wanted to create a story that reached into the absurd, with both character committing suicide, but still managed to maintain an air of realism. This was evident in my research, which included novels that were similar in nature but still didn't quite hit the mark according to critics. It also included empirical studies on mental illnesses, especially in teenagers, to see if the story I was telling could feel reasonable to the average reader. I came up with a story, and wrote a portion of it, which I showed to a variety of people, some even with experience with mental illness, and after some feedback from each of them, I am confident that I was able to create a story that managed to seem reasonable even through its absurdities. While it may have not become a totally complete story, this learning experience was incredible, and I've really understood the difficulties people face when writing.

Sample from Ruth

You look up to the roof of the school, and there you see Ruth standing on the edge, of which she throws herself off of.

You run towards her destination, thirty feet below her start. In your rush, you trip on some elevated sidewalk, and fall down fully, scraping your upper left arm and right hand deeply, tearing a hole in your pants. You hurriedly get yourself up and continue your sprint, but it is already far too late. When you make it to her, Ruth is simply a mess of limbs, no movement at all in her body. You take hold of her. On her head there is a dent, in the center of which there is a gash with her brain exposed, blood pouring out. Her eyes have rolled back into her head, one damaged to the point of where there is blood dripping down the outside corner onto her face and down her cheek.

You lay her on your lap and hold her face. The blood from her eye and the gash in her head mix together. You cry out, first in disbelief, then again in horror, and then again in anger. The mixture of blood is joined by your tears as you sob deeply, disgusted by yourself. You are sure you could have prevented this if you had just done something different, something better. This was your fault, and you felt that grief immediately.

Bianca had stood up to come after you, but you had been quicker and she had stopped, so she was stalled behind you standing, stunned. She has never seen you like this before. She has no idea how to help.

Weeks pass. Ruth’s memorial service is on December 23rd. One portion is a private setting with an open casket, and the other portion is more public and had a closed casket. You are invited to and attended both. Bianca comes with you to the public viewing but chooses to exclude herself from the private one, which you don’t particularly mind. It is generally uneventful, at least any more so than funerals usually are. You grieve alongside the family, with exchanges of tears and condolences, and then all parties eventually depart.

The next day is December 24th: Christmas Eve. You spend this day with your own family. The world felt like a different place: emptier, but besides being blue for most parts of the day there is nothing unusual that happens.

On Christmas Day you spend it with your family in the morning and then spend the afternoon with Bianca. You have lunch together, talking about how your celebrations with your family had gone. You both talk about the gifts you’ve gotten. Your mood improves as the day goes on. You’re able to forget about and for the first time in a while, as Bianca lies on your shoulder in the backseat of a taxicab on its way to your home, with the sun being in a state of just giving enough light that the streetlamps don’t turn on, but dark enough that it’s clear the day is ending, you close your eyes and truly smile, actually feeling happy. The cab drops you off at your house, and Bianca exits with you and comes inside.

You’re both quickly to the living room and onto the couch. The place is temporarily yours, and you take full advantage of that with your method of physical interaction with Bianca. She eventually stops you, not out of disapproval, but out of the need for a break so she could procure something from her purse. She takes out a small blue rectangular box, which she hands to you, and inside is an analog watch. The clock face is white, with brown numbers and hands, and a silver wristband. As you look in awe, your mind eventually turns to horror as you realize that, in your grieving, you had neglected to get a gift for Bianca.

As you reluctantly tell her, she is visibly annoyed in her movements, but she at leasts acts understanding in the words she says. However, as you explain that it was your grief for Ruth that led you to forget, Bianca gets significantly more upset, and yells that you don’t care about her. You apologize, but tell her that having your best friend die in your arms could muddle up the life you otherwise knew. She tells you to stop being such a bitch about it, and it’s been enough time; get over it. She’s tired of always feeling like the second most important girl on your mind. You tell her she doesn’t understand, and wish she would be more empathetic. She explains that she wasn’t beaten up this long even when her mom died, so it’s not that she doesn’t understand, it’s that you’re weak. You let her know that you can’t imagine how awful a person someone would have to be to be so accepting of their own mother’s death. To this, she responds by striking you on the cheek with her nails, cutting your face, and you strike her back. Your hand slams on the side of her head and knocks her aside. With tears welling up her eyes, she lets you know how much of a faggot you are before kicking over a potted plant, running out of your home, and slamming the door behind her, leaving you standing with an upturned plant and a claw mark on your face.


Bibliography

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. S.l.: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2018.

This novel tells a story of a young girl in high school was sexually abused and how she dealt with it. In my novel, there is also a high school girl who is sexually abused, and while I plan to have her deal with it in a different way than the character in this book dealt with it, the thought process of the girl in Speak will be useful, as I am both not a girl and I have never been sexually abused. It becomes difficult to personally relate with a character who is, so to have some sort of reference to how this girl dealt with it, keeping in mind that people deal with the same thing in different ways, is useful to writing such a character.


Asher, Jay. 13 Reasons Why. New York: Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2017.

Over the past year, 13 Reasons Why has been the big boy of stories about depression. People seem to criticize it a lot for how unrealistic the story is. It’s too theatrical, and it seems like it’s trying to make a show out of a mental illness. The tragedy of losing a close friend doesn’t really seem as fleshed out as it could and probably should have been. In my story, I want to avoid these sorts of things. My novel will probably seem very theatrical; the characters go through some particularly extravagant events, so I’m constantly worried about trying to keep it as realistic as possible. 13 Reasons Why is very useful as a reference to making sure I don’t fall too far out of real life.


Green, John. Paper Towns. New York: Penguin Books, 2015.

One of the things I wanted to do when setting out to write this novel was to write a book that had a resolution that was not a traditional “happy ending”. In Paper Towns, there is a resolution, and the ending feels like an ending, but it’s certainly not the expected ending. The main characters, who we expected to meet back together and start a romance or something along those lines was far from what actually happened. Instead it’s more of a somber ending, where the story is over, so it’s a resolution, but it breaks expectations. That’s something I want to emulate in my writing.


Mathieu, Jennifer. The Truth About Alice. New York: Square Fish, Roaring Brook Press, 2015. =

In this novel, the main character “causes” the death of another character, but it was due to something she had limited control over, which was the irresponsibility of the other person, yet the main character feels guilty for the death. In my story, there will be a similar dynamic of the main character “causing” a death that he has limited control over, yet he feels mostly responsible and very guilty about it. I’ll use The Truth About Alice as a reference for the dynamic that I’m trying to create.


McCarthy, Cormac. No Country for Old Men. London: Picador, 2010.

This book inspired me to write a novel in the first place. I really enjoyed the storytelling style of both the book and the movie. They both use a minimalist style: there is the story, and that is it. There is no explanation as to why the story went the way that it did other than the logical conclusions that the reader made themselves. The events are described, using limited figurative language or attempts to call on emotion. There is no real explanation as to why things happened, leaving the reader to have to justify the events themselves. I really want to emulate that.


Niven, Jennifer. All The Bright Places. NY, NY: Ember, 2016.

In this novel there are two troubled people, one male and one female, and they both are considering suicide by jumping off of a building, which happens to be the same building at the same time, but after a conversation, they both choose not to do so and they become friends. One of the characters in my novel does actually kill themselves by throwing themselves off of a building, and the main character feels very guilty because he feels like he hadn’t done enough to stop that. The fact that both of the characters in All The Bright Places are considering suicide and then are convinced not to by someone else shows that, if the main character had done more, maybe he could have saved his friend. Any evidence I can get that would justify the guilt the main character has for a death that is almost totally not his fault is something that I find useful.


Shen, X., X. Zhu, Y. Wu, Y. Zhou, L. Yang, Y. Wang, Q. Zheng, Y. Liu, S. Cong, N. Xiao, and Q. Zhao. "Effects of a psychological intervention programme on mental stress, coping style and immune function in percutaneous coronary intervention patients." PloS one. January 22, 2018. Accessed January 24, 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29357358.

This is a study on the effects of therapy on depressed patients. The result is that therapy helps depressed people, which conceptually seems obvious, but one of the things I have learned through my research is that depression is very unpredictable. This basic understanding, while seemingly obvious and useless, is incredibly useful because the main character will end up very guilty for their friend’s death because he didn’t get her help. The fact that getting her help would have maybe saved her life makes the grief actually feel much more relevant and justified.


Smith, April R., Tracy K. Witte, Nadia E. Teale, Sarah L. King, Ted W. Bender, and Thomas E. Joiner. "Revisiting Impulsivity in Suicide: Implications for Civil Liability of Third Parties." Behavioral sciences & the law. 2008. Accessed January 24, 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2597102/.

This article is on the liability of third parties, such as prisons and universities, in a person’s suicide. It speaks of this in a legal sense, and the prior understanding was that there was too little predictability in suicides, so there is not much those parties can do to prevent them. However, new information is showing that there generally is some sort of plan. One of the comparisons made was to that of an umbrella in a car: people include an umbrella in their car to plan for a rainy day, and generally don’t think about that plan until the day it actually rains. There is some event that leads to a final suicide, but that does not mean the act was fully impulsive. This serves as a sort of justification to the characters’ deaths, and the feeling of grief is reasonable as the plan of suicide was mentioned.


Vizzini, Ned. It's Kind of a Funny Story. New York: Hyperion, 2015.

In this novel, the main character is a young adult whose life seems to be falling apart. Things were fine, and then it seemed like all sorts of things just started to fail and it eventually drove him to wanting to kill himself. His response to this was to call a suicide hotline, and he got placed into a mental institution, and the story proceed from there. In my novel, I want to have a similar story of life seems fine, but then everything starts to fall apart and drives a character insane. The additional story inside of the mental institution is not particularly useful, but there are friendships that form between multiple troubled people, so that could be helpful.


"Major Depression." National Institute of Mental Health. Accessed January 24, 2018. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression.shtml.

This sort of story that I’m writing seems to be told a lot. Depression in high school has plenty of novels written about it, almost to the point of thinking that there can’t possibly be that many stories to tell. However, this statistic shows that there is an enormous amount of adolescents that are depressed, justifying the story. While the outcome of the story is a little extreme, there are so many people in the world and so many of them are depressed that surely this story can happen at least once.


Tags: Giorgio, 2018, capstone
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And then it was black

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 3 · Pahomov · B Band on Monday, June 5, 2017 at 11:11 pm
​https://docs.google.com/document/d/1urOY-0MlyWhdB3JwExSCZkEIdRVrlNzOn5EKL-CCZfA

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Why should I have to go to college?

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 3 · Pahomov · B Band on Monday, May 1, 2017 at 2:40 pm

In today’s society, education is a necessity. The United States has a system set so that all children have access to school up to twelfth grade. However, the system does not have anything set for students’ education past high school. Even with that, students are assumed that they will pursue their education further, something As it stands today, the pseudo-requirement of going to college in the United States is perhaps one of the most detrimental aspects of living in the United States.

To show how much of a requirement it really is that a person attends college, one simply needs to take a look at the numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2013, the median annual wage for an occupation that does not require at least a 4-year degree in college is about $28,000. The living wage, or the amount of money a person needs to spend to live comfortably, for a person living in Philadelphia is $59,384, according to the Huffington post. Those are two very different numbers, with the amount of money needed to live comfortably being over double the amount a person would usually be making if they had a job that did not require a college degree. This should lead one to the conclusion that in order to live comfortably, they cannot have a job that does not require a college degree, and therefore they must get a college degree.

Now, examples can be drawn to those such as Bill Gates, who is one of the richest men in the world and did not complete college. However, Gates is a genius, with an above average IQ. The average person would not be able to create Microsoft, and that is why there are not very many enormous companies with billionaires at the top of them. It simply is extraordinarily rare and requires a specific person to make it happen.

Now, the reason this is such an issue is how much it costs. According to The U.S. Census Bureau, the reported median household income in September 2014 was $51,939. According to the College Board, the “moderate” budget for attending a public college averaged at $24,601. That amount of money is nearly half the amount an average household makes in the US, and that’s only for one person attending. Some families send multiple children to study at college, and families simply cannot support it purely on income. Most schools offer financial aid packages to students, but that usually does not cover the total cost, and the rest is placed on families or the person themselves.

The problem with this is that the people that are essentially forced to put themselves into debt. These families have to take out massive loans of over $10,000 just so that one of their children can pursue their education to a point that is considered satisfactory. Sometimes, the families don’t even do it: it’s by the student themselves. That puts them in a place owing a substantial amount of money as soon as they exit into the world and become self-sufficient. It’s an extremely stressful situation for a person looking for perhaps their first job.

That is exactly the issue. A person who is meant to search for a job and make a difference in the world should not have a huge financial burden on them as they try to do this. Perhaps this will happen on occasion, but it should not be a necessity that people are in $10,000 of debt as a starting point in their life.

Works Cited

GOBankingRates. "How Much Money You Need to Live Comfortably in the 50 Biggest Cities." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Apr. 2016. Web. 01 May 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gobankingrates/how-much-money-you-need-t_b_9728876.html

What's the Price Tag for a College Education?" COLLEGEdata. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2017. https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2014/article/education-level-and-jobs.htm

"Education Level and Jobs: Opportunities by State : Career Outlook." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d. Web. 01 May 2017. http://www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId=10064



This is my best 2Fer ever because I really feel confident in what I am writing. I did a lot of research to form my arguments. I also went back and looked at my thesis after writing to make sure my ideas stayed consistent throughout. That was something I struggled with before, so I made sure to pay attention to it to make sure this was my best 2Fer ever.


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Whats all the buzz about romance?

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 3 · Pahomov · B Band on Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 10:59 pm

Whats all the buzz about romance?

Comparing The Bee Movie to Taming of the Shrew


In William Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”, a clear theme is the men taking the leading role of romantic relationships. They act as protectors and ones who take care of the women, as well as initiators of the relationship, which is shown through Petruchio to Katherine, and various suitors to Bianca. In the film “The Bee Movie”, this idea managed to sneak its way in as well, with Ken acting as a protector of Vanessa from various things he deems as threats. However, unlike in “Shrew”, Ken is not the full leader of the relationship, as their relationship was eventually broken off by Vanessa, something that would have been nearly impossible in the 1400s. These texts reflect that although the role of men being the leaders of a romantic relationship has shifted more towards equality for both parties, role of men as a protector has remained present through time


"Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper...one that cares for thee, and for thy maintenance commits his body to painful labor...whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe "

(Act 5, Scene 2, 155-160)


No characters show this relationship of men being the protectors as clearly as Petruchio and Katherine, who says the above to her sister, Bianca, and to a widow married to Hortensio during a long speech on why women ought to be obedient to their husbands. With this, she is making a point using this as evidence. It is a given at this time that the husbands are the protectors of their wives, who stay at home safely. There is no protest of this by any of the other men or women at this point in hearing her speech, showing that this was in fact the expectation of the men in relationships at the time.


In this scene, Barry is violently confronted by Ken in an attempt to protect Vanessa, his girlfriend, from a bee, who he notices as a threat. However, there was no real threat, nor was there any indication from Vanessa that the bee was any threat--in fact, Vanessa immediately attempted to stop Ken from attacking Barry as soon as she could. However, he immediately attacked it off of an instinct that his girlfriend was in danger and she needed to be protected.


"And, for that dowry, I’ll assure her of her widowhood, be it that she survive me, in all my lands and leases whatsoever. Let specialties be therefore drawn between us, that covenants may be kept on either hand."

(Act 2, Scene 1, 116-120)


This quote, spoken by Petruchio to Baptista, is in regards to negotiations being done between them so that Petruchio has Baptista’s blessing in him marrying Katherine. In order for that to be the case, Petruchio has to offer something to Baptista, and he offers that if he were to die before Katherine, all of his possessions would go to her.

The success of this offer shows that when negotiating a marriage, what the father is looking for is for there to be a promise of safety for his daughter. What Petruchio is basically saying is that Baptista has nothing to worry about, for Katherine will be “assured of her widowhood.” Baptista then agrees to the marriage because the expectation of Katherine being protected has been met.

In this scene, Ken again confronts Barry in the bathroom, but under different circumstances. Ken now understands that Barry is not a physical threat to Vanessa, as this is later in the movie and they have become acquainted, but he instead perceives him as an emotional threat, trying to manipulate Vanessa. This is clearly shown through the line he uses to instigate this fight, “I’ve just about had it with your little mind games.”

It’s clear that the relationship between Vanessa and Ken is not as male-dominated as the one between Katherine and Petruchio. Vanessa had the jurisdiction to terminate the relationship later in the story, something that would have been difficult for Katherine to do. However, that doesn’t mean that the expected role of each person in a romance has changed completely, which is clear from the protective role that Ken feels he has to play, even when there is no imminent danger.


Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, G. R. Hibbard, and Margaret Jane Kidnie. The Taming of the Shrew. UK: Penguin, 2015. Print.

DreamWorks Animation ; Columbus 81 Productions ; Pacific Data Images ; produced by Jerry Seinfeld, Christina Steinberg ; written by Jerry Seinfeld and Spike Feresten & Barry Marder & Andy Robin ; directed by Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith ; head of character animation, Fabio Lignini. Bee Movie. Hollywood, Calif. :Paramount Home Entertainment, 2008. Print.


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success

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 3 · Pahomov · B Band on Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 8:12 pm

All I can really see is this fuzzy blackness. It’s not totally dark, but there certainly isn’t very much light. There never really is, here. Not since the lights went out. It was about a month ago, I think. The lights hanging over my head stopped giving that pure, white light they used to and just, blink. Yellow. Occasionally.

But that’s alright, I don’t really need to see. If I wanted to see I would have my glasses on. They’re sitting right next to my bed on a chair that I have just for that purpose. They lay upside down, open fully. But I can’t really move to grab them. I’m sorta stuck where I am, laying on my back, head perched up with my right arm underneath it, followed by pillow, pillow, mattress.

It’s something like 2 in the morning. I’ve just been thinking. Well, it’s more worrying. I’m worrying about being a successful person. That may seem like something stupid to worry about, but it’s less about whether or not I can do it but more about whether or not I will do it. It’s just so hard to define what that even means, to be successful.

Does it simply mean to complete a goal? Surely that’s too easy, because a goal can be as simple as walking down the stairs without tripping and falling. That’s exactly where the subjectivity plays into it. If I break my legs and I finally can walk down the stairs by myself, that would be a big deal to me.

But that’s only a huge feat in my head. The world will look at me walking down the stairs and probably not even notice. It doesn’t seem possible to treat success objectively, as each person considers different things to be successful. When I moved all of the pieces of my bed to my room, something that took a long time since I did it myself, and I put a lot of work in to make it good and I actually made that bed myself, I felt successful. I had achieved my goal, but the world doesn’t really care. The world doesn’t care whether or not I have a bed.

If I figure out how to stop cancer, something that has plagued humanity for generations, that would be something that the world cares about. And they would show it. I would get countless awards recognizing what I have done. My name would go down in history as one of the greats. That’s clearly a success, right?
What if my goal was to create a new way to pack potato chips. I hadn’t even been considering cancer when I set out my goal, and what I ended up with was not a way to pack potato chips. I didn’t complete my goal. Does that mean I’ve failed, even though I found a cure to cancer?

Well I want to be successful, so why not just do alright, come up with something, and consider that a success. The problem with that is it removes the drive to improve. What reason do I have to get better, I’m already successful by default. If there are two people and only one can be successful, suddenly there’s competition to be the best. To be the winner, that’s how you be successful. But is it really? If you’ve gotten third place four times in a row and you REALLY want to get second and you train really hard and you actually make it to second, are you successful? You’ve reached your goal. Is that a problem with the goal or the way success is defined? Is there even a problem with the goal? You haven’t gotten first. Though that limits the amount people are allowed to succeed, saying that if you don’t get first, you’re a failure. That’s calling most everyone a failure; some people do actually get first. I don’t think most everyone is a failure.

And then where does failure play into it? That’s the antithesis of success. Surely something like failure would invalidate success. It has to be impossible for me to fail and succeed at the same time if all that I’m considering is my point of view, but the world thinks differently than me. If I had tried my absolute hardest to make that bed work and I just couldn’t do it, I would feel like I had failed. The world still wouldn’t care whether or not I have a bed.

That’s what’s stressing me out about this. I go through my life day by day, and then eventually something will come up that will matter to the world and it will actually matter whether or not I succeed, but I won’t be able to tell.

Though maybe it is possible to define success. Maybe it’s like a coin. Maybe you can quantify it, with each success being a shiny green coin, and each failure a dull, red coin. And maybe each success and failure can be given a value based on how much of a success it was, or how much of a failure it was, and the coin is given a corresponding size. That’s determined by each person, meaning that if you think that walking down the stairs is a great success, then you get a big coin to match.

Maybe you can treat the green coins like positives and the red coins like negatives, where if you have one of each that are the same size, they turn into a zero. A neutral. Or maybe it’s more like owing money to the world, where for every failure that happens the world expects a success of the same size, maybe not from the cause, but from somebody.

Maybe when someone dies, they take all of their coins, green or red, and throw them into a big pot, and melt it down, and the world refines it and takes out what’s useful to them, and puts that into another, bigger pot, so we can later come back and look into the huge pot as a whole, and see the history of every success and failure as one big bowl of humanity.

I guess that means there’s no reason to worry. I’m not the refinery of the world; I don’t choose what’s important. I don’t know who does, but it’s not me. So as I roll over to my side and close my eyes, I flip my coins, not knowing what color they are, but hoping that when I throw them into the pot, it will end up just a little bit more green.
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Scared of Dying?

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 3 · Pahomov · B Band on Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 12:16 pm

At some point in everybody’s life, they will die. It happens for a variety of reasons, and most of the time it’s involuntary. It’s safe to say that a large majority of people do not want to die, or at least fear the moment of their own death, and so they fear the fact that they can and will eventually die. And although death is often pointed to as an unknown, it is not an abstract thing in the human mind. That fear of death stems from the active comparison to life and the individual’s quantification of life.

One of the things most people know about death is that, past a certain point, the older a person gets, the more prone they are to a “natural death”, as one’s organs have been keeping them alive for a long time and just get tired and fail, so they can no longer stay alive. What is surprising is that the older people get, the less and less they fear death. In a study done by Dr. Karl A. Pillemer on elderly people, “the vast majority of [the] respondents described themselves as not thinking about death much, and much less so than when they were younger. It’s true...that research shows lower death anxiety with advancing age.” Note that these people didn’t want to die; they simply didn’t fear it. The correlation is certainly there. This shows that people who think about death less fear death less. This isn’t simply a case of older one gets, the less one fears death. It’s also not a case of being scared of dying just being hardwired into the human mind. It’s a subconscious feeling of how much their life is worth. A person who has lived for 90 years would most likely feel that their experiences, if quantified, would be worth more than the experiences of one who has lived for 18 years. These elderly people aren’t afraid of death, because at this point in their life, they feel like what they’ve done is worth something.

What’s truly compelling is that, in this case, people with mental illnesses actually have similar mindsets when it comes to death as elderly people do. Mental illness is a big cause of a person wanting their life to end. According to the University of Santa Cruz, when talking about young people, “A major cause of suicide is mental illness, very commonly depression. People feeling suicidal are overwhelmed by painful emotions and see death as the only way out.” As opposed to people who simply don’t fear death, those who are feeling suicidal actually do want to die. This relates to this idea of comparing the knowledge of life to death. These suicidal people see that dying is a good alternative to living, as they think death is better than life. They think about it, and they say that dying, even if they don’t know what that entails, is a “way out” from the thing they know about. If one considers life like an object, they simply don’t want to own this thing that they know they don’t want, so they’re not scared to lose it.

So, what happens if a person does value their life, but still chooses the opposite? There’s another group of people who actually choose to die: Kamikaze. These are Japanese pilots who suicide into Allied ships with their own in order to kill large numbers of enemies will little to no possible opposition. However, according to English Online, “not all pilots volunteered out of love for their homeland…Pilots who didn't volunteer were seen as cowards.” This is a similar idea to how people with mental illnesses actually want to die. The Kamikaze usually didn’t actually want to end their life, but if one considers life like an object, the pilots didn’t want to have this life in which they are considered a coward. The value they placed on their life was low. The alternative, which is suiciding into an Allied ship and dying, seemed better than that life. They saw dying as a good alternative to life since they actually feared what they knew in this life.

Ultimately, every person is going to die at some point, and although many people might not think that being scared of death matters to them, its influence goes beyond being comfortable with dying to actually just being comfortable with living. This idea of quantifying life and giving it a value, while interesting at first, can very clearly have drastic consequences. If one constantly just thinks about whether or not their life is worth something, there is a chance they would come up with the answer, “No,” which begs the question, “Then why continue?”  Death is not something that should be thought about all the time, as a life lived in fear is not one lived in peace. The solution is simple: just stop thinking about it.


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Reader Profile: Jevon

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 3 · Pahomov · B Band on Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 12:41 pm
harambe
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Jevon’s favorite place to read is on the couch in his living room, because it’s the most comfortable place for him other than his bed, but Jevon is always worried that he’ll fall asleep if he reads on his bed. Reading something that he enjoys is a very relaxing experience for him.

However, those kinds of books that Jevon enjoys are rare. He very often abandons books before finishing them simply because he gets bored of reading them. He didn’t seem very upset about this fact, and in fact doesn’t really find reading to be a particularly fulfilling experience.

A great example of a book Jevon DOES enjoy is “The Mysterious Benedict Society” by Trenton Lee Stewart. In fact, Jevon has said that this the book that he would take to a deserted island, where he is only allowed to take one book with him. A book that has evoked a lot of emotion from him is “Night” by Elie Wiesel. Jevon finds that the sorrow in the writing about a boy losing his family during the Holocaust made Jevon feel very sad.

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Humanity's Inherent Savagery

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 2 - Pahomov - A on Wednesday, April 6, 2016 at 11:36 am

There seems to be a frequent analysis of Lord of the Flies by William Golding regarding the children and their resortment to savagery as opposed to remaining civil. However, while they may appear more savage than people who live in a civilization, they are only showcasing what humans are naturally. The only reason the children can be considered savage is because they were able to live in an environment where society’s restrictions of people don’t have their full effect, so they can showcase humanity’s inherent savagery.

At the beginning of the book, there is a plane crash to start the story. Two survivors of the crash are young boys, around the age of 8-12 years old. They were having a discussion about the crash and whether there had been more survivors of the crash. When “the fat boy”, who we eventually learned is called Piggy mentions to “the fair boy”, who we learned to be called Ralph, the prospect of surviving adults. When Ralph thinks about this, he reaches the conclusion that no adults would have survived, and grows excited. “[The] fat boy hurried after him. ‘Aren’t there any grownups at all?’ ‘I don’t think so.’ The fair boy said this solemnly; but then the delight of a realized ambition overcame him. In the middle of the scar he stood on his head and grinned at the reversed fat boy. ‘No grownups!’”(8). What this quote from the book shows is a rapid change from a civil mindset the boys were in before the crash to this new, savage mindset that humans inherently possess. This is very clearly shown in the section about “the delight of a realized ambition”. This realized ambition is an escape from society’s rules and standards that people don’t want to have. Children haven’t lived long enough to understand the importance of these rules, so given the opportunity to escape, they immediately jump on it, as Ralph did. Him standing on his head represents him escaping from the rules of society. People aren’t supposed to stand on their head; they stand on their feet. Ralph standing on his head is him saying “I don’t have to follow the rules anymore, so I am going to do this.”

This idea can also to be related to current Republican candidate Donald Trump’s speeches, during which he speaks about the sponsorship that candidates usually get to help with their campaign. While doing this, he brings up that he doesn’t get sponsors and uses his own money to fund his campaign, and how sponsors control the candidates in their speech and actions. He doesn’t need that, so he isn’t corrupted by the sponsor’s ideas and gets to say what he wants. “[The other candidates’] lobbyists...will start calling President Bush, President Clinton. And they’ll say: ‘You have to do it, they gave you a million dollars to your campaign.’” Trump is able to use his money in a similar way Ralph and the other boys use the island. He doesn’t have to follow the societal norms that people usually have to. He is allowed to say what he wants without having to deal with the rules that others in his society of politicians has to follow. He can do and say what he wants without repercussions that he will usually have because he lives on this island, or a world different from the others and society. Trump creates this platform where he can say what he wants and act as savage as he wishes, just as the children from the book did.

In addition, Trump, during his speeches, has a habit of spreading his ideas that people who read or hear about think are savage in nature. However, Trump currently is high in the standings of political polls that have been taken. An example of one of his ideas is his idea of building an enormous wall along the Mexican-American border. This would prevent almost all immigration from the people of Mexico to the US. He says, “I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” This idea would be generally considered savage. The USA is heavily built on the idea of liberty and freedom, and what this wall does is it completely contradicts that idea. In addition, the wall idea is Trump basically saying that the people of Mexico are of a lesser caliber than the people of the US. This wall would not be in place to keep people from the US in, but to keep the people from Mexico out. That sounds like a very savage idea, something that no other candidate running for office would ever say publically. However, Trump basically crashed the plane himself, leaving him on this island where society’s rules can’t touch him. The US is generally considered to be a civilized nation, and Trump, who is running for the right to be leader of the country, should not be able to propose these sorts of ideas that completely ignore the basis of the country, but Trump is able to hide on his island.

Ultimately, the argument of whether children are more savage than adults isn’t really an argument that has any reason to be discussed. Instead, the focus should be placed on whether humans in general are inherently savage. This quote by Woody Allen from “Hannah and Her Sisters” sums up the idea nicely. Regarding the Holocaust, generally considered to be very savage, he states that “[t]he reason they can never answer the question ‘How could it possibly happen?’ is that it's the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is "Why doesn't it happen more often?’”.


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ILP Post #3

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Ilp - 10Th Grade - Giorgio - Wed on Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 2:40 pm
Since my last post, I have changed my ILP. I used to work at Greenfield with the 8th grade math class, and I truly value that experience and I am glad I had that opportunity. Currently I take a law class taught by law students that takes place at SLA after school on Thurdays, and I am loving it. We do different things every week. Sometimes we have a mock trial based on an actual case, or sometimes we go over an amendment of the constitution or something like that and talk about what that means and how it applies to real life. I'm learning a lot and it has actually made me consider a career as a lawyer later in life.
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Los Fotos Cuentan Una Historia

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Spanish 2 - Bey - E on Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 8:40 pm
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Time

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 2 - Pahomov - A on Sunday, November 22, 2015 at 7:22 pm

(lying on a hospital bed) I am not a man. I am not a monster. I don’t know what I am. I think I’m alive. If you can call this thing I have a life.  

And the worst part is: I chose this.

If a well known hospital tells you (mocking, goofy voice)“hey, do you wanna be immortal?” there’s really only one answer. This was when I was 55 and that…that marked the end of my life. They took me here. Hooked me up to these computers. And then…the beeping started(beeping starts). That incessant (progressively louder)“beep beep beep beep Beep Beep Beep Beep BEep BEep BEEP BEEP” IT DRIVES ME INSANE.

It was pretty ok at first. They sort of left me alone. Gave me food when I needed it. Not really when I asked, but that was ok. It was peaceful, and I liked that. Then when I was around 90, maybe 100, they started to show themselves more. The eyes(doctor walks on stage). Groups of them(another doctor walks on stage). They would just stare. They would sometimes move their mouths but I couldn’t hear them. I didn’t think they want me to. I mean I don’t expect them to. I don’t think they like me.

This is about all I can do to pass this time. Think about this place. It’s all I can remember. I barely know what time is anymore. When you’ve been around this long, (chuckle), you really stop caring about each day. I have been alive for 216 years and it has felt like just another 55.

(doctor walks close)The…end? Ha HA! FINALLY! I have waited lifetimes for this moment! I barely felt alive in the first place, and now, I can finally be FREE from this curse! This curse of life! It can finally…end…Do I even want it to end? I mean, I certainly am not enjoying THIS “life,” but would nothing be better? At least now I can think. I am constantly in pain, but at least I can feel something. I guess I never really thought about that before. Is living in an endless cycle of torture better than not living at all?

I need to find out. I can not die. (in the direction of the doctors)They SAID I would be immortal. (directly to the doctors)Let me BE IMMORTAL. I have nothing but myself! I need myself! I can’t afford to have this end. Maybe all this time by myself has made me like myself more than other people or something. I don’t know! I just need more time!

time monologue
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Bob Ross, A Tale of Kind Words

Posted by Thomas Wallison in English 2 - Pahomov - A on Sunday, November 8, 2015 at 11:13 am

“So now you’ve gotta make a decision. He’ll go right… there. Yeah, that’s a mighty beautiful ol’ tree.” he would say. “Oh yeah that looks real nice.”

I had been watching “The Joy of Painting,” a show from the 1980s and 90s with Bob Ross showing everyone how to paint and how to enjoy painting. He had an accent from a place that I couldn’t tell, but it was very nice to just listen to him talk. I had no interest in the actual painting; I just wanted to listen to Bob Ross.

“Tommie, we’re gonna go out now!” my mom yelled to me up the stairs. We had been planning this adventure for a couple hours. My mom, dad, and I were going to go to the Wissahickon Creek to just explore it.

After about 20 minutes, my mom pointed to one of the trees, exclaiming “That tree is huge!” Without even thinking about what I was saying, I responded.

“Hoo, boy! That’s a mighty big tree!”

“Mighty?” responded my dad, trying and failing to hold back back a snicker.

Prior to that, I don’t think I’d ever had referred to something large as “mighty”, but that was something Bob Ross would say, and while watching him I had grown fond of his accent. He sounded very homely and kind.

I’ve done this sort of thing multiple times. For example I used to watch a lot of interviews of English bands I liked. They, as expected, would speak with an English accent. If I had spent a while watching them, for the a couple of hours I would have the faintest accent. Sometimes I wouldn’t speak to anyone else in that time so I wouldn’t notice; I’d just be talking, but sometimes I would talk to someone and they would notice and mention it to me.

After learning that I did this, I tried to pay attention to whether I was just some weirdo or if other people did it too. I found that even within my family, it happens a lot. My brother and I would watch comedians on YouTube and later that day he’d quote something they said, we’d laugh, and that would be it.

However, after really noticing what I did with people’s language, I started to notice that when he quoted the jokes, he would use language that I wouldn’t usually expect him to use. It wasn’t like he’d just start cursing, but it would be easy to tell that he would change the way he spoke. One time we would just be talking and he would burst out and say “MJ BABY, LAKERS BABY, CHICAGO BULLS BAY-BEE!” and we would both laugh. He speaks similarly to how I speak, with that same boring type of speech, so it is surprising to have him say baby like that.

I’m from a part of the world most people would consider a ghetto. That place is Philadelphia, but according to the people I talk to that don’t know that, I don’t talk with what they consider a traditional Philly accent. When I talk to people over the internet and they ask where I’m from, they seem surprised when I say Philly.

“You never say jawnt or hoagie, you can’t be from there,” they would say.

“I know, everyone says that,” I would respond truthfully.

I’d describe the way I talk as very basic. The way I speak doesn’t really give away the place I’m from. It’s how my family talks, and I’ve never liked it. If anybody were to talk in a way that isn’t fairly slow and easy to understand, I would have trouble understanding them. I’ve always wanted to speak in a different way than I do so I’d be able to understand more people.

On the plus side, it’s very easy to understand me when I talk. My words aren’t jumbled, the words I use are just English. They’re not from any specific part of the English-speaking world.

However, every time I try to change the way I talk, people laugh at me. They’re used to me saying things that they’d expect me to say, and every time it’s not something they expect they make fun of me. Even people I’ve never met before seem to notice that the way I’m speaking to them is probably not the way I’m “supposed to speak.”

Whenever this happens I quickly revert to the way I usually talk and forget about it. I’d try this many times until I realized that what I had done is prove to myself that the way I usually speak, my normal, boring way of speaking, is one of the ways people identify me. As James Baldwin once wrote, “[Language] is the most vivid and crucial key to identify. It reveals the private identity and connects one with...the larger, public, or more communal identity.” I had always wanted to talk a different way, but in wanting that I had been asking for a new identity, which I did not want. People are treated differently based on the way they speak, but if I speak in a way that is generally easy to understand, I figured I would have a better chance of having the other things about me dictate who I am to other people.


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ILP Checkin - Month 2

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Ilp - 10Th Grade - Giorgio - Wed on Monday, November 2, 2015 at 2:40 pm
My ILP hasn't happened since I last checked in. Last week most schools besides SLA had a half-day, and since I'm working in a classroom at one of those schools, I had nowhere to go. I hope that what I've been doing continues happening. So far I've enjoyed what I've been doing. I hope that what's been going on so far with this so here we go.
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ILP Checkin - Month 1

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Ilp - 10Th Grade - Giorgio - Wed on Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 6:34 pm
​For my ILP, I'm working at Greenfield with Mrs. Charmont's 8th grade math class. I help her out with whatever she needs me to do. Usually I sit with one of the students who is either not getting whatever she was just teaching or otherwise need help with the math work. I've got 3 times so far and I'm enjoying it. I'm thinking about eventually becoming a teacher so I like getting the experience.
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Reconstruction Era Visuals Project

Posted by Thomas Wallison in African American History - Jonas - E on Friday, May 1, 2015 at 1:18 pm
amessagetoopressednegroes
​My work is a letter to black people feeling oppressed during this time. The letter is written from the viewpoint of Isaiah Montgomery. Montgomery was one of the founders of Mound Bayou, an all black town. He also became mayor of the town. This letter is meant to be an advertisement from Montgomery urging blacks feeling oppressed to move to Mound Bayou since it has more opportunities than other places blacks could live in the South. An important point is this letter was not written from the viewpoint of myself if I was alive during this time. The letter is from Isaiah Montgomery, and should be treated as such. The letter is also not meant to be personal. This would be something that hundreds of would be printed and handed out to many people. The letter isn't really a letter as it is more of a flyer. You wouldn't get this in the mail. You'd be handed it by some sort of advertiser. As well as that, try to keep in mind as this is being read that you should pretend you are one of these people alive during this time. Try to role play a little and think like you were one of the people being asked to move to Mound Bayou, and see if this would have convinced you.
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Q3 Art Reflection

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Art - Freshman - Hull - y1 on Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 12:16 pm
a. I feel like I accomplished everything that was listed on the rubric. I had both side walls, the front wall, the ceiling tiles, the floor lines, and a table in chair in my drawing.

b. I wouldn't do it again. If I had to, I would have managed my time better by drawing the easier things first and the harder things later if I can, as I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I would have also drawn another table.

c. Sydnye's drawing was successful. She drew the back wall. She included everything that was listed on the rubric.

d. I learned to trust my eye more than I had before. If something looks wrong, I should just say "this looks wrong" rather than say "this is fine."
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IMG_0213
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SLA: un lugar para aprender

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Spanish 1 - Manuel - B on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 12:11 pm

SLA: un lugar para aprender

Hola! Bienvenidos a nuestros escuela. Nosotros somos Thomas, Anthony y Tatiana, y nuestro equipo es Archbishop Romero. Tenemos catorce años pero Anthony tiene quince años. Somos estudiantes de Science Leadership Academy. Esta en Filadelfia, PA. Está cerca de tiendas y  también el estacionamientos. Nuestros escuela es más o menos pequeña pero es bueno. SLA tenemos 600 estudiantes con cerca de 50 profesores. Hay 30 estudiantes en una clase con uno a tres profesores. Nuestros escuela tenemos cinco pisos pero uno piso no lo hacemos utilizar para la escuela porque la gente vive en la escuela. Ofrecemos deportes como baloncesto, softbol , ultimate frisbee y más. También le ofrecemos clubes, programas, y especial clases ; drama, la ingeniería , el arte y la tecnología. Para más información, ven con nosotros!

Yo tengo español, matemáticas, historia, inglés, bioquímica, y arte. Historia es interesante y nosotros trabajamos duros. Necesitamos computadora y cuaderno. Español es muy difícil. Para tener éxito en Español, nosotros prestamos mucho atención. Tenemos que hacer la tarea. En Español, nosotros escribimos palabras nuevas en nuestras carpetas. En bioquímica, a veces necesitamos la bata de laboratorio.  

Yo tengo súper professores. Nos favorita es el Señor Kay. La Señor Kay enseñar la clase de inglès. Su clase es muy divertida. Enseña muy bien. Nosotros leemos muchas libros. También, tenemos las clase de matemáticas. La profesoras son la Señorita Giorgio o la Señorita Thompson. Son inteligente de todo, pero muy inteligente de matemáticas.  Tenemos 600 estudiantes. Los estudiantes en SLA son muy divertida. Son sociable y súper artistico.

Nos encanta SLA. Lo que más nos gusta de SLA es el libertad durante almuerzo. Tenemos libertad con todo. Podemos crecer fácilmente. Nos encantan la ubicación. Nos gustan la historia y las personas en Filadelfia. SLA es divertida, pero difícil de aprender. Necesitamos trabajar duro, pero está valer.


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LOS SERES QUERIDOS EN MI VIDA

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Spanish 1 - Manuel - B on Saturday, January 3, 2015 at 5:56 pm

intro:

title: “los seres queridos en mi vida”


Yo:

Me llamo Thomas. Tengo catorce años. Mi cumpleaños es veintidós de febrero. Soy caucásico y un poco alto, con pelo rubio y ojos azules.

él:

Él es mi amigo. Se llama Luis-Manuel. Tiene catorce años. Es un poco bajo. pero hermoso. Le encanta los carros. Su favorita es Corvette Stingray.


ella:

Su nombre Jessica. Su apodo es Jess. Ella es divertido. Ella tiene el pelo rubia y ojos azules. Es muy adorable. Le gusta cantar y le encanta bailar.


ellos:

Ellos son muy comicos. Sus nombres son Saamir y Raiz. Son de Filadelfia.  Ellos tienen catorce años. Ellos son muy cómicos, pero un poco antipáticos.


nosotros:

Se llama James. Es muy comico y muy muy alto. James tiene quince años. Le encanta bailar. Me encanta jugar videojuegos con James.


Fin:

Gracias por tú atención. Adios!

LOS SERES QUERIDOS EN MI VIDA from Thomas Wallison on Vimeo.

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NET NEUTRAL NEUTRALITY

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Technology- Freshmen - Hull - y2 on Friday, December 19, 2014 at 10:28 am

Net neutrality, the idea that ISPs have to treat all data the same. This principle, which is key in maintaining internet costs and safety, is at jeopardy. It is very important for teens to know about because theyŕe leading the internet charge. They’re going to lead the way for the next long while in “internet years,” changing everything that happens. Teens need to know so they can make the right choices and understand why net neutrality would be bad.

Young people are also the main users of the internet currently.[1] This matters because they are going to be the main users of the internet for a while, perhaps. Eventually, hopefully, there will be 100% of usage of the internet, and it won’t matter, but for now, it does.  Therefore, teens need to understand why it would be horrible for everyone but the ISPs if net neutrality is dropped. Suddenly, everyone will be paying loads more for the “fast lane” which would just be the same thing that we have now.[2] Students may get hurt as well; if you’re trying to learn and just get told “NO” because the website owner didn't pay the fee, that could be a huge boon to you education gone. Just like that.[3]

All in all, it’s very important that teens understand net neutrality. It will help the ISPs, but only in ways that would involve the citizens paying more for something that really doesn't need to be payed more for.  The future leaders of the internet should be educated. The internet is beautiful and extremely useful, and it would be worthy to keep that way.
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what-is-net-neutrality-video-blocked
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TOMMMY (slide-02)

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Technology- Freshmen - Hull - y2 on Friday, December 12, 2014 at 9:49 am
As opposed to the first slide, I chose to make a more simple design, utilizing more negative space and less images. I wanted it to be simple to look at, notice the donkey, read the quote, and be done. Then you can turn your attention to me, the speaker. Like PresentationZen said, I want to have to be there for you to understand the slide.
TOMMYYYY (3)
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TOMMYYYY (slide-01)

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Technology- Freshmen - Hull - y2 on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at 10:16 am
TOMMYYYY

I wanted to create a slide that really represented the “glance media” that was on Presentation Zen. I wanted you to be able to look at my presentation and get a decent idea of me, but if you want to know a lot about me you need me there to explain. I wanted it to be simple and not be something that you have to sit down and take time to read. You gotta glance, and get out. The beaver, the center of attention, flows with the background to really have it pop out compared to the rest of the slide, such as the text. However, the background is a light color so you can easily see the text and images without eye strain.

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Home network, Wallison

Posted by Thomas Wallison in Technology- Freshmen - Hull - y2 on Friday, October 3, 2014 at 11:14 am
mind mapping software

On my home network, I have lots of things. It starts on the cloud and goes down through a fiber-optics cable to two modem-routers. One of them connect to a printer via ethernet, and the other one connects to everything else. Those are four smartphones, 2 iPads, 5 laptops, 1 desktop, and 1 TV, all from WiFi.

My OMG moment was when I saw that the world wide web didn’t equal  the internet. I thought they were just two different ways to say the same thing. Also when I realized how many computers my family owns.

If you have your own home network, don’t get any routers from anyone “shady.”


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