Marcin Czapla Public Feed

Marcin Czapla Capstone

Posted by Marcin Czapla in CTE Senior Capstone · Kamal/Ugworji/Shagin · Wed on
​​For my Senior Capstone Project, I wanted to create something that would help me and other people living in the city using the knowledge of tools and Engineering principles I have acquired over the past four years. I knew that transportation around the city of Philadelphia was a major struggle for lot's of people, considering public transport is unreliable and owning a car isn't plausible. I also knew that as a freshman in college next year, whatever this mode of transportation would be, it would have to be campus friendly. When met with these constraints, one vehicle, in particular, stood out to me, the electric skateboard. After doing a bit of research online, I knew I could make my own board using RC supplies for around 1/4 the price of those on the market. However, as I soon found out, it wouldn't be as easy as ordering parts and putting them together. Most of the parts that I needed were shipped overseas and needed to be modified to fit my components. This lead me to use many of the tools I became familiar with through robotics and Engineering, such as the lathe, mill, and drill press. In order to successfully complete this project, I also had to learn about RC components and electrical circuits. I even cut out my own board using CAD and the CNC router. In the end, the board I made may not have as long of a range or go as fast as the boards on the market, but considering my budget I am still proud of what I accomplished.

Bibliography:

"The 16 Best DIY Electric Skateboards [LIST] - MyMyDIY | Inspiring DIY Projects." MyMyDIY. October 26, 2018. Accessed April 19, 2019. https://www.mymydiy.com/diy-electric-skateboards/.

"{{SEO.ogTitle}}." Kit.com. Accessed April 21, 2019. https://kit.com/MikeBeard/ultimate-diy-electric-skateboard-kit.

Projects, Oren's. "Electric Skateboard Build - Belt Drive | Weight ~11 Lbs | Price ＜ $300 | Speed ＞ 23 Mph." YouTube. October 16, 2018. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX60FC5ylTY.

Kids, Big. "HOW TO BUILD A DIY ELECTRIC ⚡ SKATEBOARD TUTORIAL PART 1 - BETTER THAN A BOOSTED BOARD." YouTube. November 16, 2017. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJqyWRSqOy4&t=2s.

Kids, Big. "HOW TO BUILD A DIY ELECTRIC ⚡ SKATEBOARD TUTORIAL- BATTERIES & ELECTRONICS- PART 2." YouTube. January 11, 2018. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tBjXlVo3ok

Kids, Big. "HOW TO BUILD A DIY ELECTRIC ⚡ SKATEBOARD TUTORIAL- VESC & RC REMOTE CONFIGURATION- PART 4." YouTube. February 5, 2018. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mNnHp7sOBE

Adriaens, Frédéric. "[WIKI] A Beginner Guide to DIY an ESK8." Board. June 25, 2018. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/wiki-a-beginner-guide-to-diy-an-esk8/46844.

Admin. "Are DIY Electric Skateboards Cheaper? | The False Economy." Board. September 03, 2015. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/are-diy-electric-skateboards-cheaper-the-false-economy/165.

"DIY Electric Skateboard Parts - Build an Electric Skateboard." MBoards. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.mboards.co/.

"DIY Electric Skateboard Guide [2019] - Belt Drive." How to Make an Electric Skateboard. April 22, 2019. Accessed May 02, 2019. http://www.howtomakeanelectricskateboard.com/guides/diy-electric-skateboard-guide-2019/.


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Laughterhouse 5- Podcast #2

Posted by Marcin Czapla in College English · Pahomov/Rhymer · B Band on
In the second podcast of the series, the Laughterhouse 5 team discuss the book through the Historicist Lens, making comparisons to World War 2 and the Holocaust. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/w6_YIWZ0UA8

Marcin

Noack, Rick. “Photos: 70 Years Ago, Dresden Was Destroyed. Here's What It Looks like Today.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 13 Feb. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/13/photos-70-years-ago-dresden-was-destroyed-heres-what-it-looks-like-today/?utm_term=.2f02b14978b4.

The article talks about the city of Dresden which was bombed during World War 2 and was the cause of 25,000 deaths. The city was almost completely rebuilt since this, mostly financed by American funds, however, the city is still haunted by the event that leveled it almost 74 years ago. The article talks about the Neo-Nazis that march through the city on the day of the bombing every year, proclaiming how proud they are of the event. Recently protestants have formed barriers standing arm in arm in order to stop them from entering the city. Their message through this protest is "Your predecessors caused the destruction of this city and we will protect it against you. Don't dare to abuse this day of commemoration for your racist goals." Our novel largely revolves around this historic event and describes scenes from it multiple times across the book. This article provides a way of viewing the horror the city faced back then, as well as background information about the event that the book doesn't provide. It also gives an example of how this historic event is still affecting the city through the march which is in support of it.

Matt

Washington Post. January 1, 2019. February 13, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/13/photos-70-years-ago-dresden-was-destroyed-heres-what-it-looks-like-today/?utm_term=.273706bede96 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 

The article was written to remember the 70th anniversary of the Dresden Firebombing. It talks about how the city was destroyed and how it left many people confused and scared. For years, a lot of the city was left in rubble. Like Frauenkirche church, which was only recently rebuilt. Now, Dresden is a very beautiful city. On February 13th, almost every year people stand together to remember what happened to their city, and they protest neo- Nazi's blaming them for the destruction of their city. We can now, look at this through the lens of the people of Dresden. We have been seeing it through the eyes of the Kurt Vonnegut.

Messele

https://www.nytimes.com/1969/03/31/books/vonnegut-slaughterhouse.html

Article about the author Kurt Vonnegut and his life history as well as information about his participation in the war.

Lucien


http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/kurt_vonnegut_writes_home_from_world_war_ii.html

This article featured a letter that Kurt wrote back home from the war. it gives a lot of information about his time in the war as well as his beliefs regarding war in general.

Jason

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/travel/36-hours-in-dresden-germany.html

Article talking about the city of Dresden which was bombed during World War 2 and is an important location throughout the book.

Marcin Czapla Memory Reconstruction

Posted by Marcin Czapla in College English · Pahomov/Rhymer · B Band on

  I slid the key into the door and turned it, hearing that reassuring click that meant it had been unlocked. A long and stressful day has once again brought me to the comfort of my warm and cozy home. However as I entered my house I wasn’t greeted by my mother in the usual cheerful way. There was an eerie mood inside, one I hadn’t felt often before. The Television was off, no Polish dramas were playing, and my mother wasn’t on the brown couch we’ve had since moving in. As I came into the dining room I could see my mom sitting at the kitchen table, tears running down her face. I had never seen her like this before, my mother was the strongest person I knew. She could barely hold onto the phone in her hand. My brother and I looked at each other. Grandpop is dead, he’s gone she said with a tremble in her voice. I dropped my bag which, I had been holding with one arm and immediately embraced her, my brother following forthwith. I could feel her tears hit the back of my neck.

       I hadn’t said anything, I didn’t know what to say. I remember feeling sadness, the purest form of it that had ever resided in me. I wanted to cry, I felt my eyes watering, but I couldn’t, not now. I knew I had to stay strong for her, as she had been for me in the past. He’s in a better place now mom, I told her, but it wouldn’t change anything. How did it happen I asked. He died in his sleep, she answered. Thank you, she said to my brother and I. I knew we hadn’t done much, there wasn’t anything we could do other then be there for her, but still there was so much gratitude in her eyes. My eyes watered again. I remember thinking what I would do if I ever lost her, how I could continue living knowing I’d never get to talk to her again. Do you want me to make you tea, I asked her. I had to distract myself. Yes, thank you Marcin, she answered and so I went to put water in the kettle. As I poured water in the brass kettle, I remembered doing the same back in Poland when I went to visit my grandparents, I remember what my grandpop had told me back then. One day when I won’t be on this Earth anymore, it will be your responsibility to help your mom for me he said. The first tear fell. It hit the kettle and slid down into the sink. I went to turn on the stove.

       I don’t like to remember this memory, as the loss of a loved one is never something pleasant to remind yourself of. It is easier to try and forget, but forgetting is not an option. Sharing this memory will force me to remember, I have to accept what has happened and honor my grandfather’s memory. The present I live in is one without my grandfather in it, all that’s left is his memory and legacy, unlike the memories I have of the past, a past with him in my life.


Authors Note:


Similar to the style of narration presented in the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, in my reconstruction there is a past tense in which I narrate the memory, but there is also a present tense where I reflect upon it and I why it is important to me. In Offred’s narrative we see her describe the emotions she feels towards memories she shares with the readers. I chose to write about this topic because of how it has affected me emotionally and molded me into the person I am today. I saw this topic as very relatable, as we have all gone through something similar or will go through it one day.



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The 3 C's of Marcin Czapla (CTE Lab Blog Post)

Posted by Marcin Czapla in CTE Engineering 12 · Kamal/Ugworji/Shagin · A, d2 & x2 Bands on

As you may already know my name is Marcin Czapla. I am a CTE student who attends Science Leadership Academy, and I am aspiring to be an engineer in the future. As we all know, engineers have their strengths, which are key to their success in field. It takes many attributes to succeed in such a demanding field, where a new task could by lying in wait for you every day. Personally, I feel I am equipped with strengths that will help me become successful in this field, three of them to be exact. They are creativity, curiosity, and compassionate.


Creativity is the first trait I listed and probably the most important. It is hard to come by new ideas nowadays, or at least original ones.  We see ideas being marketed that are just different versions of existing ones. There are so many unsolved issues in the world that are just waiting for a creative mind to come by and say, “Hey what if we try this…” I aspire to be that person someday, that can think of  creative idea to help someone in need or solve a problem no one thought could be solved. In everything I do, I try my best to be creative when I have the freedom to be, and I hope to continue to do so but with bigger goals in mind.


Curiosity, is what killed the cat, or so goes the saying. I for one am no cat however, and I am curious all the time usually about certain topics that catch my eye. Whenever I am really interested in something, or invest my time into it, I get very curious. I think of questions that I don’t know the answer to and then try to answer them with what I already do know. That is essentially what engineers do, they concieve and solve questions people don’t know the answers to. “What happens if we use this material instead of that?,” “What if we make that 3 feet longer, how will that affect its durability.” Curiosity is important in this kind of field because in order to solve problems and help people, we must first be curious enough to explore those problems and find out more about them.


Last but not least is the ability to be compassionate. Being compassionate is especially important, not just in engineering, but in everything you do. In order to help people, and ultimately help the world, you must learn to be compassionate first. Being able to make the right and the wrong choice also falls under this for me, as I learned in the short Engineering Ethics course Mr. Kamal taught us. Maybe in the future there will be a situation where someone needs help, someone who is in need, but they don’t have the necessary funds to hire you? Would you turn that person down? I wouldn’t. I would do everything I could to help that person out, because one day you could be in that person's shoes. I do believe that focusing on yourself first is important, but being compassionate towards others is important as well.


How will these 3 strengths influence the things I pursue and do in my future? They will be there along the way with me, influencing my decisions and helping me become the engineer I want to be. These 3 strengths will be crucial in both my development as a person and as a student of engineering. They will help guide me to help make the world a better place.


Advanced Essay: Standard for Masculanity

Posted by Marcin Czapla in English 3 · Block · E Band on
                                                                                                                                                                       


Introduction: My goal for the paper is to explore the standard of masculinity that is set in today's society and argue that it is outdated. I am proud of the way I incorporated my quotes. One way in which I could improve my paper is by adding more quotes that support my claims.



Advanced Essay:

Ever since I’ve been a young child, I’ve had the idea that being masculine means being powerful, muscular, and dominant. This idea is embedded in the minds of young boys across the world, making them feel minuscule compared to the ideals found in sports like wrestling, mixed martial arts, football, basketball, soccer, and even the action movies they see on T.V. This standard also discourages men to show emotion, labeling this behaviour as feminine, and creating a divide between young, impressionable men and their emotions. As a man, the impression is set by society that your role is to be powerful and brave, with a physique like the Rock. Society has created and stuck by a model of masculinity that is outdated and doesn’t fit the design of every man.
One of the clear problems with this is that these set standards benefit certain people more than others. Men who are unable to fit this certain dynamic, because of genetic setbacks, don’t fit this mold because of something they can’t control. These expectations can make them lose their true selves as they chase this ideal image of masculinity, which often leads to depression. This depression could cause men to feel the need to prove that they can be dominant. Not only to others but to themselves, leading to potential outbursts of violence. The Boys Are Not Alright offers an interesting, yet truthful explanation as to where this pent up rage and depression leads. “And so the man who feels lost, but wishes to preserve his fully masculine self-has only two choices: withdrawal or rage. We’ve seen what withdrawal and rage have the potential to do. School shootings are only the most public of tragedies. Others, on a smaller scale, take place across the country daily; another commonality among shooters is a history of abuse toward women.” They state that the public effect of this withdrawal can be a severe public showcase of rage, such as a school shooting, something we’ve seen an increase of in the past few months in our country. Of course, these shooters chose to go out and do what they did, and no amount of abuse or pain in their lives can justify that. We can, however, look towards this standard society has created and seen it as a step that built up to these violent tragedies.
Women constantly have movements for empowerment, telling them to be proud of who they are, go out to change the world for the better, and not let people see them for their bodies, but for their minds. These movements truly do empower and enlighten the hearts of millions of little girls on a daily basis, but what about the boys? What do they have to enlighten them, to tell them they don’t need to be the slabs of muscle they see on T.V, whose sole job is to hurt people and show just how strong they are? How can these boys grow up to be anything different then what they see on T.V. if they don’t have anyone to tell or guide them in a different direction? We need to implement a new set of standards for masculinity in today’s society, one that strays farther from that of domination and physical strength and accepts intelligence as a form of masculinity too. Intelligence is something that is respected in today’s society, but it is often seen as nerdy, and not exactly placed in the category of masculine. We need young boys to want to study and do well in school. Building up their knowledge, instead of focusing on strength. Physical strength is still important in today's society, and there's no reason to completely remove it from the standard of masculinity, but why not promote intelligence more, allowing young boys to choose which one they value more, or which one suits them better? Psychologist William Pollack said it well when he made a theory on this subject over two decades ago. “Boys start out sensitive but through a “shame-hardening process” — told to stop crying, to be a man — they learn to hide what they really feel. And if they don’t know or understand their own feelings, how can they care about anyone else’s?” The quote is stating that young boys are told to hide their emotions and ignore them throughout their childhood. Does it raise the question that if you take their emotions away and make them almost emotionless, how can they understand the emotions of others? You can almost see this as dehumanizing them from childhood, making them become these dominance obsessive beings which can lead to abuse in a relationship. 
Overall, what I’m trying to accomplish with this essay is convince you that the standard of masculinity is outdated in today’s society. We focus too much on the physical attributes society has decided it takes to be a man, and not enough on the mental ones. A strong and dominant man shouldn’t need to be muscular anymore unless he wants to be.

Works Cited:

Velasquez-man off, Moises. “Real Men Get Rejected, Too.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/opinion/sunday/real-men-masculinity-rejected.html.

Black, Michael Ian. “The Boys Are Not All Right.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/boys-violence-shootings-guns.html.

Bilingual Bewilderment

Posted by Marcin Czapla in English 3 · Block · E Band on
​Introduction: 

The paper I wrote was mainly focused around a memory I had from Kindergarten, where my polish culture was challenged based on an answer I gave to a Phonics question. The goals for this paper are to get the readers to understand my thesis which is that "a person’s language doesn’t change the message they are trying to get through, 'it doesn’t affect the quality of a person’s idea,'” as well as for them to understand the situation I went through, which affects many immigrants in this country on a daily basis. I am proud of the scene, as well as my conclusion, and I hope to improve my essay introductions in the future.

Advanced Essay:

Literacy can be found everywhere we look. Even though this may be seen as something obvious that anyone would know; why is it that people still have a prejudice against languages, other than the one they speak. I believe that a person’s language doesn’t change the message they are trying to get through, “it doesn’t affect the quality of a person’s idea,” but for many people, their perspective is different. Throughout my life I have experienced this in many forms and instances, whether it be a teacher questioning my knowledge of a subject based off of how well I can annunciate and express my thoughts in English, or my peers judging the level of intelligence I posses based on how well I can communicate my ideas with them. A specific memory that I still vividly remember to this day was an experience in Kindergarten, where I experienced prejudice. It was a time in my life when I was still adapting to the English language and the American culture that varied significantly from my very own.

Kindergarten had gone and passed and I was now stepping into a whole new ballpark... the first grade. My Polish friends and I have been discussing this transition for the whole summer and experiencing it for the past month and a half. First grade wasn’t that bad, we still had fun although we didn’t play with toys anymore, nor did we have nap times like in kindergarten, but the enjoyment of learning was still there for me. I remember one day though when I didn’t feel this same joy, a day when I became very angry that I hadn’t learned English at a younger age like most of my peers. We were working on our phonics notebooks and labeling pictures of things. Everyone in the class was sharing out their answer for one of the pictures when the teacher suddenly called on me.

“Marcin, what is the item in the ninth image?” I looked down at the image and stared blankly. What was it called again? I pondered for a good couple of seconds before my teacher asked,

“Marcin do you not know the answer?” I suddenly turned red in embarrassment and started to think harder. Then it hit me, I opened my mouth and spoke the word,

“Byk.” The entire class stared blankly at me except for my Polish peers who understood what I just said.

“No Marcin, that’s a yak,” my teacher said.

“I said that, that’s what byk means,” I replied.

“Well it’s not correct, let’s try another one,” she said. I didn’t want to start another one though, I got the answer right, it’s just that I didn’t say it in English, but I knew what the meaning was.

Had I really gotten the answer wrong, or just given a different version of the answer? The reason I chose to write about that scene, was because it’s a very vivid memory in my mind. The memory is so fresh in my mind because that’s one of the first times ever in my life that my Polish culture clashed with this new American one. I believe that the idea of a teacher telling me I was unsuccessful in identifying something, just because I didn’t know the word to describe it in this exotically new language, is culturally offensive. I knew what the image was, I could describe it perfectly in my own language but yet the teacher said my description was wrong, which it wasn’t.

Taking a look at the passages we read in class, one stands out to me that really connects with the idea I’m trying to project. "If you want to be American, speak 'American.' If you don't like it, go back to Mexico where you belong," (Anzaldúa, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, 34.) The author brings up this quote after stating that her elementary school teacher would hit her with a ruler on the wrists for speaking Spanish. The teacher would go as far as to do this even when the author was just trying to tell her how to pronounce her name. “If you want to be American, speak American,” really stands out since it shows that people in this country have a close-minded ideology, thinking that for people to belong here, they have to speak the countries language.

What is the message I am trying to deliver with this essay? The message and my overall thesis are that a person’s language doesn’t change the message they are trying to get through, “it doesn’t affect the quality of a person’s ideas.” Across the world we can find many intelligent people with amazing ideas and thoughts, ones that have been, will be, or are, revolutionary to the world we live in today, yet we don’t treat these people’s ideas with the same prejudice just because some of them are thought of or portrayed in a different language. We can’t judge thoughts with the idea in mind that they are worse just because of the way they are conveyed to us, just like we can’t judge someone’s skills or talent based on what they look like.


Works Cited:


Anzaldúa, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” https://www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/965/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf

Advanced Essay #1: One Too Many Steps Ahead

Posted by Marcin Czapla in English 3 · Block · E Band on
​Introduction:

The focus of this essay is on the idea of letting your ego get the better of you. In this essay I use a memory of this happening to me personally, and how it affected the task I was doing. I am proud of how descriptive I was when writing about the scene in my essay, as well as the fact that I could add a little bit of humor into my essay when it wasn't really a funny memory at all. I definitely feel as though I should work on strengthening my reflection in the future so that the scene isn't the only thing attracting the spotlight in my paper.

Advanced Essay:

My footsteps echoed in the hallway as I made my way towards the Engineering room. It was 9 A.M, and although my body was in the SLA hallway, my mind was still sleeping in my bed. The hallway was dark and eery this early in the morning, probably since it was the weekend and none of the lights were on. I turned the corner and saw a streak of light peeking out from one of the rooms in the hallway. That meant Mr.Kamal was here already and that I wasn’t as early as I thought. I walked up to the doors of the engineering room and grasped the cold metal handle, ready to swing it open, when I looked inside. 
I looked around to see the barren landscape that was our Engineering room. I swung open the door and stepped in. I was about to go find the nearest place to sleep, my eyes were locked on a bare table that would be suitable for the short nap I was going to take when my ears picked up a couple of faint voices coming from the armory. Mr. Kamal suddenly walked out with a group of students who looked tired, but Mr. Kamal had a happy look on his face as usual. 
“How strong is his coffee?” I asked myself quietly. 
We all sat down and got to work on coming up with ideas for our robot since today was the first official meeting for build season. We got to pick what we wanted to work on and my group got to design the mechanism that would pull up the robot. We got a whiteboard and started to brainstorm. In almost an instant everyone thought of the same idea: a winch. We were all confident that this would take like a week max and that it would be the simplest, most reliable, solution, that would solve our problem. Little did we know we were wrong. 
We got so confident in our idea that when we had to solve a few math equations, we overlooked and didn’t calculate an important part that would make or break, literally, our idea. This is the point in time when our confidence was really hurting us. We were getting so ahead of ourselves that we were skipping the principles of what a good engineer should do, and that’s double check everything. We didn’t notice any of this at the time because we were all just excited and in living in the moment, but these mistakes would surely hurt us in the future. 
When it was time to test our idea and we prepared our miscalculated winch, we had to go get weights. Maciej and I, the two “beefcakes” of the engineering squad, obviously had to be the ones to do it. As we conveyed the monstrous weights towards the winch, our confidence started to peek out from inside us, our lips started to slowly curve into a smirk. We got to the winch and let the weights down with an echoing thud, and started to strut towards the rope. I grabbed the neon orange rope and started to maneuver it making numerous knots around each weight, securing them to the winch. When the weights were secured we backed up cautiously towards the battery, where Mr. Kamal was ready to activate it with a switch. 
“Ready when you are,” we said. 
Mr. Kamal flipped the switch and the machine started. “Crankkkkkkkkkkk, pop!” The winch broke off the surface and fell onto the floor with a loud “BANG!” Everyone stared at the winch for a solid minute with faces of disappointment. A single tear rolled down Maciej’s cheek. 
Surprisingly making a bad winch actually taught me something very important. It taught me a lot about the importance of not getting ahead of yourself. While designing the winch and later building it, we got very confident and “put the wagon in front of the horse” as some people might say. If we just thought before we acted and didn’t let our egos get the best of us we would have probably caught the mistakes we made early on and successfully made a design that worked. This lesson applies to many life scenarios. Let’s say you are supposed to be studying for a test, but goof off instead because you're cocky and think you know everything, and you end up flunking it. Either one of these scenarios, whether it has to do with engineering or with a test, teach the same virtue, and that virtue is to not get ahead of yourself.

Why Are We Violent?

Posted by Marcin Czapla in English 2 · Pahomov · E Band on

Marcin Czapla

3/30/17

Why Are We Violent?


What causes violence? Most of the time it is conflict, or maybe even jealousy. Other times violence can be a product of fear, like in the novel “Lord of The Flies.” But is fear really what caused the boys to act out in violence? Maybe it was just the desire to hurt something that drove the boys to beat another human being to death. Humans can often have violent outbursts for many reasons, but it’s usually something small like maybe breaking something or hitting a wall. Small or not, though, these outbursts are still violent, and can be harmful. This raises the question, what causes humans to have the desire to hurt and destroy? Humans naturally have a desire to hurt things because it is in their nature.

The novel “Lord of The Flies” is about a group of boys whose plane has crashed on an isolated island, stranding them there. In Chapter 9, "A view to death", the reader gets to experience the first death so far. Simon goes to explore the mountain and try to find the beast. He finds out it's a human corpse that fell from the sky. The journey is exhausting, he gets very dirty and gets covered in blood from his nose, so when he gets back, the boys think he's the beast. "Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick. urgent, blind. “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’ Again the blue-white scare jagged above them and the sulfurous explosion beat down. The littluns screamed and blundered about, fleeing from the edge of the forest, and one of them broke the ring of begins in his terror. ‘Him! Him!’ The circle became a horseshoe. A thing was crawling out of the forest. It came darkly, uncertainly. The still screaming that rose from the beast was like a pain. The beast stumbled into the horseshoe (152).” This scene shows how fear can cause people to change, but is it really fear that did this to the boys? The boys could have run away from the beast or simply captured it since it wasn’t trying to attack them. They, of course, didn’t know that the beast was actually Simon, but still most likely saw that this beast looked awfully similar to a human, unless they were so struck by the fear that they didn’t notice. That doesn’t make sense, though, because when they first saw the beast fall from the sky, they didn’t want to go anywhere that night, or during the day for that matter, because they were so scared. Why didn’t they hurt the beast then or try to find him and hurt him out of fear? It’s because fear isn’t what drove them to attack the beast, but the desire for hurting something was.

In today’s society, we see people being hurt and murdered all the time, but recently the cause of a lot of it has been the police. Police brutality has been a serious issue over the past few years, with many innocent African Americans being murdered in cold blood for no reason. But what is the police’s justification for this you may ask? Fear. They claim they were in fear of losing their lives. They said they were in fear of the suspect being armed. But were they really in any danger? Evidence in most of these cases has proved that the victims were unarmed, and most of the time not even doing anything wrong. An example of this is the murder of David Sal Silva which happened in 2013. David was beaten to death by four policemen that claimed he was drunk and trying to fight them. Witnesses say that this isn’t true and there have been recording posted around the internet. That is exactly what the boys did, they murdered someone in cold blood. They took the life of an unarmed and harmless human being who was no danger to them at all, and why? Because they had the desire and thirst to do so, like animals. That is exactly what they acted like when they murdered Simon, not humans, but animals. Except that they were worse than animals, since animals most of the time kill for food, but what purpose did the boys have for killing Simon? That’s simple, they didn’t have one.

The boys have been showing signs of this desire earlier in the book as well. If we go back to the chapter titled “Painted Faces and Long Hair,” we will see many of them. The specific scene I’m talking about is when the group of hunters comes back from hunting the pigs and describe what they did to Ralph and the others. Jack then steps in and describes what he did to the pig in a sadistic way. “‘I cut the pig's throat,’ said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said it (69).” The twitch that happened makes it seem like there is something wrong with Jack, yet he shows he can process decisions easily throughout the book and be mostly logical about everyday things, so why the twitch? It’s a sign he wants to hurt more and that he liked the feeling of killing the pig. This makes Jack a sadist and proves furthermore that the boys had a hunger for hurting and killing things in the book. If the boys have this lust for hurting that we see in the pig scene, that should be a foreshadowing of the fact that it’s a matter of time before they hurt another human being, like they did to Simon and then Piggy.

It has even been scientifically proven that violence can be caused by many other factors other than fear. Some of the factors that can cause violence are exposure to it, frustration, overcrowding and even heat. There’s also something else that can cause violence, something called “terror management theory” shows us that people tend to act out in violent ways when they feel worthless or unimportant. This can explain why Jack acted out in violence a lot. Early on in the book, he was denied the role of being the leader by the other boys, which made him feel weaker. This could have made him feel the need to savagely hunt the pigs down and kill them. The more he did this the more enjoyable it started to become, and as my earlier example shows, even after the first hunt he already loved the feeling of hurting things. The fact that there was probably lot’s of heat on this tropical island and the human instinct to hurt things, especially when feeling threatened was what made the boys act out in violence and ultimately kill Simon.

The reason the boys killed Simon is not because they thought he was the beast, but because they have a hunger for hurting things and enjoy it. The fact that Jack also felt unimportant made him act out in violence to avoid that feeling. The boys also looked up to Jack, and just like humans naturally have the urge to hurt and hunt, we also have the urge to follow so they listened to Jack like he was their Alpha-male. The reason it is human nature to feel the need to hurt things or kill them is because humans are natural predators. When hurting something our minds can also learn to enjoy it, which is what made the boys kill Simon, the thrill, and joy of hurting something. The only thing that keeps us all peaceful and following the rules are the consequences that are there if we break them.

Works Cited:

Natasha Lennard / Salon. "Police Beat Man to Death With Batons, Confiscate Witness Video." Alternet. N.p., 13 May 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Kirk Schneider / AlterNet. "Why Are Humans Violent? The Psychological Reason We Hurt Each Other." Alternet. N.p., 30 July 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

"Violence." Pardon Our Interruption. American Psychological Association, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

E2U4- Port Richmond

Posted by Marcin Czapla in Spanish 2 · Hernandez · B Band on

Mi nombre es Marcin. Yo vivo en el barrio de Port Richmond. Port Richmond no es conocido para es arte público. Hay es mucho grafiti en el edificios abandonados. El barrio es relativamente seguro, no hay mucho el delito. Cuando yo pensar de mi barrio mi pensar de Polaco. La comunidad ese vive en mi barrio son ante todo Polaco, Irlandesa, y and Aleman. La mayoría son Polaco aunque. Yo tengo fuerte conexión para mi barrio y mi comunidad cual yo hecho con muchos años el vivir ahí.


Yo pintar mi mural en el centro de recreación. Esta lugar es popular y muchos niños ir ahí. La comunidad gustos a jugar deportes ahí. Yo haría poner mi mural en la pared ese caras el campo. Carros ese pasar por hario además ser poder ver el mensaje ese camino. Vandalismo además haría no problema si la comunidad respetas mi mural. En general, creo que este mural sería una gran adición a mi barrio y lo hará un lugar mejor.



Mi mural será characteristica cuatro brazos poniendo su punos en a círculo. Cada puno será characteristica a different bandera es decir ya cea Polaco, Irlandesa, Alemán, o Americano. El propósito de estas punos es a espectáculo ese nosotros son a fuerte comunidad ese palo juntos y mirar nuestras diferencias. Cada puno será simbolizar a diferente pais. Yo sería además tener a corazón en el medio de el círculo a representar amar para todas las naciones. En el brazos yo sería escribir diferente positivo palabras ese haria gente juntos. Básicamente el tema de mi mural es unidad y amor.


Yo tener ganas de mi mural cumple el papel de arte de público. La razón es, tiene un mensaje que es positivo y creativo. El arte público tampoco tiene una definición estándar. Cualquier cosa puede ser arte público, ya sea una estatua o un mural, no importa. En mi caso es un mural, y está uniendo mi comunidad como una, lo cual es una ventaja. Mi creación es también arte, ya que vino de mi imaginación y porta un aspecto creativo de mi mente.
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English Monologue-Master of Self Doubt

Posted by Marcin Czapla in English 2 · Pahomov · E Band on
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Ok, today is the day, I’m gonna talk to her, I'm not gonna wimp out of it anymore. I want to meet her and get to know her so bad, I just haven’t had the courage to talk to her yet. She’s just so… perfect, there’s no other way to describe it. I mean you guys understand right, that one special girl that you just lay your eyes on and you are already on cloud 9. That’s who Anna is to me, that dream girl. I always see her and have classes with her, and I’ve always wanted to say “Hi,” at the very least but I could never build up the courage. Well, that all changes today! In about 3 minutes lunch is gonna start and she should be walking out of her History class. That’s when I make my move and just go up to her. No.. no I can’t… no there’s no point, she probably won’t like me or wanna talk to me anyways, I mean I’m a boring person and I’m sure as hell not funny. The only reason she would laugh is probably out of awkwardness. GOD WHY AM I LIKE THIS. Why do I have to be so self-conscious and put myself down so much… oh, wait I do know why it’s because my standards are too high. I don’t have a chance with her…. *bell rings and door to history opens, Anna is one of the first people to walk out*

*Whispers- Oh no there she is, it’s now or never.” Hey, Anna, what’s up? Oh, you’re going to lunch, nice, nice sounds like fun. What me? Oh, I’m just chilling you know, I’m probably gonna go get some lunch in a little bit but for now, I’m good. Yea it was nice talking to you too, we can definitely grab some lunch together sometime. *Waving towards the distance as if she was walking away* That was easier than I thought… or was it. No that was a good little conversation… oh, who am I kidding she probably thought I was a weirdo. I probably made that so awkward…. UGHHHHH GOD WHY AM I SO CRINGEY?! Why can’t I be like any other guy and be able to talk to a girl in the snap of a finger, no hesitation, no nothing?! WHYY!? Why do I have to be so weird? I just want to be able to talk to her, nothing more, and I can’t even do that. Mannnn… how can I expect to one day maybe get her to like me enough to give me a chance and go out with me if I can’t even talk to her? I should just give up right now and accept that I’m going to just be alone forever. *Looks over and sees Anna coming back towards him smiling* Hey Anna *nervously* Wait.. you want to go grab lunch right now? Yea sure that sounds nice, let’s go, I just need to grab something from my locker really quick. Yea I'll meet you downstairs. *Waves at Anna again* Did you guys see that!? I talked to her, this is amazing. I’m gonna finally get a chance to hang out with her. I mean seriously this is awesome, I’m going to go eat lunch with...Anna...by ourselves… that’s almost like a date. OMG! NO WAY! I’M GOING TO GET LUNCH WITH ANNA! WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!? *Begins to walk away from the camera/ audience* Oh right, gotta get my coat, almost forgot about that with all this excitement in me, haha.

Voice Reading: https://soundcloud.com/marcinc-413191176/voice0060

"You're lying"

Posted by Marcin Czapla in English 2 · Pahomov · E Band on 
A big part of my life is my heritage, since being Polish is an everyday type of thing. I mean we eat Polish food all of the time at my house and celebrate Polish holidays. I don’t just stop being Polish sometimes, which is why it is weird when people don’t believe me when I tell them I can speak Polish. Here’s a typical scene:

“You’re Polish?” “Yea, both my parents are Polish and I was born in Poland,” “Well do you speak Polish then?” “Yea, I speak Polish fluently,” “You’re lying! I don’t believe you.” “Um, ok? Why not?” “Prove it then, say something Polish right now,” they demand. “Ja mam na imie Marcin Czapla, I ja umiem rozmawiac po Polsku (My name is Marcin Czapla and I know how to speak Polish),” I would say with almost annoyance in my voice. “Wow you really do know how to speak Polish!” they would exclaim almost surprised as if I hadn’t told them already. “Yea..,” I would reply.

I understand people could be from a different country, like for example Spain, and not speak that country’s language. If I tell you I’m Polish though, and you ask me if I speak it, and I reply with “yes”, then how can you tell me I’m lying about that? Why would I lie about being able to speak the language of the country I am from, there almost no benefits to it if any, especially if it’s just a friendly conversation where I am trying to get to know you? Maybe if it was to go on a application to somewhere, like a job for instance, that needed a Polish speaking employee, then I would understand the speculations. For me though, it usually happens during one of those friendly types of conversations where you are just meeting someone for the first time and are trying to get to know them better, or when you just see someone that you don’t talk to as much and you start some small talk.

This has been happening to me my whole life which is why I’m basically used to it by now, but in the beginning it used to always annoy me. I mean I was born in Poland, but my parents came to this country with me when I was only a few months old. Even though I’ve spent almost my whole life here, at my house we all still speak primarily Polish to each other. My parents are both Polish too and were born there obviously, but unlike me this doesn’t happen to them. It might be because since their adults and they are immigrants, it’s almost expected of them to be able to speak the language of the country that they came here from. I also understand that for someone my age to speak another language fluently could be seen as impressive or not very common, but telling me I’m lying when I tell you I speak Polish or telling that to someone no matter what the language is disrespectful. What that shows, or how I perceive it at least, is that you are doubting the fact that I know another language, or you think I’m lying to you. I know that some people use the phrase “You’re lying” as just a way of expressing that they are surprised, but in most cases that I’ve been in the people that said this were being serious. I think that people do this because a new language is something so new and well foreign to them, which is why they aren’t used to it and act like they act. It’s basically the same situation for me every time too, but I could understand why, I mean if I were to meet someone who spoke another language I wouldn’t say the same thing as them, but I would be just as surprised.

I would be walking somewhere, usually down a hallway at school, when I run into someone from one of my classes that I really don’t talk to that much. We would start conversing and create some small talk and eventually the subject would somehow get to me being Polish.

In conclusion, being Polish is a big part of my life That’s why when someone tells me they don’t believe that I can speak Polish it’s pretty offensive to me. I do understand that people might do it without even knowing it could be offensive or they don’t mean it to be, but it does sound a little rude most of the time and it hits me on a personal level if said in the wrong way.

E1 U5 Soy Polaco- Marcin Czapla

Posted by Marcin Czapla in Spanish 1 - Manuel - C on
Marcin's song

Soy inmigrante,

Vengo de Polonia.

Mi familia son inmigrantes,

Nosotros llegamos aquí para trabajar.

No clandestinos,

Tener papeles sobre mí, amigos.

Veo el verde campos de polonia,

Saboreo bolas de masa hervidas de mi mamá.

Oigo la voz de mis abuelos,

Toco Rex, el es mi perro.

Huelo flores de mis abuelos,

Yo canto con montañeros.

Jugar futbol en los campos,

Miro las montaños.

Exploras los castillos,

Somos productos de Polonia.

Somos polacos,

Hablamos polaco.

La lengua de bolas de masa hervidas y nutella,

No somos Americanos.

Vivimos en América,

Pero somos polacos.

Polonia está en nosotros pero allí yo tengo hugar.

Mi familia en la encrucijada,

y

Somos completos.

Part of music provided by: Orion

Assignment #8- Marcin Czapla

Posted by Marcin Czapla in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y2 on
We watched Growing Up Online. It was a show about kids who were growing up when the internet was first starting. The most memorable thing about the show was when the girl was talking about how she was anorexic. It is important to watch these types of shows to know how to be safe online. It is not important though to watch these types of shows since the video can really cover every situation that can happen to you so it's not the most helpful thing. I will keep my future family safe by setting up basic rules for internet safety that my family and I would follow. It is important to talk to your family about internet safety so that they know about the potential threat on the internet and how to not get into trouble on the internet. The advice I would give to parents who don't know how to keep their children safe online is to talk to them about it and tell them about the dangers on the internet.


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Finalized Slide

Posted by Marcin Czapla in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y2 on
1. What I learned from the critique of my slide was that simplicity is sometimes better then making something more complicated, and since my slide was very simple they enjoyed that aspect of it, so I decided to keep it that way. Something I did learn while presenting though was that I should pick a different color soccer ball, or one that would not blend in with the background since it was hard to see. One more thing that I was told to change was the way my word were placed. I was told to make them outline the soccer ball, so that it would look nicer.

2. The reason why I decided to make the soccer ball have a black outline is again, so that it would not blend into the background. The reason why I decided to make the words that describe me outline the soccer ball was to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
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Media Influency- Marcin Czapla

Posted by Marcin Czapla in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y2 on
The reason I made my slide the way it is, is because of new things I learnt online from the links that we were given to us, which were supposed to give us ideas of how a good slide should look, and it did. The first thing I learnt is that the first thing people will notice when looking at your slide are the colors. You should always use colors with lot's of contrast since it makes your words stand out from the background and makes your slide pop out. The reason I chose black and white is because they have the most contrast out of any two colors and its the classic look, but also because it matches nicely with the soccer ball. Another thing I learnt is that your text should be huge, because there shouldn't be a paragraph on your slide, it should be simple and to the point so that people don't have to read your slide. The reason for this being, you're slides are supposed to back your words up, your words shouldn't back up your slide. I also used quite a bit of "white space" or emptiness in my slide so that when you look at it you don't have a bunch of images or words that jump at you. One last thing I did was bleed my image off the edge a little and make it larger so that the eye is attracted to it and the slide more, but also to just make it look nicer.
Untitled presentation (3)

Jeremiah Cole

Posted by Marcin Czapla in Spanish 1 - Manuel - C on
Hola, me llamo Jeremiah Cole. Tengo 30 anos. Soy de Frankfurt, Germany pero vivo en Fayettville, North Carolina. Soy alto,delgado, y bien famoso. Me encanta cantar, soy muy talentoso. Me gusta tambien escuchar musica.

¿Que te gusta hacer?



Reflection

Posted by Marcin Czapla in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y2 on
In class we watched a video to promote bullying awareness. It was about a kid getting bullied by a group of kids and you watched them do mean stuff to him, but there was a twist. You could press an eye emoji and change the scenario so that the kids would be nice to him i stead of bullying him. What this video brings to my mind in reference to bullying is that it happens everyday and to a lot of people and we need to be more aware of it to stop it. Basically what I'm trying to say is that if you see e getting bullied go help them and stand up for them, because if your doing nothing your just making the situation worse. Who I am online is a student of SLA, a gamer, someone who likes to watch YouTube, and a user of Facebook, but I appear as a student of SLA that posts blogs, a Facebook user, and a soccer player that has his own website. I think people perceive me as a smart and athletic individual which I think is good. The goal of internet trolls is to cause you pain over the internet by bullying you or annoying you which then gives them pleasure from doing. You see a lot of these trolls in gaming which is why you have the option to mute people online in almost all games now. The positive results of online anonymity are that nobody can find out personal stuff about you that they can use against you or to make fun of you because they don't know your true identity,the negative results of online anonymity are basically the same in the sense that nobody know who this person who's being rude or bullying people is since he has a fake name most likely, so they can't really stop him.




     
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My Home Network, Marcin Czapla

Posted by Marcin Czapla in Technology - Freshman - Hull - y2 on
My home network starts off with a modem being connected to a router. The router then connects all of the following devices through Wifi, a desktop computer, 2 laptops, 3 phones, an I-Pad, an I-Pod, and a X-Box 360. An OMG moment I had while learning about networks is that your ISP can see whatever you've done on the internet and disclose that info if needed to. When having an ISP you should obviously remember to pay your bill on time or you won't have any internet, and second off all fast internet isn't cheap so get ready to be paying a good amount of money every month.
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