Vivian Pham Public Feed
The Eye Openers- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
In this podcast, with the theme being author's intent. We focused and analyzed a lot into the author, Toni Morrison's, style of writing in a way throughout the story. And connecting and trying to somewhat come to a realization about why and how she crafts each chapter. We noticed that every chapter started with a new story about a new character and their experiences. But in a way, they are all connected under one common theme having to do with race. Throughout this podcast, we pointed out certain sections in the book where we noticed Morrison's input on race and stereotypes and dug a bit deeper into Morrison's justification on the type of stories she writes.
We also went a bit into Morrison's tone as the story progresses, a main thing that we realized was that there were a lot of intense and out of the ordinary scenes in this book but she would describe them very nonchalantly and that really threw us off a bit.
All in all, as we finished the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, we learned a lot about perspective and purpose in a way. That, as generic as it sounds, everyone has their own experiences but the way they tell their story through fictional characters or realistic characters is a whole different ballpark.
The Bluest Eye: The Eye Openers Podcast
In our bookclub podcast, we talked and focused on the marxist lens in our reading. There were many focus points of our reading that had a lot to do with the main characters being Claudia and Frieda reveal a lot about their personal feelings towards materialistic things. And it was clear there was a huge impact on Claudia and Frieda through society and how they viewed themselves as well as others. We wanted to zone in and focus on the reason of why and how deeply society truly has a role in shaping and taking over the minds of people especially those who are younger.
viv: “There Could Be Power in a Union.” Jacobin, jacobinmag.com/2019/01/gilets-jaunes-yellow-vests-unions-labor-cgt-wages.
This article was about protestors in France outside the trade union to protest and renew the labor movement. And these protestors were specifically aiming their anger towards President Emmanuel Macron. They were discontent with the sudden rise in fuel taxes and it soon led to a lot of social problems and separation among the "popular classes in rural areas." This highlights one of ideas within Marxism, when it came to society or groups of people having the desire to one-up another group of people based off of materialistic ideas and money. In the novel, there were many sections in the story where Claudia and her sister Freida would constantly compare themselves to the other children around them based off of materialistic things like clothes, to food, down to the neighborhood that they lived in and how mentioning their envy towards others.
Tyreek:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/25/toni-morrison-books-interview-god-help-the-child
Jakob:
Ghansah, Rachel Kaadzi. “The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Apr. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/magazine/the-radical-vision-of-toni-morrison.html.
The article was about the author and the book and her radical vision and how she wanted to diversify the writing industry and how she writes about black people. She points out the things they face and how she talks about how she writes to tease her world and to complicate her world. Shown in the book when she writes about different social classes at the time period, Pellocia family who is poor and one example would be Maureen her family has more than they do and you can tell how she is judged by the girls. She writes about the Marxist lens because Pelloca always compares herself to others and wants to be white because they are generally treated better and have a better life in her eyes, she feels if she was white she would not have to deal with issues that she faces that’s part of the reason she wants blue eyes. The article gave me some insight on the author because I now know her purpose for writing and gave me insight on the lens because she writes to point out issues which are showcased in the book like class and comparing to each other.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: The Eye Openers - Vivian, Tyreek, Jakob, Doniesha
In this podcast, we identified sections of the book that we wanted to discuss the literal and figurative meanings of the first two sections that we read. We found that there were certain themes that we wanted to highlight. The literal meanings behind youth of the main characters who are children and its impact on their overall beings through their parents. Going into the literal actions the mother takes on and digging deeper into why she treats her children they way she does. The figurative parts that we wanted to focus on was a violence and analyzing the actions that are happening and what’s the real and deeper meaning.
We still ask ourselves this question as we continue reading: “Why blue eyes? Why is this important?”
Also: Two of our members were absent this day.
Reconstruction of Memory - Vivian Pham
Anna will never be able to erase this memory, kicking it aside like it doesn’t bother her is her best solution. She lives her everyday life being happy over walking throughout the streets, that makes her skin crawl and her head drop to look down at the floor. She says hi to strangers pretending like she isn’t terrified of anything happening to her. She wants to be better, she actually does want to be genuinely happy, she doesn’t understand why she can’t but she always hears in her head, “I forbid.”
She was 17 years old, she felt like she was going down the right path,
“I love you.”
“I love you too. I hope you go wherever I go” He said.
She was head over heels, she felt the happiest with him, they would spend the last 2 years of high school just being within each other’s comfort. Her family never supported her when it came to him, they didn’t trust him and believed that he was going to be a bad influence. Anna was enraged, she would come home every night and lock herself in her room, not feeling happy or safe under her family’s roof. She could never forget this conversation, little did she knew, it was going to be the conversation that changed her life forever.
“Hey Ann.” Her dad walks into her room.
“Hi.” Ann said, looking down at her phone.
“We need to talk about your friend.” He says.
“My boyfriend? The person I love?” Ann says, putting down her phone.
“Your friend. I forbid you from seeing him.”
Anna gets up. “You will not forbid me from doing anything.” In a matter of a few minutes, Anna had her important items packed and she was out the door to be with her supposed love of her life. She never looked back and never cried.
Five years have passed since that day, that one day, now she shuts down, she sits in a small apartment, the walls are stained yellow, she sits lonely on a short bed. She looks around and does not feel happy, her belongings don’t feel like home, nothing she has feels like home. She finally understands why she’s not happy, she tries so hard to cover up and hide the most life defining moment and denies all of her emotions.
“Forbid”
The one word that drove Anna over the edge, the stuffing of her suitcase in rage and force. Her footsteps heavy as she leaves her room forever, remembering how many nights she spent angry, despising everything her family stood for. She moved on and believed this was her only way to be happy, little did she know, her being afraid of her own thoughts costed her a life that was not full of regret.
Author’s note:
In this reconstruction of memory, this was a story that highlights a memory that I have experienced and feel like a lot of teenagers have felt during one point in their lives. It’s hard to identify and stay in tune with the emotions, when anger takes over one person. This story is about a girl who regrets something she has done, but one wrong move and she goes wrong. To convey this memory effectively I wanted to reveal the character’s emotions to the memory using Kesey’s technique on being super descriptive and using descriptive language to tie the character’s emotions with the scene of memory. As well as revealing the character’s relationship to this memory and its significance using Atwood’s technique by repeating a certain moment or word that’ll point to its significance.
An image represents Anna in a spherical ball with holes it in, the air is leaking out of the ball and she is holding her breath, to symbolize that reality is hitting her, this memory is still stuck in her head, it’s not her choice to forget, this memory is not allowing for her to forget. She tries to build up this strong force around her and the image shows pieces of tape just attempting to patch up the holes and the damage.
Advanced Essay #3: What's The Best For You?
Vivian Pham
Mr. Block
English 3
March 9th, 2018
Introduction:
My goals for my paper was to help the audience understand two sides of what goes into self realization and self reflection in the terms of deciding what career or job is best suited for oneself. A person’s future is way too important to not think about or not realize what goes into crafting a life in this toxic society. And I wanted to capture what many people don’t realize about their own thoughts, there are a lot of subconscious thoughts that goes into how our minds work. Some areas of improvement would probably be to decrease the word count of my essay as a whole and work on making sure that all brainstormed ideas are fully incorporated.
Advanced Essay:
Many are completely dumbfounded by how society subconsciously controls their career goals and decisions that they had for themselves. We need to come a realization that there are a lot more at stake when finding a career/job than how much the job pays. Although many fail to realize, everyone has control over their decisions but are continuously classifying whether it’s “acceptable” by society. All attention should be geared towards their mental, physical, and emotional capabilities when deciding what jobs are best suitable to take on.
Once we start to think for ourselves about what’s best for us, we start to comprehend certain factors that makes us happy. We must disregard all judgement provided from others. This doesn’t make us selfish, this makes us mindful, capable, and secure enough to guide ourselves through all career related obstacles. Observations are being made wherever we go, Ryan Etis had a lesson to be taught to an audience of 400 high school students at an event to teach about careers and manufacturing.
“I watched closely as they settled in, full of potential and possibility. I had been thinking about this 30 minutes for a while. I had a goal. Maybe it was more of a hope or desire. I wanted to be that defining moment for one young person today. To pay it forward. To ignite something inside someone else that becomes the catalyst for change.”
Ryan wanted to make a difference, although he didn’t know any of the students personally, he knew that he wanted everyone to take away from his lesson that they can become a “catalyst for change.” He viewed inspiration as a defining factor in society, given that he found his own inspiration from Jim Rohn, who “...saved me. I had never been exposed to that kind of thinking. I went for the free happy hour, but didn’t anticipate a night that would become a defining moment in my life. I walked out fully committed to begin my life transformation. The learning has never stopped.” In college, Ryan felt uninspired, he found himself realizing things about himself that he seemed to not have control over. He had to take many steps to find his true potential, and to pass on that process onto the younger generation.
Being genuinely happy with a career that not only challenges you to do better is much more satisfying rather than the opposite. As individuals we owe it to ourselves to have our own direction in what we decide for ourselves, and how we associate our happiness and success.
The most common job in this industry belongs in the setting of a restaurant. In many cases, our mental and emotional abilities are challenged the most. Although it might not seem like the most hardest job in the world, it takes certain people to adapt to this type of work. Christina Druen wrote an article discussing the process of her first job and the influences that came from that.
“Working as a waitress has helped me develop life skills that years of schooling never did. In school, presentations scared me, and they still do to this day. However, give me 3 or 4 groups of people to talk to and teach them something, I will eat it up. By working as a waitress, I have learned so much about myself, and about relationships. I have learned that I am amazed by what customers have to say.” Not only did she learn the physical skills when it came to the specificity of the job like managing money and engaging with leadership skills, she learned how to personally break out of her shell of uncomfortability that she never thought she would overcome.
However, the restaurant job hasn’t given everyone a positive experience, Lucy Murrey writes about her experience, “The restaurant had pretty distinct cliques and a tangible hierarchy associated with them. Most notably were those who had been working at the restaurant for years who resided at the top of the pyramid, crowning themselves above a sea of nomads: the college kids who would pop back in every so often, the high schoolers who were harmlessly picked on, and then the miscellaneous, ever-changing group of people who, from the moment they were hired, had everyone placing bets on how long they’d last.”
She realized immediately that working in a restaurant had its own set of societal distinctions. Expectations were contrived before new workers would come in, she described the environment as a “tangible hierarchy.” Depending on the workers’ age or social background, the whole purpose of this business was that their positions weren’t permanent. She talked about how people would place bets on each other to see how long they’ll “last,” already assuming that they can’t handle it. But yet, others still continue to work in such manners, not taking into account that this is harmful to their emotional being.
A vast majority of adolescent teens starts off their years diving into the world of business. They are oblivious to how the world works, it’s common for them to automatically gravitate towards pursuing a career that they notice family members take on. That shouldn’t be the only purpose to decide a career, Cheri McBride discusses her experience with her family business,
“Cheri McBride, now 65, was just a kid in 1951 when her parents opened up a jewelry store called Nowlin Jewelry in Lake Jackson, Texas, a Dow Chemical factory town that sprung up in the 1940s. As she grew up, she saw how hard her parents worked—staying up late or spending weekends doing paperwork—to make it a success. That was why, when it came time to go to college, McBride, who goes by the nickname "Duckie," couldn't wait to get out of town. "I wanted to be the world's greatest artist," she says. "And I honestly think my parents hoped I would find a job with nice benefits."
Success in her eyes rose from how she saw her parents work at a young age. She observed how hard they would work and the amount of time they would spend throughout time. After college, she had a goal based off of her parents’ work ethic, her desire to be “the world’s greatest artist.” She soon found herself not reaching that goal and began to take over her family’s business, but “the third generation of the Nowlin family told their parents they didn't have any interest in taking over the business. That's why four years ago, McBride and her brother decided to sell off their entire inventory and close the business down after 50 years of operations.” It seemed easier said than done when it came to taking over her family business, but she knew that this business couldn’t continue simply because she wasn’t passionate about it.
Once again, Christina speaks about her influences growing up in regards to important people in her life, “I was 15 when I started. I had just started high school. I didn’t know who I was yet. Although I’ve always had a good head on my shoulders, I was still influenced by others that were older than me. I wanted nothing more than to be friends with all of them. Because I was the baby of the crew, they all took care of me. They were there with me through all my successes in high school and even now in college.”
She felt that she had this obligation to stick to this job because of the people that supported her every step of the way. This shows that certain working environments provides teenagers of this generation an invitation to following in the footsteps of others, simply because of their age and their experiences. Living off of someone else’s lifestyle is something that people tend to do, without realizing, it can definitely cause major restrictions on their lives.
There are so many constraints on life itself when it comes to expectations that we have to live up to. From family members, close inspirations, and societal impacts we have control over anything involving our self decisions and self discoveries. It takes courage to admit to themselves that a huge part of their lives are under the control factors aside from their own. We all need to dig beneath the surface instead of scratching it. This establishment of happiness is something we all need to take into account. Everything is a learning experience whether it be a positive or negative one, taking away something from a job experience into the course of life. Success should be something that others work towards and aim for for themselves, and taking all steps necessary to help them achieve their full potential.
Bibliography:
Dahl, Darren. “Succession Stories: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Inc.com, Inc., www.inc.com/articles/201103/succession-stories-keeping-the-business-in-the-family.html
“How My First Job Changed Me.” The Odyssey Online, 28 Aug. 2017, www.theodysseyonline.com/how-my-first-job-changed-me
“3 Defining Moments That Shaped My Life.” Ryan Estis, 2 Nov. 2015, www.ryanestis.com/leadership/3-defining-moments-that-shaped-my-life
Lupu, Ioana. “Your Feelings About Work-Life Balance Are Shaped by What You Saw Your Parents Do.” Harvard Business Review, 30 Oct. 2017, www.hbr.org/2017/10/your-feelings-about-work-life-balance-are-shaped-by-what-you-saw-your-parents-doAdvanced Essay #2: The Structures of Society
Introduction: In this essay, I wanted to address and explore the ideas of this constantly need of classification of students and people in general and to discuss their roles in society. I also wanted to highlight cruel judgements are being unfairly casted upon members of society starting from a young age. Parts that I'm most proud of throughout this easy would be the writing of larger ideas because I think that it's hard to identify larger ideas aside from ones that I have in my head. But I think I did well in retelling my thesis but not in a repetitive way. Some improvements for the future would be to try to work with the word count and to take out unnecessary words and phrases that are unneeded.
It should be known that the minds of society are fixed around the idea that the pace of how others learn and the language that they speak determines their intelligence. Along with this concept, physical and mental tests are constantly being conducted upon society to help people separate and insult the intelligence of those who are different, race and background-wise, etc.
Our society is continuously trying to classify two groups of people as either “stupid” or “smart.” Then, society decides whether or not these people should be defined with a grand or derogatory representation. This is unfair, and does not give people a chance to express their knowledge fully in their defense. The act of enforcing tests that claims to determine their intelligence should not arbitrate the intelligence of a person. In I Just Want to be Average by Mike Rose, it strongly represents the school environment that diminishes the spirits of young students based on a single test, that determines if they were considered “stupid” or “smart” using the school’s principles. He uses the words ‘disaffected’ to describe the students who were placed in the “stupid” class.
“The vocational track, however is most often a place for those who are just not making it, a dumping ground for the disaffected…” Throughout the story, it shows that the teachers who teach the “slower” students, do not establish any policies to help them improve as students. The teachers have this mindset that they’re hopeless, without giving the students a chance to enhance their knowledge that is yet to be discovered by others.
This story gave me a revelation about school environments. Similarly to Mike Rose in his story, ever since I was in elementary school, in English class, we would have oral reading tests and writing prompts that would determine what reading level we were at. I could remember the feeling like it was yesterday.
“Remember, DRA testing starts today, directly after lunch. Come into class quietly and read independently. I will call you up one by one to take the test. The classroom must remain quiet.”
“Here we go again.” My friend Michael said to me.
“I really hate these. I don’t think it’s fair.” I whiningly say.
“I always feel like every little stupid mistake that I would make, counts towards the grade. I never get the grade that I deserve.” Michael said pulling out his book.
I could tell that he was as nervous as I was, I have my red, hardcover book opened up to a random page as I continuously read the same sentence over and over again. All I could think about was the order that Teacher Debbie was going in. I counted the minutes in between each student that gets tested just so I wasn’t caught by surprise when she calls my name. I felt my leg starting to shake anxiously under my desk, I couldn’t get it to stop, Every noise in the room made me jump. The constant and crisp sound of flipping pages, quiet whispers coming from the back of the room, the zipping of book bags, the sliding of chairs, and so much more.
I would tell myself, “Just calm down. Panicking will make it worse, you will try your best and that’s it. Just read smoothly and don’t think about it too much.”
I could feel my face tense up as time passed. I completely forgot about the book I was supposed to read and found myself monitoring every little movement my teacher made. I heard nothing for a good few minutes and felt my eyes getting heavy.
“Viv?” I felt my friend Michael tapping me on my shoulder.
I jolted up and opened my eyes wide.
“It’s your turn, hurry up.” He said pointing towards our teacher.
I got up right away, scooting my chair back quickly and making a screeching sound. I walked towards her desk slowly trying to remain calm, I felt like my heart was racing a million beats per second. The jitteriness from my leg came back as I sat down.
“Choose any book and read until you see the star.” Teacher Debbie said, laying out 5 booklets out in front of me, as she flipped through her papers.
I silently picked one out.
“Whenever you’re ready.” She said waiting for me to start.
Soon, I started to read. I examined the whole page and read the words in a monotone voice. As I continued to read, not focusing on what the words actually meant, I heard the little scribbles that she started writing. I started memorizing the noises of patterns of circling and underlining. By the end of the test, I was told to finish the book and fill out the packet she gave me.
Every year I would expect to take the same test, and to go through the whole process again. My results wouldn’t necessarily be considered to be a part of the “higher level.” I felt like I was never going to be good enough as I would compare my scores with my friends, who would get a higher grade than me. To this day, those tests, helped us figure out what level we were at, but they should be altered in a way that wouldn’t negatively affect and create learned helplessness. The tests and teachers should help encourage us to strive for better.
In both “I Just Want to be Average,” and my life story, the teachers would never say that they were conducting these tests to separate the smart from the dumb. But as students, we would always know that that’s what they’re trying to do. This feeling of wondering if we are good enough based on tests could lessen our will to continue on improving ourselves.The idea of testing and categorizing students based on tests is a strong depiction of social hierarchy in the terms of language and the testing of intelligence rather than social class. This serves tremendous significance to how close-minded society is.
Cultural representation should be fair and impartial but instead offensive terms are being correlated with those who don’t appear to be “smart” based on their culture and language. This is undoubtedly a burden on many people whose first language is not english, and those who couldn’t afford the best education. These expectations are being planted in the minds of those who are oblivious and obstinate. From the story, “Superman and Me,” an Indian boy has grown up understanding for himself and his culture, that being with Indian has it’s own affiliation. He says, “We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. Most lived up to those expectations inside the classroom but subverted them on the outside.”
The children would grow up hearing distasteful words used to describe them, some would try to avert those stereotypes, while others simply just accepted those terms as a way to define themselves. Not only were they called stupid because of their background, but also because they were ESL learners. This language barrier invited members of society to belittle and apply judgements to one another, unable to see past the reality of each person’s intelligence regardless of race, nationality, and tests.
In the documentary, “A Place to Stand,” the protagonist, Jimmy Santiago Baca speaks about his important parental figures in his life not being present to guide him. He described the way he was raised as, “You learn how to run with the dogs as a dog.” Just like in “Superman and Me,” the boy knew his role in society and knew that he was different and was going to be treated as such. He compared himself and those that he surrounded himself with as “dogs,” and used the term very loosely. In some cases, an individual would feel very insecure to be themselves because of that negative energy being cast upon them. No one should be afraid or doubtful of who they are because of how other people speak of them.
Interpretation is an important factor when it comes to responding to these harsh stereotypes and assumptions that are made. In the story, “Mother Tongue,” by Amy Tran, she expresses her experience with her use of different forms of english. This is mainly centered around her work, and how she would speak differently based on the environment. She reveals her thought process about language and it’s influences, “I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language-the way it can evoke emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.”
She notices different layers when it comes to the power of language, it is much more than just a way to communicate with family members and the community. But it’s a way to express complex ideas and reveal these impressions about every person. She also gives her commentary on her responsiveness when it came to communicating with her parents.
“Lately, I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as 'broken" or "fractured" English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than "broken," as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness.”
Those who come from the same cultural background, within the same family still have the tendency to have negative speculations. These standards has even led to those who are within the same cultural background to believing these heavy-handed alterations being made about their loved ones. It is easy to judge someone’s intelligence based on their level of education and their cultural background. These mental and physical literacy tests has a strong grip on cultural dominance and is clear to distinguish who deserves certain representations. Everyone has their own form and definition of what literacy is and the types that are commonly used. Without the power of language and literacy being one of few sole reasons why many are quick to judge, many thoughts would be kept to oneself. The amount of repulsive commentary against groups of people would be kept at a minimum, but the power of language and literacy is a huge factor in the structures of society and may never be broken down because it’s been molded and strengthened.
Citations:
Rose, Mike. "I Just Want to Be Average." Lives on the Boundary: The Struggles and Achievements of America's Underprepared. New York: Free Press, 1989. 162-67. Print.
Advanced Essay #1: Can we really help someone who is in pain?
Introduction:
Goals that I had for my paper was to really be able to include all the components into my story effectively and evenly. And to have a balance of everything, the descriptive scenes, reflection, and large idea. I think that parts that I am most proud of would be the whole process of editing and revising my essay. It really changed the whole flow of my essay from the beginning and I think that the improvements that I made, really helped convey my message. Some areas for improvement for the future would have to be to decrease the amount of words that I wrote. I wrote a lot and at first I had 2000 words and I erased and changed it until 1000 and even though it’s way more than the maximum, I still need to improve on this.
No matter how hard I try, I can’t do anything right. Being silent and listening was all that I could ever do. The pain ached from the inside and out, puncturing holes into my heart. The feeling of remorse and sorrow poured out of my body out in the form of tears. I remember that heartstopping moment, it felt like my whole world was getting flipped and tossed around.
I was in history class when I got the text from my best friend, Michelle.
“I can’t stop shaking.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” I started typing at soaring speed.
“I can’t talk right now.” She texted back.
But I was persistent on getting a response. As time passed, I felt myself sink down lower into my seat.
My thoughts started a violent and gory war in my head, the sword were her words that cut me and the blood were the tears that followed. My eyes stayed glued to my phone.
My friends noticed how I was behaving. They fed me the words that were meant to comfort. I could see the disappointment on their faces when I would look up and ignore them.
“Tell us what’s wrong,”
“What happened?”
“Please tell us.”
Their words went in through one ear and out through the other. I sat there with my thoughts, what should I do if it’s something bad? Am I really her best friend if I can’t help her? I saw my phone flickered on.
“My baby cousin…. my mom called me,” She paused between texts,“H- he’s dead...”
I felt my whole body slowly close in on itself. My jaw dropped and the tears followed and fell down my face with no control. I ran out the door of my class and straight into the bathroom.
I called her and she picked up right away.
“Michelle… Are you okay? I am so so sorry. How did it happen?” I said, as I thought to myself, should I have not asked how it happened?
“I can’t do this right now.” She said, I could hear that she was crying uncontrollably.
I heard knocks on the bathroom door knowing that it was my friends that ran after me. They were calling my name and telling me to come out. But I ignored them once again.
I knew that whatever I would say to her right now wouldn’t be helpful. It would just be a bunch of words that mean nothing. I gave her as much time as she needed to explain everything. As I sat on the window sill, listening to my best friend and crying.
She was feeling useless as much as I was. Feeling powerless to do anything to help destroys and destructs you from inside out. You feel this automatic anger and hate yourself because you’re not doing your best. You start to shut out everyone who cares about you and start to isolate yourself from who is “trying to help.” The worst part is not understanding and lying. Simply saying the words, “I understand what you’re going through,” can deepen the pain and agony of the person even more. They know that you don’t understand and you’re left with no other option. Can anyone really ever help anyone that is suffering?
No matter what age I was, I found myself in these moments. As a young girl, I wasn’t aware of everything happening around me but I noticed when someone looked upset, or looked like they were in pain. Like in the sixth grade with my bestfriend, Lyna.
I’ve only known her for 2 years back then, but I knew that the second I met her, she would be one of those friends that I would grow old with. We made plans to be roommates in college together, to share every detail of each other’s lives together, and to dance until we can’t anymore. This seemed like the year where everything would start changing. In the eyes of Lyna, it was a different change, the type that would change her life forever and she wasn’t ready for it.
“I think they’re separating.” Lyna said one day when she walked up to me during breakfast.
“Separating what?” I said, completely clueless.
“Mom and dad. They’re not happy.” She said looking around, hoping no one else was listening.
Not happy? I would think to myself, I’ve never heard of a separation of parents or loved ones, aside from the movies. My mind was glued to the idea that families stick together and love each other endlessly no matter what. “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health..” I truly believed that this was always the case. I told her that her parents love each other very much and nothing will happen. But who was I to tell her that it was going to be okay when I didn't even know myself?
“They aren't the same. They're fighting every single day.” She said to me, as a single tear would run down her face.
“But that doesn't mean anything does it? Parents always fight.” I said with a hopeful tone.
She looked away, disappointed and said with her head down,
“You won't understand anyway. Your family is perfect.”
Perfect? What am I supposed to do with that? My family for one is not perfect. I told her the words that I regretted the second I said it.
“I don’t know what to say.”
Almost everyday, Lyna would come up to me in school with an update about her parents. I would listen but not understand, yet I still tried to. This went on for a few more years until it finally happened, the fear that she grew up with, the nightmares that she wished never came true, did. She was my best friend, she couldn’t do this alone, and she wasn’t alone. Although I thought that all this time, I wasn’t helping, I was wrong. The attempt of trying to help and comfort goes a long way. Having the intentions of extending out a helping hand, the act of doing so makes all the difference. You can never fully cure that damage within but you can apply the bandage and cure it slowly.
E2 U4: Mural projecto- Vivian
Vivo el sur de Filadelfia. Para mi barrio es pacífico y tranquilla. Yo vivo ahi ya que nací. A causa de la gente amable creo que mi barrio es muy bien. Cuando pienso mi barrio, mi imagino mucho gente.Debido a mucho en comida Y la gente agradable mi gusta. Por otro lado no me gusta el aparcamiento. Me gusta la zona de mi casa.Me gusta donde vivo porque tengo un montón de acceso a los recursos. Para mi algo que cambiaría es el ruido de mi vecinos en mi barrio.
Algunos temas importantes de mi comunidad es la unidad y paz. En mi barrio todo el mundo es diferente y mucho eventos significativos todos. Hay mucho festivales, juegos y espectáculos. Algunos festivales son importantes para los católicos en el barrio sino que permiten que todo el mundo a venir y pasar el rato. Y a mí es un símbolo de la comunidadYo quiero poner mi mural a una cuadra mi casa. Vivo el sur de Filadelfia. Para mi barrio es pacífico y tranquilla. Yo vivo ahi ya que nací. A causa de la gente amable creo que mi barrio es muy bien. Cuando pienso mi barrio, mi imagino mucho gente. Debido a mucho en comida Y la gente agradable mi gusta. Por otro lado no me gusta el aparcamiento. Me gusta la zona de mi casa.Me gusta donde vivo porque tengo un montón de acceso a los recursos. Hay algunos eventos divertidos a veces. Mucho de miembros de la familia Vive en el sur de filadelfia. Hay mucho de murales y pinturas en mi barrio y yo quiero mi arte en mi barrio. Quiero mi mural cerca de casa donde me siento cómodo.
Para mi mural quiero que ahi un montón de símbolos. Porque cuando pienso en mi barrio pienso en muchas cosas Así que quería símbolos en mi mural. incluir un montón de corazones como símbolo y árbol por que no hay un montón de árboles en mi barrio pero hay algunos que realmente me gusta y creo que eso es algo que en mi barrio que noto. Yo quiero comunicar que mi barrio está lleno de paz, amor y comunidad
En fin yo creo ese puedo más consideración en el diseño del mural pero yo creo eso mi diseño yo tengo ahora es bien para representar mi vecindario. Y puedo ver mi mural en mi barrio porque hay mucho trabajo de arte eso es simple pero tiene un significado fuerte a causa de la unidad de mi barrio. Además el lugar que elegí esta cerca de mi casa y esta en mi barrio en el sur de filadelfia porque es donde crecí por eso quería mi mural aquí. Aunque es difícil poner un mural en mi parte de la ciudad porque es en su mayoria casa voy todavía intento a encontrar un lugar poner.
Pancho Villa by Vivian Pham
Una oda a Pancho Villa
El es muy dedicado
Y protector de su familia
El es inteligente y creativo
Era un líder fuerte
El intentó su mejor
Pero el era tristemente tomado de nosotros
Él será extrañadoAqui y Alla
Hecho por el artista Michelle Angela Ortiz. La importancia de este mural es mostrar el impacto de la inmigración en las vidas de los jovenes immigrantes mexicanos en South Filadelphia. Aqui y Alla, que se traduce en "aqui y alla" se refiere a los jovenes de Filadelfia y Mexico. Hay muchos mas murales en Filadelfia con la importancia de la inmigración que es el mensaje.
South Philadelphia // Passyunk square
If I were to have a mural or to create a mural or any type of art work I would want it to be somewhere in this alley, because I wouldn't want my art to be easily discovered. I didn't see this "Electric Light Mural" until I looked around and looked closely down streets that wasn't a main street. I would want my art to be something kind of sacred and would need or require some type of adventure to find. Because it would mean that whatever art that I wanted to create was found through adventure and fun.
Watch towers mural
The watch towers mural is located in 910 dickinson street. And it was made mainly by Joe Boruchow but he of course had help from other artists and specialists. This mural was planned out on plain black paper and it was said to be repainted 30 times it's original size on the paper to fit the side of the house. The scale was a lot larger than just a small mural, it had to be made to fit the whole side of a 3 story row home.
E2 U2 D8 Premios- Vivian Pham
It's complicated book reflection
This chapter really made me think more into detail about cyberbullying because I’ve definitely heard that it was and still is a thing that those who use social media go through every now and then. But actually mentally hearing a real story about someone’s experience really increases my interest in this topic. In the beginning of this chapter it told a story in an interviewer’s eye and him interviewing this girl named Abigail and she was talking about her family and her sister, Ashley. And how even if Ashley was Abigail’s sister, it didn’t stop her from wanting to say bad stuff about her with her friends through social media. It would already been bad that she was talking about someone else through the internet, but the fact that it was her own sister. That she has grown up with, live with, and basically do everything with is just messed up. I think that she just feels the need to get attention. When I hear about people online making a big conflict through social media, it’s mostly for attention. And that person probably knows that saying things online makes it easier for word to get around and for more people to hear. Rather than saying something bad about someone in real life when not a lot of people would hear or care. Attention to me, is what most teenage girls want especially when they’re coming into high school. Probably because it’s a different environment and they feel the need to act a certain way to be “cool.”
I think that if I were Abigail, I would feel really hurt and confused to why my own sister is saying bad things about me when I did absolutely nothing to trigger it. And the fact that she could just pretend that she didn’t do anything and see her every single day. Along with the idea of my sister saying bad things about me, the whole school would be saying bad things about me. People would assume and believe anything these days that they see. They feel the need to be pressured to know what other people know, and believe what other people believe. It’s all apart of pure pressure through other people and social media as well. Like if you’re trying to follow the latest trend, or you saw someone wear plaid and you do the same. Or you want to be like that popular girl who wears lip gloss with all the popular kids. Especially kids in their early teenage years, they start to go through puberty and they start to mentally change their mindset on things.
And in the story, the fact that Ashley did these things, and Abigail saying that she might be doing these things because the way her mom treats her. Like bringing family problems, and sometimes the family is what encouraging kids to start things on the internet because they feel the need to get it all out. But honestly don’t think that it is a good idea because even if you’re hurting doesn’t mean you should hurt other people. I can connect with the feeling of feeling really upset or angry at something and I automatically want someone to feel and think what I’m doing because I don’t wanna be the only one. But I think kids like that should think before posting stuff. I know that Abigail says that Ashley doesn’t actually know when she’s hurting someone, that’s an issue within itself. To not consider other people’s feelings when it comes to insulting them.U2#8
- What TV show did you watch in class? Digital nation
- What was this show about? Situations that include bullying online and multitasking.
- What is the most memorable thing to you about this show? The most memorable was of the boy who got bullied online and committed suicide, it really stuck with me and touched my heart.
- Why/Why not - is it important to watch shows like these? It's important to watch shows because we can learn from their mistakes
- How will you keep your future family safe online? I will teach them how to act around the people outside of social media first before giving them any access to computers.
- Why is it important to talk with your family about internet safety. To make sure that they don't get into anything shady.
- What advice would you give to parents that don't know how to keep their children safe online? To not check up all the time but some times and try not to give them access to technology until much later.
- Find a copyright-less photo/image to enhance your post
Me magazine slide #2 -Vivian Pham
Something that I learned through the critique from my fellow classmates is that in the previous slides, the color and contrast schemes wasn't really eye catching or uses the technique of glance media very much. Sure, it had the pink color to distract the person who sees the slide or if it were to be on a billboard in the middle of a highway. And along with trying to make the theme more appealing, the color of the text in my old slide was pretty plain and boring and also pretty jumbled up. The text color was all black and some letters were bolded for specific reasons, and that's pretty plain considering the background was white and the text was white. And along with the text being a problem, my initial idea was to put words within words like a letter in a word could also fit in another word with the same letter and I learned from the critique that it made it really confusing.
I made quite a lot of changes to the new slide, I changed the whole theme of the slide like the colors are different from before. Before it was just white and pink which were pretty subtle and simple tones. I changed it into a brighter color which is yellow and the blue complimented the yellow and the colors don't clash either and I also changed the style change as well. And I took out a picture that didn't really make sense with the colors of the whole slide in general and separated the pictures so that they weren't so close to each other. And as for the text I kept the text all black because I didn't want to overcomplicate the colors so I didn't want the text to be all different colors that wont match the background. I also boxed al of the words and letters with a white banner so that it was easier to see and I boxed my name as well so that the text was all boxed and not just some.
Me magazine slide- Vivian Pham
I made this me magazine the way it is, by trying to make is simple yet artistic like combining the words like independent fits into Expression because the “n” is also in Independent. And the word Slide can fit into Learner because of the L in Slide that is also the first letter of learner. And I added very few pictures because I mainly wanted the focus to be on the words but I chose those pictures because it pops it when you look at it, it isn’t a series of small little pictures but bigger and more simply pictures. And I chose the picture that says dance and it shows 3 dancers because dance was in my me magazine and I described that as my passion and in the me magazine I talked about my experiences regarding dance and why I love it so much. I also purposely chose that picture of 3 dancers because when I danced it was always with my 2 bestfriends and I felt that it represented us in a way. Then I chose the family like tree because in 2 of my entries in the me magazine I talked about family and how they impact my identity and how they’re a big part of me that defines who I am today, not entirely but it is definitely a part of me. And I chose the picture that says projects because in my me magazine I talked about how projects are something that I really enjoy to do, and I learned better and more effectively when it comes to putting all that I’ve learned into a project. And I would easily choose a project over something that requires turning in papers. And I chose the word energy and put it in within the word learner because it had that E in it and i chose that word because when energy is really important when it comes to dancing and the way it looks when on stage.
Vivian pham diamond poem
Soy Vivian
a menudo soy comicaa y seria
a veces me encanta cantar
bailar y trabajar
No soy ni deportista
ni artistica
yo soy...
YO!
Autobiography - Vivian Pham
Hola me llamo, Vivian Pham. Tengo catorce anos, soy de Filadelphia pero vivo Filadelphia
muy baja, soy un poco antipactica, soy divertida, me encanta dormir, cantar, bailar, no me gusta correr, pasar tiempo con mi familia, me gusta escuchar musica, no me gusta estudiar, no me gusta leer, me gusta cocinar, soy delgada, no me gusta ir a la escuela, me gusta comer, me encanta descansar,
Te gusta bailar? Te gusta cantar?
Assignment 6a - Vivian Pham
Vivian Pham- PART 2: Reflection
B. Reflect in full sentences with correct grammar on SLATE
- The video that we watched in class today showed a boy name Jack getting bullied in school and there are emoji's on the video at certain parts where when we click on it, it shows what should happen. Like when Jack thought a guy was going to hit him, when the emoji gets clicked on it shows him giving him a high five
- What does this video bring to your mind in reference to the topic of bullying? The topic of bullying is very strong and sensitive, and it is something that everyone has either experienced or saw happen in their lifetime. And many know that bullying is a very harsh thing that has a huge impact on the person who is getting bullied. Bullying can mean more than just words, it can mean actions, and the results of getting bullied.
- Who are you online, how do you appear? There isn't much content about me personally, but there is a lot of content about those with the same name as me
- How do you think people perceive you, based on this appearance? I think people may perceive me as someone who does go on social media a lot, and social media is a big part of my life. And I spend a huge majority of my free time online just surfing the web.
- What is the goal of internet trolls? to make someone online feel bad by posting inappropriate comments on their social media or upsetting them in any way using their words. They would do anything to make anyone feel bad.
- What are the positive and negative results of online anonymity? The positive results of online anonymity is maybe being able to post anything or say anything online like on a blog post or something without anyone finding out your identity regarding posting something. The negative results of anonymity would probably have to be if someone were to cyberbully someone or send threats and this person who is getting bullied wants to tell someone or report this person, this person wouldn't be able to because this person is anonymous
We looked at this web page to describe Internet Trolls - LINK
My Home Network - Vivian Pham
Explaining the network:
My ISP is Comcast and the ethernet cable is made of coax. I have a modem and a router, an ethernet cable connects from the modem to router. The cloud internet comes into the router and it goes to modem and the modem makes the internet in my house wireless. And my router makes internet wireless and there the technology in my house connects to the internet without the use of an ethernet cable unless its through a computer or laptop.
Something I learned about my home network is that there are two different systems that actually provide the devices in my house with internet, I never that. I thought it was just one system and that was it but its way more than just one. And i also learned to have the modem and the router connected an ethernet cord connects them. I also learned that when we search something or make a request online it goes through many processes and depending on our internet it may come faster or more delayed.
Something that i would tell other people about my ISP is that sometimes Comcast can have some issues or problems but if you get the right package, the internet is really fast. And that its more simple when it comes to installing the internet using Comcast. And for me, my parents ordered just the internet on Comcast but not cable.
