Tempestt Deschamps, Period 6, 09/27/23

 Today I found myself working on my website project, among other works with the Stained Glass Project. I’ve been working on my About Me page and the aesthetic setup of my website for the past week or so. When it comes to the stained glass project, I have most of my critical theory work done, just need 4 more petals and the general aesthetic to be done.

The website is looking good now. I’ve added several tabs to the home page and am currently working on making internal links go to the same place. I’m also working on my logo and deciding where it should go on the site. I’m currently attempting to think of some funny insertions to make, in order to make the site more entertaining and put a fresh take on the idea of a website to place schoolwork. I really just want the website to properly express myself, while still being able to elegantly display information. The duality of this challenge is quite an entertaining puzzle, in all honesty.

When it comes to the stained glass project, most of it is being completed at home. The main idea and story have been decided and the counterargument is in the making. The Cinderella story I’m viewing in a feminist criticism is The Princess in the Suit of Leather. I feel like many of these Cinderella stories are easy to view in this light, and I find it too difficult for myself to analyze any of these stories in any truly advanced light. Due to my incredibly abhorrent handwriting, the ideas are taking longer to transfer from my brain to the page, but I’ll get there in time. The feminist view and prospective counter argument are very interesting to contrast, especially while still attempting to stay emotionally neutral. The largest difficulty in this project is idea consistency and maintaining an observant lens. The story attempts to evoke powerful emotions, which make it harder to filter through the noise.

In short, the workload I’ve given to myself is likely more than I can handle, however, the vision I have for both projects has a very powerful final image in my mind. We’ll see if this vision comes to fruition.

Kevin Chen, Period 7, 09/28/23

Kevin Chen

Period 7

Blog 1 

Modern Mythology 2024

Social-Political Consciousness

Inequity can be defined as the presence of a lack of fairness or justice. For the over 2 million people who rely on the subway daily, the lack of priority given to them and the system they rely on could be considered unfair. New York City's subway faces numerous issues, and in many areas falls behind its European, South American, and Asian counterparts.

Coverage tends to be one of the subway's biggest problems. Many areas of the city lack easy access to the subway, such as residents along 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. When the 2nd Avenue Elevated was closed in the 1940s, the plan was to replace it with an underground line, but that has yet to be fully constructed. The city is still working on it today, with only the first out of four sections completed. This pushes everyone around 2nd Avenue onto the Lexington Avenue line, creating issues of overcrowding. Other areas missing subway coverage include Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, College Point, Marine Park, and all of Eastern Queens. Residents in these places have to take transfer to the subway via bus, increasing commute time.

The NYC Subway is operated by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), a state organization. While they have made multiple favorable decisions, many decisions made by the MTA continue to be a point of contention. The IBX project is one instance of this. Brooklyn and Queens have lacked an interborough connection for a long time, and although that is issue is being attempted to be resolved with the IBX, progress has been very slow, and the proposal is far from optimal. In a recent study put out by the MTA, light rail was determined as the method of transit for the project, much to the dismay of many people in the transit community. Light rail requires separate rolling stock from the rest of the subway system, which means a new yard and new maintenance facilities must be built. Light rail also lacks the same capacity as heavy rail. Returning to the Second Avenue Subway, it's major point of contention is the cost. Large amounts of money were spent on consultation, which many people disagree with. Time and money was also spent on constructing full length mezzanines, when two smaller mezzanines at each end of the station would have been sufficient.

Speed and frequency are more areas NYC's subway struggles with. While efforts have been made through the installation of computer based train control (CBTC), it has yet to be implemented throughout the whole system. On the Flushing Line, where CBTC is present, end to end rides can be as short as 20 minutes. Other routes such as the F and N, where CBTC is yet to be installed, can take an hour just to travel into Manhattan from Brooklyn. While train headways in NYC are acceptable during rush hour, off-peak frequency is pretty bad. Not everyone using the system is traveling during rush hour and in the peak direction. Having shorter headways overall during peak and off-peak hours would make travel easier, and encourage less people to drive. Some of the worst headways in the system can be found on west end, on the D line. Riders here often find themselves waiting 20 or more minutes for the train.

Safety and Accessibility are another pair of areas where NYC falls behind. While other metro systems like the Hong Kong MTR are fully accessible, NYC is not, and so far there are only plans to reach 95% accessibility. The rate at which stations have elevators installed is also very slow. In addition to this, the lack of platform screen doors is a safety risk. There are multiple recorded incidents of people falling or climbing onto the tracks. NYC's subway uses an electrified third rail for power, making anyone on the tracks at risk of electrocuting themselves. Cities like Bangkok, Copenhagen, Shanghai, Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul, Singapore, and even parts of São Paulo have had platform screen doors for many years.

Although there is optimism about the New York City subway's future, people are still frustrated with the its current state. Personally, more priority should be placed on improving and modernizing the subway. More funding and better planning could bring the system up to par with other cities' metros.

Of course, there is the possibility that I am biased. As someone who is part of the millions that use public transit in NYC, finding myself frustrated by the subway is easy. However, taking a step back and looking more critically at the situation reveals that it is more complex than just pouring more money into improvements. There are many conflicting interests, bureaucratic barriers, and of course, NIMBYs, in the way. Although I consider my opinion on the subject reasonable, there are others that may see them as more radical. The best way for me to continue to reassess my views is through communication with others. Hearing other's opinions on the subject is always important to avoid heavily skewed views. I consistently discuss with my friends and other people impacted by New York's public transit to exchange ideas and views.

Works Cited

“Hong Kong Public Transportation.” Wheelchair Travel, 4 Jan. 2020, wheelchairtravel.org/hong-

        kong/public-transportation/.
“MTA Accessibility.” MTA, new.mta.info/accessibility.
“Subway and Bus Ridership for 2021.” MTA, new.mta.info/agency/new-york-city-transit/subway-bus-

        ridership-2021.
Vanshnookenraggen, www.vanshnookenraggen.com/_index/. 

Jimmy Chen, Period 1, 9/18/23

Jimmy Chen

Period 1

9/27/23

Modern Mythology 2024

Learn and Literacy

My opinion on the reading covered in class was learning something new about fairy tales. I used to think that fairy tales were most nursery stories made long ago to help teach kids about a  lesson from the story. Now after learning more about fairy tales, I learn how fairy tales used to also have a darker or a more adult twist. Even though it has not been a month in class, I have learned quite a bit about fairy tales in general and its history.

So far, I have learned about the origins of fairy tales and how they became more popular over the years. This so far has widened my knowledge about fairy tales as now I know some fairy tales originally took root in a European country. Other stuff that I learned was the variety of ways a fairy tale was told. For example, in a certain perspective of The Red Riding Hood, there was a lot more blood and some dark humor added to the story. These different views encourage me to look at things differently, as many things could have different meanings if looked at a certain perspective. There is no correct way to interpret a fairy tale, as every perspective can be technically the correct way to interpret the fairy tale.

I have been able to apply different perspectives on a topic and look at a topic from multiple POV. One example could be a debate of some sorts and I would be able to agree with both sides, or even come up with my own side due to looking at things from different perspectives and including my own perspective too. This would help me come up with more solutions and probably make a better decision. Everyone’s opinion is different, but there is always some sort of reasoning behind why they could have that view, even if their view isn’t viewed the same by everyone or is frowned upon. Putting different perspectives into reading also allows you to understand what each character in the story thinks and how it could affect the plot of the book. This allows for better understanding of the book and makes reading a more enjoyable hobby.

Selina Jiang, Period 1, 09/28/2023

Selina Jiang

Period 1

Blog#1


Socio-political Consciousness


Some might say Artificial Intelligence(AI) is great and will make our daily lives a lot easier, while others say that AI should not be used because it’s taking jobs from humans. A lot of the manufacturing processes can be done by machines and greatly decreases the amount of manual labor which has it’s benefits and drawbacks. Things such as making sure products can be used and match the standards because machinery isn’t always accurate, and still need workers to do the task. AI being used in art has been getting increasingly more popular.


The main concern for people is the fact that artificial intelligence will take over jobs and make it hard for people to benefit from their crafts and hobbies such as art. The concern has been increasing the past couple of years as a lot of people have recently started to claim that whenever art is too beautiful, it is made by artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, there was this AI art trend where a filter automatically changes the picture you put in, into art. The AI art app Lensa uses “ Stable Diffusion, a model ‘trained’ to learn patterns through an online database of images called LAION-5B…it then ‘learns’ your facial features from the photos you upload and applies them to that art.” The concern people have is that LAION-5B takes images from the internet, including art made by artists that got used without credit or consent. The app price increased from $3.99 to $7.99 for 50 pictures, clearly benefiting from the trend. As the details of how the AI art apps and filters work spread, people started to try and inform anyone that they saw participate in the trend about it. They talked about how AI art was made from stolen art that artists spent time and effort on, some about how the artists could’ve gotten commissioned and paid their bills for the art.


Another problem AI art brought was that even though the art generated looks nice, it’s not as capable as humans in terms of details. One sign that shows an art piece was AI generated is if the art has extra fingers or toes. AI generalizes features as well and it often exaggerates and sexualizes pictures. An activist, Brandee Barker claimed that the AI apps were “perpetuating misogyny as her generated pictures had sexualized poses and exaggerated features. One twitter user stated “the fact that it depicts femme bodies completely nakes with zero prompt is creepy and can absolutely be detrimental to you one day when someone claims the art is based on '' an intimate picture of you. The skin color of the generated pictures aren’t accurate either as women of color had their skin turn paler as well as inaccurate facial features and body types.


Many art related crafts have been made easier with AI but that has caused people to talk down on people who do it manually. Things such as photo editing has been getting easier thanks to AI, however there are still people who are making a living from their art that they do manually even with all the different kinds of tools easily accessible. Especially recently, in the comment section of any art related videos that I’ve encountered, there are always a few people stating that the process can be done easier and faster on a certain app. Most people have been informed of how to tell whether something is AI generated or not, but some of them end up processing the information as if something looks unreal enough, they don’t believe it is drawn by a person. AI has caused people to question actual art made by artists because they simplify parts of the process too much.


AI generated art is only a small portion of what artificial intelligence is capable of. Artificial intelligence is capable of a lot of things, such as helping solve crimes, making healthcare facilities more efficient and less costly, and many other possibilities. New technology is constantly being created and used, artificial intelligence will continue to help aid humans with tasks more than impacting us negatively as a society.








Works Cited



“Human + Machine: A New Era of Automation in Manufacturing.” McKinsey & Company, 7 Sept. 2017, www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/human-plus-machine-a-new-era-of-automation-in-manufacturing.

Weekman, Kelsey. “Here’s Why People Are Speaking Out Against AI Art Apps Like Lensa.” BuzzFeed News, 8 Dec. 2022, www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kelseyweekman/ai-art-app-lensa-instagram-photo-trend-problems.


Marr, Bernard. “What Is the Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Society?” Bernard Marr, July 2021, www.bernardmarr.com/what-is-the-impact-of-artificial-intelligence-ai-on-society/

Jake Huang, Period 1, 09/27/2023

Jake Huang

Period 1

Blog #1

Socio-political Consciousness

Amazon has over three hundred and ten million users worldwide and remains the most popular online shopping site and app. They’re known for their high-quality products and excellent customer service. Today, Tuesday in the afternoon, it was reported that Amazon is being sued by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) led by Lina Khan and 17 states over multiple allegations. This is a major lawsuit followed by previous lawsuits such as Amazon enrolling consumers in Amazon Prime without consent and sabotaging their attempts to cancel. Unironically, I’ve been struggling to cancel my membership today and was not able to get a refund.

This lawsuit is one of the few that has been happening recently. Google is being sued for illegally arranging its business dealings so it’s the first search engine people see when they go on their phones and web browsers. Amazon having a similar problem has been accused of monopoly power, unfair competition, pricing practices, and seller restrictions. Amazon’s response to this lawsuit is claiming that the government is changing the interpretation of the laws and how it will hurt Americans, the economy, and small businesses. They claim that businesses that sell on their site can set their own prices independently to offer more competitive prices but it is clearly shown that there is a forced markup of almost fifteen percent of the total price of a product. This gives Amazon a commission making money off of independent businesses. In their defense from Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky, “If the FTC gets its way, the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses– the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do”. The antitrust law in basic terms is to make sure businesses are competing fairly and Amazon is being accused of violating that. The business claims, “The FTC’s complaint alleges that our pricing practices, our Fulfillment by Amazon offering, and Amazon Prime are anticompetitive. In so doing, the lawsuit reveals the Commission’s fundamental misunderstanding of retail”.

Personally, FTC makes a lot of fair accusations as I have faced a lot of struggles with the same thing. To start, Amazon takes a cut of every item sold which ranges from 6% to as high as 45% which results in independent businesses being forced to markup their prices to be able to earn money including more fees and advertisement charges. It’s clearly shown of favoring their own products and the top picks and sponsored items in search results regardless of competing prices have a higher rating or review counts. If anyone were to search for anything they wanted to buy from Amazon there would be a sponsored product that pays the e-commerce to advertise their products on the top of the list when searching disregarding the reviews, ratings, and prices. Hopefully, losing the lawsuit will result in Amazon making forceable changes to be in greater favor of users than the company itself.










David Zapolsky, Senior Vice President. “The FTC’s Lawsuit against Amazon Would Lead to Higher Prices and Slower Deliveries for Consumers-and Hurt Businesses.” US About Amazon, US About Amazon, 26 Sept. 2023, www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-ftc-antitrust-lawsuit-full-response.

Ritchie, John Newman & Amy, and Staff in the Bureau of Competition & Office of Technology. “FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power.” Federal Trade Commission, 26 Sept. 2023, www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power.

Selyukh, Alina. “U.S. Sues Amazon in a Monopoly Case That Could Be Existential for the Retail Giant.” NPR, NPR, 26 Sept. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1191099421/amazon-ftc-lawsuit-antitrust-monopoly?ft=nprml&f=1006.

“What Just Happened to Amazon? The FTC’s Antitrust Lawsuit, Explained.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 26 Sept. 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/26/ftc-amazon-antitrust-lawsuit-explained/.

Elizabeth Fleyshmakher, Period 6, 09/26/23

     When we were first tasked with reading an excerpt from "Recurrent Ideas in Critical Theory"                it felt like my brain turned to mush. It took me a couple of read throughs to make some sense of the mumbo jumbo in front of me. The "Types of Literary Theory (Criticism)" simplified the concepts discussed and gave me a more comprehensive view of the topic. For me English has always been structured, broken down into key elements to be identified and analyzed to get the big picture. Since elementary school the "correct" way to read and write a text has been drilled into our heads. In second grade I was forced to transfer from private to public school midway through the year. I remember it was a rough adjustment transitioning to the Common Core State Standards English curriculum. I was punished with bad marks for failing to apply the strategies outlined in these benchmarks. Even though the idea of creating one set of challenging academic expectations for everyone sounds great in theory, I believe  it isn't realistic. First of all, who gets to decide which way is the right way to think? Why is New Criticism superior to all these other perspectives?  The goal of Common Core is stated to "help students graduate with the skills they need to succeed in college and in the workforce". In my opinion, although this approach is initially effective, yielding the highest results on State Assessments, it ultimately falls through once a student progresses past a certain point. You need more than the basic ability to lay out the plot structure, conflict, symbols etc to examine a piece of work thoroughly. Encouraging the fragmentation of the learning process limits a student's full potential. So much emphasis is placed on acing exams that we are blind to the complexity of literature. Studying text through one critical theory makes it boring and repetitive. 

All in all, the fact that there are a multitude of schools of theory is a foreign and exciting                  concept for people like me. These past couple of lessons have painted the childhood stories I've heard thousands of times over in a new light. I've realized how fluid and unstable literature is. How the way literature is perceived is dependent on the context in which it was created. How in some cases circumstances may make a book "one of the greats" while in others it'll be lost to time. How the relationship between a book and each reader is entirely unique. The study of the psych goes hand in hand with the study of literature. Our experiences, relationships, genetics, environment, behaviors etc all play a role in the type of literature we may enjoy versus dislike. What genres are fitted to our tastes. What characters we identify with. Additionally, a parallel between critical theory and psychology exists in the room for interpretation in both. There is no one definite way to define the brain rather, a whole slew of theories constructed to best understand it. Ultimately, I'm excited to delve further into critical theory and implement it in the future. 

Works Cited:

-Armstrong, Thomas. “12 Reasons Common Core Falls Short | Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D.” Institute4learning.com, 22 July 2018, www.institute4learning.com/2018/04/26/12-reasons-the-common-core-is-bad-for-americas-schools/.

‌-Lee, Andrew. “Common Core State Standards.” Www.understood.org, www.understood.org/en/articles/common-core-state-standards-what-you-need-to-know.

-“Types of Literary Theory (Criticism).” Google Docs, docs.google.com/document/d/1rCcdJtiuQV2pJnVdaUTOa29Ntox3ibd4FTeR3Q0KCkY/edit#heading=h.9h6d9iwik21i. Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

- Lesson 5 - Aim: How Can We Learn How to Read Different Texts through the Perspectives of Various Critical Theories? docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WBHmT4Nd0WEUzqWS5-_kdqoYRUpEyScaWQGoYa7kxFk/edit#slide=id.g983f194107_0_0. Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

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Charles Gian, Period 1, 09/26/2023

Charles Gian

Period 1

9/26/2023

Modern Mythology 2024

Literacy & Learning




Write about your thoughts/feelings regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction

covered in class.

    In class on 9/22, we watched a Bluey episode called “Fairytale”, where the

main character Bandit gets “jinxed” and is unable to speak unless his name gets

called. It only finally ends when he does a good gesture for his friend and

someone says his name, breaking him from the curse. I thought that I really

enjoyed this episode, partially because we actually watched a Bluey episode in

class, but the rest because of how this episode exemplified all of the topics that we

were learning in class that day, and also some of the topics of the fairytale unit in

all. Here we follow the hero’s journey, where Bandit encounters an obstacle,

overcomes it, and transforms as a person due to the hardships that he had to face.

This also exemplifies the ideas of modern fairy tales, and also fairy tales in the

past, being used to demonstrate to children the importance of being a good

citizen in society. Fairy tales like these implement good qualities and personality

traits to children when growing up so they can learn from the fairy tale and apply

it to their lives when growing up. Later in life, instead of having those lessons be

implemented from having a talk with their parents, it came from a happy and

funny story which they watched when they were younger.




Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering

how that learning influences your critical perception.

    Rewatching the episode of Bluey really reminded me of the shows I

watched growing up. Growing up, those shows have also shaped me as a person,

whether I like it or not, as my young sponge brain absorbed most of the

information that I was presented with. Because I watched various kid shows at

such a young age, the overall principles of each show were instilled in me.

Although I might have forgotten the exact wording or what specific episode I

learned some information from, the overall message and values from those shows

are still working and fueling my actions. It’s evident that the environment you

grow up in shape you for life, and these kinds of fairy tales are a simple and easy

way to instill good morales and great values in children. This also reminded me

about the set pattern that most fairy tales and stories with a moral follow. Using

the information now at the front of my mind, I can definitely analyze films and

media that I consume now and be able to keep an eye out for any of the

stereotypical tropes or events that happen throughout. No matter what kind of

media it is, it can always be related back to the core elements of storytelling that

are evident in every other piece of media alike it.



How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

    As stated in the last question, knowing the information allows me to use it

to analyze everyday media that I consume with the same tropes and values that

were present in the Bluey episode we watched in class. Not only that, but seeing

the reason those kinds of shows exist also help shed a light on how we’re affected

by media when we’re growing up. Like I said before, children in their young ages

are extremely impressionable, and many parents are reaching out to kids’ shows

to instill lessons and values in their children without the risk of having the

children learn the lessons for themselves in real life. Although it was always like

this, the accessibility of the content and the fact that we’re all surrounded by such

digital devices makes it much easier for parents to leave their children with an

I-Pad or with the TV running than manually tell them fairy tales from a book or

bring them out to play in a park to learn those values themselves. We always

must have to keep in mind if the values that are being instilled in children are

actually good for them, otherwise if they watch dangerous content when they’re

young and stilll impressionable, it could lead to a much more turbulent future for

the child, and maybe even society in general. Remember, children are our future,

and they will act as they are raised.