Time for Sentiments

As yearbook signing season reaches its peak, I am always bound to write sentimental and emotional messages in peoples' books. After all, it is most likely my last impression. I have been rather resistant towards that request because I feel emotions flow too freely and are expressed too easily. But lately, I have come to think that that outlook is wrong.

Why? And why now?
I am writing this merely a few days before my graduation. My entire life up to now has been defined by the daily trudge to school, punctuated by holidays every now and then. It is likely, after graduation, that I will never see some of these faces again. That in and of itself is a huge part of why I am embracing sentiments. But more scarily, after graduation I will be thrown into a whole new game. It's like getting out of bed on a cold day -- you don't want to leave the nice and warm bed, but you have to.

What sentiments?
Though I will be missing most of my classmates, I want to give a shout out to two in particular. Cari and Elaine have dragged me through this year in TPP with their incessant nagging and making me correct all their layout issues. I'll be missing them both next year.

Any last thoughts?
I wish the best to Tonya, Sophie, and Zean as they deal with the many-headed Hydra that is TPP. The Hydra can be tamed, and I know that you are all competent enough to get your issues out on time with few mistakes. Good luck. Have fun.

Emotions' Spring Show

The Emotions Dance Company held their spring show recently featuring modern and hip hop dances. This year's theme took the audience on a journey back in time. Each dance was stylized to resemble a certain period in history from the French Revolution to the present. The show was bitter-sweet as this was the last time the seniors will dance under the Emotions Dance Company name.

Hannah Tang

Sense of Place

          “There is just one life for each of us; our own.” This was said by Euripides, a Greek philosopher that believed everyone’s life was their own. Therefore everyone has their own life and individuality, which was obtained by their “Sense of Place”. One’s “Sense of Place” is how their life affects who they are, and where they believe they belong in this world. Everyone’s Sense of Place is different, due to the paths that lead their lives, leading through and to different places. Therefore I believe that my Sense of Place is dictated by my culture, environment, and influences in my life.

            Before one is even born, their family’s culture is already in existence. Unlike other factors such as where you live, your culture will always be definite, as it is passed through family and will always be a factor that affects you as well as those who preceded you. For example, my parents are from Thailand, and the culture that we display and practice is that of Thailand. Like the majority of the population of Thailand, we practice Buddhism, as it is part of my culture and the culture of Thailand. It is culture that affects your customs and attitude towards others. Such as the culture for people coming from Thailand or other Asian countries towards the elderly is extremely different than the culture of people in America. In America, there are a large percentage of people that send their parents to nursing homes due to the fact that they’re too lazy to take care of them. At the nursing homes the elderly people sometimes even abused mentally, or even physically. However in Asian cultures, Asian families usually take care of their parents until they die, without having a thought about sending them somewhere else to be taken care of. That is why I believe that culture is a very large part in your Sense of Place.

            One’s environment also dictates the way they react to situations among other factors. The definition of environment ranges from your climate, to the people around you, to pretty much anything that is around you. To first look at climate, the climate obviously affects factors such as what you wear to what temperature that you like putting your thermostat to. In terms of where I live and have lived my whole life, Houston, it has always been hot. Therefore it leads pretty much everyone in Houston to wear shorts, and a t-shirt in order to adjust to the temperature. However during the winter, when it can get to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, everyone suddenly piles layers of clothes upon themselves. In terms of the weather in Houston, 60 degrees Fahrenheit maybe be cold, but compare that to the weather in a place such as New York, in which on normal days, the weather would be 60 degrees Fahrenheit. As stated earlier, another element of your environment is the people that live in it. Houston is an extremely diverse city, housing multitudes of different people of various races, cultures, and customs. Compare this to Topeka, Kansas in which the diversity is very low, the majority of the population is Caucasian. Therefore one’s environment largely affects the way that their Sense of Place develops.

             Much like Euripides said, everyone’s life is their own and is different. Everyone’s Sense of Place is different because of their culture, environment, and influences in their life. It is these things that I believe influenced me the most in molding who I am today. So in conclusion, my life is my own and is unique because of my Sense of Place. 

My review on Call of the Wolf by JP Nelson

I’m a huge fan of epic fantasy novels, and recently I’ve been reading a ton of works by indie and self-published authors on using the Amazon Kindle system. One of the best recent works I’ve read is Call of the Wolf. Call of the Wolf is well-written and intelligent, coming of age, high fantasy novel. The story is told from a single POV, a young half-elf called Komain (and later Sedrick and then Timber Wolf). The novel is  around 700-800 pages, easily twice as long as other indie works. It’s quite detail-oriented, but the diction is never flowery and the details come through the storytelling. The story starts slowly, with the first 100 pages or so lagging a bit, but from there the story progresses smoothly. Komain is introduced as a slave tournament fighter. The story flashes back to when he was a young halfling, living alone with his elvin mother in enslavement to humans. Our hero Komain learns and grows and goes through a myriad of experiences and adventures. The world Nelson creates is vast and developed. The dialogue is natural and intelligent (nothing that makes you cringe, nothing awkward or stilted). Komain is flawed but likable. He has no qualms about killing his enemies, but he is a generally good guy. The characters around him aren’t necessarily groundbreaking, but each has his/her own personalities and faults and the relationships and interactions Komain has with them reveals his own personal growth. Great settings and descriptions, excellent action scenes (author is a martial arts instructor, a black belt, among other things, so he knows what he’s talking about), good storytelling, rich cultures behind the different races and peoples, elves and dwarves, kings, bandits, slaves, pit fighters, pirates, princes and princesses, different types of magic, a bit of romance…what more could you ask for?

Some negatives:
There were some grammar mistakes and typos, and the text read weirdly in some parts, but that’s what you expect from a self-published work, unfortunately. In one or two parts of the novel, the level of writing decreases enough to break the flow of the story. I also felt that the some of the humor and Komain’s narration were childish, anachronistic, or inconsistent with the context. These things detracted a bit from the overall enjoyment of the book, but should in no way prevent you from giving the book a shot.

Overall I would give the book a rating of 4.25/5 stars. The main character and the narrative reminded me a bit of Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles. In some instances, Nelson’s level of writing was on par with Rothfuss’s, which was very impressive.


Laurence Zhang
TPP, Editor
Bellaire HS

            Every year comes the dreaded two weeks of the entire school year: AP testing week. The long nights of studying and the endless cups of tea to stay awake begin at the start of May. A whole years worth of work all leads up to this one test that determines whether or not you’ll be able to receive college credit. This determines the difference between paying a couple of thousand dollars in college.

            As the school year starts to draw a close, I never seem to learn from my mistake of not studying early enough. It is very typical of me to not start the grueling studying process until the last couple of days before hand, basically giving myself no time and an intense amount of stress to finish reading my 500 page review book to the point where my dreams consist of me studying for my Aps. Strangely enough, I do not normally procrastinate on anything else.

            This junior year, I have a total of four Aps to take, more than I have ever had considering I only had one last year. Although I have some Aps back to back this year, a part of me has almost begun to relax knowing that I will never be able to study as intensely as I would like to.  As Aps begin, good luck to anyone taking them!

Jennifer Wang

Staff Writer

NFL Draft Pick

   

A few months ago, Johnny Manziel was a legitimate candidate to be taken by the Texans with the No. 1 overall pick. Instead, the Texans took South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney with the first pick. While some believed it was the wrong decision, others believed it was the right one and his arrogance has served him well. 
In the first picture, Johnny Manziel's body language shows one of superiority and arrogance. Even though he was the 22nd pick, his facial expression shows that he believes he is better than everybody else. In the second picture, Jadeveon Clowney's body language is one of maturity which helps emphasize that he was the better pick. 

Garage Entrepeneurs

Apple. Disney. Hewlett-Packard. Mattel. Google.

What do these companies have in common? They all started out in humble garages.

The story of the founding of Apple, Inc. is now almost an urban legend. Steve Jobs and co-founder Steve Wozniak set up shop in in Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California and began developing and then selling the first Apple computer, the start of what would become a multibillion-dollar company. The other companies mentioned in the short list above had similar stories, all involving garages as makeshift laboratories, studios, or offices while talented individuals poured tremendous devotion into their work. Interestingly, all of the companies listed above started out in Californian garages, to be more specific: Los Angeles for Disney, Palo Alto for Hewlett-Packard, El Segundo for Mattel, and Menlo Park for Google.

Despite the interesting similarities between these companies, the correlation between garages, California, and successful entrepreneurial companies should not be taken too strongly. The creation of multimillion-dollar corporations is not done through a single magic formula with what seems to be just the right ingredients. However, with a willingness to take risk and to remain determined and passionate in pursuit of a goal, success may just be around the corner.

Jason Weilee
Centerpiece Editor