MATTHEW JOHN'S THOUGHT CATALOGUE

Journalism Pieces

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Tockwotton Home: Senior Care Done Right

              Tockwotton Home on the Waterfront celebrates two years of providing exemplary senior living and care at their new location.  On January, 12th 2013 Tockwotton Home and its residents were relocated from across the Providence River in Rhode Island’s Capital.  The new location provided Tockwotton with the necessities to meet the vision they had for their residents.  Brenda Elaine Toll, the director of nursing at Tockwotton, believes that the vision of home living has been obtained as they celebrate their second anniversary in their new building.

                                   Tockwotton is a special place that continues to grow.  The original Tockwotton was housed in a Historic Building.  It was not feasible to house its own growing aspirations, so the board of directors decided to expand and relocate.  The new facility was built from the ground up.  Construction at the new East Providence  location took over a year.  Ascetically, it looks more like a luxury hotel then a nursing facility.  The location was picked because of its proximity to the city, specifically,the ease of access to hospitals and other emergency services.  There is also a riverside view.  Local Rhode Islanders will remember that a monthly tradition is to light floating fire pits aptly named “water fire” in the Providence River.   The new building has 73 private assisted living apartments, 31 private memory care apartments, 35 private long term care apartments and 17 private short-term rehabilitation rooms.  What makes it so special according to Brenda was “This is the last place many of our residents will ever call home and we want it to feel like one.”

                 Each floor has an open kitchen that anyone is allowed to use, even residents and their guests.  Kitchens are stocked and ready to be cooked it as opposed to typical industry sized kitchens in most nursing homes where only permitted staff is allowed to enter.  There are dining rooms, not a kitchen, and meals aren’t strictly scheduled.  If someone is hungry they are allowed to eat.  There are many open spaces and rather than an activity room, activities are being run simultaneously throughout the grounds.  Each resident gets their own apartment which is encouraged to be filled with residents own furniture.  Each apartment comes equipped with its own washer and dryer as opposed to normal mass laundry systems.  According to Brenda, “The goal is to make it as personable and as much like the home they are familiar with as possible”.   

               When compared to other nursing homes, it is clear that Tockwotton is the torchbearer for doing things differently.  That is why each year in January there is a celebration for the move and the opening of the new location.  Brenda’s husband, William commented “try moving a bunch of elderly people and all the stuff they acquired in their life in the middle of winter, stressful doesn’t even begin to cover it.”  Regardless the struggles faced, it is clear that Tockwotton’s goals have become a reality as they surpass their own expectations of providing home felt, quality senior care.

To check out more about Tockwotton visit their website!

Please Feel Free To Contact:

Brenda Elaine Toll

Director of Nurses.  Tockwotton Home

[email protected]

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No athletics- no funding when it comes to the soccer club, Marymount Really Drops the Ball

      Marymount Manhattan College compensates for its lack of athletics by having a myriad of clubs and activities, but bias in the student government pushes this imbalance over the edge.  The school has one sports team, the Marymount Soccer Club.  This is the third semester that the club has been running and they are yet to see a dime from our school according to the team’s coach, senior Evgeny Efuni.  The team has dedicated members that treck to Randalls Islands for weekly practices. The team participates in drills and faces off against other soccer teams in games.  Although Efuni has taken the proper steps the team has yet to see any funding.   

     Brooke Materia who worked in our student government as a Campus Activities Board Treasurer helped explain how the club finances are divided.   A student on the SGA (Student Activities Association) determines what clubs qualify and how much money they get.  She said “someone must have a grudge.  There is no other reason for this to be happening the way it is.  It is utterly unfair”.  Our school has multiple theater clubs and even a Harry Potter club that all receive funding, but somehow the soccer team does not make the cut.    

     After practice on Randall’s Island Efuni asked the team to vote on whether each individual member would fund money to pay to enter a league.  More than half of them members were willing to throw in over a hundred dollars that their own tuition should readily cover.  It truly shows the dedication of the team members and the leadership of Efuni.  He said “if we were able to get even a little money it would make a huge difference.  We need practice supplies liker jerseys, cones and soccer balls, not to mention the money to rent field space and enter leagues”.   One thing is certain of our 27,360.00 tuition rate there should be enough money for the soccer club.  Which there is, but the power is in the hands of the SGA.  Maybe it is time that financial matters at our school would be better handled by staff and not our own students whose tuitions enter the coffers.  That would of course be easy if our school’s president wasn’t being perched upon a throne built of our student loans.  

     Is Marymount a college of the Liberal Arts?  Or a dance and theater conservatory in the making?  Regardless someone doesn’t want athletics to detract from our artistic myopic view of the world.  It is like the first season of Glee with the roles reversed.  I see no random outbursts of song and dance and Marymount would be the one place where I would expect it.  

Click Here see a full list of clubs. 

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 Columbia Global Summit: Paving a Way to a Low Carbon Future    

       The most proficient and prominent minds gathered yesterday for the 2015 Columbia Global Summit.   The Summit’s best, discussed environmental and energy issues, solutions and the context in which they exist, bringing these topics to the forefront as our planet’s needs are taking priority.  The summit takes place on the two year anniversary of Columbia opening the Center of Global Energy Policy, a division of The School of International affairs (SIPA).    

          The opening speaker, Merit E. Janow (dean of SIPA), gave the audience insight into the division of Columbia.  He said “energy lies at the nexus of many of the world’s problems”, validating the work and creation of the Center of Global Energy Policy.  He spoke about the new program “Woman in Energy” which is training the next generation of woman to tackle the energy crisis while maintaining gender equality in the workforce.  The efforts for the program have cause to celebrate because it is expanding from the regional to the national level.  

        The next speaker was Gina McCarthy.  She has worked for the White house and now is an administrator for EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).  She talked about her experience at the Whitehouse and how she thought that things would slow down once she left (which they didn’t).  She applauded the work Columbia had done stating “the center has become a platform for environmental issues and the timely response to them”.  She was passionate about one point: a low carbon future.

        McCarthy illustrated the actions EPA will be mirrored by the way energy is dealt with ultimately make a low carbon future not only a necessity, but the reality.  The main issue with environmental and energy ethics is that they have not coincided with the capitalistic growth model and consumption of goods that runs our economy. It was believed that up until this point a growing economy and a healthy planet couldn't be simultaneously achieved, it was one or the other.  

         McCarthy is mixing two previously believed to incompatible ideas to lead the U.S. towards a brighter low carbon future.  By utilizing large model technologies referred to as carbon scrubbers- she says we can both grow the economy and lower carbon.  These carbon scrubbers would take shape of plants that could filter the air which is especially important since that is the job of our planets vegetation which has been reduced 45% planetwide in the past 100 years as well as a large output of carbon emissions.  These will create jobs and commodity of clean low carbon air could be taxed to governments.  These systems would be placed near large cities that produce the most carbon and in places such as where coal is burned.  This will cut carbon output at energy plants without adding costs or delaying or reducing the supply.  

     This new system and technology which has been in development and is being unveiled as we speak will change the world and reduce greenhouse effects and salvage our planet.  McCarthy closed her segment with “yes other Countries will want to emulate our work, but we got here first and will reap the most environmental and economic rewards, let them follow”.  

Wanna know more about Carbon Scrubbing?

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Don’t Miss Empire, Fox’s Hit Hip-Hop Drama’s, - Season One Finale on 03/18 - You will regret it!

Don’t believe me?  Check out what Entertainment Weekly Has To Say. Entertainment Weekly - 'Empire' is Fox's highest-rated new show in years

Don’t make the biggest mistake of your life! -Missing Empire’s season one finaleairing tomorrow March 18th.  Hear the Lyon roar with this hour-long musical hip-hop drama.  If you are like me, you already spent the past few days catching up in preparation for the finale of 20th Century Fox’s highest rated show in over three years.  The finale has high expectations due to its upward trajectory; ratings have gone up each consecutive episode.  If you haven’t seen any of this unique family drama then you definitely have some binge watching to do!

Empire’s television and stylistic definitions make it feel fresh.   Hyper serialization is a current television trend where plot is critical and sometimes span seasons or entire series.  This helps close and elaborate on stories and plot points as well as contextualize the series as a whole.  The elaborate relationships and the fast, original storytelling shares the tell take signs of this trend.  A similar success in a hyper serialized show can be seen by “How to Get Away with Murder” on ABC.  One trait that a hyper serialization has is that you just can’t miss a minute of it!

This year has not been a strong one for Fox.  The other series on the network struggled such as “Gotham” and “Mulaney”.  Fox’s other saving grace was “American Idol” which paired well given both Empire and Idol overlapped in the musical arena.  The music is almost entirely Hip-hop, but it has wider range of appeal then traditional audiences.  Timberland produced all the music for the show and they were all original tracks

Fox has had other hour long musical dramas, most notably Glee.  Glee is ending its fifth and final season and gets mixed (negatively skewed) reviews.  It is important to note the musical differences between Empire and Glee; Empire is entirely original music created for the show.  Glee has never had an original song unless you are counting Mashups which, in my opinion, feels like a lazy repurposing of music. 

Music isn’t the only original thing about Empire.  Its characters are fresh and dynamic. For those who need a refresher.  Empire entertainment was started on Luscious Lyon’s first hit album.  His wife, Cookie, helped him found, fund and run the company in its infancy.  Cookie was sent to prison for seventeen years for selling drugs to fund the company.  When she comes out of prison Empire Entertainment is a Goliath in fame and fortune.  Her three young sons that she left behind are now mature, complicated adults in battle for who will inherit the empire.

            A welcome and common experience with television is its ability to push boundaries with unconventional ideology and force it into the mainstream.  Empire deals with heavy plot points in an off beaten way that feels utterly authentic.  The middle son, Jamal, exemplifies this because he is an early 20s Hip Hop Performer.   He is a gay man and has no issue coming out to his close family and friends, although (of course) his father opposes which really contextualizes our place on this issue current day.  The problem is his public persona.   His position and his relation with the Hip-Hop industry complicate his relationships with his lovers, family and his fans. 

The show also takes a look at mental illness, its representation also becoming more main stream these days.  The eldest son’s battle with his bipolar disorder sets the series in motion.  The show deals with other heavy topics such as greed and favoritism which can be seen in Luscious and his youngest son, Hakim’s, relationship. This show is based on a Shakespearean tragedy, “King Lear” where a man goes mad trying to distribute his estate between his daughters.  Like a classic made new, Empire is the new must watch show of the year.  

Watch Empire Here