Who Was Shakespeare?

Shakespeare sounds like a cool guy. I'll admit, I've experienced my share of hatred for his work. This is because I didn't understand and I had a hard time with it. Now that we are reading Hamlet, I have a really clear understanding and I realize that Shakespeare is hilarious. With some research I found out that he was really just a regular guy. He had brothers and sisters, a mother and father, and he got married. Sounds like a normal guy to me. He had twins with his wife and then seven years of his life went undocumented. People call these years "the lost years". I find it really interesting that Shakespeare went from writing comedies in his early career, to writing tragedies or tragicomedies. He wrote tragedies for the later half of his life until he died. I have had mixed feelings towards Shakespeare over the years, but now I am finding real enjoyment in his work.


sources: wikipedia, biography.com, shakespeare-info

To Facebook or Not to Facebook?

That is the question. My initial impression of Facebook was that it was basically a safer and better formatted Myspace. As my few years as a Facebook user have gone by, I am realizing that this may not be the case. Ads have continued to get worse and Facebook has pretty much turned into one big advertisement. You even have the option to promote a post so people are guaranteed to see it. You can promote anything you want and that is sort of terrifying. I think there are always many risks with using sites like Facebook and Myspace. Safety online is very important and people are become less aware of the personal things that they are choosing to share. These sites make us think that are friends are seeing something, when really millions of people you don't know could be seeing it too. It scares me that I can't see certain things and I am not getting full information. Seeing what has happened to Facebook, I'm sure that it will crash and burn just like Myspace did. Unfortunately, there will be another site just like it...and another.

VOCAB REEEEEEEEEEMIX

The title is a little misleading. I'm not actually remixing anything. Dr.Preston said that we could stick to the whole sentences and definitions thing. That's just what I am most comfortable with for right now. I am going to try and come up with some cool ideas for next week :)

Abortive: failing to produce the intended result

The experiment was abortive and the scientist was disappointed with the failure.
Bruit: spread a report or rumor widely

Middle schools tend to bruit frequently and cause trouble
Contumelious: scornful and insulting behavior

The post was contumelious and hurt her friend's feelings.
Dictum: a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source; a short statement that expresses a general truth or principle

The teacher's lecture was a dictum to the students
Ensconce: establish or settle

They finally ensconced on a restaurant
Iconoclastic: characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions

Her speech was iconoclastic and she stated her intense dislike towards democrats.
In medias res: a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story rather than the beginning
The child's story was in medias res and didn't make much sense.

Internecine: destructive to both sides in a conflict

The war was internecine and did not help anyone.
Maladroit: ineffective or bungling; clumsy

I am very maladroit when I get nervous and it can sometimes cause issues.
Maudlin: self-pitying or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness

My sister was maudlin on the eve of her 21st birthday.
Modulate: exert a modifying or controlling influence on

The dictator tried to modulate his army.
Portentous: of or like a portent; done in a pompously or overly solemn manner

The act was portentous and over-dramatic.
Prescience: the power to foresee the future

The psychic had the art of prescience and used it to make money
Quid pro quo: a favor or advantage granted in return for something

The prostitute promised "candy" in exchange for money and the disapproval of her parents.
Salubrious: health-giving, healthy; pleasant, not run-down

Salads are very salubrious!
Saturnalia: the ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December; an occasion of wild revelry

I am interested in going to Saturnalia and meeting hot Roman guys. ROAMING FOR SOME ROMANS.
Touchstone: a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized

The competition was a touchstone
Traumatic: emotionally disturbing or distressing; relating to or causing psychological trauma

Human Centipede is a movie that I frequently describe as "traumatic"
Vitiate: spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of; destroy or impair the legal validity of.

I had to vitiate the talking doll so my nephew would stop annoying me with it.
Waggish: humorous in a playful, mischievous, or facetious manner

Their flirting was waggish and fun.

TED talks and why they are awesome...

When Dr.Preston gave a link to the "filter bubbles" TED talk, I remembered a lovely video I watched around six months ago. I watched it today with Sarah Gutierrez and it was just as interesting as it was the first time I saw it. So I decided to share it. This video is about spoken word poetry and I understand that it may not be something that everyone is interested in. I feel that is about a lot more than just spoken word, it gives insight on different perspectives and it shows how people are connecting around the world, just like we are with all this blog shenanigans. The growing opportunities that technology provides makes it possible for a teacher to teach without a classroom. The internet and websites like Youtube and Blogspot are making it possible for us all to connect beyond the typical social media. Anyways, I think this video is awesome and I hope that somebody will actually watch it and maybe gain something from it?

 



REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMIX

So for this remix I decided that I would translate pages 123-127. Right before Hamlet begins his soliloquy. I decided to translate into modern English but not really because nobody actually talks like this.....There will be a lot of "Yo" and "Shawty" or some variation on the two. I feel like Carrie when her mother keeps yelling "They're all gonna laugh at you!" You're all going to laugh at me......

KING: YO! Why is Hamlet acting mad crazy?

ROSENCRANTZ: Maaan he won't tell us why!!!

GUILDENSTERN: And he keeps on avoiding our questions like we the police or something!

QUEEN: Was he bein' nice to yall when you saw him??

ROSENCRANTZ: Like a gentleman!

GUILDENSTERN: Shoot! He had to force himself to be nice to us

ROSENCRANTZ: He didn't ask us nothin'! But when we asked him something he couldn't keep his mouth shut

QUEEN: YO did you tempt him with some fun!!!

ROSENCRANTZ: Shawty, we saw some actors and Hamlet was cool with that. They at the court now and they gon' perform for Hamlet tonight you feel me?

POLONIUS: He wants yall to join

KING: FA REAL? That makes me mad happy yo. Make sure he's real interested. Maybe this play will do that fool some good

ROSENCRANTZ: Fa sho.

KING: AY YO GERTRUDE. Leave us alone. Hamlet is coming to bump into the FIIIIIIIINE Ophelia. Her pops and I are gon' hide and watch to see if love is making Hamlet cray.

QUEEN: Fa sho. Ophelia, I hope your beauty is the cause of Hamlet's cray actions. You are a cool lady so I hope that you can save him.

OPHELIA: FA REAAAAAAAL.

POLONIUS: Ophelia, take your prayer book and read it gurl. People hide in prayer to hide the bad things they do. Dat ain't cool. The king and I will hide.

KING: Fa real I am feeling all kinds of guilty right now.

POLONIUS: He's coming let's hide yo.

Okay I'm done. I hope this has helped...haha. I am embarrassing but this was actually fun.

Midterm Autopsy

I definitely did better on the midterm than I expected. I did not do better than I had hoped. Obviously, the ideal score is a perfect one. I got a 63 and that isn't a great score. It is good enough right now, but I will study much more for the final. I didn't really stick to the study plan that I created and I should've studied more. The lack of studying explains why I did better than I expected.  

Vocab #8

abeyance; temporary inactivity
ambivalent; having mixed feelings about someone or something
beleaguer; to surround with military forces
carte blanche; unconditional authority
cataclysm; any violent upheaval
debauch; to corrupt
eclat; brilliance or success, acclaim
fastidious; excessively particular or critical
gambol; to frolic or skip about
imbue; to inspire with feelings or opinions
inchoate; not yet completed
lampoon; a satire against an individual or institution
malleable; capable of being extended or shaped by hammering or by pressure from rollers
nemesis; an opponent that someone cannot outbest or overcome
opt; to make a choice
philistine; A person who is lacking cultural values, intellectual pursuits, aesthetic refinement or is contentedly commonplace in ideas and tastes
picaresque; pertaining to, characteristic of, or characterized by a form of prose fiction
queasy; uneasy or uncomfortable, nauseating.
refractory; hard or impossible to manage
savoir-faire; knowledge of just what to do in any situation