HAMLET ACT I (snapchat style)

                                                       

                                                       

                                                       

                                                       

                                                       

                                                       

                                                       

Life Goals

It's amazing how we all have the same amount of hours in the day, yet we utilize them so differently. Are the hours we have taken advantage of or used productively?

To Be or Not To Be

HAMLET ACT III SCENE I

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Literary Fiction & Empathy

According to this article, literary fiction enables people to understand one another because of the affect the novel has on the reader. Literary fiction allows the reader to take in the character as a whole from the way they think to the actions caused by those thoughts.  Because there is no "authoritative voice" like in other genres, the reader is given the superiority over the character and story itself. Giving the reader the power to step out of the picture and become an outside witness alters their thinking when they step back into the picture, making them more understanding of why people say and act the way they do.

Hamlet's conflicts allow us to visualize his thoughts and reactions to the situation and compare them with our own. When I look at Hamlet's situation and my own I discovered that we are very similar in certain ways. When Hamlet expresses his confusion towards the difficult situation by answering questions with more questions, it parallels to the way I think when approached with difficult situations. Whenever life gives me lemons and I don't know how to handle it, I begin to get frustrated because I hate not knowing how to appropriately deal with situations. I begin to ask questions that cloud my mind with more confusion and I end up creating more problems than I originally intended. In conclusion, literary fiction, like Hamlet, helps us step back and look at the bigger picture which leads to a more intricate analysis of smaller details that help individuals understand people's thoughts and actions more in depth.

Vocab #6

ABASE: to reduce or lower, as in rank, office, repuatation, or estimation; humble; degrade.
ABDICATE: to renounce or relinquish a throne, right, power, claim, responsibility, or the like, especially in a formal manner.
ABOMINATION: anything abominable; anything greatly disliked or abhorred.
BRUSQUE: abrupt in manner; blunt; rough.
SABOTEUR: a person who commits or practices sabotage (any undermining of a cause).
DEBAUCHERY: excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures; intemperance.
PROLIFERATE: to grow or produce by multiplication of parts, as in budding or cell division, or by procreation.
ANACHRONISM: something or someone that's not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time.
NOMENCLATURE: a set or system of names or terms, as those used in a particular science or art, by an individual or community, etc..
EXPURGATE: to amend by removing words, passages, etc.., deemed offensive or objectionable.
BELLICOSE: inclined or eager to fight; aggressively hostile; belligerent; pugnacious.
GAUCHE: lacking social grace. sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless.
RAPACIOUS: given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed.
PARADOX: a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
CONUNDRUM: a riddle, the answer to which involves a pun or play on words, as what is black & white & red all over? A newspaper.
ANOMALY: a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form.
EPHEMERAL: lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory.
RANCOROUS: full of or showing rancor (bitter, rankling resentment or ill will; hatred; malice).
CHURLISH: like a churl; boorish; rude.
PRECIPITOUS: of the nature of or characterized by precipices (a cliff with a vertical. nearly vertical, or overhanging face).

"Boyz N' The Hood" by Eazy-E (Remix)

Journal: Using allusions to song lyrics, describe how you approached this weekend's homework.

Woke up quick at about 5 just thought that I had to be at school soon
Gotta get my homework done before the day begins
Before my teachers start askin questions
About to go and felt pretty blind
2 assignments on the list I didn't find
Ran to school to do it in AVID
Before sixth period approached me quick
Bailed to math and completed my homework
Just as I thought, I was gonna get full credit

Nature's Essence (phonar)

The drive home from Santa Barbara was a peaceful journey that created an aura of content in my vacant car. I can still hear my radio blasting my Las Cafeteras CD I had just bought from my UCSB outreach program. The weekend felt long in the moment and short in the memory but it was one of the best college visits I had that year especially since I was able to see my best friend Angela after months. The joy I felt in the car as I drove was reflected in the image my eyes captured as I coasted down the 101. The evening sun was sitting just on top of the distant mountains smearing the blue sky with its orange and pink glow, the silhouette of the hills outlined the border of my vision and the desolate green pastures blew in the fresh wind, the outstretched road looked never ending but I didn't mind because I've never felt at such a balanced state with my life and one with nature. This was the moment I realized that I was autonomous and felt the most joy when I was alone with nature and I loved the gift of natural beauty God gave us on earth. The scenery was too beautiful to even take my eyes off for a second and the moment was too precious for a camera to capture its essence and value.

2.0 Remix CD

In need of someone who can burn my CD! I have a playlist just not a way to burn the CD so if anyone can help me out please let me know, thanks!

The Importance of Trusting Teenagers

On Friday we participated in a webinar with Jonathan Worth and a few other scholars where we discussed several topics including building trust within the school, community and internet. Personally I enjoyed the experience, but found it rather "intimidating" to speak up only because I felt so disconnected from their status I guess you could say. After class I explained to Preston the importance of trusting teenagers and including them in discussions such as the one we were a part of on Friday. The statement that K-12 grades are isolated from the rest of the adult world was brought up and I couldn't agree more. The fact that "adolescence" are looked down upon as childish or immature, restricts the wisdom that could flow between the young and old thinkers. If the boundaries between the youth and adults were broken, the collaboration between our wisdom and theirs could create a whole new era of innovation and research. Diverse thinking is key to the up-rising of new leaders. Youth minds provide a perspective lost by adults, our input could create knowledge that would've never been discovered if it weren't for our adolescent thinking.
School is supposed to prepare us for that "real world" battle, but in reality how many people actually believe high school truly helped them and prepared them? A vast majority would agree that there path in life was paved through experience and not learning how to raise your hand to go to the restroom. Therefore, including teenagers in scholarly discussions and research is significant in preparing us to follow a beneficial path in life. So by the time we are adults conducting research or experiments or changing the world in whatever it is we do, we'll be far more prepared and experienced than the former generation. With each new generation will come a quicker acquirement of maturity and leadership in all fields of careers.

Vocab #5

Shenanigans: a mischievous or deceitful trick, practice, etc ..

Ricochet: the motion of an object or a projectile in rebounding or deflecting one or more times from the surface over which it is passing or against which it hits a glancing blow.

Schism: division or disunion, especially into mutually opposed parties. 

Eschew: to abstain or keep away from; shun; avoid. 

Plethora: over abundance; excess. 

Ebullient: over flowing with fervor, enthusiasm or excitement; high-spirited. 

Garrulous: excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner, especially about trivial matters. 

Harangue: a scolding or a long intense verbal attack, diatribe. 

Interdependence: mutually dependent; depending on each other.

Capricious: subject to, led by, or indicative of a sudden, odd notion or unpredictable change; erratic.

Loquacious: talking or tending to talk much or freely; talkative; chattering; babbling; garrulous.

Ephemeral: lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory.

Inchoate: not yet completed or fully developed; rudimentary.

Juxtapose: to place close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

Perspicacious: having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning.

Codswallop: nonsense; rubbish.

Mungo: a low-grade wool from felted rags or waste.

Sesquipedalian: given to using long words; (of a word) containing many syllables.

Wonky: British slang. Shaky, groggy, unsteady; unreliable, not trustworthy. Slang. stupid, boring, unattractive.

Diphthong: an unsegmentable, gliding speech sound varying continuously in phonetic quality but held to be a single sound or phoneme and identified by its apparent beginning and ending sound, as the oi- sound of toy or boil.

Green Eggs & Hamlet

1. I honestly don't really know anything about Hamlet besides the fact that he wanted to murder someone from the beginning (credits to Preston for this newfound knowledge), but he sounds like an interesting person already. 
2. I know that Shakespeare is a legend in his field of work and mastered iambic pentameter. He also wrote the tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet that occurred over a few days. 
3. Personally I frown cause the image school has given me of Shakespeare is that he's this guy from a bajillion years ago that writes in a language that I don't even understand.
4. In order to make this play memorable and fun to learn I think we should transform it into our own language and teach it as if it were occurring in our modern day time like a story on the news. 

Character Study

This past year has been one hell of a maze with its dead ends, twists and turns, I thought to myself as I slumped into my burgundy couches, but I've finally made it out of that first level. The view of the serene woods encompassed my vision as I stared out the window recollecting the journey that brought me to my new life in Santa Cruz...

The tears tickled my cheek as they dripped down my distraught face. What am I doing with my life? I thought as I looked at the untouched pile of homework. That drive for learning had slipped from my grasp as a severe case of senioritis kicked in at the worst possible time. While college applications opened up, my motivation shut down and carelessness was a new attribute of mine. 30 minutes later and I'm still sitting here crying because reality ransacked me, HARD. That's it. I stood up, wiped my tears, grabbed my purse off the coat hanger and walked out the front door, determined.

"Where are you going!" My stalky brother yelled after me.

"Crazy!" I hollered back to him.

Truthfully, I had no idea where I was going but all I knew was I was going to get my motivation back one way or another. I hopped in my silver bullet car and hit the 101 heading north.

The evening sky had dissipated into complete darkness when my phone began ringing off the hook. "Mom" *buzz buzz* "Mom" *buzz buzz* I ignored the calls and shot my mom a text saying I was okay and I'll be home tomorrow. I knew this wasn't going to be pretty when I got home so I turned off my phone and continued to drive into the unknown. I decided to pull over when my eyelids turned into 10 pound weights. As I pulled off the exit, a sign read "Cambria." Cambria! The most scenic town I've ever been to, although it has a complete different vibe when the sun goes down. I parked in a little dirt parking area next to the beach and crawled in my back seat to lay down. The flow of the waves creeped through my cracked windows and sung me to sleep.

The next morning, I beat the sunrise and continued my drive up north. After a couple hours I reached Santa Cruz and decided to stop at the college since I've never seen it before. The atmosphere hit me like a bullet, the peacefulness of the rustling trees and the smell of nature encompassed my whole being. I walked around the campus awed at the structures of the buildings that contained more windows than wall. I sat at a bench in front of the library taking in the beauty of the peace I found. At that moment I realized this is it. This is where I belong, at college in this earthly town. I began to feel the motivation mold itself inside of me as I thought of my future and the steps I needed in order to achieve my dream.

I began walking back to my car with a bounce in my step and a goal to be motivated by. Just as I walked into the parking lot, I see my AVID class all piling out of a charter bus.

"Hey!" I shout as they all turn and look at me.

"What are you doing here!" Chrystal comes up to me and asks.

"Oh yenno I thought I'd just go for a little drive."

"You weirdo you would!" she says jokingly and punches me in the arm.

After greeting the whole clan, Mrs. K tells me to tour the school with them before I leave. I agreed without a fight and strolled around my future school one last time before heading home and getting back on my school grind.

Tale of a Canterbury Tale

THE PRIORESS
Prologue:
In the prologue, the prioress praises Mary the mother of Jesus. Her prologue is also a preview into her following tale.

Tale Summary:
The story takes place at a town in Asia where the majority of the population is Christian, in this town lives a little boy who walks up and down a road that leads the towns children to the Christian school at the end of the road. One day, the little boy overheard the older kids singing O Alma Redemptoris meaning "Gracious Mother of the Redeemer." The boy begs his friend to teach him the song since it's not in his native tongue after he discovers it's a hymn of praise for the Virgin Mary. After a short period of time the boy's friend agrees and teaches him the song, to which he "would merrily be signing everyday." One day Satan twisted the heart's of his fellow Jews whispering to them that the boy's song was a mockery since they lacked interpretation of the song. Therefore, the Jews hired someone to slit the throat of the boy as he was walking to school.
As the days progressed on worry began to build in the mother as she went looking for her son with no luck. Finally, "Jesus, by his grace, put in her mind" the location of the ditch were her son lay. Astonishingly, the boy breaks out in the hymn and all the townspeople gather to see. The boy proclaims that the Jews responsible were to be put to "pain and shameful death." The boy explains the Mother Mary placed a pearl on his tongue and urged him to continue to sing until his appropriate burial when the pearl is taken away. At the end of the tale, a monk removes the pearl and "the child gave up the ghost, soft and serene."
The boy's name is revealed at the end of the tale as Hugh of Lincoln and a memorial was made to praise the boy who was from then on proclaimed a martyr.

Canterbury Tales Hacked

AUDIO:
If you comprehend a story better by listening to it read to you rather than reading it yourself, here's this awesome website called LibriVox I found where you can hear the audio version of the prologue and each character's tale. The best part is, it's an actual human reading and not a Siri sounding, monotoned robot.

TEXT:
If you prefer reading a story, here's a source with the prologue in it's original text and modern english text. Another source containing the general prologue as well as both prologue and tale of each character can be found here. Hope this helps!

Canterbury Tales 2: Character Notes (The Prioress)

In the prologue, the narrator describes the Prioress as a well-mannered, sensitive and elegant person. She was always free from blemish never failing to eat without a simple drop of food to fall on her. She was also known as Madame Eglantine who studied French but still hasn't gotten the hang of it. Her incorrect French is just one of many contradictions of this woman's life and appearance in general. Although she tries hard to act as a prioress, she simply is not a natural. The cracks in her dainty manner exploits her true self of a large women with contradicting behaviors. The prioress is, what we'd call, a good actor as she pretends to be as elegant as she's supposed to be with a lady of such status. For example, it's ironic how "she would weep if she but saw a mouse caught in a trap" yet she feeds her two hounds roasted flesh without a flinch. Her jewelry attire also suggests that she is a worldly woman trapped in a prioress's suit. Her necklace that reads "Love Conquers All" could be a reference to romances rather than God, since that was a popularity of women's literature at the time. The Prioress is another one of Canterbury Tale's contradicting characters as she tries hard to be perceived as something she is not, making her look like nonsensical.

Canterbury Tales 1: Prologue Notes

BEGINNING:

The narrator starts the story off as describing the encompassing environment, detailing the blossoming of Spring and the desire for several pilgrimages to different shrines. He states that Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral is a highly renowned destination for people to visit when the martyr helped them when they were "ill and weal". At the Tabard Inn in Southwark, the narrator comes across a group of 29 or so travelers. The narrator then continues to briefly describe each character.

PROLOGUE:

In the Prologue the narrator says how he has described what has happened that night when he met the characters and his objective view of all of them. He also, in lack of better terms, asks that "you'll not ascribe it vulgarity" as he has stated the good and bad of each character and every action and word they've uttered. He does this to show his accountability of the truth since he believes that if he left out the flaws, the story would be untrue. He then continues remembering the dinner that led to the beginning of their tell-tale-off. The host, drunk with wine, brought up the suggestion that each traveler tell 2 tales to Canterbury and 2 tales back home and the one with the best tales would receive a large feast upon their return home. The host decided that he would be the judge of each one's tale. To determine who would begin, the travelers who picked the shortest stick would start off their tell-tale-off. The Knight returned with the shortest stick of all, at the relief of the others the Knight, who  was a "wise man and obedient", began his tale with a willing attitude.

The Prologue concludes with the end of their stay at the Inn as they head off to Canterbury and the Knight begins his tale.

CHARACTER:
Personally I'd like to read the tale of the Prioress because I think it would be interesting to see the type of thoughts that flow through such a daintiness and graciousness person. Her proper etiquette seems to be a guard to ward off the true her trapped inside from coming out. To hear her tale would be somewhat of a transparency into her mind and thoughts of the world around her.

Canterbury Characters

You can find each character's prologue and text in modern English here.

CHARACTERS:

• The Knight
• The Squire
• The Yeoman
• The Prioress
• The Nun
• The Three Priests
• The Monk
• The Friar
• The Merchant
• The Clerk
• The Lawyer
• The Franklin
• The Haberdasher, The Carpenter, The Weaver, The Dyer & The Arras-maker
• The Cook
• The Sailor
• The Physician
• The Wife of Bath
• The Parson
• The Plowman
• The Miller
• The Manciple
• The Reeve
• The Summoner
• The Pardoner