My Final Presentation

So I made a video about media and beauty... Check it out...

The Delay...

I believe that quality is better than quantity so I will be postponing my essay for tomorrow in order to make sure I have quality illustrative notes for my lit group.  I can't let my group down.
That is all.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Plato and Sartre both write about the limitations of the mind.  Plato uses the "Allegory of the Cave" to represent how we can bind our own minds to shackles by not gaining the knowledge the world has to offer.  If you live in the cave, you have your own reality and perspective which doesn't represent an accurate representation of the world.  Some people could consider this hell.  Some people could also consider No Exit hell too, which represents how people can be the greatest torturers of them all.
These stories also represent how knowledge may be powerful but it also can hurt.Throughout No Exit, the characters look down at Earth and see how their "loved ones" have moved on or what has happened since their death, most of which hurts each of them in some way.  Plato writes that once you have left the cave and gained knowledge about the world, going back to the cave would hurt because you must lose all your sense of surroundings and live with ignorance.
Both use imagery, extended metaphors, and irony to emphasize their points.

Quote of the Day

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.  ~Richard Carlson

"A mental disorder or psychiatric disorder is a mental or behavioral pattern or anomaly that causes distress or disability, and which is notdevelopmentally or socially normative. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives. "

And when we think about it..... With finals coming up and more projects due at the same time frame, we become more and more stressed.  I personally become a more irritable person when I am stressed.  I'm constantly angry.  I lose all the patience I have.  I think that everyone is out to get me and I can't help it.  Maybe Richard Carlson is right.

In any case, stress isn't going to be leaving anytime soon.

Reading Notes and Questions for No Exit

Questions:

A space can be beautiful and be hell.  Take any of countries at war for example.  Egypt is so rich with history and monuments but there is so much violence going on that it is a hell.  A place can be beautiful but everything can be constant so that it becomes a hell.  If you accept your surroundings and try to find the positive in a hellish environment you will be able to find peace.

Hell could be doing something you hate for the rest of your life, like getting up and going to work a job you despise but it pays your bills so you have to or playing a sport you are good at but really don’t enjoy.  Variety is the spice of life.  Without any variety, moderation, or balance, life wouldn’t nearly be as enjoyable as it is.  I mean, eating the same meal for the rest of my life would make me pretty irritated.

Sartre’s dialogue expresses a sense of eternal hopelessness and constancy.   I could never imagine what it would be like to not sleep.  Sleep is one of the greatest pleasures I have in life.  I couldn’t stay in one place at the same time either.  I get stir-crazy if I can’t leave my house when I am sick.  Garcin thinks this world is absurd.  If I tried to make my life into a routine, my world would become hell.

ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE SONNET

Shackled not only by chains
Prisoners can only see shadows
The only world they know
Is one that nobody else does

The darkness engulfs them
There is nothing else to see
All they see is all they know
But what if they are blind

Ignorant of their surroundings
Enlightenment won't follow them
Forever chained in their cave
Prisoners of their own mind

The search for light
Must begin within themselves.

Plato's Allegory of The Cave Questions (And Notes)

NOTES:

Purpose:  "let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened"

• ignorant and happy vs educated and cynical
• keep the masses generally uneducated and happy so there is no rising up against the government
• light and sun = enlightenment/ education
• darkness and cave = ignorance and little known
• from cave to world:  a prisoner will be astonished with what surrounds him little by little
• from world to cave:  the philosopher will laugh at how he used to think
• 'young men to be warrior athletes'... for battle and olympics
• music and gymnastics doesn't educate as math and science would
• references Troy
• uses 'three fingers' as a metaphor for relativity and distance but ends with they are the same
• perception does however aid in education or enlightenment but different eyes have the ability to perceive subjects differently
• unity vs number... both seek truth, both are needed for mathematics 
• military and philosophy need math
• geometry is knowledge that is eternal and can create greater thinking/ philosophizing 
• astronomy only benefits the farmers for Socrates but Plato believes that it encourages enlightenment and the growth of the soul as he looks towards the heavens
• study of motions... physics?
• there must be connection between subjects in order to find some type of benefit in them
• math and english are two completely different arts
• This is that strain which is of the intellect only, but which the faculty of sight will nevertheless be found to imitate; for sight, as you may remember, was imagined by us after a while to behold the real animals and stars, and last of all the sun himself. And so with dialectic; when a person starts on the discovery of the absolute by the light of reason only, and without any assistance of sense, and perseveres until by pure intelligence he arrives at the perception of the absolute good, he at last finds himself at the end of the intellectual world, as in the case of sight at the end of the visible. 
• By pursuing the arts, do prisoners gain release
• to have four divisions; two for intellect and two for opinion, and to call the first division science, the second understanding, the third belief, and the fourth perception of shadows, opinion being concerned with becoming, and intellect with being
• intellect is to opinion, so is science to belief, and understanding to the perception of shadows. 
• teachers and rulers must be "noble, generous, fairest, surest, and the bravest"
• the mind suffers more from studying than the body will from gymnastics
•  knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. 
  So school in general...
• A person who learns could become overly arrogant and rebelilious as they will see the flaws in society and want to rise against them
• Confused about ages in their life.

QUESTIONS

1. The Allegory of the Cave represents the ignorance of remaining unenlightened with no education and all the possibilities that occur when you see the light once you are educated.
2. The sun and light represent enlightenment or education.  The cave or darkness represents ignorance.  The water's reflection symbolizes a greater sense of yourself and your surroundings.
3. The cave is full of prisoners that can only believe what they see which is only shadows.  They are blind to the world outside the cave so they are ignorant to greater possibilities and the universe.  This all symbolizes that we must open our eyes to realize what is actually going on and happening around us instead of going through life being ignorant.
4. Shackles are what binds or limits us in life.  The cave represents a closed mind that isn't intent on learning.  With a combination of the two, it means, if you aren't ever seeking knowledge then you are essentially limiting your own life and causing your ignorance.
5. Today, people have this absurd insouciant attitude about the world and how it is run.  They don't care about education or about doing things for the greater good but rather stay where they are and do little to enlighten themselves.  This doesn't let you grow as a person or human being.  It just shackles you to the shell that could have had so many greater possibilities in life.
6. The freed prisoner will be able to interpret the world differently from the cave prisoner.  The freed person is enlightened to new perspective whereas the caver prisoner will always see the world one way.
7. Help...
8. Cave prisoners are free when they open their mind and release themselves from the shackles they were bound to.  Intellectual freedom is possible if you search for knowledge or answers and maintain a sense of enlightenment.
9. The appearance of something doesn't always suggest that it is real.  Take the shadows in the cave, yes in face the shadows were real but they are cast because of an object behind a light, not just present by themselves.  As a comparison to today's world, models and celebrities look increasingly perfect on magazine covers but in reality don't have that exact appearance.  They are real but the magazine has photoshopped out features that may be deemed 'ugly'.  
10. Help...

WE HANG TOGETHER

Hamlet Essay Remixed

I decided on a comic strip remix for this simply because I have the technology to do so.  Next remix, I would like to do the white board remix as that video has done but I need to learn the technology of it first.  I'm sure my Mac has a program, I just have to play around a bit!

Welcome to the Future!

Technology is advancing faster and faster as the years go by but when are we going to live in the Sci-Fi ages of hover crafts and highly advanced computers... Oh wait...
Jakub Zahor has designed a new device that functions as a computer but projects onto any glass surface.  Windex not included everyone.

American Horror Story and Hamlet?

American Horror Story: Burn, Witch. Burn!

Delphine: 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Delphine quotes from Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1, part of the Prince's famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy.

And here we see my favorite TV show reference what we are learning about in class!  This just goes to show how Hamlet is still affecting pop culture!

A Poetic Inquiry

The process of searching for sonnets that relate to my big question wasn't very hard actually since my big question is about beauty.  No matter what era the sonnet was written in, beauty is always a well written topic.  I realized as I was looking for one that related to beauty, however,  that aging is also involved in the "deterioration" of beauty.  This made me update my own big question into including it in my question.

Revisited: My Big Question

"In advertisements, most commercials or ads feature young, skinny beautiful people when the average American isn't a model... Why do advertisements create this false sense of reality and do they see how it damages our youth's self-esteem and self-worth?" 

If I were to focus on a specific aspect of one of my big questions, I would probably focus on society's body image and our own view of what "beauty" is.  This is something that has always really struck a cord with me so trying to answer this for my "senior project" would probably be the most meaningful.


My big question isn't going to change much but rather add on to it... I would like to add on to it by looking into why beauty revolves around youth.

A Sonnet about Beauty

To start, a sonnet is made up of fourteen lines.  They may or may not rhyme!  Sonnets are categorized into Shakespearean and Petrarch sonnets.  Shakespearean sonnets are characterized by three quatrains and then a couplet whereas Petrarch sonnets are characterized by one octet and one sestet.  Petrarch sonnets are typically very love-y and exaggerate the beauty of women.  Shakespearean sonnets, however, are more realistic and honest.

My sonnet is by Samuel Daniel.  It is in his Beauty, Time, and Love Sonnets.

Beauty, sweet Love, is like the morning dew,
Whose short refresh upon the tender green
Cheers for a time, but till the sun doth show,
And straight ’tis gone as it had never been.	60
Soon doth it fade that makes the fairest flourish,
Short is the glory of the blushing rose;
The hue which thou so carefully dost nourish,
Yet which at length thou must be forced to lose.
When thou, surcharged with burthen of thy years,	65
Shalt bend thy wrinkles homeward to the earth;
And that, in Beauty’s Lease expired, appears
The Date of Age, the Calends of our Death—
But ah, no more!—this must not be foretold,
For women grieve to think they must be old.	70

'Let's Be Realistic'

“People will kill you over time, and how they’ll kill you is with tiny, harmless phrases, like “be realistic.”

—	Dylan Moran

Maybe it is phrase that kills the little kid in us that hopes and dreams big...  I can understand a reality check is sometimes necessary but how can we ever encourage our own creativity and dreams if we are supposed to be realistic all the time. 

A Summary of Hamlet... 'Fo Real Yo!'

Well trying to look though material for a Hamlet remix, I found this video.  A great summary of Hamlet in American thug dialect.  Enjoy!  It actually has a lot of key concepts we have covered in class!

To Speak or Not To Speak... That Is The Question... (Essay)

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't." Although Hamlet shows some sort of "madness", as Polonius has put it, when he talks to himself but there is a reason for it.  Most of the time, we talk to hear ourselves talk even if there is no meaning behind it but Hamlet, however, speaks for his own clarification.  "One advantage to talking to yourself is knowing that at least one person is listening," (Franklin P. Jones).  Hearing ourselves talk is sometimes one of the greatest reassurances there is, as Hamlet has experienced throughout the play.  Saying something out loud gives you a verbal commitment towards a goal you are planning to work for or a promise you must keep.  It can help with memorizing and remembering things you need to do or have done as well.  Performative utterance is not only applicable to Hamlet but also to the real world.

In performative utterance, characters say their thoughts out loud in a way to try to reason with themselves.  (So rather, ‘To speak or not to speak; that is the question’.)  Hamlet’s “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy, he reasons with himself about suicide.  He weighs the option very carefully “but that the dread of something after death” causes him to rethink the situation.   Hamlet realizes that “conscious does make coward of us all” because we are afraid of the unknown that surrounds the afterlife.  Hamlet browbeats himself as he speaks not only to show the audience what he is thinking but also to convince himself otherwise that death is not an option worth taking.  Pondering out loud can be useful if you are trying to sort out a difficult situation, much like Hamlet did. By talking to yourself, you can actually relieve stress and gain an emotional lagniappe despite what popular belief is (http://healthmad.com/).  It can also give you confidence as Hamlet experienced.  As a personal example, my self-confidence increases as I go through the memorization process if I recite something over and over again.

Sometimes, however, “we do more talking progress, than we do progressing.” (Will Rogers).  Hamlet’s words don’t always match up with his actions.  In Act I scene iv, Hamlet swears to remember his father and his murder but never fully says he will seek revenge for it.  In context, Hamlet means the same promise but in actuality, it isn’t the same promise.  Much like when you are playing a sport and somebody fouls you.  You are going to remember it and take it out on the person that did wrong to you.  Regardless of Hamlet’s actions in progress, he does acknowledge problems and then plans his own solutions to them. 

Self-overhearing is prevelant in Hamlet and in the real world.  Despite popular belief, talking to yourself isn’t an indicator of mental instability.  Hamlet listens to himself talk in order to clear his mind and sort out his situation.  He also gains confidence in his decision against suicide in his “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy much like I gained confidence as I overheard myself reciting it.  Performative utterance isn’t just for show but is also is for mental well-being.

Hi Rachel, How Is Your Day?

Studies show that talking to yourself is actually healthy!  It gave kindergarteners a boost in confidence if they weren't censured when they talked to themselves. AND it even gave adults a stress release when they hummed or whispered to themselves quietly enough to not be heard... Maybe Hamlet wasn't crazy after all as these studies show!

Child's Own... Stuffed Animals

This company makes stuffed animals based on the sketches your child has drawn!  How incredible is this?!  I wish this existed when I was younger!
http://www.childsown.com/

So Powerful!

Interesting fact. The photographer of this photo was a high school student. He committed suicide after exams.

Buddha Speaks

“As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the world” 
—Buddha 

Vocabulary 9

Aficionado: n. devotee

An art aficionado, Jennings loved Judy Pfaff out of all the sculptors she had studied.

Browbeat: v. intimidate by overbearing looks or words

The senior browbeat the freshmen into picking up the cones after practice.

Commensurate: adj. same measure or equal extent of duration, proportionate

Hailey’s bag of Halloween candy was not as commensurate to Lily’s.

Diaphanous: adj. very sheer and light, delicately hazy

The dress was very diaphanous when it was in the sunlight.

Emolument: n. profit, salary, or fees from office or employment, earnings, stipend, pay

Her boss gave Annie her emolument for the month.

Foray: n. a quick raid, a quick sudden attack, an initial venture

The Danes made a foray against Poland.

Genre: n. class or category

Hamlet falls into the genre of tragedy.

Homily: n. a sermon (Biblical topic and of an non-doctrinal nature), a moralizing discourse, inspirational saying or cliché

The homily the speaker told inspired the gym full of students.

Immure: v. to enclose within walls, to shut in, to imprison

The prison guards immured the convict into his cell.

Insouciant: adj. free from concern, carefree, nonchalant

The woman was insouciant throughout her life.

Matrix: n. something that constitutes the place or point from which something else originates, develops, or forms

Our class will be the matrix for the next open source learning classes to come.

Obsequies: n. a funeral rite or ceremony

The obsequies that were in her will were very religious.

Panache: n. a grand manner, a flamboyant style

The man’s outfit was panache.

Persona: n. a person, the mask or façade presented to satisfy the demands of the situation or the environment and not representing the inner personality or the individual, a person’s perceived personality

Her persona represented a mean girl even if she was actually nice.

Philippic: n. any of the orations delivered by Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, speech or discourse of bitter denunciation

The man had a philippic with his wife.

Prurient: adj. having or characterized by lustful thoughts or desires

The man’s prurient dreams about another woman caused him to leave his wife.

Sacrosanct: adj. extremely sacred or inviolable, not to be entered or trespassed upon

The classroom was sacrosanct during lunchtime.

Systemic: adj. of or pertaining to a system

The systemic environment let wildlife grow.

Tendentious: adj. having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or purpose

The tendentious article was propaganda for the candidate.

Vicissitude: n. a change or variation occurring in the course of something, interchange as of states or things

The vicissitude of the man’s cooking throughout his life changed as he went to becoming a vegan.

Tools That Change the Way We Think

The internet has changed my life in so many ways.  I mean I have become a better cook, I know what is going on in the world, and I even can gain art inspiration from it.  But all joking aside, I think that we see how that there are so many possibilities in the world when we look at the internet.  I can think about how easy my homework is going to be because I have good sources that will aid me in my classes.  Life is so much more efficient.  I don't have to go to a library to do my research reports.  I can spend time focusing on things that I actually love doing like cooking or painting.  With more efficient tools, we start to become more efficient with our time so we can do the things we actually take interest in. But it does have downfalls.  We have become more impatient if a process is longer or takes more effort.  A slow computer or phone is now one of the greatest irritations we have because we want results now.

Filter Bubbles

a.  I learned that the internet personalizes the stories we read or click on by past stories we have clicked on.  Google, Facebook, Netflix, and even Yahoo news is doing this!
b.  The internet is such an important tool but as it has become more and more personalized, I don't see how it is more of a tool but a toy.  I use my computer as a tool.  I have it for the purpose of homework and essays or any research I have to do.  That is its main purpose.  But as I see the internet become personalized to me, although it is a cool idea, I am more and more weary of search results now.
c.  I believe this video is raising the awareness that personalization isn't always a good thing.  We need to know true news in the world rather than the gossip that is going on with the real housewifes or who Taylor Swift's next boyfriend is.  We need to know the good, the bad, and the ugly, and unfortunately, we aren't getting any of the bad or the ugly unless we search for it ourselves.
d.  To improve my internet searches, I will be much more specific in how I look for things.  I will try to search the good and the bad.  I personally don't go onto any of the sites that were mentioned but I'm sure there are more out there!

"The Performative Utterance in Hamlet"

What a very interesting idea Fredrik deBoer had!  I can look at Hamlet's character in a different way.  Hamlet says things in order to tell the audience how he thinks and for dramatic effect because it was a play intended to entertain an audience.  His actions don't always follow what he says throughout the play.  deBoer discussed how Hamlet doesn't necessarily swear that he will avenge his father's death but rather he swears to remember his father's murder.  Even though he swears to remember (technically), we can tell that Hamlet really wants revenge and is planning to seek it upon Claudius.  His words might not be completely correct with his actions but we can still understand what he means.