Thinking Outside the Box

As humans we are born with the ability to use logic and reason to get through life. What is surprising is that most do not use it as often and have settled with what little they do know. Many philosophers and writers have created works that touch upon this, encouraging readers to seek knowledge. In "The Cave" Plato uses an allegory to talk about the ignorance of the people in politics and how they should seek enlightenment. In "No Exit" Sartre creates a hell for people that are blinded by their own perceptions of hell that they do not believe they are there. Through these works, they explore the human psyche and how people cling onto ideas that are the most "comfortable" rather than break free from shackles and into a brightly lit world as does one of the prisoners in "The Cave". Sartre, on the other hand, focuses on the fact that people have a hard time letting go of their perceptions and seeing things for what they truly are, at the beginning of the play Garcin expects hell to have torture chambers but comes to find hell is seeing parts of you that you do not accept. Both touch upon being open-minded about what is out in the world and searching all aspects of something rather than accepting what you see or hear before hand.

Literary Terms

A protagonist is the main character of a piece of work. They usually have an antagonist, which is just someone that stands in their way of achieving whatever goal they have.




Protagonists are easily identified, given that the entire work revolves around them and their journey. When I think of protagonists I usually think of super heroes, in comics and movies they're the protagonists and they all have an enemy.





Surrealism is a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind. It is characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal, as seen in the photographs in the video below.






Prose is the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.


In the following poem there is a clear rhyming sequence, followed by what it would sound like had it been in prose:


The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."


I was in the woods during the fall season and I came upon two roads. The first was visibly the one preferred by most, the second seemed as though it had been untouched. I would have liked to have travelled down them both but I chose the latter instead and I am glad I did because it indeed was a better choice.

My BIG Question

Is there a correlation between sexual oppression and self confidence?

Hamlet Essay #2

When people hear the word hero there are certain names that have been connected to it, like Beowulf; rarely does one hear Hamlet added into the mix. Hamlet is indeed an epic hero like the rest but he acts and speaks in a distinct way that those named do not. Hamlet is a far more intellectual man; he uses brains instead of brute force. Their motivations are quite similar but making this connection is quite difficult due to Hamlet’s self-expression. The languages of these men create an individual type of heroic tone.

            Beowulf is known for his strength, for defeating armies and creatures by himself. Hamlet, however, is known for his plot to kill his murderous uncle and remember his father. Beowulf does not think things through; he goes into battle with his haughty attitude and usually gets the job done. Hamlet planned out his revenge, in a way torturing King Claudius as he prolonged it. “ ‘The Mousetrap.’ Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done n Vienna. Gonzago is the duke’s name, his wife Batista. You shall see anon. ‘Tis a knavish piece of work, but what of that? Your Majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us not. Let the galled jade wince; our wither are unwrung.” He also set up a play in which he tricks King Claudius into reacting to something that would be insignificant were he innocent but of course he is not.

            Hamlet sounds as though he is unsure of what is right and wrong. “To be or not to be, that is the question, whether ‘tis noble 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.” Beowulf goes into battle so sure of himself and that he will defeat whatever is in his way. Compare to Beowulf, Hamlet sounds like a young boy that needs to be handheld through a maze.

             

So Far This Semester...

I have learned quite a bit about epics and tragedies, about my own writing and others in my class. The one thing I learned indirectly is that I have a huge procrastination problem. I was aware of this before but it was not until now that I realized that I desperately need to fix it (she said as she does her homework two periods before class). I know that if I continue to procrastinate then I wont ever get to do the things I love. Take my photography, if I keep procrastinating then I wont get any solid photos, if I do not have photos I cannot make a portfolio, if I cannot make a portfolio then I cannot get a job, and so on. I hope that this class will continue to give me that incentive to stop procrastinating and getting my work done.


The way I relieve stress and make my problems not seem as difficult to solve is by laughing at it and making it a joke, that is why I chose this video. And she makes me laugh uncontrollably. Enjoy.

Video Conference with Roy Christopher

    There was a lot said during the one hour interview, the beginning was mainly giving us all background on who Roy Christopher is and what he is working on. Then things started to get interesting once people in class submitted questions. What really caught my attention were his thoughts on multi-tasking, knowledge on technology, and the way older generations perceive the newer ones.
    His stance on multi-tasking was that it was improbably, a "myth". He said that if you want something to be your best work then you must give this one thing all of your attention. He also went on to say that he feels that when he has one project to do he does better on it than when he has multiple ones because his mind is only focused on that one project. I completely agree, yes you can do two things at once but they will be a poor representation of what you are capable of. 
    He also brought up "Program or be Programmed" by Douglas Rushkoff. It is a book that talks about whether we should take charge of technology or let ourselves be ruled by it and those that have mastered it. He made an analogy to having a car. You don't have to know how the car works to drive it but it does have its advantages. When your car breaks down, a person that knows their car in&out can find the problem while those that do not will have to seek help. Knowing the ins and outs of the technology you are using will ultimately benefit you because then you can control exactly what you put out there and what you share with others (those you know and do not know).
   The one thing that I thought was cool to hear was that he acknowledged the fact that older generations sort of look down on the younger generations because of their tech savvy ways. He said that they were just "jealous" basically because we understood most of it. It reminded me of our discussion about memes, they create and in & out crowd. The out crowd is usually resentful at the fact that they are not "in". But going back to the main point, what I took from it was that no matter what time period we are in the older generation will feel as though the younger one is not ready to take on "adult problems". However, if we are expected to fail then it could potentially become a self-fulfilling prophecy.




In all I thought this was a very interesting and informative experience. It is not every day that you can get feedback and insight from the author of an article you read. I hope we get to do this again this school year.

The Shining by Stephen King

Jack goes to an interview at The Overlook Hotel to see of they will hire him to keep an eye on it during its off-season. Jack is an aspiring writer and former alcoholic. While he is in Colorado, his wife is at home with their son Danny. She seems to be worried because Jack is taking a long time at the meeting. Jack does get the job and then is shown around the huge hotel and given instructions on how to take care of it. Danny, the son, waits for his father on the curb. He is a very peculiar boy, claiming he has a boy, Tony, living inside his mouth which can later be interpreted as his clairvoyant guide. It is shared little by little that Jack's last drink was when he broke Danny's arm after Danny had scattered all his papers on the floor one night. Things start off alright, then Danny starts ti get these horrific visions that appear to be warning him. His father also starts to inhibit some changes, his behavior becomes erratic and unusual. Once at the Overlook, the chef confesses to Danny that he has a gift his grandmother called "the shining" and he suspects he also has it. He warns Danny of the dangers in the hotel and how he is susceptible to them. It is learned that Jack had an abusive father and he fears he will become him. Then Danny has a vision and Tony visits, his parents bring him back when they notice he has been in the bathroom for a long time. That night, the empty wasps' nest Jack gave Danny suddenly is filled with wasps again, in his room. Days later, Jack finds the Overlook's history and at the same time, Danny contemplates entering room 217 the same room the chef told him to stay out of. Danny believes that staying at the hotel will help his family stay together but it will actually tear them apart. Then Danny decides to enter the room, and he feels a corpse' hand on his neck. Jack has a dream in which his father tells him to kill Wendy and Danny, he soon finds out he is sleep walking when he awakes to himself  breaking a radio. They find Danny in real bad shape with bruises everywhere, and Wendy assumes it was Jack. Danny tells them he saw a lady in the room and when Jack goes to investigate& finds nothing they become worried about Danny. Things start to go from bad to worse when Danny is attacked by the hedge animals and they find confetti in the elevator car. Danny decides to give the chef a psychic call which he receives and he starts to make his way from Florida to COlorado. One morning Danny sees a man in a dog costume crawling on the floor and he threatens Danny. Then Wendy finds Jack drunk as a skunk passed out downstairs and when she awakes him he begins to threaten and choke her. Wendy and Danny then lock Jack up in the pantry fearing for their lives. Grady, a man that once took care of the hotel but was driven to madness and murdered his family, comes and frees Jack on the condition that he kills Wendy and Danny. The chef, Halloran makes it to the hotel but is attacked by hedge animals. Wendy locks herself in the bathroom after Jack has been after her. He gets into the bathroom, clawing at the door. Danny finally meets Tony, who is revealed to be Danny in 10 years. Danny can see that a piece of his father is still alive, that the hotel hasn't completely possessed him. Danny then realizes that Jack hasn't been letting out the pressure from the boiler and knows it will explode. He tells Jack and he goes to look to it. Danny, Halloran and his mother take this chance to escape. The Overlook explodes with Jack in it. Halloran moves to Maine and Wendy&Danny plan to move to Maryland.
The novel takes a look at the human psyche. It shows that isolation can have very harmful effects to a person's mind. When a person is in one place with little or no contact with the outside world they begin to go a bit mad, cabin fever. This was true for Jack, although the hotel did possess him. People's minds have been trained to socialize and when that is taken away it doesn't quite know what to do or how to cope so it begins to make hallucinations and things spiral. Time alone also gives people time to overanalyze everything and to bring up old skeletons. Jack was plagued with a violent upbringing and starts to see that he himself is a lot like his abusive father which frightens him.
The author's tone is very eerie and thrilling. He uses more of a psychological fear rather than a shock type of fear where things just pop up. These visions that Jack and Danny see can lead people to believe they were schizophrenic but once these hallucinations leave marks it makes one question whether or not these people are sane driven to madness by the hotel.

Sons of Anarchy

S.O.A. is a tv series filled with betrayal, love, loss, and bikes. The reason I bring this show up isn't to promote it, but seriously you should watch it every Tuesday on FX, but to show that there are plot elements from Hamlet in various pop culture entertainment. The vice president's, Jackson "Jax" Teller (played by Charlie Hunnam), dad (former club president John "J.T."Teller) was killed when the current president, Clay Morrow, wanted to start running guns. Jax hints to the fact that he suspects foul play but only his fiancee knows that there is something wrong with the whole situation. She, Tara Knowles, suspects Clay and Jax's mother, Gemma Teller, of getting J.T. murdered, you see Gemma and Clay hooked up when J.T. went M.I.A. for a while. At first Jax really did want to get Clay out of the club and change things but now that he has a family his priorities have changed. It makes me wonder, if Hamlet&Ophelia had already been married and had children, would he still be so dead set on killing Claudius?

Tools That Change the Way We Think.

"Back in 2004, I asked [Google founders] Page and Brin what they saw as the future of Google search. 'It will be included in people's brains,' said Page. 'When you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information.'

'That's true,' said Brin. 'Ultimately I view Google as a way to augment your brain with the knowledge of the world. Right now you go into your computer and type a phrase, but you can imagine that it could be easier in the future, that you can have just devices you talk into, or you can have computers that pay attention to what's going on around them and suggest useful information.'

'Somebody introduces themselves to you, and your watch goes to your web page,' said Page. 'Or if you met this person two years ago, this is what they said to you... Eventually you'll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer."

-From In the Plex by Steven Levy (p.67)

Answer this not-so-simple question: How does extensive Internet/media/technology use change the way you think? Focus on your memory, your ability to concentrate, your sense of time and priorities, and the subjects/topics that interest you most.

With all the technology that’s out there, people, including myself, have become too accustomed to using it as a short cut. I find myself loosing patience, wanting everything to be done the second I want it to be, sort of the way it happens when I search for something on a search engine. The fact that they contemplated having a type of search engine connected to our brains is quite terrifying. The people in charge of these search engines can and most likely will take advantage of their power and censor what people read, it’s sort of already happening with filter bubbles. Most of us don’t take the time to look around and find multiple sources and different view points to develop a stance on something. Then there’s the connection between school and the internet, if you aren’t self disciplined and an assignment like this can take hours because you open new tabs for Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, or whatever your guilty pleasure is. Yes distractions are everywhere but on the internet they are right at your finger tips and nothing or no one is stopping you from giving in to them. All of this makes me sort of want to go back to the days when I used to look things up in an encyclopedia. 

Notes on Hamlet

This is my third time reading Hamlet, I read a "child-friendly" version as a fourth grader and the actual play as a sixth grader. Comparing the two, it is interesting to see how the "child-friendly" version actually has helped understand what is happening. Obviously, I didn't quite comprehend the play with as much depth as I do now but reading it then was not in vain. In order to fully grasp the play's intensity it is advised to read it more than once because you can always find details you overlooked the first couple times. I never thought Hamlet was "mad" merely depressed. His actions, although quite questionable, seem rational in the sense that he is seeking revenge. In the end he gets what he wants, blood, but perhaps its too much blood.

To Facebook or Not To Facebook

The main reason I decided to make one was because my cousins had one and I was missing out on family updates. I thought it was a great contrast to Myspace, some features like personalizing my page was missed but it wasn't that big of a deal. The same dangers were/are there, as with any social networking site. People have to be careful when they posts things because it is obviously out there for anyone to see. Before this article though, I had never really thought of why there weren't more precautions and safety settings and to read that Mark Zuckerberg doesn't really care about it is sort of eye opening but not surprising. We aren't humans to him, merely users, but still shouldn't he want to accommodate the users as much as possible?

Don't Be Hamlet

Coping with the death of a parent is complicated, especially when you have suspicions that your parent was murdered by his brother. Sometimes it is harder for some people to come to terms with a death than others. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet contemplates whether or not to keep living or to end his suffering. What stops him is the idea that the afterlife is unknown and he cannot be sure he will in fact escape his suffering when he kills himself. Going through life with so much sadness is not “living”, it is merely existing, going through the motions of every day life. There is no point in being alive if you refuse to “live”. Whether to live or die is one of the most difficult decisions one makes everyday, but it is never as evident as when there seems to be no other questions in mind. Hamlet's suspicions could potentially be the death of him, at this juncture of the play it death will come upon him either by his hand or someone else's. Hamlet should deny the satisfaction of having killed him and just commit suicide after killing Claudius. Analyzing the play and the characters the conclusion that Hamlet should “not be” is clear and precise.

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

Sophie, a young girl  starts to get these anonymous letters that ask her questions and then they are followed by a package/letter. Each letter is a lesson about one or more philosophers, and they are in chronological order. These letter are first sent to her mailbox but later are sent by Hermes, a dog. At the same time she recieves these letters, she also finds postcards that are addressed to Hilde Møller Knag which appear to be from Hilde's father talking about her upcoming birthday. As time progresses, Sophie finally meets the anonymous person sending her these letters, Alberto Knox. Strange occurrences happen, like Sophie finding items that belong to Hilder. When Sophie is learning about Berkely, Alberto tells her that they only exist in the mind of Albert Knag, Hilde's father and the point of view switches to Hilde's. It starts with her receiving a letter from her father entilted "Sophie's World". Hilde reads that Sophie continues her lessons and Hilde becomes more and more convinced that Sophie exists in "real life". The book ends with Sophie and Alberto in a spirit realm where they can live among people but they cannot be seen. Sophie starts to learn how she can interfere in Hilde's life.


The book focuses on the history of philosophy and how a person has the right to do what they want with their lives, or freewill.


Curious/ Insightful: Sophie's wonder and curiousness is what moves along the story, and with each passage there is a sense of bettering one's life and outlook on it.
 “Life is both sad and solemn. We are led into a wonderful world, we meet one another here, greet each other---and wander together for a brief moment. Then we lose each other and disappear as suddenly and unreasonably as we arrived.” 


“A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of these rare people. He knew that he knew nothing about life and about the world. And now comes the important part: it troubled him that he knew so little.” 


“So now you must choose... Are you a child who has not yet become world-weary? Or are you a philosopher who will vow never to become so? To children, the world and everything in it is new, something that gives rise to astonishment. It is not like that for adults. Most adults accept the world as a matter of course. This is precisely where philosophers are a notable exception. A philosopher never gets quite used to the world. To him or her, the world continues to seem a bit unreasonable - bewildering, even enigmatic. Philosophers and small children thus have an important faculty in common. The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder…”