State Secrets (Notes)

-The Government warns its employees to not leak information on the internet (anywhere for that matter)

-Many things must be kept confidential

-State secrets allow for our country to be out ahead of other countries

-We need to become better at keeping secrets

Quote of the Day Oct. 31

Look back, and smile on perils past.   -Walter Scott

Happy Halloween!

The Performative Utterance in Hamlet Notes

*AFTER a quick scan of the document

-Locutionary Force: the ability of language to deliver a message
-Illocutionary Force: what is done in being said
-Perlocutionary Force: What is achieved  by being said

-Critics think of Hamlet's character with a dramatic arc that begs explication
-The oath in the scene with the Ghost and Hamlet is an example of illocutionary force
- "Hamlet does not swear to avenge his father if you read closely"
-"the central problem of the play is that people represent their feelings and their intentions in ways that are contrary to reality"

-Roles of Hamlet:
     Hamlet the mourning son
     Hamlet the student
     Hamlet the heir to the throne
     Hamlet the avenger

-True formlessness of thy self.  Aka Suicide

-Polonius could be the vision of the pre modern man
   He has the structures

-The bloodshed in the play is a result of Laertes's actions

State Secrets in the Age of the Internet

The website was making us pay to see something...which make me feels like this was planned. Preston made an attempt at irony, state secrets of the internet age and how easy it was to get them with a simply fee. Nice try Preston, nice try.

  P.S. I wonder if anyone actual did pay for it in the name of the class

Quote of the Day Oct. 30

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. -Moliere

Quote of the Day Oct. 29

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.   -John Donne

Grapes of Wrath (By John Steinbeck) Literature Analysis

General

1)      Tom Joad had just gotten out of a state penitentiary after killing someone.  He meets up with his old preacher, Jim Casy, and they go to the old Joad farm.  Seeing it abandoned, they decide to camp outside.  Muley Graves, also a old family friend, happens to meet them there.  He explains how the banks have kicked all the tenant farmers off the farms and that the Joad family was at Uncle John’s house.  They head over there in the morning and within 24 hours set off to California (where all the” jobs” went).  Along the way, Grandma and Grandpa die, they meet the Wilsons, and make it to a Hooverville.  After trying several different farms, the Joad family settles on a peach camp.  Joad finds Casy again, (He had gotten separated) authorities catch up, kill Casy and wound Tom.  Tom makes it back to the camp and leave for a cotton farm.  Tom has to stay in hiding and, soon enough, rain begins to flood the farm.  The book ends as they seek shelter in a barn.  They find a dad who is starving because he was giving all his food to his kid.  Tom’s sister (who had a still born earlier that day) feeds the guy with her breast milk.  A relatively straight forward story of following a family through the dust bowl years.

2)      Avoiding clichés like family, betrayal, and religion, I believe the theme of this novel is wealth and criminality.  I couldn’t pick one because both of those points are big parts of the story.  Wealth because the whole story takes place with only $40.  The family has to make it from Oklahoma to California from this money and whatever cents they come across with work.  Criminality because Tom is on parole, he was supposed to stay in the state of Oklahoma but decides to follow his family to California.

3)      Following the examples of themes of wealth and criminality:

·         “But where does it stop?  Who can we shoot?  I don’t aim to starve to death before I kill the man that’s starving me.” (Chapter 5)

·         “The bank – the monster – has to have profits all the time.  It can’t wait.  It’ll die.  No, takes go on.  When the monster stops growing, it dies.”  (Chapter 5)

·         “What do you want us to do?  We can’t take less share of the crop – we’re half starved now.” (Chapter 5)

4)      Symbolism and Imagery are used when describing the road throughout the whole book.  The whole book takes place on this road to California.  Juxtaposition is used create a sense of unity between different parts of the novel.  Dramatization is used every time somebody talks.  It is also used through repeated sayings and the such.  Prose is also used in the novel.  It allows for the smoothness of the dialogue  and to avoid overly dramatic sayings.  Similes are another device used.  “In the morning the dust hung like fog, and the sun was as red as ripe new blood” (pg. 6).  Personification was also used.  “The fire leaped and threw shadows on the house” (pg. 68).  Seeming as we are now getting into basic lit devices, here is Alliteration, “Curious children crowded close” (pg. 49) and Parallelism, “…could read and write, could work and figure” (Pg. 106).  Last but not least, Epistrophe, “But if we go, where’ll we go? How’ll we go?” (pg. 46)

Characterization

1)      Both Tom and Ma Joad are developed with indirect characterization.  Both characters are based on how others see them.  Muley Graves and Jim Casey are developed with direct characterization because a straight up description by the author is given.

2)      The syntax diction doesn’t change when focused on different characters.  I feel like this choice is a roundabout way of making us not get too attached to the characters.

3)      The protagonist can be argued to be either Ma Joad or Tom.  I’m going to say Tom.  I feel that he is static because he always goes back to what he does best.  The beginning of the story begins with him getting out of a penitentiary for killing someone.  In the last couple of chapters, he kills an authority.  It is like he didn’t change at all.  I feel that he is flat as well, not much to him.

4)      After thinking about this for a while, I feel like I didn’t meet anyone, just heard a story of a family.  The characters didn’t pop and I feel like a story is a story, whether it has good characters or not.

Quote of the Day Oct. 28

The true object of all human life is play.  Earth is a task garden: heaven is a playground.   -Gilbert K. Chesterton

Grapes of Wrath Lit book Summary notes

(I have read this book before, but it wasn't really an in depth analysis and I really enjoyed it.  I decided to read it again)

Grapes of Wrath Summary

• Tom Joad hitchhikes his way home

• He had just gotten out of a state penitentiary after killing someone

• While hitchhiking, he meets up with Jim Casy, his preacher when he was a kid

• The two make it to Tom’s old family farm, now abandoned

• Tom and Jim decide to camp there for the night

• An old friend, Muley Graves, stops by

• He tells how tenant farmers have been forced off the land and now that the land has dried up, there is dust everywhere

• All the old tenant farmers, nowhere to go, have begun moving out to California with the rumors of jobs and open space

• Muley tells them that the Joad family is staying at Uncle John Joad’s house

• Tom, Casy, and Muley are forced to leave as they see a car approach and flood the entire area with light, looking for trespassers

• Tom and Casy make it to Tom’s uncle’s house the next morning

• Tom sees his mom and dad again, grandpa, grandma, brother, both his sister, and his sister’s husband

• Grandpa resists the heading west but the rest of the family gives him a drowsy medicine and carry him to the car

• The Joad family gets in their car and sells some stuff in town for $18

• The 3 people in the cabin are the only ones protected from the heat of the sun

• They soon come across the Wilson family camped on the side of the road

• The Wilson’s allow Grandpa to lay in their tent, he soon dies of a stroke

• After the burial, the two families decide to join forces and caravan to California

• The Wilson’s car breaks down so the Joad’s go down the road to a campsite

• The car fixed now, the two families head off again

• The two families pass New Mexico and Arizona

• Noah tells the families that he isn’t traveling with them anymore and is going to stay at the Colorado river

• The Joad’s leave the Wilsons, Sairy being too sick to continue

• Getting to a boarder control, Ma tells them to let the Joads past fast, for they had a sick person in the back

• Ma is the only one to know that Grandma had died miles back

• The family arrives in Bakersfield

• They find a Hooverville and deposited Grandma’s body at The Bakersfield Coroner’s Office

• A contractor arrives in the Hooverville to announce that there are jobs available

• The family begins to fall apart

• They move to a government camp and then to a peach pickers camp

• Outside the camp are protesters of the price of pay

• Tom meets Casy as a surprise (He had left the group earlier)

• Authorities catch up to the men and Casy is killed

• Tom obtains a cut cheek and a black eye but kills the man that killed Casy

• The Joads sneak out of the peach camp and head out to pick cotton

• Ruthie tells someone that Tom had killed two men so Tom had to go into hiding

• Rose of Sharon’s baby is a still born

• Creeks begin to flood

• The box car begins to rise

• The Joad family decides that they need to move to a dry shelter

• They find a barn and inside are a man and his boy

• The man is half starved because he had  been feeding his boy

• Rose of Sharon asks everybody to leave and feeds the man her breast milk

THE END

Hamlet Act V Notes

Act V

Scene I

·         Two gravediggers are digging a grave for Ophelia

·         They argue if Ophelia’s death was a suicide or an accident

·         Hamlet and Horatio walk over and begin to talk to them

·         The two hide as Laertes walks up

·         He feels that he needs to give his sister another hug

·         He gets in the grave and gives her one, Hamlet jumps in and they begin to fight

·         It is broken up and they are separated

·         The king sends Horatio to look after Hamlet

Scene II

·         A letter is shown that reads that after Hamlet was supposed to die in London, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were also to be put to death

·         They die

·         Hamlet and Laertes begin a duel with all the plans in place that they had decided apon

·         The poisoned sword stabs Hamlet as Hamlet gets ahold of that sword and stabs Laertes

·         The queen drinks from the poisoned goblet

·         Hamlet stabs the king with the poisoned sword

·         Everybody dies as Fortinbras enters with his army

·         Hamlet, with his last dying breaths, crowns Fortinbras as king of Denmark

·         Hamlet is given a hero’s burial

THE END

Hamlet Act IV Notes

Act IV

Scene I

·         Gertrude tells Claudius that Hamlet murdered Polonius

·         Claudius demands that Hamlet be sent to London

·         Claudius tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to get Hamlet for him

Scene II

·         Rosencrantz and Guildenstern retrieve Hamlet

·         Hamlet makes fun of everybody in the room

Scene III

·         Claudius demands Hamlet to tell him where the corpse of Polonius is

·         Hamlet cracks more jokes and avoids the question

·         Claudius sends Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to London

·         He also makes arrangements for Hamlet to be killed upon arrival

Scene IV

·         On the way to England, they pass by the army of Prince Fortinbras

·         In a conflict, Hamlet asks what the fight is over

·         Several dialogues later, it is revealed that the conflict is over a small piece of land

·         Fortinbras also says that it is vengeance over the man who killed his father

·         Hamlet follows Fortinbras’s example and carry out his revenge plan

Scene V

·         Ophelia, in the meantime, has gone mad

·         She sings songs, dances, and talks nonsense about the death of her father

·         Laertes shows up since a couple weeks ago his father was murdered

·         Ophelia hands out flowers and leaves the room

·         Laertes is furious about his father’s death

Scene VI

·         Horatio bumps into some sailors carrying a letter that is ,apparently, addressed to him

·         It reads that Hamlet has escaped and is heading back to the palace

Scene VII

·         Claudius finds out that Hamlet is alive and coming home

·         Laertes feels that he has to avenge his father’s death and kill Hamlet

·         They plan and plan and plan

·         They come up with plans and backup plans if the first ones fail, All to kill Hamlet

·         Gertrude then runs in and explains that Ophelia had drown in a stream

Hamlet Act III Notes

Act III

Scene I

·         Claudius questions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about Hamlet’s madness in the palace

·         Rosencrantz and Guildenstern offer up reasons why Hamlet could be acting like that since they don’t know the true reason

·         Claudius and Polonius set a trap for Hamlet

·         Hamlet says his famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy and sees Ophelia

·         They have a big talk and Hamlet ends up saying that women are monsters

·         The king realizes that Hamlet should be sent off to England now

Scene II

·         Hamlet explains to the players how he wants the play acted out

·         Hamlet tells Horatio about his plan to revel the King

·         They plan to watch Claudius and see if he reacts to the death of the character in the play

·         The play begins and The Murder of Gonzago begins to take shape

·         Claudius stops the play right after the murder and leaves the room

·         This is music to Hamlet’s ears

·         Hamlet and Horatio celebrate

Scene III

·         Claudius meets with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  They all agree that Hamlet is too dangerous to remain at the castle

·         Claudius sends them off, now being by himself, admits to the murder

·         Hamlet enters the room sword raised but sees Claudius praying

·         He decides that he has to wait before the murder happens

Scene IV

·         Polonius and Gertrude talk in her room

·         Hamlet enters but before he can see them, Polonius hides

·         Gertrude and Hamlet talk, after awhile, Polonius makes a noise

·         Hamlet stabs the curtain where Polonius was hiding and kills him

·         Hamlet and Gertrude finish their talk

·         Hamlet hides Polonius’s corpse

Hamlet Act II Notes

Act II

Scene I

·         It has been a few weeks since the last Act

·         Polonius tells Reynaldo to spy on Laertes

·         Ophelia tells her father that she did not, in fact, sleep with Hamlet

Scene II

·         Hamlet has begun to act crazy so Claudius and Gertrude send for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet’s old friends

·         Claudius had successfully avoided a war with Norway

·         Polonius informs the king that Hamlet had been forced mad by love for Ophelia

·         The two sets of parents make plans to spy on their kids

·         Hamlet really begins to act crazy in his conversation with Polonius

·         Polonius and Hamlet engage in this big talk

·         Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find themselves included as well

·         Players come up and Hamlet asks them to perform the Murder of Gonzago sometime in the next week.  They agree.

·         The murder in that play is done in a similar manner as the suspected murder of Claudius and Old Hamlet

Quote of the Day Oct. 27

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.   -T.S. Eliot

Hamlet Act 1 Notes

Act I

Scene I

·         Two guards hang out in the castle battlements

·         Horatio comes out and meets them

·         They talk about a ghostly figure that has come the last 2 days

·         Soon after, the ghost pops up again

·         The ghost does not communicate with them and walks off

·         Horatio suggests that they tell Hamlet about this occurrence

Scene II

·         Claudius had just taken the throne because the original king (Hamlet’s dad) had died

·         Gertrude was married to the old king and now had gotten with Claudius

·         Claudius gives permission to Laertes to go study in France

·         Claudius denies Hamlet’s request to study in London

·         Hamlet begins to think of suicide

·         Horatio tells Hamlet of the ghost (who was in the form of Hamlet’s dad)

·         Hamlet figures that something happened between Claudius and Old Hamlet that caused the death of Old Hamlet

Scene III

·         Laertes leaves for Paris, telling his sister to avoid Hamlet

·         Polonius, her father, also tells her to avoid Hamlet

·         Polonius tells Ophelia that Hamlet only wants to sleep with her

Scene IV

·         Hamlet sees the ghost and freaks out

·         The ghost beckons to him and he decides to follow it

·         Hamlet’s friends tell him not to go and that it will make him go insane

Scene V

·         The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius had murdered him (Old Hamelet)

·         The murder was done by poison in the ear

·         Hamlet promises to avenge the death of his father

·         Hamlet and his friends agree to not tell anyone about the ghost

Quote of the Day Oct. 26

We can't command our love, but we can our actions.   -Arthur Conan Doyle

'Quote of the Day Oct. 25

The mind ought sometimes to be diverted that it may return to better thinking.   -Phaedrus

Tools That Change the Way We Think

I believe that extensive use of the internet or media in general changes the way we think greatly.  For example, I myself now think of everything through a camera and how I could set up a decent shot. Using a camera as much as I do has affected the way I now see things.  Google, Facebook, and Youtube all have one thing they have in common, nearly everybody knows how to use these sites and with the three combined, you have all the information you could ever want and need.  All I know about the older generation is that they tend to be angry with the young folk about always being on their phones and ipods, not paying attention to the world around them.  Technology is taking over, whether we like it or not.

Quote of the Day Oct. 24

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.   -Marcus Tullius Cicero

Quote of the Day Oct. 23

Our friends interpret the world and ourselves to us, if we take them tenderly and truly.   -Amos Bronson Alcott.

Notes on Hamlet

At the beginning of Act III, I was confused with everything.  Hamlet had confused me and I wasn't going to get it on my own.  I was also too much of a wimp to raise my hand and get help.  Then comes the remix project.  It forced me to analyze the passage by myself and with a group of friends.  That helped me with Act III and the rest of the story line clicked.  I now know what's going on and why it's happening.  Hamlet has changed the most in my eyes.  He went from wanting to go to school out of the country to wanting to kill his uncle/stepfather.  There is a fire in his eyes and there is no way of putting it out.  I feel that most, if not all, of the characters are either going to die or get hurt from this point forward.

Who was Shakespeare?

According to Wikipedia, Shakespeare was a poet and playwright that was big in the English language.  He wrote tragedies, histories, and comedies.  He lived in the 15th and 16th century.  All I see him as is a writer.  Shakespeare is perceived (by high school students) as a poet that lived a long time ago that wrote incredibly hard to analyze poems.  People fear him, as for many of their grades in school suffered from assignments concerning him.  My understanding of Shakespeare is better than in previous years because Dr. Preston has got a better teaching style (I couldn't pinpoint the exact trait) that helps me with this difficult task.  I believe that just because it's Shakespeare will continue to make me struggle, it always has.

To Facebook or Not to Facebook

I have been using Facebook for a while now and have begun to notice that all the ads on the side of the webpage are stuff I like to do or that I am interested in.  This just proves what the article talked about, that Facebook is selling away our information to companies and corporations.  It is a cruel way of making profit.  Our personal info, such as what we search and do on the internet, should be kept safe, not thrown out to the world.  I feel that Facebook just uses us in this way, but alas, it is a useful tool in keeping people connected over long distances and allows us to continue our social lives outside of school/work.  This is why I continue to use Facebook. 

No time to do a real remix of vocab.

Abortive: failing to produce the intended result
Bruit: spread a report or rumor widely
Contumelious: scornful and insulting behavior
Dictum: a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source; a short statement that expresses a general truth or principle
Ensconce: establish or settle
Iconoclastic: characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions 
In medias res: a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story rather than the beginning 
Internecine: destructive to both sides in a conflict
Maladroit: ineffective or bungling; clumsy
Maudlin: self-pitying or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness 
Modulate: exert a modifying or controlling influence on
Portentous: of or like a portent; done in a pompously or overly solemn manner
Prescience: the power to foresee the future
Quid pro quo: a favor or advantage granted in return for something
Salubrious: health-giving, healthy; pleasant, not run-down
Saturnalia: the ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December; an occasion of wild revelry
Touchstone: a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized 
Traumatic: emotionally disturbing or distressing; relating to or causing psychological trauma
Vitiate: spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of; destroy or impair the legal validity of.
Waggish: humorous in a playful, mischievous, or facetious manner

Quote of the Day Oct. 22

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.   -William Faulkner

Hamlet Remix

Many problems with this video but I guess that is what you get with a weekend project.

http://youtu.be/3XeLjAq6DSk

Collaborated with Alex Lane, Sarah Gutierrez, Ryan Nguyen, Christa Weston, Kasie Gurgiolo, and Beka Castillo.

[Update: Here is the fixed link  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XeLjAq6DSk&feature=youtu.be]

Vocab Midterm Autopsy

The video midterm was, to say, difficult.  I went in not knowing about 50 of the words out of all 140 something of the words.  I trusted my gut and went with what answers sounded right and what not.  It came out okay because I ended up with an A- as my final grade.  I felt a wave of reassurance when I saw that grade.  It made me, for lack of a better word, happy inside.  I guess I can't attribute anything to my success because all I did was cram.  I could of been better about sticking to my plan of action and study when I needed to.  I could of also gotten help from other students.  For the final, I feel that studing is a must and I can't deviate from my study plan.

Quote of the Day Oct. 21

Love may be or may not, but where it is, it ought to reveal itself in its immensity.   -Honore de Balzac

Quote of the Day Oct. 20

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.   -Plutarch

Quote of the Day Oct. 19

Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.   -Desiderius Eramus

To Be Or Not To Be Soliloquy

To Be Or Not To Be - Josh Montero

I recite the soliloquy in a video using a method approved by Dr. Preston.

Quote of the Day Oct. 18

The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate.   -O. Henry

Quote of the Day Oct. 17

The sun is new each day.   -Heraclitus

Quote of the Day Oct. 16

Rare is the union of beauty and purity.   -Juvenal

Quote of the Day Oct. 15

What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.   -Robert Green Ingersoll

Schwarzenegger is HAMLET

Quote of the Day Oct. 14

Keep true to the dreams of your youth.   -Friedrich Schiller

Quote of the Day Oct. 13

For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.   -Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Quote of the Day Oct. 12

What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.   -Theodore Roethke

Quote of the Day Oct. 11

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.   -Andre Gide

Collaborative Working Groups

So far the groups are going good.  Ubi and Michelle are doing a great job running the class and Sarah is amazing at telling us what is happening during the play.  Nothing bad has happened yet which is a good thing.

Quote of the Day Oct. 10

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.   -Henri Matisse

Vocab Paragraph

Hamlet is a young man who is very ambivalent with his feelings at the moment.  His uncle, in a state of carte blanche, had murdered Hamlet's dad, the king.  Being very debauch, Claudius took over the throne.  The refractory Hamlet decided that savoir-faire was not enough and opted to take matters into his own hands.  Claudius, now Hamlet's nemesis, celebrated his eclat plan in killing the clean.  Hamlet, with all his inchoate and malleable ideas, decided that his uncle's queasy attempt at the throne was horrible and devised a revenge plan that wasn't very fastidious.  Believing himself to be an amazing piscaresque, begins to lampoon Claudius.  Every person in the kingdom, now believing Hamlet to be stricken with abeyance, was beleaguer in who to believe.  It wasn't a gambol for anyone, in fact, was a very serious matter.  Hamlet is acting like a picaresque and has to work with his attitude.

Quote of the Day Oct. 9

Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.   -Soren Kierkegaard

Quote of the Day Oct. 8

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.   -Elbert Hubbard

Vocab Definitions

Abeyance-(N.) A state of temporary disuse or suspension.

Ambivalent- (Adj.) Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.

Beleaguer- (V.) Beset with difficulties

Carte blanche- (N.) Complete freedom to act as one wishes or thinks best.

Cataclysm- (N.) A sudden violent upheaval, esp. in a political or social context

Debauch- (V.) Destroy or debase the moral purity of; corrupt.
(N.) A bout of excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures, esp. eating and drinking

éclat- (N.) brilliant or conspicuous success

Fastidious- (Adj.) Very attentive to and concerned about accuracy and detail

Gambol- (V.) Run or jump about playfully

Imbue- (V.) Inspire or permeate with a feeling or quality: "imbued with deep piety".

Inchoate- (Adj.) Just begun and so not fully formed or developed

Lampoon- (V.) Publicly criticize (someone or something) by using ridicule or sarcasm.
(N.) A speech or text criticizing someone or something in this way 

Malleable- (Adj.) Easily influenced; pliable

Nemesis- (N.) The inescapable or implacable agent of someone's or something's downfall

Opt- (V.) Make a choice from a range of 
possibilities

Philistine- (N.) A person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts, or who has no understanding of them

Picaresque- (Adj.) Of or relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero

Queasy- (Adj.) Nauseated; feeling sick

Refractory- (Adj.) Stubborn or unmanageable

Savoir-faire- (N.) The ability to act or speak appropriately in social situations.

Reflection on the Vocab Midterm

A) Most of the words I did know were in the vocab chosen to be in the Midterm.  It made the test so much easier.  Also, having it matching allowed for a process of elimination and, therefore, getting more correct.

B) Some of the lists had 4 or 5 words I didn't know and had several definitions to choose from which may have ruined me.  I wish I had studied more.

C) I feel the content will go away after a while but a quick study session will bring the words back to me.

D) Now that I know how these tests are done (or the general jist because more than likely it is going to be a different style of test) I can alter my study methods and get a better feel for the words.

Quote of the Day Oct. 7

Genius is the ability to renew one's emotions in daily experience.   -Paul Cezanne

Quote of the Day Oct. 6

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.   -Albert Schweitzer

Quote of the Day Oct. 5

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.   -Thomas Paine

Quote of the Day Oct. 4

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.   -Sigmund Freud

Quote of the Day Oct. 3

I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.  -Henry David Thoreau

Dear Ophelia

Dear Ophelia,

You are in a tough situation that may or not end in a bane way.  But here is my truly empathetic advice.  Hamlet is royalty, you aren't.  That already makes this difficult.  That wasn't mellifluous but it is what it is.  This is what you can do.  Ignore your father and brother.  They don't control you, it is your life.  Kudos if you tell this up close and personal.  This is a serious topic so you need to be stern with them. Remain monolithic and don't break down if they continue to say no.  This is what you want, correct?  Tell Hamlet that you love him, more than anything in the world, after you come to a consensus with your father and brother.  This may seem like a quixotic dream right now but it can be reality in a week or so.  Also, don't let this lead to a vendetta as such in Romeo and Juliet.  If this does succeed  you will be filled with euphoric feelings.  Your power of volition in this decision is what will make or break the outcome.  Make sure to approach your father at the apropos time and to say the right words.  Good Luck!