words of wisdom

I heard this the other day, and I'd like to share it with all of you, because it is kind of inspiring.

"Pleasure turns to the pain, / Of the lessons learned from the strain, / Of the questions burned in my brain, / About whether to love is humane / In its touch. / These thoughts are like salmon / Swimming upstream / In the tears of your deceit, / Fighting the current hurt / That kills more than is created / By the chaos of our intertwined emotions: / Chaotic because the anchor / Of Eros' arrow has been plucked from the vessel / Of my undying infatuation. / Separation not as simple as the distance between us, / My mind no longer possessed / By the demons / That had been the overseers / Of my enslavement to your lies. / The seeds of these lies, / Rooted so deeply / They have cracked the foundation / Of what we once shared, / Allowing the faith in us I had sealed inside / To gush out like a river, / Ripping the image of our future together / From my thoughts / As violently and as brutally / As if it were a child being taken / From his mother's arms. / I'm left surrounded in darkness, / But I refuse to be swallowed by it, / My loneliness like the night air. / Invisible to the eye, oblivious to the touch, / In its cold uncomfortableness. / Yet if I could do it all over again, / I'd do it in the same skin I'm in. / To lay down and let love die, / Just stay down and let love lie: / No, no, not I. / I'll stay 'round and let love fly, / Even though I have seen its darkest form, deceit. / Nothing else could taste this warm / Or feel this sweet."

Frankenstein: Target of human vices

Unfortunately, we are nearing the conclusion of novel Frankenstein we have been reading in AP English. It is true that every novel has its own life lesson to offer to its readers, and Frankenstein is no different. Mary Shelley’s original intent in composing Frankenstein was to create a modern horror story that highlights the romantic period. But it also targets the greatness as well as the vices that reside within every human being.

The basic instinct of every human, of living organism in fact, is to find a mate and reproduce. But in society, this simple fact of living must be backed with compassion. And if one cannot come to possess this compassion from another organism, it would seem that one would begin to crave it more than anything. This is exemplified when the beast exclaims that food and rest will no longer be required in pursuit of revenge on his creator, upon witnessing Victor rip his unborn companion to pieces. The beast craved this compassion so ardently, that it festered into an obsession. It can be argued that once a person/beast becomes obsessed with attaining a certain thing, unmentionable deeds can be committed in blind pursuit of this often unattainable goal, which is another human vice Mary Shelley intends to target. Examples of obsession are seen twice, both in Victor and in his creation. Victor worked feverishly, while his health suffered, to reach his goal of creation, only to look upon it with horror once it had been achieved. The beast then goes on to live his life being despised by the human race, even though his first thought of the species was compassion. But he becomes so lonely and obsessed with acquiring a companion that he would destroy all that his creator loves just to be able to have it. This is the basic idea of obsession that has the potential to bore itself inside all people if given the opportunity.

my start equals my future

The great Chinese philosopher Confucius once said that “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life”. In order for this to be possible, career must align perfectly with personality.

I come from a hard-working family; my father is a mechanic/fabricator, which is where my complete and utter exuberance for the field came to be. I had watched him with great admiration since I was very young, which had a great influence on my personality. Watching attentively to every little thing he did, I developed a fascination to learn. This world is so big and has so many different things to learn, how could you not look upon it with reverence? Specifically, I loved to do anything in which I could work with my hands, and it seems that through the course of my young years it has rooted into somewhat of an obsession, which has benefitted me greatly in obtaining the skills of the trade. Finally, I developed a keen vision of how things are put together, how they move, and so on and so forth.

In choosing my career it was essential that all of my personality and skills be satisfied. That is why I decided to become a Mechanical Engineer: a field of work that will allow me to work with my hands on a daily basis, develop new ideas, and challenge my mind in such a way that will guarantee continuous opportunities for learning. The high school classes I have taken that have to do with this field (i.e. Calculus, welding technology) have confirmed this decision and allow me to wake up every day, excited about my future.

But it's November?!

This is ridiculous, I never thought I could endure a period of commercials that were worse than political ads during an election year, but it seems even those have been bested. Okay maybe that’s a little extreme, nothing is worse than political ads, but this year’s round of holiday advertisements is absolutely out of control. If TV controls the voice of the population of this entire country, than we all have forgotten about Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, Thanksgiving, it is still a holiday! Since its establishment, it has been considered one of the more important holidays in our society. Because for one day we take a step back from all our busy lives and for just one day we are thankful, for our family which we are blessed to spend time with (for some, not so lucky), all that we have achieved, and all that has been given to us since there are many in this world who are not as lucky as we are. But this selfless holiday has been overlapped by a spectacle that is absolutely selfish: shopping and black Friday. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is probably the greatest holiday for its central meaning as well, but the shopping has ruined it, since it is all about gifts now, and not about the spirit. But now they have started it way early, and now it is starting to affect the spirit of Thanksgiving. I saw a commercial today for some store that was probably advertising for black Friday, but it said that is was the night before Christmas, it’s not even the night before thanksgiving yet!!!!!!! I understand that Black Friday is a big day for business as well as for people to get good deals on gifts for loved ones, but the spectacle they make out of this one holiday, and now since they have started advertising irrationally to early, it seems that it could ruin the spirit of two holidays.

Life

What the reason is for people to be on this earth can be seen as a relative opinion, and has been argued since the birth of mankind. Literally, humans are set upon this earth for the sole purpose of reproduction, but it has many other meanings that have been implied by people over time. Today, as cliché as it sounds, it seems we are set on this earth to achieve our destiny. Before we are ever even conceived, a greater power has decided what we are to spend our lives, and in turn we spend the course of our lives attempting to find and achieve that purpose. Even as industrialized as our society has become, with the probability of becoming a success diminishing as the years go by, life is still a beautiful and fascinating institution.

And in this fascinating world, I simply do not understand a person could ever be bored. I once heard a saying, “How could you ever be bored when there is so much to see?” This exemplifies our world, which is full of opportunity and extraordinary things. In order to achieve a dream, work is required from a fairly early age; it is as simple as that. As much as it is portrayed in movies, success doesn’t just fall into your lap, the gap between dreams and reality includes you, and the work you put in along the path. If you’re bored at any time, you probably could be doing more to achieve your goals. Even if it doesn’t benefit you right away, all good things come in time, that’s karma.

Generalizations of our reality.

Since the invention of the television and the modern sitcom, American life has been glamourized as an institution that is perfect all the time, or what has been dubbed “the American dream”. We’d like to think that this is the truth, but sadly it could not be more wrong. So we live our everyday lives the way it was intended, but even the idea of what is defined as a hard or stressful life to a person has been so generalized that a normal level of difficulty or stress can seem out of this world. But the question arises (rhetorical of course), how can you generalize any part of human life when we live in a world where every individual is so unique, possessing their own personality and tolerance level when it comes to these things? Therefore, it is impossible to gauge just how “hard” a person has it because one person could be the busiest and most stressed individual in the individual on the face of this earth, but doesn’t say a word about it simply because it does not bother them. Then there are the people that probably don’t have much going on but they act like they have the world weighing down on their shoulders; so it really possible to feel sympathy for others when they discuss their lives in such a way when it is impossible to know which of the people listed above they are? That is the cause of our modern world, where sitcoms and reality TV has generalized almost every human emotion.

the shift

Oh Collegeboard people you have done it again, your logic never ceases to amaze me. We start off reading Hamlet, a classic renaissance play illustrating the greatness and absolute, infinite demise that lies that lies within us all. Now all of a sudden we have switched to the period of Romanticism; if there is a connection between the two, I must be blind and should go back to my freshman English class. Before staring on Mary Shelly’s classic novel Frankenstein, we have been tasked with reading a passage from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which is about as biblical as biblical can get. In this, John Milton explains how the evil of this world came to be, elaborating that it all started with Adam and Eve. In the beginning, god knew there was a potential for evil to roam the world, but he gave Adam and Eve the choice of which path to follow, god’s grace or the path to evil. When they chose the latter, and then their children decided to follow them, evil was born in the world. Milton then moves to the story of how Satan came to roam the depths of hell. Originally, he was one of god’s angels; but, when he tried to overthrow the will of god in an effort to gain his thrown, god sentenced him to eternal damnation. After a while, Satan would allure men by telling them that hell is the only place where you can truly be free, and that you are only ruled by yourself. This is very ironic, as it explains, because god lets Satan believe it is a place free from his grace, when in fact its sole purpose is to fulfill his will.

 

How these stories are connected, or if they are even connected, I have not a clue. I guess I must stay tuned for the next episode of AP English Lit.  

Why not?

People in modern society have become very desensitized to all that life has to offer, with advancements in technology, it has become very easy for humans to lose that connection to living. One ever-so growing issue is that people are afraid to experience knew things; and what they do not understand is that this is one of the essential feelings to know that you are living, experiencing that fear. Not knowing what is unknown, pun intended, or what might happen in a new situation terrifies the human species, and understandably so. What often goes unrealized though is that there are so many opportunities that are missed out on because we are afraid of what the result may be since we have never done it before. But, when that fear is pushed aside and that persons experiences whatever it is that they may be doing that they have not done before, a feeling of exhilaration comes over them that cannot be denied. Sometimes overcoming this fear will not bring any kind of considerable gain, but sometimes it can bring unimaginable gains, both material and emotional, even change a person’s way of thinking or even their whole life. For example, a common fear is the fear of public speaking. Most people would just change their life to cope with this fear and move on, while a select few decide to change it. Fear aren’t just fixed overnight, however, it takes practice, and a time or two thousand in front of anywhere from five-to-six hundred people. One day something just clicks, and it doesn’t even matter anymore, so why not fight your fears and experience that part of the world you never knew?

Equal.

     In each work of Shakespeare, Act 5 of each play elaborates how his works have come to be defined as “tragedies”. In Act 5 of Hamlet, nearly everyone but Hamlet’s right hand man die, but Shakespeare does not simply kill these characters off however, he leads up to the dramatic climax by enlightening the audience on the abstraction of death. He alludes to the fact that no matter what your position or social class is, all men shall be sentenced to death, and men of prestige shall end up in the same place as the poor.

     To exemplify this notion, Hamlet stumbles upon the skull of Yorick, a childhood friend/mentor who acted as his father’s jester, or a fool of sorts. He could not understand how such a “fellow of infinite jest” could end up in the state that he was currently in. This illustrates Shakespeare’s first rebuttal that no matter how rich in humor a man may be in in life, or even how insufferable for that matter, these two men of different backgrounds are both doomed to the same fate.  Shakespeare then proceeds to use several more examples to reassure this central meaning, as it acts as one of the major themes of the play. With an allusion to Alexander the Great, a noble figure in the time Hamlet was written, Shakespeare exemplifies that even men that are seen as immortal must die, which makes the audience think of an earlier assertion in the play that the king is no better than what goes through the guts of a beggar. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses symbolism to explain that death is inevitable regardless of social rank, and hints at the fact that maybe these ranks are pointless and maybe all men should be seen as equal.

  

Dysfunctionality.

I doubt that is even a word: dysfunctionality, it sounded like an awesome blog title though. The day some of us have been wishing for, and the rest of us maybe not, but the conclusion of Hamlet has approached with such a sense of cunning that one may not know how to act or even feel about it. Other than the fact that it is one of the hardest pieces of literature of the modern age to understand, if you do actually understand it, Hamlet is actually far better than any television drama or movie (ironically, many Directors have made Hamlet into a movie with their own unique twist). One conclusion that is pretty evident from Shakespeare’s plays, although historians do not know much about him, is that he must have had one dysfunctional personality, because his plays would certainly suggests so. He creates families, invests the emotions of the audience into this fake family made up of actors, knowing full well what his intentions are, and kills them. In Hamlet this is the most evident, it is the most dysfunctional piece of writing I have ever read! A prince has an uncle-dad that he can’t decide whether or not to kill him; wouldn’t you want to kill him to rid yourself of the confusion in your relationship to him. He also has a promiscuous mother, who decided to “keep it in the family” in a sense, and a plethora of other insane characters to compliment these, as if this wasn’t enough already. In the end, they all end up dying, because of a plan that worked, but didn’t work that involved a stabbing and two different forms of poison, very confusing. Is this not the definition of dysfunctional?

Berkeley essay 2

Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud, and how does it relate to the person you are?

 

     In every success story since the dawn of the modern age, people have been asked “what drives you?” or “what is the secret to your success?”, in other words. Every answer is usually very different; so far in my very young life, can be measure by two items: ambition and self- discipline.

     In my young years, I witnessed some very trying times; times that decided the outcome of my life based on how I reacted to them. Witnessing events such as a death in the family, or a relative having a run-in with the law, sorrow can take its effect on a young boy; even cause him to give up on his dreams and aspirations. That was never the case for me, although, I guess because it never really affected me directly. What I did instead is use that as a “fuel” to apply myself even more, even more compellingly, to pursue ultimate goal; and in a way to let my light outshine the dark times in my family.

     Now that I am in high school, my ambition and self-discipline have grown together and I have taken them to a whole new level. I very much enjoy challenging myself, so I took every possible AP class that was available to me. Multiple AP classes brings a ton of homework, but it’s all part of challenging myself until I hit that breaking point, and I haven’t hit that point yet. My teachers and counselors tried to talk me out of it, calling me absolutely insane, but I just saw it as an opportunity to add credentials to my college resume, and it wasn’t really that difficult.

     My junior year I was promoted to project manager of our moonbuggy team at school, which was a whole other load of work added. I was responsible for making sure we had all the material needed to complete the project, distributing different tasks to all the team members, and making sure the project was completed on time. This meant for about twelve weeks in the middle of the year, I was at school six days a week, an extra 35 hours working on the project. This alone was considered a full-time job by most of my peers, and even that was before being a full-time student came into the equation.

     Now I am heading to college, and no matter how difficult it may be I know I will be able excel. The reason is that I have already tested it; no matter what life throws at me or how difficult my studies are, I know I will be able to perform to the best of my abilities and move that much closer to realizing my dream of becoming a mechanical engineer.

To be or not to be

Throughout history, man has been surrounded by other organisms that directly threaten the lives of mankind, which has left man with a decision to make a decision every day: whether to live or die. In Act 3, Scene 1 of Hamlet William Shakespeare confronts this vice within every man, but takes it to another level at the same level, suicide. In the plot, Hamlet has developed a pessimistic view of the world, to the say the least, and is conflicted whether or not he will continue his existence. Specifically, whether or not he should continue to suffer through his life, what the beggars call his fortune, or stand up against it and by doing so end his life. This is very ironic to the audience as they witness him engaged in this inner conflict, as they have already seen that he has an inability to act in situations involving murder or death.

     What conflicts Hamlet, however, is that he would immediately end his life and suffering, if he knew what was to come after life. He finds it ridiculous how anyone would bears the scorns of life or the “oppressors wrong” if they knew what kind of life they could go to. This is an allusion to an often natural human emotion that this life is not worth leaving but whether it is worth it to witness whether or not the next is any better.  

     This inner argument of thoughts and deciding to deal with the scorns of life can be thought of as honorable, since life is thought as such a gift. Also, this decision can be thought of as cowardly, as the fear of the unknown leaves people helpless and causes them to continue to suffer through the trials of life (which everyone must endure ironically) and live their lives until its conclusion. Ultimately, Hamlet decides that he is the coward, because he cannot bear the thought of a life that is more insufferable than the one is already living in.

     In Hamlet, William Shakespeare alliterates that humans are almost inevitably conflicted with the question of whether or not to continue living, and nearly always the choice is to continue living for fear of the unknown.

Fear of the unknown

The way parents, teachers, and mentors talk about college makes it almost seem like a movie, some unreal thing that’s so far in the distant future. In fact, we get pounded with it so much in our early years it seems like a horror movie, it can be very daunting. For so long, it was so far away that I didn’t even have to worry about, now all of a sudden it starts tomorrow. I know what I’m going to do as far as my major, and I have all my credits already, so why am I so terrified. My college applications to UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Boston University and UNR are even complete; what could it be? It’s the fear of the unknown, or in other words not knowing what the future holds. It happens to all seniors I would like to think, since we have been forced to go to school since we were five, now we have to go out into the world and make something out of ourselves. Doing it yourself, which means nothing is guaranteed, I know I’ve worked hard for it and will continue to do so, but how will I know where I am going to be next year. That’s terrifying to me, since I have many opportunities available that could see me end up at home, in California, or even in Boston for god’s sake. Would I don’t make the right decision either? What if I get to a place where I can’t function in the environment or the situation just isn’t right? Nevertheless, I have never been more excited for what is to come and to start my life, it is just very daunting at this time.   

Expectations

It is a known fact that we as humans are a species that, by our very nature, thrive off instant gratification in nearly every situation. Some people, either through years of experience or just because of their personality, have adapted to be more patient. The rest of us, however, must be condemned to a life where we must have what we desire at that very moment, and of course we cannot; that’s just the way of the world.

It is simple really why the world is the way it is today, the world of instant satisfaction, humans are a very meticulous species. People didn’t like the time it took to walk somewhere, so the automobile was invented; people didn’t like the difficulty of communicating; now we have the cell phone over one hundred years after the godfather. So, by the very attitude of our ancestors, it is only natural that we crave instant satisfaction, since it is almost always available. But the flaw in this idea starts in our minds, in that people think that this gratification is owed to them, so they create expectations. Going into a task or an event with expectations can lead to an almost guaranteed failure, because the outcome will never be what we had anticipated. After failure, we strive even more for that sense of accomplishment, and when it does not come, accomplishment succumbs to frustration. After a while, you end up wanting something so bad based on the frustration, that what you were trying to achieve essentially loses its meaning, and the cycle ends up being repeated. And this could have all have been solved with one simple step, which could be a rule for living life: never place expectations on anything, without expectations, it’s impossible to fail. 

Berkeley essay

Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud, and how does it relate to the person you are?

     In every success story since the dawn of the modern age, those people have been asked “what drives you?” or “what is the secret to your success,” in other words. Every answer is usually very different; so far in my very young life, my success is owed to two items: ambition and self- discipline.

     In my young years, I witnessed some very trying times; times that decided the outcome of my life based, on how I reacted to them. Witnessing events such as a death in the family, or a relative having a run-in with the law, sorrow can take its effect on a young boy; even cause him to give up on his dreams and aspirations. That was never the case for me, I guess because it never really affected me directly. What I did instead is use that as fuel to apply myself even more, even more compellingly, to pursue ultimate goal; and in a way to let my light outshine the dark times in my family.

     Now that I am in high school, my ambition and self-discipline have grown together and I have taken them to a whole new level. I very much enjoy challenging myself, so I took every possible AP class that was available to me. Four AP classes brings a ton of homework, but it’s all part of challenging myself until I push myself to the breaking point, but I haven’t hit that point yet. My teachers and counselors tried to talk me out of it, calling me absolutely insane, but I just saw it as adding credentials to my college resume, and it wasn’t really that difficult.

     My junior year I was promoted to project manager of our moonbuggy team at school, which was a whole other load of work added. I was responsible for making sure we had all the material needed to complete the project, distributing different tasks to all the team members, and making sure the project was completed on time. This meant for about twelve weeks in the middle of the year, I was at school six days a week, an extra 35 hours working on the project. This alone was considered a full-time job by most of my peers, and even that was before being a full-time student came into the equation.

     Now I am heading to college, and no matter how difficult it may be I know I will be able excel. The reason is that I have already tested it; no matter what life throws at me or how difficult my studies are, I know I will be able to perform to the best of my abilities and move that much closer to realizing my dream of becoming a mechanical engineer. 

Context

Usually, an author is nice enough to think of his future audience, such as a group of AP English students in backwoods Reno, Nevada, to make it easy for said students to pull a piece of text out of a bigger work and be able to analyze it. Heck, the entire structure of the class that is AP English Language and Composition is basically based on this assumption. But maybe this William Shakespeare dude, maybe you’ve heard; maybe he didn't get the memo. For our class while reading Hamlet, we are required to individually find a speech, memorize it, and discover the meaning of said piece of text. Drawing on the assumption that I stated above, I chose a speech that we had not come to, Hamlet’s “how all occasion’s” soliloquy, thinking I could figure it out. It’s been a literal and figurative “walk in the park” memorizing it, and I thought I was understanding it alright as well. When we finally got to that part of the play, Act 4 Scene 4 to be exact, I was enlightened by the fact that I could not have been more wrong. So it turns out that when reading Shakespeare, you have to read the speech in context with the rest of the scene and the plot to actually develop an understanding, who knew! And yes, this occurs every single time, fortunately and unfortunately. It was amazing what a difference it made, I thought the delicate and tender leading the army was Hamlet at first, but no turns out it was Fortinbras, whom I had thought we were able to forget about by now. So the moral of this story is, Shakespeare isn’t nice, one does not simply analyze just one part of a scene and fully understand without reading the rest of the scene. 

How hard could it be?

Prompt 1: Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

Prompt 2: Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud, and how does it relate to the person you are?

Here it is, my plan for break has been executed flawlessly, with not a bit of procrastination. Homework has been finished early; the rest of the week can be spent trying to make a dent in the daunting figure that is college applications. (two days later) So turns out the applications were not so bad, just your basic everyday stuff, everything is looking up nicely, only the two essays remain.

It has been a week since I only had two essays to go in my application process, and no progress has been made. Luckily, I was able to answer one of the prompts for my English class, but this second prompt seems nearly impossible. All it is, is a personal statement to talk about who we are (personality) and to test the ability the student has a writer; how hard could it be? First of all, throughout my high school career I have been taught that writing an essay about me and my opinion is nearly blasphemous; second of all, the essay is for Berkeley so I obviously want it to be perfect. But where to start? These essays are so general that anyone that has done anything in their life has an infinite set of possibilities of writing topics at their disposal. So there lies my dilemma, how can I write a perfect essay about myself when I cannot even find the initial inspiration?

plan for break

For most people, break is seen as a relief; a week off from school to free the mind of all things school and do nothing absolutely nothing but glue oneself to a television screen, since school has been “so hard” on them so far. Rejuvenation and relaxation and going back to school fresh are all well and good, when you possess the time to do so. As for me, break is the time to catch up on things I simply have no time to during the school week. On this fall break in particular, I will be kicking it into high gear and never be more busy. The number 1 thing on the priority list, start on my path to college. I will begin filling out my entrance applications to the University of California-Berkeley, the University of California-Davis, and the University of Nevada- Reno. Break will be the best time to do this because I can focus on just this task so I do not miss anything in the application process. Included in this I will continue to look everywhere for every possible scholarship that I qualify for (have to pay for Berkeley somehow)

Second on the priority list is to get some much needed work done on my Capstone project. This is a great week to get this done because the first part of my project consists of sitting in front of the computer and figuring out layouts of various items.

Last but definitely not least, is to stay caught up on my school work. I was given a little bit of homework over break by my teachers, to say the least; scratch that, a whole load of homework. And if I am to complete it in an efficient manner, I can’t wait until two days before the end of break to start on it all. Especially if I am to keep true on my goal to end my High School career with a bang and earn straight A’s.

Awesome Hamlet stuff.

Act 1 Hamlet passage analysis

 

     Revenge in our society is something that has become very misleading, in that people often think that in order for revenge to be served, the person must take upon themselves to seek it, when often this is not the case. In Act 1, Scene 5 of Hamlet, William Shakespeare alludes to karma, the idea that when a betrayal has occurred, in time the “heavens” shall grant the revenge that is owed. In exercising his purpose, Shakespeare uses figurative language and the most cynical and senile betrayal throughout history; a man being betrayed by his wife.

     In Act 1, Scene 5, Young Hamlet is visited by his father, where he learns that his father was killed by his uncle, the new king. Old Hamlet immediately tells his son of a way to kill the new king and seek revenge upon him, but he is more worried about the queen. The confound attitude of Old Hamlet is exemplified by his recognition that she had taken such a step down; He treated her so well and now she is doomed to a life of misery with the new king because she deserves so much better. Time is the enemy of memory, however, which Shakespeare shows in the queen marrying in such a short time.

     As time passes, people are desensitized to their memories and therefore they forget what they had, as the queen experienced. Her sorrow had left her searching for something to ease the pain, and old Hamlet’s brother appeared to be a cure, even for a short time. This is very normal, and old Hamlet explains this to his son. “But virtue, as it never will be moved, though lewdness court it in the shape of heaven, so lust, though to a radiant angel link’d, will sate itself in a celestial bed and prey on garbage”. This draws attention to the fact that in the eye of sorrow, a lowering of standards can occur as a temporary remedy.

      Right as the hollowed ghost is about to part is when the allusion to karma occurs. Old Hamlet tells his son that he must forgive his mother and leave her alone, for in time the heavens will take her and revenge will be sought, “and to those that in her bosom lodge, to prick and sting her.” With no way to enact revenge civilly under the laws of god, the ghost suggests that his son leave the queen to god himself. With no loss of virtue, leaving an individual “to the heavens” can be the best means.

     In Hamlet, William Shakespeare shows that in time, tragic events will always, run their course; meaning the cycle will complete and the proverbial knife will come back and rein on the stabber. To do this, Shakespeare draws attention to a man being killed, his wife then betraying him shortly after he dies, then placing their son directly in the middle of it, which evokes great emotion in the audience.

Bigger than what it seems.

What is the meaning of bliss? The denotative meaning of it is to achieve perfect happiness, as to be oblivious of everything else. So, naturally, bliss becomes a matter of perspective; what brings you bliss? Engineering, specifically welding and fabrication, has been personified as such a masculine enigma, something that has no emotion or even passion involved in it. But the ancient Chinese philosopher once observed that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. So if this it to be true, there is some sort of passion in every field, if the person has chosen what he or she truly loves to do. I am very fortunate to have my “thing” while I’m still in high school, welding. It is so hard to explain to those who cannot understand, so I figured it might be easier when my audience is not right in front of me. To others, it is simply sticking two pieces of metal together with some kind of heat, but it so much bigger than to me. For me, welding is bliss; simply because it is just me, with no pressure. When the welding flipped down, it gets very dark, and then a little light appears, this is where complete bliss happens. I can feel myself performing the act, therefore I know it is in fact me doing it, but my hands and the rest of my body seem so disconnected from what I am witnessing, that it’s like I am watching a movie where I am the lead actor in this film, it’s fascinating. So, in conclusion, everybody has that one thing that they are destined to do, and although mine may be unorthodox, it is mine.

A crude realization

A week or two ago, I had a post about what an overwhelmingly awesome feeling it was to finally be able to understand a play written by William Shakespeare. The Shakespeare portion of every year of my English class has always been a dreadful event to look forward to, for it was almost certain that it would drop my grade from an A to a C, it seemed. But now, although very cliché, the light bulb has gone off and it seems as if reading Shakespeare is as easy to understand as casual conversation with friends. It came as a relief as well being that we are reading Hamlet in our class, given the fact that it is supposed to be one of Shakespeare’s most famous masterpieces. The first week was great, then I realized at a certain point in the middle of the second week; THIS PLAY IS WEIRD!!! We haven’t even progressed through the second act yet, meaning nobody has died yet, and I am already catching on to some of the weirdest stuff I have ever heard. Hamlet’s acting all crazy as part of his plan to kill his “uncle dad”, Polonius thinks he knows why Hamlet is acting strange when he is dead wrong, and tells the king that he may behead him if he were being deceitful (Ironic, right?), and Fortinbras and his army are going to “pass through” Denmark on their way to Poland; Wonder how that’s going to work out? All this leads me to believe that Shakespeare must have been one dysfunctional individual to write a play like this! This play has got to be one of the most amazing things I have ever read, however, as I am finding myself getting more and more excited to do my English homework. 

Blog.

Hello, the very small, at least I’d like to think its small, audience to my very own little entity within the internet, my blog. This blog has been assigned to me as an assignment for my AP English Literature class in school; an assignment that has been dubbed as a practice of exercising and expressing one’s true genius, or brilliance if you will. Often times this is not the case, actually most of the time this is not the case even a little bit. I sit in front of my computer with nothing to write about, and the first thing that comes to my mind is often the things that seem to irritate me in my day-to-day affairs, which obviously would mean nothing to an audience of people that doesn’t even know who I am. I actually get a break once a week luckily because we have to talk about something we are doing in English at that very time, as you may have noticed. This makes it easy, I just talk about things I like or don’t like, or don’t understand, or simply things that just seem to peak interest. The other days, however, are very mediocre. On a majority of the days, it seems that I just start typing random things and eventually an idea vests itself into something my peers can actually enjoy, although I view it as my worst writing ever. So, as a message to my audience, however many of you there are out there, bear with me; I am well aware my writing is mediocre, thank you for sticking around this long.

Could this be?

Oh joy, it is time for another Shakespeare play; read the first three scenes, with analysis by Monday, great. The writer that every high school student curses from freshman to senior year strikes again; How do you do oh malicious and conniving one? Well, Might as well cancel all my plans for the weekend, because this might take a while. Wait, maybe I can push it off for a while, its only Modern English right? Oh well, I guess it is inevitable, might as well get this over with. Opening the front cover slowly, and already dreading every second of this assignment. Bracing myself for the worst, for I know exactly how much work it is going to take to even achieve a basic understanding of Hamlet, the play that everyone says is Shakespeare’s hardest play to decipher. Reading every word as if it were the first time, but something feels different about Shakespeare on this occasion. Suddenly the words don’t seem like a complete alien language, impossible to decipher and the sentences are actually coming together like, well, sentences. Could this be, this actually makes sense? Gaining confidence as we progress through the scenes; Hamlet now has a mother who is also his aunt less than two months after his father dies, a monkey could figure that out. Hamlet’s father makes an appearance and tries to speak to Horatio, simple stuff; is my mind playing tricks on me just as Horatio believes he is experiencing? Do I actually understand this, or is it just fools luck and it will seem like a complete abstraction, just as it did, tomorrow? Hopefully not, because reading Shakespeare when you can actually understand is far more enticing than any movie ever made and even any book for that matter.

Happiness

Happiness in the 21^st Century is a beautiful, and yet somehow deceptive, abstraction. One may appear happy, but this may just be a façade, a means of hiding from the world as to let it discover you, in order to cover the impotence of that given individual. On the other hand, a person can appear to have hate and anger weaved into their heart and soul, but can be the happiest person to ever walk god’s green earth, because they have somehow achieved bliss, and bliss comes first on the road to happiness. So you might ask; what is the definition of true happiness? The Denotative meaning is to experience good fortune, pleasure, contentment, or joy; but what is the connotative meaning of the word (I figured these words would be to the liking of my English teacher)? This is where the deception that is happiness comes into play, in that it is such an abstraction, there is no possible way for it to be generalized in such a way as our society is constantly doing.

Ultimately, happiness reflects the personality of the individual, coupled the reactions of the personality to real life experiences, not just the happy ones. Too often in our society we see people that have a great job, make good money, have a great family, and no life problems, and yet they are still unhappy. But a person who it would seem that would be less happy; living pay check to pay check, sometimes working long hours, a family that clashes on occasions, and has experienced tragedies, can be the happiest man in the world. How could this be? There is one simple explanation for this: They love what they do for a living, as the ancient philosopher Confucius once said “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life”. They also have love for their family and are willing to do whatever it takes to ease the bickering, and have made peace with the tragedies of their lives. So in a short answer, in order to achieve true happiness, one must first achieve absolute bliss. 

Euphonious cacophony

Music is often a deceptive art that drives us as humanoids to think that just because the music is beautiful and is “pleasurable” to the ear, the lyrics to the given song must be just a beautiful. The irony is that, we are completely wrong in making this assumption. Today, in English class we had the fortune, not necessarily a good fortune, of listening to “Sweet child of mine” by Guns and Roses as an example of this assumption, of course. What was realized is that when the music was taken away and one was able to simply read the lyrics in a flat, monotone style of reading, the lyrics were actually pointedly foolish. Not as in the lyrics represented the definition of onomatopoeia either, just absolutely foolish. We then broke off into groups and traded our own songs with a partner, where I had to read the classic Eagles song “Hotel California”. What I noticed about reading it without the tune behind it instead of simply listening to it; reading it brings an entirely different meaning to the peace or even a meaning deciphered for the very first time. Often times the meaning of a song is drowned out by the melody occurring in the background; so how could it be possible to discover a hidden meaning or some kind of hidden imagery? That was the point of the lesson; not all music can be characterized as poetry, and not all poetry in good poetry is good poetry in its overall structure and meaning. This was the plan at least, providing a smooth transition into iambic pentameter and Shakespearean sonnets: stay tuned…  

Young Ones

Patience is a virtue, a virtue as to which I do not have the good fortune of being gifted with by god, by any means. Life has a way of coming in at intermittent points and testing the weak points of a person, so patience is tested daily on my side of the world. Particularly on A days, in second period, when I am an aide in the level one welding class at our school. Great class, with access to all the tools necessary, the denotative and connotative meaning of the word, to leave high school and become successful in any of the many fields within the welding and fabrication industry. With a very patient, great teacher who is willing to actually teach his students, there seems to be no reason for failure; that is, if you apply yourself. Oh wait, there is the problem.

For most of these kids that have been placed in this class, this is the second year where I am available to them as an aide. One of the most important things that go into teaching, however, is to have a group of students that are willing and eager to learn. Now, I am not saying they are all bad, there is a minority of very gifted students, ironically those who happen to be interested in moonbuggy. But, for the rest, it does not seem to matter how I explain, I just end up explaining it again the next class. You might ask, why do you keep trying then? The answer is simple: passion; when one is so deeply passionate about what they do, they will go through leaps and bounds to help others to possibly achieve that same passion.

Insert Title Here

Poetry. Poetry. How hard could it be, right? It’s not like it is one of Shakespeare’s famous plays, and prose certainly possesses greater length. So may I ask of you, poetry, why must you bring frustration to the minds of innocent high school students all over the world, throughout history?

I sit there, slowly but surely progressing through a poem, the climax being just as confusing as the first word. I ask myself, “Am I missing something?” or “Why am I not getting this?” looking at it as if it were the Davinci code. Progressing a little further, nothings clicking, frustration growing, this is completely hopeless. Reaching the end, I achieve a short sense of satisfaction, and then realize I still have to answer questions to test my understanding of the work as a whole. Muttering, I curse my inability to understand this so called “beautiful piece”, diction being heard similar to what can be heard on George Carlin’s 1972 special “Seven words you can never say on television”, which I suggest you refrain your children from watching.

I search the page, scanning for some kind of aide when it shines bright, the answer to this one blasphemous piece of writing was right at the top of the page all along: the title. It all seems so clear now, the speaker is a mirror; no wonder he speaks of himself as a four-cornered god. If I had read the title first, this homework could have been done an hour ago! Feeling accomplished and rather dumb at the same time, I close my book feeling confident, at least until I walked into English the following day.

SIDE NOTE: When reading poetry, don’t be lazy, read the title first! It saves so much time. 

My world

Well-written Novels are worth reading because they are able to establish some kind of connection to its readers. Over the summer, I had the good fortune of reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller for my AP English Literature class, where I experienced a connection unlike any other novel. Catch-22 is the story of Yossarian, who drives himself to the brink of insanity, because he is the only one that sees that everywhere, people he doesn't even know are trying to kill him. When I was a young boy, I met a swami of the Buddhist religion through my grandparents, who did me the honor of reading my “soul” or personality, if you will. What he found is that I have a very “old soul” which gifted me with the uncanny ability to be “wise beyond my years” through the course of my very existence. Luckily, this comes with an ability to be very humble in all situations, instead of a thought that I am some kind of elite. But what I've learned in my very short seventeen years of life is that, I seem to look at things from a different perspective than my peers. Often, it is almost like I know something that they don’t know which is a dead-end if one intends to maintain a level head of human existence. This can only end in a habitual feeling of solitude or desolation, as if one is alone against the world. This never had any kind of effect in ventures or even personality, I did not realize that this was a reality in full until I read Catch-22; it is unexplainable in fact, reading the frustration that Yossarian endured in trying to convince people of something that seems so obvious and see those people simply defer and call him insane, sparked a certain realization in my own experiences. Although unexplainable, it also created a new sense of confidence, even if it is misjudged, in riding through life as I see it. This is clear evidence that a novel can enlighten us in ways that we could never imagine, even change a portion of a person’s outlook on life.

What is Poetry?

It is Thursday, August 29th, and I am sitting in Mr. Burge's first period class. I am trying to hide the amusement on my face, per usual, as he delivers one of his school-wide famous lectures on poetry. It has always been very odd to me how people say he yells during his lectures; what they call yelling, I call passion, a passion that invites the class to learn in a casual, intellectual environment. As our teacher asks the class what poetry is, listens to each student’s rebuttal, knowing full well that there is no one right answer, and the topic could be argued from dawn-to-dusk. Seeing no end, the class quickly transitions to a broader discussion, particularly about whether or not poetry is necessary to human existence. A few students answer, Danny presents his clever argument that “we need food and water to survive, poetry is not essential”, or something along those lines. Then it hits me, a non-pessimistic answer to a subject which I have cursed since before I could talk. It seems so obvious now, how could it be that it has seemed as a foreign language all these years? To answer the question that was in discussion, poetry can be seen as essential to human existence, if one looks at it from the right perspective. It is instinct for people to want to express themselves, speaking our mind is just what we as humans do. If we don’t express ourselves, we spend too much time “inside our own head” if you will, driving us to insanity; any fact on suicide can prove this. So it is normal for humans to express themselves, and throughout history, poetry has emerged as one of the most popular ways of doing so. So it can be argued that poetry is essential, because it is a primary mode of expression, and above all else, it makes people feel good. Now, to go back to the beginning; what is poetry? The simplest answer can often be the right one; poetry is a language that people of all backgrounds can understand, which can tell a story of love, war, despair, happiness, beauty, tragedy and many other things, that brings emotion to the audience.