Why does everyone have to go round murdering each other? Why not leave it to the crime dramas?
Top story today: Grandfather goes mad, goes on a rampage, kills his wife and two grandchildren with an axe. Police found him (just now) at a motel.
Why are we such a bloody self-destructive organism??? Apart from rats, we are the species who is most prone to killing each other. Isn't that stupid?? And humans are all portrayed as kind and empathetic and stuff. I mean some are, but it seems we have to balance it out with the other extreme.
Kristine's back at school today! Poor Kris, hobbling round stiffly, wincing every time she has to tackle the stairs. :( Someone stole her lunch too, to put the extra-dry sprinkling of faeces on the shit. Ploy, moved by pity, tried to persuade her to stay at home tomorrow, but Kris adamantly refused, saying she missed school all last week. I see what she means- even though when we're there, all we ever do, practically, is complain about school, but seriously. Life would be even more tedious without it.
Because our RE class was so small today, we spent the lesson down at the home ec department, where Hayami worked the coffee machine, and we all sat around, drinking mochas, chatting. Twas fun. I love those engaging conversations...you learn so much- not just from the subject matter, but from the people themselves. You know that feeling that comes after a good natter? yeah...it was fun. Did you know Ella used to live in Dubai? for about nine years...i didn't know that. She's pretty cool...i dunno, i've always semi-admired her...she doesn't really seem to give a damn about what anyone thinks.
I'm getting end-of-term-itis. Procrastinating. Being negligent to my whining pile of homework. Plonking down on the couch nightly. Opting for crosswords over applying words in intelligable structures called essay paragraphs.
hold up. How is that any different from usual? what a load of crap. End-of-term-itis (to use a sam phrase) my aunt fanny.
You know, i can still feel your presence in the group. As if you're sitting there with us, only invisible. Sometimes i smile to think of your reactions to certain group goings on. Especially when you would laugh.
Looks like the ball arrangement in Challenge Stadium is sealed. I have to admit (grudgingly) i was taken hook, line and sinker when there was a presentation by a guest speaker in Tute on the advantages of the venue. The guy was pretty funny. I am still trying to figure out if he was gay or not. He was suspiciously effeminate. haha, but seriously, they do themes like "winter wonderland", "alice in wonderland", "chicago", "caribbean" to name a few. In fact, we can invent our own theme. I think people are struck with the idea "charlie and the chocolate factory' but i think the fumes would become overpowering. And the entertainment wouldn't be that great.
Yes, yes, i know, how uncharacteristic it is for me to be talking of such a subject. haha, hinge up your jaw again, i don't have a boyfriend. Its just the excitement is infectious.
QUOTES OF THE DAY: Steven Wright
"I went to a general store. They wouldn't let me buy anything specifically."
"Some people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths."
"I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that are in all the other museums."
20080629
Robinson Crusoe
Sunday, five past one.
Mature male species is strumming away in the adjacent room. The sounds of repeated, moderately soothing twangings seep under the door.
The female mature species appears agitated, judging by the clashing of objects. One hypothesizes this is because minor number one told her she was going to the Animae expo at one, then (apparently) changed her mind to make it two.
Dad's bought a new board for kite surfing. He loves kite surfing, and i'm so happy when i see his face light up when he tells me of his morning exploits. Today, he was helping one of his mates get to kite to lift off. He was unaware that the guy had limited kite-surfing capabilities, having undergone a total of zero lessons. Since he had all the right gear, used all the right terminology, dad thought he was a regular. He realised only too late that this wasn't the case when the kite, billowing out by the hundred mile an hour wind, blew him a hundred metres down the beach (still on the sand). haha, poor man. His girlfried was there and everything. Dad said he looked a little sheepish, and after trudging the walk of shame back to them, said
"i think i might put it away now".
I'm half excited, half scared out of my wits at the prospect of me, kite-surfing. See, dad told me when the months get warmer, he's going to give me a few lessons.
"cause Kate", he said in a serious tone, looking me straight in the eye, "it is so fun". Then he grinned.
I'm reading the classic "Robinson Crusoe" by Defoe. I haven't got 25 pages in, and already, the guy (in first point of view) has told me about a hundred times what a wretch he is for ignoring his father's preachings on the advantages of the quiet, middle life, and how his primy antics and lack of conscience engender much misfortune. Personally, i don't think it's written very well. It's like an epic, without such a large degree of action and melodrama. You are always kept at a distance from the happenings, because he describes them with such generality. Already, so much has happened to him. He's run away from home, been in several storms at sea, been caught by pirates and held as a slave for four years, escaped, sailed along a wild patch of land where he made contact with the 'wild negroes', initiated his own plantation, become rather prosperous, instigated a scheme to buy negro slaves, gone off to sea for that purpose, and been the sole survivor of a terrible storm- shipwrecked on an inhospitable island. Phew. Where is the detail? Quit telling me what an ungrateful braggart you are and how much misery you have brought upon yourself...tell what more of what is happening! pant pant.
Still, i shall persist. It's not so bad. It just gets a little annoying at times. And maybe he skivved on the detail initially so he could really dig his teeth into the main section of the story- that is, his experiences on the deserted island. Let us hope so.
I am still at a complete loss what to do with my eucalypt project. I can hardly find any information on the internet on plant adaptations....it is rubbing me raw.
OMG. Did you hear? A teenager was decapitated by a rollercoaster in a themepark. I heard it on the radio, and immediately clapped my hands to my mouth. Can you imagine? I can't. I don't think i want to.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"A top aide to US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has confirmed that Hillary Clinton is on the short list to become Senator Obama's running mate." -- ABC news
Mature male species is strumming away in the adjacent room. The sounds of repeated, moderately soothing twangings seep under the door.
The female mature species appears agitated, judging by the clashing of objects. One hypothesizes this is because minor number one told her she was going to the Animae expo at one, then (apparently) changed her mind to make it two.
Dad's bought a new board for kite surfing. He loves kite surfing, and i'm so happy when i see his face light up when he tells me of his morning exploits. Today, he was helping one of his mates get to kite to lift off. He was unaware that the guy had limited kite-surfing capabilities, having undergone a total of zero lessons. Since he had all the right gear, used all the right terminology, dad thought he was a regular. He realised only too late that this wasn't the case when the kite, billowing out by the hundred mile an hour wind, blew him a hundred metres down the beach (still on the sand). haha, poor man. His girlfried was there and everything. Dad said he looked a little sheepish, and after trudging the walk of shame back to them, said
"i think i might put it away now".
I'm half excited, half scared out of my wits at the prospect of me, kite-surfing. See, dad told me when the months get warmer, he's going to give me a few lessons.
"cause Kate", he said in a serious tone, looking me straight in the eye, "it is so fun". Then he grinned.
I'm reading the classic "Robinson Crusoe" by Defoe. I haven't got 25 pages in, and already, the guy (in first point of view) has told me about a hundred times what a wretch he is for ignoring his father's preachings on the advantages of the quiet, middle life, and how his primy antics and lack of conscience engender much misfortune. Personally, i don't think it's written very well. It's like an epic, without such a large degree of action and melodrama. You are always kept at a distance from the happenings, because he describes them with such generality. Already, so much has happened to him. He's run away from home, been in several storms at sea, been caught by pirates and held as a slave for four years, escaped, sailed along a wild patch of land where he made contact with the 'wild negroes', initiated his own plantation, become rather prosperous, instigated a scheme to buy negro slaves, gone off to sea for that purpose, and been the sole survivor of a terrible storm- shipwrecked on an inhospitable island. Phew. Where is the detail? Quit telling me what an ungrateful braggart you are and how much misery you have brought upon yourself...tell what more of what is happening! pant pant.
Still, i shall persist. It's not so bad. It just gets a little annoying at times. And maybe he skivved on the detail initially so he could really dig his teeth into the main section of the story- that is, his experiences on the deserted island. Let us hope so.
I am still at a complete loss what to do with my eucalypt project. I can hardly find any information on the internet on plant adaptations....it is rubbing me raw.
OMG. Did you hear? A teenager was decapitated by a rollercoaster in a themepark. I heard it on the radio, and immediately clapped my hands to my mouth. Can you imagine? I can't. I don't think i want to.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"A top aide to US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has confirmed that Hillary Clinton is on the short list to become Senator Obama's running mate." -- ABC news
20080628
Grave times
Funniest Home Videos has got to be the most moronic show on television.
He sits, his mouth hanging loosely open, staring dull-eyed at the screen. A man gets hit in the balls. *guffaw guffaw* He honks out dull bursts of laughter, then resumes his normal brain activity of one thought per minute.
Seriously. And do they have to show a kid blowing snot bubbles every single bloody time? Why do people laugh at that? Oh look, green slime being blown out at a hundred miles an hour from a baby's nasal cavities, so it runs down the camera lens. Hilarious for some. Not pleasant if you're trying to eat your dinner in peace. It put me right off my cucumber it did.
As soon as mum and dad went to drop Amy off at a cocktail party, i quickly changed back to world news. Haha, the lady's a little crazy though. The news host. You know, the asian lady who tries to look youthful again by spiking her grey hair? Every sentence she says seems to carry the significance that aliens are invading the planet. Still, good coverage of world events. oh yeah...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NELSON MANDELA!!!!
He's cool. You wouldn't think he's ninety either- he definitely doesn't look his age. haha, but i'm focussing on the superficial.
I'm really worried about the situation in Zimbabwe. I feel other nations should be doing something, but what, i don't know. I mean, you can't really blame them for being a little tentative in their actions. What with Mugabe's pugnacious character, interference may incite something worse than political hostilities. But I still think that we need to help those people more than we are already. It's basic humanities. It's blinkin justice. But then, justice is so hard to achieve, cause we all have different views on it (here she goes again, you sigh. nah, i won't launch into another one of my tedious 'what is real' quaffle).
Still can't find a bloomin thing on eucalypts. Damn, i have to write at least two pages on it by Wednesday. Damn indeed.
Must get cracking.
haha, how demeaning a computer can be to your intelligence. I typed in 'mugabe news' into the News section of google and it came up
"news is a very common word and was not included in your result."
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Question Dingo was too angry to vote for Robert Mugabe, but too scared not to.
So with wild rumours spreading that a fresh campaign of violence is to begin Saturday against all those who didn't vote for Mr. Mugabe on Friday in Zimbabwe's one-man presidential election — the campaign is alleged to be dubbed Operation Red Finger, since anyone who voted would have their pinky finger marked with indelible red ink, making it easy for Mr. Mugabe's often violent supporters to identify those who had boycotted — Mr. Dingo came up with a clever, if inadvertently symbolic, way out of his conundrum.
Before the first round of the election three months ago, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change gave its supporters red cards, the kind a soccer referee uses to eject a player for poor behaviour, to signal that it was time for Mr. Mugabe to go. On Friday, Mr. Dingo tore up that red card and mixed it in a dish with some water. Presto, his pinky finger was covered in red ink.
"If they come," the thin 33-year-old said, smiling nervously, "I can just raise my finger."
Mr. Dingo was packed into a dark, seven-room safe house with about 50 other terrified MDC supporters here in this densely populated township south of Harare. Nearly all were refugees who had fled their own homes during a campaign of violence that has left upward of 80 people dead and some 200,000 others displaced, nearly all of them backers of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr. Tsvangirai — who actually came out ahead in the first round of voting, though he fell short of the margin needed to avert Friday's runoff — withdrew from the race this week, saying the campaign of murder and arson against his supporters made a free election impossible. That left Mr. Mugabe to run unopposed yesterday, and he is expected to soon claim victory and another six-year-term in office.
The threat of more violence was the primary tool used to prod reticent voters to the ballot box Friday to put an X beside Mr. Mugabe's name. Once there, their names and addresses were matched up with numbers printed on the ballots they were issued so it could later be ascertained who had voted for Mr. Mugabe and who had dared not to.
Though state-run television claimed turnout was high and showed pictures of long lineups at several polling stations, turnout appeared extremely lacklustre at the more than a dozen polling stations The Globe and Mail visited in and around Harare Friday. Helmeted riot police carrying batons were deployed in the city's main park and at key intersections in the capital.
Mr. Dingo has already experienced what it can mean to oppose Mr. Mugabe. Ten days ago, he was in the same safe house when thugs from ZANU-PF arrived, looking to punish those who had voted for Mr. Tsvangirai on the first ballot.
That night, three MDC youths were beaten to death with iron bars. A fourth youth later died in hospital from his injuries. Mr. Dingo escaped unhurt by vaulting over a wall.
Inside the same building last night, fears were high that ZANU-PF would attack again after the polls closed. Dozens of those preparing for a nervous sleep on the floor or in the garden outside had borrowed Mr. Dingo's trick and dabbed their pinky fingers red with ink from the MDC cards.
"We pretend with this ink so they can [think] that we voted. But we will not. Who can we vote for?" said Georgina Nyamustamba, a round-faced 57-year-old grandmother who said she had been living in the safe house for two weeks after being forced to flee her own home. Despite the red ink, she said she is terrified that nothing will protect her if ZANU-PF militiamen attacked the safe house again. "How can we stay in Zimbabwe like this? We are afraid for our lives."
Many of those who did vote Friday said that they did so out of fear. Several said they had been warned that they would lose their homes or businesses if they didn't turn out to vote for Mr. Mugabe.
In some places, the intimidation was as unapologetic as it was blatant. Cecil Zhangazha, a 47-year-old ZANU-PF supporter, stood outside a polling station in Dema, a rural area south of Harare, sporting a shabby button-down shirt with a worn green collar. He said it was his job to collect voters' names and cross-reference them with a list the party had given him.
"I have to make sure I write down the names of all people who voted. We have also asked all village heads to do the same," he explained between sips of a Coca-Cola. "We have been educating people. We believe they are all going to vote for ZANU-PF. That, we have made sure of."
It remains to be seen whether enough people were coerced into voting to give Mr. Mugabe the convincing result he is seeking ahead of the African Union summit that opens next week in Egypt, where Zimbabwe is expected to face more censure. Both the United Nations Security Council and the Southern African Development Community have already condemned the election as undemocratic, and several Western countries have suggested they will seek more sanctions against Mr. Mugabe and his regime if, as expected, he goes ahead and swears himself in for another term.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that Canada would add to international pressure on Mr. Mugabe and his regime to hold a free and democratic election.
He told a meeting of B'nai Brith International that "we are working with the international community to bring in … measures to pressure the Mugabe regime, which has illegitimately stolen the election."
Mr. Tsvangirai called on the international community to reject Friday's vote, saying the results will "reflect only the fear of the people." The MDC called on its supporters to stay home yesterday, or to spoil their ballots if they were forced to vote. "
yes, yes, i'm a good citer....here we go
'Red Cards for Mugabe Could Keep his Foes Alive' (June 27, 2008) globeandmail.com [online] retrieved 28/6/08 from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080627.wnewzimbabwe0627/BNStory/International/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
He sits, his mouth hanging loosely open, staring dull-eyed at the screen. A man gets hit in the balls. *guffaw guffaw* He honks out dull bursts of laughter, then resumes his normal brain activity of one thought per minute.
Seriously. And do they have to show a kid blowing snot bubbles every single bloody time? Why do people laugh at that? Oh look, green slime being blown out at a hundred miles an hour from a baby's nasal cavities, so it runs down the camera lens. Hilarious for some. Not pleasant if you're trying to eat your dinner in peace. It put me right off my cucumber it did.
As soon as mum and dad went to drop Amy off at a cocktail party, i quickly changed back to world news. Haha, the lady's a little crazy though. The news host. You know, the asian lady who tries to look youthful again by spiking her grey hair? Every sentence she says seems to carry the significance that aliens are invading the planet. Still, good coverage of world events. oh yeah...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NELSON MANDELA!!!!
He's cool. You wouldn't think he's ninety either- he definitely doesn't look his age. haha, but i'm focussing on the superficial.
I'm really worried about the situation in Zimbabwe. I feel other nations should be doing something, but what, i don't know. I mean, you can't really blame them for being a little tentative in their actions. What with Mugabe's pugnacious character, interference may incite something worse than political hostilities. But I still think that we need to help those people more than we are already. It's basic humanities. It's blinkin justice. But then, justice is so hard to achieve, cause we all have different views on it (here she goes again, you sigh. nah, i won't launch into another one of my tedious 'what is real' quaffle).
Still can't find a bloomin thing on eucalypts. Damn, i have to write at least two pages on it by Wednesday. Damn indeed.
Must get cracking.
haha, how demeaning a computer can be to your intelligence. I typed in 'mugabe news' into the News section of google and it came up
"news is a very common word and was not included in your result."
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Question Dingo was too angry to vote for Robert Mugabe, but too scared not to.
So with wild rumours spreading that a fresh campaign of violence is to begin Saturday against all those who didn't vote for Mr. Mugabe on Friday in Zimbabwe's one-man presidential election — the campaign is alleged to be dubbed Operation Red Finger, since anyone who voted would have their pinky finger marked with indelible red ink, making it easy for Mr. Mugabe's often violent supporters to identify those who had boycotted — Mr. Dingo came up with a clever, if inadvertently symbolic, way out of his conundrum.
Before the first round of the election three months ago, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change gave its supporters red cards, the kind a soccer referee uses to eject a player for poor behaviour, to signal that it was time for Mr. Mugabe to go. On Friday, Mr. Dingo tore up that red card and mixed it in a dish with some water. Presto, his pinky finger was covered in red ink.
"If they come," the thin 33-year-old said, smiling nervously, "I can just raise my finger."
Mr. Dingo was packed into a dark, seven-room safe house with about 50 other terrified MDC supporters here in this densely populated township south of Harare. Nearly all were refugees who had fled their own homes during a campaign of violence that has left upward of 80 people dead and some 200,000 others displaced, nearly all of them backers of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr. Tsvangirai — who actually came out ahead in the first round of voting, though he fell short of the margin needed to avert Friday's runoff — withdrew from the race this week, saying the campaign of murder and arson against his supporters made a free election impossible. That left Mr. Mugabe to run unopposed yesterday, and he is expected to soon claim victory and another six-year-term in office.
The threat of more violence was the primary tool used to prod reticent voters to the ballot box Friday to put an X beside Mr. Mugabe's name. Once there, their names and addresses were matched up with numbers printed on the ballots they were issued so it could later be ascertained who had voted for Mr. Mugabe and who had dared not to.
Though state-run television claimed turnout was high and showed pictures of long lineups at several polling stations, turnout appeared extremely lacklustre at the more than a dozen polling stations The Globe and Mail visited in and around Harare Friday. Helmeted riot police carrying batons were deployed in the city's main park and at key intersections in the capital.
Mr. Dingo has already experienced what it can mean to oppose Mr. Mugabe. Ten days ago, he was in the same safe house when thugs from ZANU-PF arrived, looking to punish those who had voted for Mr. Tsvangirai on the first ballot.
That night, three MDC youths were beaten to death with iron bars. A fourth youth later died in hospital from his injuries. Mr. Dingo escaped unhurt by vaulting over a wall.
Inside the same building last night, fears were high that ZANU-PF would attack again after the polls closed. Dozens of those preparing for a nervous sleep on the floor or in the garden outside had borrowed Mr. Dingo's trick and dabbed their pinky fingers red with ink from the MDC cards.
"We pretend with this ink so they can [think] that we voted. But we will not. Who can we vote for?" said Georgina Nyamustamba, a round-faced 57-year-old grandmother who said she had been living in the safe house for two weeks after being forced to flee her own home. Despite the red ink, she said she is terrified that nothing will protect her if ZANU-PF militiamen attacked the safe house again. "How can we stay in Zimbabwe like this? We are afraid for our lives."
Many of those who did vote Friday said that they did so out of fear. Several said they had been warned that they would lose their homes or businesses if they didn't turn out to vote for Mr. Mugabe.
In some places, the intimidation was as unapologetic as it was blatant. Cecil Zhangazha, a 47-year-old ZANU-PF supporter, stood outside a polling station in Dema, a rural area south of Harare, sporting a shabby button-down shirt with a worn green collar. He said it was his job to collect voters' names and cross-reference them with a list the party had given him.
"I have to make sure I write down the names of all people who voted. We have also asked all village heads to do the same," he explained between sips of a Coca-Cola. "We have been educating people. We believe they are all going to vote for ZANU-PF. That, we have made sure of."
It remains to be seen whether enough people were coerced into voting to give Mr. Mugabe the convincing result he is seeking ahead of the African Union summit that opens next week in Egypt, where Zimbabwe is expected to face more censure. Both the United Nations Security Council and the Southern African Development Community have already condemned the election as undemocratic, and several Western countries have suggested they will seek more sanctions against Mr. Mugabe and his regime if, as expected, he goes ahead and swears himself in for another term.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that Canada would add to international pressure on Mr. Mugabe and his regime to hold a free and democratic election.
He told a meeting of B'nai Brith International that "we are working with the international community to bring in … measures to pressure the Mugabe regime, which has illegitimately stolen the election."
Mr. Tsvangirai called on the international community to reject Friday's vote, saying the results will "reflect only the fear of the people." The MDC called on its supporters to stay home yesterday, or to spoil their ballots if they were forced to vote. "
yes, yes, i'm a good citer....here we go
'Red Cards for Mugabe Could Keep his Foes Alive' (June 27, 2008) globeandmail.com [online] retrieved 28/6/08 from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080627.wnewzimbabwe0627/BNStory/International/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
How on earth am i supposed to write three damn pages on Ghost Gums when i can't find a single good internet page or book on them???? Not a frickin one!!! All they have is how tall they grow and what coloured flowers they have. Really helpful. I'm supposed to be doing adaptations...adaptations. Roaw! It's due wednesday too...plus i have to do three pages on Great Whites...damn, shouldn't have left it so late.
A muscle in my right leg has been twitching almost non-stop for three days. *punches leg in annoyance*
I love PLANET EARTH. My parents gave me the DVD for a xmas prezzie. It's really annoying though...it's a 2 disc set, and only one of them works properly. Ah well, Caves and Deserts are amazing.
haha, i'm just meandering about nothing............................................................eh.
hey, el and people would be in Europe now! cool.
A muscle in my right leg has been twitching almost non-stop for three days. *punches leg in annoyance*
I love PLANET EARTH. My parents gave me the DVD for a xmas prezzie. It's really annoying though...it's a 2 disc set, and only one of them works properly. Ah well, Caves and Deserts are amazing.
haha, i'm just meandering about nothing............................................................eh.
hey, el and people would be in Europe now! cool.
20080626
Damn Mugabe.
Ok, i know i now sound like THE BIGGEST DWEEB IN HIGHSCHOOL but my...well, i hesitate to say favourite...but i find the most engaging show on tv is the news. I mean, there's so much drama in reality, who needs to turn to Neighbours (gag) to find it? I'm being unreasonable. People watch those kind of programmes because they're not reality.
Still, i feel i need to broaden this limited scope of world consciousness. You know? See what's going on in other countries other than my own. Hell, find out what's happening outside my own bloomin house.
Tense. With the election tomorrow in Zimbabwe and all. People going missing. Supporters of democracy forced into hiding, or imprisoned. If people boycott this one (which they probably will), it means that Mugabe wins...nominally anyway. He won't have the legitimacy, though, the news reporter said. He'll be recognised, domestically and globally as a pseudo leader. Damn totalitarian. Bloody villain. Authoritarian,
I really like history...but, i was thinking. If i do choose, somehow, to study it in uni, where's it going to go from there? I suppose reflecting on past events can lead to better decisions and frames of thinking in modern times. But what kind of occupation would that entail.
wow, kate, slow down there. Occupation? I need to combat the evils of exams before i can even look past the life of a recycling sorter. Man, that'd be one helluva boring job. Brain dead all day. Thank god for machines. They make us both dumber and smarter. depending where we direct our brain power once machinary has relieved us of those mundane tasks.
Amy's just had a date with a guy called James. They saw 'Get Smart'- sounds pretty funny...something about rats and poop and rats on poop.
Gosh. I think there's something wrong with me. I mean...it seems like everyone is getting boyfriends, and there's me, who would be too embarrassed to look one in the eye. The male sex is foreign...everytime a guy my age comes in the 100m proximity, it's like ALIEN ALERT. haha, i shouldn't even glance at such things, cause it'd be impossible anyway.
Ooh, yes, i fit so snugly into that 'i'm a confused teenage girl thinking about guys' stereotype. Garh!! that bugs me to no end.
cor blimey, it's ten o'clock. damn. so much for study. I allow the ripe hours to wilt, die, and rot, and then wonder why...
CUT IT OUT KATE. seriously. i thought we said we were going to have a 'fresh outlook'.
right. i'd better VAMOOSE!
WORDS OF THE DAY
veracious = truthful by nature 2. (of a statement) true
recrudesce = (of disease, difficulty) break out again
expostulate = (foll. with a person) make a protest; remonstrate
Ok, i know i now sound like THE BIGGEST DWEEB IN HIGHSCHOOL but my...well, i hesitate to say favourite...but i find the most engaging show on tv is the news. I mean, there's so much drama in reality, who needs to turn to Neighbours (gag) to find it? I'm being unreasonable. People watch those kind of programmes because they're not reality.
Still, i feel i need to broaden this limited scope of world consciousness. You know? See what's going on in other countries other than my own. Hell, find out what's happening outside my own bloomin house.
Tense. With the election tomorrow in Zimbabwe and all. People going missing. Supporters of democracy forced into hiding, or imprisoned. If people boycott this one (which they probably will), it means that Mugabe wins...nominally anyway. He won't have the legitimacy, though, the news reporter said. He'll be recognised, domestically and globally as a pseudo leader. Damn totalitarian. Bloody villain. Authoritarian,
I really like history...but, i was thinking. If i do choose, somehow, to study it in uni, where's it going to go from there? I suppose reflecting on past events can lead to better decisions and frames of thinking in modern times. But what kind of occupation would that entail.
wow, kate, slow down there. Occupation? I need to combat the evils of exams before i can even look past the life of a recycling sorter. Man, that'd be one helluva boring job. Brain dead all day. Thank god for machines. They make us both dumber and smarter. depending where we direct our brain power once machinary has relieved us of those mundane tasks.
Amy's just had a date with a guy called James. They saw 'Get Smart'- sounds pretty funny...something about rats and poop and rats on poop.
Gosh. I think there's something wrong with me. I mean...it seems like everyone is getting boyfriends, and there's me, who would be too embarrassed to look one in the eye. The male sex is foreign...everytime a guy my age comes in the 100m proximity, it's like ALIEN ALERT. haha, i shouldn't even glance at such things, cause it'd be impossible anyway.
Ooh, yes, i fit so snugly into that 'i'm a confused teenage girl thinking about guys' stereotype. Garh!! that bugs me to no end.
cor blimey, it's ten o'clock. damn. so much for study. I allow the ripe hours to wilt, die, and rot, and then wonder why...
CUT IT OUT KATE. seriously. i thought we said we were going to have a 'fresh outlook'.
right. i'd better VAMOOSE!
WORDS OF THE DAY
veracious = truthful by nature 2. (of a statement) true
recrudesce = (of disease, difficulty) break out again
expostulate = (foll. with a person) make a protest; remonstrate
happy 150th
happy one-hundred-and-fiftieth post, bloggie.
i don't know why, but all of a sudden, everything seems so empty. This house...so cold. I put some music on, but...i don't know...i'm outside it and inside it at the same time, and its unnerving. like a memory i forgot...I had such big plans today, but so far, i've only read and wandered round the house, almost wringing my hands cause i don't have a sense of purpose. NO SELF PITY KATE. stop it.
i just don't know what to do.
breathe. breathe. ok. s'ok.
Let's do some biology, eh? Good plan, kate. i like it.
Right. I'm doing ecology. Let's see.
Adaptation = a specific characteristic that suits an organism to its environment, enabling it to successfully live and reproduce. There are three 'categories' into which adaptations can fall into. They are....
Behavioural--- the way an animal behaves in response to its environment eg, birds fly south in winter, feather-fluffing, sun-basking
Structural--- the physical structures of an organism. eg, streamlined body, shiny fur, swim bladders
Functional/physiological---the way an organisms body functions. eg. gills, aestivation, hibernation, amount of urine produced
Reproductive adaptations may fit into either behavioural/structural/functional, so it doesn't have a separate group of its own. For example...
behavioural...an animal that lives in a dry part of australia may only reproduce when there is fecund plant growth, and an abudant supply of water.
structural...god, i dunno. something to do with an organism's dick
functional...
i give up.
Good god, help me feel something.
i don't know why, but all of a sudden, everything seems so empty. This house...so cold. I put some music on, but...i don't know...i'm outside it and inside it at the same time, and its unnerving. like a memory i forgot...I had such big plans today, but so far, i've only read and wandered round the house, almost wringing my hands cause i don't have a sense of purpose. NO SELF PITY KATE. stop it.
i just don't know what to do.
breathe. breathe. ok. s'ok.
Let's do some biology, eh? Good plan, kate. i like it.
Right. I'm doing ecology. Let's see.
Adaptation = a specific characteristic that suits an organism to its environment, enabling it to successfully live and reproduce. There are three 'categories' into which adaptations can fall into. They are....
Behavioural--- the way an animal behaves in response to its environment eg, birds fly south in winter, feather-fluffing, sun-basking
Structural--- the physical structures of an organism. eg, streamlined body, shiny fur, swim bladders
Functional/physiological---the way an organisms body functions. eg. gills, aestivation, hibernation, amount of urine produced
Reproductive adaptations may fit into either behavioural/structural/functional, so it doesn't have a separate group of its own. For example...
behavioural...an animal that lives in a dry part of australia may only reproduce when there is fecund plant growth, and an abudant supply of water.
structural...god, i dunno. something to do with an organism's dick
functional...
i give up.
Good god, help me feel something.
20080625
The heater in this room is absolutely useless. oh, wait! I think we may have moved up about 2 centigrade in the last two hours! A grand achievement, heater. You're really helping to take the chill off.
But i feel guilty using the fan heater, cause it ain't economic. We are, if you don't know, experiencing a gas crisis, which they think is going to last for another 6 months. It means the price of gas has sky-rocketed. WOULD YOU BELIEVE PETROL IS NOW AROUND 1.65???? Sigh. I wish they had introduced some wind power/hydroelectric/solar stations in the Howard government. Hahaha, god, it is so easy to blame the government. It's all them! Anything that's wrong with this nation we can blame on a couple of wrinkly men (and yay, some women) sitting in a cold office. Anyway, the crisis was triggered by a gas station going kaput. Blowing up. Luckily, it wasn't a sudden kapow, so no one was killed or even injured. What an efficient vacuation- when i heard, i was so relieved. When you think of an explosion, that mental picture (at least my mental picture) usually has a dismembered limb here or there, and at least a couple of dried blood patches. Man, i had an unnaturally sordid mind. A bloody imagination. Like sometimes (and i can't help it...its not as though i'm egging these thoughts on) i imagine, for no reason in particular, death. For example: a couple of days ago, i saw one of the gardeners trundling past the school gates in one of those little cart things. When it was about 10m past me, it made a weird gurgling sound. Without the expression on my face changing, i imagined the guy had somehow gotten stuck in the engine, and the blades were chomping him up, blood spraying everywhere, etc, etc. All in a flash, and then my disgust caught on, and i could but wonder at my macabre imagination. Other stuff too...the idea of death just pops into my head without warning. i mean, we're all mortally afraid of it (haha, mortally afraid), but seriously. Is that normal?
God, i need to go to the library and read something new. I'm going through the harry potter series for what must be the fifteenth time, at least. Broaden my mind by extensive reading. I am so jealous of el. In the library today, she said
"I really want to buy a new book. We haven't gone to the bookshop for like two months, and since i go through a novel in, like, a week, i'm really craving one."
Two months? yikes, i don't buy books for myself...hmm...ever. People give em to me, for b-days, or xmas. That'd be so good, to get a new book every month. oh i just want to read away my whole darn life.
:( Today was the last time i would see el and jemps and soph and jaz for three weeks. They're going to have such a blast! Europe!...blimey..
Euna's kind of regretting not going now...poor euna. I don't know how she figured it, but she didn't suppose the tour was a big deal. Ah, Euna's a funny one. Yesterday, when the wind blew leaves across the great court, she said "Look! even the leaves know i'm beautiful!"
We were talking about future husbands today. Gosh! Euna! Rich and handsome (with a neck, she insists) are the only boxes which must be ticked on her 'ultimate guy' list. so much for personality. Pretty and pretty, she says. Stupid and stupid. Poor and poor.
God, if it's like that, then the divisions between us are more impenatrable than i had supposed. But it don't work like that...do it? Though i did read this article that said people do get together who are of relatively equal attractiveness. I think it was because one would feel inferior in the other's presence. that's pretty sad. But i still think....for some of us...personality plays a part. Either way, i'm screwed.
We had this guy talk in chapel. Told us about his born again christian experience. Nguen only gets one chapel session per term (with the rev eyeing him in the front seat). He's so full of 'holy spirit' you can almost feel the christian pulse waves.
god is good...god is good...god is good...
ha.
We'll only have 5 people in our maths class next week. cosy.
QUOTES OF THE DAY: Robin Williams. Man, i love Robin Williams.
Ah...so many pedestrians, so little time...
Ballet: Men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are.
Politics: “Poli” a Latin word meaning “many”; and "tics" meaning “bloodsucking creatures”.
But i feel guilty using the fan heater, cause it ain't economic. We are, if you don't know, experiencing a gas crisis, which they think is going to last for another 6 months. It means the price of gas has sky-rocketed. WOULD YOU BELIEVE PETROL IS NOW AROUND 1.65???? Sigh. I wish they had introduced some wind power/hydroelectric/solar stations in the Howard government. Hahaha, god, it is so easy to blame the government. It's all them! Anything that's wrong with this nation we can blame on a couple of wrinkly men (and yay, some women) sitting in a cold office. Anyway, the crisis was triggered by a gas station going kaput. Blowing up. Luckily, it wasn't a sudden kapow, so no one was killed or even injured. What an efficient vacuation- when i heard, i was so relieved. When you think of an explosion, that mental picture (at least my mental picture) usually has a dismembered limb here or there, and at least a couple of dried blood patches. Man, i had an unnaturally sordid mind. A bloody imagination. Like sometimes (and i can't help it...its not as though i'm egging these thoughts on) i imagine, for no reason in particular, death. For example: a couple of days ago, i saw one of the gardeners trundling past the school gates in one of those little cart things. When it was about 10m past me, it made a weird gurgling sound. Without the expression on my face changing, i imagined the guy had somehow gotten stuck in the engine, and the blades were chomping him up, blood spraying everywhere, etc, etc. All in a flash, and then my disgust caught on, and i could but wonder at my macabre imagination. Other stuff too...the idea of death just pops into my head without warning. i mean, we're all mortally afraid of it (haha, mortally afraid), but seriously. Is that normal?
God, i need to go to the library and read something new. I'm going through the harry potter series for what must be the fifteenth time, at least. Broaden my mind by extensive reading. I am so jealous of el. In the library today, she said
"I really want to buy a new book. We haven't gone to the bookshop for like two months, and since i go through a novel in, like, a week, i'm really craving one."
Two months? yikes, i don't buy books for myself...hmm...ever. People give em to me, for b-days, or xmas. That'd be so good, to get a new book every month. oh i just want to read away my whole darn life.
:( Today was the last time i would see el and jemps and soph and jaz for three weeks. They're going to have such a blast! Europe!...blimey..
Euna's kind of regretting not going now...poor euna. I don't know how she figured it, but she didn't suppose the tour was a big deal. Ah, Euna's a funny one. Yesterday, when the wind blew leaves across the great court, she said "Look! even the leaves know i'm beautiful!"
We were talking about future husbands today. Gosh! Euna! Rich and handsome (with a neck, she insists) are the only boxes which must be ticked on her 'ultimate guy' list. so much for personality. Pretty and pretty, she says. Stupid and stupid. Poor and poor.
God, if it's like that, then the divisions between us are more impenatrable than i had supposed. But it don't work like that...do it? Though i did read this article that said people do get together who are of relatively equal attractiveness. I think it was because one would feel inferior in the other's presence. that's pretty sad. But i still think....for some of us...personality plays a part. Either way, i'm screwed.
We had this guy talk in chapel. Told us about his born again christian experience. Nguen only gets one chapel session per term (with the rev eyeing him in the front seat). He's so full of 'holy spirit' you can almost feel the christian pulse waves.
god is good...god is good...god is good...
ha.
We'll only have 5 people in our maths class next week. cosy.
QUOTES OF THE DAY: Robin Williams. Man, i love Robin Williams.
Ah...so many pedestrians, so little time...
Ballet: Men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are.
Politics: “Poli” a Latin word meaning “many”; and "tics" meaning “bloodsucking creatures”.
20080623
heartbeats...
download 'heartbeats' by jose gonzalez. I love that song. Yes, that's an order, hah
argh! 3 frickin tests on Friday. hehehe...at least i can use Thursday as a study session. Ah, i love athletics carnivals. I love the hole they make in my week.
new goals
- stop saying 'like'
- stop saying 'oh my god'
- try to incorporate at least one four letter word when i'm talking per day
Wow, my eyes feel like they're slowly sinking back into their sockets. Pretty soon my cheekbones will obscure my binocular vision.
i'm doing a biology project on adaptations at the moment. On sharks. The great white to be precise. They're really highly evolved creatures. They roll their eyes back when they're lunging at prey to protect their sensitive organs. They have an electrosensory system, which opens to pores in their skin, which means they can detect tiny electric pulses in the water (muslce contractions, natural electricity given off by nerves etc). scary. you can't hide.
We're learning about Germany's hyperinflation during 1923. It's phenomenal. A loaf of bread went from .63 marks to over 2 thousand billion in just four years. A wheelbarrow full of money couldn't pay for a bus pass. By november, employers were paying their workers twice a day, because the value of money was plummetting so fast. Banks gave up counting money, and instead just weighed the bundles. A lot of people resorted to bartering. haha, banks also charged something like 36% interest PER DAY on loans. Unreal, eh? poor people...it wasn't a bad time for everyone though. Industrialists and business men were able to clear up any debts with ease. Those who could sell to overseas markets, or were invested in foreign goods made vast profits. It was only the poor ol' pensioners and the middle and working class who were really hit by the inflation, cause they had been relying on their savings. :(
oh :( i hope kristine's alrigt. :(
An grotesquely formed and hideously ugly english essay is beckoning a crooked finger- i must memorise it by tomorrow. Come on kate. Two weeks. Less than two. We can do this.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
The Roots of Violence:
Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Commerce without morality,
Science without humanity,
Worship without sacrifice,
Politics without principles.
--Ghandi
argh! 3 frickin tests on Friday. hehehe...at least i can use Thursday as a study session. Ah, i love athletics carnivals. I love the hole they make in my week.
new goals
- stop saying 'like'
- stop saying 'oh my god'
- try to incorporate at least one four letter word when i'm talking per day
Wow, my eyes feel like they're slowly sinking back into their sockets. Pretty soon my cheekbones will obscure my binocular vision.
i'm doing a biology project on adaptations at the moment. On sharks. The great white to be precise. They're really highly evolved creatures. They roll their eyes back when they're lunging at prey to protect their sensitive organs. They have an electrosensory system, which opens to pores in their skin, which means they can detect tiny electric pulses in the water (muslce contractions, natural electricity given off by nerves etc). scary. you can't hide.
We're learning about Germany's hyperinflation during 1923. It's phenomenal. A loaf of bread went from .63 marks to over 2 thousand billion in just four years. A wheelbarrow full of money couldn't pay for a bus pass. By november, employers were paying their workers twice a day, because the value of money was plummetting so fast. Banks gave up counting money, and instead just weighed the bundles. A lot of people resorted to bartering. haha, banks also charged something like 36% interest PER DAY on loans. Unreal, eh? poor people...it wasn't a bad time for everyone though. Industrialists and business men were able to clear up any debts with ease. Those who could sell to overseas markets, or were invested in foreign goods made vast profits. It was only the poor ol' pensioners and the middle and working class who were really hit by the inflation, cause they had been relying on their savings. :(
oh :( i hope kristine's alrigt. :(
An grotesquely formed and hideously ugly english essay is beckoning a crooked finger- i must memorise it by tomorrow. Come on kate. Two weeks. Less than two. We can do this.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
The Roots of Violence:
Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Commerce without morality,
Science without humanity,
Worship without sacrifice,
Politics without principles.
--Ghandi
20080619
20080618
take you me for a sponge, my lord?
O god, oh god, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why haste thou sent me this plague upon my very soul?
The collective forces of the damned teachers demands
Preys on my spirit, sinking it into melancholy and woe
As well as- perhaps the most heinous consequence of them all-
Absurd and verbose moans and groans.
It leeches me of time, and thus it leeches me of life.
The brisk night air beckons, the stars shine the contrast
To my dim and Augean study, where sheets of scribbled notes
and forgotten formulas rot like flecks of weathered skin.
O God, why, why did you ever give such draining meaning
to the word homework?
They've given me another bloomin' essay. On Hamlet, too! We have less than a weeks time to prepare. yes, i know you can't empathise with me. no, i'm not so centred as to believe i am the only one afflicted by this school-induced agony. *kate cackles* Don't i sound like a moping toad of a creature?
I never knew Hogwarts and History were compatible in teaching. My history teacher today likened the 'regime' of that despised Umbridge to the gradual domination and corruption of the German government by the Nazis. cool, eh? i love harry potter.
By the way, when i was getting all fired up yesterday on the injustice of the Treaty, i do concede that from Frances point of view, it was a proper reaping of fairness. After all, Germany had invaded them twice, they certainly were notably unscrupulous in their methods of war (going against some of the signed treaties- eg, unlimited submaraine warfare). Still, their lust for vengeance (i believe), their bias interfered significantly with reason. Hatred breeds hatred. For hate loves hate dearly.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: (hamlet has just slain polonius. Rosencrantz is the king's spy)
Rosencrantz: what have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
Hamlet: Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
Rosencrantz: tell us where'tis, that we may take it thence and bear it to the chapel
Hamlet: do not believe it
Rosencrantz: believe what?
Hamlet: that i can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge - what replication should be made by the son of a king?
Rosencrantz: take you me for a sponge, my lord?
Hamlet: Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw- first mouthed, to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be dry again.
Why haste thou sent me this plague upon my very soul?
The collective forces of the damned teachers demands
Preys on my spirit, sinking it into melancholy and woe
As well as- perhaps the most heinous consequence of them all-
Absurd and verbose moans and groans.
It leeches me of time, and thus it leeches me of life.
The brisk night air beckons, the stars shine the contrast
To my dim and Augean study, where sheets of scribbled notes
and forgotten formulas rot like flecks of weathered skin.
O God, why, why did you ever give such draining meaning
to the word homework?
They've given me another bloomin' essay. On Hamlet, too! We have less than a weeks time to prepare. yes, i know you can't empathise with me. no, i'm not so centred as to believe i am the only one afflicted by this school-induced agony. *kate cackles* Don't i sound like a moping toad of a creature?
I never knew Hogwarts and History were compatible in teaching. My history teacher today likened the 'regime' of that despised Umbridge to the gradual domination and corruption of the German government by the Nazis. cool, eh? i love harry potter.
By the way, when i was getting all fired up yesterday on the injustice of the Treaty, i do concede that from Frances point of view, it was a proper reaping of fairness. After all, Germany had invaded them twice, they certainly were notably unscrupulous in their methods of war (going against some of the signed treaties- eg, unlimited submaraine warfare). Still, their lust for vengeance (i believe), their bias interfered significantly with reason. Hatred breeds hatred. For hate loves hate dearly.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: (hamlet has just slain polonius. Rosencrantz is the king's spy)
Rosencrantz: what have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
Hamlet: Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
Rosencrantz: tell us where'tis, that we may take it thence and bear it to the chapel
Hamlet: do not believe it
Rosencrantz: believe what?
Hamlet: that i can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge - what replication should be made by the son of a king?
Rosencrantz: take you me for a sponge, my lord?
Hamlet: Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw- first mouthed, to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be dry again.
20080617
Fight men! Fight to the death!
I took an unusual attitude turn for the pugnacious in History today.
We re-enacted the Treaty of Versailles- placed into groups which were representatives of certain countries. I was a pseudo diplomat for Germany. [although, historically, Germany's spokespersons didn't even take part in the peace conference. They were made to stay in a hotel room while the Allies ordered out the exorbitant charges to be laid against them].
You should have seen us at the start of the 'meeting'. We were all yelling on top of each other. I didn't know it then, but "France" (our neighbouring country, who loathed Germany at the time, as we had invaded their country twice in the last 50 years on top of wreaking significant damage during WWI) had been instructed to pointedly ignore everything we said during the conference. The others all wanted us to pay all the war reparations...i tried in vain to convince them that by debilitating us- by stripping us of our industries, our most precious resources, our very land, they were ultimately disadvantaging themselves. With thousands of our own people starving, we could hardly support our own people. We had a pretty bad reputation after the war, and so we had very few willing trade partners. AND WE DID NOT START THE WAR. HOW CAN A SINGLE COUNTRY BE BLAMED FOR STARTING A WAR?
Do you know, there actually existed a "War Guilt Clause" in the Treaty, which said that Germany was the sole country responsible?
IT WAS BECAUSE THE TREATY CONDITIONS WERE SO HARSH THAT BITTERNESS AND HATRED FESTERED IN THE NATION. THE PEOPLE WERE ANGRY, THEY WERE HUMILIATED. THEY WANTED REVENGE. AND THEN HITLER CAME, AND HE LIFTED THE PEOPLES HOPES. HE REPRESENTED A GERMANY THAT WASN'T SUPPRESSED.
AS SOON AS THE PEACE TREATY WAS SIGNED, THE MOST DEVASTATING WAR IN HISTORY WAS FIXED IN PLACE.
what a bloody paradox.
Well, as you can see from my former rant, i became quite passionate. I was patriotic to a country that i have never been to. omg...Tiffany gave me a mock hug after (cause she was a delegate of France) and i think Mrs Porter was really concerned that i had taken the debate too seriously, because she laid a hand on my arm and said
"are you all right Kate?"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hastily told her "yeah!"
"some people get really affected by these things" she said (i hope she believed me- she didn't sound concerned"
"it was fun." I said. I don't think she heard me.
It was fun. I could actually feel my heart knocking against my chest. I'm sure i'll see sense sooner or later, and will grieve over how much i embarrassed myself, haha. ah well. what's done is done.
My english essay, however, is not done, and i would dearly like it to be.
ciao!
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Bellicose = warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious
Mephistophelian = fiendish
Abstruse = difficult to understand; recondite
We re-enacted the Treaty of Versailles- placed into groups which were representatives of certain countries. I was a pseudo diplomat for Germany. [although, historically, Germany's spokespersons didn't even take part in the peace conference. They were made to stay in a hotel room while the Allies ordered out the exorbitant charges to be laid against them].
You should have seen us at the start of the 'meeting'. We were all yelling on top of each other. I didn't know it then, but "France" (our neighbouring country, who loathed Germany at the time, as we had invaded their country twice in the last 50 years on top of wreaking significant damage during WWI) had been instructed to pointedly ignore everything we said during the conference. The others all wanted us to pay all the war reparations...i tried in vain to convince them that by debilitating us- by stripping us of our industries, our most precious resources, our very land, they were ultimately disadvantaging themselves. With thousands of our own people starving, we could hardly support our own people. We had a pretty bad reputation after the war, and so we had very few willing trade partners. AND WE DID NOT START THE WAR. HOW CAN A SINGLE COUNTRY BE BLAMED FOR STARTING A WAR?
Do you know, there actually existed a "War Guilt Clause" in the Treaty, which said that Germany was the sole country responsible?
IT WAS BECAUSE THE TREATY CONDITIONS WERE SO HARSH THAT BITTERNESS AND HATRED FESTERED IN THE NATION. THE PEOPLE WERE ANGRY, THEY WERE HUMILIATED. THEY WANTED REVENGE. AND THEN HITLER CAME, AND HE LIFTED THE PEOPLES HOPES. HE REPRESENTED A GERMANY THAT WASN'T SUPPRESSED.
AS SOON AS THE PEACE TREATY WAS SIGNED, THE MOST DEVASTATING WAR IN HISTORY WAS FIXED IN PLACE.
what a bloody paradox.
Well, as you can see from my former rant, i became quite passionate. I was patriotic to a country that i have never been to. omg...Tiffany gave me a mock hug after (cause she was a delegate of France) and i think Mrs Porter was really concerned that i had taken the debate too seriously, because she laid a hand on my arm and said
"are you all right Kate?"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hastily told her "yeah!"
"some people get really affected by these things" she said (i hope she believed me- she didn't sound concerned"
"it was fun." I said. I don't think she heard me.
It was fun. I could actually feel my heart knocking against my chest. I'm sure i'll see sense sooner or later, and will grieve over how much i embarrassed myself, haha. ah well. what's done is done.
My english essay, however, is not done, and i would dearly like it to be.
ciao!
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Bellicose = warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious
Mephistophelian = fiendish
Abstruse = difficult to understand; recondite
20080616
An elegy to a centipede from a bug-hitler
Wow. I just had a buddhist moment.
When stepping out of my study confine, i saw a black , elongated smidgeon on the floor. It was THAT CLOSE from becoming mush between my toes. I peered closer, then yelped and sprang away. It was...a centipede.
With a single-mindedness driven by fear, i marched over and grabbed a tissue. There was an insane glint in my eye...murder was in the air. It's killin' time.
And so, with several ruthless and frenzied poundings, the bug was smooshed.
Or so i thought.
I held up the tissue to the light, just to make sure it hadn't made a mad dash and crawled up my arm to escape with its life. But no, it was there. I had crushed its lower half. It's upper half was still feebly wiggling. If a centipede had lungs, it would have been screaming.
I felt so bad. I checked closely- it was a centipede (1 pair of legs to a segment), not a millipede (which has two)- which means it was not dangerous. I should have let it outside. I killed an innocent. I'm a bug hitler!!
I couldn't let it go on like that. With tears in my eyes (no, i'm exaggerating) i slowly folded the tissue (my contracted brow of woe silently saying sorry) and hammered it once again.
It was no more. Instead of becoming mush between my toes, it was mush on a frail white square used for catching snot.
I'd rather think of it a white sail, gently sending it on the spiritual tides to bug heaven.
When stepping out of my study confine, i saw a black , elongated smidgeon on the floor. It was THAT CLOSE from becoming mush between my toes. I peered closer, then yelped and sprang away. It was...a centipede.
With a single-mindedness driven by fear, i marched over and grabbed a tissue. There was an insane glint in my eye...murder was in the air. It's killin' time.
And so, with several ruthless and frenzied poundings, the bug was smooshed.
Or so i thought.
I held up the tissue to the light, just to make sure it hadn't made a mad dash and crawled up my arm to escape with its life. But no, it was there. I had crushed its lower half. It's upper half was still feebly wiggling. If a centipede had lungs, it would have been screaming.
I felt so bad. I checked closely- it was a centipede (1 pair of legs to a segment), not a millipede (which has two)- which means it was not dangerous. I should have let it outside. I killed an innocent. I'm a bug hitler!!
I couldn't let it go on like that. With tears in my eyes (no, i'm exaggerating) i slowly folded the tissue (my contracted brow of woe silently saying sorry) and hammered it once again.
It was no more. Instead of becoming mush between my toes, it was mush on a frail white square used for catching snot.
I'd rather think of it a white sail, gently sending it on the spiritual tides to bug heaven.
it's a small-minded, small-minded world
You know there is something wrong with society when you see today's headlines- "star's are hopeless at poker". Do i care? Does anyone care? If they do, for God's sake, why? People are homeless on the streets, animals are becoming extinct every second, new theories are being written, old laws being defied, governments imposing on their people, people revolting against their government- but hey, who cares? I want to know the exact route Kate Winslet took to the supermarket to buy her milk and catfood. AND ALL WE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT IS THAT MATT DAMEON DOESN'T KNOW WHAT A ROYAL FLUSH IS.
Small, SMALL-MINDED PEOPLE. yes...yes, i am peeved.
You know your news better than me, so you'll know what i mean when i say the political situation in Zimbabwe can't end well. I fear a civil war. God, if Mugabe rigs these elections...i'm starting to side with my mum...she keeps saying she just wishes someone would assasinate him. Me. And i used to be all for human rights...
By Jeff Jacoby
June 15, 2008
THE AGONIES being inflicted on Zimbabwe by its corrupt and brutal president are worsening. Earlier this month, the government of Robert Mugabe ordered international aid agencies to put a halt to the operations that have been keeping hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwe's people alive. With most of the country's population out of work and in dire poverty, the food and other humanitarian assistance provided by groups like CARE and Save the Children are more desperately needed than ever. By shutting them down, Mugabe and his henchmen were knowingly condemning countless vulnerable Zimbabweans to death.
Mugabe claimed, preposterously, that the humanitarian agencies were trying "to cripple Zimbabwe's economy" and bring about "illegal regime change."
Actually, it his own demented and dictatorial misrule that has destroyed the country, turning what was once a prosperous land into the world's most rapidly collapsing economy. And it is his determination to cling to power by any means - including starving and terrorizing voters who support a change in government - that has filled Zimbabwe not just with hunger and sickness but with savagery and bloodshed as well.
Less than two weeks remain until the presidential election runoff between Mugabe, Zimbabwe's autocratic president for the last 28 years, and the popular opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who leads the Movement for Democratic Change. Tsvangirai and the MDC won the first round of elections in March, and supporters of Mugabe and his ZANU-PF ruling party have been waging a vicious campaign of intimidation and violence against them ever since.
Opposition rallies have been obstructed by police, and Tsvangirai has repeatedly been detained for hours at a time. On Thursday, the MDC's secretary general, Tendai Biti, was arrested and charged with treason. Thousands of opposition supporters have been attacked, arrested, or forced to flee for their lives. Homes have been torched; scores of people have been killed.
International aid workers say they were shut down to keep them from witnessing the government's increasingly lethal crackdown.
The depravity of those attacks is suggested by UNICEF, which has said that 10,000 children have been driven from their homes by the violence, and that schools taken over by progovernment forces are being used as torture centers. Peter Osborne, in a dispatch from Zimbabwe for The Mail on Sunday, a British newspaper, itemizes the methods of abuse favored by Mugabe's men: pouring boiling plastic on victims' backs, burning their extremities, and administering whippings violent enough to transform an adult's buttocks into a horrifying "mess of raw flesh."
The latest description of Zimbabwe's reign of terror comes from Human Rights Watch, which in a new report documents numerous cases of brutal repression by Mugabe supporters.
"ZANU-PF and its allies have . . . established torture camps and organized abusive 're-education' meetings around the country to compel MDC supporters into voting for Mugabe," the report says. Hundreds of voters have been flogged with sticks, whips, bicycle chains, and metal bars. In one "re-education" meeting May 5, "ZANU-PF officials and 'war veterans' beat six men to death and tortured another 70 men and women, including a 76-year-old woman publicly thrashed in front of assembled villagers."
In other meetings, military officers have threatened to kill anyone who votes for the opposition. "Each villager would be given a bullet to hold in their hands. Then a soldier would say, 'If you vote for MDC in the presidential runoff election, you have seen the bullets, we have enough for each one of you, so beware.' "
Mugabe's savage onslaught is likely to achieve its goal. Faced with starvation, dispossession, and threats of revenge, how many Zimbabweans will muster the courage to stand against him?
But why do the rest of us do nothing? Why is the free world so indifferent to the enormities committed by Mugabe and his bullies? Where are the worldwide demonstrations outside Zimbabwe's embassies? Where are the international boycotts, the UN resolutions, the presidential and papal condemnations? Where is the International Criminal Court indictment of Mugabe for his long career of murder, torture, and other crimes against humanity?
Let us be honest: If the people of Zimbabwe were being terrorized by a white despot - if it were a white ruling party whose goons were beating them and burning their homes - the whole world would be aroused on their behalf. Surely they deserve no less just because their oppressor is black.
Small, SMALL-MINDED PEOPLE. yes...yes, i am peeved.
You know your news better than me, so you'll know what i mean when i say the political situation in Zimbabwe can't end well. I fear a civil war. God, if Mugabe rigs these elections...i'm starting to side with my mum...she keeps saying she just wishes someone would assasinate him. Me. And i used to be all for human rights...
A blind eye to Mugabe's reign of terror
By Jeff Jacoby
June 15, 2008
THE AGONIES being inflicted on Zimbabwe by its corrupt and brutal president are worsening. Earlier this month, the government of Robert Mugabe ordered international aid agencies to put a halt to the operations that have been keeping hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwe's people alive. With most of the country's population out of work and in dire poverty, the food and other humanitarian assistance provided by groups like CARE and Save the Children are more desperately needed than ever. By shutting them down, Mugabe and his henchmen were knowingly condemning countless vulnerable Zimbabweans to death.
Mugabe claimed, preposterously, that the humanitarian agencies were trying "to cripple Zimbabwe's economy" and bring about "illegal regime change."
Actually, it his own demented and dictatorial misrule that has destroyed the country, turning what was once a prosperous land into the world's most rapidly collapsing economy. And it is his determination to cling to power by any means - including starving and terrorizing voters who support a change in government - that has filled Zimbabwe not just with hunger and sickness but with savagery and bloodshed as well.
Less than two weeks remain until the presidential election runoff between Mugabe, Zimbabwe's autocratic president for the last 28 years, and the popular opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who leads the Movement for Democratic Change. Tsvangirai and the MDC won the first round of elections in March, and supporters of Mugabe and his ZANU-PF ruling party have been waging a vicious campaign of intimidation and violence against them ever since.
Opposition rallies have been obstructed by police, and Tsvangirai has repeatedly been detained for hours at a time. On Thursday, the MDC's secretary general, Tendai Biti, was arrested and charged with treason. Thousands of opposition supporters have been attacked, arrested, or forced to flee for their lives. Homes have been torched; scores of people have been killed.
International aid workers say they were shut down to keep them from witnessing the government's increasingly lethal crackdown.
The depravity of those attacks is suggested by UNICEF, which has said that 10,000 children have been driven from their homes by the violence, and that schools taken over by progovernment forces are being used as torture centers. Peter Osborne, in a dispatch from Zimbabwe for The Mail on Sunday, a British newspaper, itemizes the methods of abuse favored by Mugabe's men: pouring boiling plastic on victims' backs, burning their extremities, and administering whippings violent enough to transform an adult's buttocks into a horrifying "mess of raw flesh."
The latest description of Zimbabwe's reign of terror comes from Human Rights Watch, which in a new report documents numerous cases of brutal repression by Mugabe supporters.
"ZANU-PF and its allies have . . . established torture camps and organized abusive 're-education' meetings around the country to compel MDC supporters into voting for Mugabe," the report says. Hundreds of voters have been flogged with sticks, whips, bicycle chains, and metal bars. In one "re-education" meeting May 5, "ZANU-PF officials and 'war veterans' beat six men to death and tortured another 70 men and women, including a 76-year-old woman publicly thrashed in front of assembled villagers."
In other meetings, military officers have threatened to kill anyone who votes for the opposition. "Each villager would be given a bullet to hold in their hands. Then a soldier would say, 'If you vote for MDC in the presidential runoff election, you have seen the bullets, we have enough for each one of you, so beware.' "
Mugabe's savage onslaught is likely to achieve its goal. Faced with starvation, dispossession, and threats of revenge, how many Zimbabweans will muster the courage to stand against him?
But why do the rest of us do nothing? Why is the free world so indifferent to the enormities committed by Mugabe and his bullies? Where are the worldwide demonstrations outside Zimbabwe's embassies? Where are the international boycotts, the UN resolutions, the presidential and papal condemnations? Where is the International Criminal Court indictment of Mugabe for his long career of murder, torture, and other crimes against humanity?
Let us be honest: If the people of Zimbabwe were being terrorized by a white despot - if it were a white ruling party whose goons were beating them and burning their homes - the whole world would be aroused on their behalf. Surely they deserve no less just because their oppressor is black.
I'm so ignorant.
WORDS OF THE DAY
- Recalcitrant = obstinately defiant
- Squalid = 1. filthy, dirty 2. morally repulsive or degraded
- Manana = an indefinite time in the future
20080615
Sunday Morning Rain...
Don't you sometimes think how ridiculous the action of walking is? Especially the swinging of the arms, like elongated pendulums at the sides. Like they're trying to walk through the air...creeping along on the currents.
guess where we're having our ball? At CHALLENGE STADIUM. yep, you read me right. A sweaty sports hall. Glamorous.
Well, our 'ball committee' (of which Euna is a part, i think) says its pretty good- better than the Hiatz (like i know what that is). They hide all the BO in the air with sweet perfumes and disguise the grubby walls with balloons and streamers and other gaudy manifestations. I like the sound of this though- the sentries who collect our tickets are men on white horses. That is specky.
Too early to think about that now, though. Wow, i can't believe we're almost halfway through the year already. Scary stuff.
well well. I have an essay to write, a text to study, a country to learn, a revolution to follow, several laws to abide by and the structure of a quadruped's vertabrae to memorise.
WORDS OF THE DAY
Esconce - to establish or settle comfortably or safely
Equivocate - to use ambiguity to conceal truth
Truculent - aggressively defiant
guess where we're having our ball? At CHALLENGE STADIUM. yep, you read me right. A sweaty sports hall. Glamorous.
Well, our 'ball committee' (of which Euna is a part, i think) says its pretty good- better than the Hiatz (like i know what that is). They hide all the BO in the air with sweet perfumes and disguise the grubby walls with balloons and streamers and other gaudy manifestations. I like the sound of this though- the sentries who collect our tickets are men on white horses. That is specky.
Too early to think about that now, though. Wow, i can't believe we're almost halfway through the year already. Scary stuff.
well well. I have an essay to write, a text to study, a country to learn, a revolution to follow, several laws to abide by and the structure of a quadruped's vertabrae to memorise.
WORDS OF THE DAY
Esconce - to establish or settle comfortably or safely
Equivocate - to use ambiguity to conceal truth
Truculent - aggressively defiant
20080613
aaarrrggghhhh!
the more i look at essay questions, the more they confuse me. At first, they look relatively simple...but then i bend my head in, closer and closer, until my nose nearly touches the page, and the words scramble together in an incoherent fried-egg splatter.
Already, when i had peevishly closed my windows file and started the dial-up, i was thinking, ok, i'm going to work so hard on this damn lit essay. But then i realised i had experienced the exact same thought a couple of days ago...and i hadn't even touched it til tonight. Good grief, i can't trust myself. I've still got two weeks to do it, and I'm so scared of my own indolency i can't help internally screaming 'I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME!!"
Mum: come on Kate. Its Friday night, nine forty-five.
Kate says nothing
Mum: you've got to have some fun.
Kate says nothing
Mum *huffily*: good night.
Mum thinks everyone goes to bed at 10. She's been exceptionally peeved cause i've been going to bed a little late for the past week. Every time i tell her everyone else goes to bed late, she's like "i don't CARE what everyone else does. If they're idiotic to sleep so late, that's their problem." Geez, does she think that i like staring into this computer screen for hours on end? For god's sake, i'd be staring into a different screen right now if i had the choice. But i dont'. That's all there is to it. Well, i do have a choice...
a) get my homework done and become a somebody
b) cast off the onus and party...and end up as a Kenny. (sorry kenny. i don't want to be you)
I've really gotta go and get myself a life. Please kate, for once, can we talk about something different than schoolwork? why not give it a try? sometime...
the more i look at essay questions, the more they confuse me. At first, they look relatively simple...but then i bend my head in, closer and closer, until my nose nearly touches the page, and the words scramble together in an incoherent fried-egg splatter.
Already, when i had peevishly closed my windows file and started the dial-up, i was thinking, ok, i'm going to work so hard on this damn lit essay. But then i realised i had experienced the exact same thought a couple of days ago...and i hadn't even touched it til tonight. Good grief, i can't trust myself. I've still got two weeks to do it, and I'm so scared of my own indolency i can't help internally screaming 'I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME!!"
Mum: come on Kate. Its Friday night, nine forty-five.
Kate says nothing
Mum: you've got to have some fun.
Kate says nothing
Mum *huffily*: good night.
Mum thinks everyone goes to bed at 10. She's been exceptionally peeved cause i've been going to bed a little late for the past week. Every time i tell her everyone else goes to bed late, she's like "i don't CARE what everyone else does. If they're idiotic to sleep so late, that's their problem." Geez, does she think that i like staring into this computer screen for hours on end? For god's sake, i'd be staring into a different screen right now if i had the choice. But i dont'. That's all there is to it. Well, i do have a choice...
a) get my homework done and become a somebody
b) cast off the onus and party...and end up as a Kenny. (sorry kenny. i don't want to be you)
I've really gotta go and get myself a life. Please kate, for once, can we talk about something different than schoolwork? why not give it a try? sometime...
Nexus
Today we reminisced on the famed water bomb fight. Our voices caught with excitement, gazing avidly inwards at a past brought into vibrant proximity, occasionally exchaning eager glances- channels of memory into each other. As though it were yesterday we, the noble losers, voiced the injustice of the whole affair, grinning all the while. And on the other side were the (sadly diminished) laughs and gentle teasings. good times, good times. I haven't seen our group so collectively happy for a while....bittersweet that it was brought about through what was, and not what is...then maybe that's just me.
I really like my maths class. I like the ease in the atmosphere, the sense of camaraderie. I like the way Miss Kath tethers us from overblown freedom, but still allows us to show our personalities. I'm not the tense and voiceless machine that i am in some other classes. I'm not so afraid of being wrong- if my hand goes up tentatively, it still goes up with a side-grin.
I truly believe that the only thing separating the A's from the D's is that the former love the subject. Which means the kick-off- whether it stretch so generally as from primary school, or from the start of the year- is essential. If you do well initially, then you are naturally inclined to like the subject. Further talent blooms from there. If you don't- well, for a brief period you either think your teacher a prejudiced bastard, or think yourself a poor student in that area. Without esteem, this beginning could be dangerous to all that is to come. It means that you are deprived of the sense to strive- the very nature of the subject- 'maths', 'lit' or whatever- is annexed to a subconscious reminder of failure. You don't want to think about it- you want to ignore it. This blatantly lacks foresightedness...after all, if you neglect it, you are inevitably going to sink further. But then...whoever said the subconscious takes note of the expediencies of foresight?
But then, this theory (if it can be called even that) is not so very strict. Will may be recovered. Confidence mounted. Interest awakened.
"You've got to want to learn. it's got to be intentional" the guest speaker said the other day. He's right, you know. And after that, i've become attuned to just how much i do want to learn. Except, haha, i want to overskip the process, to the stage where i can neatly look over the files in my mind. I want to be smart, but i don't want to study. I want the consequence, but am opposed to the action. hmm. i am reminded of Macbeth.
I talk too much of study, and do too little of it. Now my sense (damn it) has made me acknowledge this, i had better get to it.
Were Fridays what they used to be! movie nights...where i used to plonk myself down on the couch for hours on end, and let everything i had learned gradually unlink itself and drift away in the hypnotic tides of theme music and faces...
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Hedonism-- belief that happiness is the most important thing in life
Recidivist--person who relapses into crime
Nexus-- bond, link, connection
I really like my maths class. I like the ease in the atmosphere, the sense of camaraderie. I like the way Miss Kath tethers us from overblown freedom, but still allows us to show our personalities. I'm not the tense and voiceless machine that i am in some other classes. I'm not so afraid of being wrong- if my hand goes up tentatively, it still goes up with a side-grin.
I truly believe that the only thing separating the A's from the D's is that the former love the subject. Which means the kick-off- whether it stretch so generally as from primary school, or from the start of the year- is essential. If you do well initially, then you are naturally inclined to like the subject. Further talent blooms from there. If you don't- well, for a brief period you either think your teacher a prejudiced bastard, or think yourself a poor student in that area. Without esteem, this beginning could be dangerous to all that is to come. It means that you are deprived of the sense to strive- the very nature of the subject- 'maths', 'lit' or whatever- is annexed to a subconscious reminder of failure. You don't want to think about it- you want to ignore it. This blatantly lacks foresightedness...after all, if you neglect it, you are inevitably going to sink further. But then...whoever said the subconscious takes note of the expediencies of foresight?
But then, this theory (if it can be called even that) is not so very strict. Will may be recovered. Confidence mounted. Interest awakened.
"You've got to want to learn. it's got to be intentional" the guest speaker said the other day. He's right, you know. And after that, i've become attuned to just how much i do want to learn. Except, haha, i want to overskip the process, to the stage where i can neatly look over the files in my mind. I want to be smart, but i don't want to study. I want the consequence, but am opposed to the action. hmm. i am reminded of Macbeth.
I talk too much of study, and do too little of it. Now my sense (damn it) has made me acknowledge this, i had better get to it.
Were Fridays what they used to be! movie nights...where i used to plonk myself down on the couch for hours on end, and let everything i had learned gradually unlink itself and drift away in the hypnotic tides of theme music and faces...
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Hedonism-- belief that happiness is the most important thing in life
Recidivist--person who relapses into crime
Nexus-- bond, link, connection
20080612
Germany polarised in individual response...WWI...
The last letter of a German mutinee.
"My Dear Parents,
I have been sentenced to death today, September 11, 1917. Only myself and another comrade; the others hve ben let off with fifteen years imprisonment. You will have heard why this has hppened to me. I am a sacrifice of the longing for peace, other are going to follow. I don't like to die so young but i die with a curse on the german-militarist state. These are my last words. I hope that some day you and mother will be able to read them,
Always
Your son
Albin Kobes"
A certain soldiers reaction on hearing of his country's 'shameful' concession to signing the peace-treaty; in other words, to admitting defeat.
"What! was such a thing possible? I broke down completely when the old gentleman tried to resume the story by informing us that we must now end this long war...It was impossible for me to stay and listen any longer. Darkness surrounded me as I staggered and stumbled back to my warn and buried my aching head between the blankets and the pillow. I had not cried since the day I stood beside my mother's grave."
Guess who.
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Excrescence - uggly addition
Threnody - song of lamentation/mourning
Totalitarian - of a one party dictatorial form of government requiring complete subserviance to the state
"My Dear Parents,
I have been sentenced to death today, September 11, 1917. Only myself and another comrade; the others hve ben let off with fifteen years imprisonment. You will have heard why this has hppened to me. I am a sacrifice of the longing for peace, other are going to follow. I don't like to die so young but i die with a curse on the german-militarist state. These are my last words. I hope that some day you and mother will be able to read them,
Always
Your son
Albin Kobes"
A certain soldiers reaction on hearing of his country's 'shameful' concession to signing the peace-treaty; in other words, to admitting defeat.
"What! was such a thing possible? I broke down completely when the old gentleman tried to resume the story by informing us that we must now end this long war...It was impossible for me to stay and listen any longer. Darkness surrounded me as I staggered and stumbled back to my warn and buried my aching head between the blankets and the pillow. I had not cried since the day I stood beside my mother's grave."
Guess who.
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Excrescence - uggly addition
Threnody - song of lamentation/mourning
Totalitarian - of a one party dictatorial form of government requiring complete subserviance to the state
20080611
the manifestation of procrastination
A couple of hours ago, i was incredibly grumpy for no particular reason. I asked mum irratibly when dinner was going to be ready, then huffily went off to brood in front of the computer. When she called out that she was serving up, i was suddenly disinclined to present myself at the table, and thus took my time coming over, pretending to be absorbed in my work. I bent over my noodles, slurping menacingly, and making no conversation. My parents asked me how day had been, and i snapped back "terrible!".
Mum: That's not true
Kate: how would you know?
Mum: because it can't be that bad.
Dad: what's the matter Kate?
Kate: nothing.
Mum: someone's in a bad mood.
they tried to talk to me further, and so i replied, pleading
Kate: look, i'm just in a bad mood, ok, so please don't talk to me, because right now i can only offend you. By not saying anything, i am saving you from my own acerbity. I know i'm ridiculous.
Mum looked at dad and shook her head. Hormones, she said knowingly, which pissed me off even more. though she was probably right. but that doesn't mean i have to like it.
Some time later, mum remarked in a kind of half-whisper to dad
Mum: "we have a mute table"
Dad: "what?"
Mum: "I said, we have a mute table"
Kate: "just because i'm mute doesn't mean i'm deaf"
haha! i just thought of the perfect reply. I should have punned.
"just because i'm mute, doesn't mean i'm dumb"
because mute and dumb mean the same thing! Except dumb also means stupid! haha! brilliant!...too late though. isn't that always the case?
OMG. You would have exchanged a mutually rewarding look with me had you been in my lit class today. Do you recall how i told you that my teacher was a heavy dramatist? That he used to be an actor? Well, we were discussing a character in Hamlet, called Osric (played, incidently by Robin Williams in teh Kenneth Brannagh version)- a highly effeminate gentleman, who feels it necessary to embellish every sentence. WELL, Mr Park remarked that he had once played a character much like him. In a second, he launched into this caste, and began prancing about the room, babbling and twirling about his fingers. GOOD GOD I SHALL NEVER FORGET THOSE FEW SECONDS. He looked decidedly gay (which was, of course, his intention, but i have never seen a gay in action before). HAHAHAH!!!! it as hilarious! The class was stunned! hmmmmmmmmm. i wo-...no i don't. or do i?
Since my 'quotes of the dry' are running dry, i have decided to change it to 'words of the day'. I'll add a quote in here and there though, not to fear. Hopefully, this new approach will expand my vocabulary. What wishful thinking.
righto
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Maverick = unorthodox, independent minded person
[aha! there's a movie with that title!]
Meretricious = showily, but falsely attractive
[like gatsby's 1920's American world...glamorous and vulgar]
Splenetic = bad-tempered, peevish
[like me this evening]
Mum: That's not true
Kate: how would you know?
Mum: because it can't be that bad.
Dad: what's the matter Kate?
Kate: nothing.
Mum: someone's in a bad mood.
they tried to talk to me further, and so i replied, pleading
Kate: look, i'm just in a bad mood, ok, so please don't talk to me, because right now i can only offend you. By not saying anything, i am saving you from my own acerbity. I know i'm ridiculous.
Mum looked at dad and shook her head. Hormones, she said knowingly, which pissed me off even more. though she was probably right. but that doesn't mean i have to like it.
Some time later, mum remarked in a kind of half-whisper to dad
Mum: "we have a mute table"
Dad: "what?"
Mum: "I said, we have a mute table"
Kate: "just because i'm mute doesn't mean i'm deaf"
haha! i just thought of the perfect reply. I should have punned.
"just because i'm mute, doesn't mean i'm dumb"
because mute and dumb mean the same thing! Except dumb also means stupid! haha! brilliant!...too late though. isn't that always the case?
OMG. You would have exchanged a mutually rewarding look with me had you been in my lit class today. Do you recall how i told you that my teacher was a heavy dramatist? That he used to be an actor? Well, we were discussing a character in Hamlet, called Osric (played, incidently by Robin Williams in teh Kenneth Brannagh version)- a highly effeminate gentleman, who feels it necessary to embellish every sentence. WELL, Mr Park remarked that he had once played a character much like him. In a second, he launched into this caste, and began prancing about the room, babbling and twirling about his fingers. GOOD GOD I SHALL NEVER FORGET THOSE FEW SECONDS. He looked decidedly gay (which was, of course, his intention, but i have never seen a gay in action before). HAHAHAH!!!! it as hilarious! The class was stunned! hmmmmmmmmm. i wo-...no i don't. or do i?
Since my 'quotes of the dry' are running dry, i have decided to change it to 'words of the day'. I'll add a quote in here and there though, not to fear. Hopefully, this new approach will expand my vocabulary. What wishful thinking.
righto
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Maverick = unorthodox, independent minded person
[aha! there's a movie with that title!]
Meretricious = showily, but falsely attractive
[like gatsby's 1920's American world...glamorous and vulgar]
Splenetic = bad-tempered, peevish
[like me this evening]
To day! march on, night to today.
Today, in math, Ploy said a very funny thing to me.
"Kate" she exclaimed! "You always listen to people! If there was a prize for listening, you'd get it!"
I was rather flattered.
Another occurrence noteworthy of today's recount eventuated after school, while i was waiting outside of Christchurch. Eleni flung her bag down, and turned excitedly to Rene and I.
"ok, can i tell you something?" she bubbled, "x says i'm boasting, but i got 24/25 for my english essay!"
'Wow', i said, and 'well done' and 'that's really good' and various other general replies that are necessary to such divulges of skill. I was impressed- more than impressed. I have to admit, i felt a little degraded, as my marks have not even come close to such a formidable numerical zenith...everyone supposes me to be some literary mastermind because i got a high distinction in some english competition in year eight. Ellen has touched on it repeatedly in english class, and i inwardly burn with shame. I know her motives to be good...but if they knew the precipitous slope which i have tumbled down, they would not eye me so reverently (and, on a number of occasions, with such ill-concealed jealousy). Note- once and for all- a lot can happen in three years. If you will allow me to be blunt, and indulge in the vernacular...i can't fuckin write essays. They petrify me. Writing is beginning to petrify me, as write essays is all we do in literature.
Anyway, i find myself skidding away from my intentional point of destination. What followed Eleni's grand disclosure of her genius was a short discussion on showing other people your results. Eleni asked me
"don't you tell other people your marks?"
"no..."
"Oh." she said, and her eyes widened, "you're one of them."
"One of them?" i repeated, twisting a wry smile.
"You're a Sharon. No, Sharon's worse, she actually hides her work."
My forehead creased into a puzzled frown.
"isn't it kind of personal...what people get?" i asked.
"well, yeah...but i like to know where i'm at," she replied, to which is perfectly valid in itself.
I find her method a little brazen, though. I don't know...she is very theatrical. Sometimes, i can't be sure whether her own dramatics are misleading her, or misleading me. I'm cruel, i know. And if anyone related should find these words, they will undoubtedly slander me for my own insensitivity. Ah, well. Harsher words escape in corridors.
I have a lake to fill with an eyedropper tonight, and hence must leave you now. So long, loyal bloggie. til next time.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: (Hamlet, Act V scene ii)
Hamlet has just been challenged to a duel with a Laertes, who wants revenge for the death of his father.
"Horatio: If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.
Hamlet: Not a whit. We defy augury. There is special provdience in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows aught, what is't to leave betimes? Let be."
St. Matthew, chapter 10: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell./ Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father" (King James version)."
i love horatio. he alone stays true to Lord Hamlet, when everything else decays and stews about him.
"Kate" she exclaimed! "You always listen to people! If there was a prize for listening, you'd get it!"
I was rather flattered.
Another occurrence noteworthy of today's recount eventuated after school, while i was waiting outside of Christchurch. Eleni flung her bag down, and turned excitedly to Rene and I.
"ok, can i tell you something?" she bubbled, "x says i'm boasting, but i got 24/25 for my english essay!"
'Wow', i said, and 'well done' and 'that's really good' and various other general replies that are necessary to such divulges of skill. I was impressed- more than impressed. I have to admit, i felt a little degraded, as my marks have not even come close to such a formidable numerical zenith...everyone supposes me to be some literary mastermind because i got a high distinction in some english competition in year eight. Ellen has touched on it repeatedly in english class, and i inwardly burn with shame. I know her motives to be good...but if they knew the precipitous slope which i have tumbled down, they would not eye me so reverently (and, on a number of occasions, with such ill-concealed jealousy). Note- once and for all- a lot can happen in three years. If you will allow me to be blunt, and indulge in the vernacular...i can't fuckin write essays. They petrify me. Writing is beginning to petrify me, as write essays is all we do in literature.
Anyway, i find myself skidding away from my intentional point of destination. What followed Eleni's grand disclosure of her genius was a short discussion on showing other people your results. Eleni asked me
"don't you tell other people your marks?"
"no..."
"Oh." she said, and her eyes widened, "you're one of them."
"One of them?" i repeated, twisting a wry smile.
"You're a Sharon. No, Sharon's worse, she actually hides her work."
My forehead creased into a puzzled frown.
"isn't it kind of personal...what people get?" i asked.
"well, yeah...but i like to know where i'm at," she replied, to which is perfectly valid in itself.
I find her method a little brazen, though. I don't know...she is very theatrical. Sometimes, i can't be sure whether her own dramatics are misleading her, or misleading me. I'm cruel, i know. And if anyone related should find these words, they will undoubtedly slander me for my own insensitivity. Ah, well. Harsher words escape in corridors.
I have a lake to fill with an eyedropper tonight, and hence must leave you now. So long, loyal bloggie. til next time.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: (Hamlet, Act V scene ii)
Hamlet has just been challenged to a duel with a Laertes, who wants revenge for the death of his father.
"Horatio: If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.
Hamlet: Not a whit. We defy augury. There is special provdience in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows aught, what is't to leave betimes? Let be."
St. Matthew, chapter 10: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell./ Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father" (King James version)."
i love horatio. he alone stays true to Lord Hamlet, when everything else decays and stews about him.
20080610
time stops for no mouse
Ah! My eyes are burning! BURNING!!!
they are bloodshot, and they have been all day for some reason. I was wondering why people were looking a bit scared of me. Then i looked in the bathroom mirror and saw Satan's fiery gaze staring back.
A guest speaker came today, to talk on study skills and whatnot. I felt so embarrassed for year 11...jeez, everyone was being so rude. The volunteers who were forced to go up (he chose randomly) rolled their eyes, and lounged about in an adolescent aloofness that clearly stated 'i am not listening to a jot you are saying, and i don't intend to'. God...he was trying so hard, and everyone was so unresponsive and restless. Poor guy. I mean, it wasn't a presentation that could cause one's eyes to pop out of their sockets in fascination, but it was still pretty interesting. That sort of insolence really bugs me.
I've really got to stop cracking my fingers. Bad habits die hard.
please stop yelling mum. she continuously yells at the cats and the dog. As if they understand her. I mean, they get the tone, but they're not going to grasp
"you don't drink out of there! You drink out of your bowls!"
when i was little, i used to mispell 'bowls' and 'bowels'. Mum laughed at me, and i didn't know why.
ho hum. i shall have to get to it. Time stops for no mouse.
QUOTES OF THE DAY: Oscar Wilde
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
they are bloodshot, and they have been all day for some reason. I was wondering why people were looking a bit scared of me. Then i looked in the bathroom mirror and saw Satan's fiery gaze staring back.
A guest speaker came today, to talk on study skills and whatnot. I felt so embarrassed for year 11...jeez, everyone was being so rude. The volunteers who were forced to go up (he chose randomly) rolled their eyes, and lounged about in an adolescent aloofness that clearly stated 'i am not listening to a jot you are saying, and i don't intend to'. God...he was trying so hard, and everyone was so unresponsive and restless. Poor guy. I mean, it wasn't a presentation that could cause one's eyes to pop out of their sockets in fascination, but it was still pretty interesting. That sort of insolence really bugs me.
I've really got to stop cracking my fingers. Bad habits die hard.
please stop yelling mum. she continuously yells at the cats and the dog. As if they understand her. I mean, they get the tone, but they're not going to grasp
"you don't drink out of there! You drink out of your bowls!"
when i was little, i used to mispell 'bowls' and 'bowels'. Mum laughed at me, and i didn't know why.
ho hum. i shall have to get to it. Time stops for no mouse.
QUOTES OF THE DAY: Oscar Wilde
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
20080609
Doornails and (most likely) specious arguments
specious, ay, kate? nice. i like it. Tongue-rollingly smooth.
Hamlet hath slain Polonius! Dead!
Dead, dead, dead as a doornail,
No-more, for a doornail has life in attraction.
yes. i compsed that ditty all by myself. *scornful laugh*
It rained slightly heavier domestic animals than cats and dogs today. It teemed down so forcefully in the morning that i was getting all prepared to brave the mad rush to be the first one on Noah's ark by noon. But the downpour eased up after a while. The ferocity was fabulous while it lasted though. I love exposing myself to the extremes of the elements. No- my ignorance is palpable in its callousness. Heavy rainfall that lasts for an hour is hardly an extreme. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis- these are the true extremes. I would not be revelling in their power then. Rain is but a pale mockery.
Hamlet is the apotheosis of wit. Listen to what he says...no, let me give you the context first. Hamlet hates his uncle Claudius, for he poisoned his father, and married his mother, and is now King. Listen.
Hamlet: Farewell, dear mother
Claudius: Thy loving father, Hamlet.
Hamlet: My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh; so my mother.
ha! oh, and....Hamlet has just killed (mistakenly) Polonius, the kings chief advisor.
Claudius: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Hamlet: at supper
Claudius: At supper? Where?
Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where 'a is eaten. A certain convocation of polotic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service- two dishes, but to one table. That's the end.
King: Alas, alas.
Hamlet: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
King: what dost thou mean of this?
Hamlet: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
So smart. So smart. i love this italics thingo.
My computer is making strange groaning noises. Either its programs are making out in the hardrive, or this computer is going bust. Haha! Whenever i hear the word bust, i always think of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. When they're at the Quidditch world cup, and they see a little boy who has stolen his fathers wand and is swelling a slug to unnatural proportions. Then his mother runs out in alarm and accidentally steps on it. The little boys shouts follow Harry, Ron and Hermione...
"You bust slug! You bust slug!"
Oh, that the journey did not have to end! I wanted it to stretch into eternity...or at least until i die. Ah well...i can return to Hogwarts, although no fresh adventure awaits. God bless JK Rowling.
You have no idea how much i've been torturing myself with the question on how my english became so appalling. I have come up with so many conclusions, each one wilder than the last. Would you like a sample? These encompass but a few
- that i focussed so much on the words that comprised the sentence, that i lost sight of the meaning of the sentence, and why i was writing it
- that it has retrograded because my teacher focuses on the oral, being a dramatist
- because i care about it. I do so much better in subjects that i don't give a fig about.
- haha, because this is the first year that i've had a male as an english teacher
- because i somehow changed after Tasmania...i became more pessimisstic, and my wit was drained
- that i no longer believed in myself, and was so afraid to write, in case i should find my own stupidity staring at me in the face...and thus ensured it.
- that i forgot what clarity meant
- that, because other troubles were resolved, i could no longer agonize over them- and thus focussed instead on the vacuous nature of my brain.
- that, because i have so many smart people in my class, i was daunted by the astuteness, and instantly reasoned that i was an 'inferior' and gave up hope of ever being a literary.
yes. Wild and whirling arguments. And yet, they still come. I find myself thinking about it when i'm supposed to be doing homework. Why can't i just leave me alone!! God...i am sure if i did not think on it, overcoming the problem would be so much easier. Hey...in this regard, i resemble Hamlet (i know, i'm stretching it...). The more he thought on the necessary action of avenging his father, the less capable he was of doing it. The more i think of how i must somehow climb up that tiresome hill to become capable of stringing together reason, the more distance myself from my goal. It's all about procrastination.
Hamlet hath slain Polonius! Dead!
Dead, dead, dead as a doornail,
No-more, for a doornail has life in attraction.
yes. i compsed that ditty all by myself. *scornful laugh*
It rained slightly heavier domestic animals than cats and dogs today. It teemed down so forcefully in the morning that i was getting all prepared to brave the mad rush to be the first one on Noah's ark by noon. But the downpour eased up after a while. The ferocity was fabulous while it lasted though. I love exposing myself to the extremes of the elements. No- my ignorance is palpable in its callousness. Heavy rainfall that lasts for an hour is hardly an extreme. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis- these are the true extremes. I would not be revelling in their power then. Rain is but a pale mockery.
Hamlet is the apotheosis of wit. Listen to what he says...no, let me give you the context first. Hamlet hates his uncle Claudius, for he poisoned his father, and married his mother, and is now King. Listen.
Hamlet: Farewell, dear mother
Claudius: Thy loving father, Hamlet.
Hamlet: My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh; so my mother.
ha! oh, and....Hamlet has just killed (mistakenly) Polonius, the kings chief advisor.
Claudius: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Hamlet: at supper
Claudius: At supper? Where?
Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where 'a is eaten. A certain convocation of polotic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service- two dishes, but to one table. That's the end.
King: Alas, alas.
Hamlet: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
King: what dost thou mean of this?
Hamlet: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
So smart. So smart. i love this italics thingo.
My computer is making strange groaning noises. Either its programs are making out in the hardrive, or this computer is going bust. Haha! Whenever i hear the word bust, i always think of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. When they're at the Quidditch world cup, and they see a little boy who has stolen his fathers wand and is swelling a slug to unnatural proportions. Then his mother runs out in alarm and accidentally steps on it. The little boys shouts follow Harry, Ron and Hermione...
"You bust slug! You bust slug!"
Oh, that the journey did not have to end! I wanted it to stretch into eternity...or at least until i die. Ah well...i can return to Hogwarts, although no fresh adventure awaits. God bless JK Rowling.
You have no idea how much i've been torturing myself with the question on how my english became so appalling. I have come up with so many conclusions, each one wilder than the last. Would you like a sample? These encompass but a few
- that i focussed so much on the words that comprised the sentence, that i lost sight of the meaning of the sentence, and why i was writing it
- that it has retrograded because my teacher focuses on the oral, being a dramatist
- because i care about it. I do so much better in subjects that i don't give a fig about.
- haha, because this is the first year that i've had a male as an english teacher
- because i somehow changed after Tasmania...i became more pessimisstic, and my wit was drained
- that i no longer believed in myself, and was so afraid to write, in case i should find my own stupidity staring at me in the face...and thus ensured it.
- that i forgot what clarity meant
- that, because other troubles were resolved, i could no longer agonize over them- and thus focussed instead on the vacuous nature of my brain.
- that, because i have so many smart people in my class, i was daunted by the astuteness, and instantly reasoned that i was an 'inferior' and gave up hope of ever being a literary.
yes. Wild and whirling arguments. And yet, they still come. I find myself thinking about it when i'm supposed to be doing homework. Why can't i just leave me alone!! God...i am sure if i did not think on it, overcoming the problem would be so much easier. Hey...in this regard, i resemble Hamlet (i know, i'm stretching it...). The more he thought on the necessary action of avenging his father, the less capable he was of doing it. The more i think of how i must somehow climb up that tiresome hill to become capable of stringing together reason, the more distance myself from my goal. It's all about procrastination.
20080608
do not read if you despise the tedious
"Hamlet is the most opular play in ourlanguage. It amuses thousands annually and it stimulates the minds of millions...The lowest and most ignorant audienes delight in it. The soure of the delight is twofold: First its reach of thought on topics the most profound; for the dullest soul can feel a grandeur which it cannot understand and will isten with hushed awe to the outpourings of a great meditative mind obstinately questioning fate; secondly, its wondrous dramatic variety."
wow. that's so true. I am overawed in my reading- and yet this amazement does not stem from a realisation and decryption of the profound truths inbedded in the play, but rather from sensing that great and unmatchable ideas shimmer in the passages. I know they mean something incredible- just don't ask me what.
I think its because i am so relieved when i eventually understand the surface value of the words- through translating the Elizabethian into the common tongue- that i kind of forget to look further. I am facing a dilemma. Am i expected to look further? Really deep? I am aware that often when i try to, i hit far off the mark, and end up being nothing but ambiguous.
wow. i suck.
wow. that's so true. I am overawed in my reading- and yet this amazement does not stem from a realisation and decryption of the profound truths inbedded in the play, but rather from sensing that great and unmatchable ideas shimmer in the passages. I know they mean something incredible- just don't ask me what.
I think its because i am so relieved when i eventually understand the surface value of the words- through translating the Elizabethian into the common tongue- that i kind of forget to look further. I am facing a dilemma. Am i expected to look further? Really deep? I am aware that often when i try to, i hit far off the mark, and end up being nothing but ambiguous.
wow. i suck.
20080607
happiness in hamlet? that IS a paradox
I feel so happy. The air is so clear. It is almost as if my eyes were compressed into the back of my skull, shadowed by the lurking thoughts nearby- and now they are straight-seeing. God, if this be truth, then Hamlet was wrong; if not, God, let me live in illusion. It is infinitely better here.
Surely, such a question takes its place on that well-worn edge that all those great questions reside; from which haunted philosophers- amateurs and proffesionals - pick up from time to time to study, to ponder, to learn much, but know no more. Whether to live in happy ignorance, or to admit oneself to the dangerous quest of truth. We all strive to be rational creatures- and can only do this by adjusting a world view on absolute reality. And yet- we all know how destructive the truth can be. A further complication- truth is mecurious. It is a parallel flux with not only time, but with country, opinion, class. How can there be a single truth to anything?
And anyway...who knows what truth is anyway? Who knows what is right? Who has the authority to say what is reality, what is moral, what is actual? No one.
Don't worry, i am still happy. I feel...invigourated. I feel like i felt in the old days. I feel young, that's it! I feel young. I've been so old of late...
"i feel thin...sort of stretched. Like butter scraped over too much bread." -- Bilbo, Lord of the Rings, when he has worn the One Ring too long, unaware of how it is taking him (he is going along the same path of Golem. We see the resemblence in a few scenes.)
Let's see if i can remember...
"To be or not to be; that is the question.
Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
or to take arm against a sea of troubles
and by opposing, end them."
Obviously, Hamlet is contemplating suicide. To be- to live, or not to be- to die. That is basic. The world about him has become rank and pestilent in his eyes, and when we review the events preceding this soliloquy, we can hardly wonder why. The residing King, his uncle, has committed fratricide. His mother has "post[ed] with such dexterity to incestuous sheets" i.e., she has chosen to assuage her sexual desires over morality and virtue that her husband, recently deceased, deserves. His two supposed friends from college care not for the pleasure of Hamlet's company- they are instead clandestine envoys of the kind and queen, who purpose to spy on him. His girlfriend, Ophelia ignores him, and return his gifts, seemingly without reason. He has no faith left in life.
When the bumbling Polonious expresses he will "take leave of him", Hamlet says "there is nothing that i would more gladly part with; except my life, except my life, except my life."
Ha, it was rather side-tickling in the movie (for we're watching it instead of reading it in class) Hamlet said the last "except my life" with a mad glint in his eye. Polonious thinks he lost the plot, but Hamlet is actually affecting madness; a facade to cloak the purpose of revenging his father, and killing the king.
i'm going now. ciao.
Surely, such a question takes its place on that well-worn edge that all those great questions reside; from which haunted philosophers- amateurs and proffesionals - pick up from time to time to study, to ponder, to learn much, but know no more. Whether to live in happy ignorance, or to admit oneself to the dangerous quest of truth. We all strive to be rational creatures- and can only do this by adjusting a world view on absolute reality. And yet- we all know how destructive the truth can be. A further complication- truth is mecurious. It is a parallel flux with not only time, but with country, opinion, class. How can there be a single truth to anything?
And anyway...who knows what truth is anyway? Who knows what is right? Who has the authority to say what is reality, what is moral, what is actual? No one.
Don't worry, i am still happy. I feel...invigourated. I feel like i felt in the old days. I feel young, that's it! I feel young. I've been so old of late...
"i feel thin...sort of stretched. Like butter scraped over too much bread." -- Bilbo, Lord of the Rings, when he has worn the One Ring too long, unaware of how it is taking him (he is going along the same path of Golem. We see the resemblence in a few scenes.)
Let's see if i can remember...
"To be or not to be; that is the question.
Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
or to take arm against a sea of troubles
and by opposing, end them."
Obviously, Hamlet is contemplating suicide. To be- to live, or not to be- to die. That is basic. The world about him has become rank and pestilent in his eyes, and when we review the events preceding this soliloquy, we can hardly wonder why. The residing King, his uncle, has committed fratricide. His mother has "post[ed] with such dexterity to incestuous sheets" i.e., she has chosen to assuage her sexual desires over morality and virtue that her husband, recently deceased, deserves. His two supposed friends from college care not for the pleasure of Hamlet's company- they are instead clandestine envoys of the kind and queen, who purpose to spy on him. His girlfriend, Ophelia ignores him, and return his gifts, seemingly without reason. He has no faith left in life.
When the bumbling Polonious expresses he will "take leave of him", Hamlet says "there is nothing that i would more gladly part with; except my life, except my life, except my life."
Ha, it was rather side-tickling in the movie (for we're watching it instead of reading it in class) Hamlet said the last "except my life" with a mad glint in his eye. Polonious thinks he lost the plot, but Hamlet is actually affecting madness; a facade to cloak the purpose of revenging his father, and killing the king.
i'm going now. ciao.
20080606
Classical Music
you guys are going to think me an irrevocable prude, but the guilty confession must come.
i like listening to classical music now.
i know, smite me oh mighty smiter. I'm not yet 70, and it gives me thrills.
I know, i know. It bores you to pieces. It has no emotion. Right? Wrong. For me, anyway. When first i played it, it was just that. It was merely a substitute, cause i had finally conceded that i wasn't able to concentrate when bawling along to the lyrics of vocal music. So...it was just background music...cause i couldn't stand a silent study. But now...god, i now i sound crazy, but i actually find more emotion in classical than vocal music. It goes beyond that which is expressible in words...while there aren't many avenues for vocal participation (unless you know italian, or something), it by no means precludes active participation. It awakens the mind, it allows you to explore the steeps and falls of the melody. It doesn't tell you 'this is love' so you have to guess, and then the guess leads to a surmise, the surmise exands to a hypothesis of events, which follows on to a story. And suddenly, you are in love. Ever wonder why classical music is the most powerful in films? Pan's Labryinth (haha, IT), Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Schindler's List. In my opinion, they dominate over the less intense vocal tunes which accompany the story, though there are exceptions. So, next time you hear a classical piece, do not instantly spurn it. All i ask is you give it a chance- listen with ear unburdened with preconception.
i like listening to classical music now.
i know, smite me oh mighty smiter. I'm not yet 70, and it gives me thrills.
I know, i know. It bores you to pieces. It has no emotion. Right? Wrong. For me, anyway. When first i played it, it was just that. It was merely a substitute, cause i had finally conceded that i wasn't able to concentrate when bawling along to the lyrics of vocal music. So...it was just background music...cause i couldn't stand a silent study. But now...god, i now i sound crazy, but i actually find more emotion in classical than vocal music. It goes beyond that which is expressible in words...while there aren't many avenues for vocal participation (unless you know italian, or something), it by no means precludes active participation. It awakens the mind, it allows you to explore the steeps and falls of the melody. It doesn't tell you 'this is love' so you have to guess, and then the guess leads to a surmise, the surmise exands to a hypothesis of events, which follows on to a story. And suddenly, you are in love. Ever wonder why classical music is the most powerful in films? Pan's Labryinth (haha, IT), Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Schindler's List. In my opinion, they dominate over the less intense vocal tunes which accompany the story, though there are exceptions. So, next time you hear a classical piece, do not instantly spurn it. All i ask is you give it a chance- listen with ear unburdened with preconception.
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