Hello!

Welcome to my blog!  Have fun…but don’t send me a virus that corrupts my computer and/or hard drive:-)

Assignment 10

First, let me just say that this video made my day.  It reminded me of a really good book; it had a wonderful setting, conflict, a protagonist and antagonist, and a beautiful and very interesting theme.  This video had several settings but the main setting was what looked liked Japan.  The main character, a deaf girl who has an extraordinary talent, seems to have a problem getting along with others.  Her sister, who can play the piano very well, seems to think that her sister is wasting not only her time, but everyone else’s, which is both an internal and external conflict.  The deaf girl is the protagonist and her sister is her antagonist.  Although the deaf girl is constantly picked on and put down, with the help of another deaf violin player, she ends up beating her sister in a music competition.  On a side note, I would like to say that tape would not fix a broken violin.

Assignment 8

http://jomodrummer.glogster.com/Hamlet-Revenge/ The theme of Hamlet….enjoy!!!!!!

Assignment 7

Ghosts have been around for many years, and so have the legends that surroud ghosts. There were many interpretations of a ghost during Shakespeare’s time spirit of a dead person returned from the grave or from purgatory by divine permission. Ghosts could be an hallucination, a spirit of a dead person returned to perform some deed left undone in life, or even a spirit of a dead person returned from the grave or from purgatory by divine permission. Nowadays, there are hundreds of ghost stories and tales that are usually meant to scare people, especially on Halloween. My family can neither deny nor confirm the existence of ghosts, we can only agree to disagree. There are two types of people in this world; people who believe in ghosts and people who don’t believe in ghosts.

Assignment 6

L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is a very well known novel that has warmed the hearts of not only children but adults as well. Everyone knows that the novel/movie is about a girl named Dorothy from Kansas who travels to the land of Oz by tornado, and is deposited in the country of Munchkins. After gaining the silver slippers (which were ruby in the movie), she goes on a journey to Emerald City and meets three heart felt characters who also need something from the Wizard. She and her partners end up killing the Wicked Witch of the West, and Dorothy ends up returning home. However, the novel/movie is very allegorical in the sence that each element and character stands for something else. Baum wrote the story to represent life in the United States and the political power at that time. Oz represents oz. (ounce) which literally means an ounce of gold. The yellow brick road represents the gold standard that people were following (just like how Dorothy and her friends did). Dorothy, being the main character, stands for the everyday person. The Tin Woodsman (Tin Man) represents the industrial worker and does Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) recall anything to mind? The poor TIN Man just stood there mindlessly doing his work until his body literally froze up and stopped functioning. He worked himself to death because he had neither heart nor soul. He’s the heartless and emotionless creature robotically carrying out his daily task as though he were already dead. The Cowardly Lion represented William Jennings Bryan,who was a populist leader. The Scarecrow represents the everyday farmer who didn’t have an education and was always bullied. The Munchkins represent the “little people” who tend to be very smart but constantly fear for their lives. The Wicked Witch of the West represents president McKinely. The not so wonderful Wizard of Oz represents Grover Cleveland. Who finally exposed the Wizard for what he really was? Toto, the ugly (or cute, depending on your perspective) and somewhat annoying little dog. Toto is latin for “in total, all together”. What was it that the witch wanted after she alleged that the little dog had bitten her? TOTO. … everything. Also, note that Dorothy did not have a mother or father reference… i.e. no sense of who she was or from where her direct heritage came. In this case, Dorothy’s legal guardian was obscurely named Aunt “Em” or “M” for money. That means that money was her “legal tender.” Get the double meaning? Even James Bond has to answer to “M.” And, who is “M’s” secret-ary? Miss Moneypenny. And speaking of money, “tin” was a term for valueless coins back in the day. So, “Tinman” had more than one meaning as the value of our money was degenerating once the Fed came along and produced coins with little or no gold or silver in them and nothing with “witch” to back them.

Assignment 5

In this day and age, the average person sees at least 100-200 images that relate to a perfect body that no one can achieve.  Everyday, the media releases hundreds of information about the body which include magazines, pictures, commercials, and TV progams.  According to http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/body_image/body_image.html body image is all about self-esteem and how one can affect the other.  This website expains how self-esteem is all about how much people value themselves, the pride they feel in themselves, and how worthwhile they feel.  There are plenty of people in the world that constantly worry about how their size, weight, color, and overall appearence.  In my opinion, no one needs to worry about the way they look because if everyone looked like they just woke up, then no one would.

Assignment #3

I believe that the movie has several themes; a person’s last name, how much money a person has, and marriage. First of all, many people in the movie/book judged people on not their appearance (many people were ugly), but their last name. Even if you were handsome, if your last name belonged to a poor family, then you were looked down upon. Second of all, everyone seemed to have some form of money or come from money. If your stash of money was less than your neighbor’s, then the chances of said neighbor inviting you over were slim to none. Finally, who you were married to mattered. It was accustomed that women married men at a young age and moved out of the house. It was also normal for women of that era, to marry a young rich man and spend the rest of their life with them. I do not believe that the ideals and customs of those times would match the ideals and customs of today’s times.

Blogging

Originally, I thought that blogging was going to be boring…very boring.  But I have decided that blogging is actually very fun and being able to write to people via blog instead of e-mail if all the more reason to like it:-)

Assignment 2

John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist, and a late contemporary of William Shakespeare.  Webster’s life is obscure, and the dates of his birth and death are not known.  His parents were JohnWebster and Elizabeth Coates.  Most of what is known of him relates to his activities in theatre.  Of what is known of John, he and his wife, Sara Peniall, had a child who they (of course) named John.  John Webster wrote many playwrights in his lifetime, most of which were never printed.  Despite his ability to write comedy, Webster is best known for his two brooding English tragedies based on Italian sources.  The White Devil and  The Duchess of Malfi.  Webster has received a reputation for being the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatist with having the ability to show the dark side of human nature.

A Renaissance Man is commonly defined as person who is well educated, has a very well known reputation amongst several people,  and has certain skills that relate to social and moral values.  I would consider Olympian extraordinaire Michael Fred Phelps a modern day Renaissance Man because of his well known reputation and his wonderful athletic ability.

Wiidrum

I believe that using a blog as a venue for expressing yourself is dull and rather humdrum.  I have never used a blog in class before and before today, I didn’t plan to.  Although I really would rather do something else with my time,  I will continue to blog:-)