Vocabulary #9

aficionado: someone who is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about something.
I am an aficionado about tennis.
browbeat: to intimidate someone into doing something.
I browbeat my sister into doing the dishes for me.
commensurate: equal or similar to something in size or amount

My brother's bag of candy was commensurate to my bag of candy. 
diaphanous: light, delicate, and translucent

We needed to be diaphanous with the subject, considering it was such a difficult topic to bring up. 

emolument: a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office

Her emolument was larger than mine, but only because she has a larger family. 

foray: a sudden attack or incursion into enemy territory

I decided to concoct a foray on my sister and her friends. 

genre: a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in
form, style, or subject matter

My favorite genre is fiction, overall. 

homily: commentary that follows a reading of scripture

Dr. Preston decided to add his own personal homily after he read Hamlet. 

immure: enclose or confine against their will

My dad likes to immure me in a headlock sometimes for fun. It's not fun. 

insouciant: showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent

I seemed to have sprained my ankle, but my dad was insouciant and didn't believe me. 

matrix: an environment or material in which something develops; a surrounding medium or
structure

The cactus' matrix is usually in the desert, or a dry land. 

obsequies: funeral rites
panache: flamboyant manner and reckless courage

She was acting with so much panache that I don't think she was even being serious. 

persona: the image or personality that a person presents 

My persona is usually defined as sassy. I don't see it. 

philippic: a bitter attack or denunciation

My mom was so philippic toward me when she got home that I didn't even know what to do. 
prurient: having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters

"50 Shades of Grey" is too prurient for my taste. 

sacrosanct: regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with

My mom is such a sacrosanct that no one messes with her. 

systemic: of or relating to a system, esp. as opposed to a particular part

Everyone in the world is somehow related to a systemic program. 

tendentious: expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view

In court, her dad was put on the stand to show his tendentious feelings toward the situation. 

vicissitude: a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant

The vicissitude that my brother has is unreal. He always seems to get the short end of the stick. 

Thoughts on Hamlet (in progress)

In the beginning of the play, I just thought Hamlet was a confused dude with no sense of who he was or what he wanted. I saw him as a crazy guy who saw his dad's ghost. But as the play shifted from toying imagination to real life occurrences and situations, I came to realize that Shakespeare was intending the change our perspectives of the characters along the way. Hamlet really is right about his evil uncle, he really can see his father's ghost, and he really isn't insane; it was all an act! 

Filter Bubbles Thoughts

I learned that the things that I see on Facebook and other sites are circulated around my interests and things that I am drawn to as an individual. The video made me realize that I need to look deeper into how I research things, because google automatically sets my search results to what I am most interested in. The video made me think about how much more is out there in the internet that has absolutely nothing to do with me! (Sometimes that might not be a good thing, but you get the idea.) With these things in mind, I want to try to look at the links on google that I wouldn't even think of looking at first. Like, how there are 100+ pages of results? I'll go to other pages besides 1 first, if that does anything different. 

tools that change the way we think

To me personally, technology is a big asset to my learning environment, and social life. As sad as it may be, I depend on the internet for a lot of my daily activities. It has developed my mind in good ways, and ways that make my mind extremely lazy. Too much internet access is probably going to end up having a negative effect on the next generation and so on and so forth. When I give into my laziness, I can't help it but find myself sitting in my room searching for calculus answers on my iPhone. Not good.
I also find myself scrolling through Instagram and Tumblr when I am bored, or when I should be doing homework. Technology has its way of taking control over my mind and the activities that I could be doing, rather than sitting on my butt in the dark on my bedroom floor posting random pictures from my life that no one cares about anyways.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

I had to send this from my phone and it said it was "too long", so if the end is slightly cut off then I'M SORRY I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. Dominic also wanted to be in my video for some unapparent reason that I decided not to ask him.

What I Think About When I Think About Act 3

I think that Hamlet's idea to confront Claudius with a play is brilliantly sly. The play was only a reenactment of the death of King Hamlet, and it did get a rise out of Claudius. But it does show me another side of Claudius. It shows me that the king does feel remorse for what he has done, and that he regrets his actions. Directly after the play, in fact, he proceeds to his room to pray for forgiveness, which is why Hamlet cannot kill him in that moment. If he did kill him, the revenge would be pointless because he would go to heaven. 

Literature Analysis #3

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET

1. The "House on Mango Street" is a short Mexican novel by Sandra Cisneros about a young girl, Esperanza Cordero, who is living in an unstable society. The novel tells about her life as a pre-teen and teenager in this area of her town. She goes through hardships, one of them being sexually assaulted, and comes out of each difficult moment with more wisdom and knowledge about the world than in the beginning of the book. She wants to leave Mango Street, but realizes that she is mentally scarred by the place where she grew up. The author's purpose is to teach her readers of the outside world, and the unbelievable happenings the could occur in the real world. The author shows us how well Esperanza copes with the situations she is put into.

2. The theme of the novel is a resolution of personal conflicts and hope of better life. Esperanza wants to leave everything that she has dealt with behind, and not look back. And though she knows this isn't thoroughly possible, she still has the hope inside of her that she can forget her previous life.

3. The author's tone came across to me as calm, sometimes optimistic, and other times quite negative, like she doesn't really care about much. Not even herself.
"I am an ugly daughter."
"My Papa's hair is like a broom, all up in the air. And me, my hair is lazy."
"In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting."

4. Personification: "But I think diseases have no eyes. They pick with a dizzy finger anyone, just anyone." p. 58
Simile: "My life, it is life the number 9." p. 10
Metaphor: "Like it or not, you are Mango Street." p. 107
Alliteration: "...crumples like a coat and cries." p. 68
Idiom: "Get your head out of the clouds." p.
Synesthesia: "a loud color" p.
Hyperbole: "Anthony Haselbauer is a giant!" p.
Onomatopoeia: "Bam! Buzz." p.
Symbol: The American flag, symbolizing the American dream that Esperanza wants so desperately.
Anaphora: "Not my house. Not my car. Not my room. Not my family." p.

1. This author uses indirect characterization, though she is very descriptive and figurative in her language. Esperanza is introduced through indirect characterization; she tells us about the places where she lived before living in their house on Mango Street.

2. The author doesn't really tend to change the syntax/diction when focusing on character since. again, its a simple book. The story is viewed entirely through the eyes of Esperanza. She describes the settings and gives the reader insight on the characters. The story is biased toward the smaller characters since it is all told through the eyes of thirteen year old Esperanza.

3. The protagonist, Esperanza, is definitely dynamic and round. She starts off as a naive girl who slowly learns about growing up as the story unfolds. At the beginning all she wanted to do was play and interact with the children living in the neighborhood but then she begins to interest herself in boys and sexual matters. She becomes curious and is disappointed at the end because it isn't what she expected so she goes on to worry about greater things like leaving Mango Street.

4. I met a character through this story. A character that went through stages of life everyone experiences. She was a curious girl filled with desires and dreams. She had set goals that became stronger as the story unfolded. She wanted to become something greater and learned a lot along the way. I viewed her as a really character after she is abused by the boys at the fair. She tells of how much anger she feels toward Sally because she left her alone. She tries to place the blame on someone which is a common human reflex.

Vocabulary #8

abase: to reduce or lower
abdicate: to renounce or relinquish a throne, right, power, claim, responsibility
abomination: intense aversion or loathing; detestation
brusque: rough, abrupt in manner
saboteur: a person who commits or practices sabotage.
debauchery: excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures; intemperance
proliferate: to increase in number or spread rapidly and often excessively.
anachronism: something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time
nomenclature: the names or terms comprising a set or system.
expurgate: to amend by removing words, passages
bellicose: inclined or eager to fight; aggressively hostile; belligerent; pugnacious.
gauche: lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless.
rapacious: given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed.
paradox: a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
conundrum: anything that puzzles.
anomaly: a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form. An odd, peculiar, or strange condition, situation, quality.
ephemeral: lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory
rancorous: full of or showing bitterness.
churlish: like a churl; boorish; rude
precipitous: extremely or impassably steep

Dear Ophelia

Ophelia, the best thing you can do for now is listen to your father and brother, they do know what is best for you. If along the road, the man that claims he loves you still loves you, and you feel the same way, approach your family directly and discuss the matter rationally. You are right to think that you should be allowed to date him, because it is ultimately your decision. And the fact of the matter is, just because they hate him doesn't mean you have to. Follow your gut feeling, but follow the boundaries set as well. Don't take it too far and appreciate that your father and brother are trying to protect you.

Literary Fiction and Empathy

I personally love reading fiction. I enjoy reading books that aren't of real occurrences, mostly because it helps me to believe that some things are possible, even if they didn't really happen. Fiction is the window into someone's thoughts and feelings, and when you read their work, you read a piece of them. Maybe what they wrote is something that they want to happen, or maybe they had a dream about it. Maybe it happened to someone they knew. You never know, and that's part of the curiosity that comes with reading a fictional book. When you read a book that you are extremely into, don't you just imagine yourself as the character? Don't you just feel like you are them in the story, and when you first take your eyes off of that page, you have this wild realization that "wow, I am me, and this person is just a character". It's kind of amazing, really. And I don't use that term 'amazing' just because it's the first word that popped into my head. It really does amaze me how you can forget every problem you have ever had, or are dealing with, and can insert yourself into an unreal person in rows and rows of jumbled letters.
Sorry, I got off topic. But I have this premonition that Hamlet and the way the Shakespeare portrays his character is going to help us understand what is happening in the characters' heads. And the fact that it is fiction only gives us more insight into who Hamlet is and his emotions. If this was non-fiction, we wouldn't know what Hamlet is thinking, because the author isn't him and can't tell us what he is thinking.

What I Meant to Say Was...

Chaucer knows how to satirize everyday society in ways that people thought were inaccurate in their heyday. His style of writing is consistent as well as his theme and tone throughout all of his tales.

Vocabulary 7

shenanigans: mischief.
My brother and I like to get into shenanigans together.

ricochet: to move in this way, as a projectile.
The rocket ricocheted into the earth as we ran helplessly.

schism: division or disunion.
There is an unfortunate schism between my dad's family and ours.

eschew: to abstain or keep away from; shun; avoid.
My mom tries to eschew from chocolate.

plethora: overabundance; excess.
We own a plethora of old tennis racquets.

ebullient: overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement.
She was ebullient because she finally was asked to homecoming.

garrulous: excessively talkative in a rambling manner.
I don't understand how he can be so garrulous and still have more to talk about.

harangue: a scolding or a long or intense verbal attack.
My coach gave me a harangue because of my terrible performance today.

interdependence: mutually reliant on each other.
My sister is very interdependent on my mom when she is at home.

capricious: odd notion or unpredictable change; erratic.
He is so capricious that I never know what will happen next.

loquacious: talking or tending to talk much or freely; talkative; chattering; babbling.
 This vocabulary word "loquacious" is sort of like "garrulous".

ephemeral: lasting a very short time.
This senior year will be ephemeral.

inchoate: not yet completed or fully developed.
My backhand stroke is very inchoate and it doesn't even go over the net.

juxtapose: to place close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast
I decided to juxtapose my parents, and my mom is way more laid back than my dad.

perspicacious: having keen mental perception and understanding.
My teammate is very perspicacious towards calculus, yet I am not.

codswallop: nonsense; rubbish.
One of my teammates didn't show up to our important match today because she is "sick". But she isn't. That is just codswallop. I'm pissed. We freaking lost.

mungo: a low-grade wool from felted rags or waste.
I still don't understand what the heck a mungo is.

sesquipedalian: given to using long words.

wonky: shaky, groggy, or unsteady; stupid; boring; unattractive.
Her face is wonky and reminds me of a horse.

dipthong

Green Eggs and Hamlet

1. Let's be honest, I know absolutely nothing about Hamlet except for the short blurb I heard about while watching the latest "Freaky Friday" movie with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis in it. Hamlet was a little nuts, and someone died.
2. Shakespeare is a man that speaks a language that I do not understand, and he wrote "Romeo and Juliet". That's it.
3. I know that I frown when I hear the name "Shakespeare" because, like I stated before, he speaks a language that I do not understand.
4. To make this studying experience about Hamlet hard to forget... I don't know. I just don't want to deal with the difficulties of learning and having to comprehend the complexities that surround Shakespeare and his array of plays.

If I Just Had More Time

Honestly, I feel like I had plenty of time for studying and preparing myself for the midterm. I thought I did better than I expected myself to. And while we're still on this "honesty" thing, I studied only the night before and the morning before. I know that I knew all the vocabulary words, it was just a matter of remembering them on the spot, while writing an essay on a subject that I completely understood. This is one of the tests that I am actually surprised that I did somewhat okay on for only having 40 minutes to do so.

The Comparison's Tale

Okay, so the only stories I heard today had to do with lies, and adultery. These are the exact two things that I read about in my group with our story. I heard about the Miller's tale, and the Wife of Bath. Ours was the Shipman's tale, and in all three of these tales by Chaucer, the woman lies, cheats, and deceives her suitor. Actually, the Wife of Bath is just a prostitute, so she doesn't really count as much when it comes to cheating. But, what I found in common with all of these tales is that Chaucer likes to satirize the way that humans lived, and what was considered wrong, and made it into a joke to be learned from. Each theme had to do with either trustworthiness, or foolishness and gullibility.

Literature Analysis #2

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Mitch Albom

1. This story was a recollection of a man's life as he dies. The man was killed, and then he must meet five people in order to finally be at peace. The five people he met each had a very important story to tell him about his life, how he lived it, and they all show him what he did wrong, and other times, what he did right. The man's name was Eddie, and the five people he met were as follows: Joseph Corvelzchik, (a man that Eddie "killed"); his Captain from his army days; Ruby, (the woman whom the amusement park he died at was named after); Marguerite, (his late wife); and the little girl who Eddie could have saved from burning to death but couldn't. All of these people had an inspiring and eye-opening story to tell. The author tries to break the wall between the actual character being read about, and you yourself. He tries to make you feel the emotions that Eddie feels and what it's like to be in their shoes.
2. I thought carefully about this theme, because I really want to get it right, or even close. But I came to the conclusion that one major universal theme is that every action has a reaction. Every single story that Eddie heard had one thing in common: it was a direct reaction to something he had done. Had he not done what he did in each story, none of it would have happened, and he could have even lived rather than dying. It really gave me another perspective. Everything that I say, do, or even think has a direct reaction on someone else. If I tell someone that I like their shirt, they could go the rest of the day feeling great about their decision in wearing that shirt. But, if I tell my little sister that I don't like what she is wearing to school on a certain day, she could either go the rest of the day feeling self-conscious about herself, or her negative energy that I rubbed off on her could affect someone else, making something happen that was unintended.
3.  The author's tone is very straightforward, and deep. He describes everything in a way that everyone understands and relates to, and speaks of love and life and death in a universal tone. "People say they “find” love, as if it were an object hidden by a rock. But love takes many forms, and it is never the same for any man and woman. What people find then is a certain love." The way that Mitch Albom describes things in this book, as well as in other books by him, he takes his time so that the reader can connect with what is going on, and not drift off into a different place while reading. "People think of heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains." He creates an atmosphere that gets you stuck inside of what you are reading and holds you there until you lift your head just to think about what you just read. "People say they “find” love, as if it were an object hidden by a rock. But love takes many forms, and it is never the same for any man and woman. What people find then is a certain love."
4. 
   

Imagery: "People think of heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But scenery without solace is meaningless." (p. 35)
Personification: "The whirring of a small biplane, dragging an ad from its tail." (p. 14)

Simile: "Every muscle he had was as tight as a piano wire." (p.56)

Hyperbole: "The children freeze." (p. 37)

Metaphor: "Holding anger is a poison." (p. 141)

Euphemism: "Passed away? Moved on? Met your maker?" (p. 112)

Irony: "He cursed his father for dying and for trapping him in the very life he'd been trying to escape." (p. 128)

Exaggeration: "It eats you from inside." (p.141)

Periodic structure: "Life has to end. Love doesn't." (p. 173) 

Denotation: "Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves." (p. 141) 

CHARACTERIZATION:

1.  When Mitch Albom describes Eddie, the main character, he uses direct characterization. Actually, he describes all of his characters in this book with direct characterization. He is very descriptive in anything that he writes in the novel. But, the way he describes both Eddie and the very first person he meets in heaven are somewhat alike. He describes their facial features, what they are wearing, and what their body language is telling about them as people. I don't remember reading any examples of indirect characterization. Like I said before, he is very straightforward.
2. The author's syntax and diction stay constant throughout the whole novel. It didn't matter whether characters were changed, or settings. The author's syntax and diction were helped by the intense imagery set forth. The diction flowed through the pages. 
3. The main character in this novel, Eddie, is a dynamic character. After each and every story that he hears from every person that he meets in Heaven, his mind set changes a little more. By the end, when he meets the little girl who he tried to save from being eaten alive by fire but couldn't, he have sympathy for every person he met. He also understood so much more about himself, and others around him. He was a round character as well in the sense that he had so much personality and feelings that showed up as I read.
4.  After reading this book, I felt like I met every single person that was mentioned. Eddie, Ruby, Marguerite, Joseph, Eddie's father, the Captain, and tons more characters. Each character came with his or her own story that made you eager to read on. I felt as if Eddie was me, sometimes. After doing this literature analysis, I kind of want to read the book all over again haha!

Tale of a Canterbury Tale

My group chose the Shipman's Tale, (we actually decided the Skipper's tale, but the closest thing I saw on the site I found was the Shipman's, so I hope that was the same thing. Also, I read it was about a merchant and a monk. So maybe I'm wrong, but I guess I'll learn from my mistake if I am.)
Anyways, the one that I read was about a rich and foolish merchant who married a beautiful woman, who was, in my experience, a gold digger. She only used his money, and didn't love him at all.
One day, she was talking to a monk, telling him about how she is unhappy with her husband, and how she owes someone money which she is afraid to ask for from him. Being the kind monk he was, he said he would loan her the money in exchange for, uh, "sexual activities". She agreed, and then the monk went to the merchant and asked for a loan, not telling him it was for his wife. The merchant loaned the monk the money, who gave it to the merchant's wife, the tricky dude. The monk and the wife had sex, and when the monk went home, the merchant came by to ask for his money. To this, the monk replied, "I gave it to your wife!"
When the merchant went home to his wife, they had sex as well, and he then confronted her for not giving him the money that the monk gave her. All she said to this was that she needed to use it for important things, and that he shouldn't question her since he owns her body. And the foolish merchant agreed.

Weird story, but I liked it. It was funny, for an old tale.

Chaucer's purpose in telling this story, from my perspective, is to give the reader a lesson to learn. The lesson could be different to anyone, but to me it was to not trust anyone. He is definitely satirizing society in this tale. In society, there is both adultery, and lies floating around in every corner. The merchant was lied to by both his wife and the monk.