Outside 5

For my last outside event I went to another poetry reading. I really enjoy the readings that take place at the Otherland’s coffee shop, so I only saw it as fitting to once again go see one. The one I saw for the final time only had two readers. The first reader was a female who read a non-fiction story. Personally, I really did not like it. She read for about 20 minutes, and I probably knew what was going on in the story for about 5 of those minutes. She jumped all over the place, so much so that there were several times I thought she started reading a new story, until I would hear the main character’s name to be reminded that it was still the original story. I don’t, or can’t, see how anyone in the audience could have really enjoyed her story. It was so hard to follow. The story made me feel like giving her one of the books we receive in English class that shows us how to summarize things, oppose to using a lot of wordy sentences to get a point across. I could have told her whole story in about 45 seconds, and it would have made a ton more sense. The other guy who read was very good. He started off singing a Christmas song, to introduce a Christmas poem. I thought this was very neat. Although the poem was about how depressing his Christmas’s always are, and how dysfunctional his family is, I still smiled when he sang. The poems I remember the most from his set were those on Heartbreak. He had two poems about a breakup with a girlfriend. He seemed absolutely crushed about it, and you could tell when he read these poems, his feelings were real. The thing I got out of his reading was a new meaning of courage. He was incredibly courageous to pour his heart out in front of a bunch of people he didn’t know. He opened his soul, and although seemed a bit shy, did not hesitate in reading these. My personality is completely opposite from this. I barely talk to my friends, or my boyfriend about my feelings, let alone a whole crowd of people. I am very closed, and can’t even imagine writing using so many raw emotions. He really inspired me, and made me respect him. He made himself vulnerable, which is an extremely risky thing to do. I feel like he may have inspired me to open up a little more. The result after the poetry reading was somewhat like that at the end of the Grinch. My heart that was two sizes too small grew a couple sizes that day.

Hamlet Questions

Tara Telford
ENGL 2201
Wendy Sumner-Winter
December 2, 2009
Hamlet Questions
Act 1
3. At the beginning of the play Horatio was more of a servant to Hamlet than anything. He was inferior to him and although they were friends, their relationship grew throughout the play, and at the end of the play they were very good friends. They created a bond throughout the play and became closer to one another.
Act 2
3. His performance may suggest that his personality is uplifting and somewhat comical. Instead of just relaying what he thinks, he puts a spin on it using play on words and many metaphors. It also may suggest that he is very intelligent and uses metaphors and more intelligent phrases when he speaks.
4. I don’t believe that Polonius is entirely foolish, but he is just naïve. He loves his daughter and believes that everyone else does as well, which makes him believe her denial of Hamlet could lead him to madness. He was wise because he knew that Hamlet was mad before many others in the play.
Act 3
2. Gertrude is not guilty. She does not believe she did anything wrong and does not believe the allegations that Hamlet makes on Claudius. Hamlet charges her with cheating on his father. Our attitude is the same towards her as Hamlet because we also believe that she is a cheater. Our sympathy towards her diminishes as the play goes on because she never believes her son. The only time that I felt bad for her was when Claudius accidentally kills her, and then doesn’t seem to upset about it.
4.We learn that the Elizabethan theatre portrays many dark stories about betrayal and death. Hamlet’s remarks serve to advance the story because he was a narrator and it helped for everyone to understand and also to try and make it more obvious the real point he was trying to get across with the play.
Act IV
2. Ophelia goes mad when she finds out that her dad gets killed. She appears to be mad because she walks around dazed, and looks like she is not present.
3. Hamlet’s madness seems too crazy and not real because the things that he does are absurd. Ophelia’s seems believable and you feel bad for her. She is more dazed, where Hamlet is just acting like a lunatic.
Act V
2. I would argue that they needed a clean sole to take over after all the betrayal and wrong done by everyone else.
General Questions
1. This play’s dramatic question is whether or not he will succeed in filling his father’s wishes and to seek revenge for his death. This question is formulated after Hamlet finally sees his father in ghost form. This is also the turning point of the play because it is when you find out for sure that Claudius is the bad guy, and that Hamlet is going to seek revenge on him,
2. Personally, I believe from the very first Act in the play that Claudius was a villain. When I found out that he married Gertrude only 2 months after the king’s death I made an assumption about the kind of person he was. Paralleled to the “Lion King”, I predicted that Claudius was jealous and was the one who killed the King.
7. If these characters were taken out of the play I don’t believe that the play would be missing much. Nothing would really be lost because I did not feel that their role in the play had anything to do with the plot or the final outcome. It would have still succeeded to get the same message across without them.
Word Count: 606

Last Week

It’s crazy to think that this is the last week of classes. I feel like I haven’t even hit the mid term time yet. This semester absolutely flew by. It always seems like the semesters fly by when soccer season is going on. Because I’m so focused on soccer for so long, once it finally ends I finally feel like a normal student. This happens near the second week of November, so technically I’ve only had less than a month of being a real student. I always feel like exam time creeps up on me, and never do I ever feel prepared for it. No matter what I do to prepare, I never feel like I will be ready. It’s an on going cycle. Thankfully, we do not have a finally in Literary Heritage as well.

Word Count: 136

Christmas Songs

I absolute love Christmas. It is my favorite Holiday, and I am so glad that it's finally Christmas season. One of the best parts of the Holidays is listening to Christmas songs. They are so pleasant and are so fun. Personally, my favorite Christmas songs are usually the slower ones. I love listening to great singers sing such beautiful songs. My very favorite is "O Holy Night". I always get chills when I hear this song, not only because of the lyrics, but also because of the notes that one needs to hit while singing this song. It's incredible. Another one of my favorites is "Christmas Shoes" because it tells such a sad story. It's about a boy who wants to buy shoes for his dying mother, but doesn't have enough money. I almost tear up every time I hear it. Whether it's "Grandma got run over by a Reindeer" or "Silent Night", Christmas carols always put a smile on my face, and warmth in my heart.

Black Friday vs. Boxing Day

Being a Canadian, I had never experienced Black Friday until I came to school in Memphis. Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year in America. It is the day after Thanksgiving, and the sales are unreal. Stores open at ridiculous hours of the morning, and people camp out overnight and crash the doors when the stores open. In Canada, we have the same thing, but instead it's called Boxing Day. Boxing Day takes place on the day after Christmas. It's interesting when these two holidays take place. Black Friday takes place when Christmas season officially starts, therefore you can find great deals to buy Christmas gifts, whereas Boxing Day takes place the day after Christmas, therefore you can spend all the money that you got for Christmas. Personally I like Boxing Day better because there is nothing more exciting than getting a bunch of gift cards and money for Christmas and knowing that you can go out the very next day and get great deals. I might just have this bias because I have experiance Boxing Day for my whole life. I now get the best of both worlds because I am in America on Black Friday, and go home for Christmas. What a delight.

Road Trip

For Thanksgiving, I went to Michigan with 3 of my roommates. The drive to Michigan takes about 11 hours, not including stops. For some reason, I've always loved road trips. Most people use them to sleep, and dread the time they have to spend in the car, but personally I really like them. Rarely do I sleep on road trips, I'd rather stay awake, keep others in the car company, listen to music, find new radio stations along the way, and observe the changing scenery. When someone says they are going to be in a car for 11 hours it is usually thought of as absurd, but it didn't even seem that long to me. When I was driving, everyone else was usually asleep. I find serenity in listening to calming music while driving down an empty highway, with a bunch of peaceful passengers in the car. I definitely can tell why so many songs talk about driving in a car and feeling serene (ex. Lost Highway by Bon Jovi, At Full Speed by Jack's Mannequin, Fast Car by Tracy Chapman etc.). So Although most people can't wait for the trip to be over, I quite enjoy the quality hours in the car on a road trip.

The end is Bittersweet

Last Friday, we lost out first round of NCAA's which ended our season. It still hasn't completely hit me yet. Our team went through so many struggles and triumphs this year, and to think that it's all over is surreal. We were all hoping to make it further in the tournament this year, so it was disappointing to make it to the same place that we have the last 2 years. Since August 4, I have played soccer every single day (even 3 times a day during preseason), so that fact that I will not have soccer until January is crazy. It's such a huge part of my life, and I feel like something is missing without it. Although I am sad, it is also a good thing because I have been missing a lot of class and now I have time to catch up and get ready for finals. I guess for a month I get to see what it's like to be a normal college student.