The Robin Hood effect

The concept of killing people and stealing to give to others who are needy, is hard to wrap my mind around. Murder is such a complex and emotionally exhausting thing (not that I would know from experience or anything), but the guilt that Rasky toils with and the fear that overwhelms him in the police station seems very tiring and anxious. How shameful must Rasky feel? I totally agree with Em. Dostoevsky does a great job revealing Rasky's inner feelings and anxieties. I feel like certain events in Crime and Punishment emulate, in some ways, of the classic story of Robin Hood. I never really liked Robin Hood. I think he had good motives, just like Rasky, but his moral conscience was just... turned off. That's just a scary idea. Plus he's a fox...And foxes are creepy.

The great big world of Universities

Okay, deep breath. Over my North and South Carolina school hunt this week, my mother and I have toured, investigated, interviewed etc. with nine schools. Even though we are both ready to go into a coma from exhaustion, we have had an amazing time and have got some great advice no matter where I go to college. I have visited: Montreat College, Gardner Webb University, High Point University, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, Duke University, University of North Carolina- Wilmington, Columbia International University, University of South Carolina and University of North Carolina- Charlotte. Each school has been so uniquely wonderful for me and all fit various desires for my college years (possible majors= Education, International Cultural Studies, Communications, Dance and Humanities...a lot, I know...ekkk). Some of the best advice that I have gotten on this trip is from an admissions counselor at Columbia International University. The advice is that I should really give thought to what I would do for free. Whatever that may be is what I should go and do. Hmmm.... I still need to think about my answer some more, but I thought it would be helpful to all of you brainy student in picking an occupation and college (and we really don’t have to have it all sorted out by the way). DO SOMETHING YOU LOVE IS THE THEME. I am so excited about my future, and I strongly encourage all of you to go on a college road trip with the rents, because there are SO MANY colleges out there. The world is diverse and wonderful, longing to be explored and challenged. I am pumped to see where everyone in our class will end up at our 10 year reunion because I know each one of you will do bright, unique and exciting things. Lets Shake up this world class of 2009!


P.S. Its kind of sad, this graduating thing, you know. Transitions are so strange...

A little frantic...

I was reading into the second section of Crime and Punishment at work today and I think that I found out why people do read the book over and over again. I was finding myself actually feeling nervous while I was reading about Raskolnikov looking for blood on his clothes. The writing has made me like Rasky (Raskolnikov) even though he killed the old woman. While he was freaking out I felt like I was really there (that sounds so cheesy) experiencing it with him. I have only gotten to the part where he is at the police station, and it is killing me. I am just worried that Rasky will have some guilt attack and just blurt it out and ruin everything. It stinks because I feel like his getting caught is inevitable, but I don't know when or how it will happen. Frankly this book makes me feel anxious and frantic...

Frustration with immature High Schoolers

So we saw "12th Night" at Marshwood a couple days ago and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards the cast opened the floor up to questions. I was the last question to be taken, and being an actor, I was curious to know the difficulties in performing/ understanding Shakespeare. I asked the question in a detailed way to make the question clear and also detail is just the way I speak. After the question was answered one of the actors commented on the amazing auditorium. I politely agreed, the bell rang, everyone went to lunch. Now here is the punchline: Random people came up to me in the last two days commenting on how people (more than one mind you) were saying "shut up" to their friends about my "lengthy" question. COOOOOMMMMEEEE ONNNNN! What are you...Like two years old? People can be so ignorant at this age. We are watching Shakespeare to learn and explore the English language, rather than making comments such as "I love your dress." Further more, if people are SO concerned about the time restraint, why don't they just go back to class and get lectured at? ANNND why do these people not have compassion for anyone?? What if I wasn't even asking an intelligent question, what if I had really low self esteem, what if I talked for hours and stuttered over every word because I was nervous to speak in front of people? Luckily I am none of those things and my confidence is secure, but I can't even imagine what the "shut up yellers" do to people in those circumstances. It sickens me. Please grow up, take advantage of the amazing opportunities the school has given us, get some compassion and learn how to communicate with people. UGH.

Profile confusions

I just figured out how to change my profile...It never worked before. Yeah!!! I have an identity now!

x-ray vision

My uber intellegent friend at an Air force Acadamy in Colorado, recently posted this picture. He figured out by taking a picture of the scenery behind his computer, he could create the illusion that his computer is transparent. I saw this as very artistic, very creative and very time consuming. To get the exact right picture, he said it took him days. I guess that's what college is all about. The creative projects of endless free time! I can't wait...

Sonnet... Bonnet?

In the past few months we have been reading some lovely (Ha!) sonnets in class by my one and only favorite person, Willy Shakespeare. Nigel decided that we should write some of our own brainy sonnets, bring them in, and read them to the class. So last week our sonnets were due, and I had spent all weekend counting syllables and stressed and unstressed feet while my family walked by me wondering what the heck I was counting with my fingers and talking to myself about. I looked like a loony, but I finished it and it had the 10 syllables a line, with the stressed  and unstressed pattern. I was pretty darn proud of myself for even finishing, so I strutted into class on Monday feeling pretty good. That feeling lasted only until MS read her sonnet to the class. I thought that it was pretty good (I couldn't count fast enough to see if there were 10 syllables in each line, but it doesn't matter). Then Nigel asked her what her rhyming scheme was. WHAT? RHYMING SCHEME? I started to freak out. Apparently the sonnets had the RHYME! Well I definitely did NOT rhyme anything in my sonnet. After that I didn't want to read it at all. In the end Nigel just said that the sonnet could be fixed and turned in on Friday. Yay! I'll just go and rhyme the last words of the lines and turn it back in. But it's not that simple.

I spent 2 hours on the computer trying to find good words that rhyme with undisguised and that fit into the message of the sonnet. It was super hard. That got me thinking. Shakespeare wrote all kinds of sonnets, 154 if I am not mistaken, and I have a nagging feeling that he didn't go online and look at the rhyming dictionary to get his sonnet to fit the whole abab rhyming set-up. This is where I have to give Willy-boy some mad props. I mean 154 sonnets! That is crazy! I had a hard time writing one, and I used a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary to get mine to even fit the sonnet "rules". Who knows if it even made any sense, but let me tell you there were the right number of syllables, stressed and unstressed pairs, and those words rhymed gosh darn it!

This has to be some sort of Kodak moment... one you will most likely never see again, so appreciate it now... but I think that Shakespeare did a... nice job when writing his sonnets.