same title as everyone else..? "Various Thoughts"

start time= 11:43 oh its game time now, got my sleeves rolled up and im bringing everything i got :) ...every man desires to live long, but no man would be old now to me, mallory jordan williams, this makes me go back to the days when i was little and would see old people. its hard to picture them as young once, right? but see the thing is, when your little you have it all, in your mind your never gonna get old. however, you wouldnt want to die young... correct? see, everyones goal or wish in life is to live a long and happy life. if you never have, then do it now.. picture your future, did you see yourself old? i doubt many of you did, because to us we see ourselves this way (our present selves) as a perminant thing. like we drank from the fountain of youth or something, but news flash... we dont live in a fantasy world, theres no such thing, we all grow old.. whether we like it or not. its apart of life and it happens, despite knowing that though our thoughts will always stay youthful and our future will be young, pretty, and long.

The Merchant of Venice

So if you ever go to a play that's in old English I would defiantly recommend learning the plot of the play BEFORE you go see it. When we were watching this play I was a little lost at the beginning but by intermission you could pretty much figure out what was going on. But the story line was great! There's a mistress who must find a husband but can find no good suitor, and a sweet man who is the merchant of Venice...but I still can't quite figure out what he wanted, I know he needed a loan but I'm not entirely sure what for. But anyways the mistress finds a good suitor who is the merchant's friend, and her maid marries the mistress' husband's friend; and the mistress and maid play a terrible prank on their husbands its great!! I was laughing so hard on the side of the stage, they looked at me and shuushed me, but then winked at me so it was cool! And we got to sit right on the stage, it was a whole new perspective, we could have reached out and touched them....or separated them which I was ready to do once, but I'm sure you guys will hear about this tomorrow in class, I'm not sure if Emily, Hannah, or I get to tell this...awkward story!

Various Thoughts

"When we desire or solicit anything our minds run wholly on the good side of the circumstances of it; when 'tis obtained our minds run wholly on the bad ones" I love this thought, because it has so much truth behind it. We are never happy with what we have, we always find flaws in our materials and want something else. Maybe that's just a trait of man kind, to always want more. In some circumstances it can be a good thing, like education or something, to always push yourself to your limits. But other times when we receive something or reach a higher position in society we are not happy for it, we thirst for more power and control. We as humans need to learn to appreciate what we have and not give it up for something more.

The Merchant of Venice

I had so much fun going to this play. The actors did an amazing job of acting out Shakespeare's work and after awhile you forgot that they were even speaking Shakespeare's poetry because you were so enraptured by the story and the acting. We got a chance to sit on the stage while the actors performed and were practically in the story itself. The cast did not use a lot of props or makeup and often played more that one part but as an audience you didn't even realize it because of how intense everything was. I would highly recommend going to one of these in the future.

Various thoughts...

"No wiseman ever wished to be younger." only the young and reckless want to stay young. when one grows old, they realize their mistakes. people learn from what wrongs they have done. people also have learned the right things to do in life. wise people have learned that you have to live life in it's span and not wish to be what you are not.

thoughts on various subjects

so, i know ms. s said not to go with the easy one, the religion one..but as i was reading kaitlyns i wrote a comment back to her, and it was long enough to be my blog post, so i'm just gonna go with it. so this will be like my own thoughts and a response to kaitlyn :D "We have just enough religion to makes us hate, but not enough to make us love one another". I am going to have to say I completely agree with this, and it makes me super sad! I think that people are so caught up in religion. that is praying, going to church every sunday like good little boys and girls, and all of that stuff that religion is supposed to be. people who focus on just religion do not want to go to hell. i believe their only goal is to go to heaven. they go to church and act all like "praise God!" but then go to school and are like f this, f that. they are only in this to be a "good person". But on the other hand, i also think their are people who go to church because they believe in Jesus (or whoever they believe in) and want a relationship with Him. They want to show love to others, because of the love Jesus showed for them by dying on the cross. They want others to know the love of God. And in shelby high school, and i'm sure in every other school, you get shut down for it. they call you bible thumpers, or call you Jesus freaks, or think its ridiculous that you bring your bible to lunch. THESE PEOPLE ARE THE REASON WHY LOVE IS NOT SHOWN! People judge peoples relationship, they call them hypocrites, they expect church goers to be "perfect", they judge other people's churches "cult on a hill"...ring any bells? i honestly believe that if people quit judging and just gave people a chance, then there would be more love. i mean how many people do you see shoving religion down other peoples throats? not many, because they are afraid of rejection and that they will be judged from everyone else! i think the first step would be different religions getting along, churches getting along. there is no reason for fighting or hate between churches, especially since its super hypocritical and the only reason why there should be churches is to worship and spend time with your "whoever". religion=lame, relationship=amazing! :D but this quote inspires me a lot, maybe we should get out there and love like crazy throughout the school, so don't start judging when we do! :)

Thoughts on Various Subjects

Very few men, properly speaking, live at present but are providing to live another time. This statement holds a profound truth about the thoughts of society at large. Many times people spend their lives searching for more and living in anticipation for the future or dwelling on the happenings of the past rather than living for the moment. We get so caught up in accomplishing goals or waiting for an event to happen that we pass by on the simple joys of life and are blinded by our own ambition. In another case, people cannot let go of the past and hide themselves from what goes on in the world at present. Living this way does not allow people to fully enjoy what life has to offer. Society needs to slow down and smell the roses for you can't change what happened in the past and you can't predict what will happen in the future. Every day is a gift, that is why it is called the present.

My Thoughts on One "Various Subject"

"If a man would register all his opinions upon love, religion, learning, ect. beginning from his youth, and so go on to old age, what a bundle of inconsistencies and contradictions would appear at last."

Ha! I went through and picked one that no one else picked so far. If I find that someone else decides to do it later I will be bummed. But let's get down to business here shall we?

So first I looked at this epigram and decided what it was saying. It talks about how significantly our perspective changes throughout our life. You begin thinking one thing and often times you end your life looking at it from the completly opposite direction. Love, religion, and learning are pretty much the most important topics in society and everyone forms opinions on these things. So inorder to really understand what it was saying I applied it to myself. I am hopefully (knock on wood) not to close to the end of my time so I don't really have the full spectrum of this nailed down but I can see the changes in my views throughout the short time I have been here.

When you're young boys are icky, and they have cooties and then as you get older they become your friends and you hang out with them enough to realize that cooties aren't to bad. Then *GASP* you find that boys are kinda cute and maybe cooties aren't a bad thing at all.

When I was little I just went to church with my parents because they told me too. I believed what they believed because my parents are the smartest people in the world right? As I got older I took responsibility for what I was being taught in church and formed my own opinions regardless of the view my parents thought on things. The older I get the more clear and separated my religion is from my parents, I assume that will continue.

I hated school as a little kid. I got yelled at all the time for day dreaming and they had to put an egg timer on my desk to keep my focused. If I didn't get done before the timer went off I got serious punishment (we were big fans of punishment at my elementary) blah blah middle ground.... Now I really actually like school (NERD! I know) I love learning. School is a lot of work but I really like getting up every day knowing I will be educated.

So this is way longer then I anticipated but hey, extra work is cool right?

Spring Break is a Break

I'm hoping Spring Break will not be tainted with British Literature. Though I enjoy the class, I really need a break and Brit Lit is the class that stresses me out the most. I know we have the satire project and even though it's appears to be a fairly fun assignment I'm not to pleased I'll have to work on it over my vacation. Large projects like this one tend to weigh on me. They're a lot of work and the idea that if I want to raise my grade I need to do fantastic on them tends to loom over me making the whole project foreboding.

Thoughts on Various Subjects.

"No wise man ever wished to be younger."

So when I first read Thoughts on Various Subjects, I wasn't going to use this part. It didn't really stand out to me until I really REALLY looked at its deeper meaning. When I was younger, I always said that I was never going to grow up. I simply wanted to stay young forever. I wasn't a very wise child. (: After reading this though, it made me realize that I have made a lot of mistakes before. I have done some really dumb things. Lost a lot of friends. Gotten into trouble. Gone against what my parents said. But... I would never go back and redo any of those mistakes to make them better. I learned from my mistakes and that makes me wise. Sometimes life just moves to fast for us to realize what we really should be doing. But in the end, when we are all old, we will look back on that and remember that all those mistakes taught us a very good lesson. No one would want to go back to being young and make those mistakes again or fix any mistakes because that's whats makes us who we are.

Subjects of Various Thoughts

When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the good side or circumstances of it; when 'tis obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones.

Well, I had origanlly chose the one about religion and love but then when I saw other people write about it I chose this one because no one else had yet. Anyways this thought slightly reminded me of "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry for tommorow you die" because it's about immediate pleasure and doing anything and everything to get what you want. This very thought is how advertising is run, consumers are told that they arn't good enough or that they must have this new product; but as soon as the new products are bought; bigger, better, and more improved products show up and those must be bought.

The thought also made me think of relationships and how our society has convinced us to rush in fast without thought and maybe get married and when "our minds run wholly on the bad ones", so what? Theres always divorce right? So now we end up with third and fourth marriages from the same mistakes made over again and children being shipped across town or state from parent to parent once a week. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this?

"the tiger"

I think the story about the tiger was showing the two differnt sides of God and the Devil. I think the lamb represents everything godly, and the tiger represents sin and all things created by the devil to devert people from Gods path. I also think when he mentioned the tiger's fiery eye, it's refering to the fires of hell

Thoughts

No wise man ever wished to be younger.

The first thing I thought about after reading this epigram was what my grandmother advised me at my sisters graduation in response to me stating that I wish it were my senior year. "Don't wish your life away, it picks up speed and when you get to be older you find yourself running to keep up with it." In the few years since I find myself discovering what she meant. Life moves fast. I find there are aspects of my childhood (teen years too as I near 18) I will always want to revisit. This feeling, I'm sure, exists in all of us to some degree. Who won't miss being a careless teenager or the simplicity of youth? There is foolishness in searching for the fountain of youth but I believe accepting the benefits of being young is wise. To Swift I say this-

No wise man ever wished to be older.

Thoughts on Various Subjects

"When a true genius apppears in the world, you may know him by this sign: that the dunces are all in confederacy against him"

This statement is witty because it says that dumb people hate smart people. This statement shows how people can come into the world revealing strange ideas that no one has ever heard before and no one will pay them any attention because they have been brought up thinking something and are so used to it that they dont want to accept new ideas. In the 17th century there were disputes on religion. New people came in and started developing their own ideas about god and because of what they were brought up to believe some people were discusted at these new ideas. A lot of new individuals present their ideas and at first they may be looked down upon but eventuall, maybe not in a year or twenty years, people will understand what they were thinking. Even hitler is seen as a genious. Some of his ideas on how to carry out his dreams were a little extreme but he still had ideas contradictory to normallity and people didnt like it.

"Thoughts on Various Subjects..."

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another..." I didn't choose this one just because it was easy. In fact, how many of you actually chose this one after Ms. Stariha suggested that we browse through them all? Anyway, why did I choose this one, out of all of the various thoughts? Because, I simply relate to it. And everybody else who attends Shelby High School should too, whether you're religous or not. If this post offends anyone in any way, shape, or form, then I apologize, this is just my opinion and if it does strike as offensive (which i hope it doesn't) then just look at it as satire, okay? haha To the point, living in Shelby we are surrounded by religion; there's simply no escaping it. Don't get me wrong; I believe in God and go to church and everything. But, there's just soooo much religion expressed at school; there is and I know I'm not the only one who sees it. At school, we have people who say their religous and mean it. Then, there are those people who say their religious and rarely truely express it; in fact, the only way they express it is by going to all the youth group gatherings, and prayer groups, and such. There is so much disliking of one another in school, sometimes to the point of hatred. But, there is never love. There is like but there is no love. And does anybody see those crazy religious followers trying to create love in school? No. Never. You see, not only them, but everybody hating on one another. Hate thrives in various forms. People hate those who are not in their social circle. People hate others out of simple, sinning jealousy. You even see people of one religious aspect looking down on and disliking those of another religion to a great extent. You may say I'm wrong. You may even hate me for this post. But, you know what? I could care less. Because I've experienced this personally and I know others have too. That's why I am able to relate to that "various thought" so incredibly well. And that's just the way the world goes around...

My Thoughts on Various Thoughts

"When a true genius appears in the world, you my know him by this sign: that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." This was one of the epigrams that stood out to me the most and I understood it better by picking it apart. The first part (when - sing:) is fairly straight forward, when someone is truly smart you can always tell because of... Then the second part (that - him) was a bit more involved. Dunces have never been the brightest of all people therefore I think Swift is referring to a "less smarter" class of people than the genius. When I read "...Are all in confederacy against him," the first thing I thought off was the confederacy army of early America and how the southern states grouped together and opposed the ideas of the Union. I think that the dunces are doing the same thing with the smarter man, they are grouping together and are against what he believes in. This epigram also reminds me of the commonly heard saying "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link" because no matter how smart that on genius may be, they will not always have their way, even though it may be for the best, because there will always be a least one person who is less smart an will restrain the rest form making that better or smarter choice.

Thoughts on Various Subjects

"No wise man ever wished to be younger."

This is very true. To be truly a wise man then you have to live a full life. A life that is full of mistakes and experience. With time, each mistake becomes a lesson is learned. With time, you grow wiser from these mistakes. With time, you learn who you are, what the world is, and how to live life. With time, you become old and with time, you become wise. This is why "no wise man ever wished to be younger" because time is what makes us who we are. If you became younger then you would lose yourself, your regrets, your knowledge, and your wisdom.

Thoughts on Various Subjects

"Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old." This quote is pretty self explanatory and I think it sort of describes society's view of aging not only today but back then too. Everyone wants to live long but no one wants to be old. Its kind of ironic. We want to live long but we want to stay young. Growing old is inevitable yet we try so hard to avoid it. You would think after all this time, we would realize its useless to avoid growing old. You would think that by now we would just accept that fact that life is going to end and embrace it, not worry about growing old. But even I don't want to die. I want to live long. But yet I don't want to grow old. Society makes such a huge deal about growing old. How awful it is. "You get wrinkles, and lose your eyesight and your hearing, etc." But it is just a fact of life. It is going to happen and there is nothing you can do about it.

The Lamb

So I really liked this SHORT :) poem I'd call it, but I think I understood it like completely and that cannot be right, it just cant!! So tomorrow when we go over this I am going to be looking for a completely different meaning than enlightening the child "lamb" to Jesus. Just sayin!! But the Tiger I didn't understand half as well so that isn't new and feels more normal so in the end the two equaled each other out I guess!!

the 7th various thought!!

I chose the seventh epigram which is:

"ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping. "

What I really enjoyed about this particular epigraph was that it applies to everyone, and pretty much every situation and decision you make. What I think this epigraph means is that ambition can turn into greed and possibly twist your redeeming qualities around on you.

1. what first came to mind was Macbeth, yes I know going back to Macbeth again lol but he first poped into my head. Macbeth was a good kind man until he got a glimpse of power and then he became obsessed with power and climbing that chain of command. His ambition was his downfall, which we discussed in class.

2. Next i thought of high school just because well that's where i am most of the day surrounded by friends and foes and possibly friends who are also foes at times. These people you see in the hallway every day, the people who live to climb up the social ladders. Their intent is good (most of the time but ya never know it is high school were talking abut) but they tend to step on their "lower level" friends as they reach their intended climbing up that social ladder.

I had more examples like politicians and what-not but this was gettin pretty long! so I stoped :)

Sattire..

I'm really liking the use of Sattire in this era, because although it's used in a way of humor or sarcasm, it's almost like it always has a hidden meaning behind the ridiculing of a true issue!! I'm kinda dissapointed that I missed our class watching south park :( haha but anyyyywayyyys, I hope I do good on this sattire project and on whatever next grade we have going in...i really need to make up for that C on the test /:

Thoughts on Various Subjects

The epigram that stood out to me at first was "No wise man ever wished to be younger"..not just because it was the shortest! lol I think this is interesting because what I kind of comprehended from it was that a man who was wise, spent his life wisely, and is still living wisely at the moment. This means he does not wish to go back, because he is wise enough to know how to be content with where he is at, and not get sucked into what all of society puts on us to look feel act and all around BE younger. I think this is what this epigram was saying, I liked it. PS- sorry Abby I saw you [posted the same one I was gonna switch but then i figured that their really isn't that many of these in this reading so alot of people are going to have the same one! I guess both our ideas are just shared now :) lol

My "Thoughts on Various Subjects"

This is the epigram I liked best: When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the good side or circumstances of it; when 'tis obtained, our minds run wholly on the bad ones. I think this epigram is saying that we always want more and are never satisified with what we have. Its so strange that this concept still applies today! The most interesting point that Swift makes, however, is that he talks about the other side too. When we want something, we only find the good. BUT, once we have it, we only find the bad. It is one of those sad, but true ideas that our society can't seem to get over.

Weekly Post

So, so far I am really enjoying this tri of Brit Lit. I love the literature that we started off with, and I especially love the history during this time. The literature is a direct reflection of the history of that time. I'm not going to try to deny it, I'm a history geek, if I could make a good career out of history that didn't involve teaching I would totally do it!

William's Tiger and Lamb

"The Lamb" I love the questions in the first two lines of this poem: "Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?" I this question would cause any non-religious person to stop and think. Also I feel like through these questions, it is almost like Blake is making sure we know who to be grateful to and and what we should be grateful for. That God gave us everything, and wants us to know that. The imagery in this poem is very light and joyful, and draws very clear comparisons to Jesus Christ. Meek, mild, became as a little child. "The Tiger" I didn't clearly understand the meaning of this poem. To me it seems like Blake thinks of the Tiger as being a very powerful creature and seems to be somewhat fearful of it. I liked the way he described the tigers eyes, saying they burn with fire. Also the line that says, "What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry?" makes me wonder if Blake is questioning God's decision to create the tiger.. ?

Wise Epigram

I chose the epigram, "No wise man ever wished to be younger." I think this statement is witty because in our society today, everyone is trying to look younger, feel younger, BE younger. But what this statement is saying is that no wise man would ever choose to be young. Being youthful portrays strength, beauty, being active and ambitious. But also is associated with being naive, bad-tempered, careless and inexperienced. Being able to discern between what is right and what is wrong is learned over time as a person has experiences and learns how to make those judgements. To me, Swift is saying that the benefits of being young do not even compare and should not be traded for the characteristics that are developed with age.

So far...

So, yesterday's discussion was really interesting. I got a lot out of it. And I like the fact that the literature is becoming more modern, which means it's becoming easier to understand and relate to. I know this sounds kind of nerdy but I can't wait until we read our first novel.

"Forget about the money, money, money..."

Okay so when I was driving to basketball last night that new Jessie J and B.o.B song came on "Foget about the Money." It's pretty much my favorite song right now so as I was singing way too loudly in the car I semi-conciously registered the fact that this song is talking about the phrase "eat, drink, and be merry..." It's definatley a song saying to forget about the price tag and money and just sit back and enjoy the moment and smile :) yeah, i know we are past the seventeenth century, but I just had to go back one more time :)