Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

1. It represents the ignorant lives that people in most institutions live.
2. Symbolism is used often in the form of extended metaphor. He refers to the institution of education as a cave with shackles and an instructor telling you what to believe. The sun being true enlightenment.
3. If you want true enlightenment, you have to ask your own questions. You must personally take charge in figuring the world out yourself.
4. They weren't there by their own will. Somebody else forced them in there and don't want them to leave.
5. School in that in order to succeed, a student has to mindlessly follow whatever the teacher tells them, rather than a person being in charge of their own personalized education.
6. The freed prisoner is excited and curious while the trapped prisoners are subtly content with where they are, even though, it's not the true world.
7. Leaving the cave at first, when you become "blinded by the sun," and when you go back into the cave, when "your eyes need to adjust to the darkness."
8. The prisoners simply need to be curious enough to break their shackles by asking questions, and observing what is really happening.
9. I don't think there is too large of a distinction, the distinction comes when trying to recreate a reality in the form of words for somebody else, or when you try to remember what reality used to be.
10. The world is better understood through the physical makeup of things. Thoughts cannot influence reality.

Big Question

My big question has been one I've been thinking of for a while. It's more of a theory than a question, but it follows the formula that Dr. Preston laid out for us about these questions, so here it is:

On the topic of dimensional theory, I can think in a way that nobody else can. Everybody's thoughts are unique, and cannot be measured directly. According to my theory, this is because thoughts are a fourth dimensional object that humans cannot directly perceive because we are third dimensional beings. If thoughts are fourth dimensional, then it is very possible that all thinking forms of life are controlled by the same fourth dimensional being.

The basis of my theory is speculation on the fourth dimension, through comparison of the third and second dimension. Since we exist in the third dimension, we can perceive the first three dimensions. Imagine the second dimension as a piece of paper. You can touch the paper at separate points with one hand, and wiggle your fingers around the paper separately. In the same way, we could be controlled by a fourth dimensional being by being the "fingertips" of a being touching a third dimensional "paper."

In order for this to be efficient, this means that each our world would need to be equidistant to this fourth dimensional being, as to waste less energy (if that even exists in the fourth dimension). This means that our space is fourth dimensionally round. What does that mean? Well, imagine a circle. That's a two dimensional figure. The circumference of that circle is a first dimensional line, coiled in a way so that every point on that line is equidistant to a point in the center of the circle. In the same way the points on the surface of a sphere are equidistant to the point in the center of a sphere. So our "space" is fourth dimensionally wrapped around a center fourth dimensional point.

Comment with any questions or loopholes you find in my theory and I'll look into it.

Notes on Hamlet

This one is a little late, I kinda forgot about this one. This is for Hamlet Act 3, even though we've already gotten more than half way through act 4. Not much has changed about the characters since they were first introduced in my opinion. Every character wants to take the blame for anything that goes wrong, then tries to correct it making things get worse. All the characters are very self-centered, and it does get a little annoying to hear each character talk about how bad everything is.

I see a lot of death in the near future. As soon as one character dies, there will be a chain reaction and a lot more deaths. This will be bloody and violent.

Oh, and in case you didn't see the video, Here it is. The Collaborative Hamlet Remix that I was involved in.

Who was Shakespeare?

I just went to Google, typed in William Shakespeare, clicked on the first site, and I got THIS. William Shakespeare was a poet, an author, an actor,and most importantly, a real person. We know he wrote a lot of poems, sonnets, and plays. The site acknowledges the fact that a lot of people don't believe in Shakespeare, it points out a lot of different conspiracies, and shrugs them off. This site is a great source for Shakespeare, and to post everything I learned from this site would be a waste of time to write down, because there is a lot of information there. Check it out.

To Facebook or not to Facebook?

Privacy is the main issue given in this article, but what I think is misunderstood is what the information is used for: advertising. I could be completely wrong, in which case I would feel quite stupid, but Facebook isn't selling your 11-year-old's information to serial killers that enjoy killing children simply because they know where the child lives and likes Snickers candy bars. People need to calm down and realize what the term "personal information" actually means. I understand that building a brand name into a child's mind may be considered morally wrong, but it's just advertising.

One of the other huge issues about Facebook is bullying. Cyber bullying can cause a lot of problems in the development of a child as a human being. Hold on, so does NON-cyber bullying. Only difference? Online. This has some upsides and some downsides to it. Bullying done online has a larger audience, so it may be more embarrassing for the victim. On the plus side, the evidence is always there, an authority can catch a bully much quicker, and they can be punished and stopped. On the playground, bullies are sometimes never caught, because the victims fear what will happen if the bully finds out.

When I started Facebook, I thought it would be a fun way to be with friends in a way and never be out of touch. I don't get on often enough to make full use of this, but I do use Facebook to plan social events, where I can interact with my friends. I think people in general are just too quick to overreact to the "evils" of Facebook.

Lit Analysis: Tale of Two Cities

1. The book opens with a lengthy description of the era: The French Revolution. An English woman named Lucie Manette goes to Paris in search of her father who she had thought was dead until recently. She finds her father who is now not his normal self for being imprisoned for a long time. Back in England, a man named Darnay is accused of a crime, and is acquitted because of a drunk lawyer named Carton. They both end up having feelings for Lucie, and Darnay even marries her, but both get executed because of the craze of the French Revolution.

2. I would say that the main theme is that sometimes, circumstance will lead to tragedy regardless of what you do.

3. The author uses an emotional and poetic tone to better connect with the reader's emotions.

"Waste forces within him, and a desert all around, this man stood still on his way across a silent terrace, and saw for a moment, lying in the wilderness before him, a mirage of honorable ambition, self-denial, and perseverance."

"The barrister was keen enough to divine that the banker would not have gone so far in his expression of opinion on any less solid ground than the moral certainty. Unprepared as he was for the large pill he had to swallow, he got it down."

"He bent over the golden head, and put  the rosy lips to his, and folded her in his arms. If one forlorn wanderer then pacing the dark streets, could have heard her indecent disclosure, and could have seen the drops of pity kissed away by her husband from the soft blue eyes so loving of that husband, he might have cried to the night-and the words would not have parted from his lips for the first time."

4. The author uses a lot of comparison and parallelism especially in the opening. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" I really should complete that quote, but I'm tired, and you should be able to find it online quickly. The author uses setting to put the characters in a place where their world is falling apart around them in a very unique way. I don't think this story would be that similar in another setting. The author uses metaphor such as in the quotes above, with the "large pill" and "drops" of pity being "kissed away." The author also uses characterization so you can develop a connection with the characters so their downfall is that much more meaningful.

Link's Journey

Another late assignment. Here it is, as fitted upon Link in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Departure: This is when Link finally gets his fairy, Navi, who is his guide and mentor and knows pretty much everything about the world around her. Among the children living in the forest, Link had always been teased because he had been the only boy without a fairy, and as we all know, you can't be a real man without having a fairy. So he gets his fairy who tells him he needs to go see the tree spirit that brought him into the forest in the first place to learn about his past. He starts his adventure by proving he can kill a monster living inside this tree spirit. Where he learns why his skills are needed by the rest of the kingdom.

Initiation: This includes the 2 more dungeons filled with puzzles traps and monsters that Link must get through in order to save the kingdom. After these dungeons, he is granted the sacred sword blessed by the gods to fight against the forces of evil many times throughout history. This sword may only be used by certain heroes that have the courage and strength to fight evil. There is a very obvious problem with Link being a hero at this moment: he is a 10-YEAR-OLD-BOY! One of the sages seals him away in the sacred realm for him to grow into the hero the land needs. By this time, Link realizes it is his responsibility to save the world from the darkness brought about by the King of Thieves, Ganondorf. After 5 more temples conquered to awaken the sages, Link kills Ganondorf, purging the world of his evil.

Return: Link goes back in time to return to his friends that celebrate his return. He realizes that as a hero, he must continue doing heroic things. He gets on the back of his horse and rides off in the distance, to be remembered in the stories past down from generation to generation.