Romeo and Juliet Likes and Dislikes

• Elements Sheet- this sheet had helpful definations of the elements. The quizzes were not fun though, they were too freguent.
  
• Packet from the Magazine about Shakespeare- interesting but slighty corny. My least favorite article was the one where the writier pretended to have an interview with Shakespeare.
  
• Reading sections of the play at home- I liked this assignment. It did not take a lot of time, it was simple and easy.
  
• Quizes on reading- most of the time this quizzes were good. If you did not read the night before then they could be very bad, but then that is your own fault.
  
• Translations- translating Shakespeare can be a little diffcult. I wasn't to crazy about those assignments.
  
• Getting parts from the play and reading as a class- I really did not like doing this. I did not have a part because I do not like reading out loud, but I also find it diffcult to pay attention when others are reading out loud.
  
• Giving examples of elements on the yellow pieces of paper- I liked doing this a lot. It was fun and we got to move around. It also helped us learn how to cite information for a play.
  
• Watching the movie- watching movies is always good. I liked the classic Romeo and Juliet that we watched. I think we get to watch the modern verison also. I am looking forward to that. Hopefully we can watch West Side Story also.
• Listening to the CD- I really enjoyed listening to the CD. It helped me understand the what was going on in the story better because I could hear how certain lines were said.
  

Haiku!

Polished Journal
3-2-07

Always listening
music playing in my ears,
it is my soundtrack.

Emily is dumb.
Smile is one syllable, not
two, when will she learn.

Fridays are fun days
especially when Thursday
is your Friday fun.

Born without a name,
all over the newspapers
panda baby's life.

Tons of pain I feel,
running has become too hard.
Is my body done?

Waves crash towards shore
missing ocean more and more,
St. George will come next year.

Traveling the world,
each week a new place, how cool.
Wish I could be him.

Lucy is my love.
She is a retarded spaz,
slobermouth, no brain.

Sumi is so sweet,
every dog should be like her.
My big black fur ball.

Odyssey Test
1-23-07

1. What have you learned about Greek culture, values, and religion? Address the roles of women and men, honor and virtues, gods and goddesses, etc.
The book the Odyssey, represents Greek culture, values, and religion at its finest. Homer shows how Greeks welcomed guests of any kind into their houses, no matter what they had going on. Not only did the Greeks welcome strangers, women were not powerless during the time the Odyssey takes place. Women did not have more power then the men or the boys did, but they did have a surprising amount of input considering the time period they lived in. For example when Odysseus was away, Penelope has rule over the palace when Telemachus is young. Even when Telemachus gets older, Penelope still has the final say in many decisions related to the suitors.

One of the biggest things I learned about Greek values is that they are hospitable. Every time Odysseus and his men came to an island with non mortals they would be welcomed with a huge feast. Not only do the Greeks love to feed their guests, but also they do not seem to mind the length of your stay. The only bad value that I have noticed while reading and watching the Odyssey is that sometimes the visitor can get a little rude and out of hand. The suitors that hung out in the courtyard of Odysseus’ palace became greedy and demanding. Greek values might not actually be like this but these actions can make one think that Greeks can sometimes be unruly. In the Odyssey, you can tell that Greek religion is very much centered around gods and believing in mythical creatures. Every island that Odysseus lands on and almost every thing he meets on his odyssey is a god of mythical creature. Take for example, his way of travel is by sea, or Poseidon the sea god. Athena, the daughter of Zeus would appear whenever an Odysseus family member needed help. Odysseus meet Cyclops, a nymph and many gods all while on his journey.
2. What resonated with you in reading about Odysseus' adventures? Why? When you hear someone talk about the Odyssey, different thoughts may pop up into your head. For some it could bring up memories of reading an incredibly long and boring book in school. For others it could make them think of ancient Greece and all of the Greek god/goddess stories. But for me, I think of the bravery Odysseus had. Almost every action of thought he made took a lot of bravery to actually do. From the very beginning of his story, he shows bravery when he goes of to fight in Troy. When he leaves Troy and begins his 20 year trek back to Ithaca he has no idea want is in store for him, but he never shows his fear. During his time on Poseidon’s sea, he went from island to island searching for new and faster ways to get back to his dear Penelope and Ithaca. On each of the islands he visits, he meets new gods, human, or monsters. Meeting new people is not always the easiest task and he handled of it well. Not only was he able to charm most of the people he met, he also was able to fix problems or situations that may have occurred. Odysseus also showed his great bravery off every time he had to fight a monster or keep himself from thinking that it was not in his control that he betrayed Penelope. Many times he was tempted by goddess but he would resist the temptation, risking the chance of punishment by the goddess. From the beginning of his odyssey when he goes off to fight till the very end when he has to kill lots of suitors, Odysseus is full bravery that helped him stay alive.
3. This epic poem is dated nearly 3000 years ago, why is it still relevant?
Some documents are written with the purpose of being able to withstand the future. But some are not always able to make it through history. The Odyssey is one of those documents that did. When Homer told this epic poem, he did not tell it hoping that it would last for many years. It just did. For a document to be able to last a very long time it must be flexible or in the Odyssey’s case easy for everyone to relate to. Since a good part of the plot is about adventure and family it becomes something that most people can relate to. Not only is the plot one reason for it staying relevant, the fact that it is an epic poem made it last longer. Many centuries ago when stories were only told, after Homer told this story, generations later were probably still hearing it. Once storytelling was no longer the way to tell a story, the Odyssey began being put into written format. So because people knew the story and how good it was it would just be translated over and over again.

4. How would you characterize the narrator, the fictive "Homer" whose voice we imagine as singing the verses of the Odyssey?
When Homer first comes to mind, I think of a very peaceful, down-to-earth kind of guy. But when I think about who he could have been and what he wrote, I began to think of someone else. The Odyssey is full of the things that would make a movie X rated. It has violence, sex, and drugs. This makes me think that Homer would have been a very interesting man. I think that he would know and probably even experienced violence and sex. He was probably a typical man back in his time except the fact that he could write poems, epic poems for that matter. He must have been very into literature and maybe even a little sensitive.
5. What kinds of behavior are treated as contemptible in the Odyssey?
Every single aspect of the Odyssey is not like today at all. One of the biggest that has changed over years is behavior. The Greeks are showed to be these kind, open people, but they do have some things that are just not allowed. Welcoming strangers into their homes was a normal thing to do but once the strangers are in your house, the hostess has a certain way to behave. Not wanting to feed certain visitors or treat them with respect is not acceptable no matter how rude they might be. Women being unfaithful to their husbands were also disgraceful but it would be treated a little differently.
6. How does the poem represent mortal women? Since Penelope is the most important woman in the Odyssey, what qualities does she possess, and how does she respond to the troubles she faces? (Some of the other women are of note, too-Eurycleia the serving woman, the faithless maidservants, Nausicaa the Phaeacian princess, and Helen of Sparta, Menelaus' queen, whose elopement with Prince Paris sparked the Trojan War.)
Women have never really had a good stand in stories and in real life. Their rights are not always given and they are not treated right either. But in the Odyssey, things are a little different. Mortal women do not have a complete say in things but they do have some. Penelope for instance, has control over the palace most of the time even though Telemachus is there. She is portrayed as a strong woman because she can face all of the suitors and tell what to do. Not only that but she has to live 20 years never knowing for sure if her husband is dead or alive. Some of the other women in the Odyssey do not have as big parts but they are still strong. Eurycleia, even though she was a maid, would not stand all those suitors in the palace and would refuse to serve them. The women in the Odyssey are showed to be strong and courageous.
7. How do Homer's gods think and behave? How do their actions and motivations differ from the conception of god in other religions of which you have knowledge? What role do the Homeric gods play in human affairs, and what is the responsibility of humans with respect to those gods?

Homer’s and Greek gods are very different from a god of a western religion. In the Odyssey they worship their gods with a passion. Statues are built in big temples just for a god. They pray every day to them and ask for help and guidance. As much as they worship them though, few are actually blessed with being able to see the gods. Having a god speak to you was a great honor. The god knew they were important too. They acted with confidence, but almost to a point were it was cocky. The gods would choose to help certain mortals, demanding on their problem. Or in Odysseus’ case the gods could just be in love with you. In religions from the more modern world, gods do not act this way at all. For instance, some of the Greek goddess would sleep with the mortal men. This is never portrayed or thought of in modern religions.

Similarities Between 3 Miyazaki Films

12-7-06

In class I have watched 3 Miyazaki films, all of which I have seen before. When watching all of these I noticed some similarities in all of his movies. In Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke the monsters or demons look the same. They both have big black or dark colored monsters that are covered in some type of goop. With each of these monsters comes a hidden surprise inside, which usually requires some pulling to get. Miyazaki also likes to include characters from one movie and work them into another movie. For example, the little black and spiky balls from Spirited Away are also in My Neighbor, Totoro. I have also noticed that in his movies, the main character is almost always a girl. The girls he creates are always different though. Take the girl from Spirited Away’ she was not very brave at times while the two girls from Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro are brave. Another character similarity I noticed was that along with having a main girl, he also has a boy who creates a little love story side plot. The music or soundtrack for these three movies sounds the similar also. I do not know if they are similar, but all three of them have piano music playing through many parts of the movie. I think he may have chosen the piano as a main music choice because it is an easy instrument to create different feels in the music with. For instance, you could always tell when there was a lot of action or when something sad was happening just by the way the music sounds.

Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

12-7-06

The movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a great movie, but once again I did not get to watch the whole movie. I thought that it was a very sweet, but sad story. This movie was also a little confusing, but as not as much as Waking Life. This movie made me think about how awful it would be to be erased from someone’s mind. Especially if the person was someone you loved. I cannot quite put what I got from the movie in words because I just thought it was such a great movie. As Ms.Chiang said, the movie is “mind boggling.”

Waking Life

12-7-06

The movie Waking Life is very interesting. I am not quite sure how much I learned from it but I do know that it really got me thinking. I found the movie to be confusing but that was part of the why I kept watching it. The main part of the movie that really caught my attention was about being in a dream state. Having this be the dream state is a main part of movie that you thought about may have been the director’s point. I could not get over was the fact that the main character was always in this constant dream state. He would wake up after having what he thought was a dream, only to realize that he was still dreaming. This really confused me. Why was he always dreaming? When would he wake? Was he dead or alive? These questions were running through my head through out the whole movie. The questions never got answered however, because I did not get to finish watching the movie. I think I would have enjoyed the movie better if I had watched the whole thing.
One thing that I truly enjoyed about the movie was watching how the different art changed during the movie. I found it very cool that they filmed the movie first and then went back to make it a cartoon. I also loved watching the different artist change during the movie. I think that the movie had more character than other animated movies because of how it was done.

The Closet

Journal

11-15-06

“Uh oh”, I thought as I heard laughter coming from outside in the hallway. It was Ridalfo, my ex-boyfriend coming back to his apartment. I had been snooping around his apartment all day. We had broken up about 2 months ago and I had not yet given his key back. Out relationship was just getting serious when he ended things abruptly, so I decided to go snooping around his place before returning the key. Now, as I was getting ready to leave I heard him coming home. I knew right away that it was not just someone walking in the hall when I heard the laugh. Ridalfo had the most recognizable laugh. It was the type where the moment he started, he could have just about the whole room laughing along with him. But anyway, getting back to my story, so I knew that I had to hid and fast too. I was in his little hallway right outside his bedroom, so I jumped into the linen closet. Immediately after jumping into my hideout, he walked through the door. Only he was not by himself, he was some girl. The location of the linen closet made it quite easy for me to creak the door a little and see what was going on. As I looked outside at him and his “friend”, I could tell something was up. The way that they looked into each other’s eyes and laughed, I could tell they were going out. After about an hour of me just hiding out in the closet they started talking about a time 7 months ago when they had first went out. Wait, I thought, 7 months ago Ridalfo and I were still going out. So that means he was cheating on me!! I could not stand it any longer, so I jumped out of the closet and just ran out. As I left the apartment, I screamed, “ I cannot believe you cheated on me. I never talked to him again; to embarrassed by the way I reacted and could not face him. I guess thought that I just went psycho or something because he did not try to call me.