The Night Angel Trilogy

I recently, in the last four days, read The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. They were very engrossing books and I stayed up past midnight reading them every night. One of the things that I liked about these books is that no one is "good" everyone has some flaw. Sometimes the character is aware of it and sometimes not. Often when the character is unaware of their own personal flaw another character kills them. Ignorance is dangerous.
The main idea of the book is about boy, Azoth,  who lives in the Warrens (the poor dirty district of the city) and he wants out. The leader of his Guild, Rat, is awful. So, little Azoth decides that he wants to become a wetboy and he wants to apprentice to the best wetboy in the city, Durzo Blint. Three books later Durzo is still a mentor and Azoth, now Kylar, is the most powerful wetboy ever. There is a lot more to it but if you actually are interested then you have to read the book yourself. I didn't read it for you.
Anyway, the writing gets better as you progress through the three books. Or maybe the writing was phenomenal the whole time because the main character becomes more interesting as he grows up, as real humans do.
The whole thing ended very cornily,  with love and everyone singing to fill the space and defeat the evil. Which was a surprise because the rest of the plot, for the most part, is about killing people and how to do it effectively. There is a love story and political intrigue as well, so there's something for everyone.
I liked these books a lot, they took up a lot of my time, but I don't think that I will read them again. 

Writing

I don't know if you know this but I am an aspiring writer. I have completed the first draft of a novel and I have worked on some others and right now I am working on a novel set in a city called Dimzelton. Dimzelton is a raised city in a marsh. Most of the people don't ever go in or out because the Chancellor is similar to a tyrant. I haven't really developed his role yet.
I have one main character, a girl named Lenny and she is supported by supporting characters, what do you know. The people that are helping Lenny keep changing, she has not had the same "protector" so to speak for more than 15,000 words. I think that her current ones will be steady, I can not foresee any issues with them.
I have a general, semi-idea of where the story might go. I know more how the characters should develop. Other than that I am just seeing what happens, it is quite fun, actually.
Well, that's all for today. Tomorrow I will post a really yummy recipe for chocolate crinkle cookies. At least I think I will, I have a research paper due the next day so we will see what happens.

Well, here we are

As is usually the case I am sitting here in front of my computer avoiding homework. I have scrolled up and down my wall on Facebook and it has grown to be completely boring.
I don't actually have anything to write about today. I will soon though, I have a new English class this quarter so that is sure to generate some literary thoughts. My posts about my thoughts on what I read seem to get the most hits so I think that I will do more of those. If you were so kind to read this nothing of a blog post you will see that I have included an educational video for you.
(Actually you will see it even if you didn't read the nonsense written above this.)

The educational video

I spelled existence wrong in the tags....I can't figure out how to change it. 

Hamlet

Hey person who might actually be reading my blog. I wrote an essay on Hamlet, I posted in on my other blog to so if you somehow happen upon it I am plagiarizing myself. Oh, and if you somehow find this and you yourself are trying to write a reliable essay, know that I am not a reliable source. Most of the proclamations I make I just made up on the spot as I wrote my essay and then I took lines almost out of context to support them. But yeah, here ya are:

Hamlet’s Descent

            During the course of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet, the main character descends into undeniable madness. At which point he becomes “mad” is a point of contention. By the end of the play disasters have ravaged his mind so that little semblance of order remains. He may still be able to think logically, to a certain degree, but he no longer has room for human empathy. He has suffered too much emotionally. There are three main characters that lead to or contributed to his demise: the ghost of Hamlet senior, his father; Polonius, his lover’s father; and Claudius, his uncle and stepfather, the King.

            The play begins two months after Hamlet senior has died. A month ago his mother married Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. Hamlet does not approve of the marriage and believes it was arranged too hastily. He feels that there is nothing he can do about it because his uncle is the King and it is treasonous to speak against him. Hamlet has his first reason to question his sanity when the ghost of his father appears. The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius killed him by pouring poison into his ear. Other characters, namely Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend, see the ghost but it does not speak to them. All they hear it say is, “Swear.” (1.5.175) Hamlet knows that seeing the ghost doesn’t make him crazy. What he is worried about is what would happen if he believed the ghost.

            Hamlet must decide whether or not the ghost is an amiable spirit or an evil one. The ghost admits to being in purgatory, so it really could go either way. For Hamlet to even consider avenging his father’s death is treasonous. Everything about the ghost is wrong, what it suggests and its very presence. If Hamlet kills Claudius as the ghost suggests, he will go to Hell. Hamlet is conflicted about whether or not the murder would be worth Hell. This doubt in the ghost and himself guides Hamlet down a road to madness.

            Hamlet hears a player recite a monologue about Hecuba when her husband was slain by Pyrrhus. Hamlet is so moved by the monologue that he wishes he had the same power of speech and feeling that the player has. He does not know what to feel or do in his own life, and this player has rendered such emotion in a story that does not even concern him. Hamlet is jealous about the player’s control and power over emotion. “A broken voice, and his whole function suiting, with forms to his conceit—and all for nothing! For Hecuba!What’s Hecuba for him, or he to Hecuba?” (2.2.583-586)

Hamlet continues to lament how he has actual reason and drive for such emotion yet he can’t display it effectively, or at all. He would like to be able to convince the court and all of Claudius’s supporters that Claudius murdered his father. But even Hamlet is not sure if he believes it. He is still worried that the ghost is an evil fiend. Hamlet goes to see Ophelia, his lover, for comfort.

Ophelia has been speaking with her father, Polonius. Polonius tells her that Hamlet does not love her, that he is just currently infatuated but that he will move on. He also points out that Hamlet may not get to chose his bride because he is crown prince of Denmark and princes do not get to chose who they marry. Ophelia, dutiful daughter that she is, does not speak to Hamlet. After Hamlet leaves, she tells her father of his visit. Polonius instructs her to give Hamlet’s love letters back to him. Once again, Ophelia obeys.

When Hamlet realizes that Ophelia is rejecting his love, that she is choosing her father over him, he is distraught. He tells Ophelia that he no longer loves her and that he never loved her in the first place. “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.” (3.1.127-129) He wants her to leave, to go a nunnery so that she will learn to never let men beguile her into loving them.

Polonius has robbed Hamlet of his one love. If Polonius had not told Ophelia to return the letters, Ophelia and Hamlet may have been able to rely on each other to stay sane. Instead of staying in his place Polonius plunged head first into issues without considering other angles. He tells Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, how to treat Hamlet. “Look you lay home to him. Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with and that your Grace hath screened and stood between much heat and him.” (3.4.1-6) Polonius hides in the Queen’s drapes when Hamlet comes to speak to her. Hamlet hears him stir and kills him, believing Polonius to be Claudius.

Hamlet is a little thrown from killing the wrong man, but he takes it in stride and continues his conversation with his mother. This dismissive attitude toward the death of a human is the first clear sign of Hamlet’s erosion of empathy. It is marked by the reappearance of the ghost, Hamlet senior. Only Hamlet can see it. It says nothing, but it is there, at least in Hamlet’s mind. The ghost represents Hamlet’s loss of connection to human empathy and emotion; it signals that Hamlet is withdrawing into himself and is less concerned with right and wrong. When Hamlet leaves his mother’s room he drags Polonius’s dead body out saying, “This man shall set me packing. I’ll lug his guts into the neighbor room.” (3.4.234-234)

Gertrude tells her new husband, Claudius, about Hamlet’s slaughter of Polonius. Claudius decides that Hamlet is much too dangerous to remain in Denmark  so he sends him to England with Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and a note asking the English to kill Hamlet. Claudius is the main cause of Hamlet’s madness. He murdered Hamlet senior; he married Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother; and he ordered Hamlet to be killed.

Claudius is the catalyst for Hamlet’s demise. He has no regard for the effect his actions have on other characters’ emotional stability. His chief concern is for himself. He killed the king and married the queen. He goes along with Polonius’s scheme to separate Hamlet and Ophelia, just to see if Hamlet is mad because of love. Hamlet and Claudius have no love or respect for each other. But at least Hamlet originally had reservations about killing Claudius. Claudius just does not care. Once he has written the letter asking for Hamlet’s death he says, “By letters congruing to that effect, the present death of Hamlet. Do it, England, for like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me. Till I know ‘tis done, howe’er my haps, my joys, were ne’er begun.” (4.4.72-78).

Hamlet may be losing or have lost his ability to care, but he has not lost his ability to reason. He knows that Claudius means to have him killed. He reads the letter that has his death sentence and calmly adjusts it so that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will meet their demise in England instead. Hamlet returns to Denmark.

It is when Hamlet first returns to Denmark that we see his last vestiges of feeling for his fellow humans. He happens upon gravediggers who are digging Ophelia’s grave. They tell him whom the skulls in the grave belong to. One of them was the court jester from when Hamlet was a boy. Hamlet recollects about the fun times he shared with the jester. He gets quite emotional, he holds the skull in front of him and speaks to it and about it, “He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols?” (5.1.191-196)

Hamlet learns of Ophelia’s death as she is being laid into the ground. Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, attacks Hamlet. Laertes has reasons enough; Hamlet killed his father, Polonius, abandoned his sister, and forgot that he had killed Polonius. Hamlet does not understand why Laertes assaults him. Hamlet feels that Laertes attacks him because of Ophelia’s death, “Hear you sir, what is the reason you use me thus? I loved you ever. But it is no matter. Let Hercules himself do what he may, the cat will mew the dog will have his day.”

Claudius fuels Laertes’s anger so that he might beat Hamlet in a duel. Claudius is still set on having Hamlet killed. Laertes, wracked by grief and propelled by Claudius’s cajoling decides to duel Hamlet. He even puts poison on the end of his blade so that if he even scratches Hamlet he will die.

The poisoned blade is ultimately Laertes’s undoing as it is Hamlet’s. They both die by the blade. As he dies, Laertes confesses his dishonorable maneuver and Hamlet acknowledges it. But he does not let Claudius off so easily. Claudius had poisoned a cup of wine so that if Hamlet drank it he would die. Instead the queen drinks it and she dies. Hamlet, in his final burst of energy before death, chokes, stabs, and forces Claudius to drink his own poison. “Here thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink of this potion. Is thy union here?” Hamlet pours the last drops of poison into Claudius’s mouth, “Follow my mother.” (5.2.356-357) Hamlet no longer has any reservations in murder. Claudius is the fifth and last person he kills in the play.

Hamlet’s emotions were unstable at the beginning of the play. Because of the other characters’ meddling he is pushed further and further away from human compassion. The ghost starts Hamlet’s mind on the path of treachery and Polonius and Claudius just keep giving him cause to continue down the road.

Passing Tests

The title may seem to have some deep metaphorical meaning, but it doesn't. This post really is about passing tests, real ones.
The first test I had this evening, it was a test in Karate for my purple belt. It went ok, I guess. I messed up more than I find acceptable. But I passed, which was expected. The "real" test was on Wednesday and if I passed that then it is almost absolutely definite that I would pass this one on Friday. But you didn't need to know that and it probably wasn't even interesting to you so I will move on.
The second test is tomorrow morning and it is the ACT, I should have been preparing for this thing for weeks, but I didn't. I just worked on it all this week, and my brain is fried. Completely fried. I have done at least six hours of math a day, just refreshing or re-learning basic concepts mostly. But it is still a lot. PLUS, I read about reading on the ACT, and Science and reasoning (which is my best subject, believe it or not). I also read about grammar, which after math, is my worst subject. You may have picked up on that.
OK, well, I really should get back to studying, because, you know, that is all I do nowadays.

Happy Night!

Update on "Storytime"

Ok, so, if you were stalking my blog you would have seen that two or maybe three years ago I drew a map to write a story. Well, guess what? I finished that story and now it is a novel, in length it hasn't been published or anything. But yeah, it is 130,000 words which is about 200 eleven and half by eight inch pages in case you are wondering (Single spaced).
I finished it at the end of last summer, I did the last 50,000 words in a month, I actually did more than 50,000 but it was SUPER fun and made me feel extremely accomplished.
I am now working on editing that novel that I wrote, which is scary because I kinda want to just re-write it, but then I read it and I'm all like, "well, hmmmm, I actually like that.." I am also working on another story, it's at like 45,000 words, I haven't touched it for awhile though. My most current project is a novel that will end up being about 50,000 words, it's for a project so I am making it shorter. and I have like 25,000 words on it. wow, I am halfway done....ok, maybe it will be a little longer than 50, 000. We will have to see where the story takes itself.

WOW, two blog posts in one night, you must know how bored I am right now. It may also have something to do with my best friend leaving for Germany for 3 MONTHS. I think that all this blog posting energy and typing usually goes into messaging her. Oh well, I don't think blogging is too bad of a pastime.

Things to do on a Long Drive

So, recently my mother and I drove to Portland to look at colleges. Driving to Portland, from where I live, is a very long drive. I managed to get almost absolutely nothing done, but the things I did accomplish I thought might be blog worthy.
1) Singing. It doesn't matter what song, if you know the whole thing, if you know the words, or even if you know the tune. As long as you know the general jist of it you are good to go. Also, children's songs can go a long way. There was a man who had a dog.....Old MacDonald, the Ants go Marching, This old man, he played one.....the list is pretty long.
2) Reading, if you are able to read in the car, bring a book. It is one of the most antisocial things you can do, but when you are in the car for over six hours you can stand some anti-socialness. I finished a book and started a book this trip, I actually did much less reading than usual because whenever I would start to read my mom would think of something to say.
3)Sleeping, I am terrible at sleeping in the car and my neck always hurts afterwards, but I hear it is a great pastime.
4) Trying to get the GPS to work. We have a particular finicky GPS, I spent a lot of time mumbling harsh words at it under my breath while I tried to get it to tell us where to go. Oh, then we tried using my mom's smart phone, and it tells us where to go so we can hear it, none of that looking at the screen nonsense. Anyway, we had the GPS and the phone telling us where to go. Then we decided that we really needed coffee. I programed in where coffee was on the GPS, and we got off the freeway and it told us to turn right. Then my mom's phone stepped in and said, "In a half mile, turn left, freeway entrance blahblah blah. My mom dutifully followed those directions too. Then the GPS stepped in and said, turn right, or rerouting, or something. ANYWAY, we got thoroughly mixed up till I figured out why and turned the phone off.
5) EXERCISE,  there are not a lot of excercises you can do in the car but there are some. All you have to do is find a radio station that is playing music that will get you pumped up (some espresso beans from starbucks don't hurt either). Then do the exercises.
a) Wall sits. these are technically chair sits, BUT, you don't put your butt on the chair. You straighten the back of your chair and then position your feet and sit, without touching the chair.  Try to make the angle between your stomach and you legs 90 degrees, and the angle your knees 90 degrees. Also, keep your abs tight. Go until you think you can't hold it anymore and then count to thirty, or sixty if you had a lot of espresso beans.
b) Curls, water bottles are what you need for this one. All you do is curls, holding a water bottle (Preferably full of water). Remember to keep your wrists straight, and your elbow in one place. Do as many reps as you can and then switch arms.
c) This may be the most boring exercise. Hold your arms out in front of you for as long as you can and then count to sixty. You can have your palms face up, face down, facing each other, facing away from each other. Remember, don't lock your elbows, and hold your arms chest high, at a 90 degree angle. That is the most difficult position.
d) Leg lifts, or holding your legs off the ground. When you do this make sure you tighten your abs. Hold your legs up, off the ground in front of you. You will probably want to scoot your seat way back so that you don't kick the car. If there is a person behind you, ASK if it is ok for you do scoot your chair back.
e) Marching. Exactly how it sounds, march in place while sitting down. You may want to sing, the ants go marching one by one for this one. Singing a song with a good one two rhythm makes it a lot easier. Believe me. This one is hard at first, then it gets super easy, and then after a while it gets hard again. Go for as long as you can in the that hard again stage. Or, if it never gets easy, go for as long as you can. But at least, one to two minutes.

Once you do all of these things you can repeat. I recommend going through the exercises a few times. Exercising makes you happier and we know that you want to be happy when you are on a long car ride with other people.