Too Close for Comfort

In the past two weekends, I visited some of my potential colleges on their accepted students’ weekends.  You know when all of a sudden something flips in your mind and your sense of reality turns on its side? Sometime two weeks ago, that happened to me: I had a complete shift in perspective.  I imagine this is how Isaac Newton felt when the fabled apple fell on his head.  All of a sudden that whole college thing became very real to me.  Too real.  I guess for the past year and a half, I have gone through the motions of countless campus tours and info sessions, whittling down a list, and even applying to schools, without thinking I would actually go there.  Just think, in six short months, we will have a new set of friends, classes, even a new home.  We’ll be in college, ladies and gentlemen. College.  The “apple on my head,” if I continue this half-metaphor, was probably the sight of other prospective freshmen who might end up as my friends, my roommates, who knows, maybe boyfriends.  The thought blew my mind and I could not stop remarking on it all weekend.  My mom and sister may have made fun of me a bit. But I couldn’t get over it.  In fact, just last weekend, I visited my sister at Villanova (with my good friend Jillian!) and met her friends at a singers/voices gathering.  The next day I realized that if I went to said university, these would likely be my friends.  I became scared and excited and anxious and freaked out all at once.  Like I said: too real.  So, as I try and wrap my mind around the perplexing fact of the future charging toward me, I offer you all a bit of advice that I have heard from a man named Josh Maas, don’t wish away your life.  College, in all its frightening glory, will come before you know it.  And it’s very real.

Obsessive Compulsive Datasheets

Papers aren't as conducive to OCD :(

Apple Addiction: The New AA

Hello, my name is Mary Beth and I am an iPad addict.  Actually that is false, but my sister, Katie, assuredly is, and since she cannot admit it I will for her.  Currently, I’m in Boston visiting with her before I head out to a college visit in Providence, she has talked about her iPad and its magnificent wonders for about 70% of the time.  As such, I have learned quite a bit about this Apple invention in the recent past and so I shall share our favorite iPad apps.  Sorry if this reads like an advertisement for Apple, but feel free to go out and buy these apps after reading, they will not disappoint!

·      Words with Friends: Available for the iPhone and iPad, this virtual scrabble game helps ensure that you do not say any words to the friends around you, rather play others in scrabble 24/7. Lovely. 

·      New York Times Crossword: A favorite of mine, the clues are stimulating and the iPad allows you to check your answers midway through finishing, a fantastic loophole. Also, there’s an almost endless supply of years of crossword puzzles, so you can feel free to simply finish Monday after Monday and feel so great about yourself!

·      Star Walk: Wow, I just learned about it and it blew my mind! You simply point the iPad up in the air and it shows you the stars directly above you.  Stargazing without even leaving the comfort of the warm indoors.  This app names and points out the constellations, stars, planets, basically a handheld astronomer, telescope included

·      Cut the Rope: Such a fantastic game! A piece of candy hangs by a rope tantalizing the green alien, Omnom.  As levels rise, new pieces are added, so the player has to use a knowledge of physics and logic to deliver the nom noms to Omnom, whilst collecting all three stars to achieve a high score.

·      Proloquo 2 Go: As a speech pathologist, my sister uses the iPad as an augmentative communication device. This app allows nonspeaking people, such as children with autism or cerebral palsy, or seniors with aphasia, to form sentences that the iPad reads aloud.  The iPad revolutionized the field because augmentative communication devices cost $8000 but iPads cost only $500

·      Angry Birds: Like Cut the Rope, this seemingly childish game is chock full of physics… and fun! Players try to knock over a structure that protects some green pigs, by sling-shotting various birds at it.  Wow. Non-stop hilarity

·      The Cloudy Shake: For the little kid inside you, users of this app choose food products from ice cream to hot dogs to broccoli, to blend into a milkshake.  They then shake the iPad to blend the virtual milkshake and a “gross-o-meter” measures the degree of deliciousness of your concoction.  At the end, you can even “drink” your milkshake by tipping the iPad toward your mouth, or over a chair, it's not like it's real.

     Now go forth and spread the good news of these splendid apps to your friends and neighbors! They will love you for it. Or get angry and jealous if they don't have said iPad.

This Post Will Blow You Away... Literally

Mostly, I just found this comic hilarious so I wanted to share it with all of you! But I do know a lot of controversy has arisen on the use of the word “literally,” so I thought I’d tackle that as well in this post.  I know the one and only Mr. Maas has recently gone on one of his fantastic rants on the ill-uses of the word.  I personally believe people can casually throw the word into conversations and it shouldn’t be a huge deal, or at least as big a deal as some people like to make it.  And don’t lie to yourself, as a crazy AP English student, you probably fit into the mold of the insane bearded man in the comic above more than any of the average stick figures.  Sometimes, I feel that way as well: angry at the ignorance of some “literally” fans.  But after much deliberation and thought, I decided we should just view the use of “literally” as simply a tool to add color and excitement to an otherwise boring story.  Hyperbole at its finest.  It makes things more fun, especially if you, as I frequently do, adopt some Allie Brosh/Hyperbole and a Half-esque techniques to deal.  Imagine things literally happening exactly as the storyteller describes them—that’s what the “literally” perpetrator intended, right? To so exaggerate his/her point to the point of ridiculousness in order to get the point across.  I like the word “literally,” haters can hate, but I think it would do us all some good to take everything less seriously and accept its modern though incorrect usage.

For all those who disagree, find solace and enjoyment in The Oatmeal, I particularly enjoyed this one also: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally

A Prologue to the Upcoming Poetry Paper

“Two friends who met here and embraced are gone/ Each to his own mistake”

--W.H. Auden “The Crossroads”

            After reading this epigraph of Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam, I immediately thought of Les Miserables and a song in it called “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.” For those of you who don’t know, Les Miserables is a quite long epic musical, based on an even longer book by Victor Hugo, set in France during the revolution.  In retrospect, the show probably came to the forefront of my subconscious during our discussion of Amsterdam’s redlight district, Les Miserables, too, features a prostitute as one of the leads, Fantine.  Aside from that weak connection, and the fact that both have settings in Europe, the two seem to have very little in common.  Except that quote.  I related it to one point in the show when Marius mourns the loss of his fellow revolutionaries after their failure of an uprising.  He sings, “Empty chairs at empty tables/ where my friends will meet no more.” While I think the “two friends” McEwan refers to in his epigraph will eventually represent the same “two lovers” that begin his novel: Clive and Vernon, I believe a lot of the same emotions relay between Marius’ thoughts in his song and Clive and Vernon’s many feelings.  They all seem to reflect back on the past with regret and pain.  They see some irreversible event, such as Molly Lane’s death or the deaths in the French revolution, and conjecture “what if?” filling their lives with the pain of reliving the past instead of living for the moment.  Judging by these slight parallels, Ian McEwan might do well to take a leaf out of Victor Hugo’s book and be more upfront about such a hopeless and grief-stricken plot in choosing a title.



The musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables



A photo of Victor Hugo: judge away!
I personally believe he looks like a Santa Claus that's
just been told he doesn't exist. Your thoughts?



From Fog to Blog

I am proud to say that I have stepped out of the fog and into the clear air of blogs. My symbolical fog, like Chief Bromden’s of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, still represents avoidance and refusal to accept change, however, my particular brand of escapism was from writing creatively.  Instead I liked to stay in the safety of numbers and structure that the beautiful analytical essay gives, in lieu of pushing my creative boundaries.  When Ms. Serensky first announced the blog project, I felt alone in feeling stressed and afraid. I did not know what to write about, or even how to write if we should not analyze.  That’s the only form of writing, right? I’m not about to write poetry, I’m no Elisavietta Ritchie!  Worse, these creative spawns of the devil would be the sole proponent to our midterm.  Something everyone else looked at as a heaven-sent easy-A, I saw as another setup for failure. 

            How naive! Now I absolutely love the blogs! They are assuredly my favorite part of AP English. In fact, due to my recent hiatus from facebook because of the datasheet and midterms, I have replaced the lovely social networking addiction with an AP English blog addiction.  Rarely a day goes by without my perusing everyone’s blogs to see the new goings on of the week.  To hyperbolize, blogging has improved my quality of life tenfold.  Not only has my internet procrastination improved in intelligence, but I have confidence in my creative writing and even just thinking skills.  This was largely due to the bounding beauty of Bobbie’s Blog Banter (so much alliteration!) Having a mention on the daily show felt like a sticker on top of a paper, on steroids. The nod of approval from the famous Bobbie Jo fueled my overexcitement in my blog with a healthy air of competition and straight egotism.  Each one made my week at least. Suffice it to say, I will greatly miss the blogs if they are disbanded next semester, or even pared down to one per week.  I love blogs! You might say that my initial apprehensive and downright fearful tone juxtaposed with my current relaxed and ecstatic tone creates situational irony, could you not? I don’t have to though; I have pulled myself from that fog. 

False Peace of Mind

The point in Shutter Island when Laeddis flashes back to a mass shooting in the Holocaust reminded me of a similar image in the Kilmainham Gaol executions during the Easter Rising.  Sorry for another Ireland allusion, but stay with me, this will get good.  During those executions, they similarly took the nationalists and had a group shoot at each of them, one by one.  The tour guide of the Dublin jail most captured my interest when she told us how the executioners were told that one of their guns contained only a blank, to rid them of the guilt.  They would comfort themselves in the fact that they might not have killed anyone.  At that point in watching the movie, oblivious to the mind-blowing twist of an ending, I noted how if only someone had told DiCaprio’s character the same thing; he would not have these disturbing flashbacks to warzones.  But in our discussion of the surprising ending to this epic film, I realized how much significance my correlation to the Kilmainham Gaol execution tactics had.  We discussed the notion of making up truths in one’s past to create comfort and peace of mind.  Everyone from Laeddis to the executioners at Kilmainham to members of our English class does this. I remember Chris revealed that he likes to pretend he is a superstar to go through his day.  I do a version of the same: at the end of the day I replay conversations and think of what I wished I had said.   But as Carolyn said, the difference between sanity and insanity lies in knowing that what you made up is not the truth.  That got me thinking, do these police guards in Kilmainham prison classify as insane or sane by that definition? If they like to think that their gun had the blank for some peace of mind, are we to fault them for altering their reality? They deserve the same peace of mind as anyone else and their hopeful imagination does not hurt anyone so why not let them live in that reality? On the same count, why not let Laeddis live in his reality, as long as he does not hurt anyone?

A plaque commemorating those executed at Kilmainham Gaol in 1916