"Tools That Change the Way We Think"

How does extensive Internet/media/technology use change the way you think?

What I find myself doing whenever I search something on the internet is getting the answer off of a website and then forgetting that information then next day. Now that I think about how technology influences the way I learn, it's kind of scary. I've wired my memory to think instantly, not long term, if that makes sense. I get the information and then forget it. Why? I think it's because I've become so dependent on the inter-webs to tell me about things and then knowing that they will be there tomorrow, I don't care enough to remember them.

"Notes on Hamlet"

One BIG thing that I've never noticed when I read this play is how naive Claudius is. He doesn't want to see what's right in front of him, he'd rather go about like everything's fine. But then when he knows that Hamlet is onto him, he changes tactics immediately, because up until then everything was going to be fine, he would rule and he would have Gertrude. He realizes how much of a threat Hamlet is so he finally does something about i by sending him to England, but I know this will not work out for him...

"To Facebook or Not to Facebook"

I feel like Facebook is just an empty way to advertise. Like that episode from the IT Crowd when they did their own version about "Friendface." The characters where getting back in touch with old acquaintances that should've been forgotten, girlfriends that turn out to be rotten, and they result to making up misbegotten (becuase their statements have no truth) lies about their life to make themselves look better. It's a shark business and it can be used badly and all anyone ever does on that thing is talk about themselves. I do that all the time and I hate it! I only do it because I want to feel a connection to my friends/ the outside world, but there are other ways to do that, ways that don't involve being watching and analyzed for the rest of my life.

Bacov

Abortive: failing to produce the intended result
 

Bruit: spread a report or rumor widely
 

Contumelious: scornful and insulting behavior
 

Dictum: a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source; a short statement that expresses a general truth or principle
 

Ensconce: establish or settle
 

Iconoclastic: characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions
 

In medias res: a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story rather than the beginning
 

Internecine: destructive to both sides in a conflict
 

Maladroit: ineffective or bungling; clumsy
 

Maudlin: self-pitying or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness
 

Modulate: exert a modifying or controlling influence on
 

Portentous: of or like a portent; done in a pompously or overly solemn manner
 

Prescience: the power to foresee the future
 

Quid pro quo: a favor or advantage granted in return for something
 

Salubrious: health-giving, healthy; pleasant, not run-down
 

Saturnalia: the ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December; an occasion of wild revelry
 

Touchstone: a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized
 

Traumatic: emotionally disturbing or distressing; relating to or causing psychological trauma
 

Vitiate: spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of; destroy or impair the legal validity of.
 

Waggish: humorous in a playful, mischievous, or facetious manner

Mretdim Yralubacov

My vocabulary midterm didn't go well, but I didn't study as much as I could have. I think this time around, it'll just help me if I actually study. I'm under this sort of smarticle curse. No one around me needs to study words, they just *snap* Get Them! Sometimes I think I could do that, so I never study, but I gotta break out of that. I never used to do that, but I don't know, since we're all ranking and rating ourselves according to the numbers, well I want to keep up, but I can't do that with studying.

Remix

For the Remix Shindig check Josh's blog out. Josh, myself and a couple others made this. Click on the youtube link on his page:
http://jmonterorhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/

To Be Or Not To Be (Analysis)

HAMLET
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy4IX6hpPvM