[показать]After three earlier unsuccessful attempts to get tickets for IMAX showing of Avatar, today I have finally got to see this movie. To begin with, I should have gone to a regular 3D weeks ago - while sound was definitely an improvement, the IMAX screen in our theater seemed to be hardly any bigger than a regular one; the only major difference I've noticed was in for some reason very uncomfortable chairs.

I am probably one of the last people of earth to see the movie, so I don't think it is necessary to tell anyone what it is about. There is no doubt that technically this film is the acme of not only its director's career, but all modern cinematic art. A product of Cameron's genius, Avatar has definitely reestablished its creator as one of the best directors of our time.

The amount of imagination that went into it is mindboggling - every plant and creature of Pandora is something incredible; the special effects are top notch; the implementation of 3D makes the whole thing twice as great. For 160 minutes the viewer emerges into a completely different world, every detail of which is so well thought and crafted that it makes you almost believe that it is all real. As far as technical aspect of film making is concerned, Avatar is undoubtedly the best movie I have ever seen.

Somewhat of a drawback was, however, the fact that Pandora and its creatures that are supposed to be a background to the story take the center stage. When watching Avatar, I often felt that the story was just an excuse for showcasing advances of modern cinematography - the dialogs were few, not very interesting, and seemed to be written by a fifth grader; the characters, especially that of "I didn't sign up for this shit" girl, were flat, somewhat cliched and uninspired. Highly unoriginal names of the planet and the mineral, unobtainium, the humans were after once again made me question whether too much of the creators' mind power went into the CGI, taking away from the story.

In conclusion, I think that Avatar was an OK, not an amazing, movie; it was, however, an amazing moviegoing EXPERIENCE. After seeing it, I'll probably never spend a dime on watching 2D film in a theater: Paying 10 bucks to see a romantic comedy on a big screen is definitely not worth it; any Sci-Fi or cartoon that is not shot in 3D, on the other hand, will be put to shame from now on.

[показать] "Seriously?" was the first thought that came to my mind after the credits of "Up in the Air" started to roll. I've spent almost two hours waiting for this snooze fest to take a sharp turn and magically become worthy of all the buzz it has generated, but this has never happened.

"Up in the Air" received 6 Golden Globe nominations: best picture, best director, best actor, and best supporting actress for both Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. I say that the critics were either blind or drunk. Vera Farmiga is the only part of this movie that makes it more or less bearable. The rest of the film is lackluster, to say the least. The script is unimaginative and lacks in dynamics; the camera work is bad; Anna Kendrick is just ok; George Clooney...well he is just George Clooney.

For two hours, the audience is subjected to watching a guy who spends more than 200 days per year traveling all over the country and firing people. He sincerely believes that everything that most of other people value in life is an unnecessary baggage that weights them down. Another two characters are overeager recent college graduate, who is supposed, I guess, to charm both the audience and the main character with her lack of real world experience, and a woman that Clooney's personage meets in the airport and whose purpose is to help him discover what really matters.

The action in the movie is pretty much limited to scenes of firing a bunch of random people and to for the most part boring dialogs between the main characters. Clooney is undoubtedly nice to look at, but if anyone is able to find 5 distinctions between this personage and, let's say, his character in the whole array of "Ocean's Twelve" movies or any other of his movies for any of that matter, I'll be very surprised. The premise of the film is highly unrealistic; the storyline is predictable and full of clichés. The message? - family is important; being alone stinks. Wow, that is quite a revelation!

[показать]I find the debate between religion and science to be a fascinating one, no matter on which side one stands. Although I personally chose to believe in God, I often find myself questioning numerous aspects of religion that seem to contradict scientific knowledge and common sense.

With this being said, I hardly spend any time doubting miraculous aspects of the Bible, such as virgin conception or resurrection of Christ - if one is ready to accept the existence of God without any proof why not to do the same with the rest? What I find confusing is the fact that the only reason I and many others believe in Jesus is the fact that we were born in a Christian country.

Had I been born to Muslim or Buddhist religion, I would have treated the New Testament as a tale that holds no truth. If one told a Tibetan monk that he waisted his life in vain and that his Siddhartha was no much more than a myth, he would have argued the contrary not less fervently than a Christian priest. Had a Muslim, who supposedly believes in the same God as Christians do, been told that Mohammed is a false prophet...on the second thought, you'll probably be much better off not risking this conversation.

I also have a little problem with the concept of the afterlife, not because I don't believe that it is possible but because I am seriously scared of the idea of eternity. I do not understand how eternal bliss is possible because, in my opinion, one cannot know happiness if there is no suffering. Challenges, changes, difficulties, love, passions are what makes life interesting and so precious, and I can't imagine spending eternity without any of that. This and millions of other things, I admit, once in a while make me question my beliefs; nevertheless, I am yet to find arguments compelling enough to make me give them up.

I do not think, for example, that scientific findings contradict or will ever contradict the existence of God because the only question they can answer is "how?" not "why?": We know that spermatozoid + ovicell = a baby and can step by step describe the process, but at the same time, we have no idea why and can't even agree on when the embryo becomes a human being. Because I do not see science and religion as irreconcilable, I enjoy reading about numerous issues on which they often clash. This is how today, while doing a little research on religion vs. evolution, I came across the following, not at all related to the subject of the latter, article. This is considered to be a true story but can just as easily be a tale. No matter which one it is, I believe that it is an interesting illustration of God vs. science debate.

Read The Story

[показать]Мои проблемы с кожей начались с приходом переходного возраста, лет эдак в 13. До определенного времени мне казалась, что они минимальны, так как вся "проблемность" концентрировалась на лбу, который был усыпан мелкими подкожными прыщиками, которые исключительно редко превращались в белые угри или большие и болючие прыщи.

Несмотря на то что данное неудобство было более чем терпимо, я регулярно пользовалась всевозможными средствами, которые дружно терпели поражение на моей коже. С возрастом, однако, ситуация доставаляла мне все меньше удовольствия, хотя до определенного времени я и успокаивала себя тем, что терпеть осталось не долго. К сожалению, мои надежды себя не оправдали, и в 21 год моя кожа находилась в таком же состоянии, как и в 15, несмотря на регулярный и тщательный уход.

Будучи практически готовой смириться с тем, что мне никогда не удасться избавиться от ненавистной проблемы, я решила посвятить немного своего времени чтению сайта acne.org. Я не однократно натыкалась на этот ресурс, но была твердо уверена, что это не более чем очередной способ впарить какое-то средство отчаявшимся людям вроде меня. Мое мнение изменилось, когда я выяснила, что, несмотря на то что создатель сайта действительно предлагает свой продукт, его метод должен работать с подобными продуктами любого другого производителя. Кроме того, как оказалось, я уже давно пользовалась всеми необходимыми средствами; правильная методика их применения - единственное, что отсутствовало в моем режиме.

Режим, предлагаемый на сайте, основывался на применении 2.5% Benzol Peroxide, который, если кто знаком с Proactiv, находится в их Repairing Lotion. Я пользовалась Proactiv больше года и спустила на него значительное количество денет, так и не достигнув желаемого результата. Как оказалось, дело было не в плохом средстве, а в плохих инструкциях по его применению. Для тех кто не знает, система Proactiv основывается на трех продуктах: что-то вроде очень мелкого скраба, тоник, и вышеупомянутый lotion, активным ингредиентом которого является 2.5% Benzol Peroxide. По интструкции все три продукта нужно применять утром и вечером в указанном порядке, подождав 1-2 минуты перед использованием последнего.

Исходя из информации, полученной мной на acne.com, я поняла, что 2.5% Benzol Peroxide являлся единственным необходимым средством дя борьбы с acne. Вместо скраба и тоника, создатель сайта советовал приобрести любое мягкое средство для очистки лица и хороший увлажняющий крем. Его режим заключался в следующем: утром и вечером очистить кожу, подождать 5-10 минут, нанести обильное количество Benzol Peroxide, подождать еще 5-10 мин, нанести крем. Факт 5-10 минутных перерывов и использования крема после нанесения бензола, по его словам, являлся ключевым, так как средство работает намного лучше на сухой коже, а крем помогает его более глубокому проникновению.

Посколько предлагаемый на сайте Benzol Peroxide был намного дешевле Proactive и других известных мне фирм, я решила обзавестись именно им и в последний раз отправилась на бой со своим прыщавым лбом. К моему неописуемому восторгу, где-то через месяц после начала режима я впервые за 9 лет смотрела в зеркало на абсолютно чистое лицо! Данного результата я добилась не без определенных неудобства - так как Benzol является давольно термоядерным средством, и первое время кожа требут постоянного увлажнения, чтобы избежать ее отшелушевания - однако, после безрезультатных многолетних затрат на дорогостоющие продукты и походы к косметологам, избавление от проблемы за 1 месяц и $44, потраченных на средство, которого мне хватило на 6 месяцев, кажется чем-то чудесным.

[показать]Буквально несколько дней назад я подсела на сериал "How I Met Your Mother", о котором слышала много раз, но к которому до сих пор не питала ни малейшего любопытства. "HIMYM" чем-то напоминает "Friends," главным образом из-за того, что его фокус лежит на описании жизни и приключений пяти друзей: Робин, Барни, Тед, Лили и Маршал. Из всех актеров сериала мне были знакомы лишь Allison Hannigan, известная по Баффи и Американскому Пирогу, и Marshall Eriksen, который играл в одной из недавних комедий "I love you, Man."

Сериал базируется на рассказе главного героя, Теда, который в 2030 году решает поведать своим двум детям подросткового возраста о том, как он познакомился с их мамой. Делая это он, однако, не ограничивается главными деталями знакомства и начинает рассказ издалека (с 2004 года, если мне не изменяет память), постоянно отклоняясь от главной темы, чтобы описать очередное приключение компании. На подобного рода лирических отступлениях, собственно говоря, и базируется сериал, который на данный момент насчитывает пять сезонов.

Если продолжить проведение паралели между "HIMYM" и "Friends," то главных героев шоу можно охарактеризовать следующим образом. Тед, на мой взгляд, является очень отдаленной вариацией Роса - he is a nice but a little socially awkward guy; Маршал не менее отдаленно намоминает Чендлера. Барни - смесь Джоуи и Фиби: он совмещает чрезмерное увлечение обольщением представительниц противоположного пола с сумасбродными замашками и идеями аля Фиби. Несмотря на то что конкретных примеров сходства характеров между ними не наблюдается, я бы сказала, что Лили является своего рода kinky version of Monica; а вообще, этот персонаж во многом напоминает роль, которую Эллисон Ханниган исполняла в Американском Пироге. Наконец, на единсвенное свободное место Рэйчел, претендует Робин лишь по тому что, как и персонаж Рэйчел, на мой взгляд, несмотря на присутствие определенных заскоков, она является более адекватным из девушек.

Как оказалось, "HIMYM" довольно хорошо принимается зрителями, о чем свидетельствует его рейтинг на IMDB, который лишь на 0.1 балла ниже рейтинга Друзей. Несмотря на то что, из двух сериалов последний, на мой взгляд, лидирует со значительным отрывом (я бы разделила их как минимум одним баллом), HIYM является достойной ему альтернативой и лично мне пришелся намного больше по душе, чем, например, очень популярный у критиков "30 Rock". Хочу отметить, что на того, чтобы привыкнуть и оценить юмор HIMYM, у меня ушел не один эпизод, однако, думаю, что потраченные без особого энтузиазма несколько часов того стоили, так как я, признаюсь, уже давно подустала от ритуального просмотра Друзей; другие же популярные ситкомы, идущие в настоящий момент, по той или иной причине у меня большого интереса никогда не вызвали.

WARNING: Русский перевод сериала - полное г* (по крайней мере на youtube)

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1. “The Scarlet Letter” Nathaniel Hawthorne (134 p.) (см. отзыв)
2. “A Room With a View” E.M. Forster (174 p.) (см. отзыв)
3. “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë (344 p.) (см. отзыв)
4. “The End of the Affair” by Graham Greene (192 p.) (см. отзыв)
5. “The Age of Innocence” Edith Wharton (352 p.) (см. отзыв)
6. “Animal Farm” by George Orwell (128 p.)(см. отзыв)
7. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck (112 p.)(см. отзыв)
8. “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque (162 p.)
9. “The Postman Always Rings Twice” by James M. Cain (188 p.)
10. “Cannery Row” by John Steinbeck (192 p.)
11. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde (208 p.)
12. “The Quiet American” by Graham Greene (208 p.)
13. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams (224 p.)
14. “The Power and the Glory” by Graham Greene (240 p.)
15. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien (256 p.)
16. “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor (272 p.)
17. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey (288 p.)
18. “The Heart of the Matter” by Graham Greene (288 p.)
19. “Great Expectations” Charles Dickens (288 p.)
20. “Color Purple” by Alice Walker (304 p.)
21. “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote (343 p.)
22. “Interview With the Vampire” by Anne Rice (352 p.)
23. “Frankenstein” Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (352 p.)
24. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini (400 p.)
25. “The Woman in White” Wilkie Collins (426 p.)
26. “The Last Temptation of Christ” by Nikos Kazantzákis (506 p.)
27. "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck (608 p.)
28. “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison (608 p.)
29. “Vanity Fair” William Makepeace Thackeray (768 p.)
30. “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell (1048 p.)

[показать]Write an explication of the poem “Parting” (see below), considering such elements as rhyme scheme, figures of speech, meaning, and overall effect.

Each year in the after-Christmas tinsel
of the airport lounge you see them
standing like toys that have been
wound up once or twice and then
shunted aside. Mother, father,
whose bodies time has thickened
to pudding, resolute daughter,
stylish and frightened.
That small constellation,
that commonplace a grouping.

They are done with speaking.
They do not weep.
They do not touch one another except
after the final boarding call
when they are fastened all
three as in a dangerous struggle
exploding only as she
is drawn into the silver belly of the jet
and shot from the parents
and this is the celestial arrangement.

The poem “Parting” by Maxine Kumin is a melancholic take on the winter holiday season. The author describes an image of parting between relatives that can be often seen in the airports during this time of the year. While it is always wonderful to see one’s family when they do not live nearby, these rare encounters are a bitter-sweet experience because they make people realize how much they are skipping on by not staying together. Faces of the parents that get more wrinkly or ones of the nieces and nephews that look more mature serve as yet another reminder of how fast the time flies and, most importantly, of the fact that much of this time is spent apart from each other: Each year …/ you see them / standing like toys that have been / wound up once or twice and then / shunted aside”. These moments of partying are not easy ones because they are awkward for everybody involved. Not to upset the other person, all participants of a farewell try their best to pretend that everything is going to be alright, and that life will get back to normal as soon plane takes off. They work not less hard trying to persuade themselves that this is exactly what is going to happen. It is only at the very last moment that they realize how many more things they have forgotten to say, or maybe simply start looking desperately for the means of delaying the inevitable good-bye.

The author of this poem chooses to write in a free form, which means that the poem has neither a rime nor a basic meter. Usually, authors who rely on this type of form employ other means of sustaining and engaging the reader’s attention, such as unexpectedly breaking of a line to emphasize a certain word, as well as to have a greater control of the shape of the poem and its look on the page. Even though, in theory, this form of poetry sounds interesting and there are many excellent examples of it usage, despite having found its message to be an interesting one, I wouldn't call “Partying” a great example of this genre. Many of the line breaks, for example, are put in the most unfortunate places and, instead of adding to the poem, make it more difficult to understand and enjoy. Finally, because of the lack of any creative poetic techniques that could have compensated for the absence of rhyme, I believe that the same message could have been much better conveyed in prose. While I agree that rhyme is far from being a necessary instrument of creating a beautiful poem, one cannot do nothing but break off the line in strange places and call it one.

[показать]Choose a short story from the reading we’ve done this semester in which the protagonist has to make a decision or take some decisive step that will alter the rest of his or her life. Explain the nature of the character’s decision, the reasons for it, and its probable consequences (as suggested by what readers can infer from the information given by the author).

Among the stories we have read during this semester, “The Yellow Wallpaper” seems to be one of the most symbolic. This story describes a few months from the life of a woman who is suffering from a postpartum depression and who, being a narrator, lets the reader experience the whole rollercoaster of this condition together with her. One can notice the narrator’s disturbed mental state, which becomes apparent from her paranoia about the house in general and the room she and her husband are staying in particular, from the very first lines of the story. For the woman, this house and room are symbolic of a trap of her mental condition, from which she cannot escape.

Throughout the story, the reader can see gradual mental deterioration of the narrator. In the beginning of the story, for example, she sincerely hopes and strives to get better. She realizes that there is a beautiful world outside, and that she just needs to find her way back into it. The fact that she keeps contrasting the strange and lonely “haunted house” that is as isolated as she is with the charming surroundings of a “delicious garden…large and shady, full of box bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seas under them” emphasizes this inner struggle. Through little details, like shut windows of the protagonist’s room and her desire to move to another bedroom that opens onto the piazza, the author further showcases the discord within the protagonist and her attempts to escape from the trap of her own mind.

Unfortunately, because of the lack of understanding from her husband, instead of getting better, the narrator falls into even deeper depression, which is indicated by her new developed fixation on the yellow wallpaper. Since she is not able to find understanding in people, this woman begins to look for it in an inanimate object. Perhaps, initially, it is the color of the wallpaper, which is sickly and repelling, that attracts the protagonist’s attention because it reminds her of her own illness. Since the narrator does not have anything to distract her mind from strange feeling of having some sort of connection with the wallpaper, she continues to emerge into an imaginary world where every recurring spot and curl of the wallpaper has a meaning.

The longer she stares at the wallpaper, the more it reminds the protagonist of a book, in which she reads about all of her most coveted thoughts. In the convoluted pattern, the narrator sees broken necks and white bulbous eyes that most likely reflect her own thoughts about suicide, a woman who is trapped behind the bars, and the everlasting curls that remind of her own pain that seems to go nowhere no matter how much time passes. The more time the narrator spends alone in the room, the deeper these strange and disturbing thoughts consume her, until she begins to derive pleasure from this condition: “I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper.”

The reader can notice that quite often the narrator discusses the wallpaper, its pattern, and women crawling inside it without realizing that she is talking about herself. Thus, when she mentions that nobody but her understands the wallpaper, she speaks about her condition not being understood by people who are the dearest to her. In the same manner, when the narrator says that sometimes she “thinks there are many women behind, and sometimes only one,” she is wondering about whether there are any women out there who suffer from the same condition as she. As the time goes by, the protagonist emerges in her delusions to the extent of thinking that it is her who has been crawling behind the yellow wallpaper all this time, and her sickness takes over completely.

[показать]Please bear with me while I finish posting my school stuff...just want to keep safe (hmm...I wonder if "safe" and li.ru can be used in one sentence?) all the "creations" that have caused me so much headache during last 4 months in case something happens to my computer.

We’ve spent a lot of time this session reading pieces that are considered classic LITERATURE. Going beyond the boundaries of our textbook, what example from popular culture would you point to as literary? (It might be a popular novel, a movie, a TV show, a music album, etc.) What leads you to choose this work as something that rises above other examples of popular culture to be truly outstanding?

There are hardly many people out there who would not agree that today’s world is overabundant with information. Every single day, at any time of day and night, one can turn on a computer and learn about the latest news, gossip, music albums, or a new novel that has popped out of nowhere on the bestseller list. The creators and distributors of this information, however, seem to have stopped caring a while ago whether the material printed, recorded on video, or CD is worth paper, tape, and discs wasted. A significant number of contemporary books, for example, are written in a great hurry, which, especially in case with projects that require extensive research or deal with technical subjects, leads to numerous mistakes, hundreds of which get later listed on the errata pages of the creators of these books. Nevertheless, few publishers and authors seem to remember or care that writing a book should not take as little time as reading it: 432 pages in three months – this is pretty much the only “rogue” thing about one of the latest bestselling authors.

The rant above is not, however, to say that no decent books get published today. There are hundreds of works by many authors that offer interesting plots and good writing. But, even taking this into consideration, it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine that any of these books will ever be able to replace or even to join the ranks of classics of the previous centuries. This has to do with the fact that testing boundaries of readers’ imagination is the main and only concern of the majority of popular contemporary authors (more vampires, anyone?). Appealing to people’s emotions in not a cheap tear jerking way, challenging the society and its norms by raising meaningful questions, and creating characters that are so complete that they almost jump off the pages seems to be a thing of a distant past. Taking into consideration how different the definitions of “pop culture” and “literature” are, it seems that these words simply cannot be used in one sentence without creating an oxymoron. More often than not, a work of literature is not what crowds the top spots of bestseller lists; it is something that is reserved for a selected group of people who look beyond bright covers and smart add campaigns; it something that cannot and should not be described in a 140 words tweet.

[показать]There is hardly another play in the world of literature that has enjoyed popularity as lasting as that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet has been reenacted thousands of times in theaters all over the world, and every generation, every culture attempts to find solutions to some of the most pressings problems of the day in it. A gloomy, disquieting atmosphere of unceasing conspiracies, executions, political, and social unrest prevailing in the 17th century England is among such problems for Shakespeare’s contemporaries. This state of affairs causes the discord between dream and reality that is impossible to overcome even for such an extraordinary individual as Hamlet, who faces an extremely difficult task: “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!” (Shakespeare I.v.1380)

While all parts of the play work together in explaining the protagonist’s motives and actions, it is Hamlet’s soliloquies that help to better understand his inner struggles. Many scholars believe that the soliloquy beginning “To be, or not to be” is the “crux of the drama”, and this is rightfully so. This speech, in which the protagonist meditates upon how to choose between “continued existence or non-existence; consciousness or oblivion; life or death,” reveals the struggle that goes inside him (Petronella 79). It is in these lines that Hamlet admits to doubts that have been tormenting him since the conversation with the ghost of his father, whose request of revenge appeals to the prince’s sense of duty and puts him in a very difficult position.

After learning the truth, whether Hamlet wants it or not, he has no choice but to avenge family’s honor by killing Claudius, who lead by the thirst for power, has committed fratricide, and most likely to die himself. While the prince has no doubt about his uncle being an embodiment of all evil, who if given time, will cause even greater harm to his country and people, he is baffled by the fact that the only way to eradicate this evil is to sink to the level of Claudius and commit a murder himself. This contradiction is one of the main sources of the protagonist’s inner torments – on one hand, there is the King’s spirit that appeals to his the sense of duty; on the other hand, there is Hamlet’s own ideas of what is right and wrong, his humanistic beliefs. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise to the reader that he chooses to take time in order to think well about his course of actions.

Hamlet’s dilemma is further complicated by the fact that, no matter which way he chooses to go, it is very unlikely that after all that has happened in the last few months, he will be able to ever find happiness. Even if he avenges the dead King without losing his own head in the process, the prince will have no choice but to endure a life in the world that he despises, among people he mistrusts and in whose virtue he no longer believes. This raises an important question that the protagonist attempts to answer in his soliloquy: Is miserable existence that awaits him worth living for or is it better to put an end to all suffering?

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. . . .” (Shakespeare III.i.1400)

Suicide is often considered to be a lot of weak-minded people, but Hamlet is anything but weak. The unrest in his soul and disturbing thoughts that he toys with are more than understandable taking into consideration what he is going trough. “Starting with his very first soliloquy, before the ghost and Ophelia further compound and complicate his problems, the play shows that. . . . Hamlet’s troubles have already produced in him a neurotic melancholy” (Newell 40). During a very short period of time that follows, the protagonist undergoes a complete transformation from being a young man, who leads a carefree life, is in love, and believes in goodness of human nature, into a grown man, who becomes emotionally and mentally disturbed because of the knowledge about the murder of his father, growing contempt to a hasty and incestuous marriage of his mother, and the sudden aloofness of his love, Ophelia, that is caused by intrigues of Polonius and the King.

As one can clearly see, at the moment of expressing his thoughts in the soliloquy, the protagonist is conflicted by many things: he questions the veracity of ghost who might just as well be an evil spirit, tries to completely reevaluate his ideas about the world and people that surround him, but, most importantly, the prince is perplexed by his own failure to make a final decision and act on it. Because of this disturbed mental state, Hamlet sees everything in very gloomy colors. Life, in his eyes, is nothing but suffering from “the

Happy New Year, dudes and dudettes!

* May all your Total World Domination plans come true in 2010.

* May all the spam in your Inbox bounce back to the sender in triplicate.

* May all the commercials be limited to 5 seconds unless you have to go to the bathroom in which case may they last 15 minutes.

* May you never see the words "Your computer has been infected" displayed on the monitor.

* Unless it's someone else's monitor.

* And you don't have to fix it and they deserved it anyway.

* May there be a software glitch and the money in your bank account triples... and they won't find it.

* May there be money in your bank account, so that the math in the previous point works out.

* May your kids put you to shame with their brilliance.

* May their brilliance not express itself in the creative ways they can stuff a cat in the dishwasher.

* Finally, may Google Language tools translate this phrase correctly for those of you who don't understand it.

[показать]So, as one can easily figure from my last post, retaking and doing very well on the SAT is one of my main objectives for year 2010. When I took test in 2006, I got a composite score of 1990 (710 Math, 650 Writing, and 630 Critical Reading), which was 93 percentile (meaning that I did better than 93% of test takers). It was a sufficient score to get into a very decent school had I not been an international student with no money. Since in Spring of 2011 I'll be trying my luck and applying to a bunch of almost impossible to get into schools (for someone with my financial means), I decided that, by next winter, I need to raise my score to 2200 (out of possible 2400), which should put me into 99th percentile.

In order to be able to properly track my progress, I've just spent 3 hours taking the official practice test on the collegeboard.com website, and was positively surprised with the results. The good things are: (1) I've improved my Critical Reading score by 130 points, therefore turning my weakest section into the strongest. (2) 650 for Writing section that I got in 2007 included points for the essay (which was very crappy, by the way); today, I got 620 for multiple choice part only. If I had written the essay at least as crappily as in 2007 and got the same 8 points for it (instead of 0 that I got today), my writing score would have been 720, which is 90 points improvement.

The bad part is that my Math score dropped by 90 points and turned from my strongest section into the weakest. This, however, does not worry me at all because going trough all the preparation material that I have, I'll easily correct this and bring my Math score back to 2007 level. Therefore, assuming that I am able to at least maintain today's Critical Reading and Writing scores throughout this year and do nothing to improve them, I should easily get combined score of about 2190. Taking this into consideration, I raise my original goal and now want 2300!

Score Report

[показать]Вот и подошел к концу третий семестр моего обучения в США. После нескольких недель пыток, в течении которых я безуспешно пыталась заставить себя заранее начать готовиться к последним тестами и писать необходимые сочинения и доклады, я умудрилась дотянуть каждое задание до самого последней минуты. К счастью (а,может, и к сожалению), это не преподнесло мне малоприятного урока, вроде снижения итоговой оценки, и я снова закончила семестр с 4.0 GPA. Самое смешное, что за последнее сочинение по английскому, состоявшего из ответа на три вопроса разной тематики, и на которое я потратила лишь несколько часов, я получила 97 баллов, по сравнению с 96, 94 и 93 за предыдущие три, на которые у меня ушло по несколько дней. Ну и как после этого заставить себя перестать откладывать вещи на последний момент?

С окончанием English Composition II, скорее всего, заканчивается самый интенсивный период моего обучения в community college, так как для меня нет занятия более сложного и малоприятного, чем написание сочинений. Остальные предметы, которые мне предстоит взять, за исключением истории в следующем семестре, сводятся исключительно к математике, бухгалтерскому учету и прочим, имеющим отношение к бизнесу, дисциплинам, от которых я получаю огромное удовольствие. К сожалению, в этом семестре мне не удалось попасть в Student Ambassadors программу, которая дала бы мне возможность взять 12 кредитов бесплатно, так как было лишь 2 свободных места, которые, по сведениям из достоверных источников, были отданы кандидатам, не побрезговавших, в отличии от меня, заранее тем или иным образом дать о себе знать дамочке, которая занимается этой программой и решает, кого взять. Kissing her ass Наладка отношений с ней является одной из моих главных objectives в следующем семестре, чем я уже начала заниматься волонтировавшись в качестве "лидера" на orientation для новых студентов, которая проходит в январе.

Чисто теоретически, я могла бы получить Associate's degree следующей осенью, так мне осталось взять всего лишь 8 предметов. Прежде чем выпуститься, мне, однако, нужно решить, каким макаром я буду оплачивать свое обучение после перевода в четырехгодичный университет. Поскольку в данный момент у меня об этом нет ни малейшего представления и я 100% не смогу финансово позволить себе перевод следующей весной, мне прийдется задержаться в community college еще 3 семестра. Этим временем я хочу воспользоваться как можно более эффективно и выпуститься с двумя степенями - Accounting and Business Administration. Тут, разумеется, тоже не без загвоздки. По неизвестной мне причине, все продвинутые бухгалтерские классы предлагаются после 6 вечера, что, соответственно, не оставляет мне иного выбора, кроме поиска новой работы. Я, разумеется, и так планировала от Джона отчаливать, однако, осознание того, что у меня не будет альтернативы остаться, если по какой-то причине я не найду нормальную работу, не доставляет большого удовольствия.

Whew...теперь точно можно поставить точку на Fall '09 семестре...but wait, of course, I can't finish without swearing on my life that this spring I'm going to be a very good girl and stop procrastinating! but who am I kidding....?

[показать]I've been watching House for a while, but have never followed the seasons. Mostly, I happened to come across random episodes while switching the channels, which, even though giving me some idea of what was going on in lives of the characters, left many of the questions unanswered. Although I have never considered myself to be a big fan of medical shows -- until it began to suck big time, I used to watch Grey's Anatomy solely because of all the exciting relationships between the interns, residents, and attendings -- I got somewhat hooked on House despite the fact that medical cases, not personal lives of the characters, take the front stage in this show.

A few weeks ago, I've decided to start watching the show from the very beginning in order to figure out where all the new characters came from, and how come House got into a psych ward in the beginning of the sixth season. So far, I can say that even though medical stories are undoubtedly superior to those in Grey's Anatomy, I have always been and still am much more interested in Mr. House himself. Actually, I think that the only reason I watch the show is the fact that I find this crippled, unpleasant, and not at all handsome middle aged man to be extremely hot. Strangely enough, I do not feel this way about the actor who plays House. I sure am not partial to Hugh Laurie's British accent, but this is pretty much the only hot thing about him.

Call me shallow, but I pay way too much attention to looks when determining whether or not I want to have anything to do with a guy. While I'm not into men who have nothing to offer except for their handsome appearance, I'm just as little interested in unattractive guys who are otherwise wonderful people. Even more, I am so shallow that I've recently refused to go on a date with a very cute guy just because he is not a very sharp dresser. So, anyway, returning to House, I can say that I haven't found a character to be this hot since Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson got all old and disgusting and stopped playing badass heroes that keep saving the world over and over again. How, however, can you compare crippled House to handsome guys from Die Hard and Lethal Weapon?

I guess, the only explanation of my affection for Mr. House is that I might be not as shallow as I thought. Perhaps, I do not find cute guys in bad pants worthy of going out with not because I am too picky but because they are not interesting and mysterious enough. Had a real life version of Gregory House taken an interest in me, I wouldn't have given our almost thirty years age difference, his not very handsome looks, and a limp much thought. Unfortunately, it seems that men whose personality is intriguing enough to compensate for their hardly average looks, live only in the world of fiction. Therefore, I have no choice but to keep concentrating on looking for the one who combines House's intelligence, Korben Dallas' personality, Sergeant Martin Riggs' looks, and Brad Pit's ass to complete the package :))

[показать]It is frequently pointed out by critics that oral tradition is an integral part of African-American literature. Not surprisingly, being a part of this tradition, Black music – spirituals, shouts, jubilees, gospel songs, field cries, blues, jazz, etc. – has found its way into poems of so many African-American authors. While the varieties of African-American music are many, few other genres had impact on black literary history as significant as that of blues (Ford). Many of the poems written by Langston Hughes – the author often considered to be the founder of blues poetry (Pounce, 507) – exemplify the greatest qualities of blues as it merges on paper with traditional poetic techniques (Rampersad, 985). One of his earlier blues poems, “The Weary Blues,” in particular, serves as a great illustration of how much influence this musical genre had on the Black poetry.

Blues – music that “describes the daily experience of human oppression, while also maintaining a breath of hope” (Banes) – inspired many black writers beginning from 1920. Despite being frequently imagined as the muse of African-American poetry, blues stanza, however, was rarely employed by poets as a literary form. This had to do with the fact that, while having many different shapes, most of the classic blues songs follow a pattern, in which the first two lines are repeated and all three lines rhyme. Therefore, in written form, the poems employing the blues stanza could be seen by some as too repetitive or monotone (Ford). This is why, in order to add more variety and interest to their verses, many poets for whom blues was an inspiration combined and modified the shape of its stanza while preserving themes of the genre (Banes).

“The Weary Blues” is a great illustration of how the mood of blues can be carried through a poem in a way that does not diminish its stylistic complexity and interest. This poem is interesting for many reasons, one of them being the fact that it combines two voices – that of a narrator and that of a performer. Read independently, the words of the narrator and the words of the black singer could make up two separate poems that differ not only in their main character but also in their moods and connection to blues. While the body of the poem, where the voice of the main character narrates about an encounter with a black singer at a bar, seems to have very little to do with blues stylistically, the words of the singer, which are marked by the indented lines, most certainly possess many of the characteristics of this genre:

I heard a Negro play.
He did a lazy sway . . . .
He did a lazy sway . . . .
O Blues!
Sweet Blues!
O Blues!
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died." (Langston, 977)
As one can see, this excerpt follows the pattern of a traditional blues stanza – one line is repeated twice, although sometimes with a little modification, and all three lines rhyme: “I heard a Negro play. / He did a lazy sway. . . . / He did a lazy sway . . . .” (Langston, 3-7). Throughout this part of the poem, Hughes employs the technique used by many African-American poets, who often embellished rather simple blues stanza by providing alternate phrasing of the repeated line (Ford). The author, however, goes a step beyond that and, in addition to alternating the phrasing – “Ain’t got nobody in all this world. / Ain’t got nobody but ma self.” (Langston, 19-22) – shifts the order of the lines in the tercet – “O Blues! / Sweet Blues! / O Blues!” (Langston, 11-16). These seemingly minor changes help to create a more interesting verse while preserving the spirit of a traditional blues song.

In addition to somewhat following the traditional blues stanza, Hughes makes sure that emotions of the singer are in line with the spirit of blues. In the performer’s rather simple song one can clearly hear the notes of melancholy and sadness that are the integral part of blues songs. This melancholy is emphasized by the poem’s rather slow rhythm. Another peculiarity of the poem lies in the presence of two voices that are responsible for a little confusion as to which “I” belongs to which speaker. This creates an interesting effect: “[Through] his imaginative involvement the speaker has been transformed, he has become a blues singer himself” (Ponce, 519). Finally, “The Weary Blues” has “the interaction or call-and-response” that makes “the reader feel [as] an active participant in the ‘concert’ provided by the poet as musician, as performer” (Davidas, 267).

Langston Hughes was the first African-American poet to extensively use blues in his work. He saw the music of