words

It has come to my attention that certain words have been made up for the field that I studied in college. At least two that I have wanted to use recently have ended up with that dreaded red jagged line underneath them...

stressor -- something that stresses, ie, doing the dishes.

manipulative-- something that can be manipulated, ie, playdough.

Didn't realize that these weren't real words. I'm going to use them anyway. Because they're good words.

Richard III

Started reading Shakespeare's Richard III in preparation to see the play tomorrow at the Shakespeare Festival. Forgot what a great villain he is. Is there another villain to compare? Wooing a woman over the dead body of her father-in-law... all the while she knows he has killed both her husband and the dead man in front of her... Wow. And that's only the second scene of the first act.

On a different note, I have long held the belief that Shakespeare's women are almost invariably weak (what's-her-face from the Merchant of Venice being the only exception I can think of). However, a recently stumbled-upon book title and a comment from my mother-in-law made me realize that there may be people out there who think that Shakespeare's women are strong. Can they be serious? I want to try seeing it from a different perspective so I'm thinking of that concept in this reading of Richard III. So far, no luck. Lady Anne is convinced by that hedgehog's (love that) (Act I Scene 2 Line ?) penitent act he puts on to gain her trust (his supposed repentance and his wooing are both in the same scene, again, literally over her father-in-law's dead body). Wow. Can you be any more gullible?

Now I just need to find my book so I can finish it before tomorrow's show.

Ooooh I just love Shakespeare

Atlas Shrugged vs. Les Miserables

I read Atlas Shrugged in May. I loved it. It is one of those rare books that really changes the way one thinks. There are a lot of aspects of Ayn Randism that I love and a lot that I disagree with.

It would be interesting to compare Rand's Atlas Shrugged to Hugo's Les Miserables, stripping the stories and looking at the philosophies behind them-- Atlas Shrugged glorifying Justice as the only upholdable virtue and Les Miserables doing the same to Mercy. It is interesting how we as humans require both Justice and Mercy and yet these well-known, remarkable books treat them as though they are mutually exclusive and venture to show that they not only cannot co-exist happily, but should not.

These are half baked thoughts... and I actually haven't even read Les Miserables. But I didn't want to forget my idea.

A Clarification

Mostly for my own sake, may I please clarify:

This blog is just a barely-significant record of things I learn so that I don't feel like my brain is a total waste. I will not go to great lengths to give credit to sources from whence things were learned. I will not go to great lengths to verify facts or knowledge gained. I may post a source, but it will probably be for my own information and not for others' peace of mind.

I like learning things and this is my way of making it a bit of a hobby. 

The Qur'an

Today I spent a good deal of time reading from The Qur'an as well as the Hadith and I'm not sure what I learned... only that I'm not impressed.

Ich lüge nicht!

Today I learned the German word 'lügen'. It means 'to lie'...as in 'liar, liar pants on fire.'

Maybe I'll learn how to say that next.

Source: German-speaking sisters can come in handy for these types of things.
And just to make sure I was spelling it right, I checked in the Larouse German-English Mini Dictionary Copyright 1999.

How does the saying go? Is it you do learn something new every day or that you should learn something new every day?

Either way, I feel like my brain cells are slowly dying off and I really ought to do something about it. I'm determined to learn something. And in order to feel some accountability, I will post my learnings here.

So, raise your glass to a new blog. (That's all the world needs...)