Some More Shadow-Related Tunes

I figured I'd add some more music relating to today's tunes' shadow theme (going along with the allegory of the Cave). "Shadow of the Season" by the Screaming Trees, off of Sweet Oblivion.

1984--Resistance

In honor of my reading the novel 1984 by George Orwell (finally), here is a song by Muse inspired by the book. Here y'all go, Resistance by Muse, off of their album, The Resistance.

Big Question

Many months ago, we were learning about brains in anatomy class, and we were asked to hypothesize about what function, chemical, etc., in the brain distinguishes our imagination from reality (i.e., we know the difference between imagining that we are walking down the street and actually walking down the street). Though I put my little theory down on paper, I'm still not satisfied and I've been thinking about it ever since that assignment. So...

My Big Question is: How do we tell the difference between imagination and reality?

One must take into consideration not only the average brain but also those with schizophrenia or those that experience hallucinations or any other issue that makes it so they cannot distinguish between reality and imagination. It's not as simple as it might sound at first...It would be nice to see some theories and even better to see an answer...though I'm not sure there is one. Yet.

If I were president...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-kjdjmixdTM

Yes, yes, I know, it's not a link. But the blogger app is very limited, and I just really felt the need to post this, seeing as tomorrow's "judgement day." So here ya go, folks, copy, paste and enjoy "If I Were President" by Wyclef Jean.

Hamlet

My essay is currently frustrating the bejeezus out of me, so here, a Hamlet-related comic I found!

Vocab List #11

Affinity- relationship by marriage
Bilious- of or indicative of a peevish ill nature disposition
Cognate- of the same nature
Corollary- A proposition inferred Immediately from a proved proposition with little or no additional proof
Cul-de-sac - a pouch
Derring-do- a daring action
Divination- The art or practice that seeks to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge due to the interpretation of omens
Elixir- A substance capable of prolonging life indefinitely
Folderol- a useless accessory
Gamut- an entire range or series
Hoi polloi- the General populace
Ineffable- incapable of being expressed in words
Lucubration- to study by night
Mnemonic- intended to assist memory
Obloquy- abusive language
Parameter- an independent variable used to express the coordinates of variable point and functions of them
Pundit- a learned man
Risible- provoking laughter
Symptomatic- having the characteristics of a certain disease but arising of a different cause
Volte-face- a reversal in policy

This week's vocabulary is just of a "copy-paste" function. Hopefully I will keep my promise to myself to do my sentences later, though it will be pretty annoying to do on my phone.

AP Hamlet PLN

1. "Hamlet & Heroism" at Cambridge:

http://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/component/courses/?view=course&cid=3688

 This was the first, and the best course I stumbled upon during my search. The entire course is focused on Hamlet; it spends time analyzing his character in many different ways. It looks at Hamlet as a hero, and "no approach to the tragedy is ruled out."

2.  "Reading, Writing, and Printing" at University of Pennsylvania:

http://www.english.upenn.edu/People/PeterStallybrass

This seminar looks at the technical and artistic points of "Hamlet" as well as other works. There is not much explanation....

3. AP Literature and Composition at Bartow High School:

http://www.bartowhighschool.com/PDF%202012-2013/Syllabus%2012-13.pdf

This AP course was neatly outlined in PDF syllabus, so of course I'm going to give it props for being neat and tidy. It also had several pages of questions and topics of thought for certain works that the class would be going over (obviously, they're pretty familiar). 

4. Hamlet on OpenUW presented by University of Washington: 

http://www.outreach.washington.edu/openuw/forms/terms.asp

This course...Not the most intellectual or deep class, looking at the sample quiz that they gave. But I could be wrong. Frankly, I've become a little desperate; I'm having a hard time finding valid courses and I have yet to find someone who has found 15 or so courses. Hopefully I'll get some feedback from someone and come back later to add to this. But, for now, I must study.