Polonius's advice to Laertes

Polonius's son Laertes is about to head of to study in France. In their parting farewell, Polonius gives his son some advice.

"There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!"
(Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3)

OMG BLOGGER IS TROLLING ME!! IT JUST DELETED EVERYTHING I HAD WRITTEN DOWN... NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Sorry about that, I had written my blog then blogger deleted all my stuff so I'm going to have to summarize what I had in order to finish it in time.

Essentially what Polonius is telling Leartes is that he needs to focus on his schooling above all else, to learn as much as possible, to not get caught up in college nonsense, and to stay true to himself. All of this is great advice in my opinion. I would try to follow this as best as possible. Problem is, I'm not in college so i guess it doesnt apply.

My advice is kinda insignificant because I've never been to college. All i can really say is you need to focus on the main reason youre there. to get an education and prepare for your career. Dont get caught up in all that stupid getting drunk and partying nonsense. that stuff isnt even fun.... spend your time and resources well and make the best of your time in college. get involved in the community and in extracurriculars. do something in service of your school. College in general is an important topic in today's culture in general. Topics people tend to obsess over in what college is someone going to, their major, and their intended career. People are always asking these questions to the kids of their friends and what not. It kinda sucks when you dont have a straight answer like me....

There you go. That there is essentially all I know about college. Not much... I should probably pay attention more... College is going to be... interesting... for me. Wish me luck.

Starting Hamlet

Today we begin Hamlet. From what I've heard, Hamlet is a darn good play. Having previously witnessed Shakespeare's work, I'm confident that I'll enjoy Hamlet.

I've been given a series of questions to discuss/answer so I'll choose a few and begin this here pre-reading work.

1) How common do you think the act of revenge is in everyday life?
- Well, It can actually be quite common, especially in my life. You see, I play football for my high school, and practices and games can get pretty rough. Your opponent is always trying to humiliate you and defeat you. Should the worst come, you get beat. That's when the drive to get redemption and get back at your opponent starts to boil in your muscles. Trust me, I don't get beat very often, but when I do, I get my revenge, and my opponents don't really appreciate it. Besides, there's always the little jokes and pranks kids play on each other in the lunchroom and start these little joke wars against each other to get their revenge. Revenge can be quite common, it's just dependent on the opportunities to seek, and enact revenge.

2) Have you ever witnessed some kind of supernatural being?
- I honestly think my basement's haunted... I've seen stuff get thrown around, things knocked off tables, and heard subtle, yet conspicuous noises. Have I ever seen a ghost? No. Do I believe in the supernatural? Yes. The reason I believe in he supernatural is because I've seen chilling evidence of it, and it's better to believe in something so that when it does become truth, you wont be taken by surprise. besides, witchcraft is kinda cool actually. There's a secret book about witchcraft sitting in a dark corner of my school library. I read it one time and I think it placed a curse on me or something... oh well.

3)Are you a "thinker or a "doer"? What would you like to be?
- I'm the kind of person that thinks about doing things, but I never actually do anything about it... It's kinda depressing now that I think about it. I would like to be a person that can think and do. The kind of person that can determine what needs to be done and have the capacity and drive to actually do it. That would reeeaaallllyyy help a lot in my life.

New Class, New Topic.

It's finally my senior year. I've left the horrendous dungeon that was English 3 last year and moved on to begin my studies in Shakespeare. From now on my blog will be solely devoted to blogs in relation to what we study in Shakespeare class. As of right now, we just finished Macbeth, so I expect that my posts in the near future will be concurrent with that play. I'm excited to get back to blogging and have the highest hopes for this year. This is gonna be wonderful. More to come...

Please enjoy these delightful pictures: