Quiz Time!

Your result for The Which Shakespeare Play Are You? Test...

Problem Plays

You scored 53% = Tragic, 45% = Comic, 20% = Romantic, 29% = Historic

You are the "Problem Plays!" The Problem Plays are a group of Shakespeare's plays that cannot be readily identified as either Tragedies or Comedies because they have an equal amount of both. The Problem Plays often present the protagonist with a situation that must be overcome, but after a toilsome journey, the hero almost always comes out on top! Often called "tragicomedies," the Problem Plays contain elements of dark psychological drama, light-hearted comedy, and a bit of romance. This means you are most likely a well-rounded individual with a perfect balance Tragedy, Romance, and Comedy in your life. While you may experience some hard times along the way, odds are you will fight through them and come out on top!

Take The Which Shakespeare Play Are You? Test at HelloQuizzy

Thanks librarychik!

Some Random Stuff

1. Damn you Firefox! My browser crashed no less than 5 times this morning. And at one point I couldn't access my hotmail. WTF? Please, please someone fix these bugs! Otherwise I'm stuck using IE 6! Gah!

2. The staff at Curves is really annoying. And I understand that they're trying to make you feel all warm and fuzzy and part of a community, etc. That's what they get paid for, but seriously, what makes them think that I want to have a conversation about what I did last weekend with a virtual stranger while sweat drips down my face and I'm panting like a dog? Geez. Take a hint and stop pestering me.

3. Have you seen the trailer for the new Star Trek Movie? It looks pretty good, although with something like Star Trek where there's so much history, it gets really tough. You'll never please everyone.

4. I'm having a Teen Twilight Party on Thursday at the library, and so I was compiling a list of vampire read-alikes, and I came across Sunshine by Robin McKinley. It was an adult book, so I thought I should read it first to make sure it was appropriate. I had to subsequently take it off my list as I decided it was too racy to book talk to thirteen-year-olds, but I really, really enjoyed it. The only thing that bugs me, is that the ending leaves sooooo many loose ends. So many, in fact, that you immediately assume there's going to be a sequel. But alas, there is not. At least not yet. Sunshine was first published in 2003, and they are republishing a new edition this year leading some fans to hope that this may be an indication that McKinley is indeed working on a sequel. I hope so, because it would be sooo awesome. I just don't get why she would write these interesting, complex characters and create this cool world and then just... leave it. So much potential. So, with the warning that you will be disappointed with the end, I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is suffering from post-Twilight depression and needs a solid injection of vampire love. Or lust anyway.

And here's a quick tantalizing morsel to whet your appetite:

"Constantine,"I cried, "are you turning me?"

"No," he said. "I would not. And this is not that."

"Then what-"

"Do not talk. Not now. Later. We can talk later."

"But- but- I am so frightened," I pleaded.

In the moonlight I could see his silhouette clearly. He raised his head away from me, arching his neck backward so our bodies remained touching. I saw him rip, quickly, neatly, his upper lip with his lower teeth, his lower lip and tongue with his upper. He bent his head to me again, and when he stopped my mouth with his, his blood ran across my tongue and down my throat.

An Illiterate Society cannot be a Democracy

An interesting article that I came across via Mike.

The article talks about how fucked up America is, and how most people are so illiterate they are incapable of critical thinking. Specifically, the article discusses this in relation to the recent election.

Political propaganda now masquerades as ideology. Political campaigns have become an experience. They do not require cognitive or self-critical skills. They are designed to ignite pseudo-religious feelings of euphoria, empowerment and collective salvation. Campaigns that succeed are carefully constructed psychological instruments that manipulate fickle public moods, emotions and impulses, many of which are subliminal.
...
Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts.

The article is American, but I see so much that can apply to our own recent election. How many people actually went on the internet and found out what Stephane Dion's Green Shift was all about? Or did they just let the Conservative propaganda (Stephane Dion is not a leader!) make their decisions for them? And it's not just the Conservative Party. All the parties are guilty of this. Their ads were overwhelmingly negative, attacking the party's leader in personal terms rather than their policies. They attempted to create, as it says above, a narrative about respective party leaders, regardless of whether or not that had any basis in reality.

I don't think we're quite at the level of America yet, but I think we're heading in that direction. It's a really, really, depressing thought.

Okay, okay. I get it.

Here's a dream that I had a couple of nights ago.

I'm walking in a sort of part maze, part garden. The walls of the maze are made of bamboo, and the corridors open up now and then to reveal bonsai and other plants and flowers among bubbling fountains of water. Very zen.

And there is a woman who is walking the maze with me. She's not leading me anywhere, she's just walking with me. Another thing about the maze is that it is vertical as well as horizontal, and we sometimes have to climb bamboo ladders to reach other bamboo platforms higher up.

Often we go through an opening or climb a ladder only to find ourselves back where we started. It is only after we've been through a section several times that I finally see an opening which will allow us to go on to the next section of the maze. The opening has been there all along, but for some reason it was not visible to me the first few times that I passed it.

I have just climbed to the top of one of the bamboo ladders and stepped onto the bamboo platform when there is a sudden rumble, and the entire platform collapses from under me. The other woman and I fall to the ground below, but we are not hurt. The other woman then speaks to me for the first time. She looks at the collapsed platform at our feet and says, "Some things are too broken to be fixed. You can only move on and begin again."

She then moves to stand between two bonsai and is transformed into a stone statue, becoming just another part of the garden. And I am left alone standing on the splintered wreckage of the bamboo platform.

That type of dream is the equivalent of my subconscious hitting me on the head with a very large stick. I'm pretty sure I know what it means with respect to my life.

What would it mean to you?