Text Dump (backup for english)

//Begin Speech.

Ok, now as unlikely as it seems, this rather embarrasing video is a modern representation of the beginning scene in shakespeare. The point is that feuds like this, that is feuds that are either started or elevated by gang and family honour have been happening since the dawn of time. Romeo and Juliet always has been and always will be a very relevant poem to all generations, as not only can people relate to the dilemmas some couples have to face, but also to the violence between groups of people driven by pride - neither side willing to back down and admit to being wrong.

Vicki mentioned that Household names cause the death of the couple. Arguably, Friar Lawrence and the Nurse are just as much to blame as bad luck or family honour.
Friar Lawrence is, of the two, more responsible for the tragedy at the end of the play. During Act, after much deliberation, agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet against his better judgement, thus sealing the couples fate. Friar Lawrence does this with fairly good intention, but as the well known proverb goes, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" as holds true during this play. His intentions may have been aided by a slight ignorance of the situation. The fact remains that Romeo and Juliet were very young - far too young to be making such rash decisions. In Act 3 Scene 3 Romeo has a tantrum, very typical of surly teenagers, proof enough that he is not nearly mature enough to handle such a situation.
Juliet's Nurse is also very much to blame. Having raised Juliet like a daughter, the thought that perhaps she wasn't ready for such a huge step should have at least crossed the nurse's mind. In agreeing to let Juliet marry Romeo, she not only made the same rash mistake as Friar lawrence, that is ignorance of the couple's immaturity, but also betrayed the capulet family. The nurse is supposed to tender to the family's opinion of what is best for Juliet, not to so leniently allow Juliet to rebel against her family.

Some could say that Juliet behaved inapropriately, and was blind to the damage she was causing her family. Arranged marriages were held in very high esteem during shakespeare's time. Juliet's refusal to marry Paris, who was a very well-to-do man, would have brought shame upon the family. Remember, at that time a girl in such a position as Juliet's would have no say in issues like that. She would do what the father says and that's that. To go against her fathers way would have been incredibly serious, would not have come across well and made the family look bad.
Romeo's behaviour could also be seen as incredibly rash and very immature. For a start, during act 2 scene 1 going onto act 2 scene 2, Romeo very foolishly risks his life by climbing into the Capulet's garden. Even more foolishly, by asking her to marry him, he clearly shows that he hasn't quite grasped the concept of marriage and commitment.

The pivotal point in the story is Act 3 scene 1, during which Tybalt kills Mercutio, and Romeo, in revenge, kills Tybalt. In doing so, Romeo effectively dooms his relationship with Juliet. What was once unlikely had now become impossible, as Romeo had confirmed himself to be an enemy of the Capulets by killing a kinsman. The reason Friar Lawrence married the couple was in order to stop the feud, when in reality it only ended up elevating it.

In conclusion, Violence was a large factor in the death of Romeo and Juliet, but ultimately, it was seemingly good intentions that were essentially responsible for the couple's demise.

........................................

Stressful GCSEs II

Grrr. Maths Dept can't find my stats coursework. Not that there is anything much worth looking at, but it's the fact that they vehemently deny they have it, as if I'm to blame.
Can't find my old science project that I was supposed to hand in ages ago. That's going to be awkward when I do hand it in.
Final English piece due in tomorrow. A speech presentation about Romeo and Juliet... Great. *sarcastic smile* I don't have a problem with speaking to crowds, in fact, I rather like it - apparently I'm very good at it. Unfortunately, I'm not so good at improvising and passing off a small amount of writing as a large speech in front of one person. Which is precisely what my group has decided to do, as two of the people get chronic stage fright. Not funny, nor is it fair. I think actually, the time spent writing this would be better spent working on an abismal speech, so I'll shut up.

Message to the littleuns - do your coursework in year 10 - make year 11 easy for yourselves (trust me here, it's worth it)

*goes off to write up shameful speech*

Stressful GCSEs

All this latin has put me in a bad mood.
Ok, admittedly it's not just the Latin. I'm feeling a little under appreciated at the moment in my science classes. This year, I've been working at a pretty high standard in science, and I've even been helping a friend of mine understand some of the work, I ask good questions, and give good answers. I'm an A/A* student in my chemistry classes, and have been getting nothing but good grades, so you'd think that the teacher in question would have the good manners to remember my name. You'd also be wrong. And to top it off, I took a look at my interim report and noticed a few things that rang alarm bells. First and foremost - current grade: B. I've got As and A*s in the most of the tests I've been given. I do not feel that I deserve a B. In the effort grades section (What a load of rubbish!) I got "good" for homework, "good" for classwork, "excellent" for behaviour and "good" for organisation. Those are good enough grades, but for a start, I should be "poor" for homework, "excellent" for classwork, and "poor" for organisation.
I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for it, but from what I can tell, I'm just being ignored.

Now onto Latin. I used to be good at latin. I'm fairly good at translation - I'd be doing pretty well right now if set text wasn't part of the course. I can't seem to remember any of it. I can spend 3 hours writing it out onto paper, or 2 hours reciting it. I've even tried cramming. Nothing works. Hopefully 5 hours in front of a computer screen typing out the set text numerous times then deleting it to only leave one ought to work. If not, I'm going to tell my teacher exactly what I've tried, and even have proof that I've spent ages learning it, so my friends can back me up said teacher implies that I've not done anything to learn it.

And Maths. I can't do it. I'm not good enough anymore. Everyone seems to understand all this coursework, and it's so confusing. My friends are so amazing, and I feel awkward sitting in the same class as them. I'm not innumerate, I just can't seem to get anything right in maths at the moment. Doesn't help that I tried so hard in my maths exams and ended up getting rubbish results. What am I doing wrong? I'm listening and taking notes in class. I'm doing my homework.

Don't even get me started on English. The language part is fine, but it's actually getting the work in. And I have one more piece of coursework to do, and it's so difficult to sort out, cause I keep getting distracted and losing my notes, and forgetting what I'm about to talk about.

I'll be lucky to get any decent grades in my subjects at the moment.


Sorry about that, just had to get that off my chest. :-)

Virgil: TAB II: Lines 21-25

Lines 21-25 (beginning "est in conspectu Tenedos" ending "Mycenas")

In sight lies Tenedos, an island very famous by reputation, rich in resources as long as the kingdom of Priam was remaining, now only a bay and a treacherous anchorage for ships: they sailed here and concealed themselves on the desolate shore; we thought that they had gone away and set sail for Mycenae.

Keywords -

• est in conspectu - In sight lies tenedos
  
• insula notissima fama - an island very famous by reputation
• tantum sinus - only a bay
  
• male fida - treacherous
  
• statio carinis - anchoracge for ships
  
• provecti huc - they sailed here
  
• condunt se - and concealed themselves
  
• deserti in litore - on the desolate shore
  
• rati (summus) - we thought that they
  
• abiisse - had gone away
  
• vento petiisse Mycenas - and set sail for Mycenae
  

Back to learning...

Virgil: The Aeneid Book II: Lines 10-20

First of all, to save confusion, I've decided to use my blog to aid my learning of Latin set text. Something has to work, and I've tried every technique possible. Maybe typing it will help....

Virgil Aeneid II

Lines 10-12 (beginning "sed si" ending "incepiam")
'sed si' But if you have so great a desire to learn our misfortunes and to hear briefly the final agony of Troy, although my spirit shudders to remember and has shrunk from the sorrow, I shall begin. 'incepiam'

Keywords -

• sed si - but if
• tantus - so great
  
• amor - desire
  
• congnoscere - to learn
• nostros casus - our misfortunes
• et audire breviter - and to hear briefly
• supremum laborem - final agony
• quamquam - although
• animus horret - my spirit shudders
• meminisse - remember
• refugit - shrunk
• luctuque - the sorrow
• incepiam - I shall begin

Lines 13-20 (beginning "fracti bello" ending "armato milite")

'fracti bello' Broken by war and driven back by fate, the leaders of the Greeks, now that so many years were slipping by, built with the divine skill of Pallas, a horse as huge as a mountain, and interwove the ribs with cut fir-wood; they pretended that it was an offering for their safe return; that was the story that spread. 'vagatur'
Having chosen selected warriors by lot, they hid them secretly in this, deep within, in its dark flanks and filled its vast hollows ans womb with armed soldiers. "armato milite"

Keywords -

-sentence 1

• fracti bello - Broken by war
• repulsi fatisque - driven back by fate
• ductores Danaum - the leaders of the Greeks
• iam tot annis - now that so many years
• labentibus - slipping by
• aedisicat ... divina arte Palladis - built with the dvine skill of Pallas
• instar montis equum - a horse as huge as a mountain
• sectaque intexunt abiete costas - interwove the ribs with cut fir-wood
• simulant - pretended
• votem - an offering
• reditu - safe return
• fama vagatur - the story that spread

-sentence 2

• sortiti - having chosen
• corpora virum - selected warriors by lot
• includent furtim - they hid them secretly
• caeco lateri - deep flanks
• ingentes cavernas - vast hollows
• uterum - womb
  
• armato milites - armed soldiers
  

Now you can't say I don't do my homework.....

Free Country? Not for much longer.....

Today I was reading the news and I snapped. Turns out the government want to issue a £2500 fine to anyone who refuses to sign up for an ID card. Ugh. I was so annoyed, that I decided to send an email to people who I thought would care enough to either take note or pass it on. Or at least read it and think about it:

I would firstly like to say that I have emailed you all because I am growing increasingly concerned with Blair's continuous erosion of our basic civil liberties. Yes, this is an email about politics. No, do not switch off yet. This is important.

If you will take a look at various links from recent news headlines, you will notice that over the last few years, Jack Straw, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke (all once home secretaries for New Labour) have introduced laws and taxes that impose upon our freedom.
They have even admitted it themselves, with the head of MI5 admitting back in September that civil liberties may have to be eroded "for our own safety": http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4232012.stm
If nothing is done about this, we will no longer have the freedoms that we Britons have been enjoying for the past few decades.

Unfortunately, we have already lost the right to protest: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4507446.stm
This is the story of Mary Evans, a political activist who was arrested for reading out the names of all the British soldiers who had been killed in the Iraq war. She was convicted under the new law that bans unauthorised protests from taking place within half a mile of Westminster. This has even been stretched to include such things as carol singing: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article332149.ece

This is not the worst of the new laws though; on January 1st 2006, a law was introduced that allows police to arrest people for any offence. This means you can gain a criminal record for petty offences such as failure to wear a seatbelt, dropping litter, and other misdemeanours:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/29/narrest29.xml&sS

Britain is already the most spied upon country in the world, with over 4 million CCTV surveilance cameras operating nationwide. This is unacceptable. But it is only the beginning, because the government plan to track the movement of every single vehicle, thus becoming the first country in the world to do this: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece
Furthermore, the new national surveilance system will hold these records for at least two years.

But the most pressing issue of all is the proposition to bring in compulsory ID cards. These ID cards store a lot more personal information than any other form of identity. The full list is here: http://www.no2id.net/IDSchemes/faq.php#7 and lists over 50 different categories of information required to register for one of these. I am aware that most of you will probably not read out all of them, so I will pick out a few for you:
"3. Date and place of birth and, if the person has died, the date of death;" (Surely dead people don't need ID cards??)
"13. Fingerprints"
"14. 'Other' biometrics (iris recognition);"
"29. Any driver number connected to a driving licence;"
These cards store a lot of information on one card. A bit much just to prove someone's existance. In fact, there is so much stored on these card that one could argue that instead if reducing identity theft, it would make it easier for people to steal others' identity. There are several other reasons why these Identity cards won't work. A friend of mine has written an artice listing them here: http://www.vigay.com/misc/idcards.html
Pressure group NO2ID also not only have a very informative FAQ, which I have already posted a link to, but have put up 2 petitions to refuse and 1 to support those who refuse. Unfortunately the most recent pledge was not as successful as the first, but should any of you feel that you do not want to sign up to these cards - you are not alone. There are at least 11,000 people who have already pledged to resist compulsory registration (me being one of them).
Currently, the government are attempting to blackmail citizens into buying into these ID cards. They have proposed a £2,500 fine for refusing to sign up to one, because they are banking on only a few people resisting. If everybody was to resist, there would be much more chance of getting it thrown out of parliament.
http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse2
http://www.pledgebank.com/resist

Even if you choose not to support NO2ID, please tell others about it. We must let everyone know what is happening. We cannot let Blair turn this country into a Totalitarian state.

Spread the word - we're losing our freedom fast!