Online Communication

Msn messenger is great; it's such a fast and easy way to communicate with others, especially with others that are far away. But one thing I dislike about it is that because it's so easy it can push out other methods of communication such as the phone and other stuff. Maybe it's just me but somehow typing back and forth to someone just doesn't have the same effect as talking to someone on the phone or, better yet, meeting up and talking with them in person. Call me old fashioned but I would rather have a visit from someone than a popped-up conversation screen any day.
















Oh and speaking of popped-up conversation screens, if you have Skype (which is so cool because not only is it useful for calling long distance without charge, has instant messaging, and can send texts, but it's also made in Taiwan!) one of the downsides of it is that anyone can send you an instant message whether they are on your contacts list or not. At random times I've all of a sudden had someone write "hello" to me that I have no idea who they are. And what do you say to that, because you don't want to be rude and not talk just because you don't know them (there is a real person on the other side of that computer screen) but at the same time you don't want to talk because frankly, you don't know them. And when I say "talk" I mean "type," because really you aren't actually talking, just typing. Because as convenient as it is, typing is so much more impersonal than actual talking. Just like a picture of a box of chocolates is much less satisfying than an actual box of chocolates.

See what I mean?

Speaking of which, if I don't stop myself I will go through this entire box before suppertime! x.x

Anyways, I'm going back to Shakespeare. For those of you wondering why I've been reading it so much it's because Florine bought me a huge book (about the size of the old history textbooks, you know those whoppers that they got rid of?) of the complete works of Shakespeare. It's a nice book actually, with a ribbon bookmark and gold-leafed pages which are a nice touch to any book, and it's got all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets and even some biographies, so it's pretty cool. And the plays aren't actually as hard as I thought they would be to read them, even without those helpful explanations on the side of the school copies of the plays. I find the best way to read them (for me anyways) is out loud because otherwise I'll just go through it and not even realise what it's saying. Actually reading out loud for me means quietly whispering to myself because there are other people in the house haha.

So far I'm in "The Third Part Of King Henry The Sixth," which, as you might have guessed, is about King Henry The Sixth. But the first part had Joan of Arc in it, and you might find this funny because she is so famous and well-known but when I first read it I had no idea who she was except from The Simpsons episode where Lisa plays her and Milhouse is King Charles and the only part I really remember about Joan of Arc was at the end where she is captured and is about to be burned at the stake and then Lisa gasps and asks if she really is burned and then Marge comes along, rips the page out of the book that Homer was reading from, makes up some story about how Prince Charming comes and they ride off into the sunset, then shoves the page into her mouth and eats it, exclaiming "Well at least it's easier to chew than the Bambi video!"

But in the play she's depicted as just some girl who through her fancy speeches, gets Charles (Dauphin) to become captivated by her and do everything she says, though his friends sort of look on in disbelief. She wins some battles and the French are hopeful but then when she gets captured she rejects her father (who had tearfully gone to see her) and tries to get out of her punishment by saying how she is virtuous and then, when that doesn't work, she goes on about how she was pregnant and by different people each time, and the English are finally like ugh just kill her already.. Shakespeare really isn't that accurate (read his play on Macbeth and then read what actually happened; half the characters aren't even there in real life!) but it's kind of hard to tell what's real and what's not just by reading it without the background and so I asked Florine what made her a hero because in the play she sounded sort of like a fraud and she said that in real life Joan of Arc gave hope to all the people in France and helped them become more independant and fight for themselves. And then when I wikipediaed her it talked about how brave she was and how they put her through this huge false trial and how she endured it and through it all she was so smart. About it they wrote:

The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'" The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume would later testify that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied."

So anyways, I'm going back to read the play; it gets pretty exciting as it goes on and you wonder what becomes of everyone; although some of my favourite characters they killed such as Lord Gloster who was so nice and one of the very few not power-hungry. And also smart too, as you can see in a hilarious scene in the second part. Read it, because I'm going to haha. Oh never mind, I'm being called down to supper. Even better!