An Interesting Thought

Wow with this post, my blog has reached a major landmark. 

100 Posts!

Appropriate song to play while reading this:

This milestone calls for a celebration!
But considering I do not have the age or money to buy bottles of Dom Perignon, we are going to celebrate in a different manner.
While lurking online on an image board (not that forsaken hell-hole 4-chan), I came across a thread of a guy who lost his buddy to cancer. While the subject itself was rather melancholy, the original poster only wanted to do one thing: to spread positive vibes (referred to as SLAYER in this community) in honor of his buddy. One of the members posted an image that struck me and mad me look at life in a completely different manner. The following text is from the image.

MACBETH ACT 5 READING NOTES

ACT 5: 

• Scene 1: Enter doctor and gentlelady; Doctor is asking when was the last time she saw Lady Macbeth sleepwalk. She responds by telling him that ever since Macbeth went to war, she's been constantly doing this and writing something on paper. 
• Lady Macbeth enters and they hid to watch her. Lady Macbeth makes a motion of washing her hands (perhaps trying to wash away the blood of Duncan from her hands?) 
• Tries to scrub a spot on her hands that refuses to come off. She's also sleep talking to Macbeth it seems, saying that his guilty conscience is going to screw them over. 
• They begin to realize that Lady Macbeth has a deep secret and they heard something they shouldn’t have heard; Lady Macbeth also makes a reference on how Banquo is dead. 
• Doctor says that guilty people often confess to things in their sleep. Says that she needs a priest more than a doctor. 

• Scene 2: Enter Lennox, Caithness, Menteith, and Angus. About to meet up with Malcolm's English forces near Birnam woods. They talk about how Macbeth is fortifying his castle and calling him insane. 
• Also say that Macbeth's men are only fighting to follow orders, not for the love of Macbeth. "Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands," Macbeth is finally getting his just desserts for all his killings. 
• Menteith tries to justify Macbeth's insanity saying that his inner turmoil is the cause of it. They march off Birnam. 
• Scene 3: Macbeth is speaking to the doctor and some attendants. He is extremely cocky saying he does not fear the English forces for it was prophesized that no man born from a woman would be able to defeat him. 
• A pale-faced servant enters and informs Macbeth the English have amounted ten thousand troops. Macbeth essentially disregards this and tells him to leave. 
• Macbeth realizes that he might die but he's like whatever I'm fighting to the death. He tells Seyton to hang anyone who is spreading fear. 
• The doctor tells Macbeth that Lady Macbeth isn't sick, but has been having visions that have prevent her from sleeping. 
• Macbeth tells Seyton to hand him his armor as he is preparing for battle.  
• Scene 4: Enter Malcolm and his posse of men (Lennox, Siward and son, Macduff, Angus, Ross, Menteith, and Caithness) and his troops. 
• Malcolm tells his troops to break off a tree branch and use it to disguise themselves, that way Macbeth's scouts will give him inaccurate information on how much troops they actually have.  
• Malcom also tells his troops that Macbeth's troops are deserting their post and those that do stay aren't fighting with their heart. 
• They move their army forward. 
• Scene 5: Macbeth is still super confident that his fortress will be able to survive the siege; even goes as far to say that if so many of his soldiers had not defected to the other side, he would have been able to beat them back to England. 
• Macbeth hears a scream and says that once that would have startled him but it no longer phases him as worse things are so familiar to him. The scream came from Lady Macbeth (she is dead). 
• Macbeth delivers his "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy, and seems unphased by the death of his wife, saying it would have happened eventually. Here he is discussing the futility of life and how it lacks meaning. 
• A messenger appears as Macbeth finishes the delivery and warns him that the forest is moving towards the castle. Macbeth, oblivious to Malcolm's plan, doesn't believe it. 
• He tells the messenger that if he's lying, he will hang him from a tree until he starves to death. If he's not lying, he'll do the same, but to himself.  
• Now Macbeth is beginning to lose confidence; the prophecy told him he shouldn't worry until Birnam Woods move to Dunsinane, which it looks like is actually happens.  
• Macbeth has some pretty big cojones because despite the daunting forecast, he is deciding to stay and fight, saying he's tired of living. 
• Scene 6: Malcolm's army is within striking range of Dunsinane so they shed they their folliage disguises to show Macbeth what he's up against. 
• Scene 7: Enter Macbeth and Young Siward during battle; Siward asks what Macbeth's name is and he tells him; they battle and Macbeth kills him, further boosting his ego. 
• Macduff wants to personally kill Macbeth. 
• Old Siward and Malcolm are talking; they took the castle without much of a fight.  
• Scene 8: Macbeth is asking why should he commit suicide so long as he has enemies to kill. 
• Macduff enters.  Macbeth tells him to leave as he already killed his entire family. They fight. Macbeth is still super cocky, because only a man not born of a woman would be able to bring about his downfall. 
• This is where Macduff drops a bombshell: he was delivered via c-section so he wasn't technically born from his mother. 
• This revelation crushes Macbeth's courage and he now refuses to fight Macduff. 
• Macduff tells him to surrender and that they will make a freakshow of him and put him on display for everyone to ridicule and taunt. 
• Macbeth does not like the thought of this and decides to fight to the death because he does not want to kiss the ground in front of Malcolm's feet or be ridiculed by the common folk. They fight. 
• Macbeth's army surrenders and Malcolm, Ross, and Siwald (along with their army) enters. Their victory has cost them very little lives. They notice Macduff is missing. 
• Ross informs Siwald his son died in battle. Siwald asks if his son's wounds were from the front, to which Ross answers yes, leading Siwald to declare his son died a man. 
• Macduff enters with Macbeth's head in hand and hails Malcolm as king.  
• Malcolm gives a short speech, stating that he will repay all of the men for their courageous efforts and that tyranny is over.  

THE END 

MACBETH ACT 1 READING NOTES

• Scene 1: Three witches talking about when they'll reunite; they agree to meet up after the battle. 
• "fair is foul, foul is fair" 
• Scene 2: After the battle, King Duncan enters with his sons (Lennox, Donalbain, and Malcolm) 
• see bloodied Captain, who talks about a ruthless and courageous warrior named Macbeth. 
• They find out the thane of Cawdor is a traitor; the king decides to execute him, his title given to the brave Macbeth. 
• Scene 3: The witches reconvene; Macbeth and Banquo enter and see the witches. He taunts them and says that he wants to believe that they are women but their beards lead him to believe they are men. 
• The Witches respond by hailing him as thane of Glamis (which he currently is), thane of Cawdor (he has not heard the news yet), and future king. 
• Witches also go on and tell Banquo his children will be kings. 
• Macbeth wants to hear more but the witches disappear into thin air. 
• Ross and Angus enter and inform Macbeth of King Duncan's decision to execute the thane of Cawdor and give him the title. Banquo is shocked because the witches' prophecy came true. 
• Macbeth begins to realize that there might be some truth to the witches' prophecy. 
• Scene 4: Duncan formally thanks Macbeth for every  he's done and bestows upon him the title of Thane of Cawdor. 
• Malcolm becomes prince of Cumberland and Macbeth realizes that in order to become king, he must take him out because he's in his way. 
• Scene 5: Lady Macbeth reading letter Macbeth sent her telling her about the witches and their prophecy and how It came true.  
• She tells Macbeth he will become king, but she worries that he is too much of a wimp to actually go through and assert himself and get what he wants. 
• King Duncan is going to be staying at Macbeth's castle. Lady Macbeth tells the spirit to make her remorseless and cruel. 
• Enter Macbeth; Lady Macbeth encourages him to kill Duncan but to look as innocent as a flower.  
• Scene 6: King Duncan finally arrives at Macbeth's castle. 
• Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth set up a façade of kindness to the King in order to squash any suspicion.  
• Scene 7: Macbeth is contemplating whether to kill Duncan or not; sees a floating dagger pointing towards the King's quarters.  
• Lady Macbeth enters and Macbeth tells her he is having second thoughts about killing Duncan because he just honored him. 
• Lady Macbeth calls him a coward and questions his manhood, so naturally Macbeth needs to prove her wrong. 
• Also says that she would be willing to smash her own infant child's head in if she needed to. (Proves how psychotic and power-hungry Lady Macbeth is). 
• Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth she'll get Duncan's guards super drunk, leaving Duncan vulnerable and then blame his death on them. 
• Macbeth decides he's going to do it.

GOD IS DEAD

This entire weekend I've been at a church retreat in Arroyo Grande for my second year confirmation class.
It was hell.
For those of you who don't know, I am an agnostic. I neither believe nor disbelieve there is a "God", a creator of sorts. Being an agnostic surrounded by fervent Catholics talking about their faith and their love of God and all that made me feel somewhat out of place. That is not to say I don't like Catholics. I treat people of beliefs different than my own the same way they treat me, because in the end, we're all humans composed of the same stuff living on the same planet. But I digress.
The fact that I was an agnostic amongst a group of people who held deeply to the doctrine of the Church, which includes beliefs that the Earth was created with all life forms as is some 6,000 ago over the course of a week by a bearded Wizard in the sky which we cannot prove nor disprove. They also believe this Wizard sent his one and only son down to Earth to die for the sake of our foundation. The logical, rational person inside of me was (and has been) dumbfounded by these beliefs. How can someone be ignorant to the troves of evidence that lifeforms on Earth have evolved over time to adjust to the conditions of their environment?  How can someone  deny  that the universe is 13.798±0.037 billion years and that Earth itself is over 4 billion years old, despite background microwave radiation? These facts have been widely proven and supported by years upon years of research and irrefutable evidence , yet the only foundation that Catholics have for the existence of God is faith. This faith is "supported" by the Bible, a book written thousands of years ago by a bunch of old men. How do they know God exists? Because the Bible said so. How do they know the Bible is true? Because God helped write it. It is this type of circulocutionary logic, coupled with other injustices (such as the treatment of gays, women, and peoples of other faiths) that have led me astray from the faith and made me doubt the existence of God.
This might offend some people, a quite frankly, I don't care. All my life I've had these religious beliefs crammed down my throat in a futile attempt of indoctrination. It's tie for me to say enough is enough and push back. Even in our modern society, atheists and agnostics are somewhat ostracized. Sure, we are no longer stoned for doubting the existence of God like we once were. But there's been plenty of times where I've told people, my friends even, that I don't believe in God. Almost immediately, they give me these flabbergasted looks of disbelieve and many have even assumed that I worship Satan, another figure that does not exist. I'm all for respecting other people's believes, but when they begin to try to indoctrinate me, I have to push back and protect my own beliefs, even if it means disproving theirs.
People shouldn't be good and do good just for the sake of getting into Heaven, or for the fear of eternal damnation in Hell. People should do good for the sake of helping out fellow man, for the sake of advancing and bettering humanity. Too many people have been killed for holding different beliefs and often times, religious leaders often condone these killings and brutality (such as the Spanish Inquisition, or more recently, Muslim clerics encouraging violence against non-Muslims). We are all human. We all laugh in the same language. We all cry in the same language. For better or for worse, we are all living on the same speck of dust, suspended in utter nothingness. We may be alone in the Universe, we may not be. Either one is a frightening thought. Regardless, we have to make the most of this time on earth, because it is infinitesimally small compared to the time we spent off this Earth. Whether we like it or not, we are all in the same struggle trying to make sense of this crazy adventure that we call life, so we might as well make the most of it while we still can.

Futility

"I saw a moth in my room, it was going towards the lightbulb and it was buzzing around it and I wanted to know why they did that, so I looked it up.

It's because moths are looking for the moon-- they're looking for moonlight because they're trying to fly North.

So this moth-- everything in it is telling it to do exactly what it's doing. It's doing the right thing, but it's just the wrong light. So it just kinda bummed me out; it just seemed so futile."

LOOK AT MY BRAIN

I've had a deep passion for everything politics and current events related since I was in middle school. Ever since then, I've never really had the proper channels to "show off" my passion and intelligence. Discussing politics and current events exhibits an intelligence that is not tested in most school work. It is much more that just regurgitating what we saw in the news, but also being able to formulate an opinion and be able to coherently get it through to an audience and be able to support that viewpoint with facts. It is about being able to consider different viewpoints and analyze the data at a deeper level far beyond just the headline. My personal blog encompasses nearly all my interests and it presents me with who I really am rather than just a manufactured facade created in order to appease the teacher. My background is provided by Supreme, a heavy weight in the streetwear industry and represents my interest in the industry. The music I have on my blog is music I have on my iPod and actually listen to it. I'm not afraid to put music in there that might not necessarily be "school appropriate", because I feel like I shouldn't leave out these aspects of my self and being when they are what I enjoy listening to. The posts I put on range from a variety of topics, from politics to fashion and everywhere in between just go to show what a diverse person I am and how varied my interest are.

LOVE IS BLIND

Lady Macbeth is Macbeth's wife so naturally, Macbeth is bound to not see her the same way the audience views her. Macbeth is oblivious to the irony of the whole situation and only sees the façade that she erects to manipulate him to do her bidding. When Macbeth informs her of the witches' prophecy, she actually encouraged him to go through with it. She later further encouraged him by mocking him, saying "What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness", essentially calling him a coward. By doing this, Macbeth naturally becomes somewhat outraged and knew that he needed to assert himself and prove himself right. Macbeth is, of course, blind to all the deceit and manipulation that was occurring. Unlike Macbeth, the audience is completely aware of what she is doing.