Blog of a Sleep Deprived College Student

DONE!!!

2005-05-13T23:19:00.000-06:00

Oh joy to heaven! I am done with this semester! The surreal feeling still hasn't faded and the thought of sleeping in past 7:00 a.m is incomprehensible. So I succesfully finished 31 credit hours this year. I could kick my own ass for taking on 17 credits this semester, because I almost killed myself doing it. However I managed to pull it off. I am now looking forward to enjoying my three months of much needed vacation. I am going to have a chance to swim, chill with my buddy Alyssa and my new "friend" Eduardo, seeing as Alejandro and I are d-o-n-e. I am going to continue blogging and I telling about the adventures I am going to have being a nanny, and going to Argentina in June. Hope everyone has a awesome summer. Liz and Amy, it has been great. See you next semester!

My Dinner Party

2005-05-05T22:28:00.000-06:00

The Guest List For my FABULOUS Dinner Party:

Leonardo DeVinci
Galileo
Voltaire
Al Pachino (Young Al from the 1970's)
Carlos Valentine
Alyssa Tousigant

Ok, so those would be the guest that would be invited to my dinner party. I chose Galileo and Voltaire, because for one I think Galileo is an absolute genius. At least he was for his time period, and I would like to discuss what it is was like to make such wonderful discoveries and then be persecuted because of them. I would invite Volatire because, I like his philosophy and from what I read he sounds like a crazy guy. I bet he was funny too, because I read that he used to write a lot of satircial stuff about the French Government that landed him some hot water, and I think he and I would have a golly good time getting together and writing some satire about the American Government. Good ol' Al Pachino is on the guest list list, and as I mentioned this is not Al from the Merchant of Venice, oooooh noooooo! if this is my fantasy than this is going to be Al in his twenties from the God Father, (Oh Yeah). Besides, I want to look at his pretty face during dinner(LOL!) Next I woul have to invite my best friend Alyssa, because I think she would want to come and talk philosophy with me and Voltaire. I would invited Leonardo DeVinci, because I want him to come and draw portraits of all of us, and I want to talk to him about the artwork he did throughout his lifetime, and last but not least my buddy Carlos. Nobody makes me laugh like Carlos, I need another PR to come and bring some life to my party. My menu for this spectacular evening would consist of Puerto Rican food: Fried Plantans, Chicken and Rice, Salad, and some Dulce de Leche Cake. Yeah I love Carribean food, so would my guest.

Blog Assignment

2005-04-24T21:23:00.000-06:00

What has been the most interesting thing you have learnd in this learning community and why?

The most interesting thing that I have learnd about has been music during the Baroque time era. I have always loved classical music, but knew nothing about the people who wrote it, why they wrote it, and what time period they wrote it. I was glad that I took the time to learn more about Bach. The guy was an absolute genius! I loved having the opprotunity to go to the symphony and be able to listen to some of his best works. It as because of the symphony that I decided to start playing the cello. The thing that I find most facintating about Bach is the amount of pieces of music that he wrote during his lifetime. All of the complicated suite's and concertos. I think that it is interesting that Baroque music was more for the upper class. How is was the "in thing" to have Baroque music played at lavish parties. Even when you listen to Baroque music now a days, I think a lot of people get the imagry of fancy parties. What also facsinates me is the fact that this music has survived and is still so greatly appreciated during modern times. I wonder if Bach ever wondered if students during year 2005 would be listening to his music, and analyzing it for a humanities class.

Voltaire

2005-04-23T09:26:00.000-06:00

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit actrocities."
-Voltaire

Voltaire, who's real name was really Francois Marie Arouet, (and also has the same birthday as me, November 21st) was a famous French philosopher and writer. He was very witty and earned his education at "Louis-le-Grand," a jesuit college in Paris. He became quite popular among the aristocrats. However, his wittyness got him into some trouble after he wrote a satire about the French government. He went to a jail for eleven months in Bastille and during that time he wrote "Oedipe" which was a success in the theatre and was also when he adopted the pin name Voltaire. However, Voltaire just couldn't seem to stop pissing people off and in 1726 he ruffled the feathers of a powerful young nobleman, "Chevliar de Rohan." He decided on exhile and moved to England. During his stay in jolly ol' England, he became quite intrigued with the philosophy of John Locke, and the ideas of Sir Isaac Newton. He was very interested in philosophy rationalism and natural sciences. He went back home to Paris and wrote a book gloryfying English customs and their institutuions. It was taken as a insult to the French government and they once more they kicked his booty out of Paris again. Voltaire left to go live with a smart lady friend named Marquise du Chatelet, in eastern France. Together they studied natural sciences, after Marquis died he moved to Berlin, but eventually left and returned to Paris. He purchased a home by the Swiss border and continued to write. He wrote many books, plays, and other publications. The church was particularly againts Voltaire's writings. As we all know, during the Rennasiance period the church was the center of everything. It had all of the control and people were suppose to believe everything that came out of the mouths of priests. Voltaire however was too intellectual and wrote many books about religious intolerance and persecution. This is how Voltaire showed a departure from the Rennaisance, he was not a follower of religion like a majority of people during the time he was living, and was able to see past religion and the corruptness that it had. His book Candide described a society without religious conflict, or court system, modern scientific knowledge, gold, and no court system. Because of these publications Voltaire who died at age 83 was denied buriel in the church grounds. His was buried in Pathenon in Paris, his remains however were dug up by a right-wing religious group and thrown in a garbage dump. His heart is in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and his brain was sold at an auction.

2005-04-19T22:32:00.000-06:00

Angela Marie Bracero's Aliases
Your movie star name: Toast Lester
Your fashion designer name is Angela Helsinki
Your socialite name is Baguette Buenos Aires
Your fly girl / guy name is A Bra
Your detective name is Elephant JCOS
Your barfly name is Toast Beer
Your soap opera name is Marie Raleigh
Your rock star name is Gum Mustang
Your Star Wars name is Angros Brabri
Your punk rock band name is The Relaxed Bombilla

2005-04-19T14:20:00.000-06:00

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Upper Midwestern

10% Dixie

0% Midwestern

Kudos to Carolyn for this awesome little tests. Wow I guess my Yank parents have had an influence on my speech, 20% Yankee?

You Are 50% Left Brained, 50% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.
Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.
If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.
Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.
Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.
If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.
Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

You Will Die at Age 94

Congratulations! You take good care of yourself.

You're poised to live a long, healthy life.

This is good to know!!!!

Your Seduction Style: The Coquette

You are a pro at playing the age old game of hard to get.
Your flirting style runs hot and cold, giving just enough to keep them chasing you.
Independent and self-sufficient, you don't need any one person to make you compelte.
And that independence is exactly what makes people pursue you.

Chapter 19

2005-04-11T12:12:00.000-06:00

What I found very interesting about chapter 19 was the church reform. Yes, there was a lot of corruption in the church, it is almost scary to think about the kind of power the church had back then. Religion was such a big part of people's lives during the Rennasaince. I think that all of the religious pictures that were created depicting the results of people being sinful, (You have to admit The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel The Elder was pretty disturbing) was a way of scaring people into being ven more religious. If you think about it a lot of people didn't have good education, the only education some might have recieved would have been religious education. I think a lot of these religious pictures of sinful people and punishment was a way to frighten and also gain control of people. The information about Martin Luther was also interesting. I am not exactly crazy about him. The man did do a good job reforming religion and doing away with some of the corruption, but he was also highly anti-semetic, I remember reading once that he would refere to Jews as bitter worms of the earth, or something to that extent. I don't see how he could have been such a wonderful Christian and have such negative feelings againts a group of people?

Another topic I enjoyed reading about was Shakespeare. I think that Shakespeare is in fact a genius. What I really like about Shakespeare's plays and sonnets are the different aspects of love that he portrays. For example there was the jelous and controlling love that was depicted in Othello, true and tragic love in Romeo and Juliet and Coriolanus, there is the crazy and humorous love in The Taming of the Shrew, and painful and hurtful love in Hamlet, and disfunctional love like in Macbeth. Like the book said, he wrote about friendship and love's enslaving power.

Blog Assignment

2005-04-06T21:44:00.000-06:00

still like to know about the Renaissance?

I want to know more about what people ate back then. I have herd some interesting things like humble pie, which was apparently pie baked with animal organs. I want to know more about food. I also would like to learn more about the types of clothes certain people wore and what was in style back then.

Othello Blog

2005-04-06T13:03:00.000-06:00

. What is the difference between reputation and honor in Othello? Which character exemplifies this difference?

Reputation is truly how you see yourself and how you want others to see yourself. Everyone wants to have a good reputation and it hurts when get back stabbed or have someone talk trash about you and start rumors. On the other hand I think reputations are fake images of yourself. How you are portrayed to other people might differ drastically to the person that you actually are. Honor on the other hand might be something that you either do to boost your reputation, or it could be something that you do because you feel so strongly that it is the right thing and it might even ruin your reputation. For an example of this honor/reputation stuff you can look at Iago. This little shit of a man is caniving and in order to make himself look like a "good friend" he lies to Othello about his wife being unfaithful. Iago's reputation is seen as a honest man being a good friend because he is telling his buddy something that is hard to handle, but he wants the best for Othello and wants him to know the truth. Iago is being honorable to himself by lying as well as he looks honorable to Othello for being brave enough to tell on Desdemona.

. What are the different definitions of love within Othello (give specific examples to help support your answer and this should include more then romantic love)?

Yes, there is the obvious romantic love between Othello and Desdemona. There is also the kind of jealous love that Othello has for Desdemona. The kind where if I can't just have you to myself then no one can. There is the kind of friendly brotherly love that the men and even some of the women have, like the love between Emilia and Desdemona. An example would be when Emilia is dying she wants to be laid next to her dead friend Desdemona, and there is also the love of fame which is what Cassio started to get a little to wrapped up in. Maybe you could call this narcissistic love.

. What type of jealousy is present in Othello and how does it affect the characters?

I think that one of the main flaws that Othello has is that he is not just jealousy but the fact that he is very insecure of himself. When he is told that his precious wife is cheating on him with a friend, instead of trusting his wife he gets so upset and worked up that he not only passes out in convulsions but he ends up murdering her. So yes, jealousy does play a role because he was jealous of the rising fame of Michael Cassio and the fact he thinks Cassio is doing the nasty with his wife, but the fact that he was so insecure that he took the lies that Iago had fed him and took it to the extreme. He was obviously not comfortable enough just going and talking to his wife in the beginning which would have prevented a lot of tragedy. I think that this insecurities stems from the fact that he was a black man in a white society. Even though he had fame and was well liked, I think that deep down he was still insecure about his race. He might have figured that even though his wife loves his, she is still going to be looking for love from a white man. So Othello's jealousy of Michael is not just of his rising fame, but also I think he is jelous of the fact he is white.

Cello

2005-04-04T22:33:00.000-06:00

So I have decided to go ahead and learn how to play the cello. No more listening and re-listening to Yo-Yo-Ma Cd's, I am going to learn how to play those songs. Well, it might take a few years but I am determined. So far I have managed to hook myself up with a cello. I spent about two weeks running around to various music stores who were either going to charge me $50.00 a month to rent or they were out of cello's for the time bring, OR the tried to sell me a $900.00 dollar cello. The sales man at Rockley's kept harping about what a FAN-tastic price $900.00 was and I should just consider buying it. Yes mister I know that is a great price but I finally had to tell him that I am so broke at the moment I don't even have $900.00 in my bank account as of this time. The cello that I am now calling mine is a loan. The music teacher at the junior high my mom teaches at is loaning me their school's cello for as long as I need. I was excited when it arrived at my house two weeks ago in a batterd canvas cello bag, which looked more like a worn-out body bag. I eased it out and layed it on the floor for admiration. What can I say? To me it is beautiful. My sister says it looks like it went through WWII and back. sure it's a little worn, a little chiped on the sides, and not as shiny as I imagined it once was, but I like to think that it looks this way because of all of the people who have played it. Did anyone ever see the movie The Red Violin? All of the stories and generations that handled this one violin. I like to think of my cello as The Red Cello, all of the people who's hands ran over those strings. I need to buy a new bow by the way. It came with a violin bow and a cello bow is going to put me about $50.00 under, but I guess I am going to shell out the money once my private lessons start which is soon.

Wierdness

2005-03-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

There I was minding my own buisness when BAM! I was hit with a craving for one of the grossest foods known to man...a hotdog. Yes, I was reading my Ethics books when suddenly I had the strongest urge to sink my teeth into a juicy highly processed, high sodium piece of pig meat. I hardley ever eat hotdogs, I can't even remember the last time I ate a freakin' hotdog!!!! I ignored the craving and went to bed, now about thirty minutes ago the craving came back with avengence and for about ten minutes I sat flabbergasted trying to figure out why I wanted a hot dog so bad. I ruled out being pregnant as #1 and concluded that it must be hormones or some shit like that. I finally had to take a trek out to my deep freezer and dig hoping to find a package of hot dogs. Sure enough WAAAAYYYY!!!! in the back I found a package of freezer burned Oscar Meyer Weiners. I had to wait for them to defrost a bit before I shoved one in the microwave. I was babysitting my boyfriend Alejandro's three year old nephew Cesar and together we sunk our teeth into a juicy, delicious, potatoe bread because we didn't have any buns hotdog. Boy was that satisfying! Gross when I think about it but satisfying.

Funny

2005-03-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

I saw this on a website and cracked up laughing.

You know you live in Colorado When...

When you visit friends at sea level, you can drink a case of beer and not get a buzz.

Your car insurance costs more than your car.

You have surge protectors on every outlet.

April showers bring May blizzards.

You see someone riding a Harley in a snowstorm, and you look closer to see if it's anyone you know.

You know what a "Chinook" is. You know what a "rocky mountain oyster" is. You know what a "fourteener" is. But you don't know what a "turn signal" is.

A bear on your front porch doesn't bother you nearly as much as a Democrat in Congress does.

People from other states breathe 5 times as often as you do.

Having a Senator named Nighthorse doesn't seem strange.

Thunder has set off your car alarm.

"Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

You know where Buffalo Bill’s grave is.

You can recognize the license plates of all 50 states on sight.

Driving directions usually include 'Go over ____ Pass...'

You've used "checking for ticks" as an excuse to get someone naked.

You've gone skiing in July. You've gone sunbathing in January. They were both in the same year.

You get a certain feeling of satisfaction from knowing that California and Texas are both downstream

You know the elevation of a town, but not its population.

You never pack away your coat and sweaters.

You can name only two people you know who were actually born in Colorado.

You can design your kids Halloween costumes to fit over snowsuits

People move onto the highway at 15 miles an hour.

You have absolutely no recognizable accent.

If the humidity gets above 25%, you consider it "muggy".

You only go to Central City when friends are in from out of town.

You think 5-points is a ghetto.

You are the third car to run a red light after it has changed.

You say things like "I don't care how big Golden is, it's still a one-horse town".

When giving directions, you never say "Turn left, turn right", it's always go West, then South.

You never plan a picnic between 3:30 and 6:00 in Spring or Summer months.

If it rains more than 2 days straight you compare the weather to being in Seattle.

You voted for higher taxes to fund Coors field, but voted down taxes for public transportation.

You have a broken windshield.

You see no reason to travel to Aurora.

You carry your $3,000 mountain bike on top of your $500 car.

You thought "Californication" would be banned by Amendment 2.

You think "South Park" is a place to stop for gas on your way to Buena Vista.

You have a business degree and are frying burgers at a McDonald's in Vail.

You own a big dog named Aspen, Buck, Cheyenne or Dakota that wears a bandanna.

You call tumbleweed "groundcover".

You love your Broncos, your Avs, your Rockies, Nuggets - well you can't have everything.

You or someone you know plays golf 12 months of the year.

You don't have AC in your home, but you use it in your car all winter long.

If it snows in the morning you expect it to be gone by lunchtime.

You can name the states that make up the Four Corners.

You know what and where the Continental Divide is.

You cast out your fishing line while white-water rafting.

You've never seen the tourist attractions in your own city.

You think a pass does not involve a football or a woman.

You are 82 years old and take up snowboarding.

Your real Y2K fear was running out of Celestial Seasonings tea and trail mix.

The entire top of your head is bald, but you still have a pony tail.

You get depressed after one day of foggy weather.

You think that formal wear is ironed denim.

You think gun control is a steady hand.

You can run up 10 flights of stairs without huffing and puffing.

You've stood on solid ground and looked down on an airplane in flight.

You know what the "Peoples Republic of Boulder" means.

You're a meat eating vegetarian.

You think the major food groups are Boulder Bars, tofu and Fat Tire Beer.

You've been tear gassed in a riot to celebrate your local sports team's victory.

You know the correct pronunciation of Buena Vista.

Bach Experience

2005-03-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

Last Sundays Symphony was truly amazing. I have not had the opprotunity to go to the symphony since I was in junior high but I enjoyed it so much. I have always loved classical music. I love Bach, and Mozart, but my all time favorite is Yo-Yo-Ma. He is a more modern time artist but his cello music is so beautiful. I have a facination with the cello and was especially intrigued by the cello players at the symphony. I enjoyed all of the musicians and insturments, but the cello always gets me in the heart. Anyways, my favorite piece that was played would have to be the last piece the Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D minor. Some of the songs I recognized and heard before from this suite and I hadn't realized before they were pieces from Bach. I think I loved this suite the most because it incorporated a lot more insturments and it was just so beautiful. I also liked seeing Scott Yoo conduct. Anyways part two of this blog assignment is: How do you think Baroque music reflected its time ?

The Baroque time era followed right after the Rennaisance era. It was a time when new music was beginging to emerge. The three areas in Europe where this new music was beginging to surface from was France, Germany (Bach's country) and Italy. When I listen to Baroque style music I feel like it would be music that would have been played at a lavish masquerade party. The music feels like it was for the higher class, and in fact the music was. The higher class Europeans with tons of mula would spend time hanging out in concert halls listening to this rather pompous music. These upper-class citizens would have musicians at their lavish parties to show their richness in other words, the bigger and better the musicians the more "rich" and "cooler" you looked to your friends. The word Boroque historians think comes from Porteguese meaning strange and odd. The music that emerged during this era was so different and unique which is why it became so popular. It was a style of music that people had never heard before. It contained complicated concertos and suites. That would go fast then slow, it is truly amazing to imagine Bach and other Baroque composers having the ability to write these complicated pieces of music.

Biology Nightmare

2005-03-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

I am completely convinced that I have failed the Biology tests that I took yesterday. I have also concluded something else: I absolutely hate Biology. Yes, five hours I spent studying the night before the test, apparently I didn't study well, because when it came time to take the test I found myself thinking: What the hell is this? I don't remember her going over this? Maybe it was the fact that I was getting progressivly sicker as the night went on. I started running a fever, coughing, and my ears were ringing all night. I went ahead and took the test the next morning, then went home and passed out for four hours. I know I am getting sick when I can sleep that long in the afternoon and still sleep all night. This morning I woke up feeling even more like shit, so I made a appt. with the doctor and went ahead to English/Humanities. The diagnosis, I have a virus (I was hoping for something that invovled bacteria so I could get some anti-biotics) and both of my ears are so full of liquid, I have to take some special decongestants so I don't get a ear infection. I barely managed to drive home from the doctors office and this whole time the thing that is bugging me the most is that damn Biology test. All I keep thinking about is, if I fail Biology I can't get into nursing school, my life will be over because I have never failed a class before. Even though I know that even if I do fail Biology I am not going to die, it is not the end of the world though it feel like it right now. If I fail I can take it again over the summer. Anyways, that is about it, I am going to go to bed now and pray I am better by Saturday. Alejandro's final soccer match is Saturday and I told him I wouldn't miss it for anything.

Merchant of Venice

2005-03-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

So, I had the opprotuniy to watch the Merchant of Venice at the Esquire. I hadn't been to the Esquire forever, so it was great to get a chance to go there and see this movie with some friends too. I will be honest and say that I wasn't looking forward to seeing this movie. I ignorently assumed it was going to be long and boring. How stupid that assumption was, Al freakin' Pachino was in it. I love Al, especially Al twenty years ago in the Godfather movies. He is the last thing I see before I go to bed, with my huge wall poster of him from the Godfather II movie, anyways enough about my facsination with Al Pachino and back to the movie. The movie ended up being fantastic. The whole mistreatment of Jews didn't surprise me one bit, that shit has been going on since the time of Christ. Yet I thought one of the most inspiring and captivating parts of the movie is when a very enraged Shylock (Aka very aged looking Al) yells: " If you cut us do we not bleed!?" " If you poison us do we not die!?" It was just ridiculous the anti-semetic mentality that people had during that time era. All of that and the situation with Shylock's daughter is what I think pushed him over the edge. The poor guy was just like in the Godfather movies. He started out as an okay guy then by the end he was this unsensitive bastard. Hell, who knows I'd probably snap too if I thought my daughter traded my favorite ring for a goddamn monkey. Anyways, the whole movie was very well done. My favorite part was the court room like scene with the pound of flesh stuff. I had read a kid version of the Merchant of Venice when I was in fifth grade, so I semi-rememberd the outcome of the trial. I also love that it was the wives that ended up getting the Merchant out of the deep shit he was in. I liked that Shakespeare showed that women had ingenuity, even during a time when women were most likely considered nothing more than baby making machines, cooks, maids, and men's property. I love Shakespeare!

Synthesis Blog

2005-02-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

Okay so I am back to writing my second syntesis blog and man let me say that I am BEAT! My eyes are actually burning I'm go freakin' tired. Here's the pathetic part people it 8:30 p.m.! Can you say L-O-S-E-R!!!!!! Anyways, I was readin' some of my classmates blog and of course as always I had to cackle when I read Brendan's blog:

Have you ever wanted to take music intravenously? I have. I've tried so hard to get the music on this CD on a spoon, but as to date I've had no success. So I've had to resort to listening to it a couple times a day, most every day.

Sometimes I wonder how exactly that boy's mind works, how he come up with the coolest, funniest stuff to write about. All I can say is you Rock Brendan! Man, now that I think of it, if I could I'd intravenously take some Red Hot Chilli Peppers right now, they always seem to put me in a good mood. Anyways, other people's blogs. Well I did come across:

Gabrielle's blog comment about pilgrimages definetly got my eye:

some common modern-day pilgrimage destinations are a little more worldly than the finger bone of a patron saint - we pilgrimage to see the Hollywood sign, a Broadway show in New York, the Mona Lisa, a Hard Rock Cafe. A little religion will still sometimes be involved - after seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Moulin Rouge, most tourists still find time to hit the Cathedral of Notre Dame; even the Vatican. How many people have gone to see at 9/11 Ground Zero? the Vietnam wall? How many people, absolute strangers, came to the funerals for the victims of the Columbine shootings?

The reason this comment caught my interest was because she named so many things that I didn't even think of. Things like 9/11 and Columbine. Yeah we did/and still continue to make pilgrimages there. I think people now make more pilgrimages to see things like concerts thand they do for religious purposes. That is in the US though, other country's still make a lot of religious pilgrimages. Anyways, awesome blog Gabrielle.

Blog Assignment on Catherdrals

2005-02-23T17:53:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between Gothic and Romanesque style cathedrals.

Well, Gothic and Romenesque style cathedrals are very different in some pretty obvious ways. First, off I think the most famous example of a Gothic Cathedral is the Notre Dame in Paris. THat cathedral is freakin' ELABORATE. You can almost get an eye strain from staring at it, there are so many different details to look at. There are gorgoyles, stain glass windows, stories and people that have been carved on the outside and inside. Gothic cathedrals I think almost have kind of a delicate look to them, they have tall thin arches that look so think they could be easily be broken off. It is beyond me how long some of these churches have stayed intact. One of the pieces of art work in the churches that facsinates me the most is the stained glass windows. Has anyone ever taken a stained glass class before? I did for two years and even though I was pretty good at it, let me tell you it is hard. It used to take me about seven hours to make a twelve piece product. The only tools you need is a glass cutter, lead, and sauder iron. Sometimes it would take me seven tries to cut out a piece that is an akward shape. (An akward shape is pretty much any shape but a square). After you spend literally four hours cutting and grinding your pieces to perfection, you have to wrap each one with lead then sauder each piece together. Then you have to "mud" the pieces. This basically means you mix almost like a cement mixture and spread it on your piece. This hardens the piece so it can withstand pressure. I am not sure if this is the same process they used back when they were building these Gothic catherdrals, but I can imagine that is was very different. When I go into cathedrals I am flabbergasted at the windows, because I don't think many people realize the process it must have taken to create them. I cannot imagine cutting out all of thise intricate pieces. Not to mention the fact that they had to make there own colored glass by hand. In my glass we were just provided with hundreds of different colored sheets of glass. I think the stained glass windows in the churches is what helped illerate people who could not read the bible learn about biblical stories. Think about it, if you couldn't read the bible, the only other ways would be listening to stories orally or pictures. Not everyone possesed books so the next best thing I think would be the windows. The windows all told hundreds of biblical stories, and the elaborate pieces were just as good as any book illustrations.

I have rambled a lot about Gothic style cathedral now I should mention the difference between Gothic and Romanesque. Here you have these elaborate houses of worship and then you have the Romanesque. The word that comes to mind is "plain". These cathedrals were more regular looking. The roofs were much shorter, and the windows were nothing compared to the Gothic cathedrals. They were just plain-ol' square windows to look out of. I think that the Romanesque catherdrals had a more "tranquil" effecct to them. I think that they were more of a place to go and mediate about God, the enviorment might have been more soothing the the busyness of stained glass windows, statues, and gargoyles.

This pretty much sums up the differences between Gothic and Romanesque style cathedrals.

Pilgramage Assignment

2005-02-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Pilgrimages have been around for thousands of years. Especially religious pilgrimages which take place in hundreds of different contries. A very common pilgrimage that I can think of is one that takes place in Argentina. Argentina is a very devout Catholic country and every year they're is a pilgrimage to the famous Lujan Cathedral, to honour the Patron Saint of Argentina, the Virgin of Lujan. The cathedral is located about 65 km from the country's capital Buenos Aires. The pilgrimage is often made by foot and those who can not make the walk take the train. I think the most memorable pilgrimage to Lujan was during the mid-1970's, when a military coup (Also known as the Dirty War) had taken over Argentina. About thirty thousand young Argentine citizens were kidnapped by military police, tortured, then murdered. The reason was because they had supposed, " Leftist" ideas. Most of them were innocent teachers, students, social workers, doctors, nurses, nuns, etc... During that time a group of women known as the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo came together. The women were basically a group of women looking for their kidnapped children, which soon swelled into a grass roots group of hundreds of stong women political activists. It was during the height of the Dirty War when the Mothers decided to go on the pilgrimage to Lujan. Since a lot of Argentine citizens at that time were clueless (or not wanting to admit) about the situation going on in their own country, the Mothers saw the pilgrimage to Lujan as a way to gain public attention to the reality of their situation. In order to attract attention in the crowd the Mothers wore white head scrarves with the names of their kidnapped children embroiderd on them. The Mothers who were mostly middle-aged and elderly walked the 65 km from Buenos Aires to the beautiful Lujan Cathedral. When people asked why they were adorned with white head scarves they answered that they were on their way to pray for their dead and kidnapped women. When police became suspicious of them and began to follow them, they Mothers began reciting the rosary and asking the Virgin Mother of Lujan to help them. At the end of every pilgrimage to Lujan a special mass is performed. Even though the priest who knew about the torture and murders going on in the country, and knew why the Mothers were there, refused to take any notice of them, which was not the reaction the Mothers were looking for. However, the pilgrimage of a large group of women in head scarves was enough to attract attention of other Argentine citizens and was enough to begin a crusade of truth and an end to the Dirty War. Anyways, this is a semi-modern day pilgrimage that I can think of. As far as the Grateful Dead (Sorry my knowledge about Dead Heads is very limited) Concerts go, I guess these could be considerd pilgrimages. A large group of people coming together for their own beliefs. I guess I can say that I made a pilgrimage once. After 9-11 I walked seven miles with a large group of people to the capitol. It was technically a peace march but what we were really aiming at was that we didn't want to go to war. The whole way I carried a sign with a peace dove on it. We chanted that we didn't want war and when we got to the capitol we made speeches about peace. Yeah, maybe this wasn't quite a pilgrimage but for me it was close enough.

Boys Are Liar's

2005-02-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

I am blogging because I am royaly PISSED! I should probobly be blogging about the assigned topic but I can't right now, I need to vent. My boyfriend of one month Alejandro the hot soccer player has put me in a bad mood before Valentines Day. Why you might ask? Well, he pulled the same crap he did last weekend, he ditched me. Yeah might not sound so bad but after harping all night about how much he misssed me, how much he wanted to see me, he wanted to spend the whole night with me. This was before his soccer game where we agreed to meet. So Saturday night I saw him and my friends Lucas, and Nicolas play at 9:15 p.m. After the game Alejandro told me he needed to take a friend home but he would call me in half and hour and we could meet at my house. Okay no prob right? I needed to take Nicolas and Lucas home anyways. I ended up hanging out at Nick's waiting for Alejandro to call me. Well, one hour goes by...two hours...Finally at 12:00 a.m. I get a call: " Sorry Anjy, I'm in Westminister."
Me: " Are you coming over." Alejandro: " Um I'm with the guys now can we hang later like 2:00?" I told him ten friggin' times I had to get up early. My parents don't like guys over past one. So I in a very pissed off tone told him to forget it. I went home and went to bed irritated. At 1:30 a.m. he calls, wakes me up to tell me he is at home and can he come over. Now people let me mention that he did this exact thing to me last weekend. Not to mention he was one hour late picking me up from school the week before that. He His excuse: " I'm sorry hermosa you can slap me later if you want." Give me a break I don't wanna slap him I wanna belt him. I know I sound violent and maybe your thinking god he was just late a few times what's the big deal? but nothing irritates me more than guys telling you how they want to spend time with you and just ditching you. Anways, I got this off of my chest. I mean, I think I deserve someone who is honest and is not going to ditch me all the time. Tomorrow is Valentines Day the holiday were I am either sick in bed or completely alone. We are SUPPPOSE to see eachother sometime in the evening after he gets off work but who the hell knows now? He better give me some damn good chocolates to put me in a good mood.

Poverty, Chasity, Silence, and Stability

2005-02-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

So I walked into my Humanities/English class on Monday and found my professors dressed as monks. I was not exactly surpried, but more excited to see what sister Liz and Amy had in store for us. As it turned out we were going to embark on a journey of becoming monks for a day. Complete with a vow of silence for the whole class period. Like I mentioned in my previous blog, this wasn't exactly a hard task for me, I kind of enjoyed it, though I can't say that I could become a monk and continue my vow of silence for weeks. The poverty vow I don't think I would have too hard of a time with. It doesn't seem to me like the monks lived in too much poverty. After all they did have beds, books, and food, and really that would be all I need to live. Stability is also find with me. The chasity think I won't even go into, I don't want to make myself sound like a "nasty girl." Otherwise I think the monks lived a nice life. It was simple. It reminds me a lot of how monks in Thailand live nowadays. Of course the only thing I would have a problem with is the fact that I am not a very religious person. Regardless of that fact my mom had me baptized Catholic to prevent me from going to Limbo in case I died young. I tend to lean towards Buddhism and yet I have these ideas about religion being the opium of the masses, and that I guess makes me lean more towards a Communist point of view. What ever, I am rambling, because it's 12:00 a.m. and I am tired, and I have to get up in six hours, and this is my last entry I need in order to make my quota. All in all, the monk experience was awesome.

Blog Assignment

2005-02-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

I was very intrigued with my other fellow classmates blogs. I had the opprotunity to read some of my fellow student's blogs. I almost peed my pants with laughter when I got a load of Brendan's blog about his addiction to Chipolte. Besides that I was also very interested in Brendans blog about the Children's Crusades. He seems to have found as much irony as I have in the whole ordeal. It was interesting though that he researched and the version he got was that a kid named Nicolas from Germany as well as Stephen had also started the whole Crusade. So who was it Nick or Steve? If you want by opinion the whole thing is a bunch of balonie. I had a teacher that swore the bible was written by bipolar/psychotic men, the whole thing with visions, water, fire, animals talking, totally fit the profile of someone needing to be put on prozac. I think this whole Children's Crusade was made up, or maybe their really was some psycho French kis that saw a vision and someone decided to do a little embellishing. Who knows? Anyways, on another note I did get a chance to read Oscar's blog about what he knew about the Middle Ages:

Well, first of all the only thing that I know for sure about the Medieval is that they were very dirty people. Sorry to sound like an ass or something, but that's the truth. I'm pretty sure that they weren't dirty because they wanted to, but because resources were scarce

Yeah, I have to agree with you there buddy, I guess I never thought about the fact that people probobly didn't bathe. Not to mention the fact that Herbal Essences and Dial probobly weren't around back then. What did they use? Had soap been invented yet? Did they just use water? I am tempted to look this up, I bet their is something on the internet telling about this. I was reading a book of quirky facts the other day and I read how Queen Isabella of Spain (One of the big supporters of the Spanish Inquisition) only took two baths her whole life. One when she was born and on the day she got married. Interesting huh? Poor Ferdinand. Anyways, I really enjoyed reading Ocsar's blog entry, I liked his style of humor.

Another blog that I really enjoyed reading was Carlos's blog. His blog about monastary life was very insightful and had some nice humor in it too. I too feel like Carlos when it came to the vow of silence. I too need at least a half an hour a day to be silent and come in tune with my thoughts, so the vow of silence wasn't too bad, except when I wanted to explain something to one of my team mates about how we should color our scroll monk thing. Yeah Carlos, I too felt like a little kid again with the crayons, but I also have to admit, this is what makes this class my favorite. Liz and Amy always have awesome activities that I look forward to, it's the only class that doesn't add anymore stress to my life. Anyways, I enjoyed Carlos's insighful blog and am looking forward to reading more entries.

The Children's Crusade in a Nutshell

2005-02-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

Research Topic: The Children's Crusade

So I have done a little research about this ridiculous fascinating even known as the one and only Children's Crusade of 1212, and am ready to present my research findings. The Children's Crusade was started by a clueless little Medieval boy named Stephen of Cloyes. The youngster was living in France at the time, and had the idea in his prepubescent mind that he and a group of 30,000 other kids could conquer Jerusalem and take on a bunch of buff Turks. It's funny, when adolecents get an idea in their head they can't seem to shake it. Anyways, I bet they're are many versions of this story, but the one that I got was the little Stephen was outside eating his lunch which was a piece of bread when a begger approached his and asked him if he could spare a bit of his food. The begger said he was a poor crusader who had returned from Jerusalem. Stephen who was nice but not too nice beacause the story says he only gave him a bit of crust, was informed by the most likely bi-polar stranger that he was in fact Jesus Christ himself, Jesus then proceeded to give little Stephan a letter to give the King of France, and informed him that he was in fact going to lead the next crusade and save the Holy Land from those hairy Turks. Stephan, not even suspicious of a stranger claiming to be Jesus decided to take this stranger's information and lead the Children's Crusade. Stephen decided to go to St. Denys and preach about taking back the holy land. He preached that he had witnessed miracles and visions. He told how he had beat his sheep and that they had knelt before him and begged for his forgiveness. Man, French kids are wierdos, this tyke made Joan of Arc look semi-sane. Regardless of the fact of what was coming out of little Stephan's mouth was a bunch of poo, other kids thought his idea of walking across the Mediterranean siezing Jerusalem was simply awesome. Stephan even promised that he would pull a Moses and make the sea part so they could just stroll across instead of swim. Even stranger was the clueless French parents that encouraged their children to go on ahead and sieze the holy land. One of the strangest parts of the story that I came across was the fact that a lot of prostitues went along the journey with the kids. I guess I made a mistake calling little Stephan prepubescent huh? Anyways, Stephan managed to gather up 30,000 little followers. The seas strangely enough did not part and the kids hopped on some boats and sailed off. Three of the boats supposedly sunk killing everybody on board, bummer. The other three landed in Sardinia. The kids were captured and sold as slaves, which was a even bigger bummer. Only one youngster managed to return home eighteen years later and delivered a rather depressing tale.

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down!

2005-01-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Remember when we were kids and we used to sing Ring Around the Rosie. Does anyone know what it means? Well interestingly enough the song refers to a event that took place during the Middle Ages. Yes, the Black Plague, which started in 1347, and killed 25 million people. Ring around the Rosie refers to the red rash that would form on the victims body, usually the rash was a circle of red, and was the first symptom of the disease. Pocket Full of Posies, refers to the posy flowers people would but on the sick to protect them, I also heared it was to help with the smell of the dead. Ashes, I heared was either a immitation of the people sneezing, or the ashes of the dead that were burned. We All Fall Down, is the result of the plague, the millions of people who died.

Blog Topic #1/The Medieval Period

2005-01-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

My first blog entry/assignment:

Write about what you know and speculate about the Medieval period:

Okay, so my knowledge about the Medieval is pretty limited. This is going to actually be my first time studying about the medieval period in school. However I can tell you some facts that I do know about it. First off I am going to start off with the obvious cheesy stuff like during the Middle Ages there were kings, queens, princes, princesses, knights, romance in the castle, maybe Robin Hood, and some dudes in tights living together in trees doing god knows what. I think the Middle Ages started around 500-1400. It was a period with wars over religion and gaining territory. (Wasn't Joan of Arc around this time???) It ended with the obvious Renaissance Period. It was when the Eastern Roman Empire was at it's height. I am pretty sure instead of worrying about global warming, they were still assuming the globe was flat, and concerd with falling off the edge. I know this class is going to cover mostly Middle Ages in Europe but I do know that it was the height of also the Mayan civilization and Inca Empire. The Vikings also began to invade Europe and North America, though I can not tell you exact dates of when this happened. One of the big things that comes to mind when I think of the Middle Ages, is the Black Death that swept over Europe. During the Middle Ages, land was owned by powerful people like lords, kings, or by the church. People who agreed to fight for these noble people where given land. It was the beginning of feudalism and contract. Something tells me I need to rent Monty Python and the Holy Grail, maybe then I can get some more interesting information, seeing as I have never watched that movie in my life.

This is really all I can tell you about the Medieval period in Europe. I think that it was a very interesting time period in not only Europe but interesting things where happening at that time in other parts of the world like South America. The Inca Empire (in Peru) is fascinating. Before the fall of their Empire when Spain invaded, the Incas had constructed efficient farms, a central administration, sanitation and water supplies, and cities. Their empire stretched to Bolivia, Ecuador, and I think Chile. One of the coolest things I think was that scientist believe that Incas all had the same blood types and were able to perform blood transfusions...Pretty cool eh'? In Europe they were probably still draining the blood out of people thinking it would cure sickness. The Incas were also the first people to put crowns in their teeth. When their bodies were discovered, they had gold fillings in their teeth.

Anyways, I am assuming this blog is getting very close to 500 words. I am out of information and quite frankly the energy to write anymore about the Middle Ages. I do want to say one thing and that is, is if any of you like Jib Jabs they have a new piss your pants funny one about the Bush Man's inaguration.