Best of Week: 7 minutes

We didn't really do all that much last week, seeing as how we only had 3 days of English. Nonetheless, there were several topics I could have written this about, but I ended up choosing 7 minutes. Basically, Mr. Allen gave us 7 minutes of time to work on "Same scene, different setting" (almost?) every day. While 7 minutes doesn't seem like much, and it actually became even less since we had to get our stuff organized before we could actually get anything done as groups, the time accumulated and was helpful. We actually got stuff done that we definitely would not have otherwise. Because if not for that time, I doubt we would have even thought of the project, let alone work on it. But because of that time, we started working out our setting, our lines, our memorization, our mode of communication, basic stuff like that. Bravo, I hope we get more time to work on this project. Good stuff.

Connection: King Lear and "Get Smart"

*Spoiler alert... maybe*
*Note, I don't remember this movie too well, so I won't remember some names.
In the movie "Get Smart," Maxwell Smart is distrusted (and detained) by his superiors because he made their agency look like a bunch of fools. Max had found and hit a building which he thought was a stronghold for nuclear weapons (or something like that.) However, when the agency went back to check the place, there was no sign of nuclear radiation. So they assumed Max had made a stupid mistake, and detained him after a few events. However, Max really was right, and that place really was a stronghold for nuclear weapons (or something like that.) So, the agency replaced Max with another agent, who happens to be a spy/worker for the antagonist party in the movie. This is like how Lear distrusts Cordelia and trusts Regan and Goneril. The spy-agent goes on to almost destroy San Fransisco's piano (or something like that) along with the agency, but Max saves the agency (and the piano... or something like that). This is like how Regan and Goneril tried to kill Lear, but failed (partially due to Cordelia's help, except that Cordelia's (France's) army loses a battle and Cordelia and King Lear get captured anyway). Except in the movie, the agency survives, and in King Lear, Lear dies anyway. So we can see that the themes that Shakespeare uses in his plays are used by modern directors/playwrights/authors, and can be found in many works of literature throughout history. This revelation doesn't pertain to and/or affect me in any specific and/or profound way. The only way this really affects me is that I can use this knowledge to choose a location for our Shakespeare skit project, and I can use this knowledge as a tool to worship Shakespeare.

TED Presentations

Pretty much all the work was done during the last two or three days. Some people didn't even try to edit the site until the second to last day (I found this out when people emailed me telling me that they couldn't access the site, most likely because they tried creating a Google account with an email other than the one I had invited them onto the site with.) Even so, we managed to get all the work done. Our presentation went smoother than I expected; I attribute much of this to Acadmites being able to "wing it" more than anything else, although there was obviously some preparation. Although I don't think any of the groups really rehearsed the presentation, save perhaps on Thursday morning, some groups seemed more prepared than others based on how well they handled the technology, i.e. videos. Overall, the speaking parts of the presentations seemed reletively well rehearsed, although once again, I attribute a good portion of of this to our ability to "wing it".