The Wind

The high winds (50 miles per hour) have stopped me from horseback riding this morning. Horses spook easily when it is really windy and there is the added risk of trees being blown over. So, because of this, I didn't get to ride this morning.

I love to horseback ride I took a three year break, but I started when I was eight years old. I've only had one really bad fall, and that was when I was eleven. I was in Scotland and I was riding (in the wind). My horse spooked and took off. I lost my stirrups and then my reins. I started sliding slipping off and then...it goes black. I woke up on the ground. I was curled up in the ball. I had to go to a hospital in Scotland and it turned out that I had a concussion.

So I really wasn't too bothered when they were worried and wanted everyone to get off, since I've had experiences with bad winds and horses.

The Fall Show (One Week Late)

The fall show was The Uninvited by Tim Kelly. As I said before I wasn't in the show (because I got cut), but I was the assistant stage manager. I will never ever do tech again. It was interesting enough I suppose, but I would much rather be on stage than behind it. The play itself is a quite badly written piece of literature, but it went well enough.

I was sick for the Friday show (it was quite embarrassing and happened in the middle of the day at school), but I went to the Saturday night show and the cast party. The show went well and it was nice going out on stage for the bows.

The musical this year is Cabaret (we did Bye, Bye Birdie last year). I'm not sure yet how I feel about that, it is an awfully sexual play for a high school to do. We'll see I suppose.

Acceptance. Not Tolerance.

I was talking to my chemistry teacher and she said something that really struck me. She said she thinks people should be accepted, not tolerated, for their race, religion, sexual orientation and etc. Which is an excellent point.

If you are tolerating someone, it means you are putting up with a behavior or something that is annoying and has to be put up with. I tolerate the stupidity and ignorance of my classmates. If you accept someone it means that's that. You know how they are and you have "come to terms with it" (which is me wording it badly).

So really, people shouldn't be tolerated because they're gay, black, Jewish or whatever because that means something is wrong and it has to be put up with. No. Gays, black, Jews and whatevers should be accepted. They should be accepted just the way they are.

Thanks to the wisdom of my chemistry teacher.

Sick

The quarter ended on Friday, so that was good. I'm all done with all my work for the quarter.

And then today, a Saturday, I get a fever of 102 degrees. Hopefully it isn't swine. *Oink*

A Weight Issue

I never thought I had a "weight" issue. I eat a proper amount, it isn't as if I try to lose weight by not eating. Or that I try to lose weight at all. I'm not heavy or anything, I think I'm a good size. I am one of the few teenage girls out there who actually likes their body.

And then I went to the doctor's for my yearly check-up. I hate going to the doctor. I've met my doctor twice and so there isn't a relationship there at all. I just kind of feel like telling her to go away because quite honestly, I don't want to be honest with her because I don't know her. She pretends to care by asking questions about what I do outside school and etc. I know she wants to know if I exercise and how I eat. So I just answer bluntly and I don't pretend to care. So it turns out that I'm 5 foot 4 inches tall now (I've grown an inch!), but I'm 96 pounds (I was 100 pounds last year). Dr. Newman (that's her name) got really mad at me for losing weight. She was asking if I had tried to lose the weight and all that jazz. It was just frustrating. I told her I didn't try to lose the 4 pounds. She suggested that I go to a nutritionist and try to gain the weight, in fact she said I was supposed to be anywhere from 115 to 120 pounds. I don't think I could get that heavy, I like food, but I don't eat very much, I can't, I feel ill after a while. My mom agrees with me that I'm fine, my dad says I'm too light. I'll be fine though, 96 pounds isn't too bad.

Haven't in Forever

So, I haven't blogged in forever. It's amazing how busy you get. I work every Saturday. Sunday is homework day and I'm at school until 5 Monday through Friday. It's crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

We're reading Beowulf in English right now, I'll right a review of how I like that once we finish it.

Just wanted to let all...4 of my followers know I'm still alive! (Even if three of them are my good friends).

Fate vs Free Will

I had to write a paper for English on fate vs. free will in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Here it is:

Fate vs. Free Will

“An oracle
Once came to Laius—from the god himself
I do not say, but from his ministers:
His fate it was, that should he have a son
By me, that son would take his father’s life.
But he was killed—or so they said—by strangers,
By brigands, at a place where three ways meet.
As for the child, it was not three days old
When Laius fastened both its feet together
And had it cast over a precipice.
Therefore Apollo failed; for neither did
His son kill Laius, nor did Laius meet
The awful end he feared, killed by his son.” (lines 710-722). These words were spoken by Iocasta in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Iocasta, Oedipus’ mother and wife, was explaining to Oedipus how her late husband died and the destiny he was supposed to meet. At the time she did not know that Oedipus was also her son. She thought that her and Laius had tricked the gods and escaped the unfortunate destiny that the gods had set up for her. She did not know that the Theban shepherd who was given the task to kill baby Oedipus did not and instead gave him to the Corinthian shepherd. Oedipus grew up as the Prince of Corinth. When he left Oedipus killed Laius while traveling and arrived at Thebes. He solved the riddle of the Sphinx and the people made him their king, since King Laius had not returned. He was married to the queen, Iocasta, and they had four children. Iocasta thought she had escaped this horrible, disgraceful fate. Oedipus had been told he would kill his father and marry his mother by the oracle of Delphi. When he left Corinth and married Iocasta he thought he had escaped his horrible fate. Both of them believe that their free will over powers the fate laid out for them. Really though, their fate affects their choices. Their destinies were predetermined and affected their choices, but their choices also affected their fate.
Almost everything that Oedipus did was somehow a mixture of luck or fate and free will. Oedipus left Corinth and went to Delphi where the oracle told him he was destined to murder his father and marry his mother. Oedipus was terrified and vowed not to return to Corinth in fear of murdering Polybus and marrying Merope, his supposed parents. He acted upon his free will and left Corinth. It was his choice to never return. It was his choice to go to Thebes. The reason he left Corinth in the first place is that a drunken man at a banquet revealed to him that Polybus and Merope were not his birth parents and Oedipus went to Delphi to find out the truth. The oracle did not reveal who his parents were, but revealed the destiny Oedipus was meant to have. It was fate, and alcohol, that lead to Oedipus being suspicious of his birth, and so fate that made him leave Corinth.
On Oedipus’ way to Thebes he came along a path where “three ways meet”. There Oedipus killed Laius, the king of Thebes, along with his whole traveling crew, except for the Theban shepherd. Oedipus did not know the men he killed were from Thebes, he didn’t know that one of them was a king and he most certainly did not know that Laius was his father. He murdered Laius that day on the path. It was his choice to kill this man and the others he was with, but it was his destiny to kill his father, whether he knew it or not. Fate pushed him to murder Laius, it affected his choice and tainted his judgment to make murdering him a brilliant idea. If he had wanted to trick destiny and fate he would have made sure he did not kill anyone who could be his father, since his paternity was under questioning anyway.
The next step in fulfilling his fate was by going to Thebes. There he used his intelligence to solve the riddle of the Sphinx, who was torturing the citizens of Thebes. After solving the riddle and stopping the monster he was made king. The citizens of Thebes did not have to make him their new king, they could have picked someone who was related to their old king Laius, but they did not; as the new king of Thebes Oedipus was married to the widowed queen, Iocasta. Later, Iocasta recalls that Laius was a man, “In figure he was not unlike yourself” (line 743) referring to Oedipus. She also recalls that when the Theban shepherd returned and reported all that had happened to Laius and that he had been murdered he saw Oedipus on the throne
“He begged me, on his bended knees, to send him
Into the hills as shepherd, out of sight,
As far as could be from the city here” (line 760-763). Here are two big hints to his actual identity. Iocasta says that Oedipus is similar to Laius and looks like him. He tells Iocasta that he killed a man where “three ways meet” and the Theban shepherd is brought back to the city, where he reveals that it was indeed Oedipus who killed Laius. So, Oedipus is told he looks like Laius, it is revealed that he killed him and he knows his destiny is to kill his father and marry his mother. Coincidentally, Iocasta had a prophecy for her son saying he would kill her husband and marry her. It is after all of this is revealed that Iocasta puts together that she has in fact married her son and the murderer of her first husband. These facts must be spelled out to Oedipus by the Theban shepherd and then he became aware of the fact that he did not in fact escape his destiny as he thought he had.
In the end though, his natural and fate given intelligence was quite a big factor in completing his destiny. He used his intelligence to become the king of Thebes, if he had not done that he never would have completely met his destiny. His destiny could have been avoided, but fate and luck pushed him to make the decisions he did. If he hadn’t killed Laius on the way to Thebes he might have killed him later. If fate had not made him aware that Polybus and Merope might not be his parents he would not have left for Delphi to find out. If he had not gone to Delphi he would not have become of aware of his god given fate. If he had not been aware of the fate he might have returned to Corinth, but he could have made it to Thebes and married to Iocasta in a different situation. Overall, fate affected his decisions and his free will, but free will also affected his fate. Unfortunately for him, his free will was overpowered and simply helped to fulfill his destiny.
The destinies of Iocasta, Laius and Oedipus were all predetermined by the gods. They all tried to avoid their destinies and trick the gods, but by doing so their expression of free will only brought them closer to it. They all thought they could outwit the gods, but their intelligence sealed their destiny for good. All of their choices were affected by fate and their fates affected by their choices. The destiny determined to them by the gods is a strong force, which could have possibly been avoided; they just did not choose the path that steered clear of it, unfortunately for all of them.