Jane Eyre

1847 (published) ; Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on October 16, 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name “Currer Bell.” The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York.

Primarily of the Bildungsroman genre, Jane Eyre follows the emotions and experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the Byronic master of fictitious Thornfield Hall. In its internalization of the action (the focus on the gradual unfolding of Jane’s moral and spiritual sensibility, and the events colored by a heightened intensity previously the domain of poetry), Jane Eyre revolutionized the art of fiction. Charlotte Brontë has been called the “first historian of the private consciousness” and the literary ancestor of writers such as Joyce and Proust. The novel contains elements of social criticism, with a strong sense of morality at its core, but is nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of its time given the individualistic character of Jane and the novel’s exploration of classism, sexuality, religion, and protofeminism.

Personal Art 16

Comics 18

“This one just made me guffaw; or is it goofuh?”

My Favorite Songs 25

Rain of Gold; Young Empires; Orphan Black: Original Television Soundtrack, 2015

Bad Conversation Topics When Surrounded by Throwable Objects 12

TOPIC: Should we listen to scientists and researchers concerning the ways we learn?

Per my profession as an educator I wholeheartedly believe in extensive scientific research and its value; however, sometimes when scientists and researchers explain their findings on a complicated aspect of human behavior or psychology (or any other type of data), most likely in attempts to simplify the data or to present an authoritative voice in their fields, they fail to clarify their research is not definite, or restrictive, causing people to label themselves one way or another, such as Personality Type A or B, Extrovert or Introvert, Left-Brained or Right-Brained (a theory recently debunked), or any other newfangled trendy classification. 

Any one person is not “this way or that” a hundred percent of the time. Sure, we might employ aspects of certain techniques or thought processes more than another (and it is valuable to realize which ones), but we simply do not employ ONLY one each time.

Famous Quotes 17

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

~ Winston Churchill

Taxi Driver

1976

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Written By: Paul Schrader

Starring: Robert De Niro; Jodie Foster; Albert Brooks; Harvey Keitel; Leonard Harris; Peter Boyle; Cybill Shepherd

Taxi Driver is a 1976 American vigilante film with neo-noir and psychological thriller elements directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. Set in New York City following the Vietnam War, the film stars Robert De Niro.

The film is regularly cited by critics, film directors, and audiences alike as one of the greatest films of all time. Nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it won the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. The American Film Institute ranked Taxi Driver as the 52nd-Greatest American Film on its AFI’s 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list. The film also ranks No. 17 on Empire Magazine’s 2008 list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All-Time. In 2012 Sight & Sound named it the 31st-Best Film Ever in its decennial critics’ poll, ranked with The Godfather Part II, and the 5th-Greatest Film of All-Time on its directors’ poll. The film was considered “culturally, historically, or aesthetically” significant by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1994.

Social Media Art 20

Beautiful Dance 2

~ Leonid Afremov, Fellow Twitter User

View more works by this artist at his website.

Edgar Allan Poe

January 19, 1809 - October 7, 1849

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American Literature, and he was one of the country’s earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Personal Quotes 14

“It’s a beautiful thing when a person’s imperfections become the very reasons you think the person is perfect.”

~ Victor Hubress

Tupac Shakur

Rapper

Tupac Amaru Shakur was an American rapper, record producer and actor. As of 2007 Shakur has sold over 75 million records worldwide. His double disc albums All Eyez on Me and his Greatest Hits are among the best-selling albums in the United States. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines, including Rolling Stone, ranking him No. 86 on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest rappers ever, as well as one of the most influential rappers of all time.

People Who Should Suffer Beheading; or At Least An Unhealable Paper Cut 13

People who do not learn from mistakes and consistently wonder why their lives have not improved.

This installment lends itself to every day, trivial choices as well as fundamentally unsound decisions: continuing to leave the seat up if your partner cannot stand you doing so or forgetting (refusing) to regularly pack a healthy lunch so as not to purchase an unhealthy, costly meal are as damaging as not budgeting your money and accidentally spending your rent: both examples can lead to major conflicts and issues.

NOTE: For this sentiment to sink in, if you do not consider the above issues as mistakes (or concerns) in your life, fill-in your choice of mundane or serious problems.

Sarcasm vs. Facetiousness

SARCASM

A harsh, bitter, or cutting remark born of derision or irony with intent to taunt, sneer, or inflict emotional pain.

FACETIOUSNESS

An amusing, humorous remark not meant seriously or literally, lacking a hurtful intent, usually concerned with something nonessential or frivolous.

*     *     *

Mary Poppins

1964

Directed By: Robert Stevenson

Screenplay By: Bill Walsh; Don DaGradi

Starring: Julie Andrews; Dick Van Dyke; David Tomlinson; Glynis Johns

Based On: Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

Mary Poppins is a 1964 American musical fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney with songs written and composed by the Sherman Brothers. The screenplay is by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, loosely based on P. L. Travers’ book series, Mary Poppins. The film, which combines live-action and animation, stars Julie Andrews in the role of Mary Poppins who visits a dysfunctional family in London and employs her unique brand of lifestyle to improve the family’s dynamic. Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, and Glynis Johns are featured in supporting roles. The film was shot entirely at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.

Mary Poppins was released on August 27, 1964, to universal acclaim, receiving a total of thirteen Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won five: Best Actress for Andrews, Best Film Editing, Best Original Music Score, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Song for Chim Chim Cher-ee. In 2013 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

John William Waterhouse

April 6, 1849-February 10, 1917

John William Waterhouse, RA (Royal Academy of Arts) was an English painter known for working in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He worked several decades after the breakup of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, peaking in the mid-Nineteenth Century, leading to his moniker “the modern Pre-Raphaelite.” Borrowing stylistic influences not only from the earlier Pre-Raphaelites but also from his contemporaries, the Impressionists, his artworks were known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend.

Born in Italy to English parents who were both painters, he later moved to London, where he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art. He soon began exhibiting at their annual summer exhibitions, focusing on the creation of large canvas works depicting scenes from the daily life and mythology of ancient Greece. Later on in his career he embraced the Pre-Raphaelite style of painting despite its popularity waning in the British art scene several decades before.

Although not as well-known as earlier Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt, Waterhouse’s work is currently displayed at several major British art galleries, and the Royal Academy of Art organized a major retrospective of his work in 2009.

Gone, But Not Forgotten ; 1873

Destiny ; 1900

Boreas ; 1903

O Captain! My Captain!

(“O Captain! My Captain!” read by Tom O'Bedlam)

“O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!”

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

~ Walt Whitman

Listen...It's Gotta be Funny--Somebody Posted It on the Interwebs 16

"I spent ten minutes trying to figure out why this guy was staring at me."

Social Media Art 19

Lost Moment

~ John Mccart, Fellow Google + User

It is never a “lost moment” spending time with this artist’s work.

Snoop Dogg

Rapper

Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr., known professionally as Snoop Dogg (formerly called Snoop Doggy Dogg and Snoop Lion), is an American rapper and actor from Long Beach, California. His music career began in 1992 when he was discovered by Dr. Dre of N.W.A, and as a result was prominently featured throughout Dr. Dre’s solo debut album, The Chronic (1992). He has since sold over twenty-three million albums in the United States and thirty-five million albums worldwide.

People Who Should Suffer Beheading; or At Least An Unhealable Paper Cut 12

People who enjoy and incorporate change simply for the sake of change, or personal gain, without analysis, foresight, and/or benefit.

EXAMPLE: XP is where they should have stopped. *mic drop*

Perceived (Illusion of) Freedom vs. Pure Freedom

DISCLAIMER: Neither I, Victor Hubress, or The Thirsty Spittoon, are connected or sponsored by any group deemed political in nature, nor do both above mentioned entities publicly support any political agenda, nor is the below post a politically charged statement or an affront to any established locality, government, state, or country

PERCEIVED (ILLUSION OF) FREEDOM

Since we live in America, as its citizens we function on the assumption we are truly free; however, even though we live in the “land of the free,” are we truly free? We are expected to perform certain actions or duties in order to celebrate or enjoy “freedoms” provided for us, but if we do not perform these certain actions or duties we are not permitted to celebrate or enjoy these “freedoms,” possibly facing drastic, life-changing punishments as a result. We are “perceived free,” but our existence is inevitably connected, tied, ultimately “permitted” by the powers that be, forever in debt to the created system our society employs. Free? I would feel more comfortable if the accepted phrase was “contingent,” because our “personal freedoms” depend on whether or not we “perform” these certain actions or duties. Sound familiar? 

We might not be oppressed by a single person or entity, but we are kept under control by our systematic society. The sad thing? We need this system to remain clandestine for its maintenance, but by doing so, we individually suffer from ignorance. Our system works because we are not aware of it, continuously and repetitively blaming certain organization or institutions, distracted by Band-Aid cures or temporary pain-relievers, and although it might sound as if I am against our system, I am not; I just believe being aware of its existence is important to finding happiness and success, realizing we are not free to behave as we wish, that we each have a very important job in order for our systematic society to function. Basically, it’s a give-and-take; and although it feels as if we constantly give, give, give, if the system ever destructed, we would immediately become aware of how much we take.

PURE FREEDOM

I am not a proponent for a “purely free” society; this implementation would be pure chaos; however, my secular conscience is always incited when words or terms are misappropriated. Consequently, I am against using the terms “free” or “freedom” when describing our society. If we were purely free, we would never face punitive consequences for any of our actions or be indebted to any person or organization (unless of course, we chose to be). Using the terms “free” or “freedom,” simply sounds much better than the alternatives. This usage is very similar to the popular dissemination of “democracy” to describe our type of government, although the term (democracy) is never mentioned in our Constitution, not once. Read it and see, it is short. 

So just take a few moments and think about the people or institutions you “owe,” or are required to perform for in order to escape public admonishment or punishment. Why does this matter, you might ask? Because it is important to unveil the lack of control we really have over certain areas of our lives, so we might realize the aspects we do control and can ultimately change.

Dude, Where's My Car?

2000

Directed By: Danny Leiner

Written By: Philip Stark

Starring: Ashton Kutcher; Seann William Scott; Kristy Swanson; Jennifer Garner; Marla Sokoloff

Dude, Where's My Car? is a 2000 American stoner comedy film directed by Danny Leiner. The film stars Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott as two young men who find themselves unable to remember where they parked their vehicle after a night of recklessness. 

Though the film was criticized by most critics, it was a box office success and has managed to achieve a cult status, partially from frequent airings on cable television. The film’s title became a minor catch phrase and was commonly reworked in various pop cultural contexts during the 2000s.

As the first DVD I ever purchased, I still considered this an amazing comedy. Pure frivolity, it lends itself to humorous quotes and not easily forgotten characters. This film is definitely one of my “special treats.”  

Famous Art 14

The Lady of Shalott ; 1888 ; John William Waterhouse

The Lady of Shalott is an 1888 painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse. It is a representation of a scene from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1832 poem sharing the same title. Waterhouse painted three different versions of this character: in 1888, 1894, and 1915. It is one of his most famous works, the epitome of the style of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The Lady of Shalott was donated to the public by Sir Henry Tate in 1894 and is usually on display in Tate Britain, London, in room 1840.

I guess I’m a Waterhouse fan. Who’d a thunk it?

Animal Farm

1945 (published) ; George Orwell

Animal Farm is an allegorical and dystopian novel by George Orwell, first published in England on August 17, 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist Era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, became a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin, and in his essay “Why I Write” (1946), wrote Animal Farm was the first book he tried with full consciousness of what he was doing “to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.”

Greatest Characters Ever Written 16

(Kenneth Branagh as "Iago")

“Iago” ; c. 1601-1604 ; William Shakespeare

One of the earliest, most devious, “jealous” villains (or cool bad guys.)

Even though Iago ruins Othello’s life and inadvertently takes Desdemona’s, you cannot help but enjoy his intricate plotting, his witty dialogue, and his charismatic qualities; one can even make the case his character is more tragic than Othello: Iago loses a wife who actually loved and trusted him, despite his devious nature, and Othello, based on his personality and his rash actions, was doomed to future destruction without Iago's assistance.

Comics 17

“Finally. A true representation of an appropriate teacher-student relationship.”

Even as a teacher myself, we (teachers) must maintain appropriate emotional and activity-based distances from our students; we are not responsible for raising a student, only guiding them through his/her education (and nowadays, doing everything we can to ensure he/she returns home safely each afternoon.) Each adult in a student’s life represents a different area of specialty or mastery; reading, writing, and arithmetic are a teacher’s. And just because I admit to only caring about a student’s educational success, does not mean I do not care enough about the student; it simply means all of my energy and support is channeled into the area I am responsible to cover, my expertise. 

With hopes of not offending anyone, I will abridge this area of my argument, although we know these professions cannot be explained so simply: we do not expect our police officers to do anything else other than protect us; our firefighters to put out our fires; our doctors to heal us; our lawyers to represent us and so on. While a basic tenet of every other single occupation revolves upon not intentionally creating a conflict of interest, within the teaching profession, why are teachers expected to purposely foster one? Please ponder.

If every adult in a student’s life concentrated on his/her specific job (or jobs in the case of a parent(s) or guardian(s)), the student would prosper; however, since this is an idealistic view of reality, society has placed this responsibility on teachers. Fair? Not in the slightest. 

Consider these statistics below:

(TIME statistics based on a student sleeping 8 hours, spending 8 hours at school, and spending 8 hours at home; AMOUNT based on 20 students a class for elementary (1 class per teacher a year); 25 students a class for middle school (4 classes per teacher a year); and 30 students a class for high school (5 classes per teacher a year); BOTH are based on rough estimates of how much actual time a student spends with a teacher depending on class switches, lunch, specials, and other extracurricular activities):

TIME

• An average elementary school teacher (based on a scale of 6 hours a day for 180 days a year) spends roughly 1080 hours (or 135-8 hour days; the family spends the other 230-8 hour days) with a student
• An average middle school teacher (based on a scale of 3 hours a day for 180 days a year) spends roughly 540 hours (or 67.5-8 hour days; the family spends the other 297.5-8 hour days) with a student
• An average high school teacher (based on a scale of 2 hours a day for 180 days a year) spends roughly 360 hours (or 45-8 hour days; the family spends the other 320-8 hour days) with a student

AMOUNT

(These calculations based on students in scheduled classes over thirty-five years of service)

• An average elementary school teacher encounters over 700 students
• An average middle school teacher encounters over 3500 students
• An average high school teacher encounters over 5250 students 

If most adults struggle with one student, why does society expect teachers to "wear so many hats" or raise so many students in so little time? 

I do not have an answer to the neglect a lot of our students face each and every day, but placing this responsibility on a teacher (or any other single student-based professional) is detrimental to society, most importantly a disservice to the student, because even if a student has the best, most productive teachers throughout his/her educational career, a teacher cannot fulfill every basic need a student requires.

I will continue to fight the good fight because I believe education is the most important element in the formula for personal and professional happiness and I enjoy spreading my knowledge and passing down my skills to future generations, but having others formulate a realistic view of teacher influence in a student’s life, or craft a realistic view of appropriate teacher-student relationships and boundaries, would lend itself to possibly generating more constructive dialogue on the subject.