.:About the Characters:.

The main characters in this play that are good are;

• Claudio (he's boarder line bad due to some of his negative characteristics)
• Benedick
• Beatrice
• Hero
• Leonato
• Don Pedro

The main characters in this play which are bad are the following;

• Borachio (follower of Don John)
• Don John (the villian of the play)
• Conrad (other Don John follower)

How the different characters change;

• Both Benedick and Beatrice change their oppion of one another, also they stop mocking each other as much and fall in love.

.:Story Line of Much Ado About Nothing:.

'Much Ado About Nothing' is the story of two very different sets of lovers, Beatrice and Benedick and Claudio and Hero. The play is set in the City of Messina, in Sicily

"The main plot of Much Ado revolves around obstacles to the union of two young lovers (Claudio and Hero), the plays sub-plot, the "merry war" of the sexes between Beatrice and Benedick. Benedict thinks he hates Beatrice but really loves her and Beatrice who thinks she hates Benedick but really loves him" (http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-much-ado-about-nothing.htm).

"Beatrice is extremely quick-witted and verbally adept, frequently amusing her relatives and friends with elaborate stories and jokes, often at her own expense. Though she is generous and good-hearted, she has a tendency to use her wit to mock and tease other people. Benedick is the target of her harshest mockery" (http://nfs.sparknotes.com/muchado/characters.html).

This fits in well with what the first site was talking about. If Beatrice was targeting all her mockery at Benedick, he must of been retaliating some how. There love must developed through there love-hate relationship.

.:Fashion:.

"See'st thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is? How giddily 'a turns about all the hotbloods between fourteen and five-and-thirty?" (Borachio, in Much Ado About Nothing 3.3.130-32). This is a quote from the play we will be studing. I had found this on a web site talking about court fashion. The web site was; http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/fashion.html

However i have found the following about fashion in Elizabethan England;

• It was influenced by geometric shapes rather than the natural shape of the body


• Designed to give the impression of a small waist


• Men would sometimes wear girdles, this was to obtain the wasp waisted look

.:Women/Education:.

Elizabethan women were;

• tutored at home because there were no schools for girls
• not allowed to enter University
• They couldn't be heirs to their father's titles (except female royals)
• They couldn't become Doctors or Lawyers
• There were no Elizabethan women in the Army or Navy
• Elizabethan women were not allowed to act in the theatres (but women at court were allowed to perform in the Masques)

.:Facts About Sir William Shakespeare:.

• Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564.
• Between about 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more.
• Many of these plays were very successful both at court and in the public playhouses.
• He died and was buried his home town in 1616.
• His plays were comedies, histories and tragedies.
• Shakespeare’s plays began to be printed in 1594, they appeared as a small, cheap pamphlet called a quarto.

Information above was mixed around but came from this website; http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/basics.html

• Boys and men played all the parts in Shakespeare's plays in Elizabethan times.
• Sir William Davanant (1606-1668), godson of Shakespeare and poet laureate of England, claimed to be Shakespeare's illegitimate son.
• Shakespeare was 17 or 18 when he married. His wife, Anne Hathaway, was 26.
• No one knows how Shakespeare died. Among the possibilities are kidney disease, murder most foul, and too much to drink.

Something interesting but confusing i found out was;

• Shakespeare wrote most of the lines in his plays in blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter.
• An iamb is a unit of rhythm consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

The information above was selected from the site; http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xfacts.html

.:Whats Happening Now:.

I have read half my book, so far and it's amazing. It's different to anything i have read before, which always makes something more interesting. I have noticed, that I'm yet to actually tell you the story line. This is mostly because it’s so complex and hard to explain. I've been putting it off, but not anymore.

This is the 'Gone' story line; The story follows the life of Sam (my books not with me at the moment and i forget his last name), he lives in a small house with his mother, who works at Coast Academy (a posh school on the outskirts of the small coastal town they live in). His father had left them when Sam was very young, and a couple years prior, to the beginning of this story Sam's mother had a partner, which i later discovered left because of Sam.

Sam isn't normal, by any means, he has a weird power that he doesn't understand nor knows how to control. He can shoot a beam of pure light energy from his hands, but only in extreme circumstances. One night, Sam had woken up to his mother and her partner fighting (the book didn't mention the partners name, but for the sake of my review, he shall be called Bob). Bob had a knife in his hand and Sam got really frightened, he thought Bob was trying to hurt his mother. So he panicked and shot a pure beam of light from his hand. Bob got rushed to hospital, but the doctors couldn't save his hand. Bob had been trying to tell everyone that Sam had shot him but his mother covered for him and said that Bob was seeing things. Due to Bob leaving Sam's mother they had to move into that small, horrible house due to the fact that, Sam's mother couldn't afford to keep the nice house.

The book starts on a normal school day, Sam is just sitting in class next to his best mate (well only real mate) Quin. When suddenly all kids age 15 and over just disappear. As you can imagine a world without adults would be pretty chaotic, the state of panic and confusion among the children got taken far beyond controllable. Most younger kids looked towards Sam for guidance and leadership, all of which Sam was too scared to take on. *(You find out that, Sam is some what a local hero, he once saved a whole bus of kids. They were all on a bus, when suddenly the bus driver had a heart attack, Sam rushed up the front, grabbed the steering wheel, and drove the bus to safety, then dialled for an ambulance. All of which was done whilst trying to calm a bus load of little kids.)*

Sam has had a crush on the smartest and prettiest girl in his grade, Astrid, for as long as he can remember. However he had never acted on it, until all the chaos began. Astrid has a 5 year old, autistic brother whom was out with his father when everyone 'poofed'. Astrid asked Sam if he could help her locate little Pete (Petey). Astrid didn't know where he was, because she didn't know which parent he went to work with on that day. So Sam and Quin left town to help out Astrid, they ended up finding him up in the nuclear power plant, where Astrid's dad worked.

The nuclear power plant had once been hit by a asteroid, the asteroid hit the tank containing the dangerous radioactive substance, luckily the asteroid was travelling that fast that it made a hole a couple kilometers deep, which took all the toxic stuff in with it. However instead of treating it properly, the workers just cemented over it. This is why the town is nick named, Fallout Alley; this is also the reason why the population decreased significantly and is only now a very small town.

Anyway, a sphere has formed within a (not sure what number) kilometers radius around the power plant, trapping everything and everyone off from the normal universe, thats to say, (they're still in the normal universe). If the giant wall is touched, you get seriously burnt, this wall can't be penetrated and some even think even if it is broken there will be nothing on the outside.That is just the basics of the story. So much more has happened since then, every week i shall fill you in a little. However this is the last time I'm going back to fill in detail. From now on I'm just going to continue to tell you about what is happening, which might confuse you, but in the end it will all make sense. Otherwise it takes just too much time, just look at how much has been written here, just briefly about the beginning.

Thanks for reading :)

.:Elizabethan Entertainment, In General:.

The Names and Types of Elizabethan Entertainment were as follows:
Jesters - A fool or buffoon at Elizabethan courts
Mummers - A masked or costumed merrymaker or dancer especially at a festival
Minstrels - Travelling musician who sang of legends (declined in the Elizabethan era)
Troubadours - Travelling musician who sang of courtly love (declined in the Elizabethan era)
Acting Troupes - Travelling actors
Jugglers - Also used tricks, deception, or fraud

Types of Elizabethan Entertainment and What They Were:
Feasts - A large, elaborately prepared meal, usually for many persons and often accompanied by court entertainment. Often celebrated religious festivals
Banquets - A ceremonial dinner honoring a particular guest
Fairs - The Annual Summer Fair was often a bawdy affair
Plays - Starting as plays enacted in town squares followed by the actors using the courtyards of taverns or inns ( referred to as Inn-yards ) followed by the first theatres ( great open air amphitheatres built in the same style as the Roman Coliseum ) and then the introduction of indoor theatres called Playhouses
Mystery Plays - Re-enacting stories from the Bible
Festivals - Celebrating Church festivals
Dancing - Elizabethan dances enjoyed by the Upper Classes, Royalty and Nobility included the Cinque-pace, Galliard, Pavane, Roundel, Tordion and the Volta
Jousts / Tournaments - A series of tilting matches between knights
Games and Sports - Sports and games which included archery, bowling, cards, dice, hammer-throwing, quarter-staff contests, quoits, skittles and wrestling
Animal Sports - Including Bear and Bull baiting. Dog and Cock fighting
Hunting - Sport followed by the nobility often using dogs
Hawking - Sport followed by the nobility with hawks

All of the above was directly from http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-entertainment.htm .

Elizabethan Entertainment was a huge part of the lives of nearly all whom lived in this era in England. The lives of Elizabethans were hard which is why entertainment was so highly regarded, a chance to celebrate was never turned down. Court entertainment was regular and often a nightly occurrence for the higher societal people especially the nobles and royal. Where as the entertainment the poor had was totally different. However feasts and festivals were frequent during specific times of the year, most of which were dictated by the church.

.:Book Update:.

I've finished another book in the space of time between this review and the last therefore i haven't really read a lot more of this book 'gone'. i shall, however give you the basic run down of this book. They live in a little sea side town, nick named fallout alley. This is due to their nuclear power plant being hit by a asteroid. when it was hit all the toxic stuff went underground. Where they just sealed it with cement. Due to this (i think) the main character Sam and some other have developed strange powers.... Tune in next week for more!

P.S please don't think this is a weird book about kids with powers, its not! I'll explain it more as the weeks go on!

.:Co-Curricular Reflection:.

Rowing is a great sport which I strongly encourage everyone to get involved in. This was my second year as apart of the ‘rowing family’, it was a great season that has provided me with many pleasant memories. Rowing is a sport which requires a large amount of determination and dedication. It involves three morning training sessions a week, that take place at TSS rowing shed at 5am. There is also an x-training session which entails a lot of sit-ups, lunges, push-ups etc. As a co-curricular, its fun keeps you fit, and allows you to become more organized with all your school work. I initially signed up for rowing because I’m not a very athletic person; therefore I’m hardly good at any sports other then snow skiing and lawn bowls (I know that’s lame). I thought that I could possibly be good at rowing which I can say, I haven’t proved wrong. For all people who think rowing is a really hard sport, it is but at least it doesn’t involve too much hand-eye coordination, something that I don’t have a lot of. Something rowing hasn’t gotten rid of, in case it probably intensified it, is my fear of sharks. I’m not going to lie to you; there are bull sharks in the river we row on. Apart from that, rowing is great, join up for next season!