That is the question

I saw this on a t-shirt on Facebook a few days ago and it's been screaming at me to do a blog post about it ever since.

In programming, the 2 vertical bars || means OR and the exclamation mark ! means NOT, so this translates to "To be or not to be". These are the words that Hamlet speaks in his famous soliloquy (an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play):

To be, or not to be? That is the question—

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—

No more—and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

But what does it mean? Here is a translation of that speech by Hamlet:

The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—that’s all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—that’s an achievement to wish for. To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream. Ah, but there’s the catch: in death’s sleep who knows what kind of dreams might come, after we’ve put the noise and commotion of life behind us. That’s certainly something to worry about. That’s the consideration that makes us stretch out our sufferings so long.

Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is considering suicide after his mother marries his uncle, who happened to have murdered his brother, Hamlet's father, the King...whose ghost visits Hamlet at the beginning of the play. That's some pretty heavy stuff to have to deal with!

Read the Cliff Notes version to understand the whole story and find out if Hamlet decided to shuffle off this mortal coil.

Interesting days

Today - Legal Assistance Day, International Ask a Question Day, Crowdfunding Day, Moth-er Day, Science Education Day, Organize Your Home Office Day, Potato Chip Day, Learn About Butterflies Day and Pi Day

Tomorrow - World Consumer Rights Day, Brutus Day, Buzzards Day and True Confessions Day

Next Tuesday -  International Fragrance Day, French Bread Day, International Day of Forests, Common Courtesy Day, Single Parent's Day, World Poetry Day, World Down Syndrome Day and Memory Day

April 14 - That Sucks! Day, Dolphin Day and Look Up at the Sky Day