"Lord, what fools these mortals be..."

Ok, I have a problem, here. Where has my attention span gone? When I was 12, I could sit and read a book for an hour or two and be perfectly fine. Now, I feel like I'm having trouble focusing on things, whether it's reading, writing, or anything more engaging than reading a quick news story on my RSS reader. I'm not quite sure why this is. Maybe it's just a lack of personal discipline or something, or perhaps it's some sort of side effect of internet consumption.

On a different note, here's an interesting phenomenon. A lot of times, you'll hear(or read) something like, "Well, Shakespeare once said..." Blahdeblah, insert Shakespeare quote here. But, in pretty much all of those instances, the quote will be taken out of context. And, not only that, but the quote is attributed to Shakespeare, not Shakespeare's character, for Shakespeare always speaks in character, and never as himself. There's a difference, I think. You can't take something from one of his plays and then declare it wisdom and deep, profound truth simply because it's from a Shakespeare production. What if the particular bit of prose is said by a villain or an idiot? Perhaps then it is not so wise. Oh well. Another pet peeve of mine.