I Hate Poetry

The title is pretty self explanatory. More accurately, I guess I hate analyzing poetry. You know, when the great poets of the past wrote their poems, I doubt they wanted them to be analyzed to death. I wonder how many of them even had a "deeper" meaning.

I am bringing up this subject of poetry because that is what we are going over in my English class. In fact, we had to do this project where we pick three poets, write a biography on each, and analyze a poem from each. Then, we have to write one imitation poem. Holy cows. Also, we have to write an essay on the book we were supposed to have read.

My essay is on Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and the plot and such actually isn't that bad. But the names are...different. Like the main character is Raskolnikov, his friend is Razumikhin, and his mother is Pulcheria Alexandrovna. Needless to say, it's hard to get the hang of their names. Also, pretty much the only thing Raskolnikov eats during the whole book (at least, as far as I've read, which is almost the whole thing) is soup and tea.

Back to poetry. I felt I should post my imitation poem for you guys to comment on, to see if it's any good or needs improvement of some sort. I'll post the real one too though. Here goes:

Psalm of Life
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not it's goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make ourselves sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints in the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Yay. Here's my imitation.

Psalm of Beauty
An imitation poem by RoENinaE

Tell me not in perfect depictions,
Beauty is a physical state!
For those who have mirror addictions,
Are like marked and chalky slate.

Beauty is within! Beauty is pure!
And an image is not its goal;
Only when the soul is sure,
Will one shine as a whole.

Not appeal, and not slenderness,
Is our demanded shape or form;
But to act with motions of tenderness,
To brave life's constant storm.

Media is long, and Pressure is lasting,
And our hearts, weather good or bad,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
To the drum that will drive us mad.

In the world's pressing photo camera,
In the midst of lightning flashes,
Be not like the wonted chimera!
Be an angel amongst the ashes!

Trust no physicality, however attractive!
Let the beauty queens march their own parade!
Shine, - shine and let your light be active!
Because your inner beauty will never fade!

Lives of great ones all remind us
Beauty is in the mind and heart.
We can fix the lens to see us,
And how we are all a work of art.

Art that is unique in many ways,
Different in shape, color, and size;
Each one is a candle fit to blaze,
And ready to cast out the ludicrous lies.

Let us then be setting the stage
With kindness for generations to come,
Knowing that it shouldn't be an image
That decides what we become.

Tada! The end. Thanks much if you read it all the way through. Please let me know if you come up with improvements for it. Bye!

Fishery Class

This week I took (and am still taking cause it's still the third day) a three day fisheries class. It's been really awesome so far.

Day 1: The teacher explained what fisheries were about and he gave us a rundown of what we were going to be doing. Then, we got to kill some baby fish that were about 8 cm long and we collected data from them (condition, length, weight, etc.) and took blood samples.

Then, we put the blood samples in a thing that spun them and separated the red blood cells from the plasma. We used a circular tool (I forget what it's called) to measure what percentage of the liquid in the tubes was blood.

After that, we took otoliths out of fish heads. Not the little fish though. We used full-grown salmon heads. My lab partner and I only managed to find one otolith, but we had the head of a humpy (aka pink), and their otoliths are really small. On the second head, we lost both otoliths, but that was because we didn't split the head exactly in half.

Day 2: We went out to the hatchery and took a tour. The manager explained what they did in the hatcheries, and then we got to help do tasks. First, we took 200 fish from the tank and massed them. Then we took fish from a different place (these ones were bigger) and we weighed and measured them. Then we helped clean the fish pen things. I have to admit, it was all pretty fun because it was sunny and semi-warm outside.

Day 3: Um, well, it's still morning and school hasn't started yet, but I kind of know what we're going to do. We will go out to the hatchery again and watch the people load fish into this truck thing. Then we will follow them into town and watch them load the fish on a boat.

That's all for now. I am losing my focus, so yup. Byenow!

Long Time No Post.

It's been a really long time since I posted anything. About the Tsunami Bowl, I had lots of fun and it was worth it. My team got 1st place for the paper that we had to write, and then we got 6th in the presentation of our paper and 6th in the buzzer competition (which was the most fun part). I also learned all the lyrics to Don't Stop Believin' by Journey because two of my group members (who I had to sit between on the plane) kept singing it.

Anyways...on with what I really wanted to type. I mainly wanted to rant. You see, I enjoy watching anime shows (they are awesome and now I can actually draw people!). I watched Fullmetal Alchemist which was totally awesome. Then I watched Death Note (which was also awesome) up to about episode 32 before I got mad and quit watching. Then I watched Bleach up to about episode 250 (there is a lot of them). Unfortunately, I did not like that it stopped being in english past that point, so I stopped watching it (though I am reconsidering that decision). After that, I watched Inuyasha (which also has a LOT of episodes, though many of them are just the main characters adventuring around and not really doing anything important). Then, I watched D. Gray-man, which was a really awesome anime! I liked it so much and it was so gripping that I continued to watch it even though it stopped being in english around episode 50.

So this is all fine. But then, I got to the last episode of D. Gray-man (episode 103) and it just ended. I was really disappointed! There was this big battle, but many aspects of the plot were not completed. >_<. Grrr! It was really good too! I am hoping that there will be more to it, and if not then I will just have to deal with it. But I just needed to hammer out this entry to express my extreme disappointment with this show. I really like how they animate the characters though. Anywho, now I have started watching Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, and guess what!? The main character has the same voice as Ichigo (the main character from Bleach). So, it's a little strange to get used to because the two characters look very different. Plus the characters are drawn differently, but that's okay. It's good so far.

If you are not a fan of anime, I am really sorry to have probably bored you with this ranting entry.

Alrighty then. That's all I have to say. Um...there was a fish named swish and he constantly swam in circles until he was caught in a sane net and died on the deck of a boat. Afterwards, he was eaten by someone. So, Goodbye!