Crazy Talk

Okay, my exhaustion is clearly catching up to me. This past week has been a rough one for me. Not only do I have school, but I have work, FFA, violin lessons, and two orchestras I am in. You can say that I am crazy busy, I barely have any free time anymore. It is depressing to know that I only read one book this month. One book. That is a new low for me, I usually read about ten to twenty books per month.

During work last weekend, I began to say crazy things to my customers. One person asked for directions to a place upstairs and I told them to go up the Ferris Wheel and take a left. She might have given me a weird look... Then I was counting back a customers change and  thought I said the wrong number the first time, so I told him the correct change, and he then told me that was what I said the first time, he might have also have given me a weird look. I had plenty of customers where I would repeat myself, so I pretty much looked like a complete fool most of the time the past few days.

Then there comes the time where I have to count my till at the end of the day, yeah, that was especially challenging due to my current state of mind. I struggled so much just to count my till, it probably took me twice as long as usual. So you can say that I'm pretty psyched to be getting a complete, that's right, a complete week off after tomorrow, I just hope I don't make a fool of myself then.

Shakespearean Humor

Let me first state that I can understand the majority of what is happening in Hamlet. I don't catch on to Shakespeare's double meanings without doing a close analysis of them, but I at least understand the main plot. So far I have found that figuring out when Shakespeare is using humor is the hardest for me to comprehend. When I say humor I'm mostly speaking of Hamlet's and Horatio's friendship. They tend to use a lot of sarcasm between one another, which I didn't even realize until I was enlightened to this fact in class.

I think this is mostly due to the way Shakespeare writes. Sarcasm is hard enough to understand in our modern day speech, now if you put it into Shakespeare’s time it is almost impossible for me to find it. When someone tells me he is using sarcasm on a specific line, I’ll notice it right away, it is being able to figure it out on my own that is the hard part.

When I do uncover the hidden humor I have a feeling of awe towards Shakespeare. The fact he is able to hide it so brilliantly is astounding, well at least to me it is. I wish I could write as beautifully or as dramatic as he does. So far I am enjoying Hamlet, I can say so far it is my favorite play he has written. I love how dramatic he can make every scene while keeping me interested at the same time. I’m kind of excited to read more, even though I think I know how it’ll end (you can thank the Simpsons for that).

Obsession

A few days ago I discovered that ever since my brother left for the Navy, that his Xbox was up for grabs. I was so excited that I would finally be able to play it. My brother was not a sharer when it came to his pride and joy, aka the Xbox. So I pack up his Xbox and move it into the living room to play it. Let me say, that was the longest I have played it in years.

Then, yesterday, I had a family dinner at Olive Garden with my mom, and yes, it was delicious. I was thrilled to know that when I got home I could play the Xbox all I wanted. You could say I became a little obsessed with it. Then all my excitement vanished when I returned home to notice the Xbox missing. My dad had taken it into his room. My reaction was quite hysterical, I'm not completely proud of it, but can you blame me? I had just gotten the Xbox for two days, and it was already taken from me!

So, what did I do instead? Homework. That's right, homework. It was as awful as it sounds. I stewed in anger, I know, it’s pathetic. It’s just an Xbox and I should get over it, but I just couldn’t do that. So now I had a competitor, and the prize was so glorious -well at least to me it is- and so beautiful. The Xbox glowed with its glory! I had to win it no matter what. Yeah, I was obsessed.

Oh Shakespeare

So far out of every poem I have read for this class I have always enjoyed reading Shakespeare's the most. Why? Well I love how he always changes the complete attitude or tone of the poem in the last two lines, and I especially love his out take on "love". His thoughts differ from what most poets would write, which to me, sappy is boring. They are also not too difficult to comprehend, out of all the ones I have read so far I have always gotten almost a complete understanding of them after reading them a few times. Which is pretty impressive if you know me. 

My favorite one I have read is "My Mistress' Eyes". This one makes me so happy to read, because one: it is not sappy, well maybe it gets a little sappy towards the end, and two: the tone is a fun one to read, it sounds as if the speaker is saying "ha ha, I'm better then everyone else and here's why..", and three: I understood it the first time I read it; after I finished answering the questions I looked it up on Google to make sure I wasn't completely wrong and found out that my thoughts were pretty much the same as everyone else's (Self high-five).

I hope we mainly read Shakespeare, because let's face it, he is kind of awesome. He is really the only poet so far that makes me not want to bang my head on the table when I try to comprehend his writing.

35/10

I think I have finally discovered a poem that I somewhat like, sure I’m probably never going to reread it, but to me this is an accomplishment. I was able to grasp the concept of 35/10 right away. This poem is about a woman and how she dislikes how she has become with age. She begins to compare herself to her ten year old daughter, who is young and alive. Towards the end of the poem she starts to realize, that her getting older is actually a positive thing, because while she is getting older her daughter will bring life and happiness to the World.

This poem has descriptions that are a bit hidden within the text, but it is nothing as intense as one of Shakespeare’s poems where every word he writes represents something significant in his poem and if you don’t understand one line it can make the poem have a different meaning than the one he is trying to reveal. 35/10 was refreshing, due to it being straightforward. I am one that wants to get straight to the point with everything I read. While this poem wasn't exactly like that, it was short enough to keep me interested until I could understand what the poem was trying to uncover for me. If a poem can hold my interest throughout the poem, I am more inclined to enjoy it; hopefully the poems I shall read for the rest of this year will follow these guidelines. A girl can dream right?

Frustration

I stare at the blank computer screen as if it holds all the answers; I need a miracle as of right now. My thoughts wonder drastically, I'm no longer focused. Suddenly I'm thinking about dinner and... wait focus.. back to work. I turn my head back to the screen, maybe now it will reveal the secrets I've been searching for. Nope.

There is nothing to see, all I am doing is wasting my time and hurting my eyesight. Maybe if I keep searching- even if there is a chance that there is nothing to find- I will discover something, anything. I just need a little bit of anything to keep me going, but apparently that is too much to ask. I’m being fooled by what I always believed to know everything there is, Google has betrayed me.  If the number one search engine can’t help me, than what will?

 I aggressively rake my fingers through my hair and let out a groan of frustration, why couldn't this be any easier? I crave to get this over with, only I haven't a clue how. All of the sudden, everything sounds more appealing than this, cleaning my room might even end up being the highlight of my day. I start to ponder a new technique to get the answers I’m looking for; the one I’m using is worthless. I finally come up with an idea on what to do when my computer retaliates; images begin popping up reading "error". What I thought could hold all the answers, actually holds none.

This is Stupid Stuff

Naturally I am one to despise poetry, I simply do not comprehend the meaning or purpose behind it. My homework was to read several poems and answer questions based on each, and naturally I did not understand on my own. I do not like hidden meanings, I would rather be told straight out what Shakespeare or Housman is trying to portray to me as the reader. So I required assistance and sought out Google's wise advice, while this did help me recognize the meaning/purpose behind the poems, it did not help me answer all of the questions; to answer those I really had to focus and use my poetry side of my brain, which was covered in cobwebs. I had to do an extensive house or "brain" cleaning to achieve success on this assignment. I do admit that it made it more pleasurable to read the poems the second time around. It made the words have meaning, rather than going through my brain and getting lost somewhere between comprehension and what I did earlier that day.

The first poem I read was Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?", I feel like this had some serious poemception that I would not have even been able to perceive without help. I simply thought it was about a man confessing how perfect he believed his true love to be, but poetry had to be sneaky and make it become so much more than that. Who would've thought it was about how Shakespeare was actually addressing all of mankind when he said "thee", and that it was a poem about how beautiful a writer he is, not this supposed "thee".

The other one I thought had acquired a hidden meaning was Housman's "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", I concluded that it was talking about the qualities of alcohol and the purpose of it. I was to some extent right, except it had nothing to do about the alcohol, but instead it was about the necessity of poetry in everyone's life. But it was even more than just poetry, but rather Terence's poetry, which had a pessimistic, depressing mood to them. This "mood", as you can call it spoke the truth and therefore made whoever read Terence's poems stronger and more prepared for what life had to throw at them.

This homework was definitely a tough one for me. It took me several hours to complete, even with the service Google had to offer. Reading a poem is simple, but deciphering it is another story. I still do despise poetry, but even I have to admit that when I can understand a poem, it makes me like poetry for at least few minutes, well, until I have to read the next poem.