Anapestic observations

Yesterday, in the process of writing my sonnet, I did a little research on meter in poetry. I'd forgotten the names and character of the various metrical forms.

Iamb: daDAH
Trochee: DAHda
Spondee: DAH-DAH
Pyrrhic: da-da
Anapest: dadaDAH
Dactyl: DAHdada (as followers of my journal already knew ;-) )

The interesting part is that I was reading Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat Comes Back to Rosa last night, and I noticed that it is very strongly anapestic--"oh my MY no no NO...said the CAT as he SAT..." etc.--though he also breaks the meter occasionally for variety or emphasis. I'm feeling an urge to play with that meter in a Seussian poem sometime soon.

I also observe that the word "anapest" is itself a dactyl, amusingly enough since the meter is exactly reversed. And "iamb" is a trochee, likewise reversed.

A.I.

I rented A.I. the other day. It was due yesterday and I forgot to return it, so I thought I'd watch it tonight. I've just turned it off, about an hour into it, because it hurt too much to watch. The poor robo-boy (as he was just called by a technician fixing him) was being tormented by everyone around, and everything he did--was provoked into doing--ended up looking like endangerment of the other people even though it was done through love or fear.

It felt too much like the outsider-ness of my own childhood. I decided that I didn't need to subject myself to any more of it and turned off the video.

More answers

jingoro -- I've been thinking about it, and I think I can do it. Even if I can't get much time off, I can skip the first day and join y'all on the Friday.

tafkar -- Wow. Thought-provoking one. The short and obvious answer is "feeling loved", but that really just begs the question. It's almost more about feeling validated, feeling like my existence matters to someone(s).That covers everything from accomplishments at work to words of affection to physical caresses.

I've got a deeply ingrained sense of inferiority in the realm of relationships: too many years being the butt of jokes in elementary and middle school have left me disbelieving and insecure in all sorts of relationships, so that really feeling like someone cares about me makes me incredibly happy. I get a lot of pleasure out of simple things like having people comment positively in other conversations on things I have said, or being introduced to someone's friends because they think the friends would like me.

On the other hand I've never doubted my intellectual abilities, so day-to-day accomplishments are not nearly as satisfying. It takes a more outstanding (by my lights) success in the intellectual realm to give me joy. Now if I were to suddenly discover a physical talent (a sport, for example), that would make me amazingly happy as well, since once again, it's something I was never ever good at.