2007/02/21 Sonnet 18

[superluser]

I do not hold grudges, good sir. So stop that. And there is no need for rhyme. If the good Shakespeare did not always need it, then neither do I. I voice my opinion, and that is it, no matter what you and certain others may think...

I don't hold grudges, but I have noticed that we very rarely agree.

And iambic pentameter (which the bulk of the bard's plays were written in) doesn't need to rhyme, just use iambs.

On the other hand, sonnets (of which Sonnet 18 is one) do need to rhyme.  Gimme a minute, and I'll whip up a Shakespearian sonnet about this arc.

Edit: The problem has come along, and I have whipped it!

CHORUS
And so here ends the tale of love by rat
Among his friends now two have learned the truth
The first informed: the cow, and then the cat
The third, tread light, for Abel is uncouth.

Among his friends, the rat must choose by grace
Which of the features would be best to love
A butt that's really cute, a pretty face,
A friend whose mother watches from above.

And still for Jyrras is yet more danger
A racist friend, a bellicose bovine,
A frightened and belligerent stranger
All these must weigh against aspects sublime.

We wait with bated breath to our chagrin
This act is over; let the next begin!
[exit]

Edit: oh, right, with the rhyming...

[Tiny crested flint]

Well, I don't know about that.. but whose been teaching spiders to talk anyway, or read for that matter?   Sure, culture will do anyone good, I think...of course it will not stop your evil side, but it gives you character.


PBH

Jy probably gave them sentience or else Abel is mind/thought reading the spider.

OOH!  Amber you tease! No, not about Wildy fanservice, I so wanted to see the marker marks.

Great, all this talk of arachnids and poetry and now I can't stop thinking of Little Miss Muffet.  Awsome comic to end an arc.

[Akisohida]

...You will hate the pun but think that spider may be the wife of the one that was squished? That would make her a widow, yes?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

A black one, yes. ;-)

[Taerkar]

Permanent markers will not come off IF she is using Soap and water only...

True, but that also depends if the marker only got on fur or if it got beyond it and to Wildy's skin. I think she'll be able to get it off, if for no other reason than her brother not wanting her back again for revenge.

[Tiny crested flint]

Brilliant! Lovely poem, 'scuse me, sonnet superluser.  How do you do that?

I think the marker will come off and already is.  Look at the towel. It's got stains.

[superluser]

Brilliant! Lovely poem, 'scuse me, sonnet superluser.  How do you do that?

A sonnet is a poem, so you don't need to get all snooty and technical.

The Shakespearian sonnet is composed of 14 lines of iambic pentameter, with a rhyming pattern of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.  That's the basic concept.

As to how to do it, I'm not sure.  It comes naturally to me, so it might be innate and not learned.  Maybe when I get around to writing my story in the Tower of Art (which will be in a different verse), I'll do a brief explanation on how I work.

(it also helps to remember to rhyme all your stanzas.  Funny, peril doesn't rhyme with stranger...)

I think the marker will come off and already is.  Look at the towel. It's got stains.

Good point.  It may be more coloring the towel than cleaning her face, though.  On the other hand, I've been able to get permanent marker off without any water or solvents.  Just friction--and no, my skin was still intact afterward.

[ChessM]

I love Abel's arachnophobia!   

[Alondro]

*Charline notes the link earlier to Levicel's page and peers curiously*  Favorite color: red.  Not unusual... Favorite food:  Lio...    *runs away screaming*

*Alondro reads as well*  What's gotten Charline so terrified?  *peers at the favorite food*    

*Charles thinks he shall have to order a certain commission from Amber once he has funds, in order to get back at his leonine tormentors*   

[Angel]

Thats not necessarily true, a significant portion of Phobias have a very good explanation to them.

Real Example: I have Hemophobia (Fear of Blood), I have this phobia because of a rather traumatic event that involved blood in the past.
...
So, although some Phobias are completely unfounded, a great deal of them aren't.

Having a logical explanation is different from having an explanation at all. Of course there are often reasons for phobias (for example traumatic events) but they are rarely logical for having a trauma.

I have a great fear of heights. Not exactly a phobia, but close. I can cite a number of explanations how I came to this fear, but none of them are logical.
Besides, living where I do, I have yet to find anybody who has a deep fear of spiders who could give me a reason for it, be it logical or otherwise.

I have some authority on this subject. You see, while I find spiders, lizards, snakes and other such fear-mongers cute, I have one fear that borders on phobia. I'm terrified of bees. Or, more accurately, any onsect that buzzes and can sting. This isn't quite a phobia - I'm not so scared of them that I can't leave the house. But if one buzzes in my ear, or flies within six inches of me where I can see it, I scream and run. This fear, though, has a logical history and is somewhat rational - I was stung by a hornet when I was a kid, and besides, bee stings hurt and are mildly poisonous. Most people who are afraid of something they could kill very easily have a perfectly good reason (some spiders are poisonous, e.g.).

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I love Abel's arachnophobia!   

.. I wonder if one of the others is going to wander in, say hi to the spider, and wander out again as if nothing unusual happened.... :-)+)

[Boog]

Probably one of the basement rats. They're used to stuff like household pests attaining sentience and such. The life of a basement rat can be fraught with with danger, dodging mutant, twinkee-gorged creatures that were once old laundry or carefully negotiating arachnid politics.
... What? It could happen.

[Angel]

I wonder if Able has Scent Appeal due to the other spider that got mashed in his hair?

'Twould explain why the spidey's waving his leg near Abel's hair.

Now, is it right to kill sentient spiders?

It is not right to kill any spiders!
Such cute little critters! . And often furry! Don't we all love furry things?
I never understood why people fear them so often...

YES! Someone who agrees! Seriously, once, there was a spider hanging from the ceiling in CCD, and I saw it, and didn't freak in the slightest. The girls AROUND me, upon noticing my new arachnid friend, freaked out to the millionth power. And I just sat there like, "Leave him alone, he's cute!"

So nice to know I'm sane in some respects...
(omg unintended iambic pentameter. This thread is having effects on my vernacular.)

As to other stuff... lovely sonnet, Stygian. Adieu to all you folks.

[Akisohida]

*Charline notes the link earlier to Levicel's page and peers curiously*  Favorite color: red.  Not unusual... Favorite food:  Lio...    *runs away screaming*

*Alondro reads as well*  What's gotten Charline so terrified?  *peers at the favorite food*    

*Charles thinks he shall have to order a certain commission from Amber once he has funds, in order to get back at his leonine tormentors*   

Dangit! I'm trying to train Charline to stop fearing spiders and one has to go and ruin that.
*Chases after Charline* Oy! Get back here!

Amber makes the most interesting characters, no?

[Azraelle]

I am slowly getting over my arachniphobia.  In the olden days, when I saw a spider I couldn't be anywhere near it.  My parents would have to kill it (usually with a small wad of tissue).  The one time I tried that, I missed and the spider jumped onto the tissue and crawled up onto my hand.  I screamed so loud and whipped my hand so hard that I ended up spraining my wrist.

Nowadays, I still get uncomfortable around them, but I'll either leave them alone, or get a dixie cup, put it over them, slide a paper underneath, and release them outside.

But if I see a black widow, I am freaking the #@$! out.

And I know how you feel about bees / flying stinging insects.  Though it's subdued somewhat after the time I was mowing the front lawn and didn't happen to notice that there was a small hole in the ground where a swarm of bees had made their nest.  I drove straight over the hole and got stung three times.  Again, I sprained my fingers from trying to swat them away, and I still (three years later) have a small red mark on my ankle where one managed to get through my sock.  But afterwards, I went back out to examine the hole, and found that on the previous mower pass, I had come within two inches of the hole and they had left me alone.  I was able to finish mowing by simply going around the hole, and another one that I noticed which contained a similar nest.  It wasn't until that day that the phrase "they only sting you if they feel threatened" really hit home.

And I never really noticed, *shifts the discussion back on topic* just how much Dan and Abel look alike.  I mean, there's always been the similarity, but it's really very obvious in this strip; same face, same color hair (on Abel's tips anyway).

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Heh. There's the time my wife asked me to extract a spider (I'm of your bent, Azraelle - I dislike them, but will leave them alone) from the house.

I went to look at it, and got a bowl. If I'd got a cup, it wouldn't have fit in it...


Yeah, I appreciated being asked to deal with that one...

[Tapewolf]

Heh. There's the time my wife asked me to extract a spider (I'm of your bent, Azraelle - I dislike them, but will leave them alone) from the house.

I went to look at it, and got a bowl. If I'd got a cup, it wouldn't have fit in it...

Was that in NZ or the UK?  I had one about five years ago that was too big for a cup once.  It escaped behind a cupboard while I was trying to get the bowl.  About two days later I turned around from my desk and it was standing there on the floor right behind me as though it was watching me.  I did manage to get it that time.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

UK, although I have seen one of similar size back in NZ.

The one over here was just a wolf spider. Fairly harmless, if alarming when you find it sharing your shower of a morning. The one back in NZ was a bright orang coloured abdomen, and flat to boot. That was one I wouldn't risk touching, mostly because I couldn't identify it at all...

[Gabi]

Wow, and to think that I once saw a spider that was about 2 centimeters long and I thought it was really big for a spider.

[Bunnaroo]

The one over here was just a wolf spider. Fairly harmless, if alarming when you find it sharing your shower of a morning.

We have wolf spiders over here. At night, I can hear these little howls during the summer...

[EvilIguana966]

I don't squish things unless I have a good reason to.  This applies to all manner of creepy crawlies, but especially spiders.  Spiders do me, and you, a great service by controlling the pests that are actually truly dangerous.  I seem to be especially fond of predatory creatures in general, because their danger to humans tends to be exaggerated and the benefits they provide to us are frequently unsung.  Of course, I have this view of the world from the safety of suburban Pennsylvania, a part of the earth that is ostensibly included the ranges of 1 poisonous snake, 1 poisonous spider, and 0 potentially dangerous large mammals or reptiles.  I say ostensibly, because while theoretically we can have copperheads and the brown recluse, the former stays in the deep woods and the latter prefers far warmer climate.  But that doesn't change the fact that, even in places where there are lots of potentially harmful critters, you're better off with them than with their prey.  Arachnophobics need to ask themselves if they prefer a few spiders living harmlessly in the corner or mosquitoes and flies biting them and potentially spreading disease. 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The spiders.

Heck, I knew someone who had a spider web just outside the back door of their flat, one year (at university)

He reckoned they used to catch flies, and flick them into the web, while they were smoking, to see what it did. Apparently at the start of the year, it used to run out right quick, and snatch up the flies and deal to them.

By the end of the year, it was significantly bigger, and used to wander out sluggishly, maybe, if it felt like it... :-)

[Akisohida]

I don't squish things unless I have a good reason to.  This applies to all manner of creepy crawlies, but especially spiders.  Spiders do me, and you, a great service by controlling the pests that are actually truly dangerous.  I seem to be especially fond of predatory creatures in general, because their danger to humans tends to be exaggerated and the benefits they provide to us are frequently unsung.  Of course, I have this view of the world from the safety of suburban Pennsylvania, a part of the earth that is ostensibly included the ranges of 1 poisonous snake, 1 poisonous spider, and 0 potentially dangerous large mammals or reptiles.  I say ostensibly, because while theoretically we can have copperheads and the brown recluse, the former stays in the deep woods and the latter prefers far warmer climate.  But that doesn't change the fact that, even in places where there are lots of potentially harmful critters, you're better off with them than with their prey.  Arachnophobics need to ask themselves if they prefer a few spiders living harmlessly in the corner or mosquitoes and flies biting them and potentially spreading disease. 

I'd agree but the spider sin my house play jokes. I was on my futon, watching TV, when a spider came down on a web string three inches infront of my face. I rolle doff my futon and was out the door in less than two seconds just from sheer surprise. The thign had all its legs (save the very back ones) spread wide as if to say 'SURPRISE!' when it dropped down and stops in front of my face. >.> Strangely, I am a MAJOR arachniphobe but I am also kind to small things. If it intrudes, I act, but if it stays away, I am fine.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

that's a balance thing, I think. They have their hands spread out like that to balance them, and also to warn them of any oncoming objects they should watch out for...

I'll admit, it -does- look like they're saying "Gotcha! Surprise!" :-)

[Psy-Kosh]

And I never really noticed, *shifts the discussion back on topic* just how much Dan and Abel look alike.  I mean, there's always been the similarity, but it's really very obvious in this strip; same face, same color hair (on Abel's tips anyway).

Ears seem rather different though. Positioning, for one thing.

[thegayhare]

I found anouther freind for Abel and Charline

http://us-p.vclart.net/vcl/Artists/Peganthyrus/a_beautiful_machine.jpg

[TheAuldGrump]

I have no problems with spiders (unlike my mom, who is terrified of them).

Ditto centipedes (I kind of like house centipedes as the flutter along a floor like an animated feather).

Slugs on the other hand... I don't run in fear from them, but no way am I touching one! (Though sea slugs are another matter....)

The Auld Grump, they don't give me the heebie jeebies, they give me the squeamies.

[ShiningShadow]

With me spiders rats and mice and anything else will get squished by me. BUt with spiders sometimes I let them go and have them eat the waterbugs in my apartment.