Core Competencies (Français 11) – Gideon Seo
Newton’s Laws of Motion Lego Stop Motion – Gideon S
Literary Studies 11 – Poetry Project
Hail Thee
Hail Thee was once said by me to monarch.
Then came a time which made this whole world dark,
So I stepped up with no time for wasting.
I can finally become a true king
I can rule and charge all my inhabitants
Now truly nothing I possibly can’t.
Drop your pitiful, poignant patella
To the ground and I will save you from the eternal blazes underneath,
“Hail Thee, hail Thee!” yes, keep chanting my name
It feeds my ego, music to my ears
Like humans, hearing only what they want to hear
So blinded they are, they never try to change.
But now I can watch my power plunging
I guess prestige is not unlimiting, as I see my downfall elevating.
I will become history, a chapter in the books
And everyone must boast me, even the trees will sing.
When I am gone, ask whomever, “Hail Thee.”
And they shall respond,
“Who is Thee?”
‘Hail Thee’ composition
‘Hail Thee’ is a free verse lyric by Gideon Seo with a satirical and hubristic tone. Seo was inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and it shares the themes of human hubris and arrogance to show the eventual downfall of everyone that is high in power; life is momentary, nothing lasts forever. Gideon Seo’s poem contains poetic devices such as metaphor, personification, irony, alliteration, oxymoron, and finally satire. The poem contains thematic insights of the negative repercussions of greed and arrogance. The first takeaway from Seo’s poem is that although it is not in a specific pattern or scheme, hence it being a free verse, after reading it, it is visible that the poem seems to be in chronological order. The narrator in the poem starts off by being a normal citizen, then he “become[s] a true king,” then he dies. (4) Despite this being written over hundreds of years ago, Seo’s poem contains a lot of universal hubristic messages. Seo gets clever with his language on line 7 using alliteration: “Drop your pitiful, poignant patella.” Patella is a part in the knee, so the king is saying ‘Kneel before me’ in other words. Seo uses the imagery of the eternal hell, Tartarus, to demonstrate that he will become others’ savior: “and I will save you from the eternal blazes underneath.” The narrator in this poem does not classify himself as an average civilian after becoming king, instead he classifies himself in a higher and more superior hierarchy and scolds the “humans [for] hearing only what they want to hear.” (11) This line is ironic as the king is also one of those humans who hears what he wants to hear. Through the line, “‘Hail Thee, hail Thee’ yes keep chanting my name,” his arrogance and hubris was identified; he’s blinded by his arrogance to fail to see the inevitable future ahead of him, death. His ego is so fed by his citizens repeating, “Hail Thee,” over and over again: “music to my ears.” (9, 10)
The turning point is initiating by the word “But” on line 13. He finally rather realizes that his power was not unlimited as he starts to become weaker and weaker towards his death: “But now I can watch my power plunging. I guess prestige is not unlimiting, as I see my downfall elevating.” (14) Additionally, Seo gets clever with his language and uses an oxymoron: “downfall elevating.” (14) This is extremely intelligent because downfall means that he is going down and down in levels of power, however, it’s indicating that his downfall is just becoming greater. Eventually, he does not learn from this experience. He is dying and suffering and ultimately losing his spot at the top but he still thinks that he’s the greatest and that everyone will still praise him and long him even after he’s dead: “I will become history, a chapter in the books and everyone must boast me, even the trees will sing.” (15, 16) Seo uses personification to make a statement that absolutely ‘everyone will boast me after I’m dead, even the trees will sing for me because I am so great’. However, this entire statement is incredibly ironic because of the next 3 lines: “When I am gone, ask whomever, ‘Hail Thee.’ And they shall respond, ‘Who is thee?’” (17, 18, 19) It’s ironic because he thinks that he will get all of the honour even after he’s dead, but in reality, after he’s dead, no one will remember him. Through Seo’s universal and hubristic poem, the lesson may be learnt that nothing is unlimited, and no one is eternal as well. Even the people the highest power will eventually fall, unable to avoid their inevitable death.
‘Ozymandias’ composition
‘Ozymandias’ is a lyric attempting a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Through his poem, Shelley uses human hubris and irony to demonstrate that no matter how royal and high in power you may be, power will not be unlimited, and everything will eventually end with your inevitable demise. The hubris begins with the writing “on the pedestal” of the statue and “these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains.” (9, 10-12) This is incredibly ironic as he refers himself as the greatest and that he is eternal but at the moment, he’s only become a piece of desert junk “half sunk” under the sand, lost to people’s sights and minds. (4) This statement demonstrates how blinded he was by his arrogance and hubris. Ozymandias boasts of his “Works” and power, which is why he capitalized the word; however, in this arrogance he is unable to realize that power is something that was limited. (11) The arrogance was further illustrated by his “frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command.” (4-5) The sneer, especially, was the principal point of the visage which shows his colossal ego and hubris which the sculptor depicts: “The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.” (8) Furthermore, there is synecdoche in this line as well. “The hand” doesn’t only mean a singular hand constructing a statue, it refers to the person, the sculptor who sculpted Ozymandias. (8) Macbeth relates greatly with Ozymandias as Macbeth also demonstrates the theme of hubris, much like Ozymandias illustrates as well. Similarly, Macbeth believes he is untouchable, and that his power is unlimited but eventually, both of them fall to their defeat from arrogance. However, one difference is that Macbeth realizes his mistakes afterwards, towards his death, but Ozymandias does not, hence the classification of calling himself “King of Kings.” (10) Additionally, there is contrast in this poem. The contrast is between the “desert” and the scripture on the pedestal of the statue. (3) The imagery of a desert is used to portray the feeling of endless emptiness and loneliness. However, this contrasts with the ironic and hubristic writing on the pedestal: “Nothing beside remains.” (12) It is ironic how he says that nothing beside his “Works” will remain but in reality, he is alone in the desert, without anyone to support him. (11)
I chose this poem because I think that today’s society has a connection to this poem. I believe that most people that are high in any type of hierarchy tend to become more cocky and arrogant towards other people, ultimately seeing them as a lower class. Places like schools, workplaces, and finally a kingdom, experience human hubris and arrogance from higher classes. I agree that since they are higher in class, therefore they deserve the power; however, they shouldn’t be blinded by their own arrogance and take the detrimental downfall. After this poem is read, people should realize the real repercussions that we will face once we start being blinded and boosted of our own ego. The lesson must be learnt that nothing lasts forever, and everything will fall by our inevitable death.
Financial Literacy Reflection Blog Post – Gideon S
Fahrenheit 451 Bento Box Project
This is a project about the universal, and timeless novel, Fahrenheit 451 and our task was to find examples of certain literary devices, which was satire for me, and analyze those quotes and prove our points by using other information and evidence from the book. The other info dots are the podcast that talks about Bradbury’s theme of the ending of the novel, and other text-to-text/video/world connections and show the things that all of them have in common.
My Field Journal Digital Showcase
In Life Sciences 10, we made a Field Journal of living organisms that I’ve found throughout the start of the semester to this day. There were around 12 entries but out of them, I chose my top 4 outstanding organisms and they are as follows: The Fork-tailed Bush Katydid, the Common Dandelion, the European Paper Wasp, and the Coast Douglas Fir Tree. Each entry includes the location of where it was found, the time and date, and the weather at the time. (You can find those at the top left hand corner of each entry. Below that, you will find the official naming of the exact species, and a drawing of the species. In the blank spaces, there are some more little bits of information about their habitat, their adaptations, showing their taxonomy, and some of their unique characteristics.
Sources:
https://brainly.in/question/27488836
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp#:~:text=Wasps%20possess%20mandibles%20adapted%20for,enables%20them%20to%20drink%20nectar.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=61.52516189776473&nelng=-87.46051786467433&place_id=any&subview=map&swlat=47.69845677248723&swlng=-146.74274442717433&taxon_id=55957
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=63910
iSeek and iNaturalist in general for most of the information
What Darwin Never Knew
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist. He was and is famously known for his discovery of the science of Evolution. When Darwin arrived at the Galapagos islands, he realized that many animals had different characteristics. Some finches had pointy beaks and some had large short beaks so he thought they were different types of birds but later, he realized that they were the same species, just with different types of beaks. With further research, he comes to the theory of “Natural Selection”. Natural Selection is where certain animals adapt better to their environments resulting them surviving better than others and producing more offspring. This also connected to his theory of Evolution as well. This is the case with the finches on the Galapagos islands. Different finches on different islands had different beaks. This means that these finches went through evolution and adapted to their environments through Natural Selection.
The process of evolution is where the population of an organism evolves over the generations. Different genetic variations are what causes these evolutions. These genetic variations come from genetic mutations and these genetic mutations are what causes the organism to create different proteins. These proteins create the amino acids which are the building blocks to the different traits. Therefore, when this genetic variation happens, the genetic code for the same organism completely changes and as a result, makes a different gene that codes for a specific trait and that trait ultimately gets altered. However, these traits potentially could backfire on the organism and it might not be beneficial at all, therefore the organism has a high chance of dying off.
The very first evidence of Natural Selection was found from the finches on the Galapagos islands. Islands that were abundant in flowers had finches with very long and pointy beaks which helped them extract the nectar from the flowers as food. On the contrary, finches with large and short beaks wouldn’t live on the same island the pointy beaked finches inhabited. Instead, they lived on the island where the main food source was from nuts. In order to be able to get the nuts inside the hard shell, the finches’ beaks would have to strong. And for this island, the finch’s beak is very short and large, ideal for breaking nuts. This same sequence went on for all of the remaining islands; different islands would possess different finches that have different beaks for their survival hence the term adaptation.
Another example is found from the prehistoric fish of Tiktaalik. Tiktaalik was a prehistoric fish that lived in the waters and it was the main source of food of predators. Their movement was not the best so they would crawl around on the bottoms of the body of waters. The bones of their flippers were a homologous structure which means that the bones are somewhat similar to the human arm: bones that shows the likes of fingers, and 3 bones on the arm. How they adapted was that since they were easy prey and they were chased too much by predators, they thought of avoiding the predators by going on to the land where the predators can’t reach them. With those flippers, they stood up and started to walk towards the land and that’s how they avoided the predators from the water. Although, those traits were already available to them to use, they didn’t use them because they didn’t know how to use them. But the way they adapted was by using those traits about them so that they would be more “fit” for the environment they were living in.
Ultimately, the discovery of DNA has helped prove Darwin’s point. With the discovery of DNA, researchers have also discovered genes and that certain genes code for a specific trait/characteristic which means that different finches would have different genes that would ultimately, make a pointy or short beak. This has helped us today to view evolution in an easier way. There is much more evidence and reasoning behind the reasons of why species change traits and it allows us to be able to understand better. It changed us how we view evolution because it is more clear to us. Back then when Darwin first proposed his idea of evolution, there was not the sufficient and important information to be able to fully prove his point. Although we know that he was correct now, back when he didn’t have the decisive evidence, he was not approved by the majority of the world; instead, they just thought all different variations were all a completely different specie of animal. Evolution today is viewed an infinite field. There is so many new things that we can discover and unveil. With the theory of evolution, we have come to the point where we apprehend the concept of DNA and mutations as well. Using those pieces of information, we can identify many different pieces of the human genome: mutations, and genetic evolutions. A perfect example was found with the Rock Pocket Mouse. The Rock Pocket mouse lives in the Southwestern parts of the United States. Usually, pocket mouse are a light brown colour. They are very similar colour to the sandy ground of the deserts. This is an adaptation so that they would camouflage with the ground so that the main predator, owls, would not be able to spot them easily whilst in the skies scouting for food. However, pocket mice that lived in a more rocky, no grass area, have changed fur colour from the iconic light-brown/tan colour to a more dark, ashy grey colour because they lived in a totally different environment. If the light coloured were to live there, they would be easy prey and easily eaten by predators but instead, they adapted and genetically mutated so that they would produce grey fur instead of brown fur so that they would also be camouflaged in the black, rocky terrain.
But in the future, DNA can be the building block of creating certain artificial things for the human body so that perhaps we could evolve as well to be the “fittest” of all of living organisms. Now that we have the general concept of Natural Selection and evolution, we could use that to our advantages and uncover the unknowns, the possibilites can be endless! Then it is possible to manipulate specific genes to create the desired outcomes of organisms. By using these pieces of information, we can use that to help us able to cure the once incurable and devastating diseases and maladies. We could even design our own genetic variations to allow animals to adapt and ultimately, conserve the animals which are on the verge of extinction. Without Darwin’s theory, we wouldn’t have been able to reach this far and modern technology might have not even discovered the millions of things that a single macromolecule can achieve.
References:
“What Darwin Never Knew.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/darwin-never-knew.html.
Scoville, Heather. “How Finches Helped Darwin Develop His Theory of Evolution.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 26 June 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/charles-darwins-finches-1224472#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20Galapagos%20finches%20helped,mainland%20finches%2C%20had%20different%20beaks.
Nachman, Michael W., et al. “The Genetic Basis of Adaptive Melanism in Pocket Mice.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 29 Apr. 2003, https://www.pnas.org/content/100/9/5268.
What Has the Head of a Crocodile and the Gills of a Fish?, https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/060501_tiktaalik.
Why we don’t study the Humanities
Does studying Humanities actually make a healthier society and democracy?
Is studying the Humanities really the indispensable factor for a healthier society and democracy and in fact not an impractical and frivolous pursuit? I agree with this statement a lot but I don’t completely agree with her when a Humanities degree will be essential for a healthier society and democracy. The article, Devaluing a Humanities Education Ultimately Devalues Humanity Itself by writer Mandy Pipher emphasizes that “the widespread attitude that a humanities degree is ultimately a frivolous and fruitless pursuit”. I disagree with the vast majority of people thinking that a Humanities degree is greatly impractical. There are a lot of jobs you can take with a Humanities degree like an author or a counsellor. Although it is not as much as the normal STEM jobs, it is still a pretty good path. Furthermore, it helps with technical skills like analyzing words and how to parse language which ultimately helps with everyday objects, like advertisements, posters, and newspapers. And that can be how we can differentiate fake news and real news. However, I agree partly where she states that it is an essential factor of making a healthier society and democracy. It is told that you can be able to differentiate between real and fake news and by knowing that, you can just be able to trust the real news ultimately creating a healthy society. Ironically, that is not always the case. There are a lot of authors and writers around the world that are publishing fake news and their biased information and persuade readers into believing them. Since people with a Humanities degree aren’t innovating as well, how can people without a Humanities degree innovate and improve as well? The article, Why the Humanities Matter More Now than Ever by Dallas Morning News Editorial states that, “This – telling stories and knowing the truth – is what the Humanities offer. And it is, perhaps, the key ingredient to the continued success of our American experiment.”. This article also says that studying the Humanities allows you to know the truth, which is the principal thing we need for the success of America. People with a Humanities degree must be the fundamental base for being able to differentiate fake news, but without that fundamental base, humanity will not make a step forwards and in fact maybe backwards. If this carries on and people don’t change their mindsets for the better, people will be less motivated to study the Humanities because they will realize that not everyone who studies Humanities will have the correct and proper mindset.