Online Education Review

I've taken 4 online classes now, including this one, and the experience really depends on who the professor is. If they're like Laura, i.e. enthusiastic, helpful and willing to answer questions, then it's an enjoyable experience. It can really set students up well for learning at their own pace.

I had another online class that wasn't nearly as helpful, the professor didn't really help at all, and so it was just a bad experience.

In Journalism History, Dr. Kerr sets it up with a What-to-do system. Every day we would have class, he would put the what-to-do for the day up so we could know what exactly we were supposed to be learning about or reading. That worked really well too.

It's just important to set a time to get the work done. 

Screenshot from my personal calendar.

Gen. Ed Review

This is honestly the most interesting Gen. Ed class I've taken at OU I'm pretty sure. I loved the format of the class. With 17 years of being told what to study, what to learn, and what to write about, it was great getting to choose what I wanted to read about, how I wanted to write about it, and the ability to do it on my own time.

I have taken all of my Gen. Ed classes now, like this was my last one, and there were very few I actually feel contributed any sort of worthwhile knowledge to me. I took a class on revenge tragedies, and let me say it was probably one of the least helpful classes in my life. If it wasn't for watching movies like Fight Club, it would've been the worst class ever.

Fight Club poster.

I lucked out because my high school offered a bunch of dual-credit classes, so I didn't have as many Gen. Ed class requirements as some people. But I'm glad I dropped the other class I was going to take instead of this one. Much better!

College Writing Review

Well we've reached the end of the semester. This has been probably the most writing-filled class I've ever taken. I'm not really sure how many words I've written throughout the semester, but it has to be upwards of 15,000.

This has been a great way to get some writing practice concerning how a story flows. As a journalism major, I do a lot of writing. It's often really different from the writing we all did in this class, but I did get to practice AP Style quite a bit. So that's been a plus.

The journalists' Bible

I've really learned a lot about how to get a story to make sense, and I think the writing skills I've improved in this class will help out a lot in the future.

Extra Reading Diary: Europa's Fairy Book

For the extra reading diary, I chose to do half of the Europa's Fairy Book. I have no idea what it's about, but the title of the unit makes it sound kinda cool.

This was actually super interesting. In the Czech Folktales unit, there was Nine at a Blow. In this unit, there is Dozen At a Blow. It's basically the same thing, with the giant's challenges, him leaving his house, etc. But it's different in that the man in this version is tasked by the king to capture a wild boar. The king promises his daughter's hand and half the kingdom to whoever can successfully trap  the boar. The tailor corrals it into an abandoned church and tells the king's men to come kill it because he didn't know if the king wanted it dead or alive. Then he tricks a unicorn into drilling its horn into a tree. THEN the king ask him to take care of two giants in the woods. He tricks them by having them kill each other. So the king gives him his daughter.

Eventually she finds out he's just a tailor. The king sends twelve soldiers to his bedroom so he can see if the man can truly kill a dozen at a blow. He hears them coming and pretends to sleep. While he is asleep, he lists off all the things he's done. The soldiers tell the princess she's basically S.O.L., and the princess decides she's proud of being married to the tailor. And they live happily ever after.

Source

Storytelling Week 14: Misery Loves Company

There once was a king who owned most of the gold in the world. King Midas amounts of gold. As kings do, he had a son. His son grew up with everything he could ever want: gold, jewels, women, you name it. One day, he grew bored of living his lavish lifestyle. He had heard of someone called Misery, so he set out to find it.

Along the way, he never ran out of money. He spent and spent, but his money never seemed to reach an end. So he didn't know what it was like to be truly miserable, and meet the dreaded Misery.

He did for months, and eventually his money was almost gone. He could barely buy food, and he thought about going back to his father.

"No, I can't go back yet," he thought. "I haven't met Misery, and that's the whole reason I went on this journey."

So he travelled on, until finally all he had was the clothes on his back. He walked the streets, and because he was the king's son, they often helped him out. They gave him food and shelter in hopes of gaining good graces with the king. With all the help he got, the king's son still had not met Misery.

One day, he decided to leave the boundaries of his father's lands. He walked through the desert for many days until he thought he couldn't go any further. His mouth was dry, he hadn't eaten, and his skin was burned from the beating sun. A figure showed up in the distance and was walking towards him. Surely this was someone coming to help him!

"You there! Can you help me?" the prince yelled out. But he got no reply, even though the figure was still moving towards him.

After what seemed like forever, the figure became clear. It wasn't quite human, but at the same time had very human-like features. It wore a tattered gray cloak, with worn boots and a hood that shielded its eyes from the burning sun. Its hands were twisted in gruesome positions. The prince knew immediately that it was Misery.

Not quite what Misery was wearing, but close enough.

Source: Getty Images

"You must be Misery," he said to the creature. "Is this what it takes to be miserable? Is this what people go through every day for you to be in their lives?"

Misery silently nodded, his eyes still hidden behind his hood.

After all his time in the palace living lavishly, the prince had a change of heart.

"Let me travel with you. You bring sadness and despair to people across the world. But I have the resources to bring joy and hope. Please, say I can do this," the prince pleaded.

Again, Misery nodded his head. It was settled. The prince would become Misery's companion, his antithesis, Hope.

The prince gathered all his strength, and began his journey to the palace. When he got there, he explained to his father what his plan was. He asked for his inheritance, and any other valuable possessions the king could spare. The king gave him enough gold and jewels to last him a few lifetimes over.

He hugged his father, and left with Misery. He was dressed in simple clothes, enough to blend in and not seem out of place with Misery.

They travelled throughout the world. Misery found the people in the darkest of times. He found those who were poor, hungry and without homes. Wherever Misery went, so too went the prince -- Hope. Hope gave these people money for whatever they needed. In their times of sadness, he brought them joy.

The moral of the story is this: wherever there is Misery, Hope can always be found close behind.

Author's Note: I chose to do the story The Man Who Met Misery from the Czech Folktales unit. In it, the prince meets Misery, then goes home back to his lavish lifestyle. He also loses a finger to a giant, which I won't explain too in depth! I wanted to reflect a change in attitude within the prince. I also thought I could give Misery a more human portrayal so the story would flow better.

Bibliography:

The Key of Gold: Czech Folk Tales by Josef Baudis (1922). 

Reading Diary B: Czech Folktales

I'm continuing with Czech Folktales for Reading Diary B.

The story I enjoyed most was Nine At a Blow. It's about a tailor who mends stockings when he has spare time. One day, flies are on his table and he swats them, killing nine at a blow (story title!). He notches that phrase into his belt, and decides to travel. He buys a finch from a boy on the road and puts it in his bag. Then a farmer's wife gives him some milk and cheese, so he puts the cheese in his bag too.

One day, a giant sees the tailor's belt and asks him if he's really killed nine at a blow. The tailor says yes, so the giant asks to see who's stronger. It starts with the giant saying he can throw a stone that won't come down for an hour. The tailor says he'll throw one that will never come down. The giant does his task, and the tailor takes the finch out and it flies off, so of course he does his too. After a couple more tasks, the tailor promises to teach the giant to fly.

When they were traveling, a king said he'd pay 1000 pounds to anyone who could kill a dragon that had been bothering him. They have a giant pair of tongs and a hammer made. They get to the dragon and it flings the tailor aside, and the giant kills it. The tailor says he meant to keep the dragon alive, and then tells the giant he'll teach him how to fly. So he counts to three and tells the giant to jump from the top of the church they're at. The giant kills himself, and the tailor keeps the money.

Neat golden dragon

DeviantArt user BenWootten

Reading Diary A: Czech Folktales

For the last week of this class before we do review stuff, I chose to do the Czech Folktales unit, mainly because I have Czech bloodlines in my family. My grandma actually used to make us Czech noodles from scratch, I wish I knew how to make them 'cause they were so good.

The main story I'm going to focus on is The Three Roses. Basically, a woman has three daughters. She is going to the market another town over. So she asks the girls if they want anything, and two of them demand a bunch of stuff. More than is probably reasonable. Then the third daughter says she only wants three roses. The mother obliges, and goes to buy all the stuff. She straps it on her back and starts to head home. Along the way, she gets exhausted and loses her way. Eventually she goes to a palace that has a beautiful rose garden. She forgot the roses! She takes three of them, and a basilisk shows up demanding her daughter in return for the stolen flowers. She gets scared and sends the third daughter to the castle.

Every day, she has to nurse the basilisk for three hours. He did this for three days, and on the third brings a sword and tells the girl to cut his head off. So she does it twice. He grows into a prince, and says because she delivered him from his serpent body, he must marry her. They have a big wedding, and lots of people show up to celebrate. The story ends abruptly the next paragraph with, "but the floor was of paper, so I fell through it, and here I am now." This was particularly odd because none of the other stories ended this way. That was pretty odd!

Basilisk, by J.J. Bertuch from the reading

Famous Last Words Week 13

Well, this week has been interesting. I got my reading diaries all done on Monday night, which is something I haven't done at all this semester. I definitely should have, it was nice not having to worry about it on a Tuesday or Thursday night at 10 o'clock. I've gotten behind on my project multiple times, but I'm gonna try to get it all done this week.

My other classes are going pretty well. I'm kind of banking on a curve in microeconomics, but who knows if we'll actually get one!

I got advised on Wednesday, and it's kind of setting in that I'm almost done here at OU. I mean, I have 16 hours in my major left, plus a minor, so only 2 semesters left. I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to be out in the real world yet, but at the same time, I'm ready to be done with school. After 17 years of schooling (gonna be 18 by the time I'm done), I've had about enough. I'm also kind of bummed this is my last season of OU football!

My girlfriend and I just recently started a show called Death Note on Netflix. I was never a big fan of anime shows, minus Pokemon of course, but she showed me another series called Samurai Champloo during the summer and I loved it! Death Note involves Japanese gods of death called shinigami, and how one kid has their powers with a journal called the death note. If you're a fan of anime, I'd suggest checking it out!

This picture is of the main character, Light Yagami, and his shinigami, Ryuk. 

Source

There are only two weeks left of school, and they couldn't be over soon enough. I'm ready to move back home for the summer, get a dog (hopefully a Blue Lacy, the state dog of Texas), and get ready for my last year of school. That's about all I have to say!

Typing Test Tech Tip

Well the link to RankMyTyping.com wasn't a thing anymore (that I could see). So I did a Typing Speed Test that I just found on Google. It was just typing words, not sentences, which made it easier. I got 487 characters per minute, which is 97 words per minute! Top 98.5% of all typists!

Typing Game Tech Tip

Okay, so I just got done doing the typing game tech tip, and I liked the Olympic Racing game the most. I liked seeing how fast I could get through it! I learned how to type in the fourth grade? I think that's what it was. I've been writing for quite a while, and my handwriting is just garbage most of the time, so learning how to type quickly was pretty important!

D2L Profile Tech Tip

For my profile picture I just chose a picture I took during one of my Gaylord classes cause it's always been one of my favorite pictures I've taken!

Photo taken by me!

Storytelling Week 13: Farther They Descend

So Dante and Virgil descended, down, down, down, further into the levels of Hell. They stepped to the edge of a cliff and warily peered into the Seventh Circle. There seemed to be no easy way to travel down the steep, craggy hill.

"How shall we continue our journey, Virgil?" Dante asked. "This cliff is far too steep for either of us to go down, and I don't see another way down."

At that moment, Virgil spied a set of particularly worn-out steps etched out of the side of the cliff. They appeared to have been used quite a bit at some point in time, although they were completely abandoned now.

"I think I've spotted our pathway into the Seventh Circle," Virgil explained as he directed Dante's vision towards the staircase. "There appears to be a bit of blockade we'll have to deal with once we have reached flatter ground."

Dante squinted his eyes to see what Virgil was talking about. Through the ash floating around, which took up almost all the available air, Dante made out a large, looming figure. It looked oddly familiar, but he couldn't quite tell what it was.

"Virgil, your eyes work better than mine down here. What is that creature?"

"Tis the Minotaur, the foul beast Theseus slew all those years ago," Virgil explained. "He blocks all entry into the Seventh Circle. But for now, we must first worry about the daunting task at hand -- making it down the stairway."

The Minotaur waiting on flat ground.

Credit: Johannes Holm

So Dante and Virgil began their slow descent. They clung tightly to the wall, grabbing whatever handholds they could find to keep balance. The steps seemed to go forever. There were hundreds, possibly as many as a thousand. After what felt like hours, the pair found solid footing, and unfortunately, the Minotaur.

"Step aside, Minotaur!" Virgil cried passionately. "None have stopped us thus far, and you certainly won't either!"

The Minotaur had been in Hell for quite some time. He could sense living souls, smell their breath. When he noticed Dante, his eyes burned with rage. Not for any particular thing Dante had done, but simply by being alive. He longed for the days when he wasn't trapped in a lifeless world.

He did the only thing he could thing of. He charged Dante at full speed. Dante barely dove out of the way as the Minotaur's horns came inches from his chest. Virgil began flailing his arms wildly to draw the monster's attention.

"When he charges me, head to the passageway that leads down, Dante! We only have one chance!"

Virgil finally caught the Minotaur's attention just as he was preparing to launch himself at Dante one more time. Once he was turned around, Dante sprinted towards the road that led to the Seventh Circle. Virgil ran to meet him, and they continued on their quest as the Minotaur watched them walk away.

Author's Note: I used the Minotaur and Centaurs section from the Dante's Inferno unit. This section about their descent into the Seventh Circle is not very long, so I wanted to extend it to display just how much difficulty I think they might have faced along the way. Pretty much everything in this story, minus the key parts, was made up by me.

Bibliography:
Dante's Divine Comedy: Dante Alighieri, 1320. Translated by Tony Kline, 2002.

Extra Reading Diary: Andersen Fairy Tales

For the extra reading diary for this week (which I'm also doing on Monday night, what?!), I chose Andersen Fairy Tales for no other reason than the Emperor's New Suit. This is mainly because I'm fairly certain the Disney movie, The Emperor's New Groove, is based on this story. If you haven't seen it, by the way, go watch it now! It's probably top 3 in my favorite kid's movies of all time. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but it's a pretty high tally. After a quick Google, it appears they only have a similar name, but I'm gonna leave it because I love this movie and feel like everyone should watch it.

The main characters from The Emperor's New Groove.

Characters left to right: Yzma, Kronk, Emperor Kuzco and Pacha. 

In the Emperor's New Suit, there lives an emperor who only wants to wear the newest and most stylish clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day. One day some dudes rolled up to his overly festive kingdom and said they could make the finest clothes the emperor had seen. Their clothes had the ability to be invisible to any ruler unfit to rule or one who was exceptionally dumb. The king agreed to pay them a lot of money.

They began "working" on the clothes, when really they were just pretending to make them and taking the fine silk and gold cloth the king gave them and storing them away. The king couldn't see what they were making, so he sent his most trusted minster to check on them, because surely he wasn't unfit for office. When the minster couldn't see anything either, he pretended he could so they wouldn't think he was unfit or dumb. One other person, the king himself, and eventually all the people acted like they could see the clothes the men were making.

Once it was "ready," the men acted like they were carrying things to the king, and gave him all of his new clothes. He puts them on, and still, everyone pretends like they can see the clothes so no one thinks they are dumb. The king's servants even carry the "train" to the cloak, when in reality they were holding nothing at all. Everyone "saw" the clothes, until one small child spoke up. "He's wearing nothing at all!" the kid said. His father agreed, and eventually so did the rest of the people. The king thought these people were right, but carried on as if he was wearing the finest cloaks and garments possible. 

Reading Diary B: Dante's Inferno

Doing something I don't think I've ever done so far in this class and getting the reading diaries done in the same night! Like in the first diary post for Dante's Inferno, I'm just gonna keep this one fairly short again to save up some material for the storybook and storytelling. 

Dante's most recognized work is considered the best Italian literature ever created, and one of the world's greatest works as well, up there with the obvious choices like The Odyssey or Hamlet. It took him twelve years to write and has 14,233 lines. That's not a typo, that's fourteen THOUSAND lines, all perfectly within his terza rima rhyme scheme. By the way, all of this information is readily available on Wikipedia. 

One interesting aspect of The Inferno is that while each Canto, what Dante used to divide each section of his journey, is a different tale in a way, the entire poem is an allegory. But there are other ways to interpret the poem, according to Dante himself. The entire first poem, from his first encounter with the leopard blocking his way to Heaven, all the way down the Inferno to Satan himself, has other political, religious, and philosophical undertones that may not be entirely apparent on the first read. This is why almost 700 years later, people are still studying the various techniques and intricacies of Dante's greatest poem. 

Super interesting cover art of the three sections of The Divine Comedy

Source: DeviantArt user TyrantWave

Reading Diary A: Dante's Inferno

Well, I've been working on Dante's Inferno for a while, what with my storybook being about Dante and Virgil's adventures through Hell, so I figured why not do this unit to get more background to make writing in my storybook easier! This won't be very long, just cause I want to save my writing for the storybook and storytelling, but there are a couple things I'd like to hit on from the unit!

One thing you have to realize when dealing with Dante is that he was an extremely knowledgeable writer. All of the characters throughout his writing are either real people, or real legends that would have been popular or at least somewhat known throughout his lifetime. Take Cerberus and Plutus for example. Cerberus is one of the most famous beasts of the underworld, described as a dog with three heads, with a snake's tail and lion's claws. Dante ties all these characters into his epic seamlessly, with not a one seeming out of place.

Pretty impressive depiction of Cerberus

Done by: DeviantArt user GENZOMAN.

Dante also created a new rhyme form when he was writing The Inferno, the first in his series, The Divine Comedy (untranslated as Divina Commedia in Italian). Dante decided to write the entirety in his new form, Terza rima. According to that Wikipedia article, the scheme is as follows: a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, d-e-d. There is no set rhythm, but iambic pentameter is preferred. Pretty interesting stuff!

Extra Reading Diary: Celtic Fairy Tales

For the extra reading diary for this week, I wanted to do the reading for Celtic Fairy Tales.

The story that made me want to do it is the Celtic version of Snow White, called Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree. In it, a king has a beautiful wife and daughter, Silver-Tree and Gold-Tree, respectively. One day, the queen asks a trout if she is the fairest in the land, to which he replies that she is not, but her daughter is. From this moment on the queen vowed to eat her daughter's heart and liver, which seems a bit extreme all things considered.

Silver-Tree and Gold-Tree

Credit: DeviantArt - Degare

Now one day, the queen is sick and tells the king that she will be well if he brings her the heart and liver of Gold-Tree. Gold-Tree was arranged to marry a very rich prince from another kingdom, so of course the king couldn't let that happen! He went and had his lads (as the story put it) find a male goat and gave its heart and liver to the queen. She rose from bed and was fine again. One day she was walking by the brook, and asked the trout again if she was the fairest in the land. The trout again said no, Gold-Tree is. This is when the queen learns her daughter is alive and well. So she asks the king to arrange for a ship to take her to visit Gold-Tree.

When Gold-Tree sees that her mother's ship is coming, she tells the prince that surely she will die at her mother's hand. So the prince hides her in a room and locks it. Silver-Tree asks that her daughter come see her, but Gold-Tree says no. So Silver-Tree asks her to put her finger through the door so she could kiss it, but instead puts a poison spike in it and kills her.

This is where it gets kind of weird. Rather than bury her, the prince keeps her body locked in a room and keeps the key with him. Eventually he remarries and his new wife accidentally finds it. She removes the spike from Gold-Tree's hand, and she comes back to life. The new wife offers to leave, but the prince says he's happy with both of them. Silver-Tree finds out, and again sails to the land to try to kill her daughter. When she gets there -- she brought a poisoned drink this time -- the second wife says they'll go meet her.

Once the queen offers Gold-Tree some of her drink, the second wife says its custom for the person bringing wine to drink it first. When the queen goes to drink it, the second wife hits her hand so she drinks all of it, and she dies. The three lived a happy life after that together. The story ends "I left them there," which is the Celtic way of saying they lived happily ever after.

Storytelling Week 12: The Tart Thief

After Alice had dined with the Hatter and the Hare, she eventually wound up in the King and Queen's Court. Everyone was there, and the Knave was standing between two guards in chains. Alice noticed a plate of tarts on a table near the King and Queen, and hoped they would soon be passing them out as they looked so good.

She began to notice all the different aspects of the court: the judge (who was the King) and the jury made up of all sorts of animals and people.

It was quite the scene.

Source: Disney's Alice in Wonderland, 1951

Alice waited patiently for the trial to start. Finally, the King ordered for the crime to be read aloud. The White Hare, who was the herald of the court, announced that the Knave of Hearts had stolen the Queen's tarts, and his punishment was to be banished from Wonderland for all of eternity.

"What is your verdict?" the King asked.

"Why the rush, Your Highness?" the Hare asked. "We have so much to do beforehand! Will Mr. Hatter please approach the bench?"

As the Mad Hatter approached the bench, Alice began to fidget. This was all too intense, and to think the Knave's fate in Wonderland depended on just three people! The Hatter didn't seem too concerned as he walked up with tea in hand.

After a long line of questions, Alice began to wonder if they really planned to kick the Knave out of Wonderland. She soon forgot her worries as the next witness was called: the Duchess's cook. The cook declined to answer any questions, but the King said she has no other option or she will be executed. Eventually, the King was done questioning the cook -- he had asked her mainly what was used to make tarts -- and he asked for the final witness. Alice watched intently as the Dormouse was awoken and sent to the stand for questioning.

"Have you seen who stole the tarts?" the King asked the mouse. "Or have you any idea who might have stolen them?"

The Dormouse, who was barely awake as he was sleeping most of his days away, looked up lazily and said one word -- Alice. At hearing her name, Alice looked up in fear as the Queen's gaze stopped directly on her. "Grab that girl and expel her this instance!" the Queen yelled angrily. "Never again shall you set foot in Wonderland!"

Alice kicked and clawed as the King's guards grabbed her and pushed towards an odd looking doorway. "This is a travesty!" she screamed. "I've never stolen anything in my life!"

But it was too late. Because of one testimony, Alice had been banned from Wonderland for life. The guards pushed her through the door and suddenly she was back in her bed, in her world. She began to cry as she realized never again would she be a part of the wonder and magic of that strange world again.

Author's Note: I used Who Stole the Tarts as the basis for my story. It's pretty similar in structure and events -- I left out a lot that happened for the sake of brevity -- but I changed it to a rather abrupt ending in which Alice is kicked out without a chance to speak her peace. A sad ending, sure, but fairy tales aren't always happy!

Bibliography:
From the Alice in Wonderland unit: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, 1865.

Reading Diary B: Alice in Wonderland

So continuing with Alice in Wonderland, I'm going to do the same thing and focus on one story since the second half is just a few stories as well. I'll be focusing on the Mad Tea Party.

This story begins with the March Hare and Mad-Hatter having tea and using a Dormouse as a cushion for their elbows. Alice thinks it looks uncomfortable, but since it's asleep, she supposes the mouse doesn't mind. The three are all in one corner of a very large table, and Alice sits down without being invited.

The Hare offers her some wine, but there isn't any. Alice says that wasn't very nice to offer it without being there, and the Hare says it wasn't very nice to sit without being invited to do so. The Hatter's first remark is about how Alice needs a haircut, and she gets offended. The rest of the first part of this story is nothing but riddles and snide remarks between the three, so I won't go into too much detail.

Alice had been asked one of the riddles, and couldn't figure out what the answer was, so she asked the pair what it was. They had no idea. She suggests doing something better with time than wasting it asking riddles with no answers. They say time isn't an IT, but a HE. These little word games continue on for quite a while in the story until they tell the Dormouse to tell a story. He begins, and in the middle tells Alice to have take some more tea. She said she hasn't taken any yet, so she can't take more. The Hatter says she can't take LESS, because it's always possible to take more than nothing.

The rest of the story is really just the Dormouse telling the story, Alice not understanding what's going on, and then finally her leaving because she can't take it any more. It's best to just read the story to get an understanding of it, it's way too complex given how much space I have to write this!

Alice, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare

Source: Disney's Alice in Wonderland, 1951

Reading Diary A: Alice in Wonderland

So for Week 12, I'm going to be doing Alice in Wonderland. The first reason I'm doing this unit is because I'd like to see how I can change one of the stories up for the storytelling portion of this week. The second reason is I've been playing Borderlands and one of the DLC packs is a sort of twist on Alice in Wonderland. So there's that. Since the stories are each three sections, I'm just going to focus on the first one, Down the Rabbit Hole.

In the first story of the unit, Alice comes off as a restless little girl. As her sister reads a book peacefully, Alice is off wondering about arbitrary stuff, and gets distracted by a rabbit. It's wearing a jacket and talks to itself, but Alice doesn't notice anything odd until it pulls out a pocket watch, as if the first two qualities weren't odd enough for her to pay attention to.

She follows the rabbit down a hole and falls for what seems like forever. She even wonders if she'll end up in New Zealand or Australia, which again, doesn't make much sense. After about 4 paragraphs of falling, she ends up in a hallway with locked doors. She finds a key that won't open any of them, but realizes it opens one tiny tiny door. She won't fit, so she drinks a mysterious substance (which she checks first for a descriptive "poison" label), which of course, makes her very small.

She walks to the door, but forgets the key on the table, which is much taller than she is now, and can't manage to get on top of the table again. So she starts crying, as little girls are wont to do. After crying for a bit, she pulls herself together and notices a cake with the words "EAT ME" on it. She starts growing and growing, until her head hits the ceiling. She grabs the key and opens the door, but she's too big to fit through now, so again, she starts crying. And that's where this section of the story ends!

Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

Source: Disney's Alice in Wonderland, 1951

Extra Reading Diary: Nursery Rhymes

For the extra reading diary, I chose to do the Nursery Rhymes unit, mainly to see if I remembered them correctly.

The first section I really read in-depth was the Riddles section. There were a couple that stood out to me.

THOMAS A TATTAMUS took two T's,

To tie two tups to two tall trees,

To frighten the terrible Thomas a Tattamus!

Tell me how many T's there are in all that.

The answer is two (2 t's in "all that").

This one has a clever answer as well!

ELIZABETH, Elspeth, Betsy, and Bess,

They all went together to seek a bird's nest.

They found a bird's nest with five eggs in,

They all took one, and left four in.

These are all the same person, just called different names.

I also read through the Paradoxes section, and they were all pretty interesting. This one in particular stood out to me.

THE man in the wilderness asked me

How many strawberries grew in the sea.

I answered him as I thought good,

As many as red herrings grew in the wood.

This paradox was interesting because of the use of the red herring. It's a logical fallacy used in an argument to distract your opponent by bringing something up that's irrelevant to the discussion at hand. In this paradox, the red herring fallacy is exemplified by an actual red herring, which I thought was super interesting. Paradoxes are cool, man. 

Just one example of a pretty common paradox.

Storytelling Week 11: Morgan le Fay's Plot

Author's Note: I'm including this author's note at the beginning of my story (from the unit on King Arthur) to add context to it because I'm writing this from the perspective of Morgan le Fay, King Arthur's sister (or half-sister, there's a weird relationship going on there), as she plots to kill him. The italicized portions of the story represent passing time not from Morgan's perspective, and the text in "quotes" is her dialogue to other characters. So without adding anything else to this, here goes!

                                                                                                                                                                   

I've had it with Arthur. I can't stand him any longer. Everything always goes his way: the sword in the stone, killing the tallest Knight in the land -- which he wouldn't have done had that insufferable Merlin not stepped in -- and this the final straw, slaying my beloved Accalon. But no more will he escape the fate he so clearly deserves. Finally, I will have my revenge on him!

I can't do this while I have to be here, so I must request of Queen Guenevere permission to leave.

After asking the Queen for permission to take her leave, which the Queen grants, Morgan heads towards where the King is staying after a hard-fought battle.

My time has finally come. There will never be a more perfect opportunity than right now. All I have to do is get past those blasted nuns watching over him. Wait, are they going to wake him up to tell him I'm here?

"Don't wake the King! I'm sure he's lacking for rest after such a fierce battle. I will wake him when I think he's had enough sleep, so you can go now."

Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Arthur is a fool for leaving his protection up to a group of silly nuns. What makes him think they could stop anyone from getting to him?

Morgan makes her way towards the King's chambers, where she finds him in a deep sleep.

I swear by the gods I have the worst luck. Of course Arthur has Excalibur close by! How then shall I slay him when he has the power of that sword in the palm of his hand? What did Merlin tell him? Oh, how could I forget?! The true power of Excalibur lies not within the sword, but its scabbard! Without it, Arthur is truly vulnerable.

With this realization, Morgan stows the scabbard under her cloak and makes haste to the forest. Arthur awoke and discovered his scabbard missing, and together he and his fastest men chase after her. Morgan escaped using some of her magical prowess, and quickly went to her own country of Gore and fortified her towns and castles. 

Well, it looks like I missed the chance to kill Arthur once again. But there is one more idea I've been pondering. After such a bold attempt, Arthur would never be expecting a gift of apology from me. Let me see what I can throw together to do away with that swine once and for all.

Pulling out every magical spell she can think of, Morgan enchants a mantle of the finest quality with a deadly spell. The particular spell she's imbued within it is one that will cause the first person to put it on to be reduced to a pile of ashes. 

Morgan le Fay

by DeviantArt user, mari-na

There's no way the King can see this coming. Arthur's end is at hand!

"Bring me one of my fairest maidens to deliver this gift to His Majesty, the King! Make sure no one puts this on but him, do you understand me?

"Quickly now, make your way to Camelot to the King's Court and deliver this gift with my sincerest apologies."

Now the only thing left to do is wait for the news of Arthur's demise. I can hardly wait.



Bibliography:
King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).
Story Source: King Arthur and Morgan le Fay

Additional note: I didn't change the story up very much because I didn't particularly want to write a story that ends up with King Arthur getting murdered, mainly because he's one of my favorite legendary characters. So the essence of the story is the same, the format it's delivered in is different!

Reading Diary A: King Arthur

Growing up, I was a big fan of King Arthur, so I've chosen it as my unit for this week's reading diaries/storytelling post!

I couldn't start this unit off without covering the Drawing of the Sword. This is hands-down the most recognized story of King Arthur and his exploits. The summary is this for those who haven't heard of it.

Basically, Uther Pendragon died, and England had no king. Naturally, lots of knights wanted to become king, but Merlin made sure only the true king would rule. So he sealed a sword, Excalibur, in a stone which could only be drawn by the person who was destined to be king. So that everyone had a fair shot, they held a tournament to win a chance to pull the sword. Arthur's brother, Sir Kay, rode to the tournament to enter, but realized he had forgotten his sword. Arthur went back home to get it, but the door was locked. So his thought process was pretty much, "He doesn't have a sword, there's a free sword in the courtyard, I'll just take that one." He rode up casually, grabbed the sword, and rode off to take it to Kay.

Excalibur in the stone. 

Now Kay took the stone to their dad, Sir Ector, and claimed he drew the sword himself. But Ector made Kay swear on a holy book and say where he got it from, to which he responded that Arthur gave it to him. Ector went back with the two to where the stone was and tested the brothers. Kay strained, but couldn't get it. Arthur slid it out easily, even though he wasn't even a knight as Kay and Ector were. 

After he drew it, Kay and Ector kneeled before him, which confused Arthur. Ector then told Arthur he wasn't really his son, but that he was the son of Uther Pendragon, and Merlin had simply brought him to Ector when he was born. Ector made Arthur promise that he would make Sir Kay his seneschal of the lands. Arthur assured that he would for as long as he was in power.

After this had happened, they went to the Archbishop to tell him what happened. Arthur drew the sword again in front of some of the knights, who were angry such a young boy should be king. He did it once again in front of everyone, and then he was declared the rightful king. 

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Storytelling Week 10: Thunderbirds Abound

A long time ago in the far North, thunderbirds lived prosperously. After a while, there weren't that many of them (four to be exact). They decided to make their home on the top of a mountain overlooking the Yukon.

Once they had made their home safe and sound on the mountaintop, their numbers gradually grew more and more. The parents would fly down from high up the mountain and wreak havoc for the locals. They would take livestock, huge amounts of fish from the lake, and even a fisherman or two. Because of their actions, they developed a horrible reputation.

Now you must keep in mind these birds were massive. Much larger than any bird the locals saw on a regular basis. They flew with such speed that their curved, razor-sharp talons would flash in the sky like lightning cracking in the clouds. Their screeches were so loud that it could be heard extremely far away and echoed across the still, Northern landscape. This is why the natives called them thunderbirds.

How natives saw the thunderbirds.

One day, a hunter grew tired of his wife and children living in fear for their lives because of the winged beasts. After all, it hadn't been safe for them to do the things they needed to sustain themselves for quite some time. So he took his bow and a few larger-than-necessary arrows and headed towards the thunderbird nest. 

When he got there, he was shocked to find not one nest, but many nests, all filled with growing thunderbirds. He realized he wouldn't have enough arrows to kill all of them, so he improvised. He figured these birds couldn't fly just yet, so he took out his trusty flint and rock and tried to spark the nests. After he got the first one to catch, he repeated the same thing with all the other nests. He watched contentedly as each nest burned, and he felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he realized his peoples' troubles were gone. He started towards his village to tell the people what he had accomplished. 

What he didn't realize is that there were still more thunderbirds flying around away from where they usually were. By the time the birds were back to their nests, the hunter was long gone. They cried out feverishly, but realized finding and killing whoever did this wasn't worth dealing with until their numbers grew again. So the thunderbirds wait patiently, circling the mountain and surrounding areas for food. They cry out often and loudly to remind the people they are there. And this is why the thunder on the mountain seems to crack so often.

Author's Note: I chose The Last of the Thunderbirds as my story inspiration, from the Alaskan Legends unit. In the original, the hunter goes to the mountain and kills all the birds with arrows. There's also no mention of them sounding like thunder or anything of that nature, I just added that in there cause it seemed like something a non-advanced civilization would make up to explain thunder or lightning. 

Bibliography:

"The Last of the Thunderbirds."

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Reading Diary B: Alaskan Legends

So continuing with the Alaskan Legends unit, here are my thoughts on a few stories.

The Origin of Winds is an Eskimo legend from the Lower Yukon. To keep the summary short, a doll that a man and his wife made adventured to the edge of the world where the sky and the earth meet. The sky is a wall according to this story, and the doll found a hole in the "sky wall" and cut a bigger hole with his knife. He told the East Wind to blow through the whole sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, and sometimes not at all. He repeated this 4 more times with the west, southwest, south, and northwest. And then he returned to his village.

And finally, to keep the topic of origins going, I read The Boy in the Moon. A boy falls in love with his friend's sister. One day the girl climbed a ladder to the sky. The boy saw her after being yelled at by his brothers (I'm not sure if this kid is in love with his sister or is in a different family entirely), and chased after her. She floated away, and the girl became the sun and the boy became the moon. The sun and moon are in opposite sides at all times because no matter how much the boy pursues her, he can never catch up to her (the sun).

They're never together.

Source

Reading Diary A: Alaskan Legends

For Week 10 (only a few more weeks to go!), I'm doing Alaskan Legends for my unit of choice.

The first story I really enjoyed was The Origin of the Tides. There have been lots of stories that explain why nature works the way it does, but this was the first one I've seen that explained the tides, which I thought was super interesting! Basically, Qa (Raven) found a rock in the middle of the earth, built a house under it, and put a hole and door through it that controlled the levels of the ocean. When it was open, the low tide would come in. When it was closed, high tides were in. I thought this was a clever way to explain why the tides work the way they do since they didn't know about the moon controlling it at the time!

One thing I found curious as well was the fact that Raven is what I gathered to be their God character. In the beginning of the unit, he is described as a bird that can change into a man whenever he wants. It also turns out that Raven was responsible for creating everything, from the ground man walks on to the animals that live in the world. Kind of an interesting animal for them to choose as God!

I also liked Bringing of Light by Raven. For a while, only the light of stars lit up the northern land. The shamans tried to bring it back, but Raven (disguised as a young boy) mocks them and says he can bring it back easily. Raven found the reason there was no light in his village, and stole the ball of light from a man who lived alone in a hut. As he flew away, he broke off pieces of the light, mixing dark and light throughout. Again, this is a really interesting way to explain the ways their world worked. We now know why Alaska has long stretches of darkness and daytime, but that must have been really odd for them back then!

The Midnight Sun in Alaska, where it doesn't set for nearly two and a half months.

Credit: University of Alaska Fairbanks

Extra Reading Diary: Apache Tales

For the extra reading unit, I chose to do half of the Apache Tales unit.  Here are my thoughts.

First thoughts on reading Culture Heroes and the Owl was, "Wow, that language is weird, and kind of hard to read." Which is probably what most people think when they read the story for the first time. The hoop and poles game is something I'd never heard of.

Drawing of the Apache hoop and poles game

I also learned that owls aren't very fond of magic according to the Apache people!

After reading a few more stories, I realized I have no idea how to pronounce their words. I tried multiple different ways to say them, and the letters just don't add up to something that makes any sense. I'd have to talk to an Apache who speaks the language to properly understand it I'm pretty sure! I'm definitely glad I chose Cherokee as my language, the syllables always follow the same general rules, and vowels are always pronounced the same, which I don't know if I can say for Apache!

Storytelling Week 9: An Unlikely Relationship

Back in the day, Flint lived up in the mountains. He had such sharp edges, and was responsible for killing many animals. Not only Flint, but all those like him. Because of this, all the animals hated him (and all the other Flints too). None hated him more than the Rabbit. He was the chief of his people, and had seen many of them fall victim to Flint's bladed sides.

Rabbit was a lot bigger than the other rabbits, that's why he was chief!

So one day, Rabbit decided to go to Flint's house to get revenge on him. He knocked on the door and was surprised to find Flint was old and decrepit.

"Yes?" asked Flint in a raspy, broken voice.

"Are you the one they call Flint?" Rabbit questioned.

"Why, yes I am young fella," Flint replied. "What can I do for you?"

At this point Rabbit was having second thoughts about his revenge plan. How could he, in his good health, cause harm to someone as old as Flint? Wasn't he taught to respect the elders?

"Are you okay?" asked Flint, snapping Rabbit out of his daze. "Why not come inside and have some dinner, I'll make you a salad and you can tell me what you want."

This caught Rabbit even more off guard. He was offering him dinner, and not even meat -- a salad!

Flint seated Rabbit at his table, prepared the salad, and put it in front of Rabbit. It had everything Rabbit loved: carrots, lettuce, spinach, everything! Now Rabbit was beginning to feel guilty about wanting to kill Flint at all. He seemed like a nice guy.

"I have something to confess, Flint," Rabbit started. "I didn't come here just to stop by. I was planning on killing you because of all you have done to my friends and family."

Flint sighed. "I knew that's why you were here as soon as I opened the door."

"Then why did you let me in if you knew I was going to hurt you?" Rabbit asked incredulously.

"Everyone must meet their fate," he explained. "I always knew what I was doing was wrong, but I didn't really have a choice in the matter. It's the only thing I'm good for. And for that I truly apologize. Now before we actually become friends, I suggest you finish what you came to do."

Rabbit reached for the weapons he had brought, but couldn't do it. He realized Flint wasn't truly bad after all. Rabbit told Flint that he would die at some point, but not until it was from old age.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to your kind," Flint said. "You have my word that I will never hurt anyone like you again. But you must not let them know that you didn't kill me. You can tell them you got your revenge on me, but on one condition: come visit me once a week for dinner and just to keep me company."

The Rabbit enthusiastically agreed, and went back and told his kind that they would never have to worry about Flint hurting them again. And that's how Flint and Rabbit became friends.

Author's note: I liked the story Flint Visits the Rabbit, from the Cherokee Myths unit, so I decided to create a new version where instead of the two being bitter enemies, they ended up as unlikely companions. I think my story has a happier ending than the other one, even if it's more unrealistic. But a talking flint and rabbit are unrealistic in the first place, so it all works out!

Bibliography:
Myths of the Cherokee (1900) by James Mooney

Reading Diary B: Cherokee Stories

So in continuing the second half of the Cherokee Stories unit, I just want to focus on a couple stories that I liked.

I found The Race Between the Crane and Hummingbird particularly amusing. In it, a crane and hummingbird are both in love with the same woman. She says whoever flies around the world back to her can marry her. She did this because she preferred the hummingbird and figured he could fly the fastest so he would surely win. The hummingbird is fast, but the crane can fly all night. The hummingbird takes the lead at the beginning a few other times, but ultimately the crane wins the race since he doesn't have to rest for a night.

Now you're probably thinking, "What's so special about this story? The crane marries the woman, the end."

Right?

Wrong. The woman decides she would just rather be single. THAT'S the end. I love stories like this that have an ending that's just so atypical from what you expect!

Although, I don't know, that's a good looking crane.

I also liked Red Man and Uktena. The Uktena is a giant snake that had previously been a man. But anyways, two brothers go hunting. One went to go find deer to hunt, and came upon a man being choked by Uktena. The hunter shot and killed the beast. It rolled down the hill, dead. The man who he had saved was the Red Man of Lightning. He promised to give the hunter a medicine so that he can always find something to hunt. He made a fire using wood from a tree that had been struck by lightning, and gave the medicine to the hunter.

He told him that the hunter's brother would be sick when the uktena scale was near, but gave him a cure for the sickness as well. The next day, the brothers went hunting and had no trouble finding game at all. 

I liked this one because of the oppositeness of the other story. In the first one I discussed, there is a twist ending. In this one the story ends how you expect. Both make for good stories!

Reading Diary A: Cherokee Stories

ᎣᏏᏲ! That's hello in Cherokee, pronounced osiyo (oh-see-yo). It wasn't even a question what unit I was going to pick for this week, as soon as I saw Cherokee Stories I knew what I had to do! 

I don't think I'm gonna go too in-depth on the stories this time, but I did want to see how the language compared to the language I've learned. I spent 3 semesters learning Cherokee as my foreign language, which in reality won't really help me in the future, but I'm terrible at Spanish, and I heard French is hard. So I chose Cherokee and it was one of the best decisions I made because the professor was my favorite professor at OU so far, besides possibly Al Eschbach. 

The first use of actual Cherokee names starts at the first story, How the World Was Made. Now, I learned lots of words and phrases. But never have I seen Cherokee phonetically written like this name -- Gälûñ'lätï. I don't even know how to pronounce that. Semi-related, my Cherokee name was ᏌᎶᎵ, which is pronounced saloli (sah-low-lee), and means squirrel! We got to pick our own names, so after I got stuck trying to pick a name, I asked a girl at a party I was at and the first thing she said was squirrel. So that became my name for 3 semesters! 

These phonetic differences could be because of the inconsistencies in how Cherokee is pronounced. Like most languages, there are dialects that change based on where you live. So it could just be the way the dialect of these people was spoken. Although after a quick search, the pronunciations used in the Cherokee Dikaneisdi (dee-ka-nay-ees-dee) or word list. So that would explain the pronunciation.

The Cherokee Syllabary

I did like how most of the stories were animal based, like Why the Possum's Tail is Bare. We didn't learn a lot of history in my classes, but we did learn how most of the main animals are said in the language. I do know they were a big part of Cherokee culture. That is clearly reflected in their legends. 

I'm gonna save my analysis on individual stories for tomorrow's post, I wanted to switch up my reading diary this time! 

ᏙᎾᏓᎪᎲᎢ! (Till I see you again)
The pronunciation for the above is, by syllable or character (each character is one syllable), doe-nah-dah-go-huh-ee. Cherokees say till we meet again, or till I see you again rather than goodbye because goodbye implies you won't see each other again, while they believe they'll see each other again regardless of if it's this life or the next. 

Commenting Review Week

This is my favorite part of the class, honestly. I love reading people's comments on whether or not they enjoyed my writing! I think all people that enjoy writing look forward to feedback, whether it's good or not, because it makes us better writers. 

I think I look forward to your (Laura's) comments the most on storybook posts. Does it suck to have so many mistakes pointed out? Kind of, yeah lol. But in the end it is all so we put forth the best content we can that's both interesting and engaging, and informative. It's a nice change of pace from traditional classes where if you get something wrong, it's just WRONG. With this class, we get the opportunity to improve on stuff. I think that's awesome. 

Sometimes, this is how I'm feeling reading comments.

Source: reactiongifsarchive

The commenting that helps us connect the most to each other is the introduction comments. It's nice to see if people share the same interests, or have been to similar places. It's a great way to connect with otherwise anonymous people (anonymous meaning you don't know who they are in real life). 

Writing Review Week

After 7 weeks, we've all written quite a bit, both for our Storybooks/Portfolios or just for the storytelling of each week in general. It hasn't been the easiest for me to keep up with everything on top of all my other classes, but I'm working my hardest on it for the most part!

I'd say my best writing so far was the first part of my storybook. I had the source material and info on Virgil and all that good stuff, but creating a new storyline for something so set in stone like Dante's Inferno was pretty difficult.

My biggest challenge that I face as a writer is switching between the different writing styles I work with on an every day basis. For this class, I use AP Style, but add so much more content. In most of my other classes, I have to use AP Style, but I have a time limit for each script that I write, meaning I have to write a coherent story that fits within ~40 seconds (sometimes ~1:30, depending on the format). So switching between concise and lower reading level stories and fancier works like with my storybook has been a bit of a challenge.

The journalist's most important resource, AP Stylebook

I don't really have any particular strategies for how to write a story, I kind of just make stuff up on the fly. I do usually like to have an ending in mind, mainly because I feel like it's easier to write up to a conclusion, rather than writing nonsense that kinda just ends. 

Also, I've enjoyed the ability to write in different levels of seriousness, if that makes sense. What I mean is that I like writing serious stories with serious characters and endings, but it's also a nice change of pace to be able to write goofy or sarcastic stories as well. 

Welp, I think that's about all I have to say about the writing so far!

Reading Review Week

So after 7 weeks in the course, I, and everyone else, have read lots of stories. There have been some that I really enjoyed, and some I was just kind of meh about!

I think my favorite units were Homer's Iliad unit and Ovid's Metamorphoses, mainly because I've always had a particular interest in Greek and Roman mythology, so it was great to read stuff that I was fairly familiar with.

Unfortunately for me, my Storybook topic won't be covered until later on in the semester! I'm really looking forward to the Dante's Inferno unit, though. I'm kind of interested to see how much I'll be able to change the story if I decide to do the reading diaries and storytelling for Inferno after doing so much work on my Storybook!

Screenshot from my Storybook

The other units that I read were all pretty good as well, I just wanted to specifically mention the ones that I enjoyed the most! 

In terms of note-taking, I haven't really taken any notes! I usually read the units as I do the storytelling and reading diaries, so really the diaries are kind of my way of keeping notes! It helps me comprehend the stories better because I give feedback to anyone that cares to read them. If I can't give clear and concise feedback in the diaries, then I haven't read the unit well enough! 

Overall, while this class is some of the most writing I've ever had to do so far, it's definitely been one of the more enjoyable ones just because of the creativity I can express through my writing and everything else.