Reading Notes: The Long-Lived Ancestors

The story begins with a widowing eagle who seeks to remarry. It is interesting to hear that the eagle is so curious to find out how young the owl is. You never actually find out how young or old the owl is, but you find out that the creatures mentioned along with the owl are the oldest in the entire world. You never find out if he marries the owl and when retelling the story you could add in a wedding between the two.

Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd Pixabay

Bibliography: The Long-Lived Ancestors from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Week 13 Storytelling: The Young Lady and the Fairies

In a land not to far from earth, fairies and humans co-existed. The fairies frolicked in the fields out outside of Mewbourne. These fairies used to come out in the middle of the night and sprinkle pixy dust all over humans if they happened to catch one by themselves.

A young lady by the name of Annie happened to be walking by herself to the fair. She was passing the field outside of Mewbourne when some fairies appeared in front of her and approached her. They sprinkled pixy dust all over her causing her to instantly fall asleep. 

The fairies sprinkled some more pixy dust on her causing her to shrink to their size and rise into the air and follow the fairies into the ground. They wake her with the snap of their fingers. She awoke to diamonds rings and jewelry all around her. The fairies told her to take as much as could fit into her pockets and to not tell anyone where you got it. After showing her everything, they sprinkled some more pixy dust on here causing her to go back to normal size and fall back asleep.

She woke up to her mother shaking her shoulders asking her, "Where have you been for the past five hours?"

"I must have fallen asleep because I had the weirdest dream," she replied as she got up from the ground. She felt something jingle in her pocket and realized that she had not been dreaming at all.

"What was that?" her mother asked, hearing the jingle as well.

"Oh nothing, just something I found as I was wondering these fields today," she replied, remembering that the fairies told her not to tell anyone where she got the jewelry. 

They go home and she hides the jewelry in her basket and goes to bed.

Her mother waits for her to fall asleep before she snoops around her stuff and finds the jewelry and wakes her daughter up asking, "Where did you get all of this jewelry?"

Panicking and not thinking that it would be that big of a deal to tell her mother the truth, she says "the fairies sprinkled their pixy dust all over me and took me to their home full of jewelry and they told me not to tell anyone so keep it a secret from everyone else."

Her mother puts the jewelry back and goes to bed.

She wakes up the next morning ready to go to school wearing her new jewelry to find out it was gone and a note from the fairies saying "You had one rule to follow and you broke it."

Fairy Sprinkling Pixy Dust Geograph

Author's Note: The original story portrays an old man walking along and getting tired before falling asleep. He is then taken to the fairy underground where he is given gold in his bag. He comes back to his wife who is all mad that he did not go to the fair to only be more worried when he shows her all the gold.

In my story, I changed the old man to a young lady who falls asleep to some pixy dust to find herself in the fairies ground. The story changes where her mother finds her in the field and questions what she has in her pockets. The mother then snoops around in her bedroom to find the jewelry and wonders where it all came from.

Bibliography: The Old Man and the Fairies Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Reading Notes: The Old Man and the Fairies

This story happens in a time were fairies are present and abundant. They come out at night and dance all night long. They can be seen by green rings along the grass line. They were said to have a lot of gold, making them very rich. The Old Man figures this out when he is taken underground to were they live. I think in retelling the story, I could change the old man to a little child and having her parents not believe that she got the gold from the fairies because she is a foolish child.

Fairy Geograph

Bibliography: The Old Man and the Fairies from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Reading Notes: The Pellings

A man goes and hides in the thicket so he can catch a fairy that is said to come out at night. After capturing one and finally figuring out her name, he proposes to her and she agrees under one condition. The condition is that he ever strikes her with iron she will be gone forever. This end up happening surprise surprise. However, it was by accident. I think in retelling this story I could have a woman hide in the thicket and proceed to marry the man she captured.

Fairies Flickr

Bibliography: The Pellings from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Week 12 Storytelling: Cats

One black cat, bad luck for me.
Two black cats, good luck for me.
Three black cats, a son shall be born in the family.
Four black cats, a daughter shall be born in the family.
Five black cats shall be a funeral in the family.
Six black cats, if they scattered away, a sudden death.
Seven black cats with their tails towards you, death within seven years.

A man and woman were on a one way trip to Mars with no going back. They had no children and thought it was going to be a great adventure for them. The man, however, was having second thoughts, regretting the life and friends he was leaving behind on earth.

While aboard the ship and his wife asleep he gazed into the abyss that was outer space and began to see things. Scared that they might be aliens, he quickly backed away from the window and fell asleep.

A day had gone by and he decided to peak out the window again. He could depict what it was a little better, but it was just a bunch of black blurs to him.

Not being scared that it was aliens anymore, he peaked out again and could see that it was five black cats. Was this all in his head he wondered, no way black cats could be in outer space.

The next day he told his wife to look out the window with him. This time he saw six black cats.

He asked his wife, “Can you see those six black cats?”

“No,” she replied as the man noticed the six black cats scatter away.

It suddenly hit him remembering the black cat saying his mother used to sing to him. He first saw five black cats and then he saw six black cats that scattered away. Having only one family member still alive, he knew that his wife was going to die suddenly. Not wanting to scare her in her last moments, he decided not to tell her.

He prepared her favorite meal and they drank some wine while the steak was cooking. Once the food was ready she cut into her steak and took a big bite. She began to choke and the man ran over and tried to give her the Heimlich, but it was too late. She passed away and the man realized it was all his fault.

Black Cat Bringing Bad Luck Wikipedia

Author's Note: In the original story, the cats are actually crows. They are flying all around him and watching him while he is steering his vessel. The crows keep reappearing and are all perched on a coffin foreshadowing his death. He gets back and tells his wife that he keeps sees all these crows and she could not see the seven black crows that he saw. He did not feel well and fell dead in front of his wife. I changed the story to him seeing five and six black cats causing someone in his family to pass away. With his wife being his only family member he knows that its going to be her last day and he tries to brighten up the day, but ends up killing her.

Bibliography: Crows from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Reading Notes: Crows

The story opens up with a rhyme talking about seeing black crows and the luck associated with them based on the number you see. The young man then dreams and sees seven black crows. His death is foreshadowed in the dream with the seven crows as well as a coffin. He does not realize that it is he who is going to be buried. He gets back to his wife to try and tell her his dream and then passes away.

Single Black Crow Representing Bad Luck Pixabay

Bibliography: Crows from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Tech Tip: Google Timer

I had no idea there was a Google timer. My oven/stove timer does not work so this could come in handy when I am cooking something and messing around on my computer. Especially if my phone is on the charger. I have yet to use it for something, but to test it. I know that it will come in handy in the future.

Wikipedia Trails: Saltwater to Paddleboarding

I liked the quote "The cure for anything is Saltwater - tears, sweat, or the sea." So my Wikipedia trails is going to start at saltwater (Saline water is what Wikipedia calls it).

From there, I went to something that is essential for most life and I went with regular water. I love water, whether I am drinking it, swimming in it, or bathing in it.

Without water there would be no surfing. I have only surfed once in my life and it is safe to say it is not my forte, but I still enjoyed it.

From there I went to paddleboarding, a more calm and relaxing activity. I have not gone paddleboarding, but would love to in the future. The theme of this Wikipedia trail was everything water!

Surfing Pixabay

Tech Tip: Canvas Notifications

I have had Canvas Notifications since we switched to Canvas from D2L. My notifications were just a weekly report of what happened the previous week that comes in as an email. After reading this post I have added in notifications to remind me to do assignments for this class if I have missed them. This is very beneficial if you have a busy week. 

Wikipedia Trails: Buddha to Consciousness

I was reading the announcements and saw that Buddha means "awakened" which can be changed to stay woke so I decided to start my Wikipedia trail here haha. Buddha is the founder of Buddhism and is a sage.

I clicked on sage to find out that it is one who obtains wisdom which a philosopher wants. The article goes on to say that some philosophers are self-aware that they lack wisdom and pursue more wisdom.

I then clicked on self-awareness. Self-awareness is sometimes confused with consciousness, but it is not that. It is recognizing yourself as a human being separate from the environment and other humans.

I ended on consciousness which is the state of being aware. You are alive and know what is going on around you in the environment or to yourself.

Consciousness Wikipedia

Week 11 Story: Trippy Ducks

Once a year there is a festival on an island in the middle of the lake. The lake feeds into the river that travels down stream where a bunch of ducks like to gather and talk and gossip about all the passerby's. The day before the festival DJ ET was traveling north along the river. He was carrying a large backpack on his back and a folded up white table in his right hand. His apprentice was also carrying a backpack on his back as well as two large speakers in his hands. The ducks saw them walking and carrying a bunch of bulky objects.

"Why are you carrying such heavy objects along the river," one duck said to another so that the two man could hear.

One of the ducks remembered that there was a festival every year and said "oh that must be DJ ET heading to work for the festival. Can you come play for us instead?"

"I cannot," DJ ET said.

The apprentice whispers to the DJ ET, "I am kind of hungry maybe we can trick them and eat them for dinner."

"Okay my apprentice just told me that we can play for you and make it to the festival in time," DJ ET said.

The ducks swam out to the edge of the river waited for DJ ET and his apprentice to set up their systems. They played a couple of songs to get the ducks in the grove of things before telling them, "Now this next song is an EDM song, and before you dance you must take these pills. For they will make the song even better and you shall not tell anyone you took them." The apprentice scattered a bunch of the pills onto the dirt in front of the water.

The ducks started eating the pills and DJ ET started the song, and they began to dance like nobodies business. Enjoying the song so much, the did not notice the DJ's apprentice swimming up behind them and snatching around fifteen ducks.

One of the youngest ducks did not eat any of the pills because his mother told him to not take anything from strangers. He turned around and noticed a bunch of his friends were missing and cried out, "FLY FLY FLY, the DJ's apprentice is killing us."

The ducks that got away found their friends and told them what had happened. The ducks got a plan and headed to the festival.

The ducks arrived before the festival had started and began ripping apart the stage, leaving nothing a pile of rubbish. Making sure that the festival could not go on.

dj Setup Flickr

Author's Note: In the original story, the main character is an Old Man. He is walking along the river and tells the ducks he is going further. He does not specify where to. He is also carrying a pack that has all of his songs in it. He tells them the second song is a medicine song and that all the ducks have to keep their eyes closed. The little duck does not feel anyone next to him and opens his to see the Old Man plucking up all the ducks to eat later. He then warns the ducks and they all fly away.

In my retelling of the story I change the Old Man to DJ ET with his apprentice along side who is going to DJ at the yearly festival festival. He has his table setup with his computer and speakers. Instead of telling them to close their eyes, he has them eat some of his pills while he plays his EDM song. These cause the ducks to not know what is going on, giving his apprentice time to kill them to later eat them. The little duck was scared of the pills and did not take them and warned everyone else to fly away so they can get back at the DJ and his apprentice later.

Bibliography: The Red-Eyed Duck from Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).

Reading Notes: The Red-Eyed Duck

In this story, the old man tricks the ducks into closing their eyes so he can kill them and eat them later. However, the twist in the plot is when the coyote comes around and eats all of his ducks and stuffs some of them with ashes. I think when retelling this story, I could change the old man to a young man and have him be a DJ rather than be a singer. This would had a more modern twist to the story.

DJ setup Flickr

Bibliography: The Red-Eyed Duck from Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).

Reading Notes: Bluejay and His Companions

In this story, the Grouse is picked on and tormented a little by the Bluejay. The Bluejay's companions warn him not to do so, but he continually picks on the grouse and the Grouse does not say a word back. The Grouse is scheming and decides to crave a wooden seal for the Bluejay and his companions to skewer with a spear. The wooden seal was told to drag them as far away as possible. I think that in retelling this story I could change it to the perspective of the Grouse and have the Bluejay and his companions make it back to where they started and tell the Grouse what he caused them to go through.

Grouse Source

Bibliography: Bluejay and His Companions from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).

Wikipedia Trails: From Coyote to Burrow

The first thing you think of when you think about Native American folklore is the Coyote. He is the main trickster through most of their stories. That is why I picked him for my Wikipedia trails.

From Coyote I clicked on Desert because that is where a lot of coyotes are from. Deserts are barren wastelands where there is few life because of the lack of water and I think its cool how animals have adapted to live there.

Going on with that point, I came across the word Xerocole. These are the animals that have adapted to live in deserts. There are many different things that the animals do to survive such as living under the surface of the desert.

These animals tend to Burrow underground to survive the heat. Smaller animals are the ones that tend to burrow because they do not have to dig as big of a hole and are generally better diggers.

Xerocoles in their Burrow Wikimedia Commons

Tech Tip: Canvas Dashboard

I always edit my canvas dashboard at the beginning of each semester because all of my classes usually are CHEM E with some random number and I can never remember which number is which class. I usually change the name to the title of the class. This is very useful to me and makes it easier to find the class you want when opening up canvas on your laptop.

My Canvas Dashboard

Week 10 Story: How Redbird and Coyote Got Their Colors

Back in the day, the Redbird was very ugly and no one wanted to be his friend because of it. But Redbird knew of a campfire where the fire was not too hot to stand in, and he burned in this four times every morning for four mornings. Every morning he sang a magic song:

There's a red fire. 

It lies there.

I went in.

I am all red.

On the fourth morning all of Redbird's feathers burned off and came out of the campfire just in his skin. But the next morning when he came out of the campfire he was covered with red feathers.

The Coyote was watching the bird for days. He contemplated jumping in and eating the bird, but he was too scared of the flames. He had no idea how the bird could sit in the flames and not get burned. He noticed on the last day that the bird went from an ugly grey bird to a beautiful RedBird. He wanted in on the secret so he asked the bird, "How could someone go from being so ugly to so pretty in one day? If you tell me how you did it, I will spare your life and not eat you."

"I can only tell you, if you will be my friend," squeaked the Redbird.

The Coyote agreed of course and was taught the magic song. He went through the ritual just as the Redbird did and came out just as red as the bird. 

The Coyote was delighted at how he turned out that he forgot the promise he made to the bird. He wandered off to show off his color and left his friend behind. He was so focused on making new friends that he was not paying attention to where he was going and fell into the water. He rinsed off to notice that he was no longer red, but the original color he started as.

Redbird Pixabay

Bibliography: How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).

Author's Note: In the original story, the ugly bird turns into a blue bird. He bathes in a lake that where the water does not flow in or out. He sings a similar song about water. The coyote is scared of the water and would not go into to eat him. I changed the water to fire because I thought that it would be more realistic for the coyote to be afraid of fire. I also changed some reasoning for why the bird gave the coyote the secret song as well as how he lost his red coloring. 

Reading Notes: How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors

The coyote is watching and wanting to eat this bird as he bathes for 4 straight days. On the fifth day the birds feathers change to blue, the fox no longer wanted to eat the bird, but wanted to get his fur to be blue as well. Being the dumb and proud of his color, he was distracted and did not pay attention to where he was going. He ran into a stump and was covered in dirt. If he were to just live his normal life and realize that people would love to see a blue fox and not get distracted by it, he might still be blue to this day. In changing the story I could have a redbird jump into fire everyday and change his skin to red like the fire.

Blue Bird Wikimedia Commons

How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).

Reading Notes: The Theft of Fire

The story begins with the coyote seeking to steal fire for the Indians. He first goes in there and you think that he will be able to steal it by himself, but that is not the case. He needed help from the Indian to distract the people he is stealing it from. When retelling this story I think that I could have someone come from the future and tell the coyote that he needs to steal it and provide the distraction. This would be someone from the tribe in the future helping to make sure the tribe survives and thrives. His distraction would be a little different than running by the people that have the fire.

Fire Pexels

In The Theft of Fire from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912)

Week 9 Story: The Car and the Rock

Somewhere in a land far, far away was the city of Alyeska. It neared very close to the sea and was said that you could smell the salt from the sea in the air. The land was ruled by a single man that took care of his people if he had to. He was known for being the fairest king to have ever lived. The city was the home to two of the poorest men. Both of the men were hard working and took care of their children.

One day one of the men started hover-boarding along the edge of the sea drinking his $14 frappuccino that he just bought from Starbucks. The speed of his hover-board began to slow down which indicates that his battery was almost dead. He pulled up to a charging station near the sea and began to charge his hover-board. He set his coffee on top of the charging station and sat down on the edge of the wall with his feet dangling above the sea.

After sitting there for a while, he looked back to see if his hover-board was charged enough to make it to work. As he is looking back a self-driving Uber's mirror hit over his coffee into the sea. He watched it fall all the way down and make a small splash before muddying up the small area the coffee covered.

He was very upset because he needed the caffeine to be able to complete his work and keep his child sheltered and fed.

The man in the Uber got out and said, "It could not be his fault since it was not his car nor was he driving it. It must be the charging stations fault for not being tall enough for the car to detect."
He had a fair point the man whose coffee split thought. “But how am I going to be able to work without my coffee,” he barked back.

They decided they must take it to the king for he is fair and would figure out what to do. The king sent his men out to charging station where the wreck happened, not telling the two poor men his plan. When the men there, they got out their tools and lasered out the charging station and set it in the trunk of the self-driving car and set the car to drive to the King's residence.

By the time, the car had gotten back to the King’s residence, a crowd had formed and been waiting outside. The two poor men were shocked when they saw the crowd swarm in along side the car and charging station.

The King began auctioning off car and charging station to crowd telling the two poor men that they would split however much money they went for. They were delighted and shocked as the prices grew higher than both men’s yearly salaries combined.

Overjoyed with their new found wealth, they went back to their children and celebrated with a joint feast.

Self-Driving Accident Flickr

Bibliography: The Story of the Donkey and the Rock from the Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925).

Author's Note: I kept the retelling of the story kind of similar to the original story. However, in the original story, there is a trial between a donkey and a rock rather than an auction. The donkey is carrying all of this wood and cannot see too well because of this. As it is walking by it happens to knock over the oil. The man was selling the oil as he climbed up the mountain. They argue and take the case to the king where he sets a trial. The donkey is chained up and sent to prison and the rock is taken and chained to the outside of the prison. This trial brings a crowd of people to the court because of it's ridiculousness. The King makes everyone that came to the trial leave and pay the poor man that lost all of his oil.

In my story, the man is not selling oil, but rather drinking coffee. He needs the coffee in order to continue to work. The caffeine is what keeps him up and allows him to work harder and longer. The donkey was changed to a self-driving car that could not see the coffee that was set on the charging station. As you can see in the story, there is no trial, but an auction where the proceeds go to the two poor man.

Tech Tip: Word Counter

I usually would just write my stories and comments in Microsoft word to keep track of how many words I have. With this new attachment, I no longer have to write in word and transfer to the blog. I tend to not have problems reaching the word count, but I do not tend to write too much where I am close to the maximum. I usually can guess relatively how many words I have, but not always! Overall, I think that word counter is a great addition to your webpage.

Wikipedia Trails: From Bluetooth to Phonograph

I saw Bluetooth on the myth item of Canvas home page and decided that is where my Wikipedia trial is going to start. I use Bluetooth almost every day and was curious about its origin.

From there I clicked on Wireless speaker. I don't use a wireless speaker as much as Bluetooth headphones, but I still appreciate their capabilities. I think it is amazing how speakers can play music through just Bluetooth.

There weren't many options to click on and I decided to go with RCA Plug. I was curious to see what this plug was. It was the plug that I used to use for my Nintendo 64 and can be seen in the picture below. The N64 was my childhood and I thought it was cool that I clicked on that link.

I clicked on phonograph next. This is where it all started. This device was created in 1877 and was the first thing to record and reproduce sounds. I thought it was interesting that I went from the newest technology of transmitting sounds to devices to the original.

RCA Plug Wikipedia

Reading Notes: The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away

In this story, the maiden is taken away and placed in a tower controlled what appears to be a young man. The maiden's greatest fear is having to be stuck with this man who she later finds out is actually an ogre who turns himself into a man right before meeting with her every time he feeds her. He greatest hope is getting away and she increases her chances by dropping her clothes from the tower to a man walking by. The clothes are brought to her family where the brother takes charge and goes in and saves the young maiden. 

Pagoda Blogspot

The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Reading Notes: The Story of the Donkey and the Rock

This story is a little ridiculous. The king sets a trial between a donkey and a rock. The donkey knocked over a jar of oil as it was walking down the mountain carrying wood. The man who owned the oil wanted payment for his loss of oil and the other man said that it wasn't his fault, but the donkeys. The King being the smart man he is, set up this ridiculous trial to get everyone into the court room. Once everyone was in there, he asked them why they came to this trial and told everyone to give a half penny as they got out. The money went to the man who lost his oil. When retelling this story I could change the donkey to a self driving car and the rock to something else. 

Donkey and Rock Blogspot

The Story of the Donkey and the Rock from the Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925).

Wikipedia Trails: Pelican to Demon

I saw the proverb of the day with a pelican on it and went to that Wikipedia page. The bird has a long beak and was itching his neck. It is also one of the largest water birds.

From there, I clicked on a link to Mythology of all things. The wikipedia page said the pelican has a long history of significance in mythology and why would I not click on mythology since that is what class we are taking!

After that I was choosing between clicking on giants, elves, or faeries and I chose elves. I clicked on thinking it was going to talk about the elves that help Santa, but they originated from Germanic mythology and folklore where it then spread to Christian cultures.

Then I clicked demon after because I thought it would be weird to go from pelican to a demon in the Wikipedia trails post. The demon is prevalent in mythology as well as many other things such as religion and literature.

Pelican Wikipedia                             Arrow Right Wikimedia Commons          Demon Wikipedia

 

Tech Tip: Canvas Profile

I added my Linkedin profile to my canvas profile. I think that it would be really helpful if everyone had a picture of themselves on their canvas. I can't always remember a lot of people's names and when you get into a class and are looking for someone you have had class with this could help out a lot. Putting names to faces is very helpful.

Week 8 Progress

I am super happy with my progress right now, but I could get more ahead to give me more free time later. It is what it is though. My weekly routine has been changing a little as I have gone on. The first couple of weeks I would just do a reading and story on the day it was due and then do all the project stuff on Sunday. I am trying now to knock out the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday stuff on Monday so that I can do the weekend stuff during the week when I have free time. I enjoy the reading posts the most because I enjoy reading stories that I have not read yet and to see how each culture tells stories. I did the extra credit one week and have not done it since. I might in the future, but who knows... I would like to do more extra credit so that I can finish early because the end of the semester will be busy with all my capstone stuff being due.

I chose this picture because it really tells you how to be successful. You just have to go get it! Nothing more nothing less. Everyday counts and if you go get it everyday, one day you will see the success.

Motivation Pexels

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I think that comments from the students have been very helpful and insightful. I think that the comments about what is missing from the story and needs to be added is very useful as well as the ones about adding in things into the author's note since they never read the story.

My comments on other people's blogs have been pretty good. I tend to be a little bit nicer rather than be blunt if I do not like something about their story. I enjoy the WWW feedback strategy.

I am getting to know people and what they like by reading their posts. I also like my introduction, but I think that it could be updated a little bit. I think that people can get to know me by reading and commenting on my posts.

I think that I can look more into the feedback from other students to help improve my stories. I also think that I could change up how my website is to make it look a little more modern like the theme of my portfolio.

I chose this picture because I like climbing trees and think that feedback is always beneficial and will definitely help you go higher. Without feedback you will become stagnant.

Cheezburger

Week 8 Reading and Writing

I think that my reading and writing assignments have gone well. There were a couple that did not put all that much effort into because I was busy with my capstone, but for the most part I think that the effort was there. I also think that they are improving as we have gone along. My favorite story was the First Voyage of Sindbad. The reading so far has been very beneficial to my writing posts, it is the base of all of my stories. So far I am happy with my portfolio, I really like my first two stories and am looking forward to writing more to add to it. I think my biggest accomplishment is writing stories from back in the day and adding a modern twist to it. I really like this picture from my first post in my portfolio because it tells it how it is. Who cares what other people think if you are working hard and doing what you love. I think that I need to read more stories each week in order to find the best story to retell.

Flickr

Story: The Virtual World

After eating his three pills for dinner, the first containing protein and tasting like a medium rare steak, the second containing vitamins A and E and tasting like a variety of vegetables, and the third containing vitamin C tasting like a variety of fruits, he walks toward his computer and grabs his sword and attaches his helmet to his head to enter into the virtual world. Upon entering the virtual world, two robots come along holding a card saying, "Homo Sapien." They would not let him resist and led him away. And when they reached the great city, the human gradually came to himself. Over the city gate, he sees a hologram projecting in large letters the words, "The Nether World."

Then all was suddenly clear to him and he says: “Why, this must be the dwelling-place of Death! But I have long since escaped from his power, and how dare he have me dragged here!” The more he reflects on the situation the wilder he grows. He draws out his sword and swings it at everything. He crushes robots and buildings, leaving a pile of rubbish. He also uploads a computer virus into two of the robots causing them to catch fire and spin around in circles.

The ten Robots of the Dead were frightened, bow before him and asking: “Who are you?”

The human answers: “If you do not know me, then why did you send for me and drag me to this place? I am Marcus Zane, the human-born king of the real world and protector of my people. And now, who are you? Tell me your names quickly or I will strike you!”

Marcus Zane says: “I, the Venerable Son, have gained the power of eternal life! You have nothing to say to me! Quick, let me have the Book of Life!”

They do not dare defy him and have one of the robots bring in the book. The human king opens it. Under the head of “humans,” No. 1289, he reads: “Marcus Zane, the human-born king of the real world and protector of my people. His years shall be one hundred and twenty-four. Then he shall die without illness.”

Marcus Zane takes a laser from the table and burns out the whole human family from the Book of Life, throws the Book down and says: “Now we are even! From this day on I will suffer no impertinences from you!”

To keep this true, the artificial intelligence, that rules the Nether World and keeps everything in place, injects the human race with nanotechnology that goes into the blood and repairs any damage that every happens to them. The nanites are programmed to travel all over the body and make sure the human body does not age.

With that, he clears a way for himself out of the Nether World by the means of his sword, and the ten robots of the dead do not venture to stay him, but only complained of him afterward to the Lord of the Heavens.

When Marcus Zane leaves the city, he taps on the control center that is projecting from his watch and walks up in the real world.

He calls for his friends and tells them “I was dragged to Death’s castle and I caused an uproar. They gave me the Book of Life, and I struck out the mortal hour of all humans!”

And after that time, the humans no longer died because their names had been stricken out in the Nether World.

Human Consciousness Expanding with Eternal Life Wikimedia Commons

Author’s Note: In the original story, a monkey king of the mountains falls asleep with a bar on his head. He is dragged to the Nether World where he wreaks havoc with steel bar and scares the ten princes of dead. They are so scared that they bow to him and do anything he commands. He asks for the Book of Life and erases the apes from the book and then wakes up and tells his fellow baboons what he has done ensuring eternal life for all of the apes.

In my story, the monkey king is changed a human king and instead of falling asleep he enters into a virtual world created by an AI. The two worlds are related and coexist together. Similarly to the original, the king is dragged to the Nether World, but instead by princes, he is dragged by robots. The human king always wreaks havoc with a weapon, but also with technology that causes the robots to malfunction. He does the same as the monkey king and asks for the Book of Life to remove the human race from death. Humans could not just get eternal life so the AI for the virtual world had to inject some nanites into the humans to cause the humans to live forever.

Bibliography: In The Nether World from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Reading: The Judgement of Baboon

One of the stories I read was about a tailor who claimed a mouse tore his clothing. Each character blames a character that counters them and that they dislike. For example the mouse blames the cat who blames the dog and so on and so on. When retelling this story I could change up each character and its counter part to have a whole new story. There is a lot of repetition in this story and that would be kept the same if I were to retell it with new characters. The baboon who is the judge ends up getting the worst of it by having to walk on all fours for the rest of his life.

Baboon realizing his fate Pixabay

Bibliography: The Judgement of the Baboon from South African Folk-Tales by James Honey (1910).

Reading Notes: The Nether World

In The Nether World from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921), the monkey king visits the land of the dead in a dream. The most important part of the story is when he strikes out the whole ape family from the book of life. It causes uproar from everyone in the Nether World. The monkey king just caused the apes to have eternal life. I could change the plot to a more futuristic timeline and have an AI transfer the consciousness of the human mind to a computer to cause them to live forever.

Transferring Consciousness Wikimedia Commons

Story: The Two Travelers

Two friends, Gabe and Sam, were journeying together, when they came to a broad stream at the foot of a hill. The shade from the woods was so welcoming after traveling in such a small car all day and they decided to rest.

They started a fire to cook some of the food they had killed while hunting in the woods. After eating, they pitched a tent and slept. Arising from their sleep they happened upon a hologram that was projecting this message: Travelers, we have prepared an excellent banquet for your refreshment, but you must be bold and deserve it before you can obtain it.  What you are to do is this: throw yourselves bravely into the stream and swim to the other side. You will find there a lion carved from marble. This statue you must lift upon your shoulders and, with one run, carry to the top of yonder mountain, never heading the thorns which prick your feet nor the wild beasts that may be lurking in the bushes to devour you. When once you have gained the top of the mountain you will find yourselves in possession of great happiness.

Gabe was ecstatic when he read these words. “See, Sam,” he cried, “here lies the road to our happiness. We should start at once and see if what the hologram says is true.”

Sam, however, was very doubtful. “Perhaps,” he answered, “this hologram is but a joke of some kid wanting to video us. Perhaps the current of the stream runs too swiftly for any man to swim it. And why would I want to swim through when my iPhone is not waterproof. I for one will have no part in it.”

Nevertheless, Gabe was not discouraged, not telling Sam that his phone was a Samsung Galaxy S7 and is waterproof. “I am always looking for a challenge,” he replied, “and if you will not go with me, I must go alone. So the two friends embraced, and Sam left in his self-driving car that had been charging all morning from the sun.

Gabe dove into the stream and soon found himself in the midst of a whirlpool. He bravely kept swimming and finally reached the other side.

After resting a few moments on the beach, he lifted the marble lion with one mighty effort, and with one run reached the top of the mountain. Here he saw to his great surprise that he was standing before the gates of a beautiful city. He could see skyscrapers and cars hovering from one building to the next.

Stuck in a gaze at the magnificent, he saw all the cars stop what they were doing and start zooming towards the gate. The whistles of the hover cars echoed through the mountain side and the cars stopped before the gate.

All of the people poured out of the city gates with great smiles. A group of young men came up and knelt before him, saying, “Brave stranger, we beseech thee to put on this super suit which we are bringing, and, mounted upon this hover car, ride back with thy subjects to the city.”

Gabe, who could not believe his ears, begged them to explain how he could be the king of such an advanced society that he has no knowledge of. The men replied, “Whenever our king dies, we place upon the hologram by the river the message which you have read. Then we wait patiently until a traveler passes by who is brave enough to undertake the bold venture. We have been during this for thousands of years and no king has yet to fail us because only a man who is fearless of heart and dauntless of purpose would take on this challenge.”

A View from his Hover Car Wikimedia Commons

Author’s Note: I read The Two Travelers from the Bidpai unit. In the original story, the travelers were going by camel and needed to rest in the shade after traveling through a desert all day. They happened upon a stone in the morning with the same description. The second traveler did not want to take the journey because he thought that the journey was impossible and that nothing would be on the other side. So he left on his camel and parted ways with his lifelong friend and traveling buddy.

In my story, I kept the description of the message the same and changed how it appeared in from of them. I changed it to a hologram rather than a stone. I made everything more futuristic except for the challenge at hand. I kept that the same to show that the city has been doing this challenge for centuries on centuries. Instead the city rumbling and bumbling over to the city gate, I had them hover of in their futuristic cars. I also decided to keep the reasoning for why he should be king pretty much the same to show that the tradition has been around for centuries. This shows that even as technology advances, we still stick to our roots.

Bibliography: The Two Travelers, a story from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Reading Notes: The Hare, the Fox, and the Wolf

In The Hare, the Fox, and the Wolf, I am going to focus on the Fox. His greatest strength is his cleverness and trickery. He uses his weakness of being fat and slow to persuade the hare into his lair. The Hare thinks that he is going to trick the Fox, but little does the Hare know that the Fox has it all planned out. The Fox agrees to what the Hare has to say, but says he needs to sweep out the corners and place his best carpet down. He instead replaces the sticks holding up the carpet with straw that so when the Wolf and Hare come in; they will fall through and be trapped.

A Fox and a Hare Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: The Hare, the Fox, and the Wolf comes from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Reading Notes: The Two Travelers

In The Two Travelers, the travelers are met by a challenge at the very beginning and one takes the easy road while the other dives right in and swims across the stream to the other side. This character shows great bravery in jumping without knowing what is directly in front of him. I think I could keep him the same, but change why he is willing to jump in a little with a 21st century twist. I could also change the challenge a little bit to make it more of something that could happen today.

Sergeant Samuel Tice swimming across a river 26th MEU 

Bibliography: The Two Travelers is from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton,with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Story: The First Voyage of Sindbad

They happen upon an island that is just above sea level. Part of the crew gets out to walk around and check it out. They didn’t notice anything on the island so some of the crew got some wood out and decided to start a fire. After the fire was lit, the island started to shake and tremble. Sindbad is yelling for everyone to get back on the vessel. Everyone is running over there and about half of the crew makes it on the vessel when what they now know is a whale plunges into the water leaving Sindbad and half the crew to die. Sindbad struggling to stay afloat grabs onto a piece of wood that was used to start the fire.

After floating for several hours, he sees a storm brewing and approaching him. The storm is bringing big and heavy waves. He rides over the first wave, but gets smothered by the second, dunking him under water. Struggling for his life, he clenched onto the piece of wood and swam up until making above the monstrous wave and throwing up the water he swallowed. He even coughed up some blood. The storm finally passes after a while and he thinks he’s in the clear.

The blood he coughed up attracted some sharks. They surround him and are swimming in circles around him. Does he try and fight them or just remain calm and hope they don’t attack him? Luckily, Sindbad chose the latter. After swimming around him for a bit the sharks realized that he wouldn’t be tasty at all and swam off.

Exhausted and relieved at the sharks’ departure, he clenched onto the wood and fell asleep. After sleeping for a couple of hours, he had floated near a river. He swam over there and found natives to the island. They took him in and fed him.

Sindbad Floating away with his Riches Wikimedia Commons

Author's Note: I read the First Voyage of Sindbad and noticed that when the whale left him to float on the water with just a log of wood, the story just went straight to him finding an island. Did he have any struggles while on the water? It just said he was exhausted and was ready to get to the island. I added what happened to him from the whale to the island. 

Bibliography: The Voyages of Sindbad from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Reading Notes: Sindbad's Fifth Voyage

On Sindbad's fifth voyage the happen upon an unknown island that they find to be uninhabited. The story is told from the point of view of Sindbad. They happen upon an unhatched Roc egg and the crew decided to kill it and feast on it. At this point the two parents of the egg come down and want to reek havoc. The crew thinks they get away to only find the birds have come back with a rock to drop on their vessel. When retelling this story, I think I could tell the story from the perspective of the birds. It would be interesting to have their reactions and their interactions with each other.

The Crew takes the Baby Roc's Life Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: The Voyages of Sindbad from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Reading Notes: Sindbad's First Voyage

Sindbad's first voyage is only necessary because he was foolish with his inheritance and wanted to bring riches to his family. He goes as a merchant and is selling goods island to island. They happen on an island that is only slightly above sea level. At this point, you know something is going to get bad just merely by that last sentence. They land and walk around a bit before starting a fire. Immediately after starting the fire, the 'island' begins to tremble. At this point, you must be thinking that maybe it is not an island after all. And you would be correct as the island is actually a whale and the whale plunges into the water leaving Sindbad to only hold afloat by a piece of wood. The next part of the story is him landing on an island and being treated well before finding his crew again and getting rich. But what happens from the whale to the island. There was little talk about him floating on a piece of wood to the island. When retelling this story, I could focus on this gap and describe in detail what Sindbad went through.

Floating on Wood Pexels

Bibliography: The Voyages of Sindbad from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Comment Wall

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Haters gon' Hate Flickr

Week 4 Story: Passing the Haters

There is an updated version in my portfolio.

As Kevin Smith is getting ready for the big basketball game against their rival University, he puts on his headphones to relax, not knowing that he is about to have the worst game of his career at the college level at home. He goes out there and plays almost the whole game and only scores 7 points on 1 of 17 from three and 3 of 28 from the field. The team lost by over 20 points to a team they beat on the road just weeks ago. Everyone in the crowd is yelling and booing at his poor performance and he is deeply saddened by this. The next day he still has to get up and walk through campus to go to class.

As he is walking to class, he can tell that people are staring at him and mumbling under their breath.
Someone from across campus yells, “You suck Kevin.”

He turns and looks, but could not see who it was. As he turns back around some guy bumps into him saying, “Thanks for losing us the game, you could not have played worse.”

Angry and frustrated by all the fans, he needed to do something to block it all out and focus on the next game.

He stopped remembering he had his Bluetooth headphones somewhere in his backpack. After digging and searching, he finally found them and put them on. He plays Above the Noise by McFly. He chose this song because of the Beats by Dre commercial he saw the other day where Tom Brady was proving all the doubters wrong.

Now he can walk through campus and block out all the doubters and haters and focus on the next game.

The next game comes around and he plays the same song right before warm-ups and has the best game of his career dropping 45 points.

In the press conference after the game, he tells reporters that “sometimes you just got to block everyone else out so you can focus on what’s important.” And walks out with his headphones on.

Haters gon' hate Flickr

Author's note: I took the Odyssey: Passing the Sirens story and instead of it going back to the ancient times, I turned it in what athletes are facing every day on social media and when walking through campus.

Bibliography: Odyssey: The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis translated to English by Tony Kline (2004)

Reading Notes: Odyssey: The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis

Odyssey: The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis, translated into English by Tony Kline (2004), is two separate stories of the Odysseus passing by sirens as well as traveling between Scylla and Charybdis. In the Passing the Sirens, you are focused in on a strong, well-built vessel that is nearing the island of Sirens. The storyteller tells us that waves have lulled, making you imagine that something bad might happen soon. The calm before the storm. Then Odysseus begins preparing for the Sirens by making wax earplugs and he gets tied up without any. As they pass by he keeps telling his comrades to let him go to island, but they cant hear him and don't let him free. The island must be miraculous and their voices spectacular. For my retelling of this story I could change the setting and time frame that this is in.

Odysseus and the Sirens Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: What Thetis Did for Her Son

What Thetis Did for Her Son, from the Illiad by Alfred J. Church (1907), opens up as Thetis comes out of the sea and finds Zeus on top of a mountain. The storyteller tells you its the highest point on the map helping you imagine Zeus sitting on a throne above everyone looking down at all he has created. I can imagine him holding his staff not even looking at Thetis as she is talking to him.

The setting then switches to Zeus' Palace and as he walks in all the other gods rise at his presence and he sits on his throne. I imagine that Zeus has to walk up a couple of steps to get to his throne while all the other gods are at a table below him looking up to him.

Zeus on his Throne Wikimedia Commons

Feedback Strategies: Feedforward

Be a Mirror talks about taking yourself out of the feedback. This is really important because it really helps focus on the person the feedback is rather than yourself. Not everything is about me and I need to really emphasize that and try and keep it about the person I am giving feedback to.

Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback brings up a great point that feedback is great and beneficial to both parties involved, but that it is focusing on the past. Talking about the future rather than what you could have done in the past can bring positive vibes to both parties involved. This should be implemented in more companies and could possibly bring them great success.

Feedforward vs Feedback in Chemical Engineering Wikipedia

Topic Research: Twenty-Two Goblins

I chose to do more research into the Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur W. Ryder (1917).

I looked into the The Brave Man, the Wise Man, and the Clever Man and I was thinking that I could retell this story and maybe modernize it by changing what each man can do. Which in return could possibly change who becomes the husband.

After reading The Four Scientific Suitors, I could change the common theme of the king picking the brave man as the right husband for the daughter and continually pick that same type of husband.

The Three Delicate Wives of King Virtue-banner is a story about three wives that got hurt by the smallest of things and I could change what each one gets hurt by and relate it more to today's time. I could have my stories be changed to something relative to today and make that the common theme.

The Year 2018 Sketchport