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

Week 3 Story: Moses

Princess Bathia was bathing in the East Nile River when she happened upon a baby floating in a basket. Being the widow she was, she was delighted. She named him Moses. He was a great little boy that loved to run around and play. Even the cruel Pharaoh liked him. However, his counselors and magicians grew worried that this Hebrew boy would eventually be his demise. Bilam, the chief magician was especially worried. On Moses’ third birthday, Princess Bathia threw him a huge party with all the royalty in attendance. He was playing and running around and even tried to climb on the table.

Bilam warns the Pharaoh saying, “Beware, O king; this is not play”. The princess denies this claim and tells the pharaoh too play with him.

The Pharaoh does and Moses points at his royal crown saying “that is a funny hat”.

Bilam chimes in saying “Beware”.

Moses reaches up and tries to grab the hat saying “let me put the hat on”.

Looking very grave, Bilam cries out “Your majesty, this child is Hebrew and is already trying to steal your crown”.

The Pharaoh looking concerned asked “what sayeth Reuel?” turning to his second chief magician.

“I say the child is just child and this action means nothing,” answered Reuel

I, Bilam, am the chief of thy counselors,” he said, “and I think we should let him be judged”.

The Pharaoh agrees and the rules are set to see if baby Moses knows the difference between fire and gold.

Baby Moses is seated in front of the fire and gold and is reaching for the fiery coals.

Bilam thinking that Moses is out to get the Pharaoh uses his magical powers to persuade Moses into grabbing the gold.

Moses is there by sentenced to death and is killed on the spot.

Crying over the loss of her child, Princess Bathia takes her own life by drinking poison.

Princess Drinking Poison Pixabay

Author's Note

I started with The Water-Babe, a Jewish Fairy Tale and Legend by Gertrude Landa (1919), kept the story very similar to the original with a sad twist at the ending.