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.