Week 6 Review

I ended up choosing an image from the most recent blog post of this week's announcements: Sunday, February 28.

Creativity in Writing

I look at this image and immediately think about graph theory and connecting dots in optimal days, drawing path between them and different algorithms for doing so.  This is what 4 years to a computer science major has done to my brain.  That just goes to say there are many different ways of looking at am image and everybody will interpret it a little bit different.

Learning Challenge: Find a favorite empathy meme - Week 6

Being Wierd

Everybody is a little weird, some more than others.  I could immediately relate to this post, and I guess that's part of what empathy is really about. You just have to find friends in life who are the same type of weird that you are.

Week 6 Storytelling : An Unlikely Friendship

Monkey painted by Ohara Kason

An Unlikely Friendship

Every Spring Monkey chooses a new tree.  As soon as the fruit started to ripen and the flowers start blossoming, he would choose his favorite tree.  He chose a different tree every year, and would eat his fill of the wonderful fruit until the tree was barren, and their was no more fruit left.

This year he chose a peach tree, with branches hanging over the ocean.  He especially liked that the fruits were shaped like hearts. He took on the peaches in his hands and started to each.  The fruit was especially sweet and juicy this year.  Satisfied with his choice, Monkey alternated between building up a place for him to sleep, and eating the delicious fruit.

As monkey was busy working, a shark started circling below.  The shark looked up at the monkey, busy eating the fruit and started thinking of an idea.  The shark did not want to eat the monkey, you see, he needed the monkey's heart to cure the king from across the sea. The king would dye within 6 month time if he did not get the heart.  The other animals could not make the journey across he water, but shark could not go onto the land and actually catch a monkey. As he circled, he started thinking of an idea.

Shark called a greeting up to the monkey. "I am tired of eating all of this salty fish," said Shark, "won't you share some of your food with me, and we can talk over a meal."
Monkey saw no danger in giving food to the shark.  He diligently picked fruits, and tossed them down to the shark.  The shark ate them all up and kept asking for more. Every time monkey would throw down another fruit, the shark would ask for more.

Although Shark was initially just trying to start up a conversation with the monkey and stall while trying to think of an idea, he found that he really liked the juicy fruit.  The decided that since he had half a years time, there was no harm in staying there with the monkey for a few week, sharing food and stories.

Every morning shark would surface between the tree, and Monkey would throw down fruit. Several month passed this way, and the two animals started to become friends.  Spring passed into summer, and summer passed into fall.  Five month elapsed this way, full of fruit and stories. Shark began to realize that he could stall no longer.

The following morning, shark told monkey a tale of the land across the sea.  The described the fruits on the tree, and told monkey of their wonder.  The animals there were greedy and would not share with Shark, but legend told that the fruits were the best in the land.

Monkey immediately took an interest in this tale.  The tree was was almost barren with fruit, and new exotic fruits sounded extremely appealing. When the shark was to far from shore for the monkey to swim back, he confessed his true intentions, apologizing to Monkey.  Shark's eyes were full of teas, for he had truly come to like the monkey and would miss his friend.

Monkey also looked sad, as well as apologetic.  He told shark that monkey do not keep their hearts in their chest.  Instead, the great spirits hold onto monkey hearts for safekeeping.  When a monkey dies, the spirit returns the heart to the physical world in the form of fruit.  Thus the lives of brave Monkeys help keep the next generation alive.  People are sad, and often bury the hearts of their loved ones, creating new trees,  and new places for the spirits to deliver hearts.

The shark was shocked and delighted at this revelation.  Shark could spare his friend and save his king at the same time!  Overjoyed, shark quickly turned around and started swimming back to the tree.  When the pair reached the shore, monkey climbed back up the tree, and threw down fruit to the shark for the last time.  Shark gathered up the fruit, promising to return and swam quickly away.

It wasn't until shark brought back the fruit and tried to heal the king the he realized he had been tricked.  Shark swam back to the tree with the fruit shaped like hearts.  There was no sign of monkey.  Monkey had already found a new tree, never to return to the peach tree.  Shark swam away slowly and sadly, for he had lost both his King, and his friend.

Authors Note
This story was inspired by The Heart of the Monkey from Lang's African Stories.  I used the same characters, the Monkey and shark, and I used the premise of the story: The shark wants the Monkey's heart.  Other than that I took a lot of liberties and changed the story.  I would definitely encourage everybody to go read the original.  It is an interesting read, and it will help you better see how it differs from my story.

Bibliography
This week's reading is from African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books.
From The Grey Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1900) 

Week 6 Reading Diary, Continued: African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books

This week's reading is from African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books.
From The Grey Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1900)

Snake from pixabay

Hassebu

•  There are parts of this story that don't add anything for me.  Like when the boy finds his fathers books and reads them.  This seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the story.
• Hassebu does not seem like like to do any work, so why then does he help the woodcutters?  This seems like another type of work. the story doesn't explain why he prefers this work more than the other jobs his mother tried to get him to learn. 
• I like that all of the animals in this tale talk.  I wonder why the scorpion didn't talk. 
• The second Hassebu gave his promise I assumed he would break it, because that's how stories always go. 
• I still don't understand why the King of the snakes would help Hassebu who had just betrayed him.

The Heart of a Monkey

• I like that the shark and monkey become friends and help each other.  I expected the shark to try to trick the Monkey into letting him eat the Monkey. 
• There seems to be a theme of needing parts of animals to cure sick Sultans. 

The Heart of a Monkey: The Washerman's Donkey

•  Never underestimate another creature. The lion underestimated the strength of the donkey's hooves. 
• The donkey is a fool for trusting the lion for a second time. To me this is not a believable part of the story.

Makoma

• I like the idea of getting the strength of the people you defeat.  It makes for an interesting story idea.
• I predict that Makoma is acquire a lot of strength before the end of his story. 
• I wonder why Makoma killed Chin-debou Mau-giri but kept the rest of the giants as servants.

Week 6 Reading Diary: African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books

This week's reading is from African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books.
From The Grey Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1900)

Golden Jackal

Motikatika, 

• I like that this tale reverses the roles, the wife is very difficult at first, and so when the husband is thirsty, he makes equally difficult requests of his wife.
• The baby named Motikatika is surprisingly clever. He consulted his bones, managed to avoid the ogre who would eat him, but the stories always refers to him as a baby.  This doesn't sell the story for me.  Motikatika might be a child, and his is just the culture's way of referring to him

Jackal and Spring

• When the jackal told the rabbit, "If you really want me to give you some more, you must have your paws tied behind you and lie on your back so that I can pour it into your mouth," I expected the jackal to eat the rabbit. The rabbit is very gullible and I am surprised worse didn't happen. 
• The hare gets tricked in the exact same was as the rabbit, i am surprised the animals didn't learn from the previous mistakes. 

Adventures of a Jackal

• I notice a theme between these tales, the Jackal is always the trickster.  Although I do not know why the Jackal made the panther bad shoes, since it did not benefit him at all. 
• The jackal's flaw is that they always want to eat.  The panther always find the Jackal again because the Jackal is always hungry. 

Adventures of Jackal's Eldest Son

• I am enjoying reading the animal tales. Each animal has a distinct and persistent type of personality.  Although the characters been stories aren't the same, the personality traits of a single type of animal is. 
• The jackal gets completely sidetracked from his goal of reaching the bell first.
• Wow, that ending was completely unexpected. I did not expect the Jackal to get crushed to death by a stone. 

Adventures of Younger Son of Jackal

• Once again, it is the jackal's love of food that is his downfall.  These seems to be a theme between the story. 
• Often, although the Jackal is the trickster, the other animals manage to get their fair share, and outsmart the Jackal. It seems the jackal aren't the only animal with wits, but jackals are always the ones who start the mischief. 

Week 5 Review

This week I chose to use an Image from Saturday, February 20th blog post.  I immediately like the image with the 'Bare Feet' and 'Bear Feet.'  I grew up with my dad telling lots of puns.  It really stuck with me, I take every opportunity I can to make bad puns, and will always appreciate other people's bad puns.

Image from wikipedia

Learning Challenge: Find a favorite health/happiness meme - Week 5

Cartoon by John Atkinson

This was the first image on the page, and I was able to relate to it immediately.  I did scroll through all of the Health/Happiness memes to see if there was one I liked better, but there wasn't.

I will often stay up to late, and use coffee in the mornings.  I rarely used to drink coffee, but they have free coffee at the office where I work, which got me into the habit of drinking it almost every morning.

Thoughts about Comments

Every week I have been writing comments on other people introductions and stories, and other people have been commenting on mine.

As far as my introduction goes, the most engaging comments are from people who have something in common with me. When somebody picks a specific topic that I mention interest in, for example baking, and people talking about whether or not they do any cooking and baking I find that interesting.  Finding out the familiarity between myself and other people is always interesting.

As far as story comments go, I really enjoy which specific pieces of my writing people enjoy.  Although it's always nice to know that people like my stories, it's much more helpful to here criticism, which parts of my story doesn't make sense, doesn't include enough detail, rambles on for to long etc. I would much rather read more critical comments that help me improve my writing than praise.  Don't get me wrong, praise is really nice to hear, as long as it's honest.

When commenting on other people's intro, I try to talk about which part of their into captures my interest, or which parts or the other people's lives I can relate too. When I comment on people's stories, I feel like I have been doing a good job since i have been leaving critiques as well as praise.  I could be writing better comments if I reread some of the stories a second time.  A reader will often catch something the second time that they missed on the first.

Comment Bubble - Pixabay

Growth Mindset: Grow-Your-Writing-Style - Week 6

I am trying to see growth in my writing style.  This was done for the story listed in week 5, however because I am on my 6th growth mindset challenge I decided to use the week 6 label, since this will count towards my week 6 extra credit.

This week I decided to use the very first storytelling style that the storytelling assignment listed.  I happened to get 'Five Motifs' which I have not done before.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this storytelling style, the goal is to pick five objects, characters, settings, etc. and create my own story around it.

If you are interested to see the result, please read my story called Thieves in the Night. 

Fountain Pen - Wikipedia Article

Week 5 Storytelling : Thieves in the Night

Arabian Nights - By Milo Winter

Thieves in the Night

Once upon a time, there lived a handsome prince and a beautiful princess in a palace far far away.  The palace was made up of the most beautiful gems and jewels any person could imagine.  The window panes were made of diamond, and the gilded walls and the marble floors danced with light when the sunlight peeked through the windows.

The palace spent a week in Africa were me and my fellows first laid eyes on the riches and wonder.  All those riches and jewels are exactly the kind of thing we had been eyeing. The second we laid eyes on it, we started making plans.  We could probably have filled a whole bag full of jewels and nobody would even have noticed that they were gone.  Before we were able to complete our plan, the palace vanished.  The legend told of a genie, a magician and a princess.

A prince fell madly in love with a beautiful princess.  The prince came from a very wealthy family, and he was convinced that the princess was so beautiful, that he would only be worthy of her if he used every last ounce of his gold for her.   He spend the next fifteen years building a palace, working and laboring with his own hands, as well as making his slaved labor day and night on the palace.  One the 365th day of the 15th year, he was final done.  We went up to the Sultan and asked for the princess's hand in marriage.  Impressed by the dedication and splendor that the prince showed, he agreed and the two were happily married for the rest of their days, living in splendor.

My personal opinion is that the story has been elaborated during the telling.  There is no way a man could build a palace of such splendor in 15 years, much less a lifetime.  I had also never believed in magic until I saw the palace appear, and then disappear a week later.  We kept our ears open for rumors of the palace, until finally one day we heard that it moved to China.  We did not hesitate for an instance, we packed up our bags and moved to China.

My band of thieves gathered around the palace.  We knew we needed to scout out the place, figure out the guard patterns etc.  before we could actually steel anything.  We believed this process would take weeks of time.  On our first day of scouting out the palace, we did not see a single guard.  We could not believe our eyes, no palace was ever left completely unguarded. Three more days we surveyed the palace to be sure, and three more days we saw nobody protected the palace.  On the fourth day, we entered the palace, found the treasure room, and left with all we could carry. We found many things in the treasure room, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pears, gold, and so much more.  We also found a very old looking dingy lamp, which we disregarded in an instance, skipping over it to look at the rest of the treasure.

We praised our luck as we left the palace, feeling fortunate to have come out with such a successful score.  It was morning by the time we went to a quiet  place and started counting our money.  As we were doing this, the room around us suddenly blurred, as as if by magic.  We found ourselves back in the palace we had just left, kneeling in front of the prince of the castle, Aladdin, and his princess.  Aladdin held the lamp, and beside him floated what could only be a genie.

Finally we understood why the palace had no guards.  The palace didn't need any guards, because Aladdin had the power to summon up anything he needed from his genie.  I knelt to the floor and begged forgiveness, promising to mend the error of my ways.  I knew what happened to thieves, and it was not a fate I wanted to share with my friends.  Aladdin would not yield, wanting to set an example for people who would steal from him in the future.  He spoke a command to the genie, speaking a sentence which I knew was the last one I would ever hear.  Know this, keep your greed in check because no amount of jewels and money is worth the price of your own life.


Authors Note:
Everyone is familiar with the Disney Movie Aladdin.  The story is The Arabian Nights, however, is quite different than the childhood tale most of us grew up with.  I wanted to tell yet another, third retelling of the story, taking five different Motifs from the original story and wrote my own plot.  I chose The Jeweled palace as the setting, Aladdin, Genie, and the princess as the characters, and the lamp as my artifact.  Together, these are five different things from the original story.

The Arabian Nights includes many stories inside stories, and sometime even stories inside stories inside stories.  Because of this, I decided to include a brief summary of the original as a story within my story.  The tale is based on the rumors that the people have been hearing, so it's a fabrication, a slightly different version of what actually happened.

Bibliography: 
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Growth Mindset : Stories About Growth - Week 5

As my reading this week I chose Arabian Nights.  In this story I believe Aladdin shows a growth mindset.

One Thousand and One Nights - Wikipedia Article

Aladdin falls in love with a princess, and is determined to marry her.  Even though common folk don't marry royalty, he still implores his mother to ask the Sultan for her hand in marriage.  Aladdin waits eagerly for the month until the wedding, but instead the princess is Married to the Grand-Vizir's daughter.  Instead of becoming disheartened, Aladdin found a way to marry her anyway.

Aladdin gave the Sultan everything he wished for, and kept filling his requests.  When the princess was kidnapped, Aladdin traveled to another country to get her back.  He found her, and found a way to get her home.  In a way, you could say that Aladdin had a growth mindset about marrying the princess, he never gave up and perused her despite every challenge.

Week 5 Reading Diary, continued: Arabian Nights

This weeks reading is part B of Arabian Nights.
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Genie, From Disney's Aladdin

 Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

• It is really nice to read a story that I already know, a story that disney has made a movie of. I know Disney adds a happy changed the ending of all of their stories to make them happy, so I am curious to see how this one ends.
• The story mentions the 'false uncle', but the story does not tell us who the uncle really is, so the reader is left to wonder
• It is especially interesting to me to see the differences between the original story, and the once that I know.
• Aladdin asks for the hand of the princess using jewels, instead of turning himself into a prince
• Aladdin steels a look at the princess, and falls in love at first sight
• Does Aladdin have an unlimited number of requests from the Genie? It would seem that he does
• The Sultan is very greedy with all of the gifts he demands from Aladdin
• I like the imagery that the author creates for the palace that Aladdin builds for the princess.  She must indeed be very beautiful to inspire such a thing.
• I notice that Aladdin never ever told the princess about the lamp, for otherwise she would not have traded it away.
• The magician was mean to want to kill Aladdin, but very clever to trick the princess into giving him the lamp.  I enjoyed the way in which he tricked the princess.
• Aladdin managed to trick the magician just as easily as the magician tricked Aladdin.  
• I notice that this story, unlike many of the ones from Tuesdays readings, actually use character names.  I wonder how the author chose which stories required named characters, and which ones didn't.
• I enjoyed reading this story, and was slightly surprised to see that it had a happy ending, since usually the key difference between Disney and the original is the ending.

Week 5 Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

This weeks reading is Arabian Nights, inspired by other student stories that I read last week.
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

One Thousand and One Nights

  Scheherazade

•  Wow, the whole premise of the story just seems really messed up.  "So every evening he married a fresh wife and had her strangled the following morning before the grand-vizier"
• The intro to this story definitely captures my interest right away.  Such a dramatic start makes me want to read on to see what happens next.  The story does not give the reader a chance to get bored before the action starts. 

The Story of the Merchant and the Genius

•  The girl is very clever.  This is not the first reading story I've read this semester with multiple tales, but this is definitely my favorite premise for a story within a story.  
• It's a story within a story within a story.  That almost seems like to many layers.

The Story of the First Old Man and of the Hind

•  I notice that none of these characters have names.  Instead they are referred to as "my son" or "my wife" or "the third old man."  I wonder why the author made this decision, especially since he named the characters in the first layer of his story.

The Story of the Second Old Man, and of the Two Black Dogs

•  Many of theses stories have a common theme of killing for revenge.  The Sultan kills his wives, the Genius wants to kill the Merchant for killing his son, and how the fairy wishes to kill the two brothers of her husband.

The Story of the Fisherman

• I assume Genies in lamps or pots or jars was a common theme in stories during this time.  Both the yellow pot, and the story of Aladdin both include a trapped Genie.  
•  I enjoyed this story, of how the Fisherman outsmarted the Genie.

The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban

•  I wonder what kind of power the physician possesses? It's clearly some form of magic that healed the king.

The Story of the Parrot; The Story of the Ogress

•  Why does the Grand Vizir distrust the great physician.  It is not made obvious in the story, so the reader if left to wonder.

The Story of the Physician's Revenge

•  It's getting hard to keep track of the stories.The stories themselves are interesting, but there are too many layers to them.

The Story of the Sultan and the Fish

• Why are the fish so valuable in the first place? I do not believe this part of the story explains this at all.

The Story of the Young King of the Black Isles

•  I enjoyed reading the mini stories.  This style of writing works very well.  Instead of having many disjointed tales, a story like 1001 nights can ties a bunch of little stories into one giant work.

Week 4 Review

Cartoon by Dan Piraro

The above image was taken from Tuesday, February 9th daily announcement. I love puns, and I thought this one was clever.  It's an Egyptian version of a fun little spelling Rhyme. 

Fun fact, there are more rules in the English dictionary that are an exception to the rule 'I before E except after C' than words that actually follow it.  I wrote a program for a class once that counted how many words follow this rule, and how many don't.

Famous Last Words - Week 4

Reading
This week I read a story called 22 Goblins.  I liked the premise of the story, but I did not really care for the story itself. I was really excited about reading riddles, but I did not care for the riddles themselves.  I feel like I was not able to answer a lot of the riddles because I don't know the culture behind them.  I may have enjoyed the story more if I knew more about the culture.

Writing
This class is where I do my best writing, because it is the only class that I do much writing in. I was OK with the story that I wrote this week, but I feel like I have done better work on the past.  Next week I get another chance, and will write a story that I am more happy with.  I get to start actually writing for my storybook, which is exciting.

Other Classes
My other classes have been going well this semester.  I am taking two graduate classes as well as my senior capstone. I have also been going to work, so this semester has seemed really busy.  I've been learning about search algorithms for my Artificial intelligence class, and learning about how Turing machines work for a class called Computational Complexity.

Outside School 
I have been doing some reading for pleasure this semester, which is usually something I only make time for in the summer. It's nice doing 30 minutes of reading before going to bed.  It helps clear my mind, and it's been letting me get further in the Dresden Files.  Not familiar with the series? You should check it out.  Jim Butcher has created a lot of interesting characters in a fantasy setting.  The main character of the story is a Wizard detective.  It's really good.

Dresden Files Wikipedia Article

Growth Mindset : Talk about mindset - Week 4

This week I talked to a friend about growth mindset.  I asked him what he knew about the growth mindset.  He said that he's heard about it a few times on the radio, but that he did not know a lot about the growth mindset, and that he'd never talked about it in any of his classes.

I then went on to explain what I knew about growth mindset.  It's about valuing effort, work, progress rather than feeling good only if the final product meets expectations.  He said this what not really something he applied in his classes, but that he did feel good about an assignment if he tried his hardest, even if he didn't get the best grade.

Growth Mindset - Flickr

Learning Challenge: Find a favorite attention meme - Week 4

Art by Kamil Kotarba

As much as I love technology and what it has done for the world, it really hurts attention.  Technology is a resource, it's a great way to share thoughts, to communicate quickly, to look up facts, to find directions on a map and many more things.  But I think some people become to dependent on technology, let it be part of every aspect of their life.  It's scary when somebody cannot go 10 minutes without their phone without feeling naked.  We should use technology, and not let it control us. Our attention and awareness will improve if we take the time to exist in this word, instead of existing only in a virtual one.

Tech Tip: Website

This week I have setup the website for my storybook.  I will continue working on the look that my website has as the semester goes on, however I am happy with what I have done so far for the initial look of the page.

Screenshot of the current state of my website

Please visit "Carmen's Storybook" if you wish to check out my website.

Tech Tip : Add an HTML Box to Sidebar

Today I added an HTML Box to my sidebar.  One of the options listed in the assignment description was "share some words of wisdom."  I knew right away what I wanted to add.

My favorite author died less than a year ago on March 12, 2015.  This name was Terry Pratchett.  He is an absolutely brilliant writer, and his novels are full of great quotes.  These include funny quotes, puns, and very though provoking statements.  The HTML sidebar I created includes some great quotes from Terry Pratchett, keeping his words alive.  

Terry Pratchett - from Wikipedia

Tech Tip: Blogger Profile

This week I updated my blogger profile. 

Although blogging is a good way to interact with other people in an online class, it is not something I see myself doing in the future.  I am just not a blogger.  Because of this, I mostly configured my profile for class, and kept it short and simple. 

Silhouette : Flickr

I did want to include my profile in a widget as part of my blog, I wanted to profile to include a picture, and a very basic description that people can read quickly.  I not have a profile that does all of these things for me.

Week 4 Storytelling : A Journey through Riddles

Author's Note:
I wanted to try a storytelling style to before I finalize my decision on my storybook.  This story is based off of Twenty-Two goblins, and it combines two storytelling styles, story from the villain's point of view, and a backstory. Arguably there are two villains in the story, one is a monk, and the other is a goblin who tells 22 different riddles to a King.  The king must give the answer if he knows it, otherwise his head will explode.

A Goblin from Warhammer

A Journey through Riddles

All goblins are born with power, and they must work to master it.  The mechanics of the power is easy, every time a goblin tells a riddle, the person hearing the riddle has three option:  Give an incorrect answer that they believe is correct, give a correct answer that they know is correct, or give a an incorrect answer even though they know the correct one.  Each action has a different consequence.  If the listener does not know the correct answer, nothing will happen, if the listener gives the correct answer, the goblin will be able to escape.  And lastly, if the listener gives the wrong answer when they know the right one, their head will explode into one million pieces. 

Our story begins with a young goblin Gob, who was just been sent out into the world.  He left the small hold in the ground, and started to journey the world, hunting different riddles that he could use.  Gob planned to seek out all different kinds of riddle, easy ones, hard ones, riddles from Japan, South African, Norway, India, and many many more.  Many goblins only looked for the easy riddles, because the faster somebody was able to guess the answer to one of the riddles, the faster the goblin would need to go free.  Gob was different, and wanted to be prepared for all circumstances.

Gob traveled the world for many years, and found all sorts of riddles on his travels.  Once, he even though riddles inside of a church.  He went into the cathedral and witnessed a wedding taking place.  The seats were all full, and a man and women clasped hands by the alter.  He explored the area, and finally came upon two men gossiping outside the church.  "A man married twenty women in his village but isn't charged with polygamy, how is this possible" Asked one.  The second puzzled and though over this riddle but would not find the answer.  Gob though to himself, why this is easy, I just saw a priest marry one women, how hard could it be to marry twenty happy couples?

Gob stopped in an urban area.  The familiar there raised livestock and farmed the land.  Gob walked into one of the farm houses and saw a farmer milking a cow.  Gob requested a riddle, so the farmer though for a long time.  Finally the farmer said, "A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid.  What am I?" This riddle stumped Gob at first, but then a chicken within the barn squawked and Gob had an idea. It was an egg!  A chicken egg!

Finally Gob traveled to India, full of rich culture and beautiful colors.  He went to talk to some of the wealthier people of the land.  They valued delicacy and virtue.  When he asked for a riddle, they told him a story.  A king had three very delicate wifes.  He took the first to a beautiful pond.  While they were there, a lotus-petal fell in the queens lap, and the wait of it injured her.  While she was healing, the king was in bed with his second wife.  The moon shone through the window, and burned her.  While the second wife was healing, the king went for a quite peaceful walk with his third wife.  In the distance, the queen could here the sound of pestles grinding grain and it bruised her ears.  These are the three delicate wives of the king. Which is the most delicate? Gob knew the answer right away, the queen who is damaged by only sound is the more delicate than a queen damaged by physical touch.

Gob had found a country whose riddles he enjoyed more than any other.  Not only did the people tell riddles, the people also told stories to go with the riddles.  Gob went around, gathering 22 more riddles from India.  Each of them had simple stories, so Gob elaborated on the stories, deciding that a riddle is not nearly as good as a riddle and a tale.
 

Bibliography: 
Twenty-Two Goblins, Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati.
Second riddle taken from The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien, 1937

Week 4 Reading Diary, continued: Twenty-Two Goblins

Part 2 of my notes about Twenty-Two Goblins, Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati.

Shiva, by Arumugam Manivelu

The Snake's Poison

• "The Brahman who died because Poison from a Snake in the Claws of a Hawk fell into a Dish of Food given him by a Charitable Woman. Who is to blame for his death?"
• The beautiful lost wife has nothing to do with the riddle, the story could have worked without this section
• I think the snake murdered the Brahman, but the riddle answered that the man who ate the food was at fault for his own death. 

The Girl and the Thief

• "The Girl who showed Great Devotion to the Thief. Did he weep or laugh?"
• These riddles have a lot of story behind them, there may be a final question, but the stories are more than that, and for this particular story, I don't think the answer effects the stories outcome. 

The General's Wife

• "The King who died for Love of his General's Wife; the General follows him in Death. Which is the more worthy?"
• I am noticing a theme with these stories, all of the women are extremely beautiful, and they don't seem to have many other qualities.  All of the stories focus on virtue, beauty, and marriage.

The Four Brothers

• "The Four Brothers who brought a Dead Lion to Life. Which is to blame when he kills them all?"
• What are the odds that all four brothers find skills that work with each other, it takes all four brothers to create the lion. 
• This was one of the easier riddles in my opinion, the final step to creating the lion was the one that mattered the most, since otherwise the lion could not hurt people. 

The Old Hermit

• "The Old Hermit who exchanged his Body for that of the Dead Boy. Why did he weep and dance?"
• This question is similar to the girl and the thief, instead of weeping and dancing, the old hermit weeps and dances.  Life is full of bittersweet events, which is essentially what the answer to both riddles was.

Father and Son, Daughter and Mother

• "The Father and Son who married Daughter and Mother. What relation were their children?"
• I am curious to know the answer to this question, since it was not given in the story.
• It takes a lot of patience to answer 22 riddles and retrieve the body, now I find it ironic that patience is the name of the monk, and not the king. 

Conclusion

•  I did not really care for the ending to this story, it was abrupt and weird. How did the Monk get so many fruits filled with jewels?  Why did he wait 12 whole years to ask the king a favor, and who was the goblin?  Why was the goblin in the tree in the first place? I might create a answer for one of these questions in the next story that I write.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Twenty-Two Goblins

This week I chose to read Twenty-Two Goblins, Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati.

 

Winding Tree from Flickr

Introduction

• Patience is a very fitting name for the monk.  He waited 12 years, giving fruit to the king every day, before he finally made a request.
• Unlike this other reading, this culture is not one I am familiar with, I am guessing part of their mythology includes goblins living in dead bodies, which is why the king automatically knew what was in the body.

The Three Lovers

• "The Three Lovers who brought the Dead Girl to Life.  Whose wife should she be?"
• One thing that is really fun about riddle stories and mysteries, is that the reader gets to try to figure out the answer before the story reveals it. 

Brave, Wise, Clever

• "The Brave Man, the Wise Man, and the Clever Man. To which should the girl be given?"
•  Before hearing the ending of the story, I would guess the wise man, because nobody would have known where the daughter went without this information, and other braver and clever men could have been found and sent to rescue her.

The Girl, Her Husband and Her Brother

• "The Girl who transposed the Heads of her Husband and Brother. Which combination of head and body is her husband?"
•  I was pleased to get this riddle right.  I guessed that the husband's head with the brother's body is the husband, because the mind is what determines who a person is.

Food, Women, Cotton

• "The Specialist in Food, the Specialist in Women, and the Specialist in Cotton. Which is the cleverest?"
•  I feel like this story would have a funny twist if the turtle wondered away the the three brothers were arguing. 
• I feel like the brothers are being praised and rewarded for being picky. 
• I noticed that none of the brothers are specialists in animals, so technically, any of the brothers could carry the turtle.

The Four Suitors

• "The Four Scientific Suitors. To which should the girl be given?"
•  As the story progresses, I tent to compare the current riddle to previous ones to try to figure out the answer.  Because the soldier one before, i will guess the solder again. 
• I managed to guess correctly, which means the riddles are consistent within each other.

The Three Delicate Wives

• "The Three Delicate Wives of King Virtue-banner. Which is the most delicate?"
• Although this in an interesting riddle, I have no idea how anybody would be so delicate, or why anybody would want to be so delicate. 
• I am guessing the third wife is the most delicate, because a curtain can hide the moon, and the first wife doesn't have to sit under a lotus tree, but it is hard to escape sound. 

Learning Challenge: Find a favorite reading meme - Week 3

Last week I found a meme on Time, this week I am looking at different images about reading.  This will be part 2 in a five week series, were I chose a meme for each of the five letters for HEART.  I really enjoy the memes, and this is a good way for me to focus on not one, but all five different aspects of the learning challenge.  

Reading is Dangerous

This image was very cute! It's true that these are all different ways people talk about reading.  My favorite type of reading is reading for pleasure, unfortunately, that ones doesn't sound dangerous and didn't make the list.

Growth Mindset: Grow by Watching Others - Week 3

This week I chose to grow by watching others.  A description of this challenge can be found on the growth mindset challenge page. Following are a few of the favorite posts I found from other students.

Growth Mindset post 1: This post was titled dream big and dare to fail.  It included two pictures, as well as a quote that I have always really liked, "Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss you'll land among the stars."

Source: First Cover

Growth Mindset post 2: This post has a picture that immediately caught my eye.  It was titled the power of I don't know.

The Power of I Don't Know. Source.

Growth Mindset post 3: Here is the last post I decided to repost.  Once again, it was the image that really caught my eye, but humans are very visual people so this is no surprise.  This student chose to do a challenge that I haven't tried yet, but maybe I will try a new writing style next week.

Image from The Thinking Moms' Revolution

Week 3 Review

It's hard to believe we've already gone through three weeks of this semester.  I looked through this weeks announcements and I would like to share what was posted on February 5's announcement. The post included a link to the origin story behind the word echo.  I think it's fun to see what kind of ideas people had in ancient Greece: why the sun rises, what makes lightning appear in the sky etc.  The story of Echo was one I'd never heard before.

Wikimedia: John William Waterhouse

Storybook Style Ideas

Topic Arthurian legends: I ended up choosing Arthurian legends as my topic. I have always enjoyed these stories, and this project will give me a chance to explore this topic further, especially some of the less know tales. I started doing research of this topic by looking at the resources you sent me.  I read chapter I and II in King Arthur's tale, and I read the Court of the Queen as well.

Bibliography

• Stories from the Faerie Queen, by Mary Macleod, 1916
• Le Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory's Book of the King Arthur and his Noble Knights for the Round Table, by Thomas Malory, 2014.

Image from Guenevere Wikipedia Article

I went through the list of styles, and saw several that stood out to me.  I am not interesting in doing a modern retelling, so I immediately just skipped all of those options.  Eavesdropping, twist the ending, villain as storyteller, and imagine a backstory are the choices the I ended up choosing.  I also included a style from my last blog post, retelling a story as a game.

Eavesdropping
One of the great things about storytelling, is that a story changes over time. Eavesdropping is a great style for anybody who wants to change a story slightly.  People here things incorrectly, and sometimes they don't hear the full story.  People can potentially create really funny stories depending on how they misinterpret the original.  This style has the potential to be really versatile, and it would also give me the liberty to add in some new characters.  The personality of the eavesdropper could be developed in the intro, then he or she will tell some of his/her best stories.

Twist the Ending
This is a style I have already used in my storytelling.  My story called The Shape of the Beast changed the ending of the story as well as creating a backstory for Circe. I had a lot of fun writing this story, and this style is easy to combine with several others.  The harder part about this storytelling style is tying all of my stories together, and I would have to find a way of doing this.  I could create a storyteller who changes all stories and introduce him in the intro, or I could maybe say that the books got the story wrong, and tell the story how it really is.  The latter is something I have seen done successfully in other stories that I've read.

Villain as Storyteller
This style would probably be more of a challenge for me. One option would be to tell the story from the side of a villain who believes he or she was misrepresented, and explain why the villain made certain choices.  Another choice would be to tell the story from a Villain who tries to outsmart the hero and fails.  Either way, I would definitely want to include Morgana in one of these stories.

Imagine a Backstory 
Creating a new backstory for a character, or creating a backstory for a character who doesn't have one really appeals to me. This gives me liberty to write my own story, instead of changing somebody Else's story.  The character and personality would already be defined, but this would let me create my own adventures and stories with existing characters.  I would enjoy shaping the characters, and telling stories about how the characters became who they are today.

Story as a Game
I am not going to go into a lot of detail, since I have already discussed this topic.  The characters in the story would be controlled by players playing a game.  I could either do a table top role playing games were several characters are being controlled by players, or I could chose a main character, and let the rest of the characters become NPCs. 

Week 3 Storytelling : The Shape of the Beast

The Shape of the Beast
Circe grew up in the forest surrounded by animals and all the wildlife she could dream of.  None of the animals were afraid of her, and she was afraid of none of them.  She treated the lion, the mouse, the bat, and the fish all as equals.  She would sing to them, care for them, and they in turn would care for her, bring her nuts and plants to nourish her.  Many years passed, and Circe earned favor with the gods for retrieving a lost child of Zeus using her hounds and their noses.  

To thank Circe for her kind deed, Zeus gave her a grand house made of marble stone, and a beautiful island that was to be her own, and handmaidens to take care of her every need. Circe lived on the island for many years, lonely, missing her friends the animals.  Occasionally a ship would take refuge on her island, and her home.  She would turn the men into many different kinds of animals, depending on their personalities, and she would care for them in her grand house.  Slowly over the years, Circe became less lonely, for she was making new friends, and she took care of her dear animals. 

Circe, by Wright Barker

Circe always knew when a new ship entered her island.  It was not something that occurred often, maybe once every few years.  Circe was always happy to make new friends, and was curious what kind of people the seas washed onto her shore today. Circe stood at the gate of her beautiful home, stroked the silky mane of one of her lions as she waited.

The men appeared at Circe's doorsteps, as she graciously invited them inside.  They followed her to the dinning room.  Circe walked to the end of the table, and delicately took a seat.  She was about to offer the men a seat and a meal, but in the time it had taken her to talk to the far end on the room and sit down, them men had already begone to feast without an invitation.

They helped themselves to her fine meat and finer wine.  They ate her bread, which was always warm and freshly baked, even though Circe herself never did any cooking.  The fruit bowls kept refilling themselves as the men gorged on all of the rich food.  They were probably famished after a long journey of stale hard bread, but this was too much.  The men reminded her of pigs! No manners, no courtesy, and they ate her food without even asking. Circe smiled, never had a decision painted in front of her so clearly, so she turned every single one of the men into the animal that she felt suited them best, pigs.

Author's Note:
This story is inspired by my weekly reading choice: The Odyssey.  This is an old epic story written by Homer, telling of Odysseus's adventures.  During this story Odysseus and his men come upon the isle of Circe.  When exploring the island, the men find a beautiful marble house filled with animals.  Circe, a beautiful women, invites the men inside and offers them food.  As soon as they have eaten the food, Circe turn the men into pigs.  Odysseus only managed to free his men by taking advise from Hermes, and managed to get immunity from Circe's magic, saving his friends.

My retelling of the story is a little different and focuses on Circe.  After some research, I found that all of Circe's stories have a strong animal theme to them.  Circe turns Odysseus' men into pigs, and .  in the tale of Glaucus the fisherman he turns the women Glaucus' love into a sea monster.  I made up my own backstory for Circe, and explained why she has such an affinity for animals, followed by an excerpt from Odysseus, with a new ending.  In my story, unlike the original, the men stay pigs instead of getting rescued by the hero Odysseus.

Bibliography
Story inspired by Homer's Odyssey, translated by Tony Kline. 

Tech Tip: Alphabetizing Numbers

As everybody in this class knows, we are required to label all of our blog posts with the corresponding week number. You may notice that the label widget shows all the labels in alphabetical order, which is very useful.  It uses the first character of the listed word and sorts them, then uses the second, third letter, etc. for tie breakers.  Well duh, that's how alphabetizing works, you may be wondering why I am telling your this.

Notice that it does the Exact same thing for numbers:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

Which is also fine, until you start getting into double digits.

Week 1
Week 10
Week 11
---
Week 15
Week 2
Week 3

1, 2, 3 ... 15 are not being processes as numbers, instead the characters themselves are being compared. Since the 1 is the fifth (or sixth if you count the space) character, it will compare the character '1' to the character '2', see that 1 comes first, and not look at the rest of the word. This causes Week 10 to come before Week

The quickest and easiest way to fix this is by adjusting your numbers.  Use Week 01 and Week 02 as your labels.  Then every week that starts with a 0, will come before every week that starts with a 1 in the digit, displaying as follows.  (Note, this will work for up to 99 numbers, which is more than plenty for this class).

Week 01
Week 02
Week 02
---
Week 09
Week 10
Week 11

Did I go into to much details?  I have no idea how familiar you guys are with stuff like this, so I tried to format this post in such a way that even people without any technology background can understand why the labels won't sort correctly. I will answer any questions in the comments, and feel free to drop random tech questions.

Enjoy the nerdy glasses from Pixabay

Week 3 Reading Diary, continued: Homer's Odyssey

This week I chose to read the Odyssey, by Homer, this is part 2 of my notes.

1847: bequeathed to Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans

Ghosts of Erebus

•  The religion this story is based on is very apparent in this section.  Odysseus makes a sacrifice of honey, sweet wine, water, and barley meal. 
• Odysseus must rely on the gods to make this plan work, in order to talk to Teiresias.

The Ghosts of Elpenor and Teiresias

•  Odysseus leaves Teiresias unburied and unwept.  These are powerful words to use, and makes it seem like Odysseus completely forgot his comrade. 
• Seeing your mothers ghost is a cruet way to find out that she'd dead.
• The phrase "court your wife and offer gifts of courtship" seems redundant.

The Spirit of Anticleia

•  Odysseus gets to speak with his mother, but only after he has spoken to Teiresias.
•  This quote has very vivid language "The sinews no longer bind flesh and bone, the fierce heat of the blazing pyre consumes them, and the spirit flees from our white bones, a ghost that flutters and goes like a dream."

The Ghosts of Famous Women

•  There have been many interesting stories written about the children of gods, and several more modern stories have created new heroes.  The lore about them is interesting, and it can definitely spawn some creative story ideas. 
• Odysseus meets Oedipus's mother, who is part of a different tale in Greek mythology. 

The Ghost of Agamemnon

•  Apparently women are an untrustworthy bunch.  It's true that women were looked at very differently in Ancient Greece.

The Spirit of Achilles

•  It's harder for me to get interested in this part of the story.  Odysseus is talking to Achilles.  Although Achilles and his heal is a story I'm familiar with, the two conversing about Achilles sons is not the most interesting.  I do understand that part of this is because I am from the 20th century, not ancient Greece.

The Ghost of Ajax

• Once again, Homer describes many of the people Odysseus sees in the underworld.  I think this section is slightly less relevant to the plot, but is very relevant in the culture in which the story was written.

The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis

•  Warning, prophesies, and foreshadowing can be an important part of writing.  Odysseus receives instructions from many characters throughout the Odyssey, and does not always listen to the instructions.  He pays for it with his men's lives.

Week 3 Reading Diary: Homer's Odyssey

This week I chose to read the Odyssey, by Homer

Cyclops Wikipedia Article

The Land of the Cyclopes

• Homer does a good job of setting up the location of the story.  He describes the landscape, how the lands grow, and what type of people the Cyclopes are. 
• This section has lots of imagery,  what the characters are doing is not as important as the setting in this particular instance.

Prisoners of the Cyclops

•  Numbers are important, and Odysseus takes 12 of this best men to explore the cyclops cave.
• Know the beliefs of your readers.  It can be fun to create a universe, but using one that already exists (such as the Greek gods), can both save time, and make your readers comfortable.

The Cyclops Defeated

• The characters are in quite a predicament, and there is no obvious answer to the problem.  It is often good to make the reader wonder, instead of dropping enough hinds that the reader sees a obvious solution that is hidden to the characters.
• Odysseus is clever, and uses a false name to trick the cyclops. 

Escape from the Cyclops

•  The men strapped to the bellies of the sheep is a humorous image, and a clever way to get off the island.  I like it when characters have to use their wits to get out of sticky situations, instead of brute forcing through the problem.  It takes a witty author to come up with witty characters.

The Curse of Polyphemus

•  It is unwise to anger Poseidon's son, when you rely on the see for traveling across.
• Poseidon was not appeased with a sacrifice.  The men had already done wrong by and blinded his son.

Circe's Magic

•  Circe presents a very different scene than the men saw at the cyclops island. Circe is lovely, and offers great food. She lures them, tricks them, and turns them into pigs.  
• Trouble has many faces, and having a wide variety of different troubles makes an interesting story.

The Moly Defeats Circe

•  This is an interesting way to tell the story.  If a man drew his sword and tried to kill me, my first response would definitely not be to take him to bed.  
• I notice that Circe promised not to harm him, but she never made any promise about other people, just as her handmaids not harming him.

On Circe's Island

•  Although Circe is no longer turning the men into animals or doing them harm, she is still delaying them.  Men who are infinitely delayed will never finish their journey. 
• Circe gives Odysseus a very dangerous quest, he must travel to the underworld. Any reader in Homers times know how treacherous the underworld is, and there are few other tales of heroes who travel to the underworld

The Death of Elpenor

•  A story like this has a very specific style.  A hero has to make it through many trails, and solve each one differently.  Against all odds, he journeys on and succeeded.