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.