Tech Tip: Canvas Dashboard

First of all, I use the Dashboard Sidebar all the time! I think it is so helpful and easy to navigate with. Also, I have configured the Dashboard to make it more helpful and handy after reading this post. I have changed all my class names to actual names and changed the color of each one to match the color of the binder I use for each specific class. I am very OCD, so this color coordinating and labeling was so fun for me! I love the Canvas Dashboard; I have it open on my computer all the time. I am a big fan of working ahead and crossing stuff off of my planner; the Canvas equivalent of this is seeing things on the right hand checklist disappear after I complete them. It is such a feeling of satisfaction!! I have no recommendations about what to add, it works great!!

Tech Tip: Canvas Grade book

After reviewing the new Canvas Grade book, I have to admit there are some new aspects that have made reviewing my grades even more handy. There are two things in specific I want to mention. First, there is the part where you can enter in "what if" grades to your grade book and see how if you got those grades, how it would change your overall grade. This really comes in handy around finals and midterms to see wha the lowest possible grade is you can get for the class! Next, I like how you can look at the weekly totals. This allows me to see what weeks I am ahead on and what weeks I was slacking in instead of having to add up all the totals for each week on my own!

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part A

This story is part of the Canterbury Tales unit. Story source: The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908).

Note's on The Pardoner's Tale: The Revelers who Went out to Meet Death

(Dice; Image from Pixabay)

• Takes place in Flanders
• They rioted all the time, drank all the time, and gambled 
• Story is about three of these revelers in specific 
• It was 9 at night, and the en were already a few drinks in and didn't know it was already still so early. They heard a bell in the street.
• The jingling supposedly happened before a corpse
• The men told the waiter to go ask the corpse's name and not to forget it on the way back
• The waiter said he didn't need to go ask because he heard of the name earlier and it was one of the men's friends
• The waiter said that he was drunk on a bench and Death finally got him
• Another man then said that Death had taken a lot of people in a near by town, so that is probably where he had been living, and will continue to live
• The waiter said you have to be mighty strong to face Death and win
• The friends then promised to all go and meet Death and defeat him
• As the friends drunkenly headed to the other town, they passed an old man in tattered clothing who told them "God keep you gentlemen"
• One of the friends asked why the man was wrapped up all over except for on his face and why he was still alive if he was already so old

Reading Notes: Tejas Legends, Part B

This story is part of the Tejas Legends unit. Story source: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

Notes on When The Rainbow Was Torn

(Rainbow; Image from Pixabay)

• A group of flowers all used to be white
• They were white until the rainbow gave some of them colors, which they now have kept up until this time, while others remain white
• The white cactus flowers watched every time a rainbow came as it landed in two areas and gave color to everything it touched
• The rainbows never seemed to touch the white cactus flowers and no one knew why
• They thought it was maybe because of the thorns on the cactus flower, but that was just a guess
• One time after a big storm, the rainbow was getting ready to go down and touch the earth because it was filled with raindrops. The rainbow saw a group of cactus flowers hiding in the area where it usually lands, and tried to quickly pick itself up before landing on the thorny flowers
• The rainbow did not get back up in time, so it brushed across the cactus plants
• The flowers thorns could only get hold of the red, orange, and yellow colors, so from then on the cactus flowers have remained those shades of colors!

Reading Notes: Tejas Legends, Part A

This story is part of the Tejas Legends unit. Story source: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

Notes from The Woodpecker's Stumpy Tail

(Woodpecker; Image from Pixabay)

• The woodpecker has a stumpy tail
• It used to be long like other birds, but a fish bit it off
• Here's how:
• The town often got several floods
• One time a huge flood was coming and only the frogs knew about it
• One of the frogs had hung around the people for awhile and learned to speak their language so he warned them about this huge flood that was about to come overtake everything
• The Indians began to laugh at the frog and the woodpecker joined in; the woodpecker stayed on his low branch and laughed with the Indians while all the other bride went to higher branches to avoid the flood
• That night the huge storm ended up coming that the frog tried to warn everyone about
• In the middle of the night the people got up and started climbing trees to get out of the flood as fast as they could
• The woodpecker could not fly in the rain or in the dark so he was stuck blindly flying from one tree to another trying to make his way above the water; unfortunately, this did not work because he had such a long tail that kept getting stuck in the water
• He then got his tail bit off by a fish passing through, and that is why woodpeckers have short tails that look like they have been bitten off!

Week 10 Lab

(Creativity; Image from Pixabay)

Notes on Ted Talk Videos (Style)

After watching this series of videos, my two favorite videos were How to Build a Fictional World, and How to Write Descriptively. First, in the Fictional World video, I got to see how different universes can be made in fiction stories from using different languages, different settings, and interesting character developments.  I learned that the way people make these stories that intrigue us and make us laugh, cry, and think about how the real world is portrayed; these fictional worlds are created everyday. The video said all you need is your imagination and a willingness to figuratively live in your own world, will help you in the creation of your own fictional world building. Next, for the How to Write Descriptively video, it gave me some tips on how to expand my own writing style. I learned how the more description we use, more often than not, the better our message is portrayed to our readers. The descriptive writing style engages all of our senses by using words that help us imagine we are there in the story. Descriptive writing makes the writing come to life!!! Happy writing!

Reading Notes: Marriage Tales, Part B

This story is part of the Native American Marriage Tales unit. Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).

Notes on The True Bride (cont.)

(Bride; Image from Pixabay)

• The chief's son saw a girl washing clothes and admired her looks and dress; after telling his father, his father told him to go get a second look at the girl to make sure he didn't change his mind when he saw her again. 
• When the son went back to talk to the girl, she spat out gold nuggets while she was talking
• He went to tell his father this, and his father couldn't believe it so he went to see for himself
• Then, after the father saw the same thing, he told the boy to go marry that girl because of how valuable she was 
• They had a wedding and the bride spat gold for all the guests so that they could take home welcome presents.  Everyone loved the bride
• The bride soon got pregnant, and when the baby was coming, her husband was away for a meeting, so her stepmom and half-sister were in charge of helping deliver the baby
• When the bride gave birth, her step mom cut a hole in the floor and had the baby fall in it, then covered the hole, then put a cat there and convinced the bride she had given birth to a cat
• The bride found this very odd, which the step-mom then assured her that "odd people have odd children"
• So the bride raised this cat
• The husband didn't say anything about the cat baby, he just thought it was odd
• The wife then got pregnant again, and this time the step-mom did the same thing except instead of a cat it was a snake
• Then, the husband returned and the step-mom told him he should kill his wife because she was giving birth to such off things
• The town held a meeting and they all agreed
• The husband then killed his wife
• I think this story would come to life more with more dialogue
• Also, I would like to do a plot twist on the ending, such as the husband killing the daughter and the step-mom for making his wife go through this and finding their actual children

Reading Notes: Marriage Tales, Part A

This story is part of the Native American Marriage Tales unit. Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).

Notes on Marriage: The Rolling Head

• A man, his wife, and two children lived alone in a tent
• Every morning before the man left he painted his wife's face and body 
• The wife went to get water at the nearby lake; she took off her clothes when there, and then a large snake came up, as if she summoned it. The snake asked the woman to come out to him since the husband was away hunting, and so she did. Every morning.
• The husband never knew she had met a snake; but one morning he had asked her how she got the paint off of her body, and she said she had simply just taken a bath
• The husband spied on the wife the next morning; he saw her undress for the snake and then he popped out and killed the snake and his wife
• He then brought home his wife cut in pieces and cooked her and then fed her body to his children
• The husband then left, and the mom's head came rolling in to talk to the kids and apologize
• The kids were terrified and ran to get away from it
• Finally, they stopped her then saw a deer and killed it just by looking at it, so they ate it
• Then the two kids had people help them and they were guarded by two large panthers and two large black bears as they lived in a large lodge and had much food of various kinds
• People started to stay with the kids because they were running low on food
• When their father stayed with them, they killed him because they were angry for how he treated their mom.

(Lodge; Image from Pixabay)

Week 9 Story: Dinner Dates

Retelling of How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner

This story is part of the Indian Fairy Tales unit. Story source: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).

(Dinner; Image from Pixabay)

Gossip Gal here, your one and only source for anything and everything scandalous having to do with the most wonderful readings of mythology!!

Soooo... Have any of you guys noticed how bad our weather has been lately? First it's bright, then suddenly dark, and then rainy, and then snowing, etc. I don't know about you, but I am not a fan of all these weather changes, it really makes it hard for me to figure out what to wear each day.

Well, enough about me, I know what you guys are really here to find out: WHY has the weather been so fickle? Well, of course, you know I have the insider information to answer your question!!!

So, our fearless leaders the Sun, Moon, and Wind decided to go out to dinner with Thunder and Lightning. Now, looking from the outside, this seems like a very normal thing to do. But, keep in mind, their mom had not been invited to this dinner, she assumed they would bring home leftovers for her so that she would not starve.

Sun, Moon and Wind were having a wonderful dinner with Thunder and Lightning when they all of a sudden started arguing over who was going to pay the bill and bring home food for their mother.  They decided that Wind would bring home food, and that they would use their mom's credit card to pay for all of their meals.

Once they returned home, mom was furious that they had spend $500 at dinner on HER card, and then, to top it off, Wind brought her home food that she was ALLERGIC to....

You can only imagine the level of anger mom had at this point

She was so furious that she told Sun, Moon, and Wind that they would no longer have control over their powers.  They would no longer be able to produce bright sunny days for children to play outside, or a bright night-light while people peacefully slept, or a cool breeze on a hot summer day.  She explained how she was in charge now, and she would control all of the weather events; and, since she was miserable and mad, she wanted to make the people miserable and mad at the weather as well.

I guess in order to get good weather around here we are going to hope Sun, Moon, and Wind apologize for their actions... Who knows how long that'll take!!! Mom definitely made me angry with this weather.

That's all I have for now, see you next time!!

XOXO,

Gossip Gal

Author's Note:

I kept most of the original story. The only things I changed were to have Wind be the one who brought home food instead of Moon, just to switch it up.  I also added in the part where mom was allergic to the food, instead of in the original where she is only mad at Sun and Wind, and admires moon for thinking about her. I also added in the part where they use her credit card!

Reading Notes: The Monkey King, Part B

This story is part of the The Monkey King unit. Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

(Saints; Pixabay)

Notes on The Great Saint:

• They were all sitting at the table when the King asked whaat kind of title Stablemaster was
• The master replied that it was an official title
• The King then asked about ranking
• The master explained there was no rank
• The Master said it was not a high title, it was just a title you would get for taking care of the steeds and making sure they don't fall down or get too thin
• The Ape King got angry and wondered why he came all this way just to take care of horses, when, back at home, he was the King in Ruling
• He went to return to his people, and they asked why he was gone for ten years!
• He then said he wasn't there for more than 10 days, and the Heavens tried to make him the stable master and he was so embarrassed by it.  He then said he was back and ready to begin again
• His people then prepared a welcome home banquet for him
• He then had his people make a flag that said "The Great Saint Who is Heaven's Equal", and from then on that is the name he went by

Reading Notes: The Monkey King, Part A

This story is part of the The Monkey King unit. Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Great Sea Notes:

• The King of the Apes starts to fear the fact of death while at dinner
• He started to cry, and his fellows were asking what was wrong
• He then explained to him that death will come from all of them
• Once the apes heard, they all cried as well
• One of the wise apes comes out to talk and explain that there is a way to avoid death if you are one of three types of people: the Buddhas, the blessed spirits and the gods.
• He explains that they escape death and lives as long as they want
• The King asked where these people lived, and the wise ape explained in caves on holy mountains in the great world of mortals
• The King packed, the apes threw a parting party, and then the King took off down the Great Sea to go find these people the wise ape talked about
• The King came across a human; he knocked him down and took his clothes
• He hid in this disguise for 9 years walking around and wondering where these buddhas and gods were located
• He then figured they had to be on the other side of the Western Sea
• So he set off to cross that sea
• As he finished and crossed, he saw those high mountains his wise ape had talked about, and he went up to approach it as he heard beautiful singing coming from there

(Ape; Image from Pixabay)

Week 8 Progress

(Christmas; Image from Pexels)

To begin, I used this Christmas photo as my motivation to finish the semester strong because Christmas is my most favorite part of the year!! I cannot wait for Christmas break.  I am very happy with my progress so far and am very proud of what I have accomplished.  My weekly routine is usually to do a weeks worth of assignments on Sunday and Monday, and to always stay at least a week ahead of schedule, which has made this online class one of the most manageable classes I have ever taken online. The flexibility allows for so much freedom in scheduling and time management. I also have greatly enjoyed the blog writing process. As for looking forward, I just want to avoid the pitfall of giving up when it gets closer, and, instead, pushing through to finish strong!!

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

(Feedback Cat; Image from Growth Mindset & Feedback)

To begin, when discussing feedback in, I believe I am receiving very helpful comments from my classmates.  The ones that seem to be most helpful are those that include a compliment sandwich, in my opinion.  This is where my classmate will tell me something they liked about my post, then suggest a change or something they didn't understand, and then finish up again with something they liked about my post.  This helps me to realize that they aren't criticizing me, but that they are only trying to help me better my writing as a whole.

Next, at first my feedback comments were a little too "nice" I would say because I just continuously complemented them on everything they did in their story, and none of the feedback was very constructive.  After reading some of my own comments I have received, I realize the WWW strategy has been the most helpful in creating my feedback comments now.

I'm looking forward to making my blog comments on peoples' introduction posts more personal. I say this because rather than saying what I have in common with the person, I hope to highlight and appreciate our differences. A way I could accomplish this would be if on each blog comment I wrote, I asked a question that that person could respond to, so I could further get to know them!!

Week 8 Reading and Writing

(Apple; Photo from Pexels)

Hello everyone!! It's time for a reflection on the first half of this semester:

First off, I chose this apple picture from one of my very first story tellings because it is the story that helped give rise to my whole portfolio. This story was so much fun to write, and gave me the first idea to use the Gossip Girl point of view, which has been such a fun addition to every retelling of the stories I have done since. Without it, I'm not sure where my storybook or portfolio would have taken me.

Overall, these assignments are working very well for me and my schedule. The biggest thing I try to do is to stay at least a week ahead in all my assignments, so that if something comes up I will have leeway to relax and focus on something else for a bit.  My project website is something I am very proud of considering I have never taking any design platform classes or creative writing classes, so this is all new to me, and I am absolutely loving it. I have loved being able to use this class as a getaway from the everyday struggles of my other courses and have fun with this one.  My biggest accomplishment in my writing for this class is that I have learned to tap into my creative side. I have always been a very direct and analytical writer, so it has been interesting to watch the other side of me come out and actually enjoy it. My reading notes are what help me the most in my success I believe.  At first, I didn't think the bullet points would be all that helpful, but now, I realize they are the most helpful. Since they are so short and concise, I never have to worry about plagiarism, abdn I know that as long as I get the main plot down, I have a lot of room for creativity, which I highly enjoy.

Thanks for reading!!

Week 7 Story: Jealousy Brings Out the Worst

The Jealous Wife; This story is part of the Congo unit. Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898)

(Heartbreak; Image from Pixabay)

Hello all! Gossip girl here, and boy do I have a story for you!! 

How many of you have ever gotten jealous over something that your friends have? Maybe it was a new cell phone? A new pair of shoes? Maybe your friends' parents bought them a new car for their 16th birthday? Or, how about this, maybe your friend got into the college of your dreams and you didn't? Well, let me tell you, that jealousy will get you nowhere... Read this story and you will see why! This is a good one, so grab some popcorn and get ready for an intense read!

Once upon a time there were two friends: Stella and Anna.  Stella and Anna were seen as friends forever; they wanted to do everything at the same time such as have their weddings together, get pregnant together, go on double dates all the time, etc.  

Well, after they had each had a kid, Anna finds out that Stella had gotten pregnant again.  This didn't originally upset Anna because she figured she could also just have another kid so their lives would be equal again.

Anna was wrong.

Anna was visited by a spirit who assured her she was only allowed to have one kid in her lifetime; this is where the jealousy that took over Anna's life began.  Anna began to envy the second son of Stella.  One day Stella went out to go grocery shopping and while she was gone, Anna's jealousy got the best of her.  

Anna snuck in to Stella's house and ended up killing her second son... or so she thought...

The next morning Anna got a phone call from Stella, crying hysterically.  Anna immediately started to apologize for how sorry she was for Stella's loss, and then Stella stopped her and said, "My loss?? What are you talking about? I just found your son dead in my house!!" 

Anna immediately went over and realized she had made the biggest mistake of her life: She accidentally killed her OWN son.

Anna took her son and went into the forest where she hid for several weeks.  Eventually, her husband found her and asked if what she had done was true.  Anna admitted to it and said the jealousy had taken over her, and she didn't even recognize herself.  Her husband then explained that he was visited by a spirit who said their son could come back to life if Anna gave up her life instead.  Anna agreed that this would be best, since she made the mistake and hurt her friends, family, and herself.

So, in the end, Anna passed away and her son came back to life....

I told you it was going to be an intense one, I contemplated on sending out this blast, but I figured everyone should know how evil jealously can be; I mean, haven't you heard? Jealousy is truly the thief of all joy!!!

Author's Note: For this story, I followed much of the original plot except I made one bigger change.  In the original story, the wife was jealous of the more intelligent son and how he was so good at what he did; in my story, I decided to make the wife jealous at the fact that her friend had the ability to have two sons when she could only have one. This brings out more themes such as betrayal of friendship, jealousy being the thief of joy, and not appreciating what we have in the first place. Also, at the end of the original story, the mother is burned to ashes and the son remains dead; I added the part where if the mom dies the son comes back to life, showing a circle of life thing how she had to sacrifice herself in order to give her son a chance at life again!

Reading Notes: Congo, Part B

Notes on The Three Brothers; This story is part of the Congo unit. Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

(Three Brothers; Image from Pixabay)

• The intro is a little vague; I feel like it could use a bigger attention-grabber to help people become more interested in the story, but I do like the detail oriented style of the story
• A mother gave birth to three children
• The mother did not want the three children, so she left them alone, and they were hungry and went to look for food
• These three boys ended up finding sweet fruit they ate, and in return they grew big and healthy
• They created their own homes
• The river provided them with wives
• They ended up having their own little city based off of what they created/started
• A man wandered near the town and was surprised when he heard voices
• Turns out, the three little boys were his kids
• The husband went back to tell his wife he had finally found their children
• She then went with him to search for them in the town
• She stopped by the river to rest
• One of the boys had a son, who crossed by their mother, and ran back to tell his father
• They went to go kill the intruder, but the river told them it was their mother and instead of killing her they should take care of her
• So, they took her back home and did that
• This is a very interesting story of growth and forgiveness; that is why it was one of my favorites from this unit

Reading Notes: Congo, Part A

Reading Notes on The Jealous Wife; This story is part of the Congo unit. Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898)

(Fishing; Image from Pixabay)

• Two wives were preparing native bread for their husbands while they went to trade for six months
• The husbands instructed them to protect the children
• Wives wanted to get fish for their husbands when they returned (one stayed with kids while the other went)
• One of the wives was jealous of the other son, so while his mom was out fishing, she went and killed him with a razor blade, and the other child woke up and ran out of the house in horror from what he had seen/heard.  
• When the wife woke up to go look at the son she was jealous of again, she realized she killed her OWN son (this is a great example how jealousy is the thief of joy, a great lesson all should learn).
• The wife took her dead son and disappeared into the woods, leaving her husband dazed and confused and he sent a search party out to the woods to look for her
• One of the men finds a women rocking a child asking him why he keeps sleeping this way and why he can't recognize that it is his mom holding him at that moment
• The man tells the husband and they both go back to look at the wife
• When they found out that she really did kill the son, the wife was killed and burned to ashes 
• This is a very morbid story, but I think a good plot twist at the end would be if the mother committed suicide and in turn this let her child come back to life because giving up her own life is the price she would have to pay to get her son's life back

Week 6 Lab: Ted Talk Videos on Language

(Grammar; Photo from Pixabay)

My favorite video from this series was the video "Where do New Words Come From", by Marcel Danesi.  I found this so interesting because I was shocked when it said there are currently 170,000 words used in the English language. I mean, that is so many words; I currently am studying for the GRE and have been doing vocabulary, but hearing that statistic made me realize there is no way I will be able to know all of the words!! Also, it was cool to see that new words are created sometimes to fill gaps in our language that we don't yet have. One of the ways to derive these words is to borrow form another language, the video said, and it also mentioned that half of the English language is derived from other languages or cultures.  I think the making of new words is intriguing because who knows what new ideas or inventions those words will give rise to?? Such a cool thought!!

Reading Notes: Indian Fairy Tales, Part B

Notes on How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner

This story is part of the Indian Fairy Tales unit. Story source: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).

(Wind chime; Photo from Pixabay)

• Sun, Moon, and Wind went out to dine with their uncle and aunt Thunder and Lightning
• I think an interesting addition to the intro would be to explain how each element got the name it was given
• They left their mom at home alone
• Sun and wind were selfish, and did not think of their mom while Moon thought of their mom
• Moon kept some of each meal to give to their mom
• Sun and moon both told their mom when they returned that their reasoning for going out to dinner was for their own pleasure, not for getting food for their mom
• I wonder why they were so selfish and greedy...
• The moon then gave their mom all the food she brought home
• Star, the mom, then cursed the sun for not bringing any food home
• She made her rays incredibly hot (a plot twist could be to make these rays incredibly cold, then there would be no heat)
• Star then cursed Wind and said she would always blow in the dry weather
• A plot twist could be that the wind will cause tornados all the time instead of just light gusts of wind
• Star then blessed moon with a calm, cool, and bright light and that is why the moon is still loved and beautiful today
• This story could change point of views, such as from the Sun or Wind's point of view instead

Reading Notes: Indian Fairy Tales, Part A

Notes on The Lion and the Crane

This story is part of the Indian Fairy Tales unit. Story source: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).

(Lion; Photo from Pixabay)

• The opening of the story jumps right into dialogue; I believe this helps get the story moving and gives a very realistic view from the beginning
• The sentences in the intro are very short and straight to the point
• The Crane asks the lion what is wrong when he sees him get the bone stuck in his mouth, but is scared to help for fear of being eaten
• The crane then freed the bone from the lion's mouth, and went back on the tree
• This part of the story lacks a lot of details; I think more details would be appropriate such as the process of the crane getting in the lion's mouth and the conversation they have during this moment
• A cool addition would be the lion's thoughts while the crane is in his mouth, such as, "don't eat him, don't eat him, don't eat him"
• The crane then had asked the lion what his repayment was; the lion simply responded by telling him how lucky he was to be alive right now, and the crane flew away, realizing there was no hope for a friendship there

Learning Challenge: Schedule Review

For this challenge, I am discussing my current work schedule for this class and how it works for me. My approach to time scheduling with this class has been simply this: work one week ahead always.  I have found that when I try to stay on course and turn things in on the day that they are assigned, I feel as though I am overwhelmed and drowning in things to do.  On the other hand, when I keep myself one week ahead in the work, I feel like I have it all together and will be okay if something suddenly comes up and I need to take a few days off.  This is why I love the flexibility of this course.  Also, each week in my free time, I try to do at least 2-3 of the extra credit assignments, so that I can finish this course earlier than expected. Plus, the extra credit assignments are usually some of the most entertaining assignments.  My favorite ones are the learning by HEART.  For next week, I might try working two weeks in advance since I will be taking the GRE the following week, but other than that, my biggest success strategy has been to always work ahead!!

(Success; Image from Pixabay)

Learning Challenge: Empathy Observation

(Empathy; Photo from Pixabay)

When it comes to observing empathy, one person stuck out to me the most in my observations: my dad.  My dad truly knows how to be empathetic to every person he comes in contact with.  For example, this past weekend, my dad was talking with me while I was home about some struggles he was going through financially and in his relationship.  I was helping him out with his issues, when my brother came in and started to talk about how he's having a hard time adjusting in college.  My dad instantly stopped talking about his own life and began to empathize with my brother.  This showed me that my dad will consistently put others before himself, one of the key parts of being empathetic. I could definitely learn from my dad in this case!!

Week 5 Story: Parrot Tales

Story can be found on my portfolio: Four Best Friends

Retelling of the story, Tales of a Parrot: Four Rich Persons who Became Poor. The Story source was The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, by Ziya'al-Die Nakhshabi (1801). 

(Group of Girl Friends; Photo from Pexels)

Gossip Gal here, your one and only source for anything and everything scandalous having to do with the most wonderful readings of mythology! This week I will be telling you about how four young ladies in our town had to painfully learn the power of friendship.

Here is how it all started: A group of young ladies was walking around town one night when they realized they did not have enough money to buy all of the new clothes, shoes, and bags that had just been released. They all sat and sulked about how they couldn't buy the new best thing (something we are all guilty of doing at some point in our lives).  Well, after sitting in their sorrows, they decided to go see a fortune-teller, who would hopefully tell them they were about to get rich!! 

Upon meeting the fortune-teller, the girls were asked to remain silent.  The teller said she had seen them coming for some time now, and knew they were going to ask for help.  

The teller then instructed the girls to each take one of the four diamonds she had laying out on the table and place it on each of their heads.  She instructed them that wherever their respective diamonds fell off their heads, they were to stop there and start singing.  Once they started singing, they would see their destiny that lies ahead.  

The group of four girls started off on their journey.  About 15 minutes in, the diamond fell off the first girl's head.  At once the girl started to sing, just like the teller had instructed her to do.  Immediately a pair of shoes made of copper popped up in front of her.  She asked her friends if they were satisfied with this, and they responded no and continued on their way.  Next, the second diamond fell off a girl's head.  The girl started singing and immediately shoes made of silver popped up.  The two remaining friends decided not to stay there either, and continued on their way.  Finally, the third diamond fell off. After singing, a pair of gold shoes popped up, some of the most fabulous shoes anyone could ever dream of! The girl begged her friend to stay, for she believed this was the greatest treasure they could have come upon.  But, unfortunately, the remaining girl refused to stay and continued on her way by herself.  

Once the last girl had the diamond fall off her head, she reached a dead in.  At this dead in was a pile of old, thrown-out shoes from people in the city.  The teller popped up on top of the shoe pile and told her this is what she deserved for not sticking with/listening to her friends.  Immediately, all the other friends popped up right next to the girl who strayed off by herself.  The fortune-teller then explained that since she wandered off alone, and did not appreciate the true friendships she had around her, she has now caused all her friends to suffer and lose their riches.

The teller explained how she hopes the girls can go back to the city and work on the quality of their friendship before asking for material possessions they do not need.

Wow!! What a story.  The minute I got this gossip tip, I couldn't help but share with you guys! Remember to keep your friends close; besides, without your friends, who would help give me the gossip intel each day??

See you next time!!

XOXO,

Gossip Gal

Author's Note: In the original story, the parrot tells a tale about four poor men who are given the chance to find their destiny, but one friend doesn't listen to the other friends, and ends up making his life even worse.  I thought it would be fun to continue with my Gossip Gal theme, and make the characters four women, since typically women suffer from more friendship issues anyways.  Another thing I did in this story as add in more dialogue between the friends, asking why they had not trusted each other in the end.  The original story ends with the friend who didn't listen all on his own; I changed this to being the friend who was on her own winding back up with her other friends back where they started.  This idea helps portray the lesson that sometimes if we are selfish in our ways, we can ruin the good things going for other people as well as the good things going for ourselves.  I also changed the philosopher to a fortune-teller to make some more modern changes to the story. Some other slight changes I made to fit the girls as main characters was diamonds instead of balls, and singing instead of digging. 

Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot, Part B

Notes from Of the Merchant, and the Barber's Heating the Brahmins, by Ziya'al-Die Nakhshabi

(Parrot; Picture from Pexels)

• At the beginning of this story, Khojisteh asked for a short story so that she could go see her lover at midnight
• The parrot told a story about a merchant who didn't have any children to take over his place when he passes away
• He then thought it would be smart to give the money to the poor and charity instead, since that would be the people who would appreciate it the most
• The merchant had a dream that night where a vision appeared and said he would show up as a Brahmin the next day and provide him with the necessary gold he needs, since he gave everything away to the poor that day and left nothing for himself to have
• The Brahmin instructed the merchant to hit him on the head when he saw him in order to get the gold
• The next day, the merchant did as he was told, and the Brahmin was turned into gold
• The merchant told the barber, who watched the whole thing, to keep it to himself
• The next night, the barber had some Brahmins over for dinner
• He started hitting them on the head with a stick
• They began to bleed and complain of this outrageous event
• The barber was brought before the magistrate who asked why he did what he did
• The story ends on a cliff hanger
• The merchant stuck up for the barber though, and the magistrate believed the merchant about what he had said

Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot, Part A

Notes on Four Rich Persons who Became Poor, by Ziya'al-Die Nakhshabi

• The opener of this story begins with her saying "the sorrows of love overwhelm me"; I feel like this is a very strong opener for this story
• Then the story proceeds to the parrot's part of the intro, where he discusses how important it is to listen to friends
• I like how the introduction gives a vague message about wisdom and what we all can apply in our everyday lives
• Four men were united in friendship, and they were all poor
• They went to ask a philosopher for help and explain their positions
• The philosopher gave them balls and said wherever it drops off your head, dig there to find your destiny
• It would be cool to do a character switch and make it a group of girls instead of guys
• Also, instead of a ball, it could be a pearl or diamond ring, to better fit the likings of women these days
• One of the men continued to search further and further on the path to find something better than the rest, despite all of his friends telling him to stay put and enjoy what they had found
• The man who wandered off ended up with nothing in the end because he tried to control his own destiny and didn't listen to his friends
• This story truly shows the power of true and genuine friendship

(Friendship Squad; Picture from Pixabay)

Comment Wall

(Comment Bubbles; Image from Pixabay)

Here is my Portfolio Project!

XOXO, Gossip Gal

Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche Part B

Notes from Psyche's Prayer by Tony Kline

(Praying Hands; Image by Pixabay)

• I liked the author's use of dialogue in the beginning of the story to discuss what Psyche was thinking at the time; I feel like this gives a better insight to each character and helps the audience feel more connected to them
• Psyche is portrayed as a very thoughtful, humble, and kind person who wants to cause no drama with anyone
• A plot twist to this could be that Psyche instead of praying, goes directly to argue with Venus and sort out their problems face-to-face quicker
• This article uses several personifications and simile like comparisons
• Another plot twist would be if Ceres actually helped Psyche instead of sending her away and saying that her and Venus had a lasting friendship
• Instead of the friendship, the plot twist could be changed where Ceres has anger towards Venus for stealing a boyfriend or something (this would make it more modernized)
• Juno also turns Venus away
• Instead, another idea would be if Ceres and Juno teamed up to help Psyche go against Venus' little scheme and form their own friendship between the three of them
• This article uses a lot of insight in Psyche's character; I would add in more dialogue, I typically seem to think dialogue helps make the read go faster and easier; it is more succinct

Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche Part A

Notes over Psyche's Beauty and the Anger of Venus by Tony Kline

(Cupid with Arrows; Image from Pixabay)

• The intro draws you in immediately because you want to know why one daughter is so much more beautiful than the other two daughters
• Also, the intro does a good job of using descriptive language when talking about the third daughter's beauty
• The text is from a 3rd person point of view
• It contains very little dialogue
• The author does a great job of describing actions of the people in specific detail, which helps you be able to feel the story and really see it come to life
• Many descriptive words and action words are used, with a LOT of detail, when the author explains how the third daughter is now being praised as if she were the new goddess Venus, and how everyone now looks to her instead of looking at Venus
• I think it would be a cool plot twist if instead of Venus getting angry, she could end up becoming best friends with the third daughter
• Another plot twist that could add more to the story would be if Cupid declined his mothers wishes, and the story ended with Cupid staying on the mainland while his mother went back
• In my story, I would want to eliminate some of the descriptive language because I feel like it bogs down th entirety of the story; instead, in place of all the descriptive language, I would like to add in more dialogue in order to make the characters interact more.
• Another thing that could be done is to have the story told from Psyche's point of view as wel. Sort of like a compare and contrast story.

Week 4 Lab

(Writing notebook & coffee; Photo from Public Domain Pictures)

Notes from "Advice to Writers" by Jon Winokur:

First of all, the most important piece of advice I found from this website overall was the advice from Rainer Maria Rilke, where she talked about how patience is everything.  I feel like this is a such a huge thing when it comes to writing, especially in this class.  If we try and rush through all the assignments, we won't get all the benefits we should get as compared to if we slowly took our time and assured we were only publishing our best works.  This task would require lots of time, proofreading, and even more proofreading! The other piece of advice I wanted to mention was "Perfectionism is the enemy of the people" by Anne Lamott.  This brings me back to when we discussed different feedback strategies and how we need to be able to accept criticism most of the times in order to improve our work; we can't always be perfect all of the time.

Week 3 Story: The Fall of Adam and Eve

Check out my Portfolio for more information on this story! 

(Apple; Photo from Pexels)

Gossip Gal here, your one and only source for anything and everything scandalous having to do with the most popular couple on the block: Adam and Eve!  This week was one of the most eventful and challenging weeks of Adam and Eve's lives; they did the unthinkable, they let down the one person they swore they would never let down: God. Let me back this up so you can understand the story from the beginning.  It was a clear hot day when God had a conversation with Adam; he specifically told Adam not to eat the forbidden fruit from a specific tree.  Once Adam started to wander off (like he tends to do, as we all know), he ran into a black widow spider who started to persuade Adam into eating the forbidden fruit.  I know what you are all thinking, Adam would never do that, he has much more willpower than that, etc., but, I am here to tell you all that willpower went out the window and Adam did in fact eat the forbidden fruit.  Not only did he eat the fruit, he then persuaded Eve into eating it to; what a couple, persuading each other to do the one thing God asked them not to do.  I bet you are all wondering how God reacted to this, well, let me tell you, he was the opposite of happy and impressed.  In fact, God banished them from our so loved Garden of Life.  He explained to them how they went against everything he had asked them to do, even after he had provided them with everything they would need.  Adam and Eve have been off the radar since, so I don't have anything else to update you guys on, but when I do, you know where to find me!

Xoxo,
Gossip Gal

Author's Note: I did a storytelling of The Fall, by Michelangelo.  The original story had very outdated language, so I wanted to make it more modernized.  The original story tells how Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, as I discussed in my story, but I made a few changes.  First, Michelangelo's version, and every other version I have read, depicts Eve as the one who eats the forbidden fruit first and then persuades Adam to as well; I changed this and had Adam be the one who first ate the fruit. Also, in the original, a serpent was the one who persuaded them into eating the fruit, and I changed it to be a black widow.  The original also had a lot more dialogue, but I thought using a spin off version of Gossip Girl would be a fun way to modernize this piece and bring a bit of a reporting sense to it.

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part B

(Treasure Chest; Photo from Pixabay)

Story 1: Suicide and Salvation by Rutherford H. Platt

-Talks about how Adam and Eve beg to br brought out of the dangerous place they are in

-Uses some long dialogue parts, but it doesn't help bring the characters to life; I think shorter dialogue would have been better in this instance

-Adam and Eve committed suicide to try and stop suffering

-God explains they were treated well & with grace, until they decided to break his commandment

-Adam and Eve beg several times to be set free

-God keeps a very calm and non-empathetic demeanor the whole time

-God then says he will take all the suffering and save Adam because he had admitted his wrong doing and asked to be forgiven

-The story doesn't cover much plot; I believe it could place more emphasis on the commandments; I think this story could easily be brought more to life, which is why I was so drawn to it

Story 2: Worship and Blessing by Rutherford H. Platt

-Adam and Eve make an offering to God

-They used their blood as a sacrifice on the Alter

-They admitted their transgressions

-Less dialogue

-3rd person point of view

-Uses a lot of repetition when explaining what Adam did, and so God will then do too

-Adam was told his time was not up

-Adam made his first of many offerings to come


*Tried a new storytelling method: bullet points. I haven't decided if I am a fan of it yet or not, but I am trying to just try out new strategies each week until I find one I like*

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part A

(Adam and Eve stained-glass window; Photo from Pixabay)

Reading Notes Week 3:

Story: The Fall, by Michelangelo

This story has always been interesting to me; even growing up in a Catholic school when we would read it.  This story has a lot of dialogue, and stuck out to me because I could make a huge plot twist in the story when I retell my own. The serpent is depicted as sly, deceitful, and convincing. Eve is depicted as very easy to push-over, and did not stand her grounds when she knew God had said not to eat the fruit.  The story places more emphasis on the dialogue AFTER Adam and Eve eat the fruit than emphasis on dialogue leading up to them eating the fruit. For my retelling of the story I would want to make Adam the one who gave in to eating the forbidden fruit as a plot twist to the well-known story. I would also like to change the point of view to be first person point of view, Adam speaking, instead of third person point of view.

Story: Creation of Eve, by William Blake

This story had less dialogue and more definitions/explanations.  It discussed how men and women are different, and why the formation of a woman is much more complicated.  This story used a very casual tone of voice, and also showed that everything God hoped women would not be, they ended up being in some way, more or less. This story is from a 3rd person point of view.

Story: Adam and Eve in Paradise

This was my favorite story to read because of the concept: the seven portals to pass in order to arrive in Heaven or Paradise.  This story did an incredible job of breaking up each portal and giving a good description on what needed to be done in order to get through the portal. The point of view is 3rd person, I think it would be cool to make it first person. The story is very well organized in chronological order of the portals.

Topic Research: Popular Princesses.. But French!

(Princesses; Photo from Pexels)

Story Idea 1:

For my first story idea, I think I could focus on a main theme of Princess Weddings.  If you have seen the movie Bride Wars, then I think I could do a fairytale story version of this movie.  It is about two best friends who want the same venue and day for their wedding, and they get engaged at the same time.  This would be a very interesting romantic comedy that could entail two french princesses getting engaged and married at the same time and the other princesses taking sides.  This type of storytelling would have majority dialogue elements to make the story really come to life.

Story Idea 2:

My second idea for a story of French Princesses would be the princesses competing in a French cook-off.  This could let me tie in the cookbook idea, and say that each princess was focused on making one meal, and give the symbolism of that meal.  This would allow for me to tie two subjects into one. This storytelling technique would be from the 3rd person perspective looking in and talking about all the Princesses.

Story Idea 3:

My last story comes from the story of Blondie, Bonne-Biche and Beau-Minon.  This story reminds me of the movie A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff as the main actress.  I could do a story about how a young french princess lost her mom and her dad had to remarry; the dad then remarries a horrible lady who is awful to the daughter.  Then, the dad dies too and the young princess is left alone with her "evil step-mom", as she would call it.  Then, in the end, things turn around for the young french princess.  This is my least favorite idea because it is a tad generic, but I could see it coming to life if I made a few dramatic plot twists. 

Sources researched:

D'Aulnoy, Madame. SurLaLune Fairy Tales: The Fairy Tales of Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, 

Blondie, Bonne-Biche and Beau-Minon.

Learning Challenge: The Jar of Goodness

(Inspirational Happiness Quote; Photo from Needpix)

For this learning challenge, I am going to make it a two week process. My plan is to try the Jar of Happiness Challenge.  This challenge sounds simple: to write down something that makes you happy every day and put it in a jar; then, at the end of the week, read the things you have listed, and it will help with happiness levels.  My plan is to write what made me happy each morning; I have decided to write them in the morning, discussing what made me happy the previous day, because I feel as though if I have a really tough day, then my thoughts and judgements will be clouded.  On the other hand, if I give myself time to sleep off my bad day, I will have a much more positive outlook and be able to fully contribute to my happiness jar. I can't wait to update you guys on how it goes!

Tech Tip: Duck Duck Go

To begin, I think Duck Duck Go is a great alternative to Google.  I have never heard of this search engine, but the main thing that draws me in is the fact that it doesn't keep your personal information. It is also super helpful to do the Bangs; I wanted to see Pinterest boards about cooking recipes, so I tried to "Bang" it, and the results were incredible.  The pluses of using this search engine is the safety of your personal information, and the results are almost similar to the ones you would be given from Google or another search engine. I have never used it before, like I mentioned earlier, so I did not happen to see any minuses.  These tech tip activities are so cool because they allow me to become more technologically advanced, and I quite enjoy it!

Feedback Strategies

Feedback is a good thing!!

(Thumbs Up; Image from Pixabay)

Article 1: Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset

As a whole, I saw the title of this article and instantly wanted it to be one of the ones I looked at because of the positive title; the title drew me in and had me wanting to know more about how a mirror could be used to symbolize the structure of feedback. There were two main points that stuck out to me in this article: focus on what the reader is doing (not what is missing), and take yourself out of the feedback.  The first one about focusing on what the reader is doing is so important because I feel like we can all get caught up throwing out all the negative things that are missing or need to be added and that prevents us from seeing the bigger picture.  Secondly, I am guilty of not taking myself out of the feedback. I often find myself saying "I like how you..." or "I enjoyed this part...", and I now understand why that is not beneficial feedback because it takes the focus off of the story and the writer and instead, inserts me into the focus of the conversation.

Article 2: Why Do So Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise?

I chose to discuss this article because of all the bar graphs included; I found them to be very shocking for what I would've expected. I had the kind of manager who, as discussed in the article, was "quick to criticize and slow to praise".  This caused a lot of problems, but I now can understand the thoughts coming from my manager; she was so focused on the negative thoughts that she forgot the good things she wanted to say, which led me to view her in a negative light. I feel as though this article helps us change perspective that while we do want to give constructive criticism, we also want it to be positive and not discouraging.

For a quick example here, I used to be the assistant manager for a store I worked at.  My manager avoided conflict at all costs; in exchange for the avoidance, she had me deal with the difficult situations.  I was frustrated that the duties were getting passed on to me to relay negative feedback and comments because of her avoidance, but, I then realized I began to act the same way.  I began to just tell the feedback to one of my close co-workers and ask him to spread the news.  I twas a poor strategy, but I feel like in our day in age we run away from giving criticism just as much as we run away from getting criticism. 

Famous Last Words: Surviving Syllabus Week

(Assignment picture; Photo by The Blue Diamond Gallery)

Hello everyone!! I just recently finished the most stressful syllabus week... ever! Typically the stigma behind syllabus week is few assignments, lots of free time, lots of social time, and lots of time to sleep. All of these were not the case for me; each of my classes started getting deep into the material on the first day of classes and assigning homework due the next class period. I found myself incredibly stressed, building several to-do lists, and simply not thinking there was enough time in the day.  My thoughts for this week are to stay ahead of the game; I stayed ahead in this class, for the most part, but I need to continue to do that as well as in my other classes.  I let all my work build up until Sunday night, the dreaded "Sunday Scaries".  I was so overwhelmed with all the work I had to complete; I thought I wouldn't get it all done. This week will be different because I am going to use my time wisely and make sure I get things done ahead of when they should be turned in to relieve my stress at the end of each week. Another suggestion I am trying out this week for myself is to limit my amount of social time and time on my phone unless it is beneficial to the work I need to be getting done.  Last week I watched a lot of Netflix, and stayed up late with friends, which then caused me to sleep in more than I have ever slept in.  This week I need to focus on physical and mental health, to assure myself I am capable of all the things coming my way. Overall, senior year of college can be all fun and games, but you need to make sure you have time to settle down and get stuff done at the same time, otherwise, it will not be all fun and games.