Week 3 Story: The Fall of Adam and Eve

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(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  The original story had very outdated language, so I wanted to make it more modernized.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.