Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2020

Week 10 Story: Sharing is (Not) Caring

Sharing is (Not) Caring There once was a village made up entirely of women. Years had gone by without any visitors and the women could barely remember what a man looked like. Once a woman went out of the village to gather food, and saw a flicker of light off in the distance. Curious, she headed that way because she had not seen any other people in this area since she was very young. As she got closer to the light, she saw it was a campsite with a single tent set up. Calling out to the tent, she wanted to meet whoever the outsider was. To her surprise, it was a man. She was speechless. She ran away and went back to her village to share the news with all of the women in the village. Word spread and within hours every woman was wanting to go see the man. Fifteen women took off on their horses and headed to the man's campsite. When they arrived, they called out to the man and he came out of his tent. Overwhelmed by the number of women on horseback, he started to run thinking he was bei...

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends, Part B

 The First Woman I really enjoyed reading native american stories because they seem very different from the folklore's I have read previously in this class. This story begins with describing a village that is made up entirely of men. It is known that a ways away there is a woman that lives all by herself. One day, a man decides to travel all the way to go meet the woman. He arrives to her house and he marries her quickly. At the same time, another man gets the same idea to go meet the woman and make her his wife. When that man arrives, he sees the woman with the other man and thinks of a plan. That night, he sneaks into the house and grabs her. He pulls her by her arms and drags her out of the house. The sleeping husband is woken up by the noise and runs out to save his wife. He grabs her by her legs and pulls in order to get her away from the man. Unfortunately, the two men were in a 'tug-of-war' situation and ended up pulling so hard that they ripped the woman into two ha...

Week 9 Story: Finding Freedom

Finding Freedom An orphan from birth, Kang always felt like an outcast in his African village. He had no last name, and therefore no title. No girls wanted to marry him and no men wanted to be associated with him. Although he remained polite and respectful to everyone he met, he could feel his resentment towards the village people grow the more they neglected him. As he grew older, he began to have thoughts of leaving his village. A new life surrounded by all new people became more appealing as the days passed by. However, they were the only village within miles of any other human civilization, and in order to go to a new village he would need to venture days through the wilderness. He finally worked up enough nerve and left in the morning.  Running away from the village- he never felt more free. It was as if he could run for hours without any pains or fears. Nightfall came and he found a large rock which to sleep by. He fell asleep peacefully but awoke to the sound of a lioness's ...

Reading Notes: Folklore of Laos, Part B

 The Boys Who Were Not Appreciated This title of this story caught my attention because it seems as if it is a mystery to what the boys will do. I initially guessed that the boys would be taken for granted and treated wrongly, and they would come back to get revenge on those who wronged them. However, it turns out I was wrong.  The story begins with introducing the two brothers. The elder one tended to the younger one when the mom was working for food. The boy's father had died, and the mother married another man who was very cruel. Over time, he turned her against her sons and began to neglect them. After a long day of waiting for their mother to return with food, the boys were extremely hungry. When the mother and her husband finally returned with rice, the husband refused to let the mother share any with her children. In fact, she kicked them out of the house altogether. The boys ventured until they found a widow who let them sleep, but they were quickly on the move looking...

Reading Notes: Folklore of Laos, Part A

 A Child of The Woods Usually I prefer to write stories which are based on elephants, or animals in general, as the main character. However, after reading this story I found I really enjoyed it and wanted to write notes so that I could remember and refer back to it again in the future. This story begins with a stranger that visits a large village in the middle of a jungle. There is one elderly woman that is loved by all the people, so he asks her why everyone admires her. She then answers by telling him the story of how she arrived here.  When she was young, she grew up in a typical village surrounded by people with whom she did not like. She describes growing more angry the longer she lived there. So, one day she fled to the forest to escape the feelings of hatred and the men in her village. She ran fast and far, never tiring. Eventually she laid down to go to sleep under a tree- not afraid of the beasts in the forest. She awoke in the middle of the night to a tiger standing ...

Week 8 Progress

 Looking Back I am very happy with the progress I've made so far in this class. I'm most proud of staying on track with this class and not getting behind. I try and knock out the first few assignments on Monday, but my schedule varies each week based on what my other courses have going on. The assignments I enjoyed the most so far are reading my classmate's stories and seeing what cool spins on classic folk tales they were able to come up with. I have not been using any extra credit so far because I am on schedule to finish ahead of time, but if I fall behind a week I will definitely use some to catch up. I have always felt comfortable with technology, but I now feel very confident about my skills in using blogger and google sites.  Looking Forward As of now, there are no major changes I would make for the second half of this semester. However, I will still explore new writing styles and formatting options as the weeks go by.  [Keep Going. Image Information .]

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

 Feedback In I would rate the quality of my classmate's feedback as very good. They have been very supportive and positive in their comments, but also have some helpful criticism. The most useful comments are when they point out areas in my story that didn't make sense to them, or areas they think I can improve. This gives me a basis on which I can easily enhance my writing. Feedback Out I have very much enjoyed reading other's stories and leaving feedback as well. I use the same format most of the times I leave feedback, pointing out a lot of good aspects and then some areas I thought could improve. Reading others has given me a lot of inspiration in my own stories. So many of my classmates are very talented writers! Blog Comments My favorite comments to give are based on people's introductions! I love getting to know people finding similarities between us. Overall, I am very happy with how my introduction post and blog in general gives people a way to know a bit about...

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking Back  Previewing my past blogs and website, I am very pleased with how everything is turning out. I have gotten to read a lot of interesting stories, and focus my notes on my main interests. I seem to have a theme of animals, especially elephants, that I acquired through my different posts. One of my favorite readings would have to be 'Why the Elephant has Small Eyes' or 'The Bush Cow and the Elephant'. I especially enjoy reading, and recreating stories, to fit my own unique narrative.  Looking Forward Moving forward, I am excited to read more mythology/folklore stories and build on my website. I feel like this class has helped improve my creativity and I hope to keep challenging myself to become a better writer in this course.  [Blogging. Image Information. ]

Week 7 Story: A Teenage Disaster

A Teenage Disaster Sarah and Rachel had known, and hated, each other their entire life. As mean, popular girls- they were always comparing looks and competing for guys and attention. They each spent an absurd amount of money on clothes and plastic surgery in order to be the most beautiful girl in their high school. One day, a popular football player asked out Rachel on a date in front of the entire school. Sarah, enraged that she was not the one asked out, felt ashamed and embarrassed. She began to question how attractive she was and went looking for confirmation. After some thought, she decided to have a modeling competition with Sarah to prove who was prettier. Sarah readily agreed because she had no doubt that she would win. The news of the competition spread around the entire school, and soon even the teachers and administration were involved. The principle decided to set up a time and place where the girls would walk down runways and compete for their classmates votes in a pageant...

Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part B

 Why the Bush Cow and the Elephant are Bad Friends I was drawn to this story because of how it mentions elephants. Since I have decided to do my storybook website on elephants, I am always excited to read and take notes on stories that involve elephants. In this story, an elephant and a bush cow never got along. The elephant always boasted about his size and strength. With the elephant talking on and on about his greatness, it made the bushcow ashamed because he too believed he was strong and to be feared by animals and man. The situation was then taken to the chief, and the chief recommended that the two animals fight it out to determine who the toughest, strongest one would be. As the fight neared, the bush cow went towards the market and started tearing up the ground and making a scene. He asked animals that passed by if they knew where the elephant was. After some time, the elephant was heard trumpeting down the streets and soon came into the sightline of the bushcow. Once they...

Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part A

 The Elephant and the Tortoise The story begins with a greedy elephant that has a reputation of devouring everything at feasts-even leaving similar sized animals, such as hippos, with a very small amount of food. A tortoise decided that he would be the one to put a stop to this behavior, and came up with a plan in which to do so. One day he arrived at the elephant's house and ate a delicious snack right in front of him. Predictably, the elephant asked for some of his food, but the tortoise said that the elephant must give up an eye in order to eat it. Agreeing, the elephant allowed his eyes to be painfully slashed out. The elephant ate the snack and was not satisfied, so he asked for more. The same deal took place- more snacks for his other eye. The tortoise then left, leaving the elephant blind and feeling deceived. The elephant went around town asking for other animals to lend him their eyes, but everyone said no except for the worms. The worms were glad to have been noticed and ...

Week 6 Story Laboratory: Writers Write

 Writers Write For this weeks laboratory, I wanted to continue with tips that will help enhance my writing. For that reason, I decided to pick 'Writers Write' for the chosen activity. My initial thoughts of the website was that it had an overwhelming amount of advice to choose from. I navigated through its tabs and pages and read different articles. Many different writers contributed to the site's variety of tips. Reading through many of these short tidbits of advice were very interesting and I constantly examined how I could apply these tips to my writing in this class. One of my favorite articles I read was called '10 Editing Error Writers Should Avoid At All Costs'. The title immediately struck my attention and I found a lot of helpful tips. The first piece of advice was not to care so much about "house" styling and grammar. This is referring to how the typical method of writing is perceived. In order to become your own writer with a unique story, you m...