Week 7 Story: The Golden Mirror

Today was gloomy and dreary which perfectly ruined Jane's plan for the day. She was supposed to spend the day outside in the sun and refresh her mind, but the weather had other ideas. Still wanting to get out of the house, Jane decided to go to the local museum as history had always caught her attention. 

Once she arrived at the museum, she wandered slowly through each exhibit. This was a worldly museum which walked through the various history and tales of different cultures. The variation of the displays covered America, Russia, India, and even all the way to Japan. Each display had fascinating tidbits about each country, but Jane found herself drawn to a mirror that was twice her height and as wide as her arm span. The golden frame that surrounded the mirror exposed the age of the piece as there were wear marks and scratches in the brassy frame. The mirror itself looked to be made out of greatly polished gold. In result, the reflection you saw was highlighted by a gold tinge. This massive mirror had a small placard beside it which explained the mirror's origin.

The placard read the following: 

"The Miraculous Mirror

After the frightening appearance of Susa-no-wo,

the Dragon of Hell, 

scared Amaterasu into hiding,

this mirror convinced Amaterasu, 

the Sun Goddess,

to reappear and bring her light, once again, to the land.

Without Amaterasu, we would all be cloaked in darkness.

The mirror tells the truth."

Jane thought this to be an odd description. The information about the mirror spoke as if everything that was described was true. In curiosity, she decided to gaze into the mirror to see if she could understand what the last cryptic sentence of the description meant. She spent some time pondering her reflection, but this was the same as every other time she had looked at her reflection in a mirror. Just as she had decided to move on to the next display, she saw a flicker of light on the edge of the mirror. Surprised, she looked behind herself for the source, but saw nothing that would have emitted that light. She looked back upon the mirror, and the light was still there but now the light was slowly rising behind what seemed to be several peaks. The shape of mountains were forming before her with the light acting in place of a sunrise bringing light to the landscape below it.

Once the Sun had reached her peak placement in the sky, there was a violent tremble, and a vicious-looking dragon broke free from the Earth. Susa-no-wo flew into the sky with fluid actions of a snake. His roar was grating and no one could be free from the sound of his screeching claim to the land. His claws were razors and his teeth rivaled the height of a full grown elephant. Once gazing upon such a sight, the beholder could only do their best to look away. Jane's heart was pounding as she looked upon this scene with trepidation as she saw the Sun quickly disappear again behind the mountains, and there was nothing but darkness. She heard the cries of the people as the fire dragon wreaked havoc across the land and took what he desired. The people quickly had to find a solution to bring the light back to their world.

Jane soon found herself looking upon a beautiful goddess weeping in a cave lit by her own light. She knew this to be the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, which provided the light to the land. From outside, she could hear laughter. Jane watched as the weeping being of light stood up to go investigate what was outside. She wiped away her tears of fright and peered outside to the source. Outside stood numerous townspeople and the Goddess of Laughter, Uzume, who called to Amaterasu. They told Amaterasu that they had found a new goddess and brought out the golden mirror that Jane had looked into in the museum. The mirror shone with a golden brilliance that brought Amaterasu to stare into the shining surface herself. Within the mirror, she saw her own reflection whom she assumed to be the rival goddess the people told her about.

With jealousy and a wish to not be replaced, she raced out of the cave to meet her opponent. As soon as she did this, Taji-Karao, the Strong, closed the entrance to the cave with a massive boulder. Amaterasu could no longer retreat to where she had been hiding from Susa-no-wo. The townspeople cheered and welcomed back their sun-giving goddess of light.

Jane backed away from the mirror. The scene she had just witnessed felt like she had been drawn into the story herself. She had been within the tale of the Sun Goddess. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before, and when she looked around the room, no one else appeared to have noticed everything she had just seen. In bewilderment, she shook off the rare event that had just occurred. Jane decided that the next time the weather ruined her plans, she would just stay home.

Author's Note: This story was based off the tale of the Miraculous Mirror. I altered the story to be about the Miraculous Mirror that had found itself in a museum many years after the events of the original tale. In this way, I was able to bring a magical element of my telling of the story, as the mirror showed Jane how everything happened in the tale of Amaterasu. In the original story, Amaterasu is providing light to everyone, but Susa-no-wo comes out and scares Amaterasu into hiding. She stays there long enough that the townspeople have to strike up a deal with the Goddess of Laughter to convince Amaterasu to come out of her cave. The plan was to take a golden mirror and tell Amaterasu that they had found another goddess to take her place. When Amaterasu saw her reflection in the mirror, the trick had worked, and she came charging out of her cave. With a strong god in place to close off the cave with a boulder, they successfully worked together, humans and gods alike, to get Amaterasu back to provide light to their world.

Bibliography

The Miraculous Mirror, Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Image Information: Golden Mirror, Flickr

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B

From the second part of the Japanese Mythology unit, I was drawn into this world by the first story I read. In this story, Yamato is enthralled by the many wonders and delights of Benten, a sea goddess. This was the story of a man who had apparently gotten tired of having a faithful and loving wife, so he went off in search of something else. For some reason, his wife's constant devotion to him was somewhat of a burden. This is not at all the reason I was drawn to this story. Why I liked this story was because of the way the story was told.

The visual details of each part of this tale were vividly described in a way that made me think about and see things in a new way. Colorful words like emerald and golden brought new layers to the elements that were part of this plot. This painted a picture that truly helped to bring this story to life. I had not realized until now how few stories really emphasize these details in favor of explaining more in depth what action or dialogue is happening. These details are what really help to flesh out a story and bring an image into the reader's mind. I personally cannot fully immerse myself into a story if I cannot picture how the world looks in my mind.

Adding meaningful and compelling visual details is a method I would like to strengthen in my writing. I need to consider that if I cannot picture what is going on by the words I have written, then this will be even harder for the reader to piece together. Of course, creativity is a key value to making sure there is enough description for the reader while enough flexibility for the reader to also use their imagination.

Bibliography

The Labors of Yamato: The Grotto of Love, Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Image Information: Benzaiten, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part A

The story I liked this week was The Miraculous Mirror from the Japanese Mythology unit. I thought the character of Amaterasu was unique for the various powers she possessed. The power she had that contributed to the majority of this story was her light giving abilities. She was the Sun Goddess that brought light to the land. Unfortunately for her, Susa-no-wo decided to come crash her party for no real given reason. This frightened Amaterasu so much that she went into hiding and with her went the light of the land. To get Amaterasu back out in the world, the people and gods had to work together. By the help of the Goddess of Laughter, they coaxed Amaterasu slowly from her hiding place. Together, they convinced the Sun Goddess that there was a better goddess outside. This was where the mirror came in because they "showed" her the rival goddess in the mirror. In actuality, the mirror showed the Sun Goddess a reflection of herself. This trick was enough to get Amaterasu out from the cave and the cave was sealed behind her. In result, the people got what they wanted which was light back to their world.

The elements that I would like to incorporate from this story would be the interaction between the gods and common people. They create a dynamic where when together, they are stronger. The will of the people brought about the inclusion of the Goddess of Laughter, so their need and want for the Sun to be returned helped to push the story forward in a direction where the light would be out in the open once again. The fact that they used a mirror to convince Amaterasu to leave the cave is a reminder that even simple items can play an important role in a story like this.

Bibliography

The Miraculous Mirror, Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Image Information: Sun Goddess painting by Utagawa

Week 6 Lab: Creative Writing and Style

From this group of videos, I enjoyed the first two videos the most. I liked these videos because they correlated more with my interests in life. The first one was about reaching limitations and finding new ways to surpass them, and the second one was about heroes. The first video called The power of creative constraints by Brandon Rodriguez from the Story Lab: Style playlist really got my attention because of the scientific approach they took to explaining their concept. In engineering, I often have to use my creativity to figure out a way to make something work if I even have any idea how to start. This video was also pretty cool for me because they mentioned rovers. Since I am on the rover team, I actually learned how the top engineers of the time approached dealing with realistic constraints in creative ways. Their ideas in theory did not sound super great, but they definitely did get the job done which is what mattered. Their innovation and new ideas helped to bring about the landing of multiple rovers that have now explored another planet for years.

The second video that caught my attention was What makes a hero? by Matthew Winkler. This was a really neat video to me because of all of the animations that brought the lesson to life. We learned about the monomyth and how this pattern for heroes is used constantly for the majority of our most popular heroes in fiction. The person narrating the video brought up examples like Harry Potter and Katniss from the Hunger Games to prove how theses heroes follow the same storyline. The basic storyline is the hero starts in their ordinary world, they are called to adventure, they have help from an older mentor, they head out to action, face their biggest enemy, and then eventually head back to their old life but with new hero status.

Bibliography

The power of creative constraints by Brandon Rodriguez

What makes a hero? by Matthew Winkler

Story Lab: Style playlist

Image Information: Harry Potter, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part B

The second story that I enjoyed from this unit was The Wizard and his Pupil. As for many people, magic is an item of intrigue. This was what began the series of events for the main boy's story. He was drawn to a wizard and wished to be this wizard's apprentice. The wizard teaches the boy a good deal and then teaches him his best trick. This is the trick that is really a con. The wizard turns himself into an object to be sold. The boy sells the object and transforms himself back into a human and leaves wherever he was taken after being bought. This way, the cunning wizard is able to make a lot of money with the only cost of it being transforming himself. The only catch is that the boy must keep watch over a specific item each time the wizard transforms to make sure the wizard is not lost forever as that object. 

The young boy left the wizard's house after the wizard had changed into a horse that was sold and went home to his mother. Here at his mother's house, the boy convinced his mom to help him pull off this same trick that the wizard had shown him. This all went well until the wizard showed up to buy the boy, in his house form, that was for sell. The wizard was upset because the boy abandoned him. Once the wizard bought the home and took the key which was the boy's way back to himself, the boy transformed into a bird and flew away. This led to a series of transformations that I thought were clever whilst the wizard was chasing the boy trying to be undetected. At one point, the boy even changed into a rose. I would like to incorporate magic into my stories, and maybe characters that can transform are a nice way to do so. By the end of this chase, the apprentice had outperformed his master, and the apprentice lived to see another day whereas the master did not. I can understand why the master was upset, but this tale expresses that sometimes it is better to leave things alone than try to get revenge.

Bibliography

The Wizard and his Pupil, Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).


Image Information: Rose, PxHere

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part A

The story I read this week was called The Fish-Peri. This was an intriguing read because I have not read many stories with shape-shifters in them, so I was not fully expecting the twist in the story. The story opens up with a man going fishing. He ends up finding a fish that was so much better than the rest that he decided to keep this fish. I do not go fishing very often, so I have never quite thought myself that I would want to keep a fish that I had just caught from the open water. This was where the story got a bit odd to me. Since he did not have a tank, he put the fish in a well which seems a hard place to observe the nice fish. 

When the man leaves and comes back, he realizes that his house had been clean, but he did not know who would have cleaned his house since he lived alone. We as readers probably already assume that the fish is the one that cleaned the house, but how? This continues to happen for multiple days until finally the fisherman decides to pretend to leave but stays hidden by the house. He then sees the fish turn into a beautiful woman, and he grabs her fish skin and throws the skin into the fire where she is freed from turning into a fish. For some reason, the woman that was a fish agreed to become the fisherman's wife. This woman was quite a beauty to all men that saw her, so eventually the Padishah wanted her to be his.

The Padishah asked the fisherman to do several impossible tasks to keep the woman as his wife, and reasons unknown to myself, the woman helped the fisherman. There are many possibilities as to why she helped him, but if I were her, I would not want to help him. The fisherman had captured her, burned her fish skin, and then asked her to be his wife. All of these events combined would make me want to leave that man as soon as possible. Maybe she agreed to help him, so she would not be owned by the Padishah whom was a stranger to her.

Since the woman decided to help the fisherman, this led to many unbelievable things that happened. I am curious as to the magic she had possessed. She was able to transform, and she had a powerful friend that could be asked to complete each impossible tasks that the Padishah asked of the fisherman. These hints of magic are what I would want to incorporate into a story. I would want to try to explain the magic of each event a little bit more though, so the reader gets a better understanding of what truly is possible in that world.

Bibliography

The Fish-Peri, Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).

Image Information: Fish, Pixabay

Week 5 Story: The Valley of Diamonds

"Once there was a sailor named Sinbad who wished for adventure and riches. He had tasted the thrills of trekking across the sea once before, and he set out to journey the sea again. On this voyage, he had joined a crew of sailors to go to different lands. Their ship made a stop at an island, and Sinbad was more tired than you are from his journey."

"I'm not tired!" insisted John. He was all tucked up in bed after being slowly convinced over the last half hour that it really was his bed time. The more he fought going to bed, the more tired he really was. "I'm only in bed because you told me you'd tell me a story about pirates!"

I softly chuckled, "Well, Sindbad was not exactly a pirate. He was a sailor, and as I was saying, he took a nap. When he woke up, he saw that everyone had left. He quickly looked around everywhere he could, but when he got to the shore, he saw the ship sailing off into the distance. So now Sindbad had to think! How would he get off this island? He explored more of the island and found a massive egg. An egg as tall as this house! Can you imagine that? Soon the egg's parent came back to land on the egg. Since Sindbad was right next to the egg, he was luckily undetected by the giant bird. This bird was called a Roc. The Roc was at least twice as big as the egg! Thinking quickly, Sindbad used his turban to tie himself to the bird. Once morning came, the bird flew off the island with Sindbad attached.

The bird eventually landed in a valley that was glittering all over. Sindbad quickly untied himself from the bird's leg as the Roc started fighting a snake so huge that it could swallow a truck. Who do you think wins this fight, John? The bird or the snake?"

John squinted his eyes in concentration for a moment, and then looked up at me with wide eyes. "I think the snake will win! Snakes have big teeth. I'm sure he has big teeth since he can eat a whole truck!"

I smiled, "That's a good guess, John, but what happens is the Roc gets the upper hand and carries the snake out of the valley to eat for dinner." I smirked, "Mmm, don't you think a snake dinner would be tasty?"

John scrunched up his face in response. "No snake for me! I like chicken nuggets!"

"Well, John, Sindbad was now trapped in a valley with massive snakes! He looked around him and saw that the entire valley floor was covered in diamonds. These diamonds would have made him so rich if only he could get back to safety! Night was soon approaching, so Sindbad had to hole himself up in a cramped cave to stay safe from the snakes that came out at night. The snakes slithered and hissed all night, so Sindbad barely got a wink of sleep. But morning finally came, and he was able to walk along the valley without fear. He was admiring some diamonds that were as large as his head when a huge chunk of meat dropped beside him.

Sindbad remembered that merchants tried to get the diamonds by dropping meat in the valley with hopes that some diamonds would stick to the meat. How they get the meat back out of the valley depends on the Rocs retrieving the meat and taking the meat back to their nest. So using the same idea as before, Sindbad took his turban and tied himself to the meat with a large collection of diamonds. Before long, a Roc came by and picked up the meat with Sindbad and the diamonds along with it.

Sindbad was then dropped in a nest of massive chicks that were hungry, but the merchants kept watch on the nest and scared away the birds. The merchants soon realized Sindbad was in the nest and were upset that he had cut their profit. Luckily, he did have diamonds to offer the merchants, but they declined after hearing his wild story. After surviving birds of prey, gigantic snakes, and angry merchants, Sindbad the Sailor finally made his way safely home."

"I liked that story," remarked John with his eyes nearly closed. "I want to hear more about Sindbad the Sailor next t-...," and with that, John was asleep.

Author's Note: This is a retelling of the Second Voyage from the Voyages of Sindbad. This retelling was done as if I was telling this story to a child as a bedtime story. There are many fantastical details that can be used for the drama of a bedtime story. The original tale follows Sindbad on his journey out with a crew on a ship to an island. Unfortunately, Sinbad takes a nap on the island and is left behind. Luckily, he finds an egg much larger than him that is the egg of a Roc, a giant bird, that he uses to get off the island by tying himself to the Roc's leg. Once off the island, he ends up in a valley of diamonds and snakes. Merchants try to get the diamonds by dropping meat in the valley, so Sindbad ties himself to the meat to escape by a bird picking him up once again.

Bibliography

Second Voyage, The Voyages of Sindbad, Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898)

Image Information: Diamonds by Ptukhina Natasha, Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sindbad, Part B

The second portion of The Voyages of Sindbad were just as adventure filled as the first. His last handful of voyages did beg the question as to why Sindbad would ever leave the safety of his country again after all he had been through. Sindbad explains at the beginning of each voyage that the desire to explore the world and gain riches is what drives him forward for each journey. However, the last voyage he went on was different, and this caught my attention.

This voyage was notable from the start. Sindbad had finally given up his life on the sea to stay grounded with his friends and family in his home country of Bagdad. Unfortunately for him, the Caliph requested, which really meant more of commanded, him to go to offer presents to a rich man on an island as a gracious thanks for the rich man's previous gifts. Since Sindbad had been their means of contact before, the Caliph specifically wanted Sindbad to go. So Sindbad goes, but due to pirates, he gets sold into slavery. Surprisingly, Sindbad takes to slavery pretty well, so apparently he was treated more humanely than I have been taught slaves are treated. This led to him hunting elephants for their tusks to make profit off the ivory. The characters that really caught me off guard were the elephants. I was not sure why they decided to deal with Sindbad non-violently. They surrounded him, took him out of a tree, and placed him in their graveyard. Sindbad attributed this to the elephants not wanting to be killed anymore, so they gave up their dead. As a human, this did not make sense to me. Revenge often seems to be the path that humans lean towards, so maybe this is why the elephants' behavior seemed odd to me. Their choice did ultimately lead to their extended survival for a time, so maybe the elephants made the right choice.

Bibliography

Seventh and Last Voyage, The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898)

Image Information: Elephant by Michelle Gadd/USFWS

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sindbad, Part A

This week I read the first section from The Voyages of Sindbad unit from the Un-Textbook. This unit had a lot of daring adventures for Sindbad to go on, and he gained so much knowledge about how the world worked in many different ways. The story I found most compelling from this unit was the second voyage Sindbad went on during his life. I appreciated his wit and ability to test fate.

This story followed Sindbad out to an island where he got deserted while he took a nap. Luckily, he found a massive egg that caught his attention. Soon after, a gigantic bird known as a Roc landed on the egg and over him. Quickly coming up with an escape plan, he tied himself to the bird's leg with his turban. This was a nice piece of quick thinking and luckily for him, this strategy worked as he was carried off the island the next morning. I often do not put enough worth in characters being given a decent amount of luck to help drive the story forward. Couple luck with wit, and you have a combo of characteristics that makes a unique tale. I would like to include luck more often into my stories. This is a nice parallel to life because sometimes, things do just work out for the best.

The last half of this voyage ended with Sindbad in a ravine with snakes easily capable of swallowing an elephant. He again got lucky in the case that the snakes only came out at night. His wit helped him at night as he used a rock to cave him in successfully in a crack between rocks. This ravine was full of diamonds. Some were so big that they could have easily been as large as someone's head. This made getting into this specific ravine more desirable, so merchants would toss chunks of meat in there, so the large birds would pick them up with diamonds. So again, with his same technique as before, Sindbad secured himself to a piece of meat and got carried to the bird's nest where the merchants found him. The diamonds he brought with him secured his safe travel back to civilization. Using a simple recurring action is nice because this shows how an ingenious move can be used over and over again for different applications.

Bibliography

Second Voyage, The Voyages of Sindbad, Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Lang

Image Information: Roc, by E. J. Detmold

Comment Wall

My storybook is Tales from the Islands. The Philippine islands are where these stories originated. 

Image Information: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018),
processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, Flickr

Week 4 Lab: Stories and Storytelling

The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had a deeply meaningful message about the stories we consume every day. She shared her story about how she grew up reading books that described characters that were nothing like her. In result, she wrote stories about these people and did not stop to consider that she could write stories that were about people like her. How she put it, she was stuck reading a single story. A single narrative that had not been changed by the different people all over the world. This changed when she finally read an African book that was more about her experience in life that showed her she could write stories anyway that she decided upon. This opened her to realize the influence she could provide. I think this is a powerful lesson for most people. Each individual has an unique story to tell, and if they do not share their life's experience with the world, then the world is deprived of that person's journey. This message has made me realize that I should try to immerse myself more in a people's culture before I make any assumptions based off of what could be a single story.

Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences: Parasocial Relationships by Jennifer Barnes was as deeply intriguing as the first video. In this video, she explains the relationships between real life people and fictional characters in movies, books, etc. The relationship she found was not entirely shocking, but still somewhat hard to digest when said aloud. In her studies, she found that most people have a much stronger connection with fictional characters than they do with people that they actually know in person. When asked how they would react when their favorite fictional character and a real acquaintance died, most respondents replied that they would be more upset about their favorite character's death. This shows how much people can bond with characters that are not actually real. Even though they are not real, they can mean more to readers than someone that they just know of in person. I have personally made strong connections with fictional characters, and I can understand why this is the response they received in their study. This has made me evaluate how I can use this energy for positive change in real life.

Bibliography

The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences: Parasocial Relationships by Jennifer Barnes

Image Information: Old books, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Saints and Animals, Part B

The story I chose from this part of the Saints and Animals unit from the Un-Textnook was the The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe. This story had a very nicely rounded out introduction, middle, and conclusion. The story wrapped up nicely as there was a parallel between the beginning and the end of the story. I enjoy when a story comes full circle. Great writers often use this technique. If they use this strategy well, once they have written half of the story, the plot of the next half is already mapped out for them.

This story reminds me a bit of the Jungle Book with how Saint Ailbe was raised by a wolf in the wild. The main difference here of course is that Ailbe was found by a Prince and civilized. This came to be useful for the wolves later in the story as Saint Ailbe was able to save his wolf family from being killed and hunted once he recognized his wolf-mother. This is a great growth and development story for Ailbe as he was initially cast out by a family that did not love or care for him. Shortly after though, he was taken in by two quite different families that grew to care for and adore him. Even though his first real family was a family of wolves, they cared for him more than his own biological parents ever did. To drive the story forward, the part where Ailbe was taken by the Prince was a double edged sword. This was both good for Ailbe because this is how he learned to be human and became a member of society with great influence. Of course, the downside is where he was taken away from his wolf family that had protected and cared for him since he was a baby abandoned in the wilderness. I appreciate the aspect of acceptance and willingness to save those that are different from oneself. 

Bibliography

The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900)

Image Information: Wolf, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Saints and Animals, Part A

For this week's reading, I chose to read about saints and their encounters with animals. I am fond of animals myself, and I was curious to see the story of saints interacting with animals as I have not heard many types of stories about animals with saints. From the Saints and Animals unit from the Un-Textbook, I enjoyed the story of Saint Kentigern and the Robin. I have not heard many stories of saints in general, so this was the most exposure I have had to saints in one sitting. This was interesting to me because I got to see the "powers" of saints given to them by their God. Most stories that I have heard or read before about people with powers are about heroes or people with magic. The unit about Saints and Animals was a refreshing twist on the hero story where people with religious powers are being used for good and not displayed in an unfavorable light.

The story of Kentigern showed the nature of jealousy in the boys in the story. They wanted to be loved and adored as Kentigern was in the eyes of Saint Servan. This was an important part of this story to help drive the plot forward. In result, this want drove them to make unwise choices to try to get Kentigern in trouble. Kentigern was smart, patient, and tolerant when it came to dealing with the meddling of the other boys. First, the unruly boys put out the great fire and the next time, they killed an innocent robin to do their best attempt at getting Kentigern blamed for these happenings. Luckily for Kentigern, he had already been blessed with some abilities like being able to light a fire and bringing the robin back to life by the grace of his God. This saved Kentigern both times from the spiteful boys that were trying to ruin his life.

Bibliography

Saint Kentigern and the Robin, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900)

Image Information: Robin, Wikimedia Commons

Learning Challenge: Learn About Sleep

The H.E.A.R.T. Challenge I did this week was learning about sleep. The article I read was Why Sleeping May Be More Important Than Studying. In today's society, I personally feel the pressure to give up my sleep, so I can study. I have often fell into the habit of not sleeping very much at all the night before a big test in order to study more. This often resulted in me being so tired the day of the test that my brain could not think. I have often found when I try to do this, my brain is so slow at trying to do any task that takes any mental capacity. So I have already known about this correlation between sleep and performing well. I have personally felt the results of not getting near enough sleep. Nowadays, since I rarely get to sleep due to college and work and everything else, I often require needing to sleep for about ten hours before I feel anywhere near fully rested. This is an insane amount of time to be asleep, as I basically sleep half the day away just to try and catch up on the sleep I did not get throughout the week. 

On another note, something new I learned from this article is that high school should start their school day at 10 a.m. to account for the sleeping pattern of high school students. I definitely wish my classes in high school began at that time. The only downside to this is that I am sure the schools will not change how many hours the students have to stay in school, so this greatly reduces any afternoon time the students could use for other extracurricular activities or work. Overall, I wish I could prioritize sleep more my life, but with my current schedule and responsibilities, I cannot justify it.
Image information: Woman sleeping, Pexels

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

I have been using the mobile app for awhile now. The app makes checking some assignments and grades really easy. I use this app a lot whenever I do not want to pull out my laptop. This way I can check Canvas Announcements, discussions, and messages from my professors. I will say this app makes checking certain details like due dates convenient for me. There has been a number of times that I thought I forgot to do a homework before class, but I just pulled out my phone and saw that I still had a few more days to complete the assignment. I have also been able to use my phone app for quizzes in class. This is useful for whenever my laptop dies on me in class, so this is really nice to have as a backup plan when things do go wrong. There is really no reason to discontinue using the Canvas app, so I will definitely be using the app in the future.

Reading Notes: Monsters, Horses, and Dragons

For this week's extra credit, I watched the videos from the  Crash Course Myth: Monsters, Horses, and Dragons unit. I learned about many stories of horses, serpents, wendigos, and dragons. I was most intrigued by the stories about dragons. I felt that with every new story about dragons, the more I was interested in dragons. The stories just kept getting me excited each time. The story that stood out to me most was about the creation of dragons and humans from the Serpents and Dragons video.

We do not get much description about each of the character's personalities, but the plot is what I found interesting. In this story, the world was divided in five separate parts with each part being ruled by a certain species. The monkeys were in control of the central region of the world and each other ruler of the other portions of the world made a trek to the monkey. This resulted in the monkey being impregnated, and the monkey gave birth to numerous eggs. The other rulers of the other parts of the world came back and stole the monkey's eggs besides the biggest egg. This egg hatched and produced a serpent. The serpent was in charge of retrieving the other eggs, and on that journey, grew into a dragon. The last two eggs that hatched were humans, and this is how our species came to be in this creation story.

I like how the creation of two separate species was intertwined to create this tale. This is an approach to this story that I would have not taken. This is a creative way to explain not just the birth of humans, but the way our world came to be through time. I have been interested in creation stories, and I have been able to learn more about how they are composed through the telling of this story.

Bibliography

Serpents and Dragons by Crash Course World Mythology

Image information: Snake guarding eggs, Wikimedia Commons

Feedback Strategies

In the first article I read on feedback, Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback, I learned what the concept of feedforward was. Instead of focusing on what was in the past and how to change what was already done, feedforward is based on giving suggestions on how to do better next time. This takes the person providing people with feedback a way out of the position of being an expert, and instead puts them in a place where they can help their fellow team members with useful advice for the future. I want to try this strategy with my team members. I am a team lead, and I have found that I am not often the most precise at giving effective feedback. I think using feedforward will change my feedback from what they take as judgement into a hopefully positive learning experience. I do get hung up on what they messed up on in the past because I know I have to go back and fix it, but with this method, maybe I can help correct their choices before we have a bad outcome.

What I learned from How to Give Feedback Without Sounding Like a Jerk was how to provide useful feedback. I often give feedback after I find something wrong. I do not often ask if they want feedback, so in that way I do not put the ball in their court. I feel with this way, I may come across as if I am just constantly judging those people on my team. I have a quite expressive face, so I believe that they have mentioned that they do not want to see the disappointment on my face when they mess up. By following the listed steps, I can probably improve my constructive feedback process with my team members. I can give them the why, put myself on a more level playing field with them, ask them if they want to hear it, and be honest with them. This honest approach will help give a why, how, and hopefully give them a reason to want to improve on their own.

Image Information: Communication, Pixabay

Topic Research: Princesses and Goddesses of the Philippines

While doing more research into Filipino Fairy Tales, I found myself drawn to women with titles. The main titles I found were women that were goddesses or princesses. Unfortunately, most of these stories about princesses were about how a prince or some male could win them over by doing some task. I want the females in my stories to have a choice in their outcome. I want them to have their own motivations and be strong characters that are not just told what to do. I do not want them to essentially just be a prize for a male to win.

The first story like this came from a tale called Why the Ocean is Salty from the Un-Textbook. This story was about the goddess of the dark who wanted a snow white mansion in her part of Heaven. A key feature of this topic for me would be how she uses her influence to get what she wants. I would like to portray her as someone who is in charge of her fate and knows how to accomplish her goals. In this same story, the Ocean is her own sentient being that did not want her slumber disturbed. This takes a twist on the  story, and the ocean halts the work of millions of workers constructing this mansion by destroying them all with waves. I think the Ocean would be an interesting character that has all the might of well, the ocean, behind her.

Another story I found while researching was about a princess and Juan. Juan has to complete some nearly impossible tasks to have a chance with the princess. Instead of making this a story where he wins her from her father, I would want to make this a story where the princess loves Juan, but the father is trying to keep them apart. This way, the princess has motivation and a say in what she wants in her life. This story could nicely break up into three episodes to tell the tale of each task Juan has to complete to be with the princess. The final story is about a prince who saves a princess from a dragon. In this story, the princess could play a vital role in her escape. Instead, of just being freed because of the prince, she could already have a plan in place. This way, whenever she finally has the help of someone else, she is able to escape.


Links to other versions of Juan and the princess in Filipino Popular Tales: Princess's Sacrifice and Juan and the Impossible Tasks

Image Information: Ocean wave, Pexels