Meme Generator Tech Tip

The meme generator I used for this meme was called ImgFlip. This tool was really easy to use, and before I even opened the website I knew what meme I wanted to make. Ironically, the exact meme image I wanted was the first one listed on the site, so that made making this meme even easier. The inspiration for this meme was from Spring Break giving me a ton of extra time to work ahead on this class. In result, my chances to watch Netflix went way down, but I think that was a reasonable trade off. I have now effectively finished enough points to finish this class early, and I am so glad that I can focus on my other classes for the rest of the semester. This was a really fun class overall, and I wish the best to everyone else working through this class!

Typing Game Tech Tip

The first typing game that I played was called Ninja Cat. This game seemed fun in concept, and I only played it on the easy level. The tutorial went okay because it just explained that you had to type the letter under the dinosaur to kill them with a shuriken. This worked when there was just one dinosaur coming at me one at a time, but when there were six dinosaurs surrounding me, the whole game started to lag a ton. This was a really unpleasant playing experience since I could not actually play the game at this point. I am not sure this issue was just caused by my computer or what, but I would definitely not be able to increase my typing skills with this game.

The next game that I played was called Type For Your Life. This one was pretty cool and a much better experience than the last one since there was not nearly as much lag. This had a guy jumping up a building, through the clouds, and into space. Before he could jump, you had to accurately spell the word underneath him. Once I got into space, the turnaround time for spelling each word correctly greatly got reduced, so in space is where I finally lost all three of my lives. Since this game pushes you to slowly get faster at typing to save your character, I think it would help me get better at typing faster and more accurately.

A game I would suggest not on this site is TypeRacer. This one is really fun for me because I get to go up against other people that can type quickly. You also get to see your progress in the form of a little racecar against all of the other racecars. This one also does not let you progress in the race if you do not type accurately, so this one easily forces you to work on your speed and accuracy if you want to do well in the race. In result, this is one that I would recommend out of all of the ones listed.

Typing Test Tech Tip

The first typing test that I tried was KeyHero.com. This site was really cool because it gave you a fairly long quote to type, and it tracked for you how many words per minute you were typing and your accuracy. This site also gave a nice visual as to what you typed as it tracked every character typed and highlighted it either green or red to show how accurate you were and what speed you were going when you typed it. I was able to get up to 80 words per minute, but when I looked at the high scores, I saw some people were typing at 200 words per minute which is crazy!

The second typing test that I tried out was called TypingTest. This one gave you 60 seconds to type as much of a passage that it generated. This one did not give me as much feedback as KeyHero did, but I was able to see what I was typing, so I readjusted and corrected myself. I also got about the same speed on this test as the last one, so it is nice to see that I am at least consistent.

I have tried to increase my typing speed. I first took a typing class in middle school that was really helpful, and from there I greatly improved. Past that, at one of my previous jobs, I often opened up a speed typing site when there were no customers to try and increase my typing speed and accuracy. Games like that helped pass the time, and I think I did slowly get faster. I really do think becoming faster at typing is useful in today's modern society. Since most of my work is done online nowadays, the faster I am at typing, the faster I am at getting my work done. Especially for this class where everything is typed, typing accurately and quickly has helped reduce how much time I have spent on each assignment. In addition to schoolwork, I have a job where I am a programmer, so again, everything is typed. The faster I can type, the faster I can test out new methods for making some code work.

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno, Part B

For the second half of the Dante's Inferno unit, I found "The Giants" story to be the most interesting. This one stood out because of the mention of Nimrod. He was responsible for the construction of the tower of Babel. I learned more about the tower of Babel than I have before, so I thought that was cool. I did not realize Nimrod was giant sized which was why he was with the other giants. In the second half of this unit, I found it odd that mythical creatures were included in the nine circles of Hell. Examples of the mythical creatures found are centaurs, minotaurs, and, of course, giants.

I think the description of Nimrod was pretty fascinating. First off, we are informed he is a giant which is not clear at first because of the dark conditions. He was compared to a tower which I think is ironic since he decided to build a the tower of Babel. In addition to this sin, he only speaks gibberish. His head is also compared to the size of a pine cone which would not have made much since if there was not an explanation in the author's note. Since the note had a link to a picture of the pine cone, it was much easier to visualize how big Nimrod's head actually was in the story.

Bringing in mythical creatures like giants is such a cool way to make stories larger than life, literally. In my writing, I would really like to be able to bring in magical creatures. This would take some planning because a world has to be created where a creature like this makes sense. Otherwise, the magical creature would stick out like a sore thumb. Descriptions like in this story really help the reader truly imagine and see the immense scope of the creature. The more descriptive I can be in my writing, the easier it will be for my readers to understand how my creatures look like in terms of the story.

Bibliography

The Giants, Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002).

Image Information: Giants by Gustave Dore, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno, Part A

For this week's choice from European literature, I chose Dante's Inferno for the unit to read. I have often heard of Dante's Inferno and the many circles of Hell, but I have never gone to read through the story. This led me to choosing this unit out of curiosity. The idea of Fallen Angels has always intrigued me, so the title of this chunk of the story immediately stuck out to me.

In this story, the setting is immediately set as they approach a castle that is radiating red light. We soon learn that this redness is from the eternal fires from down in Hell. This creates an eerie setting as the main character is guided close to the city of Dis. Painted in our description, we see that the castle is surrounded by a moat and the walls are made of thick iron. Thousands of fallen angels inhabit this place. I think this detail is important because mentioning the fact that angels and not humans live in this place help add to the suspense being created by the scene.

The next part of this tale is the main character and his guide getting stopped by the angels. They are not allowed to enter this fortress. Since they were stopped by the angels, this adds to the ominous feeling that the reader observes coming from these beings. Why were they the first to question why these two travelers were wanting access? I think it is odd that they got stopped trying to enter this place. I think that entering should have been a much easier objective whereas leaving could have been the more difficult part of their journey.

The guide did his best to talk his way through the guards, but this was all to no avail. All of these elements of confusion and mysterious characters add to the unsettling vibe that is created.

Bibliography

The Fallen Angels, Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002).

Image Information: Fallen Angel, Wikimedia

Week 14 Lab: TVTropes

The story lab that I did this week was to explore TVTropes. Initially, when I got to the site, I was confused by where I was supposed to go on the site and what I was supposed to look for while there. After a few minutes of looking around, I finally found the tropes that were spoken about. I realized that in every story, there is usually a trope that is used to further along the plot of a story. A few of my favorite tropes that I found on this site were the death glare, beware the nice ones, and a love triangle.

I think the death glare is really funny if used in a comical setting. When I saw death glare as a trope, I initially though of April from Parks and Rec. She is constantly giving out death glares and trying to be intimidating. Sometimes it works, but most of the time, I think it loses its effectiveness which I think is funny.

Another trope that I enjoy in stories is beware the nice ones. I like this one because I think this comes as such a surprise. Often, the watchers do not expect such a nice character to blow up. Honestly, this usually is not the fault of the nice character. They are often pushed too far, and all the emotions they have been suppressing while trying to stay nice come out all at once. I think I kind of relate to these characters, so I appreciate when this problem is brought to light. Hopefully, people get out of this trope that they should not push people past their limits.

The final trope that I always fall for is the love triangle. Love triangles just create so much drama, and I always end up picking a side. This is almost like a game in the story, and I end up rooting for my favorite character out of the two vying for the main character's love. I usually go for the good guy in the story, but often in these dramas, there is often good and bad to each person.


Image Information: TV, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Fairie Queen - Britomart, Part B

The tale of two knights really brought in action to the story of Britomart. This interaction was different than the rest because this was finally the big reveal. Britomart had to fight her future husband, Artegall, as he was bent on getting revenge on Britomart for winning a competition and stealing his place. Artegall and Britomart did not realize they were the people they were looking for, so the fight ensued. This fight began with Scudamour, as he was rife with jealousy since he thought Britomart took his beloved Amoret. In this fight, Scudamour was quickly dismounted from his horse, so the real chunk of the action was between Artegall and Britomart. Britomart was forced off her horse to fight with Artegall. Actions phrases like "recoiled," "thrusting forward," and "wheeling round" helped bring the fight to life in my mind. 

The climax of this fight for me was when Artegall got a hefty blow on Britomart's helmet. This knocked the helmet off of Britomart's head, and her face was exposed. The description that followed really slowed down the action and increased the importance of this event. I felt like I was watching  this scene happen in slow motion with the helmet falling off and Britomart's golden hair falling out.  This was a really interesting writing effect that I would like to somehow replicate in my own action writing. Scudamour and Artegall saw her face and hair and were immediately phased. They apologized for their actions, and this interruption was enough for all of the misunderstandings to be explained.

The descriptive words in this story were used in a very effective way. Beginning with words to describe the different movements of the action and fighting taking place to the specific details of Britomart, all were used appropriately to direct the reader to what was important in the scene. I hope to figure out how to narrow my scope when writing stories.

Bibliography

Two Knights, Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916)

Image Information: Two Knights, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Fairie Queen - Britomart, Part A

In "How Britomart Walked through Fire," the most interesting character to me is Britomart. To give some background to this character, she was raised to have the same skills as a warrior. She is strong and powerful, yet she still has a soft side. She saw the image of the warrior she was meant to one day marry, and the thought of never seeing him made her depressed. To try to remedy her depression, she and her caretaker decided to go out into the world to find this warrior; talk about taking control of your own destiny! And not only did they decide to go look for him, but they disguised themselves as knights to keep their identities safe. Britomart was able to keep up this ruse as she is willing to fight where she sees a need for it, and she is not half bad at participating in a fight.

At the beginning of this part of Britomart's tale, she was a bit hot-headed and raced out to battle a giant to save a man being chased by the giant. This mere choice to rush the giant made the giant flee from Britomart. While Britomart was searching for the giant, she came across a knight strewn across the ground in a heavy bout of sadness. Compassion came over Britomart, and she bravely offered to help this knight get his lady back from an evil enchanter. Britomart was bold and courageous when she entered the castle of the wizard, even going so far as walking through a wall of fire.

I like Britomart so much as a character because of the way she already is. She is independent and willing to do what is right to help those in need. She goes out of her way to make sure justice is had, and she takes charge of her own fate. She does not sit idly by when bad things are happening. Instead, she is one of the first people to take on a fight even if it appears to be a losing battle.

Bibliography

How Britomart Walked through Fire, Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916)

Image Information: Britomart, Wikimedia

Week 12 Lab: Telling a Story

For this week's story lab, I opted to read the second chapter in EmpoWord about telling a story. The chapter began with a nice quote from Doctor Who that got me engaged in the reading. I am a fan of Doctor Who, but unfortunately, I am not up to date with the latest doctor. Either way, this began the chapter off on a good note. The writer really wanted the reader to consider how one quote can mean several things depending on the mindset of the reader. This is reflective for all reading in life. Each person that consumes ideas will put together their own thoughts about the matter.

Next, the chapter went into more specifics about storytelling that I had already learned in previous classes in high school. These basic concepts covered items like narration, point of view, and mood. The explanation brought together that depending on how you approach each item, the writer can greatly alter how the reader engages with the material. Scope of a story was also brought up. The writer mentioned that some writers try to put too many events or details into a story when really they should be focusing on what is the most important. I find that I struggle with this a lot myself. I like to include a lot of details and make sure the reader understands what I am trying to convey, but I think that sometimes I just cloud up everything even more than I should have. This past week, I have tried to focus on doing short and straight to the point writing.

The technique spoke about next in the textbook was pacing. In result of including too much detail, I think I slow down the pace of my stories a lot. I like to elaborate on creating the setting when, really, the setting is usually not the most important part. If I could get down a basic description that can set the scene, then I need to work on just getting to the events of the story that I am writing.

From this chapter, I think that I have learned that I need to work on scope and pacing the most in my writing. I understand the basic fundamentals of creating a story, but working on these points of writing could easily help me become better.

Bibliography

Telling a Story, EmpoWord

Image Information: Writing, PxHere

Reading Notes: Beowulf, Part B

The second tale that I found worth mentioning from the Beowulf unit was the story named "Seeking Grendel's Mother." This story had Beowulf and his group of warriors in hot pursuit of the terrifying mother of Grendel. Grendel was a monster from the first half of the unit that was a giant and had the ability to put all people within a certain range into a sleep from which they could not easily wake. Beowulf was the only one able to fight off this sleeping spell and was able to fight Grendel. Unfortunately, when Grendel returned back to his cave, his mother wanted revenge for the damage Beowulf had inflicted upon Grendel. So she went on a rampage in the hall and stole back Grendel's arm. Beowulf followed her trail all the way to an evil looking lake. Here, he departed from the rest of his comrades and decided to embark into the pool of liquid on his own. On his way down, he found a multitude of weird deep sea monsters that eerily watched him. Throughout his descent, Beowulf had to fight off many of these creatures before he finally made it to the cave where Grendel's mother lived.

The setting of this part of the tale is through the woods to the lake and down into the lake. The writer of this story did a beautiful job of creating an eerie atmosphere that Beowulf had to face when he decided to go into the lake. Each sea creature is new and different from the rest. I appreciated the phrase, "evil glance from its glowing eyes of red or green or sapphire blue," as this showed me what Beowulf was seeing. I imagined dark nothingness fully surrounding Beowulf, but in the midst of everything, I could see glowing orbs of various colors watching Beowulf in the deep water. Being able to visualize something like this shows that I was able to get fully into the words of this tale which is why I think it was successful.

Bibliography

Seeking Grendel's Mother, The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry

Pitz (1933)

Image Information: Deep sea fish, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Beowulf, Part A

From the first part of the Beowulf unit, I chose the story called "Beowulf Lands in Daneland." This title caught my attention as I have recently been watching a show on Netflix where the characters in that show go to Daneland. In the story from the unit, Beowulf and his companions are crossing the sea to get to their destination of Daneland. There are many terrors in the sea that they must pass through on the way there. When they finally got to the beach of Daneland, they were approached by someone guarding the beach. The guardian of the beach asked them who they are and where they came from before allowing them passage in the land. When being investigated by the guardian of the beach, the group told him that they were there to help the king of Daneland. In this same exchange, the guardian told them of Grendel who came to raid the land. With this, they were able to proceed.

The tale of this part of Beowulf’s story was very descriptive in a lot of ways. The main way that stood out to me was all of the detailed visual descriptions. These descriptions created a useful setting for me, so I could understand what the group was going through during their travels. The details about the monsters in the sea stood out to me initially when I was reading through the story. Mentions of “slimy coils,” “shaggy manes,” and “horny claws” definitely painted a picture of the horrors this group was experiencing during their long nights on the sea. Luckily, this group was able to make it safely across the sea without any harm done to them. I would like to be able to write stories where the words create feelings in the readers. I do not want to just tell them how the characters reacted to something I am describing; I want them to feel what the character does.

Bibliography

Beowulf Lands in Daneland, The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry
Pitz (1933)

Image Information: Beowulf sailing to Daneland, Wikimedia

Week 11 Story: The Eagle's Dance

An eagle and his brother were soaring through the open, blue skies one day. They were hunting for food to feed their family that night. A few days had passed since they had gotten a sizable catch. When they were out flying, they saw some movement in the trees below them. A rapid movement struck down a deer a hundred feet below them. The eagle’s brother, controlled by his hunger, swooped down to feast on the deer. The eagle cried to his brother to be cautious, but he was too far away. The eagle looked down below at the scenes that followed in horror. He saw a hunter moving slowly in the brush and saw him draw back his bow. Before the eagle could even react, the eagle watched as his brother was pierced through the chest. The eagle squawked in fear and rushed back to his family to tell them the news.

He convinced one of his brothers to go with him to retrieve his slain brother’s body, but when they returned to the scene of the slaughter, both the deer and the eagle’s brother was gone. The eagle determined that the hunter must have taken his brother’s body back to his village. The eagle flew to the village alone and changed to his human form. From the village, he recognized sounds of singing and dancing he knew belonged to the people’s Eagle Dance. He slowly walked into their celebration, and the village people looked at him with curiosity as they did not know from where he had come.

The eagle in his human form began telling a story of how he had killed a man. The Eagle Dance was still proceeding in the background, but he had captured the attention of many in the audience. When the eagle finished telling his story, he gave out a yell that resembled his screech when in eagle form. At the exact moment he did so, the lead dancer fell dead. The eagle began another story of another man he killed, and the same proceedings as before happened three more times. Everyone in the village watched with trepidation with each story, and soon everyone was screaming in terror and fled from the eagle.

After four of the dancers had fallen dead, the eagle walked out of the village and disappeared into the shadows. He changed back to his eagle form and vanished into the night sky content with the revenge he had accomplished.

Author’s Note: In the original story of "The Eagle's Revenge," the story was told from the point of view from the hunter. The hunter found the eagle eating from the deer that he had killed. To keep his kill safe, the hunter shot the eagle. The hunter then took his deer home and told his village that he had also killed an eagle. The eagle was retrieved, and the village had an Eagle Dance. A mysterious stranger came from nowhere and started telling stories, and at the end of each story, someone in the dance died. The village people later found out that the stranger was the eagle's brother.

In my retelling of this story, I did not change too many details. I kept the majority of the story the same, but I told the tale from the perspective of the eagle's brother. In this way, we are able to see how the eagle's brother is able to find out that the hunter killed the eagle. In addition, we understand why he wants revenge.

Bibliography

The Eagle's Revenge, Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913)

Image Information: Eagle by Tony Hisgett, Wikipedia

Reading Notes: Great Plains, Part B

From the second half of the Great Plains unit, the story that stuck out to me was the tale of the "Coyote and Snake." In this story, a coyote was walking along one day, and he was abruptly told to stop. He did not see anyone in his pathway, so he was initially confused by who had spoken to him. The coyote eventually found who was speaking him, and it turned out to be a snake. The snake told the coyote to go around him, but the coyote thought himself too good to be bothered. In result, he told the snake to get out of his way. The snake did not agree this was how things were supposed to go, so he warned the coyote that if he stepped over the snake, then he would kill him. The coyote decided he would take the chance, so he stepped right on over the snake. The snake bit him, and by the end of the story, the coyote was dead.

Why this story was different to me from the rest was because of its length. This week, I was wanting to focus on honing my skills of writing proficient and short stories. This story was another great example of how I can take important events in a story and relay them appropriately to a reader. Another useful part of this story was the exchange between the coyote and snake in dialogue. By creating dialogue between characters to tell the majority of the story, the reader gets to have more of a feeling of what the character's personality is like. We can tell from the characters' words and actions that each individual feels like they have the right to stay where they are, but in result, pride gets in the way. I like that the moral of this story was to check yourself if you are not in a humble mindset because that is ultimately what got the coyote killed.

Bibliography

Coyote and Snake, Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913)

Image Information: Rattlesnake by Gary Stolz, Wikimedia 

Week 10 Lab: Creative Life

The first video that I watched was A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman. This video brought up the importance of prioritizing the different aspects of human intelligence. A key point to this talk was that people have various skills and not everyone should be held to the same standards. This becomes a problem with standardized tests and having different parameters for how some people get into certain schools. A problem with having so many enforced unspoken rules for how intelligence should be assessed is that people that do not possess those chosen valued skills lose their value. This means that everyone does not get to reach their full potential as they force themselves to be valuable in this society. I have found that even in my own life, I have made myself become something that is more desirable in this society's culture. Top companies want people that produce quickly and effectively that serve a customer's need, and that is how I have learned to shape myself which I found to be something I had never planned.

The second video was Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley. This person that gave the tech talk was an artist, and she shared the story of her struggle with creation with the restraints of copyright. She explained that with every piece of art she made, she realized there was a subconscious amount of limitations in her work. The cause of this hesitation she had was caused by the copyright and permission culture that we have existed in since birth. She brings up that copyright and permissions for use of artwork are something that we never chose to opt into. In this way, we have a set of rules that I think we have even experienced in this class. Every time we want to use an image for each blog post we make for this class, we have to make sure that we go through the steps to make sure we are abiding by the rules of copyright. This greatly diminishes the options we are allowed to use to express ourselves when creating our blog posts. I cannot image having to be an artist in a creative field where my options to help my creative process are so greatly restricted.

Bibliography

A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman

Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley

Story Lab: Creative Life

Image Information: Human Intelligence, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Great Plains, Part A

The first story I chose from the Great Plains unit was "The Eagle's Revenge." In this story, there was a hunter that had just shot a deer. When he went to go collect the deer, he found that an eagle was already eating from the dead deer. To get to the deer, the hunter shot the eagle. By doing so, he was able to take the deer he shot back to his village where he told his village that he had also shot an eagle. People were sent back to collect the eagle as well, and there was a dance of the eagle held. During this dance, a strange man joined the event and began telling a story of how he had managed to kill a man. Each time he had finished a story, someone in the village died. After the strange man left, the village folk later found out that the strange man was the brother of the eagle.

I appreciated the telling of this story because it was so simple. Even though the story was simple, the idea and events still managed to be related to the reader. I struggle with writing stories that are of such a short length, and I really would like to be able to get a whole story across in only three hundred words while including everything that I think is important to the story. This story shows me that maybe when I am writing stories, I am trying to relate too many events in one go. So to help my writing, I need to focus on what I think are the highlights of the story that I am trying to tell. I usually like to include a lot of details to make the story more realistic, but maybe this approach is overkill for the stories that I am trying to tell. I should try better to just get straight to the point, and then I can work on fleshing out the story more at a later time.

Bibliography

The Eagle's Revenge, Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913)

Image Information: Eagle, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Eskimo Folks Tales, Part B

The second story that I chose from the Eskimo Folk Tales unit was Kanagssuaq. This story told of  a hunter that went out after a long season of starvation and cold and found a great place to find seal in the sea. Soon, he was out catching something every single day which was wonderful for his tribe. As the toil of everyday work got to him, he wondered about meeting the great Kiliteraq while out on the ocean by himself. Kanagssuaq wished to meet Kiliteraq as he had heard that Kiliteraq was a mighty hunter. There happened to be a chance occurrence where Kanagssuaq was able to meet Kiliteraq out hunting. While this happened, Kanagssuaq told Kiliteraq where to go hunting for seal, and this resulted in Kanagssuaq needing to help Kiliteraq get his tow line in check faster. Kanagssuaq did so and was later rewarded with nice hunting equipment from Kiliteraq in exchange for being helpful.

This was a pretty simple story, but it left some good feelings since the help was rewarded. This is not always the case in real life. Obviously, Kanagssuaq did not help Kiliteraq to get something from it. He was just doing this to be a nice person, but the fact that he was rewarded on top of that was a nice addition. Making interactions between characters for being good people is a nice trend that I think could be used more in storytelling. The fact that they got to share a common trade was also nice to create a amicable sense of camaraderie. Helping people out is a nice way to make friendships, and this was a decent way to give a story of someone who was supposed to be super great at hunting and showing that even he could use some help. This is a friendly reminder that even the best in our trade can still use a helping hand.

Bibliography

Kanagssuaq, Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921)

Image Information: Arctic Ocean, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales, Part A

The story I chose this week was "The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son" from the Eskimo Folk Tales unit. How this story went was a lady was taken care of by her village. The hunters of the village often gave her food and other supplies, so she could take care of herself. One day, they brought the lady a bear cub that had just had its parent killed for food. The bear cub was still alive, so she took care of the bear cub and raised him as her own. The people of the village brought her plenty of food to support both her and the bear cub. This bear cub got accustomed to human speech, so he began to understand the words spoken to him by the lady. The cub got to play with the kids of the village. When the bear got too big for the kids, he began to play with the adults. He also got to go out on hunting trips with the hunters. Unfortunately, people from other villages saw the bear as a threat and tried to attack him. Eventually, this got to be too dangerous for the bear, so the lady had to send the bear away for his own safety.

The aspect I liked about this story is that a lady was able to take in a bear cub. I think it would be super cool to have a bear just around that you can keep in your house without being worried about being harmed. Additionally, she did not go and catch this bear for her own selfish reasons, she was taking care of an orphaned bear cub that needed someone to help him through this hard time of his life. This story of taking in an animal that would not be better off on its own is nice to read, and I liked how the bear was able to become integrated into their village life.

Bibliography

The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son, Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921)

Image Information: Polar Bear Cub by tableatny, Flickr

Week 9 Story: What Keeps the Ocean Salty

Bill was walking through the main city near the coastal town where he lived. Today was a bright and sunny day, and Bill was in a great mood. He was running some errands in the city and while he walked toward a coffee shop, he glanced at his reflection in the window. Vaguely through the glass, a gorgeous woman distracted him from his own reflection. She was beautiful in a dark way with sleek black hair, skin the shade of bronze, and bright green eyes which he was able to see as she looked at him while sipping her coffee. While he was contemplating her striking eyes, he looked down and saw that he had managed to step through a construction zone with drying cement while he was distracted. He saw his footprints deeply in the wet cement, and he quickly did his best to wipe off the cement from his shoes. In embarrassment, he looked back towards the woman. He saw that she was looking down, but there was a smirk on her lips.

He was actually on the way to get coffee anyway, so he went into this coffee shop and ordered his normal of a small black coffee. Bill liked to think that drinking the strictly bitter blend built up his willpower. The barista called out his name, and he grabbed his coffee. On his way out, the woman he saw in the window spoke to him.

"Hey, I thought you looked familiar, and I couldn't help but hear them call out your name which verified you are probably who I am thinking of. My name is Lana. You're Bill Sanders, right? Aren't you a giant in the construction field? I think I've seen you in a few interviews in magazines."

Bill being a modest man, responded meekly, "Uh, yes, ma'am, my name is Bill Sanders. I have been in a magazine or two though I try not to bring that up too often."

"Oh, great! It's actually such a great opportunity that I ran into you! You see, I just purchased a property lot on the coast with an abysmal house. The house is so old and dark, even the wood is turning near black from age. I would love if you could build me something bright and white! The lot would look so much better with light brought in to liven up the place! Here's my card, please contact me when you are available to start working."

This began their building adventure together. Bill hired hundreds of men to put together a mansion of Lana's liking. The construction caused lots of noise, and the workers often tried to save time by dumping their waste from construction into the ocean. This was quite an unethical practice, but they were only getting paid to get the work done, not to do it cleanly.

This dumping of waste in the ocean got the attention of one of the woman's neighbors who called Clean Ocean. Clean Ocean was a nonprofit to help stop construction sites from abusing their platform and prevent pollution. One of their representatives shortly came out, and her name was Janie. Janie spoke to Bill about his violation against the ocean, and she explained that if this behavior was still happening in a week's time, their operation would be shut down. Bill made some empty promises and did his best to convince her that the pollution would stop. Janie left skeptical but hoped for the best.

Bill spoke to his workers about how important the conservation of the ocean was in Janie's words, but he did not do much to enforce the rules. A week passed and Janie was back on site. She saw the conditions had gotten a little bit better, but the construction site was still in violation of the rules. The next day, she sent in reinforcements to shut down the continued building of the mansion. Bill Sanders got a hefty fine, and Lana was furious and wanted a refund. This news definitely hit a few magazines in the construction world as well. Janie was content as after a few months of cleaning reparations to make up for the construction site's wrongdoings, the ocean was clear again and salty as always.

Author's Note: In the story "Why the Ocean is Salty", there was a giant world builder, Ang-ngalo, who made the world for God. While he was going about his business one day, he saw a beautiful goddess on the other side of the ocean. She beckoned him to her and asked of him a request. On his way through the ocean, Ang-ngalo made caverns in the ocean floor through result of his footprints. The goddess was the goddess of darkness, and she was quite tired of her dark accommodations in the world. She asked the giant to build her a purely white mansion to help liven up the place. He went about building this mansion for her, but the only material that white was salt. So this is what he built the house with for the goddess. Ang-ngalo employed millions of workers to carry the salt and help him build the house. The salt had be transported across the ocean which disturbed Ocean's peaceful sleep. To make all the noise stop, the Ocean sent waves to destroy the building of this house, and all the salt sank into the ocean. This explained why the ocean is salty today.

I made changes to put this story in a modern setting with Bill being a construction worker and the goddess of darkness someone who wanted a house to be built. Instead of Bill's footprints causing caverns in the ocean floor like Ang-ngalo, I had Bill step through wet cement in a similar way to show how distracted he was. In place of the Ocean goddess, I made Janie, the Clean Ocean representative, be someone that would disrupt the building progress. Instead of Janie just being annoyed by all the noise, I brought in pollution as a valid reason to shut down the building process. In this telling of the story, instead of explaining how the ocean came to be salty, I told why the ocean is still salty instead of defiled by a ton of pollution.

Bibliography

Why the Ocean is Salty, Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921)

Image Information: Ocean, Pexels

Reading Notes: Filipino Tales, Part B

The second part of the Filipino Tales unit was much more lively and had more creation stories to explain why certain things of the world are how they are currently. A lot of these stories used personification which I think could be fun to try in future stories. The story I liked best was "Why the Ocean is Salty." In this story, there was a giant world builder, Ang-ngalo, who made the world for God. While he was going about his business one day, he saw a beautiful goddess on the other side of the ocean. She beckoned him to her and asked of him a request. On his way through the ocean, Ang-ngalo made caverns in the ocean floor through result of his footprints. The goddess was the goddess of darkness, and she was quite tired of her dark accommodations in the world. She asked the giant to build her a purely white mansion to help liven up the place. He went about building this mansion for her, but the only material that white was salt. So this is what he built the house with for the goddess. Ang-ngalo employed millions of workers to carry the salt and help him build the house. The salt had to be transported across the ocean which disturbed Ocean's peaceful sleep. To make all the noise stop, the Ocean sent waves to destroy the building of this house, and all the salt sank into the ocean. This explained why the ocean is salty today.

Why I liked this story was because there were two influential goddesses that were able to affect a lot of change in the world. Just because the goddess of darkness asked, millions of people went to work to create her a beautiful mansion. In contrast, just because the Ocean was annoyed after so much time of building, she just destroyed millions because she could. This is strength and power without apology. More female characters would be well suited to take on these characteristics that are often given to men.

Bibliography

Why the Ocean is Salty, Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921)

Image Information: Salt mounds, Wikipedia

Reading Notes: Filipino Tales, Part A

This week I read the first half of the Filipino Tales unit. The story I found most interesting was the "The Monkeys and the Dragon-Flies." I like how this one went because there was a clever end to the story. This story began with a dragonfly trying to get shade from the hot sun. Unfortunately, a monkey found him in the shade on a tree the monkey had claimed. This resulted in the monkey telling the dragonfly that it could not stay on that tree. Obviously, this upset the dragonfly, so she went to tell her brother which was the king. This began the callings for a war since the king's sister had been so insulted by the monkey's rude behavior. This war began with monkeys seeming to be at an advantage because they brought sticks to the fight while the dragonflies arrived with no weapons in sight. The fighting began with the monkeys ordered to hit the dragonflies out of the sky. As a clever strategy, the dragonflies were ordered to land on the foreheads of the monkeys. This quick wit helped the dragonflies win as the monkeys still kept to their command and tried to attack the dragonflies while they were on the heads of other monkeys. This resulted into many blows on the monkeys heads which brought their ultimate demise.

This story stuck out to me as a more appealing read compared to the other tales in the unit. This one was about a tale of battle with no super graphic descriptions. The other tales in this unit often had a female basically up for sale to a manipulative male by a manipulative male or had fairly graphic violence as a key plot to the story and often towards a female. Violence was still a point to the plot of "The Monkeys and Dragon-Flies," but it seemed to at least be for a reason and it was not as cruel as the others. Since violence is not my main goal when writing stories, if I must include it, I would try to minimize the description as this story did.

Bibliography

The Monkeys and the Dragon-Files, Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921)

Image Information: Dragonfly, Wikipedia

Week 8 Progress

Looking Back: I am fairly content with my progress so far. I am nearly a full week ahead, and I was able to accomplish this through extra credit in the first few weeks. I really wish I had more time to work ahead in my schedule, but that has not really happened in the past month. I believe I have done a decent job at setting up my blog and site appropriately, and I do try to change things when I get a useful comment on how to make them better.

Looking Forward: I really do want to get much more ahead for the second half of the semester. I am hoping to get a majority of this class finished over Spring break in a few weeks because I really need that time back as my other classes are becoming much more demanding. I want to avoid spending too much time on each assignment in this class. I try to be thoughtful about each story that I am writing because I know someone will read it, but I need to cut down on how much time I use to write that story or blog post. This will help get my schedule back on track. In regards to my project website, I might add more pictures to help the readers visualize the story more.

I chose this picture to motivate me to keep up with my goals for this class because if I finish this class early that means at least two things. One, I can spend more time with dogs. Two, I can hopefully get more sleep. So a sleeping dog helps sum up both of these reasons quite nicely.

Image Information: Sleeping dog, Wikimedia

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Feedback In: I would say that the comments and feedback from other students have been nice and friendly so far. The feedback has gotten more specific and useful as the semester has gone on. I think I have noticed that for maybe half of the comments I get, I get feedback on about one thing I could change. I think as more people grow comfortable with giving feedback, this percentage of useful comments will go up. The comments that I find most useful are one that are more specific than vague. So specific suggestions on how I can make something better or easier to use have been quick and easy changes for me. I do also appreciate when positive comments tell me exactly what they did like from what I wrote.

Feedback Out: I would say I am trying to get better at leaving useful comments. I try to tell them what I like and be specific about what they could do to improve. I have found the WWW strategy to really help me with making sure I cover relevant topics in my comments. While reading other people's stories, I have picked up a lot of great ideas on how to approach the assignments in this class and how to make my project better.

Blog Comments: I do feel that by reading people's Introductions, I am getting to know them as a person a little bit more. This does help to flesh out the person behind the words. Having an Introduction post does help you put yourself out there, so then you can see what similar interests you have with other people.

Looking Forward: To make the feedback assignments more useful, I am going to try to do better about being more specific about what to change and provide suggestions on how. I would really benefit if people did the same for me. I would like if people were not as concerned with trying to be super nice to the point where I do not get meaningful feedback. I understand people do not want to offend others, but if there is not honesty in what they do not like, I cannot really improve.

I think this image helps relate what is important about the feedback process. We rarely do anything perfect the first time, so feedback helps us get better with each iteration. As long as we allow ourselves to do things imperfectly, we have so much more time to make what we are doing right by getting input from others.

Image Information: Cat, Cheezburger

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking back on my progress this semester, I would say I have made a lot of choices that have slowly made me a better writer and blogger. I reviewed how my blog and website are in terms of functionality, and I added some new widgets and buttons to make navigating to more interesting things easier. I do like the general look of my blog and website, as they are fairly clean and easy to use. Over this semester, after I got over the confusion on how I was supposed to retell a story in my own words, I believe I have done much better since my first story's retelling. Finding the link to the story prompts for retelling the stories in a new way really helped my creativity and imagination. These story prompts really boosted my ideas which lead me away from sticking strictly with the original tale. The reading over this semester has shown how many different ways there are to tell a story. I think I like reading the stories from my fellow classmates the most, as they usually put a creative spin on a story and modernize it, so the story is more relatable.

My favorite picture that I used so far this semester was the one of the galaxy. I chose this picture because the narrator of my project is Tala, the goddess of the stars. This image helped bring into focus what forces of nature we are truly dealing with in our story.

Looking forward, I hope to get even more creative as a writer. Something I may want to get better at writing is to see more examples of how to truly diverge from the original story in favor of a retelling that is only loosely based on what I read. I have had some great examples from reading the stories from other classmates in this course, but I think having more concrete established examples might help me even more. To get more out of the reading, I think it would really be preferable to have less stories to read each week, so then we can dive in more into the few we have. We are assigned to read a lot of stories, and I have not been able to appreciate each one in favor of making sure that I get through reading each one.

Image Information: Galaxy, PxHere