Reading Part B

I finished up LibriVox section of the Grimm Tales. I enjoyed this unit overall. I was familiar with several stories, thanks to Disney, so it was interesting to see where they started and ended up. 

The Queen Bee

• Three sons and a king. The youngest son (Simpleton) continually mocked. 
• Simpleton prevented his brothers from hurting ants and ducks and a beehive. 
• They find a castle with an old man inside. 
• The old man gave them tasks to do and if the succeeded, they would free the castle. 
• The two oldest failed, but the ants, ducks and bees helped the youngest complete the tasks. 
• The queen bee helped the prince figure out which princess was the youngest.
• They married the princesses and freed the castle. 

Caption: The youngest by the end of this story. Obtained from giphy.com

The Twelve Hunstman 

• A prince was engaged to a maiden, but his father told him to marry a princess instead. 
• The maiden gathered twelve women who looked like her, dressed them all as huntsmen and rode into the king's court. 
• They were put to the test by a lion and passed all the tests. 
• The main maiden was able to win back the prince.

The Fox and the Horse

• A man kicked a very old horse out of his stable. 
• He told the horse if he wanted to stay to fetch him a lion
• The horse told this to a fox who told the horse to play dead
• The fox went to a lion and told him about a dead horse he could eat 
• The fox brought the lion to the horse and tied the lion's legs together and tied him to the horse. 
• The horse pulled the lion very fast to his master. 
• He got to stay in the stable. 

All of these seemed like possible stories to re-envision. 

bibliography: Grimm (LibriVox)

Reading Notes Part A

This week I decided to read The Brothers Grimm (LibriVox) Tales. I am familiar with the Grimm Brothers stories and how they usually go about writing their stories. I am aware they tend to write in a darker tone, so it was somewhat of a surprise when a lot of these stories ended on a rather happy note.

Princess and the Frog

I'm familiar with the Disney movie, so I was curious about how they compared. I liked how the story was built. It kept me on my toes, and I love how it ended. 

Rapunzel 

My all-time favorite Disney princess. I liked how Disney kept the integrity of the story for the most part. I also feel like this story could easily be reinvented in several different ways so I will keep it in mind. 

The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean

I haven't heard of this story before, and it was very intriguing to me. It seemed unlike other Grimm stories I've read before, but it was cool how the tailor sewed up a bean. 

The Mouse, The Bird, and The Sausage

Another Grimm story I haven't heard of. It wasn't my favorite. It was kind of dull, but it sad how the bird drowned. 

Overall, 
I enjoyed all the stories. I really like Rapunzel, but I might just be impartial to it. I liked the style of writing the Grimm brothers use. It is poetic but still understandable and flowed easily. 

Caption: Rapunzel:) obtained from giphy.com 

Bibliography: Grimm Brothers unit

Learn by H.E.A.R.T

Health. I have a typical desk job on campus, and it is one that requires me to remain at the desk as much as possible, as I have to greet and answer questions for the entirety of my shift. These exercises really helped me pass the time and keep me awake, especially on slow days. I listed below my favorite ones. 

6 Yoga Exercises You Won’t Be Embarrassed to Do at Your Desk.

Chair twist: I like this one because I love a good back pop. 

Twisted arms: This one was fun. My co-workers and I sat around doing it for like fifteen minutes.

Growth mindset

What started out as a light-hearted conversation about a more productive mindset, slowly turned into a serious discussion about the direction of my life and the people who will be along for the ride. I had a conversation with someone very dear to me about growth mindset, and it lead me to completely re-evaluating our connection and the plotline of our story. I didn't go into it thinking it would change anything, but I came out of the conversation with a different perspective about where I am headed. I don't know if I am headed in the right direction, but at least it's the direction I chose.  

Caption: Ariana's truest moment of growth. We can all learn and grow from the love, patience, and pain and can make us more amazing. 

Reading Part B

I finished up the Nursery Rhymes, and I am still slightly confused by this Unit overall. I thought some were cute, and some didn't make much sense. They were short and some I have actually read before. Like the one, Pussy-cat where have you been? I think I will need to do some background research on specific rhymes to fully understand the context of what is meant to be said, and produce a better story. I like the rhymes in reading part A because I felt they were a little easier to follow. Overall, I think that the rhymes in reading part b do leave a lot of room for creative freedom in a story. 

Caption: the pussy-cat returning from London. Obtained from flickr.com

Bibliography:  The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897).

Reading Part A

For this week's reading, I decided to read Nursery Rhymes: Tales. To start, I enjoyed this section. I liked the length of the tales. They were more digestible than the Celtic Tales. However, there were quite a few I found difficult to follow. I did like how any one of them could give me a good base for a story this week. They are short and vague, so would allow a lot of creative freedom. I have chosen a few of my favorite rhymes I might want to construct a story around. 

Nursery Rhymes: Tales 

The Lion and The Unicorn: The lion and unicorn fought for the crown. The lion won. The townspeople gave them bread and sent them out of town. 
There was a Crooked Man: There was a crooked man who found a sixpence and got a cat and lived in a crooked house. 

Caption: Phoebe knew a crooked man. Obtained from twitter.com

Three Wisemen of Gotham: Three wise men set sail in a small boat and it sunk. 

Nursery Rhymes: Paradoxes

Children slid on ice in the summer. The ice cracked (or melted) and all the children drowned. It was the parents' fault for not keeping them safe. 

Bibliography: The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897).

Storylab Week 12: Myth Crash Course

For my story lab this week I chose to watch the three Mythology Crash Course Videos. Below, I have written. my thoughts on each video. 

What is Myth? Crash Course World Mythology #1
   The biggest takeaway is myths are stories. Not necessarily false stories, but stories that have significance and survive for a long time. Myths usually deal with the creation of the world, and folktales/fairytales are lumped into them now. I wish this video was suggested/required at the beginning of the course because it would help clear up a lot of confusion are certain subject matters within this course. He then covers the myth of Persophone and how it explains seasons, and science has sort of built on this and derived theories from it. 

Theories of Myth: Crash Course World Mythology #12 
   He covered the definition of mythology and how myths are studied. Plato started the rumor myths are lies or made-up. A whole lot of history about how we have derived religious myths. Anthropology comes along in the 20th century, and studied how myths are a direct expression of its subject-matter and people. A lot of other -ology fields turned to mythology to build on their theories. 
Myths hold a lot of structure in culture. 

The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth: Crash Course World Mythology #25
   He jumped into stories of heroes and their journeys (monomyths). Campbell was expectantly sexist. "We are all heroes struggling to find our way through our adventures." Campbell was a little insane. He walked through the general three-part monomyth structure. 

Caption: An iconic hero with a classic journey. Obtained from giphy.com 

Reading B Celtic Fairy Tales

I finished up Celtic Fairy Tales tonight. Overall, I enjoyed these stories. I am of Irish descent, so these stories really struck a chord with me. One of the stories in this unit that really stuck out to me was Brewery of Eggshells. A woman had twins who lacked in growth. She followed some old man's advice and threw them into the lake. Turns out they were goblins and were reclaimed by the goblins in the lake. Another one that stuck out to me was Andrew Coffey. Andrew was a quiet man and traveling with his horse. The two got lost and came across a cabin. While at the cabin he could he someone calling his name, and he found a man who had been lost for many years. Overall, I liked how these stories were told and they were easier to follow. I liked the strangeness of these stories. They kept me more interested. 

 

Caption: Celtic Symbol obtained from Pinterest

Bibliography: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892). 

Reading Notes Part A

This week I decided to read about Celtic Fairy Tales. As someone of strong Irish descent, these immediately jumped out at me. There were a couple that appealed to me a little bit more than others. The first one was The Field of Boliauns. This one captured the story of how Tom was tricked by a Leprechaun, which I thought was pretty funny. The other story that caught my attention was The Shepard of Myddvai. The story of a married couple with a certain condition. The man could not strike the woman more than three times, or she would leave him. He broke this rule and she left him and immediately left him. Overall, I liked all the stories in the unit, but they were slightly hard to follow. 

 

Caption: The Luck of the Irish giphy.com

Bibliography: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

Week 11 Tech Tips: Pinterest Research

I have been using Pinterest since the seventh grade, but I actually haven't opened the app in a while. It was funny, cause it felt like an entirely new app to me. It's gone through so many updates and I was honestly surprised by how incapable I was at using it. However, I managed to create a new board for this class and pinned a few things related to my storybook. I hope this helps me continue to write and organize my story.

Caption: Mythology Pinterest board. 

One Polar Bear Shot, Sir.

It was an unusually slow Friday night in the Eskimo Bar. The bartender was cleaning the iced countertops when a frail old woman walked into the bar. Another unusual sight for the Eskimo Bar. She sat at the end of the bar with her hands in her lap and her head down. The bartender wiped the counter down and made his way to her. 

"A shot for your thoughts?" he said with a small laugh. 
"Uh, yes I would like one Polar Bear shot," the woman replied. 

Taken aback by this request, the bartender nodded and retrieved the woman's shot. He slid it the shot in front of her and she picked it up and raised to the ceiling. 
"
To letting go," she said and threw back the drink. Her face scrunched and she began shaking her head. The woman picked up her purse hanging on her seat and fumbled in it for a few moments. She set her purse on the counter and sighed. 

"Sir, I am terribly sorry, but I don't have the money to pay for this," the woman said. 
The bartender sat for a moment and thought about her predicament. Usually, he wouldn't be forgiving of this, but seeing her state he felt she deserved some slack. 

"I will let you off, but on one condition. You tell me your story of what brought you in today," he said. 

The woman smiled and took off her jacket. 

"Well, I better take off my jacket because we will be here awhile," she replied. 
The woman proceeded to tell the story of how she had been fostering a large wolf-like dog she found on the side of the road. She loved this dog as if he were a child. She walked him, fed him and bathed him. Although the dog was sweet and protective of her, the dog was vicious to others. One day the dog broke out of the backyard. He charged around the neighborhood and attacked a man and left him severely injured. As a result, the dog had to be put down, but before putting him down she released him to the woods to find a pack of his own.

"So that is how I ended up here. To take a strong shot of something to let go of the only being that did not remind me how alone I am," she said and looked back down at her hands. 

The bartender now felt even more guilt than before. He sighed and swung the towel over his shower. 

"M'am, I'm sorry about your dog and tell you what. How 'bout every week you stop by for a Polar Bear shot on the house. You can tell me about your week or whatever," he said with a smile. The woman nodded. 

"Thank you, sir. You are very kind and I look forward to it," she said and gripped his hand. 

The end. 

Caption: Wolf by Simon Rae. 

Author's Note: I chose to do The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son. I changed the bear to a dog and had her tell her story a bartender. I didn't want to alter the story too much, and I wanted to keep it simple. I wanted to keep the same emotion, but give the old woman a happy ending. Without the dog, she wouldn't have met the bartender. Another thing to note is a Polar Bear shot is one part chocolate liqueur and one part peppermint schnapps, and I felt it fit the Eskimo vibe. 

Bibliography: Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).