Mythology and Folklore KT

I really enjoyed the readings for this week.  They were different from most of the fairy tales that I had grown up with.  I did have time to do both portions of the reading; however, I forgot to log the second portion, so I just did the quiz for the extra reading instead so I could get the extra points for it.  I believe I did my best writing for this week in this class.  I really liked my story this week; I killed off the character unexpectedly, which isn’t very nice, but is far more entertaining than having a predictable ending to the story.  I really enjoyed reading a storybook this week about different constellations telling their stories about how they became constellations. The writing was incredible; I wish that it was a book honestly, I think my youngest sister would live reading it.  I had a final in one of my classes this week on Wednesday, which was not fun.  That day was also my birthday.  Taking a final on your birthday is not fun; the only thing worse is bein

3 Steps to Recapture Time by @JOYNICOLEM Rule 1 Refuse to yield your 1st 15 minutes spend 5 minutes envisioning your day identify 3-4 tasks that you need to complete day day break those tasks into 3-4 steps I really like this rule.  Just spending a short amount of time organizing everything that you need to do that day.  I believe that I would be more organized if I started my day off doing this. Rule 2  Pruning I liked this rule.  It basically says to look through your life every once in a while and rearrange everything.  Take stock, see what you want to keep, and getting rid of everything else.  When I start something new, I tend to be really organized and ready to go, but after a while I become apathetic.  So shaking everything up every once and a while might keep me more engaged. Rule 3  Learning how to say NO to things I am really bad at this.  I will say yes because I want to feel useful, but I simply do not have time to do things that I have said yes to.  I need

Goal: I want to live outside of Oklahoma some day Why:  because I would like to experience new things, and that can best be done in an environment that I didn't grow up in Why is that important: because learning new things is the best way to experience growth Why does that matter: because growing as a person is something that everyone should strive for Why: because it is something that we can all work toward, yet never achieve Why: because we are human, and that means that no one is perfect, but using empathy and learning from other's experiences can help us work toward that goal.  I chose this challenge because I learned about it while working toward my green belt in lean six/sigma.  This helped me better understand why I want to live outside of Oklahoma after I graduate.  I am too comfortable in Oklahoma, and I need to get outside of my comfort zone to be able to grow.  I chose this picture because this entire time I was picturing a curious little child asking me why

Ninja Cat I do not like Ninja cat very much because it would only recognize that I typed something if I did it more slowly than I am used to.  Type for Your Life I really liked type for your life because it would keep up with my typing.  Also, if I got through a word without doing a typo it would make me go twice as fast.  I think that it was much better pased than the ninja cat game.  I would definitely recommend this who is attempting to get better at typing. 

Once there was a very lazy girl named May.  Because she was lazy, she would trick people into doing things for her.  She became uncannily good at it.  She made a career out of it.  Now, the king of her country heard of how good May was at tricking people into her bidding.  He decided that she was too dangerous a person to have continue living in his country.  The king called May to his court. May arrived at his court, and walked into the King’s throne room.  The king propositioned her to prove her abilities.  There was a dragon who lived near the kingdom who had a large amount of treasure.  The king said that if May could get one of the dragon’s pets for him, then the king would let her marry his son.  Thinking that she would be killed in this endeavor, the king had no problem offering such a hefty prize.  May agreed, and started to the dragon’s cave.  It was night when she arrived to the dragon’s cave. She walked around trying to find one of the dragon’s pets.  She accide

Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang I Know What I have Learned This story made no sense to me.  Why on earth did that man think that he could do everything that the trolls did?  And he just left 6 bags of gold in the road?  He does not seem like the smartest in the land. Lovely Ilonka I liked how in this story the King wouldn't let his son get married until he accomplished a quest.  It was a bit weird how the prince went about it thought.  I also that it was odd that the royal family could  be so easily fooled into marrying off the prince to the wrong person. The Death of the Sun-Hero Staying awake for 9 days and nights sounds exhausting.  Staying awake for that long will definitely cause you to hallucinate. The Voice of Death Stories like this seem all the same to me.  The character spends all this time avoiding death, and it is a waste of time because it is futile.  They might as well make the most of what time they have. The Goat's Ears of Emperor Trojan Stories like t

Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang Puss in Boots I like the aspect of this story where a cunning cat improves his master's life considerably.  The tricks that he pulls are masterfully thought out. The Dirty Shepherdess The father in this story grossly over reacted to his daughters words. How the Dragon was Tricked The king in this story was foolish and greedy.  It is a weird theme in foldlore where tricksters often prosper. The young man who would have is eyes opened I did not like this story.  It is promoting the idea that ignorance is bliss, which is something that I do not believe is always true. Kisa the Cat This story is very odd.  It resembles the frog prince a bit.  If I were to have a character in my story cursed, it would probably be also as a cat, because they seem more capable than other animals. Kot w Butach, Source:  Wikimedia Commons

I really enjoyed the reading for this week.  I got to go over some of my favorite fairy tales.  I had enough time to do both portions of the reading.  I remember many of the characters from the readings this week having a curse put on them. This seems to be a common theme with a lot of stories in mythology.  I will see if there are any this coming week.  I believe that I did my best writing this week in this class, because I got to be more creative than I normally am in my HR class.  In this class I got to write a story about a Queen who underwent a curse to protect her people.  It was a lot of fun, honestly.  I have never read a story like that before.  I really enjoyed reading the stories this week. It is always fun to see how creative people can get for this class.  To me, a story is successful if it has a good story arch.  One needs to develop a relationship with the character, no matter how short the story is.  I read a story this week that was written to sound like a radio in

I started with the Little Mermaid because I just read the story by Hans Christian Anderson for one of my reading posts.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid The Little Mermaid.  I read through the entire article, then came upon a criticism of the story by P.L. Travers, who said that the end of the story scares children into behaving well, because it says that if they are naughty then the "daughters of the air" have to wait one more day before they get a soul.  I thought that this was a good point, so I decided to click on the "Mary Poppins" link, because I wanted to compare Travers story to Anderson's.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins Mary Poppins Looking through the Mary Poppins page, under the "see also " heading, I saw that P.L. Travers praised a story called The Little Prince.  This story sounded familiar, So I decided to click on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince The Little Prince Reading throu

Why Sleeping May Be More Important Than Studying By Katrina Schwartz One thing that my parents always told me growing up is that if you are unprepared for a test, it is better to get a good night's sleep than it is to stay up all night studying.  This article helped confirm that in my mind.  I like the idea of public schools starting at 10 a.m. so the students have enough time to sleep.  I did not know that it is important to establish a sleeping routine, or to not eat carbs before bed.  I did know that looking at screens before bed is harmful to your quality of sleep. I would like to research the importance of sleep further for the bulletin board that is my floor.  As a resident adviser, each month I do a different theme for the bulletin board with information for the freshmen residents that I am responsible for.  I firmly believe that some of them will be surprised by this information, and that it will help them in the future.  I am going to look into different articles, as

I have decided to come up with a motto for dead week and finals.  When thinking about this, I remembered a key chain that I had in high school.  I had gotten as a novelty gift from a theme park.  It had the Taylor (my last name) family crest and motto on it, and the motto was "He hits what he aims at."  I always liked that.  To me, it said, "you will accomplish your goals when you work toward them."  I modified a little bit, so now it is "I will hit what I aim at."   I made a picture of it in Canva. Created by me in Canva

I used the keyhero.com website and typingtest.com website.  I took a typing class in high school, so these typing websites remind me of the typing tests we had then.  I liked the keyhero website because it had you type out famous quotes.  I also liked that it showed you what word you were on and it wouldn't let you continue if you had gotten something wrong until you had corrected your error. My speed on that site averaged at about 46 words per minute, and I consistently had accuracy in the 90% range.  Typing test bugged me a bit, because it was timed.  I felt like I was in a rush.  I also did not like how it did not tell you if you got something wrong, it just tallied up the total at the end.  Overall, I like the keyhero website better. Taking these tests made me realize that I am not as fast as I used to be at typing.  When I was taking the class, I was consistently typing 70 words per minute.  It might not hurt to do tests like this every once in a while, just to improve

The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Anderson The Little Mermaid pt1 This story is wonderfully descriptive.  I like how all of the mermaids are given permission to learn about the human world, and explore along shipwrecks. The Little Mermaid pt2 It is interesting that the mermaids try to convince the sailors that it is so much better under the water, and that a storm is fun and playful for them.  The Little Mermaid pt3 The notion of mermaids not having an immortal soul is rather sad.  It is odd that if a person falls in love with them, then they are given a soul.  The Little Mermaid pt4 The sea witch is extremely scary.  She is not someone I would want to make a deal with.  The Little Mermaid pt5 and 6 It is extremely sad that the little mermaid did not get to be with the prince that she loved so dearly.  He never seemed to really take her feelings into consideration, instead always saying how happy she should be for him.  However, it is good that he got to marry the gir

The first thing I remember is waking up. When I woke up, I was in a dark room.  Slowly getting out of bed, I felt around for some source of light.  I found a candle and matches on the nightstand next to the bed. As light from the candle flooded the room, I took in my surroundings.  The room was circular, with fine furniture and tapestries hanging on the walls.  I was impressed until I noticed a large layer of dust on everything.  It looked like no one had been in the room in a long time.  Walking around, I noticed a large curtain.  Pulling it to the side, I found a beautiful stained-glass window.  I opened the window and looked out.  I was at the top of a very tall tower, which seemed to be part of a castle.  The land around the castle was barren and brown, and it looked like nothing had grown there in a long time.  Feeling the urge to flee, I frantically looked around the room for the door.  A door was nowhere to be found. I cannot tell you how long I lived in that ro

Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm The Queen Bee I have read this story before, and I greatly enjoy it.  I like the fact that the brother who was kind and considerate was given the help he needed to break the curse.   The Twelve Huntsmen I like the lion from this story.  Having a wise lion would be a good addition to my story. Jorinda and Jorindel It is funny that they have such similar names.  I like how the answer for the problem came in a dream. The Twelve Dancing Princesses One theme that I do not like in all of these stories is the forced marriage.  I understand that it was common among royalty, but women should not be treated as prizes for an accomplished task.  In my story, I will not make this part of it.   12 dancing princess par Arthur Rackham, Source:  Wikimedia Commons

Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm The Frog Prince I like the idea in this story of the prince being cursed.  I want to incorporate a cursed prince into my story; I will probably have him be a frog as well. Rapunzel I am thinking of having the prince in my story run into a girl who is trapped in a tower. Brier Rose From this story, I like the idea of an entire castle being still for a hundred years because of a curse.  I will add this to the curse that I am going to put on the prince in my story.  Maybe the tower that the girl is trapped in will be a part of the prince's castle, and he finds and rescues the girl in the tower while he is still a frog. Die Brüder Grimm by  Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann, Source:  Wikimedia Commons

I really enjoyed my reading for week 13.  Nursery Rhymes are my favorite, and being able to write a story that included them was a lot of fun.  Being able to incorporate Alice Through the Looking Glass was a thrill as well; it was one of my favorite stories when I was little.    My other classes are going decently well.   I am in mainly engineering classes, so I have not been able to connect what I learn in this class to other classes, but I do enjoy discussing things that I learn in this class with my friends and family.   I read some really great stories this week.  One was really creative, in a sense that it portrayed Greek mythology in a college campus setting.  The names were super creative, and I want to come up with a story like that.  I also am thinking about a story that I read a few weeks ago that was written like a play.  That was super interesting to read.  One is able to communicate with an audience in stead of a reader.   Next week I would like to get everything

The Power of Concentration What is at least one thing that the article CONFIRMED for you that you knew already? This article confirmed in my head the fact that meditation is a good thing. What is at least one NEW thing that you learned that you did not know before? I learned the meditation for a short time a day, every day, can help you concentrate more on something. What is the one thing you are now CURIOUS to explore (i.e. something you want to try in your life, something you want to research and learn more about, etc.) and what are you going to do in order to act on that curiosity? I am more curious now about approaching mindfulness through meditation.  I believe that I am going to find some books on the subject, and attempt sitting quietly for a few minutes every morning, and see if it helps my concentration.  Source:  Wikimedia Commons

f orgetting i s s ometimes h ard c hoosing h appiness i s p ossible When coming up with this acronym, I was thinking of fish and chips.  I played around with some words until I found an acronym that would suit me.  Having regrets is very normal, and forgetting them is not always possible, but you can choose to look past that and focus on what makes you happy. Source:  Wikimedia Commons

My opinion on the daily announcements: I really enjoy them.  They have very interesting things to say, and I like how they have events that are going on around campus as well.  I have never had a professor do something like this for the class, and I wish that more professors would.  I cannot think of anything to add to the announcements, I just recommend that you continue doing them.

"Storybooks are like portals to other worlds,"  said little Julie to her dolls.  "They create another reality.  Maybe they ARE another reality!  Maybe the characters live inside the story.  Oooooh, it is so much fun to read." Julie walked across her room to get another book from her bookshelf.  Her fingers ran over the various books until she stopped on one that read Nursery Rhymes.   "I will read this one again!"  Julie sat down in her favorite chair, arranged her dolls around her, and opened the book.   "There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile. He found a crooked sixpense against a crooked stile...."  Julie's head began to nod.  She jolted upright and continued, "He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse....."   Julie's eyes fluttered shut and a when she opened them she was falling through the air!  Julie scrambled for something to hold onto, but found nothing.  Suddenly she landed with a

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carrol I want to do this week's story about a girl who winds up in a Nursery Rhyme book.  I figured looking into Alice would be a good idea, because she gets into a similar situation. Looking-Glass House Alice has theories about Looking glass house, which is like a parallel dimension that is through a mirror that is a mirrored version of her actual house.  It would be fun to write a story about a girl who believes that characters from stories have their own little world within books The Jabberwocky poem is one of my favorites.  It is dark yet silly, and you can only read it while holding it up to a mirror.  Tweedledum and Tweedledee these are actually characters in one of the nursery rhymes Humpty Dumpty he is also a nursery rhyme, but apparently it is also a riddle.  you are supposed to guess that he is an egg. My Own Invention A part that is left out of this story is the Lion and the unicorn, which is

The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang Jingles: cock a doodle do, my dame has lost her shoe To market to Market to by a fat pig Love and Matrimony: Jack Sprat Did you see my wife, did you see Natural History: IN the month of February, When green leaves begin to spring, little lambs do skip like faries, birds do couple, build and sing Lady bird, Lady bird, fly away home Mary had a pretty bird, with feathers bright and yellow Little Girl, little girl, where have you been, gathering roses to give to the queen Accumulative Stories: Little Miss Muffet What are little boys or girls made of? Little Miss Muffet, Source:  Wikimedia Commons

The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang My idea for my story is to have my main character land in a word of nursery rhymes and meets all of the characters.  so my notes will be mainly around the main characters and their situations Tales: the man in the moon babes in the wood DIED WHAT??  They were stolen and died.  Why is this a nursery rhyme?? the crooked man, who had a crooked house and cat and mouse Simple Simon The lion and the unicorn were fighting fro the crown.  It seems the lion won.  Tom the piper's son stole a pig, ate him, and was beat for it My lady Wind set the house on fire Taffy was a Welshman, and he stole things Litttle Jack Horner Solomon Grundy, the poem makes it seem like he lived only a week Proverbs: The characters need to speak in the nursery rhyme proverbs Monday's Child is one of my favorite poems.  I definitely want to include it in my story For want of a nail, aka a kingdom can be lost over the smallest detail March wind

I will tell you a tale about the land of Faeries.  This is a time of magic.  In this land there lived a Duke and his daughter, Brita.  Brita was an only child.  Because of this, her father provided her the best schooling and training that he could, both in how to be a lady of the court and how to be a knight.  Brita spent many years training to be the best fighter in the land.  However, she never had any interest in going on quests.  One day, Brita was poking around the vast library in her home. She found an old, dusty book labeled “Prophecies.”  Intrigued, she opened the book up to the table of contents.  She scanned the chapters until she saw one that said “True Love.”  “This could be interesting,” she thought, and, ignoring the warning label next to the title of the book, she flipped to the “True Love” chapter.  She picked a prophecy at random and started reading outloud; “Your true love is close at hand, You must travel to another land. Rescue your love from th

The Faerie Queene, by Mary Macleod These are some random ideas that I had while reading this story.  I want to include most of them in the retelling. Sir Guyon I like how when the knights in this story fight, it is more to test strength than to defeat the other.  It is a "show me what you got" thing. How Britomart Fought with Six Knights The idea of having a villian have people pledge allegiance to her would be an intriguing addition to a story. Britomart in Castle Joyus Britomart and the Knight are not impressed by lavishness. Malecasta is a fun name. The Magic Mirror Britomart has been trained since birth to fight. A prophecy instead of a mirror would be a good way to get a hero to go on a quest.  Prophecy book, that has many different prophecies, and what you read will come true. The Cave of the Magician Merlin Merlin should make the Prophecy book Britomart's Quest Britomart is apparently tall. And apparently she is not the first noble Princess to

The Song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1855 Hiawatha and the Pearl-Feather Nokomis points west, and tells Hiawatha about the great Pearl-Feather, guarded by serpents.  Apparently the great Pearl Feather killed her father.  She wants him to avenge her father.  Hiawatha agreed.  He killed the serpents when they did not let him pass.  When he arrived, PF told him to go back, for he will kill him like Nokomis's father.  They battled.  A woodpecker told Hiawatha told him where megissogwon was vulnerable, and that he should shoot there.  3 arrows.  PF was killed.  Hia put some of the blood on the woodpecker as a thankyou, and woodpeckers have red feathers to this day. Hiawatha's Wooing Hia still loves Minnehaha.  Nokomis wants him to marry from his own people.  Hia went to go get Minnehaha.  He proposed; she accepted.  The headed Home.  Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast Pau-Puk_Keewis was asked to dance at the wedding.  Chibiabos was asked to sing. Iagoo boasted of

The Song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1855 This story is a poem, which I have not read before in this class.  Maybe I could write my story in poem form as well.  It is free verse (does not rhyme). Because it is a poem, I am going to write what is happening in the story so I can take my favorite parts from it later: The Four Winds Mudjekeewis cam home with the sacred belt of wampum, which he stole from Mishe-Mokwa.  He stole it by creeping close while the monster was sleeping.  He could feel the monster's breath.  Then He kit Mishe-Mokwa on the head with a club. Mishe-Mokwa is a bear.  They just used the phrase "whimpered like a woman," which I did not appreciate. Mudjekeewis (hereafter known as Mud) taunted the bear, saying that he is not brave.  He says that the bear is cowardly.  He then killed Mishe by breaking his skull. Mud is now known as the West-Wind. New character, Wabun.  East Wind.  He brings the morning, wakes the village, is called t

This story is also in my Portfolio:  Tales told by a Bookworm   There once was a woman named Kya who lived with her father, stepmother, and half-sister, May.  Her mother had passed away when she was young.  Kya’s stepmother did not like her; she feared that she would be competition for her own daughter.  So, one day she sent Kya to do a seemingly impossible task; gathering berries in the middle of winter.  Kya wondered around in the cold, knowing that she would not be permitted back into the house until she completed her stepmother’s task.  She stumbled onto a cottage, where five old women lived.  They invited her in.  They offered her a place by the fire to be warm, and asked what she was doing outside.  She explained the situation.  The women took pity on her.  They gave her a small shovel and told her to go clear a mound of snow that was on the side of their house.  As she dug away the snow, she found a bush full of fresh berries.  She gathered them into her basket, and rushe

Tales of the North American Indians, by Stith Thompson The Youth Who Joined the Deer I enjoy the theme of respect that is represented in this story.  In the story, if you kill a deer, use every part of the deer, and throw all of the bones into water, the deer will come to life again.  The deer in this story sacrifice themselves for their people so that they may eat.  The True Bride This story reminds me of Cinderella in a sense that she has a jealous stepmother, a haughty step-sister, and people who give her clothes and abilities to attract the chief's son.  This week I want to write a story that follows a similar story line, while also including the problems that the stepmother causes with the main character's children, and the loyal dog who takes care of them.  Goose, Snow Luray   Source:  Wikimedia Commons

Tales of the North American Indians, by Stith Thompson One thing that I like from these stories is how the characters can change from animals to humans almost at will sometimes. Also, how the animals and elements (rocks and trees) are personified sometimes, enough that they have the human habits of taking a wife and building a fire.  I want to have these elements for characters in my story this week. Malayan Sun Bear, Source:  Wikimedia Commons

There was once a college student named Laurel.  Laurel had spent weeks looking for a roommate.  She noticed a that someone else had put a post on the school’s Facebook page, saying that they also needed a roommate.  Laurel messaged this person, Olivia, and set up a time for them to meet. Laurel asked Olivia some things about herself, and came to find that they had the same major, enjoyed the same TV shows, and liked similar food.  ‘This is perfect!’ thought Laurel, ‘We are equals, this will work.’ Laurel asked Olivia if she would like to move in to the same apartment together, and Olivia accepted.  Laurel and Olivia lived together for a while.  Soon they fell into a routine.  Olivia would give Laurel a ride to school, and would pick up Laurel from her job in the evening.  They would both make dinner, but Olivia would pay for the basic groceries, like butter and milk.    One day, Laurel was talking to her friends about Olivia.  Olivia was upset that Laurel had not d

South African Folk-Tales by James Honey The Dance for Water The rabbit was tricked by the tortoise, yet fooled the lion Jackal and Monkey The Jackal tricked the monkey The White Man and Snake The snake wanted to bite the man after he helped her, so the jackal tricked her to be put under the stone again. Jackal, Dove, and Heron The Jackal breaks the Heron's neck, causing it to always be bent.  The Jackal is not a nice character, and it is odd that most of the stories involving him end with him "winning" Elephant and Tortoise It is hard to tell who is the villain in this story.  It seems to be the elephant, yet also the lion. The Judgement of Baboon It is like a giant rick paper scissors.  Each animal or element defeats itself in some way. When Lion Could Fly The frog destroyed some special bones that gave the lion the ability to fly.  It would be fun to incorporate an object that would let the animals fly. The Lion who thought Himself Wiser than His