Week 15: Famous Last Words: Literally.

So this week I am finishing up everything in here and this will probably be my last time to post on this blog for at least now! I wanted to finish this as soon as possible so I can be free to focus on my other classes! I am on top of most of my work in those classes and would like to stay that way! I have one final on Wednesday that I need to get to stuDYING for and a huge project proposal presentation on Friday! I am super excited to present the research and experiment I have been working on all semester! I also have some Italian stuff to finish up on and I am so excited because this is my last semester of Italian! I can read Italian almost perfectly, but speaking it and listening to it is hard for me. I suppose that is what happens when you take an online class were the emphasis is on reading and writing it! I have had a lot of fun this semester in this class and would like to take this as an opportunity to thank you for your kind comments and critiques this semester! You have made this class enjoyable and encouraged me to continue on with my creative writing so thank you!!! I wish you all the best! To those of you who are graduating like me in May, I am just as excited for what your future holds for you as I am what mine holds for me. For those of you who still have school to go, I wish you the best in your classes and would encourage you to keep putting in hard work! It will all be over before you know it, so make the most of your time here at the beautiful University of Oklahoma! Live on University!

---Karisa

(Thank You!)

Week 15: Tech Tip Cheezburger: Christmas meme!

(Cheezburger)

I made this on Cheezburger! I really love Christmas and I know it shows in all of my Christmas related posts, but this is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite Christmas poems! 

Week 15: Growth Mindset: Get Festive!!!

(Get Festive)

Christmas (and Karisamas...my birthday is December 20th haha) are almost here! It's time to GET FESTIVE!!!

Portfolio Guide

Heart and Soul
This is a story about forbidden love.


The Mighty King and the Turtle
This story is about a father's love and  his two easily frightened sons.


The Story of the Third Old Man
This story is a story within a story within a story. It is a tale about revenge and what happens to those
who seek it out of greed.


The Terrapin's Escape
This story is about how one adventure for a morning snack turns changes a terrapin's (who may be a little too clever for his own good sometimes) life completely.

The Fisher Maid
This story is about a fisher maid who loved very deeply. She risks it all to save a man she had only admired from a far.

The Faithful Unfaithful
An older gentlemen goes on a frantic search for his missing younger wife. Where could she be at such a late hour of the night?

Week 14: Storytelling: The Faithful Unfaithful

(Mr. Shannahan walking in the night)

Where is my wife? Hmmmm...she should have been home with dinner ready an hour ago. Something is up, I just know it. I have to come up with a plan to catch what she is up to. Wait, you don't even know me. You see, I am an older gentleman in this great village of mine, who took a beautiful young maiden for my wife. My name is Mr. Shannahan. She wanted children, but was very disappointed when I could not give her them. I knew she confided in the other young women in town about how unhappy she was about it. I felt sorry for my incompetence in this area. I have noticed, however, that she has been staying out with her friends later than usual. I know a few of her friends' husbands and they would not allow their women to stay out as late as my wife claims they have been. She has to be up to something and I must get to the bottom of it.

And with that, the old gentleman was off into the night. He took a lantern, his coat, a scarf, and a his warmest hat. He quietly slipped off into the night on a search to find is wife. 

I believe I'll stop by the market first. Perhaps some of the shop owners have seen her....

The man walked into the first shop that sold fabric.

"Excuse me! Mrs. Jones...have you seen my wife?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Shannahan...I'm afraid I haven't seen her since this morning...She stopped by after having brunch with Mrs.Davis and Mrs. Linn."

"Thank you, Mrs. Jones! I'll move along so you can finish closing. I have good night!"

The man left Mrs. Jones' store and wandered next door to Mr. Davis' butcher shop.

"Mr. Davis! Mr. Davis, are you still here?"

"Yes! I'm in the back! Who is it!?"

"It's Mr. Shannahan! May I please have a word with you?"

"Of course! Come on back!"

Mr. Shannahan went to the back of the shop where he found Mr. Davis cutting meat for the next day. They chatted about their wives and Mr. Davis told him that his wife had stopped by earlier, but that was a long time ago. He was almost certain she had gone to see the priest after she left his shop. She definitely should have been home by now. Mr. Shannahan was starting to worry that something bad had happened to her. Feeling discouraged, he started his way back home to wait for her. 

That was a very weird encounter I had with the priest last night...I do not remember ever loaning him my winnowing basket....and why did he return it so late? This is all very strange to me. He seemed so nervous last night when he woke me up. If he really was just returning it, then why was he so nervous to do such a noble thing?

The old gentleman had it in his mind now that he was going to go ask the priest if he knew anything about where his wife was. He headed straight to the priest's house and knocked on the door...but there was no answer. However, the door was open. Mr. Shannahan decided to walk in and check on the priest to make sure he was okay. 

"Hello?! Is anyone home?"

There was no answer. The Mr. Shannahan made his way deeper into the priest's house. He looked into the kitchen and saw his wife's winter coat. 

Wait a second....that's my wife's coat!

And with that, the old gentlemen understood what was taking place behind his back. He ran into the bedroom and caught the two in an affair. 

"HOW DARE YOU! After all I have done for you this is what you do to me? I can't believe this!!! AND YOU SIR! HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF A MAN OF GOD!"

And with that the man turned his collar up to the cold and stormed off door to door letting everyone know about his wife's infidelity and the priest's part in it. The two were banished from the village and never heard from ever again. 


Author's note: This story is based on The Villager, his wife, and the Priest which is out of the Heptameron unit in the untextbook. In the original story, the priest comes to tend to the older gentleman's sheep and has an affair with his wife while he's away. One night, the man comes home before the priest leaves so he has to hide. He hides up by the man's winnowing basket and stays there until the man falls asleep. When he goes to leave, he knocks the basket down and wakes the man up. The wife assures the man that the priest was only returning what he had borrowed from the man and the old man bought it. I chose to write about what happened when the man found out what his wife and the priest were doing. I was very upset while reading this and really wanted the man to catch them in their act.I definitely felt like the old man in this story deserved better and wanted to retell it so he caught them. I also went back into my original story when I added it to my portfolio and gave the characters names and made the Mr. Shannahan's hunt for his wife a little longer to build suspense.   

Bibliography: The Heptameron of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, translated by Walter K. Kelly (1855).

Week 13: Growth Mindset: Thanksgiving is upon us!!!

(Source)

And with that being said, I decided to make a meme about the food comas that ensue after hours of stuffing yourself full of turkey! This little goat looks like he got his fair share of food this Thanksgiving and needs a nap! I hope his little belly settles soon! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Week 15: Reading Evaluations

I really enjoyed most of the readings in this class! I think the earlier reading options were more enjoyable to me though. This might be because as the semester neared the end, I became very bored with the same weekly routine. I really liked the Aesop's stories and the Jataka's about turtles. I really wish I would have done a storybook project about turtle's, but I enjoyed the free reign over my portfolio. Without have a subject, I was allowed to post my favorite stories regardless of what the theme of the story was and I liked that. I do not think I would have enjoyed being stuck on one subject the whole semester. One thing I did not like were how many comments we had to leave every week. I think the whole 150 words on three people's blogs on top of four different 60 word comments was a little ridiculous and a waste of my time. I really did not enjoy that for the most part. I have things to say to people's stories and I like reading my classmates posts, but I think I should be allowed to say what I want regardless of how many words was in it. I did not like being forced to say so many words because I ended up repeating myself and I feel like my comments lost meaning because of it. My favorite reading diary strategy would be to read the different story sections and take notes on the ones I liked the most. I thought the balance of reading and writing was fine, but like I said earlier, I thought being forced to comment so much on other people's was a little extreme. I was grasping for things to say when I could definitely get out what I wanted to in about thirty words. It is hard to expand on comments when you spend all semester working on short and sweet writing strategies. Advice that I would give to students in this class next semester would be to get out and get ahead immediately. Also, you should plan your reading out from day one. It makes it so much easier that way. You can just go to your reading plan and call it a day.