Reflections: Looking Forward

Looking forward, I would like to do all of my weekend assignments early on Friday to let me get a head start on the next weeks assignments. This would take a lot of stress off of me during the week. I would also like to do more of the extra credit assignments. These assignments seem fun and useful, but I do not leave myself enough time to work on them during the week. This would help me get my points in early so I can finish the class early or at least make up the points that I have failed to do on time. I would also like to try a few different writing styles for my stories. I really like to explore with different techniques and styles and try to add my own flair to them. I really enjoy that this class lets me express my creativity in a way that the other rigidly structured courses I am in don't. I want to do the extra credit where I make my own memes because that seems so cool and I have always wanted to do that. So most of all, looking forward, I want to make more time for this class and since I am wrapping up one of my other online classes, I think I will be able to do that.

(Finish Strong: flickr)

Reflections: Looking Back

Looking back I have developed many new skills from this class. My storytelling has gotten better and I have picked up new styles. I also have learned how to include images with a link in my blog.

My Favorite Stories: My favorite stories are pretty much the ones I included in my portfolio. I really enjoyed Cupid and Psyche and the Jataka tale of the Mighty King and the Turtle. I think it really shows that I enjoyed them because those stories I wrote are heads and tails better than the others. I put more time and effort into the ones I enjoy because then they are easier to write about. There are a few other stories that I am excited to spruce up and share in my portfolio. One of those is from Arabian Nights. I chose to tell a story about a story that wasn't included in the original story. What I love about that is I had complete creative freedom to tell whatever I wanted. What I have learned from my reading habits is that I like the ones that are fun and exciting. I really like them not to be drug out. I like my stories to the point. It makes it easier for me to read them to my roommate while she is doing homework.

Location: The place I like to do my homework for this class is at my desk in my room. There are few distractions and the ambiance from the lower lighting makes me feel like Jo from Little Women writing from candle light at night in her room. That is one of my favorite books. I like the quietness of the night and reading the stories and writing them at that time really helps me wind down in the evening so I can fall asleep faster.

(Jo from Little Women writing at her desk)

Extra Reading Diary Week 7: Canterbury Tales

Canterbury Tales

The Prioress's Tale: This story is about Little Hugh. It really was kind of creepy to read. I do not remember this story from when we read some of it in high school so I imagine we didn't read it because I would have definitely remembered this one. I don't really like how it painted one group of people out to be bad people, but I am sure that is just because at the time it was written it was okay. It is also really scary how that boy was singing with his throat slit and when they removed the grain from his tongue he just died.

Nun's Priest's Tale: Her tale is of the about a rooster who has a beautiful singing voice. He has seven hen wives. He has a dream that a fox gets him and it scares him. His favorite wife calls him a coward and tells him to go back to bed. He realizes that his dream is going to come true when a fox tricks him and snatches him up. The moral of this story is be wary of your dreams.

The Canon Yeoman's Tale: In this tale, a priest loans money to a poor beggar who turns out to be a con artist. He comes back to pay back the money on time, but ends up scamming the priest out of more money. He claims to be able to turn things into silver. This is kind of reminds me of the old story where the miller's daughter has to spin straw into gold. Only the canon pulls a couple over on the priest and then takes a large sum of money from him at the end.

(Geoffrey Chaucer: Author of the Canterbury Tales)

Week 7 Storytelling: The Unruly Boy

(Screaming boy: Flikr)

There once was a little boy who was very unruly. He liked to break things and cause a lot of destruction. His poor mother was at her wits end with him. Everyday, she dropped him off at school in the morning. Everyday she always got a call for her to come get him. One day, the school called and told her to come get the boy and to never bring him back.

"Oh what will I do!?" fretted the mother. "I cannot miss work and keep him!"

She turned to the mischievous child and scolded him.

"Son," she said sternly, "you cannot keep breaking things and acting up at school. I cannot take off work and keep you and schools will not take you if you continue to act up."

This made the son angry. He began to thrash about and destroy things in the house. The mother called out very loudly for him to stop, but he didn't. He broke all sorts of things. He broke the lamps, he broke the table, he broke the arm chairs, and he wouldn't stop. His mother got louder and louder yelling at him, but his fury just had to run its course.

Once he stopped, the mother knew she had to do something. She called a strict military school and asked them to take in her son. They agreed so she packed his things and sent him off. She hoped he would come home a changed boy when she saw him next.

A few weeks passed with no word from the school or her son. Then one night, while she was eating dinner alone and thinking of him, the phone rang. The commotion she heard on the other line was insane. She could hardly hear the Sergeant because of all of the noise and chaos.

"Your boy...." was all she heard the man say. She knew what was going on. Her son was having one of his fits and causing all sorts of destruction at this school. She told the man to put her on the phone with him.

"SON!" she boomed, "You calm down this instant!!!"

But it was no use. She could not control him when she was right next to him. She was even less powerful to stop him from a distance. The pattern continued on. The boy would throw a fit and his mother would desperately yell and try to calm him down, but with no avail.They were like lightning and thunder. Hardly ever one without the other.

Author's note: The story I chose to write about was the an old Nigerian folktale called The Story of Lightning and Thunder. I chose to tell the story with the characters as humans. In the original one, they are a ram and her son. The son is destructive and does damage to the village while the mother yells at him. The king tries to banish the son further and further away until he is forced to banish them to the sky. And that is where we get lightning and thunder from. 

Week 7 Reading Diary B: Nigerian Folktales

Nigerian Folktales

(lightning)

The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder: This story is neat. I like the explanation given for what thunder and lightning are. This story could be told in a different style easily. I could make them real people or something else to tell my version of the story. I like how it has a mother son dynamic and I think this will be a really good addition to my portfolio.

The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise: The thing about these tales is that they all explain natural things that happen in nature. In this one, they seek to explain why the hippo lives in the water. I like stories about hippo's because I think they are terrifying and interesting. This story portrays the hippo's as powerful yet true to their word. I like how honorable they are in this story. But at the same time they are portrayed as powerful and scary to the other animals because they do as they say.

Why Dead People are Buried: This story attempts to explain why dead people are buried. The story goes that a dog was supposed to deliver a message to the people from the Creator about putting their dead bodies in a compound and covering them with wooden ashes so they would be revived the next day. However, the dog gets hungry and get's sidetrack and forgets his message. This seems to be a common theme in African stories because I read some a while ago were they were trying to guess the daughter's names and the dog got distracted by food then too. Then he sends a sheep who messes the message up and when the dog finally remember's his message they don't believe him. This is interesting because dogs are supposed to be loyal and man's best friend but the people in this story do not believe him and this story give dogs a bad reputation.

Week 7 Reading Diary A: Nigerian Folkstories

Nigerian Folkstories

The Pretty Stranger who Killed the King: The moral of this story is never trust strangers. The old witch who turned herself into a pretty woman killed the king for wealth. This basically goes against all of Disney's fairy tales because all of the princesses marry good looking strangers! I like this story because it is a little more realistic than the fairy tales I grew up learning about.

Why the bat flies by night: This story left me with a few questions. One, was the bat really trying to kill the bush rat?  Did he know he was going to go home and try it and die? It makes me curious to know if he is really a bad guy or if he was just playing a joke and it went wrong. I do like how this story gave a hierarchy to the animal world though. The wife reported the bat to the king and everyone followed his orders to catch the bat.

The Fish and the Leopard's Wife: This story was interesting to me because of the humanistic characteristics given to the animals. The animals were in a feud because of the fish and the leopard's wife having an affair. This is a very adult animal tail. I can't imagine any parent telling this to their child as a bedtime story here in the US. I also find it interesting that the leopard decided to let the king take care of the fish instead of killing him. Saying that he did it because they were old friends really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. You probably aren't really good friends if someone was sleeping with your wife behind your back...

(leopard)

Week 6: Extra Reading Diary: Congo Unit

Congo Unit

(Women of the Congo; 1885)

The Jealous Wife: These stories are crazy to me because all of the men take multiple wives which is just a different cultural practice than what I am accustom to. This story is super sad. I feel like the wife got what she deserved, but it is sad that she killed her child. However, I think karma is a big factor in this story and in African culture because I big theme in the stories I read from the Congo are that you get what you deserve.


How the Wives Restored Life to their Husband: This story also involves a man with multiple wives. They are very glutenous and were always needing more food. The man went out and was killed trying to kill an ox. One of them dreamt he was dead, the other led the way to him, and the last one brought him back to life. The man thought that the one who brought him back to life was the most important, but the women thought they were all important. This story really showed the difference between women and men.

How Gazelle got Married: This story shows another theme in African stories. That is guessing the names of women to take as bride. The antelope showed up to marry a man's daughter's (another multiple wife theme) and can't guess the name of his daughter's so he is turned away. But after a time a gazelle and his dog show up and eventually guess them so he gets to wed them. This makes the antelope made and he declares war on the gazelle.