Tech Tip

I embedded boomer sooner from soundcloud on my page. We are Miami bound for the college playoffs!

Reading

My favorite stories I read this semester were all the halloween themed myths and folktales I read and researched for my storybook. I am a big fan of the scary and supernatural.

Reflections

I am so glad I took this class! I was able to express my creative side all semester. Being able to experiment with different writing styles was really fun too. I enjoyed reading different stories from all over the world.

Storytelling Week 14: The Centuries Race

The Centuries Race

Wiki: The Tortoise & The Hare

It's been 100 years since the famous Tortoise and the Hare race where the unlikely tortoise beat the smug Hare in a race. Since that race, many changes have taken place. The Tortoise family lived in the glory and limelight after that fateful day. The Hare family became less confident as the years went by.

Now to mark the 100th year anniversary of the race, the two families have agreed to to a Centennial race. 

"Why do you even bother doing this Hare?" the tortoise asked. "I'm going to clobber you like my great grandpa did 100 years ago!"

"T... Thh... The only reason your great grampy won was b.. bee... beeee... because m.. mmm.. myyy.. my great grampy was a... aa... aaaa... arrogant," the Hare Stuttered.

"If that's what you think! I'm still going to beat you and uphold my families legacy! Get ready to eat my dust you filthy rabbit," Tortoise said.

Beep. Beep. Beep. BEEEEEP!!! 

The race was on. The Hare was stricken with a sudden fit of grief. He thought there was no way he could beat the tortoise, even though he was slow as molasses. Hare could not even think straight with everyone's eyes on him.

"I can't do this!" Hare yelled as the Tortoise slowly made his way down the racetrack.

The Hare gave up and lost the three day long race. 

The Tortoise family would rule the racing world for at least another hundred years.


Author's Note:
So this is the classic tale of the Tortoise & The Hare but since I like to change things up a bit I decided to make the Hare this big hot shot racer that is kind of a punk and the rabbit as a shy, timid bunny.

Bibliography:

Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks

W. T. Larned (adapted from La Fontaine), illustrated by John Rae, 1918.

Tech Tip: Embedded YouTube

I embedded a YouTube video of OU Nightly at the bottom of my introduction page. 

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

Hello all. I have created two different weather widgets on my page. I did the standard weather widget on my sidebar that allows viewers to see the current condition in norman. I also added a radar loop widget at the top of my screen. It's a little big, but that's okay. Since there is a chance for tornadic activity this evening I thought it would be cool to add Doppler radar to my blog. Also, we are supposed to get some snow in the coming weeks it will be cool to see that on my blog when it happens.

Reading Diary A: Fables of La Fontaine

Fables of La Fontaine

Foolish Animals (Larned)

From Blog: The Hare and the Tortoise

I absolutely love this story! I remember reading it as a kid and thought it was the best. This story is the traditional the Hare and the Tortoise racing tale. This story also reminds me of the cartoon Franklin. The Tortoise is such a great character. She also throws shade at the Hare in the end. I will most likely choose this story to write about this week. 

Extra Reading Diary: Welsh Fairy Tales (Emerson)

Welsh Fairy Tales (Emerson)

Crows

Wikimedia: Crows In England

This story starts out as naming different numbers of crows and what they mean. I chose an image with two crows because in the story that gives good luck.

The story is about a young married man who had been on the sea for many years. 

It's basically about him having bad dreams. In the end of the story he died.

Storytelling Week 12: The Ugly Boiled Witches

The Ugly Boiled Witches

Witch of Endor by Adam Elsheimer

Once upon a time, in a deep enchanted forest, a young maiden named Liv lived all alone in a cottage. It was a beautiful home tucked away in a flower meadow.  A clear blue stream flowed freely behind her house. It was such a magical place to live.

One day Liv was sewing a blanket for the coming winter. She had a big pot of stew brewing in her fireplace. 

Knock.. Knock.. Knock..

Liv got up. "Who would be visiting this late?" she thought.

"LET ME IN! It's freezing!" she heard a woman shriek.

Crash... Swish... Boom!

All of a sudden Liv's front window broke open and a frail boiled woman flew through.

"Ahhhh! What are you doing you cray fool?" Live screamed.

"Sit down you brat! This is my house now!" the witched said as her brow furrowed.

The witch grabbed the blanket Liv was working on and wrapped it around her.

“You are now my coven’s servant. You should have known better than to live in a sweat little cottage in the middle of the forest all by yourself,” the witch said.  

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Liv thought.

All of a sudden more and more witches started pouring into Liv’s home. They all gathered around the fireplace. The first ugly boiled witch saw the stew bubbling in the fireplace.

“Hey ladies, Miss Liv has made us a lovely stew for dinner. Lets dig in!” the witch said.

All of a sudden the witches swarmed the fireplace and started eating the stew. They didn’t even use spoons. They dipped their hands in the boiling, bubbling pot like it was nothing. Once the stew was gone the witches ordered Liv to make them a dessert.

“Go out and the water from the crystal clear stream when you make us our sweat treats,” one witch ordered.

“What the heck am I going to do? I need to get these ugly witches out of my house!” Liv thought as she walked outside.

Liv walked to the stream to collect a pail of water. As she dipped the pail in the cool blue water, she saw a face appear.

“Liv! Hey girl how have you been? I saw the whole thing with the witches. I have a plan for you to get the witches out of your house,” the face in the water said.

“Who are you?” Liv asked.

“I’m Aqua! Do you not remember me? We used to talk all the time when you were little. Anyway, we don’t have much time. We must get those witches out of your house!” Aqua said in a hurry. “The reason my water is so clear here is because it comes from a magical spring! These old hags have no idea that it can banish them from a house! Take the pail of water and throw it on those ugly boiled women! Once you do that they will flee your house back to their cave. After they leave sprinkle your house with my water and it will protect you from the witches for a month,” Aqua instructed her.

“Bloody Hell! Thank you so much!” Liv said in excitement!

Liv hurried back to the house with the pail of water.

“What took you so long you fool? We want our desserts!” the witches screeched.

All of a sudden Liv threw the water on the witches and they started screaming!

“What the hell have you done? Come sisters we must fly back to the dark depths of the cave!” the main witch screamed as her skin started bursting open.

The witches left Liv’s house in shambles but at least they were gone. Liv splashed her whole house inside and out with the magical water. She did this every month and the witches never bothered her again.

Author's Note:

This story came from a Celtic Tale The Horned Women. In the original story, there were multiple things that got the witches out of the maiden's house and kept them out. I stayed with the same plot because I really enjoyed the story.

Bibliography:

Celtic Fairy Tales

Joseph Jacobs

Illustrated by John D. Batten

1892

Reading Diary B: Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales

From Blog

The Tale of Ivan

It starts out with a wife and husband. Work is hard to find so the husband leaves to find work. The man refused to give Ivan the money her earned, instead he got advice. This went on and on for three years. This was such a great story! I'm glad I stuck with it. The husband did exactly what his old master had told him and everything worked out. He got his money, a new job, and stayed with his wife. 

Reading Diary A: Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales

The Horned Women

From Blog

This story is about a bunch of horned witches. Twelve witches came into a mistress' home. They put a spell on her so she couldn't do anything. A witch ordered her to make them a cake. A well spirit helped her get rid of the witches. The spirit well also helped the mistress keep the witches out of her house. It's a basic story, but it would be really fun to write about.

Week 11 Storytelling: The Tale of the Sleepwalking Moon Man

The Tale of the Sleepwalking Moon Man

Tumblr: The Man in the Moon

Once long ago when the Gods of the skies could walk the earth, there was a half God half human who lived on the moon. He loved living on the moon. He could keep watch over the humans on earth. He loved that he could watch the humans from his peaceful home on the moon.

            The moon man had one problem though, he would constantly sleep walk. The worst was when he would dream of coming down to earth to visit the humans. Fortunately he would always wake up before he floated all the way down to earth. This was a very scary problem for the moon man. He was a very shy man.  He loved that he could still watch the humans from the moon without interacting with them. He had lived on the moon his whole life.  He had never met an actual human and didn’t know how they would react when they saw him.

            One summer night, the man on the moon fell asleep while watching a few humans running around catching fireflies. He longed to go down and have fun with them. Instead he just fell asleep.

            All of a sudden the man on the moon was jolted from his sleep. He looked up through his sleepy, blurry eyes and saw the bright night sky and little lights flying around him. He could smell something fresh. He had never experienced anything like it in his life.

            “Hello, Mr.?” the moon man heard. “Hey Mr., are you okay?” the voice said again.

            The moon man looked back and saw a group of children standing around looking confused.

            “Maybe he can’t hear,” one boy said.

            “He can hear, I think he might just be in shock. He did just fall from the sky,” another child said.

            “Hey Mr., what is your name? Where did you come from?” another child squeakily asked.

            The moon man didn’t know how to respond. He had never interacted with an actual human before. Before he could process what was going on, he shot up to his feet and turned to the children.

            “Hel… Hell… Hello,” the moon man shuddered. “I’m the man in the moon. I guess I must have fallen from my house right up there,” he said pointing to the full moon.

            “You live on the moon?” one of the children asked with a perplexed look.

            “Ye.. Yes. I’ve lived there for many years,” the moon man said.

“Holy cow! You’re coming with us. My parents have to meet you!” a smile child shrieked.

            The man in the moon met the children’s parents and they offered a bedroom to him, and from that day on the moon man walked among the humans and never returned to the moon again.

Author's Note:

I chose to make my own story based on the nursery rhyme The Man in the Moon.

"THE man in the moon,
Came tumbling down,
And ask'd his way to Norwich;
He went by the south,
And burnt his mouth
With supping cold pease-porridge." 

-The Nursery Rhyme Book

As you can see it was a very short nursery rhyme so it was pretty difficult to write a story around it. I had fun coming up with the story of the man in the moon. I think writing to short stories is easier  

Bibliography:
The Nursery Rhyme Book
Edited by Andrew Lang
Illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke
Year: 1897

Reading Diary A: Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes

Tales

From Blog

The first nursery rhyme was about the man on the moon coming down to earth. These nursery rhymes are a little different. 

My favorite out of all of theses is about Old Mother Goose. Mother Goose was one of my favorite nursery rhymes growing up. 

Reading Diary B: Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends

When the Rainbow Was Torn

From Blog

So this story is about a rainbow that was split into. It got hung up on some flower thorns and then ripped away. I won't be choosing this as my story this week.

Reading Diary A: Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends

When the Storm God Rides

Image from Blog

This was an awesome story! It was about a god that road a thunder bird. The indians were terrified when this happened. This story was basically about a hurricane like storm. It also talks about different islands created by the god to protect birds. I will probably write about this story this week. 

Extra Reading Diary: Myths of the Cherokee

Myths of the Cherokee

How The World Was Made

Mother Earth

I really like this story. I absolutely love reading how other cultures believe we were all created. I should have picked this unit for this week. This whole story was just how the earth was an island floating on the water, but the animals wanted more and more space. Soon the earth had more space for animals and men to roam and then it was turned into the earth we know and love today.

The Journey To The Sunrise

So this story is about some men who wanted to know where the Sun went at night to live. So they found this rock thing that the sun lived in. One of the men tried going through the door, but was crushed by a rock. The other men were too afraid to try so they walked back home. They traveled so far and long that they were old and wrinkly when they got back to their home. 

Reading Diary B: American Indian Fairy Tales

The Boy who Snared the Sun

A mural depicting Tawa, the Sun Spirit and Creator in Hopi mythology.

This story starts out during the cold winter. A moose comes up and this guy was going to kill it, but this other person tells him not to. Iagoo goes into a story about how moose used to be way greater. People didn't eat animals, they only ate fruits and veggies. There were more animals than there were men. 

This little man that didn't grow past three feet decided to catch the sun. He did and the sun stopped rising and the animals had no clue what was happening. 

The animals couldn't figure out how to free the sun. 

Finally they came up with a plan to free the sun, but the animal that did was turned into a pile of ashes. 

Reading Diary A: American Indian Fairy Tales

Iagoo, the Story-Teller

From Blog

This would be a great little intro to use for storytelling. Iagoo is a storyteller that all the children love. He knows all the great stories of the indians. The way it was written, it sounds like Iagoo passes down not only stories, but life lessons to all the children. 

Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind

This story starts out with the battling forces of the North Wind versus the South Wind. The North wind wanted everything cold and dead, but it was no match for the South Wind, which breathed life into the living. 

Some fishermen were out fishing up north in the summer, and the North Wind started to show up. They had to leave but Shin-ge-bis kept laughing strangely and wouldn't leave. Could North Wind have put his magic on this guy? This would be a great story to build on. 

Reading Plan

Week 9: American Indian Fairy Tales
Week 10: Tejas Legends

Week 11: Nursery Rhymes

Week 12: Celtic Fairy Tales

Week 13: Fables of La Fontaine

Week 14: Europa's Fairy Book

Miss Auras, by John Lavery, depicts a woman reading a book

This will be my life the next few weeks. 

Reflections: Looking Forward

Looking forward, I seriously need to try and get at least two or three weeks ahead. I love this class, but scheduling has been the hardest part. I am also hitting a brick wall in creativity with my storybook. I need to take a week and surround my self with halloween themes. This is the time of the semester when everything starts piling on so I really need to get with it. I am still very happy with my grade in this class at this point thought!

Stressed Man

This is how I am starting to feel right now.

Reflections: Looking Back

Wow these past 7 weeks have gone by so fast! I surprisingly really like this class! I have taken a few online classes before and they have always been the worst. I am still struggling with scheduling, but it's better each week.

I really enjoy being able to express myself through stories. I forgot how fun it truly is to create something from your imagination. It has really helped me destress during weeks of nonstop news writing.

My favorite thing about this class is exploring all the fun folktales we have learned as kids and know where they come from. I also like comparing different cultures to see the similarities and differences we all have.

Imagination by Mehdinom

I'm letting my inner child out for this class. 

Storytelling Week 7: No Service: Group Project

What's worse than having a hoard of fire ants stinging you? Being in a group project. At least that's what Annie, a junior business major, thought. Annie is your typical straight A college student. She always reads every chapter for class, writes a novel when taking class note, and somehow finds time to get enough sleep.

Annie is not happy right now though. It's 8:42 p.m. on the day before her midterm presentation is due. No one in her group could meet in person so they are stuck messaging back and forth.

Annie checks her phone.

“1 NEW MESSAGE,” her screen blared.

“Hey guys, so I have taken the initiative and designed the layout of our project. Take a look and tell me what you think!!!!” a message from Hannah read.

You have got to be kidding me, Annie thought. This girl has gone to maybe three classes and she thinks she knows what’s going on?

“3 NEW MESSAGES,” her screen flashed.

“Nice! Glad someone is doing that. I don’t have time for this,” Joey typed.

“Guys as long as I get a c in the class I really don’t care what we do…” from Ryan.

“Awesome, I didn’t really put that much time into the layout but I don’t care as long as we pass,” Hannah replied quickly.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME, Annie screamed internally.

“I am almost done with the CORRECT layout of the….” Annie started to type.

“1 NEW MESSAGE,” her phone alerted her.

“K guys lets call it a day and get some margs at campus corner.” Hannah replied.

Swish. Whack. Shatter.

Annie threw her computer across the room in a fit of rage.

“Oh crap. Oh crap! WHAT HAVE I DONE”? Annie screamed looking at her busted computer.

Annie has lost all of her work for the project and now has no way to talk to her classmates.

Annie failed her midterm presentation the next day.

(Broken Laptop)

Author's Note:

This story was based on the South African story The Lost Message. In the original story, different types of ants got together to find a way to stay safe from their enemies. No one listened to each other and they did their own thing. The kind of the insects found this out and sent a messenger beetle to tell the ants the secret of unity. He never arrived to the ants so they don't know how to unite. 

Same goes with this story. Annie let her anger and frustration get to her and destroyed her work. She wasn't able to finish her project and she failed. 

Bibliography:
Book: SouthAfrican Folk-Tales
Author: James A. Honey
Year: 1910