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.