Reading Diary B Week 2

I am really loving this story a lot more than I thought I would! I think that the cover alone of the book really intimidated me and the length of all of the character names! For this reading diary I'm going to talk about my favorite parts of this section.

First off, I loved how much everyone shows their love for Rama. It seems he is such a great man and the fact that so many people are willing to serve his exile for him really shows that. I can't believe that Dasaratha. I felt pretty emotionally attached to that man so that was definitely a disappointment. I was very sad for Bharatha when he found out about the death. I was very shocked by all of the harsh words that he had to say to his mother. He tells her the only reason he will not kill her is because he does not want Rama to be angry, which is a pretty intense statement to tell someone. He decides to rule for 14 years while Rama finishes his exile. Soorpanka made me mad because of her persistence to make Rama fall for her. I very much love the character of Sita so I was hoping nothing would come of it. I was very happy when she ended up running off in the end.

Blogger Template Tech Tip

I choose the blog within the picture for my blog template. I also got to chose the picture so I choose one of a library of books. I really love reading so I figured this was perfect for me.

Reading Diary A Week 2

Setting: The story begins in the country of Kosala. The author goes into great imagery about the country.

King Dasaratha

• great ruler of Kosala
• he is very respected by his people
• Has a lot of compassion for his son

Viswamithra

• wise man who was once a king.
• He is coming to ask a favor of Dasaratha involving his son Rama to go and kill creatures in Sidhasrama which is far away from their residence. Dasaratha finally agrees only if his other son Lakshmana can come
• He seems bitter about his past

Rama

• son of Dasaratha
• Kills Thataka and her two sons because of the wishes of Viswamithra
• Kills her sons when they are seeking revenge for her death
• Falls in love with Sita after he first sees her
• wins the competition put on by King Janaku

Vasishtha

• Dasaratha’s priest and guide
• The king seems pretty quick to listen to whatever advice he has to give

Lakshmana

• Son of Dasaratha
• Brother of Rama

Thataka

• used to be a yaksha or demigod but was changed along with her whole family to demihood
• used to be very beautiful and full of life but is now bitter and hateful of the whole world
• Killed by Rama with the three pronged spear

Mahabali

• Viswamithra tells a story about him to Rama
• once a great conqueror

Sita

• Princess and daughter of King Janaka
• Falls in love with Rama after the first time she sees him on the balcony

King Janaka

• Creates a test in order to find a suitor for his daughter

Week 1 Introduction

My name is Jade Valenti and this is my last semester at OU. So crazy to think that time has past so quickly! I will be graduating in December with a degree in management. I am not involved in many campus activities because of how much I work. I am currently a manager at the Chick-fil-A on Main Street next to Hobby Lobby! I love it very much there. I am hoping to one day own my own Chick-fil-A. I was born on August 22, 1992 so I actually celebrated my 22nd birthday today! I am currently living in Noble, Oklahoma. I get the privilege of living at my best friend's house with her family since my family is all the way in Houston. I was born in Tampa, Florida and moved around a lot when I was younger because my dad worked for Hyatt Hotels. I have lived in Tampa, Orlando, Dallas and Houston. I am a huge Harry Potter nerd and could watch it for hours. I think I might actually get a chance to go to Harry Potter world this year for the first time so I am extremely excited. This summer was actually one of the best summers of my life because I got to study abroad in Spain for four weeks. I lived in a small city that is a suburb of Madrid with the host family and got to take my Capstone! Spain was one of the most amazing experiences and I hope that I can go back one day. I miss my host family terribly already. Surprisingly, we were not taking Spanish classes over there so it was always really weird to the local people that we did not speak their language. One day I hope to learn Spanish and go back and speak it fluently to my host family.

(personal photo from the top of the Eiffel Tower this summer) 

Week 1 Storybook Favorites

Storybook 1: Shakespearean Gossip

 This was the first one that my eye went to because I am a big Shakespeare fan! I loved the layout of this storybook because it had a classic look to it that works perfectly for Shakespeare! I was a little confused about the main photo and then I made the connection that it was a storybook about gossip and it was a picture from Gossip Girl, pretty genius. I absolutely felt like that could have been the dialogue from an episode of Gossip Girl so I definitely admire the creativity that they used here!

Storybook 2: Wizard of Oz Extreme Home Makeover

   I was instantly attracted to this one because The Wizard of Oz is a movie that I grew up on! This was such a fun idea to speak from the point of view from the host of the show. I read the first two stories and I loved how clever they were! Such a fun idea of how to incorporate a classic with modern day entertainment. Something I have always struggled with in writing is dialogue and correctly incorporating it into my stories and I thought that this storybook did a great job at correctly using dialogue!

Storybook 3: Biblical Love Stories

  This was the last storybook I decided to read. I love Biblical love stories so I loved reading all of these blogs! I thought it was so original how they wrote it from the point of view of the characters in the story! My favorite one was the story about Samson and Delilah! I love the humor that was incorporated! I thought it was so fun to be put in this story that I grew up learning. I think it was cute how much of a personality the author gave to Delilah.

Week 1 Sita Sings the Blues

I had a lot of fun watching this video! I have been watching a little at a time over the past couple days! I loved the puppets it included! I was nervous about learning about an Indian book I have no knowledge about but I like how there was a little bit of background in a fun way!

Week 1 Storytelling: The Friends

There were once girls name Missy and Lesley. Missy was consistently getting in trouble from people because of how much she would gossip about people. Lesley sometimes would hear their friends mentioning her name in bad connotations and knew she had to say something one day. Lesley had just moved to their school from somewhere else. At her last school she had her reputation ruined because she spread too many rumors and gossiped about all of her friends. No one at her new school knew about her past.

She lived at home alone for awhile because her mom felt like it would’ve been safer to take her out of public school for a long time. She felt like that part of her life was over and was sure that now it would be a good time to confront Missy about how much she was gossiping about people. She thought she would be able to be an inspiration to her and help her with the situation.

Lesley finally got the courage and talked to her about it. Missy told her that she honestly had no idea what she had been doing. Lesley told her that she shouldn't talk about people behind their backs and said she should try to model herself more like Lesley since she had changed so much. Little did she realize that she had told all of their friends about Missy’s problem. It turns out that she had not changed at all since she moved to her new school. As Missy watched her more and more she realized that she should actually live her live opposite from Lesley because the problem remained and Lesley was still a gossip. The same thing happened to Lesley and she was sucked into drama at her new school. It taught her a valuable lesson that she needed to keep assessing herself before she helped change other people.

Author's Note: This is a retelling of the Young Crab and His Mother. Instead of crabs learning to walk walk I used friends learning not to gossip.

Bibliography
Book: The Young Crab and His Mother from The Aesop for Children
Author: Aseop
Year Published: 1919
Web Source: The Aesop for Children

(picture of the Mean Girls soundtrack cover since the girls in my story were "mean girls") 

Favorite Places: Best Summer Ever

I definitely could not limit myself to just one place either so I decided to choose a couple that I visited this summer! 

Barcelona: This is the Gaudi Park in Barcelona! One of the most beautiful sites I've ever seens 

(personal photo)

 Platform 9 3/4: As a total Harry Potter nerd, this was one of my favorite places I got to go this summer! This was at King's Cross Station in London. 

(personal photo)

 Toledo: This beautiful city was a day trip during my time in Spain. I'm also a huge Lord of the Rings fan as well and all of the swords from the movie were actually made in this city. 

(personal photo) 

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