Essay Week 13

I absolutely love this photo because it is definitely something that is such a struggle in today’s world. I am definitely victim to this sometimes because I often struggle with correct punctuation when writing. I’ve gotten a lot better, however, with using correct punctuation in texts. Texting has become such a HUGE thing in our generation that it seems people have lost their ability to correctly type. I see people making these common punctuation mistakes so much. I love this cartoon because when I first looked at it, I actually thought it was going to be something clever and have cats and dogs falling from the sky. I thought maybe it would be talking about people taking things literally. I have seen something similar to this that says “let’s eat grandpa” and “let’s eat, grandpa.” Then the caption says “punctuation can save someone’s life.” I thought that was pretty hilarious. I know that one year my grandma visited for a week and made me super paranoid about correcting people about the correct form of me and I when grouped with other people’s names. It made me crazy about it which makes me constantly correct my friends about it. I feel like texting could be a small contributor to why people are so lazy about using correct grammar and forms of words. I think the thing that drives me the craziest about texting is when people use abbreviations like “rn” after typing a long paragraph. I just think that if you can type out every other word in your paragraph, you can definitely type out the words right and now. I will definitely never understand that. All these things are frustrating  but I am definitely not one to talk because I still make the same mistakes over and over in all my stories in this class. I especially use comma splices too much. I think that as long as people know what they need to work on a change can eventually be made.

Image Information: Cats and Dogs taken from Online Course Lady

Storytelling Week 13: The Golden Bird

There was once a group of three pirates named Rusty, Grayson, and Deana. Rusty was next in line under his father, Eduardo Estevan, to be the captain of his ship called The Wolfeburn. Grayson was his best friend and right hand man on the ship. Deana was one of the two women that were allowed to be pirates on their ship. The men ran this ship for twenty years before allowing women aboard. Rusty met her when they were on shore in a small town in the Caribbean. They fell in love instantly so he brought her along, knowing he wouldn’t be able to continue on without her. Eduardo made a promise to a woman named Missy, his old mistress, regarding the future of his ship but the outcome of the promise was to send Rusty to a desert island for four years. Missy hated Rusty and eagerly sent him away at the first chance she got. This broke Eduardo’s heart but he knew it had to be done. Rusty was allowed to bring Grayson and Deana with him to help him survive on the island. Eduardo saw the island of Gllewedwyynd in the distance and knew the time was coming. They said their goodbyes and Rusty reassured his father they he would see him again in just four short years.

While on the island, they found that survival came a lot easier than they thought. One day while she was looking for some food, Deana saw the most beautiful golden bird. She thought that one of the feathers would make the most beautiful necklace that could remind her of home. The lorikeet bird was the national animal from her country, Clank. She woke up to their song every morning. When she saw a golden one, she was instantly in love with it. She came back to Rusty and told him about the bird and that she would be so overjoyed to have one of this bird's feathers.

Rusty went out in search of this bird to get a feather for his love. When he got to the bird, it began to attack him and he realized that instead of taking a feather he would kill it and have all of the feathers. Right before the bird died, a human appeared. It was the righthand man, Tel Edwards, of their biggest enemy named Don Pedro. Don knew where Rusty was being marooned and wanted nothing more than to kill him. Tel was a shapeshifter so he disguised him as a golden lorikeet and had him fly over. He was going to try to bite them in their sleep and get rid of them from the seas for good instead of just four years. As he was dying, he changed his voice and cried out in fear in Rusty’s voice to scare Deana. He then died and Rusty was able to bring the feathers of the bird to her. She was so sad when she realized that the bird was actually a villain, but was happy that she got a feather and felt safer now that he was gone.

Image Information: Photo of Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth on the desert island, inspiration for my story taken from Jack Sparrow Gallery

Author's Note: This was a retelling of The Golden Bird from the Ramayana unit. The original story takes place while Rama and Sita are exiled in the jungle. Ravana's brother Maricha takes the form of a golden deer and runs past Sita. Sita asks Rama to capture it for her. Rama goes after the deer for Sita.When Rama hits the deer, Maricha comes out of the deer and cries out for help in Rama's voice. Sita is alarmed by this and runs to help. Instead of being based in the Indian Epics era, I made the characters pirates. They were marooned on a desert island instead of being in exile in the jungle. The woman in the story sees a golden bird instead of a deer and she wants the feathers from it. The main pirate,Rusty, also has his close friend with him and the girl he loves. Just like in the original story, the bird actually was a bad guy in disguise. I got this idea from thinking about Pirates of the Caribbean when Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth are marooned on the island. I listen to the POTC soundtrack when I study which is how I came up with using them for my story. I wanted to keep my story happier so I did not make Deanna get kidnapped like Sita did in this story.

Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)

Reading Diary Week 13

The Birth of Rama

• Brahma commands the story of Rama to be told 
• This version is told by Valmiki
• Dasaratha was sad because he did not have a son
• He gave many gifts to the Brahmans and then Rama was born

Vishwamitra 

• Rama was the most beautiful of the children
• He felt he obtained the moon
• Rama was the most accomplished prince
• Vishwamitra led Rama to his hermitage

Rama and Sita

• Rama and Sita were instantly destined to be married
• They fell in love at first sight
• They spent a lot of time together

Kaikeyi's Plot

• Manthara hated Rama and did not rejoice at his new relationship
• She was very ugly
• Kaikeyi defended Rama

Rama's Exile

• Rama knew he had to be exiled and was not moved by it 
• Dasaratha was heart broken 
• He told Sita the distance would increase his love

The Death of Dasaratha

• He is very very sad that Rama is gone
• He eventually dies of a broken heart

Rama and Bhrata

• Bhrata is determinded to bring his brother out of the jungle
• The shoes represent royal authority

The Rakshasas

• Rama and Sita and Lakshmana go into the jungle
• They come across Ravana's sister

The Golden Deer

• Sita first sees the golden deer
• Ravana develops a gross interest in Sita

Rama's Quest for Sita

• Rama is heartbroken without Sita and is determined to get her back

Hanuman

• Ravana is constantly trying to win the love of Sita
• Rama's has people who will help him get Sita back

Rama's Coronation

• Rama and Sita are reunited
• Sita leaves at the end of the story because of things that happened when she was away