Week 14 Storytelling: The Nerd and the Beauty

My name is Lesley Simmons. I have never been the most attractive girl or he most talented or the most popular girl in my school. I have always wanted to climb my way to the top. I never believed it to be possible but one day I thought all of that would change. Apart from my flaws that I feel I possess, I know one thing for sure is that I am an excellent artist. I have been winning art competitions since I was in kindergarten and next year I plan on going to the Savannah College of Art and Design on a full scholarship. Just because I do not have many friends doesn't mean i can't dominate art like I do. Well one day the most popular girl in school found herself in a pickle. I was working on my art project at the workshop when I saw the most popular girl at school crying over her project. She had a lot left to do and I could tell that she did not know how to finish. This was our final art project and if we failed this one we would have to retake the art class in the summer and we would not be able to walk at graduation. I knew what I had to do. I went over to her and asked kindly if she needed my help. She told me she would love that. I told her I would help her if she would just acknowledge me and say hi to me in the hallways. Maybe that way people would talk to me. She agreed and passed her project.

I saw her in the hallway last week and, of course, she said nothing to me. I walked up and said hi to her and asked how her friends liked the art project. She asked me who I was and made all of her friends laugh. That one really hurt. I was completely convinced that she would be changed and realize that it was possible to do something nice for someone else. I guess I should blame myself for thinking that she would change. It was very embarrassing but it ended up working out for good. I sat by myself outside that day at lunch, crying. A boy named Micah came up and asked me what was wrong. I began talking to him and told him what was wrong. When I told him my name, he told me he recognized it from my art on display. Turns out he’s going to SCAD next year as well. Goes to show that you can’t trust anyone but any situation can fool you.

Image Information: Original photo from The Lion and the Crane

Author's Note: I wrote my story based on The Lion and the Crane. In that story, the crane helps the lion and then expects something in return but the lion is selfish and does not do anything for the crane. My story was similar in that a girl needed help like the lion and did not reciprocate the help.

Bibliography Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Week 14 Indian Fairy Tales

Indian Fairy Tales Unit 

The Lion and the Crane

• The crane helps the lion get a bone out of his throat but when the crane wants something in return, the lion does not help. 

The Broken Pot

• This is a story about being greedy. The man is planning out everything he will buy using the rice and eventually is the one that causes there to be no more rice. 

The Magic Fiddle

• The beginning of this story reminds me of Joseph and the dream coat from the bible. The brother's wives try to kill their sister but she takes revenge on them in the end. 

The Cruel Crane Outwitted

• The crane tries to outwit the fish but ends up getting outwitted by the crabs. 

The Tiger, The Brahman and the Jackal

• The tiger tries to kill the Brahman but instead the brahman and jackal trick the tiger to go back into it's cage. 

Harisarman

• The Harisarman starts poor but is eventually given everything he could ever want.

The Charmed Ring

• The story reminded me of a mixture of Lord of the Rings and the prodigal son from the bible.

The Talkative Tortoise

• The tortoise was riding with the ducks but fell because of the fact that he opened his mouth. 

The Gold-Giving Serpent

• The Brahman's son tried to kill the serpent but he turned around and killed him instead.

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

• The robbers learned not to trust everyone

Why the Fish Laughed

• This one was my favorite because it had such a deeper moral than just about a fish. 

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

Famous Last Words Week 12

Well this week was definitely sad because of the game on Saturday but at least there are more things to life than just OU football. Some extremely exciting stuff has been going on these past couple weeks for me though. I have officially accepted my position as the Training Director at Chick-fil-A which I will begin working full time after I graduate in just 33 days! So crazy that it is coming up so quickly! I still feel like I am not mature enough to be in college sometimes! All the new responsibility at work have been absolutely crazy! I have worked for Chick-fil-A for about five and half years now but I have been a manger for two. It has been such an incredible feeling to be given so much more responsibility! I also forgot to do a famous last words a couple weeks ago to say that I GOT TO GO TO HARRY POTTER WORLD! I said it in my introduction that I was maybe going to go this semester and it happened! It was the most amazing thing ever! Anyone who is a fan would understand my excitement! Some of the actors from the franchise say that Diagon Alley was even more detailed than the movie set! I definitely want to go back someday with a couple of my best friends because they were pretty jealous that I got to do that! I am really excited because my parents are going to be coming to the Kansas game in two weeks! I am originally from Houston so I don’t get to see my parents very often. They have not been to Norman in a year so it will be really good to have them come to a game! It is especially crazy that it will be the last game they come to with me as me being a student! So insane! It is crazy that this time last year I was concerned about what I would be getting people for Christmas and now I am thinking non stop about how I will decorate my cap for graduation! It’s all so crazy and exciting! Oh, and a song I found this week that rocks is called Jungle by X Ambassadors! Everyone should definitely go have a listen!

Image Information: Personal photo of my mom and I with the dragon on top of Gringott's at Diagon Alley. SO AWESOME. 

Reading Diary B Week 12

Jakata Tales

The Three Fishes- In this story three fish are swimming and see men fishing. Two of them unknowingly swim into a nest and get saved by the third because he tells them to dive into the net and break it! This story reminds me of Finding Nemo!

The Tricky Wolf and the Rats- In this story there is a lot of rats who have a master who is very witty. He out smarts the wolf who is eating all of his men and kills him.

The Golden Goose- In this story there are two geese, one poor and one golden. They golden one is too trustworthy and gives the poor goose all of his feathers.

The Stupid Monkeys- This is about a bunch of monkeys who are extremely dumb. They have to check on the condition of a bunch of trees and the way they do it is by pulling their roots out of the ground and killing the trees.

The Cunning Wolf- This story is pretty simple. A man attempts to kill some animals for food and instead they know what he is doing and get away.

The Woodpecker and the Lion- This is a simple one as well. This is about how the lion and woodpecker's relationship was ruined.