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.

Essay Week 11: First Memories of Reading

My first memories of reading definitely including the two series’ called Junie B. Jones and the Magic Tree House. I still have the opening line to Junie B. Jones memorized. I have a good friend who has a daughter the age of 6 and all I want to do is buy her those books so she can enjoy the same ones that I used to. Another book that I very vividly remember reading is one called How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found. Every time I go to bookstores, I always go to the children’s section looking for this one. I remember it being one of the best book I had ever read but cannot for the life of me remember what it is about. I used to do this program at school where we could read certain books and then take quizzes over them and get points. I remember doing as many as I could because I genuinely loved reading so much! Something I am so excited for after I graduate is being able to read so many more books because of all the time I will have. Another one that is at the front of my reading memory is the book Holes. Gosh, that was my number one favorite book! The fact that Louis Sachar was able to come up with that book amazes me because it is so creative and detailed! A big similarity that I have with my first experiences with reading is that i love to read similar books or series of books. I know it’s super cliche but I really love reading Nicholas Sparks books nowadays. I saw him speak at a convention one time which really made me admire his writing. I also really enjoy inspirational Christian books. My favorite Christian authors are Tim Keller and Beth Moore. After writing this essay, it really makes me want to go and buy a bunch of my favorite books from when I was little to just go back over and read.

Image Information: This was one of my favorite books growing up taken from Amazon

Storytelling Week 11: Wanting to Be Famous

There once was a red-headed boy named Willard who loved to write music. He was very passionate about his lyrics and felt it was the perfect way to express himself. He was slowly becoming famous for his lyrics and passion for singing. He had been trying for very many years and it was finally paying off. Big artists were coming to him for his incredible songwriting ability.His first album was going to include a song called Cardboard House, which was a terribly complex song about his life before becoming famous. 
Before he brought this song to his producers, he ran into a man named Deacon at a park. When they ran into each other, he dropped all his things, including a paper with the lyrics of Cardboard House. He was in a hurry, so he managed to get all his things and go to the meeting. When he got there he realized that he had dropped the lyrics and they were probably still back at the park. What he didn't realize was that Deacon was a loyal fan of his. Maybe more than a fan, he was obsessed with him. See, Deacon looked just like him and always wished that he could just BE him. They could have been long lost twins due to the strong resemblance.  Now that he had a copy of Willard’s lyrics in his hands he was going to try to be him like he had always planned.

Willard left the studio, desperately trying to find these amazing lyrics that would make his album number one. Deacon left a note for him at the park because he figured Willard would soon be back to find his lyrics. The note read, "If you ever want your lyrics back, you can find them at the old soda warehouse twenty minutes north of town." He led him to this warehouse to distract him for a long period of time. Deacon went to the studio and was shocked to find that the producers did not even think twice about whether or not he was Willard. The producers sat with him and collaborated on how to make the song better. They decided that they would release this song as a single by making a music video out of it. They were very impressed in the newfound passion that “Willard” had.

As they began talking about the ideas, a man named Brandon on the team began noticing weird mannerisms that Willard now had. He decided he would test him by texting him an inside joke and seeing whether or not he read it and laughed. After twenty minutes had gone by and "Willard” did not check his phone, he knew this guy was a phony. He called him out and Deacon immediately broke down, saying all he ever wanted was to be Willard. They had him taken away by security and called the real Willard and went forward with their normal business. Cardboard House ended up being the most sold song on iTunes, no thanks to the acts of Deacon.  

Image Information: Picture of Ed Sheeran and Rupert Grint which are the two that inspired my story taken from The Daily Telegraph 

Video Information: Here is the video that I got the idea for the story from.
Author's Note: I made this story based roughly on the story of A Ghostly Wife. In the original story, there is a husband and wife. What happens is that the wife goes off into the forest and makes a ghost angry. The ghost beats her and leaves her for dead and goes back and impersonates her to the husband. She is very believable for a while until the husband's mother realizes that she is not the wife. I've been watching Ed Sheeran videos like crazy this past week so I made it based on his video for Lego House where Rupert Grint pretends to be Ed Sheeran throughout the course of the video. I think this made it pretty funny and works well in comparison to the Ghostly Wife. It is very unrealistic because I'm sure Willard would soon come back to the production studio but I wanted to make it a lot like the story so had him get lost. Instead of using a wife and a husband, I used a famous boy named Willard and his producer. Instead of using a ghost, I used a crazy obsessed fan of Willard named Deacon. Willard walks towards the production studio after writing a new song when Deacon swapped spots with him, which is supposed to represent the wife from the story getting beat up by the ghost. In the story the ghost leaves her for almost dead but I did not want to go that far so I just had Deacon distract him. In the original story the mother-in-law figures out that the ghostly wife is an imposter and in this story I had the producer realize the same by sending a text that he would normally send to Willard. In the original story, when the husband and wife are reunited, they have lots of babies and a great marriage. To parallel this, I had Willard get a number one hit when he was back to the studio.

Bibliography
Folk-Tales of Bengal by the Rev. Lal Behari Day (1912)

Reading Diary Week 11 Part B

Ghostly Wife: This story was about a woman who was nearly beaten to death and then a ghost goes home in her in her place. The husband and mother in law don't realize for a while. When they finally realize, they set a trap and then find out she is fake. They go and rescue his real wife.

The Story of the Brahmadaitya: In this story a poor Brahman goes into the forest and comes across some memorable characters. He eventually gets supplied with all the things he needs and is overjoyed with his wife.

Part B

Storytelling Week 10: The Blob Raid

On the beaches of Oregon is a camp called Camp Purple Field. This is a wonderful summer camp that is constantly being used for its adventures and activities. It is for people of all ages, surprisingly, which is very uncommon for summer camps. They have groups ranging from 5-55. There are three people who were in charge of running it named Donny Travis, Asher Donald, and Jaiden Bartlet. They are all from extremely different backgrounds. Donny Travis comes from Texas and knows a lot about summer camps because there is usually one in each town in Texas. Asher came from Maine, the complete opposite side of the USA than Oregon. He knew a lot about beach activities but not so much about camps. Jaiden is from England where there were not very many overnight summer camps to be found in her area. She had taken this job as a way to remain in the USA and fell completely in love with camping. They are all extremely passionate about this job and will let nothing come in the way of providing people with an excellent camping experience. This was a highly successful because of an asset they possessed for almost 20 years. It was the biggest blob in the continental United States. People traveled from all over the country to come jump on this blob. Donny, Asher, and Jaiden were insanely protective over their blob. There is a neighboring camp that was mediocre in comparison to Camp Purple Field. This camp is called Camp Housecake. There is only one man in charge of this camp and his name is Trevor Lovefield. All he ever wanted in life was the steal the blob from Camp Purple Field.

A couple months ago, Trevor had enough of them stealing all of the camping grounds he set out a scheme to steal the blob. He decided he would have his kitchen staff go over to their camp pretending to need to borrow some supplies. After this he would go steal the key that was kept in a not so secret box in their office. There was a girl who worked in their office who had a small crush on him. He would use this to his advantage by distracting her. After he retrieved the key he would take his staff late at night and unlock the blob and float it away from the camp to his camp. He would next deflate the blob, give it a new paint job and say it was a gift to him and it had nothing to do with Camp Purple Field.

The plan is successful for the most part. One of the kitchen ladies was very scared and took a lot of convincing to go distract Donny, Jaiden, and Asher. He managed to bring the blob to his camp, only to not know how to take care of a blob this size. He ended up popping the blob and being left wasting time and not having the blob. Luckily for the staff at Camp Purple Lake, their anonymous blob maker was in the process of making a new one. Even though they had theirs stolen, they were able to get a new and improved one. A month after this happened Trevor’s camp went out of business.

Image Information: A picture of a blob which is what they fight over in my story taken from Snyder's Alaska Blog

Author's Note: I got the idea for this retelling from the cattle raid. It is based very loosely off of that story. Instead of stealing cattle, they are obviously trying to steal a blob from a neighboring camp. When I was brainstorming story ideas, I thought of the book Holes which is why I chose to do a camp setting. 

Bibliography: 

• Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.