Reading Notes: Africa (Congo) Part B

This week I read The Three Brothers from the African Unit. This story is by Richard Edward Dennett and came out of Congo!

Three Boys Source

 -This story starts off with a woman who gives birth to triplets! (Oh my sweetness!)
-The woman decided she could not take care of them so she sets them in tall grass and walks away (seriously?!)
-The babies somehow survive the newborn stage and as toddlers go exploring for food.
-The come across a bounty of food, including bananas, but are afraid to eat it!
-The are situated next to a river and the River Spirtit tells them that it is okay to eat and that they should.
-The 3 boys eat the food and love it!
-Because they have found food they are able to grow up strong and build houses
-The river spirit gives them wives and so eventually the 3 brothers create a town as they reproduce!
-One day a man stumbled upon the town and PLOT TWIST! ITS THE BOYS FATHER!
-The father runs back to their mother and tells them he found them, but she cannot go the entire way to see them
-The brothers now stumble upon a woman (their mother) and go off to kill her!
-The River spirit saves their butts again and tells them that she is their mother and to protect her and nurture her!
-The boys nurture her and they live together in the town!

-This would be a fun story to write about this week if I wasn't already writing the one I planned for last week! Bummer!

Reading Notes: Africa (Congo) Part A

This week I read How Kengi Lost Her Child from the African Unit. This story is by Richard Edward Dennett and came out of Congo!

-This story starts off with polygamy...off to a great start!
-In all seriousness this story was really sad as 2 women fought over land and the things they grew on it.
-The land was split evenly by the husband in the beginning of the story.

A sweet baby Source

-One day one of the woman, named Gunga, stole some beans from her sister wife, Kengi's, land.
-The woman made an agreement that basically whatever is produced on each respective land is theirs!
-One day Gunga was chilling, Kengi came over to beg fro tobacco as she was addicted and getting sick from not having any!
-While on Gunga's land, Kengi gives birth to a child!
-Gunga says that because it was born on her land, the child belongs to her (kinda makes sense in a very literal interpretation of their agreement)
-They take their cases to court and....
GUNGA WINS!
-this could be made easily into an everyday kind of story as a kid is in the middle of a custody battle!

Week 6 Story Planning Post: The Hermits

For this week I read The Story of the Man Who Did Not Wish to Die by Yei Theodora Ozaki from Japanese Fairy Tales

-This story starts off by a man Sentaro whose name means millionaire, has no care in the world because he inherited an amount of money so he does not worry about a job or anything else
LOL this would be the freaking life! I could make his name something cool like Sintario so it includes the word SIN, just a fun idea!
-He wanted to live for a very long time and so he was going to live frugal.
Yeah right...
-He went on a hunt to find some hermits who had Elixir of Life
How did these hermits get the Elixir of life? They could have gotten it from an old witch or have stolen it and that is why they are hermits, as they have to hide from the cops! I could write it from one of their points of view.

-Nobody would tell him where to find this Elixir of life and so he went to a shrine and prayed for 7 days
-

Hermits Caves in England Source

I would like to focus on these hermits with a Elixir of Life and talk about how they got it in the first place
Again I would like to mayeb make it so they got it from somewhere cool, but they are also not hardly living because they have to hide and this could create a problem for some of the members of the group. Like they wish they had never stolen it and just want to grow old and die.
-Maybe they could be super old too, but look very young and be kept in a cool basement or something in hiding
-Ohhh maybe I could do a story of the town he goes to where nobody ever dies! That would be cool to tell of the people who live there!
This would be a fun one to expand on as I could create a Utopia and it could be full of cool creatures and fun things, except that all of the people who reside there are at least like 200 years old! This could be fun although it would be more difficult to make into a story that twists back into the original one!
I think the best way to go for me is to write from the point of view of the hermits, where they got the Elixir of life, How they stole it, and where they hide now and how hard their life is because they are in hiding!

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales

For this week I read The Story of the Man Who Did Not Wish to Die by Yei Theodora Ozaki from Japanese Fairy Tales

-This story starts off by a man Sentaro whose name means millionaire, has no care in the world because he inherited an amount of money so he does not worry about a job or anything else
-He wanted to live for a very long time and so he was going to live frugal
-He went on a hunt to find some hermits who had Elixir of Life

Elixir of Life Source

-Nobody would tell him where to find this Elixir of life and so he went to a shrine and prayed for 7 days
-I would like to focus on these hermits with a Elixir of Life and talk about how they got it in the first place
-Maybe they could be super old too, but look very young and be kept in a cool basement or something in hiding?
-Ohhh maybe I could do a story of the town he goes to where nobody ever dies! That would be cool to tell of the people who live there!

Week 5 Storytelling: Fish Out of Water

My friends and I Source

My story is an interesting one, my life has not been easy and it definitely has not been normal. My name is Blue, as in Blue Damselfish. I was born out of water and have somehow found my way back in it. Do not get me wrong, I have many friends in the ocean where I live, many who have great powers and owe me many favors, which you will see I use to my advantage later in the story. Speaking of story I guess I should start to tell you mine.

I am a Blue Damselfish, ironic isn't it? Being that I am trapped in a fishes body and stuck in the ocean. Well, turns out I am not stuck in the ocean nor a fishes body(under certain circumstances).
The story starts when one sunny day I was caught while I was swimming, on my merry way to go to the store to pick up some oil for my scales. Some old wretched net caught me of all things. I have prided myself on dodging such things and yet, here I was in some water in a little bag. The man that caught me was clearly poor, living off nothing and looked as though he hadn't eaten or washed in days. He took the rest of the fish he caught and myself to the trading post. When we get there he sold all of the fish...except for me. At first I was grateful, for I was not going to die at the hands of a butcher. Then I found myself questioning if something was wrong with me (besides what I already know). The man who caught me looks at me with fascination. Through the water I heard muffled words of beauty and something of a well.

I soon found out that the well I heard of would become my new home. He put me in the well and the next day left off to fish. When he was gone I tried to escape and flopped out of water and after about 30 seconds I felt a funny tingling in my fin...turned feet! I turned into the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, not that I have seen many. Thankful to this man in a twisted way for showing me my new talent I decide to help him out and clean up a bit around the place. After all it really was a mess. When I heard him come back I was startled and found myself back on the floor flopping as a fish! I flop my way back to the well as he walks in. The next day the man, whom I have named "puppy" cause of his puppy dog eyes, looks at me in awe. For he had stayed back, spied on me, and found out my secret! He took my fish body and threw it in the fire where we watched it burn! He should not have done that, as he now wants me to become his wife. He took me to a King to get his approval of the marriage, and in a sick twist of fate the King decided he would like to marry me as well. Puppy becomes very upset and I use my favors from my ocean friends I mentioned earlier to help Puppy complete all of his tasks the King gives him.

Crazy to think that all of this happened in the span of 40 days, and here I am about to walk down the aisle. I love the man standing at the alter and while it took some time, I am so grateful to him for catching me on that day. Who knows where I would be if he had not.


Authors note: I read this story and immediately fell in love with the idea of the story being from the fishes point of view. In the original story the author goes into much greater detail about the fisherman and the tasks he was given by the king. I chose to focus on the love story and her point of view as she was the main character in my opinion! I chose the Blue Damselfish as the fit was too perfect to pass up. Damsel in distress as the little fish was also a damsel in distress!

 Bibliography: This story is out of Fourty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales By Ignacz Kunos, The Fish-Peri.

Reading Notes: Jakata Tales part B

This week I am reading Jakata Tales with the original story, Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock.

How the Antelope Was Caught

A wild antelope Source

- I loved this story!  I would choose to write this story for my story time.

- An antelope was super jumpy and a king asked if it could be caught.

- It was caught as the antelope was greedy and was bribed with honey

- The king made everyone aware that greed is what is going to ruin men forever for that antelope.

- I could easily make this story my own as I could change it to a cow or pig and it could be bribed into  a slaughterhouse or something...although that would be very sad. Maybe a dog into a cage!

- The story was about greed and I would have to keep this consistent as that is what struck a cord with me and what made this story so special.

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales part A

This week I am reading Jakata Tales with the original story, Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock.

 The Hare that Was Not Afraid to Die

Wild Hare Source

-I really enjoyed this story as the meaning was very inspiring!

-I would do a story about the meaning and maybe use different animals and a different situation

-The story of sacrificing would be the same where the pig gave up his own life

-While I really enjoy this story I am having trouble decided how I could change it to make it my own

-I could possibly talk about it from the mans point of view as his fish were stolen and he followed the otter into the woods to find out what he was doing with them and he stumbled upon the 4 friends!

Tech Tip: Creating a Google Site

This week I created a google site using their helpful new site format! I really enjoyed picking out my header and coming up with my different names navigating the differences between a title page name, a title link name etc. I found the new website making format easy to use and follow as well as easy to design! I played around with the other font styles, but ultimately decided on the standard one with pink coloring! You can find my webpage below!

My website is Camp Olympus
Hope you enjoy it!

Feedback Focus

Books Source

Strategy One: 
Reading Out Loud
I really enjoyed this story as a whole as I had always kinda wondering where the root of the dogs and cats hatred came from.  While I know that is not exactly the most reliable source as to their hatred, it is fun all the same! This technique was a little more difficult for me than expected as I am so used to skimming over the words quite quickly and filling in any words I may have missed. This technique forced me to slow down and read every single word!
I don't think that this is possible in every situation as reading out loud can be frustrating for others, but it is a great technique in terms of keeping the focus!

Strategy Two: Copy-and-Delete
This strategy was actually more fun than time consuming as I previously had thought! I had never thought about doing this as a way to take notes, but it makes so much logical sense! It gave me a general summary of Buchettino by the time I was finished with it I could easily read my notes to someone and they would understand the story! Side note: this story made me so sad as I was confused as to what the ogre was doing myself with the figs and I too would have fallen for his tricks! I found this one more useful than the previous strategy as I not only took my time to read it but also had notes at the end of it to look back on!

Strategy Three: Use a Timer
I chose to read the zoology 1114 as I took that class myself as a Freshman an remember it vividly. It was by far my hardest class and I remember feeling so stressed about it during finals week. Little did I know that would end up being an easier class in all of my time at OU. I enjoyed her writing style as I find myself writing the same way and really find myself loving it! In terms of this technique I did not find myself liking the timer as I kept looking back at it to see how much time I had left and felt rushed even though I had plenty of time, I just felt pressure from it!

Overall I liked the Copy-and-Delete method the best and I imagine myself using it often!

Week 4 Story Planning: Fish Out of Water

 This story is out of Fourty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales By Ignacz Kunos

This story is basically a magic fish and yet a love story at the same time!

Beautiful Fish-Woman Source

-So a man's parents died and they kept hidden his fathers occupation of a fisherman

---Why was it kept hidden? Could make it to be a family secret or something?
-He found his fathers fishing net and decided to use it, as he was poor.

---Where did he find it? Maybe he went to an old storage unit for his family and ound it?
-He caught a fish so beautiful he couldn't bare to eat or sell it and it cleaned his house when he was away
-He secretly watched and found out that it was a secret maiden and threw the shedded fish skin in the fire
-News of her beauty spread and the king demanded to see her...cinderella-esque!

----Could tell it from the maiden’s point of view and tell of how she was originally turned into a fish…Like Beauty and the Beast except for she is the Beast?! This could be fun to expand on as if she was turned into a fish because she looked down upon fisherman

----The story could take place before she was caught and it could be more like oh shoot I’m caught, but at the same time she is just grateful to be out of the water and back into the human world so she thanks him by cleaning his house as she can only turn human for a few hours? Although this kinda reminds me of Shrek and Fiona!
- The king wanted her to be his wife and struck up a deal with the man, if he could build a palace with jewels and gold in 40 days he could have her back... I would end the story here on a cliffhanger possibly

----The story ends with………I now pronounce you Husband and Wife, but you don’t know which on she ended up marrying would be fun!! Although everyone would hate me...

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales (part A)

Fourty- Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos

The Fish- Peri

Beautiful Bicolor Parrotfish Source

-Basically a magic fish!
-So a man's parents died and they kept hidden his fathers occupation of a fisherman
-He found his fathers fishing net and decided to use it, as he was poor.
-He caught a fish so beautiful he couldn't bare to eat or sell it and it cleaned his house when he was away
-He secretly watched and found out that it was a secret maiden and threw the shedded fish skin in the fire
-News of her beauty spread and the king demanded to see her...cinderella-esque!
- The king wanted her to be his wife and struck up a deal with the man, if he could build a palace with jewels and gold in 40 days he could have her back... I would end the story here on a cliffhanger possibly!

Week 3 Story: My dad is a Celebrity

      It is an average day at Glendale Preparatory Academy; sunny with a slight wind as my stepdad and I pull into the parking lot. We stick out like a sore thumb in our Honda minivan compared to the other kids in my class, who not only drive themselves to school, but in their Maserati's and Porsche's no less. I have gone to school here ever since I was in 6th grade when my mom married my step-dad, who happens to be the Principal at this god forsaken compound of entitled brats...and yet, I feel like I need to prove myself to them. Ridiculous I know, but I am sick and tired of being taunted for not belonging. My real dad is none other than Pheobus Sun, as in the Hollywood golden boy or well...man...dad...person. That's where I got my name, Pheathon, which has only been another source of torment. My mom refuses to flash around the child support and puts it in a college and emergency fund for me. Unfortunately, this means that nobody believes me when I tell him or her who my father is. I have a plan though, after school today I am asking my mom if I can go and visit Dad this weekend for a quick trip and I will finally be able to prove to my classmates that I am one of them!
      
      "Mommmmm?!?!" I cry out as soon as I walk through the door, "I gotta ask you somethinggggg!" She rounds the corner with the dog, Cerberus, biting at her ankles, "What Pheathon? I'm busy trying to train this beast!" Off to a great start...
     
      Two days later, after some convincing, I find myself on an airplane flying to Beverly Hills to see my dad for the first time in almost four years. Nervous is an understatement, but I am here on a mission, get the Gold Ferrari...shouldn't be too difficult. The limo driver pulls up to the ENORMOUS mansion (which even that feels like an understatement) as a golden god-like man walks out the front door. "Hey son! Ha! No pun intended," Pheobus or well dad calls. "Hey dad," I say while we walk inside the house and make small talk. The first day went by without a hitch and so I decided to bite the bullet and get to the purpose of this trip. To save you guys the boring ways a teen gets what they want, the conversation went a little something like this... I started out with a little guilt, "Hey dad, I've missed you these past four years...shame you haven't come to see me..." to which he made up some excuses. I followed suit with "Yeah, well, a son needs his dad in his life and bullies are hard to deal with..." check and mate. Dad replied with, "I have no need to hide my son, what you do want, I will give you anything you wish." It was honestly easier than I thought! I ask for the gold Ferrari and since he must keep his word, he is forced to give it to me. Not to say that he doesn't warn me and give me rules. 
      
      "This engine is so big, even I have trouble handling it! And don't go into the next town over! And be sure not to go too fast or too slow- keep with traffic! And watch for red lights!" Blah blah blah...


The next day the papers read:

                      "Pheobus' Sun Son Dies in Fiery Crash"

                                  Firefighters put out a blaze Source  

Tragedy struck yesterday afternoon as Pheathon Sun crashed his dad, Pheobus Sun' gold   Ferrari on his way to Glendale, Arizona as his phone map showed.

Initial police reports show excessive spend played a factor.

Memorial times have yet to be released by the family.

      On the bright side, the kids from my school finally figured out that I wasn't lying about my lineage...on the dark side I am writing this story from wherever you believe dead people go. I can't go and give away all the secrets of the world!


Bibliography: This story is based off of Tony Kline, "Pheathons' Ride.
 
Authors note: I wanted to bring this story into modern day and focus on the reason he wants to drive his dad's chariot or in this case, a gold Ferrari and not focus on his death although I did pull parts from all of "Ovid's Metamorphoses" story lines. I had a lot of fun coming up with this story line and how it would all fit together! I am glad in the end I did not continue the story to go into detail of his death as I wanted this story to be one that didn't make you never want to read one of my stories again!