Myth-Folklore

In one of the readings in the Czech Folktales Unit , I came across the story of the Waternick. I was a little confused about what this creature was, so I decided to look into it today. It is a creature that can be found in other fairy tales. It is also called a Vodyanoy. I thought it was interesting that it is said to be a creature with the face of a frog and a naked old man's body. I thought it might look naked because it's always in the water. This picture of the vodyanoy  by Ivan Bilibin led me to click on Bilibin's name. Here is a portrait of him by Boris Kustodiev in 1901.  The interesting thing that I found about him was that he co-founded the Union of Russian Painters.   I really love to paint and draw. Ever since I was a child, I have always enjoyed staring at a painting, I can get lost in them for hours! Anyways the Union of Russian Painters link led me to somewhat of a dead end, meaning that it broke the continuous flow o...

I really liked making this image earlier in the semester, and I thought that I might as well get credit for using the Tech Tip...I cat believe I haven't done this before. Plus, I cannot stop laughing whenever I see it on my blog...it's such a gem! Tamanous Cat

I came across the Happiness Jar when looking at the list of assignment options, it is a great idea to do this digitally, that way it never gets lost. I thought that this would be a really good idea for me to do because I find myself taking things for granted, or just simply not realizing things that actually made me happy that day. It is easy to grasp on to the negative things that happen and not recognize the million other things that made me smile or laugh. Today, what made me happy is that I woke up with all of my kitties on the bed, but what really melted my hear was my sweet cat, Tater-Tot, who looooves to snuggle me. She likes to sleep right next to my head, but not every night. This morning, she kept crawling up and tucking herself under my arm. I always take advantage of these opportunities. I chose this picture of this snuggle cat  because this is exactly how my kitty sleeps!

Detect new opportunities I chose this first picture because it is too perfect! This cat wants to pounce so bad, I love the look on its face! I have three cats and they are constantly pouncing on me and each other. However, I think that it is also a perfect illustration to explain how it is important to take the opportunities that come to you. There are so many things that I think about where I did not take my chance and not I am wishing that I had. Remote cat I picked this cat picture because I liked the quote a lot. I think there are a lot of times where I complain about something when I really should just suck it up and change it myself. If only there was a remote that could do this, but that would be like that Adam Sandler movie Click, which does not go well for him until the end. (Sorry for the spoiler if you have not yet seen it) . Also, I chose this picture because this cat is just as fat as my oldest cat, Todd, which you can see a picture of him in my comments wall for m...

IN A LAND, far, far away there lived a maiden, and her name was Paulina. Now Paulina was not like any of the other maiden's who lived in the kingdom. This maiden was independent. She lived off in a forest, next to a river, in a cottage all alone. She did not like to be seen because she was always gawked and laughed at by the others. Even though she could brush it off, it always made her very uncomfortable. Unlike the ideal maiden, Paulina was six feet and three inches tall, she was as strong as an ox, and could put away more mead than any other man in the land. She had big burly arms, fingers like sausages, and thick thundering thighs. Because of her stature, she had to make her own clothes, which became quite good at. That was one thing she did not mind when forced to visit the kingdom's village, her clothes were more extravagant than anyone else's and she knew that other the other women in the village were envious. However, these women were not only envious of her beautif...

I wanted to finish up the last section of this week's reading unit. Today, I read  The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson.  The Little Mermaid is such a lovely story, even though it is tragically sad. I am family with the Disney movie, but I think I prefer this story  and  wish that it could be a movie. What I like most about this story is the beginning when  all the  details of the underwater world are being described. Anderson uses beautiful sentences and imagery to portray the setting. This was actually the reason I chose this unit; I need better descriptors in my storybook project. I appreciate how this story began because it is important for the writer to be able to create a world for the reader(s). Personally, if a story does not grab my attention right off the bat, then I know that I will just get distracted throughout and I usually find it boring. I noticed that Anderson repeats a few things throughout the story. One exampl...

For the last reading selection, I chose to read the Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales and Stories. Hans Christian Andersen is a popular author that I have been very fond of my whole life. I always preferred his writings over the Disney adaptation, although those are fun too. I especially wanted to read this unit because The Little Mermaid is one of my all time favorite stories and I thought it would not hurt to get some ideas for the last story in my project; however, that story is in part B of this unit. For part A, I read The Princess and the Pea, The Emperor's New Suit, The Brave Tin Soldier, The Wicked Prince, and The Little Match-Seller. I have to say that I really enjoyed these stories, even though some of them were little confusing at times. The Princess and the Pea is such fun story to read, the only thing I do not like about it is that it is not longer, but I also appreciate how concise it is. I thought the "test" that she had to go through was very creative. ...

This week I am reading stories from the Czech Folktales Unit by Josef Baudis . I typically like to look at all of the units before I make a selection, but I thought I have to read the Czech unit since my father's side of the family is Czechoslovakian. There were a lot of new and familiar things in this unit. I think the Waternick story was my favorite. It reminded me of Hanzel und Gretyl, which is one of my childhood favorites. I would like to know a little bit more about what a waternick is because I would like to think that it could fit in my storybook project. However, it would still be nice to recreate a waternick story this week. Another thing that I liked in Part A of this reading unit was the enchanted swords in the story, The Twin Brothers. It was interesting that one of the brother's sword would rust if the other one was in trouble. One thing that I found myself confused about is why one twin decided to hide his identity, pretending to be his brother. I could not t...

IN A LAND, far, far away there lived a maiden, and her name was Paulina. Now Paulina was not like any of the other maiden's who lived in the kingdom. This maiden was independent. She lived off in a forest, next to a river, in a cottage all alone. She did not like to be seen because she was always gawked and laughed at by the others. Unlike the ideal maiden, Paulina was six feet and three inches tall, she was as strong as an ox, and could put away more mead than any other man in the land. She had big burly arms and thick thundering thighs. Because of her stature, she had to make her own clothes and became quite good at it too. That was one thing she did not mind when forced to visit the kingdom's village, her clothes were more extravagant than anyone else's. One day, Paulina had to run some errands. So, she put on her best dress and fanciest shoes, she fixed her hair and makeup, grabbed her satchel, and left for the kingdom. She first stopped at the bakery, no one could re...

As I said before, for this week's reading I chose the Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod.   I wanted to mention something that I found interesting in the first story in part B of this reading unit titled, What Britomart Saw in the Enchanted Chamber . I know I have mentioned things similar to what I am about to point about before, but I can never pass it up because it is sort of a fascinating quality in stories. What I am referring to is how the characters Britomart sees are portrayed in the scene. She sees beings, i.e., men and women, however, they are also feelings that people have, which you can identify by their name and the way that they carry themselves, i.e., the clothes that they have on their backs, the facial expressions that they carry on their faces, the way they walk, etc. To give a few examples, some of these characters are Fear, Desire, Doubt, Fancy, Danger, Hope, Dissembling, Suspicion, Grief, Fury, and Spite, quite honestly the list kept dragging on. I...

When searching for a story that I wanted to read for this week I stumbled upon  Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod . The first thing that caught my eye was the word  Faerie Queene,  I have never seen it spelled in that way before. I looked it up to see if there was any difference between that and the spelling of  fairy queen , but I could not find anything different. I assume it was just the language from the time when Edmund Spenser wrote the original poem. The other thing that made me want to read this story was the magical weapons. I thought there would be some useful ideas for my project and the storytelling assignment.  Right off the bat, the reader  is introduced  to the enchanted weapon, which is a spear that Britomart uses to knock Sir Guyon off of his horse. I thought that their introduction to the enchanted weapon and characters was great because it immediately creates some conflict between the characters. Sir Guyon is upset ...

This week I am reading  The Nursery Rhyme Book  by Andrew Lang . I chose this reading because I am needing some inspiration for the semester project and I thought it would be fun to recreate a story from this unit. Part A of this unit has the following types of Nursery Rhymes: tales, proverbs, songs, riddles, paradoxes, charms and lullabies, and games. I would have to say that my favorite type of nursery rhymes so far have been the riddles. I have always found riddles fun and engaging. The ones that I read in this unit were kind of weird, in my opinion. I think they are weird because most of them are ambiguous and the answers seem random. However, some of them did make more sense after knowing the answer.  Here is an example of a riddle I found strange: "LONG legs, crooked thighs, Little Head, and no eyes." And the answer to this riddle is a 'pair of tongs.' Personally, I never would have guessed the answer, but it makes sense once it is revealed. Another rea...

For the second part of this weeks reading notes I will be finishing  Native American Marriage Tales unit by Stith Thompson . I wanted to look into the first story, The Dog-Husband , because there were a few interesting aspects to it. First, I thought it was weird that the young girl became pregnant by her dog. It was understood that no one knew the dog could transform into a human at night, but did that include the young girl? The story says that she became pregnant, so I immediately think (assuming she was not aware of his ability to morph) he took advantage of the girl in her sleep. There was also a story in Part A where a man takes advantage of a Buffalo-Woman. Other than this unit, I cannot recall stories where women are taken advantage of. I am sure there are some, I just have not come across it yet or I am forgetting. However, it seems to be a common theme throughout Native American Marriage tales.  Another fascinating feature to this story of The Dog-Husband, in...

For this week's reading, I chose to take notes on the Native American Marriage Tales unit by Stith Thompson . One of the most prevalent themes throughout these stories are the uses of metamorphosis and personification. The characters are animals a majority of the time. There are also humans that transform into animals. And, there are other plants and animals that have been brought to life through dialogue. It is interesting to me that these stories give their characters these innate abilities to communicate with each other, no matter what species you are. A good example of this was in the story, Splinter-Foot-Girl, which was my favorite. I thought it was interesting how the Splinter-Foot-Girl came about through the leg of her father because he ran through the thorns. Something else that I find common amongst stories is how the tree is like a protector, this reminded me of the grandmother-willow tree in Pocahontas. In this story, the tree was also wise, which I believe is a...

This week, I am reading the American Indian Fairy Tales collected and published by Henry Schoolcraft . I am going to discuss a few aspects of the stories, mainly focusing on the one I found to be my favorite. (This is a wigwam, similar to what Sha-won-dasee stayed in) The first thing about this unit that struck me as interesting was how there are a few stories being told by Iagoo, the Story-Teller  . In my opinion, this was a unique way to begin a story. The first story that Iagoo tells is Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind . I enjoyed this story because of the use of personification. This was always one of my favorite writing styles as a kid. In this story, Ka-bib-on-okka was the North Wind and Sha-won-dasee was the South Wind. Towards the end, Ka-bib-on-okka and Sha-won-dasee get into a wrestling match. What I love so much about personification is that it is obvious the North and South winds do not wrestle around on the ground, like two...

AN OUTLAW was hitting every village throughout Western Africa, terrorizing and robbing any civilian that crossed her way. The leopard was one of the most cunning creatures that roamed Africa. Map of Africa The leopard, the outlaw's name was Ingwe (eeng-weh) , was a beautiful large cat with a silky golden coat with black spots and paws the size of a four-inch mango! Ingwe could outrun any human or animal, she could take down anyone or anything with one swipe of her paw; However, there was one secret to the leopard's success in remaining free, she was blessed with the ability to rearrange, add, or subtract her spots (generally manipulate them however she pleased), making her impossible to recognize.  As time went on, Ingwe began to get comfortable and found a place to live in a forest nearby a village. Whenever she became hungry or thirsty, she would go out and search for a pore sole to steal from, otherwise, she would make them her meal. Her victims would alway...

For the second half of Barker's West African Folktales , I wanted to try to stick with one note-taking strategy because I usually just write whatever comes to mind, which is sort of a mix of note-taking strategies. The strategy that I would like to focus on is Hollywood casting. Until now, I have not used this strategy before, but there is a first for everything! The story Farmer Mybrow and the Fairies  seemed the easiest to start off with. So, with that, the first character is Farmer Mybrow. I could picture Samuel L. Jackson  to play as the farmer from this story. I chose Jackson not only because he is one of my favorite Hollywood actors, but because some of the roles that he has played in movies seem, to me, to be similar to how I imagine Farmer Mybrow. Samuel L. Jackson is a strong actor that I believe would bring out the best in Farmer Mybrow, i.e., Jackson has an astonishing ability to portray emotions and I can imagine that Farmer Mybrow was flooded with emotion...

For this week, I chose to do a reading from the African unit. The stories that I picked are from the West African Folktalkes by William H. Barker . This is from the story, Thunder and Anansi One of the main themes to these stories has to do with a recurring character. This character is Anansi, a spider, who is a trickster. The fact that there was a trickster is the main reason in deciding to pick these readings. Throughout these stories, the trickster, Anansi, is always up to some mischievous act(s), most of the time he is trying to configure how to twist the scenario into something that is beneficial to him. The story that I found the most interesting was Anansi and Nothing . This story was similar to the Aesop fables because there was not necessarily a lesson at the end of the story, but there was an explanation for something that happens in reality. The explanation was, "...if you find a child crying and ask the cause, you will often be told he is 'crying for nothi...

Looking back, I do not feel that I have done my best work, although I am proud of the work that I have done. I know that I need to step it up moving forward. The thing I am most proud of, so far, is my semester project. I have put a lot of effort into the website and story creation. I would have to say that working on the project is one of my favorite assignments each week, but I do not always do a story, which I also enjoy. My schedule has been hectic since the beginning of the semester so I cannot say that I have a good weekly routine. Actually, my routine has gotten worse as the semester has progressed, i.e., I am doing most of the assignments last minute or not at all. Also, I have not done any of the extra-credit opportunities (I think I have only done one...), which is a BIG mistake. However, when I am working on my assignments, I get really into it and I think I have created some pretty enjoyable stories and a kickass website! Looking forward, I want to change my work ethic. I...

1. Feedback In: The feedback that I have been getting has been great so far! I have a mixture of praise and critical feedback, which are both very much appreciated. I think the critical feedback comments are the most useful because it forces me to re-evaluate my work. Whether I agree with making a change or not, I always believe in evaluating the feedback because it always gives me a broader perspective. 2. Feedback Out:  I would say that I have been giving some decent feedback, although I will be the first to admit that I am not the best at it. I always try to put my critical feedback with some positive feedback because I do not want to come off as being harsh, but it is also important to comment on the good quality of one's work. There always perfections and imperfections to be noticed. I have most definitely encountered some stories that have inspired some of my writing, e.g. my Jerry Springer story idea came from the student who did Odysseus on Ellen. 3. Blog Comm...