Fake Twitter Tech Tip

Here is my Fake twitter post I made on Simitator.com. Check it out!

Week 12: Extra Reading Post

 I decided to read part of the twenty two goblins unit. In the unit, there are difference stories that are told to the king and after each one the king as to answer a question it is very interesting.

The first story I read is The Three Lovers who brought the Dead Girl to Life.

On the bank of the Kalindi River is a farm where a Brahman lived He had a daughter named Coral. This story is strange! Three Brahmans worshiped Coral, but she died and the men became very depressed. One of them laid on her ashes. The other used her boned. The last one cried so much his mother threw him into a fire. In the end of the story the Monk brings her back to life with a magic spell. She was more beautiful than before. Ones again the three men fought over who should be the husband.

The story cuts back to the king and the goblin asks who should be the husband. He correctly answers that it must be man who slept on her ashes. 

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Ghost Lake - Dita

Week 12: Storytelling: Two stories about People

Two Stories about People

Once upon a time there was an old couple, who lived in a huge house outside of the city. They were both retired and extremely rich. Recently they purchased two luxuries cars and placed them into their garage. Little did they know, there was a thief who was watching their every move since they moved in. He was planning on stealing their cars from the couple. He just had to figure out the right time.

One day the old man had to go to a doctor’s appointment, and he left his wife at home. The thief seized the opportunity to break into the house and manage to steal one of the new cars. He took the car and drove away with it. Upon the husbands return, he saw his wife pacing back and forth panicking. He asked what was wrong, and she said that a thief came and stole one of their brand new cars. The two began to search everywhere for the car. As they were searching the wife recognized the thief who had stolen the car.  They began to chase him down until they reached his house. The couple questioned him about the car, and the thief said that he already sold it, so there is nothing they can do about it. Laughing while he said this the thief told the couple that there was no way of proving the crime he had committed. The couple realizing that they had nothing to lose now, the husband reached for his side and pulled out a gun, and shot the thief in the head.

Bully - Charles LeBlanc

One day there was a little boy. He loved to play with his friend on the playground, but recently a bully always came on the playground when the little boy was playing and beat him up. The little boy was tired of this and needed to find a way to put an end to this. He asked one of his friends at school what he should do. The friend told the little boy to go make friends with a bigger bully, and have that bully beat up the one who was bullying you. The litter boy thought it was a genius plan. Over the next week, the little boy made friends with a bigger kid who was also a bully. The boy eventually convinced the big kid to go beat up the bully for picking on him. He agreed, and on the next day out at the playground the bigger bully beat up the smaller one. The litter boy was so happy that he could barely even sleep that night!

The next day, the bigger bully who helped the little boy came up to him on the playground and beat him up too! The boy was shocked and asked what the problem was. The big bully said that he learned from one of the boy’s friends that he never wanted to be the big kid’s friend, and just used him for revenge on the smaller bully! 

Author's note

This week I decided to base my stories over Three Stories about Snakes. In the original story there are three separate, and quick stories about snakes. Each one is different, but all have a snake that plays a major role. In my version, I just wanted to try and come up with my own to tell, but instead of snakes I used people. If you haven't read the original, and you would like too, I based my two stories off the first in the original. They are completely two different tales, but I tried to base the situation in each story similar to its counterpart. 

Week 15: College Writing Review

My major is Supply Chain Management in the Price College of business. Now that I am about to be a senior next semester, I don’t think that I have many classes left that involve writing so much, but it never hurts to practice. I wish that I would have been able to take this class earlier when I first came to OU because I think that the writing would have really helped me out a ton.

Some of the other classes that I have taken that are more writing intensive are History 1865+, English I & II, and Communication. I took all of those classes my freshman year and had a lot of writing to do I remember having a 10 page paper due in one of my classes and having a lot of corrections to fix. 

I think that the most helpful writing in this class is the repetitiveness. I guess you could say it is like a double-edged sword. The writing assignments are frequent enough help me practice. I bet if I added all my posts together it would add up to 20 pages+ of total writing. That is crazy for a class! I think that this course does a great job with course load so you don’t have to write everything at once. Some people might view the writing as tedious, but I think it is helpful. This class will go down as the most memorable in my books in general, I loved it!

 

Word

Maria Reyes-McDavis

Week 12 Reading Diary B: Bidpai unit

The Bidpai unit stories are mostly about fools and tricksters. In “The hare, the Fox and the Wolf” the wolf frightened the hare one day, and told her that he would eat her. The Hare persuaded the wolf to go after the fox. Once they got there however, the fox ended up tricking them both and made them fall in a trap. Thinking that this was all the Hare’s idea he ate the hare on the way down into the trap. In the end the fox got away safety.

It is known that foxes can be sly and witty. A famous fox that sort of fits this description is Swiper the Fox from “Dora the Explorer.”

The story about three snakes was an interesting read. Each story featured a snake as either the main focus of the story or the outcome (means to an end). In my opinion, in each of the snake stories no matter what happened the snake always has to do with the end of the story. The snake either gets what it wants, gets karma inflicted on it (eating things), or gives out a punishment. 

Yin Yang - WikiMedia Commons

Week 12 Reading Diary A: The King and the falcon

I enjoyed the King, The falcon, and the Drinking cup. This story is about a King and his bird. One day they go out on a hunt chasing a deer. Due to some accident, the king gets separated from his men and is left alone in the forest. He comes across a stream and gets a drinking cup and slowly starts to fill it up with water to drink. Right as he puts it up against his lips the falcon snatched it out of his hands and drops it. This angers the King and he yells at the bird while filling the cup up again. Once filled, the falcon tips over the cup again, enraging the king so badly that he grabs the bird and smashes it on the ground killing him instantly. A few moments later one of the Kings men approaches the king and offers him water from his flask, but the king rejects and says that he must have some from this spring. The king tells the man to go fetch the water from the source of the spring. Upon the man’s return he says that there is a slain dragon in the water whose poison tainted the whole stream. It is then when the king realized that his beloved bird was trying to save him.

You can take from this story that the king needs to learn patience. The bird was only trying to help 

him. 

Prairie Falcon - Wikipedia

Tech Tip Typing Game

I played the Ninja Cat typing game. This was actually my second time playing this game, so I was much better at it this time around.There is a lot of action, and it was cool to use the katana to slay the dinosaurs when they got to close. I tried to play some of the other ones, but on the website Ninja Cat was my favorite!

I used to play a different typing game called Typer Shark when I was younger. It is by far my favorite of all typing games! You should give it a try!.

Portfolio Introduction

Hello Class!
Welcome to my portfolio! Here I will collect a handful of my stories that I have written throughout the semester. I hope you can enjoy them.

This is my first story for my writing portfolio. I chose to make a writing portfolio instead of a storybook for this class. Last semester I did a storybook for the Mythology-Folklore class, but this time around I wanted to have some more freedom with different stories. I wanted to be able to work with a broad variety of stories that were not necessarily connected as well as work on my storytelling skills/revising.

Week 3: The Brothers
This is a story about two brother who become rivals.

Week 5: The Birth of Hanuman
The epic bedtime story for children about the birth of the great Hanuman.

Week 6: The Tiger in the Cage
Karma at its best!

Week 11: The Lesson Learned
The Story about an elephant that challenges an ant to a race. 

Week 11 Extra Reading Post: Ramayana

Ramayana

Khara called upon fourteen Rakashasas to capture 3 royal hermits.

 Rama told Lakshmama to take Sita and go find a cave to hide in. He would battle the demons alone. Rama put on his glowing armour, and took his celestrial bow and arrows. The Rakshasas appeard and flew toward him with weapons. Rama began to discharge flaming arrows which swept among the demons. Many were slain all over the floor, but Khara and his brother continued to attack. Rama took his celestial weapon and slew Dushana. Next followed by an arrow into Khara. The battle was won and Sita came forth from the cave and hugged Rama.

I liked this battle scene because they provide so much detail within it. Just like in the other scenes of the epic the battle scenes are the most drawn out. I wish that the Ramayana could go to the big screen because the battle scenes would look great.

One of the main turning points in the Ramayana was when Maricha took the shape of the golden deer. His task was to lure Rama away from Sita in order for Ravana to abduct Sita and take her back to his city. So Rama chased the deer for a long time through the forest and he finally was able to shoot an arrow through the heart. Once this happened Maricha displayed his true form and screamed for Sita to come save him in disguise of Rama’s voice. 

Golden deer - Flickr

Internets_dairy

Week 11 Storytelling: The Lesson Learned

James came running into the house screaming and crying. I had just gotten done with the dishes and went to go see what was wrong with. When I found him, it looked like he had some dirt on his knees and shirt. It must have been one of those bullies.

He wrapped his hands around my waist and said, “Mommy! Charley hit me and kept pushing me down! In front of everyone too. It is not fair; he is bigger than me!”

“Did you  tell Mrs. Carter?” I replied.

“Yes. She sent him to the office, but he still will push me around on the playground. He will not ever just leave me alone,” James said.

“Listen, James, let me tell you a quick story that you will be able to apply in your situation.”

“In the old days, there was more jungle than there is today. No cities, or towns. Wild elephants were numerous. Once upon a time a red ant and a black ant were burrowing in the ground. Suddenly, a wild elephant appeared and said, “Why are you burrowing here? I will smash all of your work to pieces.”

“Why do you talk to us like this?” the ants replied. “Do not despise us because we are small; as a matter of fact we are better than you in some ways.”

The elephant laughed and told the ants not to talk nonsense. "There is nothing that  ants can beat me in," the elephant said. "I am the largest and most powerful animal." The ants weren't bothered by his speech, and they challenged him to a race. Whoever wins will declare to being the supreme creature.

Once the elephant heard this challenge, he became enraged. He shouted, “Well, come we will start at once,” and he set off to run with all its strength. When it got tired, it looked down at the ground, and saw two ants.

Off the elephant went again, and when it stopped and looked down, there on the ground were two ants again, so it ran some more. Whenever the elephant stopped, it saw the ants, and at last it ran so far that it dropped down from exhaustion, never to bother the ants again. The End.”

“Now, you see James, ants are more numerous in this world than any other kind of living creature, and what happened was that the two ants never even ran the race. They stayed where they were, but whenever the elephant looked at the ground, it saw some ants running about and thought that they were the first two, and so it ran away and fell from exhaustion.

The End."

This story teaches you, James, not to worry about the bigger and stronger bully. God knows why He made all of the different animals and people of all different shapes and sizes. Some boys are fools, and you just have to outsmart them. Be the ant and not the elephant!

Ant Colony - Wikimedia

Author's Note

This week I decided to base my story off of the "The Elephant and the Ants" in the Santal Folklore unit in the Un-textbook. The reason why I chose to write about this story is that I believe that this story has so much meaning behind it, and so many lessons came be learned from it whether or you are telling the story to a child or a coworker.

The elephant is seen as the bully in the story. He sees the ants, and threatens to destroy their home for no apparent reason. I wanted the elephant to be a parallel character for Charley. In the story that is being told to James, the ants are supposed to represent him.

I kept the story about the elephant almost exactly the same. The only major change that I had was that instead of the elephant running itself to death, I decided to make him fall over from exhaustion. The reason I chose to do this was because since this story was being told to a child, I didn’t want to use the explicit of the Elephant (bully) dying. This could create problems in the real world that James is in if he goes to school saying that James is going to die one day! I think that it was more realistic to exclude that part from the story. Most parents do not want their kid telling others that they are going to die. 

Bibliography:
This story is from the Santal Folklore unit.
Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas (1909).

Week 11 Reading Diary B: Sental Stories

The Jackal made a terrible decision when drinking with the hen. I thought that it pointless to explain what the broth they were making. It didn’t seem like it mattered much in the story. I guess that since the Jackal liked the broth so much he wanted to eat the hen. When he did the chicks decided to get their revenge on the jackal. They ended up blinded him and chopped him up into pieces.

The Tiger and the cat story was very interesting. It provided a origin story for how tigers and cats interact. Basically, in the old days tigers and cats used to live together peacefully, but one day the tigers asked the cat to fetch some fire to cook a meal they had received. The cat came back to late, and this forced the tiger to eat the meat Raw. The tiger exclaimed that he would eat the cat, dung and all. So this is why cats bury their own dung and why tigers eat raw meat.

The elephant and the Ants is probably one of the shortest stories in the section, but it Is my favorite by far! The story provides so much insight and morals. I will definitely consider writing my story based off of some of the elements in the story. 

The Elephant and the Ants Christina Gulla

The

Week 11 Reading Diary A: Santal Stories

This week I am reading the Santal Folklore stories.

The first story that I read was “Ledha and the Leopard.” This story was Ok. I was alittle difficult to follow. It didn’t seem like the leopard had much to do with the story.

In the oilman story. The Bullock wanted to repay his debt to the oilman by placing a 500 rupee wager on a fight with the Raja’s elephant. To my surprise the bullock won and receive the money. In return, the bull was able to leave wherever he liked. He decided to stay with the oilman, but he soon died one month later.

In the Monkey and the Girl story the girl just sacrfices herself for the love of the monkey! Haha that was a strange ending. I liked how to type of monkey was called Hanuman. This reminded me of the Ramayana. 

Bullock - Owned by Ferrets

Week 10 Storytelling; The Shanti Parva

The Shanti Parva

After the battle it was time for the coronation of Yudhistira. Peace and tranquility came after, but the story was yet to end. Yudhistira found Krishna upset and moody. He said that he realizes with the coming of Urtarayana, Bhishma will sacrifice himself. Bhishma was the keeper of knowledge for the world. Also kingship and human conduct; so when he passes away it will be gone with him forever. Krishna warned him there was not much time left.

While Brishma was speaking his final words to Yudhistira he showed much affection and spoke to him on the duties that were necessary for a king. It lasted for several days, and when he was finished he told everyone farewell and took his last breath. Yudhistira took his body and took the arrows off of it. Then he performed the obsequies due the eldest member of the family. He cremated his body on the bank of the river Ganga. The Goddess who was Brishma’s mother appeared again to take his soul and send it to his original home in the place of the celestials.

Following his deaf, Yudhistira ruled for thirty-six years. At the end of his 36th year his uncle, Dhritarashtra showed a desire to to adopt vanaprasha and live out in the woods with Gandhari and his brother’s wife, Kunthi. Yudhistira made sure all of their requests were made and he visited them frequently. He watched over their belongings too. One day, there was a forest fire and somehow Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, and Kunti all died.

Meanwhile Krishna’s clan, the Vrishnis, destroyed themselves in a civil war, and nobody even remembered them because they left no trace of their existence. Krishna them left himself like he foresaw. While he was on the bank of the river, he was in deep thought. Lying on the sands, a hunter that was a distance away confused the soles of his feet for a bird and shot an arrow at them killing him. Depressed by all of the news the Pandavas decided to leave the world. One by one they died and Draupadi did too.

Yudhistira found himself to be all alone, and he was gifted the power to go to heaven in his eartly form. On his way there he saw many familiar faces. The last person that was there to take charge of Hastinapura was the son of Abhimanyu, who had protection of Krishna. He grew up to be the King and further continuing the Pandava lineage.

The Great Battle  by Ankush Bahuguna

Author's Note

This week I decided to retell the ending of R. K. Narayan's version of the Mahabharata. 

I chose to do the ending of this story because I like how in the end of the story when you thought that everything was over it actually wasn't. In the Epilogue, the story is contunied further on a bigger time scale and we learn of the deaths of everyone except Yudhistira. He went to heaven and there was only one person left to rule. It was neat how the Pandava line was still passed on in the end. It is a true never ending story. 

Week 10 Reading Diary B: The Ending

Since this is the last reading of the Mahabharata, I wanted to briefly cover the last bit of the story for my storytelling post. I think that I will write it over the ending.

Yudhishthira wants to make a final plea for peace. He is also not sure if it is safe for Krishna to go to Hastinapura as his emissary. Dhritarashtra learns about Krishna and wants a lavish reception. All Krishna wants is peach and justice.

Duryodhana denies Krishna’s plea for peace and refused to listen to the requests of his mother Ganhari. Krishna manifests himself in his divine form to the assembly. Shortly after Duryodyna realizes it is impossible to take him prisoner.  Krishna speaks to Karna and tries to convince him to abandon Duryodhana. But he refuses. Karna the promises Kunti that only one of her sons that he will attack in the future battle is Arjuna.

In the end Yudhishthira goes to consult Bhishma, who is dying. After he dies he is cremated. Dhritarashtra, Gandhair and Kunti go to live in the forest and die in a fire. Krishna’s people all destroy themselves in a civil war. Krishma is killed by a hunter and Yudhishthira goes to heaven in is bodily form. Arjuna’s son, grows up to be king of Hastinapura which continues the Pandava line. 

 

Bhima about to kill Duryodhana

Week 10 Reading Diary A: 13th Year

Dhritarashtra’s sends his spies to find out what the Pandavas are doing. He also leans about the weapons Arjuna has. He then makes a royal camp near Pandavas to shame and humiliate them, but the gods send a gandharava to fight with Duryodhana. During the fight the gandharvas eventually take Duryodhana into captivity. His plan is ruined and backfired on him.

A Brahmin asks the Pandavas for help because a giant deer stole his staff and the kindling he uses to make the sacrificial fire. The Pandavas chase it but fail. They soon became tired and went to find water. Nakula finds a lake to drink water from. Suddenly he hears a voice telling him not to drink the water until he answers all of his questions. He ignores his requests and drinks the water and dies instantly. Arjuna, Sahadeva, and Brima all die as well. Yudhishthira comes and sees that all his brothers are dead and he answers all the questions. He tells him that it was test by Yama, the god of death and of Dharma. The fallen brothers are brought back to life, and they receives the gift of unrecognizability.

Remember from before that after 12 years of exile they must spend their thirteenth year in disguise at the court of King Virata.  The Brothers all disguise themselves. Yudhishthira is the king’s companion. Bhima is a cook. Makula a stable boy, Sahadeva is a cowherd, Arjuna new alias is Brihannala and lives as a eunuch in the women’s quarters. Draupadi is Sairandhir, the hairdresser. 

Kichaka and Bhima

Week 9 Storytelling: The Eighth Son

The Eighth Son

There was a ruler of an ancient kingdom of Hastinapura. His name was Santanu. One day while hunting Santanu came upon a lovely lady by the river and he instantly fell in love with her. He asked her to marry him and she said yes, but under one important condition. She asked to be able to do whatever she liked, and at no like will he have the right to question her actions. Santanu accepted this offer without objection. To him this was only a small price to pay to marry the woman of his dreams.
After a while she brought forth a baby, but s. as soon as he was born she drowned him in the river! This shocked Santanu, but he was unable to do anything about it remembering his oath he made with his new wife. When the next child was born she did the same thing, and another and another again. The strangest part of it was that after she drowned the children she came back with a smile on her face. Santanu never said anything about her behavior because he feared that he might leave him if he did. Besides, she was a great wife otherwise.

The wife had an eight child, and she began to prepare the baby to be drowned like she usually does. Finally, the husband was unable to control himself and he cried out to her to stop the madness.
To his surprise she said yes. She was already doing to spare his life, but in return she was going to leave him. Santanu asked why she would leave him. She explained to him to her real identity was. She was Ganga, the goddess of the river. She took the form of a human only to give birth to eight babies. She told the husband that she married him because he was the only person worthy enough to father the children. The children were known as the eight vasus (a class of deities, attendatans of Indra). In another life they were cursed to be corn on earth by Nandini for stealing the Sage Vasishta’s rare cow. Appealing the accusations, seven of them were allowed to go back to heaven. The eight member who arranged everything just to satisfy his wife, and actually stolen the cow must continue to live his life on earth. He will have brilliant accomplishments, but he must live a life of celibacy.


After Ganga explained the story she told Santanu that she would take the child and return him later years later instantly vanishing into the river. One day while the King was at the river she came back to return the son. His name is Devavratha, and he mastered all the Vedas. Santanu was very happy to have his son back and he returned back to his kingdom and announced that the boy would be the heir.

Ganga the River Goddess

Wikipedia

Author's Note

I deciede to write about the first story in Narayan's version of The Mahabharata. I wanted to retell this small story because it was shocking to read if you have never done so before. I find it interesting to learn that the wife "Ganga" was drowning her babies to send all of them to heaven except for one, Devavratha. This story sets up the character, and it provides a background story for him. I kept the story the same as the original. 

Week 9 Reading Diary B: The Mahabharata

I am confused some while reading this book, so I am going to keep my notes for this assignment short. I will need to re-read some pages, and focus more on the reading notes.
Yudhisthira ends up being crowned as a king at Indraprastha. Krishna, Duryodhana, and his uncle, Shakuni all attend as a guest. Next we learn about the great weapons that Skakuni owns, such as the Gandiva bow. It was a gift from the fire god Agni to Arjuna as a reward for trapping the birds and animals in the forest for him to eat. Shakuni Suggests to Duryodhana to play a game of dice to get revenge on the Pandavas.

Dice - Wikipedia

Week 9 Reading Diary A: The Mahabharata

Shantanu is the king of Hastinapura and he fell in love with a woman over by the river. She turned out to be Ganga the River goddess. Ganga agreed to many her as long as Shantanu never questioned her actions. Red flags are already going up in my head. I wonder why he would even agree to something like that. She gives birth to 8 sons and sacrifices them in the river one by one. Shantanu tries to stop her. This is when Ganga really reveals to him that she is the Goddess of the river. She explains that she is just an incarnation, and her role was to give birth to eight gods. In order to do this she needed to drown them so that they would go to heaven.


Shantanu falls in love with another woman named Satyavati. Obviously Shantanu has aj issue with other women. Bhishma renounces his claim to help his father out and then Shantanu and Sayavati got married. 

Ganga (Top)

Painting by Ravi Varma

Commenting Review

STEP THREE: Write up a blog post where you share some thoughts about the commenting in the class so far. You can write about anything you want; the following are just some prompts to give you some ideas to think about as you write your post:

• Do you feel like you are making good connections with other students in the class at the blogs?
• What kinds of interactions do you think are most helpful in creating good connections online in a class like this? 
• What kinds of comments have been most useful to you so far on your blog posts?
• If you have received Project comments, have those been useful so far? (Not everyone has gotten Project comments yet.)
• When you are leaving a short comment, what do you usually focus on?
• When you are leaving a long comment on a Project, what is your focus?
• What is the easiest part for you about writing comments? What is the hardest part?
• Do you do a lot of commenting on other students' work in your other classes? Is your major one in which peer comments are generally an important part of the classes you take?
• How do you make use of comments when you revise your writing?
• Are there comments people have given you about your writing that have really made a difference for you in your writing overall? 
• Do you have any suggestions for improving the commenting component of this class? 

Yes, I do feel like I am connecting well with other students from their blogs. The introduction post is probably the best one to really get to know someone. 

The most useful comments are the constructive criticism ones as well as the ones that help boost my confidence in writing stories. 

The Project comments are the most useful comments in my opinion. At first, they are hard to write,but If you really take the time and effort to write them then they can provide really good feedback for the other classmate. 

For the short, comments I mostly just focus on the main idea of the story and discuss how the writer related it to the required readings. For the long comments I tend to go more in depth with it and explain specifics. 

The easiest part about writing comments is the repetition. Once you can get used to it it becomes easier to write. The hardest ones are the project commenting questions. 

If I have some good comments regarding my story I will try and fix the areas in my story which the comment suggests. 

FAIL

Ace Images

Writing Review Week

Writing Review 

I really enjoyed writing my introduction and my Birth of Hanuman story. I thought that those were the easiest for me to write because I knew exactly what and how I was going to format the story.

In the second half of the semester, I plan on focusing on story structure and working on my punctuation.

Looking back at my own stories, I think that the best way to prepare yourself for writing a story is to first pick a story that you really enjoy. Next, make sure to take extensive notes on the subject. Lastly, brainstorm ways to recreate the story or re-tell it. I have not looked at other students writing for some ideas yet. Usually, I already have my idea in mind before I read other students work. The feedback that I am receiving is definitely helpful. There have been some students that really help me with plot development and punctuations. I think that the most valuable feedback for me in my writing is about sentence structure and grammar. The biggest challenges for me as a writer sometimes is coming up with a good story. I want my story to be great, and sometimes I find it hard to be so creative.

 

Winter Tree - Burzinski

I really liked this image the best from my Week 1 story. I think that the shadows and the effects on it  look nice. 

Reading Review Week

Reading Review

• What readings in the class have you enjoyed most/least?
• What reading and note-taking strategies have you found that work best for you?
• Do you use your Reading Diary in connection with the Storytelling assignment?
• When you look back at your old Reading Diaries from early in the semester, do they help you to recall the reading in a useful way?

 I have enjoyed many of the reading we have had in class this semester. I must say that looking back in from both classes they are somewhat the same, BUT completely different terms of writing and especially reading. In the Indian epics class we more focused readings on specific epics rather than week by week stories. I enjoy both methods, but even after experiencing both, one of my favorite readings was to read Narayan's Ramayana. Buck's version was good, but I just liked Narayan's version better. 

The reading diaries were very helpful while going though the sections of readings. I would read a note or two, then I would just read in the book until I finished what the notes were about. Lastly, I would re-read the notes to help myself fully understand everything. This strategy for me works to best just in case you forget some plots or characters. 

For my stories I sometimes refer back to my notes to see if I can find a story that I might like to tell. If I have a really good idea then I will just write my post from memory. Looking back at my old reading diaries, they definitely help me recall information from before like differences in the Ramayana from the two authors. 

Jatayu by- Abhilash Rajendran

This is one of my favorite pictures from my reading diary. I think that It shows perfectly how  Ravana in my mind would kill Jataya. It is pretty epic with the mid-air slice. 

Picture Quote

Here is my picture quote I made on Make a Quote Image

Check it Out!

It is from my favorite TV show The Walking Dead. 

Week 7: Essay: India Unit

For weeks 6 and 7, I read two different sections of stories in the India unit of the Un-Textbook. The two were Indian Fairytales and Bengali Folktales. Overall I liked this unit very much. I found it hard at times to choose between stories to read. They are all so interesting to me. The reasons why I chose the two that I did were

1.     I like reading about fairytales from other countries. Last semester, in the Mythology and Folklore class I had the opportunity to read many different stories from around the world. Along the way I noticed that each Unit of stories had a similar theme to them. For example some of them had happy endings and others had bad ones.

2.       The Bengali and Indian Fairy Tales units had easy to see and clear cut motifs within some of their stories. All of the Bengali stories had a happy ending. The Indian Fairy Tales stories had some tricksters in it.

My favorite stories from the two units were The Tiger the Brahman and the Jackal, and The Story of a Brahmadaitya. I believe that the first story is clever because the Jackal ends up out-smarting the tiger, which puts bad karma on him. The second story is also my favorite because it is a feel-good story about a poor man who finds great fortune thanks to the Brahmadaitya. I didn’t really have any least favorite stories. I thought that all of the stories were told well. There were some connection I found in the India unit from reading the Ramayana. Mostly, it was just simple things like the names of the type of people and gods. Overall I really enjoyed this Unit in the Un-Textbook. I was surprised by how well the stories were told in the Bengali section. 

Flag of India

Wikipedia

The Man and the Brahmadaitya

The Haunted Tree and the Brahmadaitya

I once was a poor man growing up. I had no wife , no kids, and no friends. Everyone that I ever known or loved left me. I was alone and a helpless, homeless, man. Seven years ago my life changed forever. I was on the way to the new laird’s house and he was explaining to some of his servants that there was this supposedly haunted banyan-tree on the outskirts of our village was haunted by many ghosts. No one ever went to the tree at night and when they did the ghosts would come and kill anyone who disturbed the tree. The laird decided to make a challenge for anyone who wanted to attempt it. The challenge was that you were supposed to go to the tree and cut off one of his branches and bring it back in the laird. If you were to complete the take them we would reward you with 40 acres of land!

As a poor man, I saw that I needed to accept this challenge. I knew that it could have been potentially my last day to live, but what did I live for? I had nothing and I would have rather died tring to achieve a goal then die from starvation without doing anything.

I accepted the Laird’s challenge, and the other folks around laughed at me. They all doubted me, but I didn’t care. I made my trek the next night into the forest to find the haunted tree. Almost toward the tree I decided to take a break under a large vakula-tree. On my break, I began to have doubts. I was panicking and wanted to die. Little did I know, the vakula-tree was haunted as well by a Brahmadaitya who heard my worries.   He said he was there to help and I explained to him the situation and what I was trying to do. He offered his help and told me to go toward the tree. We reached the tree and I began to cut at the branch of it. Immediately a bunch of ghosts swarmed me and was about to kill be, but the Brahmadaitya stepped in to save me. He explained to them everything and they let me take a branch back home.

I was so excited that I raced back home to show the Laird what had been done and I asked for my part of the deal. He didn’t believe me at first, so he had to go to the tree and find the exact cut and see if it matched. It did, and the laird put together a contract and made it official. I had my 40 acres! It was rich with fruits and grain, but there was one problem. Since I was poor I had no tools to tend the land. I asked the Brahmadaitya if he could help me harvest all this food. He accepted and called out all the ghosts of the forest to tend the land at night. I woke up the next morning with the whole plot of land tended and a huge store house. I thanked the Brahmadaitya over and over again never fully expressing the joy and gratitude I felt. He said that it was time for him to go. He explained that befriending a good man like myself for a while enabled him to not be cursed as a ghost. It was time for him to go to heaven.

I lived happily for many years after that. I sold all the grain and corn from my land and became rich. I found a wife, had sons, and grandsons later. Together we got the tools and people needed to take care of our land, and this is where you see me today. 

Brahman and Brahmadaitya

Souce: Spirit of the Ages

Author's Note

This week I decided to base my story of off The Story of a Brahmadaitya in the Un-textbook. The reason why I chose to write about this story is because I liked that it had a good ending to it. Reading the story I thought that something bad was going to happen to the man, but nothing did. I also liked how the Brahmadaitya's spirit went to heaven after helping the man. It was his destiny  to help the man. I kept my story mostly the same the only differences were that I told it from the Brahman's point of view instead of a narrator. I wanted it to feel like he was talking to an audience asking him about his life. 

Week 7 Reading Diary B: Bengali Folktales

Bangali Folktales 

• There was a wife of a Brahman that was walking to a tank. She accidentally brushed up against a ghost and it angered it. 
• The ghost grabbed the wife and put her into the trunk of a tree. The she-ghost then put on the cloths of the wife and went back to the home of the Brahman and mother. 
• After some time the Mother noticed that her-daughter in law was not acting the same as before (but better actually). This caught the attention of the family them she began to do things that were not human. 
• They called and exorcist and make the ghost tell the family where the wife really was located. They retrieved her and made the ghost not bother the family again. 
• My favorite part about this story is when the exorcist man began to beat the ghost with his show. 
• The Story of a Brahmadaitya is a quite interesting read
• The main plot of the story is that a poor man is desperatly trying to survive and he takes on the impossible task that has the potential to get him killed. On his way, a Brahmadaitya helps him and provides the Brahman with 3 requests that make him rich!, In the end, due to the Ghost helping out the once poor man he " sent to heaven.
• The story is a "Feel-" one like most of the stories in this section. I like how the poor man gets rewarded for his bravery and selfishness. I will think about writing my storyteling post over this story. 
• The Story about the Rubies is another feel good story. (I like all these stories within the unit. They have nice and happy endings). 
• I thought that toward the end of the story when the young man went to the palace in the whirlpool that he would get in some kind of trouble for taking the rubies, but I guess not. Also at the end when he became a husband to a second wife, I wonder why he didn't go back to the goddess. 

Ruby 

Source: Wikipedia

Week 7: Reading Diary Part A - Bengali Folktales

The Evil Eye of Sani is the Fist story I decided to read in the Indian section of the Untextbook called Bengali Folktales collected by Lal Behari Day.

• This story is different because I though that the main focus would be about Sani, or Lakshmi, but instead it is only indirectly about them.
• Sani curses Sribatsa and places his evil Eye upon him. Throughout the story he encounters jealous people, theifs, and evil men. They steal his wife and boat. 
• Eventually Sribatsa meets a King and he tells him this whole story. The curse is lifted and Sribatsa is reunited with his lovely wife a pile of gold which he took from a cow. 
• We also learn that he was the Child of Fortune, so that explains why he was even getting gold cow dung in the first place. 
• I like the story " The boy whom Seven Mothers Suckled." It is a revenge story about an demon wife who tricks a King into blinding and killing his old 7 wives.
• Instead the Wives are just blinded and go into hiding. All of the wives bore a child, but only one of then the seventh one kept the child. Each of the seven mothers took care of the boy and he grew up to be very strong. 
• In the End the boy received a bird that would kill her mother if harmed from the country of the demons. As he returned home there was a giant bird terrorizing the city. The boy insisted upon tearing the limbs of the small bird off to kill the big one. Instead it was the queen that suffered and then the boy was named the rightful heir, and the all lived happily. 

Gold Bars: Wikipedia

Untextbook Online Reading Options

1. I used my MacBook Pro laptop

2. I used Google chrome, and downloaded the PDF with Adode PDF viewer.

3. The easy choice for me for best option is the Internet Archive one. The appearance of the page and the button functions just work well with me. It has a nice clear "book feel" to it.

4. PDF. PDF's are okay and all, but if I could avoid having to deal with PDF viewers I would.

5. Even though I don't like too, I do read a lot of PDF's online for my law class that are pretty long. Some are 15 pages or more of just law stuff.

6. I usually just open up a word document and read 3-4 pages and take some notes. Rinse & repeat.

7. Same method mentioned above.

8. This semester I haven;t had to do much printing, but it I have to I usually print at the office in my apartment complex.

9. I really do like the Internet Archive website. I think that it is the best one to consider if you want to read a book.

Week 6 Essay: Indian Fairy Tales

Week 6 Essay: Indian Fairy Tales

This week I read a section out of the UN-Textbook in the Indian section. The story that I chose to read was called “Indian Fairy Tales” written by Joseph Jacobs.  The reason that I chose to read this set of stories is because I really do enjoy reading about different tales and I do not recall seeing this story in last year’s Mythology and Folklore class. My second choice of reading would have been the Ramayana, but obviously I did not want to read and take notes over the same book that I have read twice.

I would say that one of the many elements that drive most of these stories is Wisdom, and tricksters and fools. In the story “The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal.” The Tiger can be seen as the trickster because he convinces the Brahman to let him loose from the cage, and in return he would not eat him. The Brahman is the fool. It is quite obvious since he is the one that opened up the cage for the tiger. Also in the story he encounters many different beings that tell him he is a fool for trusting the tiger and tells him to be a man. Now the Jackal is an interesting case.  He is seen as first as a fool by the Brahman and the Tiger. While the Brahman and the Tiger are trying to explain the story to the Jackal, he seems as if he just can’t quite understand the situation. Purposely, without the other two knowing, the Jackal mixes up the story and recalls the information wrong. Eventually the Tiger is tricked by the Jackal to get back into the cage and he then closed the gate shit. The Brahman and the Jackal are booth fooled by the Jackal and his wisdom!

Phew, there actually is a lot going on in this story; more than you would think. The Jackal fools both tiger and the Brahman by NOT being a fool. The Tiger tricks the Brahman and also the Jackal tricks the Tiger. In the end, it is the Jackal that comes out on top and is the wisest of them all. It is a very interesting story with many different elements if you look into it more closely. 

Black-Backed Jackal

Source:Wikipedia

Week 6 Storytelling: The Tiger in the Cage

The Tiger in the Cage

Once upon a time I was caught within a trap. I tried my very hardest to get out, but I just couldn’t do it. I scratched and bit the cage with all my might until I bled. There was no escaping this cage.

Luckily, after a few days of being trapped in the middle of nowhere in a cage I saw a poor Brahman.

I cried out to him, “Let me out of this cage, oh pious one! Please!”

The Brahman replied, “No, my friend. You would just kill and eat me after I helped you escape."

I was thinking to myself; I was really hungry, and he does look tasty. Although, if he opens up the cage, he would be saving my life, so should I save his? I could not come to a decision at the time so I sighed and sobbed to the Brahman, begging him to open the cage up for me. By this time the Brahman felt sorry for me and opened up the cage to let me out! As soon as that cage came flying open, I pounced onto the man, getting ready to eat him.

“Whaaaa!”  I said. “How can you be such a fool?!  What is going to stop me from eating you now? I have been in the cage for so long that I am terribly hungry."

The Brahman was so pitiful. He pleaded for his life. He then asked me if he could go find three things to tell the situation to, and find out what they think of the matter. Then he would listen to their insight.
“Okay, okay, why not? You will be my dinner soon enough,” I said. “See what they tell you. It’s not like it will matter. I will eat you for dinner regardless of the decision by others.”

The Brahman, upset, went to find someone or something to talk to first, and I tagged along about fifty yards behind. The Brahman found a papal-tree and asked him what he thought of the situation.

“What are you complaining about?” the tree said. “I give shelter to anyone that passes by and what do they do?! Chop at my branches to feed their cattle. Be a man!”

The Brahman then went and found a buffalo, but he had no further luck talking with him. The bull said, “You’re a fool to expect gratitude. Look at me, I give up my milk and they just slaughter my young.”

I watched as the Brahman walked around with despair. I kind of felt bad for him, but I was just so hungry. I tried to speed up the process. “Hurry up! I’m waiting to attend dinner with you.”

The Brahman then stumbled upon a jackal that asked him what the matter was.  He explained and told the jackal how I tricked him into letting me escape so I could eat him. I thought this jackal was an idiot. He seemed to be confused as the Brahman explained the situation. I became tense and angry.

“Come! Let's go back to the spot this all happened so I can explain to you, jackal,” I exclaimed. “Here we are.” I and the Brahman explained the story to the jackal at least ten times, but he could not understand the part about the cage. In a blind rage, I decided to give him a play by play of what happened. I raced back to the cage and got inside to try and show the jackal what happened. As soon as I did this he closed the door and locked me inside the cage.


I was tricked by the jackal, for I thought that he was an idiot, but it turned out that I was the idiot. Now I sit here on my death bed, in a cage telling my story to anyone who will listen.

A Tiger in a Cage (Photo by: Matt Reinbold)

Foolish Tiger

Author's Note

I based my story off of The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal by Joseph Jacobs in the Mythology and Folklore Un-Textbook. I really enjoyed this story and wanted to retell it. The reason why I really enjoyed this story was because there were so many levels of trickery in it. I basically retold the story in the same way as the original. I left out the road as the third thing the Brahman came in contact with because I felt that the first two were fine enough. The only major difference I made was instead of telling the story with a narrator, I retold the story from the perspective of the Tiger. I think that telling it from his perspective put the reader in the eyes of the Tiger and the situation. Throughout the original story we learn the situation mostly from the Brahman's perspective. In my story the Tiger is the main character. Listening to his thought process you might feel bad for him or think that he is just getting his karma. If the Tiger would have let the Brahman live and walk away from him, then none of this would ever happen. He also has a temper. In a rage from the Jackal acting dumb he went inside to demonstrate what happen, and got trapped back into the cage!