Reading Diary B: The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung

These were my thoughts as I was reading The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung

I really liked the story of the monkey king. I thought that he was a good charter. his name is a good description of what he really is. A Monkey King. Monkeys are smart and witty but they also cause trouble just as the monkey king did. Kings are wise and powerful. when you put the two words together you get someone who causes a little bit trouble but who is also very powerful and this is exactly what the monkey king is. As i was reading i was wondering why he was a monkey like why did the original story teller make him a monkey. they best thing i could come up with would be so that it is ok if he does foolish things. In The Destiny of Sun Wu Kung the circlet that is placed on Sun Wu Kung must be very powerful if it is able to control him. As i was reading i was disappointed that the story was coming to an end because like many of the other stories i thought it was just going to come to a stop.   I really liked that it included a synopsis of the other stories in Journey to the West (synopsis) and that we were able to see the adventurers that he goes on in Journey to the West (conclusion) . I liked at the very end when it says " and lo! the helmet was gone." the monkey king mush have been so happy to finally reach his goal and have that circlet removed

The Monkey King by :Yoshitoshi Tsukioka found on Wikimedia

     

Reading Diary A: The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung

These were my thoughts as I was reading The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung

these were my favorite stories so far. In fact I liked them so much that I read them all the way through with out stopping to take notes. (oops). I had been looking forward to reading these stories because there is a game that I like to play called smite and Sun Wu Kung is one of the the people you can play as. It was cool learning about the rod that he uses in The Dragon-Queen because this is the same thing that he uses in the game but I never knew where it came from. There were a lot of things that I learned from playing smite about Sun Wu Kung but there were many new thing that I learned from this reading. In Handsome King of the Apes i never knew that he came from an egg of stone. or in The Master I never knew how clever Sun Wu Kung really was. I liked the part where he was hit three times but understood that the master was not mad but that he was telling him to meet him. At some points I even felt bad for Sun Wu Kung. Like in Sun Wu Kung Departs when he turned in to a tree but then was forced to leave. 

I am really excited to read the other half of these stories and find out what happens now that he is fully trained and has a weapon and armor.   

Sun Wu Kung Jumping the waterfall from Wikimedia

Week 5 Review

TACOCAT TACOCAT TACOCAT TACOCAT TACOCAT TACOCAT TACOCAT

I loved this post so much. (also sorry for writing tacocat backwards hehe)

Taco cat can be found in Course Announcements

  

Tech Tip Quote

Here is a quote that I made

quote made here

Week 5 Growth Mindset

This week i did my reading and reading diaries a little differently than I normal do just to see what would happen. for my first Reading Diary i read everything all the way with out stopping and then went back and wrote about the parts that stuck out to me. On my second Reading Diary i did my notes how i normal do by stopping after every story and writing my thoughts. on the third Reading Diary I wrote about the over all themes that were present in what i was reading. It was nice to try out different note and reading strategies  but i think i like my normal way the best

Growth mindset pic can be found here

    

Thoughts about Comment

Over all I really like the comments that I have been getting. I really like the encouraging comments because I am not a very confident writer. Im sure I am going to make some spelling mistakes so please dont get to hung up on that. What I really am looking for is ways to make my stories better so if you so if you have any ideas please let me know.

Extra Reading Diary: Jataka Tales (Babbitt)

these were some of my thoughts as I was reading  Jataka Tales (Babbitt)

I have done them a little differently than my other reading notes but you can read about in my growth mindset post   

I thought these stories were good. I like how they each have a lesson because not only are they entertaining but they also teach you something important. I thought it was interesting that many of these stories were very similar to stories in other readings. I wonder what it is that made these stories popular in two different cultures. I think this says a lot about as a people because it shows how we value character traits even if we come from different back grounds. For example in The Ox Who Won the Forfeit the lesson is to treat others nicely. This teaching can apply to everyone and it does not matter where they come from. I think its cool that these short stories that were written so long ago can still apply to our lives today.

I think my favorite story from this reading was The Monkey and the Crocodile. I like it because the monkey is so much smarter than the crocodile he is able to out smart him in every way. Even when the monkeys greed takes over for a short time, he is still able to use his wit to make it out alive.      

Monkey and the crocodile can be found in the Un-Textbook 

Reading Diary B: Indian Fairy Tales

These were my thoughts while reading the Indian Fairy Tales unit 

I will be comparing these notes with the ones I took yesterday for my growth mind set 

The Talkative Tortoise- this story seams pretty similar to the one that I earlier in the semester. the only difference is there is a little more detail in this one and it is about the Buddha.   

The Gold-Giving Serpent- The greed is what destroyed these people. I like this story not only was the son greedy but so was the father when he just forgot about the death  

Pride Goeth Before a Fall- that was a very good way to trick the robbers. It was a good thing the leader was watching and took advantage of the situation. I also like the part when it says they were like bags of rice that was a good description. 

The Prince and the Fakir- this story was kind of strange and all over the place. I did not really care for it that much. I did not really see the point in it.   

Why the Fish Laughed- This story was pretty crazy there was a lot going on that was not understood my the people in the story i really like it. I think the point of the story is that things are not always as the seem.  

 illustrations by John D. Batten. can be found HERE

The Demon with the Matted Hair- That must be some pretty nasty hair is everything was able to get stuck in it. It was able to stop everything but the power of knowledge and courage. 

How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner- This was a nice little story to finish things up with and it also explains why the sun is so hot.

Reading Diary A: Indian Fairy Tales

These reading notes are going to look a little different than my other ones because i am trying something for my growth mind set.( ill put a link to that page when its done) 

The stories that I read come from Indian Fairy Tales unit.

Over all I did enjoy reading theses stories. Some of them reminded me of other stories that I have read in other unites like The Lion and the Crane story. Its interesting to me that two very similar stories can come out of two different places. I also liked that these stories had a few different lessons in them. For example in The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal I felt as though there were a few different lessons present. One of these lessons is don't just blindly trust people. The other is do not expect a reward for something that your are expected to do. 

I liked how in these readings we got to see the two sides of the crane. we got to see him save the lion in The Lion and the Crane, but we also saw him trick the fish and lose his life because of it in The Cruel Crane Outwitted. 

I think that my favorite story was the Broken pot. I thought is was funny how deep he was going into his dream but then it was all ruined because he broke the pot. i think i might try rewriting that story.

Illustration by John D. Batten, can he found HERE

Week 4 Review

This was definitely my favorite thing from the week

Photo found on Course Announcements 

I like it because I am pretty sure I am all of these lol

My Famous Last

My Famous Last words I kind of like that sound of that..well hopefully these will not be my last words ever. This is my first one of these so I guess I will just kind of cover the last fore weeks ( wow its been fore weeks already?!?) this semester has been pretty busy and full of learning and thous are not the two thing that i was expecting to describe my semester with because it is my last one. ( yes i know that was an extremely long sentence) With that being said i find i am really enjoying my last semester here. all of my classes are very hands on so I actually got to go out and film things. my professors are wonderful as well because they have been offering good advice and not just telling us what we did wrong. this is very important to me because i love getting constructive criticism on my work. I feel like it helps me improve the most. 

Aside from school I have also gotten to do a few fun thing. I went to the first football game. That was a blast because Erin, my girl friend, came up from Dallas that weekend and went to the game with me.

Personal photo from facebook

 I also got to go home for my little brothers birthday. he turned 14 on September 11, and yes he was born on THAT day, pretty crazy right? It was nice to go home and spend time with my family 

Personally this semester has been really good for me because I am trying to be more healthy. i have been cooking all my own food and drinking pretty much only water. I have also been going to the huff two time a week. with all that health stuff being said i went to a really good pizza place this weekend called empire slice. Man it was sooooo gooood If you have never been you need to go. 

Anyways that has been my semester so far I hope yours is going good as well.

Growth Mindset: If you ran the school...

Okay so this is going to be own personal little rant on school and the growth mindset and the impact of school. School is wonderful we come here and we learn about a lot of different things or at least in theory that is what we are doing. Some times I think we just come to school to get graded. I mean is that not the goal it get good grades and then leave. I think that is a trap that many of us fall into here at a big university. We just try to get our grade and then move on but we never take the time to really learn. If i could change one thing about it would be taking a step away from grades and moving more towards learning. some times that is lost in our large classes and that a shame because i love learning but i hate getting graded. It makes me dislike school because i am afraid I will get something wrong, when in reality i should be happy that i tried something new.
I think that learning should be an important part of our education and something that we can look forward to each day.  

Tech Tip Website

Hey everyone I just started working on my story book site check it out!

https://sites.google.com/site/nickstorybook/

Extra Reading Diary: Persian Tales

These were some of my thoughts while reading Persian Tales

The Wolf and the Goat- This was a fun little story I do not think that it mattered that he got his teeth pulled because the goat was going to out smart him anyways.

The City of Nothing-in-the-World- This story is pretty wild. the chain of events just gets more and more extreme with each event. I guess it could show how a small mistake can turn into something out of hand pretty quickly.  

Susku and Mushu- Each of these stories are getting crazier and crazier i was not expecting the man to empale him self with his spade that just is a little extreme for a beetle dyeing.

Farmer stabbing him self: Picture can be found HERE 

The Boy Who Became a Bulbul- Hes a tricky little birdie that is for sure. Why did they make a bet to cut off each others head. I was hoping that would be a metaphor of some sort but sadly it was not

The Wolf-Aunt- Ahh yes the classic wife know best story. I like how they tied in the culture of the husbands sister being the evil one and in this case she really was!

Nim Tanak, or Half-Boy- I am not sure what the significance of how they eat and drink have to do with anything. Maybe it was a prophesy or maybe it shows that just cause things are different does not mean that they are wrong.

Muhammad Tirandaz, The Archer- The mans life is just one big miss understanding yet is payed off for him.

The Praying Baker- this mans faith was real and he trusted that what ever was going to happen would be the right thing even if it was death

The Sad Tale of the Mouse's Tail- this story was alight but I really liked the title.

All of these stories have some pretty crazy chains of events. I am still not sure why every story ends with "And now my story has come to an end, but the sparrow never got home." is that to show that there is not always a happy ending?          

Reading Diary B: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

These were some of my thoughts as I was reading  Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories part B 

The Two Brothers: Part One- i really like this story so far. It is one of the first large stories that I have read im this class. Oh man I cant believe that she lied to her husband and said it was the little brother when it was really her.

The Two Brothers: Part Two- Its a good thing he could understand the animals or he surly would have died. I am glad the his brother understood that it was his wife that did wrong and not his brother

The Two Brothers: Part Three- No no no she had one rule and that was to no go outside but what did she do... she went out side. its cool that the older brother was able to bring him back to life by giving him the water that his sole was in. 

The Two Brothers: Part Four after reading this story it is my favorite so far. no mater how hard she tried she could not get rid of beta he just kept coming back.

The sacred bull found on Wikimedia 

The Book of Thoth: Part One-Thats a lot of boxes to keep one book in. are they real boxes or are they a metaphor for something else?

 The Book of Thoth: Part Two- It is really cool that he was able to learn by drinking the beer that had washed the ink away. i wish we could do that.

The Book of Thoth: Part Three- This is a kind of you cant have your cake and eat it too situation. he was able to kill Nefer-ka-ptah but could not get his book back.

The Tale of King Rhampsinitus- so it was his wit and smarts that really made him a king.

Reading Diary A: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

These were just some of my thoughts while reading Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories part A

The Secret Name of Ra- I had always known that isis was a goddess of healing or at lest she kind of was but i never knew that that she poisoned ra.

The Sun's Journey- I am guessing this is what they thought the sun did while it was not in the sky. I also never realized how many gods of the dead they had.

Osiris- Its interesting that the god Ra got to old. what does this mean. is he really a god if he is aging... im not sure maybe they just mean his human like form. its good to see Osiris helping the people.

The Death of Osiris- this is why you never get in to a box that could be used as a coffin. This story is pretty crazy. i cant believe that they tricked him like that.

The Journey of Isis- poor isis not only did it take her for ever to find the body of Osiris but when she did she brought it home and set chopped it up. I thought you could not kill a god? oh well i guess Ill find out what happens next.

King of the Dead- I dont want to give anything away but this part was really cool i can just picture her flying there and the life coming back in to him      

The Wax Crocodile- Im not sure how this story fits with everything that i have been reading but I like it. the crocodile is pretty cool

The Green Jewel- that ring must have been important to her.

old ring from Egypt. can be found here 

Week 3 Review

My favorite post was the potatoes one. I am not sure why but it made me laugh really hard. Here it is for those of you who missed it 

This Photo can be found in the Myth- Folklore and Indian Epics Announcements

Tech Tip Cheezburger

 This is how I feel when I am writing for this class

Pic I made at cheezburger.com

Storybook Styles

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/egypt-creation.html ra

http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/The_Creation/the_creation.html greek gods.

Topic. I would like my Story book to be about the Gods and their creation and how they got to be where they are today. some stories that I would like to include are the Stories of Ra the Egyptian sun god and the creation story of Zeus and the other greek gods. It should be very easy to find stories about them and other gods as well. I still have not decided if I want to tell just one pantheon's story or if i want to make up my own story about how the greek gods got put over the greek people and the Egyptian Gods got put over Egypt so on and so on with each pantheon.

Photo of Zeus From Wikipedia

Possible styles- 

Town meeting. My first idea is that i could have each of the gods come up to a council and give their case of they they should be the god a thing ( the sun of sky for example ) and a place ( Egypt for example) this way the god could tell their own story and there could be a discussion of some sort between the council and then they will decide where they could go.

Camping trip. In this style of story I would have a number of gods preferably all of the same thing just different pantheons on a trip with maybe their sons and daughter. They would all sit around the camp fire and tell the story of how they became the god of the, in this example lets say sky, and why they are better at being the god of the sky than all the other gods of the sky.  this could make for some very interesting conversation and i could have the gods interrupting each other to add some humor 

Dating show. This style would be a very fun way to wright. To do this I would be rewrite the creation story of each god that I pick while keeping their Characteristics the same. Then I would have game show match them each up with a location or a thing of some sort. this would have some humor in it and could be pretty funny all though it could be very tough to write.

My last idea is kind of a strange one but here it goes. Macy's thanksgiving day parade. So for this each of the gods will be a flout or a balloons of some sort in the parade. As they go by the announcers would give different facts about the gods and how they came to be telling their creation stories. This would involve a lot of dialog.

  

Bibliography:

"The Creation" Website greekmythology.com

"Egyptian Myth and Legend" by Donald Mackenzie (1907) Website Un-Textbook 

Extra Reading Diary:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10)

These were my thoughts while reading Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10)

Daedalus and Icarus- I have heard this story before but never really read it. I did not realize that Icarus was flying with his dad. I like this story because it has a good lesson to it. That you should stay in the place that is meant for you and to flow the rules.

Lelex tells of Philemon and Baucis- this was kind of strange at first but I now see the compassion these two had for complete stranger. i think it shows that it is important to help others.

The transformation of Philemon and Baucis.- It is really cool that the gods rewarded them for being so nice to them even though they were strangers. I think this shows that you will be rewarded for your good deeds 

Painting of Philemon and Baucis, by Kiprensky can be found here

Ceres sends Famine to Erysichthon- the description of Famine is very graphic I can just picture how sad and empty Famine is and then she breathed that in to the guy there is no way he will ever be satisfied again.  The ending when he ate him self was crazy not what i was expecting

Acheloüs wrestles with Hercules- Hercules is a pretty good fighter i like when he laughs at him for turning in to a snake

The Death of Hercules- I never knew that Hercules left his mortal body 

Birth of Hercules- Ok so im not sure where the weasel came from but it sounds like a good punishment.

Over all the stories were pretty good but it was kind of confusing how they all fit together

Storytelling Week 3: The Psychotic Cyclops

The cyclopes lived a somewhat simple life. They all lived on an island with hardly any interruptions from the outside world. They had everything they could ever want on the island. There was plenty of rich land where food could be grown. There was an abundance of livestock that could be used for many different purposes. And there were enough caves for the cyclopes to each have their own home. While they were not very smart the cyclopes still managed to have a successful society. 

Their society was, just like the cyclopes themselves, a simple one. In the mornings each cyclops would tend to his or her personal flock herding them to different grazing areas to make sure they never made the land barren. Then they would tend to their fields and harvest the crop that the gods had blessed them with. As evening came around they would return to their caves with their flock, because the cyclops had a hard time seeing out of their one eye as the sun was setting. Once back at their caves they would eat supper and go sleep. They did this same thing every day of the week. The only exception was on Friday nights. 

On Friday night all the cyclopes would gather together in the middle of their island and they would have a celebration. At the celebration they would dance, sing, and share the good that they had harvested that week. While this was going on, the children were all left with the elder of the island. The elder would tell them stories of past cyclopes so they could learn about their history. Most of the little cyclopes did not care for story time but there was one story that all the cyclopes loved. It was called the story of the psychotic cyclops and it went like this. 

There was once a cyclops named Polyphemus. He was one of the greatest cyclopes to ever live. He had the largest flock out of all the cyclopes . Not only did he have the largest flock but he could command them with ease. He was the biggest of all the cyclopes and because of this he had the largest club made from one of the oldest trees on the island. He was known as the king of the cyclopes until one day the gods cursed him and drove him mad. It was right after supper time and right before bed time that the madness struck. All the island was quiet, as they were all about to rest, and then a loud scream burst from Polyphemu's cave. This was unsettling to the other cyclopes so they made their way to his cave. When they arrived they heard more screaming and yelling erupt from his cave. They asked Polyphemus "Is some one attacking you?"

" Nobody is attacking me," Polyphemus responded.

"If Nobody is attacking you then you must be going mad and only the gods can help that," shouted the cyclopes and they left Polyphemus. The shouting and yelling continued all night. 

In the morning Polyphemus rolled the large bolder from the entrance of his cave and staggered out. "See!" he yelled. "See what Nobody has done to me?" and then he fell dead on the ground. As the other cyclopes emerged from their caves they could see what Nobody had done to him. Polyphemus's body was lying dead on the ground with his large club stabbed through his eye. 

To this day no one know what truly happened in that cave. Some say that he went mad and killed himself, while others think there may have been somebody in the cave with him, but no one knows for sure. 

Painting of Polyphemus By: Guido Reni. Found on Wikimedia 

Author's Note: This story is based off of Odysseus's encounter with the the cyclops Polyphemus. In the original story Odysseus and his men end up as prisoners of Polyphemus. Odysseus tricks Polyphemus into thinking that his real name is Nobody so that when the other cyclopes ask if he is being attacked he will say that Nobody is attacking him and the other cyclopes will leave. I thought it would be fun to retell this story from an outsider's point of view so they they could only speculate about what really happened in the cave and I also wanted to give it a ghost story kind of a feel. I did this by making the story into a tale that was told by the cyclopes to each other. I also wanted to give a little background information on the Cyclopes so I wove the original story together with one that I made up about their background. I also thought it would be an interesting twist to have him die in the end so that way no one could ever know what happened in the cave. In my last story it was pointed out to me that my dialog should be formatted  differently so in this story I tried to work on that.     

The story can be found in the Un-Textbook

source: Homer's Odyssey

 translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004).     

Reading Diary B: Homer's Odyssey

These were my thoughts while reading the second section of Homer's Odyssey  

Ghosts of Erebus- The place where they dock they ship seams pretty spooky. I can just picture all the dead flying out of the ground that would be such a horrific site Odysseus is truly a brave man.

The Soul of Elpenor- Oh man I thought it was bad that he saw his friends ghost, but then he saw his mother I can not imagine what that would be like he had no idea she was even dead.

The Ghost of Teiresias- After the story of his fate they only thing that he questions is about his mouther. I just find that interesting.

The Spirit of Anticleia-  I like how they used the mothers ghost to give Odysseus an update on what was going on at home with out him. That was a very creative way of doing so. His mother must have been very upset that her son was not home if she died from missing him. I can not imagine what it would be like to miss someone that much. Maybe its something only a mother can do for her son.

The Ghosts of Famous Women- That is a lot of dead people to talk to. On a side note the stories of gods sleeping with people was always a little strange to me.

The Ghost of Agamemnon- What a fate to be killed by your own wife.

The Ghost of Ajax- the after life for some of these guys is not appealing. Ajax must have a lot of hatred towards Odysseus

The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis- Part of me wants to know what that song sounded like.            

Odysseus talking to Teiresias: Found on Wikimedia By: Fussli

Reading Diary A: Homer's Odyssey

These were some of my thoughts as I was reading the Myth-Folklore Unit: Homer's Odyssey

The Cyclops’ Cave- How lucky they were to get the sheep that must have feed them well.   I have a bad feeling about them going to meet the other men. 

Polyphemus Returns- it was probably a good thing that they did not mess with his food.  I did not realize how big the cyclops was until they talked about moving the rock that 22 wagons could not move. 

Picture of  Polyphemus: found on Wikipedia

Trapped-That cyclops is a pretty violent guy who doe snot respect the gods. 

Blinding the Cyclops-while he is weaker than the cyclops he is much smarter. the cyclops story was more violent that i thought but i like how the men were able to escape because of their smarts.

Polyphemus’ Curse- I wounder why the cyclops decided to pray to Poseidon if at first he was saying that he did not respect the gods. Maybe it shows just how mad he was to Odysseus. I also wounder why Zeus did not accept the sacrifice.

The Magic Spell- It is kind of strange that the beasts did not attack the men as the came close to Circe. 

Help from Hermes- I like how determined Odysseus is a good example of this is when he says "but I, bound by necessity, will go" . Odysseus has such faith that he trust the god Hermes and goes to face Circe. I think this is a very important quality that helps make him the legend that he is.

The Death of Elpenor- its interesting that the morning has been described as rosy until this point and now he has to go to the god of then dead and its described as golden-throned. I wounder if this is going to have some impact on the story.

over I really like these stories they are very detailed but still have room for me to write so I might pick one of these and retell it or I might even tell the cyclops story from a different point of view but im not sure yet cause I still have the other half of the reading to do.

Week 2 Review

Out of everything that was posted this week I am going to have to say that my favorite one was the "thesaurus-saurus" from Saturday. I must admit nothing makes me laugh as hard as a good pun.

   

Photo From Laura can be found here 

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

So I decided to change up my design a bit to make it fell a little more like my own.

I went with the space-y background because I like space and I like for my computer back grounds to be space themed so i figured i might as well do the same  for my blog.

Then I changed the words to be blue because blue is my favorite color.

I hope you all like it but if its to hard to read then let me know and ill see what I can do.  

Myth-Folklore Storybook Topics

Topic: The creation of all different times Gods and Goddesses .

Comments: I really like the the stories of gods and Goddesses of all different pantheons and how they came to be.

Possible Stories: there are so many stories about different gods and their origin. There are even a lot about them on a game that i like to play called SMITE. I also know that there are some stories in the Un-text book.

Sample Story Comments:  I did some reading to find the origin story of Ra and learned that he was know was the creator of all and that he also spent time among the people in a different forum. i think it could be cool to compare all the origin stories of different pantheons.  

Ra the creator From: Wikimedia 

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story: Egypt: Creation

 Web source: Un-textbook 

Topic: The Little Lion and the Mighty Mouse

Comments: the stories about the lion and the mouse are fun to me i like they way that the smallest animal helps the king of the jungle.

Possible Stories: there are many stories in the Un- text book about animals and there are even some that are specifically about the lion and the mouse.

Sample Story Comments: I like how the little mouse was the one who saved the lion from the hunters. this could be a fun story to retell.

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story:The Lion and the Mouse

Web source: Un-textbook 

Topic : Vampires

Comments: vampires are very interesting to me. I took a vampire cinema class and really liked the vampire so i would like to learn more about them through text. 

Possible Stories: there are many stories about vampires like Dracula for example. Or I could even write about some thing that are vampires that are " living" like a corporation.

Sample Story: while reading on the Wikipedia page for vampires I learned that the idea of a vampire comes from something real and it was not just made up.

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story Vampires 

Website Name: Wikipedia

Topic: Dragons

Comments: dragons are pretty cool they can fly and breath fire. they are also the bad guy for a lot of heroes. I never really thought about where they come from so this could be a good way to learn about that.

Possible stories: Dragons play a roll in a lot of different midevil and Chinese stories.

Sample Story: while reading about dragons on Wikipedia i came across the story about Beowulf and learned how he was finally killed by a mighty dragon. 

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story Vampires 

Website Name: Wikipedia

Out of all of these the Topics that I picked I think the one I like the most is: The creation of all different times Gods and Goddesses

Extra Reading Diary: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

For my short reading I decided to read the other Aesop's Fables. I had already read the ones by winter so I wanted to see what Jacobs was like. Over all I liked these. I like how short they are so it makes it easy for me to read them but at the same time they all have a good lesson. As I was reading I began to wonder why all these stories have animals that are the main characters. It’s kind of odd they really do not have people in them. But then I got to thinking that the reason for this would be so that we can understand their personalities. For example in The Lion and the Mouse if we had some guy named Dave take the place of the lion and some girl named sue take the place of the mouse then we would know nothing about them and there would be no impact. So then the story would look like this Dave catches sue and then lets her go. Then later sue helps to untie Dave.... cool who cares? But when we have a lion who gets saved by a mouse its like wow the kings of the jungle was just saved by a mouse and you can see the impact that that has on the story. This made me think about how important good charters are to a story and how sometimes a different person (or animal) can change the entire story. Sorry if that’s not well explained those were just my thoughts as I was reading    

Picture of the Lion and Mouse story: can be found in the Un-Textbook 

All the stories for this unit can be found HERE

Storytelling Week 2: To Be a Lumberjack

There once was this man. He was just your normal man. Well, not really, he was less than a normal man. He was short. He had almost no hair left on his head, despite the fact that he was only 27. And had no muscles. Now this would have been okay if he wanted to be a... I don't know... let's say an online stock trader where no one had to see him. But this was not the case for two main reasons. First of all this story is set in the 1200's so I don't think stocks were even invented yet. The second reason is because he wanted to be a lumberjack. 

To be a lumberjack was every boy's dream. You got to swing a big axe. You had big muscles and of course all the girls loved you. I mean what more could you want? But like I said earlier this man, let's call him Rick, was not fit to be a lumberjack. He had no axe, no muscles, and well... no girls. He did however have a small hatchet. 

Every day he would take his small hatchet down to the riverside where all the other real lumberjacks would be cutting down trees. They would all make fun of Rick because of how puny he was. They would all sing the chant "Ricky can't even chop a sticky." Over and over they would chant this. Rick normally just ignored them as he would swing he hatchet pretending to be a real lumberjack . Until one day. This day was a particularly hot day. One of the lumberjacks came over to Rick and told him that if he could cut down the old tree by the lake then the other lumberjacks would stop making fun of him. Rick was thrilled at this proposal even though he knew that it would be impossible. He went over to the old tree and started chopping away at it. 

At this point Rick had been chopping all day and had not even made a dent. With each swing his scrawny arms grew weaker and he could hardly hold onto his hatchet. Then it happened. His hatchet slipped out of his sweaty hands and flew into the lake. His one chance at becoming a real lumberjack was lost forever. 

Rick sat by the edge of the lake sobbing. The other lumberjacks gathered around Rick and told him that because he had failed he was never allowed to come back. Just as Rick was standing up to leave Mercury popped his head out of the water. All the men froze, as they had never see a god before. "You," he said looking at Rick, "does this belong to you?" Mercury asked as he pulled out the most glorious axe any of the men had ever seen. "If it does then I shall return it to you." "No," Rick replied sadly. " Mine was the hatchet that could not even make a dent in the old tree." Mercury was impressed with Rick's honesty and decided to reward him for it.

 Mercury gave Rick the glorious axe. As Rick grabbed hold of the axe he began to change. His hair started to grow. His arms became full of muscles. His body stretched and he was now seven feet tall. Rick had become a lumberjack but not just a lumberjack - he was the largest of them all, and of course he now had a super sweet beard.

Because he was now the strongest, had the biggest axe and the best beard, Rick was told by the head lumberjack the he could take his place as leader of the lumberjacks if he wanted. This was a dream come true for Rick and he accepted the position but he made all the lumberjacks promise to never make fun of smaller people again. He told them that instead they needed to help weaker people just like the god Mercury had helped him. And the lumberjacks have been nice to people ever since that day.  

Mercury and the Woodman:can be found in the Un-Textbook

Author's Note: This story is originally about a woodman who lost his axe in the lake after a long day of work. In the story Mercury comes to the man and asks him if three different axes are his. The woodman tells him the truth and Mercury rewards him for it . I left out the part where other woodmen tried to lose their axes in hope that they too would receive a golden axe but they did not because they lied. I thought it would be fun to change up the story a little bit add some other woodmen (or lumberjacks in this case) to the story. I also thought it would be funny if he got to be king of the lumberjacks and got a nice beard. I tried to give a very detailed description of Rick in this story so that the readers could understand how different he was from the other lumberjack. I also tried to show the idea that just because you are good at something or someone is different does not mean that you can make fun of them. I thought it was important to show that even though Rick was now a lumberjack he still cared about other people. I picked the picture because it shows both the god Mercury and the lumberjack from the original story

I hope you enjoyed the story. 

The original story can be found here in the Un-Textbook 

Author: Unknown Editor: Unknown Illustrator:Milo Winter  Year Published: 1919 Web Source:Un-Textbook    

Reading Diary B: Aesop for Children (Winter)

Ok so I am going to try to make this one a little shorter than my last one.

All of these stories have some kind of lesson in them and that's why I like them. Some lessons are better than others but for the most part they are all pretty good. 

I would say that my favorite story from this collection was The Cat the Cock, and the Young Mouse. I really like the way that this story played out. they young mouse had no idea what he was seeing and I love they way that he makes the cock into a monster while making the cat into a friend when in reality it should be the opposite. 

My other favorite story was Mercury and the Woodman. I liked this one because it was different than the rest of the stories. In most of the stories something bad happens to one for the main charters because they do something wrong but in this story he tells the truth and gets rewarded for it. Then the people who lie get punished for it. I think this story would have been important for kids to hear because it shows the importance of telling the truth. ( I also like the fact that he hit them over the head when they lied I thought that was funny)

Mercury and the Woodman:can be found in the Un-Textbook

there was one story that I did not really care for and that was The Ass and the Grasshoppers. while the story was fun and all I did not really see a point in the lesson "The laws of nature are unchangeable." I guess they are trying to say don't be something your not but regardless I would have liked it more if it had a better lesson.