Tech Tip (15) -- Google Self

So I googled myself, and since my name isn't very common, google immediately came up with my correct google address. After scrolling down past all of the Facebook pages that are close but not quite my name, I see it correctly on a chess database, on google sites, and on google plus. Though the last two are expected, it is strange to see my name on a chess database. I haven't competitively played chess in awhile, so though I know it's there, it's still a bit strange. I was never that good, so my rank is pretty low. Ah well.

Week 15: Famous Last Words: Thanksgiving and Dead Week

Well, Thanksgiving was a blast! And a long needed break from life, if you know what I mean. I was glad to see my family once again, and eat delicious food.

We actually ate a traditional American and a traditional Indian dinner, in that there was a giant turkey sitting in the middle of our table that we hungrily tore at (kidding, we just pass it around) at when the food is set and everything, but there were still traditional Indian components such as rice (like lemon rice) or pachadi (that weird, liquidy spice made from pickled vegetables; I swear it's a thing).

I didn't do anything for Black Friday -- we never do, since stories of trampling crowds are never appealing. The crowds are always hectic, but apparently this time they weren't bad, because the deals for Black Friday at some places, such as Best Buy, extended from Thanksgiving to about 2:30 am on Black Friday. So it wasn't that special in some sense, and the crowd didn't get as riled up.

Anyways, I'm excited for Winter Break! But not finals. Below is an inspirational message for me and for anyone wanting advice on how to make it through finals...

Oh, Dead Week

(A Tribute to You)

(Source)

Week 15: About the Writing

I liked that the writing had a lot of flexibility. There were a lot of options for both the story retelling and the essay, which I really appreciated. If there hadn't been, I might have been bored or annoyed with writing in the same style over and over again.

I chose the Storybook rather than the Portfolio. I do wish I had chosen the Portfolio, simply because I overestimated how much time I had in my schedule. I think the three things that should be emphasized on whether someone should pick a Storybook or a Portfolio are time, creativity, and writing style. If you have lots of time in your schedule, either one is fine. If you don't, go with the Portfolio. If you're the type of person whose creative juices flow at a pretty steady pace, either one is fine. However, if you're the type of person who works on bouts of inspiration when writing creative stories, you should probably go with the Portfolio. If you like writing long stories, go with the Storybook. If you like short stories with conclusions, go with the Portfolio. And take all three factors into account and measure the weight each holds in your life accordingly.

I think that the blog commenting is good as it is. As for the Storybook/Portfolio commenting, I think that that's it's fine as it is. One thing I would add is requiring the commenters to address one particular weakness they saw within the Storybook/Portfolio. I know it's not particularly nice or heartening, but I think that it would be extremely helpful, since then the writer of the Storybook/Portfolio knows exactly what they should work on.

On that note, I found the comments with constructive criticism to be the most helpful. Yes, I would have liked to have seen that my storybook was perfect, but these comments allowed me to change things and work on weaknesses. And what was nice was that I could see how my Storybook looked through a fresh and unbiased pair of eyes.

Yes, I do think this class helped my writing, and I'm not just saying that for brownie points. At the beginning of the semester, it took me the entire day to write a retelling. By the end of the semester, I could write a retelling in about twenty minutes.

Well, my dream is to write a fantasy novel, so I hope that I'll accomplish that in the future. Besides that, I'm not really sure. Medical school isn't really about fictional writing (that is, if I get in), so I'll probably write the occasional essay or two. So to my main job: a little. To my dream: a whole lot.

Like I said in my "About the Reading" post: start early. Work ahead. You'll be grateful you did.

Week 15: About the Reading

General Questions:
As the start of the wrap-up week, feedback for the class is useful to the teacher. So here's mine.

As a matter of fact, I thought that the way the reading was set up was well done. I liked that there were a bunch of options to choose from each week, and that the reading units for the two weeks within the same block didn't have to be related to each other at all. You could pick Japanese Mythology one week and Tales from the Congo the next. Overall, my suggestion for the readings would be: keep the system the same. Or similar to how it was this year. I guess you could tweak it, but I don't really have any suggestions as to how.

For the reading diary, I basically used the same strategy I had for most weeks. I would summarize the set of stories that went together, often inserting my own commentary on the characters or the plot, particularly if something surprised or impressed me. I had another strategy, however, that I used for one week. I did that reading diary by characters rather than stories and commented on the motivations and logic of the characters.

As for the class overall, I thought there was a good balance between the reading/writing/commenting. Although there wasn't technically as much time spent on reading than there was on writing and commenting (2 days vs every day), there was a lot of reading to do, and it gave a very balanced workload in all three aspects.

As for an extra credit reading diary assignment? Well...you can create it if you want to. To be honest, the class is fair enough as it is, with the multiple chances of getting extra credit in other areas. From a student's standpoint -- particularly if you want to make them super happy -- go for it. Extra credit is always a great option, so for future students I wouldn't say no to that.

My biggest advice to students would be: work ahead. A lot ahead. And even if you are super ahead (i.e., like a couple of weeks ahead) don't let the weeks catch up to you. Instead, keep creating blog posts so that you stay ahead. My second piece of advice would be to do the extra credit. Even on the first week and even if you don't think you need it. Because if there is a time when you do need it, you're going to be sorry for the missed opportunity.


Specific Questions:
I think the notes in the reading units are helpful as they are. To be honest, sometimes I look at them and sometimes I don't, depending on the particular story I'm reading. In other words, I don't really think you need to add anything more to the notes.

I actually think that introductions to the readings would be an extremely useful addition to the reading units. That way the student could get a taste of what the reading unit is like and whether they want to read it without having to read a full story.

No, the images aren't extremely important to the reading units. What images you have provided within the reading unit are nice, but you don't really need anymore. If anything, I would put this aspect of the reading unit as your last priority in terms of improving things.

Well...I would say to extend the Middle East unit to two weeks. I say this because the Middle East is extremely culturally diverse; ancient Egypt, Arabia, and Georgia may have been located around same area, but they have very different identities as nations. I feel that only giving this region one unit is a loss. Also, I think you should add the Epic of Gilgamesh as a reading unit, since it's interesting.

Anthology units would be interesting! Here are a couple of themes I would suggest: epics, folktales, origin stories, and animal tales. That's really all I can think of, aside from the ones you suggested when you asked the question.

Week 14: Famous Last Words -- Pre-Thanksgiving

So I know it's almost Thanksgiving Break -- thank God, right? It's such a relief to finally get away from school and sit with your family and flat out relax with them. Well, at least that's what I'm going to be doing. It's what I've done for my entire life.

And let's not forget the food. The delicious turkey and gravy and mashed potatoes and so on... ahhh, I simply love food. Plus, since my Indian family we're talking about, we generally make the food super spicy. Which is awesome.

You might be wondering whether we eat a traditional American dinner or a traditional Indian dinner during Thanksgiving, and the answer is quite simply: yes. We actually do both, in that there is a giant turkey sitting in the middle of our table that we hungrily tear (kidding, we just pass it around) at when the food is set and everything, but there are still traditional Indian components such as rice (like lemon rice) or pachadi (that weird, liquidy spice made from pickled vegetables; I swear it's a thing).

Aside from the delicious food, our family usually comes over. Most of my extended family doesn't live in Wichita; they're actually pretty scattered from the east to west coast. But it's true that my maternal grandparents as well as my uncle and aunt (great-uncle and aunt, technically) both live about five to ten minutes away from us. So naturally we spend Thanksgiving together.

But this year my aunt and uncle's two kids aren't going be spending Thanksgiving with us -- one is in dental school while the other one is married and I believe spending Thanksgiving with her spouse's parents -- so it's probably going to be a pretty quiet (or maybe better said, a quieter) Thanksgiving. All the adults do is watch Hindi/Telugu movies; contrary to popular belief, there are actually some good Bollywood/Tollywood movies, but I'll admit that many have cheesy plots and ridiculously fake fight scenes.

Anyways, I'm excited for Thanksgiving! It's going to be a blast!

Turkey

(aka one of the many poor suckers about to be eaten a couple days from now)

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Week 13: Storytelling -- The Land of No Death

The Land of No Death

I was just a humble barber who lived in a land where people never died. Instead, they left when they heard a voice -- though I'd never experienced it myself, I saw people get up and tell an unseen character that they would go with them. I'd never questioned it, nor thought to try and discover where they went.

That changed when, one day, I was shaving a man who suddenly started shouting at an invisible person. "Go away," he shouted. "Don't bother me, or you'll get it."

So I continued to shave him for a couple more minutes without any incident or noise, when he suddenly started to yell again. "I'll teach you a lesson!" he yelled, and, grabbing the razor in my hand, he proceeded to run after the invisible person.

Naturally, I was upset that he had stolen my razor (he hadn't even paid for my services yet) and chased after him. For an old guy, he was pretty fast, and I barely kept up with him, my attention mostly focused on getting my razor back and not where we were headed.

Only when we reached the place did I take a good look at our surroundings. We were at a dark and grayish kind of land, where little grew and the things that did were crooked and withering. A large pit stood in front of us, and before I could stop him, the man dove headfirst into the pit.

No! I thought to myself. That was my best razor! But one thing I was glad of was that I hadn't jumped as well, that I had escaped with my life intact. So, humming as I headed home, I quickly told everyone where I went and what I saw. Since people were extremely curious to visit the strange pit that the voice had led numerous people to, I proceeded to show it to them.

But when we got to the place where the voice had led my former client, there was nothing. There was no trace of the large pit; instead, I saw a flat plain of land, the place even more dry and desolate than it had been with the pit.

When we got back, days and months and years passed. Something had changed; perhaps because we had discovered the secret of the pit, it no longer existed. People started to die like they did in other countries.

Death

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Author's Note:
This story is based off of "The Voice of Death" story in the unit Lang's European Fairy Tales I. The main character in the original story is the client of the barber, who sought out a place where no one died and tried to resist the voice of death. He couldn't, and like in this retelling, grabs the barber's razor and chases after the voice. So in this retelling I made the barber the main character and decided tell the story from a first person point of view. I kept with the original tale's plot line and ending, though I reworded some of the dialogue.

Bibliography:
The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (1890). Story Source: Project Gutenberg

Week 13: Essay -- Experiences With the Written Word

I can’t say that my high school was the best in the country, because it wasn’t. The ugly pink building may have housed private school kids with good teachers, but it was out in the Midwest, Kansas to be specific. And while location doesn’t matter, being out in a relatively small city tends not to have the quality of a high-end school in a big city.

However, it’s not to say that my high school was bad either. It was actually better than most (around the area, at least), and one of the truly great things about it was its writing program. There are some high schools that only start forcing kids to write essays during junior or even senior year. Mine started the summer before freshman year (and even before that, since the entire school was made up of a lower and middle school as well). And we continually wrote essays – not just at the beginning and end of the year, but within it as well. It was normal. And by the end of freshman year, three page papers were no big deal. 

And we didn’t just write these papers for English class. Throughout my high school career, I had papers for Spanish, History, and Chemistry as well. For Spanish (I took it all four years, with the last being a seminar), the essays were light in terms of length, naturally. Still, it was hard to write in a foreign language. For history…well, those essays were longer. Sophomore year I had the occasional two to three page paper due, as well as the eight page paper at the end of the semester, but nothing too bad. APUSH my junior year is where the essay workload got really heavy. First of all, I hated that class – even though I loved World History sophomore year, I just didn’t find American interesting. So I had to write six to seven page papers every couple of weeks on a topic I hated. That was fun. As of for Chemistry, for the two years I took it (Chemistry II and AP Chemistry), we had to write lab papers. And not just the papers where you fill out the blanks for the answers for the lab – formal papers with an intro, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. It wasn’t that bad though – our chemistry teacher taught us how to write a lab paper well.

Of course, the biggest source of writing papers was English. We always had random writing assignments and periodic essays due my freshman through senior year. Though freshman year was a blast (our English teacher was hilarious), my favorite year had to be my junior year. Incidentally, it was the most writing-heavy class, but I loved the class because my teacher was so good. She had assigned a twenty-page paper at the beginning of the year, which was due at the end of the year. But it wasn’t bad, since she broke it up into two to three page essays throughout the year, which we synthesized into a complete essay at the end. My favorite assignment, however, happens to be the creative writing paper we did for the Beowulf unit. I wrote mine over two characters, battling each other at the ends of an apocalypse. I had a ton of fun writing the fight scene with the weapons I created. 

Beowulf and his Dragon

(Source)

Week 14: Reading Diary -- Lang's European Fairytales I

Lang's European Fairytales I


The Master Cat, Or Puss in Boots [p1, p2]
I...am utterly impressed with the main character, the cat who was left to the youngest son when a father split his meager inheritance between his sons. He left the oldest son his mill and the middle son his donkey. The only thing that was left for the younger son was the cat, who he was going to eat. Fortunately, the cat stopped him and essentially told the youngest son that he would give the youngest son good fortune if the son would provide the cat a sack and a pair of boots. Since the son knew that the cat was clever, he didn't feel that all was lost when he trusted the cat to make good on the word. So the first thing that the cat does is captures a couple of rabbits, and presents them to the king as a gift from the Marquis of Carabas, the title he created for the son. So he keeps giving the king good game for about two to three months and consequently wins some favor for himself and his master with the king. Then the sly cat sends the "Marquis" to swim in the river without him knowing why, just telling him that he will receive great fortune by swimming there. He then pretends that the Marquis was robbed and was drowning when the king rides past the river bank. Because the king already likes the Marquis thanks to Puss in Boots, he gives him a fine set of clothes. And since the son is already handsome, the princess starts to fall in love with him. And since both the king and the princess are so taken (in different ways) with the fake Marquis, they want to see his estate. So Puss in Boots, as they travel along a road, intimidates several groups of workers on a couple of farms to say that they are working for the Marquis of Carabas. So the king thinks the son is wealthy and wants to see the estate. So, Puss in Boots, knowing that there is a magical ogre with a huge castle, goes to trick him out of the castle. The ogre has the power to turn into any beast, and demonstrates this by turning into a lion. Puss in Boots goads him into turning into a mouse, since he says he doesn't believe that he can turn into a small animal. The ogre falls for Puss' taunt, turns into a mouse, and then is eaten by Puss in Boots. In this way, the cat gets his master an estate to complete the sham, and the son ends up marrying the princess.

Week 13: Reading Diary -- Grimm (Crane)

Brothers Grimm (Crane)


The Fisherman and His Wife [p1, p2, p3, p4]
So this story within the unit was interesting and hilarious. I'm pretty sure I've read or heard a story about an enchanted fish who's caught by a farmer, but I don't think I've read this one. In this one, rather than a fisherman catching a fish and extorting a wish from it, he just lets the fish go, since the fish says he's a human that's enchanted. The wife thinks he's an idiot for letting the fish go before extorting a wish from the fish and commands the poor fisherman to find the fish and make it grant the wife's wish. The fisherman doesn't really want to ask the fish -- he doesn't care about the riches/desires that could be fulfilled by the magic of the fish -- but asks anyways, since he's completely scared of his wife. So the fish answers the wife's request, which was to get a cottage in place of a hovel. That's a pretty reasonable request, and you think that's fine. The problem is, she gets tired of the arrangement. Now she wants a castle rather than a cottage, and sends the husband to wish for it. He goes back to the ocean to ask the fish, and the fish grants it. But eventually she wants something more again. And he goes back, asking the fish this time for his wife to become king. As expected, the pattern repeats: the wife becomes dissatisfied, she asks for something more ridiculous, the fisherman goes and asks the fish, the fish fulfills the wish (though after the second time, I frankly don't know why). After king it's emperor, after emperor it's pope, after pope it's controller of the moon and sun. At the point when the wife asks for control of the moon and stars, the fish gets tired of it and reverts all their stuff back to a hovel. Though the wife deserves it, the fisherman doesn't. I'm glad to see that it doesn't affect him, even though he deserved to live in the cottage rather than the hovel at the very least.


Aschenputtel [p1, p2, p3]
So this is the original Brothers Grimm fairytale from which the Disney classic 'Cinderella' emerged. I've gotta say, this one was a lot more entertaining as a whole, if a lot more morbid. To be honest, after re-watching Disney's Cinderella, I found the characters to be bland, boring, and uninteresting. The characters in the original story don't really have much of a 'personality' per say, but at least their actions were way more interesting. As for the plot, although Disney kept the beginning and the ending the same, their creative license took hold within the rest. So basically the entire movie was different than the story. Aschenputtel still has to work, she still has an evil stepmother and stepsisters, and she still has to work. But there are no talking mice in Aschenputtel, her stepsisters are beautiful, and the father hasn't died and knows how his new wife treats Aschenputtel. The ball also lasts for three days, and Aschenputtel gets her dress from a hazel tree that is enchanted and grants her wishes because she good and pious rather than from a fairy godmother. And Aschenputtel goes to the ball without the carriage or the horses or the coachmen that Cinderella needs in the Disney movie. There is also no time limit on the clothes she wears -- Aschenputtel just has normal if gorgeous dresses throughout the ball. It is true that the prince is stunned into what I call 'true lust at first sight' and only wants to dance with her all three days. In each of those three days, he tries to figure out who she is, but literally runs away before he can escort her to her house and find her identity. Although I have no idea why she doesn't want to be outed by the prince, she doesn't, and instead returns to being Aschenputtel before he can figure it out. The first time, she runs into a pigeon-house on her father's estate (one of those large ones), and sneaks away to the kitchen without him seeing. The prince, believing the girl he danced with is still in the pigeon-house, asks who she is to Aschenputtel's father, who had somewhen appeared. So they cut down the pigeon-house (a pretty drastic move in my opinion) to find her. And no one's there. Much the same thing happens the second day, except Aschenputtel literally runs up a tree. The father, for the prince's sake has it cut down; no one is there again. On the third day, Aschenputtel away after the ball before he can offer to take her home. But the boy learns; he anticipates her running away and coats the stairs leading up to the ballroom with tar to trap her or her shoes. He gets one shoe, and like in the Disney movie, asks around for its owner. Now here's where things start to get weird and morbid. The first stepsister, at her mother's prompting, cuts off her toe in order to fit the shoe. The trick almost works, except that the doves on Aschenputtel's enchanted hazel tree tell the prince that that's the wrong girl and to look at the blood pooling in her shoe. As though this is all normal, he takes her back home. The second stepsister cuts off her heel to fit the shoe, and the same thing happens as the first sister. As a last resort Aschenputtel is called upon, and her foot fits the blood-stained shoe perfectly. And they live happily ever after. Oh yeah, and then at the wedding, the stepsisters have their eyes poked out by birds.


King Thrushbeard [p1, p2]
Let me just point something out before I start my review of this story: I was so right about the husband! I doubted myself throughout the story, but the ending proved my initial assumption correct. Anyways, this was an interesting story. I've never heard of King Thrushbeard before reading this unit, and I'm glad I got to read it. It's about this princess, who is haughty and entitled and refuses to marry anyone because she finds fault with everyone's appearance. So her dad finally gets fed up with her behavior and promises to himself that he'll marry her off to the first beggar he sees. So a minstrel comes one day, and, true to his oath, the king marries this girl off. So the minstrel takes the girl to the kingdom of a king nicknamed (because of her) King Thrushbeard, who had initially been a potential suitor for the girl before she married the beggar. Needless to say, things don't go well, at least initially. She doesn't have any skills in housekeeping, so the husband sends her to sell pots. That actually goes well, since people buy the pots because she's so beautiful, but a drunk guy on a horse runs into the pot stand and consequently breaks all the pots. The wife goes crying to the husband, and the husband calls her useless and decides that she should work in King Thrushbeard's palace as a kitchen-maid. So she does, when she looks at the wealth and splendor of the kitchen and her life now she realizes what a fool she's been. And one day, she sees the man she insulted, King Thrushbeard, who asks her to dance, even though she's in tattered clothing, because she's so beautiful. Though she initially refuses she ends up going to the center stage and is humiliated when all the scraps of food for dinner she gets from the kitchen falls out of her knapsack. So she leaves the ballroom, embarrassed, when King Thrushbeard stops her and reveals that he is the poor minstrel who she married, as well as the 'drunk' guy who ran into her pot stand . He just wanted to break her haughty and prideful behavior, so he put her in a humbling situation. To her credit she shows she really has changed, since she tells him she is unworthy of his love. But he says she wasn't before, but now is, and they live as king and queen together in his palace.

Week 12: Essay -- The "Perks" of Being an English Major

(Cartoon by Jacob Andrews)

If you take the cartoon literally, you might think it's a moronic thing to say. After all, people with an English major are stereotyped to have one of the least advantageous, useless degrees, and who end up having to settle for a sub-par job because no one would hire them. But obviously, this cartoonist is trying to point out exactly that -- with the ridiculous amount of job offers (all of them), the call from the president, and loads of cash Jacob ends up getting.

The message of the cartoon shows a bigger problem, to be honest: the point of college. The current equivalent of a college degree is that of a high school degree about a hundred years ago. In other words, a college degree by itself is essentially worthless. It's something that everyone is expected to have, not something extraordinary that will allow the owner of the degree to obtain a valuable job. That hook that many employers will find extraordinary is a PhD.

Now, to get a PhD it obviously takes time and effort. If you think about it, it takes at least four more years of your life to have the necessary resume in order to apply and be a fighting candidate for a higher-end academic job than in the past.

But even forget about this aspect. Though it is important, the bigger issue is the one most people think about when applying to both college and grad school: money. To be even semi-viable for a decent job one must get a college degree. But unlike a high school diploma, (again) the equivalent of a college degree in the past, a college degree is much, much more expensive. And to top it off, colleges haven't gotten any less expensive -- there is no such thing as a free public college. Which means that more people are going to college, only to get a degree that won't give them much and end up with a pile of student loans. And those that want a fighting chance at a top-tier academic job must go to grad school, which means even more debt.

What's worse is that some of these people, with their fancy grad degrees, still have trouble finding jobs. A substitute teacher of mine in high school, who had double majored in Russian and Chemistry and earned her PhD in Chemistry, had trouble finding a job as a college chemistry professor, and instead was hired as a Russian professor at a college. My aunt, who graduated with a PhD in biochemistry from Yale grad school, had trouble finding a job as well (though she did end up finding one within the research field).

Maybe my point is that the education system -- including and especially higher education -- needs to be changed. There needs to be a way to lower the college price tag while still keeping schools open, as well as a viable method to shorten the amount of time spent in grad school (if possible). If it were achievable to start a number of free colleges, that would definitely help with the first problem, even if it would not directly lower the price tag of all the colleges in the nation. For the second, more schools with a joint PhD-college could be opened. I have no idea if they even have one for PhDs, but I do know that there are joint medical school-college programs, like the six year program of UMKC. And although people currently don't have a clear solution for remedying these problems, one can look forward to the future.

Week 12: Storytelling -- As They Dared to Challenge Me

I hear them before I see them. Muffled footsteps beat in the heavy snow, belonging to a band of men traveling through the forest to confront me. As they near the clearing of the burial mound in which I had long since made my home, their footsteps slow and come to a final halt. Fear clings to the air -- I can taste it -- and a moment or two of silence passes among the men. For a moment I believe they have decided to abandon this foolish quest to take my life and raid my lair. And it seems as though my prediction is correct when I hear many pairs of footsteps run deep into the forest, cowering behind the trees. But it is only a partial truth, I learn to my surprise and anger, as a single pair of footsteps walks across the clearing and stop at the entrance to my lair.

A strong voice rings out in the air, whose owner dares to act as though I were his to command. The human even calls me ‘foul fiend’ so lightly.

I will not stand for this.

I open my eyes in anger and observe the arrogant human who insults me. The sight sparks a rage that steadily builds itself inside of me. How dare they send one meager human to try and defeat me? And an old man at that, judging by the grey in his beard and the slight stoop in his stance. Although this awakens my anger, it only spills out when I hear the sound of a laugh from another human in the clearing, who foolishly hasn't saved his skin like the rest of his dragon-hunting party.

I let out a furious scream that would terrify even my long-gone brethren, and exit the cave.

It has been awhile since I have stretched my wings and claws, and even the boastful rat that dares trespass my lair can see the power that I exude. Aside from my enormous size are a number of deadly weapons at my behest, from my large and virtually unbreakable scales to my tail spike containing poison. I am the king of beasts, and this mere human thinks he can break me?

He has made a grave, grave mistake.

Fire roars within me, surging from my insides and laying waste to all in my path. All except the human in front of me, who has put up his shield to stop the fire from incinerating him. I pause -- we both do -- trying to gage the enemy's strengths. I can see that this human is no weakling, which makes his impending demise all the more satisfying.

As if giving a clear indication of the victory that awaits me, he tries to attack my scales, but barely makes a scratch on them. He then switches to another tactic, and I deem him cleverer than I had originally credited him. Rather than trying to attack me with the force of his puny body, he swiftly weaves from side to side, exhausting me. But in my exhaustion I am angered, which gives rise to more energy. I again roar fiercely, concentrating my attacks on him harder than I had before. He in turn jabs everywhere along my body he can, likely determined to find my weak spot, the one that every dragon has.

As time passes with this interplay of fire and metal, he begins to grow exhausted, trembling with fatigue in the dark night.

I win, human, I think to myself.

But as the man is about to give up, I hear a shout from the distance. I deduce that it was this person who had laughed, and as I angrily plan to incinerate them both, his arrival somehow gives my first attacker strength and they fight with renewed vigor before I can send them to their deaths.

They are somehow able to push me back, forcing me to give them ground. But all isn’t lost for me, as I still have resources aside from my fire. I suddenly swing my tail and catch my attackers by surprise. And though I am unable to injure the second attacker, I have fatally wounded the first. This seems to anger the second human, who gives a loud cry and, to my disbelief, pierces my weak spot.

With that, no more am I living -- the darkness grows and my body collapses upon the ground.

Dragon

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Author's Note:

I based this off of Battle with the Dragon and The End of Beowulf in the Beowulf Unit. The hero Beowulf is now old, though he is still strong, and knows that this will be his last battle. Although the original story is written in third person past, I decided that it would be more interesting to see the battle from the dragon's eyes in first person. Even though the dragon is bloodthirsty and a scrooge, he still seemed to have some idea of what was going on aside from instinct when facing Beowulf. Aside from the perspective and tense change, this retelling sticks to the plot of the original.


Bibliography
The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs (1933). Story Source: Sacred Texts

Week 12: Reading Diary -- Beowulf

Beowulf

The Young Beowulf
It's interesting to see the young Beowulf, since, unlike many great heroes, he comes off as the black sheep; maybe his "black wool" is valued by others, but it still makes him an outcast. Most heroes are found and lauded for their prowess concerning war, and everyone accepts them. But his situation, where everyone both is awed and envies his talents, he becomes isolated, and it shows in his demeanor. Literally his nickname is "the Silent One", even though his vocal chords work perfectly fine. And because of this treatment, it also gives him thick skin, making him care very little about what people say about him, which I think is great. However, he doesn't seem like the intellectual type, preferring to think about the wars he wants to fight rather than paying attention to gossip to figure out the social nuances of the court and exploit them. Maybe that's a Machiavellian thing to do, but I think if I were in that situation, I would whatever resources I had to protect myself from the wrath of people.


Beowulf Lands In Daneland; Beowulf Comes to Heorot
I think in this chapter, Beowulf shows his excitement for his long-awaited chance at glory and fame and fighting with his eagerness to help Daneland, which is wracked by the evil monster Grendel. An old man, before admitting Beowulf into the land, asks him if he really will try and warns him that everyone that has tried to kill Grendel has been torn apart. Of course, this makes Beowulf become more excited, since it's something he can go all out against. Thus, with this resolve, Beowulf and his men journey past the shore of Daneland, going deeper into the land. After awhile, they arrive at what once was the great hall of the kingdom, Heorot, which reeks of rottenness and death. It's bad. But the king, Hrothgar, welcomes them and again (like the herald) warns them of what Grendel will do. He also asks Beowulf who he is, and upon hearing he is Beowulf, he entreats them to a feast. I'm sure he would have given them a feast whether or not he was Beowulf.


The Battle With Grendel
I think it's kind of funny that Grendel and Beowulf are fighting this silent battle, and I wonder how it would translate into a movie. 'Cause if you wanted to make it cannon, you wouldn't put any noise (except maybe the emotion-stirring background music). No growls, no roars of rage -- just two fighters, decking it out in the middle of a hall littered with bodies, being extremely silent. Well, except at the end -- Grendel, as a coward, shrieks and runs away. But he doesn't run away in one piece -- before he can, Beowulf has already taken off his arm, and the rest of the men in the hall are breaking out of the sleeping spell. It's a good thing too that he's able to take off Grendel's arm, since it becomes a piece of hope to the people in Daneland, and gives more strength as a tangible reminder that Grendel isn't invincible than merely chasing Grendel away would. Here's a random observation of mine, superficial but something interesting, I believe -- the description of Beowulf. It doesn't fit with the Gerard Butler, dark haired and buff image that I had in mind for Beowulf. Instead, he's more like a Disney Prince (like Prince Adam -- Beauty and the Beast), with blond hair and blue eyes. But like certain other aspects of this epic, it breaks the stereotype/archetype, which is awesome.


The End of Beowulf
This chapter's sad, since I'd kind of gotten attached to Beowulf (just a teensy bit). You know Beowulf's death is coming, Beowulf know Beowulf's death is coming, and it's the ending of a great legend. I guess the consolation is that Beowulf is old and has lived a full life, with adventure that he sought for in his youth and the resulting peace thanks to him defeating his enemies. And now, after years of peace, something stirs up trouble, and instead of dying in his bed, he does die a hero's death, which is the way I think he would have wanted to go. It's also nice to know that someone (Wiglaf) with courage, determination, and loyalty will succeed him, rather than only cowards being the choices around. It's also nice to know that Beowulf is revered by his people and will be remembered by those after him. He also gets a gigantic bonfire as a funeral, which is awesome.

Week 11: Famous Last Words -- Arthur and Guyon Storytelling

I'm fairly proud of the work I did this week for my storytelling post. My main reason is that unlike most of my retellings, where I mostly kept to the story while deviating in a particular aspect, I completely created this story myself. Not the beginning of the story -- that was definitely from the original Faerie Queene, what with Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon chasing after a man who was chasing Florimell in turn. However, the rest of it was mine: Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon being led into a cave while chasing after both, the discovery that Florimell and the man were not human, the idea of them becoming a two-headed serpent (though I'm sure this idea isn't new to mythology and folklore), and the fight scene.

Actually, if there was one thing that I wish could have been better, it would have been the fight scene. I wish it could have been more epic, but by the time I ended my original fight scene, the word count was somewhere between 900 and 1000 words. And since I didn't feel like cutting back after going over the word count (since I probably would have gone all out), I decided to not rewrite the fight scene.

To tell you the truth, I was at first debating between creating a fight scene or a mind games scene. And what I mean by 'mind games scene' was a dialogue-heavy and tense challenge, where high stakes (in this case Arthur and Guyon's lives) were raised and hopes rested on the mind, rather than on the body. Well, I guess I wouldn't have made it psychologically twisted (though that definitely would have been interesting). Instead, I would have done a riddle challenge, where Arthur asked the creature/supernatural beings three riddles. He would have won if he had stumped them even once. But that wouldn't have been hair-raising. It would have been anti-climactic, since I would have made Arthur win on the third riddle.

It would have been interesting, I suppose, to have gone with the riddle idea, but only if Arthur lost and a fight scene or something to divert the monster trying to kill them appeared before Arthur and Guyon died. I only thought about this now. At the time I was writing the story, it never occurred to me; I believed the only way he could logically be saved was to win the challenge.

Anyways, those are my thoughts concerning my story for week 11, Arthur and Guyon.

Two-headed snake

(this is what the water serpent is supposed to look like)

(Source)

Tech Tip (14) -- Weather Gadget

I created a weather gadget using this link:

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Week 11: Storytelling -- Arthur and Guyon

As Princess Britomart disguised herself as a handsome knight, trying to find the man in Merlin's Mirror, she met Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon along her travels. And though they kept each other company for awhile, running headlong into adventure wherever they could find it, that changed as they approached an eerie forest one day. For suddenly, an ivory colored horse burst out of the fog surrounding the place, its rider a woman with long blond hair and a frightened expression on her face. She kept glancing behind her, the reason made known approximately ten seconds later in the form of a man with a cruel expression and a spear aimed to kill.

As soon as they saw this, Arthur and Guyon turned their horses away from the forest and chased after the man and woman. Although both wondered why Britomart had made no move to help the girl being pursued, the thought was pushed in the back of their minds in favor of the more immediate matter at hand. The path they followed was twisted and turned, though the two riders ahead of Arthur and Guyon rode with ease along it. As they barely kept up with the sight of their guides, the girl suddenly veered to the left with her horse into a grove, still unable to lose her pursuer. Behind them, Arthur and Guyon tried to spur their horses to go faster, hoping that they could stop her pursuer before she was caught. But by the time they reached the grove, there was no sight or sound of either the woman or the man. Luckily, the ground was damp from nightfall's rain, and hoof prints were seen leading into the grove, trailing down, they soon discovered, to the opening of a large cave.

It was probably the largest cave mouth they'd ever come across, in fact, and it easily allowed them to ride on their horses side-by-side into the entrance. And if they were surprised at the measure of the cave mouth, it was nothing to their surprise at the magnitude of its insides. Stretched out so far that two small castles could easily fit, Arthur and Guyon stared around them for a moment in awe. The brown-gray rock of the cave was hidden underneath bright green moss, breathing life in an otherwise seemingly empty space. A halo of light stood in the corner of the cave, deep enough into the cave where they could make out its back.

As they neared the end of the cave, the back wall of the cave became clearer. Cut into the wall was a strangely triangular manmade opening, only wide enough for one person to go through at a time. And though Prince Arthur dismounted the chestnut mare and went deeper into the cave without hesitation, Sir Guyon paused for a moment before following the prince, wondering, quite perceptively, why no sound of the horses belonging to the two riders they pursued echoed within the massive cave.

For about an hour they silently walked, all the while hearing a dull roar become steadily stronger. As cave's narrow hallway reached its end, they found themselves at the edge of a pool of water, a layer of gray rock surrounding the half of the cave they were on. The other half consisted of a layer of ragged rock, part of which was smoothed over thanks to the waterfall at the end. But aside from the hole in the ceiling that allowed the water to flow into the cave's lake, there was no entrance into this part of the cave. Including the one they had just come from.

Suddenly, the woman and the man sprung out of the lake, and Arthur and Guyon were quite relieved that she was unhurt. But instead of fear, the woman wore an expression of complete calm. And instead of trying to run away, she held hands with the man, as though she trusted him completely. Guyon's eyes widened, and pushed Arthur away from the lake before he could enter it.

"Water demons," he whispered loud enough for Arthur to hear. Arthur's eyes widened, and his hand went to the hilt of his sword, prepared to fight. And then he narrowed his eyes, pulling out his sword. "I believe it is much worse than that, my friend."

Suddenly the cave began to shake, and the man and the woman were gone. In their place stood a gigantic two-headed water serpent. And at lightning speed they lunged at Arthur and Guyon.

Both Guyon and Arthur dove out of the way in the nick of time, and the creature smashed into the wall of the cave. But it hadn't given up yet. It seized the two men with each of its heads, trying to crush Arthur and Guyon to death. And though Guyon's sword had fallen out of his hands, Arthur's hadn't. Since his arms weren't caught by the coil of the serpent's neck, he was able to hack the serpent's head off, cutting the head from the base of the serpent's neck. Bleeding and hurt, the serpent loosened its grip on Guyon, who cut its other head off.

And when the serpent died, a tremble shook throughout the cave, and the cave entrance magically reappeared. That day, Arthur and Guyon walked out of the cave alive, killing the deadly serpent god who had resided there for a thousand years unchallenged.

Part of the Cave

(Source: Geograph)

Author's Note:

I based this story off of the second chapter of The Faerie Queene, How Britomart Fought Six Knights. In the original story, the chapter follows Britomart, the cross-dressing princess who pretends to be a knight to try and find the destined husband she saw in Merlin's mirror. But instead of following the main character and retelling the story of her adventure in this chapter, I decided I'd expound on what happened to Arthur and Guyon as they chased after Florimell, the girl. When they chased after Florimell without Britomart, I was curious as to what happened to them. So I decided to create an adventure for them. Since the entirety of the Faerie Queene is several volumes long, I'm sure you do find out what happens to Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon. But in the reading unit, you'll never know.

Stories From the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod (1916). Story Source: Internet Archive

Week 11: Reading Diary -- The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene

How Britomart fought with Six Knights
So in the chapter before (which I have not included in this reading diary, but the name of which is Sir Guyon), Lady Britomart, who is pretending to be a guy, joined Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon in their misadventures. But they get separated at the very beginning of this chapter. I found Britomart's reaction to be really weird -- when all three of them see a lady running away from the forest they encounter with a creeper hot on her trail, Arthur and Guyon both act like normal people and run to save the lady. Britomart, on the other hand, does nothing of the sort, and stands where she is for awhile, wondering if Guyon and Arthur will come back. After a few minutes of wainting, she just up and leaves (okay, Britomart), setting off in the direction her, Arthur, and Guyon, were originally traveling.

I guess here's where it starts to get interesting. After a while of traveling, she happens upon a castle, in front of which six knights are fighting one. The reason for their fighting is this: the one knight is fighting for his lady, and the six knights are fighting for the lady of the castle's honor. However, it's a pretty lose-lose situation: if the lone knight loses, he has to give up his lady and join the six knights. If he wins, he 'gets' to marry the lady of the castle. After hearing this, Britomart intervenes with her (I didn't mention this before) magical lance that unseats anyone who comes across it. And she ends up defeating four of the knights, with the other two conceding to her.

Then they all go inside the castle as friends. Or something like that.


Britomart in the Castle Joyous
So the name of this castle is 'Joyous', and it's pretty awesome in terms of its splendor. There's gold and fine silk everywhere, and it's gorgeous. Anyways, the six knights figure that she's going to marry the lady of the house, since she defeated them. But the reason Britomart, who is actually a princess, decided to cross-dress as a knight is that Merlin's magical mirror™showed her that a renown knight named Artegall would become her husband. And she's determined to find the guy because she's curious about him. Aside from that, she couldn't really marry the lady. For all the pro-gay marriage I am, it's simply impossible to disguise the fact that Britomart was a woman, and when the lady of the castle realized that her husband was actually a wife, I'm pretty sure Britomart would be kicked out. Anyways, Britomart meets the lady of the house, whose name is Maelcasta. And since all romances created during this time are like this, Maelcasta falls in love at first sight (which I believe is impossible). Apparently, as beautiful as she is as a woman, she makes a super hot guy as well. Well, because of her looks, Maelcasta is determined to have her. Her solution? Jump the guy's bones in the middle of the night (crudely put, but true). Britomart ends up waking up before this happens and fighting the six knights who have been called upon by Maelcasta. Pissed that she gets attacked, she decides to leave with the other knight.



How Britomart Walked Through Fire; What Britomart Saw in the Enchanted Chamber; How Britomart Rescued a Fair Lady from an Enchanter
This chapter is pretty interesting. Britomart meets a knight named Scudamor, whose lady is stuck in the castle of the forest they're in. Even though the knight has tried, he cannot rescue the lady, since the castle is magical and doesn't allow people to go through even the front door. However, it lets Britomart through for some reason, and she enters the first room of the castle. The door that leads deeper into the castle says 'be bold', so she goes through it. Through this door, she goes into another room, and goes to the door on the other side. It's locked, and it says 'be not too bold'. So she hides herself, and the door opens eventually. But instead of being empty, the entrance brings forth a weird assortment of characters (some gods but mostly personified emotions), that march three times around the room and then go. After that strange march, she tries to open the door, but to no avail. When the door opens again later the next day, she sneaks in basically using camouflage, and enters the room, where the wicked enchanter (and owner of the castle) is holding Scudamor's lady. In conclusion, she rescues the girl, traps the knight in his own castle, and escapes. Unfortunately, Scudamor, believing Britomart had died, already left.


The Golden Girdle
This chapter is pretty entertaining, let me tell you. It's the last day of the tournament where all the knights around the country gather to prove themselves. The tournament lasts three days, and on each a winner is declared. So for the first part of the tournament, the knights of the tournament are, I quote 'beaten and chased about all day til evening' by a strange and mysterious knight, who they call the Savage Knight. (In reality, he's Artegall, but no one knows that.) The visual that came to my mind was cartoon-like, in that I could imagine all the knights in a pen trying to get away from this weird-looking, scary knight who was kicking all their butts. Well he was, until Britomart shows up and kicks his butt (since she has an unbeatable spear), and proceeds to win the last day of the tournament. Because Britomart defeats Artegall so easily, he's pissed and wants revenge. He gets his revenge in the second to last chapter of the unit...or at least tries to.

Week 10: Reading Diary -- Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends

When the Storm God Rides

In this story, it shows how the edge of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico has islands. In the old legends, apparently the Storm God, with his great bird Hurakan, would come out at times and ride over the Gulf of Mexico. This act would create the islands seen today. The Storm God didn't always create islands, though. Usually he would reside at the bottom of the ocean, away from the tribes, who lived peacefully. However, these peaceful tribes were chased off by the fierce northern tribes, who liked to kill birds. So they did for awhile, without any consequence, until there was so much killing that the birds along the Gulf of Mexico complained to the Storm God. The Storm God, angry and vengeful, descended upon the fierce tribes with Hurakan and blew them away in a huge, tornado-like wind. Those winds were so powerful that they created the biggest islands along the Gulf of Mexico, which still stand today.


How the North Wind Lost his Hair

He gets stranded on an island again – this time for good reason and with the company of his crew. Unfortunately, they get stuck on an island with giants. And some of his crewmembers get eaten by a giant, which sucks. But they get revenge on the giant by poking his eye out, who gets revenge back on them by pitting his family against the crew (while they’re trying to escape the island on boats). And, by a miracle, the only boat that doesn’t get sunk by rocks aimed at them is Sindbad’s. He and two other members escape to another island, only to run into a gigantic, man-eating snake, that unfortunately eats the other two members of Sindbad’s boat. It would have eaten Sindbad too, but he basically makes a fort for himself and the snake can’t get in. I’ll give him props for his plan. And luckily, the next day a ship finds him and the people (like usual) are extremely generous to him. And, like in the first voyage, he gets his cargo back.


The Cloud that Was Lost

Now. I can understand why the rabbit gets tricked. After all, it was his first time dealing with the jackal with regards to the spring. Having said that, it's pretty ridiculous that the hare gets tricked as well. Knowing how the rabbit got tricked, he should have understood that the jackal was only trying to get him out of the way to drink water. Then again, sometimes characters in classic stories are morons. The tortoise is the only one who successfully protects the spring, as he ignores the jackal's promises and holds his leg tightly to prevent him from moving (for so long that the rest of the animals come back.


Grandmother's River Trick

He first asks the birch tree for its bark, and the list goes on after that. He asks the Cedar for its boughs, the Larch for its roots, and the Fir for its balsam and resin. He also ends up asking a hedgehog for its quills. They all give it to him without outward resistance, though some of them internally are afraid. This boat that the makes with all of his supplies is pretty cool as well, since he can steer it with his mind. But then an another problem occurs: the lake is filled with sticks and other deterrents that will not allow him to swim. So he asks one of his friends that he sees to clear out the river for him, which the friend does without question. And that's the end of that story.


How Sickness Entered the World

He ends up intimidating death's envoys into erasing his name from the book of death. I think it's worth noting that he doesn't just do this for himself -- he ends up exempting all his followers (back on the island where he was king) from death as well. It's kind of admirable -- most people would only think of themselves in the situation, even if they were good people, because their immediate thoughts turn towards how they should deal with the situation.


When the Rainbow was Torn

The cactus, at one point in time, wished for color within its flower petals. Its petals were white, and though it longed for color, the rainbow did not give it any, presumably because it was scared of the cactus. One day, however, the rainbow tore. It tore because one day, the rain was heavy and the water bent the rainbow. The rainbow was scared of touching the cactus, so it bent away from the water. However, more rain ran on top of the rainbow, and the rainbow ended up touching the cactus. And before it could extricated itself from the cactus, the cactus happily soaked up some of the colors of the rainbow.

Week 9: Essay -- Writing in High School

Writing in High School

I can’t say that my high school was the best in the country, because it wasn’t. The ugly pink building may have housed private school kids with good teachers, but it was out in the Midwest, Kansas to be specific. And while location doesn’t matter, being out in a relatively small city tends not to have the quality of a high-end school in a big city.

However, it’s not to say that my high school was bad either. It was actually better than most (around the area, at least), and one of the truly great things about it was its writing program. There are some high schools that only start forcing kids to write essays during junior or even senior year. Mine started the summer before freshman year (and even before that, since the entire school was made up of a lower and middle school as well). And we continually wrote essays – not just at the beginning and end of the year, but within it as well. It was normal. And by the end of freshman year, three page papers were no big deal.

And we didn’t just write these papers for English class. Throughout my high school career, I had papers for Spanish, History, and Chemistry as well. For Spanish (I took it all four years, with the last being a seminar), the essays were light in terms of length, naturally. Still, it was hard to write in a foreign language. For history…well, those essays were longer. Sophomore year I had the occasional two to three page paper due, as well as the eight page paper at the end of the semester, but nothing too bad. APUSH my junior year is where the essay workload got really heavy. First of all, I hated that class – even though I loved World History sophomore year, I just didn’t find American interesting. So I had to write six to seven page papers every couple of weeks on a topic I hated. That was fun. As of for Chemistry, for the two years I took it (Chemistry II and AP Chemistry), we had to write lab papers. And not just the papers where you fill out the blanks for the answers for the lab – formal papers with an intro, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. It wasn’t that bad though – our chemistry teacher taught us how to write a lab paper well.

Of course, the biggest source of writing papers was English. We always had random writing assignments and periodic essays due my freshman through senior year. Though freshman year was a blast (our English teacher was hilarious), my favorite year had to be my junior year. Incidentally, it was the most writing-heavy class, but I loved the class because my teacher was so good. She had assigned a twenty-page paper at the beginning of the year, which was due at the end of the year. But it wasn’t bad, since she broke it up into two to three page essays throughout the year, which we synthesized into a complete essay at the end. My favorite assignment, however, happens to be the creative writing paper we did for the Beowulf unit. I wrote mine over two characters, battling each other at the ends of an apocalypse. I had a ton of fun writing the fight scene with the weapons I created.

   

Writing

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)