Topic Brainstorm: Which theme should I choose?

Topic Brainstorm

Which story theme is right for me?

So far into this class, I've already gotten an idea of the structure I kind of want my story to follow. I would want it to be a sort of  'choose your own adventure' style. I do want to take inspiration though from mythologies that I am not familiar with so that I can learn more and broaden my horizon so to speak. The mythologies that I'm really interested in learning fall under the Asian, Classical, or Celtic stories that we've been given access to delve into.

Japanese fairy tales seem to be the most interesting theme I can use to get a lot of options for branching in my storytelling. They like to bring in celestial beings, extreme situations, and the morals by the end of it are always very thought-provoking. Most trickster tales could become way more exciting if the reader was the one given the task of doing "the tricking" in the story. Based on the choices they make to either out-smart a wicked foe or help a character in need can be completely up to them. Something similar to Asian Fairytale stories listed in the Un-Textbook are what has helped spark these types of ideas in me.

I do want to have some sort of mystery pan out into my story. Whether that be a "Whodunit" sort of reading, an outcome that is not expected but doesn't necessarily have to follow death or tragedy; maybe it could be a journey somewhere and the end result is a twist? I want variety in my storytelling that engages the reader to never feel like what will happen is predictable. I was searching online and found an article about just a general breakdown of short story writing that follows the flow of mysteries from Writing World. This gives me enough of an idea on how to start the writing for a mystery if I choose to take that route.

My next theme idea is just a generic saga that will tell the tales of a hero and some great feat or tragedy that he must overcome for either himself, his/her loved ones, or his/her people. Everyone loves a good triumph story and I feel like I could really bring forward a lot of details to make any situation the main character is involved in coming to life. My inspiration for storytelling like this was from looking into the Un-Textbook and seeing the Robin Hood story that was listed as a read. A non-traditional hero yes, but still a beacon of hope to others.

My last theme idea is to relate my story to a Grimm Fairytale. Regardless of the region that this mythology would come out of. I love Grimm fairytales because they remind readers that not everything is painted in black and white. The good guys don't always win, the villains don't always turn to good people, the story may not have a happy ending, things of that nature. Taking something that is typically very happy like a princess tale and morphing it into a more Grimm situation seems to be up my alley if I can think of a story that hasn't already been done before. Maybe something like Brave or Moana perhaps? I was looking into the Un-Textbook for Grimm Fairytales and found a huge list to bounce ideas from once I actually sit down and decide if this is the topic I want to go for.

So many choices, which should I work off of? 

Image: Lost in Thought (Pixabay)

Week 2 Story: A Hare’s Fear and an Owl’s Answer

A Hare’s Fear and an Owl’s Answer

One day, a hare was hopping along enjoying the breeze of the late-noon when he heard a thrashing sound.

Pound. Pound. Thud. Growl.

The hare was so curious as to where these sounds were coming from that he decided to tread lightly in the direction of it. After some time, he reached a clearing where he saw a grizzly bear that had been locked up in a cage.

“You there! Rabbit! Oh please, please release me from this torment. It was poachers you see — Horrible poachers they were!” the bear exclaimed.

With hesitation, the hare hopped up to the cage and said: “Why how long have you been locked away in this cage?”

“For weeks. Weeks that feel just as eons would. Freedom has escaped me so.” sobbed the bear.

Now the hare, feeling nervous at this moment started to step away from the cage. With each small step, the bear’s face began to twist with confusion, “You’re not going to leave me like this are you?”

“If you’ve been in there for weeks, you must...”

“I must what?” interrupted the bear.

Gulp. “Then you must be hungry now. I am but a small hare and you are a large bear. You could swallow me in one go if you had a mind to.”

“My dear rabbit. I would not dare touch a single hair on you. I just want freedom, I promise. Please let me out.”

Feeling the pity over the bear wash him down with guilt, the hare decided to release him from his holdings by jumping so high that he can reach the right ropes to chew through. After a few moments, the bear was free from the cage.

The bear leaped. Growled the mightiest of growls. Then turned to face the hare with a wicked smile and crooked head.

“It looks as though you’ve put your trust into the wrong person. Now that you mention it, I am rather hungry.” The bear begins to ogle the hare, slowly prodding in his direction.

“Oh no. No please! You promised me! Oh, let me live Mr. Bear please oh please!” The hare panicked and plead but the bear continued to move towards him. “Allow me to question why the world has fated me so.”

The bear decided to humor the hare. “Well go on. Ask the world how you got here. I haven’t got all day.”

The hare paused, then looked up to the skies. “Oh world, surely you can help me understand why I’ve been destined to end my lines here.”

“Um sorry — I actually don’t understand you see.” stated by a voice not visible to the area.

“Who was that?” exclaimed the bear.

“Oh, my apologies. I am Hugo the owl. I just caught the end of this peculiar situation. Would you mind breaking it down for me once more? I would love to give you an answer to your fate if I am able.”

So the hare begins to explain his situation to the owl but, no matter the storytelling method chosen the owl does not understand. He tells him one thing, but he’ll think the opposite and fall into a great frustration.

Finally, the bear becomes so agitated for waiting to feast that he intrudes on the explanation. “My goodness owl it is not that difficult to grasp! What are you not getting?”

“How was it that you were in this cage. It seems far too small to hold such a beast like you.”

The Bear follows the trail leading to the cage and re-enters his holdings to prove to the owl how he was able to fit into the cage.

“Now I see it. Perfect!” Said the owl as he closes the cage door and ties it shut with one of his feathers. "You do fit better than I expected in this cage."

For at this moment the hare felt so lucky. The owl may not have given him the answer he wanted, but he gave him the solutions he needed.

Author's notes: This story was a recreation of the fun trickster's tale Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal. My twist on the story does involve a species flip, as well as more dialogue at the beginning between the captive and the savior. I wanted more emphasis on playing up the deceit of the bear by having his character show more through his words. I also wanted the owl to not seem as confused as the jackal did in the original tale, but more or less just trying to help the hare by being his own version of "efficient."

Bibliography: "Tiger, Brahman, and Jackel" from Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source with Bear and friends image from Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Myth-Folklore Anthology

Reading Notes B:

Starting to Read Like a Writer

So going through the stories that were up for reading on the Myth-Folklore Anthology, I did like a majority of the stories I was reading. Some of them stood out to me more than others though due to their writing style and formatting. I had a hard time following some stories over other just based on how the progression was lain out going into different story “scenes.” For example, looking into The Divine (Romance of Old Japan, Part 1: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917)) and The Supernatural (Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913)) were harder for me due to the reading style. It felt as though there was no real flow into what I was reading so I always felt like I was missing a chunk of information. The level of detail they brought out for each of the character however was something that really inspired me. I love when there’s so much description behind a location, character, or object in a story that it becomes a visual in your head so clearly. I want to at least be able to take that level of commitment for my future writing and help bring the story more to life. All the other stories posted had a great format that made it easy to see a separation based on dialogue, character entrance, plot development, and more even though they are short stories.

(Character Development: Pintrest.com)

My Reading Options

Reading Options

My Starting Place

UN-Textbook is pretty crazy to take in at first glance just because there's so much you get to look through! I'm excited about all the reading opportunities that it will provide me over the course of this semester. Some things that really stuck out to me were the Chinese Fairy Tales, Japanese Mythology, and The Brother's Grimm (Crane).

The Chinese Fairy Tales seem like they'd be a fun read based on the content that is used within the story. Beasts like dragons, ogres, and demons come to life in these interesting accounts of magical influence that are sure to keep me intrigued the whole way through. Animal based stories also give an opportunity for a broader way of thinking and absorbing information, so I'm sure to take away a lot from that end of this literature as well.

The Japanese Mythology section helps in giving me what I want to satisfy the hunger for the general idea on mythology. Entering a world of gods and goddess, hearing tales of despair that overtake a community and how their belief affects their overall outcomes are exactly the types of stories I would think of when entering this course. Typically, most people focus on Greek or Roman mythology to delve into this sort of lore, so having a Japanese spin on the tales is a new route I'm wanting to take! It also makes me feel closer to my roots being a Asian American. 

The Brother's Grimm (Crane) peaked my interest because I'm such a fan of books that have dark twist to them. Stories that like to make the skin crawl. The concepts are always the ones that keep my brain moving and really put me in bouts of how to process what just went on. I know I'll enjoy these tales because I've read some Brother's Grimm books in the past.

(Japanese Mythology: Pxhere.com)

Time Strategies

Time Strategies

Better management for a better mindset

Time management. You'd think that after years in educational institutions that a student would be better with this by now, or at least have a method to kind of make it easier. I'm someone who balances a lot of different tasks on their plate daily, so I'm always looking for new and better ways to manage my time. I want to put my efforts behind giving equal commitment to everything I have set to accomplish; those being in job hunting, completing my academic career, and maintaining my relationships with my peers. I am grateful for the time that Dr. Gibbs has put in for us to actually set a schedule to follow for the week that's best for our desired workload.

The articles that I read over were both the The Psychology of Checklists and Why Time Management is Ruining Our Lives. Both articles were like contrasts of one another, so I thought it would be beneficial to read two sides of the spectrum. On one end you're given the positives of why we like to put ourselves through hoops to find a way to manage our time better. It makes life more simple to maintain; it brings in a sense of lax and ease. No person is exactly the same though when it comes to what helps them focus and what lightens their workload. It takes many tries and lots of experimenting in order to figure out which system works best for you. Over time, that can become exhausting and stressful on the party that started the process just to not be in that sort of situation! I don't want to be someone that says you shouldn't stress about time management because it can often make matters worse, but I also don't want to be that person who causes you to be overwhelmed due to not figuring a system out. I believe that a balance needs to be made at slowly noticing the things that work for you in order to really determine the types of methods you should practices to manage your time properly. My plan of attack is to dedicate different days of the week to different classes. That idea stemmed from the template set up of our schedules in this course. I'll be sure to even update this post later on to talk about how it's either helped me or brought me down in my other courses!

(Managing Your Time Effectively: Flickr)

Understanding Technology with Different Blogging Resources

Understanding Technology with Different Blogging Resources

Branching my knowledge bases together

I am someone who has dabbled with using many of the online resources mentioned in the tools article by Professor Gibbs. Specifically most google related applications and PBWorks. They've all been easy applications to grasp knowledge over in the past, so I have no doubt that I'll will utilize them in this course!

(Social Technology Connections: Pixabay)

Assignments from Week 1

Assignment Overview

My current take away for my Myth-Folklore Course

I didn't expect the orientation assignments for this course to be as mind opening as they are to continue throughout the semester. I'm actually pretty excited about what we'll get into in the future weeks. I've never taken a class that has a setup similar to this one, making it a new territory for me to adapt to. I'm excited about the readings, and the tech related and heart related extra credit assignments. I'm sure over time I may change was catches my attention but as for now, my thoughts are nothing but positive going forward!

                             (Happy Dog: Pixabay)

Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset

Maybe I can develop confidence in this crazy system we call academics

(Learning Zone from Growth Mindset memes blog)

After watching the videos of Carol Dweck, it really got me thinking about how I view my worth because of how I am evaluated as a student. I understand the concept of being tested on skills so that if you were to use that skill in the real world, there's confidence behind your abilities. If I was to interact with a doctor or an electrician then I'd want to be comfortable knowing that they know exactly how to do their job. Those things are nice to have since we live in a world where doubt lives in even the smallest of places.

Dweck got me thinking about the moments in life where I would be more focused on what I was doing instead of just getting to the "perfect" outcome that was expected of me. I've taken many courses at this university that have broken my confidence when my marks end up being below average or not what I've come to define as "acceptable" regardless of how comfortable I feel with the material at hand. As a senior in her final semester, my capstone and the rest of my upper division science course have me horrified just by looking at the syllabus alone. I love and have great interests for the topics at hand, so why am I so scared? Why is learning about what I want to gain more knowledge in so scary? Is it the percentages that each task I'm expected to complete are weighted by that freak me out so much? So many questions that go into why my mood instantly shifts during syllabus week.

I want to take these Growth Mindset ideals and methods and use them towards the things I'm afraid of. Hopefully my love for my course topics won't be drowned out by the fear in failure based on one, maybe two assignments. I like that this concept focuses on both progression and effort which is what instructors desire out of their students, right? My evaluation can be a true view of the effort that I know I can apply to my tasks.

Introduction

Brief Introduction

Let the info session drown us all

Hello Everyone! My name is Jasmine Pearce and I am a Microbial Pathogenesis major here at the University of Oklahoma. I'm going into my final semester of university, being my 5th year. My degree is now at this point a planned program degree due to some complications I had last semester, but I have primary focus on Microbiology (which is why if you look up my major name, it won't show up in the degree check-sheet directory.) I love conducting research about how different pathogens can enter the body and cause a shut down to different systems that we rely on. I don't love the "oh no I'm dying due to disease" part of it, but more of the "my body is a microbial army and it's gonna fight" kind of thing. I've taken classes like Infection Disease, Immunology, Microbial Physiology, Microbiology, even both engineering Physics and life science Physics; all of which have been extremely rewarding and very very very difficult to say the least. I love games, crafts, leisure walks around a brightly lit park because I'm too afraid of water for beaches and too out of shape to hike mountains (for now.) I have a dog, who I love dearly. He's half pug, half chihuahua, and fully bent on being spoiled and sassy.

He can not only be as photogenic as Kendall Jenner, but he also has his awkward moments...

He currently lives with my dad right now, but hopefully once I'm in living area that allows pets I can start waking up to a little bit of extra love each morning.

I am an African Asian American. Being mixed with both Japanese and African American has been a great cultural flow for me since I was young. I know enough Japanese to get me where I need to go if I ever make the trek up to Japan, but I don't know enough to feel confident in saying I'm fluent in the language or anything. I was also a military child so I moved around a good amount, making traveling as a future goal something I wasn't comfortable with for a while. It made me into someone that preferred being a home body if I was given the choice.

A great deal has taken place in my life over the past year, and though I am a young adult I know I still have much more development in my future to shape myself in the person I'm supposed to be. Thank you for your read and I can't wait to learn more about my fellow course mates this semester!


                                                  (Personal photo of my mighty beast, Toki, from March 2016)

Storybook Favorites - Let's Spark Some Inspiration

Storybook Favorites

The Three That Start it All

This post will serve as my starting point to construct my own story for my Myth-Folklore class this semester. Scrolling through all of the options I had to gain some inspiration really got me stuck between three different themes I believe I'm interested in taking on. I've always been fascinated by mystery tales that keep the reader on their toes. It's the type of story that keeps you up at night because you just can't stop thinking about the final outcome. The second thing I've been very into reading are choose your own adventure just because no experience is ever the same.  What you want to happen in the story is also the exact direction they take, even if it doesn't mean the best outcome.🤣 It's still a fun journey though! The last thing I'm tempted to write about is a play on a song of sort. I would like to think I'm as passionate about music as any other millennial and love to do a play on words with pretty much anything. The challenge in taking a classic and morphing it into something like saga makes my creative juices jump for excitement.

With that being said, here are the three stories that fit into those realms of possibility. All of which has some pros and cons but overall wonderful concepts to my interest.

Tokyo Underworld

(Tokyo Underworld: Pixlr Images)

Tokyo Underworld is a story written by a previous student of the Myth-Folklore course that takes you through a 'whodonit' sort of murder scenario. As the reader, you are given different sections of facts as the story progresses and the characters unfold; having the opportunity to make a choice as to who you suspect to be the murder. This story doesn't do great at giving an introduction to what the story will entail; however, it does have a beautiful layout and keep the vibe of mysterious and a little creepy.

Dungeons and Decisions

Dungeons and Decisions is just like it sounds, you make the decisions in your story in order to make it to your own ending. It keeps the thrill alive because you try to pick up every detail in order to make the best choice you believe will help you get the best conclusion. I loved the introduction of this just because it gave a lot of instruction, reference information as to how this idea because his story, and where to start. The layout is a bit simple for the type of story it is, but it definitely seems captivating.
            (Dragon from Trine 2: Wikimedia Commons)


LSD in a Yellow Submarine

LSD in a Yellow Submarine is just such a funny concept to me. I love the Beatles and I love that because it was related to the music, it put me in the same dazed and pleasant mood that the song usually does. I think I'd take a slight different direction than this poster did in order to get what I want out of using song inspiration, but I'm still enjoying this content for sure.











(Yellow Submarine: Deviant Art)

My Favorite Place - The Story of how I Decided to Start Traveling

Salt Lake City, Utah

 A city of wonder A city of history A city of art

I had the pleasure of going on a trip with two of my closest friends to Salt Lake City. This was my first time ever venturing up North farther than up the coast in California. Not only was it a great sight to take in, but the hospitality, outdoor activities, and the food were some of the best parts of my trip.

One of the best sites was going to Temple Square and getting a visual of the Temple in the center. My own personal photos don't do it much justice but, this is a great representation of the building itself. We were told that it was built many years ago completely by hand (and is the largest of the Latter-Day Saints church establishments.)

(Salt Lake City Temple Slide 1: Wikimedia Commons)

Though I find Utah to be stronger in religious practice, I recommend people of all religious beliefs to make a pit stop here for the beautiful scenery and worth-while activities you get to experience along the way. I've only been to about 4 different states in my life, but I'm hoping to take a big leap and go to Japan this winter! Fingers crossed it will be my new favorite place. 🤞🤞

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