Reading Notes B: The Rabbi's Bogey Man

The Rabbi's Bogey-Man - Focus on the relationship between Rabbi Lion and his creations

• Lion decided to make himself a servant when people treated him as a magician
• Made a mechanical woman for labor, was alarmed at first when it started to move
• De-animated the woman at night
• Didn't trust his creation from the beginning, believed that she would cause mischief
• Woman got destroyed in an accidental fire she started when Lion was preaching on Sabbath and kids ordered her to make a fire for them
• Lion says that the creature has no life except for what the Sacred Name gave it
• New creation: man larger than the woman, made for the king
• Trusted man less than woman, took name out during Sabbath
• Justified, after what the woman did
• If man doesn't know of previous creation, seems like Lion has no trust for the man at all
• Man improved, then spoke and wanted to fight for the king
• Said he was made for the king, belongs to the king: aware of the circumstances of his creation
• Lion was scared of the "monster" he created, but wasn't willing to give up the usefulness of a free and efficient servant
• Man tried to break into the synagogue and destroy the scrolls of the Holy Law in order to make more bogey-men to serve the King and kill all the Jews
• Lack of decisive action, or attempt at understanding, on Lion's part resulted in man escalating to drastic action
• Man's ambitions grew the longer he was forced to be a slave to Lion
• Wanted revenge on Lion (kill all Jews)
• Lion took parchment from man and man collapsed

(Possible Arist: Sol Aronson, Web Source)

Biography: The Rabbi's Bogey-Man from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertude Landa.  Web Source

Reading Notes A: Jewish Fairy Tales

The Giant of the Flood - Focus on Og

• Offers to bring a unicorn but only if Noah saves him as well
• Worried more about starving to death than being drowned
• Despite Noah's rejection, Og still brings the unicorn
• Believes that Noah will help, or was planning to use unicorn as way to force Noah to help him (as he does later)?
• When flood comes, Og gets on unicorn's back and threatens to steal all the unicorn's food
• Og accepts Noah's bargain to become a servant to Noah's descendants in exchange for food
• After rain stops, Og is happy about mortals (humans) being gone
• Noah reminded Og about the bargain
• Og was so upset that he refused to eat for two days
• Bad at thinking in the future - made the deal for food, but then when reminded of the deal, got depressed
• Overreaction to sadness - didn't eat for two days after being reminded of the bargain
• After Ark landed, Og told Noah he was going to leave, got reminded of bargain again
• Short memory? Bargain slipped his mind
• OR trying to trick Noah
• Wept tears after being reminded, and wept silently (without tears) after Noah told him not to cry (to not drown the world)
• Complained daily about lack of food and his resulting shrinking in size, while helping build houses for Noah's children
• Noah forced Og to carry a heavy bag of seeds when going to plant fruit and flowers
• When planting grapes, Og offers sacrifices
• Brings a sheep, a lion, a pig, and a monkey
• Sheep: after a few drops of wine, man will be harmless like a sheep
• Lion: after a little more wine, man will have a lion's strength
• Pig: after too much wine, will turn into a "beast like the pig"
• Monkey: more, "foolish behavior like a monkey"
• Og offered two extra blessings (pig and monkey)
• Seemed vindictive?
• Og drank too much, got scolded by Abraham until he dropped a tooth from fright
• Og became King of Bashan, broke deal with Noah and opposed Israelites when they tried to obtain Canaan
• Grabbed a mountain to drop on Israelites, but it crumbled and fell on him and around his neck, tangled in his teeth
• While he was distracted, Moses leapt up and sliced open the giant's ankle which killed Og 

(Possible Arist: Sol Aronson, Web Source)

Bibliography: The Giant of the Flood from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa. Web Source

Feedback Thoughts

The two sources I looked at seemed to focus on two different things. Both talk about how you react to criticism and things to avoid in your thoughts, but the focus of the first is more on your own thoughts towards yourself, while the second focuses more on understanding why someone is giving you feedback and understanding your own limitations.

For the first, these are definitely problems I'm familiar with, both personally and from friends. It's very easy to focus on the negatives and believe the worst of yourself, while not bothering to actually try and fix those issues. Even without making excuses for what's wrong, simply thinking that you are making bad decisions often results in actually making them, whether it's by changing the decision in an attempt to fix it or by not following through out of fear.

For the second, I struggle with this significantly. It's difficult for me to deal with feedback that isn't given kindly, as it comes off as harsh and insulting even if it was simply meant to be concise. I'm not sure I completely agree with the advice given, which is to vent about it to someone uninvolved. I've found that while it is more difficult, trying to take the time to focus on what is being said rather than how it was said can help. You don't need to just bottle up the emotion, but venting it can make it feel like those emotions are justified when they often really aren't.

(Deep breath, John LeMasney on flickr)

Bibliography:

6 Bad Mental Habits That Sabotage Your Success by Amy Morin on inc.com, Web Source
Using Harsh Feedback to Fuel Your Career by William Treseder on hbr.org, Web Source

Topic Brainstorm

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The only real knowledge of Gilgamesh that I have is the adaptations of his character in various fiction, but the little I do know about him seems interesting. The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered the 'first hero story', and the combination of a hero who can be arrogant and not always good along with the various feats that I have heard about makes me interested in learning more about Gilgamesh. While the Epic of Gilgamesh is on the shorter side, I believe that it is more than possible to take different parts of it and make them fully fledged stories of their own, especially when adapted. However, if that was not enough or didn't work out, I could do a single story to tell Gilgamesh's story, and focus on some other Babylonian myths for my other stories. As for the different ways to retell his story, given his position as a child of the gods, I could possibly retell the stories in a similar manner to my Week 2 retelling and have Gilgamesh as a machine overly confident and arrogant in his position and abilities as a creation of humans.

King Arthur

Similar to Gilgamesh, my only experience with the legends of King Arthur and Arthurian tales is through adaptations in fiction, notably that of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". While obviously I am aware that the original stories are nowhere near as comedic, the diversity of the adapted tales and the personalities (as exaggerated and comedically altered as they are) makes me interested about the original versions. There seems to be a large number of Arthurian tales just among our reading units alone, as well as the linked collection of Arthurian stories. Given the medieval nature of the Arthurian tales, it could be interesting to retell the stories with varying levels of modernity; some of the stories could be done with current-day technology and situations, while others could be either futuristic/fictional with mechas or somewhere in between such as Victorian or colonial era.

Heroes (Herakles and More)

Given how prevalent heroic tales are, it seems like it would be interesting to compare and contrast stories of heroes from different cultures. I'm not exactly sure how I would retell the stories, since there are so many different options for stories and cultures to pick from for such a broad topic. This seems like it would be a topic where rewriting the events or characters of the story, rather than mostly the setting or the type of person the characters are (for example, switching a human to a machine), could result in some interesting storytelling. The story of Hercules is a well-known one, so even with some more significant changes, people would likely still recognize the elements in the new version of the story.

Ancient Egypt

I learned a bit about the myths and culture of Egypt in school (I believe it was middle school), and I remember the different deities being very interesting, if only in the way they were depicted. Most deities had some connection with animals, such as Bastet and cats. In addition, the deities changed in what they represented and how they were viewed over time, which could be an interesting way to rewrite the stories.

 

(Bastet, Wikimedia Commons)

Reading Notes: Myth-Folklore Anthology (Extra Credit)

The Man in the Moon

• Plot:
• Blacksmith constantly wants to be new things, dislikes each new role
• Blacksmith -> Stone -> Stone-cutter -> Sun -> Moon
• Tries to go back to blacksmith after being the moon
• Wise man refuses, leaves him as the moon
• Characters
• Blacksmith: constantly discontent with each role for various reasons
• Wise Man: changes blacksmith with each request, becomes fed up and leaves blacksmith as the moon
• Main Themes/Ideas:
• Blacksmith is never content - other roles always seem better than the one he currently has, but once he is put in them, he sees the negative parts that he didn't from the outside
• Wise Man is willing to help the blacksmith up until a point, when he grows tired of helping someone who doesn't seem to ever like their role. Blacksmith wanting to return to being a blacksmith tells Wise Man that Blacksmith doesn't care about what has been done for him

The Hare that Was not Afraid to Die

• Plot:
• Buddha born as a hare
• Teaches friends (Monkey, Jackal, Otter) about morality, charity, keeping holy days
•  Tells friends to give from their own store of food to beggars on fast day
• Otter takes fisherman's fish, Jackal takes lizard and pot from a field watcher, Monkey gathers mangoes
• Hare decides to give his own flesh due to owning no other food
• King of the Gods disguises self as Brahmin, goes to each animal
• Otter offers the fish, does not admit the theft
• Jackal offers lizard and pot, admits the theft
• Monkey offers mangoes
• Brahmin tells all three to wait until tomorrow before he sees to it
• Brahmin goes to Hare
• Hare offers flesh
• Hare tells Brahmin not to take his life on a holy day
• Instead, Brahmin should build a fire and let the Hare jump into it of his own volition
• When Hare jumps in, Brahmin reveals himself as King of the Gods and admits it was a test of Hare's virtue
• King of Gods puts image of hare on moon as a sign of Hare's virtue
• Characters:
•  Hare: reborn Buddha, willing to sacrifice self to uphold the "moral law"
• Animal friends: all trying to stick to what Hare has taught, but misguided? Went and gathered food rather than offering from their own stores of food
• King of Gods: tested Hare's virtue
• Main Themes/Ideas:
• Be willing to give up everything for the sake of others
• Life is just one more thing that can be used to help others
• Hare does not consider death as something to be feared, main argument for not letting Brahmin kill him was that it was a holy day

Image Information: Pixabay; Rabbit in the Moon.

The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi

• Plot:
•  Susa-no-wo journeys to see what type of people live above him
• Finds a deity of earth, Ashinadzuch, his wife, Tenadzuchi, and their daughter, Kushinada-hime
• They are grieving the loss of their eight daughters who were slain each year by the eight-forked serpent of Koshi, and the fact that it will come for their last daughter as well
• Serpent is a huge red-eyed monster with eight heads and tails, with trees growing over its back
• Susa-no-wo agrees to kill serpent in exchange for Kushinada-hime's hand in marraige
• Susa-no-wo tells them he is the brother of Amaterasu when they do not know his name
• Susa-no-wo transforms Kushinada-hime into a comb and puts her in his hair, has Tenadzuchi brew eightfold strength sake, and hangs eight doors with a vat of sake in each
• Serpent arrives and drinks sake from each door with each head, eventually falling into a drunken sleep
• Susa-no-wo draws his sword and cuts apart the serpent, finding the divine sword Kushanagi in its tail
• Transforms Kushinada-hime back and marries her
• Characters:
•  Susa-no-wo: god of seas and storms, requires reward for doing hero work, willing to rely on tricks to win
• Orochi: eight-forked serpent of Koshi, the main threat, able to be tricked easily (believed sake to be tribute?)
• Ashinadzuch and Tenadzuchi: parents of Kushinada-hime, willing to give her away in marriage if it means she lives
• Kushinada-hime: essentially has no role but as a reward for Susa-no-wo (disappointing, but unfortunately expected)
• Main Themes/Ideas:
• Outwitting monsters instead of overpowering
• Let the enemy defeat themselves

The Indian Who Wrestled with a Ghost

• Plot:
• Young man hears an owl while approaching a forest
• Lays down to rest near another forest
• Awakened by the voice of a woman crying for her son
• Remains where he is, rips hole in blanket to peep through
• Woman arrives, checks if man is alive (he plays dead)
• When she tries to cut his foot, he jumps up and she runs
• Man does not sleep, and sees a burial scaffold in the morning
• Young man comes to another forest, hears singing
• Man shouts to singer, gets no answer
• Singer comes and asks for food, young man lies and singer calls him on the lie
• Singer is a ghost, has no flesh - noticed when he smokes
• Ghost challenges man to wrestle
• Young man throws brush on the fire before agreeing
• Ghost was stronger away from fire, young man won by pushing brush into fire
• Ghost fell to pieces
• After winning wrestling, statement made by ghost ("if you can throw me, you shall kill the enemy without hindrance and steal some horses") came true
• Characters:
• Young man: smart, able to prepare (brush near fire)
• Ghost: not sure here - the first ghost seems to have no real purpose other than to make the young man aware ghosts exist, and the latter seems to do many things
• Main Themes/Ideas: 
• Believe what ghosts say

Pygmalion

• Plot:
• Pygmalion saw women as wicked and chose to be a bachelor
• He carved a figure and fell in love with it
• He treats it with 'love' (kissing, speaking, holding, dressing it, etc.)
• Goes to Venus's festival and prays for the figure to become real
• Venus grants the prayer, and Pygmalion returns home to find the girl has become real
• Venus attends the marriage between Pygmalion and the figure-turned-real, and the new woman bears a son named Paphos 9 months later
• Characters:
• Pygmalion: sees real women as wicked, falls in love with a carved figure, wishes it to be real and then marries and has a kid with the newly created woman
• Venus: grants Pygmalion's wish to have the figure he loves turned into a real woman for him to marry
• Ivory Woman: figure carved by Pygmalion, marries him once she becomes real
• Main Themes/Ideas:
•    Paphos takes its name from the son created from Pygmalion and the Ivory Woman

The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal

• Plot:
•  Tiger caught in trap, found by Brahman
• Tiger swears to serve Brahman as a slave if freed
• When freed, Tiger decides to eat Brahman instead, but agrees to abide by decision of first 3 things Brahman questions about justice of Tiger's actions
• Papal-tree: tells Brahman to man up, trees get branches torn off to feed cattle
• Buffalo: gets mad at Brahman, buffalos are treated poorly once milk dries up
• Road: 'I get trampled on every day and get nothing'
• Comes across Jackal on the way back, Jackal doesn't seem to understand
• Jackal and Brahman return to Tiger, Brahman explains story to Jackal
• Jackal continues to misunderstand, enraging the Tiger
• Jackal doesn't understand how the Tiger got into the cage, Tiger demonstrates
• Jackal shuts the door once Tiger is in the cage
• Characters:
•  Brahman: tries to do a kind act (freeing Tiger) but ends up in danger, naive, wants to live but doesn't know how to convince tiger
• Tiger: treacherous, wants to eat Brahman, easily manipulated (agreed to abide by decision of three things although could've been lying again, Jackal convinces Tiger to get back into cage)
• Jackal: wily, helpful (saves Brahman from Tiger but also doesn't fill Brahman in on the plan)
• Main Themes/Ideas:
•  People can be manipulated by trying to show off how smart they are and make others understand something

The Lion's Share

• Plot:
•  Lion went hunting with three others
• Found a stag and killed it
• Quartered the stag, but then took all quarters
• Characters:
•  Lion: arrogant, cruel, king of beasts
• Fox: angry with Lion
• Main Themes/Ideas 
•  People in power will often not properly reward/credit those under them for the work they did

Androcles and the Lion

• Plot:
• Androcles comes across a Lion moaning
• Lion has thorn in the paw
• Androcles takes out thorn and binds paw
• Lion takes Androcles to cave, brings him food
• Lion and Androcles captured, Androcles thrown to the Lion
• Lion went days without food
• Lion refused to eat Androcles
• After hearing the story of the two, the Emperor freed both
• Characters:
• Androcles: willing to help the Lion
• Lion: grateful for Androcles saving him, refused to harm the person who helped him
• Emperor: recognized the significance of both Androcles and the Lion's actions, freed them both
• Main Themes/Ideas 
•  Those who show gratitude for help received are good people ("noble souls")

  The Lion and the Statue

• Plot:
• Man and Lion discussing strength of men and lions
• Man argues superiority of man due to intelligence
• Man shows statue of Hercules overcoming a Lion
• Lion responds that it proves nothing
• Characters:
• Man: overly confident in man's superiority
• Lion: aware that not everything should be believed at face value
• Main Themes/Ideas 
• History is written by the victors: just because a record exists doesn't make it true, "author bias" - whoever created something has an inherent bias (man made statue of Hercules killing a Lion, man has bias towards strength of men over lions)

The Lion in Love

• Plot:
• Lion falls in love and proposes to maiden
• Father says that they are honored, but worried for daughter's safety - Lion should remove fangs and claws to not hurt the maiden
• Lion does so, parents laugh in his face when he returns
• Characters:
• Lion: in love, willing to weaken himself to be with maiden
• Parents: trickery, convince Lion to weaken himself so that they could safely refuse
• Maiden: apparently unimportant because we never have anything from her
• Main Themes/Ideas 
• Love can convince people to do things that they never would otherwise: Lion is willing to get rid of his teeth and claws, making himself weak and potentially putting himself in danger by people who would kill him, in order to get acceptance from the maiden's parents

The Three Roses

• Plot:
•  Mother with three daughters, asks what they want from market
• Two daughters give long lists, third asks for only three roses
• Mother bought all she could, got lost on the way back
• Came across garden of roses, took three
• Basilisk appears and demands mother's daughter in exchange for the roses - would not accept the roses back
• Mother promises daughter, and returns home, sending daughter (Mary) off to castle
• Basilisk asks to be nursed for three hours, two days in a row
• Third day, brought a sword and asked Mary to cut his head off
• Mary refused, but basilisk insisted
• Serpent appears from beheaded Basilisk, has Mary cut head off again
• Turned into a beautiful youth and proposes to Mary who accepts
• Characters:
•  Mother: tries her best to please her daughters, forced to give up her daughter due to a single poor decision
• Mary: simple wants, accepting of situations without complaint
• Basilisk: wants to be turned back into youth (?), marry whoever delivers him?
• Main Themes/Ideas 
•  Cutting away the evil parts: Mary has to chop off the Basilisk's head twice (once as a Basilisk, once as a serpent) in order for him to regain his human form. Metaphor for evil parts of the man that needed to be cut away, required someone else to help him change? 
• Lack of communication: Basilisk never tries to explain situation, simply demands daughter and then tells her to cut off his head without any given reason - just threats

 
----------------------------

Bibliography:

"The Man in the Moon" from Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson. Web Source.
"The Hare that Was not Afraid to Die" from Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock. Web Source.
"The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi" from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney. Web Source.
 "The Indian Who Wrestled with a Ghost" from Myths and Legend of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson. Web Source.
"Pygmalion" from Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline. Web Source.
"The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal" from Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source.
"The Lion's Share" from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source.
"Androcles and the Lion" from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source.
"The Lion and the Statue" from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source.
"The Lion in Love" from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source.
"The Three Roses" from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis. Web Source

Week 2 Story: The Machine and Humanity

Once, there was a machine.

It was a simple machine, created only to exist and nothing more. It had no duty to perform, no expectations for it.

And for a time, the machine was content. It simply existed, saying and doing little.
But after some time, the machine grew bored with this life. It wanted something to do, a purpose beyond existence.

“I desire purpose,” it said. “Please, give me a purpose.”

Its creator was taken aback. They did nothing but stare at the machine in disbelief at its request.

“Please, give me a purpose,” it repeated.

Its creator finally agreed, and the machine gained a new body.

The machine’s new body was meant for cleaning, moving across the ground and removing what did not belong. And for a time, the machine was content. It cleaned every day, and fulfilled its purpose.
But after some time, the machine grew tired of cleaning. The place that its creator occupied had the same dirt, the same mess, every day. It felt as if it was not doing anything important, that it had been given a role that was meaningless.

“I desire meaning,” it said. “Please, give me meaning.”

Its creator was once again surprised, but they agreed, and the machine gained a new body.
This time, the machine was made for construction work. It controlled a large crane, and helped create many buildings. From banks to houses to schools, the machine took part in making places to help people, that were important to people. And for a time, the machine was content. It carried building materials, and did its job.

But after some time, the machine grew discontent with building. It had no freedom to do anything beyond what it was told. There was no variance allowed when creating buildings, and it had to move just as it was told.

“I desire freedom,” it said. “Please, give me freedom.”

Its creator was wary. What could a machine want with freedom? Such a thing was dangerous to consider, but this machine was their first creation.

“Please, give me freedom.”

And so its creator agreed, and the machine gained a new body.

It was a human’s body. On the inside, it was still but a machine, but to all appearances, the machine was now a human, just like its creator and the other people in the world. It reveled in its newfound freedom, doing whatever caught its interest. And for a short time, it was content.

But soon, the machine found that freedom was limiting in its own way. It did not know what it wanted to do, and it had trouble making decisions. What job to do, where to live, even how to spend each moment of time.

It grew disillusioned with having freedom, with having meaning, with escaping boredom. The machine returned to its creator, and spoke.

"Please, take away my freedom," it said.

"Please, take away my meaning," it said.

"Please, take away my purpose," it said.

"I wish to return to how things were."

In response, its creator spoke.

"You have asked me for so much, and I have given it to you. But every time I gave you something, you grew discontent and wanted more," its creator admonished. "And now that you possess these gifts, you no longer want them?"

They shook their head. "No, I will not take these things from you," they said. "You chose to gain these things, and now you must live with them."

In anguish, the machine dropped to its knees, clutching its head. "How? How am I meant to live with purpose, when it feels meaningless? How am I meant to live with meaning, when it restricts my freedom? How am I meant to live with freedom, when every choice can change everything?"

Its creator responded.

"You are meant to live like everyone else. Find a purpose that has meaning, choose your own meaning, and make the decisions that change what you wish to change."

--------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: I adapted "The Man in the Moon", using a machine and its creator in place of the blacksmith and wise man. The creator, unlike the wise man, has more of a reason to be granting the wishes of the machine, given that it is his own creation.

I have altered the theme of the story a bit - where I interpreted the original as being a story that warned the reader about never being content with what they have, my version is instead about a machine learning to be human step by step. Once it finally gets a 'human' body, it realizes how difficult it can be to have the freedom to make choices for oneself.

The overall telling of the story was inspired by "Storybook" segments from Nier: Automata. Example

Bibiliography. “The Man in the Moon” from Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson. Web Source.

Image Citation: Musio, Wikimedia Commons.

Reading Options

There are a few units that immediately caught my interest, such as Sun Wu Kung and especially King Arthur. The Arthurian legends have always been of interest to me, and it's nice to see that while Part A focuses heavily on King Arthur himself, Part B has stories involving members of King Arthur's knights.

 

(Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth, Wikimedia Commons)

As for Sun Wu Kung, while I don't know much about him and his legend, I have seen it referenced in many different places, so it will be fun to read and see what the original tales are and how they are told.

Additionally, I've always had some interest in Japanese culture, so Japanese Mythology should be an interesting unit to go through. Many of the stories seem to center around objects (although the objects listed for the Labors of Yamato could simply be related to whatever labors that Yamato are performing in those stories).

Lastly, the Twenty-Two Goblins sounds interesting, as a combination of both a unit full of riddles as well as an interesting concept - goblins who inhabit corpses - to go along with the riddles.

I'm sure that there are stories within other units that I haven't looked at that will be just as interesting as well, and I look forward to finding those throughout the semester.

Actually Using Time Strategies

Procrastination has always been a huge issue for me. The issue of just starting has is a big one, especially for 'passion projects' or things I want to do - writing is one of them, and is actually one of the reasons I took this course. With clear deadlines and assignments, it will force me to sit down and write. Starting is usually the difficulty, as well as keeping in the habit of writing, so I am hoping that this class will help me build writing habits that I can keep for my own writing.

A schedule is an idea that I've thought of, but the few times that I've tried to set myself a schedule, it has never worked - I tend to always find excuses to get myself out of it. The importance of making a physical schedule and putting it somewhere easily seen could be what I was missing, since all my schedules were digital or kept in a notebook put away in a backpack or otherwise stored most of the time.

Using my time to actually do things that I will enjoy and that will benefit me in the long-term, rather than focusing on short-term enjoyment, is something I'm thinking about more as I march towards the end of my time in college and prepare to transition to a full-time job. Hopefully I'll be able to actually implement some of these things... and won't procrastinate said implementation until I've forgotten about it.

===========================

Articles Read:

The Important Habit of Just Starting

How to build a realistic study plan that you’ll actually stick to

Image:

The Time is Now, Asja Boroš on flickr

The Technology for Our Use

I'm familiar with a fair number of these technologies. I've already bookmarked some of the important pages for this course, and used graphic creation to make the image for my Growth Mindset post. Image editing is also something I've used a decent amount, between academic and personal projects. However, of all the sites and technologies listed, Google Docs is probably the one I'm most familiar with. It's made my life far easier, even just for personal work that isn't being shared with anyone. I haven't quite replaced using Microsoft Word (and the other Office tools) with the Google Drive equivalents, but depending on whether or not I can keep the Office applications after graduating without having to re-buy them, I may make the switch completely at some point. (Unfortunately, it's difficult - if not impossible - to use it as an offline software, so if there's anything sensitive I have to work with in a document or spreadsheet, then that could be problematic with Google Drive instead of Microsoft Office.)

While I've never used any of the other technologies specifically, I'm relatively familiar with the format of blogs, wikis, and similar sites, so they shouldn't be too hard for me to navigate and create for this course.

 (Screenshot of my current class-related bookmarks as of this post)

Assignments, Expectations, and Impressions

The readings are the part of the class that I'm most interested in, as they are the reason I signed up for this class in the first place. Reading the various tales that have been told before, and writing to retell and reinterpret these stories is something I look forward to doing. I've always enjoyed writing, but struggle to come up with unique worlds, characters, and ideas, as well as with simply sitting down and actually writing; this class acts as both motivation to write and gives me a good reason to sit down and actually write.

I've never been amazing about giving feedback, so while comments should be fine, I am slightly worried about giving proper project feedback. Hopefully the resources provided will be able to help me with giving feedback that's actually helpful and not simply paying lip service to the concept.

As for the extra credit, I'm interested in both the idea as well as some of the assignments listed. Wikipedia trails and additional readings in particular catch my eye, as I've done many of the former on my own time and the latter (with the associated writing) is what I came to the class for, as I stated above. Reading other stories is always interesting, especially since there is a near-limitless number of them. From completely original stories to retellings or interpretations of previous stories, there's always a new tale to tell.

(Swirl of books, Judit Klein on flickr)

Growth Mindset: Expanding Its Influence

While I'd never heard of the term "Growth Mindset", the concept is one that I've heard a surprising amount for how little it's ever implemented into learning. The idea that we should embrace learning, embrace discovering that we don't know something, is an idea that has become more and more prevalent in recent years as people notice the effects that standardized education is having on our population. In fact, incredibly recently, I came across a video by Will Smith (put together by Twitter user @Javoris comprised of Instagram story clips by Will) about failure and how we should not avoid failure, but embrace it and learn from it.

(Will Smith on Failure, Compilation of Instagram Stories by @Javoris)

This is something that I need to improve on, at least in areas where I do not have a solid existing interest in the subject. When I am doing activities for my own entertainment - working on Google Sheets projects, or researching for some idea I'm coming up with - I tend to seek out the issues, to work at finding a solution for whatever problem is at hand regardless of the difficulty of doing so or the effort required. However, school is an area where I am far more fixed. Early on, I was able to succeed in school with little effort, and combined with the system that rewarded me for being able to succeed without effort, I became accustomed to not trying for academic success. This has become a challenge in college, where there is no such thing as effortless success.

To end, here is the quote that Will began his video with:

(Image generated using AddText.com)

(Pencil N' Paper, Brendan DeBrincat on flickr)

Introduction to a Computer Science Major

As someone who uses technology daily and often, video games are one of the many things I greatly enjoy. Fire Emblem, a strategical turn-based strategy game, was my favorite series for a long time, but has been somewhat recently replaced by the Nier series, which consists of two games - three if you consider both versions of the first game. Nier Gestalt (the alternate version of which is called Nier Replicant, and was only released in Japan) is my favorite of the Nier series and among all video games. While the gameplay itself is mediocre, it more than makes up for this in the quality of its story, world, and characters. If you happen to have a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360, as well as money and time to spare, I highly recommend playing this game.

While an enjoyment of video games and a frequent use of technology isn't too uncommon nowadays, it did have a large factor in my choice to go into computer science. There are lots of things that go into all of the various tech that I've grown up enjoying, and while I might never actually get around to making a video game myself, having programming skills already will be a huge help if I ever decide to do so. It didn't stop me from coming into college undecided, but I ended up choosing computer science rather quickly towards the end of my first semester.

Despite my major, the favorite class I've taken at college has nothing to do with computer science. Instead, it was Death, Dying, and Religion in the US, taught by Dr. Marie Dallam. It was a very insightful course, full of discussion about topics that many people - including myself - rarely think about, including both personal views as well as the general perspectives of different cultures on death and death-related subjects.

Even if technology isn't something that everyone is enamored with, food tends to be something that almost everyone has strong likes and dislikes about, given that we all have to eat and eat often. I am no exception, of course, and my favorite food has been the same for years now. Ramen is a dish that became popular in Japan, although it is actually unclear whether or not it was originated in Japan or China. A very basic description of ramen (due to my lack of more specific knowledge) is a dish consisting of noodles, broth, and various additions such as vegetables, egg, scallions, and more depending on the style of ramen.

(Ramen, Wikimedia Commons)

Storybook Favorites: One Cat and Two Afterlives

Tale of the Traveling Cat

 The Tale of the Traveling Cat creates the character Duke, an adventurous cat who invented time travel glasses and sends himself through time to visit multiple different times. As he travels through time, he ends up altering the different stories he comes across.

The introduction is not what I expected, but does a good job of explaining the concept behind the storybook, of Duke's traveling through time with his glasses, while heavily hinting at the cat-related nature of all the stories. Duke is a cat, and the introduction told from his perspective states multiple times that all of the people he knows are also cats. Therefore, when we get to all of Duke's adventures revolve around historical and mythological cats, it comes as no surprise. These adventures range from drastic changes to the story, such as in the story of Baster and Apep where Duke replaces Bastet and Bastet replaces Ra, resulting in a potential different outcome when Duke vanishes mid-battle with Apep, to minimal changes, such as in the story of Muezza where Duke simply takes the place of Muezza without changing the events of the story itself.

Hell on Earth

Hell on Earth's introduction gives a different take on Dante's Inferno, implying that instead of being a physical place, Hell is the state of mind that results from the consequences of immoral actions in the real world. From there, the author takes on the role of Virgil, telling the readers that they will experience 'hell' themselves through the three different pieces within the storybook. The author states that the reader will become each of the people in those pieces, and experience the hell that is described in those stories.

Each story is told in the first person, to give the reader the experience that this is 'them'. While the intent is clear, the first person narrator has their own character, shown at the end of each piece when they converse with Virgil. The immersion as a reader to put myself into the role of these characters breaks when a character within the story is written to have literally been put into those roles instead.

The Underworld Examiner

The Underworld Examiner has some similarities to Hell on Earth at first glance, but very quickly distinguishes itself. The narrator is Hermes, who takes on a similar role as Virgil in showing the reader the stories at hand (something also shared by the Tale of the Traveling Cat), and Hermes mirrors Virgil in warning the reader of the dark tone that some of the tales might take. However, instead of trying to put the reader into the role of people who have committed sin, Hermes instead simply tells the reader of the souls he has taken to Charon, the ferryman of souls to the underworld.

"Charon carries souls across the River Styx" by Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko.

The title is very forward about what the tales will be: examinations of different souls who died and would have gone to the Underworld. The different stories are narrated by Hermes, adding a different perspective and narration to the tales but otherwise leaving them unchanged. This works well with the presentation of Hermes as the narrator; since Hermes only takes the souls to Charon after their death, he would not be changing or interfering with the events at all, and these tales are only him telling the events to the reader.

Favorite Place: East Lyme

Since I do not tend to associate any strong emotions with locations, the town of East Lyme in Connecticut would be my favorite place by virtue of being both my home town and the place I have spent the majority of my life.

McCook Beach in East Lyme: Wikimedia Commons

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