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Showing posts from February, 2021

Microfiction: To Live or Die

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 To live only to die, or dying only to live. For this is the question that will decide my life.  For I am a long dog, commonly placed in a hot dog bun for laughs.  For I am white and black, and squirm when I take a bath. For when I play tug of war, I might yelp in pain. For my back it might break apart, and damage I will sustain. For when I play with my humans, my life is made. For I will continue this way, because without I will have no parade. To die only to live, For this is my wish. I wrote this story out of love for my dachshund named ollie. He is the cutest dog, with his black spots and is the only white dachshund I have ever seen. It has been said to me that he is a piebald dachshund which is exceedingly rare. I wrote this poem as a reminder of the dangers dachshunds face doing activities normal to many other breeds. If dachshunds jump up and down, play tug of war, or participate in other activities that are strenuous on their backs they can become paralyzed. This will confine t

Story Book Plan

 The main ideas that I would write stories about and adventure through is the tales of Ragnar Lothbrok and his equally famous sons along with a story about their legendary gods. I would like to try to weave a story about the might of the gods into the stories of Ragnar and his sons because it is fabled that they are descended from the god Odin, and it would serve the reader as further justification as to why the story of these famous Vikings is so important. The first story will be the  Tale of Ragnar's sons , in which it details the rise of Ragnar to power after his father, Sigurd Hrings death, and his marriage to Aslaug in which his equally famous sons; Ivar, Ubbe, Hvitserk, Bjorn, and Sigurd are born. Ragnar later is killed in a snake pit by the Northumbrian King Aella. The sons set out to avenge their father and but the armies of England are too large. He then asked king Aella to give him Wergild, equal in todays terms as a life insurance payout. He then out smarts the king, ta

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  Veilside RX-7 from F&F Tokyo Drift Best Movie Cars Story Book Project

Week 5 Story: Wrongs Avenged by the Gods

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Wayne began the long journey home with his soldiers from the war for Ring World X-VII. During this war Wayne committed many atrocities and war crimes against the Xien People, that included the use of mustard gas, and explosive bullets. Despite the darkness that followed his name, he was the fiercest fighter known to have graced the battlefield. Often he withheld sacrifices to the gods in the name of greed after his victories. These actions caused him to fall from the graces that he once held from the gods, the gods set out to curse him. So they came to him in a dream, they showed a man crossing oceans of stars to meet a being no words could describe then in a flash of light he appeared on a beach where he came face to face with a three headed serpent that wished him to step into a fire. As he stepped into the fire he awoke with tears of blood running from his eyes and burns on his feet. Spooked from this strange interaction from the gods, he vowed to change his ways. This wanting to ch

Reading Notes: Homer's Odyssey Part B

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 Odysseus Reached the realm of hades and fulfilled each required sacrifice as told by Ceres upon his departure. Several ghost appeared to Odysseus as thousands of souls rushed out of the Erebus, the first was Elpenor, who died falling from the roof of Ceres great hall, whos only wish was to be remembered. Then appeared Odysseus's mother, after he appeared the ghost of Teiresias whom he sought prophesy from. Teiresias tells of the hard journey that is ahead, many of his men will perish. If greed overcomes him and his men, his perils will intensify and he will arrive home to no relief, his house in shambles. After hearing of the prophesy Odysseus converses with the ghost of his mother. She tells that his lands are as he left them, his wife still wed to him and longing for his return with love in her heart. She tells him that his father has fallen into despair, living a life equal to serfdom, and that she has died from sorrow and longing for the return of her son. He was visited by ma

Reading Notes: Homer's Odyssey Part A

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 The story starts with the telling of the people of Cyclopes, who by all accounts from the author are seen as lazy savages that rely upon the gods rather than build up a productive society. The people seek nothing as everything is provided to them, and they have no skilled workers to progress them through technologies as other civilizations. A traveling band of men came upon this island and sought to interact with the cyclopeans. These travelers wound up trapped inside the cave with him, and six of them were killed and eaten before the plan to escape came to fruition. The men devised a plan to get the cruel giant drunk and then stab him in the eye. The men then hid among the giants' sheep to escape down to their ship. Rowing away from the shore, the man shouted at the giant in great pride. The giant rushed out and threw a rock towards them swiftly bringing them close to the shore. The men came upon another island, the Island of Ceres. They once again sought to meet a stranger, desp

Microfiction: 300 Spartans x2

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Death of Peace Three hundred Spartans gathered in the Hot Gates facing an army thousands to their size, their backs facing toward their home, wifes, daughters, and sons. The men knowing their demise imminent rushed forward yet. The formation in their phalanx second to none, slaughtering wave after wave of enemies to the point you could no longer step on solid ground. Yet, the Spartans had lost no one. Xerxes Stood up from his golden throne carried by a number of exotic slaves. He cried out "Leonidas! When you are defeated, I shall spit upon you and take your wife as my slave!". Leonidas in a moment of rage, stepped out from behind the phalanx and thrust his spear at Xerxes killing him. Artist Rendering of The Battle of Thermopile Wikipedia Wish it, Want It , Receive It? Xerxes wished dishonor upon spartan men. He himself was among those dishonored. I picked the Battle of thermopile because I like the movie, The 300, and the historical event it is based upon. I choose to writ

Feedback Strategies

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 Giving constructive feedback and not just praise is definitely a hard thing to accomplish. I think it is partly to do with how society has become with PC culture, so that we cant criticize others. And as was mentioned in the assignment description that it is emotionally difficult to put just the right amount of praise & critique.   In the article Messages that help kids grow , they talk about replacing simple praises with the reasoning behind why we are praising. This helps kids understand why they succeeded in a task and what process they can use to succeed in the future. The Article Giving Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk , talks about the aforementioned delicacy of giving feedback, especially if its negative. When you give positive feedback to someone they often discard it as being insincere, and if you give to much positive feedback they might gloss over the negatives because you didn't focus on them. Some helpful tips to have people better receive your criticism is to le

Topic Research: Norse Mythology and The Legend of Ragnar Lothbrok & Sons

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I have really enjoyed watching the show Vikings over the last few weeks, so I am going to choose to do my project over the stories over Norse Mythology and the Legends of Ragnar and his Sons, who are the most famous Viking family to come from that age.  The first story will be the Tale of Ragnar's sons , in which it details the rise of Ragnar to power after his father, Sigurd Hrings death, and his marriage to Aslaug in which his equally famous sons; Ivar, Ubbe, Hvitserk, Bjorn, and Sigurd are born. Ragnar later is killed in a snake pit by the Northumbrian King Aella. The sons set out to avenge their father and but the armies of England are too large. He then asked king Aella to give him Wergild, equal in todays terms as a life insurance payout. He then out smarts the king, taking the considerable prize of the entire city of York as compensation. After this, the brothers with their armies attack the whole of England, and they capture and kill king Aella by blood eagle. The next stor

Week 3 Story: The War for Earth, A Halo Story

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The Prophets Truth, Regret, and Mercy were shown by the forerunners a planet of blue and green that held many secrets for the great journey. The great journey as told by the prophets is to activate halo rings, in order to release the divine winds and elevate those worthy to godhood. The prophets whisked away their covenant armies to Earth, seeking to capture the untold secrets that lie untouched below the surface. The covenant army reached earth and began decimating the inhabitants while excavating large areas searching for the untold secret. The secret came to be known as a forerunner portal instillation that would take the covenant to a ring world. Along the death and destruction, the covenant activated the portal and went through it. Prophets; Truth, Mercy, and Regret Halopedia A new breed of soldier was born during this time, and the best among them was called Master Chief. Earth swore to use this new soldier to exact revenge upon the covenant and their leaders. The UNSC Fleet comm

Reading Notes: Homer's Illiad Part B

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We start from last time at war for Troy, Achilles had withheld from fighting in this battle over disputes with Agamemnon. Patroclus had taken the place of Achilles to lead his men in battle, but had fallen in a bout against Hector & Sarpedon. Both sides wished to retrieve the body of Patroclus and many men died in the attempts. After retrieving the armor of Achilles, Hector put on Achilles armor and this angered Zeus who swore Hector would pay for this deed. Achilles eventually heard news of Patroclus's death and wept. With courage from the words of the gods, Achilles made an appearance at the battle but didn't partake because he was without arms. Despite this, his presence stirred great fear in the enemies causing them to retreat three times. The Greeks were able to retrieve Patroclus' body. During the next day the Greeks sought to attack the city and its great walls. After the citizens and others had fled into city, only hector stood outside its walls. Achilles meet H

Reading Notes: Homer's Iliad Part A

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The war of troy is fabled to have started over a woman, this woman was Helen, a daughter of a spartan king. Helen was known to be the most beautiful woman in all the land, and every prince in Greece wished to marry her. The story begins its epic tale when prince Paris came and stole her away from her husband and whisked her back to the great city of Troy, an impenetrable city that stood against an occupation for nine years. During these nine years, the armies raided nearby towns and divided the spoils among them. A priest whose daughter had been captured during these times, wished to buy her back but was turned away. Angered this priest summoned the wrath of the gods and a plague of death fell upon all the creatures. Agamemnon was eventually forced to hand back the woman despite his best wishes, but in return he greedily took spoils from other chiefs. Achilles withdrew from his position of support to Agamemnon, along with his men  For Achilles no longer wished to fight besides someone

Feedback Thoughts

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     Feedback is something that everyone has a difficult time with, some have an even harder time with it. I would say I have a harder time with it than most. On things that I know how to do like academic work, programming, video games I have an easy time with because it comes natural to me. But for things like social relationships, I struggle at so I don't do it, essentially shutting my self away, which only serves to make the situation worse. This defense mechanism is something I try to work to overcome.       The article Why Rejection Hurts  talks about the need to eliminate self criticism as it only furthers the hurt created by rejection. Also, most rejections aren't in spite of you personally, they are just by chance or because the puzzle pieces didn't fall into place correctly. You can overcome this rejection by reaffirming to your self of the quality traits and skills that you do have.      Something else we commonly do when we receive negative feedback is rejecting

Topic Brainstorm

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     One possible storybook topic that I like is the story of Oedipus , but there are so many different retellings I'm having a hard time finding an original source to read it from. I read this story once in a humanities class, and it was my favorite story that we read the entire semester. The whole plot line of this story is interesting to me, as the main character goes out of his way to avoid a prophesy he has been told. This prophesy comes true anyways as if it is fated to happen no matter what. I might retell this story a different time period such as today, and I would want to learn more about the history of this story.     Another possible storybook topic is the telling of the Trojan Horse, from the Aeneid by Virgil , that the Greeks used to take the city of troy. It is still debated to this day whether this horse actually existed or not. I like this story because it has so much you could do with it, it could be remixed a million time not tire of its story. You could retell t

Week 2 Story: The First Car

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     Ragnar was at the beginning of life at the young age of sixteen, he was the youngest child in a family of five. Him and his brothers, Ivar and Hitsvek, where all born as triplets, which is exceedingly rare. The day after their sixteenth birthdays their parents asked what car they wanted as their first. Ivar said he wanted a Corvette C8, and Hitvek said he wanted a Lamborghini Aventador. When the question came to him he said I just want a Mazda 3, a simple car that is cheap and gets me from point A to point B. The parents were shocked at every answer, but nonetheless they said they will try to satisfy everyone's wishes.       The parents went down to Dallas Texas, a land where the cars are cheap, to scour the market. When they arrived they saw the prices of the vehicles requested and asked how could someone afford these expensive cars. Nonetheless, they bought the Lamborghini and Corvette even though they couldn't afford it to make their kids happy. Then they sought out a M

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

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  The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis is a Czech fairy tale about a woman who wants for little compared to the other women in her world. Despite this, she herself is thrust into a seemingly terrible situation in which she must face the consequences of someone else actions. This speaks to the audience as this is a normal occurrence in daily life, often we find ourselves at the hands of the unfair winds of life that blow riches to one and bury another in sand. The character accepts the unfairness of life and works through the hardships to make life as good as she can. In the end after dispersing what appears to be a curse on another character, she comes into untold riches. This story was interesting to me as it had a balance in story telling of real life and the usual fairy tale things happening. Not only does this keep the story grounded theme wise in the possible, it allows the readers to imagine a world where the impossible is possible. This story is synonymous with the beauty and the be

Week 2 Reading Overview

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Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4. Week 3: Homer's Iliad Week 4: Homer's Odyssey Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5: Tales of a Parrot Week 6: Twenty-Two Goblins Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.] Week 7: Japanese Mythology Week 9: The Monkey King Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11. Week 10: Cherokee Week 11: British North America Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13. Week 12: Robin Hood Week 13: Celtic Tales Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15. Week 14:  Lang 1 Week 15: Inferno I am excited to reread the stories of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, I read them in the past for a humanities class. There are so many lessons and ways to think of things hidden in these stories, some are hidden so deep in takes many readings to eventually discover.  I was surprised to find that the character Puss in Boots from Shre