Very LAST Famous Last Words week 15

So I have not been able to finish this class like I had planned on (finishing more posts and readings and my storybook project). BUT this was due to my son making his way into this world 3 weeks earlier than I had expected! It has been a crazy couple of weeks but I am so thankful for awesome professors to help me finish their classes with passing grades! This class's extra credit work has really paid off and this blog post will set me in the A range point wise. I was meaning to finish my storybook and add the last story which would tie everything together and get a grand conclusion to the character I created but unfortunately it would take hours of creativity and brain power that I just don't have at the moment. Finals week is upon us and with a two year old and a newborn (who does not sleep at night only during the day) it is really crazy even finding time to study. I am really surprised though that my storybook made it to our little nominations for most creative, because of this I feel like I owe it to everyone to add that last story - so I intend on doing so after finals are over if you guys feel like reading!
Here's a picture of my little love bug :)

taken from screenshot on phone

He was born on the 13th and weighed 6lbs 2oz, 19 1/2 inches long! Name: Dekker Britton Rodgers. I went into work that morning with some crazy contractions I thought were Braxton hicks... negative. Went back to work a week and a half later so I guess I am a workaholic but the holidays are here and $$ is scarce.

 

 

I could sit here all day and talk about this little guy but I will stop there. I hope everyone has a great break after finals are over!!!

 

 

 

Reading Diary (Khasi Folktales Unit): Week 13

I chose to read from the Khasi Folktales Unit by Mrs. K. U. Rafy this week. Accessed here.

'The Tiger and the Monkeys' told the story about how the tiger became ultimately scared of the monkeys after a misunderstanding on the tiger's part. I found it quite a funny story since the tiger is made ruler of the animals based on his strength instead of his knowledge and he ends up being quite gullible. After the tiger heard the insect making the beautiful music he wanted to know who it came from and a monkey tricked the tiger and said it was his sister. The monkey clan could either go along with this lie or tell the tiger of this trickery since he clearly believed it and wanted to marry 'her'. The monkeys gained a lot from this debacle I think because in the end, the tiger thought he killed their sister even though it was a fake sculpture made by the monkeys to trick the tiger and had her head fall off easily. The tiger avoids the monkeys and the monkeys like the power this gives them. So it goes to show that sometimes it is better to have more brain than brawn.

'The Legend of the lei Tree' was interesting to me because it included a tree like the story before it (where the tiger rested under and heard the beautiful music made by the insect) and it also included a tiger, which was in the first story as well. So these two stories could easily be blended together I think and make up a cool storytelling post. The tree is thought to have magical powers that make everything around it dead (but this is from its great height and the shade cast rejects light from the undergrowth) and so men are sent to chop it down but every night the tree seems to be un swathed from the chop marks from the day before. The secret is told (from a small bird) that it is from a tiger that comes every night and licks the place where the tree is cut and heals it. After the men know this, the tiger's tongue is cut after licking it the next night and so he doesn't come back. The men then are able to cut the tree down and return sunshine.

'Hunting the Stag Lapalang' is one of my favorite folktales so far. It hits close to home since I am a mother myself and this story is centered on the power of a mother's love/heartache. Quick synopsis: A young deer is so loved by his mother that she shelters him from the world so long that he wants more freedom and so he ventures and is seen by men and after many start to try and hunt him, he is arrowhead down and killed. The mother wonders why her son is taking so long on his voyage to get food and she asks around and learns of his death. Her heartbreak is so powerful and sad it causes the whole city to feel her pain and realize they do not mourn for their own loved ones enough like this so that is why we mourn the loss of our loved ones today with a funeral and ceremonies alike. A mother's love is very great and I could feel her loss through the story, it made me think of the film Bambi in reverse and I realize that movie is sad but it could be sadder like this.

'U Biskurom'. I had read a storytelling post that was related to this story and I am glad I got to read it myself this time. The name is quite odd in my opinion, I'm not sure if the U is included as a first name or his whole first name is U Biskurom. I guess this goes to show the different culture I am used to. Relating to the actual story, it is quite the eye opener for how human nature is and this story tries to explain why we have death and no bringing the dead back to life. The persistent nagging and ill will towards U Biskurom after he would not tell them the secret of life. He was sent there to teach them to use tools and he left because they were much more crazy than the gods thought. The contrast between Gods and Humans is seen in this story I think, at least a glimpse.

Einstein Tech Tip

Indian Fairy Tales Unit Story Analysis Essay: Week 12, Tricksters and Fools

In the unit ‘Indian Fairy Tales’ by Joseph Jacobs, there are a lot of stories that include the characters meant to be tricksters and fools. In ‘The Cruel Crane Outwitted', the trickster is at first the crane who tricks the fish from a drying pond to jump into his mouth on the promise that he would take them to a fuller pond and let them in there. The fish were reluctant to believe the crane at first but after some tricks they believed his words and hopped in his mouth one by one as the crane flew to the other pond and had each one as a snack. The fish were obviously the fools at this point in the tale. The crane though, greedy for more deceit tried to do the same to a crab that resided in the drying pond. The crab however, thought ahead and was able to have a plan in case the crane double crossed him. Which is smart, making him the trickster instead because the crane did end up trying to trick the crab. The crane was shown no mercy and was killed after he pleaded for his life and let the crab go into the pond. A similar tactic was shown in the fairy tale ‘The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal’ where ultimately the tiger was the trickster who preyed on the brahman who was the fool. At the end of the story is where the jackal was the best trickster, much like the crab, because he turned the original trickster into a fool. The tiger was tricked back into the cage in which the brahman foolishly let him out of. Lucky for the brahman, the jackal was a ‘good trickster’. I think there are good tricksters and bad tricksters in these tales because the tricksters who trick the fools deserve to be tricked themselves and are by the ‘good tricksters’. Those are just two of the stories that I found to be similar in nature regarding tricksters and fools in this unit. There are many other fairy tales however that include a trickster and a fool and also like I was explaining, good and bad tricksters. The story of Harisarman is a good read as well in this unit because it included an ‘accidental trickster’ who gets lucky in his trickery and is never played to be a fool by a ‘good trickster’.

artwork by John D. Batten from BlogSpot.com 

 

Storytelling for Week 12: Don't let your pumpkin upset your mother.

There once was a boy who had mastered the art of pumpkin carving. He had carved pumpkins every year with his mother ever since he could remember, gaining much experience along the way. This Fall, the boy had decided to enter one of his creations into the annual pumpkin carving contest his town put on. The winner of this contest would receive a ride along lawn mower. The boy and his mother lived on a plot of land with a lot of acres and one of his chores was cutting the grass when it grew too tall. A lawn mower he could ride would be perfect for him!

After crafting a beautiful carving depicting a castle being attacked by a dragon, the boy sat back to admire his work. After staring at the castle for a few minutes he began to daydream about winning the contest.

castle and dragon pumpkin carving found at deviantart.com

The boy thought:
When I win, the townspeople will be cheer but be so jealous at the same time! That mean old Jacob Jr. will be so surprised he did not win this year. I will take home my prize to momma and never complain about mowing the grass again. Until the engine breaks, then I will have to take it to the mechanic down the street. Since he does not get a lot of lawn mowers in his shop he will not know how to fix it and I will have to break it apart and trade the parts in. I will trade the parts in at the scrap yard for a bike so I won't have to walk to school everyday. The bike will make me look so cool! After a couple years I will trade in my bike for a motor scooter, paying the rest with allowance money. The scooter will surely get me a girlfriend in high school and she will want to marry me. When I reject her and tell her I want to live with my momma the rest of my life she will get angry with me. After storming off she will go to my momma's house and bang on the door yelling for her to come out and speak with her. I do not like it when my momma is upset by anyone because she goes in her room for days and does not come out. I don't want my high school girlfriend making my momma cry and stay in her room!

After angering himself over this thought, the boy picked up his pumpkin and threw it to the ground. The creation that was sure to win at the contest was now a pile of yuck. The boy ran inside and hugged his momma, whom he would make sure never got upset by his high school girlfriend.

Author's Note: I based my story off of the Indian fairy tale titled "The Broken Pot" in the Indian Fairy Tale Unit by Joseph Jacobs. In this fairy tale, there is a Brahman who saved up a pot of rice and he began to think about what to do with it. He eventually traded the rice up to earning a house with wings. Then his daydreaming gets shifted towards obtaining a wife and then a child and how he would then tell the child to come to him one day and he would get mad at the wife because the child would be too close to danger so he ends up breaking the pot of rice when kicking his wife in his daydreams. I thought this was such a crazy fairy tale I had to re-create it with a modern twist. I used a little boy because I thought the Brahman resembled a little boy in his thinking and ill temper. I tried not to drift towards getting money as a trading up source to keep with the theme from the fairy tale. Ultimately, I needed something to have the boy destroy that he thought was the starting point of his final trade that led to his anger. After writing this story I realized both the fairy tale and my story reminded me of a cable commercial (I forget for which service) that creates this same kind of ridiculous thinking and that is where the title comes from. I thought it was pretty funny how some people can lead to conclusions that are so far from where they begin.

Reading Diary (Indian Fairy Tales Unit): Week 12

I chose to read from the Indian Fairy Tales Unit by Joseph Jacobs this week. Accessed here.

The fairy tale 'The Broken Pot' was quite interesting. I thought that the young boy had a great imagination going from a pot of rice to thinking up to kicking his wife and thus kicking the rice bowl. At first, his intentions of saving the rice in the pot made sense in terms of saving and trading up. Much like how adults try to sell commodities for other commodities of more value leading to a goal of gaining something worth a lot more than they start with. The boy lost me when he started thinking of how the rice would ultimately lead to gaining a wife then a child and then one day he would get the child to run to him and the kid would get too close to a horse and then he would kick his wife for allowing this, and this made him mad enough to actually kick the bowl of rice that got him started on this fixation to begin with. So now no rice, no goats, no cows, no bison, no horses, no house with wings, no daughter to marry, no son to be had, no kicking to be done to wife. I thought this was interesting and has a greater meaning that would be cool to bring out in a possible storytelling post this week.

The fairy tale 'The Cruel Crane Outwitted' had a surprising ending with a twist. At first, it is the crane that is the evil-doer and outwits the fish -even though the fish are suspecting at first-. Then he goes back for more, making him greedy after eating all those fish upon taking them to the other pond. Greed gets the best of him I think since the crab ultimately leads to the cranes death. I do not think the crane was too smart when he agreed to have the crab hold onto his neck to get to the pond, maybe he was too entranced with the possibility of eating him and was not thinking clearly. The crab was smart and had a backup plan in case the crane double crossed him but he kills the crane anyways after the crane surrenders so he doesn't have much character. The bystander watching all this go down is titled 'genius' in the tree, maybe because he is set away from this madness?

In the fairy tale 'The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal' the jackal comes to the Brahmans rescue by acting too stupid to understand the situation he was put in and the tiger is stupid enough to get back in the cage. So perhaps it was the Tigers stupidity and the jackals cleverness that helped the Brahman out of being tiger good. I think the stupidest one here though is the Brahman because he went on this journey and CAME BACK to the tiger even though he knew the tiger planned on eating him after he let him out the cage.

-I like how each fairy tale has an animal incorporated into it somehow. Some fairy tales from this unit are centered around talking animals, some only have animals in the background, but it is cool to see how there is a theme of animals that show up regardless such as goats or snakes.

Famous Last Words: Week 11

ONLY ONE MORE MONTH UNTIL MY DUE DATE!!
Time has definitely snuck upon me and I am getting so stressed and anxious. Getting ready for a newborn is one thing, but worrying about finishing college for the semester is another. AND trying to figure out how I am going to afford things without a job for 6 weeks, which includes Christmas time yikesssss. AND I have to figure out a babysitter for next semester until new baby can attend daycare. Ranting I know but I am so stressed.

Okay, onto something else. I liked the other reading option we were able to choose this week. I still did not do my storytelling assignment (no surprise there) but it was a nice break from the usual book readings. Since I am usually on my phone at work drying nap time, this was a great way for me to be productive. In my Black Arts Movement class we had an assignment taken off and given full credit to all students for unknown reasons so that was a blessing in disguise. In my sociological theory class we did not do much except go over PowerPoint's preparing us for the exam on Wednesday. He gave us the questions ahead of time from which he will choose 10/15 so that makes it less scary.

This past Friday I had an ultrasound appointment to check on the babies measurements since my doctor said I was measuring small for how far along I am. With my first baby this happened as well but baby was right on time and born with great stats. This time as well, the ultrasound showed nothing abnormal and the little guy is already 6 pounds! I think this was just a way for me to get to see his cute face :) 3D ultrasounds are super weird by the way but also pretty amazing.

I have been trying to cook more at home so I don't eat out as much and this weekend I made chili. Only thing I may have done wrong was when I defrosted the meat, I did not set it out long enough and the middle part was super frozen and I couldn't use it when I needed to start cooking. Won't make this mistake again! I wish my parents involved me a little more in cooking growing up so maybe I wouldn't be so ignorant in the kitchen haha

this is me, found on 20somethingallergies.com