Week 10 Extra Reading [Native American Marriage Tales B]

The Dog Husband

• A woman had children with her dog who would turn into a man at night. Creepy.
• Her family was so disgusted by her that they. along with the rest of her people, decided to move away. 
• The crow took pity on her and decided to help her by telling her how to make fire.
• She eventually gave birth to four male and one female pups.
• She also finds out that they are able to become human and scold them to stay in that form. 
• The mother teaches them to hunt whales which gains the attention of the same raven. 
• The raven tells the others of the whales and come back. The sons become the chiefs of the village. 

The Youth Who Joined the Deer:

• A deer hunter followed a fresh track that led him to a woman and a child. The woman informs him that she had been longing for him for a while and to leave his wife and two children and marry her but could not have relations with her. Sounds like a great marriage. 
• He killed two deer for his family but it turns out to be his brother in laws.
• Turns out the ate their own kind but resurrected as deer. 
• The couple return to the land of the people and have a son who he teaches how to hunt deer. 

The Girl and The Turkeys

• There was once a poor woman who made her living raising turkeys. She loved the turkeys very much and treated them very well. Her kindness was much appreciated by the turkeys. 
• She really wanted to go to a festival but thought she was too ugly to go. Her turkeys helped her out. 
• This story reminds me of Cinderella. The turkeys hooked her up and asked her to not stay out too long. She went to the festival and danced with boys.
• Upset that their turkey maiden left, the turkeys left her captivity and the maiden went back to the poor woman she was, only now, without any turkeys.

The True Bride:

• A girl was so upset by her stepmother's attitude towards her that she leaves home.
• She wanders around and finds a home with four men. It turns out they were related to her. 
• She told them that she was poor so they gave her the power of spitting out gold. 
• She goes back to her house and her stepmother is jealous of her new powers. She sends out her own daughter to follow her tracks. She finds the house but she acted stuck up towards the men.
• When she returns to her mother she finds out that she spits out toenails. That is awesome.
• The girls ends up marrying a chief's son. She was named She-Who-Spat-Out-Gold. 
• The girl gives birth and has her stepmother as her midwife. She kills the babies and gives the woman a cat and snake as her children. 
• The stepmother tells him to kill his wife and marry her own daughter.
• The four men find out and save her life. They transformed her into a swan.
• The girl had a dog who took care of her supposedly dead babies. 
• The stepmother finds out and poison them but the children were saved by the dog once again. 
• The dog tells She-Who-Spat-Out-Gold's husband what happened. He had the stepmother and daughter publicly hung and took back his first wife. The lived happily ever after. 

Week 10 Storytelling: The Sun and the Star

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         Sun and Star were brother and sister and although they were as different as night and day, the pair were very close. Star noticed how her brother seemed to shine exceptionally in a certain region. After a bit of investigating, it was clear he seemed to fancy the younger daughter of the chief. For many months she watched her poor love struck brother pine after her. She studied the girl quite intensely and was pleased to find out that she was warm and radiant, much like her brother. Her sister however, was not. She was cold, distant, and materialistic. Wanting to make her brother happy, Star hatched up a plan to win the younger daughter's hand in marriage. Their frustrated father was fed up with their reluctance to marry the potential suitors so he set up a competition for their matrimony. One night, the two disguised themselves as poor peasants; Sun was disguised as a dirty boy and she, his grandmother. Sun was able to successfully win both contests by knocking an eagle off it's perch and trapping two fishers of two different colors. The only problem was that he now was able to marry both daughters.
         Knowing the older daughter was not good enough for her brother, she led a shining path to the Raven's house. The older daughter decided she would rather marry the ugly Raven then go back to the dirty boy. Star knew that the older daughter's vanity would get to her and would rather marry for wealth than love. Alas, Sun had the younger daughter all to himself, and as his wife no less. Star knew of the girl's good nature but she wanted to make sure she would be able to keep her vow of in sickness and in death. So she told the daughter to take care of her poor, dying husband during the day and return to her father's house at night. Star figured that if she kept coming back to her new home, she would take her new role as a wife seriously. This was no easy feat for the daughter for she was constantly ridiculed by her sister's new family. They flaunted their wealth that the poor boy could never compare to. But like a good wife, she did not notice them and kept attending to her husband. Sun was happy with the level of loyalty his new wife had and decided to show her their true forms where they lived happily ever after.

Author's note: I wanted to stay close to the story but wanted to focus on Star's intentions. This was based of the story Dirty Boy.

Reading Diary B [Heroes]

Lodge Boy and Thrown Away:

• Oh wow, so much gore in the first paragraph. This red woman is wicked. 
• I think its sad they call themselves after how the red woman left them. 
• The resurrect they mother. 
• Why does the father keep telling them to no go places knowing that the boys will disobey by not listening to him? Regardless, each time they do, they bring their parents back something.
• This story is seriously messed up. I sort of wish they took care of the red woman.

Cree man

The Jealous Father:

• Incestuous relationships. Wait, it is the step mother. Doesn't really make things better. 
• The jealous father deserts him. The boy finds his way back with the help of a walrus. The walrus ultimately died when the boy lied to him about thunder. 
• The powers of a mother's love.
• The blind hags ended up killing each other. 
• The boy found himself back home and killed his father. 
• Then he told his mom they should be birds.

Dirty Boy:

• Two daughters of a chief denied all of their suitors in marriage. Their father desperate to marry them off decided to hold a contest for their hand. The man who was able to shoot an eagle off ta perch would marry them (two shots). 
• Sun and Star disguised themselves as a dirty grandmother and a dirty boy. [Sun was the dirty boy and the grandma was star.]
• Sun shot the eagle off the perch but naysayers claimed the boy was not good enough for the women. The chief agreed and held another contest where the winner would get both daughters.
• The contest consisted of catching two fishers, one light and one dark. 
• The dirty boy caught the fishers and was able to marry the daughters. 
• The older daughter ended up marrying another while the younger daughter married dirty boy. 
• She stayed faithful to her new husband and star told his sister he wanted to tell her the truth. 
• Star became beautiful and Sun was handsome. He gave his wife a kettle, pushed her head inside the kettle so she could have stars on her body and he told her to pour the rest of the liquid out and it made a pathway to her father's house. 

Week 10 Reading Diary A [Heroes]

The Jealous Uncle:

• Why would he kill his nephews? Too bad the parents didn't have a girl.
• He is so evil even his wife tries to go against him. 
• Why didn't his parents explain the situation to the son? He was obviously smart enough to understand.
• I am glad the boy got away from all of his uncle's evil plans to kill him. I wonder why he tries to get rid of him by trapping him places instead of physically just  murdering him. 
• The boy eventually found his way to the Eagle land where he was able to marry the chief's daughter. 
• I am also glad that the boy was able to take his parents to his new home but I wonder what happened to the village after the boy was able to get rid of him. 

Blue jay and his Companions:

• The blue jay and his companions found themselves in a land that was not theirs.
• The inhabitants of the island kept doing competitions with them. 
• The blue jay beat the squirrel in climbing the pole, tricked the seal that it was the better diver, suffered the sweat house, and stayed up for four nights. 
• On the fifth night they snuck out in the night. They found themselves with good people that told them they were stranded with a bad lot.

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Week 9 Review

Oct. 26

I thought I was done with English class but this course has taught me some valuable lessons in my grammar and punctuality. In that, I really need to be better at it! Serious note though, what happened during the OSU homecoming was so unbelievably tragic. My thoughts go out to the victims.

Week 9 Tech Tip

I love wix. I really do. It seriously gives you so much room to be creative. I know everyone is pretty much set on their storybooks but just in case y'all might want to use it in the future, here is a cool feature. If you would like to start working on a page but not ready to publish it just yet, you have the ability to hide the page.

Personal photo

Just go to your pages navigation, click on the page you would like to hide, click on settings, and check off hide from menu.

Week 9 Growth Mindset

Have you ever studied so hard for an exam and you get your grade back like... womp, womp, womp. That happened to me this week. Though I am certain I will still make the grade I want, it still sucks. However, I saw this meme and it made me laugh and feel better.

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Week 9 Extra Reading [Hiawatha B]

Hiawatha and the Pearl Feather:

• This was sort of hard to read.
• The Pearl Feather is heavily guarded. He must have something good. I'm guessing pearls.
• Hiawatha was to slay the Pearl Feather to avenge an old woman's father. She also says that this thing is responsible for everything bad that happens.
• Hiawatha was able to get through all the obstacles to get to him and basically says that he is more bark than bite.
• He was wearing a magical shirt that does not penetrate the Pearl Feather.
• Hiawatha was told to target the roots of his tresses, kills him, and takes his shirt.
• He came home a hero and shared the treasures of the Pearl Feather equally throughout the people. 

Hiawatha's Wooing:

Minnehaha and Hiawatha

• Men and women are useless without the other. 
• The old woman warns him to marry one of them, not another from a different tribe.
• Alas, he didn't listen. He chose a woman (daughter of a arrow maker) from another tribe whom often they went to war with. His reasoning is that they could merge. 
• Minnehaha: best name ever. 
• He presented a red deer to her father to which he welcomed Hiawatha. 
• She listens to him and doesn't say a word. He asks her father in her hand in marriage. He agrees and takes her back home. 

Hiawatha's Wedding Feast:

• He basically had a good wedding. 
• The storyteller tells the next story.

The Son of the Evening Star:

• Osseo: son of the evening star, old and ugly
• Osseo marries Oweenie, a young woman with many suitors. He has a good personality.
• Somehoe, Osseo turns into a young handsome man and Oweenie, old and wrinkled. But he loved her just the same.
• Then her sisters turned into birds while Oweenie went back to being beautiful with a feather staff.
• They had a son with the beauty of Oweenie and the courage of Osseo.
• The story ends back to Hiawatha's wedding feast. 

Week 9 Reading Post B [Inuit]

Inuit Family

Papik, Who Killed His Wife's Brother:

• Papik was mad that his brother in law always caught a seal while fishing and his envy grew. 
• One day, he did not come back from hunting and his mother accused Papik for killing him. She vows to eat him alive. What?
• The old woman took her revenge on him by disguising him as a bear. It is told that when ever a man killed another for no reason, an evil spirit will come kill him and leave no part whole. 

Pat, Who Killed His Uncle:

• Pat was fonder of his uncle's wife than his own. 
• He killed his uncle and tried to kill his wife. His wife saw her husband kill his uncle and fled. He returned home, married his uncle's wife but she died. 
• One day he went hunting and struck a fox but it did not hit the animal. It ended up being the ghost of his uncle who kills him. 
• Punishment falls upon the man who kills.

The Wife Who Lied:

• A woman lied to her kinfolk saying that her husband's tribe mistreated her. Her kinfolk took revenge on the woman in the village for the men were away. 
• When the men returned, they took their revenge on the woman's tribe.
• When they captured the woman, she thought they were arguing about who was going to take her as a wife. 
• They cut her arms off and she died.
• Pretty brutal but she did basically kill half a village. 

Angangujak:

• A woman's child felt great dread that her child went missing. When she tells her husband he accuses her of killing him and tells her he would kill her. She begs him to try to find the child first.
• He finds him with the help of a wizard. His child was being taken care of by two people in the mainland. 
• His father takes him from the people's house and never went to the main land again. 

Tungujuluk and Saunikoq:

• Wizards who would turn into a bear and walrus. S was jealous of T for having a son. 
• S turned into a bear and tried to kill his son but T was there to wield his knife. He did not kill him but he remembered what S had done. 
• T made a fool out of S and shamed him out of the village. 

Week 8 Reading Diary A [Inuit]

The Coming of Men:

• It is interesting to see how different cultures believe how the world begun
• They focus on nature and the earth
• Death brought the sun, moon, and stars in which they become. 

Nukunguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak:

• Tupilak-monster created by magical being who uses it to create havoc
• Nukunguasik had a bunch of land where his brothers lived
• One of his brothers made a Tupilak to kill Nukunguasik but he stopped his brother who was so scared he died on the spot
• Nukunguasik and his brothers burried the Tupilak

The Woman Who Had a Foster Bear For a Son:

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• Poor little old lady. If that hunter would have just left him alone, she would have been able to keep him. 
• I am glad that the story ended with the bear being able to find his own kin. 

Isigaligarssik:

• A bad wizard took Isigaligarssik's wife away from him. 
• I am glad he was able to stand up for himself and challenge the wizard. 
• He won back his wife. 

The Giant Dog:

• The man looked at his dog like a son. So much so that he gave him an amulet meant for his child he did not have. 
• The dog ate humans. I must admit, even if he was my dog, I would have slept with one eye open. 
• Could it be possible that the dog was simply killing bad people? Vigilante dog, perhaps?

Week 8 Tech Tip

Embed a Pinterest Pin in a Blog Post

  

STEP ONE: Choose pin. Start by choosing the pin you want to embed. You need to have that pin's page open in one browser tab.

STEP TWO: Pin Builder. Next, open another tab in your browser and go to the Pinterest Widget Builder and choose "pin widget" on the left-hand menu, or else just follow this link: Pin Widget.

STEP THREE: Generate code. In the Pinterest Builder tab, paste in the web address (URL) of the pin you want to display and click "Build it!"  Then, just copy the code from the grey box and paste that into your blog post. For tips on copying and pasting HTML code, see the Embed Board Tech Tip.

STEP FOUR: Publish post. Now that you have pasted in the pin code, you are ready to publish your post! Did it work? If you see the embedded pin in your post, you're good to go! Make sure to include the phrase "Tech Tip: Embedded Pin" in your blog post title and use "Tech Tip" as the label on the post; then you can do the Declaration. 

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Week 8 Review

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Week 8 Growth Mindset

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Oh my gosh, that face, cracked me up. 

Reading Plan

Native American

Week 9: Inuit (Eskimo). The description had me hooked. I love supernatural characters like shamans and ghosts.
Week 10: Hero Tales. I like that it has a combination of animal and hero humans.

British

Week 11: Celtic Fairy Tales. Again, I was hooked by reading the description.
Week 12: Alice in Wonderland. I preferred this to Looking Glass because I love the Cheshire cat.

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European

Week 13: LibriVox/Grimm Brothers. Like I said on my reflections post, I like stories with audio so I can read along to it while listening. I figure I can listen to it before I go to bed, like when we were little! Just kidding...or am I??
Week 14: Hans Christian Anderson. Because of Little Mermaid.

Reflections: Looking Forward

      I am kicking my self for not working ahead. Especially for this class. I missed a week so I am pretty sure I will not be able to finish early. However, my goal for the second half is to definitely find the time to work ahead and really get those bonus points in. I'm really enjoying working on my story book and I have a vision in how I want to tell my character's stories. I think the next two weeks I want to focus on getting that on my site. I'm really excited about the European unit, it has stories from the Brother's Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.

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Reflections: Looking Back

       I honestly didn't think I wouldn't like this class the first time I opened the syllabus. Now that we are in week 8, I have found myself really enjoying it. It really breaks up the monotony of lectures, quizzes, and tests by having a creative outlet. My favorite story so far is the one I wrote in Week 2 on Lilith. Before I wrote it I honestly didn't think I was able to do it. Next thing I know, i was really getting into writing it. It is also the story that inspired my story book. I think my project is going really well. I wanted to add an extra character but decided against it due to time restrictions. As for other projects, I am really impressed with Whitney's storybook. The writing is well written and she does a really good job in tying everything in with her theme.

The Aviarium

      My favorite story units so far are definitely the classical/biblical and the Japanese unit. I find the stories in those units the most enjoyable to read. I also enjoy the stories with audio. I like reading along to the stories while listening to it. It makes it easier to focus on the details. 

Week 7 Back up and Review

This made me laugh yet it provides some seriously good advice. I tend to dwell on things that go wrong so i really hope I remember to do this for next time. This came from the October 7th, 2015 blog post announcement. Find more information here.

Also is anyone going to the Biology block party on Tuesday? I am still deciding if I am going or not.

Week 7 Growth Mindset: Note Taking

           I'm not going to lie to you. I thought of this while day dreaming in my biology lecture the other day. As I was thinking about taking notes, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be really cool to create a blog for each class. Everything will be organized by date, would have a heading, and you can access it anywhere because all you need is a link. You would no longer have to email yourself the document to view it on another computer. Just a thought. Plus a cat meme.

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Week 7 Curate and Share

I want to share with you guys some really cool websites that are super useful when doing your story book project.

1. I just want to give a shout out to this wix. I find it way easier to use than google sites and it gives you a lot  more freedom in graphic design. Also, might I say it is super super suuuuper user friendly!
2. Cool Text is a web site that allows you create really nice looking headings. I think of it as word art for the web.
3. Be Funky is one of my favorite websites for online photo editing. I used this for a majority of my pictures on my story book. 

Hope this helps you out if you feel like your in a rut with your project. 

Week 7 Tech Tip

It is no secret that we have to read a lot for this class. Sometimes, my eyes get tired and sore from reading on my laptop and I appreciate the stories that have audio. However, with the stories that don't, I use Google Speakit! It is an app you can put on your web browser and it will read you the text you have highlighted. the only drawback is that it sort of has a robotic voice but it has really worked wonders for me. Link to Download

Extra Reading Diary [Japanese]

The Goblin of Adachigahara:

• Adachigahara-a large plain haunted by a goblin that disguises itself as an old woman who eats only human flesh.
• An old priest who lost his way came wandering around the plains. It was late and no one was there to warn him about the goblin. He stumbled upon a worn down cottage and asks the old lady residing there to stay for the night.
• She tells him she can only offer him miserable conditions and reluctantly agrees. 
• After supper, the fire dies out and the old lady goes out to find more wood. She tells him to don't go to the inner room but he started to get suspicious and it made him curious. 
• He finds that the room is full of human bones and suspects her as the cannibal goblin. 
• He runs out of the house and she tries to stop him. He prays to Buddha and was able to escape. 

The Ogre of Rashomon:

Ogre

• Another cannibal story
• Raiko-general who killed a band of ogres who was always followed by five faithful knights
• Hojo gossips about the Ogre of Rashomon. Wantanabe discredits him and asks how he could listen to an old woman's story with such belief.
• Upset, Wantanabe goes to prove the ogre is real by riding up to the gate of Rashomon he brings paper with the names of the knights he plans to plant for proof. 
• There was a bad storm but he still reached the gate. He realized nothing was there and planted the paper on the gates. However, when he turned to leave, the ogre grabbed him by the helmet.
• Knowing that Wantanabe is not afraid of him, the ogre tries to flee. The knight goes after him.
• The ogre gets away from him but he notices that he must have sliced his arm off during the struggle. He takes it as a prize, growing obsessed with it, never keeping it out of his sight.
• One day an old lady comes to the house and claims to be his old nurse when he was a child. Feeling sentimental, he lets her in. 
• She tells him that her dying wish is to see the arm but he refuses. Sounds sketchy. But she guilts him into it. Typical. Turns out it was the ogre disguised as the old woman and takes back the arm. 
• Wantanabe tries to catch him but he got away again. He was not able to kill the ogre but it was so afraid of him he never bothered Kyoto again. 

The Story of Princess Hase:

• A prince and princess could not have a child so they went on a pilgrimage to see the heavenly mother. Alas, they names her Hase-Hime after the location. Hase's mother eventually died and told her to be a good girl. The prince re married a cruel woman who did not like her step daughter. Hase was very good at the koto (Japanese harp), and when she was 12, her and her step mother were summoned to play before the emperor. 
• Her step mother played the flute but she was lazy and did not practice. She broke down and had to ask someone else to play for her. Failing at her task, she became jealous of Hase. 
• She was kind of useless. The step mother accidentally kills her son, when he drinks the poison laced wine meant for Hase. She hated her even more now.
• There was a flood. If Hase was so good at poetry, she will offer one up in prayer and stop the flood. It worked, she got a rank. Her stepmother is a hater and told one of her servants to kill the girl, making up some story. 
• He ended up not killing her but basically holding her hostage. Hames had faith that her father would look for her as soon as he found she was missing.
• He found her, the step mother fled, and Hase married the prince's adopted son. She had a son of her own and all was well. 

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Cautionary Tales of the Internet

       

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                It was no secret that Murphy Macmanus was an introvert. He literally spent all of his time when he was not at school watching Netflix and browsing the internet. It was so bad that his only "friends" he had were the ones he made on his online gaming account, but even then he would rather not be disturbed. Due to his obsession with his laptop, he was extremely smart. He had a deep knowledge on a vast amount of subjects. In his mind, there was nothing Google couldn't tell you and nothing YouTube couldn't show you. He was perfectly content with his life and had no intention on changing his habits. Murphy just had one tiny little quirk about him. He basically believed everything he read on the internet. Due to his lack of interaction with others, he just could not grasp the concept of a joke and anything satirical just went over his head. 

               The Friday after school, Murphy was particularly excited about the weekend. He just added a new show to his queue list and he could not wait to cram the next four seasons in two days. Running up the stairs into his room and went straight for his Dell. As he switched the power on, the message came up almost instantly, "5% Battery. Please Recharge." He looked and looked everywhere but he just could not find his charger. He looked under his bed, in his closet, but it was just nowhere to be found. His mother walked past his room and saw the crazed look on her son's face. "I'm sorry I had to do this Murphy but your father and I agree that you have been spending too much time using your computer. We both agreed to take your laptop away for three hours every day to do you some good. I just took your charger today because I noticed it was on low battery." With a firm nod she walked away, leaving him to his own devices. 

                'What's three hours? I should probably just take a nap so I can pull an all niter,' he thought. Thinking he has outsmarted his mother, Murphy went to bed. When he woke up, he looked at the clock. It has only been 45 minutes! What was he going to do now? Then a brilliant idea came to him. He once read an article stating that you can charge any electronics by putting them in the microwave. Something about the radio waves being able to charge. The author didn't really go into much detail, but of course it was true! So he set off into the kitchen, for the second time outsmarting his mother. He put his laptop into the microwave and set it for five minutes. He set off to the bathroom to do some manly business but when he went back to the kitchen, there was smoke everywhere and it was coming from the microwave. He opened it up and was shocked to see his laptop ruined. 

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Author's Note: I based this story from the moral in The Iguana and The Turtle. One who believes foolishly we be injured. I also wanted to play on that April fool's prank going around Facebook. It is the one saying that microwaving your phone will charge it. Though Murphy was not injured, his laptop sure was. 

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Reading Diary B [Philippines]

The Iguana and the Turtle:

• Good friends, an iguana and a turtle always go fishing together. 
• The turtle got caught by the old man who owned the pond. 
• The iguana went back for his friend and the turtle told him that the old man wanted him to marry his daughter. Wanting a wife, the iguana said that he would take his place. Unbeknownst to him the turtle was lying ans the old man wanted to kill him. 
• The iguana got away and found the turtle, who tricked him yet again.
• Moral of the story: The one who believes foolishly will get injured. 

Why Mosquitoes Hum:

Lamocs are Mosquitoes

• Friends if Lamoc are trying avenge his murder. Since Cagang's (small land crabs) house is so far under ground, hey are forced to remain at the door. 
• The Lamoc often mistakes our ears as the door to Cagang's house so that is why they buzz at our ears. 

The Greedy Crow:

• A crow had a piece of meat for a meal but saw a small bird with a dead rat. 
• He chased the small bird but could not catch her. 
• During this time, a hawk stole his meat. 
• By the time the crow came back he had nothing but an empty stomach.
• Morale of the story: Be content with what you have, and do not wish for what you do not own. 

The Hummingbird and the Carabao:

• Don't do all the work to win and then lose due to your own ignorance. 
• Carabao and a humming bird made a bet as to who can drink more water. The humming bird knew that the tide was coming and won the contest. 

The Ant:

• Tells the story of how the snake's bite is stronger than the ants.
• Can you imagine if ants really did have poisonous bites? We would be extinct. 

Why the Sun Shines More Brightly Than the Moon:

• A fairy had to daughters. Araw was a good girl while Buwan was ill tempered. When the fairy saw Buwan mistreat her sister, she sent a prayer to God. 
• God was going to give the two sisters two jewels that lit up the whole world. But upon hearing that Buwan was being bad, he only gave one jewel to Araw. 
• Buwan got mad and went to heaven to steal a jewel from heaven but hers did not shine as bright as her sisters.
• When God found out, he sent two angels to capture Buwan but left both sisters into the sea. Their jewels were hurled into the sky and it stuck. Araw's jewel is the sun for it shined brighter and Buwan's jewel is the moon. 

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Why the Cow's Skin is Loose on the Neck:

• The cow and carabao wear clothes?
• I kind of did not get this story.

The Lost Necklace:

• This story explains why hens and chicks scratch the ground and why crows eat chicks. 

The Story of Our Fingers:

• I have noticed a lot of these stories have some type of religious moral. 
• The little finger is small because he doesn't eat enough food.
• The thumb is a thief and wanted to steal food. Hence, the reason why the thumb is separate from our other fingers. 

Why the Ocean is Salty:

• I mean, did he really think blocks of salt were a good idea near the ocean?

Reading Diary A [Philippines]

The Three Friends

• A monkey, a dog, a a carabao were tired of city life and moved to the country. 
• A bungisngis- a strong man who is always laughing
• The bungisngis kept beating them up for their food
• He eventually killed the dog and the monkey got away
• When the man finally found him, the monkey was playing with a boa constrictor. He asked him not to kill him if he gave the man, his belt. 
• The man agrees and had the "belt" placed around his waist. It ended up being the snake and it killed the bungisngis. 

Three Brothers of Fortune:

• Afraid to go back to their town, the brothers wandered. 
• They bought a book that can revive the dead, a mat that can have them travel in the air, and two stones that can unite things of a similar kind. 
• They brought back a young woman to life (book), brought her with them (mat) and went on a ship that had broken planks (stones). 
• The brothers than started to fight over the woman and took the argument to the king who said that the woman would be divided into three parts.
• The other two brothers threw her away because she was useless but Suan took the discarded pieces with his own and used the stoned to bring her back to life. 

The Clever Husband and Wife:

• A husband and wife came up with a plan to scheme the doctor and his sister they work for out of money. They both claimed that each other was dead. 
• When the doctor and the sister fought over who was really dead they decided to come to their house. They found that both were dead but in closer inspection found they were just feigning death. 
• The doctor thought the joke was so funny, he let them stay in his house with him.
• Jokes on him.

Chonguita:

• Three sons of a king set off to find their own fortunes. 
• Don Juan marries Chonguita asks to meet his brothers in the forest. Her mother tells him to take Chonguita with him. 
• We find out that Chonguita is a monkey and the brothers were surprised and went back to the palace.
• The king was displeased with the monkey and asked the wives to do certain tasks. failure to do so would be death. Chonguita did every task and Don Juan became King.
• Upset that he had to dance with his wife, he killed her, but she turned into a beautiful woman. 
• What just happened?

Cochinango:

• Cochinango was known as a fool but a palmer predicted that he would marry a princess and become King. 
• He played the guitar until the princess consented to marry him. 
• The next day they were married, 
• When the king died, he took the reign. 
• If all our enemies got over our quarrel by dancing, the world would have an epic party. 

The Wicked Woman's Reward

• Why must you kill someone instantly without hearing the whole story?
• The woman's deceitfulness got her murdered too. The king was too rash in his decision to kill the woman who bore his son. I mean, what exactly did he think was up with the cat?
• His son eventually grew up to be the King. 

Week 6 Tech Tip

     I am really interested in changing my background and blog style. This tip really helps in my search for a much simpler background:
Please do NOT use the "Dynamic Views" templates for your class blog. These views do not have a sidebar for the "Labels" widget, and the Labels are something that can really help people as they visit your blog and comment on your post, making it easy to find your Introduction post, etc. So, skip the "Dynamic Views" option, but explore the different "Simple," "Picture Window," "Awesome, "Watermark," "Ethereal," and "Travel" options, which all have their own color scheme options, along with a choice of background images (or you can upload a background image of your own choice). Source

Week 6 Curation

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       Upon my search for an Ogre for Motikatika in the African Tales unit and I found this bad boy. I'll take a whole set please.

Another Ogre

        If you like to play online RPGs, you will most likely know where this guy is from. Makes me nostalgic.

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         I did not do the Japanese unit as of yet but if you check it out on Pinterest, they have the prettiest, most vivid images.

Week Six Growth Mind Set [Creativity]

       For some reason, this week really had me thinking about the importance of creativity. I think sometimes classes can be so structured that thinking outside of the box is almost prohibited at times. Which I totally get. Some subjects require that in order to learn. I think that at this point of our lives we don't really have an outlet to do that. We're always so busy. However, I want to make it a point to find my creative outlet for it really is good for the soul. It is uncertain how I would like to go about channeling my creative outlet, but it is not a problem Pinterest sure can't fix.

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Benefits of Creativity:

• Decreasing negative emotions and increasing positive ones
• Trends towards reduced emotions 
• Reductions in distress
• Improvement in flow and spontaneity, positive identity, and social networks Source

Extra Reading Diary [African Stories]

Motikatika:

• A husbands wife grew ill and would not eat anything. She finally settles on some wild honey and the husband goes forth to find some. 
• He comes back with the honey but she rejected it for it had dead bees in it. The second bowl of honey had dead ants in it and she refused it again. On his fourth journey, she ate the honey but then wanted water. 
• When she got the water she told her husband that she was feeling better. So the husband said it was his turn to be taken care of and demanded water. She got him water but he refused it. On her fourth journey she came across a golden lake, and a head surfaced. 
• It was an ogre mad that she was taking his water. In order to be let go, she told him that he could have her baby, Motikatika. But her child heard her and planned to outwit her, for he was unknowingly a magician. 

An Ogre

• So the next morning she shaves his head and puts white beads around his neck, and tells him to not go outside or a monster will eat you. 
• He took some magic bones and turned them into his mother, father, himself, and the ogre in order to tell him what to do. They tell him to shave all the babies heads and place white beads on them. When the ogre called, all the babies said they were Motikatika. He did not eat the babies for he dared not to eat the children of people who did not do him wrong. 
• Upset, the ogre tells her to come up with a new plan. So she sends the baby to grab some beans in the field but the bones tell him to change himself into a bird. 
• Upset, the ogre tells him to come up with a new plan. She tells the ogre that the baby shall be covered in a white coverlet and to come get him that night. However, Motikatika overheard the conversation and consulted the bones once more. They told him to trade his coverlet with his father's red one. So the ogre ends up eating his father and when his mother bitterly asks Motikatika about it, he tells her that he should have been eaten instead because he was the one who told her to fetch a pail of water. 

Adventures of a Jackal:

• A jackal and a hedgehog were good friends. They find a barn full of corn and were determined to eat it. When they were finished. they returned to the road.
• They come across the panther, who was curious about the jackal's shoes, which he made themselves. They killed a cow in order to make him some shoes but when he wore them they were so stiff he actually cried. 

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• He came across some partridges who helped him soften the stiff shoes with water. When he slipped them off he decided to pay the jackal his debt.
• However, the jackal was cunning and was hard to find. The panther comes across an old man and gave him some advice: kill a cow, invite all the jackals, and the one who looks at the panther is the traitor. 
• During the feast, the panther got hold of the jackal but he cut off his tail to get away. He asks the man for more advice: go to the melon garden and find the tailless jackal. But the cunning jackal came up with a plan to rid of the other jackal's tails and the panther did not know which one was his enemy. 
• The jackal finds his hedgehog friend and comes with him to buy a sheep to eat. However the Shepard out smarted them and wrapped a greyhound with wool. When the jackal came to get the "sheep". the greyhound ate him.

Adventures of Jackal's Eldest Son:

• The jackal has two sons. The elder of the sons and a hyena found a green cape. After quarreling about who gets it, they decide that the hyena will wear it during the day and the jackal at night. After some time, the jackal grew upset that his friends cannot see him wearing the cape.
• They took the quarrel up with the lion for judgement: the garment will belong to whoever will rings the bell at the nearest mosque first. 
• But before they were able to do that, the three had to have dinner. They came across a lamb, sheep, and ram. When asked how to divide it, the hyena said the lamb for itself, the sheep for the jackal, and the ram for the lion. The lion got mad.

'So I am to have that lean creature, which is nothing but horns, am I?' cried the lion in a rage. 'I will teach you to divide things in that manner!' And he gave the hyena two great blows which stretched him dead in a moment. Source

• When asked how the jackal would divide the meal, he says that the lion should dine off all three, saying his wisdom came from the fate of the hyena. Two men with spears came towards the lion and the jackal ran for his life. 
• He ends up meeting his father's friend, the hedgehog. Upset that the jackal was hiding jars of butter from the hedgehog, the witty hedgehog came up with a plan that eventually killed his friend's son. 

The Boyfriend and the Girlfriend

           Thomas had a big crush on Sandra for many years. However, Sandra came from a wealthy family and always felt like she was too good for Thomas, who came from a modest household. Knowing that Sandra liked luxurious items, Thomas spent two months working to buy her a locket from Tiffany's. He thought that if he showed her that he could afford the finer things in life, that she would be his. When he finally got the little blue box, he asked her to be his girlfriend. Sandra always had a crush on Thomas as well, but felt like he needed to change a few things in order to be with him.

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          "I will be your girlfriend, Thomas, but first I would like for you to stop hanging out with your four best friends. They are losers and I will not be expected to hang out with them myself once I become yours," Sandra said. Billy, Anthony, Ian, and Mark have been friends with Thomas since elementary school and as there for him through everything. Still, Thomas was so infatuated with the girl that he told her that he would stop hanging out with them.
          Pleased, Sandra agreed to be with Thomas. She took the necklace and he placed it around her neck but she did not understand the hard work that came with it. They were happy for a week but she started to notice Thomas' lack of a wardrobe. "If you're going to be with me, you need to start wearing more expensive clothes," Sandra said.
          Wanting to please the girl, Thomas spent his college savings on a brand new wardrobe. 'What's a little bit of money, when I can be with the girl I love?' he thought. They were fine for another week but Sandra just kept wanting more and more of Thomas. He was expected to spend all of his money on their dates and kept buying new outfits to satisfy her. His grades started to slip for he had to spend all his free time he wasn't with Sandra at work to keep up with her demands. This went on for a few months until Thomas was not himself anymore.
           One month until graduation came and the end of high school was looming over the students. Sandra looked at the boy who loved her dearly, and broke his heart. "I am going to college in the fall and I don't want to be tied down. I have also noticed that you don't spend as much time with me for you are always at work," she said.
           She left him speechless in the cafeteria. He looked over at his former friends and walked over to them but they wanted nothing to do with him. He grades were awful from working too many hours at his job. Thomas' life was slipping away from him because he wanted to chase Sandra.

Author's note: This is a very loose rendition of the Antelope and the Leopard. His friends represent the wives that were killed off and I wanted to focus on how the maiden kept asking the leopard to keep changing things about himself until he died. Luckily, there is still time for Thomas but as we know at that age it felt like we might as well die.