Essay Week 11: Using Apostrophes and Apostrophe Comic

This comic is funny because it’s so painfully accurate. In the comic, an old man and an old woman are depicted sitting at a table. The old man asks the old woman if she is making any New Year’s resolutions, and she tells him that she will try to criticize him less. In response, the old man tell the old woman “Thanks dear. Your great.” The old woman corrects him and he says, “I agree. We’re both great.”

I think the first thing that makes this comic funny is the dynamic between the two elderly people. We all know people like this, which makes the comic relatable. Next, the old woman says at the beginning that she is going to try to stop criticizing the old man as part of her New Year’s resolution, but she immediately criticizes him when he makes a usage error. I thought this was really humorous. She seemed to have the best intentions, but she couldn’t let the error slide. I’m constantly correcting people as well, even over text message. Errors like that drive me up a well. Lastly, the old man doesn’t realize his error, so he doesn’t understand what the old woman is really saying when he is being corrected. He is oblivious, like so many people seem to be when it comes to contractions and apostrophe usage.

I also visited The Oatmeal’s How To Use An Apostrophe page. The examples they gave were funny and clever and could be potentially useful for people who don’t know the difference between your/you’re, its/it’s, and so on. At the bottom, the illustration suggests to hold off on using apostrophes when in doubt. I don’t know how good of a rule this really is, but still. I think usage rules are something everybody should be sure to learn. They aren’t that difficult and they make a big difference.

(Cartoon by Brian Crane)

Week 11 Reading Diary: English Fairy Tales

This week, I'll be reading stories from the English Folktales unit. I'll go through, read the stories, and record notes about some of the most interesting ones for my reading diary, as I usually do.

The Rose Tree
This story was very dark, but that was probably also the quality that drew me into it. I think we tend to think of fairy tales as watered down stories for children, but this is clearly not the case around the world. I was very sad the little girl had to die at the hands of her stepmother in this story, but in the end, the stepmother got what she deserved.

The Old Woman and Her Pig
I liked that this story was cumulative. There is something charming about the cumulative story telling style. I will admit that by the end, everything was seeming a bit redundant...but I still enjoyed it. I was glad the pig jumped over the stile and everything was resolved in the end.

The Master and His Pupil
I enjoyed this story, even if it was somewhat predictable. I had fun imagining what other tasks the apprentice could have given Beelzebub and how these tasks could have escalated as well. Of course, the wise sorcerer saved the day in the end.

Molly Whuppie
This was a total girl power story and I loved it! Molly was able to make it out of the dangerous, terrible situation she found herself in only because she relied on herself. I also never knew this was where the whole 'Fee, fie, fo, fun' thing came from.

Mr. Miacca
I thought the concept of Mr. Miacca was mysterious and intriguing. The fact that people use a mythical figure like this to threaten children into behaving was also interesting to me. The twist at the end (where Mr. Miacca spared Tommy's leg and cut off the couch leg) really surprised me!

Fairy Ointment
Wouldn't it be nice to have fairy ointment of our own! At first, I took the fairy ointment as something that just improved the condition and quality of things around you. However, when Dame Goody saw the squinty man at the market, I realized that the ointment allowed her to see the magical things that others couldn't see as they really were.

Essay Week 10: Reviewing Eskimo Folktales

This week, I read the stories from Eskimo Folktales. These folktales feature a variety of subject matter. Within this Eskimo Folktales unit, you will find stories about the spirit world and village shamans. There are also stories of evil spirits, zombies, ghosts, and cannibalism. However, all of the stories aren’t super extreme and dark. Some of them are about animals or family dynamics and, of course, there is a creation story. There weren’t really any general themes throughout, but I didn’t mind. The varied subject matter kept things interesting.

The Eskimo Folktales are actually Canadian Inuit stories recorded by a polar explorer in the early years of the 20th century. After reading a few of the stories, I was curious about the origin of the names of characters, so it was interesting to me to find out they were Canadian Inuit names. The names were really long and complicated. I couldn’t even type them for my reading diary; I had to copy them and paste them in every time.

I enjoyed the illustrations that were included, even though a lot of them were bizarre. They looked hand-drawn and even though they weren’t in color, there was a lot of detail in most of the illustrations.

All of these stories were one page stories. This length is preferable to stories that are one long, continuous thing. As I normally do, I completed all of the readings in one sitting. This helps me keep my thoughts together and once I get going, it’s just easier to make some time and take care of it. Also, this means I can take care of both of my declarations at once.

Some of these stories had notes and some did not. I appreciated the notes that were included, but the stories without the notes weren’t difficult to understand. As mentioned in the notes in the beginning of the unit, these stories are recorded in a way that’s stylisticly similar to the way the stories would likely have been told in oral tradition. I think this makes the stories pass in a lively way.

(Illustration of Nukúnguasik done by a native Eskimo artists, Eskimo Folktales unit)

Storytelling for Week 10: The Giant Dog

“I saw in in the sea! It had a whale in its jaws! A whole orca! In its jaws like it was nothing! It swam all the way out and around the island and was so big it remained completely visible! I promise you, it was there!!”

Another day, another round of interviews with people who claimed to have come in contact with the giant dog we have nicknamed Herman.

For several months now, my team and I have been investigating reports about this giant dog. We are cryptozoologists , or people who study and search for legendary animals in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence. It’s not necessarily an easy field to work in. You travel a lot, to remote locations where there isn’t a lot to do. You deal with people who may or may not speak English. You spend days and nights staking out something that has a significant likelihood of being nonexistent. Still, it’s interesting. I will give it that. The things I have seen in my years in this line of work have been enough to keep me in it.

As I said, we’ve been on the Herman trail for about 10 months. We came to the Inuit village after receiving several requests to look into this giant dog that locals reported seeing. This dog is not only huge…it’s huge and dangerous and extremely intelligent. Apparently, it’s even abducted and possibly eaten some of the people from the inland. And if it’s here, and if it’s as big as we predict it to be…it’s extremely good at hiding and keeping itself a secret.

So far, we’ve found some prints that could possibly belong to this dog. They were pretty big, but not as big as we were led to believe Herman’s prints would be. If you ask me, I think they might be from a large bear. We’re only funded for a year, so we’re all hoping something new happens soon. We’ve spent this much time here and we don’t have a lot to show for it so far, so with any luck, the next two months will bring us some tangible evidence.

The people here are so convinced. Person after person comes through our doors and each of them has a different incident to tell us about. The village elders, young children, and everybody in between has something to say about it. The strange thing about this case is the lack of skeptics. In fact, all of the villagers here seem to be afraid of dogs in general because of the association with this dog beast.

I’m not convinced, but I haven’t given up hope either. Tonight, we’ll monitor the area where the dog was said to have caught a whale and maybe that’ll turn something up. Deep down, I hope we do see it. A dog large enough to consume a whale would be quite the sight.

(Mythological dog beast, Wikipedia)

Bibliography:

Book: Eskimo Folk-Tales

Author: Knud Rasmussen

Year Published: 1921

Web Source: Eskimo Folk-Tales

Author's Note: When I read this story, I imagined an elusive creature that would seem unbelievable to anybody who hadn't seen in, much like Bigfoot. Based on that, I wrote a story about people who were searching for this giant dog.

Week 10 Reading Diary: Eskimo Folktales

This week, I'll be reading stories from the Eskimo Folktales unit. I'll go through, read the stories, and record notes about some of the most interesting ones for my reading diary, as I usually do.

Qalagánguasê, Who Passed to the Land of Ghosts
Death by eating seaweed seems pretty terrible. This is how Qalaganguase's parents died. His sister also passed away, though the story does not explain how. I liked this story because it featured ghosts, and maybe it's because Halloween is right around the corner, but I've been in the mood for ghosts lately. I didn't understand why he felt his strength returning and then felt his strength leave just as quickly, but I liked that he was able to be reunited with his family in the end.

Atungait, Who Went A-Wandering
This story was truly all over the place. I assumed that the strong woman would marry Atungait and I did not realize until the end that he actually already had a wife. Their journey took them all over and they saw things that ranged from unusual (a village completely full of left handed people or people with one leg shorter than the other) to really frightening (a village full of cannibalistic people who ate each other). After he had had enough adventure, Atungait flew home using his wizardly powers and found his wife cheating on him, so he killed her. In the end, he did end up marrying the strong woman.

The Giant Dog
When I was reading this story, I couldn't help but think of the three-headed dog from Harry Potter. Luckily, that dog was kept chained up and confined so it didn't kill people on the regular and bring back their legs. I think this was a creative story to explain why people were afraid of dogs...I'd be afraid of dogs too if I ever experienced anything similar to this!

The Wife Who Lied
Some of these stories are pretty gruesome! I understand the points they're trying to make (the lying, killing innocent people, etc. will land you in trouble), but some of the actions seem super severe to me, especially for folktales! I didn't really understand why the wife lied and wanted her home village to war with her husband's village in the first place, but it was a war that she wanted and a war that she got.

Atdlarneq, The Great Glutton
I thought that Copper Cheeks was a super unique villain/monster. A person with copper cheeks doesn't particularly scare me and to me it just seems strange and funny. This tale was very clearly a lesson against gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins. I think it's interesting that themes like this are so pervasive from culture to culture.

Essay Week 9: High School & College Writing Experience

I feel like I’ve had my fair share of writing experiences so far. For the most part, I enjoy writing and it’s always been something I’ve been told I have a knack for. I’ve enjoyed writing/language/English-type classes more than math and sciences since I was young. In high school, I was involved in several communications-based extracurriculars. I was on yearbook staff for two years, newspaper staff for a year and a half, and radio/television staff for two years. I wouldn’t necessarily have had to take a writing position in these extracurriculars, but that’s almost always where I found myself. I was a feature writer for yearbook and an op-ed columnist for the newspaper. I did a lot through the radio/television program and a lot of it was based around writing. I wrote scripts, I wrote on-air spots, I wrote news stories to be read on the air…and so on.

I definitely think honors and AP English classes in high school helped improve my general writing abilities, and all of my extracurriculars helped me get used to writing in different styles and about different things. Research papers are one thing I have never enjoyed writing, but aside from those, I get some degree of enjoyment out of most writing assignments. I usually like writing analyses of novels and stuff like that. I think exploring themes and characters in works of literature can be really interesting. I also like writing fiction as long as I have an idea of where I’m going. When I don’t have a clear starting point, I’m not very creative.

Sometimes the joy of writing comes from the process and what I learn during it. Other times, the joy comes from finishing and being proud of what I’ve accomplished. At OU, I’ve taken a good amount of writing-based classes, partly because my major (public relations) requires it and partially because I’m interested in them. My favorite one so far has been the Expo class I took spring of my freshman year. The class topic was counterculture and the professor was one of the most well-spoken and helpful instructors I’ve ever had. In the future, I think technical writing will be important for my job(s), but I hope to be able to do some creative writing from time to time as well!

(A fountain pen I probably couldn't write with, Wikipedia)

Storytelling for Week 9: The Porcupine and the Two Sisters

It was a regular day, just like any other in our sleepy village. My sister Hannah and I didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to make a trip to a neighboring village. This village was a solid two days’ walk away for most people…but Hannah and I were widely known for being the swiftest runners in our tribe.

Once we got the idea of the trip in our heads, there was no going back. We began to run and we ran and ran until noon. At noon, Hannah noticed a hollow tree lying across the trail, so she stopped our run to examine it.

Inside of the log sat a porcupine. The porcupine was minding its own business, but Hannah couldn’t leave it alone. She had always been the mischievous one. Something inside of her needed to poke and prod, to get up in everything and disrupt the natural order.

Hannah broke off a stick and pushed it into the porcupine, hoping that he would come out of the log and do something. She said, “Let’s have some fun with him.”

“Hannah,” I began, “Let’s leave him alone. Let’s be on our way. Something is not right.” I had a bad feeling that this porcupine was a manido, or an evil spirit.

Of course, Hannah paid no attention to me. She kept doing what she was doing until the porcupine came out. Before the porcupine could run away, Hannah caught him and began to pull out his quills.

“Stop!” I shouted. “There’s no reason for you to do this! It’s cold outside. He needs his quills. Please, Hannah,” I begged.

Still, Hannah continued. She pulled out each quill, one by one, until all of them were gone. They she threw the quills on the ground and began to run the trail. With a heavy heart, I followed her up the trail. The village was still several hours away.

We didn’t know it at the time, but the manido porcupine began to use his magic as soon as we were out of sight. He crawled to the top of a pine tree and began to shake his small rattle, singing in time to its sound.

All of the sudden, the sky got dark. It was still early afternoon, so this was unnatural. Snow began to fall, which slowed Hannah and I down considerably. I looked back and saw the porcupine and tried to convince Hannah to turn around.

“We’ve made a mistake,” I said. “We’re in danger and we aren’t going to make it.”

Hannah told me I was ridiculous. She was never afraid of anything. We continued on, because Hannah wasn’t going to turn around and I wasn’t going to leave her by herself. The snow kept accumulating and the temperature kept dropping. The sun was setting and the village we were headed to was nowhere in sight. We continued on, doing the best we could. Later in the evening, we reached a stream that we knew was pretty close to the village.

However, by this time, we were completely worn out. It was freezing. The snow was feet deep now. We had not strength left. We fell to our knees and froze to death there.

I wish I could have convinced Hannah not to mess with the porcupine that day, but I couldn’t, and now both of us are nothing more than ghosts.

(Porcupine in a tree, Wikipedia)

Bibliography:
Book: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes
Author: Katharine B. Judson
Year Published: 1914
Web Source: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes

Author's Note: I decided the change the point of view from which the story was told in my retelling this week. The original story uses a third-person narrator, but I wanted to give the perspective of the second girl who wasn't really guilty in this story but still had to pay the price.

Week 9 Reading Diary: Mississippi Valley & The Great Lakes

This week, I'll be reading stories from the Mississippi Valley & Great Lakes folktales unit. I will go through, read the stories, and record notes about some of the most interesting ones for my reading diary, as I have done for a couple weeks now.

Creation
This story began with a description that seemed paradoxical:

THERE was a Creator of All Things. This Great Mystery understood all things. He had no eyes, yet he could see. He had no ears, yet he could hear. He had a body, but it could not be seen.

This description made me wonder about the creator and wonder where the story was going to go from here. I thought it was ironic how the story described the Great Mystery making tobacco to solve man's problem, because tobacco has actually created a lot of problems for mankind. The story didn't really describe the Great Mystery much more himself, but I interpreted him to be a spirit.

The Thunderers
I liked how this story described the way the family was formed between creatures that normal wouldn't be related, such as a bear, a beaver, and a sturgeon. Other than that, this story didn't have a lot of purpose, but I did find it pretty interesting.

Tobacco and Maple Sugar
This seemed like a cool adventure story from the start. A cave in a mountain and giant guarding the loot...what more could you want? The giant was ultimately turned into a grasshopper. The story about maple sugar wasn't as interesting or imaginative, but I still liked it.

Manabush and the Great Fish
I was a little confused at first if the Great Fish was an evil manido or not, but I think (?) he was. Manabush wanted to be swallowed by the Great Fish, and when the Great Fish did swallow him, he saw a lot of his people inside the Great Fish, which was pretty cool. Together, Manabush and his people were able to lure the Great Fish to the shore and basically use the fish as a free ride.

Why Deer Never Eat Men
It's funny to imagine a world where deer would be predators. Deer are just so gentle and skittish and cute-looking. When the deer pulled out ribs, I assumed that he was going to make antlers out of them, but instead he made tusks.

The Tiny Frog
...how could a tiny frog beat a panther in a fight? I'm not sure. I guess magic. I wish this story had explained the powers of the tiny frog more, but I still found the concept of this story intriguing.

Porcupine and the Two Sisters
For some reason, this story reminded me of Little House on the Prairie. I think there was one episode where they got stuck in the snow? Even though it's never a happy ending when two girls freeze to death, it was a little difficult to feel bad for the girls because they had basically tortured an animal for fun.

The Lone Lightning
There was a lot going on this story, but it was interesting to get this perspective on lighting. When the boy was in the tree, he should have been told to come down because it was dangerous, but instead he was encouraged to shoot arrows into the sky.

Famous Last Words Week 8

This weekend marks the end of week 8…how crazy is that? The semester is officially halfway over! This week has been a little different, both in terms of this class and life in general. In this class, week 8 was a review week. It took a little extra time to get adjusted to the different assignments this week, but I feel like the assignments themselves actually took less time, so nothing was a problem there. I liked the reflection assignments and thought it was fun to look back on how much I’ve accomplished for this class already. Also, I enjoyed writing and reading thank you posts to other students. I don’t think the online format of this class would work as well without the steady stream of comments from other students who are doing the same thing. Going back and commenting on the Famous Last Words assignments of other students made me realize I haven’t written up a Famous Last Words in a couple of weeks, so I decided to.

The fact that the semester is halfway over is both relieving and scary. For one, this means that midterm exam period is upon us and I’ve been pretty stressed out with my schoolwork lately. As I’ve said before, I’m in 6 classes this semester. I generally like my classes, but it’s a lot to stay on top of. I have a few papers due in the near future and while I’ve been chipping away at them, I’ve been struggling to sit down and accomplish big chunks at once.

All of my friends from home have been rubbing their fall breaks in my face, which is a little saddening. Most of them get two of three days off, which is something I wish we were allowed to have here. I know we unofficially get one day for OU/TX, but I don’t have class on Friday so that doesn’t help me much. Even though we don’t get a fall break, we have been getting some “fall” weather. I put fall in quotation marks because weather people consider cool or fallish here is completely different than cool/fallish weather at home. Still, I’ll take what I can get.

(An Indiana fall, Flickr.com)

Week 8 Reading Diary: Self-Assessment

I reread the instructions for reading diary posts and I feel pretty confident that my reading diaries are on the right track. In the beginning, my reading diaries were longer, but they were a lot more summary-based than anything. I took notes on every story, but my notes were basically a quick rundown of the plot. They didn’t necessarily include my thoughts or opinions on the stories.

I have a pretty straightforward method. I’m big on establishing routine and I try to do so whenever I can. Every week, when it’s time to do a reading diary, I sit down, open a word document, and pull up the unit I’m reading. Since the stories are normally pretty short, I find it most convenient to read the entire story and then write about it if I choose to. I pick the number of stories I’m going to write about based on the number of stories in the unit/the number of stories I read for the week. Stories I choose to make notes about are usually ones that I saw something I enjoyed in. Recently, I’ve also been picking stories to make notes about based on whether or not I’d be interested in using them for my storytelling post.

I don’t think I’ve included an image in my reading diary posts yet. I find that it is kind of unnecessary, especially considering that the reading diaries always link back to the stories in the Un-Textbook and those stories usually have images. I could be a little more detailed in my reading diary posts. Sometimes I don’t find myself having a lot to say. Other times, I find myself saying a lot of repetitive things, so I can definitely try to be better about that. However, I feel I have the reading diary system under control, which is good because it’s the 8^th week!