Famous Last Words : Week 14

Welp, I finally finished the class! It's bittersweet knowing that this was one of my last major classes that I took at OU for fun. This whole week was a wild journey of potentially "last moments" as a college student! Earlier this week I was in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico for an incentive trip that I won with Southwestern Advantage. We funded a local library for the community and helped with some painting and landscaping in the community of Leona Vicario. I hung out with some of the best friends that I had made through that program for one last time as an associate with that company and had a blast. The last night was a misty-eyed conversation with my room-mate and we talked about the inevitable changes that happen as a result of growing up. The conversation was positive.
Next, I may have had my last Thanksgiving Break as a student of the university! Thanksgiving isn't as widely celebrated in my family, but the spending time with family and loved ones remain the same though. I talked to my dad and mom about life and hung out with my cousin and best friend.
Up next to finish this semester off is a 10-page paper for my Roma class! I’m writing about how the Meme of the Romans parallel to the USA today including how it affects citizenship and census! Currently, I have like no extra sources to support this but I have a few ideas of resources to look up!
After that, I will be going full time into hitting the MCAT again! I’m ready to finish up my last few sessions of major studying for this exam and move on with other aspects of human living! I'm excited for life after this semester and what opportunities are ahead!

Sloshball tournament champs

Week 14 Lab

Man it's been a wild ride this whole semester. I am adding one more story to my storybook before I go though! I will end it with Patrick reaching his home. I'm going to reread Fagles's version of Odysseus's encounter with his father and skip a few scenes to when he cleans out the suitors from his house. The story will be the end of the 'nostos' journey and will focus on how he achieves that in 3 distinct scenes: The scene with his nurse who recognized Patrick's scar, the scene with his father who was crying and beat himself up, and the scene with his wife as they recognized and tested him over the source of the tree bed!

Bibliography:
The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles

the nurse recognizes and realizes it is Odysseus

Reading Notes Week 14: Part B

That ending is terrible! Southpark totally ripped an episode from the Decameron unit where the lady ate her lover's heart! In some ways, these stories have an interesting contrapasso or maybe that's the wrong word to describe it, but there is a nice twist for the mora crimes that the characters permit. The stories are both funny and tragic at the same time. I think this is achieved because it mixes in an element of surprise with humor so you never expect what is happening. And then once you start to suspect it, and your beliefs confirmed, it makes it even worse. These Decameron stories are hilarious.

Bibliography: The Decameron by Boccaccio, translated by J. M. Rigg (1903)

Lady eats Guillaume de Cabestaing's heart

Reading Notes: Week 14 Decameron Part A

The stories in the Decameron remind me of Aesop's fables. Most of the tales told in these formats have some type of moral message to it and is neat seeing how this one blends Catholic religious morals and fables. The language in these stories is very catholic, specifically the story about Ferondo and he's going to Purgatory. The only other reading of purgatory that I've ever read was Dante's Purgatorio. Nonetheless, I am glad I chose the Decameron because the tales are interesting and funny.

Bibliography: The Decameron by Boccaccio, translated by J. M. Rigg (1903).

Ferondo cuckolded by his wife and the Abbot

Week 13 Story: Patrick and the brothers

Running swiftly from the woods I ran to town to inform everybody of our treasure!

"Boy, we will be rich now! I no longer have to toil and slave away my life for a living!" I thought.

I ran past a tree and tripped and fell flat on my face.

"Oh, stupid me! I always fall for things like this!" I said as I got up.

Then it clicked, what if I somehow could trick my brothers into giving me the rest of their gold? I mean, after all, I was the smartest one of the bunch. I graduated from Starfish University in Bikini Bottom and almost had a five-star GPA.

As I went into town, I was greeted by fellow pedestrians.

"Sir Patrick! You've arrived! We have been waiting for you! Where are your brothers? Are they not to be seen anywhere?" they said.

"Hey everyone, yeah my brothers are right behind me, I just forgot some wine for our picnic! Also, I've been feeling kind of sick, do you know if the apothecary is open today?" I asked.

"Yes, Dr. Strange is in his office right now, swing on by whenever, he is such a nice man!" they said.

After grabbing a few bottles of wine from the house, I swung by the apothecary's house.

"Dr. Strange! How are you? Listen, so I've had this problem lately in my backyard with some vipers? They're really sneaky and I think they might be up to something. They're pretty gullible though, do you happen to have any poison I could mix in some food and give to them?" I said.

But Dr. Strange looked at me strangely.

"Patrick, this is a medicine house not a game place. You will have to go somewhere else for your poison." he said.

"But Dr. Strange, I need it today! The vipers might be gone the next day! And everyone said you were the best Doctor in town and always willing to help! Please won't you help me find a way to get rid of them!" I harked back.

"Okay, here are some pain medication. It is extremely lethal at high dosages. Also, it tastes just like wine! Try mixing This into some wine and leave it out for the snakes. Perhaps they will drink from it." He said.

"Perfect, I will do that! I promise when I come back I will pay you a hundredfold!" I said as I ran out the door.

Grabbing my bottles of wine, I quickly mixed the pain medication with the wine and left one clean.

As I was running back to my base, I was ambushed by my two other brothers, and they clubbed me to death. It turns out, they also had the genius plan of splitting the gold amongst themselves. However, after my murder, they celebrated with the wine.

"Gosh Spongebob, this wine is super wine tasting!" said Squidward.

They both died.

alphabet soup scene from spongebob

Author's notes: I focused on the reveler's tales within the Canterbury tales unit. I thought it was cool how the brothers plotted to kill each other and in the end, they all died. I chose to focus on the dialogue of the younger brother and the quick-changing mindset of how he can go from living a more comfortable life to straight-up greedy. I replaced the brothers with Patrick, Squidward, and Spongebob, and the apothecary with Dr. Strange.
The new moral of the story is money can change a person for the worst.

Bibliography:

The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan

Reading Notes Week 13: Canterburry tales Part A

The Canterbury Tales unit blew me away. I've never read any of these stories until now and they remind me of Aesop's fable a little. Although a lot of the stories contain tricksters, most of the stories seem to also have a moral message to them. Specifically, the stories about the Reveler's stood out to me and the guide notes on tops help form a conclusion a head of time that the brothers would kill eachother in search of death. That was probably the most fascinating. On the flip side, there were also stories that I thought ended very abruptly, but that's fine too. The theme of death and desire also seem to loom in these stories pretty often which probably connotes to a cardinal vice of lust during these times.

The older brother plotting to kill the young one

Bibliography: The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908).

week 12 lab

I did some research on Odysseus trip into the underworld. There he met Tiresius and Achilles. My next storybook addition will include Odysseus's encounter with Achilles. The reason why this ties in well with nostos is because Achilles, unlike Odysseus, chose Kleos as his theme. The thought to be forever remembered in the books, despite losing his life, was his virtue. However, upon meeting Odysseus, all Achilles could say was basically if he could do it all over again, he would have chosen a regular life and lived instead of only being remembered and dead. The theme relates very well with Nostos as Achilles is the antithesis of this. Unlike Odysseus who will eventually have his reunion, Achilles will never experience that again.

Achilles

Bibliography:
The Odyssey Robert Fagles

Reading Notes: Part B Beowulf

This week I reread some of Beowulf! I am continually amazed to think that these stories did not have an original author that we know about. I specifically focused on the way that they portrayed evil in the world this time. It is pretty amazing how the town hall that everyone goes to for drinking and community is also the only place of civilization in the world of Beowulf. Pretty much everything outside is darkness and in some sense, Beowulf's choosing to fight Grendel, Grendel's mom, and the dragon are telling in a way that we need someone or possibly God to keep the evils away from civilization.



Bibliography: The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry Pitz (1933).

Week 11 story: Patrick's Marriage

And Patrick went out and married a manta ray.

"Now that we're married, I can practice my shape-shifting skills!" said Patrick as he looked at his best man.

And with the ceremony done, the only thing left to do was go home.

"Patrick, it's time to go. Take your beloved wife with you and come," said Manta Ray.

Patrick changed into the Manta Ray and followed the school. At first, things were going well, and he had no problems. However, after a couple of hours, Patrick's fins started to tire out. And then he started to lag. Manta Ray looked back and told the rest of the school to slow down.

"What's wrong Patrick? Why are you so slow? This is the regular trek for our species." said Manta

"Oh I know, it's just that I have had a hook in my heart ever since the war," said Patrick as he flapped his fins harder.

His wife, Manti Reyes, looked at Patrick's chest and could find no puncture wound.

"Strange. He says he got wounded in his heart, but yet I see no wound?" she whispered to her sister, a corporal in the manta ray legion.

Patrick once again got tired and started slowing down. This time, however, Manta did not notice him at all and kept flying. After a few hours, the legion looked back and Patrick could not be seen.

"We'll wait here," said Manta ray.

And the legion of manta rays waited for hours. The hours turned into days. and the days turned into a week.

"We have been waiting here for over a day! Where is my husband?" cried Manti Reyes.

"Perhaps he got attacked by an octopus! We must find him at once!" yelled Manti's sister.

"Silence! If Patrick is truly to become part of our legion, he must make this trek himself, free from assistance," said Manta Ray.

A couple of minutes later, Patrick came flapping towards them, saying,

"Guys! Sorry I was late! but look what I found!"

Out of his pocket, he pulled out a cool rock.

"What the hell! We waited for a whole week and you were out there looking for a rock? That's it! I've had it with you! I want a divorce!" yelled Manti Reyes.

And with that, the divorce was settled then and there. Patrick would gain half the legions as was the law at the time, the wife must pay husband support, and Patrick flapped away down to bikini bottom with his rock.



Bibliography: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Author's notes:
The story is an adaption of Raven's marriage to the geese. In the story, Raven, our shape-shifting protagonist, marries a geese. They end up flying somewhere and for a really long time. Raven eventually gets tired out and slows down and stops a couple of times. Eventually, he even tells the geese that the reason for his slowing down is because of an injury to the heart awhile back during the war. However, the geese saw no evidence of this.
Raven was in some sense a trickster. he did shapeshifted his way into the ranks of the geese, and then possibly lied about his injuries.

For my story, I replaced raven and the geese with Patrick and manta rays. However, I added a twist,. Patrick stopped because he found a cool rock. And that's how Patrick found his home in spongebob squarepants.

Reading Notes: Hiawatha Part B

The animal usage in the second part of the Hiawatha readings stood out to me. "Called the Mama, the woodpecker," and "The Keneu, the great war-eagle," are some examples of the titles. It's amazing how these stories continue to incorporate animals into their tales. I have more reverence now for the Native American epics.

Story source: The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855).

Reading Notes: Hiawatha Read Part A

The readings this week are unique. It is interesting reading a more poem-style epic similar to the inferno. I typically never thought about or considered native American epics before and it never occurred to me that such epics would exist. However, it makes sense that they would because these people have been around for as long as their western cousins. Anyways, the unit over Hiawatha was really pretty. It combined both stories of people and supernatural forces similar to other epics and was really enjoyable to read. I focused mainly on the style and flow and it was very easy to read.

Little Hiawatha 1937

Bibliography:
The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855).

Week 10 Lab

I watched the crash course videos over mythology. Those videos are so good and entertaining. My favorite section was the discussion of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's journey." My storybook is on the nostos of The Odyssey so it's really neat learning about the end of the hero's journey. It is also interesting to note how he synthesized Freud and other psychologist's views on myths and the subconscious to interpret what myths mean to us. I never realized that so much of how I view these influential texts are influenced by Campbell's idea of the hero's journey. I often find myself relating to so many stories and it's because I can see myself in them or learning some type of lesson from them. It never occurred to me that the psychological viewing of oneself in those myths is a relatively new idea in the myth world.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrWYQjLLbXcigjUCnKKR86F5zrcQqfiP-

hero's journey

Reading Notes: Alaskan stories part B

The things that I focused on for these readings were the anthropomorphism of the animals. One thing a lot of these Native American stories have in common is they seem equally to equate humans to being like a certain animal and then turning them into that animal itself. This includes sometimes adding those animal's flaws as well. My favorite story was the one about the foc who tricked the eagle into dropping two of its eggs for him. It was really cunning of the fox to do that and as a result he got punished for it. 

fox

bibliography:

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Reading Notes: Alaskan Stories Part A

The use of anthropomorphism in these stories is really interesting. Each animal has its own human-like quality with some animals at some point even turning into humans. I focused on the story-telling in these stories and there were almost some Biblical references such as when the crossing of the sea could not happen because of the tide. It almost sounded like Moses splitting the river. Also, it's pretty neat as Raven is somewhat a creation story but also a trickster story.

raven

Bibliography:

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Week 9 Patrick's Chinese Fairy Tale

There once was a man named Patrick Gui Fe who was full of splendor and wonder. He was the best looking man around. One day, he fell in love with the Empress who was in charge of Egypt as well as the Bikini Bottom Dynasty. Upon the Empress's first interaction with Patrick, she fell in love immediately.

"Oh Patrick, my strong and brave and curious sea star of a man, I love you so much." said the Empress.

Every day it seems, the sea star of a man would drop by the Empress's palace and she would wait patiently outside her balcony singing like a baby bird chirping for her mother to bring her the fresh worms for the day. And like a mother bird answering the calls of her baby, Patrick would swing by like a condor landing upon his nest, and feed his caller.

Quoting from a verse in Auden, Patrick whispers in her ear,


"'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,"

and with that, the lovers went to bed.

As time went on though, the Empress began to neglect her duties. First, the sun stopped shining and then the water stopped moving. Eventually, the grass grew so long that people could not find the path to the road anymore and the citizens of the country began to revolt.

"The Empress is a joke! She has fallen in love with an alien and we cannot have that!" rioted the people.

The started to burn down the palace of the kingdom forcing the Empress and her family to flee.

"This is all your fault, Empress! How could you neglect your duties and the traditions that your family has held for so many generations! It is that sea star's fault! We must kill him!" barked the relatives.

The Empress pleaded for his life, but it seems there was no other way, the people and the relatives have made up their mind.

Racing towards her beloved, she was too late. The Imperial guards snatched Patrick up like a runaway toddler fleeing from his mother for breaking a vase and hung him on a sycamore tree.

Grieving, the Empress prayed for her beloved but to no avail. He was dead.

Slowly, the Empress stopped eating, and she got skinnier and thinner. Her face started to look like a cubone and she cried. Upon seeing this, her most loyal servant, Stinky Guang Ling came up to her and asked if he could be of any assistance. Remembering, that Stinky used to be a member of the Imperial Magicians Court, she told Stinky to make contact with Patrick in the afterlife. Whether it is in Heaven or Hell, if Stinky could bring back her beloved, perhaps she could survive her grief.
And with that Stinky went on his journey to find Patrick.

He looked everywhere, from the deepest circle of hell to the highest parts in paradise and could not find him. He returned to the Empress with the news that Patrick could not be found anywhere, and with that, the Empress cried even harder and threatened to end her own life. Fearing of this, the Magician tried again. He went down to Hell with a flyer of the man's face on it and hassled and rustled every demon he could find and one of the demons mentioned that he heard news of a beautiful sea star in heaven. With that news, the Magician went straight into heaven again and started to harass all the angels until one of them spilled the beans.

*Patrick punches and angel and is curb-stomping him while another angel with a torn wing and bloody nose shows up*

"Where is he, Punk!" yelled the Magician as he struck another blow.

"STOP!!! WE KNOW WHERE HE IS! HE IS HIDING UNDERNEATH A ROCK IN HEAVEN. HE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SEA STAR! STOP HARASSING US!." cried the other angel.

The magician took his leave and went immediately to the rock. Upon finding it, Patrick was underneath it sleeping like a newborn baby who cried itself to sleep.

Upon entering the abode, Patrick opened his eyes and the strength of ten Hawaiin Breeze fans blew over his the magician's skin.

"Patrick, I have come to take you home! The Empress longs for you and has threatened to end her life unless you come home!" harked the Magician.

"Oh Stinky, I cannot leave this place. For Heaven has declared me their most beautiful and precious sea star and I must stay here and be King of the Stars. Tell my beloved that I have not forgotten her and that I still have the ring that she left me when we first met. Bring this to her and tell her that our love is eternal and I shall never die." said the divine entity.

And with that Patrick's rock closed and the Magician woke up on earth again.

He told the Empress of the news and gave her the ring. The Empress was so impressed and happy that her beloved is still alive and she showered gifts on Stinky.


The Goddess Patrick underneath his rock. source

Author's Notes:
The story is taken from the Chinese fairy tale about Yang Gui Fe, who was the most beautiful lady around. An Emperor fell in love with her and as a result, the kingdom fell to ruin. Eventually, the people wanted her killed and the emperor gave in. Afterward, however, the Emperor was so grieved that one of his assistants had to go up into the afterlife to find Yang Gui Fe again. It turns out she became a goddess.
I wanted to do the same with my story, but I replaced the emperor with an Empress and the beautiful Yang Gui Fe with Patrick Star "Gui Fe." I also made the Empress the owner of Africa.

Bibliography:
Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

"As I walked out One Evening" W.H. Auden

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy tales Part B

Today I focused on the story progressions of these Chinese fairy tales. I'm always quite surprised by how abruptly a lot of them end. For example, the story of retribution made no sense to me. I still do not understand why the story ended or started the way it did. Could it be that the moral is something along the lines of Karma? And you get what you give? However, there were also story lines that really broke my heart like the story with the emperor and the hanging of his wife and he was so grieved afterward that he tried to find her in the otherworlds.

Yang Gui Fe

Bibliography:
The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Reading notes: Chinese fairytales Part A

Today I focused on the description of the characters in the fairy tales. Specifically, I really enjoyed the story about the panther. The idea of the kids telling the panther that he has big eyes and big feet remind me of the story of little red ridng hood.  The other story with great descriptors was the story about the God of War. The way that they described his eyes and eyebrows and face were great and had amazing imagery.

the panther

Bibliography:

The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Week 8 Progress

I am very happy with my progress! I have not been using as much of the extra credit this semester, but I did enjoy the assignment of the growth mindset ones. Looking forward, I am excited about reading over the other stories in The Odyssey and finishing up my storybook! 

Motivational Quote by Patrick Star

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

The feedback I have been getting from my classmates has been pretty useful! So far, I only have a few comments on my comment wall but those comments have definitely revolutionized the way that I do my comments. I feel like the comments that I am giving could be better. One thing that I could focus on is specific parts of a person's story when I am reading it and give more detailed feedback instead of just general feedback. Looking forward, I think I will be more specific with my feedback.

cat looking for the light

Week 8 Reading and Writing

So far I am very happy with the reading and my progress! I use this class as an opportunity to explore creative writing techniques. My favorite story so far has probably been "Patrick the Sailor" because that's my first time using a first-person narrative from a different person's perspective. Next, the chance to write about something that I just came up with and have other people read it is super positive as well! I like hearing about what people think about my writing and it encourages me to write better stuff! Perhaps one thing that I will try out is focusing on different strategies for my reading notes. Then I can type a story that I have never tried before!


Patrick praying. Captures from my person photos.

I really like that photo because I saw it on a meme. I use it all the time in text conversations and I just love that it looks like he's praying to some divinity. So really, I chose that photo because I think it's the funniest photo.

Looking forward, I need to get better at my reading notes. They're not as good as useful to me as because i never refer to them when I write my story. I'm going to focus on "beautiful sentences" nice week!

Week 7 Story: A skater's retelling of the MONKEY KING BRAWLLL!!

"Sick Ollie Bro!" I yelled when Sun Wu Kung, the KING of skaters, showed me his trick.

"Patrick, I know you're not an ape or anything, but dude, you're pretty cool for a starfish. Wait, watch this!" said Sun Wu Kung as he turned one of his hairs into a Razor scooter and did some kickflips.

"WICKED BROOOO!!!!" I yelled back!

"That's nothing man. Now man watch Thi-"

Suddenly, the skies blackened and some kid walks out from the heavens.

"What the FLIP?" Gasped Sun Wu Kung as he walks toward the shadows.

"BE CAREFUL DUDE!!!" I cried.

But it was too late. Everything changed in an instant when the grandson of the Lord of Heavens came.

"Who are you?" questioned the mighty ape.

"I am Yang Oerlang, the grandson of the Lord of Heavens!" replied the valiant god.

"Lame. Get out of here man, or do I have to school you too?" beckoned the ape.

"Bring it!" yelled the young Lord.

They both summoned their wheeled boards and commenced a showdown. Up from the skies, the Lord of Heavens sent down literally the biggest skating rink I've ever seen in my life. It was like the size of three NFL football stadiums combined!

"Be careful dude!" I yelled

"No worries man. I got this!" replied the cocky Ape.

Sun Wu Kung transformed his scooter back into a skateboard and went into the rink. He started off with doing some casual kickflips when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he got some air and did a kickflip superman and wowed the crowd.

kickflip superman from Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3

Wowing the crowd he got back to his post and held his board in the air.

"Your turn." whispered the ape to the prince.

The earth rumbled and the skies grumbled when the prince got on his board. Riding down the rink like a lightning cheetah the young prince did a few flips and then all of a sudden he pulls out of these out of nowhere.

Slamma Jamma off of Pro Skater 3

The Slamma Jamma trick was brutal and ten mountains crumbled.

Fearing, the ensuing onslaught, all the other apes hid and withdrew from the crowd. All of a sudden, the two warriors clashed like clashing warriors. The sky thundered like thundery skies and it rained wet drops of water.

As the two warriors fought, the skating rink started to fall apart. I grab my ripstick and start riding towards the warriors to stop the madness.

"I'm about to end this man's career," said Sun Wu Kung as he saw me.

Then I knew what was going to happen. Sun Wu Kung was about to show me the coolest trick ever that would certainly get end the young prince's career. I got down on my knees and started to pray.

Patrick Praying. Uploaded from my personal photos

He grabbed his skateboard and I knew what was about to go down.
Sun Wu Kung pushed the Lord of Heaven's grandson aside and performed the trick that would be the end of the world.

Hiding my eyes from the terror, I see the Monkey King riding up the walls of the rink and then all it was all over.

Christ Air on Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3

The young prince had been defeated. He let out a giant roar of defeat and teleported back into the heavens.

Bibliography:
The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Authors Notes:
The original story is about the Monkey King, Sun Wu Kung, who clashed against the Yang Oerlang, the grandson of the Lord of Heavens. The Monkey King prior to this had committed many crimes against heaven such as eating the sacred peaches and taking all of the pills of life and the forces that heaven sent down to stop him were not enough. In a final effort, they sent down the Lord of Heaven's grandson, and upon heading to the cave of the monkey king, fought. The two were in a battle of shape-shifting with each time one out doing the other. In the end, the Monkey King had to run away and hide in heaven, disguised as the young lord.
For the purposes of my story, however, I replaced the shape-shifting battles with skateboarding tricks. I also changed the plot a little bit by having the Monkey King winning the battle. I also replaced the third person narrative with first-person storytelling. 

Reading Notes: Monkey King Part B

The story of the rebellion of Sun Wu Kung against heaven really reminds me of Paradise Lost by John Milton. In some ways, despite all the treachery and rule-breaking, I find myself relating and when he lost against Buddha I felt really sad for him. I guess the Monkey King appeals to all our vices and sense of pride eventually is his own downfall. The Synopsis ata the end is pretty neat and I am glad that Sun Wu Kung was able to become a Buddha. The redemption story and in the end where his helmet disappeared was touching. I think I want to read more Asian stories now. They're pretty cool!

Bibliography:
The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

escaping Buddha's Palm

Reading Notes Week 7: Monkey King Part A

The story of the Monkey King, Sun Wu Kung, is really unique because I find myself relating to the monkey king. The desire to escape death and the anxiety of death is something that affects humans and the quest to defeat it is very similar to the story of the Buddha. In some ways it seems like Sun Wu Kungs desire to defeat death seems almost futile as nothing in the human world can escape death, however, at least to Siddhartha, we can escape death by pursuing enlightenment and virtue? It's very similar to most religious values and I can see where those lines intersect with these stories. I'm excited to read what is going to happen next.

Bibliography:
The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Sun Wu Kung surfing the clouds

Reading Notes: Life of Buddha Part B

Victory over mara

The whole idea of Siddhartha as a hero is really unique in the story of the Buddha. From all my previous readings, a hero is someone who has to physically fight the evil, usually with a weapon of some sort. In Buddha, Siddhartha is a hero because of his courage to conquer old age and death. By conquering old age and death, he gives up everything in pursuit of supreme knowledge. That idea of a hero pursuing supreme knowledge to conquer death seems completely different even from the other Indian Epics I've read in class. Overall, I think the story is great, but, it seems that Buddha's attempt to shine light into the world would be overall futile as if nobody gave birth and nobody had a desire to then there would be no humans. Thus it would lead to the end of humankind. This is similar to when Paul the Apostle said that marriage is a concession and although the ideal is to be celibate, most people are not that strong. I would have to look further into Buddhist ideas to understand this.


Bibliography:
The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).

Read Notes: Life of Buddha Part A

This is my first time exploring the story of the Buddha. Although in highschool I had friends that read Siddhartha, I never read it myself. One of the things that really stood out to me throughout college was the Buddhist idea of taking the "I" out of suffering and to think that there is suffering. That idea is really unique as throughout the story, none of the old age, sickness, and death, was present in Siddhartha himself, but rather, he saw it and felt it. This contrasts with his actual environment in which he has everything that he could ever really need. This idea of there IS something in the world became prevalent and is a coming of age moment for Siddhartha as he realized that the world has pain. It's quite beautiful.

Patrick meditating?

Bibliography:

The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).

Wikipedia Trail: From Nostos to Nostoi

For my introduction yesterday, I looked at the etymology for the word nostos which is the "return home" theme of The Odyssey. I pressed around on more of the Wikipedia links and it led me to the Hero's journey, which is a cycle of events that every hero goes through that has a decisive crisis or climax in a story and end with victory. The decisive climax was kind of a dead-end so I went back to my nostos link and found nostoi which also deals with the return. It seems both those words have a similar meaning?

links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climax_(narrative)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostoi

A hero's journey

Week 5 Story: Patrick the Sailor

"Once upon a time there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died." - Patrick Star 

the ugly barnacle

Those were the last words I ever heard from the man thought the Captain as he made his way to the bazaar. What I carry and what I bring with me to these merchants are the last of the equipment that he left behind before he died.

It was a terrible accident. Four score and seven years ago, a ship I was in charge of land on what we thought was an island. Our men, tired from the long voyage at sea, sought to build a fire to cook our freshly caught fish and be merry. However, it all changed when the fire nation attacked. Upon lighting a fire, a terrible stirring of the ground occurred. Only a few of my men were able to make it back on board, myself included and as we were yelling for the other men to come aboard, the ground below them began to sink and a large spout of water came spraying out of the ground, piercing a man in half.  Our ship flowed away from the waves and I saw my men no more.

Even amongst those dead, I managed to gather the equipment of my finest sailor, Patrick Star from Bikini Bottom. I thought to myself if perchance I were to run into a family member of his I could give back his belongings and tell of his brave adventures out in the sea.

When I got to the bazaar, a crowd encircled me. I told them my story and the tail of my brave sailor when all of sudden one of the men raised his hand up.

Patrick raises his hand
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"Captain it's me! Patrick!" cried the man.

I could hardly believe it. Here, after years of searching, a man perchance claims to be Patrick?

"The audacity that some men have! And here I thought that men are honest! How could you claim to be a dead man?" I barked at the pretender.

"Captain, I am he! I managed to escape and have sought refuge with a king!"

Lies! I thought to myself, there was no way that this man could be the famed Patrick. I saw him with my own two eyes. The destruction that the whale caused because we mistook it for an island.

"Captain!" yelled one of my men

"Yes?" I said

Turning back, I see my men swell up in tears.  For that man who I thought to be a pretender was indeed the brave Patrick Star who I have been looking for. Falling down to my knees I cry and kiss his feet.

real tears

"How did you survive?" I asked.

End.

Bibliography:
Andrew Land The Arabian Nights

Authors Notes:
This is the first of Sindbad's voyages. The story takes place after Sindbad escapes a near-death experience of having mistaken an island for a whale. He drifts back on a piece of wood somewhere and manages to survive until one day he finds his captain trying to sell Sindbad's belongings. For this story, I told the story from the perspective of the captain.

Reading Notes: Sindbad Part B

I really enjoyed the story of Sindbad and it encourages me to read the Arabian Nights. One thing that stood out to me about this story is the way that strangers treat him with hospitality. Perhaps my favorite is when he encounters the King of Serndib and the slaves that meet him first feed him. This hospitality reminded me of Xenia or the theme of hospitality that strangers greet people in Greek epics like The Odyssey. Anyways, other favorable mentions are that old guy who rides on Sindbad's shoulder and the elephants who show him the ivory.

Bibliography: Andrew Lang The Arabian Nights

elephant who picks up sindbad

Reading notes Sindbad Part A

This is my first time reading Sindbad. I really enjoyed all the adventures of the first four voyages! It really makes me think about that poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson called "Ulysses." It seems like Sindbad no matter what terrible adventure he had before always wants to go back for more! My favorite one is the fourth voyage where he has to die with his wife, and he then kills some lady that was going into the hole and took her food and later escaped. lol

Bibliography
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang

Popeye meets Sindbad

Storybook Plan

A resource that I think might be helpful is:
the myth of return by Douglas Frame and The Odyssey translations by Tony Kline and Robert Fagles.

Next, the stories that I'll use for my story project are

Calypso's Island
Circe's Island
Achille's in the underworld
Odysseus on Ithaka.

For my story, I'm putting Patrick in place of Odysseus. I may or may not change some of the villains.
I want to explore the theme of nostos and the idea of longing in the stories.

Comment Wall

the picture is photoshopped by my friend Scottie

the journey home

Tech Tip: Twine

I really enjoyed making my Twine. I think I might make my storybook with Twine. The idea of having an interactive game sounds really fun!
Here is my test: file:///C:/Users/alber/Documents/College%20stuff/Albert%20Created%20Game.html

feel free to try it out!

Reading Notes: Infancy Gospels Part B

The second parts of the infancy gospels revealed miracles regarding Christ as his holy baby water as well as Christ killing people. I am shocked by some of these stories but I also think it is kind of funny. It's interesting how a lot of these miracles did not make it into the canon as I think some more stories of kid Jesus getting mad at a kid that bumped into him and killing him or resurrecting a kid that fell off the roof just to let his parents know that he did not kill this kid would really add to the personality of Jesus.  One thing that I did notice overall is how human-like Jesus was like at certain moments and the author stated that he gets mad at some points.

baby Jesus

Bibliography:

The Lost Books of the Bible, edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. (1926): The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ.

Reading Notes: infancy gospels part A

This is my first time reading the infancy gospels and I am quite entertained by the stories. I had not idea that there were other stories of Christ that were not included in the Bible. I really liked the miracle stories of the Baby Jesus and especially how that little devil kid put the towel on his head and crows and serpents came out of him. The way that all these people interacted with each other are really interesting and they all had the same conclusion that it was God doing the workd.



Bibliography:
The Bible King James Version
The Lost Books of the Bible, edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. (1926).

was baby Jesus a Holy Terror?
the daily beast

Feedback strategies

The articles I read were five reasons to stop saying good job and the trouble with amazing.
One thing that really stood out to me about the first article were the different ways to give effective feedback instead of just saying "good job." I have a one year old nephew now and I think these are great ideas to instill in kids when they're young and to train myself on how to properly talk to myself and making my praise specific. Next, the second article was great with the anecdote on the Samba class. I think that the phrases we use for praise have gotten watered down and lose their meaning if EVERYTHING we do is AMAZING...

nancy pelosi saying good job. good job nancy

Topic Research: Longing in the Odyssey

I'm interested in the theme of nostos in the story of the Odyssey. Odysseus's longing to come home to Ithaca is very touching and relatable, and I want to explore what that means to long in the Odyssey. The translation I read previously is by Robert Fagles, but I'll reference both Fagles and Kline for my project. Also, there is a poem I read by C.P. Cavafy called "Ithaka" that represents the idea of the "journey" really well and I might use that in the intro.
For the project, I will focus on different scenes that portray this longing:

1. Calypso's island
2. Circe
3. Achilles in the underworld?
4. Odysseus on Ithaka.

sources:
1. Robert Fagles The Odyssey
2. Tony Kline The Odyssey 

http://freebookapalooza.blogspot.com/2016/07/kline-homers-odyssey.html

https://socialecologies.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/the-odyssey-robert-fitzgeralds-voyage-to-ithaca/
Ithaka

Week 3: Story - Patrick passing in between Scylla and Charybdis

After passing the Sirens, complex Patrick realized that there were more terrors ahead.

"Barnacles! Circe was right!" barked Patrick.
He turned back and looked at his horrified men, who were wetting their pants from fear of the unknown.

"Uhhh! Boss! There's a giant tornado inside the water!" said one of the men.
"It's Charybdis!" cried another man.

Patrick, realizing that his men knew nothing of the terrors ahead, chose to give his men confidence.

"Men! We have been through horrors far worse than what lies ahead. Day in and day out we have fought and conquered! Remember Polyphemus? We defeated him! Remember Circe? We defeated her! Do not forget the strength we have! Now stay close to the oars and row!" yelled the cunning Patrick.

"Barnacles! Elpenor truly went out easy" cried one of the men.

As the crew steered away from the whirlpool monster, the cunning starfish sighs the biggest sigh of relief. Forgetting Circe's warnings, Patrick arms himself with sharp spears to prepare for spooky Scylla with creepy snakeheads.

Suddenly, Patrick hears a loud yelp similar to a small animal crying.

"Help!" yelled a man as he is smashed against a rock.

Brains and guts shoot out of the man's head like a toddler dropping a watermelon from a counter.
The juices lightly sprinkle Patrick's face.

Horrified, Patrick yells to his other men when suddenly six more were picked up by the tentacle heads of Scylla. Weapons drop everywhere.

"Help! Patrick!" cried one of his men.

With all his strength, Patrick throws his spear at Scylla and completely misses. The spear instead bounces off a boulder and falls on a man knocking the man unconscious. 

"Please help us!" cried the ones that were still conscious.

In vain Patrick throws spears and swords and shields and large pieces of wood at Scylla and misses. Each time, everything thrown bounces or completely misses the intended target and hits his men instead. Meanwhile Scylla, like a joyful baby encountering water for the first time, smashes the men against the rocks and water. Human juices and remains of men that were once alive scatter the boat as a man is slowly dragged into a cave.

Bibliography:
Tony Kline The Odyssey http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/odyssey-sirens-scylla-and-charybdis.html

Author's Notes:

This a story from The Odyssey regarding the death of Odysseus's men against the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis. The story focuses on how Scylla kills all of Odysseus's men and how Odysseus forgets the warning from Circe to not arm himself against Scylla. I thought it was very sad how Odysseus could not do anything at all and how every one of his guys cried out for help when Scylla grabbed them. It was also a particularly gory scene.

scylla and charybdis

Reading Notes: The Odyssey Part B

Scylla and Charybdis
Scylla and Charybdis

Today I read the rest of the Odyssey. One thing that stuck out to me was reading the death of Odysseus's crew members in-between Scylla and Charybdis. How terrible fate it must be to go between Scylla and Charybdis. One thing that stood out to me that I did not recognize the first time was how Odysseus's men cried out for help and their last actions were reaching out toward Odysseus before Scylla consumed them. I can only imagine the grief Odysseus felt as his men, who harkened their captain's words, died crying out to their leader. For Odysseus was in charge of bringing everyone home and he failed and that is very sad.

Bibliography:
Tony Kline The Odyssey 
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/odyssey-sirens-scylla-and-charybdis.html

Reading Notes: The Odyssey Part A

Today I read part A of the Odyssey readings. The stories covered the encounter and escape from Polyphemus, through Circe, and the death of Elpenor, the youngest crew member who fell off the roof of Circe's house. One thing that really stood out to me were the adjectives they used to describe Dawn such as "rosey fingered." I'm going to incorporate some more of those descriptors to my story telling this week.

I think maybe a story about Elpenor would be a good retelling this week.

Rosey Fingered Dawn

Bibliography:
The Odyssey translated by Tony Kline
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-odyssey.html

Feedback Thoughts

Patrick beating himself up
https://imgur.com/gallery/X43TumH

The first article I read and listened to was the commencement speech given by Neil Gaiman Neil Gaiman commencement speech. The article covered a speech given by Neil Gaiman addressing a graduating arts college. One thing that really stood out to me is the process of enjoying it. How enjoying the process, as challenging as it is to truly love what is happening, to love the work that you do. This has been a challenging lesson that I am learning every day of my life. I also really like what he said about underconfidence and to pretend that I am someone who could do what I want to do. I will put that into practice.

The next article I read why rejection hurts so much talked about the evolutionary origin of our self criticism. Some things that I really like about the article is the zero-tolerence policy of self-criticism. I often make myself wrong for things that I have no control over anymore and doing that really makes me negative.

Topic Brainstorm

The four ideas that I have are The Odyssey, Beowulf, Tricksters, and Dante's Inferno

Beowulf:

For Beowulf, I want to incorporate Patrick Star into the story by breaking the story of Beowulf up into 3 parts - Patrick, Patrick's Mom, and Albert. I'd retell the story of Beowulf with the twist of instead of Beowulf winning the fights, Patrick would win all the fights. The idea would be what would happen if Patrick gets his mother involved and maybe even Albert? The background I have on Beowulf is the translation I read from Seamus Heaney. 

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2017/07/project-ideas-beowulf.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf

The Odyssey:
The story of Nostos told through the eyes of Patrick in the world of Toy Story trying to find his way back home to his owner, Albert. It would that Albert went to war years ago and what was supposed to be a 10-year war I eventually got married and left Patrick behind and got preoccupied with other aspects of my life. Patrick on the other hand, crying in a box of golden corral crane machine toys prays every day that God will bring him back home to Albert. By some miracle, a crane one day picks him up but because he is so ugly, the kid who wins him throws him away into the wastebasket and through a series of adventures with inanimate objects, Patrick ends up home only to find Albert's house LITTERED. with SUITORS.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2017/07/project-idea-odyssey.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus

Tricksters:
The story of Patrick being a trickster in every story, but Patrick actually is not playing dumb. He's just so dumb and the dialogue is a comical narrative of what happens when bad guys have to interact with Patrick. All the bad guys end up going back into their cages or whatever and never come out ever again.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2017/07/project-idea-tricksters.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster

Dante's Inferno:

Patrick goes to hell and finds nobody there. In a desperate attempt to get out of hell, he goes deeper into the inferno and realizes that he has every single one of these sins and actually belongs there. Having realized that he committed all the sins himself, Patrick becomes calmer and calmer as he goes through all the punishments, the demons become annoyed and try to send him back up the ladder to get him out of hell or else they would be stuck with him. The problem? Patrick DOES NOT WANT TO LEAVE. DUN DUN DUN!
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2017/07/project-idea-dante.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)

Patrick in the inferno
doodlerordie

week 2 story: patrick the trickster

The time is currently 12:22AM. Albert makes a bowl of quinoa and rice.

Once upon a time, swift-footed Georgie walked down a street. At the corner of his eyes, he sees a big burly clown-man waving.

clown saying hello
belfasttelegraph

The big burly clown-man smiled at him softly and runs into the street gutters. Swift footed Georgie, braver than a brave man, runs towards the gutters. Georgie looks down and sees... this.

complex

"What the ****!" 

yelped swift-footed Georgie, as he jumps backward similar to how other little boys his age would jump backward if they saw what he saw.

"Uh... hey there little fella," said the clown.

"MOM!!!!!!" yelled Georgie.

"SHHHH!!! not too loud!" 

Curious, swift-footed Georgie gets closer to the clown. 

"What the HECK are you doing down there?" asked the valiant boy.

"Playing Pokemon GO"

"In there?!"

"Yes." 

"Well, you damn near gave me a heart attack!"

"I know I'm sorry, but I need your help!"

"With what?" said Georgie as he takes a step back.

"Well, could you give me a hand? I got stuck!" said the clown as he reaches out to grab Georgie.

"Probably not. My mom said not to talk to strangers." said swift-footed Georgie as he got even further back.

"Please!" cried the clown.

"Okay, I'll help you."

Georgie grabs hold of the clown's hand and pulls him out of the gutters.

"Thank God! I thought I would be down there forever!" said the clown.

"You're welcome!" remarked Georgie.

"You're a FOOL for pulling me out. I've been down there for years! Now I'm hungry!!!" yelled the clown.

"No! Please don't eat me!" cried Georgie.

As Georgie's life is about to literally be consumed, Patrick Star walks by.

patrick star walking by
giphy

"Oh, Patrick! Oh, wise sage! Please help me!" cried Georgie.

"What's the problem here?" said Patrick.

"This clown is trying to eat me!" said Georgie, pleading for intervention.

"Sounds good! Carry on!" said Patrick as he walks away.

Georgie, feeling hopeless now as the clown slowly gnaws on his head, tries once more to ask Patrick for help.

"Patrick wait!!"

Patrick waddles back.

"Would you like to know how I got into this predicament?"

"Sure!" chimed Patrick.

Georgie explains what happened to Patrick.

"And that's how I got here!" 

patrick is confused. tenor

"So you fell into the gutter?" asked Patrick.

"No! Let me explain it again," yelled Georgie.

Georgie explains the predicament a second time.

"So you grabbed the clown and are about to eat him?" asked Patrick.

The clown enraged by this stupidity takes his mouth off of Georgie's head and attempts to explain.

"No no no! I GOT STUCK IN THE GUTTER. AND GEORGIE PULLED ME OUT!" yelled the clown.

"You got stuck and the gutter pulled you out? And now Georgie wants to eat you?" asked Patrick.

"NO!! LET ME SHOW YOU. I GOT STUCK LIKE THIS!" yelled the clown.

The clown jumps back into the gutter.

"And stuck you will say!" yelled Georgie as he runs away to his mommy.

Authors Notes:

I got the idea for this story from the anthology that we read regarding the trickster hare and the lion who tries to eat the brahmin. I thought it would be really funny to do the same story with Pennywise the clown from It. I also replaced the hare with Patrick, who is actually dumb. The story ends similar to how the trickster myth ends with Pennywise jumping back into his "cage" where he remains stuck.

Bibliography:

Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912). mythfolklore

Week 2 reading Anthology

I focused on the characters in each of the stories. I particularly really liked the trickster one with the Jackal. That story gave me a good laugh. I'd like to incorporate a trickster story where Patrick Star plays dumb, but the twist is that he is actually dumb. Although he is a trickster god, he ends up trapping himself in the cage. Everything goes badly from there and the brahmin ends up getting eaten.

Next week I'll focus on something like that haha

Patrick in prison with the tattle tale strangler deviantart

Week 2 reading over view

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4.

Week 3: Infancy Gospels

Week 4: Odyssey

Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6.

Week 5: Buddha

Week 6: Sindbad

Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.]

Week 7: Japanese Myths

Week 9: China

Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11.

Week 10: Alaska

Week 11: Great Planes

Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13.

Week 12: Arthur

Week 13: Canterbury Tales

Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15.

Week 14: Decameron

Week 15: Hans Christian Anderson

I am really excited for the Bible, Classical, Indian/Middle Eastern, and Celtic!

One thing that I think would be great is the story of Daphnis and Chloe by Longus. I remember Dr. Harper talking about that in class and said that a guy named Dorkon saved Chloe and that name still sticks out to me until this day! Also, the Bhagavad Gita would be a great read along with the Indian units and Gawain and the Green Knight would be cool for the Celtic stuff.

the crucifixion of patrick star
ifunny

Time Strategies

I read the article called "Why Time Management is Ruining Our Lives" and that was unexpectedly a lot longer of a read than I was expecting. But MAN! I felt like I just went through ten minutes of an existential crisis reading that thing. I'm going on my fifth year here a the university of Oklahoma and for the past four years including the summer time has just been non-stop going. Everything has gone by so fast that I often find myself a little bit sad at how fast the year has gone by. As a matter of fact, when I don't do anything for a day I feel like an absolute sloth. Being busy all the time has created this anxiety and and fear of not being busy. It was a great read and I decided to bookmark it to read it again when I'm a little bit more alert to read again!

I found this picture when I was looking for a relevant picture for this post
travis with a ch