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!