Online Education Review

(Just a silly little gif I found) 

As you can see from the gif I posted, I really enjoy online education for the simple fact that I don't have to get up early and try to learn while still trying to wake up. The joys of online education is I can work on my own time and set my own pace. Online education is also flexible because I can go anywhere and work on my online work. I have taken other online classes, but none of them have been as organized at this class. I love that most of everything is off of D2L. I also found everything to be so much easier in this class because the foundation was laid out at the beginning. I feel like other online courses can be really boring because most of them only want me to read something each week, write a couple of sentences in a discussion board, or write short assignments. I can honestly say this is the first online course that genuinely allowed for me to be as creative and free to express myself as I wanted. I also had the most interaction with a professor in this online course than any other. Which is a plus in my book. A professor who is able to connect with their students without actually physically being there really says a lot. The declarations are also a huge part why I love this class. I like that we hold our own grade in our hands. The extra credit was also great. If a lot of online courses were set up like this course then I think I would be more inclined to take A LOT more online classes. 

Portfolio Guide

Love Triangle

A story about the infidelity of a Bible woman, Bathsheba with King David, and the outcome it has for her husband Uriah.

Encounter of Life

This story is about a young Prince who learns as an adult about the world suffering. 

Sleepy John

A story about a very studious boy named John who has a bad habit of sleeping at night with his day clothes on.

The Widow's Revenge

This story is about two widows who get revenge when they meet a trickster. 

Supernatural
Sam and Dean work to solve a case about a "vengeful spirit" by the name of Lady Mary, who they think tries to kill her fiance, Mr. Fox. 

OU General Education Review

(Just a funny meme. )

So I am supposed to do a general education review, but I am not actually taking this as a general education humanities credit. This is an elective for me. I got into this class because my roommate strongly recommended this class because she really enjoyed it. I also needed an elective and did not know what to take. I found that I like writing, so this class seemed perfect. I especially enjoy writing when I am passionate about what I am writing. This is why I regret taking this class this semester. The reason for this is because I had so much going on this semester. With anatomy and my other online courses, it was tough to keep up with the assignments every single day. I did not really get to enjoy this class. I wish I could have gotten more into the storytelling because I really enjoyed a lot of the readings. What I think I will remember most from the class is being mindful of grammar mistakes and proofreading more. This class has really helped me with that. 

College Writing Experience

(Meme. )

Before this past school year, I thought I was a pretty good writer. I am a pretty good writer, just not as good as I thought I was. This class has taught me that I have a long way to go before I am a good writer. I am a psychology major, and it is important to be a goof writer because many psychologist do have a report their research, and also share their findings. This is not an easy job. This is why I take classes that are writing intensive to keep me on my toes. Another course that showed me that my writing needs work was in my meteorology class. Boy was the paper that I turned in rough. The professor tore my paper to pieces. I kind of felt down as a writer afterwards because no other professor had given me a low grade on a paper before. Not even in English Composition, and so I was shocked. The experience definitely humbled me and showed that I needed to be better as a writer. 

If I were to design my own course that had do with writing and my major, it would probably just be similar to the psychology capstone that I took. We basically just researched and wrote about popular topics pertaining to psychology. I think when a person loves what they are writing is when they write their best. I know what I am not passionate about what I am writing about, then I tend to make more mistakes. I feel I experienced this a lot in this course. It was very fun, but I had moments were I just was not feeling anything I was writing. 

Essay: Sisters in The Little Mermaid

(Ariel and her sister as kids. )

One of the most tragic parts of this story is the bond the little mermaid shares with her sisters comes to an abrupt end. In the beginning of the story, all of the sister shared a common bond of wanting to know what the land around them looked like. One of my favorite parts of this story is when each mermaid on her fifteenth birthday would look at the land. Each one would then come back down in the waters and tell everyone what they say. The best part about it was each of their birthdays was during different seasons, so they all saw different things. However, for the little mermaid, her adventure was much different because she saved the prince that she immediately fell in love with. She risked everything for him. The little mermaid even gambled with the idea of never seeing her sister, father, and grandmother never again just so she could be with the prince. But he did not marry her to give her an immortal soul. Even when her sisters tried to save her, she still chose the prince. This is what made the story of the little mermaid so sad. The little mermaid gave so much and ended up getting little in return. If you would to read the real story of The Little Mermaid, I would definitely encourage it. It's a really good read.  

The Little Mermaid

Reading Diary B: Anderson Fairy Tales

(A beautiful graphic of The Little Mermaid.)

The second half of the unit tells the story of the Little Mermaid. The story is generally the same to the Disney movie with the exception that there is not a happily ever after ending. The ending in this story is quite sad and I was quite taken aback by how sad it was. Still a very great story though. The story is really long, so I will summarize the major parts of the story. In The Little Mermaid, the youngest mermaid on her fifteenth birthday is old enough to go up to shore and see what the earth looks like and the creatures on it. She sees that a prince in drowning and saves him. Although, he does not know that she saved him and she feel sad. The little mermaid than goes to the sea witch to turn her into an immortal being. Although becoming immortal comes with a cost. The little mermaid must lose her tongue and she will lose her fin and have legs, and sharp pain in her feet. Also, if the prince does not love her and marries someone else then she will die. Knowing all this, the little mermaid decides to become a human. The little mermaid meets the prince and he grows fond of her and remembers that she looks like the girl who saved his life. He still ends up marrying someone else, and the little mermaid dies. Although she is then in a spirit world were she had to a chance to obtain a immortal soul after three hundred years. The ending was so sad. The little mermaid saved the prince and she could not even tell him that or about how she felt about him. 

If you would like to read The Little Mermaid, click here.

Reading Diary A: Anderson Fairy Tales

(The Emperor's New Suit )

I really liked this story about the emperor and his suit. The story is about an emperor who loves to dress well and buys many clothes for himself. The emperor hears about two designers who have a new cloth that no one has worn before and is unique because it can only be seen by the owner who wears it. When the emperor meets the two designers, they show him the cloth, but the emperor does not want to say anything. So the emperor falsely says he can see the cloth. They then prepare to make a suit for him which he invisibly puts on and walks around naked for everyone to see. Everyone else sees that the emperor is naked, but does not dare to the emperor. I thought this was funny because the two swindlers are obviously tricksters and they were able to get over on the emperor. I really recommend this story. It is a pretty funny read. If you would like to read, just click the link above. 

Week 13 Famous Last Words

(From one college student to the next. )

So as you may see from the lovely meme above, I had my own personal seat on the struggle bus this past week. This past week and the weeks to come have and will be overwhelming. I utterly dislike the end of the semester because every professor wraps up their class the same way. You either have a bunch of papers, lots of tests between dead week and finals week, or you have so many menial assignments you start to wonder when you will be able to study. The past week was not as bad compared to what I have waiting for me in week 14. One thing I am happy about is this class seems to lighten my stress load from other courses. I am also sad that I did not get to enjoy this class as much as I should have. It still has not really hit me that this  and my other classes will be done in two weeks, but I am relieved because I need a break from school. It has been a really rough semester with taking 17 hours. I will never do this again. Anyway, if you are on the struggle bus, then I hope that you all conquer these last two weeks. This is especially true for all the graduating seniors. Good luck!

Week 13 Tech Tip

For this week, I added the weather gadget to my blog. I think it's pretty cool and will be adding it to future blogs I may have.

Essay: Parents and Children

I really liked the story about Clever Elsie in this weeks reading. For this weeks essay I thought I would change it up and write about parents and children since there was not really a trickster and fool in this story. In this story Clever Elsie is close with her parents and family. Her parents are looking for a man to take Clever Elsie's hand in marriage. However, they know no one will have her if they think she is not smart. So Hans comes along and is interested in Clever Elsie. To get to know Clever Elsie better they have dinner where Clever Elsie is sent to get beer. Upon her discovery she finds an axe and cries because she thinks about what if her and Hans were to have a son and he was killed by the axe. So she weeps until some one comes down to check on her. Clever Elsie's mother and father come down and weep with her when she reveals why she is crying. I thought it was really funny that everyone ended up crying in the end except Hans. I could just picture exaggerated cries from each family member. One more louder than the next. This is not something you see all the time. Some behavior I feel are common to most parent and child relationships is pushing your children to be with someone. It seems the older you get the more inclined your parents are to want to know about your love life and when you're going to get married and have children. I think that was definitely apparent in this story. Anyway, I would really recommend this story and unit. If you want to read, click here.

(Clever Elsie)

Reading Diary A: Grimm unit

(illustration by Walter Crane)

For this week, I chose the reading unit Grimm. One of my favorite stories was about Clever Elsie. I liked this story because everyone thought that Clever Elsie was so clever, but I did not really agree. In the story, Clever Elsie's parents want to marry her off, but no man will have her unless she is smart. So a man by the name of Hans comes to court Clever Elsie. Hans decides if he want to marry Clever Elsie by having dinner with her and her family. At the start of dinner Clever Elsie's mother asks her to get some beer, but Clever Elsie never comes back up from getting the beer because she is crying. The reason why she is crying is because she thinks that an ax will kill her and Hans future son. So each person one by one comes down and asks Clever Elsie what is wrong and sit and cry with her until Hans is the last one at the dinner table. Hans comes down and sees all the commotion and decides he will marry Clever Elsie. The ending of the story I did not really understand, so in my storytelling this week I will probably change the ending.  

Grimm unit (read it!)

Essay: Trickster and the Fool in more English Fairy Tales

(The Old Witch)

In this weeks reading, the trickster and fool is one of the girls and the witch from the story The Old Witch. What makes the girl the trickster could of been out of pure luck or because she had a plan. Who knows. In the beginning, the girl leaves home to find good fortune. On her way from leaving her town she encounters some bread that has not been taken out of the oven for seven years. So she takes the bread out. She then meets a cow that has not been milked in seven years as well. So she milks the cow. Finally, she meets a tree that has fruit that has not been picked for seven years. Just like the others, she picks the fruit off the tree. The girl continues on her trek and meets an old witch who allows her to clean for money. The witch has one rule. Never look up the chimney or something bad will fall down. So there girl forgets and looks up the chimney. When she does, a bag of money falls down. The girl then makes a run for it with the witch chasing after her. Luckily for her, the tree, cow, and the oven with which the bread was baked in all helped to hide the girl. She was able to live a successful life with all the money. Honestly, I thought the witch was pretty foolish to think the girl would not look up the chimney. It was even more foolish of the witch to put money up the chimney. Someone was bound to disobey and find the money.

This story is a really good read. I would recommend the English Fairy Tales if you are bored or cannot find a good section to read. If you would like to read, just click in the caption above, and it will take you to this story and its unit.

Week 12 Storytelling: Supernatural

(Sam and Dean Winchestar)

On one Sunday night, Sam and Dean Winchester were driving down I-35 in search of their next hunt. They had just finished putting a vengeful spirit to rest by burning the remains of the deceased so they would not be able to harm anyone again. Hunting supernatural things is what they do, and they are pretty darn good at it.

"Sam, what do we have next?" said Dean, concentrating on driving down the dimly lit road. Sam was about to answer when all of a sudden he got a phone call from their Uncle Bobby, who is also a hunter of supernatural beings.

"What's up, Bobby?" said Sam, wondering why he was calling after they just left his house not long ago.

"Sam, do you remember that awful man Mr. Fox who had the vengeful spirit after him?" said Bobby in a hurry.

"Yes, what about it?" said Sam confused.

"Well, it looks like you boys did not burn the right body because Mr. Fox was found dead just a few hours ago," said Bobby.

Sam then looked at Dean and told him "Dean turn the car around now!" Sam said suddenly, forgetting he was on the phone with Bobby. "Alright, we are heading back. Thanks, Bobby," Sam said.

"Alright, you boys be safe," said Bobby, ending the call. He also knew that Sam and Dean could handle this on their own.

"So what happened?" said Dean.

"Mr. Fox was killed, so Bobby thinks we should go back and check things out," Sam said, contemplating how they could have burned the wrong body. Sam recounted the story behind why they had to burn the vengeful spirit.

The vengeful spirit that was after Mr. Fox was a woman by the name of Lady Mary. She was very rich when she met Mr. Fox. She thought that she and Mr. Fox were in love when he asked her to marry him. However, one thing she had noticed was that she had never been to his home. 

One day, when Mr. Fox was out of town, Lady Mary decided she would go to Mr. Fox's home just to look around. As Lady Mary walked to the door, she saw a sign that said "Beware of walking through this door." She did not know what to make of this, but still walked inside. Lady Mary walked around for a while and did not see anything out of the ordinary. Lady Mary saw Mr. Fox had nothing to hide until she came upon another door that told her to "KEEP OUT!" Lady Mary opened the door, and she was horrified by what she saw next. The room was filled with dead women that Mr. Fox had married and then killed. Lady Mary knew this because each woman had on a wedding dress. 

Lady Mary shut the door and started to take a run for it out of the house. She was going to go tell her brothers what Mr. Fox had done, but she heard a strange sound. Lady Mary went to hide and saw Mr. Fox had come through the door dragging another woman toward the dreadful room. However, greedy Mr. Fox saw that the woman had on a beautiful diamond ring, but he struggled to get it off. Mr. Fox had such a difficult time that finally he decided to just cut her hand off. When he did, the hand flew in Lady Mary's lap. Mr. Fox then continued to drag the poor woman into the room. He planned to find the hand later. 

Lady Mary used this as her chance to run out of the house. The next day, Lady Mary was surprised that Mr. Fox had decided to host a lunch at his home before they were to get married the next day. So she and her brothers went to his home where they had planned to confront and kill Mr. Fox. While they were at the table eating, Lady Mary told Mr. Fox about a dream she had where she recounted everything that happened at his house. Mr. Fox denied everything. Lady Mary then took a sip of her wine, and then held up the hand of the woman whom Mr. Fox killed. However, Lady Mary suddenly dropped the hand and became very dizzy. Lady Mary's brothers went to her side for help, but they were also dizzy until they all dropped dead. Mr. Fox had poisoned them all and took all of their money. 

As Dean and Sam were arriving back in town, Sam realized something. All this time, they had thought that maybe Lady Mary had acted alone in trying to kill Mr. Fox. Lady Mary's brothers could have also tried to help her since Mr. Fox had killed them as well.

"Dean, I think I know who killed Mr. Fox!" said Sam suddenly.

"Who?" said Dean.

"We never stopped to think that her brothers would help her kill him," said Sam.

"Oh, I thought about it, but honestly that man was sick and he deserved everything he got. If we were not wanted in several states, I would have turned him in to the police for killing all those women," said Dean. Sam nodded in agreement.

The boys then found the grave of Lady Mary's brothers and burned their bodies next to where they had burned Lady Mary. Sam then called Bobby to let him know what happened. "I can't believe you idgits didn't think to burn the boys' bodies," Bobby said feigning that he was upset. "Yeah, yeah, Bobby. Mr. Fox had it coming. What case do you have next for us, Bobby?"

Sam and Dean then went cruising once again for their next case.

Bibliography:
 English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Author's note: I had a lot of fun with writing this storytelling. The original story that I retold is based off a story in the English Fairy tales, titled Mr. Fox. I was also inspired by the show Supernatural and its characters Sam, Dean, and Bobby. When I was reading the story about Mr. Fox, I felt like it could have a supernatural feel to it, so I ran with it. In the original story, Lady Mary is a rich woman who falls for Mr. Fox. Lady Mary and Mr. Fox are going to get married. Lady Mary realizes she has never been to Mr. Fox's castle, so she sneaks inside and finds out that he has been killing women and storing them in a room so he can take their riches. Lady Mary is mortified by her discovery and tries to run out of the house. She realizes, though, that Mr. Fox in in his castle. He is dragging a woman, and he cuts off the woman's hand so that he can get the diamond ring off  of it. The hand lands in Lady Mary's lap, but Mr. Fox does not look hard enough to find  the hand. So Lady Mary leaves the castle to confront Mr. Fox the next day. Mr. Fox denies everything, until Lady Mary pulls out the hand, and then her brothers kill him. For my story, the general theme is still the same except Mr. Fox does not die at first. He poisons Lady Mary and her brothers. They then become vengeful spirits who try to kill him. Sam and Dean had originally thought that only Lady Mary was after Mr. Fox, but her brothers were as well. I changed the ending for my own retelling of the story because I thought it was a bit boring that Mr. Fox just died and that was the end. I also wanted to make the story more fun and add a supernatural feel to the story.

Reading Diary A: More English Fairy Tales

(Red fox.)

For this weeks reading I decided to finish reading the English Fairy tales. I really liked the firs set of stories, so I figured why not. Two of my favorite stories from the first half of the reading were Scrapefoot and The Old Witch. The first story is about the three little bears and a fox names Scrapefoot. There is a big bear, middle bear, and small bear. The three bears live in a castle where Scrapefoot  sneaks in. Just like the classic Three Little Bears, nothing is just right until Scrapefoot gets to whatever belongs to little bear. When the bears catch Scrapefoot sleeping in the little bears bed, they throw him out of the window. 

The second story is about two sisters who go to find their own fortune. When one of the girls is on her way to find money she encounters bread that has been baking, a cow that hasn't been milked, and a tree that has fruit that has not been picked all for seven years. She she helps each of them out. Finally, she meets a witch who allows her to be a servant for money, but tells her to never look up the chimney or something bad will happen. So there girl forgets and looks up the chimney and a bag of money falls down. So the girl leaves, but the witch is right behind looking for the girl. As she is running, the tree, cow, and the oven with which the bread was baked all helped to hide her whenever the witch got close. She eventually ran off with the money and got married and lived happily ever after. However, he sister got greedy and decided to do the same thing her sister did and steal from the witch. But her sister did not take the bread out of the oven, milk the cow, or pick fruit from the tree. So when it became time for her to hide, no one would help her. The witch found her and she was left to walk home empty handed. 

Famous Last Words

(Anatomical skull)

This week felt good because for the last few weeks I have been studying the human skull in order to do well on my skull quiz in anatomy. The skull quiz was this past Wednesday and I feel like if I did not ace it then I definitely still made an mid to low A hopefully. I felt good about this because I did not do as well as I would have liked to on the first bone quiz where we were required to know all other bones and their structures. Also, this week I was also was able to write a storytelling post that I really had fun writing (even though I did not get to post it this week). I am really bad at starting a storytelling post and never finishing them before the deadline. I guess I need to work on my time management a little more, but it is so hard when you have others classes that also require day to day assignments/studying, and then you throw in working part-time and it is just a mess. Honestly, I wish I could enjoy this class a bit more, but I have some much going on this semester. Anyway, I am looking forward to next week and what it holds for me. 

Essay: Trickster and the Fool in English Fairy Tales

In this weeks reading, a story that had a trickster and fool was the story about The Rose-Tree. In this story the evil stepmother is definitely the trickster and the beautiful step daughter is the fool. The stepmother hated the beautiful daughter of her husband because she had lost her candles. She was also jealous of the girls beauty. So pretending not to be angry, the stepmother tells her stepdaughter to lay her head on her lap so that she can comb her hair. Although, she says that she cannot part her hair without wood and an ax. So the foolish daughter gets the supplies for her stepmother, which ultimately leads to her demise. In the end, though it seems like the characters switch places and the girl becomes the trickster and the stepmother becomes the fool. At the end of the story, the girls brother buries her and cries over her grave everyday until she turns into a beautiful tree. The tree then sings a song, and the bird listens and sings the song to three millers, jeweler, and a shoemaker. So somehow this very strong bird is able to carry a gold watch and chain, red pair of shoes, and a millstone around its neck. When the bird gets to the girls home, it knocks the house with millstone and the boy and father come out and receive their gifts. However, the foolish stepmother thinks she is getting a gift and runs out the door only for the bird to drop the millstone on her, which also leads to her death.

The bird dropping the millstone on the stepmother

Reading Diary B: English Fairy Tales

My favorite story from the second half of the reading was "The Fox." This story is quite funny because it has an ending that is super hilarious. In this story, there is a women by the name of Lady Mary who finds a man by the name of Mr. Fox. They both agreed to get married, and that they would stay at his castle. Although, no one had seen Mr. Fox's castle, including Lady Mary's brothers. So one day Lady Mary found Mr. Fox's and she was troubled with what she found. In the house she found dead corpses of women he had previously wed. Disgusted an d frightened, Lady Mary goes to leave, but then she sees Mr. Fox and hides. She sees Mr. Fox dragging one of this victims to the room where he has killed his past wives. But before, Mr. Fox sees that the woman had large diamond ring on her finger. He impatiently cuts her hand off and it goes flying into Lady Mary's lap. When Mr. Fox cannot find the hand, he gives up and continues to drag the woman in the room. Lady Mary then rushes out of the house, and when she sees Mr. Fox on their day to wed, she looks very pale. She then tells him about a very bad dream about what happened in his castle. The whole time Mr. Fox denies he's ever done anything she dreamed, but then she pulls out the hand, and then Lady Mary's brothers kill Mr. Fox. This was a very scary story and I could totally see this being a show whenever I was reading it. One way I was thinking about possibly retelling this story was by changing the the characters and making Lady Mary the villain in the story and also her brothers are also in on it.