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Week 9 Story: The Sun Goddess: Amaterasu

Amaterasu The Sun Goddess:  Source        Being the goddess of the sun after all these years is quite taxing. Being responsible for keeping the balance and harmony within the earth realm is just exhausting. You may have heard that I bequeathed my position to one of my descendants, and while this is true, someone has to make sure that no one messes up the balance. It has been thousands of years since that incident. With the exception of the elders, not many people remember who I am. The year is 2020, my descendant Asahi is now in charge of the light. I watch over her, as she is just a girl. I watch her as she channels her powers, I need to ensure that she is acting responsibly with something that she did not ask for. Having the entire power of the sun in your hands is quite the responsibility. I know how it was. Growing up with my brother, our parents put such a force of pressure upon us. It was inescapable. But those times are over, I must look forward to ensuring that the balance

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology Part B

Image of Japan  Source        Like I said with the first half of the reading, I was really excited to be able to add some Japanese mythology into my portfolio. These are definitely stories that I will want to incorporate into my classroom someday as an English teacher. I really enjoyed how all of these stories strung together as a linear story but also worked as stand-alone stories. I really enjoyed the entire mythology as a whole, and I am glad that I got the opportunity to broaden my horizons with literature, as I do not get much exposure to world literature in my current field of study. I thought it was a nice change from the first half of the readings, and I thoroughly enjoyed the readings. My favorite story from the anthology was Japan: The Jewel Heart of Desire. This story is connected to the fish hook story from the same anthology and is based around Emperor Chiuai and the Japanese Goddesses as a whole. I really liked how short these stories are, they are super concise but t

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology Part A

Yamato in disguise:  Source Japanese Mythology: This week's readings really intrigued me. Many people focus on Greek, Roman, or Norse mythology. But, there are many mythologies out there to examine. Asian mythology, in general, is pretty untapped for me. Other than what I have read for this class, I have no prior knowledge of any stories. We are not taught anything in school, we never prioritized Asian literature at all. The stories from this week's readings come from The Romance of Old Japan. These stories are about God's Izanagi and Izanami, and their children, the sun goddess Amaterasu and her brother, Susanowo. The stories in this reading tell a linear story that is incredibly interesting and kept me on my toes for the entire reading. My focus story, the one that I will likely write my storytelling assignment over, is the Rescue of the Princess story. This story is by far the most interesting and captivating part of the entire storybook. You see how Yamato is a br

Week 8: Progress

Progress chart image:  Source So far, I am really happy with my progress. In the beginning, I was wary of how my blog and my website would turn out. I am very excited about how they are coming along. With as hectic as the last semester has been, I am actually pretty proud of how things are coming along. Unfortunately, I have not been taking advantage of the extra credit opportunities like I should, but I look forward to doing some more in the future. The assignments I enjoy the most are actually the reflective assignments. Too often, we get caught up in the semester. We don't find any time to look back and see how far we have come. Time flies too fast when we live this way. The semester is half-way over and I did not even realize it. Looking forward, I hope that I can take better advantage of extra credit opportunities like I said that I would. I hope that I can get ahead of the assignments! That is my biggest complaint with my work this semester, I have been waiting until the

Week 8: Comments and Feedback

Feedback Header Image:  Source So far, the feedback for this class has been rather helpful. The feedback has helped me to see grammatical errors, sentence structure errors, and other issues in my writing. All of the feedback has been both strong and positive. The most helpful types of feedback are specific critical comments that have direct instructions. For me, I think that the feedback that I leave is generally too positive. I have a tendency to not want to be critical, or harsh. I want to make sure everyone feels validated in their writing, and I would hate for someone to feel poorly about their work. As for the blog comments, it is fun to see familiar names and faces when I read my comments. Of course, there are still a few people that I have not interacted with yet, but there are plenty of people who I always look forward to. Moving forward with the class, I hope to be able to leave better feedback for my classmates. Feedback that is more critical, and less general. I hope tha

Week 8: Reading and Writing

Tibetan Buddhist Tantric Wrathful Diety Source:  Wrathful Diety I chose this specific image because to me, the wrathful Buddhist deities are the more intriguing ones, they tend to be the ones that people do not spend time focusing on. I was also inspired by Life of the Buddha readings that I scheduled to be completed during Week five        Overall, the reading and writing assignments are helping me stay on track for the entire course. These readings are specifically helpful to me as a future educator who wants to incorporate more diverse literature in the classroom. I think taking the reading notes helps with the story aspect, and I really like that a lot of what we do is story-telling, a medium that I am not exceptionally good at. As for my blog, I tweaked the layout and design and it is, to me, a lot more visually satisfying. My project website is sort of underwhelming, and I would say could use some work. I intend to put some work into it for the upcoming week. My writing

Week 7 Story: The Monkey King Continues

The Monkey King depiction:  Source        "One day I awoke. There was nothing before I existed, I was born of the rock and sculpted by the Heavens. I was a handcrafted entity that was untouchable for all my life, until now. I had my run-in with rebellion, I fought back with the Gods, I met with the Buddha, and I became a Buddha. I have a life full of journey and adventure, yet, I yearn for more."        It had been 12 years since the Monkey King had been seen, then, the news came. The Monkey King was going to come out of hiding, but only to train a new enlightened one. He would come out for just one year in order to find someone to fill his shoes, then, he would never be seen again. "I am tired of the responsibility, the weight that I carry on my shoulders is too much for one man, I need someone to carry on the torch" he exclaims, publicly to the town. "I need not this power that I carry, I will be training one new soul to take over my place, to be th

Reading Notes: The Monkey King Part B

Monkey Fights a Demon:  Source         Like I said with part A's reading, I was very excited to continue The Monkey King's story to see where the adventure leads. I was not disappointed with where the story led. The story wrapped up very nicely and was very satisfying when Sun became a Buddha himself. To me, the story was something positive to look towards. I understand the role model that Sun serves as to young Chinese Buddhists. I really enjoyed the first story in the second half of the lineup, "The Lord of the Heavens". To me, this story was a great culmination. My favorite passage reads, "the Evening Star came forward, however, and said: “This ape was born of the purest powers of heaven and earth and sun and moon. He has gained the hidden knowledge and has become an immortal. Recall, O Lord, your great love for all that which has life, and forgive him his sin! Issue an order that he be called up to the heavens and be given a charge here, so that he may co

Reading Notes: The Monkey King Part A

The Monkey King: The Waterfall:  Source        For this Tuesday's reading, I chose "The Monkey King". I chose this story because back in 2017, a friend who is a Chinese major wanted to introduce me to his favorite Chinese movies, and this was one of them. The movie was interesting, to say the least. The story was entirely different from the movie rendition, which is to be expected, of course. Because of that, I am really glad that I chose to read the original story of the Monkey King, even though I did enjoy the movie. Like with last week's story of Aladdin, the two sources are entirely different but valuable for their own reasons. The same remains true for this week's reading, after going through all of Part A's stories for this reading I realized just how different the source material is from the goofy film that I saw a few years back. Reading about how the Monkey King was born out of rock and fertilized by the Heavens was so interesting, the story gets

Week 6 Story Lab: Biography

Personal image of my brother Jackson, me, and my boyfriend, Jake. (In order left to right) Hot Sauce when I was eight years old, I created new daily plot to kill my four-year-old sister I locked her outside in the “too scary” dark I rolled her down the driveway in my “too big” rollerblades I left her hanging at the mercy of the “too tall” monkey bars I always knew my little sister was different, shit, for a solid month of her four-year-old life the only word she would utter was “hot sauce” thus, earning her the appropriate nickname Hot Sauce it was not until eighth grade that I realized just how “weird” that kid was acting out in class, being sent home from school, never felt herself my senior year of high school, Hot Sauces’ freshman year we had a class together, physical science I noticed that the name “Jackson” made a reoccurring appearance across her notebooks The name scrawled in loving calligraphy obsessively across her lab journal s

Reading Notes: Arabian Nights Part B

Cartoon depiction of Disney's Aladdin:  Source        As I mentioned with Part A of the readings, I was really looking forward to reading the Arabian Nights stories specifically because of reading Aladdin. Much like many children, I got lost in the world of Aladdin as a kid, the whimsical magic, incredible visuals, and easy to follow storylines were perfected by Disney to deliver a wonderful children's movie. The stories that I read this week are no different. Getting lost in the world of Aladdin is not hard to do, the stories are so mesmerizing, reading scenes such as, "Aladdin found everything as the magician had said, gathered some fruit off the trees, and, having got the lamp, arrived at the mouth of the cave. The magician cried out in a great hurry: "Make haste and give me the lamp." This Aladdin refused to do until he was out of the cave. The magician flew into a terrible passion, and throwing some more powder on the fire, he said something, and the

Reading Notes: Arabian Nights Part A

Image of the cartoon (Disney) Aladdin:  Source        Like many, the majority of what I know about Arabian nights, or, 1001 Nights, is from the Disney cartoon Aladdin. These readings were quite wonderful, and I genuinely enjoyed my time reading the first half of the Arabian Nights stories. Being exposed to other cultures, specifically Middle Eastern counties literature, is very important to me. I took a World Literature course last semester where we read Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih (one of my favorite novels ever) and Kim by Rudyard Kipling. So I have been exposed to a fair amount of Eastern literature, but not nearly as much as I would like. Of course, I am looking forward to the second part of the readings where I get to read Aladdin, but these stories were still very intriguing. My favorite story of this bunch was "The Sultan and the Fish" because of the storytelling aspect. This story has Scheherazade telling a story about a genie and a fisherman.

Week 5 Story: The Modern Buddha

Buddha Figure:  Source          Of course, everyone knows the story of THE Buddha. But what about those doing good for others without recognition. Those people who do right in the world without anyone ever knowing? Well, that is what my brother aimed to do when we were young. We are old and tired now, but when we were young, my brother and I would travel around to the poorest areas in the villages at night. We would drop off bread, clean water, and other necessary material goods. We wanted to be anonymous. Of course, we went our separate paths and I got married and had children, but my brother devoted his life to the public without ever once being publicly known, he never wanted any fame or fortune, he did not want the attention. In fact, he wanted quite the opposite. My brother is dead and gone now, so that is why I have finally decided to tell his story.       My brother went to jail at age 17 and was away for 6 years. I do not want to go into the details, but he wanted to corr

Reading Notes: Life of Buddha Part B

  Personal Image of a statue of Buddha from my time in Hong Kong   For me, this was the most exciting reading to work on so far. As I have previously mentioned, I was raised Buddhist by my father, so I have always had a deep connection with Buddhism and the "life of Buddha". I have made the joke many times that both my father and I are terrible Buddhists in practice, so any opportunity to learn more about the culture, the faith, and the history is exciting to me. Reading all of these stories this week made me feel more in tune with the faith that I was brought up in, obviously being in America, there is not much Buddhist culture to latch onto or learn about, but reading these little anecdotes was a very valuable experience for me. I loved reading the legends and the stories and the fables, all of the different aspects that lead from Siddartha Guatama becoming the Buddha. My favorite story, and the focal point of my notes, is "Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha". Thi

Storybook Plan

For my project, I am eager to learn about the cultural depiction of dogs. I am interested to see how they work themselves into the mythology, how they are regarded through history, and how they have served humans through time. I am especially interested in Aesop's fables, but I would like to expand to see how they translate into Greek/Roman/Norse/etc. mythology. More than anything, my Storybook will be more of an anthology, a collection of stories about dogs, rather than a linear narrative. Possible Story Sources Aesop's Fables: The Farmer and His Dogs : The key feature of this story is that one cold winter a farmer resorts to killing all of his animals in order to survive, the dogs catch on and figure that they ought to escape before they are next. This, to me, shows how dogs are held in a higher morality as compared to other animals, as the farmer goes through all of his other animals before even thinking about eating the dogs. Aesop's Fables: The Dog and the

Comment Wall

The Cultural Depictions of Dogs:  Homepage Goofy, who is allegedly actually a cow, not a dog:  Source

Week 4 Story Lab: Summer of 1986

1986 Banner,  Source Story Lab; Microfiction Summer of 1986 It was not hard to make friends in a small town like Verona, Texas. When you go to school you are practically assigned a couple dozen friends for life, no one really left our small town, and no one really came in. There is something to be said about this sort of extreme consistency, but I never really found it bland. I had my couple of friends, of course, but it was more obligatory friendship rather than a close bond, and maybe that’s why I was seeking more. In the summer of 1986 my mom had heard on the radio about a few girls my age going missing in some of the neighboring towns, the reporter summed it up to them running away with their boyfriends, so mom quit allowing me to see Peter and sent me away for the summer to make some new friends. Mom said the girls who ran away with their boyfriends were just bored and needed stimulation, thus earning me a one-way ticket to the YWCA camp that a few of my friends were goi

Reading Notes: Apuleius's Psyche and Cupid, Part B

Ganymede and the Eagle, by La Sueur:  Source Reading Notes, Part B:         As previously mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed this week's readings that I have chosen, Psyche and Cupid by Apuleius. This section of stories, to me, felt the most action-packed. This section felt like it told a chronological story, like "Venus and the Goddesses, Psyche's Prayer, Venus and Mercury, Venus and Psyche, Psyche's Next Task, The Third Task, The Jar of Beauty, The Sleep of the Dead, The Wedding Feast, and The Escape". The stories, in my opinion, in Section B, are more linear than Section A, which felt more sporadic and pieced together. I genuinely enjoyed both sections and all 21 stories, but my favorite was "The Third Task". This story is a quick little story that encompasses a lot of detail. It is the 6th story in the second section, and I really enjoyed reading it. The story is the final bit of the linear focus of the story, and to me, was the most intriguing sto

Reading Notes: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche, Part A

Psyche and Amor, also known as Psyche Receiving Cupid's First Kiss (1798), by François Gérard: a symbolic butterfly hovers over Psyche in a moment of innocence poised before sexual awakening. Source:  Source Reading Notes:           Originally from Metamorphoses, also known as "The Golden Ass", is a tale about overcoming love and the psyche. Although I enjoyed the entirety Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche, my favorite story by far was "Psyche's beauty" as it displayed a different aspect of the overarching narrative. I thought that the text was the most intriguing of the section, and to me, told the best part of the story. The story opens on an uplifting positive note, the story is one of absolute beauty of the highest regards, "In a certain city there lived a king and queen who had three daughters of surpassing beauty. Though the elder two were extremely pleasing, still it was thought they were only worthy of mortal praise, but the youngest girl’s

Feedback Strategies

Feedback Infographic:  Source          In my experience, feedback is an interesting concept. We know about the growth mindset and how important it is, we know about feedback and constructive criticism, but what about how to directly help kids grow from feedback? I am just now finding out that saying "good job" to a student, can actually be harmful. There are so many variables, and often times, solely positive feedback does not help students grow. There are many nuances and factors that go into feedback that is important for everyone to learn, especially for me as a future secondary educator. Personally, working with kids, they thrive on feedback. They need feedback for their own security and development, but I am still figuring out what is the most appropriate way of dishing out feedback. According to an article by Alfie Kohn, saying "good job" to kids is actually sort of problematic. The idea of a "praise junkie" that Kohn writes about is close to

Topic Research: Aesop's Cultural Depictions of Dogs

Gerrit Dou, Sleeping Dog, 1650:  Source Aesop's Fables: The Farmer and His Dogs :         The key feature of this story is that one cold winter a farmer resorts to killing all of his animals in order to survive, the dogs catch on and figure that they ought to escape before they are next. This, to me, shows how dogs are held in a higher morality as compared to other animals, as the farmer goes through all of his other animals before even thinking about eating the dogs. Aesop's Fables: The Dog and the Wolf :         This story is my personal favorite of Aesop's fables that include dogs. I like the story because the small weak pup fools the hungry wolf by telling him to come back when he has gained some weight, that way he will be more filling as a meal. The pup remains safely behind the fence and outsmarts the wolf. Aesop's Fables: The Hare and the Hound :         The story about The Hare and the Hound is another top contender for me simply because of the last li

Work 3 Story: Original Sin

Eve by Pantaleon Szyndler, 1889:  Source         You may be wondering, "why, Eve? Why did you eat the fruit?' See, the story goes that I fell to temptation, right? But no, the real story never gets told, does it? Look, I was never tempted by a serpent, I made that up because I wanted Adam to take the fall. I was sick and tired of him. He is the ONLY mad that I was ever allowed to even look at, what's up with that? I was put on this earth to be his companion, and I get NO choice in the matter? Right. How is that fair? See, I wanted  to get expelled from the Garden of Eden, shoot, I did not realize just how severe the consequences would be, but dang! I was just trying to get a little freedom! How can you blame me? The funny thing is, I never even ate the fruit. Really, I didn't! The entire story is totally fabricated. I got the idea in a dream, actually, I just needed a little excitement in my life, so I figured, why not? What is the worst that could happen? Turns ou

Reading Notes: Bible Women Part B

La Casta Susana- Juan Manuel Blanes:  Source Reading Notes Bible Women Part B        As previously mentioned, the women of the bible are incredibly interesting to me. I would like to spotlight them as often as possible since they so seldom have their own moment. The women's stories in this reading are Bathsheba, Esther 1, Esther 2, Esther 3, Susannah, Mary and Elizabeth, Mary and Anna, Herodias, and Martha and Mary. For this blog, I will be focusing on Susannah from the book of Daniel, because to me, she had the most interesting story. I thought her story also conveyed the erasure that many biblical women faced, for example, the opening paragraph introduces her in part to a man, "There dwelt a man in Babylon, called Joacim: and he took a wife, whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Chelcias, a very fair woman, and one that feared the Lord. Her parents also were righteous, and taught their daughter according to the law of Moses" (Susannah). This story is supposed t

Reading Notes: Bible Women Part A

The Women Of Matthew 1:  Source Reading Notes Bible Women, Part A:        I found the stories of the women of the bible to be truly fascinating. As mentioned, I grew up being raised with a (poorly disciplined) Buddhist belief system. My mother's family, however, was different sects of Christianity. I had neighbors take me to church and buy me bibles, etc. So I grew up with an interesting understanding of religion, and the bible. I was first given the "teen girl" bible, and then later a "King James" bible, both of which I read in their entirety. I was always drawn more towards the stories of the women in the bible, I wanted to see strong religious females in the stories, not wrong-doing, weak-minded women. It frustrated me to see that women were often viewed as scapegoats for the men's actions, even as a child, it bothered me. This reading reinvigorated my passion for biblical women, and I specifically found interest in Eve's story. The following ex

Feedback Thoughts

Source:  Cheezburger        I know first hand how hard hearing negative feedback is. I grew up wrestling for eight years, so I am very competitive in nature. I also did competitive speech and debate, so I am used to criticism. For some reason, the hardest feedback to receive for me is with my writing. Any negative feedback that I may get is so much harder than any constructive criticism I have been given. It must be because writing is such an intimate thing, but as a whole, negative feedback is hard.  I found the article about hearing negative feedback very informative and intriguing, it brought a lot of my own feelings about feedback into perspective. I thought it was interesting that the majority of the reason that we are so bad at getting negative feedback is that for the most part, we are awful at delivering negative feedback, according to the article, "Why it's so hard to heart negative feedback" , negative feedback is a cyclical issue, "It’s a self-reinfo

Topic Brainstorm

After the hunt, 1870, by David Neal (1838-1915):  Source Cultural Depictions of Dogs:  Source        This is the topic that I am primarily interested in. I do not know why, but the cultural depictions of dogs is the topic idea that stood out to me the most. As a dog lover, I am automatically interested in anything to do with dogs, so I would love to dedicate a project to their cultural depictions throughout history. In terms of prior knowledge, the only prior knowledge that I have is how dogs have served humans throughout history, I have written a report on how dogs aided in the progression of the human race, but I am by no means an expert on the topic. I would like to learn about how dogs have been used in folklore and in art in order to convey a different message or story. I think that this would be a really good topic just because it is something that I am truly interested in, and I am eager to learn more about. In my experience, the best research is done on a topic that you

Week Two Story: Pygmalion in a New Light

Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1754–1829)  Source        Peter never really cared much for women, he never found much interest in them. He always though almost low of them, as if none of the women he surrounded himself with were good enough for him. Peter found himself obsessive over the women that he saw online, he saw them as untouchable pure beings. One woman, in particular, an Instagram model, he stumbled across one day and instantly fell in love. He obsessed over her photographs, hoping to potentially see her one day. He could not help but paint murals of her on his walls, print her photographs off and create collages, etc. He was consumed by her and her beauty. He wanted nothing more than to be with her, but she did not even know that he existed. In Peter's mind, she became his possession, his object, his creation. He developed something like a God complex over the woman, feeling as if she owed him something. He prayed over her every night, hoping to God that one day she would b