Joe's Myths

The reading starts with several stories describing the labors of Yamato. It starts with his hunting down a siren. I like sirens because even though everyone knows that they just want to kill and eat you, no one is able to resist them. It's like irony built right into a character. So Yamato just woke a dragon by accidentally stepping on it, thinking it was a rock, and it wanders off and he continues on his journey. Neither of them cared about the other. One thing I like about how this story was written is that, whenever it is describing something specific, it changes from generic narration to poem format. It helps break up the monotony of the wall of text the story would otherwise be. He waited for 100 years on the island before returning with the apple. This man is patient. This boar, whom everyone is scared of and whose weakness is known, shouldn't be killed while he's asleep. Because that's boring. Yamato on his way to get the Golden Apple of Immortal Youth. Lin...

 It's nice to get a start at the very beginning. Now I don't have to worry about any backstory that could come in to play later. I also like this idea of having a god devoted to a single thing. It makes it easier to keep track of them and more or less defines their personality, which is great for storytelling. Stories could always use some irony, and that comes in double with the death of Izanami. She gets stripped of her immortality and cast down to Earth, then she dies in child birth while giving birth to two opposing sons. I like the phrase "abode of eternal gloom," and think I might use it somehow. The rest of this is going to be great, I'm assuming, because it's just going to be a bunch of overpowered siblings duking it out. So this serpent wants this girl to marry and offers to slay a beast to earn her from her parents. As soon as they agree, he decides the best course of action is to turn the girl into a comb. Because who can fight a monster when your h...

I recently read the voyages of Sinbad the Sailo r and was curious to see where I could get with that. One of the treasures Sinbad finds is ambergris , which I wasn't entirely sure about, so I wanted to learn more about it. I learned that it is found in the digestive tracts of whales to help them break down things such as the beaks from giant squids . I am a fan of giant squids so I wanted to learn a little more about them, and found out the have deep-sea gigantism . This is basically just the tendency for animals that live deep in the ocean to be larger than those that live closer to the surface. This giant squid is 4 meters in length, without its longest tentacles. Link

I explored the many features of the Canvas dashboard and have found several of them to be very useful. The sidebar is very useful for being able to quickly navigate to specific parts of the site without getting lost or confused. I feel like there is just the right amount of stuff in the dashboard as it is. It has a lot of shortcut to get you to the important stuff but not too many as to make it look cluttered and just as confusing.

 Rasalu had been traveling the countryside for a while now, always accompanied by his trusty companion Alexa. Alexa generally just made sure they were going the right general direction, but occasionally spouted useful trivia. As he came out of the gas station, only staffed by an old man who seemed too fragile to still be able to move, Rasalu showed his car's AI his new trinket. "The old man gave me this laptop," Rasalu began. "He said that it was it could counter curses, should I ever find myself in a competitive game of pinball on someone else's cursed computer." "Wow," said Alexa, "that's an oddly specific item to be given just before meeting our mysterious contact." "Maybe," replied Rasalu, "but who am I to refuse the gift of a strange old man?" The traveling duo continued toward their destination without another distraction. As they entered the building, they saw one man, sitting in the middle of a busy roo...

The story resumes shortly after our hero has essentially stolen a child, hid them until they were 12, then married them. Let's keep going! So immediately I'm intrigued by the hunter, he has an interesting style and I like the juxtaposition of the calm musical side of him immediately followed by the more expected killing side. Also, it turns out he does whatever he wants, despite having made promises to a person that has been prophesied for him to meet. The rest of the story turns into some Hamlet knockoff where literally every living thing within 50 feet of the story dies in some weird connected way. This story ends with a riddle, which falls into the same category as prophecies for me, in that I enjoy them. So, this king is apparently the only person who decides any dispute, including those among animals. A crow comes in, claiming to be married to a swan. The swan's husband obviously objects. The king decides the crow is right, because reasons. He is then convinced he was...

The first part of the story is interesting enough. It sets up a good back story, filled with deceit and trickery. It even had my favorite story telling element: irony. It had it multiple times too, which I am a big fan of. The story gets better, because as soon as the cursed prince is old enough to not be stopped (11 by the way, who can't stop an 11 year old?) he goes to the city and immediately starts acting like a brat. The story then sets up Rasalu as a true hero, capable of taking out mighty beasts without even waking up his comrades...while he's still 11. Well, at least I can stop complaining about an 11 year old doing all these ridiculous things. Now there are inanimate objects performing incredible tasks. My least favorite thing about all the stores I've read so far is how unbelievable they are. Sure, have your magic and good luck, but some of this is nonsense. Although One redeeming factor is that I do like the idea of prophecies, so this story has some merit to it...

Despite all the madness that has been his life, Sinbad once again was set upon by a sense of unease in his quiet lifestyle. He could not content himself with the quiet retired life he deserved and once again longed for the adventures of his previous voyages. Taking the initiative, he acquired some goods to sell, a ship to carry him, and some merchants to accompany him on the voyage. The voyage started as normal as any other, smooth seas and favorable winds. Then the sky darkened with clouds, the water became tumultuous, and the wind picked up and changed directions rapidly. Soon, his ship succumbed to the storm and he resigned himself to his watery grave. When Sinbad regained consciousness, with a slight disappointment filling his soul, he found that he had once again survived against all odds and was once again alone with nothing but driftwood as company. He slowly drifted through the ocean until he landed on a beach. He soon had found fruit and fresh water to restore his spirit a...

The second part of the reading starts with Sinbad's fifth voyage. This one involved his fellow merchants eating a young roc, which angered the parent rocs, which proceeded to destroy their boat. So once again, our hero is stranded on an unknown island. This time, the first person he meets turns out to be a goblin who essentially enslaves Sinbad. Sinbad eventually manages to get the goblin drunk and kill him by slamming him into the ground. Following this murder, Sinbad meets up with some other merchants who eventually convince him to hurl rocks at monkeys in order to steal coconuts from them, which he then sells to make his way back home. On his way he manages to make another small fortune in pearls. The sixth voyage found Sinbad shipwrecked on a notoriously deadly beach, but I'm not sure how it can be so well known if no one ever returns from it. He finds more treasures, and honestly has got to be devaluing gold and precious stones with the sheer number he himself has held at ...

I like the first person story telling, but that may only be because it is a welcomed break from reading all those fables where the only characters were animals. The twist of the island being a whale was great, and I like the way the story managed to put the main character into a difficult position naturally. I'm glad the captain was reluctant to believe that Sinbad had survived. It's almost rare to see characters acting as they should, rather than how the reader would with the excess facts at their disposal. I enjoy the how he uses some of the same tactics over again, tying himself to something so that he may be carried to a new location continue to survive on his journey. It's also amusing how he keeps managing to find his way back to the same set of merchants who lost him in the first place. The captain is always very nice when he rejoins the group, almost too nice. It gets a little tedious for Sinbad to continue surviving his adventure and lose nothing for it. There is n...

This post is for you to comment on my project if you would like. It is a portfolio at the following link This is the picture that goes with my first story, Pym's Gal. Picture Link

Mark really didn't like to take sides. If given the option, he would stay a third party observer to any conflict near him. This became relevant one day as he was attending his classes. His class was setting up for a debate, and Mark wanted to be close enough not to get called out for not participating, without having to actually choose a side. As the preparations for the debate began, both sides approached him, asking for his allegiance. He turned them both down, saying he had already partnered with the other group. Finally, the debate occurred. It was a fiercely fought battle, and though no clear winner was declared, both sides felt good about the outcome. The professor, wanting to be nice, offered extra credit to anyone who wrote up a summary of their team's debate. Not wanting to miss out on a grade boost, Mark tried to join one group, then the other. Predictably, they both turned him down, believing him to be on the other team. Still not wanting to miss out on the points,...

These fables are organized by the type of animal that was the main character in each story. This was useful because different types of animals generally keep the same traits across stories, so it is easy to understand themes across stories. By placing multiple stories featuring the same characters back to back, there was also an opportunity for contrasting certain aspects for them. This includes putting them on opposite sides of the story, first antagonist then protagonist or vice versa, or having them succeed in the story or fail in the end. I like this strategy of providing twists and will try to use it in my own writing. A visual version of one of the fables. A visual version of one of the fables Picture Link Bibliography: The Fables of Aesop (Jacobs)

This section of fables organized the stories by the type of animal that was highlighted by each story. This was helpful because, in general, types of animals keep the same general traits across stories, so it is east to understand themes across stories. By placing multiple stories featuring the same characters back to back, there was also an opportunity for contrasting certain aspects for them. This includes putting them on opposite sides of the story, first antagonist then protagonist or vice versa, or having them succeed in the story or fail in the end. I like this strategy of providing twists and will try to use it in my own writing. A visual version of one of the fables. A visual version of one of the fables. Bibliography: The Fables of Aesop

This week was the week that all of my classes really kicked it into gear. I had a homework assignment in my Physical Chemistry class. My Biochemical Methods class has a test coming up and the lab portion had a lab report due Monday as well as another lab write up due before class on Monday. I am leading the discussion for my Religion in Political Theory class this week, and that requires being able to maintain the discussion for most of the class period. Outside of class, there is a research opportunity over the summer, and the application for that closes tomorrow. I was trying to fill out that application and also trying to recruit a couple of professors to write letters of recommendations for me in hopes that I can get the chance to do some research over the summer. All of that stacked on top of itself made me lose my mind a little bit. As such, some things fell through the cracks, such as the story telling for this week. I have since adjusted how mu canvas notifications work, so I s...

I am trying to work Dragons into my project, and I learned that they may have initially been based on the Spitting Cobra . I learned that the snake is especially dangerous because of the poison in carries in its fangs, which can be Cytotoxic. t This is a term I remember hearing vaguely in one of my science classes, so I wanted to take a closer look at it, and learned that it can lead to Cell Lysis , or the death and rupture of our cells. A metal dragon, likely Chinese in origin. Picture Link

I set up the Canvas notifications to send me an email anytime something happens in any of my classes' canvas pages. I also have it push notifications to my phone so that I will be extra sure to see any updates that happen for any of my classes. This extra insurance on keeping up to date with my classes will no doubt be very useful the rest of the semester.

Try Feedforward instead of Feedback This article provides an alternative to feedback, giving someone comments and suggestions about something they've done, in the form of feedforward, which is more focused on future events. This method seems like it would be a lot more productive, as you can still address any problems that you see in the past, but it's framed in such a manner as to provide optimism and hopefulness to the person receiving it. I think I will try implementing this new strategy whenever I'm leaving comments on other people's posts. Be a Mirror This article focuses on developing and maintaining a growth mindset, something that was discussed in detail last week. It stresses the importance and positive impact that fostering such a learning environment can provide. This idea centers mainly around making sure you are in the moment, not discouraged, and aware of why everything you're learning is important. Keeping these things in mind will make it easier ...

Zeus - Zeus is one of the most well known gods, as he is the god of the sky and often considered the most powerful. If I continue with my idea of transposing Greek stories into modern day, I could talk about Zeus' realm expanding into space as he claims it is simply an extension of the sky. Perhaps I could follow Zeus on an adventure after the rest of the gods kick him off Earth for while because he seems to be the center of a lot of mayhem. Sirens - Sirens are nymphs who lived in the sea and are known for luring sailors to their death by singing to them until they crashed their ships on the rock, at which point the sirens would eat them. A possible space aged juxtaposition could include sirens trying to lure spaceships towards black holes or meteor fields. I don't think there's a specific story that would work very well as an adaptation, rather sirens may make a cameo somewhere in another story. Hydra Lernaia - The hydra was a nine headed serpent who grew two heads whe...