Pa(tel) me about Myth and Folklore

The Haunted Halls of Waverly Hills Hospital Buzzfeed Unsolved One of my favorite shows from on Youtube is called Buzzfeed Unsolved where these two guys, Ryan and Shane, discuss cases of true crime or supernatural occurrences. And then they go and investigate.  This is one of my favorite episodes. They go to the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, which is claimed as one of the most haunted places on earth. 

Image created with Canva . This quote, "Nevertheless, she persisted" was stated by Mitch McConnell back in 2017 when the Senate voted to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren's objections of Jeff Sessions's confirmation as Attorney General. The feminist movement basically adopted this after it went viral on social media when many, many feminists started tweeting it and hashtagging it. I love this quote because it really is very motivational to me, especially when I'm feeling down and feeling like I won't be able to do anything with my life.

Image created with ImgFlip. I absolutely love memes and I wanted to make one at one point for this semester so I finally got to do it. When this particular meme came around onto social media a while ago, I knew I had to make one of my own. This meme is actually so me and my mom. I feel like when I do vent to her about how stressed I am, I usually mention how I am going to end up dropping out and doing nothing with my life. And honestly her facial expression is like that too because she knows I'm being stupid.

I decided to add a graduation countdown because I keep forgetting how close I really am getting to graduation. It was really easy to make actually. I wanted to get all extra with it and try to make it match the background of my blogger website. I went and found the color code for the background of my website and used that as the text color for the countdown. And then I tried to make the background color of the countdown as close as I could to the color of the leaves.

I started this trail off with the article about Eskimos . I was curious about the Eskimo people because they were one of the tribes mentioned for the readings these last two weeks. I learned that the word "eskimo" means "a person who laces a snowshoe." It is derived from the word ayaskimew from the Innu-aimun language. From there I went to the article about the Seward Peninsula . I was curious about this because this is one I have never heard of before. This peninsula projects about 200 miles out from the western coast of Alaska into the Bering Sea. It is named after the U.S. Secretary of State, William H. Seward, who fought for the purchase of Alaska. Next I went to the article about a maar . A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater. It is a caused by an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with with hot lava or magma. Some of the largest known maars are found on the Seward Peninsula. The last article I went to was about Patagonia ....

The Dog-Husband from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson  The story starts off with a young girl who is very fond of her dog. It was a common custom that the dog slept at the food of the bed at night. Every night the dog would change into a human and sleep with the girl, and would turn back into a dog before everyone woke up in the morning. One day the girl gets pregnant and when the parents find out its the dog, they burn the house down and move away and leave her all alone. This Crow had pity on her and helped her. She gave birth to five puppies and her father had killed the dog, so they didn't have a father. She looked after them all by herself. Puppies. Source: The Guardian . The secret was that the four male puppies and one female puppy could turn human like how their father could. So one day when the mom was suspecting that there was something going on, she pretends to go out of the house for work, and comes back to her house to see what wa...

The Fox-Woman from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson The fox-woman. Source: Animals . This week I'm going to read Native American marriage tales. The one from this unit that I really liked reading was this story called The Fox-Woman. This story is about a hunter who comes home after a few days to find his house had been cleaned up and everything was put into place. It kept happening again and again when he left the house that one day he decided that he was going to stay back and watch to find out who was doing this. He pretended like he was going on a hunt but instead hid somewhere so he could see who was going to enter the house.  He sees a fox enter and thinks the fox is probably after food. When he goes inside his house, he sees a  beautiful woman and the skin of a fox hung up nearby. When he asks her if she was the one who did all of these things, she says yes because she is his wife and it's her duty to do all of these thi...

Okay so I'm going to be a little (a lot actually) biased about this graphic and this video I have picked. I'm Indian and I love all of the stuff posted on the announcements about India. Today is Diwali, which is the Festival of Lights. This whole weekend was full of festivities for me. Diwali for me means being around the ones you love. I love Diwali because it means I get to see family and friends, especially the ones I don't get to see often. Kids lighting "diyas" which are oil lamps. Source: Chandigarh Tribune . I love this picture of these two kids lighting diyas. I love lighting up my whole house with diyas! I wish one day I'll be able to celebrate Diwali in India. I know it's a big celebration there and I would love to experience it. I really liked this video because it explains why Diwali is celebrated, and it tells the more religious side of it. I think we tend to forget, especially me sometimes, how some festivals are celebrated in...

Messing around with the Canvas Dashboard is actually fun. I learned about this a few semesters ago but I still mess with it every semester. You can change each class module color to whatever you like. I change my modules to match what the notebook color is that I will use for that class. I even color coordinate the pen color I use in my planner for my classes. I change the names as well. I like it better when the class name is actually on there like "Myth and Folklore" and not "MLLL 3043.' 

The Making of Lakes and Mountains from Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Barry Judson I realized I really like the "creation" or "making" stories the most out of all of these stories. This one I read was about how lake and mountains were made. The story is about how a woman made the lakes and mountains using hair oil, hair combings, whetstone and red ochre. Then she also got some wood.  The woman was kidnapped by bears so as she's escaping, one of the bears watches her and goes with her. She piles wood on him and escapes.  The ways she made the lakes and mountains: Poured hair oil- which became a big lake Threw down hair combings- became a mass of fallen trees Broke off part of the whetstone and put it in the ground- it became a big mountain Threw her whole comb and stuck it into the ground- became a big mass of mountains She pours the rest of her hair oil and throws all of the hair combings- turned into a big lake...

Advice from Writers Keep Dialogue in Character I love to write dialogue, especially when rewriting a story that doesn't have enough dialogue. I think dialogue helps personalize the character more and is able to help the reader connect more to the character. This author says "I envision the scene; I can imagine them up there on the screen; I try to imagine what they would be saying and how they would be saying it. And I keep it in character." I like the part where he says he can imagine them up there on the screen. It's like maybe I can imagine the characters being in a movie and they are saying these dialogues that I write.  Writer's Block Doesn't Exist I think this one actually opened my eyes a lot. This author says writer's block is "a way of saying the writing you are trying to do came out so badly you're not willing to go through with it."  I realized that is actually so true because there have been times where I have started...

Creation of the Earth from Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Barry Judson The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. Source: Steemit . For this week's Native American readings, I decided to read the stories from the British North America unit. One story that I really liked reading was this story, Creation of the Earth. I thought it was really interesting how the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon and the Stars were personified. They were portrayed as actual people instead of objects.  One day the Earth was scolding her husband, the Sun, because he was too hot and he was making the house too hot. The Sun eventually gets tired of it and moves away. The Moon and the Stars also follow him. She was left all alone so she started crying. An Old Man came by and saw her crying so he asked her what was wrong and she told him everything. The Old Man goes to the Sun, and tells him he simply cannot run away and hide because there will be other people eventual...

I started the trail off with West Africa . The readings I did for this week were all from West Africa so I wanted to learn more about it. Back in middle school geography, I used to know a lot about Africa in general. Somethings I already knew were that Great Britain and France both controlled almost the entire region. One new thing I learned is that overfishing is a big issue in this region. The foreigners who fish using the big nets reduce fishing stocks in this region which causes problems in availability of food. The next article I went to was the Treaty of Versailles article. This is the treaty that ended World War 1. It was signed on June 28, 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand which led to World War 1 to start. Next I went to the article about The Inquiry . It was study group established by Woodrow Wilson in 1917. The purpose of the group was to gather and prepare materials for the peace negotiations for World War 1. The group con...

Big Changes. Source: Blog Post . I really like this cat meme because I used to be the type to try to make the big leap into something and I would end up having a setback because of it. I've learned to take smaller steps because those actually make more of a difference. Take Risks. Source: Blog Post . I never really took risks before. I played it safe with many aspects of my life. I realized how much that held me back from doing things. Last year was when I barely started taking some risks, and it has done me so much good.  Don't Compare. Source: Blog Post . I do this a lot and I really wish I didn't. I see friends or people I know doing so much better than me and I just think of how much I'm not doing with my life. Especially once I decided to take an extra semester. I knew I was putting myself behind and felt bad when I would see my friends starting medical/dental/grad school or starting a new job. However, I've come to slowly accept that life isn...

I forget that you can get certain notifications from Canvas. I usually have them set on for the basic stuff like "due date" and "announcements." I like to be notified when the due date has changed, or if there were new files added to the class modules. I'm also a TA for a psychology class so I get notifications for when students submit an assignment. Usually on the days leading up to the due date for an assignment, I get hoards of emails of submissions. It got too much because that's almost 210 emails right there just saying that someone submitted the assignment. I ended up turning them off and only leaving the submission comments emails on so I could see if anyone had questions about it.

My name is Kweku Tsin, and my father is Anansi. People call him Father Anansi because he has all the wisdom in the world. For this very reason, people come to him to ask for help with their problems. I believe my Father is a smart man, but he also lets it get to his head sometimes. I watched from the side as he talk to some people. I find it fascinating that he always knows what's the best solution. Usually he's always calm and collected, but today he seems troubled. The more I watched him, the more I realized he was getting mad.  Next thing I knew, Father had gotten up and stormed off from the room. "Oh no. He seems really mad." I followed him to see what was wrong. When I got to his room, I saw him marching around, muttering something to himself.  "Fools. How dare they talk about me like that. The audacity!" exclaimed Father.  "Father, what is wrong? What happened?" I asked him. However, instead of answering my question he just w...

Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair The Tiger. Source: Wikimedia Commons . I really like reading this story about how a tiger and a man became friends. The story starts off with a man hunting in the forest when he comes across a tiger. At first they're both afraid of each other but eventually they talked and became friendly. They agreed to live with each other. For two weeks, the man would stay with the tiger in his home and vice versa. The tiger brought his cub along with him, and the man's son and the cub became friends as well. One day, the man's father died and so the tiger went to the man's house to be with his friend.  As the tiger was making his way back home, two of the man's friends were waiting to kill him, They shoot the tiger and he is injured. He was confused and wanted to know if his friend, man, knew about this or if his friend was the one that wanted him dead.  Th...

How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race by William H. Barker and Cecelia Sinclair.  Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom. Source: Storynory.   For this week's reading, I'm doing the West Africa unit. I had seen some people who wrote about the spider Anansi so I wanted to read those stories as well. One story that I really enjoyed reading was How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race. I thought it was so ironic and funny. Father Anansi is the main character. He possesses all of the wisdom of the world. One day when the men of the country offended him, he decided to punish them. His idea of punishment was that he would go and hide all of the wisdom from the world so that only he had all of the wisdom. Anansi's son, Kweku Tsin, began to suspect his father so he follows his father when he leaves the house with his pot. This pot had all of the wisdom. Anansi goes and finds the tallest tree that no one could easily climb. He kept trying to climb it but ke...

I read an article about time management for this learning challenge. I usually start off the semester doing great on time managing and then at some point, it starts to go downhill. I thought I would read this article to see if I could get any new tips. In the article, Four Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination , the author gives the reader four questions to ask yourself when you feel yourself slacking. What One Thing Can I Do to Get Started? What Are My Three Biggest Priorities Today? How Can I Make This Easier? What Will Go Wrong if I Don’t Do This Now? The author says " Sometimes we’re faced with projects so big and overwhelming that we don’t know where to start."  One thing this article did confirm for me was that I do freak out at first when I'm assigned a big project. I feel like because of this that I end up procrastinating because I'll be like "oh this is a big thing. I need to give it my full attention and work on it," and then ...

Overall, I'm pretty content with where I am right now. I definitely could be at a better place in this class. When I got into this class, I told myself I wouldn't make the mistakes I made the last time I took Laura's class and work ahead. That clearly didn't happen. I did fall behind on a few weekly assignments throughout the last week. However, I am proud of the progress I have made so far. I didn't fall that behind that I wouldn't be able to make an A. The main thing I am proud of is the different writing strategies I have tried. Usually I would just stick to something that I know because that would be easier and I wouldn't have to put much effort, but I said "why not" and tried something new. And I ended up getting some good feedback on that as well which was really nice. My biggest setback is that I don't have a good weekly routine. Sometimes I end up doing more than one assignment in a day, sometimes I don't even do the daily assig...

Self-reflection. Source: Feedback Cats. I chose this image because this cat is literally me. I like getting external feedback but sometimes you have to listen to your internal feedback you give yourself as well.  I think the feedback I have received from everyone has been 10/10! I love all of the feedback I get, especially now on my comment wall. When I first started writing my introduction, I just did what I thought was best and came to mind. But when I started receiving feedback on it, I was like "oh yeah, why didn't I think of that?" or "oh that's actually a good idea. I could use that in my story." So I think the feedback I've been receiving has been really helpful. I really like the questions and statements that are like "what if you did this instead of this? or "I wonder if you did ____, then ____." I think those help the writer come up with more ideas for future stories. The feedback I think I've been giving people h...

A book. Source: Pixabay . Overall, how well are the reading and writing assignments working for you? I think the reading and writing assignments are working pretty well. I mentioned in one of my posts from last week how I sometimes am not able to do Part B. That is mainly because I don't find them that interesting and/or I put them because I don't want to read them at the moment. However, I think I've been doing a better job at getting both parts of the reading done these last two weeks. As for my writing, I think that's also working well. It took me a while to really get into the groove of writing stories again so when I finally got that groove, I think I was able to write better stories.  Are you happy with your blog? With your project website? I'm pretty happy with my blog! I like the color scheme the most. I think my blog is also pretty easy to view and to read so I like that. My project website I like right now, but I know I do want to change it u...

I started this trail off with the article about ogres . I read a story and wrote a story about an ogre so I wanted to know more about them. I know what an ogre is because of stories from elementary school that I had read but never really know how they came to be. Something new I learned about ogres is that the word "ogre" is of French religion. Ogre is derived from the Etruscan god Orcus who fed on human flesh. From there I went to the article The Spiderwick Chronicles . I have always wanted to read these books because I got a lot of recommendations from my friends but I never really got around to reading them. Something I learned from this article is that there was even a film adaptation of these books. The logo for the Spiderwick Chronicles. Source: Wikimedia Commons. The next article I went to was the article about manticores . I know somewhat about manticores because they were mentioned in the Percy Jackson books. I always thought they were from Greek Mythology b...

Last Sunday, September 29th, the Hindu festival of Navratri started. Navratri literally means "nine days". Navratri is when we celebrate the victory of Lord Ram defeating the demon Ravan. In my culture, which is Gujarati culture, we do a dance called garba for these nine days of the festival. In India, they do it for nine days straight, even with school and work, which I think is crazy. The dancing can get so fast and intricate that your feet and legs will be sore the next morning, so I don't know how people have the strength to go every night in India. Obviously we can't do nine days straight here in America because of school and work, so my community does garba every weekend for three weekends. This was the first weekend and I was so, so excited to finally be able to do garba. It only comes around once a year so I definitely have to take advantage of it! Garba in India. Wikimedia Commons . Moving on to my school, I think I did pretty good this weekend. I was ab...

This is going to be my first time using HTML. After actually doing the steps to this tip, I thought this was such a cool thing to learn. I don't think I'd remember the steps off the top of my head for this though. I'd definitely need to come back and look at the steps to do this.

Dear Diary, Today was crazy! I was on one of my daily walks where I go wander around when I saw this giant tree. It was hollow inside so I was able to step inside of it. When I looked up the tree, I saw rays of sunshine just pouring in. After my little stop, I kept walking a little more and that's when the craziness started.  In the distance I saw this girl, with a red coat and barefoot, just running as fast as the wind. I stopped for a mere second and she was already right in front of me. She begged me to help her because someone was following her, trying to capture her. I wondered why anyone would be chasing a little girl like her. When I asked her why she was being chased, she only told me to not tell the man that I saw her. And after that she ran to the giant tree and crawled inside. I wanted to stay and see what would happen to the girl. But I also had more wandering to do so I left. As I walked a little more ahead, a man riding an armored steed came up to me. T...

The Flying Ogre from The Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhelm Tall trees in the forest. Source: Wikimedia Commons . For Part B of the Chinese Fairytale readings, this story was one of my favorites. I thought it was a fun little story to read!  The story starts off an old Buddhist monk. He loves to wander in lonely places, and one day he wanders into an area called Kuku-nur where he finds a thousand feet tall tree. The tree was hollow that you could step into it and look up through the tree at the sky.  He comes across a girl in a red coat, unbound hair and barefoot, running super fast. She comes up to him and begs him to help her and tells the monk how a man is following her trying to get to her, and if the monk doesn't tell the man that he has seen her, she will be so grateful. The monk starts walking ahead and comes across a man who is riding an armed horse. He was the one who was looking for the girl. He stops the monk and asks him if you've seen the gir...

The Panther from The Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhelm Black Panther. Source: Public Domain Pictures For this week's African and Asian stories, I decided to go with the Chinese fairytales. I found all of these so fun to read because they reminded me of fables I read when I was in elementary school. They were fairytale-like but also had an overall message as well. One of my favorites from Part A was the story about The Panther. I don't know why, but this particular story reminded me of a cartoon. Almost like an episode of Tom and Jerry.  The story starts off with the mom and son going to visit the grandmother, and they leave the two daughters at home. The mom and son come across a panther who continually tells them to take rest break with him. The panther wants to comb through the mom's hair and she lets him. He ended up clawing off a little bit of skin and eats it. The mother asks him to stop but the panther likes the taste of it and claws off another big...