Famous Last Words: Creepy Fairytales

I really liked my story this week, I feel like I often try to do really deep or meaningful stories which I think are important in their own right, but sometimes it is fun to just do a funny little story that does not have to have some huge meaning. I also read the Emperor's New Clothes for extra credit this week and I thoroughly enjoyed that too. The Native American tales are really beautiful and I love how they incorporate animals and give the animals so much respect, but I am ready to move on to a new genre. I feel like I have read a million Native American stories, and that is probably because most of them are one or two pages, not like the longer stories that I have been reading in the other units. I read some of Andersen's fairy tales for this weeks extra credit readings, and I really enjoyed them. The little mermaid in particular was very different from what I expected. It is always a little sad/creepy to me when I read the original fairy tales and they are pretty dark and gruesome, not at all like the cute Disney versions that I grew up on. Like in the Little Mermaid, every time she walks she feels like there are knives stabbing her feet, but she continues to do it to impress the Prince. She also does not even end up with the Prince, she ends up trying to earn salvation and get to let her soul live on rather than end like the mermaid souls do. That does not make for a good bedtime story. But I don't know, something about them being dark and a little sad also makes them more realistic. All in all I enjoyed this weeks readings but am ready to move onto something fresh.

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Learning Challenge: How To Stop Judging

I read "10 Reasons to Stop Judging People" by Dr. Barbara Markway

- I really liked this article. I know judging is something that I struggle with, and even though I think I have gotten better as I have grown it is something that I will always struggle with and have to fight against. I have had more than one instance where I have judged someone harshly and instantaneously, only to find out soon after that there were extenuating circumstances that explained their behavior. You just never know what is going on in someone's life.

-One of the strategies the article mentioned is reminding yourself that you are just like them, and that you have probably done whatever thing you are judging them for. That is something that I have found has worked quite well for me. When someone cuts me off in traffic, I remind myself that I have done that before and maybe they are late for work.

-A new strategy that I thought was really interesting was feeling good about your situation and behavior. The article states if you feel good about your parenting style, you are much less likely to judge someone else's. I think that's very true, and it boils down to the more self-esteem I have and the more I can have confidence in myself, the less I will need to tear anyone else down

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Growth Mindset: Multiple Intelligences

I definitely think everyone has multiple intelligences, and while some people are considered traditionally intelligent that does not mean there are not ways you can still grow your intelligence. I have killed myself academically for five years, but would really love to grow my intrapersonal and natural intelligences. I need to take time to reflect with myself and be around living things, I think that is one of the most important things I can do for my happiness. It is so important to lead a very well-rounded life, and not get bogged down with what society says is number-one important.

Connecting with nature. Photo by Steve Henry/USFWS.

Wikipedia Trails: From "Emperor's New Clothes" to "Damsel in Distress"

So I just read The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen so I decided to Wikipedia trails that. Here is the link. This is a story about an emperor who is obsessed with clothes who is swindled by these two guys who say they weave the finest clothes but only people who really know their stuff can see it. So everyone pretends they can see it and the emperor walks naked in a parade, hilarious right?

Ok, so Andersen also wrote the original The Little Mermaid so I followed that link to here. Except it is not the little mermaid you know. She can barely walk because her feet bleed and hurt and her sisters tell her to kill the prince and she does not even end up with him, she ends up being an air-spirit that does good deeds. Crazy right?

Ok, so I guess the little mermaid is mentioned in one of my favorite TV shows, Once Upon A Time, so I followed it here. This show is way cool because it brings common fairytale characters to a modern town called Storybrooke, and all these characters who are used to having magic now have to learn to live in a land without magic while also trying to get home. Way cool. Anyways part of the cool thing about this show is it doesn't focus on traditional themes such as...

The damsel in distress, which is a link I followed to here. And what a journey it was. A damsel in distress is an old school and outdated lady who needs a big macho man to come chop off the dragon's heads. But lately us ladies have been saving ourselves. Yay!

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Tech Tip: Blogger Template

So I experimented with the Blogger design option, and actually found a theme I really like. I chose a theme I think was called "watermark" but it was plain and beige, but then I was able to change the color to a pretty mauve and adjust the font and text colors and I found something that is a lot less distracting than my old theme. I really like it!

Extra Credit Reading: Andersen Fairy Tales

-What about a princess is not as it should be? Do they not wear their crown in the right spot? Is their corset not cutting off enough of their circulation? I thought a princess was defined as the offspring of a king and queen, that does not seem to be that hard to verify
-Also the prince seems to have a pretty serious princess fetish Im just saying
-Why is a princess standing alone in the rain? Isn't there supposed to be like 40,000 servants surrounding her to help her breathe and everything?
-I like to look back in history at some really amazing princesses who championed for their subjects, and this story makes all princesses seem like the epitome of spoiled brats
-The emperor's new suit is HILARIOUS, I am just picturing some old guy staring at an empty loom oohing over how beautiful it is. That is fabulous. And then the emperor has to pretend he sees the clothes, and then put them on and walk in a parade. I don't know if I could rewrite this story, because it is just so hilarious to begin with. And the swindlers who were faking just eagerly weaving away at fabric that is not there. This might be my favorite story that I have read out of all of them.
-Haha, the world looked like a map- did they still think the earth was flat then?
-I think most great conquerers of the world think that they have conquered even God, but I have yet to read a story where they dare try. It seems like a lot of work for God to send an angel down and let the angel bleed and then for the man to continue to live, but maybe that is because God is forgiving. i did like that he was taken down by a little gnat

(Image from Michael Clarke at Flickr)

Story Source:  Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).

Week 11 Story: Brave's Fright

There was once a little boy named Brave, who was the son of the Chief of a great tribe. Brave was quite brave and strong, and everyone expected greatness out of him someday. However, he was also impulsive and mischievous, and quite known for getting into trouble. He had a band of six boys who followed him around like puppies and oohed and awed at his every stunt.
One day Brave came across a hollow in the ground, which he did not know was the grave of an old medicine woman. Assuming it was just the place of a dried out puddle, he tried to walk over it and tumbled and fell back. Confused, he tried once more and fell back on his face, with his bottom high in the air. At this point he could swear he heard the trees shaking their leaves in laughter and the wind giggling behind him. Brave shook his head and went home. The old men of the village told him that that was the grave site of an old medicine woman, and his six friends insisted he show them the next day.
The next day, Brave decided to play a prank on his friends and crawl in the grave to scare them. So he told them he would meet them at the grave, then went and painted his face white as a ghost and crawled in the grave. As he was waiting for his friends, he started hearing a faint chanting. The chanting grew louder and then an old woman whispered in his ear, "WHO ARE YOU?" Brave screamed and bolted upright. Right at this time the six boys had come upon the grave, and ran screaming through the woods as they thought they had saw a ghost. Brave followed them, scared senseless, and as he looked over his shoulder he saw a crinkled eyed old woman smiling and waving behind him. Brave ran screaming and crying into the middle of the village, to the waiting laughter of the old men.

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Author's Note: This is based on the original story A Little Brave and a Medicine Woman. In the original story a boy does tumble and fall, but there is no ghost or laughing. Furthermore, the woman does not whisper in his ear, although the boy does think he hears chanting. I thought it would be fun to make Brave a little more cocky and to also give the grave a ghost with a sense of humor

Story source: Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Marie McLaughlin (1916).

Week 11 Reading B: Sioux Unit

-It is interesting to have Iktomi's appearance described in such great detail, I have not really seen that in my other readings of the native american tales
-It would be terrible to not have a friend in the world, and I think particularly in the Native American culture where it seems they are very social to not even have an animal that is your friend is a testament to how bad of a person Iktomi is
-I wonder what it would sound like to have ducks singing
-When they all go into the hut to hear Iktomi singing, it really reminded me of a cult. I could turn this into a story where Iktomi runs into money problems and really needs help, so he creates a cult and invites people in, and they are heavily pushed to donate. But maybe one person investigates the cult and finds out the money is going to Iktomi. But Iktomi made part of being in the cult a requirement to not ask any questions, so by asking questions that person "opened his eyes". Something like that. And then of course when he runs away and goes home he would get robbed by someone else, and maybe the robbers beat him up because they found out he has a bunch of money in his house from the cult. It could be set in modern day and maybe the news advertised that a cult leader made away with like $20,000 worth of offerings given by cult members.
-In the rewrite Iktomi could have really elaborate ceremonial garb that he puts on when he begins to recruit people for the cult and they all come to see this grand show that he puts on and they get sucked into the way he sings and dances and the shows he does and then he asks them to give their life savings to the cult.

This story is part of the Sioux unit. Story source: Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa (1901).

Artist Gertrude Spaller's rendition of Iktomi in the story Iktomi and the Ducks (Source)

Week 11 Reading A: Sioux Unit

-I like to think of the medicine woman as kind of a trickster, someone who is giggling as the boy keeps stumbling. Maybe in the rewrite he will hear the trees shaking their leaves in laughter and the wind giggling as it passes over his behind sticking up in the air from where it had fallen
-Brave would be strong and mischievous, and I see his six little groupies following him around the village waiting to ooh and awe at his every move. Maybe he will be the chief's son, bred for greatness and leadership
-I am very confused, because it says when Brave rushed to the village he was as badly scared as the rest and he ran to his mother's tent. Was the thin quavering voice that they said was like an old woman's not Brave's, but actually the medicine woman's?
-In the rewrite I would like Brave to be laying down in the grave when he hears a rushing through the wind, and a whisper of chanting like an old medicine woman would do. When he looks over he sees a pair of wise old eyes. Brave screams and bolts straight up, and that is when his friends see him and run away. Following that, Brave runs into the village and scares all of the women, etc. Basically I would like the medicine woman's ghost to play a much more active part in the story, and be pretty mischievous in teaching Brave a lesson about playing jokes on his friends. Maybe I could open up about Brave having some disdain for the medicine man currently. Maybe he thinks that it is a different time and that those kinds of things do not work any more. Maybe his father is telling him a ghost story and Brave scoffs at it because he does not believe in ghosts

This story is part of the Sioux unit. Story source: Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Marie McLaughlin (1916).

Betsy Thunder, medicine woman of the Ho-Chunk tribe in Wisconsin, 1913 (Source)