Reading Diary, Week 10 continued: Tejas Legends

Why Hummingbirds Only Drink Dew reminded me of several of the stories I read yesterday. Each of the Tejas legend stories seem to include so many parts of their culture. This one included gambling, that the Great Spirit seems to be their God, and different animals that the Tejas people seem to cherish. I also learned that hummingbirds must not drinks water and must not fly at night from reading this story. This is two facts that I did not already know about them.  There must have been many hummingbirds around for them to write about them so much. Lucky them! They are very pretty birds.

The Maiden Who Loved a Star was really sweet to me. It reminded me of Romeo and Juliet or some other forbidden love story. I did feel bad for the maiden, though, when she was turned into a tree. I thought she was going to be turned into a cool animal that could fly or something, but no. Once again, I was impressed by the creativity of the Tejas legends. When I first started reading the story, I would never know that it was going to be an explanation for how purple sage appeared in the desert.

How I imagined the star falling to the maiden
Photo by: Kenneth Lu

How Sickness Entered the World made me kind of sad. In reality, it kind of showed the downfall of human's existence. It also seemed to mirror the story of Adam and Eve and how they sinned and brought sickness and all things negative into the world. Rather than eating a fruit, the two Indians killed the messenger snake. Also, both stories included snakes. I wonder if this is because snakes are seen as deceitful? 

When the Rainbow Was Torn had a lot of personification. In my storytelling, I think it would be cool to change an inanimate object into something with actions and characteristics, like the legends did for the rainbow. I thought it was interesting how all of the bands except the yellow, red and orange got away. I understand that they chose these to stay because that's what color the flowers were. But, I also wonder why they chose the color source to be the rainbow? Maybe because it was one of the only bright things around in nature? 

These stories have intrigued me more than most of the folklore stories have. Like I have said before, the creativity and the almost randomness of how the different things in nature come to be makes me wonder about how the Tejas Indians thought. I wish I could travel back into time and be there when they told these stories in person. They seem so mystical and magical. 

Bibliography: 
When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton. 

Reading Diary, Week 10: Tejas Legends

How the North Wind Lost his Hair was a cool story because it explained two different things. The first was why the South is so much warmer than the North. I thought it was an interesting twist to think that one of the winds had beaten out the other. It also explained the Spanish moss in the trees. I wonder why they chose to combine the two stories? I want to research more about how the wind and the moss would be connected where it would make sense in their minds to combine the two. 

It sounds like to me that the Indians found drugs in the story When the Woodpecker Pecks. The fact that they ate buttons that gave them visions, caused them to forget about their children and work, and fall asleep definitely sounds like the effect of some kind of hallucinogen. Its curious to me that this would make it into their folk stories and be part of an explanation for something in nature, like a woodpecker. It makes me wonder whether drugs were a large part of Indian culture?

The Tejas legends seem to include a lot more creativity than some of the other legends. The stories are much more imaginative than some of the other one's I've read. They also seem to explain more than one thing. For example, in The Cloud That Was Lost, I first thought it was explaining fog since the cloud was down near the Earth. Then, it turns out it was explaining how the phlox got their color. 

Wild Flox
Photo by: Tim Ross 

I also like how the Tejas legends explain so much in nature. It was difficult for me to understand the purpose behind some of the other folklore stories we've read. I like how with the Tejas legends, it is very obvious what they're explaining. Yet, they do it in a very creative way. In my storytelling, I want to strive to be more creative. Truth be told, I could put more thought into some of my writing. I want to take the time to think up good ideas so that I can write more imagery and have more of a creative spin on my writing. This would not only strengthen my skill but also make my stories more interesting to read.

Bibliography:
When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton.

Reading Diary Week 9, continued: Myths and Legends of Alaska

Today, I finished the Myths and Legends of Alaska. 

The First Woman was really weird story to me. I get the point- that women in the north are good with their hands and women in the south are good dancers. But why did the woman have to be ripped apart?? It seemed really harsh and gruesome and I wish that wasn't how the tale went. 

The Land of the Dead was especially intriguing to me. I thought it was interesting how their storytelling included how dogs felt when they were beaten. It really seemed to teach lessons of empathy and understanding that must have been valued in their culture. I am curious why the two wrongs they chose to point out were chewing on the grass and beating the dogs, rather than acts against each other, for example. I would like to research more to see if I could understand why these two issues were brought up in the story. I also liked their emphasis on the festival of the dead. It must have been a very important part of their culture since they felt a need to explain it's existence. 

Illustration of the Land of the Dead from Judson's book

The Cradle Song was interesting because it was so relatable. I think everyone learns lullabies as they grow up, and this was my first time to read one from another culture. I think its cool that, even though Alaska is part of the United States, they still have their own culture and traditions that are completely separate. I'm learning that this includes creation stories, values, and so much more. 

The Discontented Grass Plain seemed really weird to me because, in the end, the grass had become a wolf. I couldn't tell if the story was trying to encourage one to find contentment in their life, or if it was explaining why the wolves are separate from each other. If it was to explain the wolves, I'm not sure why they did it in such an indirect way. In my own storytelling, I would like to be direct where the reader doesn't have to wonder my point. Confusion is something I've run into a lot while reading this unit. I guess because I am not as familiar with the Alaskan culture and it's history? 

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson

Reading Diary: Myths and Legends of Alaska

For Week 9, I chose to read the Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Barry Judson. I thought this would be interesting since I am not familiar with Inuit traditions.

The story The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation really enthralled me because I am so fascinated with other creation stories. I thought it was interesting that the story focused on the creation of animals like reindeer, caribou, and mountain sheep that were to be prevalent in the land. This made sense since these animals are so prevalent in colder climates like Alaska. I also thought it was interesting that they chose a raven to be creator of all things. I wonder why this was? 

The Raven

The Flood was extremely interesting to me since The Bible talks of a massive flood as well. I believe that the flood actually happened because I believe that The Bible is true, but it does surprise and please me that there is more evidence of this flood through other folklore traditions.

I also think it is interesting that all of the birds can push up their beaks to become human beings. I'm wondering where this came from where it is so perpetuated in their folklore. 

Raven's Marriage surprised me because the story was more about his struggle to fly with the geese than his marriage. I'm not really sure what the folktale was about. This story struck me as one about perseverance and not wasting all of your energy at the beginning of your journey- much like the storyline of The Tortoise and the Hare. If Raven had not sped ahead of the geese, would he have been able to complete the journey with more ease? Or, was it more of a matter of not having had to make such a long journey before? In my own storytelling, I want the title and the content to align so that it is clear to the reader what the story is about. 

I think the Raven got what he deserved in Raven and the Seals. I love seals so it made me really sad to hear of Raven killing and eating so many of them! I hope that when the Stump sat over the hole, it also saved the seals' lives. Also, I think Raven deserved it since he was boasting about what he had, trying to make Stump jealous. Any time you provoke someone, I think you deserve any backlash that you receive.

I thought it was really cool how the Alaskan people explained the long spans with and without light in The Bringing of the Light by Raven. A man piling up snow seems like such a trivial reason for there being no light, so I think its funny that it was a big enough part of their lives to include it in the story. I also am a little confused on Raven after reading the story. Can anyone become Raven? What is the importance of a rave? These are things I would like to research in the future to help me better understand their stories. 

Tech Tip Site Navigation

So somehow earlier today, while updating my storybook. I managed to make my new story a subpage of my Introduction and to completely delete my navigation bar. Needless to say, I was freaking out because I could not figure out how it just happened. Luckily, I figured it out by following the GoogleSites: Adjusting the Navigation Panel blog to help me figure it out!

I decided for my webpage that a horizontal navigation would look best since a lot of my titles are really short. It works really well for these since the whole title can fix in the box. Also, I think it helps focus the viewer on the text since it takes up the whole page, rather than leaving space on the side for the navigation panel. It also easily lays out how many pages they are and makes it super easy to navigate to each. All you have to do is refer back to the top, just like you would when searching on Safari or Google Chrome. 

Once I got the Navigation Pane back by going to More-->Edit Site Layout-->Horizontal Navigation. I then, had to figure out how to get the first story out of the Introduction page. I went to More-->Manage Sites--> Pages (from the left hand tool bar). From there, I could drag the Cinderella page to underneath the The Magic of Reading page. This popped it back out to being a page of it's own!

I hope this could help anyone who's struggling with the same issues I did! To view my Storybook site, click here.

Reading Plan- Weeks 9 and 10

For week 9, I want to read the stories of the Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes unit. I chose this unit because I do not have any experience with the Biloxi. I want to learn more about the values they incorporate into their stories and the information they deem valuable. As I've mentioned before, I like reading different cultures ideas on creation and how things came to be, and this unit seems to be centered around this. In addition, I like the idea of trickster rabbit and would like to read more about this. Lastly, to be honest, I like how many of the stories in the unit are pretty short. I have a really hard time maintaining attention and focus for long, multipage stories. 

For week 10, I want to read the stories from the Inuit people. I think their stories will be fascinating because their setting will be in the polar world and it contains levels of supernatural beings like ghosts. I'm really excited to read more of this unit since I really enjoyed the first story, The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago. 

Visit Greenland, Flickr

Blog Ideas

There were several blogs that I enjoyed looking at, however there were three that really caught my eye. 

Two of them were sort of for the same reasons. I thought Adrienne's blog Mythology and Folklore was cool because she used color schemes I hadn't seen before. She really inspired me to play with the background and text box to find a look that really captured my personality. I also really liked the images that she used. I thought they were well thought out and added to her interpretations of the stories. From what I read, Adrienne and I could probably be very good friends because we have the same humor and like the song Lush Life.

The second blog I enjoyed was Cassie's blog. I mentioned this in my comment to her, but for some reason her color scheme reminded me of strawberry ice cream. I also liked the cream, off-white color she used for the text box. It added color without it being overwhelming or busy. 

Lastly, I really liked the color scheme of Jasmine's blog. I really enjoy the color combination of the teal, black and white, and pink. She did a good job of adding in color without it seeming overwhelming. I also enjoyed how she linked her Pinterest account to her blog. It added an element that I did not see on many others and really intrigued me! I wanted to get to know more about her and had the possibility to through clicking around on her Pinterest boards. 

Mid-Semester Time Management

At the beginning of the semester, I decided to lay out my schedule for this class with each week starting on Sunday. I would aim to get the reading done for the upcoming week on Sunday, the storytelling done on Tuesday, and the weekend assignments started on Thursday and done by Saturday. As much as I want this schedule to work, it just doesn't with me. That is why I have decided to change my week start date to Monday. Between Monday and Tuesday, I will get the reading done. By Thursday, I will have the storytelling done as well as start the weekend assignments. Then, Sunday I will finish up the week's assignments to have them all in on time. 

Working ahead, in my mind, would be to have the storytelling done on Tuesday to allow the rest of the week to prepare for the project and my weekend assignments. I think this is usually a feasible task based off of my experience. However, I don't want to make it an absolute deadline for myself. 

A checklist to use to highlight completed assignments

Ideally, I would also start the weekend assignments earlier than Sunday so that my Sundays are not as stressful. However, with the way my work and class schedule is this semester, usually I do not have time to do so.

Some strategies that I want to use for the rest of the semester is setting aside specific time that I will use for class, but making it shorter time. For example, rather than saying "I'm going to work on assignments all Tuesday afternoon", I want to set aside a specific hour or two that I will really focus on getting work done. I think having this set time and then giving myself a break will allow me to stay more focused and motivated than having just the vague idea of "the whole afternoon to work". Also, I will be motivated to get my assignments done if I know that I can actually relax and watch an episode of Netflix in an hour rather than putting off the work and taking a break early, but being stressed the entire time. 

An idea for how to break up my study time- The Pomodoro Technique

Another time management skill that I want to use is to write my assignments down in my planner more. I used to be very good about this. However, recently I have relied more on my memory which has resulted in my rushing to finish some things due to the fact that I forgot the deadline. This results in a lot of stress for me since I don't like feeling like I am turning in sub-par work. Writing down when assignments are due and writing down a plan for getting them done will help me stay on track. 

Reading Diary Week 7, continued:

Continued reading from Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler . 

Why Mosquitos Hum and Try to get into the Holes of our Ears really confused me. I understand that the story was an attempt to explain why mosquitos buzz around peoples ears. However, the story did not make it very clear which type of being each character was, which made it hard to follow. I was also confused how the rain, carrying the house, and the fire all tied in. It just seemed very random and hard to follow. In my storytelling, I want to make it very clear what is happening and who each character is so that people do not get frustrated and confused. 

The Hummingbird and the Carabao made me laugh. I liked how the relationship between the two animals was very relatable. Oftentimes, my friends will also joke with each other that they can do one thing better than the other and a competition ensues. I also liked the large amounts of diction in the story. It allowed the relationship to develop between the two characters and showed more emotion than a 3rd party re-telling of the event. In my storytelling, I would also like to incorporate more diction so that the personalities of the characters and their thoughts can be more developed.

Why the Sun Shines more Brightly than the Moon was a very interesting story to me because, as I've mentioned before, I like when folktales attempt to explain natural phenomenons. In this case, I thought it was interesting that the girls had knowledge of what their god was doing and could have enough contact with them to steal. This is such a contrast to the Christian beliefs that I grew up with where God is this mystical being who we cannot see or visit until after death. I'm curious if the Filipinos believe that they're god is living among them? This is something I would like to look more into. 

The sun versus the moon
Photo by: Remus Withe 

The Story of our Fingers definitely makes me look at my hand a little differently! It always makes me laugh the stories that humans can come up with when left to their imagination. I'm curious why the tale came about that a thumb was trying to steal? Then that would cause people to look negatively upon one part of their body. I think this story does a good job embodying the culture of the Filipino people. It was apparent after reading this that they do not approve of stealing and that, should one steal, it is possible that they would be shunned from society. I'm curious whether this is still a value that exists in their culture today?

I really enjoyed Why the Ocean is Salty because it makes sense to me. Something I have learned through this unit is that the Filipino people are very creative. They like to employ magic/mythical beings into their stories as well as give natural objects, such as the ocean, a personality. I really enjoyed reading this unit because it was a previously unknown culture to me and my first experience with it. 

Reading Diary Week 7: Filipino Popular Tales

This week, I am reading the Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler. I've really enjoyed this unit because I am not familiar with Filipino culture.

In the story Three Brothers of Fortune, I liked how each had a magical object that could perform a different power. Throughout the story, I was curious how the charms would work. In the past folklore stories, the results of the charm did not turn out how the one who possesses it would have thought. However, in the case of this story, the charms worked as expected. Then, I was curious how the story would end. I liked the turn of events where the other two brothers received "useless" parts of the woman, but the brother with the stones could put her back together to have all of her. This was not something I expected in the story, and I was really happy to read that that's how it turned out. I do feel bad for the woman, though! I know I wouldn't want to be cut up into three pieces! I wish the story had elaborated more on what exactly this meant. Was her body actually split up into three?

I was really surprised by the ending of The Clever Husband and the Wife. I was guessing that the doctor would be extremely angry at the husband and his wife for lying. However, his response was one of joy because they were both alive. 

The story of Chonguita struck me as very absurd; however, I was also very drawn in to the story and wanted to know what happened. After each trial, I was curious to know who would win and was concerned about the well-being of Chonguita, especially when she was hurled against the wall. I also felt badly for the couple from the beginning since Don Juan had to marry a monkey and Chonguita had no say in the matter. In my storytelling, especially for my storybook, I would like to establish this kind of emotional connection so that my readers feel for the characters. I think it helps people stay engaged in the story and care about what is happening.

How I Imagine Chonguita
Photo source: Wikipedia (2007)

The story The Enchanted Prince made me really happy! I was so pleased that each of them found an answer to their needs and essentially saved each other. For my storytelling, I would really like to write a love story. An idea I have for this is to pick out one character I like from the stories and develop a love story with a match that I think they would get along well. I think this would be a really good way to expand my creativity and write a completely original piece.