Week 6 Storytelling: To be satisfied or not to be satisfied

Hi everyone, my name is Jim. I am a grasshopper who has lived in the woods for all of his life. I am here today to tell you about an event that occurred few days. I have been trying my hardest to find someone who can translate what I am saying to English. I am so glad I found Farhan. He will translate what I will say (Psssh... This is Farhan - hopefully I can do a good job as I am a little iffy in my grasshopper language, but don't tell Jim).

The day started as any other day. Bright sun in the sky. The smell of flowers covered the whole forest. Animals going their merry ways. All of a sudden, I heard two individuals arguing. The two individuals were a tiger and a fox. Luckily, I knew the language they were speaking, hence I can tell you what happened.

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"We had a deal," said the fox.

"What deal?" asked the tiger.

"That we would go hunting together and distribute our findings evenly together," replied the fox.

"We had no such deal!" exclaimed the tiger.

"Please give me my share as I am hungry also after not eating for a whole day yesterday," pleaded the fox.

The tiger immediately retorted, "If you don't leave now, I will include you in my findings." He took a swipe at the fox afterwards. That swipe injured the fox somewhat.

The injured fox decided to leave, but I understood from the look of his face that he was devising a plan. 

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After some time..

The tiger is busy eating from the pile of food. The fox can be seen slowly coming back.

"You still haven't finished your share?" asked the fox.

The tiger was too busy eating. He didn't notice the fox was coming back. After hearing the question, he was surprised to see that the fox was back. He answered after some time, "It is such a big pile, how can I finish so quickly. Why have you come back? All of these are mine!"

"I am halfway through my share!" said the fox.

"Your share?" asked the tiger.

"Yes! When we were coming back and when you were not looking, I hid some of it knowing you wouldn't give me my share," explained the fox.

"WHAT?!" said the tiger angrily. He immediately demanded to know the location of the other pile, "Where is that pile? Tell me right now."

The fox immediately gave away the location of the pile. Seeing this, I had tons of questions in my mind. I was very curious as why the fox came back to give away his secret pile.

"Stay here. If one piece is moved from my pile. Then I will find you and finish you!" said the tiger and went toward his destination of the secret pile.
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"Say Mr. Fox, why did you come back and give away your location. You should've known if you eat even one piece from the pile, then Mr. Tiger would know." I said.

"Well Mr. Grasshopper, after I left from here. I went hunting. That secret location contains my new hunted pile. It is placed on top of a trap. I knew if I told the tiger I hid some of his shares, he would immediately go to retrieve them." explained the fox.

I didn't fully understand. What kind of trap did he make? I decided to ask, "I don't understand. What kind of trap did you make?"

"Well then. Let us go and see," said the fox.

I knew I wasn't in any danger as I can jump away really fast if he tries to attack me. So I decided to go and see.
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"See there. I found that hole in the ground," said the fox pointing at the hole from a little distance. He went on, "I stole some sharpened tools from a nearby farm and placed them upwards in the hole."

I was busy listening, hence, I didn't say anything. So the fox continued, "I covered the hole with some big leaves and when it was sturdy enough, I went and placed my findings into the leaves."

"What if you fell?" I asked.

"I placed the sharpened tools far apart, where if I fell I wouldn't get hurt. But since the tiger is so big, he would still be done," answered the fox before going on to add, "Let's see what happened to the tiger."

We went to the edge of the hole. It wasn't too big a hole, but it could've fit a tiger in it. We saw that the tiger was in it. Blood filled the hole. The tiger was not breathing.

"He got what he deserved. He should've divided the pile as we both worked equally hard. I just lost it when took that swipe at me and injured me," said the fox.

"I agree," I said as I didn't know what else to say. I knew the fox was justified in his payback. I felt sorry for the tiger though as he could've lived if he was just satisfied with the pile he had. Instead, he came to look for more when he had lots to begin with.

Then I bid farewell to the fox as I knew he was not a very good company to have.
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I hope you liked my experience and learned the important lesson of being satisfied with what you have. And remember, learn to give. As you won't become a beggar if you give when you have lots to give from.

That is all. I hope Farhan told it correctly. If you find a mistake, let me know in the comments as I will most likely learn to speak and write the English language by then. I also told Farhan to find an image of a fox and a tiger to represent the story. Hope he finds a good one. Bye for now...

Drawing of a tiger and a fox. Done by Hollie Hibbert.
Found on her tumblr account.
Source: Hollie Hibbert Illustrations

Author's Note. This story is based on the Chinese Fairy Tale "The Miserly Farmer" found in The Chinese Fairy Tales reading unit. This book was written by R. Wilhelm. In that story, a farmer brought a cart full of pears to the market to sell. One poor priest asked for one as he had no money. The farmer refused to give a single one as he was wanting to sell every single one. The priest tricks everyone in the market, including the farmer, into believing he is making a pear tree grow. He distributes pears from the "tree". After finishing distributing, he leaves. The farmer looks back afterwards, and finds his cart to be empty. He then understands what happened. In my version, I changed everything, including changing the characters to animals, but I kept the important lesson intact: learn to give when you have lots to give from. My story is not mirrored to the original. I made the tiger lose everything like the farmer and I made the fox a kind of bad animal, similar to the priest. the bad is that, they could've gotten their payback different ways, but they went too extreme. The picture I found is from a tumblr account. It represents how they went hunting together and the how the tiger jumped into the hole. I chose this story because it seemed interesting and I wanted to see how I can write my own version of it. I wanted to try something different to complete the growth mindset. Hence, I included Jim. That might confuse people a little bit, but the story is told from his first-person point of view. It was written where he is telling me what happened, and I am translating exactly what he is saying.

Bibliography: "The Miserly Farmer" by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens, from The Chinese Fairy Tales (1921). Web Source: UnTextbook.

Reading Diary B: Chinese Fairy Tales

My favorite stories from second unit of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit by R. Wilhelm are:

Retribution. This fairy tale story was a little different than the other stories I have read so far. It was about retribution, but it was achieved through a different way that anyone could've imagined. It involved death, reincarnation, and then in turn, retribution. Four people were the main characters, two being the same person. It was an interesting story and I thought it provided a lesson of not staying quiet if you see a bad deed occur. The story involved around the chrysanthemum flower, so I used that image.

Chrysanthemum flower from Retribution. 

The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge. This was another of those stories where the main character does something smart to fool others. These sort of stories are filled in the Chinese Fairy Tales. The Sorcerer is the main character. He teaches magic to students. I feel the student who the sorcerer turned into a pig had it coming. The sort of lesson I got from this story is: obey and respect your elders and teachers. 

How the River God’s Wedding Was Broken Off. This was an interesting story. This showed how much trickery there was in the past. It also showed how gullible people were back then. They would believe anything that was told and make it into a custom. A man named Si-Men is the main character. He put an end to the innocent killings that was going on. A lesson that could be taken away from this is to not believe everything you see.

Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

My favorite stories from unit A of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit by R. Wilhelm are:

The Cave of the Beasts. I put this story here because of its unique ending (but I didn't like it). I didn't see the ending coming at all. A man, his wife, his seven daughters, a wolf, and a fox are the characters. The father does a really bad thing. He plans to get his daughters killed and carries out his plan. They survive and help the father, who comes back, become rich. I didn't really get the point in rewarding a bad behavior. But the story was told beautifully. I liked the dialogues.

Duck eggs picture from: 

The Cave of the Beasts.
Photo by P. Williams.

Why Dog and Cat are Enemies. This was a such an awesome story. This was my favorite because I love cats and dogs. This provides a background into how dogs and cats became enemies. I liked how the story was structured and how other characters were added to add to the description of the story. It was interesting to note how it was the cat that stayed quiet and didn't help the dog out, because dogs are always looked at as the more loyal type. 

The Miserly Farmer. This was a really funny story. It had one great lesson: learn to give to the poor. A farmer declined to give a single pear to a priest. The priest cunningly takes every pear from him through the use of an illusion. The story had a great ending. The way it was told made it my favorite for this unit. 

Week 5 Review

I backed up my files. I missed about three deadlines this week again, including writing this week's story. I was busy with a festival I had this week and an exam. I will try to work ahead in the coming weeks so that I don't have the same problem again. 

The daily announcements are always fun. The one I found to be the most interesting is the cat image found on today's announcements! The face of the cat makes the meme really great! 

Cat meme!!

Source: Monday, September 28 announcement

Thoughts about Comments

The kinds of posts that are the most helpful are the ones that point out the mistakes in the story. Those corrections enables me to do better on the next one. Pointing out the mistakes make a comment really helpful. It's also nice to read good things about the story after working on it for some time.

I don't think I have been doing a good job on some of them because I don't always leave comments telling others what to fix. I need to change this in order to help others make their future stories better.

Reading Diary A: Indian Fairy Tales

My favorite stories from the Indian Fairy Tales unit by Joseph Jacobs are:

The Cruel Crane Outwitted. I like this story because of its ending. The characters include a crane, some fishes, and a crab. The cranes lies to the fishes and takes them to another pond and eats them. He gets greedy and plans to eat the crab. This is where the story gets interesting. The title gave it away, but it was still interesting to see how the crab deceive the crane at its own game. The crane dies at the end, making the story better. It provides an important lesson of greed.

The Cruel Crane Outwitted picture 
from Indian Fairy Tales. Illustrations done by
John D. Batten. 

The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal. This was a great story. I was reading and halfway through I understood what the jackal was up to. A tiger, a brahman, a jackal, and some others are the characters. The tiger should've left with his new freedom, but couldn't mend his ways. Instead, it tried to bit the hand that freed him. The jackal was the smartest one by pretending to be dumb. That was the best part, the tiger thinking the jackal is dumb, but instead, it was all a plan. This was a very nice story to read. 

Harisarman. This was another great story. I am glad I decided to read this unit as all the stories were interesting. This was one of my favorite because it was so different from other stories. Other stories tend to give lessons or just provide sad endings. This was a story about a poor man who lies to feed himself and his family. He deceits a lot of people, but he doesn't get caught. That is why it was not a sad ending. Just the pure luck he had was very interesting to read.

Tech Tip: Website

I just created a website for my storybook using the tech tips. The tips helped a lot!

Here's the link: https://sites.google.com/site/ghoststories4you/

Tech Tip: Template

I just changed the template of my blog. I customized the image and the colors. I think it looks better now as it was really plain before.

Week 4 Review

I backed up my files. I missed about three deadlines this week, including writing this week's story. I was busy with the Career Fair, hence, I didn't have a chance to do those assignments. I am hoping to make up for it by doing some extra credit assignments. I like the daily announcements as it is both informative and funny.

The one I found to be the most interesting is the video found on today's announcements! I saw the video before, and it is awesome as it is very emotional.

Screenshot I took when the two friends meet in the video.

Reading Diary A: Bengali Folktales

My favorite stories from the Bengali Folktales unit by Lal Behari Day are:

A Ghostly Wife. A family of 3 and a ghost are the characters of this story. This is my favorite because I can relate to this story with my grandmother's story. A ghost had gotten inside her and was controlling her. I might just write my grandmother's story using this story so that the similarities can be seen. In Bangladesh or India, these ghost stories actually occur often. Another reason this was my favorite is because it is about a ghost. I love ghost stories or horror movies.

Illustration by Warwick Goble.

Source: A Ghostly Wife

The Ghost who was Afraid of being Bagged. Once again, ghost story = favorite. The characters are a husband and a wife and two ghosts. The ghost thought about teaching the man a lesson, but instead received a lesson himself. The man cunningly used the ghost to do things for him. And through the ghost, he became rich. This was certainly an enjoyable story. 

The Bald Wife. A man and his two wives are the main characters of this story. Some plants along with a sage are the others. I read a similar story before, that's why this caught my attention and is one of my favorite. The elder wife is mistreated by the younger because of her looks. She is made to leave. On her way, she helps the plants and a bull, who gave their blessing to her. After visiting the sage, she becomes very beautiful. The younger wife gets greedy and tries it herself, but becomes uglier. I got two lesson from this story: greed is bad and treat others as you would treat yourself. 

Week 3 Curation

My three favorite web discoveries for this week:

Project Gutenberg - It got into my bookmarks because I like the free stories that i can read there.

Mythology Pictures - I searched about Mythology pictures and this came up. If I choose the Greek Mythology section, then I will for sure use this for the images.

Drawing of Zeus. Found on the Mythology website.
Source: Greek Mythology.

While looking through Growth Mindset on Twitter, I came across this picture. It was talking about the brain and Growth Mindset. I thought it was interesting. 

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

I just added the weather widget into my blog. I personally think it looks cool. It is currently 89 degrees outside, but it is supposed to cool down later tonight.

Week 3 Growth Mindset

I wrote this past week's story at a different location. I usually write the stories in my room in my desktop computer. But this week, I decided to write it on my laptop in the living room. It was a different experience as I had the TV on while I was writing the story. I might try it again!

Difficult is not impossible meme
from Growth Mindset.

Week 3 Review

I backed up my files. I missed a deadline for reading the units part b, but I am making up for it by doing some extra credit assignments. I like the daily announcements when I open my e-mail as there are always some fun things in them. 

The one I found to be the most interesting is shown below. It is most interesting because it is really true! I get the same way when I am writing stories. 

Waiting for the story to the come to the head!
Source: Sunday, September 13 announcement

Bengali/Indian Ghost Stories: Styles Brainstorm

Topic. My Storybook will be about different ghost stories found in the Bengali and Indian folktales. My goal is to find three to four different ghost stories and tie them together for the storybook. One story I am confident enough to include is, A Ghostly Wife, and another story I want to use is, The Boy Who Was Caught. There are lots of ghost stories to choose from for the others so I don't think that will be too hard.

Bibliography:

1. A Ghostly Wife, from the Bengali Folktales unit found on UnTextbook, by Lal Behari Day (1912).

2.The Boy Who Was Caught, from the Indian Ghost Stories book, by S. Mukerji (1917).

Possible Styles: 

Me telling the stories. My first choice is to write the story in a  first-person style. I am going to be the main character in the story who tells the ghost stories to other characters. For this, I am going to go with a frametale to connect my separate stories. I could be in a classroom where I am telling the stories from my own experience or I could be camping with some friends and telling the story there. 

Field trip. This could be a toss-up between a first-person or a third-person. I could insert myself with some friends who are taking a field trip around India or Bangladesh where they stop at different places to listen to the ghost stories of that particular place. The ghost stories might be told by some elderly of that place or by me as I have heard the stories beforehand. 

Some crazy person being a storyteller. This would be an anthology or a frametale. I could have a crazy person tell different ghost stories of different places as a warning for people to not visit that place. But people will avoid his warning and visit anyway. Only to find out what he said were true. They escape barely. And I could have them come back to search for that crazy person only to find out there never was a crazy person there to begin with.

Kids being kids. This could be a first-person story where I might talk about my experiences with ghosts as a kid. Or it can be third-person story where some kids are talking about ghosts while visiting a old holy site where they are not supposed to go. I can have them trapped inside that site and have them tell the scariest ghost stories they can tell to scare the others. I am not sure if it will be an anthology or a frametale. It could be a frametale as I am having them sit inside a place and tell those stories.

Since I am talking about ghosts, I have to include this picture:

Casper: A Spirited Beginning movie poster.
Found on Wikipedia.

Extra Reading Diary: Aesop (Jacobs)

My favorite stories from the second unit of Aesop's Fables by Joseph Jacobs are:

The Ant and the Grasshopper. Some Ants and a Grasshopper are the main characters. The story reminded me of people who waste all of their money instead of saving some for bad times. And then when they run out of money, they start to rue their luck similar to the grasshopper. I liked how the story was told. The lesson it provided should be heeded by everyone: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

The Woodman and the Serpent. A man and his family and a Serpent are the characters of this story. This story shows that no matter how hard you try or trust, bad things tend to stay bad. The man brought the Serpent home and brought it back to life, but it's instinct when alive is to kill things. Hence, Crane provided this lesson: Beware how you entertain traitors. 

The Man and The Snake is Crane's version of The Woodman and the Serpent.

Source: The Man and The Snake (Crane).

The Wind and the Sun. I heard of this story when I was little, hence, it is on this list. It was fun to read and recall from childhood. I like how it was the Sun who suggested how they should resolve their dispute knowing that he would win as the only way to have someone take off their clock is making them warm not cool. 

The Man and His Two Wives. I liked this story as the ending was really funny as the two wives made their husband bald trying to make him look better. Hence, the lesson: Yield to all and you will soon have nothing to yield.

Week 3 Storytelling: Things are not always what they seem

One day, a man named John traveled to a new city. He parked his car and started walking down the sidewalk when he came across a person sitting down on the ground. The person was wearing torn clothes and looked as if he hadn't eaten for days.

John was feeling bad for the guy and decided to help him in any way he can. He approached the person as he wanted to help and also because he was curious as to why that person was sitting on the ground when there was a perfectly good bench ten feet away from him.

He decided to inquire, "Good day sir. I was curious as to why you are sitting on the ground when you can sit on the bench over there?"

The man answered, "The bench is not up to my standards. Too many people sit on the bench and I don't want to be one of them as I don't associate myself with those people-- commoners."

John didn't know what to say right away, and started to talk to himself, "Who is he calling commoners when his attire is worse than everyone else's".

After some time, John replied, "Are you not a part of the commoners?"

"NO! Of course not," answered the person. He continued, "But you are probably wondering why I am in this state"

He continued, "I happen to be the CEO of Stardeer, but I do not like to spend my money as that would make me poor and a commoner."

John still did not understand why this person spends way less than him even though he earns way more than him. He left scratching his head as the CEO looked more like a homeless person rather than a CEO of such big coffee stores. He kept walking, thinking this must be how everyone in this city lives.

After some time, he came across another person sitting on the ground. He was more curious about this person than the last one as this person had a suit on. John thought to himself, "He must be rich as well, living similar to the CEO, but not as badly it seems".

He decided to inquire as he was very curious, "Good day sir. I know it is not any of my business. But I was curious as to why you are sitting on the ground with such good clothes on. Will they not get dirty?"

"I will answer your question if you give me 5 dollars," replied the man.

John thought this request was odd as he seemed to be doing well for himself. He took out a $5 bill and handed it to the man in order to satisfy his curiosity.

The man started to speak, "Very well then. These are not my clothes. I got them from the charity store down at the corner. They give free clothes to people like me who cannot afford them otherwise. Dirty or clean doesn't really make much of a difference to me".

The man continued, "Thanks to you, I can now go get something to eat as I haven't eaten in a while".

John was left speechless again. He didn't know what to do. So he took out some more money out of his wallet and handed them to the man and said, "Get yourself a better lunch and some dinner".

The man was very thankful. He said his goodbyes as he got up and started walking toward McKing, the big fast food restaurant.

John left in a very confused state. He started wondering why things were not always what they seem. He finally understood the saying, "Appearances can be deceptive" and the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover".

The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing picture from a blog.
Source: Liberty Carter Blog

Author's Note. This story is based on the fable "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" found in The Fables of Aesop book. This book was written by Joseph Jacobs (1894). In that story, a wolf finds some skin of a sheep. Which he wears to deceive the shepherd and other sheep. He is successful as he gets inside the herd and eats many of them. In my version, I changed everything, including changing the characters to people, but I kept the important lesson intact: Appearances can be deceptive. I wanted to write the story in a real life situation, that's why I made the changes from animals to people in a society. The picture I found is from a blog and represents how things are not always what they seem and how appearances can be deceptive. The image is from the original story, but the symbolism it provides ties it to my story. I chose this story because it seemed interesting and I wanted to see how I can write my own version of it. The story was coming to me while I was writing so it may not seem like a good story, but I hope it gets the message across as that was my main goal.

Bibliography: "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" by Joseph Jacobs, from The Fables of Aesop (1894). Web Source: UnTextbook.

Storybook Topics

Topic: Bengali Folktales
Topic Comments: I saw this unit in the Un-Textbook and got excited about it because it contained the word "Bengali". I am from Bangladesh and people from Bangladesh are called Bengali. Hence, I was attracted to this topic right away. I know some of the stories, but not all of them. I want to read this unit as I would like to know all the stories. 
Possible Stories: The stories on the Bengali Folktales unit at the Un-Textbook look really fun and I want to read all of them. I found more stories online. It contains all of the stories from Un-Textbook and then some. It is from Project Gutenberg.
Sample Story: The story I want to use is A Ghostly Wife. The story is very similar to some horror movies we see, but it is common in my home country for these things to happen. It happened to my grandmother, and when I heard about it, it was really scary. So this story brought back some old memories. I read this story at the Un-Textbook.
Bibliography Information: 
Sample Story: A Ghostly Wife
Book Title: Folk-Tales of Bengal
Book Author: Lal Behari Day
Year: 1912

Illustration by Warwick Goble.
Source: A Ghostly Wife

Topic: Aesop's Fables
Topic Comments: I love the Fables found in the two units. I have read three units so far. Will be reading the fourth after I finish this assignment. My two stories are based on these Fables. The Fables are fun to read, and as a bonus, are really short. I like the lesson each provides as they are all good lessons for everyone to know.
Possible Stories: I have lots of choices as there are four units. I have read almost all of them already, so this might be something that I do.
Sample Story: The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse.  I loved the lesson this story provided more than anything else. The lesson was very powerful: Do not trust alone to outward appearances.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse
Book Title: Aesop for Children
Book Author: Milo Winter
Year: 1919

Topic: Modern Cryptids (Supernatural Creatures)
Topic Comments: I love supernatural things. They are not real, but I am fascinated by their stories and origins. The Chupacabra and Big Foot are the biggest cryptids in the modern era so far. There are always some news stories that pop up about how someone sighted one of them somewhere. I really want to write some stories about them.
Possible Stories: I have lots of choices to choose from in the list by Wikipedia.
Sample Story: A story about Big Foot would be my first and most detailed story as I've been hearing about Big Foot for a long time. There are many "sighting" stories in Wikipedia to choose from.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: Bigfoot
Website Name: Wikipedia

Topic: Ghost Stories - Indian
Topic Comments: The stories that I found in search of this topic are fantastic. I want to read the stories in great detail if I choose this topic to do the storybook over.
Possible Stories: There are many different stories in the Indian Ghost Stories book by S. Mukerji. Other stories can be found after searching online. For example, the Bhangarh Fort is regarded as the most haunted place in India.
Sample Story: The Boy Who Was Caught.  I loved the lesson this as it brought back some memories of my childhood. Me and my friends used to do stupid things all the time, including dares or challenges. This story is about a boy who is challenging his friends about the existence of ghosts. 
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: The Boy Who Was Caught
Book Title: Indian Ghost Stories: Second Edition
Book Author: S. Mukerji
Year: 1917

Reading Diary A: Aesop (Jacobs)

My favorite stories from Aesop's Fables by Joseph Jacobs are:

Androcles and the Lion. A person named Androcles, a Lion, and The Emperor are the main characters. I heard of this story before and I liked it then, and I still like it now. The story started out as a typical story where the Lion seemed like eating the others, but the ending provided some nice moments where the Lion and his friend got along and both got freed. I liked how after doing a good thing, both of them were rewarded. 

The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. The lesson here caught my attention the first time I read it: Appearances are deceptive. The story is really short, and it has two characters: a Lamb and a Wolf. 

Belling the Cat. This is a famous old story. Main characters are the mice and mentions of the Cat. I liked this especially because of what happens. Suggesting is easy, but implementing is the harder part and takes more deliberation. Hence, the lesson: It is easy to propose impossible remedies. 

Mice in Council is Crane's version of Belling the Cat.
Source: Mice in Council (Crane).

The Lion and the Mouse. This story is fun and has a great lesson: Little friends may prove great friends. Another lesson could be added here: Appearances are deceptive. A mouse and a Lion are the characters. The Lion doubts the little guy, but the little guy ends up saving him. 

The Hares and the Frogs. Hares, Frogs, and some Horses are the characters. The lesson is what makes this story great: There is always someone worse off than yourself. This lesson is perfect for those people who thinks lowly of themselves. 

The Hare With Many Friends. Great lesson: He that has many friends, has no friends. Hare, goat, ram, and calf are the main characters. This caught my attention because in this day of modern technology, this is especially true. 

Week 2 Curation

My three favorite web discoveries for this week:

WatchESPN - It got into my bookmarks because football season started. I can watch games on my computer.

WatchESPN logo from Wikimedia. 

Petrel 2015 - It is on my bookmarks because I am using this software for my geophysics class. It is a software that shows models of different places on Earth. 

Truecar - this is a great website. If you are buying a car, this website gives you the cheapest price available in your area with a coupon that you can take to the dealership and they will sell the car in that price. 

Hence, I've found the bookmarks to be the most useful for this week. 

Week 2 Review

I backed up my files. I also checked if I missed any Declarations, which I did because I was busy, but I am making up for it by doing the extra credit assignments. Again, there are always some pictures that are interesting to me in the daily announcements.

The one I found to be the most interesting is shown below. It is most interesting because it was really funny!

Take risks meme from the daily announcements.
Source: Sunday, September 6 announcement

Week 2 Growth Mindset

I wrote this past week's story using a new approach. I was watching Supernatural and it came to me that I should write the story based on a Supernatural theme. It was totally different from week 1 when I changed some things in the story, whereas, this week, I changed everything for this week's story, but kept the same lesson.

Creativity is the result of hard work meme
from Growth Mindset. 

Week 2 Storytelling: To Be or Not To Be Best Fri-end-s

Supernatural TV show logo.
CW network uploaded it on Wikipedia. 

Jom and Terry are the best of friends. They have been friends for a long time. Their favorite thing to do is to drive their trucks, especially during the winter season when the roads were empty and covered in snow and ice. 

It was winter, and on one snowy evening, the two friends decided to go for a drive. They drove and drove without any real destination in mind. After some time both decided to stop at a pool hall. They both went in and got comfy inside.

A waiter came over and asked, “Can I take your order, please”?

“Yes” said Jom.

“I will have a hamburger, a side of fries, and a large coke please” said Terry.

“I will have the same” said Jom.

After waiting for some time, they received their food, which Jom finished really quickly. Terry was surprised at how fast Jom had finished his food as they usually get done at the same time. Jom got up and walked over to the window.

“Jom” called out Terry.

But Jom did not pay attention to Terry. He kept looking through the window.

“JOM” yelled Terry.

But Jom did not move an inch.

Terry came over to see what was wrong with Jom. He was confused after he looked through the window. It was Spike, the deal maker who had the power to make any deal anyone had ever wanted. Spike had a glowing red shadow that glowed really brightly wherever he went. Terry remembered the deal Jom had made with Spike before he met Jom.

“I want a friend who would be by my side all the time” Jom said to Spike.

“I need half of your soul in return” said Spike.

“Deal” said Jom.

Spike instantly went and found the loneliest kid on the block. His name was Terry. He brought Terry over and told him to become friends with Jom. To Spike’s surprise, Terry became friends with Jom voluntarily without any spells from Spike.

Now there was only one reason Spike comes back to meet the person he had previously made a deal with: the deal maker called him and wants to make another deal.

“Jom, why is Spike here?” asked Terry anxiously.

“I made another deal with Spike” said Jom.

“What? What kind of deal this time, Jom?” asked Terry.

Just then Spike came through the door and brought a guy with him who looked to be super rich. Every expensive items Terry could think of, the guy was wearing them.

Spike came in and shook hands with Jom. And looked at Terry and said “Sorry buddy boy, you have been replaced!”

Terry understood immediately but asked anyway, “What is he talking about, Jom?”

“I need a best friend who can pay for anything I want” said Jom.

“What? What about our friendship? Why not just wish for you to become rich?”

“I am sorry, but our friendship seems to be over” said Jom. “My second wish had to be related to my first wish and it would replace my first wish ---I had to wish for another friend!”

“Ok then,” said Terry, who was left without any words. He left the pool hall and went back to his house.

Spike left also. Jom and his new friend, Tyke, also left. Upon returning home, Jom started finding out why wishing for another friend was not such a good idea. Tyke was not interested in playing games, in studying, in pretty much doing anything with Jom. When they went shopping the next day, Tyke made Jom pay for everything they bought. Jom started wondering what was happening. While doing so, he remembered when he and Terry would have such a great time when they used to hang out.

After coming back home, Jom remembered a crucial detail to his deal with Spike: since Spike did not use a spell in the first deal, he couldn’t use a spell in the second deal either. So even though Tyke is hanging out with him, Tyke doesn’t consider Jom as a friend. In the upcoming week, Jom started resenting his decision to replace Terry. During that time, Tyke had enough of Jom and his constant nagging. Tyke was so tired of Jom that Tyke worked on a plan to kill him.

The next day, Tyke came over to Jom’s house and they were both hanging out. At one point Jom fell asleep. After some time, Jom started to open his eyes after hearing some noises.

“AHHHHHHH” Jom started yelling as he saw Tyke with a sharp weapon in his hand. Jom looked to flee, but found his hands and legs to be tied. He looked on hopelessly trying to talk some sense into Tyke.

“STOP Tyke. What are you d…………” before he finished, Tyke started swinging, “AHHH…..” Jom screamed. “STO…..” Jom yelled while closing his eyes, knowing this is his last moment.


Everything went quiet. No sound was heard in the room.


The room was completely filled with the color red.



…….



Tyke was out of breath. He was shocked at what had happened.



……



He somehow got from Jom’s house to his just as he was inches away from making contact with Jom with his swing.

Jom opened his eyes after some time. He was surprised to see Spike and his glowing red shadow in the room. He understood Spike had saved him, but didn’t know why. But he was very thankful anyway.

Right then Terry opened the door to Jom’s house and came in. Terry had sold his whole soul in exchange for getting things back to the way they were before Jom had asked for his second wish. Since the wish was very big, Spike needed Terry’s full soul in order to do the deal. Terry did it without even thinking about it.

Jom was very happy to see Terry. After he became untied, he apologized to Terry for everything and promised never to treat his best friend badly ever again.


Author's Note. This story is mainly based on the fable "The Goatherd and the Wild Goats" found at the Aesop for Children book. This book was illustrated by Milo Winter (1919). In the original story, a Goatherd found some wild goats in a cave, where he sought shelter with his goats. After seeing the wild goats, he fed them more than his own goats in an attempt to take them with him. After getting out of the cave, the wild goats went their own ways citing the treatment of his old goats as the reason. I tried to make the story as elaborate as possible by changing everything from the characters to the settings. But I kept the important lesson intact: It is unwise to treat old friends badly for the sake of new ones. I was watching Supernatural before I started writing this story, that's where all the soul selling and making deals came from. The character's names came from Tom and Jerry, which my sister was watching. I would like to think this was one way to complete the growth challenges. Another lesson was also added in the story. The lesson from the fable "The Ass and the Load of Salt" - The same measures will not suit all circumstances. Jom found this out the hard way. Since Supernatural was my biggest source for this story, the logo of supernatural is my image for this story.

Bibliography: "The Goatherd and the Wild Goats" by Milo Winter, from The Aesop for Children (1919). Web Source: UnTextbook.

                      "The Ass and the Load of Salt" by Milo Winter, from The Aesop for Children (1919). Web Source: UnTextbook.

Reading Diary B: Aesop (Winter)

My favorite stories from the second unit of Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter are:

The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse. The characters are the mouse and its mother. Others characters are a cock and a cat. I loved the innocent way the young mouse told the story to his mom. The lesson was very powerful: Do not trust alone to outward appearances. In other words, do not judge a book by its covers. Which is very widely known.

The Peacock and the Crane. The Peacock and the Crane are the two characters. The setting is in a field. I liked the lesson the story provided even though it was such a short story. The lesson was: The useful is of much more importance and value, than the ornamental. I liken this to those people who waste money on useless things rather than useful things. 

The Fighting Bulls and the Frog. The main characters are two Bulls and some Frogs. The story is super short but has a lesson that can be liken to the state of our society. The lesson is: When the great fall out, the weak must suffer for it. Our society is currently divided into the rich, the poor, and the middle. And when the rich falls, the poor must suffer. 

The Mouse and the Weasel. Two characters: the Mouse and the Weasel. The setting is inside a corn basket. The lesson is stated everywhere over and over again. That is why I liked it because people nowadays need this lesson more than any others. The lesson is: Greediness leads to misfortune.

The Goatherd and the Wild Goats. A Goatherd and some Goats are the characters. This was my favorite because I have some friends who complained about this experience: It is unwise to treat old friends badly for the sake of new ones. They had other friends who had done this to them and then they expect to come back and be treated the way they were before.

Page 13 was by far my favorite of all the pages! Hence, I picked an image from Page 13.

The Fighting Bulls and the Frog from Aesop (Winter). 

Reading Diary A: Aesop (Winter)

My favorite stories from Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter are:

The Wolf and the Kid. The little kid is a Billy Goat. Other characters are the Wolf and the Shepherd Dogs. The setting was in a field during an evening. I liked how the kid started doing a dumb thing, but recovered and got saved by being smart. The lesson was very powerful: Do not let anything turn you from your purpose.

The Wolf and the Kid picture from Aesop (Winter).

The Gnat and the Bull. A Gnat and a Bull are the characters. The picture does great justice to the story as it puts the Gnat into perspective in regards to the size comparison. The lesson is: The smaller the mind the greater the conceit.

The Gnat and the Bull picture to show the size difference.
Source: Aesop (Winter). 

The Farmer and the Stork. A Stork and a Farmer are the main characters. A group of Cranes are the minor characters. It is a fantastic lesson and it is heard again and again from different places: You are judged by the company you keep. The Stork tries to tell the Farmer that he is from a good family, but since he was caught with the party cranes, he is told that he will receive the same punishment. 

The Travelers and the Purse. Two men are the main characters and a mob of people are the minor characters. This lesson is widely known and it applies more in today's society: We cannot expect any one to share our misfortunes unless we are willing to share our good fortune also.

The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion. The title consists of the characters. Does not provide a setting. It is short but delivers as powerful message as the rest of them: Traitors may expect treachery. The Fox expected to save its own skin by feeding the Ass to the Lion, but to the Lion, there were two meals for the taking.